I'm a slacker...

       I admit it! I've gotten terrible about posting and keeping this updated with the latest in the Long Family..

So here's a quick Update!

Matt is going to be a 1st LT soon! WOOT! He's been enjoying work and as always buying more Film Equipment than I think one person should ever own. He will be celebrating his 30th this year! HA JK he's only 28!! To which he says "Oh my gosh I'm so old. I'm going to die" haha

I got a job as an RN back in Oct and have loved it! Having the extra income has been great and allowed me to make some more much needed repairs, pay for Christmas and work towards getting our cars paid off. Which I can't wait to have that done! I've started painting our kitchen and replacing hardware. Currently I am working on the cupboards. Not the easiest thing in the world to do when you only get an hour here and there when the kids are sleeping but it's coming along. I'll post pictures when it's done. I love the red, but with the terrible lighting it makes our kitchen just feel small. So I'm opting for orange and grey with blue accents. So far I am loving the results!

Eric can now sing his ABC's and is working on learning the Alphabet in sign. He is still very much a boy and getting in to all kinds of mischief. He loves being able to play with Dad when he comes home and is still obsessed with Legos.

Samantha is starting to walk! And I think I'm about to go crazy!! I'm pretty sure I just had her! She is getting big and wearing the same size clothes as Eric. Which is also crazy to me.

But It's late. so Sweet Dreams all!! I'll try and post again soon!

Long Updates

       For those of you who don't know, I finally passed the NCLEX RN! So it's official, I'm an RN. I can't even begin to tell you what a relief it is to have that huge weight off of my shoulders. So now the job hunt has begun! Fingers are crossed that something will pan out. :)

Something New...

       Well Matt is always saying how I don't have as many interests as he does. So I guess I feel like I need to even the odds a little. So I've decided to learn how to make and decorate cakes. For the most part my scratch cakes are only okay. They used to be better, but then I got married and exposed to the ease of cake mixes and lost a lot of my cake-baking abilities. So we are working on getting that back. And luckily, any cake we don't want to eat/have around I can send with Matt to work and let them eat (or not eat) it. So either way, I don't have to have it staring me in the face, and I don't have to know if it was too gross to eat. (WOOT!) The first cake I actually tried decorating (more than just putting frosting and adding sprinkles) was Eric's 2nd birthday cake. Which didn't turn out at all like I had intended it to, but was pretty okay. The second was an experiment cake I make testing out a fondant recipe and a cake recipe. Both were a little ... blah... The cake had a decent texture but the flavor was off (I'm blaming it on being out of real vanilla!) The fondant I thought would have more flavor than just being sweet and well it didn't. And it was kinda on the nasty side without any flavor. However! I did manage to make a pretty okay fondant rose that I put on top of the cake. So at least I did get one success out of that cake! The 3rd cake I tried I made a fondant, a buttercream and a Jell-O frosting. I was much happier with the fondant, but not too thrilled about the frosting. Both had pretty good flavors. But the texture of the Jell-O was just odd to work with. So scratching that off of the list of frostings to try/use. I was very happy with how the cake turned out (but it was also from a box so really hard to mess up...But it was perfect for what it was!) Thankfully  Sadly, I didn't get pictures of the first two cakes. But I did get a few of the 3rd!

So now my goal is to make this cake... 

for my little princess's 1st birthday in December (hopefully with her name too!). My goal is to make the cake ENTIRELY from scratch. Which means getting real ingredients and not faking it anymore. So we will see how it goes! Worst case scenario, I will just decorate again and keep working on the cake portion. I just hope Matt's co-workers don't get sick of eating cake before I make a good one!! 

The good life :)

       Well this past weekend we had the opportunity to have a Stay-Cation with some of our friends we haven't seen in a while. We started early Friday morning with some fun and adventures paint balling and getting pedicures. Followed by some shopping for the girls and showers for the boys! Lunch was Zupas, followed by a bust of a time at Trafalga (note to self, don't go in the afternoon.. WAY too many people!!). After a quick-ish game of mini-golf we went back to our house and played some games and just talked before heading out to Tempanyaki for dinner. I love the experience of Tempanyaki, but I don't think I would go again, unless I was taking someone from out of town there. It was a lot of fun to watch the chef cook out food and talk with us and attempt at getting us to catch the shrimp (or chicken in my case).  All in all I think the boys were better at catching the food then they girls were! Friday night we came back and talked some more. Saturday morning we had a blast at 7 Peaks! It was so fun to be able to go on rides and not have to stand in long lines! I'm all for going at 9:30 and leaving at 11 when it starts to get overly crowded. For lunch we did Tacanos and loved the new meats and the addition of BBQ sauce on the tables. So worth going back for lunch! Lunch was followed by a few games of bowling (That I did TERRIBLE at (78 was my best game) and Matt did AMAZING at! 167 a new high for him!). Then we were back to hanging out before going to see IRON MAN 3. Personally I liked it, but I wouldn't go see it again. After that we had games/ice cream and then all the ladies went home to bed/kids and the boys stayed up until 2:30ish playing games! It was hilarious and uber loud to hear them all acting like high school students again. It was funny hearing them talk about who was winning what and who was causing all the problems. 

