at long last

At long last, I'm blogging again. For some reason, when life is in constant transition, it's hard to keep up a normal routine (it's really weird). Needless to say, since I have neglected this for almost 2 months, there is a lot of catching up to do. So we'll be going all the way back to Easter!

Happy Easter

Okay, where's those easter eggs

These people are so crazy, they made it so easy!

Hmm, these rocks look good too

Sydney was quite the smarty pants with the easter egg hunt. Knowing that Sydney wouldn't be getting the candy inside, Grandma only filled a few. It didn't take her long to figure out that some of the eggs had something in them and others didn't. So she began shaking the eggs before putting them in her basket, and if they didn't shake, she didn't take it. Pretty fun to watch the mind of a 16month old work.

Victoria

After John got home, he had a couple weeks off, so we took a little trip to Victoria, BC. Here is our time, in pictures:

I love the ferry!

Our little cottage- just 2 blocks from the Parliament Building, very convenient  

The Craigdarroch Castle- the was an amazing home, but I'm not sure I would classify it as a castle.

Fisgard Lighthouse

Buchart Gardens- it was hard to narrow down these pictures, what a beautiful place

We hit it at the perfect time for tulips

Sydney was learning to be gentle with the flowers, she did pretty good!

The Parliament Building

The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival

On the way back from Victoria, we stayed a night in Mount Vernon and hit the Tulip Festival. Again, gorgeous and hard to only pick a few pictures. 

Don't worry, we didn't forget Sydney, she was just sleeping in her stroller

These were my favorite

And now

Now our lives have almost gone back to normal, except that we still don't have a home. We are so grateful to our friends who have allowed us to live with them during this time. But don't worry, the end is in sight! Finally! We will close on our house on June 22nd. 

After we got back from this trip, John returned to work, and we continued to look for a house. It was kind of strange because this is supposed to be a good time to buy a house, lots of options on the market. Well, we did not find that to be true. Yes, it is still a good time to buy, but over here the inventory is a bit low. We had a hard time finding a house in our price range. If we went to the low end of our price range, the houses were a dump (and we don't have time for a fixer upper). The houses that fulfilled our needs and some of our wants, were too high.  But, alas, we did find one. And I guess, that's really all we needed. It is also located on Shirley Street, for those of you who don't know, that's John's mom's name, we took that as a sign! 

Between now and the 22nd, the Robbins' 3 will continue to stay at our friend's until the middle of next week. Then we will be flying to Oklahoma City, where John will be attending a class at the FAA. We are hoping to be able to sign the papers for the house down there. And then when we come back on the 23rd, we should no longer be homeless (since it has now been a year and 2 weeks since we moved from our home in AK).   

I almost forgot! Some where in there (shame on me for not writing this down), Sydney got her first 2 teeth!! They came in together one night, no crying or fussing, they just finally decided to show up!

It's kind of hard to see them, but they're there! I think she's still getting used to actually using them.

 Ok, I think I have covered all major events. Until next time...

a long six months, has come to an end

I intended to send this out a few days ago, but this week has just gotten away from me. John arrived home at 11:30pm last Tuesday night. He almost didn't make it, as his plane from Germany was delayed. He ended up passing his bags off to one of the other guys he was traveling with and hopped on the plane (they had missed the time to check in with bags, but without them, all he had to do was get his boarding pass and rush through security).  I'm so glad my hubby is a savvy traveler.

Here are a few pictures from the first few days.

waking up with dad on the first morning

reading together

sharing some cereal

out for a walk

family pic

playing in the park

happy camper (the only bummer is that Sydney has been sick most of the time John has
been home, ear infection, but she's on the mend now)

And we're on the move... again....

Our time in sweet Coeur d'Alene is coming to an end.  Yes, that means John is coming home. He should be home next Tuesday or Wednesday (not really sure). Sydney and I will be heading out on Monday to get ready for the big reunion.

