Growing Up and Getting Cuter!

Sometimes Hayden's three-year-oldness exasperates me.  Like having to remind him of certain things over and over, or tell him to be careful, settle down, slow down, pay attention, listen better...

But then sometimes he surprises me and does something very four-year-oldish.  Like yesterday morning, just after the kids and I woke up, I was feeding Avery and Hayden said he was hungry.  I told him I would make him something when I got up.  He went to the kitchen, found the oatmeal and then asked me where the bowls are.  Since I was not close enough to point I tried to describe which cabinet they were in and he climbed right up and got one.  He asked me to open the oatmeal packet but then he poured it in the bowl, got the milk out of the fridge, open it, poured it and put it back.  Then he got a spoon and stirred it.  Then he put it in the microwave and asked which button to push.  He got the microwave started, took it out when it was done and sat at the table to stir and let it cool.  He was done with his breakfast before I was done feeding Avery and I never even got out of my chair.  I can't believe how grown up he is getting!

He wanted to make it again this morning and since I was less preoccupied this time, I took a picture.  He was very proud :)

He also got a new bike two days ago.  A little 12 inch with training wheels.  It is a "Cars" bike and has Lightning McQueen all over it, which he loves.  It took him a few minutes to go forwaqrd consistently with the pedals, but then he was off!  We went to Target today and found a LIghtning McQueen helmet in his size so we could venture out a little more.  He probably road two miles today.  He is doing great!

Little Miss Avery is still doing fantastic.  She is already outgrowing some of her three month clothes.  I took a few pics during play time this afternoon.  I wish the flash had been off in this first one!

This next one should be captioned "Who you calling chubby?"

We tried the bumbo for the first time today.  She did well at first but tired quickly, especially after having been on her tummy for a while.  I thought this first one was funny and for some reason reminds me of my mom a little, as she startles easily, is very expressive and, well, makes funny faces sometimes.  I guess like mother, like daughter, like grandaughter!

"Will someone come hold my head up please?"

We will be moving into our new house tomorrow and are so excited!  We will be without internet access for a few days, but will be back with an update and house pictures soon!

My Happy Girl!

These latest pictures are not the best quality, but you do what you can with a point-and-shoot camera and a ten week old who normally just gives me this face when the camera makes an appearance:

But here are a few more glimpses of her beautiful smile!  We are blessed to have such a happy baby.

By the way...anyone have any tips on how to rotate a picture before publishing a post?  They used to be automatically facing the right directions when I added them but lately they are aligned funny, even when I took this last picture horizontally.  Frustrating!

An Almost-Four-Year Old's Paradise

There is a lot of construction going on just outside of the building we are staying in here on base.  It doesn't bother us much because they only work during the day, and Avery's bedroom is on the side of the house that faces away from the noise.  Hayden is loving all of the work vehicles and tractors that are so close by to watch.  Today we saw some up close and in action and it was definitely the highlight of his time in Ohio so far.
This is where he started out- the back door to the house:

He later moved outside to get a closer view.  I love this next picture of him!  (side note- look how old he looks!)

He had gotten really excited at one point and made a funny face, but I didn't snap the camera in time.  So I told him to make his excited face again and this is what I got:

He is ALL about silly faces lately.  Or sad faces, or happy faces or grumpy faces or shy faces...its one of his favorite games to make whatever "face" we are telling him to make.  He even turns around and wipes his hands over his face like he is putting on a mask before turning back around for the reveal.  So dramatic!

And in case anyone still thinks I am exagerating the boy's enthusiasm for trucks of any kind, here is a video of his excited dance to prove it:

What can I say?  The boy LOVES trucks!  And his energy is endless.  I cannot count (literally, I lost count) how many people have asked me out in public if he has that much energy all the time.  Yes, he does!  Tiring at times, but I love my CRAZY boy!

Brotherly Love

Before I start in on the main subject of this post, let me begin by asking a question:  Does this look like a $12 haircut to you????

Me neither.  I was one very sad mommy this afternoon when this angel face came walking up to me with a huge grin on his face and butchered hair.  Good thing he is so cute...maybe no one will notice the uneven front or the stray pieces sticking up or the three lines running across the top of his head.  Needless to say we will not be going back to Super Cuts.  Maybe that was our first mistake.  Moving on...

I took the kids to the park this afternoon while Matt was working on the final exam for his latest course.  It was a great park and it had this contraption that kids could sit in and spin around in.  Hayden loved it and spent a while there...

