Little Gym, Big Girl

This morning Tessa and I went to a "Little Gym" and took a Mommy and Me class. I took one with each of the older kids and they LOVED it! Tessa did too.... It's a gymnastics, song-singing, make new friends kind of class. She didn't care for the instructor too much and certainly didn't want her touching her to help learn the equipment (insert Tessa shooting daggers with her eyes and daddy eyebrows) but all in all she had a great time! It's for kids 12months-18months so all little midgets, boy were they cute!

A new chapter begins

Well the honeymoon is over.... Jeff left on a 6-7 month deployment today:(
It's a sad day here in the Carter house! We have lived here just a month shy of a year, and let me tell you we have LOVED every minute of it. Really, honestly and truly, this has been the best year our family has had. Perhaps it's because we were together, all of us in our complete family. We really love his area. This is my favorite house that I have every lived in, it's amazing. It's perfect. We love our neighborhood and the people in it. And we have all made some amazing friends here, quickly. Like I said, we have loved it here.
Well.... all good things must come to an end- or shall I say, new beginning?

With the kids in school and Jeff deploying our lives will be full of changes. The last time he deployed the big kids were 1 and 3. They really have NO memory of his deployment. So they really have no idea what to expect. We have prepped them as much as we can, but their spacial idea of time is not quite capable of understanding exactly what 6 months entails. But I think for the most part, they "get" it.

Jeff's send off wasn't exactly what we had hoped for either... Originally it was supposed to be Friday, around 2pm. So I was going to pull the kids out of school and we were going to take him to the air strip. They were going to be able to see the giant airplane and have a "proper" send off. Wellllllllll Friday got pushed to Saturday and Saturday to Sunday. Then Sunday was just all over the damn place! First 4:30 am, then 7, then at 6am "the flight crew needs rest, we are on a 12-24 hour stand-down".... excuse me, huh?

So we went back to sleep. Well not less than 20 minutes later he gets a call that says, "we are leaving NOW, on a fast track, be at the command in 30 minutes!" What? No! Wait, that's not fair! The kids were still asleep. So I had to bust them out of bed and wake them up to say goodbye to their daddy. There would be no airport trip, no seeing the plane, nothing. It was a total letdown after such a giant build up! So there we were, saying goodbye to Jeff at 6:30am, blurry eyed and in the rain. It sucked. Really, did they have to rush it? Did they have to not give time for the families to come say a "proper" goodbye and have a "send-off"???? It's nice to have the closure of seeing them get on an airplane... but hey, we've never had that... so what am I talking about? ;)

The kids took it VERY hard initially. Very hard. We spent the day in our pajamas. The whole day;) Watching movies, playing games, cleaning closets. It was a gray, rainy day and we took advantage of it and did nothing at all.

My good friend Lindsay, dropped by this morning with two bags full of goodies for us! It was just what we needed! Whenever the kids go to her house (Kamryn's) they devour her fruit snacks and chocolate chip mini muffins.... and that's exactly what she brought them! I think we downed the whole box within about three minutes. She also brought me my favorite things- a bottle of wine and a pint of Ben & Jerry's.... you gotta love good friends! Specially military ones who know exactly how you feel:)

All in all it was a good first day. First of many. And guess what blogger? I'm back;)

First Day of School 2010, kindergarten and 2nd grade

Last Tuesday marked the first day of school for us here in Virginia Beach. This year Deagan will be starting kindergarten and Olivia will be in second grade. There was an open house the week before where we were able to go in and meet their teachers. They both have new, young women who will be a great fit for them! Both very, very nice women. The kids were every excited on the first day. We walked to school with Deag's buddy, Kamryn and her parents. The kids went right in and got into the groove. Deag had one "look" of nervousness, but he did just fine. We are looking forward to this school year!!!!

First Day of School 2010

Deagan on his first day of kindergarten!
Miss Second Grade
Our babies are so big!
With Mommy walking to school
Deag and his best buddy, Kamryn

Oh Earl....

