'Tis the Season

We have been very busy around here! Between our normal daily duties and getting ready to leave NJ, we have been up to our arms each day. It feels like the days go so quickly because they are so jam packed. We have a crap ton of stuff that needs to make it's way to new homes before we even begin to pack the things we will be taking with us. Also, if you are wondering, we still have no idea where we will be living. Our fall back is Georgia so I'm just banking on that at this point. It's so frustrating. "Hurry up and wait" is so right on!

Anyways, Christmas is upon us. We are so excited and I had Joseph get out the Christmas boxes yesterday. I have begun my Christmas shopping and we will be getting our tree right after Thanksgiving. We always get a real tree but plan on getting a tiny "Charlie Brown" tree this year as we have a toddler on the attack. I decided to attempt a pin from one of my many Pinterest boards to help keep Isla from assaulting our Christmas tree. I got lucky because my pregnancy group Pinterest board actually decided to take it on as a December challenge piece. I bought all the felt from Michael's and hung it from a command hook in the walk-way. Joseph helped cut ornaments. This is the finished product:

Isla seems to really enjoy putting all the pieces up. She seems really confused though when the ornaments won't stick to the wall or other things around the house... LOL. I actually have a ton of leftover felt and think I'm going to make Isla a felt board and a quiet book or two for Christmas :) We'll see how creative I can get with those.

In other news, Isla and Joseph have been going to swimming class together. I thought it would be good for the two of them to have a thing before he leaves in a few months. I actually went with them to the 2nd class this past Wednesday and took a ton of pictures. Cole was sleeping the whole time in the ring sling.

I snapped this picture of them while they were waiting for class to begin. Can you believe my mom got Isla that suit at Target for like $3?

 

She had a great time collecting the little play food... she even thought it might be tasty! 

Here's a couple more photos from their class: 

 Singing and twirling in the water....

 Trying to catch her ball...

 One of my favorites-- jumping into the water! 

So my Colie-Olie turned 1 month old on the 10th and I have been trying to get his one month picture... but this is what happens when I try :)

Crazy girl thinks it's all about her, all the time <3

It's been pretty yummy around here...

Alright, so I said I would let you know how this meal planning thing was working out and so far so good. Working from home, allows me some prep if I need it each day but I bulk prepped a lot of stuff the day of my shop and this past weekend. I thought I would share my menu... notice some meals are doubled during the month, this was mainly a money saving tactic on my part. Being that only 2 1/2 of us eat meals... I was able to do double servings of some meals and freeze them for later in the month. Saves time and money!!!

In other news, we're slowly getting ready for the big deployment/move! Unfortunately, we still don't know where the children and I will be moving... but we shall hopefully find out soon. Fingers crossed for Charleston or Georgia. I've been looking at houses like a mad woman and like we are going to buy one tomorrow... I'm a tad crazy. Joseph is very excited about Christmas this year, since we won't be with him for Christmas next year... so tonight he started Christmas shopping. He, of course, could not contain his excitement and I am now the owner of a brand spanking new camera, so expect a ton of photos to come :) I'm going to be a picture taking fiend, thanks to my lovely husband. I have to find a way to keep him from giving me the rest of my gifts or else I may not be opening anything on Christmas ;)

Working Hard or Hardly Working?

Things have been busy... as any of you with a newborn past or present might understand. I finally got a minute to sit down and write something. I've been trying really hard to save us money lately and get us on a good path for paying off debt and buying a house in a little over a year from now. My biggest project as of late is meal planning thanks to an awesome blogger/mommy. You can see her blog here. I am just starting out and have been using her blog and advice to help me along. I planned out the whole month of November and did my big grocery shop on Halloween. I spent $188 which included dinner for the whole month (with the exception of one eat out day), milk, some snacks for Isla, fruit, and ice cream! I figured at most we'll spend another $80 this month for milk, fruit, and other snacks. Such an awesome change to the nearly $400 we were probably spending at the grocery store each month and that doesn't even include all of our eating out! A-MAZING! When I got home from the grocery store I started doing some prepping for the month. I threw chicken breasts in the crock pot because I needed some shredded chicken for two things of chicken enchiladas this month and chicken taco soup. I also cut up some breasts to make orange chicken, floured them up, and tossed them in the freezer! I have some more prep work to do but I figured it could wait til a weekend. I'll probably finish the prepping tomorrow.

I will let ya'll know how it turns out. 

World, Meet Cole...

