Just hanging around

Let's start this off by talking about what we have not been up to lately.  We have not been getting ready for a trip to Utah.  For several months Brandon and I have been looking forward to a trip to Utah to see our families and attend his cousin's wedding.  We would have been leaving on that trip at the end of this week. But we're not.

A few weeks ago we started to realize that maybe we shouldn't be going on that trip.  Things weren't falling into place as well as we wanted.  The trip was starting to turn into something stressful instead of something relaxing.  Also it just didn't seem smart to go on a big road trip only a few weeks before an interstate move.  

So we made the gut-wrenching decision to not go to Utah.  Brandon and I actually each made the decision separately and then geared up for telling each other.  We were happy that we'd come to the same conclusion.  We are still very sad that we can't be there for the wedding, but overall our stress levels went way down after we made the decision.        

Okay now we can talk about what has been going on around here. 

We spent Human Rights Day working on cleaning up the house.  I washed all the windows and got crayon marks off the walls (WD-40 takes crayon off like magic.)  

That evening we had Family Home Evening and instituted a new tradition - a weekly science experiment.  This was supposed to show the colors that are inside the color black, but due to some issues with the paper it didn't really work out.  Still it was pretty cool.   

For our treat we tried out a brownie recipe that uses oatmeal and black beans instead of flour.  It was really yummy.  (I'm not going gluten-free, but I am always looking for new ways to up my protein.)

We're having the Army take care of moving us again so I don't really need to start packing things.  But I am trying to get somethings more organized.  On Tuesday I went through all the baby clothes that Veronica has outgrown.  I've already given away a lot of the clothes so these were the ones that I still have an emotional connection to.  I boxed them up for which ever one of my siblings has a girl next.  As I taped up the box I thought about how much I'd freak out if I had to be the one to need this box - again.

All the clothes are special to me, but the newborn clothes pulled at my emotions the most.  I kept thinking about the two tiny little baby girls that I brought home from the hospital. I remembered those stressful first days when it seemed I would never get control of my life again.  I remembered how tight our finances were and how all these clothes were such blessings.  I remembered how big these clothes seemed compared to my babies. I remembered how happy we were when they started fitting the newborn size.

Charlotte asked what I was doing and I showed her the newborn sized sleeper that she used to wear. This was the first non-preemie sized thing that Charlotte wore.  I'd planned to have Veronica wear this sleeper too, but she'd been too long for it.  

Our dryer motor is having issues and will probably get replaced in the near future.  We've had some nice warm days so Brandon strung up a clothes line.  I grew up with a clothes line so I've been having all sorts of nostalgia when my girls help me hang up clothes the way I used to help my mom.

Lydia got a hold of my camera and took this self portrait.

The other 15 pictures she took looked like this.

Veronica loves the camera.  She says, "say cheese" when she sees the camera.  I love this picture of us together.  All my kids look like me - but she is my spitting image.

It started raining on Wednesday and I swear it didn't stop until Friday.  On Thursday we braved the deluge to go to storytime.  I even bothered to find all the kids big winter coats for when we ran from the car to the building. We had to go because we needed to get more books. We've started living dangerously by actually checking out library books.  The kids and I read books once a day.  Well, really just Charlotte and Lydia and I read the books.  Derrick looks at train books and Veronica stacks and un-stacks the books.  We're living out my childhood dream of reading every Berenstain Bear book.  We also like the Click Clack Moo books.  We just finished our first chapter book - the Box Car Children.  I also like to check out non-fiction books to look at with the kids.  Charlotte and Lydia loved the book about the human body.  And a book about butterflies was another favorite.  So it was worth going to the library in the middle of a rainstorm to get more books.  

On Saturday I had a Mommy and Derrick day with Derrick.  We went to Walmart and looked at fish for at least 30 minutes.  He jabbered and babbled the whole time (which is one reason we went there,)      

 Then we bought some M&M's and new bubbles and went to the park.  Derrick had a great time eating the candy, blowing bubbles, and sliding.  I'm really enjoying these one on one days with the kids.

