Planting Flowers!

Today the girls planted some flowers in some cups. I will have them water them every day so they can watch them as they grow. Constance seemed pretty interested in it all, Ivy really could have cared less! lol I will take some pics of them so you can all see them grow too!! Friday we are going to go out and actually plant a big flower bed. We just have to wait for the cold nights to go away first.

EOD!!!!

Well I just wanted to let everyone know that David made EOD!!! He said the suit test was super tough but he did well. He said after he got done he went and took a four hour nap!! lol Someone took pics of him doing it,but he hasnt e-mailed them to me yet. As soon as he does I will post them. So Florida here we come!! Im excited to see what life in Florida is like. Hot im guessing! lol I just hope there isnt a hurricane while we are there. Man that would be kinda scary. Ok that is really all of the updates for now.

Pre-K Registration!

Today I took Constance up to the school to get her registered for Pre-K!! She sat at a little table with some little boys and put a puzzle together while I filled out the paper work. Ivy was the one running everywhere but luckily I had my Grandma Vote with me to help with her. Constance will start school on the 14th of August. She will only go half a day. From 12:30-3:00. Its going to be an emotional day for me to have to drop her off, but I know she will love it. I put some pics of her at the school today and there is one of thier build-a-bears new "daddy outfits" I thought they were cute.

Im bored!!

Man, could these days go any slower!!! There are only 15 days now til David gets home and it still feels like an eternity! He called today and said that he has his suit test for EOD tomorrow. I cant wait to hear how he does on it. He was also recommended for a Bronze Star which is a pretty big deal. He said usually only guys higher in rank get it so he is pretty excited about it. He was also recommended for a battlefield promotion. Let me explain what that means for non-military folk!! lol He is up for promotion right now, but has to have so many points to get promoted. The points are set pretty high at the moment and he has been doing some extra work to get them up there. Well a battlefield promotion means that he can get promoted without having enough points. To get one you have to basically do exceptional on the "battlefield" like it says. So needless to say I am very proud of him for both things. Well all three including the EOD thing as well. This is a big step in his military career and one I think he has been ready for for a long time. Im excited to see where our lives take us next. Thats the one thing with the army life. You never know where you will be living next. At times unnerving and also exciting. So if he gets the EOD we will be in Florida like I said before and who knows after that. David mentioned Alaska when we talked today but Im not so sure about that one. Its so cold there! I like Florida better!!! lol

April Showers Bring May Flowers!

Ivy playing in the flowers
I think this is a dogwood, but Im really just guessing!
I thought these were pretty
This is my fav pic
Our country road
Constance blowing the dandilions!

Well it has definatly rained enough this april so now we are getting the pretty flowers. The girls and I played outside for about an hour this morning. I walked around the yard and took some pics of all the flowers. Its so nice out today. We may go out again after nap time and play with some sidewalk chalk! We havent gotten that out yet this year so that might be fun for them to do.

In other news, David has been preapproved for EOD(the armys bomb squad). He is very excited. Now all he has to do is the suit test and an interview with the EOD team there on base in Iraq. Those are pretty easy from what he has told me, so we are pretty opptomistic that he has the job, but we are trying not to get our hopes too high just in case. He will do the suit test and interview in the next day or two. So I am excited to hear how he did. With this EOD thing we will be living in Florida for 8 months. Florida means Disney World!!!! lol I am excited about that. After Florida we have no idea where we will go, but we think we may try to get stationed in Colorado again. We really liked it there. Well that is all from our end for now.

Just Stop It!

Ivy has said her first sentence! She gets the serious look on her face and points at us and says "Just Stop It!!" It is the funniest thing ever. My mom and I were laughing so hard at her last night when she was doing it. And where did she learn this? Her big sister of coarse! She is learning lots of fun things from Constance! She has also learned to shake or nod her head yes and no if I ask her a question. It seems like she is learning so much lately.

Constance has been doing much better with her potty training. She hasnt had an accident in two days and has been telling me when she needs to go. I was reading online that the key to resistance is to not ask them if they need to go potty, but to tell them we are going potty now. So we have been trying that out. It seems to be working out great. She just gets up and goes in there instead of me getting her usual line of "I dont wanna go potty!" So hopefully we can keep this up.

In other news, my cousin Derrick had an emergency appendectomy last night. He is only 19 and away at collage right now. Pretty scary stuff. I havent heard how he is doing now, but his parents drove up there to be with him. Im sure I will hear some time soon how he is.

Well David will be home very soon and I cant contain my excitement!!! This morning I booked a helicopter tour of Branson for the two of us to do while he is home. We also plan to go to the new Titanic exibit. That should be a very fun day. The girls will be staying with my mom for the day so we can have some time for the two of us. Its been a long, long time since we have had that!! lol We are also getting some more family pics done while he is home. I am still trying to talk him into doing some with his uniform on, but not sure if he is going for that! I know thats all he wears now, but we need military family pics!!! lol

Caterpillars!

