Tickets!

Cris, Juneau, and Nova are now ticketed passengers to Hawaii on Oct 21st!!! I still don't have an official report date, or really any sort of official deployment orders, which is moderately (o.k. EXTREMELY frustrating!) but i do have some vague guidance, which is to plan to be "boots on the ground" in afghanistan on Oct 25. Apparently actually getting to Afghanistan is a rather round-a-bout process that will take about a week, with some interesting detours (like Kuwait), and then i also have to spend about a week in Georgia (at which time i will get to see my amazing and wonderful friend from residency Tracy!!), sooooo long story short i am working backwards to about Oct 8 to say goodbyes to my husband and little girls. i love them. it will be very, very hard.

But on the bright side of things I am excited about what this transition means for our family. I am excited that Cris will be back at the University of Hawaii, doing what he loves and misses. annnnnddddd......drumroll please......I am excited about the house that we are in the process of buying in hawaii! after our last home buying fiasco in Hawaii I thought never again will we be homeowners in hawaii. Real Estate is just too ridiculous. But the market has shifted in our favor since we lived there, and we have found a beautiful home with a view of Kaneohe bay from every room, and we just love it. it has a YARD! a yard in Hawaii is a rare commodity, and the yard has fruit trees of all kinds (which of course made me fall in love with it) - lemon, lime, avacado, starfruit, allspice, and guava! There is lots to tell about it, but since we still have a way to go until it is technically ours, i will try not to get too excited.

for now i am just sitting at work, waiting for my cute little patient to deliver her very first baby (a girl!), and making long, elaborate lists about all the things i need to do in the next 30 days!

oh yes, we also got back the proofs from our photo session, and we LOOOOVVVEEE them! I put our favorite as the new header for our blog. we love our cute and crazy little girls!

some pictures :)

After a good night's sleep we are feeling MUCH better! we've been working hard around the house, as we expect to be moved out in less than a month. We have a lot of our stuff packed up and in storage, but there is still lots to do,.

Here are some pics as promised. I wasn't able to take too many, because as suprising as it may seem, it is rather difficult to haul two 30 pound kids, a bunch of climbing gear, a rope, and food and water up mountain. the camera wasn't really on the top of my priority list :)

Nova has always been a little love-bug, but lately she has really been into hugging, and kissing, and saying "I LOVE YOU!!!"". Anytime we are holding her she has her arms wrapped tight around our necks. The other cute thing she's been into lately is her little bedtime routine. before we tuck her in she wants" Kisses through the bars", which basically means she gives a regular kiss, and then an eskimo kiss through the crib bars. then she repeats that and gives an eskimo kiss and a regular kiss standing up, followed by a huge hug. then she yells "I love you Daddy! I love you Mommy! Good night!" about 10 times as we head downstairs.

Daddy and mini-daddy. Nova might look like me, but she is her daddy through and through when it comes to her personality (and her taste buds....which we saw in action tonight when she finhished 2 whole pieces of pizza and a giant cinnamon role at cici's!)

The bigger kids were playing a jousting game with styrofoam/duct tape swords. Juneau wanted to join in the action!
The girls LOVED sitting around the fire and roasting marshmallows. Juneau kept saying she was going to make hers "roasty toasty"!

The roasting stick was a bit too long and heavy for juneau, so nova helped her hold it up while they roasted their marshmallows.

Delicious finished product - smores!!

Finally - some pics of Cris being a superstar on his last climb of the day. He started off a little easier, and led some 5.8 and 5.9 routes. He wasn't so sure he was ready to tackle this 5.11, but he rocked it!

the girls loved watching Cris climb. I wish i had gotten some pictures of them on the rock, but it pretty much took both of our full attention to help them climb for the first time.

well, it has been an amazing weekend. this week we will be busy continuing to pack and clean the house. We need to make some plans for Juneau's 3rd birthday, too! She has remninded us at least 20 times that her birthday is "September 21st"! she can't wait to be 3!

camping and climbing!

we are just dragging in the door after a totally fun-packed weekend! i have been wanting to take the girls camping FOREVER, and we finally were able to work it out to go. We are kind of sad that after living in Colorado for a full year, we haven't been rock climbing a single time, but it is really, really tough with 2 toddlers. we didn't have any friends in the area who climb, and so we were never really able to figure out a way to make it work. Well, i recently discovered that one of the nurses from work is an avid climber, and lives wayyyyyy out in mountains, and has an amazing climbing area basically in her backyard. she invited us over, and we decided to go the night before and camp.

