Two Weeks = Big Move

Two weeks from right now we will be relaxing unpacking our new house. We will be living in a home that is ours, one that the kids will have their own rooms. We will have a big, fenced in back yard that the children and Rylie can ran and play until they are worn out and ready to relax inside, one that is surrounded by a 6 foot privacy fence, therefore giving each of us the sense of comfort in our backyard. To say that each of us are excited about the doors that are beginning to open, would be an understatement.

Even with the excitement and gratitude that I am feeling, the anticipation and being overwhelmed has begun to kick in. It's hard to think that in 13 days we will no longer be living in Mena, a place that has become a home to  us. It's hard to leave the people here that we have become close with, especially Aunt Jeanette and Grandmama. It's hard to leave this house that we have come to love. It's very hard to leave the North Little Rock VA and Kev's Case Worker and OIF Coordinator - who are both by far, absolutely amazing women! It's hard to leave somewhere that Kevin has found so much comfort in living. This small town life really isn't all that bad!

It seems like we will be going nonstop for the first month of us living in GA. Okay, at least the first month. We all know it will be more than that between family, friends, doctors, school, and more! When we arrive early Thursday (8/9), we are planning to go ahead and register the little ones in school, then meet OHF and Chase at the house a little after lunch to do the key handover. Friday will be busy with unpacking and moving the kids furniture into the house, and Saturday we have Kev's parents coming over. After we visit with them and show them around the house, the girls, Terri, and I are heading out for some much needed retail therapy! Okay, maybe not retail therapy as much as school uniform shopping, looking for things for the kids rooms, picking up towels, and things like that. Oh, and of course school supplies for all three. Nicholas still needs a backpack (if they let him carry one in kindergarten). The girls already have theirs, we bought theirs through Thirty-One, as well as their Thermal Lunch Totes. Did I mention, their bags and totes are SUPER cute? Because, they really are.

It's so hard to believe that in less than three weeks, we will have a 5th grader, 4th grader, and our little man in kinder. Time sure has flown by. This is one of those bittersweet times in life that you wish you could postpone for a bit longer!

After we sold our couches last week, Nicholas and Breanna decided they wanted to camp our in our living room and made tents out of fitted sheets, blankets, and four of our chairs from our dining set. They literally camped out for three or four nights in the living room. They had so much fun.

To the parents and siblings, we will see you soon. Friends and family, it won't be much longer before we see you as well! Just give us time to get moved in and situated with our new lives!

Kids and Cool Whip

A couple weeks before Christmas, I walked into our kitchen to find Kevin, Breanna, and Nicholas in fits of laughter. Bre and Nic had their heads back with Kevin holding a can of Cool Whip above them and filling their mouths. All I could do was laugh and shake my heads as these three enjoyed their Cool Whip....

Nicholas has started this new thing to where when he points his finger at something, he closes one eye and squints out the other. This is something that just began and leaves me in giggles to see. There are times I ask him where something is just so I can see this new action...

 

The Truth Has Shown Through

We moved to Arkansas and the kids inner-personalities really started to shine through...

 

Per Kevin of course!  haha. This was taken just down the street from where we live! Middle of nowhere??? I do believe so!

Halloween & Moving Prep

I feel like it has been quite awhile since I last updated on here! I am sure that most of you know, things are more than chaotic and busy around here with our upcoming move!

Last week we celebrated Breanna's 10th birthday...which is incredibly hard to believe! Where have the years gone? Since we are in the middle of getting ready for the move, Bre had a small slumber party at the house to celebrate her birthday, then a day out buying a few new outfits with me.

Last Saturday the kids and I started the morning off by heading to Fort Bliss for their Fall Festival at Freedom Crossing. The girls were able to get their faces painted like a cat and a devil look to go with their costumes. Nic decided to opt out of the whole face painting experience and just strutted along in his Ninja costume. After face painting, the little ones were able to Trick-or-Treat throughout the shopping area (stores and restaurants).

