Well, here goes nothin!

This view.....

Well it'll be our view for the next 3 years?!?!  That's right we're moving to Colorado!  We're still in utter shock mode because we really never thought Brian would get the job at the Academy, but he did!  It's still not for sure yet aka we don't have orders in our hand yet but as far as we know now, we will be moving there! 

 I've been going through a roller-coaster of emotions. Excited to expose our children to all that is Colorado (mountains! skiing! nice summers! no deployments for awhile! friends we know there!) but so very sad thinking of the fact that we'll be further away from home and having to say goodbye to all of our friends here. I was a mess and a half last night as I told some of my good friends here that we're leaving. I'm sad not only for our sake but for our kids sake too. They love playing together and are going to be so sad when they have to part ways.  Such is the life in the military but it sucks. Just plain sucks.  Good news though is that we are coming back here to Offutt AFB (once you get on it, you can never get offutt!) in 3 years and chances are, a lot of our friends will still be here. 

So we have a lot to do before June or July when we PCS (move). We have to sell our house, find a new preschool for Brady, find a house to rent in Colorado, and move all of our stuff. So if anyone has any insight on living in the Colorado Springs area, I'd love to hear it! And even though we're not there yet, I'm hoping we get a list of visitors just waiting to come see us in Colorado! :)

Our weekend and some other things

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Like always, the weekend flew by and here we are at Monday again.  We had a pretty low key weekend again.

• Friday night we ventured out and ate at a sit down restaurant. With the kids. Which was big for us. It was only Old Chicago but with the little ones we tend to only go to places like Panera, Chick-Fil-A, Qdoba, quick places where if kids are acting up we can quickly scoot out.

But it went great! It helped we had a huge booth in the corner with windows. The kids were entertained and we were there for almost an hour and a half!

And there was dessert so you know Layla was happy.

• My weight loss journey is going alright! After 2 weeks I've lost 3.8 pounds so far and out of 10 people I'm in 4th place. So not too bad but I know I could be doing better. I've been doing great exercise-wise. This weekend a friend and I even braved the cold, bundled up, and took an hour and a half walk through our neighborhoods. My problem right now is my diet. This cold weather makes me just want comfort foods. And chocolate. Lots of chocolate.  I need to get on track!!

• We celebrated Rascal's birthday this weekend too. With cake.  Perfect for my diet.

I don't know who was more excited Rascal, the kids, or me.  Like I said on Instagram, any excuse for cake.

Brady helping blow out his candles.

I swear we don't feed her cake every day. 

• In other exciting news, there is a chance we could be moving.  Brian applied for a job at the AF Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He'd be teaching students to fly gliders or introducing them to flight in a tiny prop plane. I've always wanted to live in Colorado after visiting him at the Academy and it'd really be nice to not have deployments for a little while but I go back and forth about wanting to move. We seriously love Omaha and we love all of our friends here so it'd be really hard to leave. I know that whatever is meant to happen for us, will. God is in control and I need to sit back and enjoy the ride. We should know for sure hopefully this week. Ahhh it's going to be a long week!
• Brady and I went on a date to Hobby Lobby this weekend. I asked Brady what he wanted to do Saturday afternoon and he said, "Mommy, I want to go on a date to Hobby Lobby with you." Brady's future wife: you're welcome.
• Brian and I started watching Downton Abbey a couple weeks ago and we're hooked. We just finished season 2 last night and we're itching to get all caught up to this season (season 4).  Brian's leaving next week to do a busy relay (just for a week) so I may go into withdrawal from not watching it! I never thought I'd like that show but we both are so into it, it's kinda funny! 
• Otherwise this weekend we just hung around the house, watched movies, tried to stay warm from the crazy weather we're having, and relaxed!

Hope that everyone has a great week! :)

Ages

I've been thinking lately about how quickly my children are growing up, although some days it doesn't feel that way!  So to look back on and remember, here are my favorite/least favorite things about their current ages.

