We'll miss him!

Mark is gone, again. He left on Thursday and will be home after his birthday. The kids aren't really bummed yet, but I'm sure in a week or so they will be asking me non-stop, "When is daddy coming home?" The hardest thing about the military is the time away. Its really crappy and its a tough job for all involved. I just want you all to know that if I don't post a lot, it is because I am here being a single mom once again. Its tough enough to keep up with my posting while Mark is home. I will try to update you all as much as possible, but don't use this as your one source to our life. There are other ways to find out what is going on with us, so utilize your tools, and we will try our hardest to utilize ours as well. We will miss Mark with all of our hearts and have already begun counting the days until his return home.

He's a BIG KID now!

Jan. 25th was Austyn's 3rd birthday! That officially makes him a big kid. He still insists that he is 2 years old, but he'll get it eventually. We spent the day hanging out with our friends in San Diego. We had pizza for dinner and strawberry shortcake for dessert. The cake was delicious. Austyn helped us sing Happy Birthday to him, and he blew out his candle. After pizza and cake we headed out to the base theater and watched "Alvin and the Chipmunks." It was a pretty funny movie with a lot of adult humor in it. Austyn loved it and kept dancing around.

My Kids Are Hilarious!

These are just a few things that the kids have said over the years that have me laughing. Some are old and some are new.
I got a kick out of this and just thought I would share. Tonight as we were sitting at the dinner table eating, Taylor asked me if I knew how Aunt Laura spanks her kids. I told him that yes I know how she spanks them, and sometimes she uses a spoon. He then told me that she only uses the spoon on Ryan. I asked him if maybe I should start using the spoon to spank him and if I should take the spoon out right then. His response was exactly this, "Mom, you know you only take the spoon out to cook with!"
One day when Austyn was just a little baby, he was screaming at the top of his lungs and he was just very unhappy. Taylor thought he knew exactly what happened and he said, "Mom, I think you really pissed Austyn off!" Of course, I then had to explain to him that pissed was a bad word and we shouldn't say it. I couldn't help but to laugh.
Mark and I were driving down the road one day and Taylor asked this question, "Mom, are we Chinese?" I told him that we were not and I asked him why he would ask such a thing. His reasoning was this, "Well, we eat Chinese food a lot!"
Taylor has a homework assignment each week where he has to practice a group of words and then use each word in a sentence. One of his words was old. His sentence was, "My grandpa is so old!"
Yesterday Mark disappeared for a little bit and when he resurfaced I asked him where he went. He said he went to load some more Cd's into I-Tunes and then he had to drop the kids off at the pool. (poop) Austyn heard this and came running. He was so excited and he said, "MOM! Daddy take out pool for me!!" He thought he was going to get a chance to go swimming. Mark had to explain to him that wasn't quite what he meant.
Okay, well that's about all I can recall at the moment. I hope some of them made you laugh. If not, maybe you should re-evaluate your sense of humor! lol Just Kidding!!

The Tooth Fairy Makes a Comeback!

So, as most of you know Taylor lost his very first baby tooth on Sunday. He told me that he doesn't believe in the tooth fairy and that it is all "fake-believe." He says fake-believe instead of make-believe. So, I tried my hardest to convince him that the tooth fairy is indeed real, but he wasn't buying what I was selling. I guess I just want the kids to have a sense of imagination and to be able to hold onto their youthfulness for as long as possible.
Bedtime rolled around and we put his tooth (in a Ziploc bag) under both of his pillows. Everything was set, I knew exactly where the tooth was and Mark knew to wake me up when he came home from work.
4AM-Mark gets home from work and wakes me up. We decide that $5 is a good solid amount for one tooth. We sneak into Taylor's room and are lucky to have the fish tank light to help us see. I tell Mark where the tooth is supposed to be and he can't find it. He looks in between the pillows and still can't find it. I was beginning to think we had lost it! I look under the other pillows, in between them, and still nothing! It's a good thing Taylor wasn't actually using his pillows, otherwise we would have woken him up. So, I take each pillow off one at a time and "Hallelujah!" we found it! He had moved it in between the first set of pillows. So, we confiscate the tooth, replace it with a $5 bill and drag our half asleep behinds to bed.
7AM-Taylor wakes me up with this, "MOM! The tooth fairy came in my room and left me $5!! I can't believe that! I guess the tooth fairy really is real!" He was so excited and I was excited for him. I was happy to have his belief back intact. Later while he was eating breakfast he said that he wasn't expecting to get $5. That left me thinking that I had such a great kid, who was so thankful and grateful for the gift he had received, and then I woke up. He finished his story by saying that he was expecting to get $10!! I told him that the tooth fairy decides how much money each kid gets. They think about how well they took care of their teeth and whether or not they are a good kid. Some kids get just $1 and some kids get $10. It just depends on how good they are.
So the tooth fairy made a comeback! HOORAY!

a few pictures

These are Pictures from Christmas Morning...







These are before and after pictures of Taylor's teeth...











Pictures of Austyn and Ryleigh to even things out.








Pictures of Mark, Taylor and myself after we spent a day on the mountain.