Sunday, November 24, 2013

kate - newborn

our tried and true, dear friend, Kelli Campbell took kate's newborn pictures.  she always does an amazing job. kate, unlike her sister, slept through the entire shoot.  we had a hard time waking her up to get a shot or two with her eyes open.  (charley on the other hand was WIDE awake throughout her whole newborn session.)

it melts my heart every time i see charley interact with kate.  she adores her little sister, and is constantly getting her pacifier, a blanket, or toy for kate.  charley has yet to figure out that when she puts the pacifier in kate's mouth she has to let go.  she ends up pulling it back out of kate's mouth and hands it to me.  it's adorable.

enjoy!















Thursday, October 24, 2013

meet catherine ann

our sweet kate was born almost a month ago.
i'm just getting around to posting her welcome post.

this is life with two under two.

my procrastination just took a turn for the worse.

it has been a whirlwind of 3.5 weeks.
and i have loved every minute.

kate was born 21 minutes into her due date.  right.on.time.  i have a feeling this punctual little one is going to make her procrastinating mommy be a little more on time.

maybe.

fly boy was able to skype in for the birth.  it was the next best thing to him actually being there.  (AND he comes home in two weeks!  we cannot wait!)

for now, a few (ahmen, twenty) pictures from the hospital and her first few days at home.  (kate's newborn pics compliments of our sweet friend and photographer kelli campbell are coming soon.)

enjoy!



flyboy skyping in



meeting meme for the first time...

charley adores her little sister

case-in-point

meeting aunt jess & uncle jon...


the girls.


my dear friend sarah played "husband."  talk about earning the gold star of friendship.

meeting the harts

getting ready to go home in the outfit flyboy picked out before he left...

first day at home with meme.

meeting the wernlys



Wednesday, September 11, 2013

because i can

because i can, a few more of charley's 18 month pictures.
i'm her mom, i get to do that.
and she is the one who made me a mama.
and a small part of me worries that when baby girl no. 2 comes instead of my heart growing bigger, i will have less room time to love my first little girl.

i know it's not rational, but every night when i kiss charley, i worry.  
i worry that because the girls will be so close in age i will run out of time for charley. 
i know it's irrational.
i know it's untrue.
but i still worry.

so i hug her a few extra seconds.
and give her an extra kiss goodnight.

she makes fly boy's deployment bearable.
she makes me smile when i want to cry.
she comes over, crawls in my lap, and gives me a hug when i do cry.





this little girl has no idea.
no idea the blessing she is in my life.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

charlotte 18 months

she is officially a toddler.
as evident by my chasing after charley all over the backyard just to grab a few pictures.

she loves her baby doll, aka "bebe." (good thing, since her baby sister will be here in a few short weeks!)
she loves to swim/bath time/anything with water.  and LOVES putting her face in the water to blow bubbles.
she has become more particular in what foods she will eat.  still no meat.  she will even go as far to separate out the bacon from her beans in her mouth, swallow the beans and spit out the bacon.  who does that?!
she LOVES lucy!  i think i have broken the adorable habit of charley riding lucy like a horse.  the two play for hours.  charley has recently taken to chasing lucy in circles around the family room. lucy loves it too.
all animals are "doggie."  i love it.
charley has almost mastered opening the pantry door by herself.  if i forget to close the door all the way, she has no problem walking in, getting whatever food she wants and bringing it to me.  oh boy.
God is certainly teaching me patience with this one. her toddler tantrums can be embarrassing.  we have left several establishments due to the on her back, kicking and screaming frenzy when she doesn't get her way.
she loves to be tickled and will request tickles at least once a day.  of course i oblige.  i can't get enough of her sweet laugh.

we are blessed with this little one!










Thursday, August 15, 2013

nesting phase

*i'm sorry for the two month unintentional break*

with six weeks to go before the arrival of baby girl no. 2, i am officially in the nesting phase.  i have a to-do list mapped out in the office of everything i would like to accomplish while i am still a mom of one.  on the top of my list is was to paint our piano.

it's the piano i grew up with.  i still remember when i was five and wanted to take piano lessons, my parents took me to pick out our piano.  i was set on a baby grand piano, at five.  ridiculous. i know. the salesman was smart, very smart, and amidst my fit over wanting the baby grand, played the theme to sesame street on the piano my parents were more inclined to purchase.  i was hooked.  if the piano could play can you tell me how to get to sesame street, i NEEDED to have that exact piano.

fast forward twenty+ years later.  my very generous parents said i could have the piano, and would even move it from new york to florida.  i cannot wait for charley to learn to love music on the same piano i did.  i wasn't however, as enamored with the look of the piano.  thus began the idea to paint the piano.  

shorty after we found out fly boy would be deployed for six months, i thought the piano would be the perfect deployment project.  i don't think fly boy actually thought i would get it done, but here we are, with a newly painted and back in the house piano.  i'm thrilled with the results!




