November at a glance

Now that Thanksgiving is over, I feel free to deck the hall and am so excited about it.  I can’t wait for Christmas!

But first I need to start the newsletter with Halloween.  I was was excited for it because Valin was getting old enough to really enjoy it, which is also a reason why I’m way excited for Christmas.  If you remember for the last newsletter, we went to the hospital the Saturday before Halloween and found out that Bosto had ear infections in both ears.  Valin was also getting a cough, but we carried on and went to our ward’s trunk and treat anyway.  Valin was “Woody” and Boston was the cutest bumble bee ever seen.  Since Halloween was on a Monday, our ward was torn between sticking to the Church handbook where it tells us not to plan church activities that would interfere with family home evening, and keeping the trunk and treat tradition.  So what we ended up doing was joining the chili feed and trunk and treat of the other ward we share the building with.  We all had fun and Valin just loved running around with all the other kids.  Then we were a little late getting our car into the right parking lot, so the trick or treators didn’t even make a dent into our candy bowl.  Valin did great asking for candy and he was such a sweetie and made sure that Boston would get some too.  He is such a wonderful older brother because he really does take care of her.  Once I was sharing my food with Boston and he asked me if I was being a good big brother.  He loves her so much.  

Next this month we had my friend Jessica Baum take some family pictures.  I’ve wanted some for a while since we didn’t take any last because Patxi was in Iraq.  I had planned it earlier, but it rained and Boston woke up with a fever.  And then we were to get snow later that week, so it was then or never.  It was such cold day and to top it off, both Valin and Boston had runny noses.  But we did it anyway, and dressed the kids in four different layers of clothing, and had kleenex to wipe their noses between poses.  Besides the cold wind, it was a beautiful day.  Boston was done about halfway through and Valin wouldn’t sit through much of anything (which is way we only got two good pictures of him).  So by the end, I was doubtful that we got good pictures.  But then Jessica put them online and on facebook and I think they turned out really well. 

Then, the next day Patxi was tickled pink to finally be able to buy some cows.  The was more unexpected paper work then from county program supplying the grant to up which was slowing up the process.  But this month he bought them, put them on Uncle Reed’s property, and came home smelling like them.  The smile on his face and the twinkle in his eye more than made up for the smell and tracked dirt into my house.  This whole week of Thanksgiving, Patxi has been feeding them since Uncle Reed was out of town and a few times he has brought the kids.  They loved the experience and Boston even almost said, “cows.” 

Next was stinking Daylight savings time.  When I was in high school, I thought it was great because I got to sleep in.  But with kids, it’s a totally different story.  On facebook, one of my friends put a picture of a man passed out on a cough with a captions of: “Day light Saving, a week of not getting enough sleep because kids and pets can’t read clocks.”  So for a week, Patxi and I were close to zombies.  Plus, who really like the fact that it gets dark at four o’clock? We were going to my parents for dinner one day and Valin commented that it was dark outside.  And then, with a yawn, he said, “I need to go to bed.”  And it was 4:30 in the afternoon!  

During the following week we had a Relief Society dinner which I helped plan since I was on the Relief Society board.  I’m over the lesson portion of our meetings and I had an idea to hand out a “Gratitude Journal” to everyone.  I told the sisters that gratitude can greatly increase our happiness and is a commandment from the Lord.  I share with them some personal experience and insight about gratitude I learn since Patxi was home.  When he came home, we were both totally blissed-out, absolutely beyond happy,  and I think one of the main reason was because we both felt appreciated by the other.  I wanted to keep that feeling so I determined to keep that gratitude for him.  So when he would track dirt into the house I would say to myself, “Well, at least he’s here.  At least he’s not in Iraq.”  And it would put things into perspective and my frustration would melt away as gratitude filled my heart.  After I shared this experience with the sister, I instructed them to write every night in the gratitude journals something that happen that day which they are grateful for.  I’ve been doing okay keeping the journal because i get pretty busy.  But when I have written, an amazing peace fills my soul and I am filled with appreciation for the wonderful things I have.  

That weekend, we watched William Shakespeare's “Richard III” that my father directed at the college.  He placed it in contemporary big business.  So instead of being about the throne and kingdoms, it was about being Richard trying to be CEO of a large company.  It was very interesting.  And then we went to Jacob Mitchell reception in Pilot Rock.  It was so beautifully decorated and they looked so happy. 

Then the next week we started potty training Valin.  It went so different then last time.  It’s amazing what eight months and a Lighting McQueen training toilet will make.  It took him wetting he’s pants twice and then he got it.  He even remembers to do it at his grandparents house.  He only now has trouble now get to the toilet for a BM.  I don’t know what to do to help him but to keep trying.  Any trick or advise to help, I am all ears!

