I've been a little busy

I found myself sitting around the house doing NOTHING at all the first week we got back from the states.  I quickly realized I was going to get myself into trouble if I didn't start acting like I had a purpose.  So, I baked some cakes and worked on a few projects.  I've even been reorganizing the house too.. pics on that later.  

Here's a cake for a Luau Birthday Party that my neighbors threw for their daughters.  My friend Rhonda, who also bakes cakes helped out with this one.  She baked the cakes and made some of the decorations and I made the icing, stacked the cakes, and decorated it all.  It really turned out to be a cute, fun cake.

Some people here, who lived in Bahrain, had their sons birthday party all planned out and then were told they had to leave Bahrain and wouldn't be returning.  They were pretty bummed that they had to cancel the venue where the party was going to be and had to have something real small here on our compound. She found out I did cakes and asked if I could whip one up for her.  His party was dinosaur themed.

One of our really good friends here, Laura, is having a baby girl in July.  We can't wait for Savannah to get here and Miles will have a new friend.  A few of us girls threw Laura a baby shower at my house.  It was a lot of fun.  Savannah's bedding is a pink Damask pattern.  All I can say about this cake is I LOVE the CRICUT cake!!

I also worked on a door sign for Savannah's room as well as a bow holder.  This was my first bow holder to make.  My friend Susie made a few for her friends and her daughter Addi and I loved them so I decided to try it out.  Over here, you can't find many cute, girly room decor so I wanted Laura to have something for Savannah's room.

Here's Laura opening it at the shower.

I was also asked to make a tennis cake for a couple here who's husband plays tennis everyday.  The lady found the camel tennis player and wanted it on the cake.  That thing was huge and not food friendly so he went on the side.  The cake is suppose to be a tennis court with a tennis ball on top.  It was a huge surprise for the husband!

I bought a piece of furniture (again, going back to the reorganizing my house project) to go in our bathroom to put our towels, medicine baskets, and my jewelry on.  I wanted to move my jewelry from my closet to our bathroom but needed some cute decorative storage containers, instead of clear, plastic, acrylic ones.  I found some wooden boxes at a local book store, bought some paint and crackle paint and went at it.  As you can see, 2 out of 3 of the boxes had a crackle finish, not sure what happened to the top one, but they work out great.  One holds all my watches, another holds all my big necklaces, and the other has my bracelets.  They fit on the piece perfectly and add some color to our bathroom.  

Needless to say I'm busier then ever now and find myself not having much leisure time.  But it gives me stuff to do while it's BLAZING HOT outside!

Miles is (still) 4 Months

I better hurry up and post about Miles turning 4 months because in a week and a half, he'll be 5 months.  This month, we are really starting to see Miles personality come out.  He is a HAM!!  He smiles all the times, has started giggling a little, and makes more noises then ever before.  He loves playing with his safari jungle gym (the thing that has arches over him with animals that hang down.  He only prefers the bouncer right after he eats, it's like he knows his food needs to digest a little before he starts playing.  He enjoys rocking in the swing we borrowed from some friends of ours and use to fall asleep in it a lot.  Now that we're back in Saudi, and there aren't Grandmas to hold him every second of every day, we are back onto our Baby Wise routine.  Miles has made his own routine off of what we've helped create for him.  Generally, he wakes up, eats, stays awake for an hour and a half or so, then takes a nap.  Depending on which nap it is, he'll either sleep until it's time for his next bottle (anywhere from 3-4 hours after his last one) OR he wakes up 45 minutes before the 3 hour mark we try sticking to and he plays until he's hungry.  We don't mind that at all, as long as he's happy, which hasn't always been the case.  

Miles just now started REALLY sleeping through the night about a week and a half ago.  He kept waking up 3 or 4 times a night and nothing was helping him.  Re-swaddling wasn't working.  Feeding him wasn't calming him down.  Holding him wasn't helping.  Nothing seemed to work.  Brooks and I were really at a loss because with Gavin, he slept through the night at 6 weeks and never woke up until early morning.  

