as one ends.....one begins

I have been wanting to type this post for a while but always seem to talk myself out of it. I think for most reading my blog, this is going to come as a surprise....others, it is "old" news.

As the new year is fast approaching a big chapter in mine and Rob's life (and the girls) is coming to a close too. March 1 is Rob's last day in the Air Force. Not our choice, but the Air Force is downsizing and we were one of the unluckily families to receive some sad news one October afternoon. It is called a RIF....reduction in force. Rob has 12 years in and has an outstanding record....but almost half of his year group was cut.....

As we have been dealing with this news, we have also had to switch gears and start searching for jobs, a place we would like to live and plan a future......one that we thought was pretty much planned out for us.

We are not too happy to have to move the girls and up root them so soon after this move, but are thankful to have been this close to family for this short time.

We are not sure where we will be heading, but hopefully all will be figured out as the new year starts.

Alexander Graham Bell stated, “When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas

Just a few pictures of our Christmas in South Carolina!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Happy 1st Birthday!

Happy 1st Birthday to my baby girl, Sarah!

This year seems to have flown by and you sure have been busy. You are growing and changing daily.

We all love to play with you and we stay pretty busy running after you. You are a fast little crawler and we have to stay on top of you....you like to get into things. You can climb the stairs too, not that we want you to.

You drink whole milk and still love to eat. You no longer use bottles, only sippy cups.

You are in size 3 diapers and 12-18 month clothing.

You can say lots of words, but you want to grunt most of the time. Just this past week you said eaa (eat), ease (please) and you will say words after watching us say them, but then won't repeat it for a while.

You sleep really well at night and have finally adjusted to the fall time change, and sleep in past 630am.

You go to bed around 730-8pm and most nights don't wake up.

You are not a fan of naps, but will give in when exhaustion hits you.

You finally have a tooth!!

You are not feeling well and seem to be bothered by your gums, so we think you are cutting a few more teeth too.

You are able to stand for a few seconds without support and we think you will be walking soon! We bought you a little stroller/walker and you have pushed it all over the house.

Your best buddy is Sissy the dog! She loves to hang out with you and try and steal snacks from you.

You love to give Sissy her dog bones.

Sweetest baby sister in the world!!!

We love our sweet Sarah.

Gingerbread houses

My sister gave me a good craft idea....and the cost for three houses was under $5. I saved the small kleenex boxes to use to hold up the graham crackers. I used our left over Halloween candy to decorate the houses. Any frosting will work, but we used white frosting and sprinkles too.

We all had fun and the houses are super cute.

Jenna's house has the suckers on it and I helped with her roof. Meghan went crazy with the candy and I bet if we had not used the kleenex box to hold up the crackers, her house roof would have fallen in:)

This is mine and Rob's house:) He did the crackers and I decorated it!

11 months

Sarah is 11 months old today!

Wow, it seems like these 11 months have just flown by.

She is a busy little lady these days and it is hard to get her to stop for a picture.

Sarah is in 12-18 month clothing, size 3 diapers and I will guess she is right around 20 lbs.

She doesn't have a check up until 12 months and then we will have all her stats to share.

Sarah loves to eat and has finished nursing (stopped this week because I had no milk for her).

She drinks organic whole milk and is getting better at drinking it every day. She likes to fill her mouth up with it and half of it spills out...

Sarah is still eating baby food, but eats most of what we eat too.

Sarah is a fast little crawler and likes to pull up and stand all the time.

Last week she stood on her own for a few seconds!

Sarah likes to look at books and loves for us to read to her. She will actually stop and listen (for a little bit).

Sarah has no teeth....I'm sure they will start coming in soon and will probably come in all at once.

Sarah loves her sisters and Sissy the dog. She likes to play with the big girls and bugs the dog!

Sarah can say a few words, Momma, Dada, Sis, baby, and lots of other sounds.

She really loves to scream still...we are working on that.

Sleeping isn't going so well, Sarah wakes up in the middle of the night, thankfully she will go back to sleep if I put her sassy in. She likes to wake up at 5am. She isn't a fan of naps either.

Sarah loves to laugh and smile:)

Sarah is looking forward to spending her first Thanksgiving at her Memom and Papa's house this year!

Love and smiles from baby girl:)

fall leaves

Biltmore

Happy Halloween

10 months old

Look who is 10 months old!!!

What has she been up to this past month....or should I just type what she hasn't been doing!ha

Sarah can sit up on her own, cruise the furniture a little, still army crawls and is always on the move.

Sarah is 19 lbs 9 oz.

She is wearing size 12 months clothing and size 3 diapers.

Baby girl loves to eat and has tried all kinds of food. She loves to feed herself and make a mess.

Sarah has finally started sleeping through the night. She goes to bed around 745pm and sleeps until 6am. Sarah still takes two naps a day too.

Sarah likes to talk and says a lot of words and makes funny sounds all the time.

She likes to grunt when you tell her no. Sarah likes to say, "hi Da" and "hi Sis".

Sarah has recently starting standing up in her crib and then likes to lift her leg and acts like she wants to climb out. It looks like we may be ordering the net/crib cover soon:)

Sarah has the sweetest little laugh and is happy most of the time.

She likes to be involved with the girls and loves to watch them play.

Sarah likes to wave and will try and blow kisses too. She is so active and busy...she keeps us on our toes!

Can't believe her first year is going by so fast.

Show us your Life~kids rooms

This week Kelly's Korner is showing nurseries and kids rooms.

I am showing my three little princesses bedrooms.

This first picture is Sarah's side of her and Jenna's room.

Jenna's favorite color is orange so I bought her this comforter to make her side of the room her style.

Jenna wanted to share a room with someone (well Rob and I) so we put her in the room with Sarah.

This next picture is Meghan's bedroom. She is 8 and loves having her own room. She wanted a blue room but since we are renting we decided to keep the room painted as is and just work with it.

I still have more decorating to do in Meghan's room but I was very excited when I found her curtains. They match her comforter but didn't come from the same store:)

Boo in the Zoo

Greenville, SC Zoo

My three sweeties:)

Apple cooking

Jenna, Meghan and Sarah with their apple creations!!

We used cookie cutters to make the pie crust into Halloween shapes...

added apple pie filling and baked them.

I think ice cream is the perfect side for a little pumpkin shaped apple turnover!

This is my apple pie! It is so good. I over stuffed it with apples and it spilled out all over the oven, but it was worth the clean up!