This week in the Beach household

Sorry that I have been a blog slacker this week....Isaac has been a little under the weather and it seems like we have had appointments, activities, and other stuff every day this week!

I went to my 6 week postpartum appointment this week....even though Isaac is almost 8 weeks old.....ahhhhh naval medicine :-) I checked out ok. I have lost 31 of 45 pounds and seem to be doing alright.
Kendall and I baked some cookies for her PMO class in honor of halloween. I have also been busy making diaper cakes for quite a few friends that have had or are having babies soon.
Other than that....you know the routine weekly stuff!

Here's Kendall and Isaac waiting to get dressed up in their Halloween costumes

First Halloween
I LOVE pumpkins :-)

Isaac was sick this week so onward to the doctor we went with constipation (even though the pediatrician assured me that it was normal) and a cold (of which we are not doing anything but suctioning him.) He weighed in at 14 pounds and 6 ounces at 7 weeks & 2 days old!

Dadd giving Isaac his first bottle.....didn't go very well!!

Happy Halloween!

Have a safe and fun filled Halloween!

Friday Night's Daddy/daughter camping trip

WE ARE......

Thank goodness the guys pulled it out :-) So happy that I got to see bits and pieces of the game. JOE PA!!!

GOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

since that is what we are watching now! It would be a smashing weekend to have more than one of our teams win at the same time :-)

Kendall 2 years 4 months & Isaac 6 weeks

All by myself.......

Don't wanna be all by myself.......

Anyway, Isaac and I are chilling in the house right now while Ben & Kendall are well on their way to the campground with our friends from Sunday School. I am hoping that they have a great time even though there is a chance of rain and coldness. I sent as many snacks as I could think of, juice, and lots of warm clothes for her to wear. (Yeah I worry about Ben too but he is a big boy and I hate thinking of my little baby out there in the cold!) Her two boyfriends, Brodi & Colbi, are going to be there & there are going to be marshmellows so I know that she will be in heaven but.......

Enough of my self-pity and rambling! The past few days have been insanely busy. I had a great time at the mom's morning out & HML/A 467 wives coffee on Wednesday. It was wonderful to see old friends and meet some new ones.

Kendall's pumpkin tatto from the Fall festival at church last weekend

Daddy and Bug working on their pumpkin at church

Benny with his 1st place medal from the Emerald Isle triathlon

Activation ceremony

Thursday marked the official activation of the new squadron that Ben belongs to. It was pretty awesome to see this ceremony (even though my attention wasn't completely focused on it with Kendall and Isaac at the helm) Forever Ben will be "plank owner" #142 in HML/A 467. (Basically a "founding father" is my best way to explain it....Ben will have to tell you the plank story.) Ben and one of our friends from HML/A 269 got to be the platoon commanders for the ceremony. I am attaching pictures on here of the ceremony....we were in the hangar so it is kind of hard to tell which one Ben is in the pictures. Thus, a new chapter in our military life has begun...please keep us, the new command, and all of our military in your prayers.

This is a video clip from the actual ceremony that was passed on to us.
http://www.wnct.com/nct/news/local/military/article/cherry_point_to_receive_newest_attack_helicopter/21895/
If you scroll down the blog page, in my favorite places to visit there is the site for 467 where you can see more on the new squadron.

Thanks for taking pictures for me Claire! I wouldn't have been able to do it without you!

Picture time with Mommy and Daddy

I just thought that you might like to see the pictures of the kids with us too :-) I hope to make the grandparents happy by seeing their kids too!!

Let's see.....Monday.....Ben had work and practice for the activation ceremony on Thursday, Kendall & I had lunch with Stef and Cameron. (Thanks again Stef! Kendall slept for 4 hours when we got home.) Today I had a large amount of dental work done while Kendall was at PMO. OUCH!!! I have to go back next week to finish up. I think after the first of the year we will be looking into my braces & how much that is going to cost. Tuesdays are Ben's long day as he has his men's prayer group at 5 a.m. then goes straight to work and from work to class! Stay tuned for more news from us. I will be going to my first wives coffee for Ben's new squadron tomorrow as well as a Mom's morning out. Thursday is the activation ceremony for the new squadron & Friday is Ben & Kendall's daddy/daughter date (they are going camping with our Sunday school class!)

Squeak & Bug

We dressed the kiddos in their "matching" shirts for the fall festival at church. Thanks Mandy they turned out great :-)

Pictures from the Fall b-day party

We had such a great time and ate A LOT of yummy food! We are so thankful that we met Molly many, many months ago & found all of these wonderful friends!

A note of praise from us....

Congratulations to Ben on his 1st place age group and 15 out of 147 in his triathlon yesterday!