3.5-Brady

Favorite:

 -Super Helpful

-Loves playing with other kids and can actually do so now without major issues

-Getting more and more self sufficient

-100% Potty Trained! Hallelujah!

-Can have a real conversation with him

-Fun to be around

-Can do fun new activities like go to the movies, church, sporting events because he can sit still now!

-Loves preschool 

-Loves spending time with me 

-Loves his sister like no other

-Knows how to share!
-Talks about his friends and dare I say it his "girlfriends" from preschool

Least Favorite:

-Attitude. Now that he's getting smarter and can express his feelings, he has no problem expressing them, and sometimes does so with an attitude.

-Doesn't take a nap everyday anymore. Still has quiet time in his room but he still needs that nap. Child, why deny something so lovely?!

-Thinks he's an adult and tries to do adult things that he shouldn't like wipe his sister's butt (I will spare you the details on that one), feed the dog 5x his normal serving, and serve himself a breakfast of chocolate and other random things he can find on the kitchen counter.

-He doesn't like to snuggle much anymore which makes me sad!

-The fact that he's growing up and is almost 4. 4 is so much older than 3 to me!

20 MONTHS-LAYLA

Favorite:

-Able to communicate her wants and needs so much better

-She's not a baby but not a big girl yet either.

-She has the most hilarious babbles. We call it "Cornhusker".  

-She still gets told she's cute and gets a lot of attention when we're out and about.

-She's starting to be able to entertain herself and plays so well with her brother

-She is an awesome sleeper. Awesome. She's making up for her first 14 months!

-She's an eater and impresses me with what and how much she eats!

-She's interested in potty training!

-Her hair is getting long enough to try new fun things. The one that gets the most positive feedback is her on the top of the head ponytail.

Least Favorite:

-The tantrums. Oh man. Both of my children have gone through the "Terrible Two's" nice and early but if that means the 3's will be easy for both kids, I'll take it.

-She gets frustrated easily. And her first reaction is to scream. 

-We can't always understand what she wants and that's frustrating for everyone

-She wants to do everything her brother does, including going to preschool, so every time we drop him off there's tears.

-Tantrums. Did I mention those?

-Her hair. It's in that awkward stage and is still such a mullet. I don't know if I should get it trimmed or just let it grow out!

-Teething. We just finished getting those canines and they were hell lots of fun. We're almost there! Just the 2 year molars and then we are done!! Yipee!!

-The fact that she's my baby and she's not that far away from being 2! It goes so, so fast.

And just for fun, I'll do mine too! :)

28-RACHEL

(this was a lot harder coming up with things for myself!)

Favorite:

-I definitely have more confidence at this age

-I would say I'm a better judge of character at this age and feel like I can read people pretty quickly. I don't hang on to friendships anymore that aren't healthy or aren't worth my time unlike in the past.  I choose now to surround myself with positive, caring, and wonderful people!

-I have my priorities set straight and am so much better at time management. Although sometimes I do lose myself on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest!

-I feel like this is a good age. I'm not too young anymore and not too old either. Can I stay 28 forever?

-I have what I wanted/dreamed of family-wise at this age. I wanted to be married and done having kids by 30 and since we got married and had children at a young age I have accomplished this!

-Overall I like who I am. And I don't know if I could have said that about myself 10 years ago.

Least Favorite:

-I've been planning our 10 year high school reunion for this summer. And just saying 10 year high school reunion makes me shudder a little bit!

-Sometimes I feel like I haven't accomplished much professionally. I compare myself to other 28 years olds who have these awesome careers and although I'm doing a super important job being a military wife and mama to two young ones, it still makes me feel like I'm missing out a little bit.

-My metabolism is starting to slow down. And that's a little depressing.

-I still don't know what I want to do yet. My kids will both be in school full time in 3.5 years and I don't know if I want to continue to stay home, find a way to work from home, or get a job out of the home at that time. I still have some soul searching to find out what I truly want to do.