Miles had also been fighting a cold since we were in the states.  He got his first ear infection, double ear infection for that matter, was put on antibiotics and cold medicine.  Then, within days of arriving in Saudi, his cold turned into bronchitis.  He was put on breathing treatments for 5 days to help break up what was in his chest and to prevent other sicknesses from coming on.  Then, once his bronchitis healed, he was still left with a running nose.  He also started spitting up more and more, and just didn't ever seem content.  I decided to try soy formula (something we did with Gavin for his reflux and constant congestion).  After 1 day of soy formula, Miles nose quit running, completely.  He never fussed between feedings, except for when he got tired.  He started taking longer naps without waking up 2 or 3 times, he woke up happy from naps and he even slept through the night!!  Coincidence... maybe.  Either way, soy formula has changed our lives in the last week and we're sticking with it for now.  Miles has slept through the night from 9:00pm to 6:00/7:00am and is just overall an even happier baby.    

We've been to the doctor so much this month that I was able to see how much Miles weighed every few days.  He is at 6.6 kg, which is 14 lbs, 5 oz.  He was 25 inches long, too.  This month, Miles got to ride in his stroller without his car seat... it's already really hot over here so having him laying in his car seat, just makes him hotter.  He loved it and stayed a wake the whole time riding in his stroller looking around at everything.  He is semi working on not being swaddled, but he still wants/needs it.  We're not forcing things one way or the other.  He won't fall asleep without being swaddled, but if he comes undone during the night, sometimes, he'll stay asleep.  We did find him a few times with his arms out, but generally those naps only last a short time then he's awake again.  When Gavin's around and I'm helping him with something, sadly, I prop Miles bottle up for him to eat.  He doesn't seem to mind, but I feel guilty about it.  Miles' favorite thing is holding onto things.  We always give him either a small blankie or Sophie the giraffe (which he LOVES- and yes, I did pay a ridiculous amount for the chewing toy) to hold onto while he's hanging out.  He prefers chewing on his hands or fingers, not even sucking them, but chewing on them.  Just the past 2 days he's started favoring having his thumb in his mouth.  So I'm now constantly watching to take that finger out of his mouth.  

So, there you have it.  Miles has definitely grown up this month. 

 

 

Meanwhile Easter happened...

We celebrated Easter here in the Kingdom a few days after we returned from the states.  Our compound had a huge Easter Egg Hunt and "Spring" Celebration for everyone here.  The kids got to hunt for Easter Eggs.  They even split the hunt into groups so the kids 4 and under searched for eggs within a yard and they all were able to find plenty.  Thankfully, I thought to pick up a small Easter Basket for Gavin that I was able to fold in my suitcase so he had something to use for all the festivities.  Miles was the hit of the evening.  No one had seen us since before we left for the USA, when Miles was less then 2 months, so with him being almost 4 months... there was a huge difference with him.  He was precious and smiled at everyone.  Everyone brought food and we grilled burgers outside and enjoyed the evening with our compound friends.  Living here and experiencing holidays without your "real family" you really see how much all these people mean to you and how much they've become like family.  

The Easter Bunny came to Saudi on a Friday, since that is technically our Sunday.  It was funny all the mom's had to plan together that the Easter Bunny came on Friday so that some kids wouldn't hear other kids talking and think well the Eater Bunny didn't come to our house.  Our "Easter morning" was special.  Gavin and Brooks were upstairs while the "Easter Bunny" set up (all his stuff was still in our suitcases I had yet to unpack at that point).  I found them waiting like this.
*Funny story-- I took Gavin to get his picture taken with the EB while we were home and he did NOT like it.  So that morning, when we told him the EB came to visit... half way down the stairs, he didn't want to go.  He kept asking where the EB was and had a really scared look on his face.  It only took a few minutes for us to convince him the EB wasn't in the house anymore for him to run into the living room.  There he found his Easter Basket filled with Thomas the Train DVD's, a Thomas the Train driving book (there's literally a wheel on it that turns), and of course Woody.  He loved all his gifts and was very appreciative.  He'd grab each one and hug it to his chest while saying, " I love this!" So cute!