The girls have been DYING to get inside a tent since our last trip to the REI store, where they were obsessed with the tents. They loved the entire experience...first they spent some time "bouldering" on the rocks in the yard, then we made a campfire, and they roasted marshmellows for the first time, finally we all snuggled in to our tiny little tent, and our two little girls were in outdoorsy heaven.

i definately don't have the energy to post any pictures tonight. i crawled into bed with my computer at 8:15 p.m., and i don't plan on leaving this bed until my early morning wakeup call from the girls room at 6 a.m., so pictures will have to wait til tomorrow. But i will say that the girls loved trying out their full body harnesses from alex and lyndsey, and that they were fearless on the rock, which made for a very proud daddy. Cris was also a superstar today, and although he hasn't climbed in over 3 years, he made the 5.11 he climbed at the end of the day look easy :)

it was so nice to spend the weekend outside, enjoying the last bit of summer in beautiful colorado.

busy week!!!

i feel like i am just sitting down for the first time in a week! We have had a jam packed weekend that spilled into the week, and it has felt pretty crazy around here.

First and foremost, MOM ROCKED AT HER FIRST 5K!!!! you can see her and her sister, my Aunt Sheila, running next to my nephew Ethan's picture. There were pictures of children with SMA all along the course, and it was so special to get to see my mom running alongside "Little E".

she exceed her goals both with fundraising, and also with her time for the run. it was a great day all around!
Yesterday marked my mom's birthday, as well as the day our sweet Ellianna went to Heaven. Beautiful, sweet little niece....you are loved and missed. Please consider donating to the research fund for Spinal Muscular Atrophy.

Finally, this weekend Daddy came home after a 2 week trip to Hawaii! Cris had a great time in Hawaii, and it was so nice for him to get back to teaching. In spite of my upcoming deployment, i am looking forward to what this year has to hold, as Cris gets back into an academic setting, and the girls have the chance to get back to year round sunshine.

We had a FANTASTIC 2 weeks with Uncle Drew!! Drew exceeded my expectations in his ability to keep the house running and the girls happy while i was at work! I had a pretty intense schedule the last 2 weeks, with a mix of long 12 hour days, along with some nights, and he took it all in stride.

He did, however, introduce the girls to Nutella....which as you can see, Juneau LOVED. I bought him a big jar to take back to college, but unfortunatley the TSA guys at the airport will be enjoying it as it apparently qualifies as a "liquid", and was confiscated on his way through security.

There were many, many trips to starbucks...Drew enjoyed his iced caramel macchiattos, and the girls loved trying out a strawberry frappuccino.

Drew and the girls are all about their sunglasses...here Juneau convinced Uncle Drew to trade with her.

Classic Multi-tasking

love that colorado sky

FUN!!!

so, i think we are going to have a pretty laid back month for September. No big travel plans....just working on packing up the house. I still don't have a set date for my deployment, but we are planning to be out of our house by Oct 1, then do some traveling/visiting, then Cris will be in Hawaii by the end of October, and i will be on my way to Afghanistan.

We had the opportunity to go to Denver yesterday for an amazing photo session with a photographer in Denver who provides free photo sessions for the families of deploying soldiers. I am EXCITED to see the pictures!!!

Jack Rabbit Run!!

This is my mom...... My mom is a LOT of things, but i never really would have called her a runner....until now!!! Mom has been training hard to participate in the Jack Rabbit Run, a fundraiser to support research for Spinal Muscular Atrophy. My mom will be running in the 5K in memory of Ethan and Ellianna Alford!!!! The cause means a lot to our family, and even though we can't be there to participate in the event, we are proud to be represented by my mom's hard work.

