Christmas Vacation

There is a video at the end of this post :)

Our Christmas trip was MUCH better as far as driving goes. Both ways it only took 6 hours each way. Unlike Thanksgiving where it took 9.5 hours. The kids were much better this time too. When it got to the point where they were extremely bored, we put a movie on the laptop and had it positioned to where they could still be rear facing in their car seats. I was very happy we didn't have to turn them around.

We left on Tuesday the 23rd. Thankfully Clint got off work really early so we could get ahead of traffic. We got to our destination around 6:30.

Christmas Eve we spent with his parents and just relaxed. Up until dinner time anyway. Yeah, so those of you that followed my blog last Christmas, you'll remember that Kayley ended up in the ER for several problems and it turned out to be Roseola. Well, this year she decided she wanted to visit the ER again. Oy. Most kids can safely play with cardboard boxes, the world cheapest toys for toddlers. Not my kids, nope. Instead, Kayley went to reach in the box and fell into it. The flap on the box then sliced the inside of her mouth and lacerated the upper frenulum. The flap of skin between the to front teeth that connects to the lip. Well, she cut that all the way back to her gum line. I was worried about infection and her teeth. There was blood all over, which is to be expected with a mouth injury. I wasn't worried about the blood.

So we got to spend 4 hours at the hospital only for them to tell us that we jus needed to keep her mouth clean. Um, anyone that has kids knows that they put everything in their mouths. So keep it clean, uh...yeah right.

The next morning we had Christmas gifts and the kids got a ton of toys. Then we went to some other relatives for dinner and then went to another one for pie.

The best part though...Clint's brother Bob came home from his deployment. He was supposed to be at Ft. Bragg for inprocessing stuff, and could only get the day off. So we all told Clint's mom that Clint wasn't feeling well and that he would go back to the hotel to get some rest. He was really making the 2 hour drive to go get Bob and bring him back to surprise her. All the while we were convincing Sharon that we would go see Bob the next day. She had no clue. When Clint came back and she saw Bob, she was in tears and so happy to have him home safely. Unfortunately Bob couldn't spend Christmas with his wife and son, since they are in New York, but at least he was able to spend it with us.

Friday we didn't do much. More family came over that we visited with.

Sat. was the big day for the kiddos. We got to go to the Transportation museum. The kids had a BLAST!!! They were running around saying "Train train" "All Aboard!" "Car" "Truck" "Plane". We even got to ride a train for a little bit and the kiddos were so excited.

We came home Sunday. We expected a ton of traffic, and were surprised when we were home by 4:30! I'm glad we didn't spend money on plane tickets. By the time we would have had to be at the airport, parking, waiting for flights, the actual flight, etc. We would have already been to our destination. Now we know that Thankgivings are the worst with traffic because everyone gets off the same day. Unlike Christmas where people travel on different days throughout the break.

The kiddos birthday is coming up! They'll be 2 years old!!!! We don't have anything planned though. Last year they were screaming for both of their parties. So this year, we'll just keep it simple.

Kayley regressed with her potty training while on vacation this time. She would pee a tiny bit in her potty, but within a minute of putting the pull up back on, she would soak it. She is doing better now, I think she got used to going in the pull up as though it was a diaper, so she is back in undies again.

Wed. we will be starting Kaiden on the potty! Clint has several days off in a row, so we figure we should take advantage of that to get Kaiden used to the concept of a potty.

So here is the video of Kaiden sleeping while eating his pickle on thanksgiving. Sorry it took awhile to get around to it.

My fellow M.O.M. tagged me...so here goes...

Ok Heather, here are the answers to the questions:

1.How long have you been together? We have been married for almost 5 years come Feb. We have been together for 7.

2.How long did we date? We "dated" for 4 months prior to getting engaged. Then we were engaged for 11 months prior to getting married. When we started dating, we really only dated for about a month, then we got orders to both deploy to Iraq in 2003. We were both in Germany at the time. So the remaining dating period we would go to work at 4 am and not get off until around 11 pm. Then we would go grab a bite to eat and head to his barracks room where we would fall asleep on the couch watching a movie. We never did get to do fancy dating. Prior to getting engaged in Kuwait, our version of dating would be to get our wonderful MREs (Military food rations) and go sit in his tent watching a movie on his laptop.




3. How old is he? 38, he just had his birthday on the 9th.

4. Who eats more? LOL, it depends. Sometimes I have a huge appetite, but for the most part he eats more.

5. Who said, "I love you," first? He did.

6. Who is taller? He is, by 8 inches :P

7. Who does the laundry? I do. But he helps me fold.

8. Who does the dishes? He does the evening dishes. I do the morning and lunch dishes if there is a bunch. But there usually isn't. I cook dinner, so Clint does the dinner dishes.

9. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? He does in this house. It really depends on where the bathroom is. I don't like him tripping over me when he gets up for work in the morning. So whichever side of the bed is closer to the bathroom he gets.

10. Who pays the bills? I pay them. The last couple of times I let him, we were almost overdue.

11. Who mows the lawn? Clint does the backyard, the military has a lawn company that does the front.

12. Who cooks dinner? Mostly I do. There are some days where I don't feel up to it, and Clint makes mac'n'cheese or something that doesn't require a whole lot of effort :P

13. Who is more stubborn? I had to laugh at this one, no comparison really. I am by far way more stubborn than Clint.

14. Who kissed who first? He kissed me first I'm sure. I am very shy in that department, so I am pretty sure that he always had to make the first move.

15. Who asked who out? Well, it kind of played out like this. We had some mutual couple friends. Apparently Clint had asked about me to them, but seeing that he was an NCO (an enlisted army officer) and I was merely a PFC (um, very low on the totem pole), he was worried that he would get in trouble for approaching me. I had no idea he was interested in me. I saw his picture on our friends fridge and asked about him. Then they went on about how he really wanted to ask me out etc. Through them we both agreed on going to a mini Oktoberfest in Germany and that was our first date.

16. Who proposed? OMGOSH! He did, but he left a lot to be desired :P See, we were on the border of Kuwait and Iraq the day the war started. Him being all studly like, came up to my ambulance I was working in, and he leaned up against the vehicle, not even on his knees, and his exact words were "So, you wanna get married?" As though he were asking if I'd like a soda or something. I have never let him live it down :P I gave him 7 days to think about it. Then I walked up to him and simply said "Yes" he looked at me funny and said "Yes...what?" I explained "If you don't remember the question, then I can't help you" well, he about died from excitement.

17. Who is more sensitive? It depends. I swear he has as many mood swings as I do. I love you babe :) He holds a grudge longer. He'll let me do about 10 things that tick him off, and I'll have no idea what. Until he starts snapping at me. Then I'll realize, oh boy, I must have done something about 6 months ago that I never apologized for. Like I could even remember what it was. We have tried to get him to work on this :P I explained that it's a whole lot easier to just talk to me if I have done one thing wrong, because by the time he finally spits something out, he can't even give me an example of what I did. He just feels angry still. I'm on the other end of that spectrum. I get ticked off easily, but within a couple of hours, it's no big deal. Even if he owes me an apology, I don't care. I figure getting an apology is just going to make us both more mad. So the majority of the time i just drop it. I get more angry over one thing and Clint holds a grudge. So I think we're about even though :)

18. Who has more siblings? Again, no comparison. He has 2 bio, 3 adopted. I have 6 step, 2 adopted, and 4 biological.

19. What were you doing ten years ago? Dec. 1998. Uh... Well, let's see. I was a senior in High school. I was working at PetsMart. That's about all I remember :P I was pretty busy.

20. Five things on my to-do list: Oh goodness, I have no idea.

21.Things I would do if I was suddenly made a billionaire. Well, I would pay tithing on that. Then, I would get a huge ranch with some seriously nice facilities. We would also have an 18 hole golf course for Clint. A small lake for boating, you know, all kinds of fun stuff. I can dream can't I? :P

22. Three of my bad habits: Yelling at the kids when I'm mad at them. Horrible lack of patience. I don't clean the bathrooms as often as I should :P

23. Five places I have lived: ROFL, is it limited to just 5? OK, I'm going to go with more. CA., AZ., UT., LA., TX., MO., CO., DC., Germany, Kuwait (for 3 months), Iraq (for 6 months).

24. Five jobs I have had: Only 5? Too bad, I'm listing more. Dog/horse groomer, Video store worker, PetsMart, Natural Wonders (kind of like the Discovery store), Rescue Services International (EMT), I was even a rent-a-cop, and an Army Medic.

25. Things people don't know about me: Well, I guess that I was an artist at some point. I sold a couple of my watercolor paintings. Never continued the hobby though. I used to work on movie and TV production sets as a medic too. I met a lot of actors and actresses.

Clint's Birthday

Things have been going well lately. Not much to report. Still having good and bad days with potty training. The kiddos got pics taken with Santa at the mall a week ago and I was able to send out some cards of them. They aren't great pics though. The kids refused to smile, they preferred the deer caught in headlights look.