     

     All in all I would love to do it again and I'm so grateful for all of our amazing friends and for our amazing babysitters (Thank you Megan, Grandma, Grandpa, Jules and Emmy!!!) who made all of it possible! I think the next stay-cation will be a lot of fun and I look forward to it! Hopefully the kids will all be a little older and we'll be able to do more kid friendly activities. 

May?? What happened to April?!

     Life has been going by in a whirlwind since we got home from OK.  Matt has been working on the sprinklers trying to figure out what is going on in the mess that we currently call a yard (granted I currently call it a weed farm...) I'll have to take some pictures to show you the awesomeness that is our yard. But if nothing else it is making me more excited to have a yard that is actually worth having! Besides fixing the sprinklers we've also added a rose bush next to the house, downsized the flower bed and planted flowers, removed a giant eye sore from the front yard, removed a dead apple tree, 4 chinese elm trees (just little ones) and dug more ditches than I care to count. On top of all that we've also replaced the toilet upstairs and removed almost everything from 2nd bathroom added a ventilation fan and painted down there. Once that is all converted into an Angry Birds kids bathroom I'll take some pictures to show you how awesome it turned out! 

      I've been working with Matt on all those projects and adding a few of my own as well. I knit the Princess another blessing dress and booties to match, canned 30+ jars of jam, and 14 qts of apricots, helped my amazing sister with a prize for her piano students, and got to watch my amazing children grow!!

     Eric has been doing wonderful with Sam. He's loves dragging my by my leg whenever he or she needs something. Still takes her binky but is quick to give it back when Samantha starts crying because he woke her up taking it away. Eric got a brand new big boy bed when we got home and moved downstairs into his own bedroom. I have to say he did amazing being transitioned to a twin bed. He only ever gets out of it when we go get him and once the door is closed he knows that it's time for bed. He loves reading and looking at books before falling asleep at nap times. He's not as cuddly as before, but the second he sees me holding Sam he has to come find a place on my lap too. I love it! He's also starting to get really interested in the keyboard we have and will usually go play one of the demos while I'm making dinner. It's hard to believe that he's almost 2 already! I don't feel like I just had him, but it does not feel like it's been two years since I was anxiously awaiting his arrival. I love how independent he is getting and how well he is communicating with me now. He still loves cars more than just about anything. Whenever he gets really quiet he's usually in my room or the living room hiding in the curtains watching the cars go by (or else he's out in the yard watching the cars or running down to the bus parked on our street). If you haven't guessed yes opening the front door is Eric's newest trick... So we usually keep it locked now so he doesn't escape on me. 

    Miss Samantha has been keeping me busy and is getting interested in solid foods which has been so nice! Currently she doesn't care for pears, but she likes squash and bananas. I can't believe that my little girl is already eating real food! She finally likes tummy time! At least for a few min and then she gets frustrated that Eric is up and running and she's just turning in circles or backing up. She's also getting really good at flipping onto her side and has flipped over once unto her back, so we'll see if she does it again anytime soon. It's hard to believe that she is almost 5 months old! Sam is very much her own girl with her own personality. I love watching her figure things out and play with Eric. It's been soo nice now that they are older and can play peek-a-boo in the car! Eric and her just laugh in the back (until one of them gets hungry... then it turns into a crying fest until food is distributed...) 

     Other than that we've just been enjoying being home and all the joys that come with it! Sunday we are blessing the princess so I'll post some pictures of that soon. But for now the little prince is awake so I better get this day started! But I'll leave you with some pictures of our little angels!

                               

Party Time!!!!

SPRINKLERS ARE DONE!!!!!

