Best Friends

Here are some pictures from a few months ago... the first week of February... Peter and Jeff were both in town (right before they both left) and we met up with them for the day and went out to the New Holland Brewery for dinner.
Jeff and me with a sleeping Deagan.
Poor sweet boy popped a fever right before we went out to eat, and then he passed right out.
Olivia and her "other" parents, Lindsey and Peter.
Sweet Oli

The Lion King

Here are a few pictures from our trip to see The Lion King broadway show @ The Wharton Center. We attempted to go out to dinner at Clara's in Lansing. It's a restaurant built in the old train station. Olivia was fascinated by the caboose that we could sit in to eat. The only downer was that they told us it would be a 20 minute wait and it ended up being 50. And we had to scarf down quick food and run to the show. (not fun)!
But the upside was that the show was FANTASTIC:)

Olivia and Mom at dinner
Crazy Oli eyes (that she learned from her brother)
still waiting for a table
And still waiting....
Olivia and MiMaw

Ladies and Gentlemen WE HAVE A RECORD!

As most of you know, or might be able to figure out from my blogging- Deagan is not directly related to me in the sleep department of life. Basically he could care less about sleeping past the 6 o'clock hour. When Jeff was here it was 6:30am on the dot each morning. Then last week he slowly moved to 7:30am (and I was screaming hallelujah!).
Well today WE HAVE A RECORD. Or at least one that my memory cannot recall being beaten in at least a year or so.....
drum roll please...........

This morning Deagan slept in until 8:28. Yes, 8:28. Wow. That's all I can say. Wow.

A Few Days Off

After Jeff left (again) we headed over to Lindsey's house for three nights. The kids had a great time getting 'away' and having some fun outside of our normal bubble of life. We got to visit Miss Leah and her sweet little Beatrice (and Mr. Chad too!). And then Lindsey's mom took us all (six children, five women) to the butterfly house exhibit in Grand Rapids. The kids had a great time playing in the frigid children's garden and going out to lunch too:) It was a very nice weekend away!!!!!! Today, when we returned home we had a few inches of snow... that prompted us ALL to take a three hour nap! Ahhhh....

pictures coming soon

Up, Over and all around

There's a lot to update, but I'll try to be brief....

First, Jeff is home. Well, he leaves tonight, but he's been home for three days.
We were supposed to go to Virginia for Olivia's week long spring break, but are not anymore. They are sending him to San Diego for a three week class- so he won't be in VB- hence, we are not going. But they let him drive home for three days to return my minivan to me:)

Second, talked to the mortgage company today and got some encouraging news. They are happy that we are responsible (aka never missed a payment and never late) and honest and are willing to work with us on a short sale for the home WITHOUT AFFECTING OUR CREDIT because we are military and basically have no choice. So we should be able to lower the price of the home drastically and actually have it sell this summer. Cross your fingers and hold your breath!

Third, Olivia got some weird infection behind her ear/ in her neck! We took her to the doctor this morning and they drained it (nasty nasty nasty) and put her on an antibiotic. It didn't necessarily have anything to do with her earring, but instead the piercing hole was the inlet for the bacteria and ultimately the infection. They are running labs to see what it exactly was. But she's on an antibiotic and hopefully it will disappear this weekend! Weird!

That's about it:) Hope you have a great weekend!

Baby #3 in 3D

Here is a good face picture, with Olivia's pucker lips she used to make as a baby. And of course the hand over the face!
This is a great profile shot that screams DEAGAN.
And finally another face shot.
Yesterday my fabulous mother-in-law gifted me a 3D keepsake ultrasound of the baby. They warned me when scheduling that it might be difficult to get good images because I was so far along... but I just had to do it anyway, seeing as how this is the last pregnancy:)

It was pretty neat to watch! Specially from a photographer's standpoint of taking 'still' images. They are able to take multi later images, freeze them and then peel away the things that they don't want to see. So if there was goop and tissue covering the face, they'd just slide it out 3D and then reveal the rest of the picture below!

