Good Bye New Mexico

So here we sit in an empty house. Both cars are packed and moving truck filled to the brim. I only had to leave/give away four things, four things I didn't really need or will miss in the long run. We are already exhausted from a long day of packing and know that we have two more long days of traveling ahead makes us feel even more tired. We sit here so excited to wake up and get on the road making it one day closer to our new lives and new adventures and yet so sad to make a move away from friends and lives we know and know well.

To our wonderful friends the Guerra's, we will miss you! We love you all so much and I don't know what I am going to do with out my daily walks with you Danielle to talk about the world with each morning!!! We will miss your loving/kind hearted self that would do anything for anyone on the drop of a dime! We will miss you but we will see you again, this is not good bye!

So, Good bye New Mexico. We will miss you but hope to not be back anytime soon. We stand anxious for what is ahead of us and our new lives in Little Rock Arkansas!

Mom, Can I Come Too?!?!?!?

This is probably the last blog I will write for a long time. On Monday we load up the moving truck parked out side our driveway and head to Little Rock, Arkansa. We leave New Mexico after being stationed here for almost 2 and a half years. We are excited to move on to new things, but leave with a heavy heart. We will miss our friends that we've made and love in New Mexico, but leave with promises to see each other again wherever the military may take us.

Once we get to Little Rock we will be there until November. Niles has a training for his new job that begins June 8th and has an estimated ending date of November 18th. There is a possibility it may end later due to weather and having to make up classes, but this is what we know as of right now. Our follow on orders state we will move to North Carolina and be stationed at Pope Air Force Base. Once we receive our "official" orders we will find and lock in a house and begin getting our things for the second part of our move.

This move means that we are one step closer to being back on the East Coast and closer to our family and friends! This excites us to no-end!!!! We've wanted this for a long time and can not wait for it to be finally over! But also are excited to take full advantage of being in Little Rock and getting to see places we wouldn't have had a chance to with out the military making our lives so crazy! ha ha

We don't plan on getting internet while we are in Little rock. So I won't be able to post blogs as easily. I will keep you all updated as possible and keep the pictures coming. I have internet on our phone so we "plan" on using that for the basic needs and living a summer free of our 'distracting' internet!!! ha ha (we'll see how that pans out! ha ha)

Learning to Share

Dorian is now in her Toddler "ME" stage, or getting rather close to it. Everything is "mine" or "me". She gets a toy she is content with and claims it as her own. No one is allowed to take that toy because it is hers!!! Well.....this is something we need to work on, and we do on a day-to-day basis. Sissy (Addeline) has now developed a sense of "want". She sees something she likes and grabs for it. She can maneuver herself around the house now, pull herself up to reach for things higher up, and most of the time wants what Dorian has.

On most occasions Dorian knows that she has the higher ground and jumps on the couch so Addeline can't have what she has. On other occasions they have a pulling competition for that particular toy/item.

So our game plan. Dorian needs to learn how to share. She won't learn over night. It won't be a pretty battle with her. We expect tantrums from her, and anticipate "the time out spot" being used frequently! But we are starting with if she has a toy that Sissy wants, she must give sissy something else to play with until she is finished with the popular item at hand. This is working well for now. Soon Sissy will know that a replacement item is NOT what she wants and then we will work on each of them having the certain item for a period of time that is acceptable (5 minutes each?)

But this is our battle at hand...not a huge one...but it is what my life consists of right now! If this is the worst thing I have to battle each day, then life is pretty good for us right now!

On the upper-end our life, Dorian takes fantastic care of her sister! She now loves to put bibs on her to make sure she is clean. Dorian loves to wipe Sissy's face after eating, and feed her crackers when she misses her mouth. Occasionally she will run off with a handful of crackers so she can have more than her Sissy, but all in the process of sharing.

Dorian has become a fantastic, loving, and helpful big sister! Addeline loves her so much, she watches her closely and you can see the light in her eyes when she sees her big sister each morning! It is so great to see them together playing and laughing!!! It makes me so happy that they are close in age and love each other so much!!! The future is so bright for their relationship!!!

Day at The Park

Addy and Daddy

Having some one-on-one time before bed!

Bouncing and Jumping

There is this really cute place up the street called the "bouncing place". We've lived in NM for almost 2.5 years and have never been. We always thought that even though Dorian THINKS she can play and hang with older kids, she normally gets knocked down a lot and life isn't good. Seeing that she just learned how to JUMP, we thought we would give it a shot since we are moving next week.

SHE LOVED IT!!!!

She was jumping higher and harder than all of the children bigger than her! ha ha We had celeste there to take her up to the tops of the jumping pits and slide down with her...and she had a blast (wore celeste out after an hour, but still so much fun!!!).

We only ran into one problem and that was a "sharing" issue. Dorian didn't understand that if she got out of a car (those plastic things kids get in and can make go by using their feet?), someone else could then get in it and play with it. Dorian lost it when a little boy with beautiful red hair came up and got in her black truck when she left it for a second. Dorian tried like hell to get it back and finally gave up and sat in the back of it while the little boy drove off!! ha ha After about 45 minutes of trying to get the black truck back she gave up and found an un-spoken for yellow and red car. And trust me that little girl did not let it go for the life of her. It was HILLARIOUS!!!! But all in all a good lesson for her to start learning, that sharing is good and others can play with toys that she likes!

It was fun, sad to leave this new fun place...but high hopes to find something similar in Little Rock and North Carolina!!!

Officer Putnam Reporting for Duty

Any time we are folding laundry Dorian can not help herself. She has to put on something that is laying around and strutt her stuff! Today's article of clothing she had to put on was daddy's uniform for work!!! This is an every time thing, so I'm sure I'll get other cute picture of her in our clothes! :)

Our Last Trip To White Sands Desert

ME ME ME

I like to do things on the spur of the moment. This is one of them. I woke up and went to get my hair completely cut off. I can't put it up in a pony tail, and it is so short that even a clip really doesn't pin back my new bangs! But this is me. I told a few people about it and most said not to do it. Did I listen, NO! ha ha

I do things that I want to do, I always ask for opinions, I ALWAYS get upset when the opinions are not what I wanted to hear, and I go ahead with my decision to do the particular thing I intended to do.

Will I ever change? Probably not. There are a lot of things that I am going to do in my life-time. There are a LOT of people who probably won't approve or think I shouldn't do them. But honestly, It won't change my decision.

I will always ask for opinions. And Niles will come home to an upset wife on those days because the opinions will upset me. But I will bounce back the very next day and do what makes me and my family happy! It is who I am. I over think EVERYTHING, I work to gain the praise and acceptance from others, I plan things way to far in advance, and usually get upset when things don't pan out because I plan things to far ahead, I am meticulous about most things, I like to do things correctly, and I miss being so close to family and friends! ha ha But it is what it is. My genetic make up I am chalking this up to.

So for the remainder of my life, here is to hoping for a supportive and positive group of family and friends. :)

My Mother's Day Special Gifts

Dorian and Addeline each made me a clay imprint of their hands and feet (with a LOT of help from daddy)! Dorian painted hers for me and I painted Addeline's! But both turned out fantastic and I loved them both so much!!! It was an awesome Mother's day and I love both of the girls so much! Thank you Niles for making it such a great day!!! :)

Cruisin'

Addeline can and will stand on anything she can get her hands on! She has recently realized that when she is standing that she can take a step or two and it doesn't hurt her! So here we go....two walking kiddos are coming right up!