Miles turned 2

December 30th, we celebrated Miles 2nd Birthday.  It was such a fun day all about him!  We started the day with his birthday breakfast-- a chocolate croissant.  I decided to sing Happy Birthday to him and let him blow a candle out at every meal.  He LOVED it!!!  Gavin wanted to make Miles a cake for his birthday so we spent the morning in the kitchen.  The boys had so much fun mixing and baking and decorating.   Brooks called Miles around lunch time to wish him a Happy Birthday and Miles was thrilled.  We've been trying to teach him how to show the #2 with his hands and he's getting better and better at it everyday.  He even thinks he can show Brooks through the phone.  The boys got some play dough sets for Christmas so we spent the afternoon making creations and shapes.  It was fun!!  Miles had a blast making snakes and bears and apples (random, I know).   I decided since everyone was still dealing with jetlag that Miles birthday was the perfect day and excuse to not make the boys take naps.  We literally played all day!!   

For dinner, I made one of his favorite meals, but since he didn't get to nap he was struggling to stay awake by 6pm.  Poor kid sat in his chair and within minutes was out.  We tried waking him up a few times and getting him to eat something, but he wouldn't budge.  The only idea we came up with was to put his cake in front of him and "force" him to wake up.  It worked!  A lit candle on his cake did the trick!  He was all about the cake.  Since it was his birthday I figured who cares about eating actual dinner and we just let him eat cake.  We wanted him to be awake and alert for presents, too.  He got so excited to have us singing Happy Birthday to him, he asked for us to sing several times!

Miles got to open lots of presents from us and from family.  He was excited to open all the gifts!  Art supplies, Mickey Mouse fire truck, clothes, cars & trucks, and a new backpack for school!  He was ecstatic.  My parents got Miles a BBQ pit for Christmas and mailed it to us months ago.  In all the hustle for Christmas, we forgot to take it out and set it up for Christmas morning.  We decided to let him open it for his birthday.  The pictures below will show how excited Miles was to see the big BBQ box come out of the mailed box, but he was more interested in those styrofoam peanuts.  He was certain there was something else in there.  He was so persistent he even got Brooklyn and Gavin interested in finding goods in there.  To their dismay, the box was empty so we got them all involved in putting the BBQ pit together!  It was a fun family project and Miles loved his BBQ pit!!!!

 

I can't believe it's been 2 years since we welcomed Miles into this world.  It's been amazing to watch how much he's changed over the last 2 years and how he's growing into his personalty.  Last year, I remember thinking how Miles was a calm, easy going, laid back child and now he's a fun, wild, outgoing, spunky kid who keeps us on our toes and always guessing.  We're loving watching him come into his own and figuring things out in life.  He makes us laugh everyday and always has a smile on his face.  He looks up to his big brother and wants to do everything Gavin does.  He adores Brooklyn and has just recently started wanting to take care of her and tending to her!  It's cute!  

**On a side note, we moved Miles into a big boy bed back in August when we needed the crib for Brooklyn and he's done great in the bed.  We've had a rail on his bed since then and Brooks thought it'd be a good idea to take the rail down now that Miles was 2.   I was sooooo not ready for this, but he's loving having a bed JUST like Gavin's!  You can almost tell he's proud of the rail being gone!  It's cute.  

*** We also took away his pacifier right before we left Saudi in November.  It was a quick moment decision and Miles did AWESOME with it.  We cut the tip of it just like we did for Gavin and let Miles throw it in the trash.  He did it then let Brooks put him to bed and that was the end of it-- literally!  Our little boy really is growing up.  Next up for Miles-- potty training!  

Christmas in Saudi, Again

We spent our third year waking up Christmas morning in Saudi Arabia and had a very fun and special morning all together as a family!  We all struggled with jet lag through the night so we got a late start on our morning.  We made Christmas pancakes for breakfast before opening presents.  The kids were so excited to see gifts under the tree and couldn't believe that Santa made it to Saudi in time.   After celebrating Christmas for a month, while in the USA, the kids were just as eager to see what new toy and gifts they got.  We tried getting them to open their gifts slowly, to watch one another and attempt to play with their toys, but that wasn't happening, the kids tore in to each present one after another.  Brooks and I loved watching our kids being so excited and enjoying every moment of their morning.  They were laughing, checking out one another's gifts, and squealing with excitement!  