Then next weekend we went to pilot rock for a visit, Patxi’s National Guard yellow ribbon, and so Peni and Dennis could babysit while we went to the temple.  I was little nervous because Valin had just a few days of potty training, but he was doing so well.  Anyway, everything went really well.  I decided not to go the yellow ribbon, which turned out to be a good thing because there was nothing for me to do.

Next was thanksgiving week.  My mother’s father came up from California which was a great achievement for my mother because he hates snow and well, we live in north eastern Oregon.  But he came anyway and he got to see both of my sisters and meet Boston for the first time.  She won him over in just a few minutes.  It was a great visit.  He took the kids to the store and bought their future Christmas and birthday presents.  He was very impressed at how quite and well behaved the kids were at the store.  I mostly think that’s because they are awesome kids and I’ve giving them lots of practice, because this last year, I had to take them to the store.  They got pretty excited about their gifts, and I was too.  He wanted to get us something for Christmas too, and I really didn’t know what to ask at first.  Then my vacuum decided to suck, or really stop sucking, so I asked him if he get us a vacuum and he did.  The rest of the week was filled with laughter and way too much food.  Patxi was stress for most of it because he had a 10 paged paper due the following Monday.  Which turned pretty stressful on Saturday because Patxi needed a full, undisturbed day to write his paper and my sisters and mother had planned a girl’s day in Boise so I needed to be with the kids.  So we scrambled around for an alternative option.  I stayed home and we went out to dinner as our girl’s night.  It worked out pretty good because I got to have dinner with Seren and her best friend Hannah.  It was so fun to see them.   

Thanksgiving 2011

This year, Thanksgiving was at the Wheelers and we all had a wonderful time!!!!

Food,

Food,

And more FOOD!

My Grandpa Lemmond (mother's father) visited us from California.  It was so great to see him.  He had never seen Boston, so I was so happy for his visit.  With Grandpa here, Patxi had someone to watch football with. :) 

It was so fun to be with family!  

We all had a great time!!!!

Potty Training adventures

So here I am, sitting on a couch cushion outside of Valin's bedroom while he naps.  It's day one on our potty training adventure and all is going well.  I changed him into his underwear and showed him his special "McQueen"toilet that I was bragging about for a few days now.  He was way excited about it, especially when he pushed down the handle and a revving engine sounded.

The first two releases never made it to the toilet, but the next two started in the underwear but finished in the toilet! I was excited about the progress.  Then, while we were having lunch I was marching back to the table while Valin followed me and he totally made the connection between feeling the need to go and then going to the bathroom because he asked to go to the bathroom!  He only went a little bit in his underwear, which showed that he realized the need to hold it until he gets to the toilet.  I was so impressed, shocked, and so happy.  Then the next time, he was playing so, he released first in his underwear and got the rest on the toilet.  I know that it's going to be tough for Valin to make the potty connection while playing.  Valin has always been blindly focused on playing and has a hard time doing anything else.  But then he went a few times on the toilet as we got ready for his nap.  While I was in there wanting for him to go, he asked me to say "Vroom, vroom" while he pushed down the lever to sound the engine and whenever I did he would then release in his toilet.  I guess "Vroom, Vroom" are his magic peeing words.

So now I'm here, sitting at his bedroom door, listening for any movement to indicate that he needs to go to the bathroom so I can help him realized it's okay to wake up and go.  I'm a little worried because he is a pretty hard sleeper.  But I guess we'll see what happens when he gets up.

Wish us luck! and please keep us in your prayers.

I need your help to choose which one is best!

 So I need to pick one image that's the best of the family.  Which one is better:

A:

B:

C:

Family Portraits

So here are some more from our photo shoot:

Now tell me, which one is the best of Boston? This one:

or this one?

Which is the best of Patxi and me? This one:

or this one?

Family pictures!

Last Wednesday, the last day before snow fell on the Grande Ronde Valley, we decided to brave the cold weather and take family pictures.  I asked Jessica Baum to take them for us and I think they turned out so well.  We still need to decided on the ones we want to buy, but Jessica put these on Facebook and I wanted to share them because they were so great!

Happy Halloween!

I was excited for Halloween this year because my kids were getting closer to the age where it's fun for them, plus Patxi was here.  It was going to be great.  Valin decided that he wanted to be "Woody" from Toy Story (probably with a little coercion from mom because I had no idea how to make a "Lighten McQueen" costume).  So I went to D&B planning on getting a great cowboy outfit with the same colors as "Woody" and I was sadly disappointed.  So I finally bought a tan hat from D&B, a yellow plaid shirt from Bugs and Butterflies, borrowed a red bandana from my mom, and used the boots from last year -luckily they still fit.  I bought a sherif badge, by I forgot to put it on.  Other then that, everything this was pretty good, especially since he probably won't remember it.

Then, for Boston, my mom found the cutest bumble bee costume.  She looked soooo cute!  Especially since she's starting to walk now.  It's still kind of a "Frankenstein" walk, so it made everything so much cuter. 