Brandon and I had a baby sitter lined up for Saturday night, but we had no idea what we were going to do.  Ashley texted me about 2 hours before our date.  She, Seth and Ockley were coming over to our park and they wanted to know if we wanted to come out and play.  We'd just finished dinner so we went out there.  Hanging out with Ashley and Seth was so fun that we decided to go on a double date.  Derrick and Charlotte ended up falling asleep before we left so it wasn't a big deal for our babysitter to watch one more baby.  

We went out to eat at Applebees and had a great time. I'm going to miss Ashley so much when we move.  My only consolation is that she and Seth are moving soon after we leave anyway.  She's actually moving to Arizona and will live close to Fort Huachuca which is our first choice for a duty station when Brandon finishes flight school.  So if the fates align we'll be able to hang out together again.  

When we took our group photo a guy who was sitting across from us said that he was thinking about photo bombing us.  So Brandon said, "well come on over."  So he did and joined us for another photo.  

My sister Hillary made some skirts for all three of my girls as Christmas presents.  For some reason Charlotte and Lydia didn't care about theirs at first.  Well that changed this week.  Lydia found her's and wore it for 4 days straight.  She was very proud of this outfit that she put together by herself.

I spoke in church on Sunday.  We knew that Derrick and Veronica would freak out as soon as I left our bench so Brandon planned on taking them out of the meeting.  Well, Veronica decided that it was a good idea to fall off the bench and split her lip open - three minutes before it was time for me to speak.  Brandon hurried to take her out and clean her off.  He was still dealing with that when it was time for my talk.  Luckily some people stepped into help with Derrick and everything turned out fine.  Veronica looked a little beat up for a while though.  She and Brandon finished the rest of church with blood on their clothes.  (Later Brandon got all the blood out with hydrogen peroxide.)  And yes, my talk went great.  I spoke on ways to strengthen marriage.  If you ask nicely I might even turn it into a blog post for you all.  

Gorgeous weather returned to us this week.  Yesterday we all went to the park - twice.  As we sauntered over to the park I thought about how it was exactly 2 years since I found out I was pregnant with Veronica.  At the time I thought that my life was ruined and it would be years before I had any freedom.  Well, the last two years haven't exactly been a picnic, but they haven't been as hard as I thought they would be.   And now we are at the point where I can walk to the park without needing to carry any of my kids.  Its great!

Yesterday was also the one year anniversary of Brandon going to Korea.  I can't believe it's been a year.  In some ways it seems like he never left.  But I know that I grew a lot while he was gone.  Overall Korea was a great experience for all of us.  Lots of things happened there that made flight school possible.  And for that I'll always be thankful for the time that Brandon spent there. 

While we were at the park Charlotte discovered how to climb up this part of the play ground. (She also discovered the skirt that Hillary made for her)  Soon Lydia was following her.  

And then Derrick had to do it too.  Derrick is so good at physical stuff.

Veronica wanted to climb too, but all she could do was stand at the bottom and cry.  She's pretty adventurous though.  She loves to slide down and then climb up the twirly slide.  And she loves to swing.

Derrick loves to swing too, but he's accepting the fact that he doesn't get the baby swing anymore.  He and Veronica are so similar it makes me laugh.  Derrick had his annual evaluation for ECI on Monday.  They tested him in many areas in addition to speech.  In some areas, like fine motor skills, he is right on track, but in other areas he has as much as a 16 month delay.  I guess that's one reason he and Veronica are so similar - they are basically on the same development level.

Today was another day of wonderful weather.  We busted out the otterpops and ate them in the back yard.  I love how all the kids were willing to sit in their little chairs for this picture. 

Before I finish up, I want to tell you about one other cool thing that's been going on in my life this week.  One of my posts on my travel blog is starting to get a lot of traffic from Pinterest.  In the past 5 or so days I've received close to 800 page views.  To put that in perspective, my most popular post on this blog was Veronica's birth story.  That post had a little over 700 pageviews.  Most of the posts on this blog only get about 80 page view before they drop off and are never viewed again.  My posts on the travel blog usually only get about 20 page views.  So to have a post that is consistently getting more than a 100 page views a day is really exciting.

So if you want to see what all the fuss is about go check out www.51centadventures.com.   And if you like what you see please take a minute to share it via Pinterest, or Facebook, or whatever.

Anyway, that's been us this week.  It's been nice and relaxing - which is so much better than how stressful it could have been if we were trying to get ready for a wintertime roadtrip to Utah.