Kennedy's First Birthday!

On October 19, our baby girl turned a year old. Time couldn't have flown any faster this past year and it is very hard for me to believe she could already be this big! She had a great day, we went to tot-time to play in the morning then did the usual routine. Shortly after Kennedy woke up from her nap, Mike got home from his TDY. They hadn't missed a beat, she was back to being Daddy's girl! After dinner my neighbor and her daughter came over and we sang Happy Birthday and opened presents. All in all I'd say she had a wonderful birthday! Here are some pictures of her special day. Sorry the videos are too long to post:(

She loved everyone singing to her!

Yep! She's her mother's child - definitely has a sweet tooth!

This is where we finally cut her off!

Abby enjoyed her cupcake too!

We'll have to work on Kennedy and holding babies! She loves to play with them and her new stroller from our neighbor!

Hanging out with Daddy after bath time! So happy to have him back home!

Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down 2012 #42.5

Up:

• Whew! Only a few more days until Mike returns and we can have him around for a while! You would think that TDYs would get easier as the kids get older, but honestly I think they've gotten harder. Thankfully I have a fabulous neighbor and we keep each other entertained which keeps our mind off missing our other halves! This week we took the kids to the pumpkin patch up in Meridian called Linder Farms. They had a fabulous time! Then she made cookies for the kids to decorate. Here are some of the pics, but all of them are on facebook too!

Abby and Jackson hold hands everywhere - church, tot-time, you name it!

My neighbor Becky and her daughter Abby. Couldn't have done this trip without her. The kids had a blast!

Jackson found the smallest pumpkin ever! We've already had to throw it out because Kennedy decided to try to eat it!

Decorating cookies!

Kennedy was the taste tester!

Mmmm...sprinkles!

• We ordered new nightstands for our room that match our furniture set. They had to special order them, but they arrived this past week. I was super proud of myself, I unloaded them from the van and carried them all the way upstairs by myself. That may sound minuscule to you, but these nightstands are pretty massive. It also took a well orchestrated serious of opening and closing baby gates! I didn't however have enough man strength to move the huge king bed to fit the new nightstands in place, but Mike can help me with that when he gets home!
• Jackson has been taking some initiative to clean up after himself this week and has even been using his manners most of the time. I generally have to remind him to say please, thank you, or sorry, but not this week!

Sharing Cheerios!

Kennedy in her pumpkin dress for church on Sunday. I think it's big enough it'll fit her next year too!

Kennedy decided to put syrup in her hair after she finished her waffle!

My artist!

Down:

• You may not know this, but October is National Bully Awareness Month. I didn't think I would have to deal with this at my childrens' current ages, but apparently kids are starting earlier these days. I'll admit, my kids aren't angels, but they are pretty well behaved most of the time. It frustrates me to no end to see kids hit, kick, or throw things at other kids and their parents do absolutely nothing! Do they not realize that if you allow the behavior to occur, it's just going to continue?! 
• I'm having trouble coming up with kid friendly meals for the whole family. I don't remember my mom ever having trouble coming up with dinner ideas, but I've always struggled. I have a billion recipes, but they all seem like the kids need to be just a little bit older before they eat them. Does anyone else struggle with this? I would love any meal ideas! (I'm mainly referring to Kennedy because Jackson still really doesn't eat at meal time!)

Favorite Thing:

   So my absolute favorite meal to eat would have to be Chicken Spaghetti. My Mom always made it for my birthday meal growing up and it's great to make and take to friends or freeze and save for later. My favorite version of this recipe, and there are a lot out there, is Paula Dean's! It makes enough to fit into to 8x8 pans and eat one and freeze the other. I highly recommend trying it.

Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down 2012 #41

In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue....and now we have a day off every year to celebrate! Can't wait 'til the kids get older and we can really do fun crafts. They're still a little young for all that yet.

Up:

• Sometimes I could just squeeze the heck out of my kids I love them so much. They do/say the cutest things and (for the most part) are awesome kids. This week Jackson has added the neighbors to our list of people we bless during prayer time at night all on his own. Last night he was trying to learn the prayer we say at meal time while taking a bath! I love that he shows interest in learning more about prayers/God/etc., now if we can only get him to sit still and listen in church! Jackson and Kennedy play so well with each other and you can tell they genuinely love each other which definitely makes me smile!

Kennedy, my moocher, trying to get some of JP's cheerios!

Being the nice big brother that he is, he fed them to her!

Kennedy's newest obsession is to take out a bin, dump it out and sit in it!

My monkeys up to no good.

We've been caught...

Handsome Jackson before church on Sunday!

• Sounds like Mike is having a great time in Florida. They went fishing on Saturday and are going back out on a boat today. I told him to eat as much fish as possible because he won't be getting any of that here! I'm not a seafood fan so he always takes advantage of eating it when he can!

