THREE!!

YAY!! Blogger worked today!!! I've been trying every week since it stopped allowing me to post pictures and just today it let me! I uploaded the pictures backwards (yes it's been that long and I'd forgotten how blogger posts them backwards until I saw it, lol. So please forgive the backwards story)

I have TONS to catch up on but first I must start off with Abigayle's third birthday. She turned three just a few days ago and since daddy is still in Maine, we only had a "skype birthday". You can kind of see him on the computer screen below. Our day started at 4:50 in the morning when Brayden woke up. I told him to go back to bed since it was too early but he convinced me to lay in my bed until he was allowed up. BIG MISTAKE!! He tossed and turned and neither of us slept till I finally told him he could get up at 5:15. Then at 5:20 Blake woke up screaming bloody murder that his tummy hurt. I fly out of bed, trying to figure out what was wrong but he couldn't tell me anything since he was still so sleepy. I managed to distract him with cartoons while I got Ab's who was screaming in bed cause she was woken by all the craziness, lol. What a way to wake up on your birthday, huh? lol Anyways, it wasn't long before everyone was happy and our day began. We sang, we tickled, we loved a while then we started school. Everyone managed to finish all their schoolwork by 9:10 in the morning (that's what happens when you start before the sun comes up!!) So we had the rest of the day to celebrate!

Ab's chose a strawberry cake and her momma's oven cooked a bit to hot leaving it a little darker than she'd like. Then that very same momma was distracted when making the frosting and added too much milk making it too thin to cover the little bit too dark cake underneath. Good thing she's little and cute and loves her mommy even when she does silly rookie things like that. It sure tasted yummy though! We sang happy birthday over skype and opened a few presents. Her real party (and I promise this cake will be waaay better!) will be sometime when daddy gets home before he leaves for Mexico.

Here is Ab's telling my mom that she's three over the phone, lol.

And here she is eating her favorite breakfast, a fried egg. Soon as we sang Happy Birthday to her, she dipped her finger into the yoke and smiled :)

Happy birthday little girl!!

She loves the color pink,

She love to play dress up,

She won't fall asleep unless you sing "Jesus loves me" to her in her bed.

She sleeps in her bed 'aww night yong!' (I must say she says it so cute!)

She rocks her babies when they cry and covers them when they are cold,

She chooses how her hair gets done daily,

She often carries an imaginary kitty around in her hand and remembers where she puts it if she doesn't have it with her.

She still loves to be cuddled.

She still thinks I nurse her even though she's been weaned for MONTHS and asks daily for more 'night-night'

Mommy asks her to stop growing up so fast and she'll respond "me try" with her lips frowned and her eyebrows down.

Mommy loves you baby girl!

lack of pictures

For some reason, I can't upload pictures to blogger...
I've been trying for two days to get a new blog up for everyone but the picture 'loading' page just keeps turning and turning. I've let it set for 10 minutes with no luck.

I promise, I'm trying!!!

Soon as I can get it to work or if anyone knows of a program that I can download my pictures to and then try to pull from there instead of my hard drive, let me know!

Thanks!

Strange places

Look at the beautiful flowers my husband sent me.
Aren't they gorgeous??!!
Thank you Diver Daddy!!

I put the kids to bed the other night,
I treated then and allowed them to sleep in my room.
I had checked on them to make sure they were quiet and asleep
and then went back into the living room to continue folding laundry.
About an hour had passed when I noticed this little boy
laying on the floor in the hallway!!

Seriously??
What would posses someone to sleep like that?
He left my comfy bed,
walked down the hall
and had been sleeping there for up to an hour, lol.
And you know what I did?

I left him there, haha!!
He looked so peaceful
and anyone who knows Blake knows that those two words don't usually go together, lol.
Before I went to bed later that night,
he had gotten up and crawled right back where I put him.

I seriously did a double take.
Had I really seen him in the hallway?
Glad I got a picture to prove it or I'd would have thought I was cracking up!

bedtime

Daddy always puts the kids to bed.
This gives me a few minutes of sanity each and every night :)

Every night he reads them a bedtime story and tucks them in.
Since daddy had almost every kid book we owned memorized he has switched over to reading chapter books.
I think they enjoy these more.
They get one chapter a night and they anxiously awake the next nights chapter.
I must admit, even though the rule is 'one chapter a night'
I have heard multiple chapters being read on occasion. lol
Daddy most definitely likes these books also.

