Hallie cried herself to sleep, from missing her Daddy, hugging her Gima bear once again. :(

Sigh

We're about to go to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. I'm just wishing my Hubby were here to go with us. I miss My Love so much! I cannot wait til he comes home to us again. Hallie cries and says, "I want my Daddy" everyday, several times a day, and it's getting worse everyday-more often and more heart broken. Poor little girl. Kenion loves to hear My Love's voice and is so happy when we get to do webcam with him. Kenion loves to play with him. My Love will play peek-a-boo with him and make faces at him and Kenion will just smile and giggle. It is so sweet! Kenion has been starting to play peek-a-boo all by himself. He puts a blanket over his face, and lifts it and smiles a big cheeser when we say "PEEK-A-BOO", and then puts it back on his face. He will also hide behind things such as his high chair tray or he'll just turn away and look back. He thinks it is so funny! He is right! It's so fun! I can't wait til he gets to be held by My Love again. I can't wait to see them play even more together and hear them laughing at each other all the time. I can't wait til we can do our family kiss again. We've done this ever since Hallie was born. I do it with the kids still and Hallie loves it. Kenion thinks it's funny sometimes and sometimes I think it startles him when we go, "Mwuahhh!". Haha! But it will be so amazingly awesome when My Love is home and we are complete again. We love you Daddy!

Hallie

So a couple of weeks ago we were driving home and from the backseat I hear Hallie say, "Ew yuck! I probably farted..."
Me (laughing): "No Hallie, that's a skunk."
Hallie: "A stunk?"
Me: "Yeah, a Skunk" Making sure I made the sounds of the letters very clear.
Hallie: "I hate stunks!"
Hahahaha I couldn't help but laugh! She cracks me up! I guess she thinks that every bad smell comes from her little fanny.

Celebration

Happy Birthday My Love!!!!
Today is My Love's 23rd birthday! We got to do Skype (web cam) with him today! My parents and brother and his kids came over. Along with his parent's and all of his sibling who live at home came too! It was so much fun! Everyone got a turn talking to My Love. It was awesome! It seemed like the first family function that has felt semi-whole since he left. I think everybody enjoyed getting their own turn and talking to him. It was so fun! It was great seeing him-especially on his birthday. I really hope he had a great one-well as great as Iraq can be. Next year we're going to over celebrate all of the holidays and special occasions that we missed together this year. I love you sweetheart! Happy Birthday! XOXOXO!!!!

chances

I found this quote and I really like it.

"The galleries are full of critics. They play no ball. They fight no fights. They make no mistakes because they attempt nothing. Down in the arena are the doers. They make mistakes because they try many things. The man who makes no mistakes lacks boldness and the spirit of adventure. He is the one who never tries anything. He is the break in the wheel of progress. And yet it cannot be truly said he makes no mistakes, because his biggest mistake is the very fact that he tries nothing, does nothing, except criticize those who do things."
David M. Shoup
General
United States Marine Corps

Sometimes I think I need to take more chances. Levi is good at taking chances and I learn a lot from him.

one of those

I am having one of those nights. I miss My Love so much. Words can't describe it. I can't stop crying. Most of you will never know what it feels like. I hope and pray that you don't ever have to. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy.

You know how nice it is to hug someone you love when you're crying? Well, My Love is not here to hug. I miss that. I also miss that whenever I'm mad at him, or at least trying to be, he'll say something so funny or goofy that I can't help but laugh. Then I teasingly get after him saying, "I'm trying to be mad at you and then you have to go and be all cute!" :) I miss you so much My Love. I love you! XOXO!

PLEASE don't ever take your loved ones for granted, ever. Being without My Love at times throughout our whole marriage has always helped us keep that in perspective.

