Too much fun!

Jayda is obviously NOT used to wearing underwear in public!

She loves her some Job!

Yesterday we had a great time at the zoo with some friends! Aside from one running away incident, Jayda behaved OK! She even shared her stroller with brother! See how everyone else (including her brother) is wearing light clothes and my child is wearing a jacket....ya....that's because she wouldn't take it off. Kelly finally talked her into it right before we left. She choose her whole outfit (including cowboy boots!!!)

I feel so special!

This morning I woke up to a wonderful surprise on the counter from one of my favorite April Mommas, Marlis!!! This wonderful package came all the way from Europe, she is such a doll!! I hope she knows that she made my week, if not my entire month!!

A wonderful night

Jayda's Pumpkin

Bryan's Pumpkin

My Pumpkin (which really was the BEST!)

Tonight we finally carved our pumpkins, they turned out great and we all had so much fun doing it together! Ok, more like we had fun watching DADDY do it, haha! Bryan was a great sport about it though. I tried my hardest to get Jayda to help me clean out pumpkins but she kept telling me "It felt too icky, with an i" (Thank you Leap Frog, my daughter is FINALLY learning about the alphabet!).

Nights like tonight feel too good to be true. We are all used to him being gone, it's so weird now that he will be home for longer than a few weeks at a time! It's like we get to have a little glimpse of civilian life and what it would be like to have him come home every night. I know it won't last long, three or four more months and then it will be back to the crazy schedule and never knowing whether he is coming or going. Last October when he came home, we only got two months of "in port" time before they started work ups for their next deployment which happened five months later. And I was so incredibly sick from being pregnant that all i remember was being able to puke in privacy when he would come home!! This time it's different, we are all soaking up as much Daddy time as we can and cramming as much family stuff in as humanly possible! Even if it's just us all laying on the floor rolling around together.

And I am VERY excited that he will be around for the little part of Dallyn's life. He missed so much with Jayda.....crawling, walking, talking, weaning, birthdays, big girl beds! When he left last time she was a baby and he came home to a toddler. I am sure that was really hard for him. I mean, it was tough on me and I was even there to witness the transistion!

I am not one of those wives who says that they love their whole life and everything about it. The truth is that I HATE when he is gone. I hate having to explain to Jayda a million and one times why he isn't just on duty and won't be coming home the next day. I HATE e-mailing him and being all happy and peppy even though I just want to bawl my eyes out. But the time he spends away makes times like this one hundred trillion times better than it would be if we didn't have to go through it. I don't want to be a wife who takes her husband and family for granted, even though sometimes I want to ring his little neck!!!

Need a photographer????

One of my good friends, Amber, took these amazing pictures! There were so many to choose from to post, but these are my favorites! She is such a great photographer but she is also super nice and so easy to talk to! These pictures are something I will cherish as my kids grow up, i will always be able to look back and see how sweet and small they were!! THANK YOU!!!

3 Months

I can't believe it, my little baby boy is 3 months old!

He has come so far from the crying baby we drove home from Wyoming with, I still can't actually believe that i have a son. He's turned into such a great, happy little baby. Every time you look at him he just goes silly! Jayda was VERY serious at this age, a smile or a laugh was hard to get! As long as Dallyn isn't tired, he is always smiling. He is still colicky some days, but they are getting further and farther in between :) I love my little boy and can't imagine life without him.

9 days old

3 months, my long little guy!

FABULOUS Boofest!!

Yesterday we got to hang out with some of our favorite people, we celebrated our first fabulous boofest!! No one knows how to party better than our fabulous momma friends! The kids had fun doing tons of crafts and eating all of the yummy food! A great time was to be had by all! We are so lucky to have such wonderful friends!

And THANK YOU for those who got some pictures of Jayda, my camera died just after I snapped this shot of Jayda and Tati!!! (Isn't Tatianna waiting so patiently? I can't believe how big our kids are getting!!!)

GROSGRAIN MINI STORE OPENING NOVEMBER 6!!!! AND BIG PREVIEW GIVEAWAY!!!!

GROSGRAIN MINI STORE OPENING NOVEMBER 6!!!! AND BIG PREVIEW GIVEAWAY!!!!: "eat. I am excited to see the new store.
October 24, 2008 10:00 PM"

A tribute to....

The Mohawk!!