Congratulations to Pa Beach on becoming a game warden!! Great job with a lot of hard work.

Congratulations to Nathan and Jennifer! We so wish that we could have been there.

Happy Belated Birthday Dana Banana!! We miss you :-)

Go Benny GO!!!

Raining, 59 degrees, and Ben is doing his last triathlon today in Emerald Isle. We had planned on all of us going but with the weather so bad & Kendall and I just recovering from colds......we are here in the house nice & warm.
I feel so bad since this is the 2nd triathlon that I have missed this season for Ben. We are hoping and praying that he does well. Our friend, JT & his son Colbi (need I mention that Kendall follows Colbi around like white on rice?) went along for moral support. I think only another fellow triathloner (is that a word?) would go out in this mess!?!?!
We will see how he does when he gets home. Our church's fall festival is also this afternoon & has been moved indoors. We are still going but I am pretty bummed as there was to be hayrides, pony rides, and some other fun outdoor stuff. I think that Kendall would have went bonkers for the pony rides!
Ah well.....more updates to follow!

The hardest job that I have ever had....

MOTHERHOOD!
I have been stewing about a few comments that I heard a few weeks ago in the Starbucks at Barnes and Noble & I finally decided to vent a little bit (to someone other than Ben.) B&N has story time on Mondays and Wednesdays for toddlers, which I personally think is great to get them involved in reading & out to play with other children. This particular Monday, Kendall took a detour on the way back to the children's section and thus I overheard this conversation. There were 2 young girls sitting there talking about story time. Now I am a big fan of everyone is allowed to have & voice their own opinions but sometimes people will take it to far....that being said the conversation went something like this.....
"Can you believe the values (that are being taught by staying at home) and stereotypes that these women are teaching their children?" Talk about keeping the kids in the stone ages.....etc, etc. (The conversation was actually a lot longer but I don't feel that it is important enough to justify the time it would take to type it.)
First of all....I believe that values that we are trying to teach Kendall & Isaac are that we want to raise them and that they are important enough for us to sacrifice one of us staying at home. Also, what the heck do these ladies think that I do all day? Because it isn't sitting on my duff watching soaps.
Secondly, there was quite a few dads there that day & they were flying solo with their children so I am not sure what stereotype that would encompass.
I sat and thought about it for awhile.......right now for Isaac, I nurse him, change his diaper, & burp him every 3 hours. The grand total of that routine is about 8 hours a day. Then add in holding him for pleasure, cleaning him up in between times when there is an accident, & trying to stimulate him on his einstein mat or giving him belly time etc.....add in Kendall. We are trying to potty train which now involves sitting in bathroom with her to read a book, put stickers in her book or various other things to keep her on the potty. I have only been managing at most 4 times a day to get her on there. Plus changing her diaper, feeding her, and playing with her so that she doesn't feel left out. (Did I also mention trying to break her of her binky?) I wish that I could be there when these 2 girls have children to laugh when they realize how selfish and stupid their comments were.
Now I am not wanting to debate which is harder working -vs- staying at home because each has its own set of problems and concerns but I do want to voice my opinion.....by far staying at home and trying to be a great mom is THE HARDEST JOB I have ever had!

Our pigtail cutie!

What you can't see is the Dora bandaid on her knee from all of the playground chasing that was going on!

McDonald's Monopoly Madness...

Ok so here I am wanting a nap, Kendall's down for hers but Isaac needs to nurse soon so do I complete a wide variety of tasks that I have on my list? NOOOOOO.......I am taking time for myself and playing on the computer!
The past few days have been busy. Let me start with my title. Kendall and I have been a part of a wonderful playgroup for quite a few months. These ladies have kept me laughing, provided me with a fountain of information about my own community that I never knew, offered advice, and yes have kept me sane! Now they are leading me astray with this whole McDonald's Monopoly business. I went on Tuesday morning to just meet up for some great adult conversation and left with a game board and many new pieces with hopes of winning one of the many prizes offered. It was even suggested we make Tuesday our morning to meet for breakfast & exchange of pieces day. (Coincidentally....I am trying to fit into a ball gown and this is not going to help me out in that area!)
Yesterday, Kendall and I cleaned the house. She is a good helper and while she doesn't understand what cleaning is I am taking advantage of her helpfulness! Last night, I flew solo to church for the monthly meeting for the nursery committee that I belong to. Not only was it liberating to be free of all children, schedules, etc....it was great to be able to give back to our church as well.
Today, Isaac and I met up with some of the ladies from the playgroup to walk. (Which is much needed if you just read the paragraph about needing to fit in a ball dress and McDonald's!) We also made some preparations for our fall birthday party for our play group friends which is tomorrow afternoon. I then went to pick Kendall up from PMO to find her being chased by 3 boys. (The only 3 boys on the playground I might add.....Ben and I need to start praying now because our little girl is already boy crazy! She also made friends with a young boy named Gavin at our playground in our housing complex!)
Whew! That brings me to now where I am looking online to try and find someone crazy enough to watch Kendall and Isaac one day a week so I can go back to work in January! That's the show for now folks!

