Night At The Pool...

While I talked about this on the new blog, I figured I may as well share it here as well. I want to bring this space back to being all about the boys and just life. So here's a little documenting of something they love.

Being in Southern California, with this nearly year-round warm weather, we spend from around mid-March until late-October at our neighborhood pool. In fact, this month, we've been there almost every single day. The boys both love it! Caleb loves jumping in and being thrown up to do flips, etc. He's definitely still in the daredevil stage! Sam was once there, but he's much more cautious now. However, he's slowly getting back to that once-daredevil self and jumping in again. With that said, he's been wanting me to get videos of him jumping in. It's not often that I actually remember to bring the waterproof camera, but I happened to the other night and Sam decided he wanted to make a YouTube video about it. His goal right now is to be the next big YouTube kid, ha! I don't know that he'll quite hit that mark, but we'll sure try and start making videos more often!

Here are the boys at the pool. I love that I caught Caleb doing the Hulk Smash move in the pool, ha. He's always reenacting his favorite superheroes...

If you like it, make a comment. Sam is super excited about seeing what people think of his first video...

Preparing For The School Year And The Rest Of The Alphabet...

We're less than a month away from school starting. I can't believe it! Even though our schedule isn't slowing down and I'm having a hard time finding a way to accomplish all that I wanted to this summer, I'm trying to get us prepared for the big day. I'm a planner and I know if I don't get things prepped and planned, it just won't happen. So while my mom was in town (keeping the boys occupied), I made a planner in photoshop that I plan to print out and use for lesson planning. Can I just say, I can't believe my kid is going to be in kindergarten?!

Homeschooling Adventures And The Letter R...

The past month has been a great one for the Moore house. Samuel has gotten involved with two separate homeschool groups, Caleb started his very own speech class, and we've been trucking along with pre-k at home. I can't believe Easter is just around the corner!!!

Thanksgiving In Vegas And The Letter N...

The last time I was on here, I was preparing for Thanksgiving and our trip out of town. Now here we are...preparing for Christmas!!! It's crazy that it's just 3 weeks away!!! There's so much I want to cram in between now and then. We'll see what actually gets accomplished, ha...

Finally Back! (And The Letter M)

It feels like it's been forever! My Mac officially died, so I had to wait for Apple to install a new hard drive. Unfortunately, trying to catch up on everything has taken much longer than I would've hoped...

With that said, how is it that Thanksgiving is NEXT week?!?! I absolutely love this time of year! This is when Thanksgiving and Christmas start to merge in this house. Our house is decorated with the harvest theme (it has been since September since I don't care for Halloween), but I have to admit, Christmas music and movies have been in full force for the last week or two. Ha. To add to the fun, there are so many crafts and activities I want to do with the boys that are holiday-themed. Now it's just a matter of finding time for it all. We did start doing a couple Thanksgiving crafts today with Samuel's school, which was fun!

A Sad Day For My Mac...

So, it looks like my hard drive is giving up. If anyone has been looking for last week's Paw Patrol worksheets, that's why. For about a week now, I've been having issues with this 4 year old iMac and it looks like I might have to replace the hard drive -- makes me so sad! If so, it may be even longer before I create more work sheets since I've have to replace Photoshop and I have no idea what my serial number is to switch it out. Good times.

Pregnancy And Infant Loss Awareness Day...

October 15th has and always will be a special day to our family. It's a day to recognize and remember all babies gone too soon. At 7pm worldwide, everyone (who chooses to participate) is asked to light a candle to create a wave of light. I love that as Samuel gets older, he eagerly wants to participate and help with it. Tonight, he asked if he could light the candles (with my assistance) and as we did so, we talked about what they represented. We always light 3 -- one for each of our angels. It's such a little act, but has so much meaning…

Visitors And The Letter K...

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How is it almost the weekend already??? Over the past week, we had my parents in town along with some old friends that we haven't spent time with in years. It was great to catch up briefly and I can't tell you how happy the boys were to see my parents! We lucked out with our friends' visit -- they happened to have to work in Vegas and decided to head down this way for a little vacation afterwards.

Etsy...

Who here is on Etsy? I'd love to check out your creations! It wasn't until my sister convinced me to create an Etsy page to sell some of the things she had previously hired me to make that I finally caved. I love all the fun things you can find on there -- not to mention it's a fun creative outlet for me. Most recently, I was hired to do a few ads for a fellow photographer as well as a couple birthday invitations. I only mention any of this because one of them stands out and I think it's hilarious…

13 Years...

Yesterday was our 13th Anniversary. Hard to believe we've been married that long! It was such a crazy year, but it ended in a great way. I said on my Facebook post that it might be one of the best yet, but then later got to thinking…wait a minute…we were absolutely miserable at Ft. Irwin and that lasted a loooonnnngggg 8 months, ha. However, the last 4 made up for it tenfold. It's hard to believe we've already been in this house 4 months -- enjoying civilian life here in southern California. Watching our two healthy boys grow up is a dream come true and knowing that James is home for good enjoying it with me is priceless.

