2 weeks to go!!...

Well, as I thought this would never come, we have 2 weeks left til the big move!! I can't believe that it is right around the corner! Matt is so excited! He cannot wait to get out of North Carolina and move south to Beaufort to be a family of 4!! It will be the first time! So exciting!
I have been so busy getting all of our stuff ready for the movers to come pack. I'm a little nervous about it all but it's all worth it in the end!
I went to WalMart over the weekend and bought all the odds and ends for the bathrooms and things we would need asap. So its all coming together little by little. My mom and the girls and I are heading up to do some shopping in Ellenton and Sarasota this weekend to get some dishware for our house since we got rid of the other ones we had. Something a little exciting to look forward too. I just hope the move goes smoothly and without disaster...but as in the past experiences, its all luck if it all goes off without a hitch!
It is still so crazy to me that I have been living in Fl for a year now with the girls and South Carolina is almost here. I remember finding out when Matt picked his orders and South Carolina came up and he told me we wouldn't be there til March sometime and now time is creeping up on me!! I feel like I have so much to do and I do but just don't have the time and don't know where to start. It gets me a little stressed out...but I'll deal and it will all be fine.
Finley is getting really excited to be living with Daddy again and knowing that he will be coming home to our house every night. She is just so in love with the thought of it. Charli will be able to finally have the chance to get to know her Daddy and spend some real time with him and Matt and I will finally be able to be together day after day with our beautiful girls. Life couldn't be better right now knowing that this is just a couple weeks away!!

Playdate!

Finley and Solomon are both 4 years old, 3 days apart, and in the same preschool class. They have become the best of friends. It is the cutest thing to watch them interact! Solomon's mom, Amy, approached me one day and asked if we would like to have a playdate and of course we were in! Ever since the first playdate, we have become such great friends. Solomon also has a little brother, West, who is 2 weeks older than Charli. I'm pretty sure this was all meant to be!!!
We take the kids different places all the time on our playdates. We do Chick-Fil-A with the playground there, Lakes Park, the beach, one of our houses...its great that we mix it up for the kids so they dont get completely bored going to the same places all the time.
I am so happy for Finley that she has found such a great friend. I am torn inside that I will be taking that away from her when we move. It just breaks my heart that she and Solomon will be so sad to be apart from each other. Amy and I have decided to let the kids Skype with each other and they can become pen pals as well. I hope we can always keep them in touch. Ms. Katie, their preschool teacher, told us last week that there isn't a day that goes by that the kids aren't holding hands and hugging! It's too sweet!! I'm so glad we started having playdates when we did!! We will be having like 2 a week til we leave!! Trying to get as much needed time in as possible!
Here are some pictures from a playdate at Lakes Park. The kids had a blast!! Enjoy :)

Happy Valentines Day!

Yesterday was the global recognizable holiday of love, Valentines Day. I spent the day with the girls, teaching Finley what the holiday is all about. Who really knows if she gets it yet but I'm sure she will figure it out soon enough! Finley was overly excited about her Valentines party at school, so we bought "Princess" valentines (shocker!) for her classmates and friends. I wrote the names of all the kids and she did a great job of writing "from Finley" on all of them! She is getting so big!! We bought cute heart shaped suckers and added them to the valentines for a little something extra. I had a eye doctor appointment yesterday morning so I asked my dad if he could get Finley from school and bring her to Subway that is close to the house for her surprise Valentines lunch. Finley absolutely goes nuts over Subway. Its her favorite place to eat, so I thought I would take her there for Valentines Day. When she got out of the car, she was carrying a shoebox that was wrapped in Valentine wrapping paper with cute decorations all over it. When we sat down, she opened it up to show me what was inside and all it was, was a box full of sugary substances that was screaming "this is going to make Finley crazy!!". She of course had devoured almost all of the chocolate already and I told her it was going to be a week before she would eat anymore of that stuff! But she had all her valentines from all her friends in the box and she was so proud to show me all of them. It was too precious.
We had a great lunch with Papa and then we headed home. We spent the rest of the day playing and taking a nice walk outside and talking. I was so glad to have my girls with me yesterday since obviously Matt wasn't close by. I know him and I will make all of this up later when we get settled in Beaufort.
Overall, it was a great Valentines Day and I can't wait to celebrate more of them with my two precious little valentines!

Nana's Birthday!!

