Mom. Wife. Military Life.

Summer update time!

Here we are, a good month into J being gone. Although we miss him a lot we are keeping busy and time is FLYING by. After he left we had a week with my sister still on island and took advantage of the beaches and great pool we have here on base. We got in a nice little routine with her here and of corse thats exactly when it fell time for her to go home. The kids (and I) had a tearful goodbye, but that meant we would also get to start counting down the days until we would see each other again.

The week after she left Everly started swimming lessons and lets just say that wasn’t the most pleasant start to swim classes. She HATED it… and I know that because she was screaming at the top of her lungs “I HAAATTTTEEE SWWIIMMMMIINNNGG”!!! This is also a big deal because “hate” is a word I try really, really hard to have the kids and myself not use… when she started screaming that bloody murder I knew we had issues. I made her apologize immediately when she was done with that day’s lesson for the way she behaved (it was just beyond, y’all). I left mad, and just got more and more angry in the car because she knows better then to act that way, and heres the deal, I don’t expect the child to be Michael Phelps but she DOES have to know how to swim. Period. So anyways, we sat down and talked when we got home (the drive home was SILENT, if you know my kid and I, this is a rarity) and got the point across that being calm, and communicating was going to be a much better route for the next day. The next day with apprehension and a few tiny tears, she was swimming when we left that class. On Wednesday she was in the pool saying “I LOVE SWIMMMINGGGG!” Now THAT, is much more the Everly I know she can be. We will continue swimming 4 days a week over the next 3 weeks until she is able to do her final test out. She starts cheer camp next week for 3 days and she has a 6th Birthday right after that, THEN first grade starts. She is growing leaps and bounds. She surprises me every day with her reading, and creative mind. I’m excited for her to start cheer and to be able to focus some energy and meet some new friends… not to mention she’s super excited about the uniform and sparkly pom-poms.

Cruz is my little merman. That child LIVES for the ocean and all things water. If you whisper the word beach, he is in his suit and ready to go. We have been visiting the pool on the days I don’t wanna haul out to the beach and that child(on the other hand) is Michael Phelps. He loves to do all these different jumps into the pool and swim back and forth. He’s like a machine, he just doesn’t stop until I make him, or they blow the whistle for the 10 minutes of adult swim (yaaaassss!!!). There is nothing better as a parent then swimming around in peace for 10 minutes while you watch your children sitting there on the edge asking you a million times how much longer until they can get back in. “Long enough to not have to worry about my nipple falling out of my swimsuit because you little leaches keep tuggin’ on me, thats how long!”… That buys me a good 30 seconds of silence. Back to Cruz, he has his big 5th birthday soon! He also starts kindergarten the week after Everly starts first grade. The kinder teachers come visit the home that first week of school which delays them that week. He is excited and I think getting a little nervous. We have been practicing letters and numbers. He’s writing his name and we’re starting to work on sight words. I cant believe I’m going to have 2 babies in school!

Jaxy is a pro at going with the flow. She gets dragged around just about everywhere like a  champ. She also loves swimming now…. If you recall she was not a huge fan of her swim classes but she did amazing in them. I have tried my best to keep those skills fresh with her since she is so young and, thankfully, she has retained all of it and more! She will jump of the side of the pool, put herself into a float and then flip over and swim to me. It is amazing to see a 2 year old do something like that. She’s just like Cruz, she goes 100 MPH when she hits the pool. We have an amazing sitter that will be starting when school starts a couple days a week to be with her so I can get out for some mom time. My vivacious little baby girl and I have a lot of exploring to do while her brother and sister are in school, I don’t think she has any idea.

Jason is still at his school and thats a good sign hahaha, thats about as much as I can give you on that. We have been grateful enough to talk to him everyday, the time change works great in our favor for the early mornings and late nights he’s working. Its a lot easier for him to keep his head down there when we are surrounded by amazing people watching out after us. Huge shout out to our neighbors the Chrismans’ who always mow our lawn and keep it looking fresh… and let me tell you, our yards aren’t small. Our great friends have made us dinners, brought us desserts, take our trash cans out, helped with babies… I could go on all day. We are so grateful for the community that helps everything flow so seamlessly.

I have certainly been busy with the kids and have enjoyed getting to spend some much one on one time with them. We have been exploring and laughing a lot together. As much as they drive me crazy at times, they also fuel my fire to always be working on how I can do things better. God grants me with extra patience when I am on my own parenting, its even different then TDY patience. When you know it’s going to be a long time keeping the mentality that this is a marathon on a sprint, is absolutely necessary. I have adult fun to look forward to, my friends and I are going on a little kayak/snorkel day at the end of August before we dive back into school/work routines. We have some of Jason and I’s dear friends coming out to visit for a few days at the start of September. We are going to Air Force ball as a giant group of ladies and a few husbands sprinkled in there to keep us all in line. By the time all of that ends we will have a little over a month left until we head home for a bit.

This summer has been a blast so far and we still have a few weeks left to simmer in the sun and enjoy these beautiful oceans as a family. Once we get everyone in school and on our new routine ill update again with how everyone is doing!

-Kinzy