Following the Fall Festival, we made a cookie cake and started to set up for the slumber party. We ended up having six loud girls at our house Saturday. It was CRAZY!!! One of the little girls picked a fight with Caitlin numerous times and had me ready to pull my hair out. Other than that, the girls were fantastic and our first cookie cake turned out amazing!!!

Halloween night was spent doing the normal, Trick-or-Treating around the neighborhood, followed by dinner and homework. The kids ended up with a good amount of candy and an easy night of the kids going straight to bed with no fights.

We have more than half the house packed up already and plan to get the rest done this weekend. It still seems so surreal that we will be out of here a week from today! Kevin and I spent so much time this past week on post trying to clear everything that we possibly could and sitting through multiple briefings. He finals out on Thursday afternoon and begins leave at midnight Friday. I don't expect to blog too much over the next two weeks, but will try to keep everyone updated. We do have our new address, so if you would like it, please email us brbiddle@ymail.com or brittney@familyofavet.com. As of next week we will more than likely have new cell numbers as well.

Today was not a productive day at all! I think this past week has been a tad overwhelming and too much of not being able to slow down that today was our day of relaxing... Well, it was our day of not doing anything that we were planning to do. We did spend time in the middle of the desert once Nic went to school this afternoon so I could shoot my .22 rifle and .380. Kevin just stayed back while I shot cans and loaded my magazines. Shooting is still not something that he has any interest in.

Happy 31st Birthday Weekend, Kevin

Happy Birthday to the most amazing man and husband that I have been blessed to have by my side, through the most amazing times, and of course the most trying times in our lives. Without him, I am not sure where I would be in this crazy, everyday life we live!

On Friday, September 16, we celebrated Kev's birthday.... He turned the big 31!!! It's kind of nice to sit back and say I am still in my (late) 20's while my husband is racking in another year on the 30's chart. Haha. On Friday Kevin didn't really want to do much of anything, so we ended up eating at Burger King, more or less something to allow the kids to be kids. They had a blast, being able to get Kid Meals, which is an extra treat for them! Following that we stopped at the grocery store for a huge tub of Vanilla Ice cream and then headed home to enjoy the dessert! See, the girls and I were going to make him a cake as soon as they got home from school because as we all know, we should of had time to do that. However, Kevin had other plans and came home a tad earlier than we had anticipated! In other words, there was no cake baking! This is the first year we have not been able to do that! Friday ended up being very enjoyable, other than him having to go back to work for the first time in a month! Yes, he was able to take a full month off of work for two reasons. The first was obviously so he could help me recovery from this complicated surgery and recovery that I fully needed. The second reason was because he has over 100 vacation days and 35 of them were considered "Use or Lose". This, in the Army ways, means that had he not used any of those "use or lose" days by October 1, he would have been completely out of luck and just lost them. So, what better time to use them than to help me out with everything, including the kids starting back to school! Perfect timing and great quality time! I was honestly sad to see him go back to work! I had truly enjoyed the month I had with him and no Army time! (We are still waiting on his retirement rating, so there is nothing to report on that as of now. As soon as we know more, I will post more....AFTER we share with our close family and friends! Thanks for all your support and understanding. We would not be where we are without each of you!)

On Saturday, we spent most of the day cleaning and just being complete bums around the house. Really, nothing at all too entertaining. We did watch a little football, of course, we watched as the Gators beat the Vols! Go Gators! Did you know that in all of the Gator's history, there has only been one coach that lost to TN their inaugural year? That was in 1990. So, congrats to their new coach, Will Muschamp on Saturdays win! Oh wait, I did redesign both blogs and we love them! Hope you do too! (You can check out my other blog, which started out as an outlet tool, athttp://southerngirlsstand.blogspot.com/)

New Designs:

(for Biddle Buzz)

and

(For Southern Girl's Stand)

Today was a bit more entertaining and quite possibly the most fun we have had since before my surgery! After breakfast and a little downtime enjoying American Choppers, we decided to take the little ones to the Rio Grande. They have already started the damming process in New Mexico, at Elephant Butte. The Rio feeds from that before flowing down to us. Before the fall hits, this process starts and within a few weeks the Rio is completely empty. Right now, there is still some flowing water, but not much at all. In most spots the river bed is in the openness. Of course, I think Nic would rather it be that way because he can run, play, and splash around more than other times! We stayed out there for a little over an hour while the kids ran some of there energy out. It is still plenty hot enough here for them to swim and not get sick. It was kind of odd in a way for them to run through an area freely that not too long ago we floated down! The pictures that I took do it no justice in showing the depth of it. I will take better ones the next time we are out there!

