Our camping trip

Mommy and Kara on the beach. It was cool out so she was still in her PJs.

Daddy and Kara on the beach. Notice the yucky weather.

Our Valentine's picture=true love!!

They adore each other! Notice she has a baby in hand. She always has to have a baby near.

Nick eating his first smore EVER!

Kara and mommy

Our tent you can see daddy and the monkey inside.

This year for Valentine's Day I wanted to do something fun, something out of the ordinary. My first idea was for us to hike up to Hiji Falls, however my neighbors said it's closed until April. BUMMER! So we were racking our brains as for what to do and I casually mentioned camping. Nick said it sounded like fun, so the planning began. We were both so excited. We've had a tent for a few years now that we've never used (although my friend Samantha and her husband used it once). So anyway, we made a trip to the BX and Commissary to buy some supplies and food. I had read on the Internet that the weather wouldn't be the best but tolerable. Only a 20% of rain expected for our first day there. The next day called for cloudy weather. Ha ha you can see where this is going. So anyway we packed up the car and made the 1 1/2 hour trip up to Okuma. I kid you not that as soon as Nick was inside the place to reserve our spot, it started raining. No big deal; we can handle some rain I thought to myself. Nick had to put up the tent in the rain, hence the lack of pictures of that event. It was only drizzling so I helped him with the last finishing touches and unloaded the car. Kara was having a blast crawling around in the tent. The rain continued off and on throughout the night. Poor Nick had to eat half cooked hot dogs ( I had already cooked mine) and cold beans because the rain started up as he was cooking. We had smores later that night, but they weren't melted all the way for the same reason. It was overall kind of funny. We ended up staying in our tent for the entire afternoon with nothing to do. Kara seemed to enjoy herself until it got dark; then she was upset. I think it's because when it's dark in our house it's night-night time. Kara is no fan of going to bed. It was a rough night of sleep, being that we were on the hard ground (next time we are taking an air mattress). I know it sounds spoiled, but I have to have comfort during sleep, it's a must!

The next morning we went to their restaurant for breakfast. It wasn't the best food, but we were thankful to get something that was at least fully cooked. After breakfast we walked on the beach for a little while and then packed up for home. The cloudy weather was miserable. The sun was no where in sight. It was so foggy and gloomy, but we will plan better next time. We know to bring a cover to cook under, some board games, and air mattress to keep ourselves content! I can't wait for our next adventure!!!

An apology

She loves her monkey, actually she loves ALL of her monkeys.
Her first Valentine's Day!

My little love bug.

She has a Snow White thing going on in this one.

This one looks like my baby pictures. Probably because you can't see the color of her eyes! I made it look like an old photo using Photoshop.

K is for Kara, duh!

She takes big girl baths now! It's her FAVORITE time of day.

I was so PROUD of this pic. It was my first time using the close-up setting on my camera. I love how it fades out the background. No Photoshop needed.

Kissing the back of her baby's head.

You can see the joy in her face.

Not happy to be Wonder Woman. Supergirl is more her cup of tea.

Chardae trying to pull Kara closer. I love their faces in this one.

After reading what I wrote on my blog, my husband called to apologize to me. He felt so bad that I got upset. He was clueless that I had even felt that way. Silly man! He called me that next morning to say that he does love my blog and doesn't want me to quit. So there you have it, I am back in the saddle again.(not that I was really going to quit, just take a break!) :) Unfortunately that blog helped me learned that there are some RUDE people out there. My time is far too valuable to waste time on people who are so unkind.

I have been wanting to blog for a while now but life has been too busy to do so. Speaking of my little monkey just woke up from her nap. She has a slight cold and isn't feeling the best these days. It breaks my heart, poor baby. But before I go I would like to share some of my favorite photography moments from the last few weeks. ENJOY! I will be posting more soon.....

Downer

I was excited about blogging tonight. I finally had some time and some thoughts to share. However after having a discussion with my husband, I am no longer in the mood (and may not be for a while). I mentioned that I was going to blog before bed when he said, "I've been meaning to talk to you about that.... you have several grammatical errors in your posts." He wanted to help me I guess, WHATEVER! I was hurt and angry. I mean really who wants to be called on their mistakes? I know I'm not perfect. I know I make mistakes. I don't always proof read my stuff. Usually I am so tired by the time I am done that the words are running together. I am a mother that usually has all of those duties on my own. He's gone a lot. I don't have a lot of free time to myself. When I do get the opportunity to blog, I enjoy it. I use it as a release, something to share with my readers (yeah all 5 of you). I am not doing it to win a Nobel Prize. So now I am down and no longer happy about blogging. What a pain in my ASS! Yeah I said it. Now what he should have said was, " I liked your new post, they were cool!" or something along those lines. I never said anything to him when he wrote me emails that had errors like using to instead of too or putting alot instead of putting a space in between them. I just was glad he wrote me. (Don't make me pull out the proof!!) Sometimes my husband really sticks his foot in it! Who wants criticism about something they enjoy doing? I don't. It's my blog, grammatical errors and all. Thank you honey really I love that you only see the error of my ways. UGH!

