Our family pictures...

These were taken over a couple of days since it is almost impossible to nail down the girls for any pictures, and a pain in the butt to do any with me in them. :o) I like the way they came out this year though.

Yay!

We got to talk to Brady tonight! All of 6 minutes. Brief but wonderful. He is doing well. He told us that he will be able to talk to us for a little while once a week from now on. I am very happy to hear this! He got to talk to Cadence and Rory and it was just plain wonderful to hear his voice and know that he is doing alright! We are so proud of him! :o) Anyone who would like to write to him, let me know I can send you his address. I was told to tell everyone NOT to send packages or food, as he is not allowed to receive them. :o)

The little things...

Today I keep seeing the little things.

My blankets stay in the same place all night.

I don't have to adjust the seat and mirrors in the car every time I get in.

My bedroom floor no longer collects dirty cloths.

I haven't found socks stuffed in random places.

There isn't a cup sitting on my kitchen window sill anymore.

I don't need my book light anymore.

My house is only missing one person, but sometimes it feels incredibly empty.

I should say that things have been going very smoothly the last few days. The girls are doing well and I am doing much better than Day One. Cadence is sick, but it looks like just a cold. We will see what tomorrow brings.

One tough day...

Today was the day! Brady was sworn in and left for basic training today. It was a bit insane. To start the day Brady had to be down at the recruitment office by 8:30am. We had packed up everything he needed the day before so we all got up early and headed out. Once they started the paperwork we found out that Brady and one other recruit had to be re-finger printed. Where the first ones went, no one knew. Normally this wouldn't be an issue, but there were no finger print cards in the office as well as no ink. The Army office upstairs didn't have any either. Brady couldn't leave for Basic without them and so it was looking like he would have to go to Salt Lake to be printed and then on to Texas for Basic. He kept signing paper work, and I took the girls over to the Target that was next door to let them run around a bit. Brady was supposed to be sworn in at 10 am and pretty soon a bunch of family started showing up for all the recruits. Brady called to say that there was another problem. Normally an email is sent out to all available officers looking for volunteers to swear in new recruits. The email was sent, but during the holiday rush no one checked to see if anyone had signed up. No one had! We got back to the office and everyone started making phone calls to anyone that was qualified to do it. My Uncle Les, a retired Navy officer, could have done it but he was in Reno. There were other calls made but no one was picking up. Thankfully, my father-in-law got a call through to Billy McCoy, a friend of his, who was able to come down and swear in all four recruits. It was wonderful! Billy McCoy is a retired Two Star General and I am sure that the service was better for having him. He gave them some wonderful advice and you could tell that he truly enjoyed the opportunity. Plus he totally save the day for the recruits and all the family that had gathered to see them entered into service. After that we waited around to possibly get the finger printing done and they finally found some cards and sent the secretary down to Office Depot for an ink pad. We finally left the office at Noon and headed to In and Out for some lunch. Then it was off to the Airport to catch Brady's flight to San Antonio, Texas.

I wasn't anticipating how emotional I was. Here I am watching Brady hug the girls, whispering last minute love to them and seeing how hard it was for him to let them go. I hugged him twice and told him I loved him. Then he had to go. I felt like a huge piece of my heart was walking away and I am sure that he felt the same way. Rory chose that moment to start hollering "Bye Daddy!" and waving. She continued that all the way out to the car. As we were loading up Cady asked if we could get some ice cream and then come back and pick up daddy. We had been trying to explain, the best we could, that Brady would be gone for a LONG time, but Cady has no concept of that. I told her that we could get ice cream, but that daddy would be gone for a long time so we couldn't pick him up after that. She got quiet and I got Rory buckled in. When I looked up again Cady was crying. I asked her why she was crying she said, "Cause daddy isn't coming back." I unbuckled her and just held her for a bit and then explained that daddy was coming back, but not for lots of days. I told her we could make a chart and she could mark the days off until we would see him again at his graduation from basic training. That calmed her down. I was still a wreck. It didn't help that, for the rest of the day, every time the girls saw a plane they would holler out, "Bye Daddy! Come home soon!" Well Cady did, Rory would just yell "Bye" or "Daddy" which was just as bad.

I knew this would be hard. I knew it. But knowing something and living it are two completely different things. It is crazy, but I can say that I was 100% prepared for today and at the same time I wasn't prepared at all. I miss him so much right now, and it hasn't even been a day. And I know that a huge part of it is knowing that he isn't coming home. That everyday the girls will ask when daddy will be home and I will have to explain again where he is and why he is there. That every time they ask I will remember he is gone. That our lives are changing completely and I have no clue how, just when.

A good friend told me that it doesn't get better with time, but that you get used to it. I really hope so because this spontaneous crying really isn't like me at all.

