I can't believe

it's already March! Time goes by so fast. Sometimes a little too fast. Sometimes (especially since I started reading "These Is My Words") I think it would have been nice to live in a time of less distraction. When people lived off the land a little more and sat on their built-by-the-sweat-of-their-brow front porches watching the sun set over their vast acres and acres of land.

I've been thinking lately that it would be so fun to go on a cruise. I'd love to spend a week on and in blue clear water and sunshine. I really really want to go on a Disney cruise with the kids. What a blast that would be. Morgan would be in 3-year-old heaven!

The kids have been sick for the last 2 weeks. I shouldn't have waited so long to take them to the doctor, but it turned out to be ear and sinus infections. Poor babies. They are feeling a ton better today though and I'm looking forward to being able to get out of the house this weekend. We went to the library today. I try to take Morgan at least twice a month. She loves picking out new books and videos. Its a real pain to take the kids there and chase them around hushing them, but I hope that I'm instilling a love for books into their little hearts and minds. Books have always been very important to me.

Clint is flying and flying, and flying some more. We are excited that our 7 year anniversary is coming up soon (well I'm excited, I think every year of a happy marriage is a wonderful thing to celebrate)! So happy 7 years to us!!

Oh, and I forgot to mention, they asked me to be a Sunday School teacher for the adult class at church. I'm nervous, but excited at the same time. I have a few weeks before I start so I have time to prepare myself, thank heavens!!

YAY!!!

I just found out I've been approved for a $4,000 military spouse grant for school! That means, if I can work out the rest of the kinks, I can start taking classes to work on my RN!! WOOHOOO!!!

Sorry for the lack of updates. We still don't have internet, so I'm only able to get online from my phone, which isn't very fun. We're doing good. We went home to Utah for Christmas and had a blast! We closed on our house in Texas on December 23rd and are mostly moved in. We are just waiting for our couches to be delivered. Clint is back at work and flying a lot. Its always hard for me when he goes back to work after a long long vacation. We celebrated Morgan's 3rd birthday in December and she started Primary at church. She's getting so big and acting more and more crazy everyday! Jackson is walking everywhere now. He finally decided its much more fun to walk than crawl. He loves to follow his sister around and do everything she does. He also loves to pick on her. We sent out Christmas cards this year. Sorry to those of you who didn't get one. I didn't buy enough and there just wasn't enough time to order more. I'll be better prepared next year :)

Feeling the Love

Being around family is so great! I love it. Its so nice to always have someone to talk to, someone to look forward to seeing. The best thing is when I'm out running and I see a member of my family. The other day I saw my 2 cute neices at the bus stop. They were so excited to see me and they ran to me and gave me hugs. It was so wonderful.

Its also great that, sometimes, when I'm bored, a member of my family will show up at my house (well, my mom's house) just to say hello or hang out.

Its great that when my husband isn't here, I have brothers to rely on for things like fixing the tire on my stroller.

Family really is a blessing. God knew what he was doing when he organized us into families. Its so great to have my mom around. She is ALWAYS finding ways to help me out. In one way or another. Always trying to be a good grandma, which she really is.

I'm so blessed to have a good family. Every family has inperfections. Not everyone gets along all the time, but in the end, all we have is each other. To me, Heaven will be simply being surrounded by them. All of them, my husband, my children, and generations and generations of family.

~Katie

Happenings

Not much has been going on since Clint left for Alabama. The kids and I have been staying with my parents in Salt Lake City. Its so nice to be home. I love this city and state! I love being surrounded by family. On Sunday we went to my cousin's baby blessing and saw family that we haven't seen since our wedding! It was so nice!