Well... Things have been a little busy the last few days! Our baby boy was born Wednesday, one day before his due date, which if you know anything about this delivery, you will know it was a Godsend! We had been praying that I would go in to labor before my scheduled C-section (on 10/11). Wouldn't you know, when we thought all hope was lost, my water broke at 5:30 am on Wednesday after hours of strong, but irregular contractions. By the time we got to the hospital, the contractions were becoming unbearable. My husband, J,  started calling to find someone to take Isla since they checked me and I was 4 cm and had definitely ruptured. He then left to drop her at the our sitter's house before things started to get crazy. This is one rough part about being military... having a second baby and having someone to watch the Big baby. Luckily, we had three people to call and just kinda ran down the list until we found someone willing to watch her at 6 am until my mom could get there. My mom lives about 2 hours from us. Anyways, back to the story... the contractions were so strong. I vomited a lot and was very mean to my poor, lovely nurse. Man, that was probably the roughest hour of my life. I was being poked and prodded as they got ready for delivery with no one there to coach me through my contractions. Finally, when J got back I begged for the epi, then the C-section, then the epi again. My husband knows me and he knows how badly I have been wanting the VBAC since I got pregnant with Cole. When I had Isla, it hadn't even occurred to me that I may have to have a section, but she was breech and I really had no option. I was so upset. The nurse got the anesthesiologist and he came in to put in the epi. All I could think is, "Damn... I gave in to the epi, but who the hell cares, this thing just better work". He put in the epi and it started to work fairly quickly. My OB came in shortly after and wanted to check me. I didn't feel a thing. I decided at that point that epi=glorious and I felt horrible for bashing the epi.  I was at 6 cm and almost fully effaced-- yay progress! Now I was nervous the epi would slow me down. My doc went to do a C-section. I was so much better, laughing and joking with everyone. This was at like 830 am. My mom arrived at 930. Her and I were just talking and hanging out waiting. At 10 am, the doc came back and checked me again. I was 10 cm and ready to go so they started setting everything up and my mom left to get Isla from the sitter . Her and J went to get the car seat out of our car before I needed to start pushing. In the meantime, the nurse asked me to do some practice pushing. I started pushing at 10:38 am. J took forever and by the time he came in, he could see Cole's head already peeping out. The look on his face was priceless. I only pushed a few more times and it was time to get the doctor. He came in and suited up. He was talking to the baby nurse and my nurse was near me as I needed to push. She tried to call him and he didn't hear her. I pushed and Cole's head was out... The doctor almost had a heart attack.. Guess he didn't realize we were there already. One more little push and the rest of him was out. He was born at 11:26 am. They set him up on me and it was amazing. With Isla, I hadn't gotten to hold her for a while after delivery. The nurses took him a bit after and cleaned him up and all while I got repaired. I had two little tears. Then they brought him over to me and we got to just spend an hour or so with him just the two of us. I nursed him and did some skin to skin time. It all went really fast but was amazing!

Here he is: Cole-- 8 lbs 9 oz  21 3/4inches -- obviously very happy to be removed from the womb.



This whole day just felt like a dream. I couldn't believe that I had the delivery I wanted. I couldn't believe how easy it had all seemed. I couldn't believe that I now had TWO beautiful babies to love and kiss on everyday. I felt like nothing could break the euphoria I was feeling... well that was until later that evening when a stupid little email tried to ruin it all.


A few weeks ago, we had been discussing our military life. We wanted a change... wanted to find a place to put down some roots and maybe be able to buy a house somewhere. So we updated our "wish list" of bases/assignments not thinking that anything would change for some time. Wouldn't you know that the day our son was born, only a week later, my husband would get an email saying just what we thought we had hoped for, and that he would be leaving us for a year in just four short months. The military can be quite funny sometimes.

So now here we are, home, getting used to life with our two babies, trying to help Isla make the transition, trying to keep our newborn fed and snuggled, enjoying all of our visitors, and now making plans for next year. We are trying to stay positive. We are trying to focus on the fact that we will get to move and hopefully buy a place of our own. But it's not easy. We struggle everyday. I know I struggle and try to hold back the tears every time I think about it. I worry about my husband and how it affects him to have to be away from our babies for so long. I worry about the kids and how they (especially Isla) will handle J being away from us, and I worry about if I can be a good enough mommy to them both all by myself.