If you live in Ohio, please consider making a trip to Kirtland, Ohio this Sunday. this is an extremely well put together event. It is not only fun, but also very moving, and 100% of all proceeds go to support research for SMA!!

Make it a family day! There will be food, a kid's fun run, the Inlet Dance Theatre, St. Ignacius Circus Company, and FREE Admission to Lake FarmPark (an open air science and cultural center)
follow the link for more info.
http://www.jackrabbitrun.com/

getting closer to deployment...

August is almost over, and my October deployment is rapidly approaching! We are in full force with our planning for the upcoming year. It has been really tough for us to try to make the right choices about what our family should do during the deployment. As I have said on this blog approximatey 1 million times, Cris and I are beyond blessed with the awesomest families EVER! i can't imagine what these last 2 years would have been like without our families, who have done everything from fly to Vietnam to help bring home Juneau, to living in a tiny hotel room to take care of newborn Nova while i was stranded by myself in Michigan for 2 months.

This fall things get really complex. Cris is currently in Hawaii getting the school year started off, then he will come back to colorado until i deploy in October. He will then move back to Hawaii to teach until I am back from Afghanistan in April/May. We had originally planned for the girls to stay with the Matus gang in Ohio from October until December while Cris was in Hawaii. I loved this plan. The girls adore Aunt Coral and their cousins. In fact, today Juneau tripped and fell pretty hard and when she stood up she said "I didn't even cry! I'm tough, like Alex and Lyndsey!". It seemed like the perfect plan until Cris' last trip to Hawaii, when Nova pretty much melted down while her daddy was gone. This girl LOVVVEEESSS her daddy. It was really pitiful to see her completely stressed out, not eating much, not sleeping much, and spending a lot of the day crying and irritable. When i realized how much it was affecting her to be separated from Cris, I had to re-evaluate our initial plan. I am already devastated to have to be away from the girls for 6 months, and i suddenly couldn't bear the thought that they would be separated from both Mom and Dad. As much as i know they would absolutely love 2 months with their cousins, i just wasnt sure how much it would affect them to be away from both parents. and I know cris woudl be unbelievably lonely by himself in Hawaii without any of his girls (not even his huskies!). We decided that we really wanted to keep our little family together as much as possible while I am deployed, so I started to pray hard about options. Just about that time, my sister Becky told me about an awesome young couple at their church in Florida.

Meet Nelson and Katy....our new nannies!

Nelson and Katy sounded like a perfect fit from the start! They love kids, and are super involved in the Children's Church that my sister and her husband lead. They seem really fun loving, adventurous, and easy going! Becky called Nelson and threw the idea out there, and after talking to Katy they accepted our offer to move to Hawaii and watch the girls while i am deployed!!! we are so excited about this answer to prayer, and we hope Nelson and Katy love Hawaii as much as we do!

life on the road...

the girls have spent lots of time traveling around with us this summer. they have become experts at taking full advantage of the hotels along the way...
Their usual routine starts of with "testing" out the bed. A good bed for jumping is a definately mark of a great hotel...bonus points if there is a nearby chair to launch onto the bed from.
next you have to check out the pool...

swim time is followed by some delicious pizza.

and the perfect end to the night...cinnamon sticks

I am finally getting to go through some of our pictures from our trip to texas. Nova found the perfect spot for a little bed in Tesa's fireplace :)

The girls had soooooo much fun with Tesa. They even spent the night sleeping in the living room with her and watching Monster's Inc.

there was lots of giggling and snuggling

and round 2 of "Don't you kiss me while i'm sleeping" was a big hit

Finally, a couple more pictures from Uncle Casey and Aunt Carmen's visit. Nova bundled up at the summit of Pike's Peak

Uncle Casey and Aunt Carmen were tons of fun. The girls are still talking about their visit!

This week with Uncle Drew has been awesome for the girls. They LOOOOVE getting spoiled all day, and Drew has been fearless in taking them out and about for various expeditions. He is really doing an amazing job of keep the household running smoothly while Cris is gone, and i love being greeted by 2 excited little girls every day who can't wait to tell me about their adventures.