Pictures of them together.  I couldn't get them to look at the camera at the same time, the little stinkers!

There was a chili feed and then a trunk and treat for our ward and the other ward we share the building with.  This is Boston enjoying her chili. 

   It was a pretty fun night, even though we had just started to treat Boston's ear infection and Valin had a cough.  But that didn't even seem to phase them.  Valin was such a sweet brother because at every trunk, he would make sure Boston got some candy too.  It was so cold that I had to bundle the kids up with almost anything I could find.  I think they had about three to five layers on by the end.  We also bought way too much candy and had tons left over.  I got so sick if it, because I would eat it even if I didn't want it because it was there.  So I put the candy in bags and hid them in the car so we could give them away.

And Happy Birthday to my older sister, Jen and Grandpa Lemmond!  

October at a glance

      This month started with a whole lot of stress.  Buying a new car isn’t easy.  We did a little research and then thought that we should go test drive so we could decide what we like.  The first day, we just planned on driving to the Tri-cities and finding some dealerships to test drive vans we thought were good to look at.  We could have used our time much better, even though we actually ended up test driving and placing a bid on the van we eventually got.  We even got sucked up into committing to a van we had never test drove so that they could bring it there.  We  didn’t like it that much, but kept our word and came later to test drive it and make our final decision.  That Friday we went back and decided that that van wasn’t what we wanted and kept looking.  But after that experience, we decided that we better put forth more effort and do more research.  We finally decided on what exactly we wanted, and first called around to see if the dealership had what we wanted and only then would be visit them.  So our third visit to Tri-cities went very well, we found two that we wanted and finally made a prayerful decision to get a 2007 Kia Sedona with 63k miles.  We did the bartering game and paid about what we thought we could.  As apart of the deal, they promised to fix the sticky lock on one of the sliding doors, so we paid for it and left it there so the service department could fix it.  Well, it took about a week and a half before we could take it home because the part was on back-order.  So now it’s the end of the month, and we’ve used it twice.  It’s really a great van and we hope it’ll serve our needs for a long time.   

The other big thing that happened this month was smashing my pinky finger on my left hand in the car door.  We had just arrived at Walmart and I got Boston out of her car seat.  I was holding her in my right arm and I guess I was a little slow at moving my hand away in time.  At first I only realized that something happened because my hand was stuck as I turned to walk away.  Then I felt it!  I had to put Boston down so I could open the door and release my finger.  It felt like I had ice crawling from my finger tip up my arm and then my fingernail turned purple.  There was a few times were I felt like I was going to faint, however there was nothing to do but get what I needed at the store and then go home.  It took about a good week before it stopped hurting and now I’m just waiting for the nail to fall off.  

Yesterday Boston woke up from her nap with a fever and a nasty cough.   Today I took her to the hospital when her fever continued and found that she had ear infections in both her ears.  It was a little bit of a shock because she didn’t have a runny nose or pulled on her ears.  Valin never pulled his ears either, but I was banking on some sort of the outward signs.  I’m glad I took her in when I did.  Luckily the hospital gave us some antibiotics so that we didn’t have to wait until the pharmacies opened on Monday.  I hope she gets better soon.

Since we have wood floors in our house, we lined the path we walk on with every extra rug we had so that Boston would have a better walking surface.   She really took to walking this month.  She even stands for all of her bath because she’s seen the advantage of being able to walk around and discover things around her.  She’s still a little shaky on her feet, but she is a walker now.  This month she also started to do this thing where she verbally enjoys her meals.  I have to admit, I love to hear her loudly say, “Mmmm!” as she eats the food I’ve prepared and put so much effort into.     

Valin seem to have turned into a parrot this month.  I often here him say things he’s heard us say or heard from a movie.  One time, as Patxi was getting ready to leave for school, Patxi told Valin after he ask where he was, “I’m in the bed room.”  Valin says, “I’m in the bedroom?” Patxi says, “No, daddy’s in the bedroom and Valin’s at the table.”  Valin replies, “No I’m daddy.” Patxi said, “are you named daddy? Is your name Patxi?”  Valin said, “yes.” We all laugh and Patxi says,  “Oh, you’re name is Patxi and not Valin?” and Valin replies, “Of course, silly daddy, I’m Patxi!” It was quite cute.  Then at dinner the other day he randomly says, “Are you my conscious?” It took me a little while to realize that he was quoting from the movie “Finding Nemo.” It’s interesting what things kids remember.

