January began with the dread of Travis leaving us for what we believed at the time would be 5 months. That actually sounds a bit dramatic. He wasn't being deployed and I know there are families far more separated than ours, but the fact that he would be leaving us every Monday only to return on Friday from January to June was more than I could wrap my head around at the time with a 3 1/2 year old and a 1 year old. It broke my heart to hear Jack tell people that his daddy worked at a hotel and to ask me where Daddy would be sleeping that night. Still, we did the best we could planning 2 trips to Jackson, MS to visit him over weekends and the boys actually enjoyed staying in hotels and swimming in indoor pools. Of course, the bonus was that MiMi and Luke also lived in Jackson and we got to visit them as well. At the end of April, good news came in the form of an old business contact of Travis's getting in touch with him about a job opening in Memphis with little travel involved. We kept our fingers crossed and Daddy came home for good 2 months earlier than expected. His time away is now more like a blur than a memory. Travis now works for Cars.com and was actually one of 3 finalists for Rookie of the Year. We're so very proud of Daddy for this accomplishment and even more proud just to have him home with us most every night.
The boys and I spent most of the summer at the Millington YMCA pool. In July, we spent a weekend at Kentucky Lake with the Veazey family and we ended summer on a family vacation at Gulf Breeze, FL, where we returned for a wedding during Fall Break and plan to return several times in 2012 as well. Travis took the boys and I to our first air show that featured the Blue Angels and we took Marshall to his first Tennessee Titans football game. We're looking forward to even bigger trips and plans in our future as the boys get older and easier to travel with. I'm not quite sure if that's wishful thinking or what, but I'll let you know in the 2012 summary post next year ;)
Jack started playing soccer in the spring and we were so proud of how much he had improved by the fall season when he actually scored several goals. He turned 4 in June and in August started his last year at St. Paul United Methodist Preschool where he is in the Young 4's Funny Frogs class. A couple of big milestones for Jack this year were he stopped sleeping in pull-ups and he learned to ride his bike without training wheels. Right now we're looking at Jack starting tee ball in the spring and returning to soccer next fall. He will also start Kindergarten in August at Donelson Elementary.
It seems crazy that Marshall just started walking at the beginning of this year and now we're potty training him. He is so very different from his brother, but wants to be just like him. "Marfall", as he constantly refers to himself, always has a mouthful of words and never ceases to amaze us with what he knows. He turned 2 at the end of November and is spoiled rotten in the Buzzing Bees Toddler class with Alesia as his teacher. At the moment, he is a complete mama's boy. Just last night he did not want Travis putting on his pajamas and when he did he came to me crying trying to take them off saying "Mommy do it!", so I had to take off his pajamas and put them back on to satisfy him that Mommy did it. We are teetering on the edge of transitioning him to a big boy room. I want to get potty training behind me, but I'm seeing him throw his leg over the rails of his crib more and more. The furniture is boxed up in the garage and all he needs is a mattress, so you may see a big boy room post very soon.
Max, Marley and Bill Gill were joined this year by Crabby Nabby. I'm going to rank him below the dogs, but above the fish as far as maintenace goes because every time I clean his cage he makes a mess of it in mere hours and I swear he keeps us up some nights dragging that shell accross the plastic cage. Marley is still crazy as a loon, but sweet too and we love him. Max started 2011 with a surgery to remove kidney stones and we pray every day that they don't return. We don't talk much about the dogs, but they are very dear to us and it's unthinkable to imagine a day without them.
I can write all night long about my boys, but it's a bit harder to elaborate on me. I'm still blessed to be working a very flexible schedule with Vining Sparks in the Bond Accounting and IT departments. This allows me to work around my childcare and even some from home. While this sounds like a dream come true, it's also a struggle for me to get it all done on a part time schedule. I love being a mom, but I honestly don't think I take enough time for me or for Travis. That's a goal I have for 2012. I also want to take more time to just enjoy the boys and put the chores aside. They are growing up faster than I want to believe.
If you read my blog very much you know there's hardly a thing we love more than our family and there are exciting things going on in our family right now. MiMi and Luke moved to our area at the beginning of the summer. They are now only 45 minutes away and while I would love to see them more often than we do, it's so comforting knowing they are so close. In October, they moved into their first home and announced that Baby Koon will be arriving in May. Just a few weeks ago we learned that it will be a Baby Boy Koon named Boyd Dudley. I screamed when I heard the news. All along I pictured Emily with a girl, but I'm so excited to have another little boy join the crew. Jack was not so excited at first. "I don't want another boy!", but he's come around and just yesterday was shopping for Baby Boyd in all the stores. There's hardly a sweeter sound than Marshall talking about "Baby Boyd". There will be the exact distance in age between he and the baby as there is between he and Jack, so I have high hopes that the 3 of them will grow up to be very close.
In late summer we learned that Chris will be joining the family in August 2012 when he and Lindsey get married at the beach. Both boys have been asked to be ring bearers, Travis will be ushering and I will be at the guest register. I didn't think there would ever be a sweeter sight than my 3 year old in a tux, but seeing my then 5 year old and 2 1/2 year old in matching tuxes will definitely beat it!
We have high hopes for 2012 and feel very blessed reflecting back on 2011. How could we not spending each day with these two precious faces?
Christmas Eve 2010
New Years Eve 2011
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