Let's see, I'm going to attempt to re-blog some of the stuff I so rudely lost last night.

Josh has grown up so much in the past year. I was looking back at some pictures from when I watched Harley, Cooper, and Christian. It's amazing how much Josh has grown and changed. It's been almost 2 years since those pictures were taken, and it's like he's a totally different person now. He is talking so well, other than his new found habit of adding "uh" to the end of words. He asked for a pieceuh of cakeuh, or a glassuh of drinkuh. It seems like we are constantly correcting him and telling him to talk right. It's frustrating, but I'm confident it's just an attention getting phase. I tend to ignore it, whereas James is highly irritated by it. Josh is the big instigator still. He enjoys messing with Seth, to the point where he gets injured. He is a great big brother for Trey though. He loves talking to, tickling, and kissing on Trey at every opportunity. He can make Trey giggle better than anyone else, and I suspect they are going to be close. It's quite adorable to see them together. Remember how difficult Josh used to be to get to bed? I remember so many nights of being up til 3 or 4am, battling him to sleep. Now he asks to get ready for bed. We read the Brush Your Teeth Please book and then he heads off to get ready. He brushes his teeth, then comes down as a "Jammie Cat" and meows at me to let me know he's ready to be tucked in. We read three or four stories then say our "payer" aka prayer, and he goes right to sleep. I am so proud of the amazing boy he is becoming. Here's a pic of him talking to Trey.


Sethers is definitely in the terrible twos, he'll be lucky to make it to three, stage. It seems like all the things that used to drive me nuts about the kids I provided daycare for have come together to bite me in the arse in Seth. He's a biter, a kicker, a hitter, a head butter, and a sasser. He is also a lover, a snuggler, and absolutely adorable (which is definitely his saving grace ;)). He talks so well, and is constantly cracking us up with his exuberance. Like the other night when he came up and gave me the big brown doe eyed look. He stood in front of me wielding those big brown eyes, and an innocent look and said "Mama, I want cake." I told him to go see if Daddy could resist that face. So he walks over and gives Daddy the same look. He said "Daddy, I want cake." James fell for it, and made the mistake of saying "you want some cake?" to which Seth replied, all excited "Yes, I do! Yay! Come on! To the Kitchen! Yay, I get cake". LOL he so played Daddy on that one. Then there's the sassy moments, when I tell him to not touch the tv and get the "Don't give me that tone, Mama" and stern look. Or when he hits his brother upside the head with a toy, and before I can even scold him he says "I'm going, I'm going. I'm going to time out, cause I hit. I'm going, I'm going" and rolls his eyes. When I tell him to say sorry he says "But I'm not sorry. I'm going to time out". Then when he's tired of sitting he'll say "I'm sorry. I'm ready to be nice now" (Which generally lasts for about 2 minutes, or until Josh starts antagonizing him again.) He is still our bedtime challenger, refusing to sleep in his own room. He falls asleep with us, gets moved to his bed, and is back in our bed by morning. Someday he'll sleep on his own.


Trey has had a rough couple of weeks. Between teething and the side effects of the antidepressants I've been taking he's been a miserable and ornery baby. Gone is the sweet, happy, good sleeper, and in his place is a non-napping, over tired, screaming baby. He still can't tolerate any dairy, as I found out when I was stupid this past weekend and indulged. He was even more miserable, with vomiting, rash and intense screaming for about 24 hours. Poor baby. He can give the best smiles though, smiles that can light the whole world up. He loves his new "hoparoo" as the boys call it (a jumperoo) and bounces his little heart out. He is rolling all over the place now, and starting to try to get his little feet underneath him to push himself forward for things. I bet he's crawling in a month or so. He is such a sweet baby and I'm lucky to get the chances to snuggle and love on him. He finally has a good latch, so that's a big relief.



We are for sure heading to Texas next year. James is deploying in Feb, and as soon as we get our tax refund this year I'll be purchasing plane tickets to fly the boys, our animals and I to Mom's place. It's going to be great for us, a chance to really save some good money for our second vehicle, be totally out of debt, and to not lose my sanity here all alone with the boys for 8 months. We'll meet back up with James once he gets to TX next Oct/Nov. We had a few scares with the assignment. They failed to tell James he needed an extension to his enlistment to take the position, so when he didn't get the extension his orders were cancelled. Now that he's taken care of that, has his extension, the assignment has been reinstated, and we're just waiting for the final orders to be dropped again. What a hassle, but thankfully he stayed on top of the situation and we know what is going on now. So, uh, yay, last winter in the snow!!



James got to see President Obama talk last week. It was a great speech. He unfortunately was stuck in the bleachers behind the president, so he didn't get to meet him or shake hands with him as he'd been told. But, he may meet him tonight as he is doing security for Air Force One when it stops for refueling again. I grabbed some pictures off adn.com. You have to look closely, but James is in these pictures. He is in the top row in the first one, and in the second one he's just to the right of the podium.



James lost another good friend this week. That makes two deaths in the past few months. Both Adam and Rory were fellow members of the EST (Swat) team at Hill AFB, and James is taking Rory's death even harder than he took Adam's. I think I am too, because Rory took his own life. It's so hard to understand, to try to accept, why someone would take their own life. What kind of demons was he carrying around? Was there anything we could have done to prevent it? On top of the loss my heart breaks for those who are grieving the loss of their good friend. Kevin (Buck) considered Rory to be his best friend, and after the hellacious year he's had this has hit him so hard. It's also really hard for Mikey (Salansky) who was Rory's roommate, and the recipient of the goodbye letter. My heart breaks for them, and I pray that they can find peace. I also pray that Rory has found the peace he so desperately sought in his death. Here's a picture of Rory with Seth from Christmas Eve 2007.