Post-Underway Blues?

Well...I was feeling it a little today. But, I know it's definitely because of our upcoming move...whenever that may be. But, watching these two munchkins helps a bunch...this was last night while getting ready for bed...




Seriously...my kids are funny.

And so starts December...

I had way better shots, but didn't want to post those for fear of the whole security thing of our guys and stuff.

So, we said goodbye to Sean this morning. Found out late last night that we had to take him to the base (as we've always done anyway) reeeeeeeeeeallllly early in the morning. It was days like today that I really wish we had lived closer so Sean could get some more rest in. The kids and I came back home and snoozed for a bit and I had planned on taking us to the Island (Amelia Island) to the state park (Ft. Clinch) to say our goodbyes again. We got to hang out with the uber-cool Ms. Lynsey Hickman and watched the boat go by from atop the fort. Like I mentioned before, I got some really good shots from that fort of the sub, but don't want to post them and have NCIS breathing down my back. ;o) It was also fun having random people pass us by and ask if the sub came or is coming and I was like "WTF?" The spouses are sworn to this Don't Tell Don't Tell policy and yet the three times I've gone, other civilians have known that a sub was coming through. So much for security and confidentiality of our sub's movements. Anyway, I digress...living in FL has made me a cold-weather wimp. It was 50 degrees and a wee bit chilly. I guess it's difficult after it was upper 60s-70 degree weather just a few days ago.

But, during our snooze, Sean called to let us know that AGAIN our move dates needed to be rescheduled...the day AFTER we had just confirmed dates with the moving company. Of course, I can't find out anything else about our schedule until I hear from Sean next...I love being in limbo. Fun stuff. But in actuality, there isn't too much stress here, but just hoping that we'll make it home with The Fam to celebrate (and all of our other various fams/friend-fams to visit). Just stressing to get our place rented out. We haven't locked in a property manager (although we did interviews this past weekend) so I wanted to give MilitaryByOwner.com a chance and see how that works out. I still need to clean some more and upload more photos.

Anyhoo...our weekend was crazy busy and stressful, but we managed to head down to downtown JAX and catch the Light Parade & Fireworks. It was extra great since we got to hit my favorite downtown Jax soft taco goodness Burrito Gallery. The Light Parade was actually on water...people would deck out their boats in all sorts of decorations. There were some mad cool decorations and others that were like "ooooookaaaaaaay". Case in point of a mad cool one was the Santa Riding the Alligator down the St. John's River.

I also got to play around with my new cool toy the Gorillapod, which is a tripod for cameras that you can wrap around various things. I used it to get some clearer nightshots (man, am I reaaaaaaally wanting an SLR for some seriously crisp and no-noise photos...one day...*sigh*) by wrapping it around the railing and just snapping away (and playing w/various settings to finally settle on something I was satisfied with). At the end of the night, since we barely have photos of the 4 of us...I wrapped the Gorillapod around the stroller and this was one of the shots I got:

The fireworks were great since they were launched off of three barges and we could see all three...and were next to one of the two bridges that displayed the famous "waterfall" display of fireworks:

Anyway, what a long day it has been and I'm interested in seeing how the next few weeks pan out. I leave y'all with this photo of the kiddies as we were leaving the fort after saying goodbye to Sean:

Empathy

So, I've always admired our BFF's kids the Martinos. They have to be, hands down, the most empathetic kids we have ever seen...and we know plenty of great kids. True, their role models are out of this world amazing...so it's a no-brainer that these kids would turn out the way they have. Seriously, these kids have more empathy than a lot of adults we know. I am really not putting these kids up on a pedestal...if you met them, it'd be hard to not agree with me.

Anyway, so, we keep these kids in mind when raising our kids. Sure, I want my kids to grow up to be themselves, but there are certain attributes that we want to nurture in them....empathy being one of them. Jaron is showing signs of it, but we still have to work on that. We're definitely finding gender differences in our children and parenting. That was something I DID NOT believe was going to happen. But, research does show there is a difference in raising girls & boys.

So, Kaia...oh darling Kaia. She is pretty empathetic. It's something we've been nurturing in her since birth and it's definitely a great foundation so far.

If anyone has read my personal blog, then you know my father's 60th birthday was this past Thursday. All birthdays have been difficult since he passed away, but this was especially difficult since it was his 60th birthday. I was pretty bummed and just sadder since I knew he hadn't met anyone in this house (human or canine). I was additionally bummed since I didn't have enough time to make a birthday cake for him either. This was a tradition I started last year to honor Gung-Gung's (what my kids would have called my dad) birthday. I held it together until the night after the kids went to sleep...or so I thought. Sean was with me in our bedroom consoling me when Kaia walks in to let Sean know he forgot to kiss her goodnight. She quickly realized I was crying and offered "Mom, do you want me to sleep in here until you feel better?" Then, as Sean always does in the morning before leaving for work, he kissed the kids goodbye. Kaia, before 5am, wakes up as he kisses her and tells him she wants to bake me a cake for Gung-Gung's birthday to make me feel better.

What's even cuter is that in the morning, she's telling me it's going to be a great day and they're going to be such good kids because she knows I'm sad about my dad not being here. She also told me that she & Ba-ba have a surprise for Gung-Gung's birthday to make me happy and that it's a secret. Then, as soon as her sentence ends with "a secret", she quickly follows it up with "It's a cake." HAHAHAHAHAHA...oh, she's definitely my daughter! It's really difficult for me to hold back surprises when I'm planning them for loved ones. ;o)

Anyway...that's all. I love my little Mama's Boy, but good lord does my daughter have a sweet heart.

Happy Halloween!!