I do need to say that I am so very grateful that I get to be here surrounded by family and friends. I have such a great support system here and I couldn't be more thankful. I have had so many people call or text just to check on me today and I can't tell you how much that means to me. All you wonderful people with kind words and advice on Facebook are AWESOME. Really. I am also thankful for two beautiful little girls who will keep me very busy for the next five months. Most of all though I am thankful for the gospel and my Savior, Jesus Christ. Brady and I have known for a long time now that this is the path that we are supposed to be on. We knew that it would be hard and extremely challenging for both of us, not to mention our children. We knew that there was a possibility of Rory not remembering much of Brady when we finally got to see him again. We knew that there was a possibility that Cadence would suffer emotionally from his loss in our home. We knew that this could possibly be very difficult on our extremely tranquil marriage. But I have come to learn that with the Spirit of the Lord in our lives, homes, and hearts, that all these possibilities could strengthen us as well. I know that because Brady and I are both on the same page temporally and spiritually that the Lord will make our family strong and that this difficult time our lives will be a beautiful time, a happy time, and a learning time. I am so thankful for the technology that will allow us to see and hear Brady after Basic is over. I am so thankful for prayer and the comfort that my Heavenly Father gives to me every time I need Him. I feel so very blessed!

I added some pictures of Brady with the girls. I will post our family one with the news letter soon. I hope that everyone had an Amazing Christmas and I look forward to seeing those who are coming down for the Wilson New Year get together on Friday! :o)

Little Miss Rory-pants

So Rory had her 15 month check up on Monday...MY BIRTHDAY! lol. She is doing well. She weighed 18 lbs 9 ozs which puts her at just under 3% on the charts. She was 30 inches tall though, which put her in the 25th percent. She was also 50% for head circumference. Apparently her head is the only NORMAL thing about her. :o)

The Dr did express some concern about her weight this appointment, as she has only gained 12 ounces in the last three months. I explained that Rory eats twice as much as Cadence at just about ever meal and then has two to four snacks a day. I calculated her calories for yesterday and she ate just over 2000 calories yesterday (a big chunk of that was some birthday cake for me, but still!). I figure her normal intake is about 1500 per day at this point. The Dr is baffled and has us giving her Pediasure to see if she can put on some weight. She is always on the go, she never stops, even in her sleep she moves all that time. I am not to concerned. She eats plenty, is healthy and happy. Other than having to keep her rear facing in the car (a HUGE challenge right now) her weight is actually kind of nice! She is easy to cart around! :o)

She has a bunch of words now. She says Daddy, Cady, Uh-Oh, Whats that?, Hi, Stop it, Stop it Cady, Good Girl, Uh-huh, woof-woof, Belly, Soft and Up. She never says Mommy. She jabbers non stop these days though. She LOVES her daddy and Cady. She will just walk up to Cady and give her hugs and open mouthed kisses all the time. She follows directions very well and I am pretty sure that she understands most of what we say now. She is also officially a climber. She climbs EVERYTHING. It is really starting to freak me out! She is also sleeping from 7:30pm to 6:30am almost every night. It is HEAVEN for me. I love my little bitty girl!

In other news, today was Brady's last day at my Dad's office. We will be leaving for Sea World tomorrow and then we have him until the 28th when he leaves for basic! I am starting to feel the panic/excitement. They have melded into one very frightening emotion these days. I will post more when we get back from Sea World! :o)

Oh, da car...

This is what our car looks like. It is a 1999 Lexus RX300 (the picture isn't our car, but that is exactly what it looks like). It is our only car. We have been living with one car since our ancient Ford Taurus bit the dust in July/August of 2008. I thought I was going to go crazy without my car. I really did. I was very wrong. Yes life is a little bit more difficult. I am ever so grateful for my mom and my other mom (Brady's mom) for always being willing to help us with rides and letting us borrow a car from time to time when we had the need. And to be honest our car has been a gem. IT IS OLD!!! It has about 170,000 miles on it! And we have had our worst trouble with it in the last 4 months. I can't really blame the car. When cars get old things need replacing, and that is what we have been doing for the last little while. What makes it scary is it is our ONLY car. We are quite stranded without it and THAT is scary to me.

I need to say that the Lord has blessed our car for us. I'm serious. This car only breaks down or needs a new part when we have the money for it. It is shocking really. The hard part is that we were planning on doing something else with the money. Something that we don't really need, but had been waiting for and hoping to get after MUCH saving and planning ahead.

This time our car has thwarted Brady's wish for a new computer. He doesn't need it, but it would be nice. But, today our car is in the shop. We were really worried that it would be the transmission, the only thing we can't afford to replace. And it's not like we can afford a new car right now. In a few months with Brady in the Air Force it would be possible, but that was with the money we could get for THIS car factoring in! I was on pins and needles this morning waiting to hear what it would be and the cost. Right now things are looking good for the car, but very bad for Brady's computer funds. You would think we would be used to the pattern by now, but I don't think I ever will be. I am thankful for it though. I am thankful that we have always had the money needed to repair this important part of our lives. I am looking forward to next year when we will be able to trade this great car in for a newer, more spacious, less OLD vehicle. I will miss this car though. It has been so reliable for so long and really that is all you can ask for in a car. :o)

So behind...

I am totally behind on my blogging. In my defense I have been really busy lately with lots of last minute photo shoots, a Christmas choir I am singing in, being a mom and wife, getting ready to go to Sea World next week, trying not to think about my birthday next week, getting ready for Christmas, and preparing my family for the day Brady is leaving. I have pictures of the girls I need to post, but that probably won't happen for another couple of days with all the pictures I already have to work on and get up on my site.

I am holding steady at 154lbs, which is pretty nice considering all the food and crap that goes on this time of year. :o) I am hoping to lose some more by next week!

I am going to leave it at this for now. Just know that we are well and things are CRAZY! Hope you all are having a great Holiday Season so far!