Experiencing the good life

I cannot even begin to tell you how much food Olivia eats. I quickly realized that baby food was not enough for her, so she recently moved to table food. I had been feeding her easy things, but the other night, she finally participated in her first family dinner. It was so crazy to look around the table and see everyone eating the same meal. I love seeing this family grow!

They are here!

She sure is growing up fast!

Quiet time

I love when the Lord places things I need along my path.

I have really been thinking a lot lately about how I need to be more intentional with my quiet time. Geez, things were so easy in college. No responsibilities and nobody to answer to. I had all the time in the world to read my Bible, Christian-based literature, and just pray. I could easily spend a couple of hours immersed in that kind of quality quiet time with the Lord. Not that I want to be back in college, or anything. I love all the blessings the Lord has bestowed upon my life in the past four and a half years. Life has just gotten busier and finding time to commune with the Lord alone sometimes feels non-existent. I get to a new phase in my life and then when I finally figure out how to schedule time alone, things get turned upside down and I am in a new phase. Not to blame anything on my Lamaze instructor, but I was doing so well until she said that you will start getting really tired the end of your pregnancy and that is just your body's way of preparing you for childbirth. I was having my quiet time while Emily took her nap, but after she made this comment, I felt like I needed to sleep during that time to rest up. Because of course, sleep is the most important thing I could give to my children versus a stronger relationship with the Lord. Oh, the lies that Satan feeds us...

I have realized recently that the only way to schedule my quiet time is to do it before the children wake up. With two kids napping on various schedules during the day, many days are spent with one kid awake at all times. The only way I can be intentional and consistent with my quiet time is to plan it when both kids are guaranteed (okay, not necessarily) to be asleep -- in the morning. I have been thinking hard about this for the past couple of weeks while I have been squeezing in my time alone with the Lord at various points in the day. Then as I was blog hopping in attempts to waste valuable sleep time (something I am a pro at) I came across a plan for me to get out of bed in the morning. It is nice to know I am not the only ridiculous person who needs a plan to wake up and have quiet time. Do you know how amazing that feels? Actually, it has been a common realization recently. It appears that many mothers have walked in my shoes in all aspects of my life. (Who would have thought?)

Anyways, I am now finding encouragement to get out of bed and start my day off right with the Lord. It is good to know that others who can't wake up have changed their ways. It gives me hope. We will see how this goes...

Partying like it's 1999

I am reminded daily of many of the reasons why I married my husband. Very rarely I forgot one of the many reasons, but when something reminds me, I fall in love with Daniel all over again. I was reminded recently of Daniel's passion for themed parties. He couldn't cut up a pair of his old jeans fast enough when he found out about a friends 80s themed birthday party. I guarantee you, they would have been WAY shorter if I hadn't been there to monitor.

Oh, and his dance moves! I forgot how great they were. I honestly stood in the corner for the first 30 minutes of the dance party thinking, "I can't believe he is mine!"

Daniel's hand is in an awkward place -- he is not groping me. Definitely not a picture to put up on the living room wall, yet the only one taken of just the two of us in a long time.

So glad we convinced Chris to come with us. He is such a great friend and he, also, comes along with amazing dance moves.

Houston = Civilization

The army wife I met when I moved to Houston came to me via a mother's group in SW Houston. The group is an online community of stay-at-home parents that plan all kinds of activities. I had been hanging out with her for a while, but had yet to attend and actual event. A couple of weeks ago, the girls and I met up with the other parents at Hermann Park to ride the train, have a picnic lunch, and play on the playground. It was really a wonderful day and we met some great people! Emily knew exactly where we were (right next to the zoo) and was talking about elephants the entire time. My military ID has yet to expire, so I figured we might as well stop in and say hello to the animals while we were in the area since it was free. It was a perfect way to spend the day, but after all the activities, I did not want to leave the house for a couple of days. I really need to start taking advantage of the zoo. We live so close, and with it being free still, it would be a shame to pass up amazing trips there.

