Our life update

Lots has changed in the last few weeks.
First, we get to move into this beautiful house in July!  I stole this picture off a website...sorry it's kinda wacky.  But, I can tell you that the moment I stepped into this house, I fell in love.  Like head over heals, begging my husband to please, PLEASE, please get this house for me.  We've lived in rentals and looked at all the available rentals in the area and this one is a diamond in the rough.  Clearly the people living there have taken excellent care of it and we were told that we can make any decorating changes we want (huge hurray for me!).  It's in a neighborhood right next to the bridge Ben will need to take to work and has a pool, park, mini golf course and sidewalks.  This house sits in a cul-de-sac at the back of the neighborhood and has the perfect driveway for the kids to ride their bikes.  It feels surreal.  I know we live in a house now, but this feels like a real house.  And, to brighten the deal even more, Ben negotiated the rent down!

Second, Ben traded in his truck for a more commute friendly car.  It was a sad day for Ben to say goodbye, but I think the kids took even worse.  It was always a treat when they got to go with Daddy and now Eliot will often say, "no new car!  I want daddy's truck!".


Third, we had to say goodbye to our cats.  They've been gone for 10 days now and Alison still hasn't noticed.  Case in point one of the reasons we had to let them go.  For having cats around since the day she was born, Alison never touched them or enteracted with them.  I felt like the kids and I were just shooing them away or yelling at them to stop whatever they were doing or Eliot would be chasing them with a broom or Colin would be mauling them.  It certainly was not the life they deserved.  The second reason was that they started peeing on everything.  This problem has been mounting over the past year and we've done all that we could to get it under control.  But the anxiety it caused me couldn't be ignored.  It was overwhelming and debilitating to me and got to the point where I was asking Ben if I needed to see a doctor.  They peed in all of Ben's shoes, in our laundry baskets, on guitar cases, backpacks, beside the washing machine, on pillows, under the couch, on Eliot's recliner and countless other places.  I couldn't keep up with it and was constantly on the prowl of where they were and what they were doing.  The straw that broke the camels back came last week when I found a puddle of pee on a bag full of Colin's toys that was sitting on top of a shelf. I threw away all of his toys and went to get a bucket to clean up the mess, only to find pee all around the bucket.  Losing it was an understatement.  Colin puts EVERYTHING in his mouth and is all over our house on the floor.  So, I put the cats in the garage and called Ben.  We've always agreed that our kids come before the cats and when our kid's health is compromised, it's just unacceptable to me.  So Ben came home from work right then and took the cats to a shelter that is known for not keeping animals long because the adoption rate is so high.  It is sad and hard and I do miss them.  I wish it had not turned out this way, but I think it was for the best for our family.  Since they've been gone, I can tell a huge difference in my stress and my anxiety has been non-existent.    Now we just have break the news to Alison...

To more cheerful news, Colin started clapping.  It is perhaps the cutest thing in the world.

10 months

Take a big sigh of relief.

Colin is healthy and growing.

He's changed a lot this month...PRAISE THE LORD!!!

He's up to 18 lbs, grown in length and now in the 10th percentile!

All of his testing has come back negative/normal and the blood is completely gone from his poop!

His hair has grown a ton and his appetite has come back.

He's cruising and now spends more time standing up holding onto things than he does crawling.

I'm beyond excited.  

The reassurance that he is healthy is worth every single penny and I am thrilled to be able to see a difference in him.

At 10 months, he is a complete mess :)

I mean that lovingly, but seriously, he is into EVERYTHING!

Everything is in his mouth or torn to shreds.

Just to give you a taste of a moment with Colin...Sunday morning he was in the bathroom with me while I got ready for church and he pulled out every single item of the cabinet next to me, including all of the towels and washclothes.  

Kinda makes me miss my quiet Alison who would sit next to me and look at a book.

Speaking of books, Colin ate a page out of Alison's bible.

And then Eliot colored on another page.  And then Alison decided that nothing was safe around the brothers and she hid her bible.

3 Years Old

Eli at 3...

He whispers all.the.time.  Yes, it's better than yelling, but I just want to hear what the kid is saying!

When he's not whispering, he's pretending to be a train, car, dog or dinosaur.

His favorite thing to do is watch a movie, cuddled up with his blankie and a sippy cup of juice.  I know the day is coming this year that he no longer fits under that blankie...oh, I dread that day.

His least favorite thing to do is go to bed.  He'll come out several times and say, "I cuddle you".  Super sweet and super hard to say no to.

Happy 3rd Birthday Eli!

Eli requested a Buzz birthday.  

We were all ready to party, but Eli was just not feeling well on his birthday.  Allergies?  2 year molars?  Who knows.  But he definitely was not himself.  I made him a birthday boy shirt, but he had no interest in putting it on. 

We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast and opened presents from Nana and Granddaddy.  Ben took him to work with him for a little daddy time and then we spent the afternoon watching Toy Story.  When Alison got home from school we opened presents, ate pizza/cake and played with his new toys.

