It has been quite a year to say the least. Our year consisted of lots of trips, lots of family activities, lots of new experiences, a new addition to our family, and lots of new friends.
We survived our first full year up in Minot. We LOVED our first winter (we do not LOVE the -50* days) the girls loved the snow...having snowball fights, sledding, building snowmen, making snow angels, and shoveling the driveway (yes, they do enjoy this when they think its playing..which is the first 2 minutes, after that it becomes work, and it is no longer fun for them). We love the summer here...the weather is perfect (minus the crazy winds some days). We walk almost every night as a family during the summer, and lots of nights during the winter still. I am glad we never let all the negativity of the people that hate it here get to us. We came with a positive attitude, and made our own opinion of Minot, and try to avoid the people that only have bad things to say about it. We love it here, and have found that it is a great place for families. We couldn't ask for a safer, more friendly place to raise our girls for a couple of years. We know we will actually be very sad when it is time to leave this base.
Our first trip of the year was our first of many family trips down to Omaha for Geoff's hearing aid process. It was his 2nd time going down there, but the girls and I decided to go along this time. On our way back we stopped in Minneapolis and met up with Scott, Kim, and Kayla and spent a few days around with them. The girls had soooooo much fun playing with their cousin! The hearing aid didn't work, so we sent it back, and went down again later on in the year. Our next time going to Omaha was during the summer. We decided to detour again, and on the way we drove to South Dakota and all the neat stuff around Mt Rushmore. We did some rock climbing, fed some animals, saw lots of buffalo, the Badlands, and drove around ALOT. After that we continued on to Omaha, where, yet again, the next hearing aid didn't work. We took a few trips to Bismarck for various reasons as well. We enjoy going to the pumpkin patch in Bismarck every fall. Also, Bismarck is where we picked up the newest member of our family: Holly. She is now 5 months old and just as beautiful as Kota. Our final trip of the year was in November when we headed to Cali for the duration of the holiday season! During this trip, we made our first trip as a family to Hawaii! I think Abby was the most excited out of all of us...getting to see where she was born! It was a great experience for all 4 of us, and I LOVE that we got to share it with Jordy this time.
We love how easy it is to travel with our girls. We seriously could not ask for better kids in so many aspects. They are at such a fun age, and its awesome that we are able to experience so much, as a family. Our tradition we started on trips this year, is picking up a magnet in each state we visit. There are a few we still need to get that we missed out on before the tradition started, but we will just pick them up next time 'round! They love collecting them. I am also going to be getting them a big US map so they can put stickers on all the states we have been to....eventually I hope we have to upgrade to a world map!
Geoff has had an interesting year with all the ups and downs of the possibility of being able to hear again in his right ear. So far, no hearing aids have worked in restoring his hearing. We are looking into a couple of different options, but most likely, we will be heading to San Antonio, TX for him to have the BAHA surgery sometime this spring. This will involve drilling a small hole into the side of his head and putting a stump on the outside that his anchored to his bone. Once it heals, he will go back 6 months later and receive a bone anchored hearing aid that uses bone conduction for him to hear through that ear. We are pretty sure this one will work as we have tested out the theory with other bone conductors on him, and he was able to hear! Other then that, Geoff has been busy with work, loving teaching Airman Leadership School. Right now, he is working on his officer package to apply to go to OTS where he will become an officer and go back to the world of Intell. This will involve a PCS for us, and we have NO idea where...as an intell officer, he can go to almost any base!
