Princess Pool Party

Allie turns 4 Monday!! I really can't believe it. Time is flying by!

When I asked Allie what kind of a party she wanted she said, "PRINCESS!!"  So, a princess "themed" party it was.....again (she wanted princess last year too).  In all actuality, it was just a princess cake and pink plates. The place: the community pool. And, we had it to ourselves!! We were shocked that no one was there on a Saturday. A few people showed up here and there but, for the most part, it was just us and Allie's little friends. Allie had an absolute blast and loved having some kids to play with.

Zing Zang Zoom

Last night we went to the "Greatest Show on Earth." It was a birthday surprise for Allie. By surprise, I mean we told her about it a couple weeks ago to see if it might be of any interest to her or not. She seemed excited so we bought tickets. We didn't mention it again until yesterday so last night was a big surprise for her since she didn't remember our previous mentioning of it. It was so sweet when not even half way through the show Allie leaned over and whispered, "Mom, this is the greatest surprise ever!" That put a huge smile on my face. She's growing up way too fast! It really was a good show....it had Derek and I on the edge of our seats with several of the acts. I really loved it though because my sweet little girl was so lovey dovey. Throughout the last half of the show she sat on our laps just cuddling with us as we watched the performers. (while the other tried to calm a very cranky and tired little toddler) Avery was really good though considering we were up late the night before and she was up super early and only took about a 30 minute nap yesterday.......plus we got to the show an hour early for the pre-show. She really didn't start getting cranky until the last 45 minutes, which was well past her bedtime. Of course, she was up at 7am this morning but it's now 8am and she's back in bed :0)

Pictures aren't all that great because I couldn't find the right setting on the camera and, really, I was too into the show to take pics!

Oh, and Allie's favorite part: the dancing "clouds" - aka clowns.

Larry the clown - "that's Papa's name!"

Ornery Can Be Sweet

I've been meaning to post this video for quite some time now. It was taken back when we were in Indiana. This is just proof that my ornery little girl can be sooooo sweet. I <3 her!! 

Paradise Canyon

Today we went to Paradise Canyon for Det 4's Summer Extravaganza. It was a really pretty area. The water was pretty shallow so perfect for our girls, however the water was freezing!! Today, of course, has been about the coolest of all the days we've been here. It was overcast most of the day...the clouds went away just as we were getting ready to leave. But, it was the perfect day for relaxing and getting to know some of the other families Derek works with (it was easier to get to know people because everyone was coming up to us since Derek is their "boss").
The party was originally scheduled to be in New Braunfels but the park it was supposed to be at has been completely flooded out! There has been a lot of rain up that way and the rivers came up over their banks. A lot of people up near there have lost a lot so just remember to keep the people of New Braunfels in your prayers!
Here are some pictures from our day. Despite the cold water, the girls spent pretty much the entire day in it!!

A^2

Helotes Hubers

Time for just a few pics of the house. Things are still not completely organized so these are just a few of the pictures I took while we were painting. I promise there will be more to come later - and maybe even a little tour of the house -. Referring to the title of this post, Helotes is actually the city we live in. It's just Northwest of San Antonio, right at the start of "Hill Country." Our subdivision is Iron Horse Canyon and is actually made up of little communities (the further up the hill you get the bigger and ritzier the homes - fyi we're at the bottom! haha) The picture above is the Iron Horse. This pic was actually taken from our back yard. Somewhat of an eye sore having part of our fence that iron fence and the huge pile of rocks right there BUT there are some perks to it. On the other side is a waterfall so when we're outside it's a really nice, peaceful little sound. Plus, we're on a corner lot so that means we're not right on top of our neighbors and there isn't anyone behind us.

Here is Derek painting the entry way. It's soooo high up - I couldn't do it. Do you like the color? It's pretty much what we painted the whole house.......I just thought it needed some color instead of the boring white. It's actually not the color I had in mind, but I like it.

Allie painting her very PINK room. Being a little dyslexic : o)

Starting to get the hang of it...

That's my girl!!

I LOVE our kitchen. It's so big!

The layout is unique. This is me looking down from the gameroom (playroom). If you go up the other set of stairs it takes you to all of the bedrooms.

Part of our backyard. It needs a lot of work.

Deck and more of the yard....

Six Years

May 29th was our 6 year anniversary........we had hoped to celebrate it by moving in to our new home but that didn't happen. We did, however, spend the entire day painting our home. The sellers were nice enough to give us a key early so we could paint the house since the closing didn't go as planned. That night we ate at the fanciest McDonald's we had ever seen  ;o) We did spend the night in our new house - Derek was a gentleman and let me quit painting early and get a few hours of sleep. I was so tired that sleeping on the floor was no big deal....and the curtains worked great for a blanket!

Anyway, I'm glad that we took advantage of my parents while in Indiana. My Mom suggested we go out and do something for our anniversary early since we probably wouldn't have time or know anyone well enough to watch the girls for us. Mom knows best! We just went for a walk where we had our first date 10 years ago and we were going to go to the coffee shop where we had apple juice, but it was a different place now (still a coffee shop - just not the same one). So instead we had dinner at Qdoba, one of our fav little Mexican places that isn't here in San Antonio!

It's been a good 6 years and we have 2 AMAZING little girls who are our world. We're in our 4th home...so a lot of moving in those 6 years - which means a lot of change. It's all been good though and just helped mold us into who we are today.