I cannot keep pants on this boy!  Oh the joy of being 3

Unfortunately, the Buzz cake turned out about how Eli felt.  A friend of mine just made one for her son and let me borrow all of her materials.  She made it look so easy, but I largely underestimated how much time decorating would take...especially with a Colin crawling around.  I baked the cake the day before and thought I would decorate during nap time and be finished just in time for Alison to be home.  Boy was I wrong!  So Buzz, turned into "ethnic Buzz" and I just got as much frosting on as I could.  Here's what it was supposed to look like:

Eli didn't seem to mind, but he also didn't get that it was supposed to be Buzz.  He had fun blowing out the candles a million times and then I let the kids just eat straight from the cake.  Hey, if you're going to ruin a cake, you might as well have fun with it.

As always, I enjoyed our quiet family birthday celebration.  I hope Eli loved it just as much as I did and I pray he knows how cherished he is.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUBBY!  WE LOVE YOU!

Chaplain School Graduation

Eliot waiting for daddy to graduate

Well, it's taken me a week to write this post.  It's a fact that it takes me a week to get back into routine after a trip and coming home from this trip was more chaotic than usual.  

The morning of graduation was crazy.  Ben had to be up at school early, so I had to get all of us dressed up, pack/load up all of our stuff, get breakfast and then walk up to the school from the hotel with 3 kids in heels, all by 8:30am.  All I can say, is THANK THE LORD RICK CAME!  Ben's dad flew in for the ceremony and I would not have made it through the morning without him.

I went to a 'spouse academy' Monday and Tuesday to learn all the in's and out's of Navy life.  They stressed several times that graduation was a very formal event and children should not make a peep.  Yikes!

Colin is in this "I love the sound of my screech" phase.  He is constantly babbling and the ceremony was right at nap time.  Well, he gave Ben a good laugh as he shouted "Dada!" over and over as the 2 star admiral gave his speech.  Then Eliot spotted daddy and shouted "I see my daddy!".  I tried to distract him with 'angry birds'....bad decision.  Every time he hit a bird he would shout, "YES!  I got it!".  Alison is the only one who wins points for staying quiet.  But we made it through and Ben graduated.

He's officially a Chaplain!

Commissioning into active duty

I'm so proud of Ben.  I'm proud of all that he's accomplished and all that is to come.

Eli's saying, "You're so pretty Daddy!"

After some paper work, a few pictures, some cake and lunch with Rick, we got in the car for a long trip home.  We made it home by bedtime and by the next day, we got our big news.

Ben will be stationed in Norfolk, beginning in May.  We're still waiting for exact details of the job, but we know he'll be attached to a ship that takes supplies to deployed ships.  So he won't be deployed in the next 3 years, but he'll be at sea up to 3 months a year.  

The past week has been a whirlwind of emotions.  It may sound weird, but at first I was disappointed.  I had prepared myself to move far away and had already started to say goodbye and let go of responsibilities.  We were ready to jump into an adventure at a short notice.  So when they said "you're staying in Virginia, but 45 minutes away from you are now", it kind of tore us in 2.  It would be hard to stay where we are and have a really long commute, but it would also be hard to move to Norfolk and start all over and everything familiar is just out of reach.  We're searching for a new home and continually trying to figure out what this "new, but still kind of the same" life looks like.  And of course, life still continues on while we contemplate all of our options.  So for now, I'm trying to enjoy the last few weeks of Ben working at Hope and hearing him lead worship.

Easter 2013

 The kids and I drove down to South Carolina to spend Easter with Ben.  But before we left, we painted Easter eggs.  I found this idea on Pinterest and we will definitely be doing it again: mix food coloring in shaving cream and paint the eggs.  The eggs dry colored and it's much easier and interactive than just dipping the eggs in dye.

It had been a month since we saw Ben and we didn't get to the hotel until late Saturday night.  We were all up extra late and then got up early for church.  The service was well worth the drive and tired morning.  It was so refreshing to worship as a family and the sermon was just what my heart needed to hear.  After church we went out for brunch and then back to the hotel to open baskets and take some much needed naps.

This was the first year Eli was really excited about getting a basket and was quick to consume as much candy as he could.  Colin didn't seem to even notice he was left out of the basket receiving and was just happy to bouncing on the bed they were on.

Bubbles are a traditional Easter basket gift in the Shear house.  Usually we would play with them after an egg hunt, but this year blowing a few in the hotel living room would just have to suffice.

I attempted several times for a cute picture of my 3 little blessings.  However, one particular little stinker wanted no part of cute pictures.  He was too busy pretending everything was a gun or sword or that he was buzz lightyear or superman.  He was simply too busy to sit and smile.

Some of Ben's friends had rented cabins on the base, right off a little lake.  They invited us out to spend the afternoon with their families.  I was so very thankful for this afternoon.

Ben taking the kids down to see the water.  They were just happy to be with daddy.

It was nice to get out of a hotel room and soak in some fresh air.  It was also great to meet some other wives and let the kids run around with some new friends.

soaking up the view of the lake

Running up from the dock.  She was so excited to be playing outside.

We made one more attempt for a cute picture, but again Eli has a gun in his hand and is roaring.  He is quickly turning into a little boy.

Then we headed over to a nearby park with some of the kids.   Every time Eli would come down the slide, he would say "YES!".

Colin was way overdue on his nap, but was a trooper waiting for us to finish playing at the park.  Daddy tickling your feet always helps time pass by quickly.  For not seeing Ben for a month, he had no reservations about jumping into his arms.  I love that about our kids.

We headed back to the hotel for some crockpot soup and a movie.

It certainly was a different Easter.  I missed being home, eating ham and potatoes and hiding eggs in our backyard, but it was all worth it to be together.