Two Years Later

Hi Guys! Last post was June 2013... whew that seems like ages ago! I wanted to get the blog back up and running so here we go! Many of you followed us through our 2012 deployment (which also seems like ages ago) but for many of you this may be the first time visiting. I am so thankful to everyone who followed, supported and showed us so much love during the crazy time. Seemed like the blog was an outlet for me to come and write my feelings, stories and share some of the craziness that goes along with deployment. After Chris returned home from deployment the blog kind of took a back seat and I will be honest I kind of forgot about it. But here we are a year and a half later... lets open this book again! If this is your first time here, thanks for checking us out! Feel free to look back at the "madness" of our last deployment but please don't judge. If you followed our journey before you know the gist... I cry, laugh, vent, and share what makes me happy here... my family! I will be in the process of revamping the blog and while Chris is still in the Army his training and deployment schedule has been VERY quiet lately. No deployments, long trainings, no long times away from home... just the way I like it. Although I can tell he is getting a little stir crazy though.

So much has happened since June 2013 I will try and keep it short and simple. Lets start with that last post. (Baby News) Man oh, man that was a doozy. It was nearly two years ago and surprise we are pregnant again! Two years ago after going through that craziness we decided to wait to try and have another baby. So I started graduate school, Audrey was getting ready to start kindergarten and Chris was changing jobs. But soon enough the "fever" was back and I finally went for all the blood work and testing to see why we were having so much trouble with having a baby. Everything came back normal! I mean as normal as can be. No problems with any of my tests. This was great news! While it was no explanation for why we had so much trouble 2 years ago it did give us piece of mind that we could try again. So we decided now was the time. And at 30 weeks pregnant today I can say we are expecting a healthy baby girl in just a few short months! This pregnancy is nothing like Audrey and it has been anything but easy. I've had doctor visits every two weeks from the beginning to monitor everything (that was a very uneasy time for us) and I was very sick for a long time. I have never taken so many naps in my life! But here in the 3rd trimester I really feel great! Doctor says everything look great and things are progressing as they should. We could not be happier! Audrey is very excited to finally become a big sister and we are beyond excited to make this family of 3 become 4!

In the midst of baby fun I also started graduate school and was very lucky to be offered a position through Mercy at an Autism Clinic working with preschool children. I have shifted my focus from Early Childhood to Intervention Specialist for my masters and look forward to this new opportunity!

Audrey is half way through kindergarten now and is very smart! I am not just saying that because she is mine :) but I have to say we are very lucky to have such a smart and good kid.

 

 I volunteer at her elementary school weekly so it is nice to be there with her (while bulking up that resume) and see her progression not only at home but at school as well. She loves to read and is becoming a very strong reader. She still enjoys gymnastics and is involved in FitClub at school which is an exercise club where they work out, do sports, obstacle courses, ect. Audrey loves to sing. I mean the kid is singing 24/7 but says she has stage fright. She still visits Donna on a weekly basis and I am not sure what those two would do without each other. Donna was heaven sent when Chris was deployed and was very helpful with Audrey that we cannot imagine life without her.

Like I said Chris' deployment and Army schedule has been very quiet lately. Just a few days a month he trains and we have him home otherwise. We are so thankful for that. While I know he is itching for something to "come up" I am content with life as we have it now. He works for an insulation company her close to home and works long hours but we have him home for dinner every night, he has been so supportive during the entire pregnancy and Audrey and him are so close. Life is much different than we knew it for the first 4-5 years of our marriage but so much better now!

Christmas and the holidays this year were awesome. Chris was home and we could not have spent it any better. We were lucky enough to visit Washington State over the holidays to visit Chris' family and what an amazing vacation that was.

Flying and traveling 26 weeks pregnant was not my favorite but we survived. Definitely the most beautiful part of the country I have ever been to. We always said we would move there under the right circumstances. I would love to not live through these snowy, Ohio winters anymore :)

Mine and Audrey's crafting is still underway. Not as much as before simply because we are just so busy but we try to find time to sit down play with paint. :)

 

My latest adventure is getting organized and reducing the clutter in the house. Audrey has so much stuff that it is hard to fathom having twice the amount when the new baby comes. So for the last few months (with the help of pinterest) I have been on a decluttering journey and slowly but surely we are getting there!

So right now I could not ask for anything more. No looming deployments, Audrey is great, and we are expecting the family of 3 that we have only ever known to quickly become a family of 4!