Now we are just waiting for the dirt mixture to be delivered on Wednesday so that we can fill in and level out the front, side and back and then we will just need to weed, seed, water, fertilize, water, water, and water. 

Here's to hoping the weeding goes faster then the sprinklers did!!! I'll take some pictures to post once it's light enough outside to take them.

LAST WEEK!!!!!

     I have to admit the time here has gone by pretty fast. While I was in the middle of it, I felt like it would never end, but now that it's only a few days away it feels like the time has flown. Tonight is also the last night of Matt's "Red Leg War" (his last week of training spent in the field)!! I'm so excited for him to come back from the training! Sam has stopped eating at night and as long as I feed her while I get her ready for bed she'll sleep from 9:30 until 7!! Which makes me one happy mama!! Fingers are crossed that nights keep going as well as they have for the rest of our time here and our time traveling home.

       With our time coming to an end I've been trying to pack up everything we don't need for our last few days here. Which Eric hasn't liked... I've packed up most of his toys so that they are exciting when we get into the car again. Matt and I are planning on making the trip home a lot faster than our trip here.  We are both soooo ready to be back home and in our own home again!! But my newest angel is calling for me so I will have to cut this post short! When we get home next week I'll try getting more pictures posted when we have internet that actually works!!!

Stick a fork in me...

       Well I can tell we are winding down with this training and that the time has come for us to be home. I wish I understood more why this is happening, but lately everything drives me nuts!! GAH! I've got to shake this! Eric and Sam haven't changed their behaviors any, but I feel like Sam has been more upset than usual, and Eric has been more needy then usual. Which isn't actually the case. So I took a hint from Daniel Tigers Neighborhood today and tried my best to apply it. In the words of Daniel Tiger. "When you feel so mad that you wanna roar, take a deep breath and count to 4. 1-2-3-4." If anything having that particular episode play made me think about all the little nudges Heavenly Father gives us to choose a better path. And I have to admit, it's the nudges like this that remind me that He is always mindful of me and my needs. I really have been so blessed being able to have this time with Matt. It has taught me so much about my little family and the strength that we have as well as the strength of our families and friends back home. But seeing as it's almost midnight and being tired has FINALLY caught up with me enough to actually fall asleep I'm going to cut this post short.

Sweet Dreams everyone!!!

 (20 Days and counting!!!!!)

March Updates

       Eric has started talking a lot more!! Currently his vocabulary includes the following:

1. Cars
2. Shoes
3. More
4. Mine (thank you nursery for teaching him this one!)
5. No
6. Hi
7. Uh-ho
8. Fish
9. Mama
10. Dada
11. This
12. Ball
13. Call
14. Num-num (feed me!!!)
15. Oh
16. Star
17. Nine
18. Bite
19. Yeah
20. Bzzzzz (bugs in general... mostly bees though)
21. Eyes
22. E

I think that's all of them... He makes the sound effects for Where is it, but so far I'm the only one that really understands what he's trying to say when he does, so not really sure if that counts or not!

       Sam finally smiled for real!!! Now I just need to catch it on camera. She has the cutest smile! Her whole face lights up and makes all the tears worth it. She still is not a fan of tummy time, but such is life. Matt says she's spoiled because of how much we end up holding her. I say she's protected. Eric loves to pick her up when she cries, but he's not so good at the holding part, which usually results in more tears....

       Matt and I had the missionaries over for dinner and made them Navajo Tacos. Originally we planned that meal in the hopes of educating the missionaries on some good Utah food, only to find out that all three of the elders were from Utah. So instead they got a meal from home.

     Other then that we have three more weeks until we get to go home!! And this mama couldn't be more excited to go home!!!! Matt has two more weeks of hard school (finals, tests, homework...) and one week of field training (so not looking forward to an entire week with two kids and no Dad to help at night!!!!) and then Easter and Graduation!! The day he graduates (April 2nd) we are driving to Salina and starting our journey home. I'm really hoping that the kids do okay in the car. We aren't going to be taking any breaks on the way home so hopefully Eric doesn't go tooo stir crazy in the car. For the most part Samantha does really good in the car so we’re hoping she does good on the way home!!

     Lets see… in other news, Matt bought a truck for his company so we will be towing the car home. I’m grateful for the extra room! Especially with all the new military things Matt gets to take home with him....

but seeing as it's bedtime i will try and post again soon!!

'Night!!

Pictures!!!

Don't ask me why I didn't think of this earlier... but now that I got it figured out here's some pictures of our newest angel!!

