My Favorite Scrapbook Pages

So as some of you know I scrapbook. I started doing it while Mr.W was deployed kind of like this blog. I didn't post a lot about it because I wanted to surprise Mr.W with the book when he returned home and as far as I know he loved it!

and I have since continued scrapbooking and thought I would share some of my favorite pages that i have made with you...

   Halloween                                            Florida

Busch Gardens                                    Packers

 Valentine's Day                                  My Birthday       

         R&R                                           Roadtrip Home

       At The Pool                              Playground Princess

 Summer                                                16 Months      

 

Season Kickoff                                  Welcome Home

(Click Pictures to Enlarge)

Tick Tock

Let the countdown to RnR begin!

With Mr. W finally on his way home my excitement grows as well as the length of my days because he is so close but so far away. But I know he'll be here soon and thats all that matters! This is going to be a very exciting and fun vacation for us because not only will Mr. W be home but we will be going to Michigan to visit the family and celebrate Lilly's first birthday!

yup thats right our baby girl is going to be one in approximately...

~ 11 DAYS ~

it still feels like she was born yesterday and its already been a year. its all kind of bitter sweet...

(To Stop Music Scroll To Bottom Of Page)

I AM AN ARMY WIFE

I am an army wife. I knew exactly what I was getting myself into when I got married, I knew that there would be good times and bad times, as well as times when I may get lonely, overwhelmed, and feel like absolutely everything is out of my control. But I also knew when I married Mr. W that all the loneliness, and stress would be worth it. Just knowing that he will soon be back in my arms and that he is doing a wonderful thing for our country makes the time pass a little bit easier.

I am an army wife. I have been in the worlds most difficult long distance relationship so don't go comparing your long distance relationship to mine... they are completely different unless you've been in a relationship with a service member.

Don't tell me you know what is like to spend months away from one of the most loved people in your life, whom you barely get to talk to, who is in danger everyday, and who you know is in a place where things could turn bad at a moments notice... because NEWS FLASH... YOU DON'T KNOW

Don't whine to me that you and your significant other don't get to spend your days together,

Don't whine to me that you are feeling "deprived" when you haven't had any "action" in TWO WHOLE WEEKS,

Don't whine to me because your significant other works "so far away"

AND

Don't whine to me that you are stressed

because frankly... I am NOT the person to get sympathy from in these situations and I could careless about your problems compared to what I deal with.

and this concludes my vent of the week.

Patience

It's hard not to get excited knowing that Mr.W will be home before we know it. I want to plan all the thing we are gonna do and have everything prepared for him, but this can be hard to do when you don't know the exact date that he is going to be here. So I just have to be patient.

just knowing how much longer it is going to be makes a day feel like a week and a week feel like a months sometimes... time has never gone by so slowly in my entire life. I am doing the best I can to keep my self busy to make the time go by more quickly but that doesn't always do the trick, some things don't seem to take as long as they used to...

Laundry used to take all day now its only seems like a few hours,

Dishes went from a half an hour to 15 minutes,

general pick up around the house went from an hour to 30 minutes,

The saying is time flies when your having fun, so maybe I should try to do some more fun things instead of doing chores! any suggestions?

Speechless

Everyday I spend with this little girl the more and more she amazes me.

She is becoming more independent and is developing quite the personality. She is standing by herself (only for about a minute) but everyday she is staying up longer. Even if she falls down she isn't afraid to try again, no crying or whining she just gets back up and goes for it.

She is slowly learning to walk [with some hand holding of course] and I'm hoping Mr. W is the trick to her taking those first steps, when he comes home for RnR. I mean its worth a try, right? I hope so anyways.

and this brings me back to the fact that this little girl amazes me beyond words.

