Baby Girl Peanut

So yesterday was my 21 week ultrasound. We were hoping that the baby would cooperate so that we could find out if it was a little boy or a little girl. First though I had to drink a large amount of water so they could see the birth canal and everything. I was a good girl and drank it quickly and waited...and waited...and waited. I had to go to the bathroom so bad that I could barely walk. I didn't have to do that in Germany with Jeffrey, it was a whole new experience. Baby didn't like it either and was very uncomfortable and wiggly but after a quick potty trip we were all much happier!

We are going to be having a baby girl in September. Everything looked good to me during the ultrasound, I saw two arms, legs, feet, hands. The technician couldn't comment on anything, I should get the results from the radiologist at my next appointment, but she was a cute little girl to me.

The first picture is her profile...anyone want to guess if it's my nose or Cory's? And I posted a picture of her feet, any little girl of mine needs to have good little dancing feet!

We're all very excited and I think it seems more real to Cory now that he can start thinking about names and the fact that it will be a little girl. We're going to keep our name choices a surprise again, it was so fun to be able to introduce people to Jeffrey that way. Though if you ask Jeffrey, we will be naming her Hermione and we're going to change his name to Harry Potter. (I think he's been watching The Mysterious Ticking Sound a little too much!)

So now I get to shop for pink and ruffles and enjoy playing dress up with a sweet little girl.

Mother's Day

 "I have a surprise for you mom, but I can't tell you what it iiiiiiiis," I've heard that every day since Monday this week. Jeffrey was making a project for mother's day in school and had obviously been told not to tell me what it was. So every time I picked him up or every time we sat down to dinner he would tell me about his surprise.

He gave it to me today when I picked him up from school he couldn't wait until Sunday. I thought it was sweet and of course got all emotional because I'm pregnant and playing the single parent role for a while. My mom has a hand print from my sister and it still hangs on the wall. I am totally going to find a shadow box for this bad boy and find somewhere to hang it up. I am totally one of those moms.

I am very blessed to be mommy to this adorable boy who tests my patience on an almost daily basis and then reminds me that he loves me and wants to be my friend. There are so many times when I feel like such an inadequate mom and not at all worthy to be Jeffrey's mommy. But I know he was sent to me to help me grow and to remind me how much my Father in Heaven loves me and to bring me so much joy.

Last Day of School

Today was Jeffrey's last day of preschool. He has learned a LOT in the short while he was there. He knows all the letter sounds and can sound out some easy words, though I don't think he's quite got the sounding translated into reading quite yet. We have his kindergarten appointment tomorrow and I'm not as worried as I once was that he would count to 10 and be done.

I post his school projects mostly for daddy to see and partially because I am that mom who is so proud of her kid's sneezes that she would praise them for the world to hear. So enjoy.

The letter of the week was M. Like mouse, like the mouse that Jeffrey insisted on being when I took his picture. He makes me laugh so much!

 All the kids wrote their name in glue and then put beans on the letters. In true Jeffrey style he refused to write his whole name and went for just a J.

 His shape caterpillar.

A rainbow.

His triangle made from sand. He likes to tell me that the sand is colored purple and is very sparkly.

 Oh the many silly moods of Jeffrey! He loves having his picture taken and when the flash goes off (and probably makes daddy cringe 12,000 miles away) he makes the silliest faces on purpose.

We always have to sit "criss-cross applesauce" now. Sometimes before we eat, we have to play "open shut them" too.

Making the Best of Time

Since arriving to FOB Lightning I have made a good daily schedule. I have time for scripture reading, school work, photography, interacting with people, making videos for Jeffrey, working a full day, gym time, and enough sleep to do it the next day.

I am working with two great Soldiers. One is a Sergeant that will walk away from here with some great skill for organizing, and seeing the big picture of how the army operates. The Specialist will leave here as a Sergeant. My officer is a great leader that is taking our efforts in the TAC in the right direction. No time wasted here.