And speaking of ages, Happy 8th Birthday to our pup, my first child, Rascal!

Currently

I've seen this on several blogs so I thought I'd take a shot at it myself! (Completed last night).

Currently I'm.......

Reading: An US weekly magazine. But I did just pick up a copy of Lone Survivor and a new Jodi Picoult book The Storyteller. I need to make reading more of a priority since I really do love it. 

Ordering: Bridal shower invitations for the shower I'm hosting in March.

Listening to: My children playing downstairs with their Daddy. Best noise ever! :)

Drinking: Plain ol water!

Recovering From: That intense fierce class I took at the Y. Yes, still. I can barely walk down the stairs! Painful!

Hitting my head for: Not signing the kids up for swimming lessons. It's been awhile since we've done it and I missed the deadline. Oh well, maybe this spring!

Avoiding: The mounds of laundry I have to fold...oh laundry how you multiply when Brian is home! (Not a complaint, just an observation!)

Planning: Our trip to Arizona next month, yay!!! More on that in a future post! 

Eating: Just finished some yummy frozen yogurt from Orange Leaf. Yum!!

Debating: Whether after the kids go to bed tonight to read, do housework, or watch tv on the dvr.  Yeah the tv will probably win.  Big issues, I know!

Laughing At: This little lady:

Her frozen yogurt venture turned into a giant mess that resulted in a bath.  But she had to bring her bowl with to finish every last bite.

Reminding myself of: How blessed I am to be a stay at home mom and just a mom in general. I am blessed.

What are you currently doing? Feel free to play along too! :)

Weekend Review

We had a nice long weekend thanks to MLK Day so even though it's Tuesday, it completely feels like Monday!  Here's a little recap of our weekend!

Friday night Brian had a naming night at his squadron. A naming night basically consists of them getting together to "name" people with call signs and they drink as much as possible. Brian's been in the squadron from almost 3.5 years (I told ya, people stay here forever!) and this past Friday it was his turn! His call sign is Brash (long story) but he had a lot of fun and it was an early night for him Friday, haha!

Saturday Layla tried red pepper hummus for the first time...and loved it. Girl loves her snacks!

We took the kids swimming even though it was beyond freezing out. It was nice and steamy in the pool area though!

And Layla had more snacks while waiting to be changed. She was cracking people up.

We've been working on slowly potty training Layla. She's pretty consistent on using the potty in the morning and stays dry during the day but after naptime unless she has to go #2 usually doesn't use the potty much. We're completely taking her lead and we're pretty impressed that at 20 months she uses the potty so much without a fuss! I think having a big brother who encourages her to do so really helps. And can you tell we were barged in on? Those are our not amused faces.

Saturday night was our Grape Girls monthly outing. We went to this great place called Brix for dinner and wine.  They have these cool wine dispensers (I know there's a more formal word for this but you get the idea) and they have like 100 different wines and you can get this card, put it in the machine, and try it by the ounce, half glass, or whole glass. That way you can sample the more expensive wines without breaking the bank. Genius. After that we went to a country bar and took line dancing lessons! This was my get-up.

Here's us during part of the lesson.

I was soo out of my element but it was really fun!

Sunday we woke up and we decided to brave church with all 4 of us. You see, Layla has this little issue called volume modification. In that she has none. So because of that Brian usually takes Brady to mass (because he can sit still in the normal part of church, not the cry room and can be quiet) while I stay home with Layla. We decided to just try it and went straight to the cry room. And the cry room was actually really quiet this time around. Except for Layla. "LOOK MONNY! (What she calls me) LOOK DADDY! A BABY!!" She was struggling with sitting still so I pulled out a sticker book. Big mistake. "MONKEY!!!! MONKEY!!! DOGGY!!! BANANA!!! MONNY! I WANT A BANANA!!" Wahhhh! One of us was constantly shushing her (mainly Brady) or trying to console her so needless to say we didn't get much out of it. We'll try again but it may not be for a little while. Oh and she got a runny nose while we were at church. I'm sure everyone loved us.