Mommy has had a very busy year. My first priority is being a mommy to our beautiful girls. I am soooo BLESSED that I am able to stay at home with them. We stay busy with MOPS, playgroups, walks to the park, and lots of biking in the summer (to the pool, parks, or just rides with friends). I really enjoy biking during the summer, and try to bike as much as possible. I think there was a period where I went 2 weeks without driving anywhere, just biking to what I needed to do on base. I am hoping to increase my distances this summer, along with training Kota to go farther than 5 miles biking with me. (She made it to 5 miles over the summer, I was so proud of her!) I had a great year with my business as well. I hope to increase my client base even more this year. I love that my job allows me to stay home, and make my own hours. Sometimes I feel like taking on more, so I will have 5-6 sessions one week, others I feel like I need some time with the family and take a week or two off. I have made many new good friends here in Minot, and had to say goodbye to a few of them already :( This is by far the hardest part of being in the military for most wives. We spend so much time with some of these girls, that they become part of your family. But being a military wife teaches you to make friends fast, and give them your all, even though you know that one of you will be leaving the other at some point. You learn to not let the fact that someone will leave stand in the way of letting new friends into your life. It sucks, but how sad would it be if we thought "well there is no point in making friends at this base...they all leave at some point". Anyways, I am working on a blog post that goes into detail about life of the military family...soon to come :)
Abby....my beautiful big girl Abby. Abbys stats: 43lbs, 43 inches tall. She is around 10% for height, and 15% for weight, and her height to weight ratio is about 50% (which means she is perfectly proportionate for her body). She is now in size 5/6 or 6 clothing. She has grown so much this past year...and I love it, and hate it at the same time. Abby is now well into learning to read, doing math, and loves science, just like her mama. She started school in August, and loved every minute of it. We hated that we had to pull her out because of our trip. We hate that we felt forced into either canceling our trip we planned, and saved for all year, or pulling her out. It was not any easy decision, and sometimes we regret it, but at the same time, I am happy that I get a few more months with my baby girl now. We have not made the final decision on next year as far as 1st grade goes. We are on the fence right now between sending her to the other school on base, or home schooling. There are benefits to both for her and our family, and right now, we have plenty of time to figure it out. In the mean time, we do lots of teaching at home. We are not officially homeschooling her this year, as it is not needed, but we are working on her reading skills, math, and creativity at home. Abby took swim lessons over the summer, and that improved her swimming skills greatly! She can almost do it all. She just has to practice swimming farther underwater, holding her breath, so she doesn't freak out. She also plays ice hockey now! She started in October, and then missed half the first season, but is back out on the ice 2x a week now. She loves it, and we love that its a team sport that really challenges her.
Jordyn...my sweet Jordy. Jordyn's stats: 24lbs, 32 inches tall. She is our little peanut at less than 1% for height and weight, and like her sister 50% height to weight ratio. She really has not grown much at all since her 1st birthday. They are not concerned with her size however, because she is still growing, and still (barely) on the charts. Jordyn finally was able to start speech therapy a few months ago, which is helping her quite a bit. She is learning the correct way to make sounds she otherwise didn't know how to make when it came to vocabulary. Right now we are in the process of getting her into see a developmental specialist, most likely down at WHMC at Lackland as well. Jordyn has a lot of trouble focusing...her mind, and her energy in that tiny little body of hers. We want to be able to understand why she does what she does, and how to deal with her behavior. She still is not potty trained, and really not showing much interest in it. I try with her every couple of weeks, but still no luck. My next attempt, which started this morning, is using the ipad for reward. Anyone that knows Jordy, knows that this might be what works LOL. I will post later how it goes in the next couple of days. Other then that, Jordyn stays busy being a little sister, and she does it well. There isn't much she can do as far as sports and activities here yet, but this fall, she will be playing hockey as well! Most sports around base and down, you have to be 5 years old, but hockey is only 4, so that will be her first sport she plays :).
All 3 doggies are doing well. Roxy adapted to North Dakota living, much better then expected. She will go outside...even when its really cold and snowing (as quick as possible) She loves snuggles with her Abby, and sleeps with her most nights. Kota is...well, being a husky. She loves the snow, and everything about it. She would stay outside all day if we let her. She loves jumping fences, not to run away, but to go see what is going on with all the other doggies. She loved running and bike rides all summer long. She actually worked her way upto 5 miles, running beside me on my bike. We also would like to train her to pull a sled this winter. Holly is still very puppy like. She still has accidents almost everyday in the house. Part of this is due the fact we had to leave her for over a month, and sort of had to start over when we got home, and it was a new house to her again. Her and Kota just play all day long. They love wrestling around all over, and chasing each other. The two of them have definately formed a "pack" in the house.
Well that was a majority of our year summed up in one long blog post. We are excited to see what this year will bring. We have more trips planned, more birthday parties to look forward to, and new experiences to come.