The Sunshine State. . . a.k.a. Florida

So for the last week and a half Lilly and I were in Florida visiting my dad and sister. and we had a fun time. Our trip started off kinda rough mostly because my first flight to Atlanta was DELAYED... so instead of getting in to Tampa at 7:20, we got in at 9:30 p.m. but it was worth all the stress and trouble when we finally got there and saw them waiting for us there. and enjoyed our late night dinner at Denny's :)  It was pretty tasty considering we don't have one around the always lovely Ft. Polk (sarcasm intended)

The Saturday and Sunday were shopping / hanging at home days. Sunday night however, my sister was kind enough to watch miss Lillian while my dad and I went to Hooters to watch the Packers pound the Falcons... it was an exciting evening for us. Just wish Mr. W could have seen it (he was working)

Monday-Thursday my dad had to work but was home early-ish to spend time with us and we went out to dinner EVERY NIGHT... it was so nice. we had sushi and even went to Carrabba's as part of my dad's Christmas present. We did some minor shopping during the week... I even found these A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E sunglasses for Lilly...

♥ Such a little diva ♥

 FRIDAY was a super fun day for us. We went to Busch Gardens (free thanks to Mr.W) Lilly really enjoyed looking at all the animals and watching all the rollercoasters. Her grandpa even got her a super cute stuffed giraffe with a hot pink "Busch Gardens" hoodie. Here are some pictures from our day...

Looking at the ducks with Grandpa...

Watching the flamingos...

They even matched...

Posing for some pictures

In the words of Mr. W... "why are you trying to feed our daughter to a tiger?"

LOVING THE TIGER. It was sitting there for a few minutes.

Watching the elephants and rocking my packers tee

Yelling at the elephants

loving on momma ♥

Yeah, I'm terrified of birds and that green blur is a bird flying right at me... AHHHHH!!!

It was a fun day :D

After we left we went shopping at the "International Plaza." Then we all went home and crashed in bed.

Saturday was another shopping day we bought Lilly some super cute clothes and her Grandpa even got her, her first official Packers tee. WHICH she wore sunday... and this brings us to one of the most eventful days of our entire trip... SUNDAY we woke up and were getting ready for breakfast, but before we left my dad wanted to scan some pictures onto his computer, it wasn't working so he went to check his scanner and leaned on the coffee table (which he and myself have done a million times) but this time the glass top broke and in he process of all of this my dad cut his finger open. When all this happened we had to go to the ER where we came to find out he had severed the tendon in his left pinky, which wouldn't have been so bad except he is a left handed nurse, and might need surgery so fingers-crossed everything turns out alright. after all of this was over we went back to the house got him all cleaned up and headed out to watch The Packers win the NFC Championship game against The Bears... Needless to say Mr.W, Me, and everyone else in Packer nation is super pumped to see them got to the super bowl

Go Pack Go!



But now I am home and doing alright. I even got help filing our taxes thanks to my always helpful Mother-In-Law. And it is a HUGE weight off my shoulders to see how much we are getting back this year.

Lovin My Life as A Mommy and Army Wife

Dear Deployment...

I'M KICKING YOUR BUT TODAY!

                            love, 

                                    me ♥

Let me explain... so its been about 6 weeks since Mr. W left and as any military wife knows, you have your good days and your bad days during deployments, especially when you have a baby.
So this past weekend was a good once for us

Friday we went to Alexandria with some friends and had some dinner at chili's and I bought Lilly "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" [THE BOOK] Then we went to the main post chapel for the tree lighting and to visit santa...

and she even got a little teddy bear from him.
Saturday we watched some Christmas movies and went to a friends house for dinner.
Sunday was a nothing day but the Packers won!!!
[Go Pack Go]

Today was laundry day and Lilly was super cranky (I blame teething)
She also learned how to climb up the stairs with some help form me but we are slowly working on getting down...

and then while watching Rudolph and the island of misfit toys on ABC Family (the lame one not the awesome older one) and my Mother-In-Law pointed out that Lilly looks like Hermie the elf...

[Please not the insane resemblance]

Lovin My Life as A Mommy and Army Wife

Let The Fun Begin

Its FINALLY December!

