Exhaustion

This is what happens when your child trips and falls in the backyard while playing, cuts their lip in three places, bleeds all over the place and gets taken to the Dr.s office. They fall asleep in the car on the way home and don't even wake up when you carry them inside and lay them on the couch. 

If you know Abby, you know that this is highly unusual behavior as she almost NEVER falls asleep anywhere but her bed, unless it's a really long road trip, and then she wakes up as soon as the car stops moving.  I guess all that screaming and freaking out about the blood tired her out. Sleep makes for faster healing, right?

Easter

I haven't done a lot for Easter in the past but this year I decided, very last minute, to kick it up a notch. Abby is getting old enough to really enjoy it and Lilly is also old enough to enjoy some parts of it, mainly the candy and new little toys to play with.

So, after inviting over the family that lives close by (aka in the same state) I took the girls on a shopping trip to Winco (love that store) for supplies and I mentally prepared myself to make Easter dinner for the first time. In the four and a half years we have been married, we have always had Easter dinner at someone else's house. For some reason I have always been intimidated by cooking a ham. Feel free to laugh.... I know it's illogical, especially since I can cook a whole chicken and de-bone it, no problem.

We ended up trying out two new recipes and they were delicious! We had Baked bone-in-ham with dipping sauce, Funeral Potatoes, jello salad, rolls and chocolate Easter cupcakes. Everything turned out beautifully!

Dinner was followed by an Easter egg hunt in the backyard to compensate for the Easter egg hunt that I took the girls too at BYU on Saturday that was a total bust. Even the teenage boys had a good time!

The best part of the day was being able to spend time with family! My parents came, one of my many brothers and his wife and three teenage sons, and a sister-in-law and her daughter all came(we were sad that my brother, her husband, had to work and couldn't come with them, but happy that they came).  Abby was so excited to see everyone, it was like Christmas for her. Lilly was initially terrified with all these people that she isn't super familiar with but eventually she warmed up to them.

Waiting until after church to take pictures makes a for some cranky little girls who won't hold still.

Adorable Lilly

Lilly is stylin' her necklace for the Easter egg hunt

Abby getting some help from her Uncle, cousin, and grandma to reach the egg hidden on the roof of the garage.

 Abby is having a blast!

MEPS

On April 3rd Scott went to the Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS) to take care of the last big step on our Air Force journey. I'm going to give you an abbreviated version of how that went. To read a more in-depth review of it check out http://theairforceofficerswife.blogspot.com.

We found out the weekend before, that he would be going in on Thursday. What that really means is that he reports to the hotel the night before with a bunch of other guys who will be going through MEPS the next day. He checked in and stayed at a hotel by the airport in Salt Lake that the military uses for their MEPS candidates.

Most of the people who go through MEPS are enlisting so they take the ASVAB test while they are there, to determine what area of the military they are suited for but since Scott is going in as an officer they don't use that. They will use AFOQT test that he took years ago in the AFROTC that measures aptitude. (you can only take it twice and the scores never expire) The AFQOT doesn't replace the ASVAB (they already know a lot more about the officer candidates by this time than they do about those enlisting) but it does give the Air Force a good glimpse of Scott's brain and how he thinks. If that doesn't all make sense, ask me and I can try to explain it better!

Scott said that MEPS was similar to a VERY comprehensive physical. It also included a drug test, a blood test, hearing test, vision test, depth perception test and a range of motion test and then some.

One thing that I thought was interesting was that their fingerprint is used extensively to help identify them and fingerprint scanners were used to sign in to different tests to ensure that they were the ones completing it. 

At the end of the day Hubby was sworn in as Air Force reserves and committed to 8 years with at least 4 years active duty. The fingerprint was also used to sign the papers at the end of the day.

This Air Force application and selection process has been an interesting experience and has given me a kick in the pants to get organized and get all of our paperwork together since it seems they need the most obscure paperwork and forms of ID and they ask for them last minute.

It's a great feeling to have one more things checked off the list and now we are just waiting on a class date for next year! Wahoo! Now on to getting the house ready to sell!

And of course don't lock your keys in your car when your wife can't drive up to bring you a spare set because she just had a painful  root canal the day before.....

First Ponytail

First ponytail ever!! 

I cannot get over how cute my little one is. I am having a really hard time lately calling her a toddler and not a baby, where has the time gone?

Birthday girl!!

I can hardly believe that my Lilly, my baby, has turned one year old. She is the sweetest, most stubborn, cutie!

Such a climber, every height must be conquered.

We have a tradition in our family to make the girls a crib sized quilt for their first birthday and this is Lilly's.

Blowing out her candle with a little help from her older sister...

 The birthday theme was loosely based around rainbows.

 Birthday girl is looking a little sleepy and wanting to snuggle with her daddy

The most important people in my life!

Happy birthday to my sweet little Lilly, we are so, so, so happy to have you as part of our family!!

New Life Trajectory

So, if you are one of the crazy ones who read the blog that I haven't been good about keeping up lately, we have some news......not THAT kind of news!!
No, I have started a new blog that will be separate from our family blog(which I will be updating more also) to chronicle our journey as we finish school and enter a new career that has me super excited while also biting my nails. Some posts will go on both blogs but the more personal family things will stay on this blog while other more career and life in that new career things will be on the new blog (which is still in construction as I learn how to be a better blogger...) So, check it out!

                                                   theairforceofficerswife.blogspot.com

Projects, part one

I have several projects that I need to complete before birthdays and Christmas arrive(Abby and Scott have birthdays in December). Most of these need to be done on the sewing machine and I've been putting them off because I dread cutting fabric! The pinning and sewing part, no problem. The cutting of the fabric before the pinning and sewing gives me the shivers. But, last night and this morning I managed to whip together one of the projects and it was much easier than I had thought it would be!! For Abby's birthday she is getting some things to help keep her entertained at church and I wanted to make a little cloth bag to keep them in. So, I decided to make a pillowcase into a drawstring bag. I happened to have bought a couple of pillowcases at DI last year that I was planning to make into summer dresses for Abby so I dug those out of the fabric boxes.

I didn't take a picture before I cut it but this way you can sort of see how I cut it.

I sewed up the bottom and one side.

I added a buttonhole on the top of the bag (what used to be the cuff of the pillowcase).

Folded the cuff towards the inside and sewed around the bottom of it.

Threaded the ribbon through the buttonhole and worked it through the inside edge with a safety pin. (It's folded over in this pic)

After finishing the edges of the ribbons, here is the finished product!!

                                                    (It's a little twisted in the picture)

I can hardly wait for Abby's birthday so we can fill this cute little bag with her church busy toys!! I am super excited to make similar bags for other purposes now that I know how easy it is!!

I found the tutorial for the bag here, http://makezine.com/craft/how-to_tuesdays_pillowcase_lau/

I didn't do a hanging strap, used ribbon instead of twill tape and cut mine to shorten it and make it narrower.