Right before going to the Rio, Caitlin was begging me to take her to the store so she could spend her Tooth Fairy money. She lost one of her teeth on Friday at school. Well, we all know how money just burns the holes right through a child's pocket, so I took her with me to the store when I went for butter. The Dollar General is right outside our neighborhood, so to me, it's easier to stop there versus driving for ten or so minutes to an actual grocery store. When we got there, they had an entire display of outside toys for children that were marked 70% or more off. Caitlin found herself digging through the boxes of toys and decided that she would rather spend her money on toys they could play with instead of purchasing candy or something in that area. I am so proud of her for this one! With $5 ($2 of her own) she was able to buy four outside play sets because of this markdown! How awesome is that? May not be the best quality, but it sure kept them entertained all afternoon.... including Kevin on this one! They ended up with two Lacrosse sets, a Frisbee, a t-ball set, some other game set, three plastic bats, and I have no idea on how many balls between them all. For over four hours they played and played and played! It was great seeing them play as they did.

Of course, little man took right to the t-ball set and was determined to not give it up to anyone. He claimed it before we were even able to get it out of the bag and spent almost the entire time with it. I have never seen Nic so focused on something for the amount of time that he was today. I guess that's a sure sign of baseball being in his near future! You won't see me complaining on this one! He is such an athletic child! We love it!

While Nic took over the T-ball set and refused to let anyone else play with him, Kev and the girls got out the Frisbee, Lacrosse game, and football. Caitlin spent a lot of time sitting beside me on the patio watching them, while Bre and Kev played close to nonstop. Of course, they each took a spot on opposite sides of the yard to just stand there and throw things back and forth, because it still hurts for Kevin to do too terribly much. But they had so much fun together. We learned today that Bre has a mean spiral when throwing the football! 

While they played and the chicken grilled, I started to get restless and decided to take some pictures of the blooming flowers on the bushes that we have at the back of the house. Nic refers to these bushes as the "pokey trees". At least that is how he explained to me where he brought the picked flowers to me from! Of course, while taking pictures, I had to find a creative way in getting some good shots! I took a few after Nicholas had watered them. They turned out with a pretty cool look, I think! I have a few more shots on my computer saved.

As the Chicken came close to be grilled all the way, I wanted to make an attempt in taking a photo of all three kids side by side. Well, for anyone that knows these three, you know that sometimes that can be almost impossible... Let me show you what I mean by that....

After many attempts, the best one I could get with three smiles, is this one:

I think that one captured their personalities! Haha. Definitely frame-worthy!

After the attempt in taking a picture of this crazy trio, I was able to capture a few cute shots. I managed to get one of the girls side by side. Can you all see how close in height they are now? It is crazy! This could explain why everyone always asks me if they are twins. How can you not help but to love the one of Kevin picking on Caitlin? She was so mad and grumpy because she "throws like a girl". At least that's what she said. So, she sat in the chair and pouted. Kevin decided that was completely out of the question and decided to go all out on picking on her! It cheered her up! Nicholas became overly tired at one point and decided to throw himself on the ground and pout over something Caitlin did! Best part: I was able to get in a quick click of a button on my cell phone and get his "I'm going to sit down in front of my toys after throwing them down and pout" move with his arms crossed and all! Once he calmed down, he decided to water the grass again... or should I say play in the water again? Not sure if more water made it to the grass or his clothes....

Hope each and everyone of you had a wonderful weekend! Get out and enjoy the rest of the nice air before fall gets here and cooler weather takes over! Have a fantastic week everybody!