She's here!!! 

Wide awake!

Meeting Samantha!!

Going home

Playing together :)

Best birthday present ever!!!

       Samantha slept all night!!! TWICE!!!! It was the best birthday present ever!! I actually woke up and was awake instead of wishing it was nap time! I didn't realize how much I missed sleeping all night! But seeing as it hasn't happened since I was 4 months prego it's not really that surprising... Now I just need to figure out how to get blogger to work on my iPad so I can actually get some pictures of my angel posted for all of you!  But laundry is calling my name so I will post again soon! (hopefully!!)

Just some updates

      We've loved having our precious Samantha here!! Eric still has mixed feelings about her, but loves holding her when it comes time to say prayers at night. If one of us is snuggling Samantha for longer then he would like, he comes over picks her up and brings her (with a little help) to the other parent so he can snuggle instead. Eric is also learning all of her cries and will come running with whatever he thinks she needs. Most of the time it's exactly what she wants, and sometimes it's him running to steal her binky. Matt has loved having her here and has been smitten since the moment she arrived! If she makes any noise at all he jumps to take care of her! It's adorable! 

       So far she's doing pretty good about sleeping at night, we've been lucky so far, the most she's ever waken up has been twice! I feel so incredibly blessed that both of my kids are good sleepers. And a little shocked that they can both sleep through artillery rounds that shake the house but wake up the second you open their bedroom door... go figure... I'm hoping that I will be able to get the princess sleeping all night before we start the trek home but if not we will survive. 

       Other then the addition of a new little angel, things have been pretty slow around here. I'm starting to miss more things about home (ie family, having a normal size fridge and freezer, my own washer dryer, Zupas, Cafe Rio, GOOD Chinese food, my bed...) and having only 75 days left here isn't helping my wish to be home! However, I've enjoyed the time here with with just our little family. It's been a huge change to live outside of Utah for me. I'm starting to feel more comfortable with Lawton, however I'm still very cautious about what we do at night. I'm also very very grateful to be LDS and not interested in getting drunk, as most of the problems that military personnel have had with people from Lawton has happened either at a bar, near a bar, or when someone was drunk. So I've felt very blessed to not have to worry as much about the potential of problems from there. Other then that I think that it's been good to have this time for Matt and I, but I'm ready for it to be over and to be back home in my own space and with my family. I didn't know what it meant to be homesick really until I came here. But the princess is calling for some attention so I'll try writing again soon! 

Welcoming Samantha Anne Long!!

      Miss Samantha Anne Long made her grand entrance on December 29, 2012 weighing 7 lbs and 18 inches. She had a full head of dark brown hair and perfect little features. (Pictures to come soon!!)

     She took her sweet time getting ready to enter the world but when she was ready to come she came fast! I was in active labor for  13 hours, but the actual delivery only took two contractions. Thankfully the doctor believed me when I told him he would need to break my water and was more then willing to do so! I was so incredibly grateful that he did and that we were able to snuggle are little princess right away. She has been such a precious gem in our home!

Christmas Eve :)

       Well Matt and I came up with a new tradition this year. Going to Starbucks on Christmas Eve to get Carmel Apple Cider and Hot Chocolate (or creme frappe). This year I was way tooo hot to enjoy a hot chocolate so I got a Strawberry Creme Frappe. Well I got about 2 sips of it and then Eric stole it. 

       Not even 2 yet and he's already addicted to Starbucks!! Whenever I tried to take it away to get a drink he would bend over Matt and reach as far as he could in order to get the drink back from me.
     

Just some pictures :)

This is my "grumpy" face 

Playing with Daddy on the iPad

36 weeks and so ready to meet this little princess!!

Our cute little family

Just a few updates...

       Well life here is pretty slow going. It's still warmer then a winter really should be, and it's really making me miss being home for the holidays... Most days it doesn't really feel like it's really the holiday season here. Very very few people actually put lights up around here (we drove around for about 10 min and only saw 3 houses that had lights up... it was sad...). There are a few places you can go to see lights, ie the city park, TX, TX college campus... but that's about it. It's really made me miss being able to put up lights this year. But just means that next year when Matt and I do put up lights it'll be that much more amazing!! For a tree this year Matt and I made a tree and ornaments out of felt to hang up. Eric has loved playing with it! And I've enjoyed knowing that he can't really do anything to hurt it at this point.  Our plan is to keep the tree and put it up for the kids to play with each year, and then add some new decorations as they wear out. So far I've found that felt candy canes aren't the best idea for Eric, he doesn't like that they aren't straight and keeps trying to pull them straight.

