The news is real here

Ok, so this post is a serious one. I am up with Hallie at 2:30 am and I got to thinking about life here in California. It sounds glamorous, but honestly, living around one of the biggest Military bases is anything but that. I feel like I always read stories about young men being killed, wonded, deployed and I think " oh that is sad', but then I move on. After being here a few months i have met people. I have met those people on the news and in the paper. To make it even harder, I have gotten to know there families.  In the summer, lillie and i swim at the neighborhood pool across the street from a single mom with 2 elementary aged boys. I have learned that a few years ago her husband was shot down in a plane in Afghanistan. She still has to go on and raise her kids. I see her driving sometimes and just feel so sad for her.
      The other day at the gym after an intense workout I see a girl sitting down just crying. I asked what was going on and at first I just thought she was hurt or being a wuss. In reality she was sad, sad that her husband had been deployed and she was emotionally drained of worrying....
Another friend at the gym, she is so fun to workout with, so positive, so cheerful; she told me her husband was medically dischared from the marines. I figured he hurt his back or something that you hear about in the city, to me that meant maybe he was overweight or unhealthy. Nope, I was humbled again. Jess' husband had both legs blown off and lost his arm a few years ago....Life goes on for them.
The most humbling story was about one of the trainers at the gym. I recently read about a fundraiser that the gym is doing for a marine killed, blah blah bah, the stuff we read about all the time. After a few days I learned that that Marine was her husband! ugh, terrible. He was killed a couple years ago, and ironically he was deployed with Jess' husband who came home wounded. Anyways, the other day she came to the gym and decided to do 700 burpees, she was there for a while! Turns out, It had been 700 days since her husband had deployed, so 700 days since she last saw him! He never came home:(
 Sad stroies, but true stories, so pray for the military and their families that you read about. Take the time to read about them and know that they are real stories and someone that loves them is struggling or hurting over their loss. These guys are such heros....

Sisters

These two are just so sweet together. I have like a million pictures of them together! Lillie is always laying by Hallie and wanting to pick her up. She loves showing hallie her toys. The other day I hear her say "sweet baby" to her!

 

hunting season

Tis the season of hunting...Well we didn't actually shoot anything, but we did hunt! We hunted for pumpkins, grass, bugs, leaves, rocks, and other things outside! It was pretty fun! We started our scavenger hunt by making binoculars, and then we set out around the neighborhood to search for the things on our list. We had fun:)

 

 

We also hunted for pumpkins on our street. The first picture is where Lillie hid ALL the pumpkins when it was her turn- she was so proud. It took her like 15 mins to get them all up there and organized!

Lillie lingo

So Liz's last post inspired me to write about things Lillie says that are funny. I always tell myself to do this but I forget.

Lillie
    The other day I was laying out in the back yard and my tummy was showing and she told me to "close it"

When I take a picture of her she always asks to see it and the says "awww" when she looks at it

I love how she calls Hallie " Howie"

When she gets tired she says " mama snuggle" ...how can i say no to that??

oh and she loves dental floss! she asks for "minty" not floss

Since Hallie has been here i guess she has heard the word "share" lots, so anytime we have somthing she wants, mostly candy or soda..she tells us "share, share..."

this one she has said for a while, but it still cracks me up.... She will tell people " hi, mornin",  no matter what time it it.

she knows when either Patrick or I put on tennis shoes we are going to "wook out".

When she sees people when we are out, she always points and says "buddy" real loud.

I'm sure there are so many more.....But she is hilarious just to talk to....

Cali stuff

We have been pretty busy lately...mostly with just baby stuff. I finally feel more comfortable getting out with the 2 girls. I put Hallie in the baby carrier and Lillie will just walk or get in the cart depending on where we go. Some days we just stay home, ok most days. I hate staying home bc I feel like Lillie gets so bored! But I always hear that kids are just happy being with their parents :) Patrick deploys for 6 months at the end of November. The girls and I will go to Texas in December and I'm not sure when we will get back to California....Hoping I can convince someone to fly back with me.

 

Lillie ballerina

Lillie loves her tiny tutu class! It is so cute to see her interact with other little girls too.

2 cute

Well on August 25th, Lillie turned 2!! We went to a local pizza place and Lillie experienced her first arcade experience! On her first game she won 50 tickets!! Patrick had been out of town for two weeks and he got to come back to work here for the weekend that weekend, so that was a nice break. We had Lillie's Brown Bear party the following weekend. It was based off of the Eric Carle book "Brown Bear, brown Bear, what do you see?" Lillie loves it and recites it quite well:) I had so much fun planning it and finding ideas since the theme isn't very common. Made me feel like a teacher again! Here are a few pics from the weekend...It was so fun!

I had the cake made, but I threw in my own touch by adding the Lillie banner.

 Lillie got this bounce house from Nana and it was a huge hit at her party

Hallie was dressed in her Brown Bear headband