Finally…

Finally I am updating this blog, it’s been a while! Quite a bit has happened, so I’m not sure where to start. First of all, we finally submitted all the paperwork for the house loan and still have not heard back from the bank, so we are taking it as a good sign, since they told us that they would call if something was not signed right. Our closing date is December 23 and it is the date we plan on moving in. Cutting extremely close to Christmas, but I think we can pull it off, as long as the kid’s rooms are somewhat set up and no boxes in the living room, we will be good to go. But what this move means is that this year we are not going to decorate the house with all the Christmas stuff- makes me a bit sad, but saves extra packing in the long run. Other people will be putting up Christmas decorations after Thanksgiving, while we are going to start packing stuff up.

Also Aaron has his date when he is officially not in the US Army anymore- February 1st, 2010. It is a little bitter sweet for me, since Army does give stability and certainty financially what is quite important in this days economy. But it also takes away so much family time and the stress that comes with deployments is something I do not want to deal with anymore. So we are excited about what the future will bring and are happy to say farewell to the Army.

The boys are doing amazing also. Ethan is a little goober as always, his football season is over and he did amazing this year, he was the smallest and slowest on the team, but never once did he give up or complain about a thing. As always he doing great in school too. One thing he is having trouble with is determining difference between fact and opinion, he got a 0 on a test in it!!!!! But he is a little man who thinks with his heart and if he thinks that something should be the way he thinks it should be than that is a FACT for him. He is just too funny! Also he is absolutely camera shy these days, the minute I pull out the camera, Ethan is gone!  And if I do force him to sit down and let me take a picture, he will not smile for nothing, even with bribing his facial expressions are just silly. So no pictures of Ethan….

And Jackson is a whole other story too. In this time he has managed not only to be a pro at crawling, but also a pro at climbing and standing up. The little monkey loves to stand up so much, that he uses anything to help him up- if it’s more than inch off of ground, he will manage to use that as support and get himself up. He definitely keeps me busy and moving non-stop, because no matter how much child- proofing has been done, he still manages to find something to get in trouble with. Also I took him to doctors just to check out his ears(they were fine) and the doc noticed that he was a little yellow, what I hadn’t noticed at all, but also I see him 24/7. So we’ve done some blood tests and gotten an ultrasound done, what has ruled out all the serous concerns of what could be wrong. But some of his enzymes are sill high and not quite normal, so we are waiting to get an specialty appointment.  I did talk to my mom about it today and finds out my sister has a condition similar to what is going on with Jackson, so maybe he will end up having the same issue. My poor little yellow man!

Hopefully I can get back on track with blogging from now on, LOL

Our wonderful trip to Virginia

This weekend we headed down to Roanoke area in Virginia just to scout out the area, since we are just about 99.9% set on that area once Aaron gets out of the Army. And since now they are telling him that it is only going to be 2-3 months before he is medically discharged, it is time to kick in full gear our area scouting and start looking at some places to live. The house hunt was somewhat successful, we did find a house that we really like and did as much snooping around it as we could. Also we just heard back from the real estate agent with more details, so let’s hope that things continue to progress well.

We stayed with Micah and Antra- Micah is Aaron’s cousin and me and Antra went to high school together in Latvia- and now we are married to cousins, how cool is that?!?!  And it is so exciting to know that we are going to live a lot closer in the very near future. So here are some pictures from our weekend-enjoy!

The men in this family are really into guns, so genetically it did get passed on down to Ethan, he had a blast trying out uncle Warren’s new silencer and trying out to shoot with a scope for the first time. After trying my hand at this silenced shooting business I am really considering giving Aaron a green light to go ahead and get one for himself, it is just so much more fun to shoot with one of those and not worrying about covering ears or just having them ringing after shooting.

Oh the joys of standing

The time has come when Mr. Jack has figured out the whole big business of sitting up all by himself, crawling and standing up. He is only crawling backwards though and can not figure out the forwards way of crawling.

And all this amazing mobility came at once! What joy! So naps are in history now, since it is way more fun to try out all his new skills. I still haven't gotten a picture of him crawling(I really gotta get to that) but today I just couldn't hold back of taking a million pictures of him standing in his crib- it is the cutest thing, he lights up with such pride when he sees me coming in to lay him down once again.

The saddest thing about all these accomplishments - he is getting mobile- one more step away from my tiny helpless infant...