On Saturday, the girls and I celebrated Nana's birthday! We had such a great day together. Unfortunately, Charli wasn't feeling very well, but she must have known that it was a special day, because she pulled herself together and let us go out and about and do some fun shopping and hanging out. That morning the girls and I got up and got ready, ran over to Publix to pick up her birthday cake and some balloons to surprise her when she got home from work. Finley decided on picking out this insanely large balloon that is so pretty, but HUGE! It actually fits Nana to a T. When we picked up her cake, it pretty much matched the balloon too perfectly. So we loaded back up into the car and raced home so that we could set up all her presents before she walked in. We had gone out birthday shopping a couple days prior and bought her a Vera Bradly make up bag and wallet. I also ordered a collage of pictures of the girls online and am still waiting for that to arrive.
Finley waited by the window watching for Nana's car to pull in and when she saw it she ran to the door and as soon as mom walked in she shouted HAPPY BIRTHDAY! It was so cute that Finley was so excited. Mom loved her cake and huge gigantic balloon and she loved her presents! So it was great!
After that we got ready to head out for the afternoon running some errands and doing some window shopping. We had a great day together!! We then headed up to Carrabbas Restaurant for some delicious dinner!! You can never go wrong with Carrabbas!! We had such a good time and such an awesome dinner!!
I thought we would be full from dinner, but we raced home for some cake!! The most delicious kind of cake! CHOCOLATE!! We all had a big piece and lounged around for the rest of the evening.
It was a great day and I feel so lucky to have spent it with my mom and I know how happy she is to spend it with me and the girls! Happy birthday Mom and many more!!

Just some RaNdOmNeSs....

I have had some pictures that I have been wanting to post on here for a while and just haven't had the time! So, here they are! Enjoy :)

Finley with her gorgeous bright blonde hair!

Charli driving with mommy!!

Looking where she is going!! No, shes not really going anywhere!!

Charli and I playing in the car! She LOVES to pretend to drive!!

Finely playing with her driving toy!! She's looking like Ms. Hollywood in those glasses!!

Charli being just a sweet, silly girl! I love her smile :)

Charli and I playing on the floor! We love to roll around and wrestle :)

Playing patty cake with her precious feet! So happy!!

I hope you all loved the pictures! I just can't believe that my girls are growing up so fast!! I'm trying to catch as many cute moments on camera as possible!! They are so sweet and amazing and I'm so blessed to have them!

Double Stroller Duty

To any of you moms out there with questions of a double stroller or not, I recommend this one! The Combi. Its so easy to push, fold up and is light to carry and doesnt take up much room!! Highly recommend over the Graco and Sit n Stands!!!!

For so long I comtemplated buying a double stroller. Never really wanted to spend the money on a new one, so I kept a close eye on the childrens' consignment shops around town. I found one, a Graco Duo Glide, used and somewhat worn and beat up. But with two kids, what doesnt get beat up?!? I decided to make the purchase and try it out for a while and see if the girls were going to like it. I started using it and thought "Where have you been all my life with these two girls?" I, at that point, swore with multiple kids, I could never have just single strollers! I have been using it since October/November and its been through quite alot. It started to have bad wheels and turning it was just getting impossible and it felt like it was getting heavier and heavier each time I got it out.

Then I heard about the Babies R US trade-in and go! It was the oppurtunity that seriously saved my life! My mom and I loaded up the girls and the double stroller and off we went! I was so excited to get there and see what they had to offer! We got there, went right to the stroller section and started trying out the displays. I found the Combi double side by side stroller, put the girls in it and started pushing them around the store. I'm sure people probably thought I was crazy, but I am a mom with two kids! I immediately fell in love with this stroller! The girls loved it because it was side by side and they can see each other and play. It was way out of my price range but luckily with the trade in they give you a 25% off coupon and I found one stroller, not in the box, never been used, on clearance! Talk about luck!! We bought it and spent the whole afternoon shopping and just walking around. The girls absolutely love it! Which makes me too happy!!! Here are some pics of it!!

Anniversary gift

With Matt being so far away on our anniversary, we obviously were not able to exchange presents or celebrate. But, he did manage to send me a gorgeous surprise! I was not expecting it at all and it really swept me off my feet. He knows how much I love tropical flowers and sent me this bouquet!

It was absolutely one of the most beautiful bouquets I had ever seen! He did such a great job! I had gone out to to some errands and when I got home, these were sitting in front of the door waiting for me! It brought tears to my eyes and made me miss him so much more! Thanks babe!! You did an incredible job with this surprise! I hope there are many more to come :)

Moving....