I recently read one of my best friend's blogs. Her husband is also deployed, (with my husband). I agree with a lot of her blog. It is definitely nice to have family and friends that love me and make an effort to keep me occupied and in their prayers while My Love is away. I also appreciate when I'm not the only one making an effort to see or talk to someone. It's hard always reaching out to certain people first and not having them reach out first sometimes. My best friend, who's blog I read, is amazing. It's nice to be able to talk to her about things since she knows what it's like. Thank you. {You know who you are. =) } I also agree that it's hard when people try to tell you that "they understand". Cause most people don't. Unless they've had their spouse deploy. I too have had people try and compare my situation to theirs, when they only get to see their husband on the weekends or at night. It's not the same. I appreciate when people tell me that they're here for me and that they actually don't know what I'm going through. But that their here for us no matter what. In whatever way they can be. I have been very blessed with amazing family and friends. Thank you to all of you for everything, your love, prayers, concern, and company. I love each and everyone of you.

My sexy Marine!

I love this picture! I think it is so sweet! I've always wanted to go and photograph all of the Marines while they're doing their thing. Good thing this photographer did it since I probably won't ever be able to.

Wahoo!

I finally got my digital camera

Four Years!

Today-the 27th of May- is our four year anniversary!!! Can you believe it?!

My Love and I have known each other since we were twelve and a half. Wow, that's about ten years! He got adopted into my ward. The moment I saw him I knew there was just something about him. Something so special. He is such and amazing man! He is in Iraq right now and it's so hard not having him around. Especially today. He and our children are my whole life. He makes me so happy. He is so funny and such a tease. He is so unbelievably loving. He may have a macho shell, but he is actually a big teddy bear. Not very many people get to see this side of My Love. I cannot wait til the moment when we can hold each other again.

My Love and I started dating between our Junior and Senior year. He asked me to be his girlfriend on June 5th 2003. I would never trade the fact that we were high school Sweethearts. It was so much fun. I love the fact that we went to school together and grew up together.

We graduated high school and My Love went to boot camp for the United States Marine Corps. This would be the first of many times that we had to say 'see ya'. I was working at Macey's in Spanish Fork to keep me busy. It was a great job and I loved it. It made the time go much faster. I wrote to My Love literally everyday. I would kiss every letter and spray it with my perfume. I went with his family in September to see him graduate from boot camp, (September 15th). The graduation was awesome and I was and still am so proud of him. He came home for ten days then had to leave for SOI-school of infantry. He was gone til December. Then my sweet Dad drove me to California to pick him up. My Mom had to work. I will never forget that trip my Dad and my Love. We laughed a lot. It was such a blast and he was very tolerant of the fact that his little girl was in love, with a Marine no less. I mean come on, he drove me to California to pick him up, obviously he liked the guy. We picked him up and drove home-stopping at circus-circus buffet in Vegas. It was a very snowy night, but we made it safely. With no problems what-so-ever. Which with my family and vacations and such, my Dad would put it like this, "It's not a vacation, it's an adventure!" Lets just say something crazy would always happen-such as vehicle problems, motorcycle accidents, etc. So we were blessed that all went well.

My Love proposed to me in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building-in his dress blues- in March. We were married on May 27th, 2005 at 8 a.m. in the Jordan River Temple. That day was so amazing. I will always remember the way My Love looked at me when he saw me in my wedding dress after we were married. I came out of the bride room and went down to where he was. He was sitting on a chair in his amazing white tux. He looked up and saw me. His eyes got this certain look that lit up his whole face. I saw him gasp. He smiled. Then he stood up and took my hand. We walked together as husband and wife. We emerged from our temple hand in hand. Everyone congratulated and hugged us. We had a luncheon and our beautiful reception and then we were off to our honeymoon. What an amazing day. What an amazing honeymoon. *wink *wink.

Here we are today. Two kids and four amazing years later. Still madly in love as ever. Stronger than ever. I am so grateful for My Love. I have learned so much from him. He is a great example to me. He is such a fun loving man. He is amazing with our beautiful kids. They love him and miss him SO much! As do I! Can't wait to have him home again.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MY LOVE! You are truly an amazing man! Thank you for everything you do! Thank you for your sacrifices that you are making for our beautiful country and for all of us and our loved ones, back here at home that you are protecting! Stay safe! We're here waiting to have you in our arms again. I look forward to many more anniversaries with you. Before we know it, it will be our 50th! Good thing we have eternity together! I love you so much Sweetheart!!! XOXO!

