Hard Night

Normally I've been in bed LONG before now...it's 11:30 PM!  I just finished packing up Jeff's suitcase that he's taking to Alexandria, LA, to live for the month of June.  I know that this isn't the end of the world, I know that it could be SO much worse (he could've been assigned this site for the entire clinicals for a year and a half, going to Iraq for a year, etc) but I'm still dreading Sunday.  I've never been that good at saying good-bye to Jeff since I had to do it so many times while we dated long-distance for 4 1/2 years.  My goodness I remember them like it was yesterday.  Can I say thank goodness technology has come such a long way since then?!?  We have the internet, cell phones with FREE MINUTES and texting and webcams.  That will help this month go by quickly.  

He is just such a vital part to our family.  I hope the girls do okay without him during the week, I hope that I don't bite their heads off ~ I've never done it this long without him for this long.  I mean, he's Daddy!!!  I am seriously the most blessed woman on the face of this earth to be his wife.  There is not hardly a person (well, really woman...not many men care to listen LOL) that he's worked with that doesn't know all about his girls, how precious they are to him, how cute they are to him and how important they are to them.  See, I told you he's the best!!

But here's another way that I'm blessed.  I've been blessed with an amazing Father that loves me even more than my phenomenal husband.  He loves me so much that He sent His Son to die for my sins so that I can spend eternity with Him one day.  He is also my Comforter, my Healer, my Rock and my strength.  He told me to cast all of my burdens upon Him and that is what I'm going to do.  I know that there is NO WAY I can make it through this month without Him.  So forgive me my pity party, I should be done now.  Feel free to send your prayers our way.  :)  

I love you honey and couldn't be more proud of you!!  Hurry home, Daddy.  And happy 11th anniversary on Saturday.  :)

Memorial Day Weekend 2009

I hope you all had a great Memorial Day Weekend. It's such an understatement when I say how greatful I am for all of the men and women that gave their lives fighting for this country and our freedom. I'm so glad that we set aside a day to remember them. The girls and I ended up going to Many, without Jeff. Jeff had to work the entire weekend and nights at that. I didn't want to go since he leaves for Louisiana the next weekend...I'm coveting every moment I have with him. However, since he's working nights we wouldn't see each other at all. Plus, the girls would have much more fun in Many. Aunt Deb and Molly rode down with Jake and me. He did SO great. Don't think he'll make another trip on the floor in the backseat of our Accord...he's getting so big the poor thing could barely fit in that space!!

On Saturday Avery got to go to Lauren Lake in Many. It's a private lake so Barney's family were the only ones out there which made it nice. We celebrated Molly's 11th birthday that night with a yummy homemade cake (thanks to Ruthie, Tracie's MIL) and ice cream. Molly's cousin, Carley, is only 1 year older than Avery and those girls had the BEST time. It was too chilly for me to get in my bathing suit, cloudy and breezy, but not too much for the girls. Avery had so much fun that she stayed the night with Carley at Barney's mom's house. Instead of coming home with me and Kendall on Sunday she stayed through to Monday and came home with Tracie. She had such a great time. She is so much like me. I LOVED going places. Mother told me that everyday when I woke up I would ask her 2 questions: 1. Do I have to take a nap? and 2. Where are we going today? If I could estimate how many times asks me on a daily basis "Where are we going next?" I would have to say a minimum of 10 times!!! Avery loves going places and to other people's houses....she is my social butterfly. Kendall is just like her daddy and likes her house. We all had a great time but I certainly missed Jeff. My fun times aren't near as fun when he isn't there to share in them and make them better. ;)

How great is our God to create rainbows for us to enjoy?!?

Molly with her cake

Tracie feeding Kendall ice cream. Funny thing is, I can't tell who is enjoying it more!

Avery, Molly & Carley

Crazy girls

My cutie-patootie

Jeb, with a funky-positioned life jacket, & Kendall

Molly showing us her Staxx ring ~ so cute...you should check them out!!

