My first born is now six. Six, people! I can't believe it and don't know where the time has gone. She has been waiting to be six since her 5th birthday and is now shooting for 10. While she has no intentions of slowing down, I am trying to savor each moment. Compared to Elijah and Kayla, she looks so big. However, getting off the bus each day she looks so little. It is surreal that I have a child in kindergarten. She has matured so much. Though the past several weeks have been very tough due to much reverting on her part, the past week has been so, so much better. She has had a much needed positive attitude change. She, and the rest of us, are definitely ready for Daddy to be home! Only a couple more weeks to go!

Abigail and I talked about what kind of party she wanted and she, very adamantly, wanted a Wonder Woman party. I don't know why or where that came from but I looked into it. As it turns out, there are a very limited amount of WW party supplies (I pretended to be disappointed). So I convinced her to change the theme. What did she decide on...a pirate party. That screams sweet, six year old girl party, doesn't it? So we started looking for things and I actually found some really cute supplies and ideas. However, one night while cleaning up I came across one of the kids books called, "Cooking With the Cat." It is a favorite around here so I asked Abi what she thought about a cooking party with a Cat in the Hat theme. She loved it! Score! We found some cute things, mostly teaching supplies on sale at Michael's.

This guy greeted each person as they came into the house. He now resides upstairs.

Each kid got a Cat in the Hat hat to wear and an apron. They each made their own pizza. I thought they would really enjoy making their pizza but when it came to eating it, they would only take a couple of bites and take off. They all cleaned their plates! They were so cute. Unfortunately my camera, which I kept my eye on ALL day, was missing through the beginning of the party. But believe me, they had a blast. My parents came in the Friday before the party and were a lot of help. My mom read the Cooking With the Cat book while the pizza's were cooking.

After eating it was pinata time! Abi picked out one of those big star like pinatas. It fit the color scheme perfectly. However, by the time of the party it had lost 75% of its streamers. Something about it being in a house with three kids...

Afterwards, we came inside for cake. I made the cake and decided the easiest thing to do would be to make the inside of the cake look like the cats hat with alternating white and red velvet layers. I also printed out some Dr. Seuss images and mounted them on foam core. I curled wire and then put the pictures on one end of the wire and the other end into the cake. I thought the springs looked very Dr. Seussish. I was really happy with how it turned out, if I do say so myself.

It was busy, but necessary!

Terrible picture of me, but it kind of shows the inside of the cake.

Abi opened her presents and then the idea was for each kid to decorate a cookie to take home with them. A few were interested which meant there were more for us to enjoy later. Each kid got to take home their apron, hat and a goody bag with a wooden spoon and bookmark. They all had such a great time. It was a full house too with 13 kids! We were exhausted when it was all over but it was worth it!

The decorations in the house were pretty simple. There were going to be almost 20 people in the house after all. The people were the decorations...(yes, I'm aware how cheesy that sounds).

All in all, it was a great time. I love planning and having birthday parties. Luckily I get to do it three times a year. Well really just two times for now seeing how Elijah and Kayla can still share parties...we'll see how long that lasts.

Happy Birthday Abigail. Love you so much!!!

Little Stinker

Tuesday morning Abigail started in on the 'I don't want to go to school' business and mentioned that the mean boy was going to be back today. Apparently Max didn't move away, he was just going to be gone for a few days. So I told her how to handle the situation, yadda, yadda, yadda. Tuesday afternoon I asked her about Max. She said that she thought he was going to be back but her teacher forgot and he did move away. About half and hour later she comes up to me and says, "Well actually that boy in my class isn't real. I made him up." What! Are you kidding me? That's not what I said but that's what I was thinking. She said she really just misses being at home. I can't believe she made up a whole person and a story about him. I started thinking about it and saw the holes in her story. She initially said he was moving to Alaska then yesterday it was the North Pole. Also, she couldn't remember his name. I didn't think too much about the inconsistencies because I was getting information from a five year old. Man, she got me. This morning she tried to start the 'I don't want to go to school stuff' and told her she wasn't going to do that and I've done everything I can think of the help her. That's enough! She went to school happy this morning and even drew a picture for her bus driver. The more and more I think about it, the more I laugh.

