Another Year, Another Baby ;)

I know, I know, my last entry was in October. I offer no excuses (except for that whole thing about being a full-time worker, mom, wife, and pregnant lady ;) This year I pledge to blog at least once a week. I’ll add it to my Friday list (right after I do my weekly WAR - weekly activity report for you non-mil types) so I won’t forget! There is so much to write about, but since it is the new year I suppose the thing to do is give a quick run down of everything our family has done this year.

In February, Jocelyn and I flew to Tacoma, Washington to be a part of one of my dearest friend’s weddings (update: they are now the proud parents of a gorgeous baby boy). In March, Tim left me with the girls in Japan to fly back to the States to visit my step-kids and to prepare for our big move! In April, the girls and I joined Tim in New York after the flight from hell (not fun to arrive in the States after traveling for 2 days only to find out that your flight has disappeared - not been canceled, just totally disappeared). A few days later Tim and I jetted off to Denver for my other dear friend’s wedding to her wonderful husband (who got her a bangin’ digital camera for X-mas!). After that it was off on our cross-country trip to LA with stops in Chicago and Albuquerque to visit my sister and parents. After finally arriving in LA we ended up having to live in billeting for a month and a half while waiting for our house to be available. It wasn’t until the middle of June that we were finally settled in our new home. Just in time for…my step-kids to come visit for the summer! Our summer was incredibly hectic as we went from one kid and an immobile baby to four walking and talking kids (Jocelyn had her 1st birthday on August first!). I can only imagine how this next summer is going to be as we found out a few months later that we are expecting another baby! (In fact, my ultrasound is this Friday, and we should be finding out the sex of the baby!)

For the latter half of the year, we were incredibly busy, as I imagine most families with young children are. Caitlyn started 2nd grade (and scored the highest of all 2nd graders on the California Scholastic Aptitude Test…just had to brag a little ;), she played soccer this fall (and scored 2 goals!), started ice skating lessons, and also took golf (a class offered by her school). She’s had a little break over the holidays, but she’ll be right back into her activities starting next week. She’s got more ice skating on the horizon, spring soccer, piano lessons, and possibly dance classes (we’ll see how the $$ situation works out). Jocelyn has become a complete maniac. It was so interesting to see her interact with her cousin Yelena over the holidays (Yelena is the only child of my older sister and happens to be just 6 months older than Jocelyn). Yelena has to be one of the smartest toddlers I have ever seen. She’s not even two and she talks in complete sentences, and she can be completely understood by adults! Jocelyn, on the other hand, would rather punch you in the eye to express her love than say it. We all thought Jocelyn would run over Yelena without a backward glance, but, as it turns out, Jocelyn was fascinated by Yelena and wanted to do everything she was doing (including becoming a lot more clingy towards Mom, thanks Stef! ;) Prior to this trip I used to have to grab Jocelyn whenever I could catch and force her to give me snuggles (she would much rather be pulling all over my dish towels out of the drawer and wearing them around the house on her head). Now she’s become quite the Mama’s girl, which is both gratifying, slightly annoying (it’s kind of hard to pick up a whiny baby when you are trying to cook dinner), and a little worrying (I am having nightmares about Jocelyn’s reaction to the new baby).

Let’s see…where was I? Oh yes, so after a crazy fall full of activities, I spent most of November and Dec prepping and then running our base’s portion in a big exercise (I won’t bore you with the details but suffice it to say I was working overtime for quite a while). Tim’s mom came out to LA to stay with us for Thanksgiving, and, of course, we cooked way too much food and got super sick of leftovers long before I managed to use them all up L For X-mas, we rented an SUV and drove all the way to Albuquerque (12 hours on the road with a very active toddler…I would highly NOT recommend doing that ever again! Not to mention the fact that Jocelyn got really sick while we were in Albuquerque and ended up puking in the car on the drive home….This is my life…;) For New Years we didn't do much, though we managed to stay up until midnight, which is quite an accomplishment for me! We celebrated Caitlyn's birthday as a family (she'll have her party in a few weeks - we are doing a tea party this year). Can you believe I am the mother of an 8-year old!!?? Neither can I! ;)

I know I’m leaving out tons of details and probably a trip or two that I can’t remember since this pregnancy has taken over my memory banks and left me with only the vague sensation that there is always something I am forgetting about. I'll leave you with some lovely pics of our white Christmas in Albuquerque (1st snow there in like 35 years!), which caused my poor sister to be stuck in the Denver airport for 3 days straight (it's hard to feel sorry fcr myself and the 12 hour drive when my sister got stuck in a building with thousands of strangers without a change of clothes, anywhere to shower, or even a toothbrush for 3 days...she did make some interesting friends!) Hope this year has been as eventful for you as it has been for us!