I found a Bubba in my bed!!!

So I think somebody has taken advantage of the emptiness on daddy's side of he bed!  I had no idea that he was there until my alarm went off and he kicked me.  When I got out of the shower, he hadn't moved, so I snapped a picture.  He slept there for another half hour, and woke up smiling! 

I've had at least one kid in the bed with me almost every night since Jon has been gone.  Some nights I'll take them back to bed, others I'll just let them stay.  I can't say that I hate it!  I love that they want to be close to me!  Sometimes, especially on a hard day, it's easy to forget that some day they won't want to sleep next to me, or snuggle with me!  So I'll cherish the nights that they do.  Well, most of them anyway!!  :)  

Oops. I did it again.

Yup.  That just happened.  Totally quoted a Britney Spears song.  I'm awesome like that.  So I forgot about this thing.  Again.  I've been journaling lately, and it wasn't until I was updating some stuff on facebook that I saw the link to the blog and had that moment.  You know the one, where you kind of go "OH YEAH!!"  "ooohhh" (insert dramatic sigh here).  Yeah, I forgot.  I fail.  I might never get the hang of this...but I'm struck by the bug again because just scrolling through these previous posts has be getting all weepy over the pictures of the kids that are posted there.  So I've decided that I rather like this walk down memory lane, and I would like to be able to do so in the future.  SO....I've also decided that instead of spending the time on some long and drawn out update of how big the kids are and where we are at right now in our lives, I'm just going to pick up with the now.  I'm going to try and figure out how to do this from my phone so I can update pictures easier.  Anyway....so yeah.  I forgot again.  But here we go again.  Third time's a charm right?!  Right.  :)

one crazy month!!!

So it's been a super crazy month in the Gallon home!  Jon was sailing for most of October and been all around getting screwed at work.  It's the price he pays for being so damn good at his job.  :)  And I've been busy with the kids and trying to get the house prepared for moving.  Jon finally managed to get in touch with the officer in charge of getting him the RFO he needs to get the orders to get us out of here a couple weeks ago.  He did us a favor and promised to have it to us by the end of the month.  That was a huge relief!  We checked multiple times a day until we finally got it two days ago!!  Of course with it being Thanksgiving weekend, there's nothing we can do until Monday, but we are hopeful we'll have a bunch of our questions answered on Monday and Tuesday.  We will be off the island in no more than 3 WEEKS!!!  Holy cow!  It's so hard to believe that 3 years here, and it's over just like that.  It's really bittersweet for me.  But I'm truly thrilled that we'll get to be back home in CO for Christmas!  I must admit though, I'm dreading the stress and exhaustion that comes with moving and living out of suitcases for weeks while we go through this process.  I'm really looking forward to getting to Virginia and getting settled.  And of course being close to Sarah and Richard again!!!  YAY!  As well as the friends we've met here that are or will be there, and finally getting to meet some of the lovely ladies from an online group I am part of that I've been communicating with since I was pregnant with Hanna.  2011 is going to be a very exciting year for me!  And I am just praying for good news and some satisfactory answers come Monday!! 

So that's the news right now.  We had a nice Thanksgiving with some friends yesterday, and the day before that we enjoyed a family sailing trip on Jon's boat!  It was nice to be out on the water again, and I always feel right at home on the boat, given my Navy history!  The girls had a fabulous time, and were extremely well behaved!  I was so proud of them!  I got some great pictures, and tomorrow when I'm not using the laptop I will upload them and share. 

Connor has started army crawling all over the place!  It's so cute!  He managed to get himself all the way down the hall and into Caylie's room the other day!  I cannot believe he is 7 months old already!  Where did my baby boy go!!!????  The time surely has flown by!!  He's currently teething his top two front teeth, which is absolutely thrilling (can you hear the sarcasm there?).  Poor kid is a slobbering, drooling mess most days right now.  I can't wait to get him home and finally let the families meet him.  I'm sad they've missed out on so much of his first year.

Today was mine and Jon's 5 year wedding anniversary!  Again, where the heck did the time go?  It's been one heck of a ride, and I love him more every day than I did the day before!  He's my best friend!!!

Ok...well I'll be back to share pictures tomorrow.  I'm tired and ready for bed! 

Catching up with Hanna!

Ok...so I skipped a day.  That will happen.  Oh well.

