Wonderful Summer Time!

To me, these pictures encapsulate the feeling of summer. Half naked baby on a warm day chowing down on watermelon with no concern about the juice dripping all over her. LOVE it. Pure joy.

I Will Survive After All.

Today is Saturday. Berkeley gets home Thursday. Even though it is only 5 days away, it feels like there is still a year left in this deployment. The more excited you are for something, the LOOOOONGER each approaching day tends to feel. Right now the kids are both in bed and I'm dead tired. This is my blog so I am going to take a paragraph to brag about myself. I deserve that, right?! Berkeley has been gone nearly 4 months and during that time, I have managed two young kids 24 hours a day, survived on minimal sleep, maintained a clean(ish) home, tilled and weeded and maintained a large garden area, planted my own veggie starters, exercised 6 days per week, lost 19 pounds, and I am still alive! This experience has once again shown me that I am much more capable than I think I am. I am so proud of myself but nothing compares to my excitement for Berkeley to be home with us again. I'm tired and totally burned out. I honestly have the deepest respect for single parents. I think about doing this routine forever and it makes me want to run away and hide. Deployment for Berkeley has gone well. He was given the "Best Damn Cop" award. No joke, that's what it's called, and he received another Air Force coin for his service. He completed his semester of school online while in Greece. He was able to do some cool hikes, go rock climbing, eat good food, go to a spa where fish ate the dead skin off his legs and feet, see some super old monasteries, work out a lot, and Skype with us! Although it sounds fun, he is super ready to come home. Before Berkeley left, he have me a Priesthood blessing in which I was blessed to be able to find much joy in spending time with our kids. I can honestly say that this blessing came to fruition. As exhausting as it has been, watching the kids learn and grow the last 4 months has been so fun. I want to write a little bit about each of them.
Asa. Oh, Asa. He is quite a character. He has a personality way to big for his little 3 year old body. He is so energetic, animated and charismatic. He has a huge vocabulary and sometimes amazes me with his intellect. He has become quite inquisitive and has begun asking me tough questions that I have not been prepared for such as: Where is Heaven? How can Jesus hear us if he is far away? Is Jesus magic like Santa Clause? Etc. When he finds something he is interested in, he gets totally absorbed. Right now dinosaurs are his whole world. He knows most of their names and it is adorable to hear him say Carnotaurus, Brachiosaurus, Parasaurolophus, T-Rex, Stegosaurus, Velocoraptor,  Triceratops, Spineasaurus, and more! It's amazing the things a 3 year old's mind can retain. We play dinosaurs ALL DAY. If we aren't playing dinosaurs, then we are playing with the playground ball. He loves for me to roll it to him kick ball style to he can kick it back to me. He is learning to catch and also to hit balls with a bat or racket. I think we may have an athlete on our hands if he sticks to it. He loves for me to sing and tell him stories. He loves my music. His favorite songs are "Jessie's Girl", "Marry You", "Love Like Woe",  "Rolling in the Deep", and many others. He picks up lyrics quickly and sings them often. He has also started to make up his own songs which totally cracks me up. He loves to watch TV. I have to really be careful because it is easy to let him watch too much. His absolute favorite show right now is Busytown Mysteries. He also loves Dinosaur Train, Bob the Builder, Curious George, The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That, and Backyardigans. He is great bike rider and still absolutely loves his battery powered tractor. (Thanks again Curtis and Becca Ward!) He loves to talk to people. He always asks strangers what their name is and shows them whatever toy he happens to be carrying around with him. I love his sweet little face and love his voice. I love how often he says "I love you" and wants cuddles. I could go on all day about him.
Hazel. I can't get enough of this little girl. I love her to pieces and my heart swells just thinking about her. She is a happy, independent, BUSY little girl. She is into EVERYTHING. She is perfectly content to wander the house and explore. She walks perfectly (started at 9 months), climbs up on everything she can,  makes huge messes whenever possible, gives me heart attacks with how daring she is, and fills our home with smiles and giggles. She is learning to sign and talk simultaneously! She signs "Eat", "More" and "All Done". She says mama, dada, ba-ba (bottle), baaaa(bath), poo poo. She has started dancing when she hears music. She LOVES food but has no teeth, so she is still limited in her options. She gets so mad when we have food that she can't have. Actually, she did just cut her first tooth TODAY so hopefully more will come through soon. She knows how to throw tantrums and knows how to bug her brother. They already quarrel. She loves to lug around her soft blanket and I think she may develop quite an attachment to it because Asa was this way with his little stuffed puppy and he STILL loves that thing. I love going in to get Hazel after she naps because she is extra smiley and so excited to see me when I open the door. She plays peek a boo with her blanket. She will pull it over her face, wait for me to say "Where is Hazel" and then pull it down super fast. She is an easy, happy-go-lucky baby. I love life with her in it. She is so beautiful and so sweet.
OK, now I really need to go to bed. When I get a chance, most likely after Berkeley gets home, I will sit down and upload pics and videos. Till next time...