Kansas City Temple Cultural Celebration

Today the Kansas City, MO temple was dedicated. I've never lived in an area where the temple being dedicated was going to be my new temple. The whole thing has been an incredible experience. Thankfully we were able to go as a family to the open house before Cory deployed. 

For the last several months I was asked to help be a dance instructor for the youth cultural celebration. I have heard about the events when other temples were dedicated but I was really excited to be able to help with one. They had originally planned for 1,500 youth to participate but they were completely overwhelmed when over 3,100 volunteered from the temple district. We were responsible for teaching them a dance that they would participate in with three other stakes and then three shorter ones that they would perform with all the youth at the end. 

 

The performance was held last night in the Kansas City Municipal auditorium. It seats 10,000 and was full almost to the rafters! (You can see the missionaries from the mission in the center section up at the top in the middle.) The excitement in the auditorium was amazing! They youth had been there from 6 am preparing for the performance and a lot of the audience had traveled a long distance to be there to see it. 

I was lucky to get tickets this week. The bishop asked if I was interested in going with Jeffrey since I had been helping the youth. I was so excited. We decided to stay last night in a hotel close so I wouldn't have to drive home late at night. 

 

 Our dancers were part of the "Willing Hearts" section of the performance, they were pioneers who represented the early saints. The song they performed to was written by some of the LDS families in Branson, MO who (I think) came to perform live last night at the show (someone was singing live there last night). I was very proud of our little dance. Jeffrey danced along in my lap happy that he knew the song already.

Kenneth Cope was there as well and performed during the section from the Joplin, MO stake which just suffered a horrible tornado earlier in the year. I don't know that there were many dry eyes in the audience at the end. It was a very powerful and compelling. I LOVE dance and love to see it as a way of communicating emotion and causing the viewer to experience something during the performance. The group of amateur youth from Joplin were incredible portraying a disaster and the recovery from it and I was very moved. There were also touching tributes to the military and the missionaries even got in on the action. In true islander fashion the dancers (who were mostly Polynesian) brought down the house during their Samoan dance. (Though they had the loudest supporters!)

The funnest part for Jeffrey was when 3,100 you danced to Popcorn Popping and he could do the dance along with them. He came with me to the last three weeks' practices and enjoyed dancing along with the kids when they were rehearsing.

 My friend also arrived super early and saved us a couple of seats in the section directly below and next to where the VIPs would sit. Jeffrey was very excited to see President Monson and he gave our performance two thumbs up and wiggled his ears for the kids. I guess he approved. It was an amazing weekend and an incredible experience for us!

More School Projects

 

The letter of the week was O and the color was orange. (and the shape was ellipse, which is hilarious to hear J say) and here are the projects he did this week. He was very excited about this octopus, I heard about it all week and he was very excited to bring it home.

He made this one by rolling a ball in paint and then rolling it over the paper in the box. It also doubled as a sail on the way home from school.

The letter of last week was S. So he painted a sun. Jeffrey doesn't have much patience for coloring and he never has, but he doesn't seem to mind painting or doing projects of different kinds.

Pinterest Project

I love pinterest! Like LOVE pinterest! I love that they have a hand app and when I can't sleep I can look at pins all night and pretend to make projects. I found one that I actually did want to try.

This one. I had a couple of these gowns for Jeffrey and LOVED them when he was a tiny baby. My friend is also having a baby in a couple of weeks so she asked me to make her some out of her husband's old shirts. So before I cut into her shirts I tried out the pattern on one of Cory's old shirts (he won't miss it right?). It turned out really cute I think.

I wouldn't have attempted this project before I got my serger. I don't like knit enough for that, but I think it turned out pretty cute. Just needs a baby to go inside in about 4.5 more months. (On Saturday I will be 20 weeks! Halfway there!)

Photography Assistant

So Cory wants Jeffrey to be his assistant when he gets back from Afghanistan. So he has been giving Jeffrey assignments of things to take pictures of when he sends videos to Jeffrey. Last week's assignment was to take a picture of me on the grass. So we finally remembered to do it, we were going to do it the day he asked but it was rainy. Ignore the squinted eyes, the sun was really bright and though you can't see it too well, that's my 19 week bump there in the pic also. And one of my skirts from my summer of skirts! :)

He has a little camera that he takes pictures with too, but like his dad, he's gotten into the habit of deleting them almost as soon as he takes the pictures. So I didn't have any to send today when I plugged in the camera.