Hanna turned 2!!  OMG!  The last two years have flown by so fast!  It really does not feel like so long ago that I was pregnant with her!  She has grown into quite the little girl.  She's almost as tall as Caylie and only weighs a few pounds less than her.  Jon and I are always telling Caylie that she should be nice to Hanna because one day Hanna will be bigger than her!  She's quiet.  She doesn't talk that much.  But she's a thinker and a problem solver.  She's so logical!  As of now her only real words are please (wees), thanks (anx), mama or mommy, dada, bubba (for brother), doggie, hi or hello (hewo), bye, baby, pee pee, and ick (for yucky).  She may have a few more that I can't remember off the top of my head.  But this is not to say that she doesn't understand.  She knows what we say to her and she will listen if we tell her to do something.  She's always very sure of what she wants and gets her point across.  I'm not really sure why she doesn't have more words.  I'm going to call tomorrow to make all of the kids' check-up appontments, so maybe the pediatrician (whom I LOVE, she's wonderful!) will have something to say about it. 

Again, I could go on and on and on about Miss Hanna, but I won't.  Other than today she made mommy very angry and really pushed the limits of my patience.  I wish I had taken pictures, but honestly, in the moment I could have cared less about pictures of the mess!  Caylie left her bathroom door open and Hanna got the baby bath soap out of there and decided it might be fun to pour just about all of it out onto the floor in Caylie's room.  Sure, fun for HER.  But for me...two hours of working with the steam cleaner later, and it's still not all out of the carpet.  I finally gave up on it.  It's not like we aren't responsible for all the carpet in this house when we move out anyway.  GGGRRRRR!!!

Anyway....so here are some pics of Hanna, one for each month.

 yeah, that's underwear on her head.  :)

 Pool fun!

 Miss Destructive tp'd the house!

 She's also a climber.  This is how she got to the toilet paper!

Ok.......so on another note.  A few quick notes to update on some other things so I don't have to do it later!  Jon's Warrant Officer packet finally made it all the way to the board with no snags.  He has officially been selected by the Board!!  YAAAAAAY!!!!!  I'm extremely proud of him!  He worked really hard for it!!  As of now he has received messges that he has orders for WOC and school in Virginia.  We do not have any dates set for moving yet.  A few months back, Jon was issued orders to recruiting school at Fort Knox.  Had he not been selected for Warrant, that's where we would be headed in the spring.  Praise God, that's not happening!!!!  The problem is, although he's been selected for Warrant, those orders have not yet been removed from his ERB.  Add to all this that he's been sailing for all but 6 days of the past month and those days were mostly weekend days, he is not even home to take care of the paperwork and make sure things get fixed.  So we have no PCS dates or anything like that.  YET.  It's frustrating because I'd like to start preparing to leave the island, and I have no timeline to work with to get anything done.  GAH!  Tomorrow is the start of a new week!  I pray we find out more with each passing day!!


Ok...I think I'm done for now.  Oh, just really quick though.  OU was ranked number one this past week in the BCS standings.  They played Missouri yesterday and lost.  Played a really crappy game.  Normally I really wouldn't post this, but I got these.......and wanted to share!!! 

They were not in the best of moods for pictures, but they are still pretty dang cute!!  :)  Ok...I'm done for tonight.  Off to bed!

More catching up!

See!  I said I would be back!  One day at a time, and I think I'll be able to do this.  Nevermind that I should REALLY be unloading the dishwasher and starting some laundry!  HA!!!  So yesterday's catch up was about the little man, so today I think I'll do the girls, Caylie now, and Hanna later tonight after the girls are in bed.  Then tomorrow I'll move into life in general, and hopefully I won't have to ever update seven months of life again!  :)  I know...my own fault!  Ok...so here goes!

Caylie Renee.  Well....she's 4, and quite the handful.  We are tackling things like using an inside voice, being grateful for what we're given, respectful of parents and adults in general, and understanding she's not the boss.  And that's just the tip of the iceberg!  She's extremely smart, which is wonderful, but she has a habit of "playing dumb" when it comes to things she knows she's not supposed to do.  She's a very picky eater, and most nights refuses to eat dinner if it's not pizza, corndogs, or chicken nuggets.  And I only make one meal.  I'm not a short order cook, so if she doesn't want what's for dinner she can go to bed without.  But it never fails that she'll sit at the table and cry saying she doesn't know how to use her fork or that she needs me to feed her every bite.  See what I mean about the "playing dumb".  It's frustrating.  I'm doing my best to guide her and teach her, but some days I feel like a horrible failure and like I've let her down.  She's so bright, I just wish I knew the best way to teach her.  On that note, I do work with her with alphabet flash cards and a preschool activity book.  She picks things up very quickly. 