And let me just tell you that I am SOOOOO ready for the holidays.

Sadly we don't have a Christmas tree this year, I figured we could wait to get one until Mr. W is back with us for our first Christmas ALL together as a family.

But I DID get some Christmas shopping done yesterday and today

and as much as I would love to tell you all what I got but some of the gift recipients read this so you guys are gonna have to wait... but they are pretty great!

But I CAN tell you what Lillian is getting since she can't read.

1. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer 4 piece board book set [from Daddy]
2. A Pook-a-Looz Tinkerbell doll [From Mommy]
3. New 14k gold earrings [from Mommy & Daddy]

and yes it is her first Christmas and I'm only getting her 3 gifts but if you guys knew how much she will be getting from her grandparents you would understand why I'm not getting a lot this year. Plus I grew up with getting like one bigger/more expensive present (earrings) and few smaller ones. 

Two Weeks until Michigan and 5 Weeks until Florida!

Lovin My Life as A Mommy and Army Wife

Eleven Months To Go

Today makes for the one month mark of Mr.W's deployment.

Only eleven months to go until he is done.

Anyways... 

only 1 more day until 

Thanksgiving

I'm looking forward to spending some time with one of my good friend. She will be coming to watch the parade with her boys and then we will be going to eat dinner! It looks to be a fun filled day.

Which means only 23 days left until Lilly and I leave for Michigan.
I'm extra excited now that my FABULOUS mother-in-law has told me of the recent accumulation of snow! I'm sooooo looking forward to having a white Christmas!

OH so big news on Miss Lillian... She is getting her First tooth! Its kind of hard to see but it finally broke through! And she can pull herself up onto things and actually stand, the only bad part is she still hasn't figured out how to get down other than to fall, so she'll usually just stand there and cry until I go help her get back down. But she is slowly figuring it out.

On another note Mr. W's care package is still sitting on my kitchen table. When I last talked to him and asked where he was he said "Somewhere... I don't really know." yeah so who knows when he'll actually get his little box from home. I couldn't help but laugh when a majority of our conversation was about the Packers vs Vikings game on Sunday...

Go Pack Go!

30-3 WIN

Three Weeks Down

So I have been slacking with blogging. I've been super busy with Lilly since Mr. W left for his deployment.

Lilly crawls now and she is absolutely EVERYWHERE!!!

And on top of that she is having some separation anxiety from Mr. W leaving, add some teething on top of that with a hint of neediness and that's what I've been dealing with while trying to do almost anything including cooking, laundry, dishes, driving, paying bills online/on the phone, or even just trying to have a simple conversation with anyone... It has been quite crazy, but I love her so she is worth all the frustration.

This by the way has been the LONGEST three weeks of my entire life! It feels like it has been so much longer!

On another note:

37 Days Until Christmas

Which also means...

29 Days Until We Leave For Michigan

Yep That's right we are going to spend Christmas and New Years in Michigan with our family. We are looking forward to the snow, cold, and seeing everyone again. We are really excited to take Lilly sledding for the first time and to watch her open all of her first Christmas presents. She's never been in such a cold place so I'm hoping the trip goes well.

After all of that we are coming home for a week or two and then going to Florida for a bit to visit more family.
It's looking to be a very exciting time us.

And with all of this I know that time will go by quickly
which is good and bad at the time...
Good because it's closer to when we get to see Mr. W again,
Bad because it will feel like our family time has gone by too quickly.

Lilly is crying for my attention (I guess nap time is over) So I'm off to mommy world once again.

Lovin My Life as A Mommy and Army Wife

Been Here All Along

Click here to view this photo book larger

Halloween Card

Ghost Talk Halloween 5x7 folded card

Get custom Halloween invitations at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

Happy Halloween

 

so this is Lilly's first Halloween and so we went trick or treating!

It was a fun filled evening. she got lots of treats and even had her first lollipop, which made her SUPER sticky but it was worth it to see her so happy. I only wish that Mr.W could have been there to see it ♥