Goodbye Preschool!

Our co-op preschool had it's closing social this week. Out of this group I think only one or two will be moving on to kindergarten next year. Jeffrey tells me that he's very excited to start school in the fall but I'm sure he will miss his friends. Especially little C who he will do anything for. Crazy to think my baby is even old enough to be going to preschool let alone kindergarten.

Preschool

 So in addition to our little homeschool preschool Jeffrey has been going to Ms. Macie's preschool too this last month. He LOVES it! I have tried to help him learn letters or how to write and color and he just doesn't have the patience to want to sit with mommy but he loves learning from someone else!

 I love this! I'm sure he will learn how to write all in a row one day, but this is seriously adorable!

This was his Easter bunny project. He told me he cut the shapes out all by himself and his favorite part is the "googly eyes".

He has learned some of the hilarious preschool songs too. If you can ever get him to sing "Tooty Ta" you're in for a treat!

Arrival to Afghanistan

My whirlwind trip got me to Afghanistan quickly and safely. It is common to be stuck at one of the holding stations along the way from several days to a week. It is also common to run into situations where there are more people passing through than there are bunks to sleep in. I dealt with neither, traveling in a small group among the last of 1ID to enter the country.

On FOB Lightning, I stay in a nice room. I have a large desk, shelves, makeshift closet, bed with mattress, and a double window with glass, though it is boarded from the outside. I plan on using the window to hang up photographs.

I work with the Afghan army in a building referred to as the TAC. In the TAC, the Afghans are tracking what is taking place in there are of responsibility, similar to how the US runs its own operations. I am there with several other coalition soldiers to help share information about the Afghan battle space. I am not specifically training the Afghans, but I am building relationships with them and watching them take ownership of the fight.

Flint Hills Discovery Center

For our homeschool preschool today we took a field trip to the Flint Hills Discovery Center here in Manhattan. It has been under construction since we got here and we were excited to see what was inside. It showed life in the prairies from the time when it was underwater to the time of the settlers to the present. The kids loved watching this train go around and around.

 J wanted to catch some cows on this saddle. He's got the swing down pretty good it always makes me laugh. I had to pretend I was the cow.

 Jeffrey is GREAT at puzzles and had this magnetic one done in just a few seconds.

 This is Jeffrey and his little friend C. She is in our ward and for whatever reason they are best little buddies. It's kind of adorable to watch him follow her around and want to play next to her and ask where she is all the time. It's adorable.

 They had a video there that was pretty cool, had a 180 degree screen and when they talked about the winds in the prairie there was wind in the room. Jeffrey was a little nervous when they talked about fire and smoke started to come in from under the screen. He was also a little nervous when snow fell from the sky. It was a cool video though.

After we walked through the exhibits and saw the movie it was time for the preschool activities in the classroom upstairs. In the picture above they dug through the sand and found fossils which Jeffrey tells me are old animal bones. They used magnifying glasses to look at them closer.

They also got to have prairie recess time. Jeffrey learned how to jump rope. He could do it in slow motion but seemed to enjoy it.

We had a great time and got a membership so that we could visit more during the summer time.

Happy Sunday Daddy!

Here's our video for Daddy...you all get to see it too.

Keeping in Touch

So I have Cory's address now if you want to get in touch with me for it. I don't want to post it here because this is the internet after all. Send me a text or email and I will send it along. I've got a package getting ready to send with things that he's discovered he needs already.

Let's visit the train

 

When we go to the hospital on post we pass a park and a train out front. Every time we do Jeffrey asks if we can stop and play, sometimes we have places to go right after so we can't stop, but this day we had some time so he showed me around the train. We had to watch down the tracks and make sure that the rails were clear and more than once we had to slam on the brakes and stop the train. He has got such a great imagination!

