So my plan of keeping up on the blog and pictures hasn't worked out very well. LOL As usual it's busy around here so I'll try to make a quick recap. We had a really nice Christmas with friends. We invited a couple of the single soldiers Nick works with for Christmas Eve dinner and that turned out very nice. Christmas morning the kids were very excited to see all of the gifts under the Christmas tree. It was kind of fun to have Ryder a little older for his 1st Christmas. My other kids were born right before Christmas so their first Christmas they were so tiny and had no clue what was going on. Ryder had a blast. The twins were really into the present opening process and did such a great job putting all the paper in the trash bags. LOL Christmas Day we went up to White Sands to have a wonderful dinner with our friend Lisa-Marie and her family. We missed our families of course but it was nice to have friends to share the holiday with. :-)
The last week of December brought some sad times. Our wonderful dog, Chance, seemed to be getting worse. The vet was pretty sure he had cancer and since about June he's been going up and down with his health. He always seemed to snap back but this time was different. He stopped eating and eventually stopped drinking water. We finally decided that he had enough and he wasn't going to snap out of it this time. I made an appointment at the vet for Dec. 31st to have him put to sleep and give him some peace. Unfortunately the night of the 30th he got really bad. I think that was one of the hardest things I have had to go through. We sat with him and knew that he might not make it to the morning. We told him how much we loved him and what a good boy he was. He passed away on his own very early in the morning on the 31st. It still brings me to tears and it is still hard for me to look at or walk over the place where he was laying when he passed. I know in my heart that he was much more comfortable going here where he was comfortable than in the Vets office (that he wasn't a fan of). It still breaks my heart and I miss him horribly.
January was a pretty good month. It went by very fast. I had a great month with my Scentsy business and was promoted to Certified Consultant. That was pretty exciting! And just FYI :-) February is the end of the Fall/Winter season so everything is 10% off! You can order directly from my Scentsy Website if you'd like. :-)
February has been a little chaotic so far. We started it with Ryder getting a ridiculously high fever and a LONG wait at the ER. His fever was 103.9 and he had a double ear infection. Poor kiddo. He also cut his 3rd tooth! It was a rough week or so! He's now in the process of cutting his 4th tooth. When he is not waking up from tooth pain he's doing great sleeping through the night now. Hopefully that 4th tooth will be here by tomorrow so we can all get some better sleep again (by all I really mean me and Ryder LOL).
We had quite an event here in El Paso last week. The temps got below freezing and we had maybe 2 inches of snow. Apparently not something that happens very often because it shut the city (and Fort Bliss) down! We discovered many more problems as the days went by. Pipes were bursting all over the place - including our house! We ended up with a lovely flood that got the twins carpet wet and never dried. Therefore, we ended up with a horrible smell and they couldn't sleep or play in their room. We ended up putting them in pack and plays in our room and we slept on the air mattress in the living room. Not fun for anyone. Finally after 5 days housing came out to rip up the carpet so they could sleep in there again and the next day amazingly they came out and installed new carpet. I thought it would take a lot longer so I was pleasantly surprised. Many people were without water for days. Electricity and heat were out. It was crazy. There are actually some people that are still without water. It's hard to believe that just a few days of cold temps did this to an entire city. When you're from a cold weather state this just seems nuts! We're hoping it doesn't happen again! We're still waiting to get the all clear from the mold testing before they start doing something with the base molding and possibly the kids closet wall. I will just be glad when everything gets back to normal. I had to wash all the kids clean clothes and finally got done with that. I still have some toys to bleach but we're getting there.
Onto my kids. :-) Walker and Jocelyn are growing up so fast! They are talking a lot more now and are even getting really good at their please and thank you's! They definitely have their terrible 2 moments but all in all they are pretty good. Jocelyn is showing her brothers she can handle her own by being a bully at times. Trying to put a stop on that one. It's almost a little humerous to see her sitting on Walker and him screaming because she's so much smaller than him but of course we go intervene. Walker is finally starting to catch up with Jocelyn on his talking so we're understanding a lot more. Jocelyn has started this really fast talking thing but she runs her words all together and it just sounds like one big mumble. SO - not sure how to fix that but I'm sure we'll have them talking normally in no time. LOL They still play pretty good with Ryder although Jocelyn is getting awfully picky about her toys. She's very into playing with her kitchen and making tea and pushing her dolls in her stroller. The boys try to play with her and unless she's interested in giving them tea or "food" she gets pretty ticked off. Definitely has Daddy's temper. ;-) Walker is finally giving up his banging the head on the ground temper tantrums and his sweet natured side is coming back out. His big thing is giving you a hug on your legs. LOL We're not sure why but he runs full speed at your legs and gives you this big hug. Usually causing some pain. LOL But he's sweet. He's also very methodical in how he does things. He is still definitely a thinker. It's very cute! Unfortunately he has passed his head banging onto Ryder. My little even tempered sweetheart is starting to bang his head on the ground when he gets frustrated. It's like instant replay from Walker! What's wrong with these boys!? LOL
Ryder turned 10 months old on February 3rd. He weighed in at 24 lbs and is approx 30 inches! I cannot believe in less than 2 months he will be a year old! This year has really flown by! Ryder is starting to like finger foods and definitely home cooked food over the jarred variety. He's also starting to stand on his own and really wants to walk. He pushes around one of those toys you hold onto and walk with and loves it. He's slowly getting the balancing down. Here's a video of him learning to walk (with the help of our friend, Anna):
CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO SEE THE VIDEO OR THIS SENTENCE
Nick is doing great at work. He got to be acting Platoon Sgt while the big NCO's were at training for a couple weeks. Today is his last day doing it and he did a great job. I'm very proud of him! He is about up for his E5 (Sgt) promotion and should be going to the board next month. If he's here! He just came home with a training schedule and he'll be gone most of March (2 weeks in Fort Leonard Wood and 1 week in the field). He also has plenty of training the rest of this month but that is all here and hopefully he'll be able to come home at night. Unfortunately the unit didn't get his OCS packet turned into headquarters in time for the February board and they're actually still working on it (we have been done with our part). The next deadline is the end of June for a July board and I don't see how we could not make that one. We should find out the results the end of August/early Sept (when Nick is back in Fort Leonard Wood for 4 weeks). Seems the rest of the year will be very busy for training/courses so we won't see a whole lot of him.
As for me I'm doing pretty good. Finally got to a weight I'm happy with. I still have about 5 lbs I'd like to lose but it's not a huge deal and I'm being a bit more relaxed about it. Scentsy is going good and we're getting ready to do another portrait session for some friends and our family this weekend. Just in time for Valentine's Day!
Here's pictures from Dec. 18th - Feb 10th. Enjoy!
Dec - Feb Pics
Hope you all are doing well and as usual I will try to keep this updated - but no guarantees. LOL
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