Here are the caterpillars we made today!
supplies: colored cotton balls, pipe cleaners, eyes, something to poke holes with, glue, egg carton cut in half, and markers or paint
constance poking pipe cleaners in for the legs
making its face
Ivy with her caterpillar

Ivys caterpillar

We are done making our caterpillars today. They had lots of fun doing it. Ivys was wounded in action as she kept squeezing it! lol Constance did very well on hers and she followed my directions very well. I was impressed with her. She did it pretty much by herself. I put the glue on but she put her decorations on the glue. It was a fun project for them to do and fun for me to take pictures!! lol I think they are pretty self explanitory from the pictures on how to make but if anyone wants instructions let me know!!

What a Busy Weekend!

Ivy sitting on a frog!!! Constance wouldnt go near it!
Giraffe trying to eat my dad
girls looking at animals together
Ivy sitting on a tiger!
me and constance

We had a very busy weekend. On Friday we went out to eat with my grandparents. It was thier 54th anniversary, so it was nice to spend that day with them. I cant wait to see what the next 50 years brings for David and I!



On Saturday we went with the same grandparents and my dad to Golden Corral in Springfield to meet up with a bunch of our family for a little reunion. After that my dad, the girls, and I went to the zoo for a couple of hours. Constance had so much fun. After we got done looking at something she would say "I wanna see more animals Mommy!!!" She did not want to leave. Ivy had fun too, but I think she was just happy to be outside in the sunshine! After that the girls and I went to Smiths resturaunt for dinner. We were there to celebrate my cousin Derricks 19th birthday. We were very tired at the end of the day!!



Today my mom, the girls, and I went to the mall. I had to get David some shoes so he would have something other than his boots to wear when he gets home. Speaking of him coming home!! He will be home a few days sooner than we thought!! YAY!!! Im so excited. Anyways, back to today. I also got the girls some new clothes and a new bathing suit for myself. I was very brave. I havent bought a bathing suit for myself in a long time. The last one was a bikini before the girls were born. Well my bikini days are way over, but I did find a really cute one piece at old navy. It actually doesnt look as scary as I thought it would! Anyways after that we came home to attempt a nap for everyone. The only one that slept was my mom! lol Then we all got ready to go grocery shopping. So it was another busy day for us! Tomorrow we are going nowhere!!!! We may even stay in pjs all day! And we are going to make those catterpillars. I will post pictures tomorrow. Here are some pics of the zoo that we took.

Tiny Dancers!

Pharoah Constance! lol

Ballerina Constance
Constance twirling
Ivy gettin her groove on
Ivy taking a break
Ballerina Ivy

My mom got the girls some little tutus tonight. So we put them on them and they started dancing. Its so cute to watch them dance!! The first picture cracks me up!! lol I turned around cause she kept saying "mommy look at me!" lol I was like you look like a pharoah!!!! Anyways I thought these pics were cute!

Potty Stickers!

Well I thought Constance was completely potty trained but lately we have taken a step back. I have heard this can be normal though. I was not for bribing my children with anything to get them to do things, but with the potty training we have had to take a different approach. I got her some fun stickers at the store with the Disney princesses on them. she loves the princesses! So anyways if she tells me she needs to go potty and doesnt have an accident she gets a sticker. It seems to be working. Already today she has gone twice and told me both times. She came up to me and said "Mommy, I need a potty sticker!" lol. I may use this when its time to potty train Ivy, we will just have to see how fast she takes to it. It took Constance a really long time. I started her at 18 months and she just wasnt ready. I started her for the wrong reasons and I see that now. I had people telling me I needed to get her started. I should have listened to her needs rather than what every one else thought I should do with her. That was an important lesson in parenting that I learned alot from. Dont push, when they are ready they will let you know.

I have started getting the girls into doing more painting and drawing. Creative stuff that will keep them busy on the days we are at home all day. I did a search online the other night and found a bunch of cute projects for thier age group so I wrote them all down and we will be doing a project a week I think. This week we just started with painting. The love it. Yesterday I bought some art supplies and they had a plaster alphabet kit on clearance that I got for them. Last night Constance and I mixed the plaster and poured it to let it sit over night. Today we attempted to paint them. They just wanted to paint on thier paper with their new paint sponges I got them! lol. So mommy painted some of the letters while the sponge painted. I think I will use some of thier paintings for scrapbook pages. That way they have thier art in their scrapbooks with pictures of them doing it. Next week we are going to be making caterpillars out of egg cartons. I thought it was a really cute idea. I will post pictures and instructions as well after we do them. That way all you moms of little ones can make some too!!!

Tractor Babies!

Here are a few pictures of the girls playing on a little tractor that thier Aunt Gina and Uncle David is letting them play with while we are here in Missouri. They are getting to be such country babies!! lol

Our little Artists!

