The First 29th

This year is the first time I'm going to turn 29. Next year I'll be 30 - only because I want to have a dirty 30 party with dirty martinis and dirt pudding - and then it's only back down to 29 from there! This year was awesome. On Friday night Lane told me that he was going to give me a choice of what to do for my birthday, but it was a surprise and I had to wait until Sunday. And then left me hanging...

Sunday morning, Eden let it slip that our babysitter was coming over. Lane gave me an hour notice to get ready and then we headed out. That's when my surprise was no longer a surprise. When we got in the car, he told me to open the glove box. There was a picture of a handgun and of a chair. My choices were a gun or furniture. The choice was actually a hard choice for me to make. I could see myself enjoying both.

Because I couldn't decide what to do we went to the shooting range. I knew I didn't want to get a gun without being comfortable with a gun. I enjoyed shooting. I felt more and more comfortable as we kept shooting. Lane started so that he could tell me what kind of kick the gun had and generally how things felt with the gun.

I enjoyed shooting, but determined that I wanted to shoot more before being a gun owner. After shooting we went shopping for furniture. We looked at new kitchen tables and at patio furniture. Shopping without the kids was bliss. We didn't have to tell anyone to stop climbing, jumping, running, yelling, or screaming. After taking a look, we decided to shop around some more and headed to dinner. Sushi had our names all over it. Eden has tried sushi and didn't like it, so it isn't something we've done with the kids. It was delicious!

Today in celebration for my actual birthday Eden and Lane made biscuits and I got breakfast in bed. I got my first home made card from Eden while Hunter slept in. Great start to my birthday! Lane and I then took the kids to the playground and I went for a solo run while the kids and Lane played. The playground is right by the mall, so we stopped by and ran a few errands.

Then it was nap time and finally dinner and cake!

Motherhood Is...{6}

The kids and I had a great week together. We had a lot of great moments, with a few moments of crazy thrown in too. The kids helped me celebrate my birthday by blowing out candles and singing "Happy Birthday" for me. Hunter was funny because he sang along with Lane and Eden. He sounded a lot like a backup singer. The song went something like this:

L&E: Happy Birthday to you...

H: Happy

L&E: Happy Birthday to you...

H: Happy

L&E: Happy Birthday to Mommy...

H: Happy

L&E: Happy Birthday to you!

H: Yay {with enthusiastic clapping!}

The kids were able to enjoy a lot of outside time. There were a few days this week that we were able to do outside lunches. While we were inside to play, the kids enjoyed playing a lot of dress up. Hunter has fallen in love with his pirate costume and most days can be found saying, "argh" and running around with a sword.

Not every day was fun and enjoyable. The kids weren't always excited about sharing their toys. This made for some interesting running times. My run times suffer greatly when the kids fight over anything while I'm trying to run. I can't decide some days if it's harder to run with the stroller, or parent from behind the stroller when I'm running.

One morning Eden and Hunter woke up in exceptionally great moods. They pulled the chairs from the toy room and sat at the edge of the kitchen. When they sat down, Eden said to me, "Mommy, we're sitting together! Take our picture!" They're so great when they start the day in a good mood!

Fat Albert

The Navy's Blue Angels fly with a C-130 and his name is Fat Albert. This week Fat Albert was at Lane's squadron undergoing some maintenance before the air show season starts. The crew let us bring our play group and take a tour of the plane. We had a lot of fun seeing the "special plane" with our friends.

The *REAL* Ariel

Eden was invited to a birthday party of one of her dance friends this past weekend. We were excited to be going to the princess tea party! It was an all girl's party, so we left Hunter and Daddy at home to spend the morning together. When we got to the party we stated with decorating buckets that were later used in a treasure hunt.

After buckets were decorated, and as participants continued to arrive, {the REAL} Ariel and her helper began giving makeovers - fixing hair {that was sprinkled with glitter!}, placing tiaras, and donning princess dresses. The girls were so cute, and very patient while waiting their turn for different things.

Once everyone had their hair fixed, they sat in a row and Ariel gave them a glitter heart on their cheek and lipgloss.

Once all of the princesses were dressed, they paraded into the tea room for their coronation ceremony. Eden was excited about this because of the movie Frozen. There is a coronation in the movie, and a song that is about the coronation, so she was excited to hear the word in real life!