Ethan and his plastic soldiers

Ethan is one of those Army brats that never got into the wanting to be an Army man stages, he was always too busy with his trains- I have never seen an other kids who has carried trough the love for trains ever since he was 2 years old. Other toys have come and gone, but his trains have been there for a very long time, starting with Thomas the Train and continuing into documentaries about trains and playing with Lionel’s die cast ones.

So to my surprise he  has not put down his plastic soldiers for days now! Every free minute he has, he is setting them up in two groups and using some strategic layouts making them fight each other, of course the good guys always win!

Not even rain can stop him for taking his soldiers outside, his explanation was, that for real soldiers it doesn’t matter if it’s raining, they still have to go and fight the war to stop the bed guys. The tarps are obstacles and the glass tank is the jail, by the way, in case you wondered. 

Mr. Jack is 8 months

Wow, we have a 8 months old now! I can not believe how fast the time is flying and how fast my little monkey boy is growing up. He has 5 teeth now, his favorite activity is to yell, he still wakes up around 2 a.m. every night, he is not crawling yet, but loves to pull up. When he pulls up on me, I get the biggest hugs, kisses and cuddles and occasional sneaky bite that is followed by the hugest grin and little laugh. He has mastered the whole “I’ll pretend to love on you and then bite you” thing to perfection and thinks that it is soooo funny!

Jack is still a pretty serious baby, you can make all the silly faces and funny sounds at him all you want, but that still does not mean that he will be laughing, you might just get a look with a  tint of criticism that says”What are you doing? I do not have time for this.”

He would not smile long enough for his little picture session, he was ready for a nap after helping me put away his laundry, what was more like mommy folding one piece while Jack destroyed 2, ha-ha!

Ethan the reader

Ethan is such a great reader, he has mastered reading at 3rd grade level! Tonight as I was taking the video he kept getting distracted, because his back was oh so itchy, but he still did good. This is such an amazing blessing to us, because before he started actually reading we were waiting to see if he has inherited Aaron's mild dyslexia and what a sight of realief it was to see that he did not show any sign of it!

He has also been acepted in the Discovery program for the second year. It is just a fun extra class they get to do.The Discovery program is for kids who demonstarte gifted potential- the kids get to do some more challenging activities than in normal classroom. So other great school year is on it's way. We are so excited for our little man to be in the 2nd grade already and doing so great!

The drama of bug bites

Jack is officially the victim of targeted mosquito attacks! And they only go after him, it seems like they seek him out in some evil plot to hurt him! It really breaks our hearts. So far we have put a mosquito net on his crib, he has one for his stroller and we try to limit his outside time, what is so hard , because little Mr. Jack just loves being outside.  And if it was just a little bug bite those evil bugs left behind, but it just so happens that he is extremely sensitive to any kind of bug bite.

His latest bite occurred while I was playing with him on the floor and literally turned away for a minute to gather some more toys, he ended up having a new bite! After Benadryl and Hydrocortisone were not cutting it, we tried out AftreBite that we just bought today and it worked miracles, the bites were lef as small two little dots, we are hoping and praying that they will stay that way, because those blisters really do hurt him so much. Some of the times they are not as much as blisters but just very hot, huge, hard spots(at least the size of a quarter) , but they do take just about a month to completely heal up and disappear. So let’s hope for the best with this new stuff we got, since bug nets and our constant watching over him are not saving him….

For the love of the toad!

Ethan found a toad this weekend and fell in love with it! He carried it around and had full blow conversations with it for 3 hours!!!! And he was so upset when Aaron finally made him let go of it. We were terrified that any given moment he would just love it to death and then there would be heartbreak and guilt for rest of his life (I’m speaking of my personal experience) . But we did get some great shots of Ethan and his toad buddy and I have a feeling that there will be a new photo on his wall once I get these pictures printed out.

We got ourselves a football player!

Fall sports season is here, so Ethan was presented with dilemma whether to play soccer or football and he opted for football, what is surprising, because he usually is not too eager to step out of his comfort zone and try something new.  But he was all excited to begin this new sport.

He is the smallest kid on the team and also the only white kid on the team. He also the slowest on the team- one step for the big kids is three of Ethan’s short legged steps, but he  does have the determination to just keep trying. There have been few times when he finishes only few from last, because other kids fall out of the run, but my little man just keeps on pushing with his hurdy side and all. After 3 practices I wouldn’t put my bet on him as a future football player, but you never know. So far so good, he is loving it- just being part of a team and getting some extra energy out and the most important part- socializing with people is all that you need to keep Ethan going. Let’s see where this season takes us….