He can sing all the words to “I am a child of God,” “Popcorn Popping,” and “Steppin’ time” from “Mary Poppins.”  He loves to act like animals and reminds us how a lion sounds and eats.  The other night before bed he and Patxi were pretending that they were cats and so I wasn’t surprise that he was still pretending when it came time to say his prayers.  We were kneeling down and amongst his moewing, I asked him to start saying his prayers.  He said, “mom, I’m a cat!” and I said, “Not right now, sweetie, it’s time for prayer.”  So then I ask, as I do every time I help him say his prayers, “How do we start?”  And then Valin said, “Meow, meow, meow meow” in the same tone of voice as his usual prayers. “No, Valin, say ‘Dear Heavenly Father.’”  He replies, “Meow meow meow meow.”  Which I’m sure is cat language for “Dear Heavenly Father.” After suppressing a laugh, I told him to be a boy and said his prayers.  Then today while I was trying to get Valin to finish his lunch, he grabs my smashed finger.  I told him to be careful because I had an “owey.” He looked at my finger and asked if I wanted him to kiss it better.  After he did, he then got a sad look on his face and started to pat my face and ask if I feeling better.  When I realized that he was doing what I’ve done for him when he get “owies,” I smiled. I have such a sweet boy. 

Here's a few pictures from this month:

He is such a handsome boy!

He went a little wild with the stickers Grandma Wheeler gave him.  He put them all on one side of his face, even covering his eye.  Silly boy!

Boston woke up with crazy bed head!

We tried spaghetti squash for the first time.

And we loved it!

Wahoo!

September at a glance

This is a taken form our newsletter we write each month about our month:

(Patxi started writing it) I’ll start with my trip home starting in August. The unit replacing us is a Guard unit from Kentucky and they started arriving at the very end of July so that they were all there by about the 5^th of august. We had one mission which was my last up to Habur Gate, this was also the destination of the very first mission I did back in December. Their truck commanders came on the trip with us so they could see how we did everything and they saw pretty much everything from break downs of each group we escort, KBR trucks, Green trucks TCN’s trucks and even our own. We had to also stay an extra day at Habur Gate because of our own breakdowns so they were able to see how to handle Battalion when they get mad at us for things we can’t control. The only thing they didn’t see fortunately was and IED. For the last month and a half there I was probably averaging about four hours of sleep a day mostly because they changed our mission leave times to two and three in the morning and because we had to get everything accounted for and signed over to the next unit. By the 16^th of august we were done with our hand over and were living in tents waiting to leave. This was a very boring hot time because about half of the time the air conditioning and or internet didn’t work. There was a not very good gym without AC that I went to and to help pass the time I would take the 45 minute bus ride over to the main D-FAC to eat instead of going to the close one. On the 29^th we loaded up our gear and flew in a C130 down to Kuwait where we stayed a couple days and then flew to Shannon, Ireland to Bangor, Main, to Joint Base Fort Lewis McCord outside of Tacoma, Washington. From landing they said it would be less than 14 days probably six to get done with demobilization paper work and medical checkups. On my sixth day I was getting ready to sign my final paper so I could go home the next day when they came in and said that there were problems with about half of the soldiers’ medical paper work so for the next couple days we went and waited in line hoping they would figure it out and let us go which happened on our 11^th day and I rode the bus home to La Grande calling Jess on the porch to surprise her and ask if she would help bring in the bags. 

If it’s okay with Patxi, I’d like to into a little more detail because I think it’s a hilarious story that I want my kids to remember.  So like Patxi said I was first told on Monday night that everything was set and ready to him to leave on Wednesday morning.  All He had to do was sign that ridiculous DD214 form taking him off active duty.  So then I get a call Tuesday evening telling me that his paper work didn’t get into the system.  I felt like my insides had shattered into small pecies.  It was bad enough finding out that the moment that I had look forward to wasn’t happening, but also no knew when I would get my husband back.  So I did what I could to put myself back together, prayed, got Papa Murphy’s, and watched “Mary Poppins.”  There’s nothing like greasy pizza and the song, “Stepin‘ Time” that can raise the spirits.  So then Wednesday passes without anything progression and then finally Thursday Patxi texts me and tells me that he signed the pivotal form and hopes to come home the next, if they find transportation.  I tld me that he would finally find out wehn he was coming home at his formation, Friday at 1:00 ing the afternoon.  I felt that they wouldn’t be sending them home so late in the day since it take about seven hours to get here.  My feelings were confirmed when Patxi texts me friday afternoon, “Well, I have good news, looks like I’ll be seeing you Saturday.”  Now what would you conclude from this.  I totally thought that they couldn’t get a bus from them until Saturday.  And to tell you the truth, I was livid!  Usually I don’t boil over and lose my temper, but I did.  I was so furstrated at the people who got Patxi’s paper work wrong and could find a bus to send my husband home.  I pretty much lost it when I thought another day was going to go by without Patxi being home.  It’s hilarious now, considering that Patxi was receiving my abusive texts as he was exactly on his way home.  Anyway, so Patxi got my parents in on his surprise and they delivered a car to the armory, while I was having a girl’s night.  I finished cleaning up, putting the kids to bed, and changed over the laundry, when I sat down ready to talk with my friend Shanel and my phone rang.  I got up to answer it didn’t know what to think when I heard Patxi say from my phone and the front steps, “Can you help me with my bag?!”  I was so surprised! I was unbelievably happy but didn’t know what to think about not being told about something so crucial like him coming home.  I felt ashamed for losing my temper earlier and a little crushed because my plans for his home coming were ruined.  But those feeling quickly melted away when I realized that I had my husband, the father of my children, and the love of my life back with me.  Valin hadn’t fallen to sleep yet, so we got him up and he was so happy to see his daddy again.  We accidentally woke up Boston so she wasn’t as excited to see Patxi but the next day she was.  It’s an extreme understatement to say that we love having Patxi back home, but I don’t know how else to say it. 

