She is getting it!

Jillian has been going very regularly in her potty, but today was a milestone... I about cried. We were upstairs and she just walked off, I didnt think anything of it. I just figured she went downstairs to play. Well next thing I know, I hear here potty chair start to sing... that means she went potty. So I race down the stairs and she looks up at me triumphantly and says:

'I did it mommy! I big girl!' It was so cute... mind you she didnt get her underpants pulled down all the way and her nightgown was semi in the potty, and she needed a whole change... but it was a big moment and I was so excited for her.

That was just the beginning... she kept doing it through out the day after that. She didnt even wet her naptime diaper! She did go #2, but it was dry. :) She is doing so good. I hope she keeps up the good work.

She still has a fear of potties that are bigger then her potty chair, and we are hoping she will grow out of that soon. I hate getting JUST off base to have her announce she has to go potty... that means I have to turn all the way around and come back home. Plus, they are doing construction near my house, so I have to drive the long way all the way around the base. We are thinking of putting a potty chair in the trunk for those kinda things.

On other news, Dennis' first two days of 13.5 hour days have gone well and now he is on his 2 days off. I think he likes it more then he lets on, but we shall see.

Tomorrow we are going to go see the new disney movie.. Jill calls it 'Chicawawa' hehe. We are going with Jillians best friend and her parents. It should be alot of fun.

Changing Schedule

Dennis' schedule is going to be changing soon. He will be working 12 hour days, 2 days on and 2 days off. So that will make us a little backwards for a while. So dont mind our extra scatter brain to come. :)

Jillian is really picking up on her potty training... as long as she has her underpants on. She refuses to go potty in her underpants so she has to use her potty, but when it comes to her pull ups she just goes.

She has had only 2 accidents in the past 2 weeks. Though normally no matter how into playing she is she will take the time to announce she has to go potty. :) Its pretty darn cute actually. She still will not go #2, but that will come.

We are planning our trip home and trying to get everything squared away, we dont think we will have a car because we can not afford to rent one... so we will be relying on others to get us around. Kinda stinks, but how it sorta needs to be I suppose. We can not just drive home to get us around... well we could but then we could only be home for 4 days instead of 10. :) maybe only 3 or 2 days... Im not really sure exactly how long it takes.

We are working on getting Jillians birthday party squared away aswell before we leave so I dont have to rush around when we get home to have her party. Nothing big, just nice and fun for Jillian. We are thinking of getting her, her first doll house. Then for christmas get her most of the accesories, because the house doesnt come with much.

Thats really all thats going on with us. :)

ANOTHER Happy Dance! :)

Two days in a row Jillian has been using the potty fairly regularly! I knew once she actually got the idea she would catch on quickly. Shes doing great now and I am so excited. I really dont want her to be growing up but its what they do I suppose.

Today we watched Nascar and I wanted Jimmie Johnson to win, atleast he was in second. Dennis' guy Stewart finished a negative lap. He was kinda sad, Though finding out the colts won this afternoon perked him up some. We are going to watch the Cleveland game tonights. :) Its kinda nice that Jillian likes watching Nascar and football. She pretends to be a car during Nascar and a football when we watch football. Its cute. We havnt watched either in so long it was cute to see how much she liked it.

Really nothing else new going on this way.:)

Doing The Happy Dance

Well, I was freaking out because Jillian still isnt fully potty trained. Infact she just recently started showing any interest in it. So I got together with some other moms to talk to them about what I should do.

So it would turn out my kid really isnt slow at all. Shes pretty much right on track for her. I never really thought about it but they all potty train at their own pace no matter how much we influence them.

I didnt want to push Jillian so I just kinda left it up to her wanting to or not. Then I started putting her in underpants all the time except at bedtime/naptime and when we would go out shopping or something.

One of my friends suggested to push her along a bit to take her out on short trips and if she has an accident she wont like it at all being out and about. So she will want to make stops at the potty. So I tried this for the first time yesterday.

We went to the gym and we were there for an hour and a half to two hours. She played hard with the other kids there and not one accident!

We got out to the truck and did the happy dance. She was really happy that she didnt make a mess. So it would seem my daughter is on the fast track now to growing up.

We are alright....