It took quite a bit of coaxing, but Emily eventually crawled through the tunnel at the fish exhibit. She loves fish. I wonder where she gets it from.

Emily was very insistent on keeping the tickets in her pocket. She would pull them out about every minute, wave them around, then ask me to tuck them back in. Kids are funny.

Note to self: Noon to 1pm is the perfect time to hit up the zoo. All the animals were talking their naps right by the viewing areas. I have never seen so many zoo animals in plain sight before.

We had to stop and take a picture for Uncle Lucas who hates snakes about as much as Daddy hates spiders.

Multitude Mondays - Week Fifteen

266. Books that renew me, especially motherhood books

267. Coming to the realization that I can't think I can control things with kids in my life

268. Understanding that a perfect house may not be in the best interest of my family right now

269. How my past experiences have shaped me

270. A simple morning of getting things done around the house while a cousin plays with the girls

271. Being in a bigger house

272. Starting up my new journal. It's so pretty!

273. Daniel's love for dressing up in costume

274. Cooler weather after Houston's horrible heat

275. Kindle for Mac (see blessing #266)

276. Moms groups that get your connected

277. Getting in free at the zoo (thanks military id that has yet to expire!)

278. Tahoe dying in driveway (versus somewhere in town)

279. our dear friend Chris Berg who is full of wisdom

280. Christian music and how it nourishes my soul

281. blog hopping which led to a great needed resource

282. deer meat being processed

283. that Daniel can provide for our family more than monetarily

284. How accessible our Macbook is

285. The Ministry of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson

286. Not having to wake up for Black Friday unlike last year

287. the peace that comes with being on top of Christmas shopping

288. finding the perfect play kitchen for the girls

289. hearing Cathy Garcia-Pratts speak -- mother of 10 boys ranging from 35 to 17

So close to posting on a Monday!

Mother Heaven

I met a wonderful mom when we first moved to Houston whose husband is currently deployed to Afghanistan. They moved back from overseas and he deployed immediately, so she was going to spend the deployment in Houston with in-laws. It was so wonderful to have someone here to wean myself off of military life. Unfortunately, a house opened up recently for her and her girls in Ft. Hood WAY earlier than expected, so she is in the process of moving in. (Chalk that up to one more military friend lost...) Anyways, she introduced me to Memorial City Mall's indoor playground. It is AMAZING! Who wouldn't love to go to a mall and play? Talk about the perfect option when I need some retail therapy and the girls need to blow off some energy. My girls could have spent all day there! Olivia even loved it, and being indoor, it was baby friendly (as in no wood chips to swallow).

Fall Fair

Daniel's school in Houston had their annual fall fair and we thought the girls would enjoy attending. Emily is scared of anything that could get her heart racing, so many things were out of the question. They had face painting and I knew this was something she would love. It would take a parent to wait in a line for ONE HOUR at a school event just to see the joy on their child's face. It was well worth it, though. She was so excited about it the rest of the day!

While in line, we were discussing what she wanted on her face. Being the day before Halloween, a spider was an option, and she jumped on it right away. Daniel HATES spiders, so we were both trying to convince her to get something else. Even the pretty butterfly from the girl in front of us did not interest her.

She was so excited when we FINALLY got to the front. It was so sweet to her her sit their so patiently. Nothing about her is patient right now. She sure did want that spider!

She was so proud of her spider.

The only other things that interested her was the blow up obstacle course. I can't wait to take advantage of more opportunities like this in the future!

How to fit 3 kids into a double stroller

Option A:

Option B:

Roxy, you are such a good sport

Olivia

I am constantly amazed at my relationship with Olivia. It feels so weird because I don't love her the same way I love Emily. Don't get me wrong, I love her just as much, but it just feels so different. I don't know why, but I was expecting it to feel the same. Daniel keeps telling me all parents feel this way. I mean, it makes sense -- the Lord created her to be a different person, so obviously, I would love her differently. Daniel compared how kids love their two parents differently. I understand that Emily and Olivia have completely different relationships with the two of us, but unfortunately, I don't have that experience in my own life. My father passed away when I was four, so the active love in our household existed between my mother and me. I guess I just always thought you had one type of love for your parents and one type of love for your children. I didn't know it got this complex.

