Cayla Rose

Mommy loves cute baby hats, not sure if Cayla does though. She was all ready to go on our walk. It was a nice cool day, actually felt like fall. showing some skin there miss! Daddy might not approve ;)

Mommy loves the tounge sticking out!

Cayla 3 Months Old

I love that smile, everything is worth it when they smile at you like that :) Cayla in her new Gymboree duds, with her little dolly. I love having girls they have such cute stuff! Today is my baby Cayla's 3 month birthday! Time has gone by so fast which is good and sad at the same time. She is so smiley and gets excited whenever she sees me, I love that. She will lay there and look at me and start talking away, sooo cute :) Before I know it she will be eating baby food getting teeth and crawling! It is such a momentous part of their lives yet such a short time within their life. I always think when I am pregnant how I am going to have sleepless nights and how my schedule will change, but it really goes by so fast. I can't believe Jadon is 2 1/2 I feel like he was just the baby, and I know it will go just as fast with Cayla. I can't wait till Jose is home to enjoy her too, I know it kills him to miss out on our kids growing up. I will be glad when the kids can have their daddy home for a while. I love it when we are a family all together, everything just seems right :)

My babe

Jose on the balcony of the barracks in Iraq. Here are some Pictures of him during this deployment. Feb 08-?

Jose at the gym. Anything to stay busy and I can't complain ;) He always seems to be on the right in pictures. Jose is sitting down on the bottom right. Jose in an MRAP, he's on the right. Jose and two buddies at work, goofing off. Jose is to the far right. I am getting more and more excited as it gets closer to Jose coming home. He has been pretty fortunate this deployment because he is not out very often in dangerous situations. I think he has had enough danger to last a lifetime! His platoon is PSD for the Sgt. Major so they only go out when he wants to, and even then it is usually to a bigger post. Which means Jose and the guys are playing pool, going to the PX and doing other recreational things. It gives me peace of mind knowing he is safer and has stuff to help him pass the time. Soon he will be moving to another post that is in a more dangerous area, he says he will be out a lot more, this does not thrill me at all. However I have always found much comfort in knowing the lord is watching over him. He has been spared many times, and I continue to believe he will be again. I tell him his work here must not be done because there were too many instinces where you could have been taken, I know he is still here because the lord protected him and I feel very comforted knowing that. We are all so happy that after this he will be home for 3 years, a long awaited break!

Here is the inside of the mall, it would have been a nice shopping option especially in the winter!

Here is the outside of the mall at night, pretty cool.

Oh yea for those of you who lived in Schweinfurt they apparently built a real shopping mall there. I heard it is located by the river downtown, and I found some pics of it. Why couldn't this have been there when I was there, I would have loved that!

Autumn in our front yard in Schweinfurt. I remember planting those mums so many times because the rabbits would eat them. Finally I said forget it. I have never seen so many rabbits in one place as I did living there, lol.

Autumn at home in Germany, with my fall flowers :)

Downtown Schweinfurt.

I have been missing Germany a bit and I found some pics of Schweinfurt that I thought I would put up. I can say for sure that I don't always realize a good thing till it is gone, and Germany for me was a good thing. I wish sometimes that I could go back and do it over again, hopefully we will get to go there again. I met some of the best people there and I feel fortunate to be able to keep in touch with them.

Fall scenery in Chester County Pa. The place I call home.