Oh man!

On Friday evening I went to Ephraim. It was weird driving into town. It made me sad and very happy at the same time. I got to play with all of my friends. A lot of stuff is the same. Some is different. It was weird to not live there and go upstairs to go home. I had a ton of fun staying at Steph's. Thanks Steph and Spencer! Sorry about H peeing on your couch in the night and her getting a tummy ache and pooping upstairs. I'm going back this weekend for the Scandanavian Festival. If they'll have me! It'll be fun! I came back Sunday Morning. Sunday evening my throat started feeling weird. I thought it was allergies. It got worse and worse. It got so severe I dreaded swallowing. My Sweet Mom came over on Tuesday evening and brought me sore throat lozenges and made me Bear Creek Chicken Noodle Soup. It was so good. Between the Ibuprofen from when K was born and the lozenges I was actually able to swallow and enjoy my soup. Then the next day it was terrible again. Joanna was coming over to my house and met me at the doctor to help me, since I felt like crap! She held Hallie while the nurse swabbed my. The results-Strep! UGh!!! They gave me a shot in my hip. (It was either that or swallow pills three times a day for like ten days. Um, I don't think so. It was hard enough swallowing water.) This morning my throat feels much better. I can actually swallow. I haven't taken any medicine of any kind today. AHHH. You don't realize how many times you swallow everyday until it feels like you have a knife going down your throat! Yay for antibiotics! Here hoping my kids don't get it. Tomorrow morning I won't be contagious anymore and then time will tell for my kids. We'll see...

"Before I Was a Mom"

Before I was a Mom, I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby. I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous. I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom, I had never been puked on। Pooped on. Chewed on. Peed on. I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts. I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom, I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests. Or give shots. I never looked into teary eyes and cried. I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin. I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep...

Before I was a Mom, I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put him down. I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt... I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much. I never knew that I could love someone so much. I never knew I would love being a Mom...

Before I was a Mom, I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body... I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby. I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child... I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom, I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay. I had never known the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache, the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom. I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much, before I was a Mom .

(My beautiful and loving mom e mailed this to me. I thought I'd share. It brought tears to my eyes.)

Ahh child hood!

So today I fell asleep on the couch for about 20 minutes. I was pretty out cause I remember I was dreaming about killing spiders in my house. But I subconsciously knew where Hallie was and pretty much what she was doing...til about the last ten minutes or so. I can't remember what woke me up but I did. I was facing the wall and she was behind me. I told her to go do something and if I could remember what woke me up I could tell you what I told her to go do. Anyway, I half way rolled over to look at her and tell her again, when I realize she's holding something. I sleepily look at what she's holding, the sunscreen. Then I look at her hands it's all over her hands. Then I start getting after her and look at her face. It is also covering her chubby cheeks, and her lips. She looked like a clown. Of course I got after her and told her that that is dangerous and we don't play with sunscreen. I took it away from her and she said, "Nooo my sunscream!" I got a wash rag and wiped her hands, face, jammies, and the sunscreen bottle off. She said it was on her baby doll stroller too. So I go look at it in the kitchen and nothing is on it. So I wash her hands and then go about feeding Kenion. A little bit later she brings me the seat from her stroller that was laying in the hall and yes, there was sunscreen all over that too. Man, I wish I would've taken a picture of it. I'll keep that in mind next time she's naughty. I'm going to start writing in a journal every day about the things we do every day. I'm going to take pictures of her being naughty-of course I'm not to be getting excited about the picture at the time, cause then she'll think it was good and funny-and then I'm going to put those pics in the journal. That way when My Love gets home he can read about everything we did and not feel as much like he missed a year of our lives. Plus the bonus-I can put the pics on my blog! Then all of you can see them too!

