Well Hello October! And Hello 32!

Have I mentioned before how much I love October? It's my birthday month, Ella's birthday month, our wedding anniversary will be celebrated among many other fun and exciting things. So much to keep us busy and grateful for.

So yeah...I turned 32. Happy birthday to meeeee! I had a most perfect day. (You'll find out exactly why in a future post). The girls spoiled me with all the love and attention in the world. Ella was at my bedside first thing in the morning wishing me a happy birthday and giving me hugs and kisses. She remembered all on her own. They behaved all day! I was able to go to lunch with Tom and enjoy some peace and quiet. He surprised me with a new Ipad, perfume and yoga pants (even though I have more than one pair, my favorite pair was ruined with white paint during the table painting experience and he was obviously very bothered with the fact that I still wore them around the house!). He is so thoughtful and knows exactly how to always put a smile on my face. As much as I love the new iPad, we have joked that it was more of a birthday present for Ella since she uses it more often than I do now! The girls can't get enough of that thing.

We went to dinner at a nice little hibachi place here in town. It's probably my favorite place to eat in Lawton. It's the first time we took the girls to a place like that and they LOVED it. I have never seen them so well behaved at a restaurant before. They barely spoke, no less moved! The only "issue" was Madeline sticking her straw through the bottom of the styrofoam cup and her lemonade going all over. But it was easily solved and they continued being awed by the chef's performance and the crazy fire. They love eating with chopsticks, too. Funny because Tom and I prefer a fork and our little kids have mastered chopsticks. Doesn't seem right...or fair.

We returned home where Tom had surprised me with yummy chocolate cheesecake! I have to say, I think we all enjoyed my birthday very much:) I say it all of the time, but I am one lucky lady. Blessed. Blessed. Blessed.

Ella took the first four photos. She loves playing photographer with the nice camera!

These girls are my world!

And they are always making me laugh!

Madeline was helping blow out the candles. In my old age, she probably thinks two numbers is difficult on my lungs. 

Dinner:)

See? 

More projects!

We rounded September off with the completion of a few projects. Happy to have them done and maybe  one day soon I will be bored enough to take pictures of the house decorated! (Once things are really on the walls...yeah...still haven't done that yet;))

I made this chalkboard out of our old coffee table. I put it in the dining room and the girls spend a lot of time drawing on it. :) Success! 

My mom actually re-painted this for me. I found it in her house and pretty much stole it before I left! My Uncle Mike made this in wood shop class back in HS. He's 50 now so it's over 30 years old. I love displaying some of my polish pottery on it. 

I mod podged some letters for the girl's bedroom. They have a little reading nook in the corner of their bedroom:) 

My candy corn. Haha These were made out of total boredom on a rainy Saturday. Just styrofoam cones and yarn! Ta-da! I will decorate with anything candy corn for the fall. I love it. 

Sweet September...

September is flying by and I am SO happy about that because October is my favorite month of the year. We haven't done much this month that is actually interesting, but hey...we live in Lawton!

I love that they want to make their own pbj's. Gives me about 3 extra minutes of ME time;)

We try to play soccer in the evening with the girls. It's always Tom vs. the girls and we always lose. Always. Even when he tries not to try. 

Ella isn't in school this year so I am working on a few things at home with her. Numbers and counting seem to be our latest to do's. And Madeline, well she has a future job at the Clinique counter obviously.

We took the girls to the circus on post. Well not really. We skipped the actual circus and just went to the Midway for the rides and popcorn and cotton candy:) Madeline's face on the slide was PRICELESS!!

Dressed Up...

I don't know how many moms or dads out there allow their children to dress themselves, but I do. For the most part Ella usually matches very well. My mom taught her all about patterns and solids and how two patterns together will often always clash so try to avoid that. But there are times when she picks out her own clothes and I just smile and tell her how beautiful she looks. And she will usually curtsy and look all pleased with herself and say "THANKS MOM!!!" Some days it's just not worth the argument:)

And how can you not love Madeline's love for dirt? 

Dancing girl!