Craving Fall

I am itching to get back to working on my flower beds. The one I am ok with but my newer one is becoming over grown and stuff is starting to live in it due to the dark moist conditions. Yuck! I need to take a trip to Lowes and get some fall plants, like MUMS I love mums. But I think I will wait till it gets a little cooler maybe a week or 2. I love decorating for fall and Halloween, my favorite time of year for sure! I have no idea what the kids are going to be yet for Halloween yet, Jay might be a pirate or dragon, Autumn well I just don't know what she wants to be. I am not sure what I will do for Cayla either. Ya know Jose has only ever been here for 2 Halloween's lol it's funny cause it isn't a big holiday but I think it is one of the more fun ones for the kids, wish he was here for it more. I was sitting here the other day when it was actually cool outside and I had my windows open. The smell of the air had a hint of burning wood in it, when I smell that it really takes me back home. I think of walking through the woods when the leaves are all changing and there is that crisp cool air that smells so good. Going apple picking in the orchards and to the pumpkin patches, hay rides yummy caramel apples. My moms homemade soups with fresh baked bread, Oh I love fall, and yet being here in Texas it feels nothing like fall. It is amazing how smells can bring back so many memories and vivid thoughts. Well one day I will live somewhere that has great fall weather, until then I try to recreate the feeling in my home with fall scents and decor. The picture is of my home town in the fall, I miss it!

Here I am with the red hair, now I am just waiting for it to grow. I don't know why I cut it, I always want it long and then when I get it long I snip it off. I am not going to do that anymore!

And here is me, this is right before I dyed my hair red.

Cayla loves her swing, I love it as well it really helps me be able to get things done when she is in there.

Jadon and his Uncle Craigy. Craig, my youngest brother, came to stay with us for a month after Jose left to help me with Jadon and the baby. Autumn went and stayed with my mom for the month. Jadon LOVED having Craig here to play with.

I love them, sometimes I think I am gonna go crazy, but I couldn't live with out them. A simple hug or smile hearing an "I love you" makes it all worth it, and makes my day :)

My two girls, Autumn loves having a baby sister, she is always wanting to love on her.

Jadon, Autumn and Cayla, Aug 09. Cayla is 6 weeks old here.

Jose Home with the kids while on R&R. July 09.


Daddy and Baby Cayla, almost 2 weeks old here.

It's been a while

Well I have not done this in forever and it is funny cause I am pretty sure that Elke is the only person I keep in touch with on this lol. I might as well just send you emails. Anyway we are doing well, Autumn is enjoying 2nd grade, she likes her teacher and has non of the same kids in her class from the years before, so she gets to start fresh. I must say I don't mind that because I did not care for a lot of the kids that were in her class the last 2 years! Jadon is keeping me company at home, he is full of energy and always helping me out around the house. He loves his baby sister and does so well around her. He had his first play date today with a friend from church, it went well. He normally doesn't like to be around people he doesn't know too well, or have them in his toys, but they played really well together. Cayla is being such a good baby. She sleeps a lot which allows me to get things done around here. She is even sleeping through most of the night( I love that)! She is 2 months now, I feel like time is going by quickly. I can't complain though cause the faster it goes by the sooner Jose will be home, yay!!! Cayla is doing new things, she makes her little noises and it really seems like she is tryingto talk to you. She holds her head up just great and I love it when she smiles real big for me :) At her last doc appointment they heard a heart murmur in her back, so she is supposed to be seen by a cardiologist to check it out. As for me I am on a mission to loose weight! I held on to 10 pounds after the baby(that always seems to happen no matter how much I gain) I had gained 30. So I have lost 8 of that 10 and my goal is to loose 32 more pounds! I know I can it's just a matter of time. It seems to average about a pound off a week, we'll see what happens. Not much else going on here. Jose should be back sometime in January, and then we get to have him home for 3 years, Oh I am so thrilled about that! We will leave for Georgia next May, fingers crossed that the house will sell by then. I will never buy again until Jose retires that is for sure! It is just too much to worry about when you need to move so often, and this economy is not any help. Ok well that is all for now, the kids are finally in bed and I am going to be quick to follow. Goodnight :)

New yet old pics

I put up some new pictures but they are from the last year, so in a way they are old. I always love to look over old pictures it really helps remind me of the good year or good times we had. I tend to forget going through the regular daily routines all the good times we have. Anyway the pics are just a few of the good times, and I always look forward to the ones to come.

The doctor called back yesterday and said that the test results were normal this time. I am so relieved and thankful to hear that! Now I feel like the only difficult part I need to get through is doing it all alone, but to me that is much easier than thinking of doing it alone and the baby having a disability or birth defect. I know I can get through it alone, but it would break my heart if something was wrong with the baby. Ok well we need to get ready to go to family day for Jose's Battalion on post. Fun fun!!

