What are we going to do?!

So, we lose our daddy in 4 days! What are we going to do?! We've been able to all be home together for the last 2 months- as if THAT'S not going to make things worse. I keep telling myself that he's just away on business. If I think about what he's going to be doing, I start to get a little hysterical. I still haven't accepted this whole new route of life, I admit it. I don't know where to start and even worse I've been sitting on this fence of not wanting to start accepting it, still hoping it will go away. These are confessions of the army wife, I guess. Sometimes when I'm in my really level-headed mode I can pull back to the 'even bigger' perspective and I feel that patriotism and pride in knowing someone who is serving the country in such a way. It's incredible when you read the statistics about how ready our country is to protect itself. Only 75% of young men actually meet the standards to qualify for the army. What's happened to the health of our country? Kind of sad. Not readily noticeable because we do tend to do well military-speaking, so noone notices or thinks of the ramifications of the state of our people. Maybe we've all stopped caring- relying too much on vaccines and doctors anyway.
Wow, okay I'm skipping from subject to subject and not even making any real points. So, time to move on. The kids have been my food in life lately. The very things that sustain me. Willie just had his birthday...(I should post those pics)...and it seems like his language just leaped and bounded up. He mimics a lot! And Lucy seems to have increased her level as well. Let's see if I can round up a few of my favorites:
Lucy- likes to say "that's perfect, mom!" "yadayada, then it will be perfect, mom!" Glad she's picking up that perfectionism so soon. When her attitude is in full speed, she'll always pull out the "I'm just trying to help." Climbing up onto the desk to take the big scissors... "I'm just trying to help"... yeah, right, whatever girl.
Willie- says anything and everything someone else says so it always cracks me up how much older he sounds than he actually is. I have to take the blame for the recent acquisitions of some swear words, like: dang it! and crap! Yes, he'll pull those out now on his own. But his full blown attitude comes in a dramatic form, it usually involves a rigid, slightly leaned forward pose, probably a pointing finger, then shouts "yadayada, OKAY!!" I guess it's the way he says OKAY! that you just have to hear it to know he means business.
Ok- so let's see if I can throw some pictures on this random post:




First we have the family's excursion to a local pumpkin patch. This was the kid's first time to a pick a pumpkin (and Jeremy's too I think). The place also had other fun activities, one was a giant 'cornbox' which is kind of like a sandbox, but filled with feed corn. It's so fun.
We had a birthday party for Willie in the barn! I couldn't resist- I had to make it big. I didn't know when I'd get this chance to actually be living near the barn during birthday time again- let alone Willie's birthday, the setting was perfect for a haunted birthday bash! So fun! We probably had about 35 people there. I honestly was expecting more, but it was still way fun. We had a trick-or-treat tree, the trampoline, bouncy horse, hay fort, a pumpkin toss game, and a haunted tic-tac-toe game. We had lots of food. And then finally had a bat pinata to finish the festivities. I love this shot of Jenelle with the cast of the Wizard of Oz in the background. It was fun that every child got to swing at the bat-from the very smallest to the oldest was 11 years old and she actually broke it open. I didn't take enough pictures, but oh well. I was working hard to finish their halloween costumes. As is my tradition, I made them again. Last year was all no-sew costumes (because I didn't have access to a machine) so this year was quite the opposite, quite a bit of sewing involved- which also meant quite a bit of my mom's helping involved! She was awesome and helped til we finally got them done at the last minute. My mother-in-law was also in town to help with party preparations, so that was a life-saver. I even left them all working the morning of to hit up the big sale at Old Navy (spending way too much)... I'm so bad!! Anyway, Willie was Superman. I adore his costume! It's patterned after one made by my grandmother which is very sentimental. It was also my second attempt at doing applique (and I did a much better job than the first, so I'm making improvements). Lucy was going to be a witch, but my sewing job bombed out there. I gave up after it was 95% done, and decided to just make her a costume she'd really want to wear anway...she was Angelina Ballerina. (That's a little white mouse ballerina character from a book series...maybe you know of it?) She had a tail, mouse ears, and whiskers along with her tutu in the final shot, but it's not pictured in the one above. She was pretty cute.
Happy Holidays everyone! In case I don't get around to another post until the baby comes... I'm due on Jan. 6th, though the ultrasound said the baby is gaining weight a little ahead of time and could put me at Dec. 31st. It's a girl, btw. We've been preoccupied with a due date and when she's going to come because Jeremy will only be here for 2 weeks for Christmas and we're hoping he can be at the birth! I'm not sure the option of inducing, though I really don't want to. We'll see how it goes. I have a feeling nothing's going to be ready for when the baby comes... ah, life.