2012 | P52 | Blooming

P52 | NINETEEN

This week we are....

blooming.

Every time I look at her

I see my first baby

and how she is growing up so fast

It seems like just yesterday I was holding all four pounds of her

Abby totally needed some blog love, so I decided this week needed to be all about my first born.

I can not get over how beautiful this girl is, inside and out.

She brings so much joy and love into our home.

The last couple of months she has started to seem so grown up to us.

She does so much more on her own and we are having a hard time giving her the independence she needs to discover who she is and who she wants to be.

With that, she is so much like her Mama:

She aims to please and to be the best.  She is competitive but still a good sport when she loses.

She does everything she can to make others feel included, wanted, and needed.

She has an amazing thirst to learn, and to learn quickly and as much as possible.

She is the teachers pet...the one asking for extra work because she finished her assignment before anyone else even got started.  

She gets bored easily because she wants to always be doing something.  

She will be outside if its possible. Cold, rain, hot, snow, warm....doesn't matter.

She is quiet and shy at times, but other times she couldn't be quiet to save her life.

She loves science. 

She loves the ocean...or any water for that matter.

She is totally scared to try new things, but still pushes herself to do it anyways.

I swear, this girl...she is my MINI ME!

2012 | P52 | Anticipating

P52 | EIGHTEEN

This week we are.....

anticipating

This week, Geoff came home with this.  Our EQUALS list.  The list that tells us all of the possibilities of where we are moving to in 15 months or less.  We were a little sad that some of the bases we were hoping for were no longer on our list of choices (Alaska, and 2 other Colorado bases).  But, we can't really complain, considering most of our friends that are stationed here with us, pretty much have a choice of 3-5 bases.  Geoff's job definitely has a good variety of places we can go...pretty much any area of the US, and quite a few places overseas.  For those wondering, our first choice is Buckley AFB in CO.  We have always loved the idea of going to Colorado because it seems like the type of area we would love.  Outdoors, mountains, snow, views, etc.    Our 2nd choice as of right now is actually to go back to Hawaii.  When we lived there 7 years ago, we never really got to enjoy the full experience of living in Hawaii.  We were newlyweds, brand new to the AF, and flat broke.  We totally took advantage of all the free stuff their is to do (hiking, surfing, going to the beach...a lot) but there is so much more.  Hawaii has an amazing SPACE A terminal (free military flights) and the only time we could take advantage of that was to go home (7-10 flights to Travis AFB per week so we went home a couple of times a year) even though there is flights pretty much all over the world that go in and out of Hawaii.  But, we just couldn't afford lodging anywhere.  On top of that, when we visited HI in Dec 2010, the girls just couldn't get enough of it.  They totally loved it.  We had a family meeting and discussed all of the different bases and what they have to offer, and all 4 of us had Hawaii and Colorado in our top 3 :)

2012 | P52 | Wondering

P 52 | SEVENTEEN

This week we are....

wondering (where our baby went???)

I totally did not mean to make Jordyn the subject of my Project 52 two weeks in a row, but it just sort of happened.  The other day I was all caught up with session editing, so I thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and do Jordyn's 5 year photos.  My schedule for May up until after the kids get out of school is CAA-RAAZZZY.  Jordyn had fun playing model, and of course getting a lollipop when she was done!

2012 | P52 | Sleepy

P 52 | SIXTEEN

This week we are...

Sleepy.

Oh Jordy....We decided about 2 months to finally drop Jordyn's naptime.  She still very much needed it most days.  Days she wouldn't nap after school, she was completely melting down by about 5pm...which is obviously too early to put her to bed.  But then her taking naps made her have problems going to sleep, even though she would be up from nap by 2:30, and wouldn't go to bed til 8pm.  She would be up til 11pm some nights saying she couldn't sleep.  When Carolyn was here she suggested we try not letting her take naps since she was here to help deal with the consequences if it didn't go well.  The first couple weeks were rough, we had to deal with a very cranky 4 year old every afternoon.  But, it slowly got better.  Some days you can see it in her eyes just how tired she is at dinner, but she fights it so hard.  The last couple of weeks her behavior starts to be...ummm, not to our standards.  So she will get sent to her room until she is ready to behave.  About half the time when I go into check on her a little bit later, I find her like this.  Passed out before bedtime (our girls bedtime is 8pm-ish, so this usually happens around 7pm).  She sleeps so much better at night not taking naps, but the poor thing is just exhausted at the beginning of the school week and then at the end.

2012 | P52 | Exploring

P52 | Fifteen

This week we are....

Exploring.

We just got back from a very fun filled family mini vacation a few days ago.  We decided since we had been to Minneapolis a few times, we wanted to go, but do some different stuff then just going to the Mall of America (which we still did, as well as Ikea, for stuff I needed!).  We checked out the new Sea Life park and a really awesome completely indoor park, as well as a few other things.  Overall the trip was awesome, and the girls were pretty much perfect during the whole trip, as usual :)

2012 | P52 | On our way

P52 | Fourteen

This week we are....

On our way!