I'm "training" for a half marathon. My brother is my "coach" and his wife is my running buddy. On Saturday we ran 6.5 miles, which is the longest I've ever run in my life. There's no way I could have run it without Brenna. This Saturday is 9 miles, I'm a little nervous!! Our half marathon is on October 16th in Park City. We'll see if I'm alive to tell the tale!
I just finished "Mockingjay" this morning and was a little disapointed with the ending. Not the WAY it ended, just for the lack of details. I don't want to ruin it for anyone, but it pretty much just said "I chose so-and-so and we lived happily ever after." I was hoping for more details on "so-and-so". Now that I don't have a book to read, I'll be catching up on NCIS :)

Clint is doing well in Alabama. He's taking the Instructor Pilot (IP) course there. He has a friend from Korea, who was also in his flight school class, who is there with him living 2 floors down in the BOQ. In a couple of weeks, another friend of ours from Korea will be there as well. So he's not completely alone. My brother was able to fly his family from Georgia for the day on Saturday. Clint had a blast with them.

If any of my friends in Salt Lake or Ogden or Provo wanna hang, I'm here all day everyday! We've just been visiting the park everyday and going for wagon rides.

Just Another Day in Paradise!

Make bottle for baby
Give bottle to baby
Make lunch for 2-year-old
Get 2yo to sit down at the table (easier said than done)
Get 2yo to eat
Feed baby food to baby
Get 2yo to eat some more
Try to find something else for baby to eat because 2 jars of food wasn't enough
Make more lunch for 2yo because she's screaming for more
Make yourself lunch
Dance and sing for the kids just to see them smile and hear them laugh
Wash 2yo's hands and face
Wash baby's hands and face
Realize poop just leaked all over your shirt and pants
Change baby's diaper
at the same time hear 2yo screaming MOMMY POOPY!!!
Go to the bathroom to find 2yo holding poopy underwear
Clean up 2yo, throw underwear in cold water
Realize the laundry needs to be switched from washer to dryer
Dress baby who has been laying patiently on changing table
Dress 2yo
Get both settled down playing happily (easier said than done)
Remember the baby pooped while sitting in highchair
Strip highchair of cover and throw in washer
Change your own clothes since you DID get pooped on
Finally relax and eat cold soggy chicken sandwhich for lunch just in time to hear baby screaming because 2yo took his toy away for the millionth time today!

Most days are crazy around here! But I wouldn't change it for anything!

We Got Plane Tickets!!!

We are flying Patriot Express from Korea to Seattle, then commercially from Seattle to Salt Lake City on August 31st!!! I can't wait! I'm so excited we're one step closer.

For a change of subject:
I've been thinking a lot lately about how funny it is how we change as parents. I am definitely a different mom now than I was when Morgan was a baby. Its interesting how we grow and change right along with our children. I keep thinking about how I was always so worried that Morgan would be an inconvenience to others. You know, like when she was fussy or didn't get a nap or there was so much going on she was 'overstimulated'. And I even thought that just the fact that she had to eat every few hours and be changed would inconvenience everyone when we went out. When we were staying in Utah when she was about 8 months to 11 months old, I was even worried that she would be an annoyance to our families! It stressed me out to have a crying, unhappy baby, so I assumed it stressed everyone out....

....I now see the error of my ways and I can't wait to 'inconvenience' and 'annoy' our families with my children :)

Also, I always thought that having one kid was so hard, especially when we moved to Korea. I would look at people who had 2 kids and think, "wow, she must be superwoman to be able to handle more than one!" But like I said before, we grow and change right along with our children, and now, having 2 doesn't seem that much different than having one (no mom, this doesn't mean I want to have 5 more!) And I realize you don't have to be superwoman to be a good mom.

Another thing I've been thinking about is personality. I wonder how much of a child's personality is genetic or just natural, and how much is learned from their parents. How much is a product of the order they were born into the family? Because Jackson is very different than Morgan was as a baby. Like most siblings I'm sure. Its so fun and interesting to see their differences and watch them grow and develop more and more personality....or attitude, whatever you want to call it :)

Ok. Enough rambling.

