5 Years

When this day rolls around I always hope that the pain will get a little easier to deal with, that is just not the case. On this day 5 years ago my beautiful Mom lost her brave and courageous battle with cancer. 

I try to be strong because I know that is what she would want but I find myself just wanting to curl up and wish this day away. I honestly think with each passing year that it gets harder to deal with and now that we are expecting Emersyn the pain is much stronger. I wish she was here to watch her grandkids grow up.

I miss her laugh, smile, sense of humor, kindness, and her ability to make everyone around her smile. She was truly a unique person and there is no one else like her. 

I miss you, Mom and I hope that you know how much I love you and miss you. I hope you are looking down and smiling at everything that your kids and husband have accomplished since you left us. 

I wish you were still here.

Weekend Happenings

My sister and the kiddos arrived on Friday and my sister surprised us with this beautiful monogram for Emersyn's room! My favorite part about the whole thing is that some of the buttons came from clothes that belonged to our Mom. It's so special!

On Saturday we dropped my sister off at the airport and got our day started with a local Easter egg hunt for the kids. They had 3 designated fields for different age groups and the kids loved it. They got a ton off eggs!

On Sunday it was rainy out so the Easter bunny hid eggs around the house and they still had a blast finding them. We also dyed eggs and spent lots of time at the playground down the street from our house.

Emersyn enjoyed Easter too from the comfort of my tummy haha.

Since Kyle had a long weekend we ventured off to Alexandria to go to the zoo. After a yummy breakfast at Cracker Barrel we found the zoo and had a blast! It was a lot bigger than I expected and the kids loved it, heck we loved it. It took us about 2 hours to go through and we enjoyed the train ride as well. We had a late lunch at Applebee's and then headed home.

We ended the night with some fun at the playground again.

We are enjoying their visit so much and love that we get this time with them.

I hope you all had a great Easter!

Throwback Thursday

8 years ago this week Kyle and I started dating, it was the best decision I have ever made. We have had many ups and downs but it has always been worth it.

We look so young...we were only 22 so I guess we were young. :)

It's amazing to see how those 2 young kids have now turned into this:

What a crazy and amazing 8 years it has been!

Have a great Thursday!

Pregnancy Update

So, I realized that I have not done a true pregnancy update since the beginning of the 2nd trimester. Whoops! I am now 17 weeks 5 days pregnant...time has really been flying by.

I am feeling great still, minus the back pain when I am trying to get comfortable at night. I sleep in between 2 giant body pillows (or as Kyle calls it my cocoon), and that helps keep my spine in line and at least get some sort of sleep.

Emersyn is doing great, at my 16 week appointment her heartbeat was great and she is measuring right on track. I got my results from the maternal quad screen and it was negative for things such as down syndrome and trisomy 18. We have our "official" anatomy scan on Thursday to do more in depth measurements and what not. We are so excited to see her.

We decided that since I love couponing that I would stock up on items like diapers. We know we will get some from family and friends but it never hurts to get some ourselves. Thank goodness for coupons, Target cartwheel and the 5% off from the redcard. I got 12 packs of diapers for dirt cheap. :)

I have been trying to stop myself from buying too many things for her right now but I could not say no to this onesie. How perfect is it?!

We are just enjoying the milestones and are thrilled that everything is going smoothly! :)

Happy Tuesday!

It's Been A While

Naturally, when you marry someone in the military you have to expect that at some point a deployment or two will happen. I knew this when Kyle and I got married and we were lucky enough to have the first few years of our marriage deployment free (He was in the field A LOT lol). 

However, when Kyle's unit got placed on GRF (global response force) we knew that if something did happen they could be deployed at any time to any place. Most units are on this and nothing happens, they do their year on this cycle and then it switches to someone else. Kyle's unit was about 5 1/2 months away from being taken off this cycle when the earthquake in Haiti hit.

They were instantly recalled from the field and told to be ready within 24 hours to leave. Let me tell you that as a still relatively new spouse I panicked. We rushed to get everything we needed to including updating power of attorneys and bank account info. Looking back now I realize that this was a pretty good way to be introduced to a deployment, learning how to adapt in a crunch was so helpful. 

Kyle and I spoke only once while he was gone, and he ended up getting really sick along with a few others. I mean imagine being in a country that just experienced the most devastating earthquake with little food and little water, and disease running rampant. It was bad. He ended up losing around 25 pounds by the time he came home, he was gone for about 3 months, which doesn't seem like a lot but it was sure an interesting time. I can't believe it has already been 6 years to the day since he came home from that deployment. 

 He deployed the following year to Iraq and to be honest that deployment was easier. Go figure.

 It's been a long time since we have experienced a deployment (almost 5 years) and it will be at least a few more years until we do it again (if that happens, I know he is itching to deploy again). He was supposed to deploy at bliss but that didn't happen who knows when it will again.  

It definitely seems so long ago now.

A Goal To Work Towards

Since becoming pregnant my running has been virtually nonexistent, between the horrible morning sickness, exhaustion, and being consumed by school I just haven't felt up to it. I do have a few 5k's planned but those are more just to walk and to get out and enjoy the weather than being competitive.

I have however, set a goal for myself for after Emersyn is born. I was supposed to run the Pensacola Half Marathon last year, but due to rain and flooding I was unable to leave my sister's house. I was given a deferment and received my code to register for this year.

It's mid-November and I figured it is a perfect goal to work towards and I should be more than 2 months postpartum at that point. I am really excited to get back into the swing of things and start running consistently again especially with my new little running partner. :) She however won't be participating in this one she will happily watch from the sidelines with her grandpa and cousins.