This is my baby girl at 3 months old....and yes.....that hair is ALL natural. Some of you met us when the Mohawk was still kickin' it on Jayda's head, others might have met us later on. Just seeing that hairdo makes me weepy, it was so funny to see such a small baby with such a HUGE Mohawk. I tried everything to tame it, from Karo syrup to KY Jelly (I will NEVER tell her that, ha ha). It was wild, crazy and completely unique to my daughter. Even the nurses at the hospital couldn't believe how long just that one strip of hair was. The whole time I was pregnant with Dallyn I wondered whether he would come out with wild hair like his sister. It was worse...the poor kid has a mullet! (Everyone believe me NOW that I really am a redneck? HA)

They got me.....

Somewhere between Stacia's post HERE and Kelly's post HERE, I am have become one big weeping sap over my babies growing up. It's also Kristin's fault for posting that video :)

It's amazing how many emotions are tied into seeing your babies grow up. I, for one, already have empty nest syndrome and my second baby is still considered a newborn, YIKES!

On the days when Dallyn's colick is really taking a toll on all of us, it's so hard to keep perspective and remember just how long this will actually last. The lead singer from Hootie and the Blowfish (Darius Rucker) just released a new song called "It won't be like this for long". If you haven't heard it......LISTEN TO IT. It's one of those songs that makes you wake a sleeping baby just so that you can hold them for a little bit longer. The part of that song that really gets me is the last when he talks about laying down besides the little girl until her eyes are finally closed. I used to dread putting Jayda to sleep, it was absolutely torture for me to lay next ot her for hours. I kept thinking of all the things I needed to do. But now I really cherish being able to put her to sleep, it's turned into one of my favorite parts of the day. My other favorite is when I get to put Dallyn to sleep. Jayda piles up all of her books upstairs next to the rocking chair and we rock and read while Dallyn falls asleep in my arms. It truly is the greatest thing in my whole life, I have everything I hold dear in my arms. I read every page, never skipping one or stopping unless she falls asleep(which happens every once in a while). And like Alexandra, Jayda has a signature sleeping que. She will grab my ears and rub them until she is completely out. I am going to die a little inside the day that she stops doing that while going to sleep. When she sneaks in our bed lated at night I usually don't even know she is there until she grabs my ears sweetly and snuggles in with me.

One of Jayda's favorite books is "I am Positive". The first line in the book is "I can make today the best day ever by the things that I say and the things that I do" We read it every morning when she gets up and I swear to her to make today the best day ever. My baby's infancy and toddler hood are too short to not paint one more picture, or chase her around the house one more time. I can't imagine my life without tea parties, finger painting, water fights, trampoline jumping and more crayons that I count. But I know that day is going to happen a lot sooner than I would like it to so for now i am going to let her pick out her dress in the morning and not grumble under my breath because it's the same dress she's worn for the last 5 days (you would think I would stop washing it so I could tell it's dirty!). I am going to relish in our arguments about who loves who more and not nag her for telling me "No Mom, you listen to me. I love YOU more more more more".

And my sweet little chucky man, it's REALLY hard to see him grow so fast. He is already in 6-9 month sleepers because the kid is LONG. He has had a rough first few months of life. He's so sensitve but when he is happy, there is no sweeter smile! And thankfully those smiles are now pretty much a constant when he is awake. Every time I rock him to sleep, i get a little weepy thinking about how long that will last. I wish i could be able to rock him to sleep on my chest so little and small until he goes off to college.

Our week.....

in a Collage! Last week we all had colds and then yesterday I got hit with some nasty food poisoning so we haven't really been doing a whole lot other than hanging out at home. Which means LOTS of walks to the little park down the road and snuggle time on the couch. Although the one day we were all well we snuck in some cooking baking with a few good friends! Oh, and paint, you can't forget painting!! My little artist has to do either finger paints or real painting at least once a day to stay happy, she's pretty easy to please though!

Please excuse the mess while I spend a few days making a header and background that actually match....I think I am color blind!

I love you Bro....

For real!!!

You know you've had a great day when....

You can't even stay awake to go upstairs and sleep in a bed!

Saturday fun

This is the best picture of a two year old i can get these days.......

In case you couldn't tell, we went to the zoo! Bryan was awesome and carried D-man around all day so that Jayda and I could just hang out together. We had a blast and we saw pretty much the whole zoo. Now that naps aren't cramping our style, and neither is the scorching hot weather, we were able to see everything but the Polar Bears (Jayda said they scared her....?????) Then we got stamped and rode the train. I wish I could video tape her, she gets so excited but as soon as we hit the tunnel she goes stiff as a board. It is just too funny. And then today Bryan had a great time watching football with her and attempting to explain the dynamics of the game......