Next ones on the way!!

Suprise!!! We are having another Gummy bear!! I know not really a surprise. I think more people where surprised it didn't happen sooner. This pregnancy been a lot harder then my others. Lots more nauseated and I've been suffering from hip and pelvic pain as well as the sciatic nerve pain.  It's been making life very interesting and much harder to stay active. I've been seeing a physical therapist who has taught me many things to help strengthen them. But i won't be fully cured till much after Gummy bear joins us. As to lady bug and Tiger they are growing like weeds. We are potty training lady bug and it's going. Slow and steady.  We seem to do really good in the morning and then she loses interest or doesn't pay as much attention in the evening time. We will get there though all parents do adventually. Tiger is finding his voice again and learning new words daily. They both love helping build, cook, sometimes clean and helping you to stand or walk. Daddy bear is finding life after the military much tougher than he expected. He has been able to find a prn job that could potentially go full time. Crossing fingers. :) Well batteries about to die and no where near an outlet so signing off till next time.

Fallen off the blogging wagon

Wow its been to long since I've written on here. Lady bug and Tiger have sure grown up!! I can't believe all that they can do and say. Every day they surprise me with something new. They are my sunshine that keeps me moving. We are pregnant with our third and for now we call it Gummy bear. Hubby has yet to be able to find a full time job but is still working on it. In the mean time I am impressed with his mr. Mom skills. He has done more then I ever expected him to. He is my rock and everyday I wonder how I ever did it with out him. (That's not to say that I don't have moments that I want to show him how it's done or have him back off. But I find he normally surprises me then). I love my family and though life is always crazy and busy it's my crazy busy life. :)

Finally an update

Well its been a year since I've really updated my blog. So you all are probably wondering what in the world has all happened during that time. Well, when I last left you we were getting ready for the hubby's first deployment. That started in June. But before he left we celebrated Lady bugs first birthday!! We did a butterfly theme and it turned out really cute. Hubby and I made the decorations along with the cake!! Shortly after that he left. I flew back to the states to deliver Tiger here. Everyone asks what's the hardest part of having him gone, and all though there are many, I've come to the conclusion that the hardest is wanting to tell him when the kiddos have done something new and not being able to share those experiences with him. He definitely has it the hardest. Anyway we spent the months with him away finding new activities and recipes to keep us busy. I have come to love pintrest. It kept me sane while he was away. Although its really thanks to my calling in the Young Women's, The Lord and my cute kiddos that got me through having my better half clear on the other side of the world.

Well after almost a year apart we got to spend a beautiful, fun filled month together. Hubby finally got to meet tiger and lady bug just doted all over him. Now that's not to say that there weren't rough moments. We got to spend the first few nights in a hotel and it was nice just to be us as a family. We spent much of our time going to parks, the aquarium, the zoo, and the children's museum. It was so much fun to watch him and the kids.

Well I'm signing off for now, I really had planned on writing more. But, I think it hits close to home.

Quick update!

Wow, I have really fallen off the blog wagon. Its been a year since I've posted. A big part of why is the hubby had his first deployment. He's home safe now!! I have so much I need to update and plenty of pictures so in the next few weeks I hope to be able to get things update. Sorry this is a short post but I'll update with much info soon!

April:

This month has been a busy one, full of fun family trips, sun and rain. We started out the month with
a trip to Garmisch, Germany to a hotel called Eldelweiss. We left bright and early on the first and took a 5 hour train ride. It was amazing. The train we rode in was exactly like the ones you see in movies, with tables, closed off rooms and everything. Lady bug enjoyed the train ride as well, looking out the windows and seeing her reflection every time we went through tunnels. Garmisch is right at the foot of the Alps. As we got closer and could see the mountains we began to feel like we were closer to home. We hadn't realized how much we both missed the mountains till we were surrounded once more by them. It was breathtaking!!! Eldelweiss is a hotel built for the soul purpose of helping military families over here have vacation opportunities. It’s part of a base and being such they have a day care that is on the base that vacationing families can use so that the parents have some time to. On that note, Lady bug had her first time in a day care and absolutely loved it! After having sometime to ourselves we took Lady bug swimming for the first time. She had a blast. Her and daddy just loved going fast and trailing through the water. After spending two gorgeous days there we sadly had to pack up and head back to Bamberg. Friday the 6th, we boiled a dozen eggs and had Lady bug help us dye one before bed and then mom and dad finished them. Saturday, Mom came down with the stomach flu and so Dad got to take Lady bug to the neighborhood Easter Egg hunt. Lady bug only found one egg; but she sure loved walking around with daddy. Easter Sunday we enjoyed church and then came home and "hid" Easter eggs filled with cheerios, while Lady bug napped. No surprise, we found that she preferred shaking them with the cheerios in it then eating the cheerios. The following week Dad took block leave, basically he got spring break. We spent the week playing in the sun and just relaxing. Mom had a doctor's appointment during that week and so Dad was actually able to come. Here in Germany they do an ultrasound at every appointment, so even though I was only 17 weeks along we were able to find out that we are expecting a beautiful baby boy, which will be named Tiger. One of Dad's friend's girl came and visited during this time and since her birthday fell during that week, we were able to join them on a date to a Chinese restaurant where