This picture represents Daddy telling Gavin to go give Mommy a big hug and kiss and thank her for your presents.  I just stared at Brooks... like, um, hello?!?!  I then told Gavin mommy told the EB that he was in Saudi not Captain and Kimmie's house so he knew to come visit you here.  Hmmm--- wasn't quite sure what to do in that situation.  Not to mention, it kinda made me want to evaluate if we are even going to go down that road with the whole Easter Bunny.  But, no big deal.  Gavin loved his gifts regardless who gave them to him.  

After gifts and breakfast, we got together with the rest of our "Friday morning group" and enjoyed the morning with friends.  We ate lunch then took a family picture to represent Easter 2011.  This year, Easter's meaning had a whole new feeling for us this year.  We praised God that Jesus is RISEN!

We got to say Goodbye

Blogs are meant to post what's happening in your life and every time something new comes about, we blog about it, then move onto the next event.  I've found myself the past two weeks wanting to blog about the various things going on in our lives, but I've really been struggling with how do I move onto the next post from my last one?  Nothing seems to justify moving past my last post.  My post about Cade was hard to write.  It was tough to realize that's what's happening.  It's harder for me now to make another post and in a sense feel like I'm just moving onto the next thing.  However, we've been spending the past 2 weeks grieving.  We've cried a lot.  We've prayed a lot.  We've talked a lot.  Our hearts are broken and they just ache.  We miss Cade.  We hurt for Susie and Darrell.

What made this experience even tougher was not being with Susie and Darrell.  It's so hard being this far away and not being able to hug on your friends or cry with them.  We also realize that we missed out on getting to tell Cade goodbye.  I'm sad I didn't go to the states to be with Susie.  I'm sad that we didn't get to see him one last time.  I'm sad we didn't hear the words sung at his service.  I'm sad we didn't get to see the flowers that surrounded him.

However...

I am grateful for the time we had with him.  I'm grateful for the memories we have.  I'm grateful for how much he loved Gavin.  I'm grateful that we got to spend an extra weekend with him before we came back to Saudi.  I'm grateful that Cade has parents who love the Lord and taught him about Jesus.  I'm grateful to have babysat Cade since he was months old.  I'm grateful that we were there for his birthday parties.  I'm grateful that we have some of Cade's clothes (purchased for Gavin after Cade out grew them) that allows us to remember him every time we open Gavin's closet.  I'm grateful for all the things Gavin learned from Cade.  I'm grateful for the Sunday lunches we spent every week with Cade and his parents.  I'm grateful for witnessing a lot of Cade's firsts.  I'm grateful for Cade's smile and his laugh.  I'm grateful that we got to love a little boy for four and a half years, who filled our hearts with so much joy, and who showed us what we hope, want, and pray our little boys will be like.  We will always miss Cade and we will think about him often!!

Since the Spelling's were here with us, we didn't go through this alone.  The four of us really wanted and needed a way to say goodbye to Cade so we planned a small thing at sunset on the beach here in Saudi.  We did it at the same time Cade's service was going on.  We asked our closest friends who had been grieving with us and praying for the Carpenters to come and share that time with us as we remembered Cade then said goodbye.

We all gathered on the beach at sunset.  Micah, Stephanie, Brooks, and myself all took turns sharing memories about Cade and saying what we were going to miss the most.  It was really sweet.  We cried a lot, said a prayer, then we released a large bundle of big, blue balloons into the sky.  We watched as they floated into the sky and waited until we couldn't see them anymore.  Everyone also wore a pair of Sperry's in memory of Cade.  We placed our shoes along the beach and wrote Cade's name in the sand.   When we finished, we were glad we spent that time to remember Cade and have a way to say goodbye to him.

Cade Walker Carpenter

Wednesday night, our best friends, The Carpenter's , lost their 4 year old son, Cade unexpectedly.  This was a huge shock to all and has left everyone stunned and just devastated.  

The Carpenter's are some of our best friends and Cade and Gavin have been best buds for years.  We are heartbroken over losing Cade and are filled with sadness for Susie and Darrell.  We hate that this has happened to them.  We're sad that we're not there with them during this time.  It breaks my heart to know that I'm not there to help comfort, hug, or love on my best friend.  I'm just sad.  We all are.  

