Hi friends! I know its been almost a whole year (yikes) since my last post- and I am so sorry! Life got a little chaotic around our neck of the woods last year but since it is officially a new year, I thought it would be time for a new start! This post might seem like I might be bouncing off the walls, so I hope you stick with me :) If you follow me on Instagram (@mrs_watkins723)
Last year we started the year with John gearing up for our 3rd deployment-which was somewhat of a surprise. But true military nature, always expect surprises :) To be honest, I couldn't tell you everything that we did during those months, simply because we've done so much and I honestly can't remember. But we worked really hard daily on making sure Kaden had dad around everywhere we could bring him-in pictures, books, videos, recordings and his beloved dad-doll I made him. He took that guy with us everywhere! Stores, vacations, appointments-you name it, he came. Eventually I'll share all of our activities with you!
Speaking of vacation- Kaden, Sophie and I took our first road trip! My mom flew out for my birthday and we decided to make a trip to Indiana to visit my brother and stay for the week. It was definitely worth it, I got to see some of my best friends that I haven't seen in literally 5 years and of course spend time with my brother. I was able to bring Kaden to meet his grandpa (my dad) as well as another one of is great grandmas. Truly the visit was amazing, a part of me will always be an Indiana girl at heart.
After 6 long months, we were able to welcome our Marine home with the biggest surprise I could ever pull off. Because he was attached to another unit stationed out of state, he was to arrive there and get someone from his office here to pick him up. There was no way I was going to let him get off an airplane and have the first faces from 'home' he sees be someone from work, nope-not on my watch. So I asked for some help from some of his work friends to help me arrange this, found a last minute photographer (due to last minute changes, thanks USMC ;) ) through the wonderful organization of Operation Love and pulled it off. You guys, even typing about it brings tears to my eyes. Which is funny because I actually didn't cry at this homecoming. I was so consumed with making sure we weren't going to have a toddler meltdown after waiting at the airport for almost 5 hours on no nap, making sure he doesn't have a panic attack after finally seeing his dad after 6 long months and making sure that I find John. He walked out of the airport doors, looked RIGHT at me and waved like you wave to a random stranger...stopped in his tracks and had the biggest smile on his face I have ever ever seen. Totally worth it. We came home, re-adjusted to family life-took a beach vacation...and in true military form had to handle months of out of state (and country) trainings. Man let me tell you, that was hard for our toddler.
Kaden started 'pre-school', adjusted to a big boy bed, transitioned to potty training and we are fully 150% in toddler-world. Including time outs, the endless amounts of macaroni and cheese, meltdowns because you say no, but I wouldn't want it to change in any way, life is an adventure, right? We made it through the holidays, John getting shoulder surgery which had him stay home for recovery for almost a whole month now. I'm not sure when was the last time that he was actually home this long, but we'll take it. It definitely will make for an interesting transition when he's back at work for Kaden. Virginia got the memo that it is winter indeed-apparently all in one weekend where we had over 2 feet of snow and now we're looking at 60 degree weather. But I'll take it!
As we officially dive into 2016 with the start of a new month (and the month that my baby will be THREE) we have a lot of new things coming our way for the Watkins family-and I'm excited to share them with you. I promise I'm going to try to do a better job this year-
until next time
xo
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