Anyway, back to Patxi...        

From then on it has been getting more hectic every day. I decided to go to school for a term at EOU while I put in an application for the paramedic program at Chemeketa that starts in the spring. I hadn’t signed up yet so I applied for winter term and talked to them hoping to get in this fall which took some explaining and fortunately they let me in, so then I had to figure out the classes I would take. First I was waiting for an assigned counselor. When I didn’t have one by the Friday before classes started so I called Kenn, my father-in-law who teaches theatre at EOU and he helped me sign up for History 201, Applied Anatomy 311 and Intro to theatre because it was the only one that would work time wise with the others. For some dumb reason it seemed 80% of the classes offered are at 9:00 in the morning. The application packet is 20 some pages of paper work showing I meet all of the prerequisites to get in which has to be done a certain way and turned in by the 12^th of October.  We hope and pray that I can get into the spring class, if I don’t then we will move to Salem and I will start on the fire program as soon as I can and then do the other.  During this time I have been trying to buy cows using the small business grant offered to Union County. This is taking longer than expected because they haven’t answered my e-mails so I don’t know what to do next. We are also looking for an affordable reliable minivan as well as a good, working pickup. Adam Kerns also called and lets me work for him whenever I can, helping put sprinkler pivots together. 

It is great to be home and with family and hopefully I will see you all sooner rather than later. It is fun going on walks around the block and to the park with Valin and Boston. By the end of the walk Valin will be carrying two hand fulls of sticks because he can’t pass one by. Boston wants to walk only holding on to one hand which is slower so it is like herding cats trying to keep Valin somewhat close. He has learned to stop at the end of a block and wait for us to cross the street. Boston has been taking three or four step by herself here and there for the last week now. She loves to do things by herself like eating and playing. Jess does a great job of teaching and caring for them and it is wonderful to see their love and trust for her. 

(Jessica) This last weekend we traveled down to Slat Lake because my parent got tickets to watch General Conference at the conference center for Sunday morning and my sister’s hadn’t seen Patxi since he left last September.  I was way excited because it had been about 10 years since I’ve seen it at the conference center and Patxi had never been.  Well, come Sunday morning and we ended up leaving way too late.  We got to the Center right when they let the stand-byes into the empty seats.  So, needless to say, we didn’t get seats but ended up watching it in a little theater off on the side.  But during the intermediate hymn we decided to go and enjoy the beautiful weather on Temple square while listening to Conference on the loud speakers.  It was a great way to listen to it and would have been better if we had brought a picnic with us.  Even though we were disappointed, we still really enjoyed ourselves. 

goal adaptation

Since I just found out that Patxi will probably come home in the beginning of September instead of the middle or end, I decided to change my weigh lost goal to weighing 102 lbs. by then time Patxi gets home. I still want to reach 110 lbs, but that just won't be healthily attainable in the time frame I have now.  Sorry if I disappoint anyone, but after I made the decision, it just felt right.  So now it's back to the grind stone.

A day in the life of a stay-at-home mom...with a deployed husband

Not that I'm trying to be narcissistic or anything, but some people wonder what it means to be a stay home mom, especially with younger children and a deployed husband.  My sister-in-law published a post like this a while back and it seemed like fun.  So here is a play-by-play of my day as a mom.

4:00 am -I hear Boston crying on the baby monitor.  Now this is an estimated time because I didn't have my glasses on, but I do know that it wasn't light yet.  I wait a second to see if she'll go back to sleep or find her pacifier herself.  She doesn't so I rush in the kids room hoping to get there before she wakes up Valin.  I put her pacifier back in, and she still cries.  So I get her up, make a bottle, change her diaper, wrap her back up, burp her, and put her back to bed.  Don't know what time it is, but I hoped that this night mean she'll sleep in a little longer.