After coronation the princesses paraded out into the back yard for a group picture. As they paraded into the yard, the girls each waved their wave that they learned from Ariel in the coronation ceremony - Elbow, elbow. Wrist, wrist. Wink an eye and blow a kiss.

When it was time for tea, after the pictures, the princesses paraded back into the dining room. Ariel talked to the princesses about table manners {chew with your mouth closed, wait until everyone has been served, wait to be excused, and so on} and taught them how to sip tea with their pinkies up.

To conclude the party we did the treasure hunt and the princesses ate cake. We had a blast, and the time with just Eden and I was much needed {as was the solo Daddy/Hunter time}. We need to make a point more often to do things alone with the kids.

Motherhood Is…{5}

This week it almost seems like we hardly got out of our jammies! We had a few late starts to our days and we have just enjoyed home time. The kids enjoyed an afternoon of bikes with our friends. They all took a break and had cookies together. We couldn't resist taking a picture of all of them together {Hunter, Coen, Cael, Eden, Wesley, and Ben}

The Big D

I have a heavy heart tonight. I can't quite put into words how I'm feeling, and I'm conflicted about my emotions. Parker sets out for his first deployment {his "big D"} tomorrow. The reason I'm so conflicted about this is that I sit here with tears in my eyes and I'm not sure why exactly. I haven't seen him since October. I usually only see him once or twice a year now that I'm married to the Marine Corps and he's in the Navy. We don't talk on the phone every day, or every week even.

I'm heart broken for Sara. They've been married for 4 months. They've only lived together for 3 months. And he's leaving for however long. Part of me keeps reminding myself that their whole engagement was spent apart. He was in Chicago, Pensacola, and now Virginia Beach throughout their engagement. But it is different. He's going to be gone for months now with spotty internet and very little communication. If anyone can do it, it's them. It doesn't make it any better though.

Lane's cousin is also going to deploy soon. He's going to be gone on Parker's ship actually. It's kind of neat, but it's just that much harder. There are going to be a lot of people that we know floating around on the ship - in the same place at the same time. Three of our friends from flight school will be on Parker's ship too. There's just too much going on all at once!

We also got news today that some of our best friends will be starting their deployment in just 3 weeks. They knew it was coming, but they thought they were going to have another month to enjoy him being home. In the whole scheme of things…it isn't that much sooner. It just sucks. They have a new baby at home. And 2 other kids…who will "get it" that Daddy's gone.

Basically, tonight, I've come to the conclusion that the Big D isn't easy. There's always a reason that it sucks. There's always something that makes it worse.

A new baby
Newlyweds
Pregnant, he'll miss the whole pregnancy
Pregnant, he'll miss the birth of his baby
Just had a baby
The kids understand
No kids - you're alone
You have to move in a few months
Missing birthdays
Missing anniversaries
Missing Christmas
Gone for the summer {you have to shave your legs even when you don't have to!}
Missing milestones for the kids
 *riding a bike
 *swimming
 *first steps
 *new teeth
 *first words
 *starting school
 *first loose tooth
 *graduation
 *first dance class

You name it…it sucks. You can be surrounded by the best friends, the best support groups out there. It sucks. Yes, you make the best out of every little thing. You video every small thing the kids do and say so that you don't forget to tell him. But it sucks. You "signed up for this" and you "knew what you were getting into" and you "take it with a grain of salt," but it sucks. You don't pity yourself and you are proud of your spouse {or son, daughter, wife, sister, brother, friend, cousin} but at the same time you're counting down the days until you get to hug your loved one again.

Deployments suck…Here's to all of the families and friends who endure them together! We keep each other strong in moments of weakness.

Motherhood Is…{4}

 This week was a fun one! The pictures of the kids asleep is from after a great play date with some of Eden's dance friends. They had lunch for us and lots of toys for the kids to play with. We also got to spend some time at the Children's Museum that's just about 10 minutes from the house. The kids played really well together most of the morning. We met other friends there, but I was happy to look around and see that they were wanting to play with each other and keep each other company. They got to wear their new matching shoes to the museum and Eden insisted on a picture of their shoes.

The library is becoming one of our favorite things again. We used to go more regularly, but with the holidays and getting back into the swing of things has not come as easily as I thought it would. Hunter is loving that he doesn't have to sit in the stroller during story time any more - he gets his very own listening circle! Mrs. Cox even lets him help with some of her stories - Eden helps him out if she can. After getting home from story time, the kids enjoyed some time together wearing princess crowns and shoes.