On This Day...

So, Facebook has started this option called, "On This Day." It allows you to look back at various years in the past. Most of the time, I absolutely love it! I get to look back at little baby Sam and even baby Caleb now that he's not so little anymore. However, I've been thinking about how in the months to come, I might not enjoy it as much, as it will remind me of the events in 2009. Sure enough, today was one of those days…

Samuel and his Bible...

Raise your hand if you don't read your Bible nearly as much as you know you should. Yeah...I've got my hand held high and I'm not proud. However, there was a moment tonight that made me feel like we're at least doing something right...

Kindergarten...

I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but that sure came out of left field! Today, I was reminded once again of where we should be…celebrating the first day of kindergarten with our baby girl. Upon getting on social media, I was quickly reminded by all the pictures posted by friends who were pregnant with me back in '09 -- all commenting on the bittersweet nature of such a big day. Sigh. I'm happy for all these kids that are SUPER excited about such a big step, but boy does it hurt my heart to think of how that's just one more thing that should be happening at this house, but isn't.

Speech...

So, our son, Samuel, has struggled with speech from the beginning. He started speech therapy at 19 months and continued to have it weekly until this recent move -- only because I'm a slacker and haven't set it up yet. Knowing that I didn't talk much until I was 4 years old, I always kind of wondered if he'd be the same way. Sure enough, his speech has improved a TON since he turned 4. It's weird -- almost as if a light switch turned on. I still need to set speech up in our new location, as he still prefers starting words with "D" or he leaves out the initial consonant of each word, etc., but we can actually understand him a majority of the time now. We continue to tell him how awesome he's doing and how much he's improving -- it's amazing how far he's come!

2014

I don't even know where to begin. What a year! I think the last time I was on here, I mentioned how we were pregnant. Well, the best news of the year was that we added another healthy baby boy to the mix! Caleb Wesley is now 5 months old and I'm still trying to grasp the fact that we have two boys here in our arms. It's pure joy, I tell you. Even though I'll always have 3 gaping holes in my heart and will forever long for Jacob, Jordan and Olivia -- missing Olivia an insane amount lately -- life is pretty awesome at this point. Seeing Samuel and Caleb together warms my heart more than you can imagine. We're finally at a place that I always dreamed of, but never thought would happen. It's truly indescribable...

The Last Eight Months...

I've often wanted to try and get on here, but it just never seems to happen. And now here we are...eight months later and just now blogging. I can't believe the last time I was on here was after Samuel's 2nd birthday in June. Sad, really.

I can honestly say, things have been going amazingly well. After Samuel turned 2, we took some leave and took him out to Disneyland, Los Angeles and the surrounding beaches, and finally San Diego. Oh, how wonderful it was to be able to go back there! We haven't been to San Diego since before our time in the Army, but it felt like we were going back home. James was ready to quit his job and stay, ha. We were able to do our typical family portraits with the tripod while out at La Jolla, too. Good times.

Return To Zero...

For those of you that know our story, you know that before having Samuel, we experienced the loss of our first 3 sweet babies - Jacob, Jordan and Olivia. There is no greater loss than that of a child. In hopes of bringing awareness to pregnancy and infant loss, those of us in this unfortunate baby loss community are making a pledge to see an upcoming movie about such a heart-wrenching topic. 

Chaos Company...

As always, I feel like it's been forever since I have been on here and am not really sure where to even begin. The last month has FLOWN by! Samuel spent time with all of his grandparents, James took Command over Chaos Company, I became the FRG (Family Readiness Group) Leader of that company, and we've somehow been busier than ever while James is away in the field. I am really starting to think I'm going to have to start scheduling in free time so we can just veg out every once in awhile. After all, Samuel barely has a chance to play with his toys these days and that needs to change. Being busy is great when James is gone, though, so I suppose it's a good thing that our days are flying by...

Happy Easter!

How is it already April?! Seriously, I feel like we should still have a few more months of cold weather left. Yet, here we are -- April 2013 and it's hot enough to go to the pool already...

I hope everyone had a fabulous Easter Sunday! Ours wasn't exactly ideal since James had staff duty, but we still had a great day. While we most definitely plan to teach Samuel the real meaning behind Easter -- the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ -- this year was spent mainly doing the commercialized side of it... egg hunts along with candy, new books, and a few toys all stuffed inside a basket. He's too young to really understand it, but I plan to do the Resurrection rolls next year (you bake a marshmallow inside a roll and then it comes out hollow, like that of the tomb, showing that Jesus Is Risen)...