Gavin got lots of cars, hot wheels tracks, some new DVD's, along with his Spiderman watch that he was so consistent on wanting from Switzerland.  He was BEYOND words, over the moon when he opened the watch!  

Miles opened his own race car track that he played with non stop for days after Christmas.  He got his own cash register, monster truck motorcycle, frisbee, and new books.

Brooklyn got her first baby doll, a play vanity mirror, some floor toys, and girl books.  To our surprise, she was very into opening gifts and watching what  was going on.  

Brooks and I exchanged gifts while the kids opened up their stockings.  Brooks got new work out clothes and a traveling backpack.  I was surprised with a sewing machine!  It was a great Christmas morning for us!

Regardless of where we spent Christmas morning, we were together as a family and made some sweet, sweet memories!  It was a fun day together and one we'll remember forever.

After playing with all the new toys and taking naps, we welcomed all our friends over for our annual Christmas Gumbo Dinner.  It was a great night celebrating with friends and being together away from family.

All the kids!  (without Jake)  Two years ago, there were 2 kids, now we have 8!

This is what we all looked like trying to get the kids to sit and smile for the above pic

The girls!  Steph, we missed you! 

Our family away from family

Merry Christmas

Wishing You Merry Christmas Card

Browse our collection of Christmas card designs.

View the entire collection of cards.

I will Never Say NEVER, again

I said.... I would NEVER move to Saudi Arabia.  

I would NEVER have kids back to back.

I would NEVER travel across country with little kids.  

I would NEVER-- yada yada yada.. you get the point.  

I also said I would NEVER, EVER, EVER fly with all 3 of my kids by myself.  

Well, NEVER.SAY.NEVER!

Brooks' had 4 weeks of vacation, but it did not fall over Christmas day.  I really didn't want to go back to Saudi three weeks before Gavin had to return to school, but Brooks and I agreed we didn't want to spend Christmas day apart and our little family not being together.  So... we both had to compromise a little.  He agreed to "let" me stay in the USA a week and a half longer then his vacation and I agreed to be back in Saudi Christmas morning.  We both got what we wanted-- I got to spend more time in the USA and he had his family on Christmas.  It really wasn't a bad scenario, except for the fact that NO ONE was flying back to Saudi the week of Christmas-- everyone was flying home to the USA.  So, I was left with a big decision... either only get a month in the states and travel with Brooks or fly back by myself with all 3 kids.  I chose the latter.  

It is amazing the things you are willing to go through just to have time in the USA.  I never in a million years thought I could do this by myself nor did I ever want to, but it was worth it to me.  For weeks leading up to the trip I just kept telling myself it's only 24 hours.  I can do anything for 24 hours.  I had accepted this was either going to be the stupidest thing I've ever done in my life and experience 24 hours of misery and suffer through it or it was going to be a great decision accompanied with a little hard work.  It ended up being great!  

For starters, my mom was a huge help in the airport.  I got us all checked in, then persuaded, begged, and pleaded with airport officials to give my mom a gate pass to accompany me through security to the gate only to be turned down multiple times, we sat at a deli, fed the kids dinner, changed their clothes, distributed benadryl, and visited before we were escorted through by a gate clerk.   It was extremely hard telling my mom goodbye and seeing her kiss my babies one last time, but we managed and did our little routine where we both attempt to not cry in front of the other one, only to look into each other's eyes and get lost in the tears.  It's always a tough moment.  