The silly baby was all folded up like a taco, with it's legs above it's head and arms up there too!
So there was constantly something covering half of it's face. But it was still cute and worth it:)

So now.... after viewing the baby, it's it a boy or is it a girl?
(more people are leaning towards boy.... but Olivia and I are still thinking girl)

30.5 weeks

Well I wasn't going to post this naked belly picture.
But I thought you all might like to see the progress of the bambino.
I'm 30 1/2 weeks and took this with my iphone in the mirror last night:)
At my 29 week ultrasound the they did some measurements and this one has caught right up to it's siblings. And is now classified as a "big" baby, measuring two weeks large. I knew there was no way I'd have a little one!
Oh yeah, and it's sitting breech. I'm going in on Friday to do the 3D ultrasound, oh I cannot wait!!!!!!!!
hehehe...

So, is it a girl or is it a boy?

Aunt Linny and Uncle Peter

Miss Olivia and her Aunt Linny
Uncle Peter, Deagan and Mr. Maverick
Peter came to Michigan to see Lindsey over last weekend. They stayed at our house the night before Peter had to fly out (two hours closer to the airport than where they live). Well the kids had a BLAST playing with them for a little bit before bed, and here's a few pictures:)

Family Pictures

Sorry it's taken so long, but below I've finally posted the pictures from the night before Jeff left for Virginia. He left at 5am on Sunday and it took him about 12 hours to get there. He's staying with one of his best friends, Dan. He's also apart of the same command and they went to SWCC school together in San Diego 5 or 6 years ago. Dan and his wife have been amazing to open their home and offer Jeff a room until we get there.
He's settled in nicely at the command and is getting used to the people and the places. It's all still new:)
The kids and I are going to take a road trip out there to visit in three weeks for Olivia's spring break.
We can't wait!

Pictures from the night before Jeff left for Virginia

We set the camera on Olivia's desk with a self timer:) It was fun, we have about five takes! The kids loved it:)
Deagan and his Daddy
Olivia and her Daddy

The adorable face that Daddy taught Olivia to make...
Deagan's scary face
Jeff and his babies
Daddy, Oli and Kit, with her new outfit that Daddy brought home from the American Girl Store in Chicago:)

It's official

It's official. We're on the market. It's a sad- no wait, happy- change that sad... ok maybe "hopeful" day.

Dancing Queen

Olivia is taking a princess dance class wednesday nights with her friend Lillia. They get to pick out a sleeping beauty dress when they get to class and wear it for class. But she still had to have a surprise of a new leotard and tights. Here she is sporting her new dance outfit:)

Oli's emotional roller coaster

Olivia has been having a really hard time with Jeff being gone. She's super emotional and taking it very hard. When Jeff had to leave last Sunday morning, she lost it again. But during her tears she asked Daddy if he could take a picture with her for her to look at, here it is, tears and all:)

Jeff and the kids

This past weekend Jeff was able to come home for literally a day and a night before he had to leave again to go back to Chicago. During that time we made a trip to Cabela's. Here's a picture of Jeff and the kids enjoying the big fish tank at Cabela's.

28 Week Baby Update

This week I had my 28 week check-up. Everything seems to be going great! The doctor is really pleased with this pregnancy and can't believe I've had complications in the past. I tell her that if she met Deagan, then she'd understand:) He was a trouble maker from day #1 as an embryo!!!! HAHA!

I'm still doing great on my weight gain, only 12 lbs so far. Unbelievable I know! I'm still waiting for the late pregnancy 'balloon' effect to come. She says my body is "very efficient!" MY BODY and EFFICIENT used in the same sentence, not possible!

I have an ultrasound next wednesday to get measurements done and make sure the babe is progressing well. I'll keep you updated.

As for now, here is an albeit terrible, belly bump shot at 28 weeks.

p.s.- I think it's a girl. When I was prego with Olivia I craved the candy RUNTS. So much so that Jeff (as a joke) bought be a 5 lb bag of them! Well guess what I haven't had in six years, but am craving again????????