And I'm Not Done Yet!

So, I have been busting my butt to get into shape the last 10 weeks. When Berkeley left, I set a goal to lose 15 lbs by the time he got home. Well, I am proud to say that he still has 7 weeks left in Greece and I have already lost 11 lbs. Hopefully it will be easy to lose the last 4 lbs and then maybe some extra. I feel so much better and happier in general. Here are some progress pics. Ugh, I hate looking at the before picture, but it does make me feel great about how far I've come. Ignore my wet, post-shower hair in the second pic.


More progress pics to come as I continue to reach my goals. For those of you who have been asking, I have been doing Jillian Michael's Ripped in 30 program. I did once entirely and am halfway through it again. I hope to have done it three times by the time Berk gets home. I have also been calorie counting (1250 per day). I have also been taking a supplement called SlimQuick for women. It has helped a ton to curb my appetite and reduce water weight. Anyway, there you have it!

Deployment, Kids, Deployment, Kids

Based on the title of this blog post, you can see what my life revolves around right now. Berkeley has been on deployment to Greece for 7 weeks now and to say it totally sucks is an understatement. I hate being apart. I miss him like crazy. I miss his companionship and, of course, his HELP! Yikes, taking care of two little ones all day every day is super exhausting. My kids are crazy adorable and I love being a mom to them, but there is something to be said about the blessed hours of 5-8 pm when Daddy gets home and everyone gets a breath of fresh air. I could complain much more, but I think it will be better for my spirit to focus on the positive. We are nearly halfway through with only 8 weeks left. Asa turned 3 years old on the 20th of February. Asa has become a highly imaginitive little boy. He pretends all day long. His current obsession is with dinosaurs. He stomps around the house roaring from sun up to sun down. He is still in love with Tyrone the Mailman (from Backyardigans) and we play that game quite often too. He talks up a storm. He can be super tempermental and rude at times. Sharing has become the most difficult things to cope with in his little world. I am trying to figure out how to handle that. Hazel is happy and beautiful. She has begun to walk just this last week and will take 5-10 steps before falling or opting to crawl. In the last couple weeks, she has also learned to clap and point at things. She loves to eat!! She will eat anything I give her, but she hasn't got any teeth yet, so unfortunately she is still very limited. Last week she has tubes put in her ears, so hopefully we will be ear infection clear from here on out. She is much happier now, more vocal and more independent now that she can hear normally. She and Asa love eachother. They are always so happy to see eachother. They do fight though! I knew they would fight eventually but I had idea that it could start this early! Mostly their "fights" consist of Asa refusing to share or taking a toy from her. This causes Hazel to react with screams or cries. They are sure funny to watch though. I'm doing fine. Just taking life one day at a time right now. I'm trying to stay positive even though, honestly, I'm exhausted. Heaven help those women who have to deal with year long deployments. Shoot me if that ever happens to us. Regardless, I have made diet and exercise a priority, even if it means the kids are crying at me for 45 minutes straight while I get it done! I have been doing Jillian Michael's Ripped in 30 program and I have managed to lose about 11lbs. I will be thrilled if I can lose about 8 more. I have started round two of the program this week and hope to do it a 3rd time before Berkeley gets back. We are planning to take a trip to Hawaii together (child-free) within the next 3-5 months, so that is a motivator to get in shape. Otherwise, life is rolling on. I sure hope it rolls quickly down hill for the second half of this deployment. I want my husband home!!

Random Stuff

Mr. Awesome

Holy cow, Asa makes me laugh. He has really taken to dancing lately and he goes all out! Here is a little video I took of him dancing in the car yesterday.

Asa and the Hairbow

One Sunday morning before church, Asa was running around with one of Hazel's bows on his head. We were about to leave for church so Berkeley took the bow off without Asa's permission. Asa was not happy. After a mild freak-out, we gave the bow back to him. The following sequence of pictures tell the story perfectly.