AND i get the satisfaction of checking one of my to-do boxes off the list.
score.

Sunday, June 16, 2013

father's day

in the land of woulda coulda shoulda, i would have sent fly boy a father's day package that should have arrived before today.  his next care package (including his father's day card) is still sitting in neatly stacked piles on top of his dresser.  i also would have sent my dad his father's day card and come up with a thoughtful gift.  neither of which i have done.

i'm thankful both fly boy and my dad will not take it personally that i have procrastinated yet again.

while i didn't get cards or packages sent out, i was able to put together a little video for fly boy.

happy father's day!  we love you and miss you!

*the password is my maiden name


Thursday, June 6, 2013

thankful thursdays no. 2

Sitting in the back corner of the local coffee shop, trying to both enjoy the time to myself and be productive with my schoolwork, I find myself distracted.  Charley is happily home playing with a babysitter for the afternoon while I grab a few hours to catch up on grad school homework.  I get through a few paragraphs of my textbook before I am moved to tears.  As I read an excerpt about a mother of little girl with autism depicts her struggle to manage a 45-minute plane ride with the snide remarks from other passengers, I start to think how blessed I am.  Wasn’t it just three days ago, I found myself in a similar, yet vastly different position?  Traveling by myself with my 15-month old, 23 weeks pregnant desperately wishing that my husband were by my side certainly was not my ideal travel circumstance.  Yet, I’m struck, it could have been so much more difficult.  While the travel may have been inconvenient, I am blessed with a wonderful, loving and supportive husband, a healthy daughter, a community of friends, family in Florida, New York and Ohio, and above all else, my God who unconditionally loves and forgives me.   It was a gentle reminder of all I have to be thankful for this week…

-I am thankful for Charley, and the joy she brings to my life everyday.  Today, for instance, she discovered that she could crawl in and sat inside the rolling bins under her play table.  Charley spent a good fifteen minutes climbing in and out, pulling toys out, and then bringing them back in with her.  It was adorable.
-I am thankful for an amazing and supportive family and military family.
-I am thankful for a best friend that I can talk to for over an hour on a Thursday morning. One that my heart aches to live in the same town as, but we still can share the intimate details of life together.
-I am thankful for a loving husband who daily encourages me. 
-I am thankful for the strength of our marriage.  That not only do I miss fly boy, but I notice his absence in the small things each day.  I am better, more complete, person/wife/mom when he is here.  This time apart only continues to affirm our marriage, the merging of two lives to one, that two flesh indeed become one. 
-I am thankful for how sweet fly boy’s homecoming will be.  And that I can look forward to that day as it grows closer with each passing hour. 


Monday, May 27, 2013

one month down

we are one month into the deployment.
that feels like an accomplishment in and of itself.
(i'm choosing not to think about how many more months we have to go.  one more down sounds a lot better.)

while reading through some old posts, i came across this "gem" from one of fly boy's previous deployments describing my different routine when fly boy is gone.  let's be honest, i don't think many of the habits i described are/were particularly heathy.

i giggled reading it, thinking about how different, yet similar  our life is two years later, but also dealing with a deployment.

-two years ago, i proudly left dirty laundry in the hamper just to have some of fly boy's clothes still waiting to be washed.  
-this time, i made sure to do all his laundry before he left, even folded it and put it away for him.  i did, however, leave his two flight suits in the laundry room hamper for several weeks before actually washing them and thus admitting to myself he wouldn't be coming home in the foreseeable future.

-two years ago i tried to replace fly boy with lucy.  she hated cuddling.
-today, i still let lucy sleep on our bed, but she still jumps down after five minutes of non-cuddling.  lucy refuses to let me use her to replace fly boy.

-two years ago i avoided wearing clothes that require ironing as fly boy is the better ironer in our family.
-today, i have gotten better at generally choosing clothes that require no ironing.  making fly boy's absence less obvious.

-two years ago i ate cookie dough ice cream for dinner.
-this time, i eat cookies for dinner.  (only after charley goes to bed, of course.)

-two years ago i frequently fell asleep on the couch while watching tv late at night.
-last night, i woke up at 1am and dragged myself to bed to get some "good sleep."  

to sum up:
two years, one move, one baby and another baby on the way, not much has changed when it comes to deployments.

come home soon fly boy.  you bring much needed structure to my life!  ;)


Sunday, May 26, 2013

we will use any excuse to get new family pictures

i'm calling it charley's one year portraits/predeployment/last family pictures with just the three (oops, sorry lucy) four of us.

whatever you want to name it, we had the privilege of our dear friend kelli campbell taking some family pictures before fly boy left for his deployment.

i'm in love.




the 17 week bump...







thanks kelli
you are the best!