Ella started dance class this week! She goes two nights a week; one to ballet and one to tap. She says she prefers tap over ballet, and I have to say watching her dance in the tap class...I am impressed! The moves they do seem complicated for a four year old, but she does them with ease. She's the youngest in the class at 4 with the other girls being 5-6 years old. She keeps up with them though and loves it. I am so very proud of her and happy to know she found something she really enjoys! It's all I can ask for as a mom:)

There she is on the end of line in the last picture

She's 3rd from the right in these photos! And one with her daddy because he was dressed in his blues that day and I just love when he looks all handsome:)

Our Zoo

No, I am not referring to the zoo of a home I live in and partake in daily, but rather the little animal kingdom right on post. It's tiny, but the girls had fun looking at the animals. It is just a short walk from our house...anything to keep busy right? ;) They had a turkey, a wolf, foxes, a few bobcats, and all sorts of birds. After we traveled from cage to cage "ooooohhhhing and ahhhhhhing" and "gobbling" at the animals, we walked over to the water and watched the fish jumping around the lake. Poor Madeline fell on her way though and skinned her knee. I do believe she's a klutz like her mama.

Still a great day!

Keepin' Busy

We live in a town with not much to do so we try to keep busy in our own ways. I am, however, counting the days until we leave here. Well, right now we are counting the months. And we have 11 left.

I would love to know who really has these chairs in their home.

I took this sweet picture through the window so that's why it's blurry from the screen. I couldn't resist though. 

I promise this wasn't on her head very long, but this is the boredom we suffer from here.

We had a tea party to celebrate Uncle Bryan's birthday. We called him to let him know about it;) Some small child spilled sugar and then stepped in it. Who leaves evidence like that? And yes, Madeline wears a helmet around the house for safety reasons. She likes to jump from high places.


She came out of the bedroom dressed like this. Haha

We dress Daddy up in crazy hats.

Little/Big Projects

 We've been busy trying to get the little projects done around the house. We bought a beautiful unfinished dining table and chairs. I have always wanted a big table because I know eventually our family will be growing and I want to have room for it! It's a forever kind of table and I know I will love it forever:) (Because if I didn't Tom wouldn't even listen to the words "Can we buy...")

The antique spoon rack I painted to go in the dining room. (Tom can't believe I actually wanted to display my spoon collection) Now that it is up though I really love it and I love seeing all of the places we have been. Yes, we because Tom definitely contributed to my collection with a spoon from Israel. :)

Table in progress

And it's complete! It's SO beautiful and exactly what I wanted. I have THE best husband in the world for always supporting my crazy ideas and then helping to complete them:) 

Our "new" Home

We settled into our house on post the week after we left FL and we do love it. It's a very old house...over 100 years old and yes, the floors creak every step, but it's spacious and we are grateful to be a whole family again. It'll be fun to decorate as long as Tom allows the endless funds for it;) I know we are only supposed to be here for a year, but I'm not holding my breath to ever leave the black hole of Lawton. So I might as well get some pictures up on the walls:)

Our unit is the top one. Not ideal to be living "apartment" style with a young family...trying to keep them from running around hasn't been easy!

The view from our balcony. It's so serene. We live on a quiet street:) The little door leads to the balcony and we made that room into a guest room. My dream library will have to wait for my forever home!

Top Left is the living room. The view is looking from the guest room into the living room into the dining room. Bottom left is the dining room and then there's the gorgeous kitchen...blech. I hate every bit of it minus our gas stove. Missing being spoiled with the granite and beautiful tile of our old home here.

Top left is the hall in the kitchen that has the pantry on the right. Then there is the laundry room. Bottom left is what we made into the playroom. There are two huge walk-in closets for that room. It worked out perfectly for toy storage!

The long hallway that leads to the bedrooms and bathrooms. There's Madeline in her bathroom. I call it the claustrophobic bathroom. I can barely pee in there without feeling like the walls are caving in. Bottom left is the girls room. They are going to share a room. It's HUGE. Bigger than our master.  

Tom's walk-in closet is actually in the hallway. It works out for us. Strangely he has a larger closet than me, but that's probably because he has more shoes, belts and clothes than I own. (Frumpy mom!) Oh and that's our bedroom the girls are sitting in. And our more than beautiful bathroom;) I do like the light that the window brings in though. It just needs serious updating.

These stairs lead to the "Maid's Quarters". I wish I could say we used this air-conditioned room for something, but we only use it for storage so far. It's huge and unfortunately housing removed the bathrooms a long time ago or this area would be the most perfect guest suite.

And there you have it...our "new" home. I use the word "home" loosely as home is wherever my man's boots are...and right now of course they're in Lawton. 

August

August is HOT. Like burning layers of your skin off kind of hot. We spend a lot of days at the spray park and a little time at the pool, too. I definitely miss the convenience of having a pool in our backyard though to cool down.