sunshine

ahhhh the California weather sure is a dream. I now know why people pay so much for real estate here. It really is so great. Today we spent 3 hours at the beach. It never go hot, always breezy. This weekend was a warm one for our winter season. 85 was the high both days. 

Friday night Lillie had an art show at preschool. She was so proud. I absolutely love her little school. It has teachers that have been there for 30 years and some of the parents went there themselves. Being in the military, it is nice to see some stability somewhere. 

 Art show

backyard fun 

social media break

well well well, look who decided to blog...That's right, I haven't blogged in forever! social media has kept me away from my blog. Since I have given up Facebook for lent, here I am! Lets see what is new....

• patrick deploys in April...6 months, sigh....
• The girls and I will head to Texas for Easter which will help distract the start of the deployment, I hope
• Lillie is thriving in her 3 yr old class! She is such a sweet girl in class. she gets shy, but still has lots of friends! Shy=less trouble, fingers crossed
• Hallie is 19 mos old. she is a handful... If i only have 2 children it is because she has scared me!
• Lillie is all signed up for her first dance recital in July! OMG i can not wait...please don't let me turn into a crazy dance mom....
• when Patrick deploys I try and stay busy..This time I have a few DIY projects...I want to redo the girls' bathroom with a mermaid/ocean theme...mostly just the colors and a few shabby chic mermaid things. I also want to change my room color scheme..gonna redo a dresser and paint it a fun turquoise with chevron stripes...we will see how it all turns out! ha

Thats all for now. I hope to keep this sucker updated for a while. I miss blogging...

xoxox

Kathy

hello?? anyone there...

So I haven't blogged in months! Guess I got caught up in life...
What's new? Well Patrick is home from deployment and everything is back to normal...
He had some time off and we went to Palm Springs and stayed at the new Legoland hotel!!! We had the most fun at legoland.
Hallie turned 1 in July..she is so fierce. She falls and hits her head and gets hit and never cries.. she gets back up. She has been walking since 9months, so she is pretty darn good on her feet! She loves to back herself in to a lap to read a book.
Lillie turns 3 this weekend! We had a Cinderella party last weekend. Cinderella even made an appearance! It was such a hit. She is a special little girl. Loves her mama and daddy andhigh heels and makeup:) she also loves to workout and get dirty. That's my girl!
This fall will be fun with with Halloween, a trip to Texas, Marine corps ball In Vegas, and Christmas with  2 excited little girlies:)

cousins

Liz, Lexie, and Tripp came for a visit and wevhad so much fun!! we spent a whole day at Legoland and a day at the zoo. I am so tired! the weather was fabulous and everyone was happy, even Hallie handled the long days! 

little past half way

So Patrick is due to get home at the end of May which means we are almost done! February and March have been really long. We had no visitors, so it gets really lonely in the evenings not to mention taking care of two kids alone. Lillie has really been talking about Patrick a lot which is really sweet, but also very frustrating too. She always says, "daddy wants to go there with us" , or " daddy likes (whatever we are doing or eating) too". It's sweet but i don't even know what to say to her anymore. So, I get the idea that she is really starting to wonder where Daddy is because it has already been a long time! poor baby

Hallie is almost 8 mos old. She started crawling at 5 1/2 mos and starting pull up shortly after. I am so proud of her, but so tired from chasing her all over! Her and Lillie ar so fun to watch. They really get along well, but also annoy each other. They each need there time away from one another.

Patrick's parents wll be here for Easter weekend and then my mom come a few weeks later and will stay for 2 weeks! yay...May will probably be the longest month of all.....we will just have to stay busy busy!

2 down

well, two months down and 4 more to go til our family is back together. its been going pretty well. we have a good routine going on and i must say its working!! both girls sleep all night. Some nights we all go to bed at :30:)
we make sure and do something everyday, whether its a playdate or the park or the beach. i sure have been fortunate to have such great friends and neighbors. someone is always calling or over at our house.
my mom comes sunday and i am ready for some help for a bit. excited for us to to do some touristy things too.

i

A Long December

Well we got to Texas for Thanksgiving in Texarkana with Patrick's family. His younger brother Dale is in law school in Houston so he drove us back to Sugar Land to be with my family. We all spent one last weekend together before Patrick had to head back to California and then deploy. We went to a Christmas tree farm and cut down a mini tree for Lillie to put in my parents' house. Patrick and I got to go out to Churascos that night. We hadn't been on a date in a long time!

