Slice of Life: October 30th, 2017

Hey friends! I hope this “Slice of Life” post finds you well on this Monday morning. 🙂 We’re excited to see Jamie’s face on TV tonight! He’ll be doing a shout-out from Poland during the Broncos v. Chiefs game alongside our good buddy John. His wife Kelsey and I are just pumped to see our cuties on national TV. 🙂

The girls and I are still in Alabama for a couple more days before making the big trek back home to Kansas. It’s funny; I remember feeling on cloud nine when we pulled into my parent’s driveway a couple weeks ago because I was so thrilled that the road trip was behind us. A couple seconds later though a feeling of dread washed over me as I realized that I was actually only at the halfway point; We’d eventually have to do that same trip back. Yikes! Ready or not, we’re ready to head back home and stay put until it’s time to road trip to our new home next spring.

Here are a few quick shots of life lately. 🙂

Sadie turned 18 months a couple weeks ago, and on the way home from some errands I spontaneously decided to swing by the grocery store, drag the kids inside, and pick out a cake. I can remember a few half birthdays where my dad jokingly bought us a “half cake”, so I decided that maybe we’ll make this a thing around our home too.

But that’s just another date to remember for each of my kids, so maybe not… we’ll see. 🙂

I split it in half, and the girls devoured it outside on the deck.

And since we’re talking about sweets, we’ve also been big fans of doughnut dates since Jamie’s been gone. We honestly don’t keep many (any?) sweets in our house for two reasons: 1.) I would eat way more than I should if they were readily available in my pantry and 2.) that’s all the girls would want to eat if they so much as got a glimpse of them in the house.

So, doughnut dates have been our thing once a week to satisfy our hankering for sweets and have a little bit of cheap fun as a family. I feel guilty that there’s admittedly extra deployment-induced stress in our home, so quick outings like this are fun for the girls and easy for me to do.

Last week we were driving around and ran across the most beautiful cotton field ready to be picked. I grabbed Hadley out of the car and couldn’t wait to teach her about cotton. She loved picking a little bit and has a small Ziplock bag of it ready to take back to Kansas to show her teachers and class.

Whenever we’re home in Madison, I always love strolling Bridgestreet, a beautiful outdoor shopping center. Spending a leisurely afternoon with the women in my family riding the carousel, eating popsicles, shopping, and talking has been one of my favorite activities we’ve done throughout the last 10 days or so.

It’s amazing to me how these girls all realize that they’re so much more than just friends. They know they’re family. Hadley and Sadie are both so (so so so!) into Carly in the sweetest way, and Carly’s affection for them is the most precious thing you’ve ever seen.

Carly’s going to be a big sister in a few months, so she wanted to get some practice in pushing an umbrella stroller. 😉

Since we’ve been here, we’ve also spent time with two more dear relatives – my aunt and cousin from Pennsylvania. 🙂

Sadie and Hadley both adore my Tante Lynn!

We’re a pretty tight crew, so when a couple of people come to town, everybody comes to town! Over the weekend we got to spend a few days with my brother David, who drove up from Birmingham. He was hands-on with his nieces the entire time, and seeing those relationships grow was sweet.

Last but certainly not least, our Kansas family/best friends drove up from Fort Rucker to spend a couple of days with us! We packed a ton of fun into our short, spontaneous visit that I’ll recap a bit more tomorrow. 🙂

Ah! One more thing. 🙂 Look who got to break away from the Army world and spend a day touring a new city in Poland?! My sister and brother-in-law are only stationed four-ish hours from where Jamie is deployed (so many feelings about this!), so Jamie worked hard to get approval to slip away for 24 hours of fun with Josh. Seeing these smiling faces together and hearing about how much fun they had made me so incredibly happy. They started as opponents on the high school track, then turned into West Point classmates, and now they’re brothers for a lifetime.

See ya tomorrow! <3