Christmas, etc...

It has been a crazy month at our house! Doug has started his new job as of December 21st, but hasn't quit his old one. Basically he is using vacation and juggling some stuff to make it work with his new job. Which we are both pretty relieved about at this point, because things look a bit sketchy with the other job maybe even starting. So we will see.
To get to Doug's job was quite an adventure. we had a MASSIVE snowstorm that effectively cut off all air traffic and most driving. so my dh braved the weather, perhaps foolishly and drove to the nearest metropolitan city to fly out of. Our car is still sitting there and we are working on getting it repaired.

Christmas felt a bit anti climactic. Because Doug was gone so much, we barely had a moment to shop. The lovely Christmas I had envisioned of relaxing and having daddy around just did not exist. Instead Doug arrived Christmas Eve at 2pm and left Boxing Day at 9am again. So it has been just me and the girls and the baby who will not sleep. To say I am exhausted feels like a bit of an understatement. The thought of going anywhere is a bit overwhelming but the thought of staying here is also terrifying, so I will probably just suck it up and go and visit Doug at his training center.

Christmas Day was fun. We spent the night before wrapping presents and setting up the new track for Kiera's much anticipated train. I thought we had more track than we actually do, so we were only able to make one circle. Kiera came down Christmas morning and we had to turn her around for her to actually SEE her track, after which it was hard to pull her from it to even open her new presents. We bought her the Tickle Me Elmo Extreme edition, which both girls thought was pretty hilarious and smaller stuff, like Band in a box, etc. About half of the expected gifts had arrived from various other sources, because of the storm everything was really behind in terms of mail. the rest of it came on Friday after Christmas. So thank you everyone for the fun gifts for us and the girls. Kiera's other favourite gift was the rings and earrings from Cami and Deidre, which I personally find pretty hilarious, why is it that kids always love the most inexpensive thing the most! LOL! Grandma got them some nice warm jammies among other things and Nana got Kiera the plane to the Geotrax set. Kiera is quite pleased to have her own plane and one night while Daddy was away she slept with his figurine picture and that plane. It was cute but sad at the time time. It really makes me respect military mama's a lot more. I am not sure how they do this with daddy being gone all the time and having no help.

Funny words: Pakin for napkin and my current favourite: hangebur for hamburger. it sounds SO hilarious to Doug and I we can't help but call it the same thing....

Kalista is CLAPPING and its SO CUTE for words. She just figured out how to do it and she imitates us when we do it, and I have even asked her to clap for me and she has done it. She has definitely become more emotional when telling us what she thinks about things, yelling at the top of her lungs when she gets a toy taken away from her for instance (uh ummm....Kiera...). Kiera tries to be quite the little mum with Kalista, she brings diapers and hugs her when she is crying, always imitates what I am saying "I am coming! I'll be right there!" that kind of thing. in fact her parrotness only makes me MORE aware that I need to be very careful of what I say to anyone in our house. Like telling Bentley to shut up for instance when he barks (which is way toomuch to not be annoying), now I have to say BE QUIET BUBBEE, and she also tries to boss Bentley within an inch of his life as well. Its pretty funny actually.

Everything is up in the air in our house. I am not sure if we are going to be here a year from now, or if we'll be preparing to move or what. its kind of discouraging in some ways because I think it would be nice to actually put roots down somewhere for a while. but alas, I married an adventured and wanderer so I shouldn't expect anything less than a constant itch. I just hope we don't drive our kids crazy dragging them all over the world. Unlike Doug I would ideally like them to be able to say " we are from ______________", wherever that may be at some point in time.