Dear Lord

Dear Lord,

Give me the greatness of heart to see the difference between duty and his love for me. Give me understanding that I may know, when duty calls him he must go. Give me a task to do each day, to fill the time when he's away. And Lord, when he's in a foreign land, keep him safe in your loving hand. And Lord, when duty is in the field, please protect him and be his shield. And Lord, when deployment is so long, please stay with me and keep me strong. Amen.

Water baby!

This kid is obsessed with the pool! I've been teaching him some basic swimming stuff and now he loves to get dunked under and hold his breath, kick around the pool and blow bubbles in the water. He's too much fun!!

Transition

Sorry for the mini blog break.. we have been transitioning a bit and I just haven't gotten around to writing. This won't be long, but I wanted to give a little update on Jax. He is 14 months old tomorrow!! He has started saying and signing so many new things and it's just too much fun! Here's the list :)

Signs-

Please

Kitty

Ball

Hi/Bye

So big (which I know isn't actually a 'sign')

All done

Words-

Please

1,2,3 (sounds like guh, guh, geeeee :) )

Mama

Dada

Nana

Hi

Bye bye

Uh-oh

This

He is also really good at listening and following directions. Most of the time he understands what I'm saying and that is so helpful! He loves to read books. He loves to pull things out of cupboards/drawers/shelves. He loves being loud and banging things together. He LOVES to swim and he is getting good at kicking, and holding his breath while we dunk him. He is slowly starting to nap in his crib (Praise the Lord). He cries for about 10 seconds then falls asleep... the only negative is that he never sleeps more than 30 minutes. But it's better than nothing! He is in the process of getting 3 teeth. Eeek. Two bottom ones one either sides of the middle ones and one molar on the top. He's been a little sad about those, but I'm hoping it'll pass soon. Overall, he's developing so quickly and learning so much. This is a great age and I'm loving every second of it! I'll post some new pictures tomorrow... tonight's all about Ali and who she's going to choose! ;)

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

I sent Ryan his first package today! So now the test begins... how long will it take to get there? When he was deployed to Iraq, packages/letters took anywhere from 2 weeks to never. Ha! I actually only had one incident where a package never got to him. On average it would take about 3 weeks. I'm hoping this one gets to him quickly because it includes a fresh set of new sheets which he desperately needs. Ironically, that is the first thing I sent him when we started "dating" while he was in Iraq. My, how we've come full circle since then! 4 years later and we're rounding in on our 3rd anniversary and we just celebrated our son's 1st birthday. Time sure does fly!

On a different note, we are about 3 hours away from my mom hoping on a plan to head out here!! I'm so stinkin' excited! I can't wait to see her and have some help with Jax. We have a lot to get done over the next few days so I'm sure we will be plenty busy. Part of that business is wrapped up in my gym. I'm going to try not to turn this into a rant, but basically I'm trying to cancel my gym membership and they are giving me you-know-what. They told me I needed certain proof of Ryan being gone, I provided it, they said it wasn't good enough, I provided more and I still am not sure if it's enough. I've been running in circles for them and I'm just so angry. I'm about ready to run around Fayetteville telling everyone to boycott them! It's ridiculous.

One final thought... Ryan could use some extra prayer over these next few days. I don't know any specifics but could ya'll just pray for an extra hedge of protection around him? I would super appreciate it! Thanks so much!

My New Favorite Pictures

Edited for internet appropriateness, of course

Boys and their.... toys? Ha!

Bummer

I'm in a funk this evening. Which is weird because today was a really good day. Jax slept til 530 (ridiculous that that is a good thing in this house), he proceeded to eat almost an entire pint of blueberries (his booty wasn't too happy with him later), I finally pulled apart his car seat and cleaned all the stale cheerios and goldfish out, I got a fabulous pedicure, had lunch with some lovely girlfriends, spent the afternoon playing at home with one of said girlfriends and my sweet boy, and made waffles for dinner. Good day, no?

Well after Jax went to bed and my sweet friend left, my other not-so-sweet "friend" arrived. Yep. No sibling for Jax... at least not for another 6-9 months (plus ya know, the whole 9 months of pregnancy). I'm seriously bummed. I really REALLY want another baby. Everyone around me is getting pregnant with their second and I want my own. I know I have Jax (and man do I LURVE that boy), but I so badly want to hold a newborn... to smell that sweet smell and snuggle that tiny body. And now I have to wait until Ryan gets home before I can even have that be a possibility. Major bummer, ya'll.

Plus, I just stinkin' miss my husband.

Time for bed. Tomorrow is a new day. G'night.

Daddy's Love

We love you, Daddy!!

The Fourth of July in Pictures

LOVING the pool

Gotta have the watermelon

Buzz Lightyear to the rescue

Daddy built a swingset!

Sleeeeeeepy baby

Sparklers

Chillin' watching fireworks

Daddy and his boy

Fireworks!

Doctor Jax... all ready for bed

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Fourth of July!

We are heading to church this morning, then having a few friends over for a last minute BBQ we are throwing together. It's gonna be pretty low-key but we'll have good friends and quite a few kiddos here so it should be fun. I hope ya'll have awesome plans for today as well!

I wanted to quickly forward a prayer request... ADRIENNE has had 7 miscarriages (all ending between 10-12 weeks). They adopted a little boy from Russia 3 years ago, then within this past year they ended up adopting 2 more children. She also became pregnant again during this time. She finally got past 12 weeks with her eighth pregnancy and was 27 weeks pregnant, but had to deliver her baby boy last night. His cord wasn't working properly anymore and doctors decided it was safer for him not to be in her belly anymore. He's obviously very tiny so they could really use prayer. I know ya'll will be prayer warriors for this brave mommy and her little boy!

Have a good day! I'll try to take some pictures this afternoon and post them later. I know ya'll are missing pictures of my handsome little man ;)

Blogging Day of Silence

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