It was a Crayon Cupcake Kinda Day

This weekend was spent pretty much lounging around the house and not doing much of anything...except making sure I stayed off me feet in order to recover from this summer and the past few weeks. Kev and I also spent a fair amount of time trying to lay out the upcoming months and our move. At times I feel like it's an overwhelming mess! I know it will all fall into place, it just seems things are taking place so quickly now! 

Yesterday evening I walked across the street allowing the kids to play at the park for a bit. How the fall has crept upon us! It seems like just a couple days ago the days were turning into night around 9:30... However, last night showed me how much I have missed through the past few weeks! Turns out that it is now dark a little before 8:00. Sad to see the summer go, but ready to see what the next season has store.

This afternoon we pulled some crayons out and made Crayon Cupcakes with them.This is a great hands-on type craft to do with children! It is one that you can consider mess free, easy to make, easy cleanup and plenty of smiles after cooling down and coloring! We are going to make more in the next couple of weeks and make them bigger than today's. The kids had a blast watching as they colored and the shade changed from one color to the next!  (See below for pics and directions). This is also a great way to bring in holidays with holiday colors, you can add glitter for the glistening look when coloring, fun little thing to do when there are multiple kids or on a rainy day!

Crayon Cupcakes

How to Make Crayon Cupcakes

All you need: Assorted crayon colors (Crayola works best), cupcake cups, cupcake pan, oven, and oven mitts.

Pre-heat the oven to 250 degrees F and let the fun in making these begin!

Use inexpensive crayons, or old, broken leftover pieces. (Great way to recycle left behind pieces!). Remove wrappers of your color choices, break into pieces and place into the cup holders. Now, place the pan full of the variety of colors you have chosen into the oven and begin watching as the crayons melt! Allow time for the heat to go to work, but keep an eye on them…depending on brand and quantity in each cup will depend on the timeframe for melting. Of course, allow time to cool once removed from the oven before touching! Once cool, remove crayons from cupcake liner and let the little ones go to town coloring!

This works out great entertaining one child or an entire group! You can mix colors depending on the day or holiday using them towards a theme! 

Five Day Catch-up

We did it! We managed to survive the first week of school with children now in pre-k, third, and fourth grades! What a week of ups and downs it has been dealing with school, as well as my recovery!

The girls are riding the bus in the mornings as well as the afternoon, with Nic riding with them in the afternoon. His days are only half days this year. There is also a bus that comes through the neighborhood around eleven every morning to take the little ones in Pre-K to school. He thinks he is hot stuff this year! Every morning, Nic loads up on the pre-k bus he smiles tells me he loves me, gives me a hug and is off to school. My heart aches as he goes about the same routine every day. It aches because my baby is no longer a baby, he is getting bigger by the day. It leaves me wondering where the past four years have gone... How has time gone so quickly that he is now a pre-school child, full of energy, very talkative, and always into something? It seems like yesterday that I was on the phone with Kevin, trembling that he would be so upset, as I told him I was at the doctor and he instantly put it together. His response, "Are we?". Once I confirmed, that yes, we were having another baby, he was full of joy and pride. Complete opposite of what I had expected. It seems like yesterday that we were bringing our little man home and starting a new life with him. Now here we are, off to his exploring new things! Absolutely amazing!

The kids all have fantastic teachers...well, at least at this point. So far they seem to be great teachers. We all know how quickly that can change once everyone finds their comfort zones in school! Breanna is showing interest in everything this year is already showing. She loves her new teacher and the class that she is in. It looks as though she may be trying out for chorus in the upcoming weeks!  Caitlin is starting tutoring after school, two days a week in two weeks. We are very pleased the teacher has already showed such interest in her and her well being and are praying this school year is more successful than the ones in the past. Nicholas LOVES going to school, learning, and making new friends. He is already showing improvements in the learning department!