Ramblings of a Mad Cow

I have a bone to pick with America! I think its ludicrous that women are expected to cover themselves when we breastfeed our children. Why should we have to be so secretive about it? My child getting food from my breast is just as natural (if not more natural) as you eating a butchered cow on bread with cheese and ketchup. But you're not expected to eat your lunch with a blanket over your head. And no one expects you to go find a hiding place and eat in private. The media has turned a woman's body into something almost entirely sexual, so that when a baby is breastfeeding in public its almost considered indecent exposure. Jackson hates being covered up when he eats. Its hot and uncomfortable for him and for me. Which makes it difficult to do in public. My baby deserves to be comfortable when he's eating, and I deserve to be comfortable when I'm feeding him, after all, I'm trying my hardest to do what I feel is best for him. Breastfeeding isn't always easy for mom, so why do people have to make it harder for us? I've heard so many women say, "I don't care if other women don't cover up when they nurse, but I cover up because I never know if the people around me will be offended or not." In fact, I'm pretty sure I've said things like that. But I've come to realize that the people around me are not who I should be concerned about. I should be concerned about my child, and my child's comfort. A woman's breasts serve multiple purposes, all of which are beautiful and natural. There is a time and place for each of them. In public, when feeding a child, they are serving one of those purposes. So, here is your fair warning that if it offends you when I breastfeed in public, you can remove yourself from the situation or put a blanket over your head. I'm not going to leave the restaurant, or leave church services, or go sit on the bathroom toilet or floor in an airport, or go sit in the back of my car, or even go to another room. Not until everyone else starts doing the same when they're hungry. I will try to be discreet and I promise you won't see anything unless you're TRYING to see something.

p.s. don't think I have anything against bottle feeding. because I don't. I have no opinion one way or the other. I only have an opinion about people who don't like women to breastfeed in public :)

A Lesson ReLearned

Yesterday after Morgan's gymnastics class one of the new mothers asked the rest of the mothers if she could talk to us for a minute. Once she had our attention she explained to us that her son is Autistic, and although he looks like he is 5, he's actually only 3. She told us that he was in a different gymnastics class where the other parents did not like his behavior and actually got together and asked the teacher to remove him from their class. With tears in her eyes she apologized to us for her son's behavior and begged us to accept him and to not ask him to leave. I couldn't believe that this woman felt like she had to apologize for her son's disability. I couldn't believe that adults (regardless of whether or not they knew of his disability) would get together and ask that a child not be allowed to participate in an exercise program. I was so sad for this woman that these people actually made her feel like she should be sorry that her son is the way he is. She was so desperate for her son to be accepted and to participate in some physical activities and she was hurt so badly by other's actions. It really made me realize how cruel we can be to each other. It was a good reminder to me that I should never judge a parent of a child who is misbehaving or who seems out of control. And I should never judge that child either. Every child is perfect in God's eyes, regardless of their situation. I'm thankful for my 2 "perfect" children and I'm thankful for this woman who reached out to others and gave us a tiny glimpse of the challenges she faces every day. She reminded me of a good lesson I had already learned yet sometimes forget.

COUNTDOWN

We're down to 200 days baby!!!! Thats right!!!! 200 days 'til we're back in the States!!!

Isn't He Handsome?

Clint had to get this picture taken this week. He now has his ORB (some kind of profile) completely updated so that we can get orders to our next duty station. We're scheduled to leave Korea around August 19th this year, so we're getting pretty excited. We have less than 7 months! Thats less than a pregnancy and we all know how fast pregnancy goes! We're getting excited. Any bets on where you think we'll go? I have a 'gut' feeling, but I also had a 'gut' feeling when we left Alabama that was wrong, so I'm not sayin this time!

So Many Goals For the New Year!

In 2009 I read 15 books. More than any other year in my life. This year I would like to read even more than that! On my list for 2010 (and not in any particular order):

1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
2. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
3. Book 3 of Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins
4. Gadiatons and the Silver Sword by Chris Heimerdinger
5. Tennis Shoes and the Feathered Serpent Part 1 by Chris heimerdinger
6. Southern Lights by Danielle Steel
7. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
8. Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
9. The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler
10. Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier
11. To Love, Honor, and Vacuum by Sheila Gregoire
12. Atlantis by Greg Donegan
13. Atlantis: Bermuda Triangle
14. Atlantis: The Devil's Sea
15. Atlantis: Gate
16. Assault on Atlantis

How on earth am I going to accomplish this? you ask...Well, I'm going to read while I feed Jackson. That should give me a good hour of intermittent reading every day. Until he starts nursing less anyway.