So, I did receive help and made it through security in one piece and we walked up to the gate at the end of boarding time.  It was perfect.  There was no line, we walked right up to the plane, and boarded.  The crew was extremely helpful and the kids were pretty excited about being on their way to see daddy.  Within 30 minutes of take off all the kids were asleep.   Awesome!  It was wonderful.  I ate my dinner then drifted off to sleep as much as I could before someone woke up.  The boys slept 9 1/2 hours.  Again... I say awesome!  The flight was only 14 1/2 hours so once they ate breakfast, watched a movie, played a little, we were done with that flight.  Brooklyn was a different story.  She wasn't as interested in sleeping as long and since I didn't give her benadryl, she didn't have any assistance in that department.  I had to take her out of the bassinet at some point due to turbulence and she never wanted to fall back asleep.  After 2 hours of struggling to put her back down, I pulled out my baby carrier and strapped her onto me and walked her up and down the aisles until she fell asleep.  This allowed her and I about 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep time.  For me, on a flight where I wasn't sure if I was going to sleep at all, it was great!  The kids all did really, really good.  I had help from the flight attendants when I needed to go to the restroom, or wash out bottles, or change diapers.  Someone was always willing to sit with my kids as well as take care of us.  We were continuously getting waited on with snacks, drinks, cookies, toys, and more!  Before I knew it, we were landing.  Many, many gentlemen offered assistance to get the kids off the plane for me along with our carry-ons and I took them up on it.  We boarded the bus that took us to the terminal and all that was left between us and home was a 55 minute flight.  Oh glorious!!

Well.. this is where the fun begins.  This stupid flight has a policy about certain car seats and they didn't want to let me on the plane with my car seat for Miles, but Miles and Brooklyn are under 2 (at the time), which means technically I have 2 infants who have to be strapped onto me for take off and landing, but it's against policy to have 2 infants in my lap so we went around and around and around.  I won that battle and was escorted onto the plane with security and administrators to verify that my child's FAA approved car seat does in fact fit on the plane, in the seat, and can be strapped appropriately.   Oh yea and to add to the fun Miles and Gavin's seats weren't near mine so I allowed the flight attendants to escort my two children to their seats only for them to realize they were being seated with someone other then their mother who was not interested in taking care of them during the flight.  Within minutes they came and asked me if I wanted my kids to sit with me.  Um. yes. please!  haha.  It was really funny watching them go through this, not to mention there was no way in the world I was going to allow the boys to sit anywhere but with me.  They then moved them to the row behind me, only to have the gentlemen seated in my row tell me he'd move back there and then told the next gentlemen who was assigned to my row that his new seat was next to him.  Great!  

In the end everything worked out, we made it through the flight, we got through customs within 15 minutes, found all 8 of our bags, and were reunited with Brooks!  It was not a bad trip at all and something that I would honestly do again, if needed, but only if I was traveling back to Saudi.  I would NEVER fly TO the USA with all 3 kids by myself.  That flight is much more difficult due to the time frame of flying along with the fact that it's almost 3 hours longer then the return flight.     

Oops.. I did it again.  I just said I would never.  

Here's a glimpse of a little jetlag once we got home.  

Christmas in Lake Charles

Our time in Lake Charles was short, but that didn't stop us from having fun!  

Our trip started off with my mom showing us the new playroom she made in her house.  She ended up taking down her 'attic/storage' room and setting up play areas for all the kids.  There was a doll area, a train table, riding toys, tool benches, arts and crafts table, and more.  It was perfect to send the kids upstairs and let them play in one area and know they couldn't mess anything up or get hurt.  We were even smart enough to install a nanny type cam where we can watch the kids from downstairs.  

We spent lots of nights together at my parents house, hanging out, eating, and of course, the kids playing.  I try to soak up as much family time when we're home since we miss everyone so much when we're gone.  For Christmas, my dad got extra seats attached to his golf cart.  This way, it's easier to fit all 7 grandkids for a ride versus taking the kids in groups or having everyone smashed together.  The kids always look forward to Captain's golf cart rides.

 Since we were leaving the states a few before Christmas day, we all got together one morning the weekend before and celebrated together.  The morning was so much fun.  We let the kids open all their presents from my parents first so we can see what all they get and so they can have stuff to occupy themselves while the adults open presents.  It was precious to see all their reactions to the new toys and clothes and they always seemed to admire what the other kids got, too.

Books, toys, movies, clothes, golf clubs, BBQ pits, dolls, key boards, dragons, remote control cars, dinosaurs, and more all got opened Christmas morning.  It really was a fun morning for everyone.

After the kids got their big gifts, it was time for the adults to open presents.  I forgot to take pictures of that, but we were all truly blessed.  I spent the rest of the day packing up our gifts to ship back to Saudi.  Do you know how hard it is for kids to understand why you're taking away their brand new toys/gifts right after they got them, only to know they won't see them for another few weeks.  Poor guys.  As you can see, Miles was a huge help in the packing department.