Molars

The joys of molar growth is happening in this house.  Our normal, typical 3-4 hour sleeper is lacking her sleep and those darn teeth are to blame.  Her left side top and bottom are both working there way through the gums.  The top is at about 70% through where the bottom is only about 30%.  The longest nap she's had in the last month has been 2 hours.  I'm hoping that once these babies pop through, she'll be back at her 3-4 hour naps!  A mama can hope, right?!?

Seeing the eye doctor

Sterling went to see an actual eye doctor today.  She loved the glasses and did awesome at telling the doc the shapes.  Her doctor, Dr. Abigail, was amazing and Sterling cooperated with all the tests to get the exam done.  She had her eyes dilated and after that she got super fussy and whiney.  She really wanted her juice but I'm a bad mama and forget it at home.  Her eyes checked out good and as of now, there is not any concern.  Because her military doctors were concerned of her eyes not following during their exams, we will have Sterling do yearly exams for awhile to make sure she don't have a lazy eye or turned eye.  We've never been concerned with this as she shows no signs to us, but preventive care is always good.

Three weeks until this hot mess turns TWO!  Birthday gifts are ordered and a sweet, low key celebration is being planned.

Pinched fingers?

While eating lunch at school today, Sterling was messing around and fell off her chair.  She landed on her hands and face.  The teachers were worried that she pinched her pinky fingers because they were red and they "looked" pinched.  I was chuckling inside when they showed me where she "pinched" her fingers.  Sterling was born with an extra pinky on each pinky.  She's had little nubs since the docs tied off her digits and we've went on with life and really don't think of it.  Her daddy was born with them, as was his dad, his granddad, and his great-granddad.  Her teachers were surprised and curious about being born with extra digits.  We love our little nubs!

My little Valentine's

We had a busy week preparing all the Valentine's for all their friends at school.  It was fun and it was stressful.  But we got it done and the kids were excited to pass them out to their friends each day at school.

These are the printable's that I created in MS Word.  So easy!

The kids coloring their heart cards for their teachers

 This little guy took forever to make.  So many steps involved, but they turned out so fun!  Xander put the stickers on the gum wrapper while I did all the other annoying details to put the thing together.

You're Dino-mite!  Xander stuffed the dinosaurs, great little helper!

Sterling gave some pencils for her "you are just WRITE" friends!

 The mess creating the airplanes

 love the finished product

Used some card stock, remaining smarties from Xander's planes, some heart eyes and some fuzzy pipe cleaners.  Sterling decorated them with stickers, of course.

 The kids decorated the outside of their teachers mailboxes.  Inside the box we put some dark chocolate...of course, notepad with pen, their homemade cards, and a box of traditional conversation hearts.

 Sterling got her very first princess dress up costume!  She's loving it!

As requested by the newly potty trained boy, he got some dinosaurs for not using the bathroom in his "diego undies" while at school

ROAR!!

 

Kids got a wagon so the box was the best thing ever

 Taking a ride

Undies

Today was the first day Xander wore "undies" to school.  Not the typical cotton undies, but "Diego undies" (Pampers Easy Ups).  He went all weekend (Friday from noon to Monday bed time) and had only 2 accidents!  He was ready I figured, but since we haven't left the house in undies yet, I didn't want to throw the mess (if there would be one) on his teachers so we had some easy ups and I decided that Monday I was going to teach him how to use them so we could go to school in them today.  I started calling them undies because he does amazing when he has actual undies on and when he has a diaper on it's like he forgot what he's supposed to do.  So "diego undies" it was!

Over the weekend his favorite thing to do was "write" and get stickers.  So after each time of using the bathroom, that's just what he did.  At school he gets a stamp on his hand and he thinks that's the coolest thing too!  He still likes to ask if he "I make you so proud, mommy."  Of course he did!  We're so proud of our little-big boy!
He was determined to go to bed in "diego" tonight.  No way am I taking that soaking pull up off in the morning.  Real diaper it was!  Sorry bud, but when you can hold you pee for longer than 2 hours, you'll get your undies at night.

If he keeps Diego dry all week he gets some new dinosaurs!  He's so excited about dinos!  Now I just have to figure out where I can buy some.  Look at Target today and no luck.  I'll have to ask Nana where she bought the ones she got him, maybe that place will have a stash of dinos :)

WE'RE SO PROUD OF YOU, XANDER!!!!

no jinxing no jinxing no jinxing!!!!!

We're waiting!

Hubs submitted his application for voluntary separation.  There were so many "signs" that would have made some people second guess their decision.  Not hubs.  He was determined to apply.  I'm glad he did, but those "signs" may have turned me to thinking twice. 

1st sign was them putting the officer applications on hold.

2nd sign was two weeks from then and the officers were supposed to be able to apply.  They put it on hold again, for another week.

3rd sign, was yesterday, the day it was supposed to be open.  Hubs goes in and tries to apply first thing.  Sends me an email showing the site is down.  Sign?  Hubs is still determined to apply so he called the help desk and talked to them for 20 minutes on his way home for lunch.  He goes back into work and the site is working and he applies.

If he gets accepted for separation, we'll have a few months to get our ducks in a row and land him a well paying job with benefits.  We most likely won't hear anything on this for a few weeks/month(s).

We're excited for the possibilities of where our lives can go!