As excited as I am to see my hubby, be a family and maybe even get settle somewhere, I am sad to be leaving. We have really had a good time here, as good as it can be for the circumstances. Here are some of the things we've done to keep us busy:

• Swimming Lessons
• lots of hanging out with Aunty Kelsy
• yoga
• walks
• catching up with old friends
• bible study
• attending the church I went to in college and where I met John

It's been interesting trying to tell people that I'm leaving, especially if they don't really know me that well. The conversation goes a little like this:

              "I won't be here next week because we'll be moving."

"Oh, you're moving?"

            "Well, I don't actually live here, I'm just staying with my sister while my husband is deployed."

"So will you be living on the base?"

            "No, we actually don't have a house."

"You guys should just live here."

             "The military doesn't really work that way."

etc, etc, etc

So now every spare space in filled up with a box, how did I accumulate so much in these last 6 months. I'm blame most of that on Sydney. She may be small, but she comes with a lot of baggage! 

I may not be blogging any time soon, as we try to get our life figured out again.
Your prayers are welcome.

The Refrigerator

Hmm, what do I want??

This looks good

Greek Yogurt

Yum!

Giber Jabber

I feel like I've been around kids a lot in my life. But I guess I haven't been around them at such a young age and have seen their every waking moment, day after day. When people say they change fast, I understand what they mean, but today, I was floored by really how fast it all happens.

Sydney...
that crazy little girl...
yesterday, she was talking her usually giber jabber, here and there...
but today, she never stopped talking, it was like she was having a heated argument with someone all day long. I have no idea what she was trying to get across most of the time, but she didn't seem to care that I didn't know what she was talking about. All day she was just walking back and forth, grunting and talking, waving her hands, pointing, shaking her head yes, shaking her head no, then yes again. Sheeshh, are we in for it or what!

I just wanted to share a little of my amusement today.

Random Tidbits

I've never done a random tidbits post, but I've been thinking about it lately and decided that it's time. So here goes.

Yesterday, Sydney and I started swim lessons. We're doing with my friend Karie and her son. I'm so glad she gave me to motivation to take the plunge (no pun intended). I've been wanting to get Sydney in these lessons since we've been in CDA but we've never had a full month of not going anywhere. I was having a hard time making the commitment because I didn't want to miss any of the lessons (twice a week/4 weeks). Well, sometimes you just gotta do things even when you don't know what even the next week will hold. Sydney loved the lessons, she loves the water, period. She's not quite old enough to get everything out of it, but if nothing else, I'm learning a lot about what I can teach her once she reaches the appropriate developmental age. Also, Karie and I are the only ones in the class, so it's a great time to hang out with an old college friend.

We are on the very down hill slide of this deployment. John should be home in a little over a month. We're both planning on what we think is the latest possible time he could get home, which we think is April 15th. I'm having a hard time counting down the days yet, because I feel like, although we are close, a month is still a long time. Maybe once we hit March 15th, I'll start a count down.

Home, hmm, what is that anyway...
Well, we are not sure what our home will be. We currently have a contract on a house. The inspection and appraisal are complete but whether or not it will all go through is still pretty iffy. The house is a duplex that we put a couple offers in on before John left. So either we are thinking the 3rd time's the charm, or we're just really stubborn.

Kelsy and I spent the last 2 days taking care of our friends kids while they are on vacation. Four kids in all (with Sydney). I thought it would be interesting to see what it was like with four children under 7. It went very well, mostly due to the fact that these parents have their children very well trained and it made things a lot easier because of that. But it was also good to know that it is not even possible to have children as close together as the youngest two are (8 months apart). This is where Kelsy was a huge help because she pretty much handled there youngest, while I handled Sydney, who has a very short invisible string these days(more on that next). I'd say our time with them was a success!

Sydney's invisible string...
We're going through the separation stage right now. And let me tell you, it's bad. She no longer will let her aunt, who we've lived with for the past 5 months, hold her without crying. I can't even go to the bathroom without her crying, unless I bring her with me. Church has been pretty tough because if I take her to the nursery I spend the entire service listening her crying back there (yes the sounds carries into the main room) and if I keep her with me I get nothing out of the service. So I'm not really sure what the point of me going right now is. I guess I should be flattered that I'm so needed.