7:30 am -She did.  I hear them wake up on the monitor.  I recognize Valin crying, so I scramble to get dress and say my prayers.  I walk in to see Boston smiling and very proud of herself for pulling herself up on the side of her crib.  I go to Valin to see what's wrong and find that his diaper spilled over a little bit.  I get him out of bed, then Boston, and quickly change Valin diaper and pjs.  After that I grab Boston and head to the kitchen to make her a bottle, while Valin is crying to have me hold him too, "Hold you me!" I grab him and walk to the living room and set him on the couch.  I make Boston's bottle and set her, while eating it, on the couch as well.  I quickly sign into Skype so Patxi knows we're up and can call at anytime. I set Valin on my lap, because he is still crying, and ask what he needs.  I guessed that he just needs food and feeling crummy since he's still getting over his cold.  I say "we can watch a movie after breakfast" to his request, and that produces more sobbing.  Just then Patxi calls us on Skype and I sadly tell him that we better get breakfast first.  He said that that was fine because he can go to dinner himself.

8:00 -I take the sobbing Valin into the kitchen to help me make breakfast, which is mostly him just siting on the counter, asking for things he shouldn't have.  I get my new favorite cereal (Original Fiber One -15g of fiber and 0g of sugar), Valin gets oatmeal and a breakfast fruit bar, Boston gets her Cheerios, and we all get bananas.  I round everyone up, put them in their chairs and ask Valin to give the blessing.  He can't because he is still sobbing and insists that he sits on my lap.  So I say the prayer and we dig in.  Valin doesn't look twice at his fruit bar but slowly comes around to the oatmeal.  It's funny, but he really like oatmeal.  Anyway, Boston is doing great and only screams when she see the Banana that I haven't given her yet, which I quickly give her.  When I finished, I read the last half of 1 Nephi 18 of the Book of Mormon out loud to the kids for our family scripture reading.  I finished the chapter and try to explain what we should have learn from the storm and journey to the promised land.  Then finally we finish, I wipe down the kids and their chairs and we go back to the living room to talk to daddy and watch a movie.

9:00 -I call Patxi and we talk.  From the couch Boston sees Patxi and I could swears says, "Da Da." She is all smiles for that man.  We talk about each other's day and both wish he was coming home sooner.

10:00 -We say our good byes and I go to put Boston down for her first nap.  Since she didn't eat very much before, I fed her two ounces of formula and put her down.  Well, a half hour later, she is still fussing, she I go in to put her pacifier in and burp her again.  She had a burp.  When are they able to burp by themselves, again? Anyway, I put her down and then go outside to play with Valin

10:30 -Valin and I go outside and water our little garden (one tomato plant, two rows of bean, and few spurts of lettuce and spinach).  We then play with two big bouncy balls and large sticks we found in the yard.  I take them away after several warnings and then him hitting me in the face.  We go inside after he starts to attack the plants our neighbors have planted.  "If you can't play outside by the rules, then you can't play outside."  It was good timing, since it was time for lunch anyway.

11:00 -Valin helps me, well until he loses interest, reheat leftover enchiladas from last night.  I cut strawberries for him and make a spinach salad for myself.  We say a blessing on the food just in time for Boston to get up.  I was a tittle miffed that she only slept for barely an hour, but got her up and made her lunch too.

12:00 -After force feeding Valin his enchiladas, which he totally loved last night, I clean them up, put Boston in the living and start helping Valin unwind for his nap with a book and then singing a lullaby.

12:30 -I leave Valin sleeping, or somewhere near there, in his room and plop down on the couch.  I'm not surprise that I fell sleep quickly since I almost rocked myself to sleep while rocking Valin.  Boston is happily playing with the toys she can have free reign with.

1:00 -I wake up to Boston trying to pull herself up on the couch and then I go to make her a bottle so I can put her down for her second nap at 1:30.  We lay together while she eats and then play around afterwards while I burp her -not wanting a repeat of this morning.

1:30 -Nap time. By now it's around 79 degrees outside and 75 inside, so I don't know what to do about warping Boston up like I usually do.  She's been in her oneies all day.  I decide to wrap her up like usually, but place a fan on low facing her crib.  I burp her tons, sing, rock her, and leave to let her fall asleep.

2:00- I go back in there to see why Boston is crying at the top of her lungs.  I burp her again, since she has her pacifier.  Nothing.  I check her diaper.  Nothing.  Since she is starting to get the cold Valin is just getting over, I clear out her nose with a "brain sucker." Nothing.  So I just wrap her up, rock, sing, and put her back to bed.

2:30 -Boston is finally quite in her pack-and-play which I place in my room.  So I turn on my P90x workout video, "Cardio X." It's a 50 minute combination of Yoga, Kenpo (karate), Plyometrics (jump training), and Core Synergistic.  I sweated tons and had a blast.

3:30 I quickly jumped onto the treadmill and ran for 30 minutes.  It should have been longer, but I had to still shower and dress for an ariun I needed to run by 5:00.  If I went any later, they would have been closed.  Since one of my kids is usually napping at that time, I ask my dad yesterday to come over so I could just quickly go.