We ended up staying in Houston until Jan 5! The help was nice, but i really missed my house and friends and neighbors! Lillie was excited to get home too. She kept saying " this is house is so beautiful!" and then when we would walk in her or Hallie's room she would say "It's sooo pretty". Glad she likes it here:)

We had a great time in Houston with the cousins. I got to see quite a few of my good friends from High school! I was so happy to see them and catch up. Lillie had soo much fun, she really misses Nana. We did so much stuff with her. They went to build a bear, we saw  her first movie (Monsters Inc), we got an Elf on the shelf this year, she went shopping with nana a lot, she fell in the pond in the back yard (haha!), played with uncle Nick a lot, dances with Grandpa, snuggled with Nana, tried fresh cow milk, had an ornanment exchange, went to a party with other Sugar Mill Elementary teacher's kids, and most importantly made and mailed Daddy some pictures.

Now to make some memories in California. We got a new kitty last week, Ruby! she is super sweet and loves to snuggle with Lillie. Today we are headed to get our legoland membership, it is 10 mins from our house:) I am also on the hunt for a part time sitter/nanny.....we'll see!

what's up

So it's almost the middle of November and it's bittersweet for me. Soon it will be Thanksgiving and then Christmas and we get to celebrate both in Texas! yay, but...Patrick also deploys at the end of November. I am starting to get sad, nervous, and worried. I know Lillie is going to ask me everyday where daddy is. Ugh, that makes me sick. I know he is so sad to leave Lillie at Christmas time when she is so excited . When he gets back Hallie will be almost 1!! Plus, i am scared to death to be a single mom with no family nearby for 5 months! I talk to a lot of wives here that have had husbands deploy numerous times and they say ut never gets easy. You never get used to your husband being gone for that long-Never! I was talking to a Lt. Col's wife today and this is about the 7th or 8th time her husband has deployed, she actually walked out of the gym today to cry...sigh...I was thinking, man if this lady gets upet, I'm gonna be a disaster! I sure hope someone will come visit me while he is deployed :(
For those who are wondering about him, he will be going to Japan and then on a ship for a month and then on land for a bit and then back to a ship. I believe when he is on a ship he won't be able to talk to us until he gets to land.

I will update my blog more often when he is gone to keep you posted on what's going on with him.

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

plus hallie=4

Hallie Reed Blankenship was born July 25th at 11:22 pm. On her due date! she weighed 7lbs 1 oz and was 18.5 inches long. What an experience!! We had to stay 4 nights in the hospital due to jaundice. My O blood type affected her red blood count and caused a stir. I was a wreck. The first 2 nights were fine, but then they said we had to stay another night and then another night...It got scary. She had to wear these little eye shades and be under ultra violet lights for almost 24 hrs and then have blood drawn to check her levels. So after the first 2 nights they discharged me and kept Hallie...So they let Patrick and I board in a room there, but it felt like jail. I was scared for Hallie but also upset because I missed my Lillie! I felt so torn, I felt like both of my kids needed me:( I went home one afternoon for a bit to see Lillie and got to take a nap with her, and then headed right back to the hospital. i didn't sleep much because I found myself walking back to the special care nursery to check on Hallie. we couldn't even hold her to feed her bc we needed those lights to get rid of the issue...Sigh. anyways, we are home and she has been doing great. My mom was here for 3 weeks!!! It was so wonderful. She cooked like crazy, grocery shopped like crazy, and even got up with Hallie in the middle of the night for me a few times....boy, i sure miss her! we are now starved and tired! ha! Lillie had so mcuh fun with nana.... They took naps together, she built her a sandbox, they went for walks, and read SO many books! It was a special time that we will never forget. Lillie still calls the guest room nana's room and so do I;)

The week my mom left, we were lucky enough to have my Mom's group bring dinner! we had food every night. It was so thoughtful and we were so grateful for that!

 Lillie first meeting Hallie, I was worried she would be upset or jealous, but she jumped right on the bed and kept saying "baby sisser". Such a special moment in my life...