Christmas Cards

A couple of weeks ago Clint and I went to a "professional" photographer to get our family pictures taken. We were so excited to have the perfect family picture for a Christmas card this year. I bought matching outfits for our kids. Black, white, and red dress for Morgan and the most adorable matching suit for Jackson. I made Clint dress up in matching dress clothes and I wore a matching dress as well.

We got to the photographer's (a 30-45 minute drive) and realized I forgot my dress! So Clint had to drive home and get it while I had some individual pictures taken of the kids. Clint got back in exactly 1 hour and we did our family pictures with a sleeping baby and an angry 2 year old.

A week later we get an email saying our pictures have been edited and are ready to view. So we view them and they are absolutely horrible. Not just the family ones, but the individual ones too. The poses are horrible, my hair looks horrible in one, the collar on Jackson's outfit is sticking up in one, Morgan has a pretzel in her hand in one, Clint is in the middle of saying something. I mean, they are HORRIBLE!

So, needless to say, we didn't get a family picture for our Christmas card. After all that work. No family picture. I was so upset I almost cried. I just wanted a good family picture! Is that so much to ask? In the last 2 years we have 1 family picture. I just wanted a new one with Jackson and it didn't turn out.

Therefore, our Chirstmas cards, which are FINALLY in the mail, are not as adorable as I wanted them to be, and they will most likely not get to many of you before Christmas. I had to use 2 random pictures of the kids, but it worked out I guess.

If you would like one of our Christmas cards you can leave me a comment with your address, or email us clint.katie@gmail.com.

Next year, I will get a real professional to take our pictures if it kills me! And I'll do it in plenty of time to get a good Christmas card :)

A Mother's Grown-Up Christmas List

Dear Santa,
I've been a good mom all year. I've fed, cleaned and cuddled my children on demand, visited the doctor's office more than my dotor and sold 62 cases of candy bars to raise money to plant a shade tree on the school playground. I was hoping you could spread my Christmas list over several years, since I had to write this letter with my son's red crayon on the back of a receipt in the laundry room between cycles, and who knows if I'll find any more free time in the next 18 years.

Here are my wishes: I'd like a pair of legs that don't ache (in any color except purple, which I already have) and arms that don't hurt or flap in the breeze, but are strong enough to pull my screaming child out of the candy aisle in the grocery store.

I'd also like a waist, since I lost mine somewhere in the 7th month of my last pregnancy. If you're hauling big-ticket items this year, I'd like fingerprint-resistant windows and a radio that only plays adult music, and a refrigerator with a secret compartment behind the crisper where I can hide to talk on the phone.

On the practical side, I could use a talking doll that says, "Yes, Mommy," to boost my parental confidence, along with two kids who don't fight and three jean skirts that will zip all the way up without the use of power tools.

I could also use a recording of Tibetan monks chanting "Don't eat in the living room" and "Take your hands off your sister," because my voice seems to be just out of my chilren's hearing range and can only be heard by the dog.

If it's too late to find any of these products, I'd settle for enough time to brush my teeth and comb my hair in the same morning, or the luxury of eating food warmer than room temperature without it being served in a styrofoam container.

If you don't mind, I could also use a few miracles to brighten the holiday season. Would it be too much trouble to declare ketchup a vegetable? It will clear my conscience immensely. It would also be helpful if you could coerce my children to help around the house without demanding payments as if they were the bosses of an organized crime family.

Well, Santa, the buzzer on the dryer is calling my name, and my son saw my feet under the laundry room dorr. I think he wants his crayon back.

Yours always, Mom

P.S. One more thing...you can cancel all my requests if you can keep my children young enough to always believe in Santa.

*this came out of Dr. Laura's In Praise of Stay-at-Home-Moms book.

An Update on Us

I rarely get to sit down at the computer for more than a minute or 2. So, since the kids are both napping I thought I'de give you all a little update.