4:00 Boston gets up.  A little sad that the combination time of her two nap today came to a little over 2 and 1/2 hours.  I barricade Boston in the living room so I can jump in the shower and get ready.

4:30 My dad gets here and Valin is still sleeping so I quickly go and come back by 5:00

5:00 Valin wakes up, and I play with him a little bit in his room while Boston comes to join us.  We play together until I realize the time and move to the kitchen to get dinner going.  Since it's around 80 degrees inside, I only wanted to use the microwave and not the oven.  So I had a sandwich and yogurt, Valin had hot dogs, Boston had beans and Cheerios, and we all had mixed vegetables.  It took some time because I was interrupted a few times with cries from the living room.

5:30 We sit down to eat and it got quite for a few minutes while everyone chews.  Valin and Boston showed little interest in their vegetables, but I surprisingly had to help Valin eat bites from his hot dog, the one thing he requested.  Boston finished her baby food and screams for a taste of Valin's hot dog.  Are they safe to feed a 10 month old? I then totaled my calorie intake for the day in my food journal and did a touch-down dance.  1576.  Just under my goal of 1600 a day.  Anyway, we finally finished and I sent them to the living room so I could clean up.  I really don't want ants this summer.

6:30 I finish just in time to give Boston her night-time bottle and send her to bed.  Normally I would put the kids to bed at the same time, but since Boston got up early and Valin late, I was going to put Boston down first in my room and then move her over to the kids room when I went to bed myself.  She finished her bottle, I vigorously burped her, sang, rocked, turn the fan on, and put her to bed.

7:00 Boston is still fussy, so I go in to burp her and/or put her pacifier back in.  Since I can't find anything wrong with her, I re-wrap her and put her down.  She cries when I leave.  Valin and I go into the kitchen to do the dishes, which is him mostly playing with the water.  He did push the On button on the dishwasher. though.

7:30 I brush Valin's teeth and decided to go ahead and get Boston and put her to sleep with Valin like I do every other night.  I burp Boston (yes, she had a burp), change Valin's diaper, say our prayers, and I read them a book; Boston wrapped up in her blanket on half of my lap and Valin with his blanket on the other.  After we finish, "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" and "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom," I turn the lights off and start to sing my lullaby I sing every night, which is "I am a Child of God" changed into the second-person tense (so it's like, "You are a child of God, and he has sent you here...").  Boston falls asleep and I put her in her crib, and then continue to sing and rock Valin, like I do every night. After a while Boston fusses, so I get her and rock them both again.  I then put them both down in bed, with much protest.

8:00 I leave the kid's room and sweep and vacuum the floors.

8:30 Boston is crying at the top of her lungs and I go to see what's wrong.  Of course Valin is up and wants me to rock him too.  I burp Boston again, wondering what in-the-heck is wrong with her that's stopping her from going to sleep.  I guess that since she is so hot, she unwraps herself, but then can't sleep because she is use to being wrapped up.  I also miffed to find that Valin is bare-buttomed since he threw his diaper on the floor.  After I put a new diaper on him, I place Valin and Boston back in their beds, determined that they fall asleep.

9:00 Start this new blog post and noticed that it soon got quite.  *sigh*

10:00 Now here I am still writing this post and realizing that for such an uneventful day, it's a pretty long post.  After this I will get ready for bed and hit the sack, ready to do this all over again tomorrow.  I hope it was interesting for you to read, if you can get through it of course.  There's really nothing special, but now you know what it's like to be a stay-home mom of young kids and a deployed husband.

I caught It!

I've been trying to get Boston's laugh caught on camera for a while now and I finally did it.  It is the cutest thing to hear. Enjoy!

Patxi's home for his Mid-term leave! Part 2

After the museum, it was nap time and they both actually took them, something I didn’t expect.  So Patxi and I took that opportunity to go shopping.  It was so fun because Patxi is such a crack up!  I don’t think I laughed that much in quite some time.  At one point I was literally bending over in laughter because Patxi had picked out a princess gift bag to put Petra and Mikey’s present in.  After I said that I didn’t think Petra was into Disney Princesses anymore,  Patxi said, “No, this is for Mikey.  Who wouldn’t want a bag with five hotties on it.” Man, I’m still laughing about it.  

  We all went to the family dinner to meet Mikey’s family next.  They were so wonderful and open to us and the food was great.  After that, we drove to the church in Rexburg so Patxi could help set things up for the reception.  To my absolute horror, I was going to have to put the kids to bed by myself, something I vowed I would not do during Patxi’s visit.  I had had enough of that and I wanted to get my rightly earned break.  But Sara’s need was so much greater.  Things got pretty stressful, I hear, and Patxi didn’t get home until midnight.   