I have been getting so excited about this move!! I cannot wait for it to happen! I have been away from Matt since the beginning of March of last year and am dying to get back to him!! I cant believe that we have been apart this long and its almost done! I have been in touch with the moving company who is going to pack us, load us up and take it all to Beaufort! I'm hoping I don't have to do much this time around, given the fact that we've moved too many times...but with the military being a huge part of our lives, I better get used to it!
So on March 3rd, the movers will be here at the condo to pack it up and then head over to my storage unit to finish there. I'm sure it will be a crazy day, but all worth it!! That will be the last time I see our things before they are in our new home! Ah! I'm so excited! I'm having all of our things delivered on March 10 and we will start the unpacking process.
The girls and I will be driving up March 9th, meeting Matt somewhere in Beaufort (hopefully we will make it all the way there in the same day) and spend the night in a hotel and head to the house in the morning.
Things are coming together quickly and I'm helping them move along faster so this day can get here when I can hug my husband and fall asleep with him night after night. Its really crazy to think that I have only seen him a handful of times this past year. I was looking through pictures we took and there are few and far between. But it is all coming to an END! We will finally be a family again, a family of 4 now and things will get back to normal!!
Thank you to all my friends and family that helped me get through this past year! Especially, my great friend, Danielle. She has spent hours and hours on the phone with me and billions of texts back and forth! I owe her so much for this past year! Hopefully I will get to see her soon!! But thank you to everyone, I love you all!!

Sick...AGAIN!

So for the third time now, both Finley and Charli are trying to conquer this cold stream that is going around. Poor girls! Finley seems to be so much better today, but if you were to ask me last Thursday or Friday, I would have just said, we are all dying over here!! Finley has begun to get all those preschool germs and spread them through the house..over and over again. I know that this all happens when kids start school, but seriously, we have been battling this off and on since before Christmas! When is it going to end?? Now that Charli has retracted this stuff and seemed to be having such a difficult time kicking it, I decided to take her to the doctor yesterday. Between the sneezing, coughing, and fever, it was definitely time to go. So as a result, Charli was examined well and thoroughly, and was diagnosed with a right ear infection, a left ear middle ear infection (just beginning), and the beginning of a sinus infection! I didn't know a body could deal with all three of those things at the same time! No wonder she is completely miserable!!!
I was trying to understand why she was always crying and whining and wanting to be held....let alone couldn't sleep for more than 30 minutes without waking up to something...like coughing or a high fever. Because as all moms know, if the baby is miserable, so are you!!!!
With Finley sick last week and Charli catching it right on top of Finley, sleep in our house has been, well lets just say, very minimal!! I'm strongly hoping these antibiotics work and kick in soon so we can all relax, feel better and catch up on our sleep!!!

DeHaven men....

Matt's side of the family, the DeHaven's, reside in Virginia. They are some of the sweetest, kindest, most welcoming people I've ever met. Matt's grandad, Doug, was the most gracious, wonderful man and caretaker I knew. He spent his days caring for his wife, grandma Joan, whom we love to pieces, and being head of the house with all the chores and duties. We never heard him complain or whine about anything. He was just so sincere and heart bent on being the husband he was. Unfortunately, last May, we found out that he had stage 4 brain cancer and there wasn't much we could do. Talk about something that hit home, at that point not even a year had gone by since we lost Wendy. So, once we heard the news, we knew what was to come and come July, we lost him. It was all so quick and so sad. We love him so very much and miss him everyday!!

Matt's aunt Robin was kind enough to email this picture to me of Matt, his dad, Rick and his grandad. A picture that we will always cherish. R.I.P Grandad! We wish everyday that we could see you one last time and give you all the love you deserve!!

5 Year Milestone!!

February 4 is such a special date to Matt and I. For one reason, it was Matt's moms' birthday and the second reason, is that it is our wedding anniversary! I know for some of you, you remember the "ta-da" wedding in December, but Matt and I celebrate this one, as this was the wedding that made my stomach shrink into the tiniest ball and my nerves couldn't be calmed by anything. I really new what it felt like to have the pre-wedding jitters!!! I couldn't control myself all day. I was feeling the panic of it all, the excitement of it all...I was feeling "the everything!". But I will say that no matter how nervous I was, it was the greatest, best, most special moment between Matt and I. My dad was gracious enough to accept the responsibility of marrying us that night. A simple wedding in jeans and cowboy boots with some close friends and family. It was perfect. So simplistic..without all the ruffles and catering issues...it was idealistic!
So today marks the first anniversary milestone! I'm so excited and still can't believe it! I still get swept away by him. I still fall in love all over again with him. Its amazing that 5 years later, not that it is a long time or anything, the feelings are just as strong and they grow everyday! Even that we spent the 4th year apart, we still keep on pushing through this and are determined to come out of all this on top!
There isn't anything more that could make me so happy today other than being able to just hug my husband. I hate that we cant even hold hands today, or kiss, or share a meal. I just would love nothing more than to celebrate this anniversary!! Hopefully, someday soon we will.
I just am so excited what our life will bring to us in these next 5 years, given what its given us the past 5 years! It makes it all a little more interesting! I can't wait to be back together with him and finally be a real family again and keep pushing through day by day to reach our next milestone anniversary! I love you Matt! I am so lucky to have you! You are everything to me and we are going to have an amazing life that will last forever! Cheers to the next 5 years!!!