Shillig 4 Family

I have been writing a ton on here lately but it is crazy how much my mind just runs and runs when I can't get my thoughts out. I usually talk to jake at breakfast, lunch, and dinnertime so I get to share a few quick thoughts with him but since he has been gone my mind just wanders. It is so frustrating! Especially at night when we usually talk before bed and so at bedtime my mind just RUNS with the things that I would discuss with him if he were there. So needless to say it takes me awhile to fall asleep. This is not a fun situation to be in. Maybe this is why people write extensive journals because then they are able to get their thoughts our of their head and on paper but I prefer my thoughts to go into my husbands head and then he respond... ok enough about that! I did laundry and packed today so we are ready to head back to good ol' Sierra Vista, AZ first thing in the morning. I don't know what time jake is supposed to finish his training tomorrow but we sure hop...

ok this morning i have been looking at this costco coupon book and i realized that i am so excited to stock up on costco stuff! i haven't been shopping since monterey and i am so excited to be in my own home again with groceries and STUFF! i love to go to costco and stock up on my three month to a year supply! it brings me so much joy ... i am like a kid in a candy store! on a side note... this morning i went to the dentist office with Christine Sarager and there they had a "pottery barn kids" catalog and i always heard about how cute their stuff was but BOY was it ever CUTE but EXPENSIVE... It was fun to get ideas from it and i made me even more excited to set up and decorate our home! only one more week until utah...

I JUST GOT TO TALK TO MY HUSBAND FOR 30 SECONDS! i know that sounds lame but it was amazing and i can't stop SMILING! I am so thankful for the little things!

My daughter is so cute lately... she is growing up so quickly... She no longer seems interested in nursing (she only wants FOOD and LOTS of it!) She also INSISTS on putting HERSELF to sleep. In the past she would want to nurse to sleep and that was the only way she would nap or go to bed at night but not now that she is growing up. She wants me to put her in her bed (once again she insists on her BED and no where else) and she turns over, grabs her blanket and closes her eyes and I leave the room and shut the door and when i check on her (shortly after) she is out like a light! whether it be nap time or bedtime she wants nothing more than to be put in her bed and left alone . She is growing up so fast and independently . I think she will just wean herself completely very soon...

This week is dragging by! I am wanting Friday to be here already... I am enjoying myself here but I really really really want it to be Friday so I can see my husband!

Aimi Lark is loved by all the Sarager family and we feel very welcome in their home. Maverick the dog is still unsure of Aimi Lark but I'm sure he will come around eventually. She loves when he comes in the room and she just smiles and gets all excited in hopes that he will come over and let her touch him but he just looks at her and walks away. I am grateful that she isn't afraid of him...

So Aimi Lark has not done very well in holding her sippy cup and also sucking out the liquid. But yesterday at church I tried it and she drank it like a PRO! She just laid on the pew and held the sippy cup up and just enjoyed it! I was so proud of her! and so this morning I decided to try it again and as you can see she did a WONDERFUL job! (she also enjoys relaxing on the bean bag hear at the Sarager's house)

This morning was my first time trying TV with Aimi Lark. I usually just give her a snack while I get ready but this morning I gave her a snack and then put on the Disney channel which the show "doodlebops" was on and as you can see she was sucked in by all the lights and sounds and flashing colors... this show seemed to me like one of those that gives kids seizures but maybe that is just me! Well it was cute to see her enjoy her morning snack and a short TV show. We are both now ready for church and she will hopefully take a short nap before church!

AIMI LARK AND I WENT TO THE MESA TEMPLE THIS MORNING. THIS WAS AIMI LARK'S FIRST TEMPLE OUTING (OUTSIDE THE WOMB.) SHE JUST LOOKED AROUND AND ENJOYED IT ALL!

This is the rock monument to Brian Cody Prosser. This is tribute to Jake's neighbor who died in Afghanistan. "Prosser Village" contains all the student housing and eating areas and a chapel. Inside the Company headquarters is a large picture of Cody. Just thought I'd share this with everyone before we leave here.

WELL THIS MORNING WE WENT TO SUPER WAL-MART AND BOUGHT SOME BABY FOOD AND SNACKS FOR AIMI LARK. I HOPED TO GET A NAP WHEN SHE NAPPED THIS MORNING BUT BY THE TIME I LAYED HER DOWN AND THEN FIXED MYSELF SOMETHING TO EAT SHE WAS AWAKE... OH WELL MAYBE I CAN NAP THIS AFTERNOON...

GERBER MAKES THESE BABY CHEETO STYLE PUFFS AND AIMI LARK LOVE LOVE LOVES THEM! BUT THEN AGAIN WHAT FOOD DOES SHE NOT LOVE!

Trying to feed herself a piece of "kix" she usually does a better job of picking things up but this is still fun! This is at 0430 am by the way! We want jake to see what we are up to! He leaves for his field training today!

Aimi Lark loves to FEED HERSELF! I distracted her from this so she just smiled at me instead. ( I am enjoying this video feature SOOO MUCH if you cannot tell by now)

This video was taken with our digital camera when we went to the creek on base. I am so excited that I was able to put video on our blogspot even if it is just from our digital camera!

I am so miserable right now. I am tired and my daughter is too but since we are in a new environment the furthest thing from her mind is sleep. I am having such a hard time at the thought of the next week without my husband. I think it would be more bearable if I could speak to him daily but they aren't allowed to bring any electronic equipment with them. I love my dear sweet husband so much and cannot wait to be a family together in Utah! It will be so nice to be in our own home and enjoy life without the barracks and drill sergeants. Well I just needed to vent. Thanks for listening!