My Little Big Girl

I am now officially the parent of a kindergartner. Abigail has actually had two first days of school. Her first, first day of school was August 16. She started at Borman Elementary, the school on base. Because of budget cuts for the Tucson Unified School District all elementary schools could only offer half day kindergarten. I was reluctant about this from the beginning. Tucson is notorious for being a bad school district. However, I looked at the school's past ratings, which were good, so I decided to go ahead and enroll Abigail. Also, I liked that the school was right around the corner and she would be with other military kids. I felt that teachers might be better equipped to deal with kids coming and going because of moves and dealing with deployments. I volunteered in her class the third Monday and was not pleased with what I saw. There seemed to be very little order or discipline. The kids all seem pretty well behaved but they got to do whatever they wanted. There was a restroom, sink and water fountain in the classroom and the kids were allowed to get up whenever they wanted to use the bathroom, wash hands or get a drink. How about asking first? Also, Abi would come home with homework, usually one worksheet, and would have the whole week to complete it. The things they worked on during centers seemed like preschool work. I realize that I was only there for a short time, but I felt she should be doing more and be in a classroom with more order to it. I immediately started looking into charter schools because they offered full day kinder. I ended up touring and talking with someone from The Griffin Academy. She was enrolled and had her second first day of school on September 2.

It has been a rough transition. Abigail has seen the other side, the half day kindergarten side, and she likes it. Her first two days went really well. She got to ride the bus to and from school on her second day. She loves riding the bus, despite the fact she has to be at the bus stop, which is just around the corner from our house, around 7:10, bus comes at 7:14.

She looks so little compared to the big bus. Luckily there are two other kindergartners at the stop and she immediately made a bus buddy. I was very anxious her first day of riding the bus. I even called the school to make sure she would make it on the bus for the ride home. The kinder and 1st graders are gathered up by the aids and put on the right bus. That made me feel much better.

Over the long weekend, labor day weekend, she decided that she didn't like her school and she wanted to go back to her first school. After much, much discussion, pleading and crying Abigail finally said the reason she didn't like school was because of lunch time. She said it is too loud. Can't argue with that. She eventually mentioned that they turn out the lights when it's getting too loud. She said everyone gets in trouble for being loud but she is being quiet and shouldn't get in trouble. I understand her thought discipline as personal. Tuesday morning she was in tears begging to not go to school because of lunch. I prayed to God for help then got the idea of letting Abigail decorated a brown paper gift sack tprocess. Abigail puts on a big front as being rough and tough. She is so, so sensitive though. She took the hat I had. Problem solved. Thank you God. Could have knocked me over with a feather. She colored the sack and bounced out the door to school. So I went out and bought more sacks. I figured that was a pretty inexpensive solution to make lunch time easier. Tuesday night, school no bueno again. Ask if getting a new lunch box would help. So after school on Wednesday, that's what we did.

Abi's new lunch box. She was using the same one she had for preschool in San Angelo. Guess it was time for a new one.

Wednesday night she finally (I say finally because you can't imagine the number of talks we had to try and figure out what exactly was going on and how to help fix the problem) told me that a kid at lunch told her that the food she had in her lunch box was not allowed. So she was not eating her lunch, other than her sandwich. She was coming home starving. So I got out the student handbook and read to her what was not allowed and told her I would only put things in her lunch box that were allowed. She said if somebody told her she had the wrong thing again that she was going to tell them that her mom read the paper that said what she could bring and everything that she has is OK. You tell 'em girl!

Then she said she didn't like music class because all they do is sing and she wants to play the instruments. Also, can't blame her for that. Apparently there is a xylophone with her name all over it. I told her she just had to be patient on that one.

So then Abi tells me that a boy in class at centers told her that she didn't draw well and that he was better and that she was a loser. Are you kidding me? Five years old people! So I was starting to tell her to not listen to him and she interrupted telling me that she is a good artist and that he only needs to worry about his own work. She then told me that she thinks he probably acts that way because of his parents. It took all that I had to not bust out laughing. So she said if he told her that again she would say what she said to me and that if he would be nice to people then people would be nice to him. Saturday night I asked her about the boy. She said he moved. Asked her where. She said Antarctica. Then mentioned dog races. Alaska? Yeah, Alaska. Serves him right. Just kidding.

