Letter phase

Ambrose is still in a "name/letter phase" and has started to recognize the letters that are in his name. He'll point them out on signs, shirts, menu's....it's a game that never stops around here.

Goings on

* My service engine light came on the other day. John is a stickler about car maintenance, so we took it in immediately. I always see $$$ signs when the service engine light comes on, so I was a little nervous. However, shortly after I had dropped it off, the service place informed me that they had good news and bad news. Good news was the problem was very easy/cheap to fix, bad news was that that easy thing was simply the gas cap wasn't screwed on tight enough. Ugh. Who knew....apparently my husband...of course.

* We went out for shopping and dinner to a small town in the mountains this past weekend. Whether it was distraction due to pushing a stroller, corralling a toddler or window shopping, somehow I had missed that John had spent his entire time shopping with his v-neck sweater on backwards.

* Like I mentioned in my last post, snowmageddon hit, and with it came rolling power outages, gas (and thus heat, hot water and cooking) outages and many frozen pipes for friends. the lowest temp we had (-3) were some highs I saw on the news, and yet, here we are, crippled by what most would consider a mild snowstorm. Living where it never snows is awesome....until it snows.

* Murphy doesn't play favorites around here. It's something that many military wives joke about, but only because if you don't laugh about it...you'll cry. It is inevitable, when our husbands go TDY everything will break, kids will get sick and life will challenge you in every way possible. Well, the tables have turned. It's my turn to head out of town for a girls weekend, and wouldn't ya know it, the previously mentioned snow storm has come and made life that much harder. As always Murphy, your timing is impeccable.

* I am getting further into my pregnancy, and, as things go, I'm getting bigger (and bigger and bigger) and the "due any day" comments have started. Nope, not any day now, 11 weeks to be exact, but thanks. Yup, I'm sure it's not twins, but again, THANKS!

Ground hog day

If you're one to rely on a large rat for your weather forecast, all of you covered in FEET of snow can breath a sigh of relief, because, Punxsutawney Phil is forecasting that spring is on it's way.

Which is kind of ironic, because just like for many of you, Snowpocalype has delivered around these parts, and as promised, dumped a load of snow on us. What adds to the love of this snow storm is that we live in a warm weather location where the city doesn't invest in a single snow plow or salt/gravel truck, and life shuts down around here with a couple of inches of snow. Even 10 years later, the excitement of throwing open the curtains to 6 inches of snow (which for many of you is a light dusting, but here....crippling I tell ya!) and hearing John receive the stay home news is still SO there! I love how life sometimes forces you to just slow down!!

Due to leaving Ambrose's snow pants in South Dakota, snow clothes equates to a carhartt coat, over a hooded sweatshirt, over fleece pants, over carhartt overalls, over a long john shirt...all topped off with one of john's hats and a pair of gloves. Despite looking only slightly homeless, he managed to stay warm and have a great time.

Ambrose's favorite things to do was find all of the miscellaneous toys that didn't make it in the outside toy bin prior to the snowfall. He'd run to a lump in the snow, quickly wave his hand around to dust of the snow and shout with joy the name of the toy that he had just uncovered.

John took Ambrose "sledding" around the backyard, and while fun in the beginning, the end didn't turn out quite as fun.

All play and no work

As always, we've been busy playing while here in South Dakota. We had a quick reprieve (heat wave for SD standards, 40 degrees!) from the cold weather and snow, so we made the best of it and headed out to the playground.

Great Clips

I never thought I'd ever take my child to get their hair cut at one of those classy places that only allow walk ins and has a corny name, but it came highly recommended to me by a reputable source (thanks Abby Lynn) so off we went.

After some back arching and shrieking he calmed down and we were underway with his first paid big boy hair cut. He did great, and I think ( hope) that getting him back in the barber chair will be easier next time because they rewarded him with a sucker at the end, and this kid doesn't forget anything.

Here we go again!

As I mentioned before we are getting ready to ride the newborn roller coaster again....

I am due with another sweet boy April 24th, so that puts me at about 26 weeks right now and this pregnancy and my last have had many similarities as well as differences.

different:

I have yet to take a single picture. By this time with Ambrose we had taken at least 20 pics. This poor kid is getting the short end of the picture stick already.

* We waited until 12 weeks to tell people with Ambrose, but this one was almost 17 weeks. In part because John was deployed and I was at home, but in part because life was flying by.

* I'm not pregnant in Japan.... where all people are thin. When I was pregnant with Ambrose, all the Japanese ladies kept telling me "oh, New Year baby, that be good luck!" I wasn't due until MARCH!

Same:

* The easiest part of being a mother for me is pregnancy. I don't experience morning sickness, heightened sense of smell, fatigue (well at least not that much, a nap here and there were helpful, but not necessary) or really any other symptoms. Which, you'd think would be wonderful, however, if you know me at all you know I'm a worrier and would almost rather of the reassurance of puking every day to know that every thing was all right.

* I'm measuring big. I measured big with Ambrose the entire time, and despite exercising 5 days a week, lifting 3 days a week and keeping my weight down, the tape measure still says "big."

*I worry about everything. It's in my genes to be a worrier (my dad's fault!) but I worry all.the.time! Just this week I decided to put an ice cube in my soup because I worried that somehow the baby would be harmed by the fact that my soup was too hot. Irrational, yes, I know. But that's the thing, many of my fears are irrational.

* I'm busy. While not chasing 28 kindergartners around, I am still chasing a toddler around, and this boy has the energy of 28 five year olds.

* We will be picking a name that you will probably not find in any book or website, but one that we LOVE none the less.

* We won't be sharing the name prior to the birth.

2011

Happy New Year!

I'm not one of those who consistently makes New Years resolutions, but there is something about the first day of the new year that puts me in a place of reflection and make me feel a need to make small changes in my life that will bless me and my family in the upcoming year.

Rather than making resolutions that cause me to stray from who I am as a person, and try and make me completely overhaul my life with these monumental "resolutions" I try and make simple, concrete and conscious decisions for the upcoming year.

Last year I tried to get back into reading, an activity that has always brought me enjoyment as well as knowledge. Having quiet time to relax and restore makes me a better mom, wife and all around person. However, quiet time is in hard supply with a toddler around, and I didn't prioritize it like I needed to. Last years resolution to read 50 books brought me much joy and I found myself carving out time again for reading, and it was wonderful! I did fall short by about 10 books, but I count the resolution as a success. I read many more books than I would have had I not made the resolution and it created a new habit in my life, so see...resolution = success.

This year my resolutions are, again, fairly minor, but will hopefully make me a better mom, wife and overall person :)

1.) throw away less food: I consider myself pretty effective at meal planning, so we're not throwing out unused ingredients, but we throw out a ton of leftovers. Each week this drives me nuts.

2.) Get laundry washed, dried and folded quickly! I am known to leave clean dry laundry in the drier for days. We all know what happens when you do t hat......wrinkles! John even one day asked me if we needed a new drier because the one that we have seems to be a "wrinkly drier." Like as a drier ages it somehow gives your clothes laugh lines...

3.) I'm going to give the 50 books a year another try, wish me luck (especially with a new baby on the way, which, oh ya, I haven't mentioned on this blog, but I'm pregnant.....a post will follow shortly).

Here are a couple of my favorite pics from the past year! Nothing brings home the saying "the days are long but the years are short" like looking through pictures!

I hope that 2011 is all you hope for and more.

* maybe I should also include "get in a couple pictures" as a resolution....