Snowed in....

And LOVING it!

We are snowed in! I kept little home from school on Friday due to our driveway being a skating rink. We had the best day at home together! We watched movies, ate popcorn and even did some super fun crafts together!(having the crafts room settled is AMAZING!). We ended the night with our signature dinner for the first snow of the year, Cocoa & Toast!

Today we got dumped on with tons of snow! It was coming down from the time we woke up until late in the afternoon. Just now, we went out and shoveled the whole driveway!(Little played, I shoveled). It's dark and it was quiet out there. It was perfect! While I was out there, my new neighbor Ami saw me shoveling and knew that the hubs wasn't home, so she came out and helped me! It was soooo nice of her! Her hubby wasn't home tonight either so in no way did she need to help me with my monster of a driveway on top of doing her little one! But she did. And let me say, it goes a lot faster with two!

Now we are back in the toasty house, getting ready for some movies and dinner. As much as trying to go anywhere in the snow sucks, it's great for bonding time!

Stay safe in the snow everyone!

Crafting!

If you're my friend in real life(or just on FB) then you are sick of my posting pictures. Haha. I've been crafting sooo much the past few weeks it's been crazy!

I've opened a FB page and an etsy shop! They have the same things on them, but the FB page has pictures as I'm working on things, I ask for input and ideas and sometimes I'm going to give special offers to my FB fans!

Right now, I'm loving all things Submarine! I've made so many things with subs tonight it's crazy!

This picture is just one of them!

I can do the same kind of thing with planes, tanks, helicopters, hummers you name it! If you want one, just let me know on one of my pages and I will make it up for you!

To do:

My to Do list for the week:

*Make the wrappers & toppers for Little's Birthday cupcakes
*Make a Valentines banner.
*Make Little's Valentines to give to his class.
*CLEAN the kitchen and put everything in its spot!
*Cook dinner every night.
*Read scriptures and go to church.

I feel like I've been getting a ton done lately....but it's not what I should be getting done. Hahaha. Maybe if I make this list and I have to look at it, it will force me to get stuff done!

Mad Science Birthday Party(Sneak Peek!)

Little is turning 7! Eeekkkk!

His Birthday Party is going to be a blast this year! I've put so much work into making(yes making! The invites took forever to get done!) all of the paper goods and I'm so excited for it all to come together!

You can buy the party stuff at my shop on etsy! To take a look go HERE!

Show us Your life - Military Families

I love reading Kelly's Korner and Have been reading it for years! I love the "Show us your life" posts and find some really great/amazing stories/ideas from them! If you want to join in this week....go HERE and join in!

This week, she's having Military bloggers link up! That's me!

For those who've been reading for a while you can skip this post. For those that are new, here is a little about my life and Navy Journey.

My name is Kim. I'm from Washington State and miss it sooo very much. I started dating a boy at 14 and was lucky enough to marry him at 18! Yikes! After we had been married a little(tiny) bit and had an amazing little baby boy, my husband threw the idea of joining the Navy into the mix of things. I was all for it!

A few months later he left for boot camp. Then later got stuck at boot camp for surgery. It was the hardest 6 months of my life. But, I did it! After that we moved to South Carolina for part of his schooling...then on to New York to finish it. 

 These pictures are from boot camp graduation.

Our first real orders were to Connecticut where my husband was stationed to one of the Submarines.

We've done 2 1/2 deployments and MANY underways.

(Deployment #1)

(Deployment #2)

I'm also that crazy wife that goes to every port I can(I've been to Bahrain, Drove to Florida, Georgia and Annapolis).

It's hard, but it also keeps our marriage fresh. He's gone so much that we always take every second we are together and make the most of it.

2012

Here is my list from last year of what I wanted to do and the one for this year!

2011
(Things I want to do this year!)

1. Go on a big family vacation Went to Mexico!
2. pay off my car Yep!
3. Cook dinner more often and try new things Yep!!
4. Get even more involved with Landon's school Kinda. His teacher didn't want volunteers till now.
5. Get even more involved with Church. not really....
6. Read 75 books....? (50 for sure!) I know I hat 50 but I don't know the exact number.
7. Strive to be the best mom/wife I can be Yep!
8. Do something that makes me happy (join a gym, cooking classes...ect) Yep!
9. Learn how to drive J's car!! No, but I will this year!
10. Learn something new and/or meet new people. Yep! I learn how to use my Cricut!

