4 Years Old!

Miss Calista Diane is 4 years old!

This blog post is way overdue - things have been a bit busy and crazy lately (more on that in another post).  But better late than never!

5 Years old!

Cecilia Kathleen is 5 years old!

3 Years Old!

Little miss Calista Diane is 3 years old!

2 and 1/2!

Little miss Calista Diane is 2.5!

4 Years Old!

Cecilia Kathleen is 4 years old!

Travels and Holidays

Since Jay returned home at the end of September, it feels as though we haven't stopped!  We journeyed to the beach and Peppa Pig in world in October, then headed to America for Thanksgiving in November, ventured to Disneyland Paris in December, and then celebrated Christmas at home with my friend Jen before heading up to stay with Jay's family in Milton Keynes!  We've had so much fun, shared a lot of laughs, and enjoyed all being together after our extended time apart.  But we're getting excited to finally settle into a routine, though not without its own changes and challenges (more on that to come in a subsequent post!).  Here's some of the highlights of our travels...

Two Years Old!

Our sweet little Cali Cat is 2 years old!

Settling In

Where has the time gone??  Somehow the months have melted into one another since we arrived back in England at the end of August and it's now November.  We've been spending our time settling back into our home and our routine, and reconnecting as a family.

The Home Stretch

Hard to believe that one week from today we'll be going home to England to see Jay!  Considering we've been apart nearly 20 weeks, that's quite a feat!  As the saying goes, the days were long but the weeks were short.  Especially once summer hit, time seemed to fly by.

3 Years Old!

Cecilia Kathleen is 3 years old!

Flying Solo

All too quickly, our trip to America arrived.  After weeks of planning, list-making and worrying, it was go time.  Since Jay was leaving a few days after us, he was able to drive us to the airport, and we decided to stay in a hotel near there the night before our flight since otherwise we would have had to wake the girls up early and drive into London during rush hour.  We had a relatively easy drive to the hotel and a lovely last family dinner.

Last family dinner!

Changes, changes, changes.

When I married into the military life, I knew that it would come with a lot of ups and downs, and a whole lot of change.  Having two children under 3 has only made this lifestyle more complicated.  When we found out we were moving (again) we'd barely been in our new house in London a couple months.  Thankfully we were able to arrange it so the move didn't happen until we'd been in London for a year, so as to not disrupt the girls again so soon.  That year went by quickly and now here we are, moved into yet another new house, this time in Lyneham.  Ceci won't turn 3 for a couple months and yet she's already lived in 3 houses!

1 Year!

Calista Diane is 1 year old!

It's been a wonderful, crazy, incredible year!  Over the last month, Cali has...

Christmas!

We had such a lovely Christmas this year.  The girls are at such a fun age.  Since Cali didn't grace us with her presence until after Christmas, this was her first Christmas!  Whereas Ceci was only 8 months old for hers, Cali was nearly 1 and walking, so she was able to participate in quite a bit.  And being 2.5, Ceci was totally tuned into what was going on and super excited about everything!

The girls both loved decorating the Christmas to start off the festive season.  I think Cali took as many ornaments off as she put on, but Ceci totally had the hang of it and especially enjoyed putting the star on top of the tree.  After that, every time we saw a Christmas tree anywhere Ceci would yell "a Christmas tree - just like our one!".  Too cute.

11 Months!

Our little Cali Cat is 11 months old!  Hard to believe that in less than a month she'll be 1!!

This past month Cali has...

Jetsetting Girls!

We made our second trip to America as a family of 4.  This time for Cali's first Thanksgiving!

Here's a picture summary of our trip...

Halloween & 2.5

At the end of October, Miss Cecilia turned 2.5 and also celebrated her 3rd Halloween.  2.5 is such a fun age - she really understands everything that's going on and Halloween was no exception.  For the first time, she was super into the festivities.  When I asked her what she wanted to be, her reply was "A dinosaur! Raaarrrrr!!!" - which totally took me by surprise because she's really into Frozen and princesses at the moment; I have no idea where the dinosaur idea came from.  I asked a few more times over a week or two and every time her answer was the same.  As I was shopping around for dinosaur costumes online I found a really cute one along with a purple dragon.  I showed her both and she got really excited about the purple dragon (she's a big Room on the Broom fan, and loves the dragon).  When the costume came in the mail she couldn't wait to put it on, and she looked at her calendar every day to see if it was Halloween (or time for a Halloween party) yet.  We also had fun painting and carving pumpkins to get in the spirit!

 

10 Months!

Calista Diane is 10 Months old!

We're a bit overdue for this one (the picture is actually a week late!)  Unfortunately I came down with what I thought was a stomach bug at the end of October, was sick at home the day Cali turned 10 months, wound up in the hospital the next day and then had an emergency appendectomy the day after that.  Oof. I'm now home and recovering, slowly but surely.  It was not a fun week for any of us, but we're finally starting to get back to normal around here.

This month, Cali has been...

Big Girl Rooms

I finally got around to finishing Cali's room and getting it clean enough to take a couple pictures (since Cali wasn't sleeping in there when we first moved, her room became a bit of a dumping ground!).  She's been in there for 3 months now, and though it's been mostly done for a while, the final piece of "artwork" went up today so it's now officially complete - hooray!

Since I made all of the decor for Ceci's room myself, I wanted to do the same for Cali.  Not only is it cheaper, and personalized, but it felt nice to do something just for her - so much of her stuff is hand-me-downs!  I decided to use a similar theme and color-scheme to Ceci's room in case we decide to put them in the same room eventually (the jury is still out on this one!).

Without further ado, here's a little peek at Cali's room.

9 Months

Little miss Cali Cat is 9 months old!

This past month Cali has been...