Tooty Ta

This is J's favorite new preschool song. It took him a while to warm up to singing new songs during music time (apparently the first day he got up and walked out of the room) but now he tells me he loves to sing this song. I wanted to email it to daddy again, but it's too big so just turn your head and enjoy the show.

The Peanut's Heartbeep

Jeffrey calls the heart beat a heart beep and he was very excited when he got to hear it at the doctor's office with me yesterday. We wanted to email it to daddy but the file was too big, so we're uploading it here and now you all get to enjoy the Peanut's heartbeep.

A full weekend

Friday night Jeffrey and I went with some friends to the Fort Riley Elementary school carnival. Jeffrey had fallen asleep on the way and so was pretty shy to get into the activites at first but eventually warmed up. My camera battery died after this picture so I just got the one, but he went bowling, to the duck pond, and endless trips around the cake walk hoping for a sweet treat. He adores my friend and followed her around all night, he always calls all my friends by their first name which I hope that no one gets offended by but he just thinks they are his friends too.

Saturday afternoon and evening was spent in our downstairs bathroom. Why you ask? Because that's what you do when you're pregnant and nervous and the national weather service issues a historic tornado warning. This picture was after the first "all clear"  we got  after being in there for about 30 minutes. We were in our shower three times last night and spent several hours trying to sleep on the bathroom floor on an air mattress. I like the people in Kansas but I don't love the weather in Kansas. I'm just too much of a nervous Nellie for the whole thing. For the record though, and in credit to my dad ever prepared training, I was ready for anything. We had enough water stored to keep us going, our 72 hour kits of food, flashlights, our weather radio, a change of clothes, and all our important papers in a fireproof safe in the bathroom. We had our shoes on most of the night and then kept them safe when we tried to get some sleep. I also had fresh batteries for Jeffrey's leapster just in case we needed them.

Jeffrey tells me at least once a day that he is going to miss daddy. But then he usually gives me a hug and tells me that he loves me and that we are going to be a team. In true Jeffrey fashion we're in the stage of following me around all day long. It reminds me of the quote I've see on pinterest, "We used to want it all, now we just want to go to the bathroom alone." Yep. It would be nice to have a few quiet minutes without someone trying to break down the door telling me I need to read him a story or play geotrax with him. Good times.

Also, don't my teeth look so pretty and straight? I still find myself staring at it. So much different than I am used to seeing.

Traveling

I have been in non stop movement since leaving FT Riley. That is fortunate. It is easy to get caught up in some places and end up staying a week in the same transient tent. Jet lag is still wearing on me, but I am slowly adjusting to the time change.

After I parted ways with Tricia and Jeffrey my group stayed around the company for more than one hour. I agree that it is better to part ways on our terms and not because someone spots the bus coming around the corner. Jeffrey was ready to go and we did not want to drag it out if he was bored and anxious.

I have had the luck of travel along the way. On the plane ride across the ocean I had two seats next to the window for myself. I met several other SFC to chat and spend time with. The showers have been clean and the food along the way better than expected.

I did bring along my my camera, flash, reflector, and neutral density graduated filters. Expect to see some photographs in the future. I will post some here to the blog, but my best work will go on my website at corymacneil.com

My favorite Picture

These two are my whole world. They are best friends and I love watching them play together. It's going to be hard for each to be away from their bff for the next year, but I am glad they have had such great memories this last year.

The Sergeant

Well, it's happened again. The Sergeant has gone to do what the sergeant has to do. Another deployment to Afghanistan. We woke up early yesterday to take him to Fort Riley with his bags. Though he wasn't scheduled to leave until 10:00 (and his actual departure time was MUCH later than that) we learned from our last deployment that we like to be able to say goodbye on our terms and not because someone told us we have two minutes.

We stayed for about an hour and visited and talked while Cory went from place to place finishing up last minute things. I tried to find things to entertain a four year old boy.

We took pictures of my feet, me, and Jeffrey making silly faces. Finally he said, "Mom let's take two more pictures and then it's time to go." So we asked someone to take our picture and then said our goodbyes there. I am terribly emotional from the pregnancy hormones and tried to keep it together so I could drive us home.