It has been wonderful to add this amazing creation to our family. Olivia surprises me everyday with how different she is from Emily. Every day I say, "I can't get over how different she is from Emily. When Emily was this age, she..." I know Daniel is getting sick of hearing me say this. Hopefully with i the third child (God willing) I will be over the fact of how different kids are. I just melt when look at pictures of her!

No teeth yet, but they are almost there...

This is by far my favorite face of hers...

I feel like she has a completely different look than Emily, but sometimes I look at old pictures of Emily and think they could be twins.

Those are definitely Olivia's cheeks, only, this is a picture of Emily. I can't wait to compare their looks in a couple of year!

Multitude Mondays - Week Fourteen

I hope I never move again. Really. Since we got married, we have lived... 3 months in Lawton, Oklahoma, 3 months as vagabonds, 16 months in Sneads Ferry, North Carolina, 14 months on base at Camp Lejeune, and 6 weeks with the in-laws in Houston. Both of our college careers show similar lists. Is it too much to ask to just be in one place for more than 2 years? I haven't even lived anywhere more than a year and a half since I was in high school. We did just buy a house, though, so hopefully our record will be broken now for the longest stay. It would be so nice to get in a routine and stay in a routine. The thought!

We have slowly gotten back to some sort of schedule and I have slowly gotten over the decorating bug. Time to get on with our life! I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I was starting up Multitude Mondays again. I am so overwhelmed with all I have to be thankful for, so I will just type up a brief overview right now. After that, I will start keeping track daily of all the Lord has blessed me with.

Here we go...

246. Seeing the Lord's hand guide us this year

247. A safe move with little loss of sanity

248. Daniel getting the job that we wanted after being in town only 2 weeks

249. Finding the perfect house for our family the first day out (it was actually the first house we looked at)

250. That the girls have adjusted so well with the move

251. Being closer to family and friends

252. Our experience with the Marine Corps

253. Meeting the most amazing women in NC -- the military wife is, by far, the strongest type of woman I know

254. Experiencing civilization again (even if our checkbook doesn't count this as a blessing)

255. Babysitters close by

256. Living close to 4 adorable little cousins who my girls LOVE

257. Getting plugged into this new city (slowly, but surely)

258. Finding an amazing pediatrician

259. Meeting a sweet woman in my Bible study whose son just deployed with the Marine Corps -- she allows me to stay connected, while I hopefully give her some kind of guidance from my experience

260. Learning how much Houston has to offer for young ones

261. Running into an old friend on a dark street while trick-or-treating (more to come on this story!)

262. A friend in NC linking me up to an inspiring mother in Houston

263. Facebook allowing me to keep in touch with all our military friends with a click of a button

264. The power of connections

265. That people actually still read my blog after my hiatus

Cheese, please

While staying at the in-laws before we closed on our house, Emily discovered she could open their refrigerator with no help...

and help herself to cheese whenever she wanted.

Spider, spider everywhere

One of Emily's favorite songs right now is the itsy bitsy spider. Really, anything that accompanies hand movements or dancing is right up her alley. Between singing the song and reading the itsy bitsy spider book my mom got her, spiders are on her mind. You can imagine her excitement when we pulled up to Hobby Lobby and she spotted a spider hanging out on the roof.

Oh, so close!

A new chapter

Oh my goodness. We are still alive, I promise! A lot has been going on in the Wetzel family since we left North Carolina, and I have so much to share. The Lord has been doing some awesome things in our life since the beginning of the year, really. We didn't know the direction things were going, but He seemed to wrap it all up pretty well in the past couple of weeks. It is so amazing to stand back now, look back at the past 10 months, and stand in awe of His power. The Lord has been way too good to us and we do not deserve everything we have been blessed with. But isn't that always the story?