Oh on a side note: our dog Duke, who will turn 1 year old next month, finally got a much needed bath and grooming. Ahh, he's so white and fluffy and clean! I'm thrilled! The best part is that the groomer came to my house. She has a trailer with everything she needs in it. Nice! We thought that he was starting to get a bit of gray on his chest. We thought that he was getting older and his color was changing a little bit. Well guess what?! My Love was right! It was just his tags rubbing on his fur and making it gray!

Kenion is a very happy camper as usual. He was watching our "Daddy Movie" (which we made for our kids so they could see My Love everyday) and My Love was singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and Kenion was watching him and smiling at it. He was getting very excited to see his Daddy. Whenever My Love calls and we have him talk to him, Kenion looks around to see his Daddy. It is so sweet.

My Love is going strong fighting for our country. He is doing pretty good. He has his down days. He needs me to send him music for our ipod since his got erased. But other than he just keeps on trolling! Oh and he shaved his head! I like it!
As for me I'm counting down the days and enjoying my kids while I'm at it. I miss My Love very much and can't wait til the day he holds me tightly in his arms again. I love you Baby!

Kenion

Smart Babies!

Hallie can officially count to fifteen all by herself! I'm so excited! She knows the abc's and we're working on her colors. She knows blue very well. It's "Daddy's favorite".
The other night Hallie woke up at 1:30 am. I heard her coming and met her in the kitchen. She sees me and starts crying. She starts walking away from me. Then she says something that's a mystery since she's crying. This is how it went.
Hallie: I wa womss
Me: What? What's wrong?
Hallie: I don't want worms!
Me: You don't want worms?!
Hallie: NO! (Remember she's crying through all of this)
Me: Did you have a bad dream?
Hallie: Nooo
Me: Do you even know what worms are?
Hallie: Nnnot yet!
Me: Do you know what dreams are?
Hallie: No (still crying)
Of course I'm laughing my head off this whole time. Worms? Where did that come from?! Well I took her potty. She realized she didn't have to have worms and got over it. Dreams are so crazy!

Kenion is getting so big! He loves loves loves to grab fists full of my hair. Then I'm in pain trying to loosen my hair from his death grip. Man that boy has a grip. I think I'll have my hair up for the next six months! He talks and babbles and sings to himself. He loves books! He'll be crying and complaining like the world will never be right again, then I put a book in front of his eyes and he stops mid-whine. His eyes and face light up and he starts kicking like crazy! He reaches for the book and is in heaven as he looks and slobbers on it. He laughs a lot. He is very ticklish. He loves to hear Levi's voice. He's starting to get good at pushing his chest up off the floor. He loves Hallie and is starting to reach for things when she has them. She giggles and says that she has it. I get after Hallie for biting her fingernails so when she sees Kenion sucking on his fist or fingers she gets after him and pulls them out of his mouth. She says, "Don't bite your fingers!" Then I have to explain to her that that's not what he's doing. She's a little Mommy. Trying to pick him up and everything. You're probably thinking, "AH!" Which you should be. I think she finally has it down now that if she wants to hold him she can tell me and I'll help her. Yes, she dropped him in our kitchen. I was not happy at all. She felt very bad though and told him, "Ohhh, I pick you up? I sorry bud. I sorry bud" -as she strokes his cheeks-for two days. Live and learn I guess. It's amazing that babies live through their older siblings. I think they're stronger than we think.

UGH!