So, we are working through the first day jitters during the fourth week of school. She's still the new kid. By Friday we had worked out A LOT of kinks and I think we're going to be OK. She really likes her teacher, which is great. There haven't been any bad reports on him. She has excellent behavior in class also. She has homework every night, a behavior report and the class has restroom breaks as a whole. Seems to be a much better environment. I realize that she has a lot going on right now. She misses her daddy, misses being home during the day and is trying to adjust to being the new kid. She has a lot of people praying for her, and me. I love that girl! She's going to be great, just have to take it one day at a time. That's becoming my motto for life.

Showing off her new backpack.

Abigail loves Justin Bieber, or she thinks she does, at least. So I made her some Justin Bieber pajamas. I gave them to her the night before school started to help her get a good nights rest. I'd put this at the beginning of the blog, where it seems more appropriate, but I'm too lazy to move it.

Like I said, it has been a rough week. There have been some behavior issues that I won't go in to detail about because I've already written a novel. I find myself praying for many of the Fruits of the Spirit these days. I am proud of my kids. They have kind spirits and have dealt with a lot of change in their short lives. More than the average kiddo. On to week two at the new school. It's gonna be a good one, I can feel it!

Blog? What? Oh yeah...

Funny finding myself back here. I almost forgot that I had a blog. I haven't written anything in such a long time that I don't even know where to start. Guess I'll just jump in.

David has been deployed since July 18th. Some days it feels like he will never be home. Then I stop to think and realize it's already September and we only have like two months left. I can do this. I get to hear from him pretty often, usually by e-mail or chat on Facebook. I love getting messages and chatting. I miss seeing his face but it is so great just to hear from him. He really enjoys hearing about all that we're up to also, even the boring stuff. He is working really hard and doing a great job! I am so proud of him!

A few of the things going on around here:

-Abigail started kindergarten. (That will be another post and, at this rate, probably when she graduates from high school). She looks so big compared to Eli and Kayla, but she's still a little girl. Don't tell her I said that though.

-Elijah is still in his own world. You may not understand it and you may question it, but don't try to fight it. The world is his race track (yes, still obsessed with cars). The side of him that most people don't get to see is that he is very loving and sweet. My Buddy!!

Kayla is 5. Well she thinks so, at least. As a baby she was, by far, the most laid back. Lord help me, because she is something else. A sweetheart, yes. A tornado, yes! Love that girl!!

All in all, things are running pretty "normal" around here. Normal is good. As long as nothing is broken, mechanically or physically, we're good. For me, deployments are a reminder to step back and take a breath. My patience and faith are being tested. Satan would love to be able to step in right now! I finally got a clear understanding of faith a few years ago when David and I were dating and I finally handed over David's deployment to God. Gods got this! I have learned that worry gets you nowhere. Until you decide to hand it over to God, you will never find rest. I have too many kiddos relying on me. I can't let worry take over. Sure, my mind wanders to the dark side. The side where you imagine something happening to your husband. I think that is normal. But I try to not let my mind go there. I have to regain focus and pray for God to protect him. I don't want this to sound like everything is peachy and wonderful all of the time. I'm taking care of three kids by myself. I have meltdowns. I get stressed and frustrated. I'm not going to lie. We just take it one day at a time. Sometimes, one minute at a time. I remind myself that I'm not the only mom going through this and it's only temporary. My hat goes off to the single moms out there that don't have somebody to lean on. I am so proud of David! I can't wait to see him again!!!

And now I'll step off my soap box.

HallowThankChristmaNew Day

Oh my stars, I am so behind on blogs it is ridiculous. Umm, I didn't even post Halloween pictures. The kids looked really cute so even though it is almost February I am going to put up some pics of the kids in their costumes. I figure I can do that since it's my blog.

Elijah had a cowboy hat as well but I suppose by this point he was no longer interested in wearing it. He wears it at home all of the time though.

Paging Dr. Abigail. She too had a surgeons cap and mask but quickly passed that on to me or Daddy to hold. Eventually we ended up carrying a majority of their costumes. That's what we're there for!

Okay, fast forward to Thanksgiving...