We made it to the Sarager's home after a LONG drive. We hit a traffic jam about thirty minutes after we left. A semi truck turned over spilling frozen chickens all over the road. We sat in this for about an hour and a half and since I-10 is the main interstate here we were STUCK! So our drive took longer than expected and Aimi Lark normally sleeps the whole way but since she was in her carseat and the car was not moving she was not a happy camper! We are here and safe and will share pictures of our week as they happen!

Ok my daughter has become obsessed with APPLES! She doesn't want a piece or a bite she wants to devour the entire thing HERSELF! This was yesterday and she wanted the apple both times I had one... I finally gave her a piece of the apple and she wanted to eat it so bad that she would bite down so hard and she would shake because she was gumming the apple slice so hard trying to eat it. But when I tried to give her a small piece to eat she didn't want it. She insisted on feeding herself!

This is Aimi Lark at Playgroup. I love going weekly and love to watch Aimi Lark interact with the other babies.

Since Jake is on LOCKDOWN our only choice is to hang out with him at his barracks. He also has to have his gun in hand at all times so holding Aimi Lark and his weapon was a funny sight. Don't worry the guns have no ammo and are M16s from the Vietnam era or something....

CLICK HERE... http://www.keffersphoto.com/ammie

Well it is Saturday and my husband is done with his training for the day but because of this lovely gun he has to carry around with him we cannot be together today. Needless to say it is frustrating!! He called me earlier and said he felt he almost was a "heat casualty." That is when you are heat exhausted. They marched around for five hours in full gear and weapons today and it is so hot here right now. Our rain has been gone for two weeks now and when the rain is gone the triple digits return. On another note Aimi lark and I leave this Thursday for the Sarager's home and will be there for a week while jake lives in the desert. I am excited to be in a city for awhile with everything I could possibly want to do within 5 mins. of me! even CAFE RIO! It will also be fun to swim and just enjoy a REAL home. We are still working on jake securing a job for when we return to Provo, UT. He had a translation job lined up but the UT guard is having some issues right now b/...

Aimi Lark loves ORANGES! She will just suck all the juice out of the orange and some of the pulp and then give me the skin that is left (very funny) and then I give her a new slice. Well this morning at the library her orange put her to sleep...

I would never use the ER as a doctor's office but with our insurance the way it is right now I had to. Jake has been worried about Aimi Lark's cough/sickness that won't go away and he has had it too. He became more worried when a ton of soldiers have had bronchitus and pnemonia and he was afraid aimi lark had been exposed to those germs so at 430am I took her to get her checked out and they prescribed some antibiotics (and aimi lark loves to drink the pink liquid from the dropper... she gets mad when its gone)

Jake and Aimi Lark enjoyed reading some Church material before Church on Sunday. As you can see Aimi Lark is not as good with the Ensign as she is with cardboard books...

We took the elders and a friend out to dinner and brought Aimi Lark's "BUMBO" and she was able to sit at the table with us vs. at the end in a high chair that she is too small for. SHE LOVED sitting at the table with everyone. She just smiled and jabbered and ate her snacks. ADORABLE!

I know that OREOS are not reccomended for an 8 month old by the AAP but Jake decided to "share" his snack (despite my fit) with her and boy did she love it! She is so much like Jake...

Here we are waiting to see Jake at dinnertime. We spend quite a bit of time in the "prosser village" parking lot entertaining ourselves until we can have a meal with Jake. Pathetic (I know) but the only way to see your husband in the military sometimes... times...

Ok so Aimi Lark has been a social butterfly lately. She is the only one her age who is immobile so she gets tackled quite often but she still enjoys all the other kids at church.

My friend took this of Aimi Lark reading a book. She is already so much like JAKE!

ok everyone... we are out of here exactly 4 weeks from today! well aimi lark and i are. Jake will leave in about 5 weeks. I am sad to say jake has a campout the last week of the month but we are excited to say we get to spend that week with the wonderful Sarager family in Gilbert, AZ. All is well and we are excited to move into out new home in Provo, UT! Other than that things are same ol' same ol' in ARIZONA!

Ok so Aimi Lark has become an acrobat when it comes to sleeping. Every morning we find her in a new position...

We went to Tucson for a family day on Saturday and Aimi Lark was very amused by everything on the table.... It was an adventure to try and keep everything out of her mouth!

Aimi Lark LOVED LOVED LOVED splashing in the water with her feet! We can never seem to all look at the camera at the same time haha... After jake finished Saturday training we went to this park on base to enjoy breakfast. Well while there we discovered a CREEK running through the park. Because we have a MONSOON season here and it floods there is water for a creek... WHO KNEW!?? not me haha. So these are the cutest pictures from that family outing.

Aimi Lark has had a cold lately so I took her to see jake because it always makes her day and so in her PJs we went off to the base and she was fascinated by jake's "battle rattle" (bullet proof vest etc. that he does not normally wear)

We went to dinner with a friend of jake's from the Czech Republic who is in the Army with Jake and he made aimi lark a "hat" and then a boat from the paper placemat.

Ok so aimi lark and i have been walking in the mornings when we take jake to work. His car needs new bre aks and my blue car went caput a few months back so we are a one car family at the moment and since jake has to be on base at 0430 am and in AZ it is still somewhat cool at that time aimi lark and i have been WALKING! hopefully i can lose some of this "baby weight" haha.

aimi lark loves these biter biscuits ! she gets so messy so i try to let her go crazy with them before bath time!

This is jake multi-tasking. He is talking on the phone while entertaining Aimi Lark. I went and layed down after this because I have still yet to recover from our TX trip...

Aimi Lark thought she was just so smart because she got the remote and made the TV make a really loud noise!