This blog is about throwing up. Those of you with weak stomachs turn away now. So last night I get my Hallie in bed and then start feeling pretty nauseous. It came and went in waves. I'd feel like I was going to hurl and then I'd feel fine. Then lo and behold it would happen again. Well I didn't really think much of it. I talked to my Mom on the phone and told her my stomach hurt. I thought I had just eaten a little too much cereal too fast. But beyond that that was it. Well I'm trying to get K back to sleep by holding his hand while he sucks on the binky. That's all he wanted. (Don't worry I won't make a habit of doing that.) But at the time the nausea had gone away for a moment. I didn't want to stand up cuz it made it come back. Well it came back anyway. And this time it came with force. I decided to go get our mop bucket and keep it next to the bed while I slept. Just in case. You'll find out why later in this blog. Every smell I came across was making it worse. I grab the bucket and head to the bathroom...and waited...for about 10-12 seconds and...you know what comes next. But AHHHH did I feel better!!! No more nausea. Relief. Sigh. But man I tell you I HATE THROWING UP!!! I will do anything and everything in my power to not throw up. I hated the experience but it turned out to be worth it! I'm not one to just throw up at the toss of a hat. No. In fact I never really get the urge to do it. I never threw up during either of my pregnancies. Not once. Sure I'd feel nauseous, but that is it. Nothing else would come of it. I really only remember throwing up 4 times in my life. The first was when I was little. I don't remember where we were. But I was holding my brother's red plastic back scratcher-does anyone remember those? I accidentally dropped it in the toilet when I hurled. When my Dad came in to help me, he thoought that I had thrown up blood. To his relief I told him what it was. The second was when I was a child. I ate a couple of those holiday butter cookies that come in a pretty tin. Ugh, even the thought of them is revolting. I threw up after eating them. I still obviously do not like them to this day. I told my Mom how grose they were one Christmas not too long ago. She explained to me that the only reason I don't like them is because I threw up after eating them and had assoiciated it with those. I remember thinking they made me sick. But my Mom is very wise. I'm sure she's right. The third was right after My Love and I got married. I don't know what did it. I just woke up in the night and ran to the bathroom. I Didn't quite make it to the toilet for the beginning. You can imagine what a mess it made-My hair, the walls, the toilet, the shower wall. Hence the mop bucket by my bed last night. Now one thing you need to know about My Love is that he is an incredibly deep sleeper. Although whenever I have needed him he wakes up in a snap. I said his name twice and he was awake. I wasn't yelling it. In fact I was weak so I was actually pretty quiet. I asked him to come and help me. I started cleaning it up and he said that he would do it while I jumped in the shower. What a great newly wed moment. Bet you don't think of those when you picture being a newly wed. What an incredible man he is. Thank you My Love! Which brings me to last night's hurl. Am I being too blunt about this?! The reason for last night's hurl?! No, I'm not pregnant Karly! : ) Congrats by the way! I actually think I ate something bad at Ihop. I went there with one of my best friends and her lovely mom. I ordered stuffed french toast-as always-and there was no stuff. Nothing. I couldn't find one skiff of cream cheese. Maybe not so stuffed, stuffed french toast was the cause or something else. Perhaps a bug that was going around. I'm leaning towards the Ihop reason though. This is not one of the butter cookie moments, I still like Ihop and it's stuffed french toast. There may have been a couple times more that I'm forgetting but you see my point. It takes a lot for me to hurl. And YES I DID JUST BLOG ABOUT THROWING UP!

Silly Hallie!

So I just got Kenion out of the tub tonight, when I look at my little Hallie and see her playing with something she's not supposed to. I say, "Uh oh! Some one needs a spankin." To which she replied, ever so casually, "Hallie does"! It was almost like when someone says pick me, pick me-but not quite that excited.

Then later I'm looking at my blog drinking my very last cherry pepsi. I go into to see what she was doing, to be making the racket she was making, when she was supposed to be sleeping. She's still laying in her bed playing with her bug lantern. She was obviously just having a hard time going to sleep. So I asked her if she wanted me to sing her a song. She instantly said yes. I sat on her bed and started singing. I leaned down to kiss her little cheeks when she says,"What are you eating?" I was about to say, "Nothing" when she says, "Soda?" I was so taken back. I just looked at her and started laughing. I asked her how she knew that and she just looked at me and smiled. I couldn't believe that she picked out exactly what I was drinking. After which she of course says she needs water or milk. Then I tell her she can't have those til morning or she'll pee the bed. She was fine with this. We said goodnight again and I turned on some lullaby music for her. I heard her moving around in her bed for about 30 minutes more and then she finally fell asleep. I hate those days when you need to go to sleep but can't. She cracks me up.