Ivys Masterpiece
Constances Masterpiece

Today I had the girls paint some pictures. We are going to give them to Grandma and Grandpa Butler for thier anniversary on friday. I thought they would like to have some pictures the girls made for them. The girls loved painting! I had to show Ivy a couple of times that we dont eat it. So then she starts painting her belly! They got a long bath after they were done. Soon I am going to make lunch. I think we are going to have tuna sandwiches and crackers. Sounds good to me today. And after that we are going to go outside and play for awhile. Its nice today. A little windy, but warm!

One month!

Well there is only about a month til my hubby comes home. I think I am stressing too much though cause I want everything to be perfect for him!! I know he will just be happy to be home, but I always feel the need to plan everything out. Oh well. Im sure everything will be great and even if something goes wrong with our plans it wont matter because at least he is home!

There hasnt been a whole lot going on around here. We watched a really good movie last night. It is called Chasing Secrets. I think it might be a lifetime movie, not real sure, but it was really good. I definatly recommend it.

Here are a couple of pics of the girls I took the other night to scrapbook. They love to brush thier teeth!!! There is also a pic of David. He was a part of the fire squad for a ceremony of another friend of his that was killed last week. I just wish all this would end. I know this must be so hard on him.

Ivy and the Vacuum!

Here are some pictures of Ivy while I was vacuuming. She loves to stand in front of it so it blows her hair. I thought I would snap these pics while she was doing it. Constance on the other hand sits on the couch the whole time saving her babies from the vacuum. She lets it go after her sister but not her babies! lol I cant believe miss Ivy is going to be 16 months old next week. The time really flys by. She is almost a year and a half and constance will be three soon. My mom and I decided for mine and constances birthday we are going to the zoo for the day. That should be lots of fun.

15 month tours :(

Well David found out they will have to stay there for 15 months and not 12 like we were hoping. Im very sad about this. I wanted him home for Christmas and Ivys birthday, but thats not the way it is going to be. Oh well the only good thing to come out of it is more money. He will get and extra 1000 a month each month he is there over 12 so that will help us our alot. So looks like I will be leaving here in January. I want to get there before he does and get our apartment set up so he wont have to mess with anything like that once he is home. Febuary seems like so far away at this point. This deployment already seems never ending. I just want it to be over so we can be a family again. He told me the other day he hates watching his girls grow up in pictures. It has been really hard on him this time. But he will be home in about a month and we are going to have lots of fun. It will be really hard to have to watch him leave again, but its something we have to do. We try not to think about that day right now just the time we will have together while he is home.

The Girls!

I thought I would sit down and do a brag blog!! Just to let everyone know all the new things the girls are doing. We will start with Constance. Lets see..... She is learning to count to 20 right now. She can count to twelve prefect but gets a little mixed up in the teens at the moment. She know all her alphabet and can recognize most of the letters when I hold one up and ask her what it is. We are working on writing the letters. Right now I have her tracing them. She is still unsteady but getting better. Yesterday she was counting and i heard her count backwards from 6 to one. All by herself!! This one shocked me! I didnt know she could do that. She has also learned how to imitate cookie monster on Seasame Street! lol She does a really good job at it too although it gets a little messy! Her new word for today is Dude! lol. Ivy layed on her and she said "Dude, get off!" lol She cracks me up. On the 28th we go up to the preschool to get her registered. This is going to be an emotional day for me!

Ok, on to Ivy Jewel! She is really starting to talk now. She is alot quieter than her sister so it took her a little longer to realize she can make words too! lol Right now her words she uses include: Woah!, Weeee...., Day-day(daddy), Der is(there it is), Der(there), Woof, watch, eat, and sometimes she says mama. She has really been starting to pick up on this lately. She has also learned to brush her teeth by herself. Its so cute. She still needs a little help but shes got the concept down. A big one for us right now is when they color she has stopped eating the crayons and actually colors her paper! lol. We are going to make a big sign for David when he gets home. I got a white queen size sheet and some paints and I think after I get the words on I will have them help me decorate it. I think I am going to make star stamps out of potatoes and have them stamp those on it. I may do thier hand prints on it as well. We will see.

Well that is all the updates I have for now.

Scrapbooking!

Iraq page
Brians military picture
Constance and Grandma page
another Iraq page. This was my fav that I did today.
My mom, Gina, and Jenny
Me and Gina
Me and my Mom
Jenny concentrating hard!
Ivys first birthday page. I have many more of those to do!


Here are some pics from our scrap day today. There were only four of us there but it was a nice day. I got about 11 pages done. I need to do more. I ordered about 200 more pictures and they should be here on monday! I cant wait, but that means I have any more to do! I just love being able to capture all these wonderful memories. I love to look back at them and see how much the girls have grown, and know that when they are older they can look back at them and enjoy them like I do now.

In other news Ivy is getting two more teeth in. She has been a little cranky the last couple of days. Hopefully they come through soon though.