Molly with her momma, Tracie

Rob/Brandon is Back in Town

So Rob, or Brandon to a few people in the family, has come to town. He serves our country in the Coast Guard and is currently stationed in California ~ close to the Bay Area I think. But he made a visit to come and see all of us. Rob is Gabe's younger brother, or Jeff's Dad's brother's son. Instead of us getting together at a house and cooking (and worse ~ cleaning) we decided to all meet up at Gloria's. It's a Salvadorian restaurant that has a great patio. We all had a GREAT time, which is nothing new when the Troha's get together. The evening was absolutely gorgeous!Of course I brought my camera to get a few family pics. Now that I look through them I realize that I didn't get any of Tracie, Dad or Uncle Scott!! I'm so sorry you guys!! :(

Me & my gorgeous Aunt Deb

Renee & me

Me, Rob & Avery

Me & Rob since you couldn't see his face in the last one

Rob & Jeff

Isabelle, Kendall & Avery (I couldn't get K to stand still, she kept wanting to come see the picture!!)

Mom & Jeb

Molly, Barney & Avery

Aunt Deb & Jeff

Kendall licking the last bit of beans out of her bowl!

Renee, Izzy & Gabe

I Assure You, It's Not From Me!!

Do you ever watch your children do things and SWEAR (not that I'm a swearing woman) that they didn't get that from you?!? Kendall started doing this the other day and I can assure you that she didn't get it from me. On Jeff's behalf, she didn't get it from him either. I do remember a time though when Leah was honestly and literally attached to our cordless phone ~ nowhere was off limits. So maybe she got this from her. But she found this old princess cell phone of Avery's and decided to start using it to call everyone she knew....no matter where she was!! So cute!! LOL

Yep, talking on the phone while on the potty!

Breakfast for Supper

Does anyone else besides me LOVE having breakfast for supper?? OMG, I used to get so excited when Mom would make this for dinner. I think it might be because we never really ate big breakfasts, and I still don't, but that doesn't mean I didn't miss getting to eat the big breakfasts. So it was fun to eat the breakfast foods later in the day when I had more of an appetite for it. So I decided last Wednesday night that we were having homemade pancakes with homemade blueberry syrup. Can I say Scrumdiddliumptious (know the movie that word is from?)?!? I love pancakes and I like trying new recipes for them so I found one and tried it out. It was pretty good, but I don't think it would have mattered. I could have served this syrup with a piece of cardboard (or a turd as Jeff would say) and it still would have been delicious. It was pretty easy too. ;) Needless to say, it was a hit with the girls. PTL (praise the Lord) I thought ahead and had Kendall take her shirt off before partaking in the syrup. You will see why I was so happy with myself for that. ;)

Can you say Dig In?!?

My neat, little first-born

Mothers Day 2009

So I'm FINALLY getting to blog this week! We had quite the busy weekend...I think I say that every weekend. ;) Jeff's sister, brother-in-law and his parents all went to Napa Valley for her birthday Spa weekend. So we had our niece and nephew with us...Jeb, who will be 15 in August, and Molly who will be 11 in 2 weeks. I dropped all of them off at the airport on Friday morning. The plan was for Jeb to ride the bus home since he was taking a test during swimming. Let's just say that he thinks he's as smooth as my FIL and husband, but they have quite the years and experience on him in the suave department. Of course, he let me know that I could come get him at 12:15 if I wanted. I told him as soon as I talked with his mom that I could...to which I got a quick reply via text...no problem, I'll take the bus home. I informed him that I've been in this family for 17 years and it takes much better skills than that to get me. ;)

We had a great time going to the dog park with the kids...Jake had fun too. We all pulled out Rock Band and played a little as well. We took them to the people park, LOL...I kill me sometimes, and had a great time there. The girls were all on the tire swing having Jeff swing them around when little boy...no older than 6...came up and looked at Jeff saying, "Get off." (If you're like me you're thinking, what the heck??? right about now and also about the fact that had it been your child they wouldn't have any teeth left after talking to an adult like that) Jeff was a little surprised at the gall and replied, "No bud, I think they just got on and are going to be on this for a few more minutes." To which the sassy little boy said, "No, get off." Jeff was just in shock at the audacity of this child and replied, "Excuse me?? No, they just got on and are going to play on it for a few more minutes. When they're done, then you can get on." The boy got was frustrated at this response and huffed and walked away. I tell you what, the kids these days....goodness I sound like my grandmother!! LOL

We got a few cute pictures of the kids together though. It was a good glimpse of what having 4 children is like. We had a great time. I am sure that I want at least one more child, but feel free to join me on praying for joyful, healthy twin baby boys. ;)

Me and Jake at the people park

Jeb, Avery, Molly & Kendall

My big girl climbing her way up all by herself!