      Other then that, not much has been going on. I'm still as pregnant as ever, Matt's still busy with school and Eric is still growing like a weed! Matt will go on break starting Friday and we're both hoping that Samantha makes her grand entrance sometime around the 26th. That way Matt not only will get to be there for the delivery but will also get to be around for a week to help me get used to having two little angels/recover.

     We weren't able to get a Christmas letter mailed out this year, but we will post it on here and attempt to email it to the family.

     But for now it's time for me to crawl into bed and hopefully get some sleep before the morning comes.

Sweet dreams!!

Just a few updates

       Well we are all just hanging out here in Ft Sill. Mostly we've been keeping busy with the little man running from here to who knows and then back again. Since most mornings we go to another building at the hotel for breakfast, Eric has started running towards "breakfast" when we go outside. We definitely have to keep our eyes on him when we go out!! Eric is getting excited to meet his little sister and will come snuggle with Samantha (not mom) when he's getting ready to take his naps. It's adorable! If I tell him it's snuggle time he grabs his blanket and a book and then comes and lays his head on Samantha. After listening to her and a few pages of the book he starts "kissing" her, which quickly turns into head-butting... At which point we usually finish reading the book and then he takes his nap.

      Other then that Matt and I are pretty boring. Matt has had a lot more homework lately, most of is entails going out and buying this that or the next thing for his classes. Other then that Matt has been keeping busy helping me at nights with the little man so that I can make dinner or whatever else needs my attention. Sometimes it just means giving me a chance to have some alone time not spent sleeping.

       As for me and Samantha, we've been keeping busy with contractions, dropping and getting ready to meet this little princess. I've been so grateful that Matt has a friend here that we both trust and is willing to take Eric when I go into labor. We also found out that since we aren't going anywhere for Christmas Matt will still have to report for most of the days that we were originally told we'd have off. But that also has turned into a blessing in disguise as it means that Matt will have leave saved up and will be able to take 10 days of paternal leave when Samantha decides to join our little family. All in all life here has been interesting, thankfully now that means in a good way :)
 
     Other then that we've been looking forward to Christmas, I'll take some pictures of our tree and what few decorations we have up. Matt and I made our tree out of felt and have it up in the living room stuck to the wall. We also cut out ornaments out of felt that Eric can play with as he wishes and I don't have to worry about him hurting himself or breaking anything. Eventually I will decorate the ornaments more, but for now they are plain. I would love to decorate some of them now, but the 2 that I did add some decorations to Eric promptly removed them. So we will wait until he's a little older and understands better to not pull them apart.

     That's really all the news there is for now... If anything exciting happens you'll be the first to know!!

Super Sloooooooooooooooow Internet

       Well I'm trying to finish catching up on all the pictures we took on our way to Fort Sill. Unfortunately the internet connection here is soooooo incredibly slow (we're talking 1.5 Mbps slow) that it takes forever to get anything to upload, and videos are out of the question :( So for now I will slowly keep trying to post pictures of what we've done and will do. But for the time being I'm so frustrated with the connection that I'm just going to go work on Samantha's blanket and start designing the sleeves for her blessing dress.

Playing Catch up with Pictures - Eric's Sweater

       This is one of the many knitting projects that I've been able to finish since coming to Fort Sill. Sadly the camera died before I was able to get a good picture of Eric in his new sweater. But he's still adorable all snuggled up with Dad on the couch :) Next time he wears it (assuming he ever needs to again...) I will try to get a better picture of what the sweater looks like. 

Playing Catch Up with Pictures! - Exploration Center Wichita, KS

       We originally went to the Exploration Center in Wichita, KS because their site said that they had a Star Wars Exhibit. Unfortunately, they don't update their site very much, because it was taken down as soon as school started. They did however have an Arcade Game exhibit. They had one of the first games ever made for an Arcade as well as some of the newer ones. Eric liked the driving ones the best and Matt had fun just walking and trying to play some of the REALLY old ones :)

Medieval Exhibit 

Toddler's Exploration Room

Aviation Exhibit

       They had several other exhibits including a farm exhibit, brain teasers exhibit and some more that I can't remember... Eric had a lot of fun running around and just being a kid. And since this was meant to be a place for kids I didn't feel too bad letting him just run and have fun.