She loves to play with her sister and brother.  She's always asking if Hanna can play in her room, or if she can hold brother.  She's really independent, but she's not a problem solver.  She wants to do things herself, but if she can't figure it out or if she messes up, she panics and just screams and throws a fit.  She's growing into such a beautiful, amazing little girl!  I can't believe my first born is 4 and a half already!  Holy cow!!! 

 This was after one of those dinner time temper tantrums!  Fell asleep curled up on the chair!

 On her 4th birthday at Dave and Buster's for lunch!

 At a friends birthday party in June.

 My little dress-up queen!  Playing dress up is one of her favorite things to do! 

 Cheese!

My pretty girl!  She's getting so big!!  z

Well...I guess that's about all for now.  The baby is awake and hungry.  I'll be back tonight with photos of Hanna and an update!!  

Getting back in the game!

Yep, I jumped off the blogging wagon there for a while.  I couldn't seem to find a balance between keeping up with my daily responsibilities and keeping up online too.  So the blog, as well as my online social life, pretty much disappeared while I was trying to get ready for the baby's arrival and then after he came trying to learn how to be a mom to 3.  I FAIL.  It took me a while, but now I think I've got the hang of it.  In no way to I expect myself to keep up every day, but I really want to keep this more as an online journal of our life. 

So how can I sum up the past 8 months?  Amazingly beautiful!  The arrival of our little boy, Connor Joshua, was in the very early morning hours of April 18th.  At 1:47am, weighing 7 pounds 3 ounces, after a fast and furious labor, he came into this world and instantly completed our family!  He is wonderful and has brought us amazing joy!

He makes me smile on a daily basis, and I'm constantly grateful to God that we were blessed with him!  It's hard to believe he's 6 months old now!  He's incredibly strong and so smart!  I could go on forever, but instead I'll just post some pictures!  To restrict myself to one photo for every month is hard!!  But here we go.  :)

 April, he's just 6 days old in this one!

 May

 June

 July

 August. 

He'd just started to really laugh and Aunti Mandi came to visit and had him all up in giggles!

 September

Rocking orange for the Broncos on football Sunday!

And in Army green.  Love it!!

These last two are favorites of mine.  Like I said, it's hard to pick just a few!  

 The two men of my life!

So that's my boy!  Our unexpected blessing!!  The girls are awesome with him.  It was quite the adjustment at first, mostly for Hanna, but they truly love him.  Caylie is a little mommy and tries to hard to take care of him.  The second he starts to fuss I hear "mommy, the little man is crying".  And now that he's old enough to interact with the girls, they love to get him laughing.  Caylie likes to let him pull her hair just so she an yell, which makes him laugh!  Seeing my three children play together warms my heart on a daily basis!!  Hanna accidentally gave him his first bloody nose the other day.  I suppose they will make him one tough little boy!!! 

Ok.  I think I'm done for the night.  I of course have more updates and photos of the girls and and news of life in general, but I'll be back tomorrow for those.  I've spent two hours trying to get back in the swing of things here, and my brain hurts!!!  :)   

33 weeks and surrounded by cuteness!!!

Wow...33 weeks pregnant today!!  Holy cow, where has the time gone?!  I feel good, for the most part.  I have days that I am super tired, and others that I'm full of energy.  Nothing out of the ordinary! 

I got up early this morning and took Hanna out for a fun morning of shopping!!  It was a really pleasant morning, and I had a ton of fun!  Hanna was so well behaved!  I was super stoked to get my new Medela breast pump this morning!  I know this is my last baby, so it was a lot of money to spend, but it's totally worth it!  A decent pump can make it so much easier when your exclusively breast feeding! 

Anyway....I have discovered yet another thing that makes Hanna and Caylie complete opposites!  Hanna is my little cheeser that just loves to have her picture taken, while Caylie is usually pretty uninterested in posing for the camera!  But I have been totally surrouned by cuteness the last few days!  As a result I have picture overload, so I have to share!! 

and one of the husband...for good measure! 

Life is good! 

XOXO