I've been working hard at making the kids' Valentine's for their classes.  Since they are going 4 days a week, we have elected to give Valentine's every day.  So, both kids are taking something and passing out to their friends.  Today Sterling took a "flower"-sucker, cupcake liners, and a card-stock leaf.  So adorable!  Xander, well today he just took starbursts with a Valentine message on each package.  Next week will be big for him!  I went to Office Max this morning and printed off the Valentine cards I created for our exchanges next week.  They are SUPER cute!  I used MS Word to create the cards and am in LOVE with how they turned out.  I think I may found my new niche in life! I have pictures but haven't uploaded yet, hopefully by Sunday I will get our fun projects posted.

Weekend recap

We actually had a pretty fun weekend around here.  We spent it with friends and family!  On Friday night my brother and his family came over.  I made homemade pizzas and cookies.  We chatted and caught up for 4 hours!  It was nice.  Really.  We haven't really seen much of each other in the 7 months (like twice) we have lived here and we only live 30 minutes from each other.  Sad, but we are hoping to make a change this year.  We're hoping to have "family" night at least once a month.  I'm looking forward to it.  The kids LOVED playing with their cousins.  They have a new cousin on the way, whom shall be at the next family night.  How fun!

Lives are busy, but there should always be time to enjoy family.  My brother is in dental school, so he's really busy studying.  His wife sells Lia Sophia, so she seems to have parties every weekend.  Nick works.  I'm always working on homework.  So weekends are our "free" time.  So glad we are able to make a day work and get together.

Saturday we woke up to about 2 inches of snow.  Xander loves seeing "snow-man" as he calls it.  He had to come up and make sure I saw it too.  I ended up going out to shovel earlier than I wanted because some twerp of a kid down the street likes to use our driveway as a turnaround with his 4 wheeler.  I hate have vehicle tracks on the snow.  I don't know why, but I do.  After I shoveled, the tracks were still there a bit, but a few hours later, the awesome sun melted them away and my driveway was looking normal.  I know, it's anal.

Kids took great naps because they were told after they take naps they get to go play with their friend, Lily.  I guess they knew it was going to be a fun night for them!  Around 330 we started getting ready.  Nick and I were going to be going to dinner with Lily's parents while Lily's oldest sister watched all the kids.  I curled my hair, gave myself some beachy waves.  My favorite way to do my hair when I wear it down.  The best part is it really don't take that long.  Maybe 20 minutes.  I also had to make the kids dinner so after I finished up with my hair and getting dressed, so I rushed down to cook them some spaghetti.  We get to their house and pretty much dropped the kids off and headed back out.  We went to the Texas Roadhouse.  Yummy!  I never get steak, because I'm not a steak person, but I always get their shrimp.  I love it.  We sat there for 3 hours and caught up.  Like my brother, we rarely see these guys either.  Lives are busy and when you get that rare downtime, the last thing you think about is going out.  You just want to stay home and relax.  

I'm glad that it worked in everyone's schedule to get together because it was fun.  It's the little boost in self confidence that a person needs sometimes.

Sunday.  Fun day for me!  I decided to go shopping, because I needed groceries and all.  But on the way to the store I made a detour and headed to the outlets.  Ha!  I had my 4th gymbuck (Gymboree) to use up by the end of the night and I couldn't find anything online, so I thought the outlet would be great.  I was right, Xander landed a bunch of shirts and Sterling just a few.  I then went next door to Osh Gosh, just to look.  I came out with a nice fleece lined coat for Sterling for $20!  Original was $50.  She needed a spring coat, so why not?  Xander's spring coat will still fit him from last year.  Here's where it gets fun.  I went to the Gap.  I decided that as I'm walking around in my yoga pants...as I always do...it's time to step out of my comfort zone.  Now, if I would have known I was going to find some self confidence this day, I would have done my hair, but I went only to grab the stuff for the kids, so in my usual attire of yoga pants and pony tail it was.  Now, let's go inside the dressing room (I don't usually take pictures in the dressing room.  But, I'm stepping out of my zone!)  When I got to the last top (I just left the same style jean on for all tops), I was giggling with excitement.  I didn't think I'd love the second top (turquoise), but that one is my absolute favorite.

     

                     

Selfies are the worst, but whatever.  I actually liked the tops and jeans.  I got all 4 tops and 3 different jeans.  For the jeans, I've always hated buying jeans, but I really like the premium boot cut style.  I thought I'd like the curvy the most...you know, since I'm thick and curvy, but they weren't my favorite.  I bought 2 pairs of the boot cuts and 1 curvy.  I'm excited to start dressing like a lady and not so much a frump.  Gap also had a terrific sale yesterday.  Jeans were 50% off.  Then they had a special; spend $75, get $25 off!  I did 3 transactions to get that savings!

Now maybe I'll have to start adding accessories?  Hold up...let's just start with getting dressed in regular looking clothes first!  Ha!  

I put a roast in the crockpot in the morning so I didn't have to worry about dinner since I had to work on homework too.  I think I bought the wrong roast.  It was a round roast and I should have bought a rump roast.  It was okay, but definitely not my favorite roast night.  I'm very critical on my food, but it seemed dry.  I cooked on low for 8 hours.  Maybe a round roast is supposed to be dry?  Every time I've made the rump roast, it never dried out.  But why can I NEVER find a rump roast when I'm looking?  I don't know the darn difference in meat cuts, but no more round roast!  Thankful we had food on our table :)

Enough of my babbling.  Have a wonderful day!