Morgan is growing and maturing every day. She is saying so many new things, cereal, Arial, holy, more, inside, outside, etc. She tries to say nearly everything we say. We're working on colors right now. She can't identify any of them yet, but she can say yellow. She LOVES, I mean LOVES, Cinderella. At least once a day she brings it to me and wants to watch it. She even tries to say it sometimes. When I give her the option of 2 movies, she always choses Cinderella, and when I move it from its usual spot on the shelf, she scans through the DVD's until she finds it. She loves her daddy more than ever and talks about him all day while he's at work. Everytime she sees a helicopter or airplane she says daddy. She is scared of jets, thunder, and scary things on TV. She loves watching America's Funniest Home Videos and just sits and laughs at everything they show. She also enjoys dressing and undressing herself, but mostly she likes being naked.

Jackson is also growing everyday. He's beginning to look like a real baby and not a newborn. He hates his carseat and refuses to sleep in it. He's sleeping more at night now, 5-6 hours, eating then another 3 hours. Which feels like heaven! He is very awake and alert for what seems like most of the day. He is finally nursing 100% without a nipple shield, but we're still working on being good at it. He's only 6 weeks old, but I swear he smiles at Morgan everytime she talks to him.

Clint finally had his PC checkride a couple of weeks ago and passed. So now he is a Pilot in Command. He's still working long hours, but he loves his job (well, the flying part of it). He left today to go to the field for about a week. They made hime the flight lead for his company, which means he's flying the lead aircraft and is "in charge" of the mission. He is still in the Young Men's presidency at church, though he rarely gets to participate in their activities due to long hours at work. He has been sick for the last week, so he's not running as much as he would like to, but he's still training for the March marathon here in Seoul. He is turning 29 on Halloween and I'm super excited for his birthday! I LOVE birthdays!

I'm just as busy as ever with the 2 kiddos. I know 2 is nothing compared to some of you out there, but its a tough adjustment! We're figuring it out though, and I've actually gotten us all ready for church on time by myself the last 2 weeks in a row :) Feels like a great accomplishment to me. I haven't had much time for any sewing or reading :( But hope to be back at it soon. I've pretty much gotten the kids on the same napping schedule most of the time. Which has been nice. I'm trying to walk every morning or do my home video workouts so I can get rid of some of this weight. It sure is harder this time! I've lost half of it though. My joints have still ben a little swollen, but my wedding ring finally fit over my nuckle the other day!

In case you haven't heard, we won't be coming home for Christmas like we had planned. Clint was only authorized 10 days of leave, which isn't enough time to make the trip worth the money and jet lag and stress. So we'll be spending Christmas here, creating our own little family traditions! Should be fun!

Anyay, thats our update. We love to hear from people (its kinda lonely out here sometimes) so feel free to shoot us an email or leave us a comment.

PeeAnOo

Guess what I got yesterday! Yep, my very first piano. Its an electric piano. And I got a KILLER deal from a good friend at church who needed to get rid of it before moving to Germany.

After returning from my Utah trip this summer, I realized how bored and idle I had been since arriving in Korea. So I set myself 2 goals when I got back here. The first one was to learn how to sew. I've done pretty good with that so far. I've completed 4 projects and am working on a 5th one now. My second goal was to learn to play the piano. I have a couple of beginner books, including the beginner course that our Church has published. I'm so excited to get started and to maybe someday pass on some musical ability to my children!

Here is project number 4. A diaper case that matches the bag I made. Click HERE to see the tutorial (which is actually very confusing and I had to finish it my own way). I still have to add velcro to the flap. I'm making a trip to the fabric/craft market today. Hopefully I can find some!

Just So You Know

I have some pictures to post, but Clint got me a new camera and I haven't been able to download the software yet because our disc drive isn't working. Therefore, I haven't dowloaded any pictures from my new camera.

Our household goods arrived in Korea today! That means they will be delivering them this week (I hope).
Only 6 more weeks til my my birthday and mom comes to Korea!
7 weeks til the baby is born (hopefully no longer)!
12 weeks til Clint's birthday and Halloween.
16 weeks til Thanksgiving!
And only 20 weeks til CHRISTMAS!!!!