Last week before we left, I decided to take one last trip to Houston to visit The Carpenter family before heading back to Saudi.  I wanted to let Gavin have another chance to play with Cade and hang out before we left for a few months.  I keep thinking how grateful I am that we made it work and fit with our schedules because I will cherish that time forever.  Even though it was a short visit, and we were only together a few hours, there are tons of memories that we can hold on to.  

I don't have the words yet to express the heart ache we are experiencing.  

I keep trying to focus on the things that we will remember about Cade and the memories we have of him.  

Gavin loved Cade.  He was his best friend.  Gavin looked up to Cade.  Anything Cade did, Gavin wanted to do.  It's because of Cade that Gavin stopped sitting in a high chair at restaurants, started wearing his crocs without straps, enjoyed wearing sunglasses outside, likes to play with tools, isn't afraid of playground equipment, wants to wear Superman and Batman t-shirts, likes to wrestle, will sit in timeout without getting up from his spot, would stop crying when we dropped him off at the babysitter's house, always wants BIG toy trucks, willingly wore his Halloween costume, was Buzz for Halloween, started liking Woody (from Toy Story), prefers lace up tennis shoes instead of velcro ones, wants to brush his teeth, needs a gummy vitamin everyday, isn't scared of remote control toy cars, and decided he'd rather pee standing up then sitting down.  These are just a few of the many things that Gavin has watched Cade do or did with Cade and decided he wanted to be like him.  

Gavin also got his love for trains from Cade.  Cade got a train table a few years ago and every time we went to Cade's house, Gavin always wanted to play trains with him.  Even last week when we visited, Gavin was playing on that train table.  He loved it and he loved pushing the trains around the track with Cade.  They would race each others trains, they'd trade trains together, and you could always hear them laughing when their trains would crash into each other.  

These are just a few of the things we'll keep tucked in our hearts and will share with Gavin as he gets older.  We're grateful for the friendship these two boys had together and we will forever remember Cade and Gavin's time together as best buds.  

One of the things I will remember the most about Cade was how much he liked to smile.  The kid LOVED life.  He was always happy, always smiling, always loving those around him.  Cade cared about other's feelings.  He was always quick to apologize, or make sure you were okay if something happened.  Very sweet.  Very loving.  Very special!

Please keep Susie and Darrell and their family in your prayers.  This is such a difficult time for everyone.  We're believing that the Lord will provide them everything they need to get through this time.

Here are a few pictures of Cade and Gavin that I LOVE!  They always had fun together no matter what they were doing.  I posted all the pics I had of the two boys together on Facebook, too.  

24 hours and finally reunited

We made it to Saudi last night (Tuesday evening) and had a very successful trip.

From the time we were at the Houston airport until we arrived in Damman, KSA was a 24 hour trip.  I can honestly say it was not bad at all.

For starters, I was nervous about how the boys would do traveling and me having to take care of both of them along with navigating our traveling between airports, etc.  Thankfully, I have a wonderful friend who apparently loves my kids a lot and likes me as a friend, because, Stephanie, graciously flew back to Saudi with me and boys so she could help me out when needed.  All I can say is I appreciate her beyond words and know that when the time comes... I will repay her in some way.  

My parents dropped me and the boys off in Houston and we had a tearful goodbye.  It's so hard leaving.  After crying a few minutes, I quickly realized I had to pull myself together because I was in charge of getting us checked in, through security, and to our gate.

I was able to check in being a Silver Privileged Member, which gives us special attention!   The lady at the counter could tell I was a little frazzled and started our conversation by saying, "okay, 3 non stop tickets to Bahrain!" AGGHHH-- what?!?!? what did she just say??? Bahrain?!?  No!  Not Bahrain!!  I panicked inside.  She quickly saw the terror on my face and said she was kidding.  She thought that statement would get my attention and help me focus on what we were doing. She accomplished her mission.  