Today we are on our way for our long weekend family vacation to Minneapolis, MN.  We have lots of fun stuff planned to do as a family!  I'll do a blog post next week of updates and then photos from our trip :)

2012 | P52 | Getting Answers

P52 | Thirteen

This week we are....

Getting Answers.

Ugh.  This photo pretty much sums up the last week or so in the VanDyck house.  Jordyn had a followup with her pediatric neurologist in Bismarck this week.  Not much new to report there.  Her medication was adjusted and she will go back in 6 months for another follow up as well as another sleep study (yay). Abby is getting seen in about a month for her MRI results follow up and if there is any new information we need to know.  Now for me.  Ever since late summer/early fall my asthma and allergies have been out of control.  In the fall I chalked it upto seasonal allergies. In the winter, I blamed the lack of winter and it not killing off all the spores like it should have.  Now, it is the beginning of spring and its getting worse and worse to where I am waking up in the middle of the night needing my rescue inhaler.  Finally got in to see a Dr today who gave me a whole new slew of meds to try and get it under control.  This isn't even everything, and is  in addition to what I already took for my allergies. (I would say this is maybe 1/3 of our families' RX's...I just snapped a shot of this while I was unloading my giant bag from the pharmacy and laughing at how ridiculous this was.)  Everything had to be upped.  Allergies being under better control will help my asthma meds work better to get my asthma back under control.

2012 | P52 | Taking it easy

P52 | Twelve

This week we are...

...taking it easy.

After a crazy busy weekend in California for my sisters wedding last weekend, this week flew by.  I am 2 days late on my project 52 this week, but I think I have a decent excuse.  I finally had my foot surgery to remove the foreign piece of glass from my foot from over a year ago!  That's right I have had some glass just chillin in my foot for the past year.  After it NOT working its way out like it should have, I finally saw a podiatrist who decided it should just be surgically removed.  It was a fairly minor surgery, but they did do it in an OR with me put under.  They cut a decent amount of the bottom of my foot to get it out, and its on the ball of my foot (where most of the weight is placed when you walk).  So now I am sporting an awesome walking boot :)  I go in tomorrow for my first post op appt, and then I will go back the next week to have my stitches removed and then I should be good to walk around normal.  Until then I am semi enjoying sitting around with my leg up....but it is pretty boring, and kind of hard for me to not do anything.

2012 | P52 | Counting our Blessings

P 52 | Eleven

This week we are

Counting Our Blessings

of our two beautiful miracle babies!

The last couple of weeks we have been doing a lot of work with the March of Dimes March for Babies coming up this weekend.  The march of dimes is our favorite non profit organization, thanks to our sweet girls.  Working with the march of dimes reminds us of  how blessed we are to have our sweet girls.  My good friend Chelsea made these adorable NICU Grad shirts for the girls to wear to the walk this weekend, so I had to get some pics of the girls in them.  These photos mean more to me than I thought they would....they seriously show how far they have both come and how God has just completely over flowed us with such blessings.  

And for those wondering, I actually finally typed out Jordyn's birth and NICU story for the blog, and it's almost done, so I will be posting it soon.

2012 | P52 | Outside

P 52 | Ten

This week we are...

Outside.

A LOT.  

Things are finally getting back into a normal schedule with Daddy being home, but normal for us means active and busy!  We have finally had some winter here and have been out playing in snow, going on a walks, and last night, we headed out around 8pm to go see if we could see the Northern Lights which were reported to possible be visible last night and maybe tonight. We were not able to see them last night because they ended up not being visible until around midnight, but we had an AMAZING full moon last night (which is what made it even more difficult to see the lights).  We are going to head out again tonight and watch.  I love all of our adventures as a family, even these little ones :)

2012 | P52 | Snowy

P52 | Nine

This week we are....

....Snowy.

This past week has been pretty much CONSTANT snow up here.  I guess winter has finally decided to hit us.  We have gotten probably about 20 inches in the past week, when before this week, we had gotten less than that total the whole snow season.  We are loving it...lots of playing in the snow...and of course Kota and Holly have been ever so happy to have snow outside to roll around and play in.

2012 | P52 | Together

P52 | Eight

This week we are....

....Together!

Here is a very rare photo that includes both Daddy AND Mommy!

As most of you know, Geoff got home very late Sunday night and things have been crazy busy since then.

He had a few days off work, and then the current class graduated, so now they have some down days for a few days, which means lots more flexibility.  We got to have a very rare "day date".  With Geoff working 

M-F, 7am-??? pretty much every week, it is very rare just the two of us have a weekday together with out the kiddos.  So we took advantage.  And by taking advantage I mean, we ran errands with out kids, LOL.  There isn't much else to do in Minot in the middle of weekday (no movies ever even play before 4pm most of the time) so we enjoyed lunch together and running errands :)  We'll take what we can get!

2012 | P52 | Waiting

P52 | Seven

This week we are...

...Waiting.

 

As of about an hour ago, Daddy is on his way home!  He won't be home until Monday, but he is on his way and we couldn't be more happy. 

This past week has been another hectic one.  Our number one goal right now is just to stay busy.  So again, with shooting 3 sessions this week, I had no time to take "real photos" of our life, so iPhone photos will have to do.