After church we went outside because it was crazy nice out and did fun things like pick up the 10 pounds of dog poop in the yard.

And ride down the hill on a fire truck.

We tried to take some pictures of them but we all know how that goes.

Layla with her little heels on with the over the shoulder look. Work it girl.

And then there's angel boy Brady.

We finished the day out with a walk to the park and some juice boxes. Always juice boxes. 

Monday we took Brady to get his hair cut, went to Trader Joe's where Layla was a screaming mess for who knows what reason, took it easy around the house, and I went to a Fierce (that's actually the name and now I understand why, holy man!) class at the Y where I almost died. 

So that's our weekend! I can barely walk today thanks to that class and it's below zero out again (Omaha's weather is drunk this year, I swear) but only 4 more days till the weekend! :)

I'm So Cool..

That title is a lie because I'm so not cool anymore. Want to know why?

I'm So Cool because.....

*I choose to go to Target now on Friday and Saturday nights. For fun.

* I get hungover from a single glass of wine. Heck even if I smell some wine I wake up with a twinge of a headache. (But it's still worth it.)

*I couldn't tell you what movies are in the theaters right now. Besides Frozen. Only because we went to see it.

*I listen to songs now that were on my playlist from college. And now I cringe when I listen to them. Inappropriate much?

*For Christmas Brian and I got each other nightstands. Nightstands. And we were both pretty excited about them.

*I carry my money in envelopes (per budgeting via Dave Ramsey) and my single, child-less friends look at me like I'm crazy.

*I could tell you anything and everything about Thomas the Train characters, Caillou, the plot of Cars vs Cars 2, and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

*Getting dressed up to me now means changing out of my yoga pants and putting on leggings.

*If I'm feeling wild and crazy I'll get regular caffeinated coffee..and will be jittery from it for at least 10+ hours

*Dinner is eaten at 5:30 in this house (mainly because of the young, tiny, feed me every 2 hours bellies in this house). Whenever I have dinner out with friends and the time is set for 7:00 I think, "7:00?! How am I possibly going to make it until 7:00?!"

*My purse is usually from Target. And covered in crumbs. And snotty kid tissues.

*When we go on vacation and stay in a hotel a chunk of the evening is spent in the bathroom not making a noise while young ones fall asleep. Whatever. You. Do. Don't. Wake. Them. Up!

*When we get together with friends and their kids when it hits about 8:00 everyone is either yawning, screaming, or a little of both.

I know there's more but my "cool" self can't think of them.  Anyone else as cool as I am?

Truthful Tuesday: The TT Fairy

What is a TT you ask?  In our house, TT is the mute button, the soother, the one, the only, pacifier.  See, when I was pregnant I was pretty sure I wasn't going to use them. I'd heard from so many people the disadvantages to pacifiers (speech delay, teeth problems, trouble weaning from them, etc) and because I knew it all (ha) before I had kids I hadn't really purchased many.

But then this guy showed up. And he cried. And cried. And boy did he cry.  He cried so much in the hospital that the nurses gave him a pacifier, not me.  At first I was upset that they just gave him one without consulting me but I had a little guy that sure liked to suck and pacifiers soothed him. And I'll be honest, to get a break from the crying, I gladly let him have it. *SANITY!*

By the time he was 1, he was pretty addicted to the thing.  Again at this age, Brady cried a lot, was super strong willed, still loved to suck, and spoke a ton so I didn't think twice about letting him keep it.  A little before this age he started using "TT" (tee-tee) to refer to his pacifier. We have no clue where he came up with it, but those darn things have been TT's ever since!

By 2, same story, different age.  This was in the hospital room when we had Layla. I saw the pictures and thought enough is enough. We limited him to only have his TT at naptime and bedtime. It was a big struggle at first but he adjusted.