Mike was apparently the only one who didn't get the memo that the dress was t-shirt and flip flops. He came decked out in his fishing gear!

These are all the fish they got to keep and eat. The rest had to be thrown back.

• We are on day 4 of no bottles! It's hard to know if she's getting enough milk compared to when I feed her bottles, but it is nice to be finished with bottles and clear them off my counter where they've resided the last 12 months! I think she'd do anything to be like her big brother. Also good news, we bought Kennedy a sound machine for her room and she's been sleeping 'til 7am every morning since! Jackson has one in his room too and I really think it helps especially in our house that echos everything. 

Down:

• Jackson just doesn't know how to listen or doesn't want to - who knows! I know he's two and he's a typical two year old, but it can get very annoying/frustrating to deal with 24/7. He repeats the same thing over and over that I constantly tell him not to. Yesterday he lost his bedtime books, his constellation turtle light (which he loves), and TV today because he just wouldn't quit. I'm open to any suggestions to help with this!
• Really missing my friends and family back home now. I know I say it all the time, but we just miss out on so much by not being close to family. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I don't really like our current location either. If we weren't out in the boonies and I had more to take my mind off missing out on stuff maybe I wouldn't be so whiney about it, but it is what it is. The good news is that my brother-in-law Pat will be moving to Salt Lake City soon and will be a short 4.5 hours away! It will be nice to have family closer.

Favorite Thing:

  My feet always get so torn up from wearing flip flops in the summer that I try to repair them in the winter. Until now, my favorite product has been Burt's Bee's foot ointment, but it's pretty expensive. My neighbor told me about a product called Kerasal, it's a foot ointment in the pharmacy section of your grocery store and is less than $4 a tube. A little goes a long way. I've been exfoliating my feet in the shower then applying it afterwards and putting on some cozy socks! My feet feel awesome!

Sorry, couldn't figure out how to reorientate the pic!

Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down 2012 #40

Up:

• So glad Kennedy is such a good eater! I pretty much give she and Jackson the same food now and no lie, she eats more than Jackson does. Plus, she is always open to trying new things. She'll let you know if she isn't a fan, but she will always give it a try. She ate an onion ring today and liked it! That's my girl. I'm currently trying to switch her over to milk. It's going pretty good so far, but I don't think she's quite ready to completely give up her formula.
• Mike got a new computer and now our family is completely MAC addicted! He got the same computer I have, just the newer model. His PC would barely even turn on and with a deployment coming up next year, we knew he needed a reliable computer to communicate with us. While MAC products are definitely more expensive, they are totally worth it because they last and hold up over time. We also got this really cool time capsule thing that backs up our computers wirelessly and automatically!
• Our sister squadron, The 391st Tigers, are coming home from deployment. Homecomings always make me sappy! So happy for those ladies that they are getting their men back!

Down:

• Mike is leaving us again on Friday for a little over 2 weeks. I'm already super bummed because he's really not going to be around much of October at all. The up side to all this is that after being in the military ~7 years, I've finally decided that I'm not going to let his schedule dominate our lives. I postpone so many things until Mike is home to enjoy them with us, but the truth is he's always so exhausted from work that he doesn't really enjoy them like I think he will or we don't ever end up doing what we plan to do. Therefore, I'm just going to start doing stuff with the kids on my own or with other ladies. I can't just wait around for a 'good time' and I really can't believe it's taken me this long to figure that out! Hopefully this will be better for the kids too 'cause I feel like ultimately they are the ones who suffer. We'll still do as much stuff with Mike as we can when he's around, but he totally understands that his schedule is crazy.
• Potty training is still hit or miss these days. Jackson does so well when I expect him not to and then has his accidents when we are at home. I don't understand at all, but we keep trying and hopefully it will just get better over time.

One of the guys in Mike's squadron hosted an Oktoberfest this past weekend. We found these awesome t-shirts online so we could be festive and I made Hot German Potato Salad for the first time!

My sexy German man!

I wasn't about to wear a bar maid costume!

Beautiful although with her reddish hair and green eyes she looks a bit more Irish than German!

Finally enough hair for just a bow!

Favorite Thing:

I love Fall because it is the only season that Pumpkin Head Ale is made! Back when Mike and I lived in Pensacola we always used to go to this bar called Brew's Brothers and during the fall they carried Pumpkin Head Ale. Our friend Phil is really the one that began our addiction and we would all go watch Texas Tech play and split pitchers of this oh-so-amazing beer! It is really hard to get out this way because it's brewed in Maine, but our friend Brent found it in Boise and bought every case they had (to share with us of course)! If you can find it, run don't walk to try it because it is seriously delicious!