Molly & Kendal posing

Jeb & Avery posing

My big girl doing the monkey bars for the first time!!

Molly's way of the mokey bars...while touching the ground

Jeb's monkey bar action...likes the surfing technique

Avery, Kendall & Molly on the tire swing

Jeb busting a move

Mollly & Avery busting a move

Kendall playing "horsie" on Avery...their new favorite game (I know, I say piggy-back, they say horsie)

Tasty, Singing Avery

I can't believe I've gone all week without writing anything. I have felt so weird from it. We had a pretty busy weekend for not doing too much. Jeff was at a board review class all weekend...so most of the time it was me, the girls and Jake. We took Jake to see Dr. Monica for his rabies shot. She gave us a bill of good health and the shot. He's also almost 40 pounds now at 18 weeks old!!! I still can't believe how quickly he's growing. But goodness he's pretty. We got to take him to the dog park in Arlington on Tuesday. It's his first time to get to socialize with a pack of dogs and he did good. We start his obedience training tonight. It's a 7 week long course so we'll have him trained by the time Jeff leaves. Whew!

Jeff with Jake at 18 weeks old

So Friday afternoon, we're sitting around the table (me and the girls) like we usually are since my chidren NEVER stop eating! And Avery says, "Momma, bugs keep eating me cuz I taste so good!" I nearly fell on the floor laughing. I said, "Yes, you do honey." That must be my problem too since they eat me up. I love kids and what they say and think. So adorable. That night we went out to eat for Jeff's birthday. We had Gabe, Renee, Izzy, Leah, Brenden, Tracie, Barney, Jeb and Molly join us at BJ's. I can't believe I forgot my camera...so there's no picture of that. It was a nice evening to talk with everyone. We had a great time.


Saturday night we had Kelly, Allison & Reilly Teeples over for dinner and fun. Allison and Jeff were study-budies the first year of anaesthesia school. Since they started clinicals in August we never see Allison or the boys anymore. Well, I do see them in the office but that's not the same. So we had them over since they were doing the review and not clinicals for the weekend. I made chicken enchiladas, mexican rice and brownies for dinner. Then we pulled out the Rock Band to play. We all had such a good time. Let me tell you how floored Jeff and I were when we gave the microphone to Avery to sing "Spiderwebs" by No Doubt. She was great...even though she can't read. Jeff and I kept looking at each other saying, "Can you believe that?!? Listen to her!!" She was on tune most of the time and everything!! So cute.

Avery rockin' to Spiderwebs

Allison on the guitar

Reilly and I on the drums

Avery playing Operation for the first time! How awesome is that?!? I used to LOVE that game.

Nurse Kelly showing Avery how a pro gets it done.

Now for Kendall's new tidbit. She is such a tough little girl. Maybe it's because she's my second and I don't freak out as much as I did with Avery, or maybe she's just a tough, little bird. But she's always been good about not being so dramatic with any fall (not that I can say the same for her sister). Lately, she's doing something new now. When she falls, she'll just lift her head up to reassure us and say, "It ok. I ok!" I just LOL everytime. Of course, I never have the camera in hand when she does it. Speaking of camera in hand, I have got to get my video camera out to record her singing. We've got her singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star now. Her version is a little different though. She comes in on "Stah", "Ah", "Hiee", "Kiee", "Stah", "Ah". So she comes in at the end of every phrase. She's not like Avery was at this age. Avery was all about reading the books. Kendall is all about "Ting Mommy". So we are quite the singing family...just like I love. At least we know she got that honestly.