PS I DIdn't prOOf ReaD thIs one EitHer fOr yOUr enJOYmeNT!?@!$%&

Kara.....the barbie doll

As I said in the post below, I got the name Kara from my favorite barbie doll growing up. She was actually a punk rocker barbie (hence the bangs I had to hide in her ponytail), but I changed her into a charming stay at home mom. LOL I was fascinated with this doll because she wasn't your typical barbie with blond hair and blue eyes. She did have blond hair, but with brown highlights and brown eyes. I thought she was the most BEAUTIFUL barbie I had ever seen and named her Kara. I circulated all my other barbies around her. They were either her sister or cousin or friend. She was married to my BFF's brown hair blue-eyed Ken doll (named Cody). They had several little children to include one named: Blakely (which is Maddy's other little sister's name). Weird I know. As I said before, I was very into my dolls. It was almost ridiculous. When I would go spend the weekend with April, I had one bag for clothes and one for my barbies. We played with them for hours and hours. I still have a box of them at my mom's. Therefore when I was at home visiting, I couldn't leave without fishing out that one special barbie: KARA! I know it may seem silly to people, but it just seems weird to me that when I was around 10 I got this barbie that I thought was beautiful and gave her the name of my future daughter. I guess it makes since that I would give Kara her name. Being her mother I happen to think she's the most beautiful little girl. Just wanted to share a this story and a pic of the doll. Introducing Kara (the barbie):

Our Superboy and Supergirl!

Our Superboy, Conner
Our Supergirl, Kara

It's pretty funny how things work out, but I guess fate has a way of stepping in sometimes. Before I was pregnant with Conner, Nick and I were trying to decide on names for our future children. It took us forever to agree on a name. I actually got Conner from a short role my favorite character (Nicholas) on General Hospital played. (Nick argues that he came up with it because that's the Highlanders name, but he's confused). I said the name and he agree because it was the Highlanders name. He has this thing about names having to be after some comic book or movie hero. So it was settled that Conner would be our boy name. For a girl name we first agreed on Alyssa Kirsten (which I still love). I later mentioned the name Kara (after my favorite Barbie doll) and he said he liked it too. At the time we had no idea that Conner and Kara were actually the names of Superboy and Supergirl. (Who knew Nick wouldn't know this being the Comic book buff he is?) But anyway he found it out after we found out about Conner's diagnosis. Then it was settled that weather he was a boy or girl he would be our Superboy or Supergirl. So on the day he was born we gave him the name Conner (Superboy) Jeremy(after my brother). It was perfect. He was buried in a little Superman costume, so cute and fitting! After we had our Superboy, we knew that if we had a daughter she would have to be Kara (Supergirl) Elizabeth (after an extraordinary woman I knew) to complete our trend. I absolutely LOVE that our kids names have meaning. It's really cool and I know once Kara is old enough to realize she has Supergirl's name she's going to eat it up. It was all meant to be.....

Her second tooth and love of babies!

What mom? Can't you see I am busy here?

"Talking" to her baby

"Kissing" her baby


There it is tooth #2!

She has babies in all sizes and she LOVES them all! The big one was as big as her when she got it for Christmas! Thanks Nanny!

It hasn't been that long since Kara got her first tooth and now she is sporting a new one. I can't believe it; she is just growing so quick! She is well on her way to walking and loves to be in her walker. She also has a profound love of baby dolls. I so LOVE that she likes dolls. Maddy wasn't really into them all that much. She was much happier with Scooby Do and color books. She did have a love for tea sets, which was pretty cool. But I was always sad she didn't get into dolls or barbies that much. I am really hoping Kara will keep her love of babies for years to come so that I can join in on playing with them. I LOVED my dolls and ADORED barbies. (Truth be told I cried when I packed them away!) It is so exciting to me that I will have an excuse to revisit them. :) Girls are so much fun!! I would enjoy a boy if we were to have one next, but I think girls are just easier for me to relate to, obviously!! Isn't she just precious?

So much to do so little time!

Wow how busy it has been around here. (As I am doing this I have pics downloading to Walgreens, Myspace, and my scanner going to town too!) No, we aren't going anywhere and doing wonderful things. Instead I am chasing around my little girl that is into EVERYTHING these days. You see this is how I found her the other day after her nap.....

