Stuff

Things have been a bit hairy around here. Artie and I are starting to crumble from the stress of STILL not having our house sold. The kids are getting bigger and we have a new addition (see below) and we really need to be settled. We also just found out that my brother's unit in Korea will be deploying to Afghanistan sometime next fall. It will be close to the time he is scheduled to come back to the states, but the Army may still deploy him. I don't know, it's all overwhelming to me. I don't know how the Army could keep him abroad for 2 years when he already has orders to be in New Jersey next year, but I guess they do what they want. Of course we'll be on pins and needles for the next 8-10 months or so until he gets official orders of whether or not he will be deploying with his unit. A less important thorn in my side as of late has been the road construction on our road in our addition. Talk about not having the house sold for sure in the next month they will be working on our road. Plus, they start construction very early and wake the kids up. Also, we are having Avery's party at our house in two weeks and no one will be able to get to our house! Though my mood lately has been on the down side...

There are some sweet things, thanks to the kids:) Avery has now started going #2 on the potty! A few days ago she told me she wanted to try it after she went potty. I couldn't believe it! I was screaming and jumping and giving her high fives! It was awesome:) My mom gave her a bit of money for going and she was so excited to take it to Target that day to treat herself to a popcorn combo! In Spencer news he has really started saying words we can understand! Some of them being shoes, ball, choo choo, drink, eat and even good night:)! He's growing so darn fast I can't believe it!

And some pics...

A budding Julia Child...Avery loves to help in the kitchen and I love her helping-though sometimes it takes a little longer and a little more patience!

She helped me make halloween sugar cookies for our family dinner this week (extended family I should say). Avery put all of the ingredients in the bowl, helped mix the dough and put the ghost-shaped sprinkles on top!

Avery pushed Spencer off the kitchen table this week, directly on the back of his head on the tile floor (he was getting in the way of her painting, was the reason she gave me). I freaked out, of course, because his head swelled immediately. So when I put him down for a nap, I kept checking on him about every 20 minutes just to make sure he was okay and I snapped this on one of my visits to his room because he looked so cute and cuddly:)

This is Ace (I got to name him and chose to name him after my beloved sport of tennis!). He is the new addition to our family. We weren't really in the market for a new dog, but this one needed a home and my heart has a hard time passing up a puppy that needs a place to stay. He's a full bred westie and only about 16 wks old. Domer is doing a great job as big brother and teaching him how to go to the bathroom outside!

We've only had him for a few days and these two are already very comfortable with each other!

And Domer's teaching him about stalking squirrels!

And I'm just going to end this post with this recent picture of Jake in his class A's. He had a social party last night (Thursday night, his time) at a castle off base, hence why he had to be dressed up. He said he ate food he had no idea what it was because all of the names were in Korean, but at least he's experiencing the culture:)!

Have a great weekend!