As soon as we could the next morning, we went back to the church to help with more reception needs.  There, I burnt my hand on the iron and watched how completely Valin’s candy detector worked.  I walked into the gym to see Valin grabbing something from the food table.  I saw that Sara had placed the bags of candy there.  So I asked, “Valin, are you eating candy?” seeing that he is trailing wrappers.  He exuberantly nodded he’s head and said, “ah, huh!”  At least he didn’t lie about it, but we did have a quick lesson about taking things that weren’t ours.  Once everything was beautiful, we left to get ourselves ready.  I’m sad to say that we were almost late.  But we did make it in time to see Dieter and Bridget leaving because their recommends were expired.  I felt so bad for them, having just gotten there after driving all night.  

The sealing was amazing and yet hilarious.  The sealer, with his broken english, was very funny.  Words cannot explain how happy I was to have Patxi there with me, to be reminded of the covenants we made together more than five years ago.  I was so blessed to have that happen! It was beyond incredible to be there with him.   It was great to be in the temple, celebrating Mikey and Petra’s love for each other and the hope of their new life together.  Then, we witnessed a miracle because the sun came out for the pictures. 

We all went to the reception to help with the finishing touches next.  We stopped by my grandparent’s house first to grab a few things, stopped at subway, and then went to the stake center.  By the time we parked, Valin had astoundingly fallen asleep and Patxi volunteered to stay in the car with him so I could go help.  Later, when I got Boston to fall asleep and it grew close to the reception hour, I went out to get them and the car was empty.  I thought that maybe Valin was awake and they went on a walk together.  So I walked all over the church grounds only to find out that Tevye had forgotten to tell me that Patxi took Valin to the mother’s lounge to finish his nap (or so they both could nap).  So then for a good hour I didn’t really know what to do because everyone I was responsible for was sleeping, and Sara’s flawless planning made me job less. Of, course, I stuffed my face with amazing cheesecake, pineapple, and candy.  I wish my family had been awake because we missed taking pictures with Petra and Mikey.  But they did make it to the cake cutting where Petra begged Mikey not to get her dress dirty.  It turned out to be a very quiet exchange, mostly due to Petra’s death threats.  Soon after that, the speedy take-down was on.  What took days, week, and months to plan and produce had to be taken down in an hour.  When we were done, everyone started to gather up their families.  Bridget and Valin were in the hallway and Bridget said something about trying to find Leo.  The next thing I see was Valin, bursting into the gym, yelling, “Leo! Leo!” at the top of his lungs.  And when he spotted him, he ran straight to him and said, while pointing, “I found him!”  It was pretty cute, I have to admit.  

We took the opportunity to snag a family photo since were were all together and well dressed.  These were the best we could get.

Next, we said our good-byes and headed to my grandparent’s to clean up after our quick morning and afternoon.  They didn’t get home from their 14 hour drive from Arizona until 9:30.  But since it was our only night to visit with them, we decided to play pinochle anyway.  I won the first hand, and then, finally, Patxi won by quite a large margin.  We left as soon as we could the next morning and we made it home for bedtimes.  It was a great trip and we were happy to be there and see family.  

These are pictures of Valin playing with Grandma's marti-gra beads. 

The rest of Patxi’s visit was more informal.  We did go up to Pilot Rock to watch Tice’s baseball game and have a family BBQ.  Because of that, Patxi got to see everyone member of his family (since Dmitri and Nicki couldn’t make it to the wedding), which I know made him so happy.  As always, we had so much fun.  We left Sunday morning so that we could still go to our home ward for church.  There are many people there who still thought that I was husband-less, plus I wanted to experience going to church in our ward as a complete family.  I felt so good.  Everyone was so happy to see him, and I’m sure I couldn’t hind my joyful glow either.  

The days following were of us being a family at home. It was greatly needed because the kids and I got nasty colds (so yucky that’s I’m still getting over it).  It was wonderful to have Patxi there to get up with the kids too or watch them while I slept in.  I appreciate his help so much more since I’ve had to live without it. But the dreaded day of daddy’s departure did arrive.  Because he had to be at the airport by five in the morning we decided to get a hotel room for that night.  

Theses were at Olive Garden.

These are of Valin playing with Boston"s pants.  What a funny boy!

        We went out to eat, swam in the pool, and kind of had a “last hurrah.”  I didn’t want Patxi to leave in secret or in the dark of the night because I thought Valin would handle it better if he knew what was happening.  I’m sad to say that it didn’t really work out that way, and for days afterward Valin still asked where his dad was.  Sometimes when the house would creak or when he would heard voices from the outside he would ask if it was Daddy.  It was tough to keep the tears back, but each time I explained that he had gone back to Iraq and that he loved him here, there and everywhere.  I miss him so much too. 

it's been a little under a month since he left and it's gotten easier.  Once I got s handle on things and got motivated, and humbled myself to ask for help from the Lord, everything seemed to get better.  Hey we only have about 4 months left.  I can handle that right?