we tried, rabbit; duck; crocodile; and kangaroo. The next day we went to a carnival that was in the area.Lady bug got to ride her first merry-go-around. She was laughing the whole time. Dad got to practice his shooting and won Lady bug her first Barbie (which of course got put away for later) and Mom got to try her hand out at popping balloons with darts. The next week we were given 3 days to get out of our 2 bed apartment into a 3 bed apartment. Luckily they were next door to each other. The other plus we found, besides an extra room, was a working dishwasher. That Saturday we had the opportunity to take some family pics! Lady bug has 3 new favorite things this month, the first is walking (using mom's or daddy’s hands to help, or her walker), her blankies (doesn't matter which one, but one has to be close by), and dolls. She's also become quiet the talker and especially loves doing so in our stairwell, where it echoes. She's growing too fast. Dad got to enjoy a good game of nerf guns with the guys and a couple of golfing trips. The last Friday of the month we got to watch a friend's band perform. Saturday we took a trip down to Graf, an air force base about an hour or so away. You may wonder why this is such a big deal, well they have a taco bell on their base along with a bigger store, closer to our Wal-Mart at home. It was a good Saturday.

Well, that sums up our busy month.

I'll post some pictures soon, but for whatever reason it's not working today.

A lesson learned and My testimony!

I feel like I need to share this today. I was browsing Lds.org and came across this video. http://www.lds.org/pages/temples-are-a-beacon?lang=eng  

Before watching this I had not fully understood some of the trials that Thomas and I had gone through to get married. This helped bring it more into the light. These were my thoughts as I watched the video:

"May we make whatever sacrifices are necessary to attend the temple. . ."Tom and I made a sacrifice to be married civilly when, from no fault of our own, we couldn't marry in the temple. We chose to make it possible for us to ". . . have the spirit of the temple in our hearts and in our homes." by not taking the chance of sacrificing our spirituality in the process. In our situation the choice of getting married civilly was a sacrifice worth making so that we wouldn't be tempted to live in sin. "No sacrifice is to great, no price is too heavy, no struggle to difficult to receive those blessings." (Quotes from President Thomas S. Monson)

I have struggled a lot with the decision we made then, always wondering if we just chose the easy way out. I have prayed a lot to Heavenly Father asking for him to help me to understand the trials we went through then and to help me to come to terms with any of the mistakes I made. I’m sure our decision seemed rushed to many of our friends and family and in some ways our final decision was. However, back in March 2010, when the situation first came to light, and since we had been praying that the lord would show us the way and at that moment we knew without a doubt that after all the delays, not being able to move forward until it had ended and not knowing when that ending would come, our choices were laid out in front of us. We could continue to wait it out even though we knew our strength against temptation was weakening with each new delay or we could kick Satan out the door and take the consequence of waiting a year; even if our trial ended earlier. The second choice was and still would be, the choice made.

I know without a doubt that there is a Heavenly Father and that Jesus Christ is his son. That he sent his son down to earth to make the ultimate sacrifice so that we can live with him again. I know that we are given personal revelation to help us along in our lives. I also know that our leaders are given revelation to helps us as individuals and as a whole to become stronger. I know that there is a living prophet on this earth today and he receives revelation from God and holds the keys of the priesthood. I testify that if you pray and study and ask God for your own testimony you’ll find it. I say these things, In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Not such a scardy cat after all ;)

Just a bit of an update! We were able to find the local LDS church and made it there yesterday. Of course us being from Utah, the ward was really small compared to what we are use to. They translated everything; except prayers, in either english or german. So everyone could understand. Everyone was so sweet and welcomeing!

We met a young couple who valenteered to take us out on the town and show us around. It was way nice to get out and have friends who knew what they were doing and saying. Lily enjoyed checking out everything. It is way pretty! It reminds me of old movies!