I am so overwhelmed with everything I want to share. I guess it will just have to come out over time. As to what we are up to now... Soon after getting to Houston, Daniel got a job with BP - Alternative Energy. He was hoping to break into the wind energy industry, so we were both super pumped for him to get this job. We also found a house, closed, and moved in an just about record time. I sort of feel like a blob right now because all I do is think about the house. It is definitely an upgrade (space-wise), so I am trying to figure out how to make everything work in a bigger house. I want to get everything done with the house, so my brain can finally start thinking about other things, but unfortunately we are lacking the funds. I need to learn some patience and just slowly do a little at a time. It is a lot easier said than done, though. There are more important things than decorating a house -- like spending time with the Lord, influencing my children, and finding some friends in this new town. Hopefully I can make some strides in the right the direction these next couple of weeks, including updating this blog.

The girls are changing like crazy. It is amazing how much faster your second child grows up! It doesn't help when she is doing things twice as fast as the oldest. Olivia was sitting up at 4 1/2 months and started crawling before 7 months. Geez. How am I already to this point where we need to baby proof everything? Emily is such a sweet little girl, and we have been having so much fun together. She is such a loving, helpful sister. I could not ask for two girls that love each other more. It is so special to see their relationship grow. I hope they are always best friends. And before you laugh at that last sentence, let me just say, I know it is possible.

A lot more updates to come, including starting up Multitude Mondays again. I got off track when Olivia came and have been meaning to resume my blessing posts ever since. So many blessings have come our way that there is no way I can acknowledge them all, but I will try!

An attempt in dressing ourself

We are busy, busy, busy over at the Wetzel house right now. Although we are attempting to move ourselves, we are paying for movers to load the moving van. Most of our belongings are packed and we are finishing the last few boxes before our help arrives on Thursday. My mom flew in yesterday, and we are so thankful she is here. It is a lot easier to pack and take care of two children now!

I had a lot of posts planned about everything I am going to miss about this place, but as always, I did not get around to writing them. Soon, hopefully. Since I know that my Aunt Charlene checks this thing religiously, and is probably looking for something new, I knew I had to post at least something...

My mom always told me that I started dressing myself at a very young age. Emily definitely got my stubbornness, and in the past month has taken this joy away from me, as well. Like her mother did at the age of two, she picks out what she wants to wear for the day and puts it all on by herself. I finally learned I have to keep her bedroom door shut, or we go through, at least, 5 outfits in a day. I think we are in need of some dress up clothes now because I am tired of not knowing if her clothes are really dirty, or if she got tired of her outfit, put it in the clothes hamper, and picked out a new outfit.

Although she dresses appropriately now (and even matches) for a while it was touch-and-go...

Boxes and wrapping paper... check!

Oh, the headache that is about to ensue as we attempt to make this move on our own! Although the military will pay for movers to pack and transport everything, if you do it yourself, you can pocket a whole bunch of extra cash. We figure this is a good time to save up, and it is extra exciting because a couple of months ago we become 100% debt free. Yeah!!! It's so nice knowing that we don't owe anyone anything, and all this money we will make will cushion our savings account as we start our house hunt.

One of the first big expenses when moving is buying all the boxes, packing paper, etc. One nice thing about the military is that there are always people moving in and out of the area. I stopped a family a couple of days ago as their movers unloaded the van and asked for all their packing supplies. Today, Daniel picked up the first batch of moving materials. They are an older couple with 20+ years in, so I know we will be more than covered. Check this out...

And to think, there is more to come!

T minus 21 days

I went into our marriage knowing what my life would be like in the beginning... moving to a different state away from family and friends, long stretches of time without a husband, and experiencing a lifestyle unlike anything in the real world. Daniel and I would often talk about how we envisioned the future going. I was prepared for possibly giving my husband up for a career of 20 years in the Marines. I was prepared for the numerous moves, the numerous deployments, the numerous friends that would come into our lives, and I could not wait for the numerous memories we were going to make. We went through our first deployment and I believed I was made to be a military wife. I'm extremely flexible, I don't get worked up easily, and I roll with the punches -- all the things that are necessary for a military spouse. Plus, I am very independent and can handle not having a man around the house.

