Our Baby is 2!!!

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY RIAN!!!

My sister wanted to have a little 'mini' birthday for Rian since they will not be here for her actual party. They sang Happy Birthday to her and we all enjoyed cake and ice cream! Rian loves the Happy Birthday song and has been singing it ever since!

I am so grateful to have Rian in my life. With Matt being away, every once and a while I start to think about throwing myself a "pity party", but she is always there to brighten my day. She makes me laugh and smile all day long! She has the absolute best personality! I love that she HAS an opinion. I love her independence. I love that she HAS to pick out her shoes for the day....she is completely obsessed with shoes :) I love that she is such a good sleeper and the easiest baby to put down. I love that she can just go with the flow. I love that she is my little jet setter (she has been on about 19 round trip flights). I love her smile....it's contagious! I love her kisses and hugs. I love to watch her sing and dance. I love how she loves to talk to Daddy on the phone. I love how she tells him "I miss you" and "I love you". The list can go on and on. I just love everything about this darling little girl!!! And I know Matt does too!!!

Small Towns Are Different....

So remember how my camera was 'stolen' over 4th of July weekend? My mom decided to put a lost and found add in the little newspaper here. On the 17th, we received a phone call from a little old lady from the senior citizens center. She had found our camera!!!! Two weeks later and it shows up! I know I was being watched over!!! But the point of this post is to say how different small towns are. If that happened in San Diego, it would have definitely been long gone. But not in Cascade. I guess it wasn't 'stolen' in the first place, just 'misplaced'!

We arrived back home late last night. I have so many pics to post and a great story about our 3 day, 17 hour drive back home. But for now I have unpacking and laundry to do!

OCS Website

Check out this website.

http://www.projo.com/extra/2008/ocs/

This link was sent to me from another girl whose husband is also at OCS. They say that this is only a glimpse of OCS and it doesn't even come close to representing what they are really put through. It was so hard for me to watch. The whole time I was watching it I was asking myself "why are you still watching this?", but I couldn't stop. It also explains the RLP inspection in a little more detail so you can understand why it is so stressful.

Enjoy! And let me know what you think!!!

Update #2: OC Pine

Taken Sunday, July 13, 2008 while finally being able to attend OUR Church off base!!! All thanks to the amazing technology of cell phones!!

We can all breath a little easier now because....MATT PASSED RLP!!! Their first RLP inspection was on Thursday, those who did not pass on Thursday had another chance to pass on Saturday, if they didn't pass either one, they were rolled back two weeks. Thank goodness Matt passed on his first try and didn't have to stress about it anymore. This inspection was pretty crazy. Only 20 guys passed the inspection. 10 from his original class, which started out with 34, and the other 10 were already rolled back once from another class.
Matt and his class have been now given the privileges to use a fork when eating (they were only allowed to use a spoon, and NO hands for the first 4 weeks) and can now have the fruit and salad bar with meals. He said that they should be getting a lot more privileges now that RLP is over!
Thank you so much for all your prayers.....even though we have had only 1 comment :) I know our Heavenly Father is blessing Matt at this time! How grateful I am for these wonderful blessings!

Rian Playing Wii

I brought our Wii up here because I knew it would be a big hit...and it is! We play it almost every night. TJ, my 4 yr old nephew, is so amazingly good. Seriously, I should take a video, he is so funny to watch and does so good! Brea and Rian love to 'pretend play' also. Although they do not know its really us playing! We strap the controller around their little wrists and off they go. Here is Rian bowling, then watching herself (or so she thinks) get a strike!

"Pops" and Ice Cream

One afternoon, my mom and I decided to take the kids on a drive up to McCall, Idaho (kind of a ritzy, touristy town). We found this yummy ice cream shop. This is Rian's first experience with ice cream, I guess you can say, she likes it!

We decided to give the kids some popsicles (or pops as they call it) after dinner and BEFORE bath! We will not be doing that again! It was a mess, but the kids loved it :)

Update: OC Pine

I wanted to give a little update on Matt (Officer Candidate Pine). We have been able to talk to him on Sundays, so that is to nice to hear his voice and especially have him and Rian get some phone time together. He is doing pretty good considering the MIND GAMES they're playing with him, the COMPLETE lack of sleep, and the NON-STOP physical activity. The first week was a bit of a shock, I think. He is starting classes this week (meaning educational type classes with tests) and has a HUGE RLP (room, locker, personal) inspection coming up on the 17th. They are so meticulous and this inspection can make or break his graduation date.....SO PLEASE REMEMBER HIM IN YOUR PRAYERS. I'll give another update soon!

Weekend With Family

I was able to steal some pictures from my mom's camera. I uploaded them backwards, but oh well. We had such a fun weekend with our family and spent almost the entire time on our two boats! Lucky us!


Rian waiting for the fireworks. Funny faces.

Family and Friends. Rian and Mommy watching the fireworks...Rian didn't like how loud they were.

Yeah, that's me wakeboarding! Rian playing with her bucket-o-water. Grandma and Rian playing on the beach.

Andrea, Jenny, Rian, and me having fun on the boat. Rian enjoying a nap. Andrea, me, and Jenny getting ready for our CRAZY ride!

My brother, Mike, turned 24 on the 3rd. We sang 'Happy Birthday' and his nieces and nephew helped blow out the candle!

Stolen

My camera was taken out of my bag on the 4th of July. I am so angry. So needless to say, I won't be posting any pictures any time soon. We are having a lot of fun, besides the camera incident. We went white water rafting on Thursday. It was nice to be able to enjoy it with the family. However, Matt was really missed :) We enjoyed the lake on Friday and Saturday. Rian LOVES playing in the sand, and I am so so sore from wakeboarding. We also blew up some tubes and were thrown around behind the boat. I was crying, I was laughing so hard. So it's been a ton of fun. My brothers are leaving today, so things will probably calm down for the next few days. Well, hopefully I can use my mom's camera and get some pics up here soon!

Lake Cascade...Here We Come!

Rian and I are flying up to my sister's tomorrow. I have a feeling our trip will consist of many days on the lake either wakeboarding or beaching one of the boats so the kids can play in the sand. My brothers are also going to be up there this weekend for Mike's b-day and the 4th of July. This will be the first time we have all been up there at the same time and the whole family is really looking forward to spending Mike's birthday white water rafting together.....kid-less. Rian and I will be up there for a few weeks, so I will try to post when I have some free time.