Caution Graphic Hilarious Content

After school the kids just love to play with each other. They get in these imaginary lands and fall deep into play. They love to play with stuffed animals. Well today's imaginary world led them with their stuffed puppies to a "hannah montana on ice show." They even had to wear skates to the show and glide across the floor to get there. Well they were sitting watching the "show" while I was folding laundry in the hallway. All of the sudden I heard:
"Sissy, want to see my BONER?"
Wait, what? I got up quick and raced into her room to see exactly what the heck was going on.
Nothing of course (they don't even know what that word means!). Deagan had a dog toy in one hand and his stuffed dog in the other. I smiled and left them alone.
"Sissy, I have a little boner, do you want to see it?" he says again.
"No, thanks, I only like big boners!" She replies.
"Well it's fun, you and your puppy could take a ride on it." He tells her.
Meanwhile I am cracking up so loudly in the hallway that I'm in tears.
They both hear me laughing and run out to see what's so funny.
"Nothing!" I tell them and then ask, "what's a boner?"
"Oh it's a toy that we found for our puppies." says Olivia.
Ok good, I say, have fun at the show!
Hysterically dying with laughter inside!!!!!

Weekend Upate

Hello all:)

Well our weekend started with one LONG day Friday. I dropped Olivia off at school and then drove to my grandparents house to pick up their tow dolly. Grandpa helped me get it all hooked up and then I was on the road. I had a 4.5/5ish hour drive to Northern Chicago to pick up Jeff. It was a looong ride with a wiggly empty tow dolly behind me.
Jeff ran around like a crazy man all morning trying to get all of his paperwork signed off on so that he could be released. He accomplished everything, except on tiny little signature of one important man who does not work Fridays! Long story short, he was able to come home for the weekend, but had to go back Sunday night to report for his LAST day monday. He'll be there all of three hours on Monday!

Our drive home was less than fantastic. We entered Chicago rush hour traffic right at 5:30 and didn't get out of it until well after 8pm! Yes, stop and go for over two hours! Then we stopped in Indiana for dinner. At midnight we were passing by Kalamazoo and met Adam and Brynn for coffee and amazing doughnuts at a 24 hour place! It recharged us enough to make it the last two hours home! We were originally supposed to keep driving to drop off the car and tow dolly, but we just couldn't do it!!!!!! We were so exhuasted! We got home around 2am and passed right out!

Saturday morning while I had bunny sessions, Jeff did all of the running around town to take care of the car.

That afternoon we took the kids to one of their favorite places, Cabela's. It's a huge outfitter/hunting store about an hour away. They have a huge mountain in the middle full of 'stuffed' animals. A full size elephant, rhino, buffalo, deer, moose and all sorts of other stuff. (don't worry, they were all protected wildlife from sanctuaries that died of natural causes). The kids love to see them and realize the full scale of the animals.

Then today, Sunday we went out to breakfast with the Nelson family and an hour after that Jeff was gone again. He had to be in Chicago by 6pm.

If all goes well, he'll be out of there tomorrow afternoon and home for a day or two until he has to report to Virginia.

Good News/ Bad News/ Horrible News

The good. The bad. and the down right UGLY....

The Good: Jeff is coming home this weekend.
The Bad: I have to drive 4.5 hours each way to get him b/c his car is dead!

There is a possibility that he could be released from Chicago on Friday, which is fantastic for him! Then he'll have a few days until he has to report to Virginia. So we get this weekend with him, but (well, sort of in my greedy way) we lose a additional weekend with him. Because had this weekend and his release weekend NOT corresponded, then we'd get another weekend with him as he traveled through to Virginia. Like I said, just me being greedy;)

The Ugly news: I met with the realtor today and despite her sweet charm and genuine optimistic outlook- we are screwed! I would use more profane language, but my grandparents read this, so we'll stick with screwed.

You see, we bought our house two years ago. At that time we got a "good deal" on it for all of the things it offered. Well in this terrible economic state of our country, over that two years house prices have steadily fallen 10% each year. And now we owe $19,000 MORE than our house is worth. That's right, more. (insert expletive after expletive). And even if you attempt to sell it for the increased amount, no mortgage company will finance anyone for more than the appraisal.

For the average person that's not a big deal. Things work themselves out, and the values will turn around in a few years.

But for the family that has to move across the country. Well you are just screwed! In our best case scenario it would cost us between $10k-$16K to get out of it. But I'm sorry, we don't have 'savings' like that to dump into a house just to get rid of it!

So what do we do now? ... Good question!

Fighting Monster

This afternoon I was taking photos of our house for the realtor and Deagan was following me around, as usual, like a little duckling:) While putzing around in the basement, this is the "outfit" he came up with. Notice the St. Patty's Day leprechaun horns and boxing gloves.... gotta love the kid!