Kevin is recovering fabulously from his spinal surgery! The difference is quite amazing and it is obvious that he is feeling somewhat better. He can turn his head left and right without the grinding from before. As with everything, it is day to day. The pain is still there, but he can tell many changes. Just as we all can. Even in the way he stands, he no longer has the bump that he use to at the base of his neck area.

I saw the surgeon yesterday and am still on a limited list of things I can do. There really isn't much I can do. Since he removed my cervix, we now have to make sure I heal completely. The cervix holds organs in, since I no longer have it they had to close it all up (while inside, they stitched) in order to prevent the "fall out". The surgeon also went into more detail about things. The surgery last year really messed me up and left more complications, as stated in a post before this one. The part of the ovary that was left played a major factor in the pain and complications of this past year. It was the reason I had a constant pain up to the stabbing, doubled over feeling. This as well as the adhesion's and my cervix issues. He was in disbelief over exactly how bad I was and the complications that existed. I just feel incredibly lucky and blessed that I have an amazing surgeon and would recommend him to anyone! He listens, he cares, and he is dang good at what he does! Dr. Farnam walked into the exam room and the first thing out of his mouth is, "Hey! How is my problem child today?" We couldn't help but to smile over this! Apparently, I am one of the worst cases.... Hmmmm.... Not too surprised on that one! I am sure I will have more to say on this situation later next week once I have time to take things in a little more. I am doing well, as well as one can be with circumstances. I am officially in full blown surgical menopause... and let me just tell you all.... IT SUCKS!!!! Hot flashes are no joke! Overall, I am just incredibly thankful for the surgeon that I have and the amazing job that he did!

Thank you to all that have supported us and stayed by my side through the difficult and complicated time. I love each of you and am incredibly blessed to have you each in my life!

This little guy is just not use to such a busy day....

Cuffed & Shackled

One night before Kevin took Convalescence Leave to recover from surgery,  he came home with handcuffs and shackles in his hand. He is a platoon sergeant and as a few soldiers that are currently locked up for a variety of reasons. When he goes to the prison to escort them somewhere, he has to place them in handcuffs and shackles for everyone's safety and flight risks. This was the first time he had ever come home with these items. Typically they go later during the morning time, so they can check these things out just prior to heading to the prison. In this case, the appointment was so early, that he wasn't able to wait until the next morning. When the kids saw the handcuffs and shackles, they became instantly amazed and Nic told Kevin he was going to lock Caitlin up. As you can see in the photos, he did just that! When he managed to get her in these, I had to take a picture because her expression was just priceless! The photo that shows Nicholas holding the broom, is him pretending to have a gun... What can I say? He is ALL boy!

Cool, New Sleep T's

A little over a week ago, the kids received a package from Grannie and Grandpa that left the little ones full of excitement! Each of the kids received surprises, as well as T-shirts from their trip to South GA this summer. Grandpa decided that they each needed XL shirts so they could have sleep shirts. I think it was more so that they could have sleep shirts and always think of Grannie and Grandpa! :) Breanna, Caitlin, and Nic instantly out their shirts on and always rush me to wash them so they can sleep in their shirts. It's so cute and sweet to see them like this!

We miss  and love you Grannie and Grandpa!!!! Hope to see you soon!

Fun in the Hot July Sun

A couple weeks ago the kids headed to the backyard to play and run around in the nice weather we were having. They asked us if they could play in the sprinklers we bought them last year. They never even made it to the point of hooking everything up, when Nic decided to grab the water hose and start a battle in attempt to soak the girls. As soon as this started, Caitlin of course took off running and Bre managed to get herself cornered at the back wall with a teal plastic container lid as her human shield. 

Her "shield" didn't work as she hoped, which of course turned a battle into a war! Breanna somehow managed to snag the water hose from Nicholas, who was able to get a grip back on it and around in circles these two ran. It didn't take too terribly long before Breanna managed to have Nicholas soaking wet. Even with his enjoyment and laughter in full swing, this brought on a war between these two. The fought back and forth over the water hose, laughing the entire time! 

Their laughter just makes my heart melt.....

Oh, and the grass looks absolutely amazing and so much better now!!!! :)