HANDsome

This election is getting pretty close! I am glad it will all be settled, one way or another. Although there could be controversy over the votes like there had been in the past few elections; but let's hope not. I'm really excited to cast my vote, as I have never voted before :-O. Last election I was barely 18 and didn't send in my voter registration paperwork in time. I am looking forward to being able to participate this time and hopefully the lines won't be a long as they are predicting!
Tomorrow we are heading to South Carolina for Mary's wedding! I am hoping to get some really great pics with my new camera! Pam says that I am becoming more skilled with my pictures. I sure hope I am improving because Daniel expects some good photos. Although my FIL jokes me for "cutting heads off", lol!
I have so many pics I need to scrap now and after YW last night I stopped by Kristin's house and she unloaded most of her scrapbooking stuff on me, literally hundreds of dollars worth of stuff, because she is quitting scrapbooking for good. I probably got upwards of 60lbs of papers and stickers and so on. It took me over an hour to pick out the stuff that I wanted. It was like being in scrapbook heaven, hehe! I will definitely post some of my work when I get back from South Carolina on Sunday.

These pictures were taken at the park the other day. Audina and Aiden were both on the baby swings. Audrina was looking out at everything that was going on.

I have the most handsome little guy that ever lived! Everytime I call him handsome he looks down at his hands with a quizical expression; it never fails!

Entrenched

Since the days have been getting shorter and shorter, the kids are now going to bed at 6pm (yup! Down from 630) , which is beyond amazing! It has freed up so much time for me to get things done. When Daniel first deployed I made my "list" of all the things I was hoping to accomplish while Daniel was away. Having all of this time helped me prioritize and get started.

This weekend Daniel's cousin, Mary, is getting married. We are planning on driving to SC beginning on Friday morning. I am thinking about packing some DVDs to keep Aiden entertained. It will be nice to get to see his family, most of them I haven't seen since my wedding!

We recently found out that I put down the wrong date on our housing application for Fort Carson. Instead of putting Feb 1, I put Jan 1. And as military people find out very quickly, the housing office (no matter where you go) isn't a place you can really contact (the phone is busy constantly, I have gotten through 2X ever!) and there are tons of regulations they have. So I'm not sure I will be able to switch the application date without resubmitting the application. We have been on the waiting list for at least 6 months already. This means I could have to leave an extra month early so I don't lose the house :-(

Things have really settled into a routine now and I am loving it! Consistency is something I have always strived toward in my life. Things will be all topsy turvy when Daniel gets back for a while and I am looking forward to the challenge. Sometimes it seems like I dreamed our life up..it has been so long since he's been around, like things couldn't possibly be as good as I remember them being. I'm not sure if others see us as being a good match but he is so perfect for me. He helps me to not take myself so seriously and can always make me laugh. I feel like I am someone else when I am with him, someone I can only be when I am with him. I don't even need to talk, its like he can read my mind. When we are together we end up laughing so much. I love how we are his first priority and how he wants pictures more than anything else when I send him a package.

He will be home in 3 1/2 months! I still can't believe that it is really drawing to an end. I have NEVER been this excited for anything in my life. My heart just swells thinking about being a whole family again, the way we're supposed to be...

This is an adorable video of Audrina about 2 weeks ago. I finally got the adapter piece for my computer and could upload all of my videos off the camcorder. Yay!

Season

Tonight I have been thinking about how much time has passed. As I am preparing my Christmas lists and ideas, I cannot believe that this year has gone by! It is actually almost over and I get to be with Daniel again! So many things have changed since Daniel deployed and I am one of them. Pretty much all of the changes are for the better...I am more of the person I would like to be then when I started out almost 11 months ago. I am really glad to have gotten so much out of this experience and to have met so many people here that have touched my life and been such a blessing, especially on the hard days when I needed someone to be there for me.

I don't think I have ever looked forward to fall this much before. I am excited that Aiden is getting old enough to do crafts with, especially fall crafts! I can't wait to make some pumpkin pie from scratch and get out some of my other holiday recipes too! Maybe Daniel and Angel will be getting some too!

