We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.

Our little Ian turned one years old on the 11th! Oh what a fast year that was, did I mention that we moved twice last year! Ian's birthday started off with breakfast, he usually has a full breakfast then when I make my breakfast smoothie, he wants it so bad too, I gave him a little in one of Madelyn's cups. He sat there on the stool in the kitchen and drank the whole thing, threw it on the floor and crawled off. Madelyn thought he should wear that hat today, it lasted for about 2 minutes. For lunch he tried his first PB & J sandwich! He really loved it I think, because he ate the whole thing, and some grapes. Ian you got a little jelly on your lip! After his afternoon nap, Rylan and dad were home so we could start the party. We played with balloons. . . Opened presents, some of which were recycled from his big brother, is that horrible that we gave him some of Rylan's old toys that were stored away? We just are at a point where we don't want to buy a lot more toys, ...

New Years Eve was rockin at the Hooglands this year. We had our first fondue, although it was my first time making it and I have a few things I need to change for next year....(note, smoked cheddar is not good for fondue). We had ham, broccoli and french bread to dip in the cheese. We also had some veggies and the kids helped me dip strawberries, chocolate chip cookies and pretzels in chocolate. The kids got special juice boxes and Scott and I downed a whole bottle of fancy sparkling grape juice. So funny that Maddy's favorite thing about this year was making chocolate chip cookies with me. . .about 4 hours before this video! After dinner we played some games including our new favorite, HIDE AND SEEK IN THE DARK. Everyone gets a flashlight, and we crank up the music so you can't hear where people go, especially since we have all hardwood floors. We established some rules: 1. No jumping out and scaring people (which Scott broke after about 5 minutes) 2. Stay inside the house 3....

Madelyn got this Barbie set for Christmas this year: I liked it because first it was on sale on black friday at K-Mart and second, it is a mom and daughter, and they are wearing normal clothes that moms and kids wear. Well part of the fun of Barbies is dressing them, so we went to the toy store to find some more clothes....big mistake it made me feel sick for the rest of the day, and ticked off! This is an example of the barbie clothes that are out there: Tiny little mini dresses, cleavage showing and way up too high on the thigh! Plus look at those stillettos! Sick, Madelyn doesn't see her mommy wearing this for a reason. I don't want her to think that this is what people wear all the time. She was set on getting a new outfit so we settled on the "nurse" barbie outfit that was a scrub top, capri pants and again with the stillettos? I decided to check my new BFF Pinterest and found a couple cute, easy patterns. This is what I was able to whip up this afternoon. Madely...

Since Scott and I have been a family we have always spent the holidays with either his family or my family. In fact we had a rotation, if we spent Thanksgiving with the Hooglands, then we would spend Christmas with the Youngs, and the next year we would switch. Well being 20+ hours away from either of our family, we were forced to have our own little Christmas. We wanted to make it special this year, Scott had the time off so we tried to play as much as we could with the kids to ease the transition of moving. We mostly got everything unpacked, my "craft corner" (as you can see in the picture below) still needs to be put together, we are trying to find the right kind of shelf, and our living room is still bare because we can't decide on furniture. Oh well, here we are making a gingerbread house. . . We asked Grandma Young to read us a Christmas story on Skype, because she is the best children's book reader ever. She does voices, and knows all the right places to use t...

It all started when this handsome captain graduated on December 8th from his Captain's Career Course. He was put on the Commandant's List which means that he was in the top 5% academically of his class. I was with the packers all day Thursday, then the movers came and loaded up our house on Friday, we cleaned as they cleared out each room, loaded up my car on the trailer so it could be pulled by Scott's truck, and we left Friday night around 5 thinking that we could drive a couple hours before bedtime. Then we realized that the running lights on the trailer were not working, so we got dinner and stayed at a hotel about 3 miles from our apt! We drove about 6-8 hours on Saturday and Sunday and were able to get to our new city Sunday night. We got the keys Monday morning from our landlords who are a couple from India. He is an ER doctor and his wife was so sweet, she held Ian for me and gave us some moving-in essentials like paper towels, hand soap, and a nice welcome bouquet...