While Ethan’s at school….

…Jack had no choice but be my photo model, heheh! So here is what came out of it--->

Back to school

Wow, I still can not believe that we have a second grader! Ethan is growing up on us way too fast. During the summer he didn’t even want to hear about school starting back up, but once he got to see his new classroom and meet his teacher things got better. He even got up all excited about going back to school. And I am very happy about his teacher- she has kids, her husband is in the army and she’s been teaching for 8 years. And after the first day Ethan liked her too, so it looks very promising.

I will miss him a bunch though, he has the silliest sense of humor- his jokes are more practical then funny, but makes me laugh, I think it just could be genetic heritage from me, what was passed on to me from my mom- we are a silly bunch when we get together and no one else is laughing but us.

 

Other school year has started and we will make the best out of it!

Something new

So I have decided that once in a while i will step away from writing about the kiddos and just little every day things and will really pour my heart and feelings out on here about certain topics. That will be a great keepsake, seeing how I do tend to go trough life and change my mind about certain issues quite drastically.

Right now I am being bothered by the mortality of human beings. It's not the fear of what happens after my death, it is the fear of the sole fact that I will not be on this Earth anymore. I think all these thoughts are triggered by my grandpa dying and him being so far and all I have left to deal with are just thoughts and "what ifs". Just the though of how small and unnoticeable we are compared to the vast amounts of people on this planet and that after we are gone the life goes on like you never even existed. And I have to admit I love this Earth! I love the beauty of all God's made creation around me, I love lots of men made creations around us. I love the way I can feel things whether they are emotional or physical. I love the fact that I am living!

Our life is just a tiny moment in time...I guess after having Jack time has gone by even faster that before. It has already been seven months since he was born, but I could never tell that if it wasn't for the calendar on my wall. If I had to guess, my guess would be that maybe a month or two have passed. Never before did I fully understand that it is so true that the older you get the faster time flies. So my other fear is- I don't want to get old anymore!!! For last 5 or more years I have been saying, that 40 just couldn't come fast enough, but not anymore! 26 is just fine with me.

Either way, the fact that I am mortal is kicking in pretty hard. That does not urge me into a search of a way to be physically immortal, but it is giving me lots to think about.

Well that is it for the first time of very different kind of blogging, but next time a deep though comes my way, you will have the privilege to share it with me. Thank you!

Jack is 7 months!!!!!!!!!

Wow, where has the time gone?????? It feels like he was born just yesterday, not even blink of an eye and he’ll be one! He is developing quite a personality, with each day something new is coming our way from that little man. His biggest thing now is yelling- if he doesn't get what he wants, when he wants it (and Jack wants everything instantly ), he yells very loudly and makes the maddest little face- the little man has some temper. But he is such a sweetheart too- my favorite is when he grabs my face with his little hands, pulls himself very close to my cheek and just plants a big , wet kiss on me- too cute!  He is still not even trying to attempt to crawl, but his way of getting around (close distances) is to sort of hop on his butt, I would think it would hurt, but he loves it and usually giggles as he does his little butt hop. Oh, my little man Jackson…

Nothing much...

Just wanted to share some pictures on here and give a little story about each one of them.Jacks car seat came in what means we also got a big box to play in! Ethan decided that being a hobo was his plan for that night, so he went to sleep in the box. he did end up going to his own bed in his sleep sometime in the middle of the night, but has no memory of it- he insists that we took him out of his favorite sleeping place(he announced this right after complaining for good 3 minutes about how uncomfortable that box was to sleep in) just to play a trick on him. Kids, I tell ya!The picture above is Jack's reaction to little water and lots of air being blown in his face, he looks crazy!!! Gave the rest of us a good laugh though, I am considering printing this picture and hiding it to use it later in life to harass the poor little guy!

Like mother like son..or however that saying goes(English is not my first language, hahah). This morning I was craving some Queen, because as we all know it just happens to be the best band in the UNIVERSE, so I got some YouTube going and that did it for Jack- his breakfast never got finished and I he was just staring at the computer while I cleaned him up and his high-chair and didn't even stir. Do we have a future Queen fan? Not sure Aaron would be too thrilled about it though...