Thank you all for your support of the new etsy endeavor and spreading the news among your circles.

Whelp, that's about it. Hope you enjoyed the first installment of randomness. Sorry it ended up being so long.

It's time to be honest

So, I've been hiding a little something from you all...

Umm, I have an etsy shop. Well, Kelsy and I do. Although she doesn't have any of her products on it yet, I don't get it, she says she distracted by this little 28" person who's super cute. Maybe once we get out of her hair she'll have some more time to get her stuff on there.

Anyway, back to the shop. We actually started back in October, but it has just recently become something I feel like I can advertise.

It's called, Sweetwater Sisters Needle Company. Currently there are only crocheted items listed, but in the future I'd like to get some sewn items on there too. However, you have to have a sewing machine for that and mine is in storage for an undetermined amount of time. So take a look, let us know if you have an suggestion for improvement.

More items to come...

Thanks!

My first crocheted sweater

So felt I bit inspired after I saw the sweaters my older sister was knitting and thought, I should try to crochet one. So I found a pretty easy pattern and well, here it is!

What We've Been Up To Lately

Traveling- We went to Iowa to visit my grandparents,
I'm so thankful that Sydney is a good traveler

Talking on the phone, everything is a phone these days.

Four generations

Great-Grandpa and Grandma

Sydney had fun with Great Grandma's walker, and it must have given her the practice she needed, because...

We had a visit from our PMS (pretty much sister), Julie, she also posted about her trip and you can read it here

Best friends in the making!

And Kelsy and I topped it off with a Mat Kearney concert, and Sydney had her first real babysitter! All went well and it was an awesome concert!

That pretty much wraps it up for the past month!

*hawaii or bust*

Yes, I know you may be feeling a little jealous, but you know we had horrible weather, rained everyday, never went outside...

Am I making you feel any better? No...
Well, I tried.

My sister, Kelsy, Sydney, and myself, were able to take a little vacation. When we planned this whole thing, we were thinking, "oh, we'll go in January and get away from the snow and cold a little bit." Actually the day we left, there was no snow on the ground, it wasn't too cold, so we were thinking, "this isn't too bad, why are we going?" Don't worry, we only thought that for a about a half a second.

The trip was absolutely amazing. The weather was gorgeous the whole time, one cloudy day and that was the day we left. It was so nice to get a little color back into the cheeks, let my skin soak in a little humidity (I love humidity, call me crazy), and get some much needed rest as Sydney decided to sleep through the night while we were there (um, she hasn't been since about, well, Oct. 2nd, ironic). It was so fun to take this trip with my sister, probably one of the only times this will happen, but I really hope not, we're such great traveling partners.

Here are a few pictures of our time (don't hate me)...

The USS Missouri- we didn't have much time, but I think I would like to go back, maybe with the hubby someday, I think he'd like it. 

Our 1st beautiful sunset

The Honolulu Zoo

Auntie Kelsy and Sydney sharing a mango pit

She looks content, don't you think? Maybe we need spend more time in warm places

We completed the worlds largest maze in 40 mins.  Impressive!   umm, well, we had a map, but still pretty impressive to be able to read the map

North Shore waves (bummer, no surfing due to the rough waters)

Luau, yes, dead, cooked pig there

Sydney made through the whole show even though it was way past her bedtime

Enjoyed picking up a grain of sand and putting in the bucket, hours of entertainment

oh, and walking down to the water and playing in it,  she loved the ocean

Kelsy's vice, yogurtland, yes an every night routine

climbing up Diamond Head (love the new Ergo Carrier, definitely recommend it)

At the top

Apparently the way down was a bit boring

Fun picture with the sky

the view from the condo

we walked past this coffee shop everyday and the smell of delicious coffee wafted from the windows, on our final day we just had to go, and as luck would have it, we got a seat by those windows

our final night out