Lately Hayden has been getting some big smiles out of Avery, even making her laugh a little.  She gets very excited to see him!  I have yet to capture it on camera, though I keep trying.  Here is one of him keeping her entertained while I was making dinner, which he is good about doing:

I unpacked Avery's play mat for the first time since we left Idaho and she has been enjoying it.  Hayden knows how to turn the music on for her and likes to lay with her and help her play.

Getting Creative

The other day I took Avery upstairs to put Avery down for a nap.  Matt was getting some things done at the finance office.  When I came back downstairs Hayden had gotten himself inside the carrying case for Avery's play mat.  I thought it was funny so I grabbed my camera to take a picture.  Then we had a conversation about not playing inside plastic bags :) 

For not having most of his toys here he has been doing a good job at entertaining himself and having fun!

Take Two (the Positives)

After I made the last few posts I realized they sounded kind of whiny.  I did not mean to make it sound like we are having a terrible time altogehter, and since there are so many positives that I seemed to have left out, I decided to take two!
In spite of some isolated incidents of attitude problems on Hayden's part, he has done outstanding with the trip, especially while on the road.  He did well entertaining himself in the car and enjoyed playing at play places when we stopped.  He LOVED staying at different hotels every night, and the fact that we were a little soft on the "rules" while there.  He went crazy every night after we checked in jumping from bed to bed and doing flips (yes, he can do flips now).  The first hotel we stayed in was very new and had contemporary, bright-colored decor.  When we got off the elevator, he saw all the colorful circles on the carpet and squealed, "wow, look at all the lolly pops!"  He was always impressed witht the refrigerator and microwave and would usually conclude "this place is pretty nice!" after examinging everyhing.
We taught him to play "I spy" one night while waiting for dinner at a restaurant.  That was a big hit and we played it in the car several more times for the remainder of the trip.
He was asleep when we got to Dayton but when he woke up he said "Know what, Mom?  I actually like this place!"  He said he liked all the trees and flowers and the sky :)  After driving around for a while he started pointing out all of the fire hydrants that he saw.  He was emphasizing the fact that they were yellow.  "Another weddow fire hydrant, mommy (he still has a hard time with that word, but I think it is cute).  After he said "they have lots of weddow fire hydrants here,"  I responded affirmatively and asked what color were the fire hydrants by our old house.  He responded "they were red!"  I think that is what he was notcing, that they have different color fire hydrants here :)
The other night in the hotel room while I was putting Avery in her pack n play her pacifier fell out of her mouth and onto the floor.  I went to the bathroom to wash it, leaving her crying a little in her bed.  When I came back out Hayden was standing over her bed singing "Jesus Loves Me" to her.  So sweet, and he was so cute that it didn't even matter that at the end he sang "next time won't you sing with me" to the tune of Jesus Love Me :)
Avery is still a happy, healthy and content baby.  She has slept for seven hours at night a handful of times and one night she went eight hours between feedings.  It doesn't happen every night but we are getting there!  She is fine being toted around in her car seat, just gets tired of facing the back seat sometimes.  She now is very excited to see us in the morning and wakes up cooing, not crying, which makes it so much easier to get out of bed, even if I'm tired :)  This morning Hayden and I had a great time with her playing in bed after we woke up.  Hayden is starting to make her laugh a little.
Matt and are doing really well communicating, working together and not getting too stressed even though, sadly that has not been the case in previous moves.  We definitely feel God giving us more grace this time and have purposed from the beginning to just be patient, which helps!
We finally moved into lodging on base yesterday.  They actually converted their old base housing into temporary lodging so we are in a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath town home that is fully furnished, has a decently stocked kitchen (dishes and cookware), and free wifi.  Matt has gotten caught up on school work finally.
Yesterday we looked at a home that we really like in the Beavercreek area.  We met the family that owns it (another AF captain) and we really liked them.  We spent about 45 minutes getting to know them after we saw the house.  We were also able to negotitate a great price for rent (even though they were originally wanting to sell) but they might not be out of the house for another month.  They also have a chance of coming back here and would want to move back into the house, even if we are still there.  He says it is "highly unlikely" that he would be moved back here while we are still here but it still makes us nervous.  We only have one more option to see tomorrow afternoon.  It is more expensive, but a bit newer, still in Beaver Creek.  Right now Matt is at the base housing office trying to see if he can talk them into giving us a 4 bedroom house.  Their housing is almost brand new and since we are looking at using up all of Matt's housing allowance in rent and utilities anyway, it is an option we are considering.
Whew!  That was a long one but I am glad that my "happy" post is longer than the one where I was whining and complaing :)  We appreciate everyone's prayers and well wishes during this whole process- keep them coming!

A-Hunting we Will Go...