Well, today on base we lost over 125 homes. Actually they were all abandoned houses that were scheduled to be torn down. Thank the Lord those homes were not occupied or already gone. It would have spread quickly to many, many, occupied homes. Here is a website of a local news channel that was covering the fire. You can see some of the videos of it. Its pretty scary.

http://cbs13.com/local/travis.afb.fire.2.797045.html

We had to stay in doors with our windows shut and our air conditioners off. The smoke was horrible and even with the windows shut and the air off it was unbearably smokey anyways. The fires are still going even now after midnight and it started somewhere around 3:15 this afternoon.

Trip - Part 3

Uncle Storm!!!!!!!!!!

Jill having ice cream
Moments before Dennis broke my camera :) She loves Jelly Belly.

That was pretty much our trip over all. I missed alot of picture opportunites but its understandable for a little girl who is used to just the normal quiet to be overwhelmed with millions of people going in every direction being loud and pushy.

Trip - Part 2

Uncle Storm! :)
Jillian on her first boat ride, we havnt even left the dock yet and shes excited.

Under the golden gate!!! oooooohhhhhhhh, aaaaahhhhhh!
Alcatraz

Trip - Part 1

This was the first picture Dennis had to take.
I liked this picture of the golden gate. :)
This one too
Jillian begged to get her picture taken with the sea lions
Then she was dragging us to see the real sea lions. :)

Family Visit

I got to see my baby brother! :) Its been just about a year since I saw him. Dad, Kate, and Storm all came out for a visit. It was really nice to see them all. Jillian was so excited to see Uncle Storm. It was all she could talk about when I told her they were coming. She even made me call him one night so she could say good night to him. She was confused that we couldnt just go drive over to see him. She dragged me out the door and to our truck asking me to take her to see Uncle Storm. It was adorable.

Well we went and stayed in the city for two days and did a bunch of tours and spent some time at pier 39. Its expensive and beautiful all at the same time ;) Once I get the card out of my broken camera I will post the pictures.

Yes, my trusty camera I have had since RIGHT before we moved to California has passed away. :( We were at the Jelly Belly factory and Dennis was doing something I dont know and he swung around and whacked it right out of my hand. *sigh* I loved that camera.... but I got a newer and better one! :)

They were here for a few days and then back home they went. I will be going home October 24th to the 3rd of November. So we will get to see everyone again soon. I miss home yet, this feels more and more like home all the time. I shouldnt get to attached in 6 years we will be moving. There are people here who have been here for 8 years. From what I hear this base loves to keep you, yet I also hear the Air Force doesnt move people often.

I will try to get the pictures posted today or tomorrow. The city is just beautiful and I didnt get as many pictures as I wanted to because there is a certain little person who is the apple of my eye who wanted to be held the entire time. Poor thing was overwhelmed with all those people.

He Passed his CDC Test

Dennis had to take a test for his job. He got an 86% which is actually one of the better grades out of his group that came in with him in September. :) So now he can start college and he is deployable now.

He studied really hard for the test, and I am really proud of him. :)

The President

Yesterday, Dennis was hand selected to go and hear the president's speech that he was to give here at Travis. Needless to say, he ended up not giving the speech but Dennis still got to see him and snap some pictures of him. The president was basically making a pit stop here to go to a benefit dinner and see all the damage that was caused around California due to the forest fires the past month or so. Here is an article the local paper wrote:

http://www.thereporter.com/ci_9909176?source=most_emailed

Jillian playing in her 'WaterPark'

Jillian Finger painting :)
She was doing water coloring in her Johnny Cash shirt.
She does this after every bathtime, Dennis thinks she has OCD
She got a lady bug, you can see it on the end of her thumb. :)
When we went to Six Flags she just kept begging to see Tweety

Things are going really well here for us. We are sticking sorta to the normal routine we have acquired. Jillian and I spend alot of time in the backyard playing in her waterpark. She thinks its the best thing EVER! :) Its certainly a good thing we do not pay for our water fill, because it would be through the roof.

We spend alot of time taking care of the flowerbeds and making sure our lawn looks good. I certainly wish our neighbors would take better care of their lawns but there isnt much I can do on that subject and since housing is switching hands and it keeps getting pushed back no one is doing their jobs. You can see in my videos the brown grass of my neighbor on that side.

We are thinking of going to Bodega Bay here soon. We all really enjoy going to the beaches around here. We have been trying to find a nice one that doesnt take to long to get to that is nice. We are sorta trying to find one we can take Trixie too aswell. I think she would love to go with us and Jillian and her are basically attached at the hip. :)

There has been debating at our house to see if we should have the third seat put in our truck. We decided to get the cheapest version of our truck. We wanted leather seats and the third row but it was an extra 15,000. Its MUCH cheaper to do it later after buying the cheaper version of our truck. We looked into it. We figure if we are going to have more kids we need more room. Plus, we can not take many people with us when we go places and that eats up on gas. So its something we have been saving up for, and aslong as its in our price range I think we are going to do it.