I know it will be fine. We will skype and talk on the phone as much as possible. He'll get to come home for some leave halfway through his tour and I'm sure the year will fly by as fast as Isla's first year did. I hope to spend the next four months preparing... making plans on how to save the most money for a house... and finding ways to make the transition easy for both children. J is so scared that they won't remember him. I know they will but I'm determined to find every way possible to make him feel more reassured before he has to be half way around the world without us.

If you think of it, thank those fighting for this country the next time you see one. They simply give up everything for you and everyone else in this country. I was lucky enough to have J here for both Isla and Cole's births. But there are so many women who do not get that luxury. Thanks for reading and sorry this got so... depressing. I promise my next post will be full of smiles and sunshine! Here's some pics to bring this back to happy...

Thinking really hard about something...

J and Cole... the first time holding him after his birth! 

My super hot, after delivery look holding Cole! 

Dear Uterus...

Let's get this party started!

The past 24 hours have been quite exciting in our household. I was graced with some exciting contractions last night that were moonlighting as the "real deal". We ended up spending 12 hours in the hospital waiting for progress. By this morning, it was quite clear that my uterus just didn't feel like doing anymore work and was going to be a tad stubborn through this. So, we packed up our junk, picked up Miss Isla, and headed for home. Now I'm going to haul ass trying to walk and squat this baby out before my scheduled C in a week. I have been dreaming of a VBAC and while I know something like 70% of VBACs end up successfully delivering without repeat C, I want at least a fighting chance. My husband has been so motivating. He pushes me to work through the pain and keep my eye on the prize. I probably would have given up already without him... well maybe not, but he's pretty amazing.

Tonight, I plan to put Isla to bed, climb the stairs a couple hundred times, get some squats in cleaning out the refrigerator, and eat a couple dates (gross)-- oh the things we'll do to get labor moving! I have been feeling the stress of nesting, but I must admit, I'm still not getting much accomplished. Maybe tonight will be some miraculous night where I clean/organize my whole house AND go in to active labor.... a girl can dream, can't she?

In other news, Isla has her 15 month well check tomorrow. I don't know why, but I always have to have a list of questions for our doc. He is amazing and has taken my list and written answers when I haven't been able to make appointments. He knows I'm a little... crazy? Anal? My list for tomorrow consists of things like the amount of milk she consumes, her picky eating habits and weight gain, skills to work on, and handling the fun tantrums. Plus, we have to follow-up on the asthma situation (Isla is being treated for asthma with hopes that she will outgrow it. Right now, we are lucky to just do a dose of Singulair before bed and the nebulizer only when she has a cold/wheeze). I love well checks (besides shots) simply because it makes me feel like "I got this". Being a parent is the most rewarding and terrifying part of life, I think. I always worry about the person she's becoming, but then she points out her belly button and I can't believe my baby is so brilliant. It's quite the roller coaster of emotions. It is actually pretty insane.

I'm hoping to get out to the fabric store this weekend and start on some projects for Cole. I need to reupholster the rocker in his room, make a cover for our pink bumbo, and a cover for the boppy! I will make sure I share them here!!! Let's hope baby is working hard in there to come out sometime soon!!! I'll be in touch ;)

And it begins...

So much has changed for us in the past couple months. I took a job that allows me to work from home, we pulled our daughter, Isla, from daycare, we await the arrival of our second child, Cole, and we went through our first, albeit short, deployment. All of these things combined have brought me to the conclusion that I need a place to keep memories, ideas, and thoughts. While a journal would be helpful, I'd much rather share-- the ups and the downs and the wonderful things that grace this world I live in.

So... as this is my very first post, I should probably do a little intro...
My name is Ashley and I am married to Joseph. He is currently Active Duty AF and we are stationed in NJ. I work from home for a mortgage banker. I love what I do and the liberties it offers me. It's crazy considering I have a degree in Elementary Education! Our daughter, Isla, turned one in June. She is a little firecracker with a lot of love in her little tiny heart. We are expecting our second child, Cole, any day now (hopefully sooner, rather than later).

This is our little family...

And my sweet girl... 

I have a lot of interests and an obsession with Pinterest. My husband will tell you all about my constant talk of "making" things. I have yet to make much! I just took a sewing class, which was pretty exciting. I'm looking forward to sharing some of my projects here. I love to cook, drink wine, and read, too. I enjoy a good pedicure and helping others in any way I can. I wish I had a better relationship with God but hope that I can teach my children how to cultivate their own. I like all kinds of music but mostly listen to country.

I hope that's enough for now. I will continue to introduce myself through my posts!! Hope ya'll enjoy reading!