I watched my nieces and nephew today. We were standing in the kitchen making smoothies. My little niece says "Jenny your bum's in my face." I just laughingly said I'm sorry and busted up. The way she said it was so sweet and innocent. It was a fact that she thought I just needed to know.

Last one for the night. Hallie was really tired after a long day of play with her cousins. She missed her nap. They went home and we laid on the couch to watch "Daddy Movie". A movie that we made that has My Love reading and singing to the kids. We did this so the kids could still 'have him around'. We felt it would ease the gap a little. Anyway, Hallie and I are laying on our futon-Kenion is asleep in bed. My Love is counting in the movie. I had been watching Hallie. She was drifting off to sleep. She was to the point where she was so tired she didn't even want to move. So I think she's pretty much asleep when she starts counting with Daddy. Her lips are barely moving. Her eyes are barely open. She's talking pretty quiet in that very sleepy way, and she's all, "seven, eight, nine, ten." Then she was out. Sweet little girl.

Flashbacks!

Hey All! So this is my first attempt at blogging. Here we go!
My Love and I got married in the Jordan River Temple in May of '05. We were high school sweethearts. I wrote to him everyday he was gone to boot camp for the Marines. He completed all of his training in Decemeber of '04. My Love proposed to me in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in SLC. It was amazing! A nice couple saw My Love propose and took pictures for us. It was a very fancy event-My love was in his dress blues and I was in my prom dress. Then someone even paid for our dinner! My Love and I decided that if we ever witness a proposal at a restaurant, we'd buy their dinner just as someone did lovingly for us. Fast forward to our wedding day. We got married around 8 am on the 27th of May and have been loving every minute of it. We went to The Anniversary in for our wedding night. The next day we went to the Homestead up in Midway. It is gorgeous. We stayed there for 3 nights. Then we didn't feel like going home yet so we drove to Park City and stayed at the Marriot Mountainside for 3 nights as well. It was amazing! I highly recommend these places for romantic get-aways. Life began and we moved to Ephraim, Utah. Turkey town. Awesome little town but not the best for your nose. Especially in the summer.
In January of '06 I started feeling a little queasy. (I also started having migraines-which I had never ever had.) Yes! We were expecting a beautiful little baby. Later we found out that little baby was our sweet little Hallie. She was born on October 30th 2006! At 1:43 pm. She was 7 lbs 11 ozs. and 21 inches. She was very sick when she was born, but I'll post about that later. (It's too long for this post.) Labor was incredible-you probably don't hear that definition of labor very much do you? Well it's true. I truly and absolutely loved my labor. She came out without a catch-literally! The doctor missed the delivery! They were calling and calling him. Hallie was not waiting. She was making her way out-ready or not. She beat him to the party and the nurses had to deliver her. Well one of the other docs from their office came in and started stitching me. Suddenly the door flew open and our delivery doctor flew into the room with the reddest face I've ever seen in my life. He says, "Sorry! My pager fell off in the parking lot!" It's kind of funny to picture his pager outside in the parking lot buzzing along the ground; and picturing him finally picking it up and dashing into the hospital. He told us that the doctor's office finally got ahold of him and told him that he had just missed a delivery at American Fork Hospital. To which he exclaimed ,"What?! I'm at American Fork Hospital!" Yeah, turns out he was just downstairs the whole time! Downstairs! The whole time! While they're telling me not to push! Sigh! More to come about what happened after we left the hospital.
Well Life sped by with our fun little family of three. Then in March of '08 the migraines and queasiness started again. (By the way, both pregnancies were planned.) Thus our little Kenion Levi entered the picture. We found out he was due on December 26th. To which I questioned My Love, "What is up with us and Holidays?!" I was induced and He was born on December 19th 2008. Although when I got to the hospital I was at a '4'. We're pretty sure he was going to come that day anyway. Our little Kenion was born at 12:43 pm. I was only in labor for about four hours! Once again I loved my labor. It too was incredible. Kenion's delivery was more scary than Hallie's was though. K got stuck. His shoulders are broad like his Daddy's and