Clint had his Birthday on the 9th. We had plans to do stuff, but we were waiting on his gift to arrive by UPS but they didn't even get here until after 7:30 at night! So our plans were pretty much shot by then. We did spend the day relaxing (Clint was off work early). We had pizza and I baked Clint a cake. No worries, I don't plan to become a cake decorator. It was yummy either way though :)

The flights to go down to NC are crazy expensive, so looks like we're driving again. UGGGGHHH!! I don't mind being there, I love being with Clint's family. But the drive, wow.

So here are a few pics. Enjoy.

Thanksgiving...

Well we survived Thanksgiving! I was really worried how Kayley would do with the potty training while we were away from home, but I was worried for nothing. Kayley did even better on the potty there than she does at home! She had a few accidents, but that was because she drank a TON! She pooped several times in the potty. What was the most impressive was on the way home. She said poopoo and stinky a couple of times. So we pulled in to a gas station parking lot and put her on her little potty in the back of the van...door closed of course so no one could see. She pooped all on her own without us trying to push her. She just sat down, pooped then stood up with arms raised yelling "I POOPOO, I POOPOO!!!"
She has become a modest pottier (not that that's even a word). She will go much faster when we leave her in the bathroom to do her business. So we have been doing that. We no longer have to use warm water to get her going. She'll hold her pee a lot longer now too. We have been potty training for about 3 months now. But we took 10 days off in the beginning. So I guess only 2.5 months or so. I definately think by Christmas she'll be done. Sure she'll have accidents every now and then, all kids do.

The drive to and from North Carolina was HORRIBLE!!! Apparently every person in VA. goes to North Carolina for the Holidays, and they all go at the same freaking time! It is technically only supposed to be a 6 hour drive, 7 with stops. Oh no, turned out to be 9.5 hours. For only 3 days to actually visit. I guess the one good thing of having gas at $5 a gallon is that there isn't as much traffic. Now that gas prices are down, so are the IQ points of drivers. Apparently 90% of drivers slept through drivers training when they talked about how to MERGE in traffic. It's not complicated people, 2 lanes go to one, every other car...MERGE! Not "get as many people over as possible before the person takes a break from texting on his cell phone and realizes he should go forward now." I mean seriously, we moved 3 miles in one hour. Construction on a holiday weekend, alright dumbies. Seriously, the spot of construction was all of 100 feet. Yet it caused an hour worth of delays. If we were in our F-350 dually truck, our butts would have driven on the side of the road all the way. 4 wheel drive is awesome!

The kids had a great time, and the grandparents did too. I was so stressed, I could have been in Hawaii and been grumpy. I am a control freak, duh. I am not used to my kids having free reign of the house. Not that it was a big deal, there were 4 adults and 2 teenagers that kept an eye on the kids, but I still felt like I was constantly trying to make sure which kid was where. Hard to relax like that :P

The grandparents were amazing with the kids. The kiddos had no problem being left with them so Clint and I could go out on a much needed date. I got to go to my fav restaurant and watch a movie I really wanted to see (Twilight). Clint was a good sport :) We then got to walk through Walmart. As bad as that sounds, I really enjoyed it. You see, out here, the Walmarts are BEYOND ghetto. So being able to walk through a nice walmart was really fun. Out here I have to stick to Target. Not as much variety as Walmart has. Oh well.

We also took the kids to see the new movie Bolt. The kids did amazing! They watched the whole movie and Ky only had to get up once to pee. But that's the night she had tons of pee accidents. In order to bribe her to stay seated she got to drink as much juice as she wanted. Boy did that backfire!

I didn't take any pics because I just wanted to relax and enjoy the moment. Not like that happened, but still. I did get a great video of Kaiden eating a pickle in his sleep. I'll find a way to post that somehow. It is hilarious!

On the way home I really felt like jumping in to a meat grinder would have been more tolerable. Traffic was backed up for over 120 miles. Again, the idiot drivers not knowing how to merge. For 3 hours we were in rush hour stop and barely go traffic. Almost 10 hours of driving total. Kayley screamed for most of that. Kaiden did good, he didn't start screaming until near the end of the drive. By the time we got home I was so angry and tired. I am so glad the trip is over. I loved being at Clint's parents house. Next time we are flying down. I'll gladly pay $250 per person to fly. I don't think my nerves could take any more traffic!

We're going down again for Christmas. At least now we have all the kinks worked out. I know what to expect so I won't be as stressed this time.

Thank you Sharon and Rick for having us! We really did have a good time. Plan on picking us up at the airport next time :)