I love this time of year. Well, I love the fall, but its getting close enough. There are so many things to look forward to! Mostly I can't wait for it to cool off a little. Most people say it doesn't happen til late September, early October, so we still have a ways to go, but I REALLY can't wait! The humidity here is a killer! Like our friend at church says, "you can't even bend over to pick up your keys without being drenched in sweat."

Oh, and speaking of church. On Sunday I was asked to start teaching in the Relief Society (the women's organization of our church) and Clint was asked to be a counselor in the Young Men's organization (there is a president and 2 counselors in charge of the boys 12-18). We're both really excited, and kind of nervous (at least I am). Luckily our numbers are small so I won't be teaching a HUGE group of women.

I Don't Usually Do This.....

but my friend from way back (I'm talking early elemetary school) has this way cute blog. She is so talented and often posts free downloads for cute digital scrappbooking stuff. Right now she's giving away some adorable Fall decorations and I'm really wanting to win them since I didn't bring ANY decorations with me to Korea :( I know sad huh. So click here to check out her totally awesome blog and maybe try to win the decor yourself!

30 Weeks and 19 Months

This week I'm 30 weeks into my pregnancy. Only 10 more to go. I don't have a picture, I'll try to take one soon.

I've entered the uncomfortable stages and I'm having a little more difficulty with this pregnancy than I did with Morgan. But I'm 100% sure its because I haven't stayed active this time. I could kick myself in the head for not exercising more. With Morgan I walked several miles almost every single day. Plus I was doing clinicals for school, which required LOTS of walking. As a result I've gained too much weight which causes problems of its own. It about killed me to walk around the zoo a couple weeks ago.

I've been nesting off and on the last couple of weeks and I really love that part of pregnancy. I feel so productive and energetic and I get so much stuff done around the house.

I'm starting to have a hard time sleeping. Maybe partly because Clint is gone?

Jackson moves around a lot still. It actually grosses me out to watch my stomach sometimes. Especially when I can just see a tiny little ball sticking out like a fist or heel. He's getting big and is up under my ribs now. Which reminds me...breathing is getting more difficult as well :) Oh, and my meals are getting smaller, since there's less room.

I'm getting more and more anxious and scared for him to come. I'm scared because...well, keep reading, you'll see why.
__________________________________________

Morgan is 19 months old and is going through a difficult stage. Difficult for me anyway, because I'm pregnant. Maybe it would still be hard if I wasn't pregnant.

Anyway, she loves having mommy's 100% undevided attention all day everyday. She wants to sit on me and climb on me and she wants me down on the floor with her and her toys and she never wants me to leave the room.

I love spending so much time with her, I mean, I get to watch her learn things right in front of my eyes and its incredible. Yesterday I watched her figure out a toy that she's had since Christmas. She figured out that the shapes only fit in certain holes. And I watched her test her theory over and over til she was sure that each shape had its specific place. It was amazing. Kids are so smart. If only adults could learn as fast as they do.

The difficult part comes in when I'm trying to clean, do dishes, shower, do my hair, talk on the phone, etc. She doesn't like not being the center of my attention. So you see why I'm kind of scared to have the baby here. But like I said, kids are fast learners. So we will all figure things out as we go. Thank heavens I will have Clint here with me.

As a side note: Morgan's new thing to say this week is "No way!" And she likes to give me a big huge cheesy grin when she's in trouble, so of course I can't keep a straight face and all dicipline goes out the window. I just love this little girl so much and I'm so glad we will have had almost 2 years together before Jackson comes.

Phew

We made it to Utah. Thank heavens. Morgan did fairly well. She could have been a lot worse. Neither of us slept very much on the planes. Somehow we ended up sharing a bed last night and she pretty much kicked me out of it.

I have some pictures to post of Memorial Day. Clint ran a 5k that morning and then we spent the rest of the day packing and getting ready to go.

We took a 2 hour bus ride to the airport and then waited at the airport for 2 hours for a 10 hour flight to San Francisco and then a 4 hour layover and then another 2 hours on a plane to Salt Lake City for a total of 20 hours.

I'm glad its over and I'm so glad to be home. Utah is so beautiful!