Want to know a huge major secret?  Brady's 3.5 now and before last Tuesday, well, he still slept with his dang pacifier.  I'm mortified about this. If you have nothing nice to say about it, please don't bother saying it. Anything you could say I've already said in my head.  Brady is a very spirited child and before the age of 3 I had many days where it was a major battle just to get through the day with him.  I'll be honest in saying this was just one battle I didn't want to pick.  Brady's always been a great sleeper (naptime and bedtime) and with Layla taking forever to sleep through the night, I just didn't want to screw things up.  And it seemed like once she was sleeping through the night there was either a trip, a deployment, or some other excuse why we didn't fully get rid of his pacifier.  

Not to say we didn't try though. We tried tricking him that they were yucky (didn't work), tried cutting the ends off (didn't work), tried telling him that none of his friends have them, that only babies do (didn't work). I think sadly a part of me didn't want him to lose the last little part of his baby-ness either.  There was only 1 thing we could think of that could possibly work: the TT Fairy.  Not sure what the TT fairy is? Well it's basically the thought that a child leaves his pacifiers with a note for the pacifier fairy(who can give their pacifiers to new babies that need them) and leaves a gift in exchange. We set a date: January 6. And talked the heck out of this TT fairy business.  I knew Brady would eat this up.

So last Tuesday, Brady sucked his TT for the last time.  He was so confused. You mean I can suck it without being in bed?

He told me what I needed to say to the TT fairy in the note and we put his pacifiers in a baggie.

Brought the note with his TTs down the stairs

And gave me his biggest thumbs up. Or at least his version of thumbs up.

I wish I could say it was easy peasy, but some days have been downright rough. Honestly it's gone better than expected though. I had to talk him off the ledge initially because he was terrified the fairy was going to sneak into his room (backfire much?) and he was pretty sad the first couple of days (which absolutely broke my heart) but he is now officially a big boy and TT free!  He's pretty much not napping anymore though and not getting a ton of sleep at night but hopefully soon he'll be back to normal (hopefully, oh please!) and be my good sleeper again.

In retrospect we should have done this a long time ago.  But honestly we've had 6 months of pretty great sleep and that was worth not picking the battle for us.  Oh parenthood, it's a journey!

Now there's just this little stinker left...

Weekend Recap

Thanks for the all of the sweet comments in my last blog post. The sun came out this weekend and I think I just needed some vitamin D in my life because I feel so much better! Not to mention it was in the 50's which felt like spring break!  Our weekend was pretty quiet. January is usually one of my least favorite months but after the hustle and bustle from the last couple months, a quiet January is just what we needed.  

Anyway, this weekend started out Friday night where we went to the sweetest little boy's 1st birthday party.

Where Brian wore the same shirt as Jessica (my running partner and birthday boy's mama) and had the same camera around his neck. Nerd alert? ;)

The kids had tons and tons of fun playing, jumping, and eating.

And Layla let everyone know she had to go potty.

Saturday morning we hit up the Y. We put the kids in Y-care while Brian and I worked out for a little while. After that we went in the gym and shot some hoops.

Where we obviously dominated the court. Not only because for a majority of the time we had the gyms to ourselves but because the kids and I are the best short basketball players you've ever seen. Brian and I did a free throw contest (against each other, we tied if you're wondering) and I could barely lift my arms yesterday. Seriously. I was leaving Panera and I could barely hold the door for an older couple.  Out. Of. Shape.

Saturday and Sunday we spent a majority of the day outside. Like I said, it was in the 50's and felt glorious! 

Have I mentioned how nice it is to have him home? So nice.

Big boy on the big slide!

Little girls turn!

He may be growing up fast but he still needs his mommy now and then.

Brian was practicing taking portraits with the camera. We realized after a few shots that this wall had a bunch of male anatomy drawn on it..the perfect backdrop for any picture.

And Layla ate a bunch of snacks....not much new here!