Yes that is her standing up in her crib waving at me. And then later in the day she was doing this in her playpen (if you are wondering why she has different clothes for the same day just picture a mess beyond my control!!):

She's so rotten! She pulls up on everything she can manage to get to. I know walking is in the near future, Lord help me!! She's so funny. We couldn't get her to sleep last night for a while being that she keep standing up in her crib and laughing at us. As I type this she's into more stuff. I can't do anything for having to chase her down. For proof here she is a few moments ago (she looks guilty doesn't she?):

Well, crap, I have to go she just pulled the video camera down on her. See the cord hanging down in the pic above. Luckily she's okay, but not too happy. Hopefully I will see you soon. :)

Our Vacation

She loves sparkles!
Kara and her Aunt Desiree


Kaleb doing his Zoolander face! LOL

Daddy's baby girl, always!

4 generations, their expressions are so funny!

My adopted family: April, Caitlyn, Gloria, and Nanny! Notice Kara is holding on to my hair, she always does that to me for some reason, a security I assume.

Me, April, Caitlyn, and Gloria before a day of shopping!

Caitlyn and Kara in the bath together, aren't they so cute?

Me and the girls at Build a bear. They had a blast. Making their "pup-pups".

Us and our girls. Aren't their matching dresses so cute?

We had such a wonderful vacation to the states (Florida, Texas, and Oklahoma). I realized just how much I miss living there and all of the people. We did so many fun things and shopped so much that we had to ship 8 boxes home (well some of that was Christmas presents!) It was truly the best time I have had in a long time. We went to Chucky Cheese, Build a Bear Workshop, Toby Keith's Restaurant, to see Santa twice, the movies to watch Four Christmases, the graveyard to see Conner, Scrapbook stores, the Outlet Mall, the Thomas Kinkade Gallery, plus several restaurants and places to shop. It was GLORIOUS!! I am so thankful for my family and friends. They really made us feel welcome and showed us a wonderful time. If only every vacation could be that great. Right? I was so sad to be leaving to come back here. At first I felt my depression kicking in, but then I decided to enjoy being back here. We only have a little over a year left here and I still have things I want to do here. So I am embracing this time. Enjoying Kara being a baby. She is growing up so fast. Too fast if you ask me. I can't wish away the next year because I am homesick. I have to enjoy this time with her. Her birthday is coming up and I am so excited to celebrate that time. There was a time where I didn't think I would ever get to enjoy having a child to raise of my own. I had almost given up on the idea that I could have a healthy child. God gave me the greatest gift when I got Kara. I felt blessed to have Conner, but my heart ached to have a child that I could hold in my arms. I now try to enjoy these moments and cherish them as much as I can. Family and friends are precious. Let's never forget their importance in our lives. Be THANKFUL!! I know I sure am. :)

PS More pics coming soon. I have ones from my mom's house that are coming in the mail so I will scan them in soon. Plus tons of others!

Her 1st tooth!

She's such a happy baby!
There the little pearl is, click to enlarge!

It finally happened, Kara got her first tooth. I was wondering if she was ever going to get it. She's been teething for months now. On the plane ride home was when I first discovered it. Then I realized that may be why she was screaming her lungs out (that and the lack of ear popping on the way down). It was a very emotional time for us (I felt helpless, how could I stand seeing my baby in pain like that?). She was crying, I was crying, Nick was looking at us like, "What is going on here?" It was a memory for sure.

Oh and I am proud to say that I took these pics with my new camera. My MIL and I both got books about digital photography and it gave me a few tips! I have to admit the pics I took using my tripod came out better than the ones I took without it. So always remember pictures taken on a tripod come out clearer and nicer because there's no movement from your hand. Trust me it works! I will be posting some more Christmas stuff soon, promise!!!

I'm back, well sort of...

She was the cutest little baby in this dress!
Hey Grandpa! I love this pic, so cute!

My niece, Skye! I adore this kid.

Back off ladies, he's all mine!

The prettiest girls around!

I know it's been forever and a day since I last blogged. I was in the states with family for a little over a month and then came home and got the flu. YUCK! It's been crazy around here. We had a WONDERFUL trip back to the states and an even better Christmas. I hope you all had a great time too. I have tons of pictures to share, but that will take me a while. I got the greatest gifts from my hubby: a new Canon Rebel camera (with all the fixings) and The Sweetheart Cottage II painting by Thomas Kinkade. I am a lucky woman! I am still trying to learn about my new camera, but once I get the hang of it I will be unstoppable. I can't wait! I am really tired so I am going to add a few pics and head to bed. I promise it won't be another month before I come back again. :)