The house-hunting search has gotten off to a slow start.  Matt's trip to the base yesterday and the need to find another place to spend the night put a dent in our day.  After that, the first place we visited was not in one of the top areas on the list but priced more where we wanted to be.  We were hoping the area would be an okay compromise.  Not so much.  The next couple of place were a little better but still not really where we see oursleves living.  We decided to narrow our search to Beavercreek, our favorite area (both from what we have heard from others and our initial impression in the city).  Today we saw several homes in that area in the price range we were trying to stay in and struck out across the board.  Too old, or run down, or not a great yard, or a combintation.  Since there are so many old homes in the area some didn't have a bathroom connected to the master or had only one bathroom on the main floor where all of our bedrooms would be, that kind of a thing.  So we came back to the hotel slightly discouraged and decided to go back to the drawing board.  This means maybe considering a couple other areas that we have heard are still decent (Fairborn, which is near the base) and increasing our budget, especially if we want to live in Beavercreek. 
Matt and Hayden took a break to go to the pool here at the hotel and Avery and I have had some downtime.  We will head out to eat dinner soon and do some more searching, then hopefully we will find more options soon. 
Hayden is doing well with everything but having a hard time with all the displacement and car time.  He has an attitude going a good bit of the time and is having serious issues with listening. We are trying to deal with it without losing patience.  We are managing that- but barely!
Avery is starting to get tired of her sleep being interrupted all the time, and Hayden of being told to be quiet.  Matt and I are trying to take everything in stride.
Matt is already falling behind on his schoolwork (he is working on his Masters) and is hoping his professor will give him a break considering all we have going on.  It is difficult for him to find the time considering all the traveling and the fact we are all staying in the same room.  Finding a house soon would be great for many, many many reasons!

Road Trip, Friends and the New Town

We left last Saturday for Dayton and arrived on Thursday.  The trip went great considering we have a 9 week old and an almost 4 year old.  Both kids did splendidly.  We were able to spend about 2-2.5 hours on the road at a time and were stopped for about 40 min to one hour at a time.  We stopped in Omaha to visit some friends that are now stationed there.  We were good friends with them while in San Antonio and have not seen them since.  It was wonderful to catch back up with them and meet their little addition, Jacob.  While there, we went to the Omaha zoo.  I have some more pictures of their family but since they are all sideways and I don't know how to rotate them, I'll share just the few pics I have for now.

The drive was VERY boring in terms of scenery and at times it seemed like we went hundreds of miles without any towns at all.  Not much worth taking a picture of, so there are none...

Our last night of the trip we planned pn staying in Peoria, Il, but got there to find NO hotel rooms available anywhere (no decent ones, anyway).  Come to find out there were three major conventions in town.  Of course there were.  We drove  minutes more and found someplace to stay. 

Our last day of driving was supposed to only be hours of on the road time.  When we were approaching Indianappolis, however, I noticed there was a Chick-Fil-A there.  The first one we had seen yet!  It was a bit off of the interstate but we thought it was worth the detour and figured we would get a tour of the city.  Two hours later when we were sitting  in traffic after coming though downtown at rush hour and waiting to get on the Interstate, we regretted that decision.

When we finally made it to Dayton, we were finding that all the hotels there were booked as well.  (We already knew TLF on base had no opennings until the 18th.)  How could that be in such a big town?  The AF Marathon is held in Dayton?  And its this weekend?  Of course it is.  We finally found a room, just for that night and then had to check out in the morning and find somewhere else to stay.  Happily, we found a place that had a room for two nights and that is where we are until we can move on base tomorrow.

I ahve not seen the base yet but apparently it is quite large and has three areas, A, B, and C and many gates.  Matt said the building where he works is very old so hopefully that won;t be too depressing for him.  The town is definitely all about the AF and there are even jets carved into the cement under the Interstate overpasses for decoration.

We like what we see of the city so far.  It is a lot more green than we were used to in Idaho the past few years, and hilly (in Florida terms, that is) which makes it pretty. 

Once we get more settled and used to the area we will take some pictures to share.

She's a Big'un

Avery had her 8 week check-up on September 7.  she was 23 inches long and weighed in at 10 pounds 3 ounces.  That puts her in the 90th percentile for height and 72nd percentile for weight.  She's a big girl!  She did great at her appointment and even smiled at the Dr. while he was examining her.  She did have to get some shots which was sad, but she only cried briefly and then calmed down when I picked her up.  She was a tad fussy that afternoon and the next day but other than that the shots did not really seem to phase her. 

We are still enjoying all her smiles although I have still not captured some of the biggest on camera.  As my sister says, all cutenes stops when the camera comes out!  Here are some little smiles as well as afull body pic the day of her appointment.  Don't ask me why I cannot rotate it, I do not have time to figure that out :)