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.