It was too close for comfort, and ironic that it was around the 5th anniversary of Katrina.... but I'm happy to report that we suffered zero damage from hurricane Earl! All we got was a bit of rain and wind. The Nor'easter was worse...

Shake your booty!

Messy Tessy

Deagan surfing at Great Wolf Lodge

Olivia surfing at Great Wolf Lodge

Jeff surfing at Great Wolf Lodge

From our July Michigan Trip

At my grandparent's house:)

Upside Down Olivia

Olivia loves to come stand against me and lean against my belly, so as she was looking up I caught those beautiful blue eyes on film:)

Our May Michigan Vacation

The last week of May we were privileged enough to take our first vacation home to Michigan since moving away six months previous. We decided to drive and make a road trip out of it. The ride there was not so friendly, but the ride home was amazingly smooth and the kids slept door-to-door!!!!! We have decided that if we do drive, it simply must be overnight. The adults have to take one for the team, as the kids just get too bored during daylight hours to be in the car for 12 hours. Bladders are better with sleeping children;) Less stops= faster trip!
We rented a house in Pinckney for the first four days. On Sunday we had Tessa's first birthday party. Everything went super smooth and we all had a great time. Olivia had some extra special visitors, her friends from kindergarten and first grade, her Howell school. They played on the beach and swam ALL day. I don't think we heard a peep out of any of them until it was cupcake time;)
On Monday we were able to spend the day with my parents. We took the kids to the Potter Park Zoo and then dinner at our place that evening. It was nice to have a whole day with them:)
Wednesday we checked out of our downstate house and made the drive four hours north to Jeff's parents house. We enjoyed a few days relaxing on the beach and just hanging out. That Friday, Adam and Brynn came into town to join us for the weekend and we were able to go out to dinner.
Saturday was Jeff's big race. The Bayshore Marathon- 26.2 miles. He's been marathon training for almost a year now and has become quite successful at it! His goal is to qualify to run in the Boston Marathon. Well, the stars aligned this day and not only did he achieve his goal- but he SMASHED it! He needed a time of 3 hours and 6 minutes, or less. And he came in at 2 hours and 57 minutes. Taking 32nd place overall out of 2,000 and 5th in his age group (the most competitive age group). It was one of the most amazing moments! Amazing!
(you'll need to click on "older posts" at the bottom of the page to load MORE photos, I filled up this page!)
That afternoon after the race, we went and celebrated with some wine tasting at Blackstar Farms with Adam and Brynn.
Then we spent the rest of the day relaxing on the beach with the kids! They did some boogie board riding, sand castle making and swimming. That evening Olivia had baked some cupcakes in honor of Tessa's birthday. We delighted in those as well as a pinata. And that is where I captured the best picture- YET - of our three kids together;)

Sunday afternoon we drove back downstate. We thought we'd be staying overnight with my parents and then starting our 12-16 hour trip home on Monday.... but we changed our plans. Learning from our mistakes, we decided we better not risk a Looooong day trip and just forge on overnight to get home. Well, that seemed to be the best decision we've made!
We met Tom, Joan and Kelly as well as my parents, Grandma Nelson and Uncle Andy for a picnic dinner at the Mill Pond. The kids were able to run all of their energy out and then get loaded right into the car in PJs for the night. They were asleep within 20 minutes and slept 12 hours straight until we pulled into our driveway on the other end! Strategy and execution.... ;)

Overall we had a great trip! Thank you to everyone for making it so!

Our gorgeous babies!

Probably the BEST picture that I have of all three of our children, ALL looking, ALL smiling and oh so sweet!
Happy First Birthday Miss Tess
Deagan, t-r-o-u-b-l-e
Classic Olivia, off in the stars....
Best Buddies!

Olivia and GiGi made Tess some homemade cupcakes for her birthday!
How big is Tessa? Soooo Big!

Olivia finally busted the pinata open!
Taking a good whack!
Deagan thought for sure he'd be the one to bust it open, but this thing was sealed shut!
Even miss tess took a few whacks at it, she thought it was hilarious to hit it!
Aunt Brynn getting some love from Mr. Mavvy.