What a treat.....

THANKS Mouse, Mary, Mandy, Mark, and Isaiah! We loved the goodies for Isaac and Kendall!

Some news from us....

I figured that it is about time that I put something more than pictures on here. The past 5 weeks have flown past. I can't believe that Isaac is over a month old already! So much has happened that when I think about it my head spins!

We had a fabulous visit with my friend, Laura, my parents, and Ben's mom. We made millions of memories along the way some of which are captured in the pictures that I posted.
Ben finally made it home on Thursday night from California where he was getting the air crafts for his new squadron. It was so wonderful to see Kendall jumping up and down on the porch and screaming my daddy, my daddy!

This brought us to our Columbus day weekend celebration. We got to take Ben to the museum in Richlands, pumpkin picking at Northwoods Methodist church, a few family walks, story time at Barnes and Noble, and of course church & Sunday school.

October and November are shaping up to be very busy months for our family. Let's see for this week.....tomorrow I am meeting some of my friends from the playground pals for breakfast, Wednesday will be a nursery ministry meeting for me along with a possible playdate in the morning, Thursday I will be walking with the mom's from playground pals, Friday is our fall group birthday party, then Saturday is Ben's last triathlon of the season & the fall festival at our church. I am sure that I will have pictures to post and more to say after the week ends.

Kendall had her school pictures last week so we will see how those turn out :-) We picked out her halloween costume today. She is going to be some kind of princess....I wasn't super thrilled about the choice but Ben didn't want her to be a pumpkin (yes she is fascinated with pumpkins!) Isaac is going to be a dalmation puppy. I think that Halloween will be interesting this year as Kendall is now afraid of witches and monsters.

I am working on Isaac's birth announcements and hope to have them out before Halloween! (Or at least before I have to do Christmas cards!)

Let's see what else....Ben's squadron had it's official activation on October 1st. His new information is HML/A 467 and they are called the Sabers. I am looking forward to my first wives coffee this month as well. It will be nice to meet new wives!
We will be welcoming our new pastor in November. The church voted and has accepted him. He looks pretty young but we are excited to meet him and see how it goes.
Guess I have prattled on long enough......

Pumpkin Picking at Northwoods

Happy Birthday Dadoo!

Hope you are having a great day Dad! Wish we could be there.
Love,
the crazy NC bunch

Rainy Saturday

I am so exceedingly happy to report that Isaac has spent the last 2 nights in his crib that I can't even let the rain bother me today :-)
We were planning on trying to make it to a local corn maze today but since mother nature decided to bless us with some rain we have been inside doing some work. We did get to come out and walk awhile this morning before the rain started up which felt pretty good. (Still have another 17 pounds to lose and with the Marine Corp Ball coming up...)
It is nice to just relax and be a family for a little bit since we were missing Ben for the last few weeks.
Since the military has a 96 this weekend we will also have time to play on Monday so maybe we can hit the corn maze then! We will have to talk to a few of our friends from church to see if anyone wants to come along with us.
I know that I have been slacking on actually writing anything on the blog and I promise that I will start back up again soon now that we are back in a small schedule of sorts.
I will post some pictures from yesterday in a bit!

A few favorite things from today....

• Finally getting Benny home last night!!!!!
• Taking Daddy to the museum play group with us this morning.
• Pumpkin picking as a family this afternoon
• Olive Garden for dinner
• The promise of more fun family outings this weekend!

Verse of the day

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. - Luke 12:34

Kendall's Korner & Isaac's Inch by inch

Who couldn't love these two sweet faces!

Kendall doing a great job as a big sis!
My handsome little man.....

....who is pooping & peeing thru clothes like nobody's business!

The final slide show of grandparents visit 2008

Happy Autumn

Pictures from our playdate at Mike's Farm on Friday. It was beautiful weather & scenery. Hope you enjoy it as much as what we did!!

Thank God for Grandparents!

I know that we have said it before but we are so thankful that we have such great parents that love being grandparents. Here are the kiddos with their grandparents.

Happy, HAPPY Birthday!

Happy Birthday Jen! Hope that you are having fun with Mamoo and Dadoo! Wish that we could be there.

A big Thank-you!

We wanted to tell our parents thank-you so much for all of the help over the last 3 weeks. We appreciate it more than you know & I wouldn't have made it through without ya'll! (Jim we are looking forward to when you have time off to come meet your grandson too!)
Love you guys!