they got stuck on my pubic bone. The doctor and nurses started panicking. They were pushing on my belly and stressing. I've never pushed so hard in my entire life. I didn't lose my head and start panicking-neither did Levi-I just pushed and pushed knowing my baby was depending on me. Then out he came! He was ok. They gave him a 'blow by' of oxygen and then he was ok. Though His poor face was completely bruised from just above his chin up. The nurse compared it to someone being hung. Once he was out and safe the doc was telling us that that is a true emergency, and that you have about 3 minutes to get the baby out. After that the baby is in serious danger and they'd have to take matters into their own hands. Thankfully that didn't happen. He was stuck for about two minutes. We were relieved and comforted that he was safe. 8 lbs. 3 ozs. 20 inches. We cooed and loved him. Hallie was so excited to see him. When she arrived she wanted him. It was so adorable. Then she wanted to get up and play again. So she just let go and started getting off the couch. Thankfully Daddy was helping her hold him or he would've been on the floor! So begins our family of four. Hallie is now 2 and 1/2 and Kenion will be 4 months on the 19th! Hallie is animated, happy, vibrant, funny, loving, caring, and a BIG tease! Not necessarily in that order. She loves her baby brother. She really misses her Daddy. Kenion is so happy, loving, and sweet! He loves his big sister. He is always showing off his sweet smile to anyone who talks to him. His fist smile was when he was three days old. I kid you not! It was definitely a social smile too! Not gas like some people say. No! You could see it in his face. He was happy. I told My Love that it was so he could see what he looked like smiling before he left. Which brings me to my next subject.
When we were first pregnant with Kenion, we found out the official news that My Love would be deploying with the Marine Corps at the end of the year. Hard day. In October he left Auto Zone in Ephraim-they will be holding his job for him- and we moved to Payson. This way I could be closer to our families while he was away. He started training with the Marines everyday. He had to leave for a couple weeks here and there. This went on til December when they were officially activated. Thus begins this year, 2009. My Love is now far away from us in Iraq. Some days are extremely hard and lonely. I miss my best friend. All of you reading this make sure you hang onto your loved ones dearly. The last time I saw My Love in California before he left. I said, "I guess we're lucky. Cause we know what it's like to be without each other, so we don't take each other for granted." To which he replied, "Yep!" So the next time you get mad at your hubby, your kids, or even a friend, think of how sad your life would be like without them. We were very blessed that Love was able to take paternity leave to come home and be there for our baby Kenion's birth. We took advantage of any time that we could see him. We took spontaneous trips to Cali and drove to Vegas as well. My Love also took advantage of any time he had to call and talk to his little family. We cannot wait til we are all together again. We're counting down the days. My beautiful daughter cries herself to sleep some nights saying, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!" While she hugs "her Gima Bear" that he made for her with his voice inside. It tears my heart out that I can't fix it for her. She doesn't even understand the danger he's in. All she knows is that her "Daddy isn't coming home for a long time." Right now she doesn't have the pleasure of running to her Daddy and grabbing his leg with joy when he gets home from work. Kenion woke up the other day and just looked at me and cried the saddest cry. I comforted him and loved him. He calmed down and then looked at me and started crying the saddest cry again. This happened 3 times. I know without a doubt that he was missing his Daddy. You could see it on his face.
I will keep you posted on how My Love is doing and what he's up to. For now he is in Iraq carrying a loaded M16. He is there sacrificing so that each and every one of us here in the blessed U.S. can do the things we do. The reason we can go to work or to the mall or to McDonald's and everything else we do here. He is missing a year of our lives together. He will return to having his children one year older than they were when he left. He has to watch his back every where he goes. He does it for our Country. For our freedom. He is truly an amazing man! I'm very blessed to be with him for eternity. I love you My Love!
Just remember when you go to bed at night and sleep in your warm cozy bed that my husband's got your back!