My sister has offered to do it with me, and I might be able to talk to Kyle into it if his work schedule allows. I don't plan on breaking any records haha it will likely be a walk/run event for me. It will just be fun to active and doing something I enjoy. 

It will be a perfect race to come back to! 

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! :)

We Are Busy Bees

I feel like I haven't properly blogged lately, I have spent most of my days running errands and just being plain exhausted at the end of the day so blogging has been the further thing from my mind the last few days.

Here is a quick run down of what is happening in our neck of the woods:

*We have been dealing with a lot of crazy weather lately, the torrential rain caused a lot of flooding and damage. Thankfully it has dried up a bit here so Emma has been enjoying lots of walks.

*I am in week 7 of my current classes and that makes me so happy. I have two 10 page papers due on Sunday so I'm sure that will keep me busy.

*Speaking of school, I have registered for classes all the way through the end of July. That way when I go back in October after Emersyn is born I will only have 5 classes left!

*I had my 16 week appointment last week and all is well. Baby girl is doing great and her growth is on track. Next appointment is our official anatomy scan on the 24th. 

*My sister and the kids will get here next Friday and we can't wait! We have so much fun planned for the week that they are here with us. It's going to be amazing.

*We are starting to do a lot of deep cleaning and purging in our house, we have so much junk that needs to be tossed. It feels so good to get this done.

*I have been working on rebuilding our stock pile, lets just say that my trip to Target today is going to be big haha. Coupons are my favorite. 

Not much else going on here, I am just really enjoying this season of life right now.

Hope you all have a great day!

To My Sister

Shhhhhhh……………………

Don’t anyone tell but I have taken over Jen’s blog today!!!  For those of you who don’t know, Jen has an awesome older sister Lisa. Well that is me!!  So today I have hijacked her blog to talk about how awesome she is!!

I am sure most of you know that Jen and I lost our Mom a few years ago to cancer and since then she and I have become incredibly close.  Not only is she my sister but she is my best friend in the world.  She is the only person who I can truly be myself with and only laughs and never judges.  Being a few years older than her and having kids of my own I have taken on a mom role to her as well.  Jen is so wonderful that she sends me a Mother’s Day card every year, not one she bought to be from my kids, but one that is from her.

You all get to catch glimpses of Jen through her blog but very few of you have seen or experienced the real Jen.  She is one that will laugh until she snorts, is opinionated as all hell, and can say some incredibly inappropriate things.  She is rad!!  So as I have sat back and watched her struggles with starting a family it broke my heart in two each time they experienced another disappointment.  As a mom with two children of my own I felt guilty that I was able to get pregnant so easily and she could not.  It is incredibly hard to watch your sister and best friend go through so many challenges and not have a way to help.  I have offered so many times to act as a surrogate or egg donor if that is what the needed and wanted them to know that I was here for anything they needed.

So when Jen called me one morning and asked if my kids wanted a cousin for Christmas my heart nearly exploded.  This time it just felt different.  I felt overwhelmed with love, excitement, and optimism that this one would work out.  And as you all know it has!!  Miss Emersyn Kay is due to join our family on August 25^th and I cannot even begin to express how happy we all are.  Kyle and Jen deserve this bundle of happiness and joy so much and I am so happy that I will have a new niece to spoil and love.  

But of course my mom is still missing from this happy event and being that I was pregnant with my son Grayson when she passed away helps me to understand even more how Jen must be feeling.  But with so much joy going around there is no way that my Mom isn’t seeing it and feeling it right now.   So I hope that you all are as happy for Jen as I am and pass along as many good thoughts and prayers as possible. If anyone is interested they are registered at Target

A website has also been set up to follow along with their journey.

 Emersyn Kay 

So thanks for listening to me go on and on and on but Jen deserves t be celebrated at this amazing time in her life!!

Lisa

Farewell!

Last night, Kyle and I were farewelled from his current unit. A lot of the original team that was here when we got here is almost all gone so it is a good time to transition and move on.

He will still be with them through the end of the month but then it is off to his new job. It will be a welcome change after 12 months of being in the field for 2 1/2 weeks per month. He will still work long days but he will get to come home at night.

He has been given a lot of plaques through his almost 9 year career but this one is by far my favorite. Each of the tiny posters in the middle represent each of the rotations that he has been a part of. (We will ignore the fact that the year and type of airborne wings is wrong lol, our friend is going to fix it.) 

We will definitely miss the people he works with but thankfully he will get to still interact with some of them on a daily basis.

Here is to the next adventure!

A Precious Baby.....

First, let me apologize for not posting this on Friday, things got crazy and overwhelming haha.

The day started out with heading down to Lake Charles first thing in the morning to look at cars. We really had no intention of buying but we knew if the deal was right we would. Well the deal was right and we walked out of there with a 2016 Honda CR-V Touring! The next event of the day was our gender ultrasound....

We arrived at the ultrasound place about 15 minutes early and we were taken right back. Every ultrasound for us a milestone and we were so overwhelmed to see this perfect little GIRL bouncing and stretching and moving all over the place.

Yes, you read that correctly! We are having a precious baby girl in August! Emersyn Kay Smith will join our family and we could not be more thrilled. Just seeing her on the screen and knowing that she is healthy and strong was more than we could have ever hoped for.

After the appointment we headed off to Target to pick up a few baby items and we got started on the registry. I finished it up the other night and since we aren't having a baby shower I'll just be sending out registry announcements. 

We have already been given a few gifts for our girl and it means everything to have family and friends so excited for her arrival.

My sister bought us this amazing diaper bag!

And my Dad gifted us with her crib and bedding. We can't wait to see it all up.

This whole journey continues to be surreal and just amazing! Thank you all so much for the constant love and support!