She started checking all our bags for weight, which I got 4 out of 5 bags at exactly 50 lbs, thank you very much.  1 of the bags was 70lbs and I said I'd pay the $50 fee.  Next, she asked me for the "permission slip" from my husband allowing me to take his children out of the country without him.  Um--- what?!?!  I did NOT have that.  Once again, I panicked.  She showed me the form, told what was required, then we discussed options for getting it filled out and turned in.  At this point, major panic set in.  I was a wreck.  It was night time here in Saudi, Brooks was asleep.  The only way of getting in touch with him was via Skype, but even then, Brooks wouldn't hear the computer ringing so we were stuck not knowing how to get in touch with Brooks.  The even better part about that was even if we did get in touch with him, they were going to need to fax/scan the form to him and have him fax it back to them.  Um, we don't exactly have a fax machine in our house and again... it's in the middle of the night over there.  I called my mom trying to see if she still had International Calling on her phone from when they were here in Saudi, then found Brooks' Saudi cell number, and was having her try to get in touch with Brooks.  About that time, the manager came over and was told of our situation and that I did not have the form.  Her first response was, "so what do you want me to do about it?"  My heart sank.  All I kept thinking was we weren't going to get on that plane, Stephanie was going to leave, and I'd have to wait a day or two, get the form filled out, then travel to Saudi alone with both the boys.  

During these conversations and my panicking I was just praying.  I prayed and asked God for favor in this situation.  I prayed that he would resolve this in a way that couldn't normally be resolved.  Within minutes, my prayer was answered.  The manager's comment actually meant, well, if they don't have it let them fly.  Who cares!  WHOA... wasn't expecting that one!  It was an answered prayer.  

So, just when I thought we were done, the lady saw my carryon and made me weigh it- I was kinda hiding it for the purpose of not wanting it to get weighed.  But, it did and I was over and was asked to remove some of my items.  After the lady saw my carryon was filled with diapers, wipes, bottles, formula, and kid stuff.... and after I "attempted" to put some items in other suitcases, she finally said, "mam, close your carryon and be on your way".  Yes mam!  That won't be a problem!  

So, after the hour ordeal of checking in, Steph and I were on our way.  We went to the Business Lounge (there are nice perks of traveling across the world-- your miles add up quickly), grabbed a small snack, regrouped, then boarded our plane.  Stephanie was able to get her seat moved right next to ours, instead of the row behind me, which was awesome.  Then, we realized our flight wasn't full, so Steph went and sat on the row beside us to give us more room.  It was awesome!  

Gavin was ecstatic to be on the plane and couldn't wait to get to see his Daddy.  He was pretty wired the first 3 hours of the flight, but did good playing in his seat, eating snacks, and watching a movie.  The extra seats we had allowed us to lift up one of the arm rests and we made a little bed for Gavin.  Once he was tired, I laid him down, we said our prayers, and we went to sleep.  He slept for 8 hours straight!  Woo Hoo!  Thank you Jesus!  

Miles did great too.  I was really worried about him.  Sunday night he was up ALL night crying so I knew something was wrong.  I took him to the doctor first thing Monday morning and found out he had a double ear infection.  Not the best thing to have when you're about to spend 16 hours on a plane.  Anyways, Miles had his nighttime bottle, I put his pajama's on him, swaddled him, and he went right to sleep.  He slept for 7 hours, woke up, got a  bottle then slept on Stephanie for another 3 hours til his next feeding!  It was awesome!  

Stephanie and I were both able to sleep uninterrupted and got a decent amount of rest.  By the time we woke up and so did the boys, we only had 4 1/2 hours left of the plane ride.... that was a piece of cake.  The kids did great. Gavin was entertained.  Miles played a little, then took another nap.  Stephanie bought Gavin a surprise so he loved playing with his new toy-- it was a stuffed horse, Bullseye from Toy Store.  I also surprised Gavin with a toy (since I felt guilty for taking him away from his family and bringing him back to this side of the world) and it was a figurine of Woody from Toy Story.  He had double the fun!  