Even though we went to the Good Friday church service and there was no real reason to dress Samuel up on Easter since we mainly stayed at home, I still used it as an excuse to break out another tie for him to wear. I love little boys in ties! So we met James for lunch and took Samuel to the parade field and grabbed a few pictures. I must say, I'm not sure if I'm ever going to conquer the rough sunlight (with absolutely no shade available most of the time) while doing photography, but so be it. We still had to grab some pics!

In case you were wondering, that's not real grass -- there's no such thing here in the desert! The Army invested in AstroTurf in that particular parade field...

You like his ghost-like appearance? Yeah...still working on shooting in that harsh light...

And here are some pictures from when Samuel first woke up and checked out his Easter basket...

He likes to use various toys to make music, so we got him a little recorder. As of right now, he prefers using it upside down...

I couldn't help but laugh. He was inspecting the peeps, then turned them around and looked at the ingredient list as if he was really reading it. I think someone has been watching momma when we grocery shop. Clearly, the ingredient list for Peeps violates any type of real food diet since we've been avoiding a lot of the processed foods these days, but come on, it's Easter!

Exploring the living room...

And since we're too impatient to wait for his birthday, we gave these to him on Sunday. He is LOVING the fake fruit and vegetables! I love watching him grab the little knife to cut his fruit, ha.

Would you like a pear?

Love that sweet boy! I can't tell you how much joy it brings as we hit each holiday, knowing we get to celebrate it with him! I'm so thankful that after so many years of avoiding so many things due to the pain of our losses, we can enjoy the little things like giving Sam an Easter basket and watch as he excitedly checks out each item. It really is indescribable, and to many, I'm sure it seems like such little things, but it's huge in this house. As I was driving to post to meet James for lunch on Sunday, for whatever reason, Easter 2010 came to mind and it just made me so thankful to be where we are now. Back then, James was deployed and I was attempting to grieve the loss of our daughter, Olivia. I went to church and lunch with my sister Deb and her inlaws -- trying to hold a smile, but the pain was just so severe that I could barely do it. Back then, seeing the cute little girls in their Easter dresses was like a stab to the chest, but now...well...it's sugar-coated and the pain isn't in the forefront thanks to being able to enjoy the little things with Samuel -- like dressing him up like a little gentleman, ha. 

Oh, so thankful...

A Wonderful Visit With The Grandparents...

I'm very thankful for the fact that even though we live far away from family due to James' job, we're still able to have constant visits with them. For a little over a week, my parents were here and a certain little boy was in HEAVEN. As I'm sure I've mentioned in the past, Samuel and my dad are BFFs. In fact, during this trip, Samuel would run to the guest bedroom yelling, "Da-DAAA, Da-DAAA, Da-DAAA" as he called out for Grandpa Grant. The boy doesn't talk much at all, but he sure loves his Grandpa!

We had a great visit. We hit up the space museum in Alamogordo, NM, as well as White Sands National Monument. Why it took us this long to get up there is beyond me, but I'm glad we finally saw it! The rest of our time together was spent doing projects -- like cutting/sewing Molly Bears inserts and the Pinterest project that I blogged about yesterday -- and spoiling the little man rotten with attention. It was sweet...even my dad got involved in helping with the MB inserts during Samuel's afternoon nap.

As I'm sure it comes as no surprise, we broke out the good camera to get a ton of pictures of Samuel with his grandparents. Here are a few from our time at White Sands, NM. Sadly, they were all taken at the first stop where it's not nearly as beautiful/breath-taking as it is if you continue further into the area. However, by that time, Sam was done and we didn't bother getting the camera out...

Grandpa, slow down! I'm coming!

I couldn't resist...

The sweet boy and his dad...

Love these two. They're so cute!

Samuel always refuses to wear his sunglasses. However, after a little while, he decided he was finally willing to try on his daddy's...

He still wasn't so sure about the idea of covering his eyes, ha...

Total success! Now if only he'd be willing to wear his own on a normal basis. :)

And, of course, a little family shot. That boy is getting SO big!

Fast forward to the day my parents left, my mom asked if I could take a few quick pictures of the three of them one last time. Samuel wasn't exactly in the picture taking mode, so a few of them turned out rather amusing. People frequently tell me how much he communicates through his eyes (instead of talking) -- you can definitely see it in some of the pics, ha. In fact, I was told that again during the speech therapy meeting earlier today. Sweet Sam...you have no issue telling us how you feel with those eye brows...

Looking a little concerned about what Grandma Julie is about to do to him, hahaha.

I've got Grandpa Grant, Grandma Julie, and my (LeapFrog) cell phone -- what more do I need?

Oh, those eyebrows...

Love seeing how much these two adore him...

It's always sad to see them go. Luckily, there's talk about another visit in June when Samuel turns 2. It can't come soon enough for this boy!