We drove to Texas for Turkey day. I was like 30 weeks and drive just about did me in but I was really glad that we got to see everyone, especially since we were not going to make it to Texas for Christmas. While we were there we got to meet Joshua and Josiah, Lori and Marcus' new twins, and we found out that April is having a girl. We made a trip to the Dallas World Aquarium with my parents for an early Christmas present as well. The kids really enjoyed it and Abigail is still talking about it.

Me, my dad and Elijah. Like I said, I'm about 30 weeks here, give or take a week.

The kiddos with Mamaw and Baba at the World Aquarium

The quality of this photo isn't all that great but I thought it was really cute.

Bath time with the cousins. Hmm, which one is mine? Maybe the pale one of the bunch?

Let's see, I think this brings us to December. We practiced making cookies for Santa.

Abigail really likes helping in the kitchen. She's an excellent little chef. I love this picture because she has flour on her cheek.

Before I knew it Elijah had emptied the whole bottle of sprinkles onto his cookie. He looks pretty proud of his work.

How proud is she of her cookies!

This are a few of the fruits of our labor.

For Christmas my parents drove out to see us in Tucson. This was my first Christmas where I didn't travel somewhere. It was nice to be at home but felt a little awkward. I was in no position to make the drive though. This was the first year that Abigail understood who Santa was. We discussed his role quite often till we had it all straightened out. Just when I thought everything had been discussed she asked how Santa would get into the house since we don't have a chimney. I explained that Santa would use his magic to build a chimney and when he left the chimney would also be gone. That answer seemed to calm her fears. However, she did pray on Christmas Eve that the builders would come and build a chimney so Santa could go down it. Such sweet innocence.

Christmas is my favorite time of the year and I loved getting the decorations out and Abigail really enjoyed helping me decorate the trees. Yes, trees. I had three. What, that's too many? I had one full size tree, then a smaller one that was the kids tree and was adorned with Cars, Sesame Street and other kid ornaments, and then I had a small 3 foot tree. I was lovely.

Okay, so we made more cookies for Santa and left some out to keep him nourished. I received the honor of eating his cookies and left one of them half eaten. The next morning Abigail was thrilled to see that some of the cookies were gone and that he ate so much he couldn't finish one of them. It was precious to see the holidays through Abigail and Elijah's eyes.

So on to January. We rang in the new year at our home with some friends. The kids got to stay up super late. They roasted marshmallows and had a good time. We had over some of David's coworkers, two of which were being deployed the next day. A good time was had by all with good friends.

This is the edited Reader's Digest version and I have only hit the high points but I'm so behind of blogs and too tired to elaborate any more. So this brings me to current day. I am 38 weeks and ready to not be pregnant and to meet our baby. I've had contractions all day today. Maybe baby day is close! I'm ready!

Abigail is very excited about the baby. She keeps asking if the baby is ready to come out yet. She has been very sweet and I'm excited to see her with the baby. She loves playing dress up and playing pretend. Her birthday was in Oct. and everyday since her birthday she has been asking about her next birthday. Oh to be four. She loves preschool and last week she got a good behavior award. Her teacher said that everyone was acting up that day except Abigail and another girl. So Abi and the other girl got Star of the Day awards. Her teacher said she always behaves very well and if there was a star of the session award that she would get it. I'm not trying to brag, really. It's just nice to hear that your child is well behaved when they are away from their parents. I am very proud of her!

Elijah will be two Feb. 2. He is definitely making we work. He thinks he's already two and has therefore already developed quite the little, shall we say, personality. He's quite funny though. He likes to say things like, "Ahh man" and "Come here, I show you." If he's wearing his cowboy hat he says, "Ye haw." In his pirate hat he says, "Arrr." He doesn't miss a beat. He's very sweet and sincere. I love watching him and Abigail play together. They both love going to Bible class, playing outside and digging for treasure, building tall towers with blocks and reading books.

Whew, I guess that's it for now. Did anybody actually read all of this? Hopefully I'll stay up to date a little better. I'm not going to make any promises though. I'll try to update with any baby info. Hopefully our baby will be here soon! I can't wait to meet him or her! Later.

Flying high

This is old by a few weeks.