QUEEN ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Talk,talk, talk...

jack has proved me wrong! I though that he won't be as vocal as he is this young, but shows what I know! I just love hearing him talk, he wakes up talking and goes to sleep talking! But being a little camera flirt he is, it is impossible to get him talking on it, so i was quite surprised that i finally caught Mr. Jack in action. It was more of just humming, but it will work. Now my mission is to catch him in action while he's saying da da da and trying ever so hard to say ma ma ma, all he gets now is a very long m sound, although I'm pretty sure that there has been ma-ma in there a couple of times.

Trip to Pennsylvania

Aaron got approved for leave about two weeks ago, so week ago we set out to PA, it was business and pleasure trip joined in one. Mostly it was for fun and relaxing, but Aaron’s concealed weapons license is about to expire and he had to renew it, but the only place to do it was his place of address county, what is still Bradford county.So Friday morning we set out for the normally 10 hour trip, giving ourselves 12-13 hours. Jack was amazing the whole trip up, not a peep from him and Ethan is always so excited to go that we never hear a thing from him the whole way up- what good kids we have!

It was nice visiting with friends and family and enjoying some cooler weather for change! Ethan has lived most of his life in North Carolina, so the heat doesn’t bother him all that much, but for me and Aaron it is quite unbearable at times, especially me-Latvia is so far north, that our summers are extremely mild and will get to 85 degrees only once or twice a year. it was such a treat to wear a hoodie at night!

Unfortunately Aaron came down with some kind of stomach bug, so he was miserable for the beginning  of the trip and even ended up at ER, but after some medicine he was back to normal and ready to go, too bad it happened after me and the kids and Stephanie already went to the fair…

So here are some random pictures:

jayden and ethan –the builders  so green and pretty

  ride at the fair, Ethan got so bounced in it, that he got knocked to the side of the seat and it hurt him, so they had to stop the ride…it was fun while it lasted thoughboys with some beasts at the Troy fair

those big boys wore our little ones out, they played so hard that Ethan slept until 11 the next day!

chickens everywhere!

On our way back home we went to Virginia to drop of Aaron’s grandma and even though this drive is only 8 hours, it took as little over 10, Jack was just done being dragged around and sick of the car by the end of the drive so he was not too happy. And from VA to NC he was even more miserable, bad enough that I ended up in the back seat  to comfort him, but even that did little good. Poor Ethan was stuck next to a crying little munchkin, but didn’t complain at all, even after his PSP went dead and he was getting quite bored. 

jackson and tobias, second cousins meeting for the first time

We are glad to be back home!

Jack is 6 months!!!

Today Jack turned 6 months- half way down to the big 1!!! My baby is growing up way too fast. he also had doctors appointment today and he is 19.1 pounds and 26.4 inches! A little on a chubby side, but that’s ok! Our monkey picture was definitely in place today and monkey is starting to shrink fast!

And look at the mess he made with his food! Jack is really starting to trying and feeding himself, no success there yet, but it’s a good practice for days to come and he always has bath after dinner any how, so why not have some fun with the food and make a mess?

Brotherly love

Ethan is such a good big brother, he is helpful when needed and so calm when jack need some quiet time. he definitely went trough a big change- from being the only child for 6 years to becoming a brother, but we are past the little jealousies at times and becoming aware that the baby just needs lot more attention than a big boy like himself.  Jack is a whole different story too- he ADORES his big brother, his face lights up when Ethan comes in his view and it is such a treat for him to sit down and play with Ethan. I love watching them both together!!! Although even Jack can get a little jealous at Ethan when he gets cuddles from me!

Play date at Lake Rim park

Tuesday Kayla with Sierra, Lindsey with Benjamin and me and the men folk had a play date! It was a bit hot outside, but then again- when is it not hot in summer in North Carolina, so we found a shady little spot and camped down for a little talk time for the girls and play time for the kiddos.

It was such a nice get together and good to see how much the kiddos have grown. They all have learned some new amazing skills! Sierra makes the funniest noses!

Benjamin showed off his new crawling skills!

Jack was so good the whole time too, just sitting and playing with the toys. Ethan did amazing too in the midst of all the babies, he played with them a little, kept us amused and did some self entertaining. To keep him busy I let him go crazy with the camera, so he took some pretty weird pictures, hahahah!

Jack fell asleep at the end, but was up and about the minute we pulled in our drive way, that little man never sleeps!!!