We found out yesterday that Geoff was awarded the Levitow award at the NCO Academy.  This is the highest award that can be given at pretty much any type of class/training they have to take in the AF.  When he left, I made a deal with him, if won ANY of the 4 awards at all (out of 125 students), I would get him the Keurig (that he could have had at Christmas if he didn't say a bunch of stuff that made me not get it for him!) he wanted.  So, here it is...waiting for him!

The main thing we did this week to keep busy was we started wrestling.  In town there is this amazing wrestling club that is 100% FREE for all ages.  This is an amazing club, and we are loving it so far. The girls love their coach.  He isn't about being hardcore and winning...he is about them trying their best and having FUN.  And he makes it fun for them.  We went 3 nights this week and the girls LOVED it...especially Jordyn.  Me and some of my friends that go to were laughing so hard at the fact that she just has this huge smile on her face (or laughing) the ENTIRE time!  I think we may have found the PERFECT sport for our little crazy girl.

I don't have any photos of Abby yet at wrestling because she always is near the back and I can barely see her.  At some point I will bring my camera and get some good shots...but for now, enjoy these hilarious ones of Jordyn.

P.S.  I LOVE that my girls want to try out every single sport...even the ones that at one point, were only for boys.

2012 | P52 | Playing

P52 | Five

This week we are....

....Playing!

Trying to keep busy.  That is what our days look like right now.  This week involved snow play for a few days until it all melted...again.  Some crafts, some games...more playing.  We are well over half way done with Geoff's TDY, and just ready for him to be home.  This was also our last week with Aunt Carolyn here as she is leaving this coming Tuesday :(

2012 | P52 | Testing

P52 | FOUR

THIS WEEK

WE ARE...

TESTING

Since Daddy has been gone, we are having some very serious behavior issues with Jordy.  We have had a lot of trial and error over the last two weeks to figure out exactly how to get her back on track with how she should be acting, instead of how she THINKS she is allowed to act.  I think we finally have it figured out and we are slowly working our way back to the sweet little girls we all know and love (let's face the facts though, she is still Jordyn so she will always have her moments).  This mommy has had some not so great moments, but we are just about over the hump and half way done with this dumb TDY!

This photo was taken at our "ice rink" that is down the street from our house.  The girls love to go skate, run around, and play hockey on it.  This particular day Abby wanted to go practice shooting, and Jordy wanted NOTHING to do with the ice rink, until we got there, and she wanted to run around on it, but not listen.

2012 | P52 | Cold

P52|Three

This week we are...

...COLD!

Winter has finally arrived up here in North Dakota.

We were having severely mild temps the past few weeks, with almost NO snow at all.  I think we hit about 60* about two weeks ago...which is insane.

But it has finally come.  This week it got as low as -25, with -47 windchill (which is what it actually feels like outside).  Most people will never experience these sort of extreme temperatures in their life time.  After living here, we like to laugh at people when they are back home saying its SO COLD and its in the 40s.  It's definitely a very unique experience for us.  

Right now Geoff is TDY for about 7 weeks (and yes, he is in the SOUTH where he can go to the beach!)  The girls and I miss him like crazy, but we are excited to have Aunt Carolyn up here visiting for a few weeks to help break up the time.  This was a photo of us after shoveling our very LONG driveway (which can hold about 8 cars) by hand, with a windchill of about negative 30 degrees.  Yup.

2012 | P52 | Sick

P52|Two

This week we are:

Sick :(

Abby has had a horrible cough for a few days now.  I have NEVER been the type to take my kids to the Doctor just because they have a runny nose, coughing, fever, or puking.  I usually have to be pretty concerned about something that seems pretty serious before I take them, because I know most of the time, there is really nothing that can be done.  But last night Abby was up half the night coughing so hard that it made her puke, multiple times....so off we went this morning.  Turns out she has an early stage of Pneumonia :(.  I am glad I took her in because now she can be getting better of this weekend, and hopefully be back at school on Monday (yes, she has school on Monday...I know, dumb.)

2012 | P52 | Missing Daddy

So I decided I would go ahead and do another project 52 this year.  I wanted to do something a little different than last year.  Last year was a very random 52.  I started out following another blog of themed weeks, and after a couple of weeks, I didn't really enjoy it anymore.  So then I started just kind of doing my own thing.  Some of the stuff was pretty random. Weeks when not much was going on around here, I just picked something random. This year I would like to try to focus more on our life here in Minot, since this is our last FULL year here.  So each week I will be posting a photo that shows a glimpse into what our life is like here.  The good, the bad, and the ugh...not so pretty parts. Some of them will be "good" photos, when I have the time or remember to grab my real camera.  Other times, it might be a photo from my iPhone. With that said, I am a week behind, but luckily I had the perfect photo already taken.

P52|One

This week we are:

Missing Daddy

Geoff left for NCOA last week.

Already the girls are having a hard time not having him around, because they are SO used to be him being around all the time.  Bedtime is the hardest, because that is usually Daddy's thing.  But for the next 7 weeks or so...it's just us girls!