Lackland AFB

Well, we're finally in our house now (pictures to come later). I just thought I'd share some pics from our stay at the wonderful Lackland TLF. Okay, so I'm being a little sarcastic there. Lackland has about the worst TLF we've ever seen. We didn't take actual pics of our housing facilities b/c it was such a dump. The worst experiences there were finding cockroaches in our towels when we first checked in and then, the worst, going to do laundry and finding poo in every washing machine - except for the last one we looked in. I wouldn't have done a load of laundry because of that but we desperately needed some clean clothes. I don't know if they just don't do a good job of cleaning or if Avery and I are allergic to something because we both broke out in rashes. I felt bad for Avery :

It was a rough week and a half. There was only one bedroom so we were all crammed in that one room to sleep. Luckily, we brought our pack n play and there was also one already in the room - so we set one up in the bedroom and living area. Every night Avery would wake up and see me asleep right next to her so she'd want me to get her. That's when I'd carry her out to the other pack n play. We didn't figure out this trick until about day 5 though.

Well, on to the best part.....the pictures! These are just a few from our outings while staying in TLF.

Lots of visits to different parks

I liked that a lot of the parks had these cool canopies

we went on a little hike one day - this is the sign we saw as we were leaving

skipping rocks at a creek we found

@ Uncle Barney's restaurant

Meet You At Arni's and Travels

MEET YOU AT ARNI'S
We had our going away dinner at Arni's Wednesday night with my Mom's family. It's weird how the human body works because I have known for quite awhile that we were going to be moving far, far away. I'm a pretty emotional person and I've been able to control my emotions while saying goodbyes......until Monday night it somehow kicked in that we only had a few days left. Needless to say, I was emotional from then on out.

After we ate and said our goodbyes we went back to Mom and Dad's and played cornhole and got some pics taken of us all together

TRAVELS
We've arrived in San Antonio! We left Lafayette, Indiana around 4:45 am Thursday morning. Our thoughts were that if we left early while it was still dark out the girls would sleep for awhile. They usually wake up as soon as our vehicle stops so we wanted to get as far as we could with some peace and quiet. Allie went right to sleep, Avery stayed up for about an hour before falling asleep but she didn't make a peep the whole time she was awake. We decided we weren't going to drive straight through. That way the girls wouldn't be too miserable and we'd get some rest too. The half way point was Little Rock, AR. There just happens to be a base there so that's where we stayed. It took us roughly 12 hours with all of our stops. The girls were actually really good. They didn't sleep a whole lot, but they kept themselves entertained for the most part. We saved some lacing farm animals (thank you TAKK!) for the trip so it was something new to them and they (especially Allie) LOVED them! They also watched Toy Story 1 & 2 for the first time so that was a nice treat for them. Although we were in the truck so they had to watch it on the laptop.....not quite as nice as it would have been if we had been in the van.
We arrived in Little Rock, unloaded what we needed and went and grabbed a bite to eat. Hurried back so Derek could get some sleep. (he drove the entire way!) I took the girls to a playground to run around. They had a blast, met a new little friend, and ran around until they were all sweaty and exhausted. Then we headed inside since it was getting dark and went to a little Mommy & Me play area that was in the TLF (temporary living facilities) building. Avery was extremely quiet inside so I knew she was ready for bed so as soon as we got back to the room she went straight to bed. Allie stayed up a little while longer playing with her lacing animals. It was lights out for everyone around 10pm.
Our plan was to wake up at 3 to head out. I heard the alarm go off, but said to myself I was going to sleep just a little bit longer. I finally rolled out of bed at 4:20 - woke Derek up and we took showers to help wake us up, loaded the car and then grabbed the girls and were on our way by about 5:20.
This drive was supposed to be around 9 hours....it felt so LONG! It did end up being around 11 hours with all of our stops and the crazy traffic in Dallas, Austin and San Antonio. Avery slept most of the way. I knew that she probably wasn't feeling good because she was sleeping so much and she wasn't eating anything either. Every time I looked back at her and heard her whimpering in her sleep I just wanted to reach back and grab her and hold her the rest of the way. Allie didn't sleep at all really. Just maybe a couple hours at the beginning and an hour or so at the end. We had a very close call once....we were driving and came over a hill and the traffic was stopped. We saw burning rubber, heard tires squealling, saw cars vearing this way and that. We slammed on our brakes (remember we have a huge boat behind us) Derek controls the swerving as best as he can and thankfully the car right in front of us thought fast and pulled off on the median and we swerved the truck in the little space left between them and the car that would have been in front of them. The car behind us stopped within inches of hitting us.....everyone was very blessed. There wasn't a single accident.
Anyway, we got to Lackland AFB - unloaded things we thought we might need and then Derek took the rest to our storage unit while I gave the girls a much needed bath. Avery was ready for bed right away. She definitely wasn't feeling good. Derek brought dinner home, we ate and Allie was in bed right after she was done. We're all crammed in a tiny one bedroom TLF. Derek and I were joking around - we've downgraded with each TLF we've stayed in. First, we were in TLF @ Wright Patt in a 3 bedroom that was HUGE, then we were in a very nice (we think practically brand new) 2 bedroom TLF in Little Rock, and now we're in an old super tiny one bedroom here in San Antonio and we're going to be here for at least 6 days.
So, anyway, with Avery's pack n play set up and Allie's mattress in the bedroom we only have one little spot to climb into our bed. Plus, when I was giving the girls a bath last night we found a huge cockroach on Allie's towel! GROSS!
Avery woke up around 2am and she was burning up. I tried to get her to go back asleep but she wouldn't. I finally took her out to the living room and got her a drink and somehow managed to find some medicine to give her. I figured she was hungry so I warmed up some mashed potatoes and she scarfed them down....as well as half a banana. She seems to be doing better this morning.
Well, I just wanted to get the documented. Probably won't be blogging again until we have our house and get a little bit settled. Oh, and it's HOT here!!

Every time we stopped for gas the girls took turns "driving"

The boat cover ripped to shreds