Our flight ended, we went to the Business Lounge in Doho for a (CLEAN) restroom break, grabbed a snack, then boarded our next flight.  That flight was a piece of cake. Miles played then fell asleep.  Gavin slept.  The flight was only 45 minutes so that's nothing for us.  We got off the plane and stood in line at customs.  There were 6 lines going, 1 worker for each line and the lines were LONG.  We've always been told be prepared to just wait, so we were.  Then, a customs worker walked by our line, saw me and the boys, and motioned for us to go to the front of the line!!  Thank you Jesus!  I looked at Stephanie and she said, we're sisters, I'm coming with you!  Haha.  We turned our passports in, got our papers stamped, and we were on our way.

We got all our bags, went through security without anything getting touched or searched then we went looking for Brooks.  We went through everything so fast he was just getting to the airport.  We waited a minute or two and there he was.  Gavin actually saw him first and let out a LOUD squeal!  He was so excited to see Brooks.  He ran after him and jumped into his arms.  It was THE.SWEETEST.THING.EVER!  

We got to our house late, unloaded the car, bathed the boys, had a little bit of play time, then we all went to bed.  All 3 of us slept through the night and other then Miles waking up for a bottle at 6am, then going back to sleep, everyone was able to sleep in! 

Brooks took half a day off so that he could spend some time with us this morning.  We ate breakfast, visited, and played.  Needless to say, we're all very happy that we're back together and were REUNITED!  

Time Went Too Fast

The boys and I are leaving tomorrow night to head back to Saudi, and we are very excited about getting home to Brooks.  It's been way too long that we've all been apart and it's time we gain some normalcy back into our lives.  As excited and ready as we are to get back to Brooks, we're sad that we're leaving the states and our family and friends.

The past four weeks, we've been in Lake Charles, staying with my parents and we have had some jam packed days filled with lots of different activities and running around town.  While we've been here, we've visited family and friends.  It's been great being surrounded by our loved ones.  Living away, makes you realize how much you take family for granted.  I've loved getting to spend time with my parents, brothers, their wives, and their kids!  Every morning, my mom gave Miles his bottle and my dad would fix Gavin his breakfast (except the mornings when Gavin actually slept in).  At least twice a week, we'd meet up with my nieces and nephews and play with them.  We spent a lot of time at an indoor playground where Gavin could run around and play!  We've gone shopping, eaten out, took a weekend trip to Houston to hit up some outlet malls.  I've also been able to meet up with close friends and have some girl time! Yipppee for that!

Gavin's been having a blast here in LC.  My parents taught him how to golf-- like really golf.  He has a real golf club and he goes to the driving range and hits balls.  He's really good at it, too.  My dad takes Gavin and Miles riding around in the golf cart pretty much every day and it became a must for Gavin!  My dad also taught Gavin how to hit baseballs from a tee and he's even better at that.  The kid is good! He seems to be a natural!  Check him out!  Gavin's learning to say his ABC's, thanks to my parents using repetition with him.  He's been obsessed with seeing school buses around town and prefers to ride in the car with his window rolled down- something he doesn't get to do in Saudi.

My mom has been a huge help for me taking care of the kids "alone".  I couldn't have made it this long without Brooks if she wouldn't have been around.  Gavin and my mom would feed the fish in our fountain everyday together, he'd help my mom around the house, they'd go to the store together, they were big buddies.  I enjoyed getting to have the company everyday.  It can get lonely over in Saudi when people aren't around all the time.

I think I've gone to Sonic and Chick Fil A almost twice a week since we've been home, and Target.  It's amazing how much you care about something when you can't have it.   It's been wonderful getting to enjoy everyday pleasures and normal situations... I'm definitely going to miss being able to jump in the car and go somewhere anytime I want to as well as be with different people.  I'm also going to miss having toilet paper in the public restrooms.

There are so many other fun things that we've been doing that I'll have to write more about once I get back to Saudi and am settled in.  Until then, check out pictures on my facebook page from our time here!

We've been to a wedding, birthday parties, the Children's Museum, had family meals (my brother whose a chef fixed my favorite meal of his tonight and it was DELICIOUS!).

We'll keep everyone posted on our trip back!