Then the Lord told us he had other plans.

In 21 days we are packing up and moving out of here. We are leaving our little bubble of a neighborhood, we are leaving all of our wonderful friends, we are leaving our cheap grocery store known as the commissary, and we are leaving full coverage healthcare. We are also leaving this humid state of North Carolina, we are leaving a place with dress codes and crazy slow speed limits, and we are leaving the stupid red tape that is involved in everything military.

In 21 days we are packing up and moving out of here.

Bare with me this next month as our life gets flipped upside down. I will be busy squeezing in doctor's appointments, filling prescriptions, and lining everything up for our move that we will be doing ourselves. Here's to getting every last dollar we can out of the government...

Our big baby

Compare these two pictures. They were taken at the exact same age (pretty much down to the day) for the two girls. Do you see anything alarming?

Emily

Olivia

Emily was not known as a scrawny baby -- Olivia is just that big. If you look closely, you will see that both of their heads start at the same place on the mat. Now notice where there butts end. And check out those thighs!

Just trying to survive

We have been dying over here, lately. A lot of people don't realize that this place is as hot as Texas, although we are further north. We do have mountains in this great state we are currently living in, but our close proximity to the coast (it's 10 miles away) makes us experience completely different weather than most of the state. For example, back during the winter, one weekend it was a pleasant 60 degrees, but if you only drove only one hour west, you would be in the middle of a snowstorm that dumped 2 feet of snow. It was crazy. Although, I would take snowstorms any day over what we have been going through.

For the last couple of weeks, the thermostat in our house has been registering at 80 degrees by the afternoon. Yesterday, we got up to 81. The AC just can't keep up with the horrible heat and humidity. Do you know what 81 degrees feels like inside a house with no air flow? It's horrible. I sit around feeding Olivia in the evening and we are both drenched in sweat. Two bodies close together in the winter provide warmth. During the summer, though, it is a nightmare. I keep forgetting that a lot could be solved if he had some window treatments, which we don't. Even with window treatments, though, there is not much you can do in 95 degree weather when the humidity is at least 85%. My running group went running the other morning and the humidity was over 90%. I learned my lesson and will now be bringing a towel to sit on for the ride home. Humidity is one thing that I can never get use to, no matter how long I live in it.

The only thing that has been saving us recently is going to the pool every afternoon with friends. It blows the whole afternoon and wears both of my girls out, which ensures everyone is ready for bed when we get home, leaving one happy momma. Today we are actually under a heat advisory and weather channel says it feels like 111 degrees here. Perfect.

You will know where to find us...

New adventures in parenting

Waiting for Daddy to deploy

Daniel has been gone for almost 6 weeks. Although it isn't a deployment, any time over a month really starts to wear on you. I cannot wait for him to resume his role as my partner in this adventure we call life, but most of all I cannot wait for him to experience the next couple of months with Olivia. I like to believe that Daniel was deployed the perfect time during Emily's life. Although he missed most of her milestones, there isn't much you can do with a 3-10 month old. He got home just in time to see her take her first step (the biggest milestone there is, in my opinion), develop a personality, and truly interact with us. When he gets back, Olivia will be an age that he never got to experience with Emily. Daniel will soon watch Olivia roll over for the first time, watch her sit up and start crawling, and also watch as she takes part in our family dinners.

It's going to be an exciting couple of months for him.

I can't wait!

Cupboard treasures

I was putting dishes away and found this in our cupboard. The milk had to have been in there a couple of days.

What are children doing to my brain?

We have kids for our own enjoyment

Olivia in Emily's new sunglasses.

This just cracks me up.

Never a dull moment

This game lasted quite a while...

Sorry you have to turn your head sideways.

Relaxing

Emily is finding that there are some perks to having a little sister.

Cinderella, cinderella

Now that Emily is practically two, her official chores in this household begin. We decided to start her off with something easy... cleaning the floors.

Now all she needs is a fairy godmother.