We texted and called the rest of the day as his flight was delayed and then when he got to Virginia before his flight to Germany late last night. I haven't heard from him today but don't expect to for a day or two until he gets somewhere more permanent.

Thanks for the concern and prayers the last few days, we have felt them for sure and appreciate the love and support.

One day down, 364 to go.

Preschool at Tuttle Creek Lake

With the four day weekend for Easter, I was able to tag along to the preschool field trip with Jeffrey and Tricia. The trip took us to Tuttle Creek Lake, where we met with a park engineer who told the kids about the lake, and animals living in the habitat.

Lucnch was at the sandy beach after an hour of playing in the water.

Easter Day

Easter morning began with a hunt for baskets. Tricia gave Jeffrey the warmer/colder signal as he searched. Tucked in the closet he found a water color set, side walk chalk, and a bag of candies.

Church happened to be stake conference. The visiting area authority talked about the practicality of the doctrine of giving the Lord the firstlings of the flock. Because people tend to spend in accordance with what they make, waiting until the end to give to the Lord you may find you have nothing left to give. He also spoke about the need to forgive so that we can move on in life. Forgiving someone may feel like they get off without a penalty. However, holding onto the issue means that they get to live rent free in your mind halting your own progression.

As every year, Tricia put together a great Easter feast. We ate ham, and Tricia's famous potato salad until we could eat no more.

I Love to See the Temple

We sang, "I love to see the temple, I am going there today," for Jeffrey. We wanted him to get excited about a trip to the Kansas City, MO temple open house. The trip came after a fun Easter party at the church. Jeffrey ran around with friends, filled his basket with candy laden eggs, and ate a pot luck lunch. It is not easy for a boy to go from playing with friends to changing into Sunday clothes on a Saturday afternoon.General Conference gave us something to listen to during the drive.

After two and a half hours of driving I suspected we were getting close. Just as I asked Tricia to confirm our location we crested a hill on the freeway and were given a first view of the impressive structure. A good turn out of visitors came to the temple, but it was not crowded. After watching a short video about the meaning and use of temples we followed our tour guide around and into the temple. As at all other temples, the interior design and decoration is regal but also minimalistic. I carried Jeffrey through the entire tour. He did not want to put on the white overshoes and so could not walk on the carpet on his own. At the site of the baptismal font he said, "I want to be baptized. I will just tell you when I am done."

A visit to Kansas City, MO is not complete without a stop at Five Guys Burgers. A hamburger and hot dog later we were on our way back home.

Hair Cut

So I've been growing out my hair thinking that if I have long, luscious brunette hair like Duchess Catherine I might magically turn into her. Yeah, pregnancy make me delusional I guess. Also it's supposed to be like the inside of a sauna here in Kansas in the middle of the summer. Combine that with the portable space heater I've got strapped to my waist and it was time for a change. My friend that I knew in Germany who moved here a few years ago gave me a great haircut and color and Cory couldn't resist the opportunity to take my picture. It's a fun change and the shortest I have EVER had my hair but I LOVE it!

Summer-O-Skirts

So my sister in law is going for a summer of skirts. Last year I saw a blog that was called the Summer of No Pants. I decided this year I wanted in! I have a new sewing machine (a pfaff) and serger (a viking) thanks to a generous and adorable hubby and I am going to put them to good use. That combined with the fact that in the combined maternity wardrobe of me, my sister and a friend who was getting rid of clothes I had ZERO pairs of pants that fit. So I bought three and decided that would be enough to get me through until September.

Last year Christina gave me the Fashion Formula Skirts vol. 1. and I LOVED it! There are no pattern pieces and the skirts come out fitting great! I had made a few skirts last year but because I put elastic in the waistband they don't quite fit this year. So I'm making them with drawstrings which will fit during and after the baby.

 I have made 5 skirts so far that will keep me cool and stylish through the summer. I have a few more to make and I still need to take pictures of them all but I am feeling very accomplished, and LOVING my sewing set up that much more!