Our time at home for Christmas.

We were home in Pennsylvania for Christmas this year. We had not been home in over a year, the longest we've been away. We all enjoyed our time there, even though it was very busy. We went into the city of Philadelphia a couple of times, those were the best times. We went to the museum of natural science, Autumn likes that one because of the Dinosaurs it has. We went to the Big Macy's store to see the light show, it was a beautiful store, I think it is over a hundred years old. We ate lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe and walked so much, my feet were killing me! The next time we went down there we went to the mutter museum. It is a museum that is dedicated to the oddities of the medical world. It has centuries worth of weird medical stories and the real specimens that go along with them. From skulls to body parts lots of fetus's that never made it or huge growths from the intestines. It is pretty neat and odd. Autumn thought it was gross! After that we found this really neat Cafe, it was called the continental cafe. I wish I had my camera with me there it was so retro with the coolest furniture and those big wicker swings that are for one person per chair. They were only at the tables for two people. I loved the food, it was very organic and funky. I had a huge turkey burger with Portabella mushrooms and this yummy red pepper coulis (a creamy sauce). The guys did not dig it but us girls did! Autumn had her birthday party at my moms with all our family there, she enjoyed it. It was great to be home but nice to be back in our own house.

Blood Test

So when I had my last doctor appointment the doctor had told me that it was time for me to have a blood test to check the protein levels in my blood. I thought nothing of it and had the blood taken. A couple of days later I got a call from the doctors office and the woman told me that the test had come back abnormal and the doctor wanted to talk to me. I said ok and that I would come in. I asked the lady what the test checked for and she said down syndrome and Spina Bifida. I was a little shocked and scared. When I told Jose I could not stop from breaking down. I was such a mess and so scared about what it all could mean. He came home to go with me to the doctors, and I pretty much cried till we went. I know I should not have gotten so worked up with out hearing what the doctor had to say but all I could think of was what if the baby had one of those problems, how that would be, how scary it would be. We went to the doctors and she said that the test showed we had an increased risk of having a baby with down syndrome based on the low protein levels in my blood. But she did not have the ultrasound results yet, so she did not know for sure how far along I was. When it came back saying I was 3 weeks less she said the test was taken too soon and re drew my blood. I am still waiting for the results, but I feel a lot better about it all. I don't think I have ever felt so worried before.

Jose leaving :(

I still can't believe that Jose will be leaving again for Iraq so soon. I try not to think about it but it is becoming very real to me and hard to avoid anymore. I know this is going to be the hardest deployment yet, and I hate that the kids have to go with out their dad for so long. Poor Autumn has had to do this twice already and it doesn't get any easier for her. I think I worry so much because I will be having another baby, I don't know how I will manage three on my own two being under 2. I will be doing a lot of praying that is for sure! It's weird to think that once this deployment is done Jose and I will have spent over 3 years apart, that is more than a quarter of our marriage! I hope there is an end in sight soon. I will have to take each day at a time and try not to get overwhelmed. I know it will be ok in the end, it is just so hard to see that from this point.

Yeah Eagles!! I was so happy they won the game today. I hope they beat Arizona next week, I am thinking it might be a Pennsylvania Super Bowl. Well my ultra sound apt. went well. I am however less in weeks then the doc thought. It looks like I am only 16 weeks instead of 19 weeks, so it was not 100% what the babies sex was.....................but the ultrasound tech said it looks to him like it would be a girl!! I know it is going to be a girl I knew Jadon would be a boy and I just feel this one will be a girl. That is what me and Autumn are rooting for, Jose not so much. :( Autumn gets to be the Star student of the week so we have to take pics in of her life per say so people can get to know more about her, she is excited. Dinner was yummy tonight, of course the kids didn't want it though. We had sausage and cheese stuffed shells with yummy garlic green beans and garlic bread. Jose and I liked it, I guess you cant win them all. Well need to get the kids a bath. Bye :)