Daniel mentioned the other day that when he gets back he would like to have a sue do Christmas, which really surprised me, I guess because I hadn't expected him to want one. I am glad though, the more I think about it. When he comes home we will put up the tree, make homemade decorations, and we will even have tons of SNOW to make it feel real. He will get to be there to see the look on Aiden's face as he opens his gifts...and that is priceless. I know it hurts him more than it hurts me for him to be gone, but thinking about him missing the holidays again really brings it home. Our second Christmas will probably be better than the two that he missed put together!

The kids have been keeping me pretty busy over the past few days with them being sick and then me coming down with a slightly more manageable case of the same thing. I haven't been to work out in a WEEK! Tomorrow though! I have been getting plenty of work done on my many craft and organizational projects. The kids have been consistently going to bed around 6:30pm! In bed, asleep at 6:30! Thanks to Kate for giving me the push I needed to sleep train Audrina I have alse been sleeping better. I love early bedtimes!



When Audrina was born I didn't think she and Aiden looked that much alike but as she has grown I realized that (besides eye color) they really do have a lot of similar features.

Here Aiden got into my ink pad while I was in the same room! I turned around and he had grown a little beard!

Aiden and Audrina were laughing and playing a having such a great time the other morning that I decided to snap a couple of pictures. He would put the basket on her head and she would take it off and they would both laugh really hard and then repeat the process. It was so adorable!

Aiden got a haircut last night! I really chopped it off! Here both of the kids on Saturday night right before bed, they were "galloping." Audrina didn't enjoy it nearly as mcuh as her big brother did, lol!

I asked him where all of his hair whent and he pointed to his head and looked at me like I was crazy and said, "right here!"

Auntie Mimi charged up her car for Aiden to play with today and he had a blast! I think I know what he wants for Christmas!

Watching the truck go

Giving "nice" hugs to his sister

There is a better shot of the haircut...where I didn't cut his head off in the pic, lol!

I think I can...I think I can...

Aiden and I went to A. C. Moore on Monday. I was happily checking out all of the amazing sale items while people every-so-often would say, "My don't you have your hands full!" One doesn't often see someone with a baby in a front carrier and a toddler in a shopping card I'm guessing. I made a huge mistake of walking down the Thomas the Train isle and Aiden lost it! He cried for about 5 or 10 minutes and kept saying, "Thomas...train." We were in line to check out when I decided to cave. I normally never give in to him, especially when he behaves like this. I was really surprised to see how much Thomas the Train stuff costs, like $30 for one train car! We went with the puzzle and I managed to grab two without him really noticing so I have one tucked away for Christmas!

He loves the puzzle! He is just like his daddy was as a boy, all about the puzzles!

Making music

I have spent the past half hour or so trying to figure out how to put music onto my page and I am done bothing with it for now and decided to just blog...

I have been meaning to start a "real" blog for quite some time now and finally have gotten around to it. My friend asked me a couple of days ago if I have a blog and I didn't want to say no, but I didn't want to lie either because I want to have one. I guess it gave me the push I had been in need of.

Audrina has been pulling up on things for a week or two now and loves standing holding onto things! She could be hungry and have a dirty diaper but she will want to use her new standing skills rather than do anything else.

So today I remembered I had a play piano that I put up about six months ago because Aiden was getting too big and didn't play with it anymore. She had a BLAST with it! I would have gotten it out sooner if I'd have remembered!


Aiden saw Audrina was loving the paino and decided it was really a cool toy after all!! They played for quite a while and were having such a great time! It gave me so much joy to watch them.
But...after a while Aiden wanted the paino all to himself and gave Audrina the boot...

He didn't even seem to mind his time-out too much!

She has been pulling up on anything and everything. Here she stood up holding onto my bed.Trying to use the paino to stand up...And crawling away. She is just growing up way too fast, luckily I am documenting it pretty well.