Other then that there really is no new news. Great- Grandma Engler is finally back after falling and breaking her hip. She has to use a walker now but they are not sure if it will be for the rest of her life or not. Shes back at home taking care of herself. Great Uncle Dennis is in a nursing home now, after having a stroke. He had lost his memory and his left side is really weak. His memory is mostly back now and they are working on physical therapy for his left side so hopefully he can come back from it and get to go home aswell.

Been a while :)

Here are some pictures from the 4th of July weekend

Jillian in the front of the house with Daddy
She is hiding... we cant see her.
There is my princess :)
She wanted to fill her pool all on her own.
Her and I while we were playing in her water stuff.

Well, things are going good for the most part. I suppose a recap would be good since it has been MONTHS since I last blogged:

• There was a fire in our court. Somehow the grass caught and almost made it to the houses


• We said our goodbyes to Ribbit, he is now living at the duckpond


• We got a chinchilla, Jillian named him Morton.


• I have been going to the gym still 3 or 4 days a week.


• Jillian is working on her potty training.


• Jillian is trying to read.


• Dennis was presented with a Commanders Coin. I guess that is a super thing that some people will never receive in a lifetime of service. I dont really know a think about it. Dennis just seems really happy about it.

Thats basically the highlights I suppose. Dennis and I have found a church on base that we think we like. I will keep you all updated on that. I got myself a new bible, I love it. I had no idea they had Bibles with neat covers on them. Mine is green with blue circles on it. It just looks neat and has larger print with silver around the pages instead of gold like I have normally found. :)

Jillian and I have been spending a bunch of time outside. We set up her water toys, garden, and go to the park. We just have a great time being outdoors. Last week we hardly left the house. It was over 100 degress and humid. YUCK! This California sun is killing me.

I am starting to get a tan, but I put so much sunscreen on Jillian shes still white. I put alot of sunscreen on myself aswell but I guess mine doesnt last as long as hers dones.. thankfully. Plus, I reapply hers alot.

We have gone to six flag, Jillian LOVES it there. We got season passes and we have gone 3 times and it has more then paid for itself already. :)

We are looking at waterparks in the area that have accomidations for Jillian's age group. She loves water as much as I do so we figure why not go and have a day of water fun thats not in the backyard. :)

We are going to be heading home about the 24th of October for my best friends wedding. :) We are still not sure how long we will be staying but the wedding is on the 1st so we hope to stay atleast until the 3. We are working on finding the cheapest way home and it means we have to move days around and find the best flight. Though we refuse to fly Delta ever again so they are OUT.

Here is a video of Jillian singing in the car on July 4, 2008. I only caught a few seconds of it but its still cute. Its to a song by Taylor Swift - You Should Have Said No. I believe thats the name of the song.

Restart!

Here is Jill just being cute! :)
This was at Jelly Belly while Dennis' dad was here.
Bowling with Daddy!

Well, I was blogging on here and I decided I was going to just start over. It happens I suppose. :)

Yesterday was Dennis' one year in the Air Force! :) We shall be in for 5 more years unless Dennis signs again then its going to be 19 more. I told him if he signs up again for a 4 or 6 year term might as well just follow through and retire.

Other news, Jillian has allergies just like Dennis and myself. She started getting bloody noses and just being icky so we took her to the doctor and confirmed what I already thought to be true. So she is feeling much better now. :)

Jillian has a frog named Ribbit. She does nothing but watch it of course. Dennis and I once a week clean it out and put more crickets in there for him to eat. I am getting to the point that I really don't like having crickets and a frog as pets. So Jillian will have to say her goodbyes to Ribbit here soon.

I have been going to the gym regularly for the past month. Well, a little bit of a fib, I didn't go most of this week. We had different things going on and I just couldn't go. So I went today with Jillian today instead of in the morning without her. I usually go in the mornings before she gets up. So I am up at 6:30 and at the gym by 7. It actually makes my day SOOOO much better when I do go. :)

Dennis is enjoying his job. He actually comes home normally in a good mood. We are working on the strength of our marriage. We have been looking for a good church around here. We just want to find something that works for us.

Well, nothing else really new with us. :)