On Oct. 22 the kids and I flew to Texas so I could attend my 5 year reunion at ACU. I usually wouldn't think twice about going but I found out a few of my really good friends that I had lost touch with were going to be there so I decided to go. At first it was going to be just me going but a little elf offered to pay for Abigail's seat. Eli can still sit in my lap and fly for free since he is under 2 yrs. The flight out went great because the plane was not full at all and Eli ended up getting his own seat. I was so nervous but they did great. Abigail thought everything was so neat and had a million questions about everything she saw. I had packed coloring books, stickers, snacks, DVDs and the player and books. Eli had the window seat and really enjoyed looking out the window.

The kids watching the air planes while waiting to board.

ACU had a carnival as part of the Homecoming festivities. The musical theme was Elvis so at the carnival they had a 20' inflatable Elvis. Earlier in the day Abigail saw it and thought it was so funny. Somewhere between lunch and 6:00 she decided it was scary and uncool. Sarah took her inside the campus center and explained to her that Elvis was there to watch over us so the birds didn't potty on us. After that all was well. Thank goodness Elvis the bird watcher was there! The carnival had several bouncy houses, face painting, a petting zoo and carnival foods. Unfortunately I didn't get too many pictures of the festivities though.

Abigail after getting her face painted. It's a butterfly. Sort of.

The kids at the petting zoo. And no, that is not my belly. Can't actually tell you who that belly belongs to.


Waiting for the parade to start on Saturday morning. We met up with some of our good friends from San Angelo, Nathan, Andrea and Heidi, and later had lunch with them along with the Tovars, who live in Abilene now. It was so nice to see some of our really good friends again.
Martha and Andrea with Heidi.

Our kiddos, minus Eli who had fallen asleep. Preciosa, Abigail, Heidi and Anthony.

Saturday evening I went to my class dinner. While attendance was surprisingly low I did get to see my good friends, some that I had not seen in 5 years. I loved getting to catch up with them and wish we had more time.

This are two of my best friends from ACU, Angie and Dearing.

Sunday after church we cooked hamburgers at the park with April, Jeremy, Zoey, Lisa, Chris, C.J., and my family. The weather was perfect and despite a few run-ins with bees and trouble with the grill it all worked out and we had a great time.

We got home safe and sound though I wasn't quite sure Eli and I were going to survive the flight. I hate to be negative but I think the flight went just about as bad as it could have. Eli was completely unhappy and tired which made for a very long, loud flight. I was so happy to get off the plane. At DFW I got our boarding passes when I did curb side check-in. They said Gate A38. Once we got inside though they said we needed a new boarding pass that had a record of Eli on it since he didn't have a ticket. Assuming nothing had changed in 10 minutes I headed to Gate 38. It got time to board and nothing was happening so I double checked our boarding passes only to realize that we were supposed to be at Gate 20. I gathered everything up and told Abigail she had to run. Poor thing, she was a trooper. The whole thing was pretty sad and was breaking my heart but there was nothing I could do about it. I felt so helpless. Abigail was going as fast as she could and started saying that here legs and tummy were hurting. One of her shoes started hurting her and I told her to take it off and carry it. So she was running through the airport with one shoe on dragging her little suitcase. I was carrying Eli, my carry on, the car seat and my purse. We got to about Gate 29 and I hear, 'Boarding for Tucson has been moved from Gate 38 to Gate 20. This is the final boarding call.' Now why couldn't they have said that 20 minutes earlier? By the grace of God we made it. Poor Abigail. Bless her heart. She was such a trooper. Eli was exhausted on the plane but wouldn't give in and fall asleep. He spilled our drink all over himself and me before I could get it in the sippy cups. Needless to say I was so happy to get off the plane. He was asleep in the car before we left the airport. I was happy that the kids were able to go but I can't say that I have any intentions of flying with them by myself any time soon!

Gone but not forgotten

We have, or at least our cars have, officially become residents of Arizona. I write this with a sad heart and tears in my eyes. Anyone that knows us knows that we have a large, and maybe abnormal, amount of Texas pride. We have little touches of Texas all over our house which usually bring snickers and laughs from any non-Texans that visit our home. We love Texas. We especially love and miss Texas now that we are no longer residents of Texas. The time has come though for our vehicles to be registered in Arizona and therefore receive Arizona plates. The removal of our beloved Texas plates caused heartache and could have potentially sent me into early labor. We survived the transition but we're not happy about it. So even if you see Arizona on our vehicles know that Texas is still in our hearts.