2012
The things I want to do this year!)

1. Get more involved in Church
2. Read the WHOLE book of Mormon!
3. Learn to sew!
4. Learn how to drive J's car!
5. Get more involved with the boat.
6. Get rid of stuff that we don't use!
7. Go on another family vacation.
8. Read more! 50 books at least!
9. Be more involved with Little's school.
10. Have the best summer EVER with Little!

One year older!

Yesterday was my birthday. It was as perfect as birthdays can get. The hubs had duty the night before so he came home early and jumped on the bed singing "Happy Birthday" as loud as he could until I was awake. Haha. As soon as I spoke, he pushed my gifts into my hands.(I think he was a little excited to give them to me!). He got me the most beautiful diamond earrings! I was shocked! I've been asking here and there for them but never expected him to get them for me! Especially this close after the holidays! I'm such a lucky girl!

After a few more minutes of sleep, we got up and got ready for church. The best thing I could have been give was fast and testimony meeting on my birthday. It's always my favorite week of the month and I always learn so much from the people who get up there and bare their hearts for all to hear.

After church we had breakfast for lunch(my favorite!).

It's crazy thinking that I'm one year older.....one more year being a mom and a wife, one more year that J and I have been together and one more year that I've been away from home. This past year was a good one. My husband was home more than he's even been home and it was so nice! This year is going to be a little more challenging. He's going to be gone quite a bit more than we are used to and I'm not looking forward to it. BUT I know we don't have much more time before we are on shore!

Along with my birthday, I have new years! I will post soon with what I hope to do this year along with what I did last year off my list!

Order(s) Up!

In 8 weeks our sea term will be up. We've know this was coming for quite some time as I'm sure most everyone else has a countdown to shore, we just knew it was there.

A few weeks ago we were given options....

*Stay here on the boat. Do another Deployment and reenlist. Possibly do dry-dock in NH after for 1-2 more years.
*Guam. Go on the tender for 2 years then go to SC for proto-type for a few more years. Proto-type is the last thing on my list. I would rather be at a sea going command. Guam would be AMAZING though.
*Or home to Washington for shore. While this sounds like a sure thing, I don't know if I'm ready to go back yet since I know that when we do, we won't want to leave.

After a bit of talking, we are staying here for the deployment. Everyone keeps telling me I'm crazy for doing another one by choice...but here are my reasons.

*Reenlisting while deployed has a chance of getting us more money. Lots more. It's the difference between getting to buy a house and not.
*I LOVE our house we have right now. I don't know if we could get a single family home with a fenced in yard that is only 5 min from J's work in our next place.
*The job J really wants won't be available to him for another year due to him having to have a certain watch first.
*Doing dry-dock in NH would be a way to keep all of the sea duty money but have it be like a shore-duty. He wouldn't be going anywhere for a long while.(and I want to live up North!)

So here we will stay. I'm not ready to leave the East Coast yet and I don't want to leave NYC and Boston before I've seen EVERYTHING!

It just still stings a little knowing that we signed up for another Deployment and missed Holidays by choice.

Back again!

So many things have been going on and I feel like I never have time to get on here and talk about it. I always promise I will be better and most of the time I am for a short bit, then it's back to nothing. 

Here is whats been going on in the R household:

I've been crafting and getting ready for Little's Birthday next month! So excited!
We've been going to church and trying to get back to where WE want to be with God.
We've been spending a lot of time with just our little family.
After much talk, we've decided to extend Sea Duty and volunteer for ANOTHER deployment. This will be a post in it's own.....but it's sad to think our choices were Guam, back home to Washington(both Shore Duty), back to SC for prototype or stay here for 2 more years......I understand why WE chose what we did, but it doesn't exactly make it easy to stomach.

Christmas was wonderful, the best I've ever had. Little got everything he ever wanted and J went way over what he needed for me. We did a few great things leading up to it, but for the most part we stayed in and spent time together and relaxed. I will update soon with posts on all of the bigs things..

For now, I leave you with THIS link to the FB page I started for the crafts I've been making!