Eight Months Later...

Womp womp!

I totally left this blog hanging, oh, eight months ago and for that I can only apologize.  Life kind of got crazy, with field time for the hubby, a new baby for our family, a family vacation to Florida, a deployment underway, AJ starting preschool, and so on.

I should start by introducing the newest member of our family.  We welcomed Amelia to our family on March 22, 2013 at 10:08 pm!  She weighed 8 lbs., 5 oz., and was born via VBAC after an unplanned induction due to low amniotic fluid at 40 weeks, 5 days.

If there ever were two babies who were more different from each other, my daughters are it!  AJ has and continues to be fiercely stubborn, intense, emotional, and strong-willed.  Amelia tends to be easy-going, people pleasing and relaxed.  It is amazing to me how I can have two completely different children, both from the same parents and love them both so completely.

AJ lives to entertain her little sister, which is convenient, because Amelia could sit and watch AJ's antics all day long.  Amelia loves AJ the most.  Of anyone.  AJ gets more smiles from Amelia than anyone in our family.  I can't say that it doesn't make me a little jealous, but I get the snuggles, while AJ gets the smiles.

The other member of our family has been deployed for a little while now and life at home is slowly returning to normal.  We have certainly had our growing pains since he left, and life at home is crazy most days with one adult and two kids, but I think I can safely say that we are not just surviving this deployment so far, but we are thriving.

One of the big changes, other than adding a new member to our family, is that AJ started attending preschool two days a week.  She loves it.  She was so ready to go and have interaction with other kids, a (semi) structured environment, and adults (other than me) telling her what to do.  She started two weeks ago and it has made such a difference in our time together at home.

So there you have the last 8 months in a nutshell.