We were lucky enough to have Ba-ba home for Halloween and trick-or-treated in our area for once. Well, not really since we went to our friend's subdivision across the way. Hehehe...but we stayed up north in Fernandina instead of heading down to Jax. After a Halloween buffet at the clubhouse, we headed over to North Hampton to trick-or-treat there. Thank goodness we did since there are WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more people that live in that neighborhood and lots of young families. Our neighborhood, as beautiful as it is, is way too spread out and still really new.

Anyhoo...since Sean had duty last night, I carved the kids' pumpkins. Shoot...duty or not, I would've ended up carving these bad boys anyway! hahahaha. Kaia picked a mummy and we made it a Mommy Mummy. Jaron chose some freaky satanic skeleton. They were really excited and loved watching their pumpkins come to fruition while I hacked up a lung (still pretty sick and miserable over here...waah, waah, waaaah). It was actually cool this year so instead of worrying about the kids sweating out all the liquid in their bodies, we had to make sure they were adequately dressed for cool weather (first cool Halloween since we've been down here).

On to photos...Kaia was a Barbie cheerleader (still trying to make up my mind about how I feel about having Barbie in our family) and Jaron was Lightning McQueen. He wanted to be Diego dressed as a Bat but it's slim-pickings when you Halloween shop like the Lee-Espiritus and go the night before or two nights before the big day. Hehehehe. Enough blibber-blabber....photos.

From The Lee-Espiritu Fam

A Dozen

So, Kaia & I were discussing the quantity a dozen and right after I thought we had it pretty cemented, I asked her "If Mama had a dozen kids, how many would I have?"

She promptly replied "A LOT". ;o)

Mind you, this is the same child that wants me to have 100 babies.

Just a quick update since the next month and a half is going to be a fun one...we'll be packing up, renting this house (HOPEFULLY), and moving from here to our old stomping grounds in the Hampton Roads, VA area.

Anyhoo....lots to do and plenty o'coffee to drink! ;o)

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

We're heading off to Disney tomorrow with The Fam. Actually, J will be flying into Orlando on Friday and Sean will be meeting us in Orlando Saturday afternoon. We had a slight scare that he wouldn't be down at all since he's the big man in charge for a long period because he's the weapons DH. Boooooooo. Anyhoo...it's Kaia's 5th birthday Saturday and just wanted to make sure we were together as a family. So yeah, tomorrow we pick up Mom & Kim from the airport in Jax w/the poochies, drive to Plant City and drop them off with the trainer, and then head off to Shades of Green (the military resort @ Disney).

Meanwhile, I've been siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick. I somehow managed to stay in bed almost the entire day yesterday...without Sean home. Yes, with the kids home. They were really good. We're so lucky to have good kids. The last time I've been so sick was with the flu back in February and before that it was with the flu in 2000. Wait a minute...is this the flu???? Nah, it's not...but it's pretty durn bad. Anyway...enough whining.

Gotta pack and plan for my baby gurl's 5th birthday celebration with our Besties!!

Welcome Home & Happy Birthday, Ba-ba!!

Happy Birthday, Ba-ba/Bear!!

So, Sean went out to sea and came back home...again and again these past few weeks. He finally got back and early AND just in time for...HIS BIRTHDAY!!!! We had gotten word that he was pulling in at 6pm...so I had a good idea of when & what to make for his birthday. His birthday gift of "cleaning the house" didn't quite make the deadline. Shoot, it didn't even get past the thought of it. Ok, so I exaggerate...I did tidy up a little bit and the kiddies did clean up their gazillion toys. So, it was a bit cleaner....but hardly noticeable save for the toys.

Anyhoo...we made a mint-Special Dark chocolate cake for his birthday. We made it from scratch since I can't bear the thought of putting the junk from boxed cake mixes into my family. Don't get me wrong...I LOVE the taste and ease of boxed cake mixes, but do try to avoid them. It's like the Breyer's commercial when you see the kids trying to pronounce the junk that's in non-all natural ice creams. We also made some favorites of his...churrasco (with my cousin Luis' chimichurri recipe), cabbage salad (my 98 year-old maternal grandfather's concoction), garlicky steamed cauliflower, & brown/white rice. You can check out my food blog for any recipes. The cabbage salad has become one of his favorites when Mom first made it for him. Not to mention that the raw cabbage is uber-healthy too (along w/the tomatoes & olive oil in it). Cauliflower is something that he JUST started liking last year when I started making it really garlicky. Sean's come a loooooooong way from when we first started dating. Veggies were really foreign to him. BUT...now he's lovin' them. Now, we just have to convert his Mini-Me (aka Jaron) into liking them. We're making big headway with the little turkey...so he's slowly starting to eat them or at least TRY them! WOOHOO!!

Anyway...the kids had a really late night and we finally got them down at 11pm...a full 3 hours after I NORMALLY get them down! Sean & I settled in for a movie ("Elizabeth the Golden Age") and finally got to bed at 2am!! We celebrated today with disappointing dim sum (go figure for NE Florida)...followed IMMEDIATELY with an Indian buffet (literally several shops down from the Chinese place). Yup...gluttons! I didn't take photos, but dinner was salad, grilled asparagus, & grilled pork loin chops with a gauva sauce. YUM!

That's all for now. It's on to planning Kaia's birthday coming up next week. We'll be in Orlando with The Fam. Woohoo!!!! We can't believe (not-so) Baby Girl is already turning 5!!!

Hopefully Sean will be contributing to the blog now that he's home!

Kaia cheesin' & Jaron continuing his piece de resistance!

Now Jaron's turn to cheese & Kaia creating her masterpiece.

A close-up of our son's artsiness.

This is a bad angle since I actually had 1/2 plate covered in veggies & I flattened out my rice portion to make it look like more. ;o)