I was a bit concerned with the first night and the lack of daddy.
We had the idea of recording a book for the kids and they absolutely loved it!!

I actually recorded the entire book and their reactions (very cute and very surprised)
but this is their reaction of the last page.
This is for you daddy!!!

Well the video won't upload.
I've tried several times.
Believe me, it was cute!
Guess you'll have to just take my word on it :)

Red Robin

Daddy wanted to make our last dinner together special.
He decided to treat us to Red Robin.
The kids really really enjoyed their meals!

Brayden ate every single bit of his hamburger some fries and some of my salad.
Blake ate his chicken strips and fries and one bit of salad and
Ab's literally licked her bowl of "chheesh noonle"
Daddy had chicken strips and very very spicy riblets.
And I had my favorite salad.

Since the riblets were so spicy daddy's heartburn was killing him so he decided to treat us to our favorite frozen yogurt shop, Yo Diggity. Oh darn... lol
We all had our favorites and left with super full tummies.

Nana and Papa came over after dinner and yogurt to wish daddy a good trip.
With the kids going to bed late,
the early morning to get him to the airport on time
and the stress of everything lets just say our first day alone wasn't the best.

Don't get me wrong, there were high's but lets me tell you, the lows were low.
Every day will get easier for the kids, I'm sure.
Ab's just doesn't even come close to understanding.
Although she is a little mommy's girl she still loves her daddy!
When I picked her up from her Sunday school class this morning she immediately asked where daddee was. I told her he was still working. She said 'oh, det haiport' (oh, get airport)
I think she is ready to go get her dadee already, lol

I'm not gonna lie...

We cried.
There has been so much that has gone on in our lives recently.
Crazy things,
Hard things,
Things that no one knows about but us,
Just things.

Most of these 'things' have been struggles.
Struggles that normally happen in the beginning years of a marriage but now
almost 10 years in we are struggling with.
Don't worry, our marriage is strong
it's just all the struggles we've been experiencing for so many years has really been weighing down on us.

We've been doing lots of praying and waiting.
I knew without a doubt that my husbands choice to leave Fresno and head to New Jersey to change careers was the right decision.
I knew this would be hard but it was something we needed to do.
Everything went smoothly (well mostly)
and he graduated with honors!!
Only something very few were able to say they did.
We moved back to Cali and suffered through our San Pedro adventure.
Desperate to find a new job we stumbled across something locally.
To be honest, I'm not sure which job was worse.
They both treated my husband like poo.
One actually refused to pay us when my husband worked.
Both were short lived.

He found another job working as a Commercial Truck Driver.
This company actually treated him well AND paid him for his work
But they did have enough work for him and he'd only work every other week.
Although this was really nice to have him home,
We couldn't make ends meet on those hours.

He was contacted from a friend from Dive School with a great job opportunity.
Things looked promising but no guarantee.

He was then contacted from his old boss and asked to come back and work for him.
He transitioned very easily over to this job with the clear understanding that if dive work became available he would dive.

Well we got the call from the dive company last Friday.
He not only got a temporary job in New Hampshire (3-4 weeks)
but he also got asked to join them on a huge job in Mexico.

I have such mixed emotions.
Mostly, I'm proud of my husband!!
I'm proud of his accomplishments, of his desire to succeed, of his love for us.
His bravery, his amazing heart and so much more.
It makes my heart so happy to see that he is doing something that he has ALWAYS wanted to do.
But, I'm also sad that we had to send him so far away from us for such a long period of time.

I know that I can manage here without him.
I know that I will be ok
but honestly I'll miss him.
He is my other half.

Tears ran down my check when Brayden started crying when he said goodbye this morning.
I managed to compose myself as we walked to the car.
But as I was backing out Abigayle threw her little hand up in the air and said 'bye-bye dadee'
in such a sweet innocent little voice that tears began to swell all over again.

I ask for your prayers for our family.
Changes are happening.
I'm thinking that they are good changes this time but they are life altering changes.
Please pray for Chuck's safety (he will be diving on several projects this month)
and for my sanity, lol

I've been away again...

I know that I've been away again. Things have been busy, changes are coming for our family again and I think these might be really good changes, finally! Once things are finalized, I'll gladly share with you all. I promise that blogs will be coming more frequently and back on a regular basis once these new changes come into play. I've started several posts but just haven't had the time to publish them. I keep running into snags with blogger which makes it pretty frustrating. So... they sit in the draft mode until I decide it is time to tackle it again.

Hope everyone has a fabulous 4th of July!!