Christmas Day 2010

Everything from the drumset and keyboard over to the scooter was dropped off by Santa

Lane on his "big boy" scooter!

Yes, Santa brought Logan a drum set!

Christmas morning started at our around 6:30AM. The boys ran into our room to wake us up surprisingly before they checked out what Santa left. We headed off to the playroom for all the excitement. The drum set and scooter were a big success. I think all of us have played a little on the drum set! I'm not sure if Lane was more excited about the scooter or the basketball that was sitting next to it! The boys decided their pillow pets and their toy story snuggies were their favorite of all their gifts! Which was kind of shocking considering the amount of gifts Santa left.

Mommy and Daddy were not left out. Aaron got a Casio Pathfinder watch that he's been drooling over. It comes with a compass, barometer, altimeter, and a few other things that I don't know the meaning of. I just know he should never be lost again! He also got clothes and a few other nick knacks. Santa brought me a Kindle and an awesome red case that has the neatest little light on it which is perfect for night time car reading or bedtime reading. Aaron also got me a jewelry armoire and a houndstooth jacket which you know was a big hit with this Alabama fan!

One other little bonus was the white Christmas we woke up to. It wasn't our first white Christmas thanks to Alaska but it did remind us of being in Alaska. Aaron was super excited about the snow. I thought it was pretty...but I was glad to know it would soon be gone!

I cooked us a pretty tasty turkey along with the fixings and we just spent the day inside. Lane was sick for the second day in a row with a stomach virus and fever. He felt good first thing that morning opening his presents but right after we finished he got sick again and ended up spending most of the day just laying on the couch. He finally got up around 3 that afternoon only to get sick again not long after and then the fever returned. He was back on the couch for the rest of day.

On Sunday Lane was a little better but you could tell he was still not himself. We woke up to the boys being all excited because "they were going to Grammy and Papaw's for the week." So that afternoon we headed off to meet Grammy and Uncle TT and off they went to their grandparents while Mommy and Daddy headed back home. It was a very strange feeling and we missed them tons but they had the greatest time being spoiled rotten at their grandparent's house! More on that later. Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!!!

Family pictures by SJ Photography

Two post in one day...I know your shocked but remember to breath!!! We had family pictures done in October. I absolutely love everyone of them. They were done by SJ Photography who is just simply amazing. Lane was his usual stubborn self in the beginning but after two or three shots she had him opening up with a full mouth smile. It was hard to pick just one favorite but here are some that I wanted to share. This is my absolute favorite of the boys together. I love the background and I LOVE their expressions. It's is very "them." AND they are wearing their Alabama football jerseys. What mom wouldn't be extra proud!
This picture was totally random. We were getting ready to walk across the street to take more pics and the boys were being goofy so Aaron scooped them up and took off with them across the way. Stephanie snapped this completely un-posed pic which I L-O-V-E!!! My three most favorite guys in the world! Look closely, you can see our cars in front of Aaron. Hehe!
Heres another cute one of the boys. This old abandoned house really does have this bright blue paint around the windows! But it makes wonderful pictures! This was one of the first pics...notice Lane's shyness/stubbornness still shining through!

This is my favorite picture of Aaron and I. I have been wanting a picture like this for years and just never got it right when the people at Sears tried. Stephanie nailed it. Aaron is laughing like crazy in the pic. She told him to "get all Edward" on me. He got the strangest look on his face and said, "who's Edward?" I had to remind him of my fictional boyfriend Edward from Twilight! Haha...he caught on then and his laughter is captured forever! I have some painting to do in our bedroom but once it's done I will get this picture hung over our bed along with a beautiful Uppercase Living piece. I can't wait to share those pictures! If only there were a few more hours in the day...I would get it done!
And I will close with the last picture of the day. My boys will beat on each other all day long but when no one is looking they will cuddle up on the couch or sit on my bed and hug each other, hold each others hands, and just be the sweetest little things you will see. It just melts a mother's heart. To me, this picture captured that moment. The sweet moment when they thought no one was looking. These little fellows have completely captured my heart. Thank you God for these two amazing blessing as well as the man who will always stand by my side. I couldn't ask for more!

Our Christmas decor

So the trees are up and all are fully decorated except for one. More on that later. First we have our traditional tree. This tree has all of my brass ornaments that were given to me every Christmas since I was born by my Grandmother. These are all so special to me. She has started giving the boys one too so I hope they enjoy the tradition as much as I do. This tree also has our homemade ornaments: glass balls Aaron and I painted our first Christmas together, the huge green, red, blue, and gold balls have our names on them as well. This tree is in the boys playroom which is where we plan to spend Christmas morning. I think this is a great idea since it will mean way less clean up for mom since there will be no need to lug everything upstairs. Logan however does like this idea. He is worried Santa will wake him up. I thought this was hilarious since most children try to stay awake to see Santa. I informed Logan that I would shut his door so Santa would not bother him so we will see if he has further objections later on!

We finally got to have a real tree again. They were so expensive in Alaska, not to mention we didn't have a house big enough. So this year we went out to a Christmas tree farm near by and purchased our own. This tree is downstairs for everyone to see. It still needs some decorating. I wanted to do this tree all blue and silver but finding ornaments that I like...that didn't cost $8 each has been hard. So it's a little bare. But I plan to head out after Christmas and pick up some so that next year it will be extra purdy!

I purchased this little 4.5 ft on a special sale the day after Thanksgiving. It was a little prelit tree on sale for $20. I knew the boys would love having one their size to decorate so I grabbed it up. My plan was to let the boys keep it in their room. Well again, Logan said no. He thought Santa would get confused about which tree to leave presents under and would wonder into his room and once again wake him up. So they have placed it in the dining room for now. I'm temped to put it at the top of the stairs but so far I have been lazy and left it where it stands.
And of course you can't forget the outside. I wanted the whole roof lined with lights but Aaron used the lame...I mean obvious excuse that we have a two story house and our roof is extremely high and we don't have a ladder that even comes close to reaching the roof. So I just have a little light up garlin and these little light up presents I found at Kirklands (love!!!). Oh yeah, and you can see my recently paint front door. Yes, I did it myself!

Ok well, I'm off to watch the Grinch with the boys...have a wonderful Tuesday night!

Catch up day!

Hello all! Yes I have neglected this blog since March. Wow, time really does fly but things get so busy! Let see, a little catch up on what is going on with us. Aaron is still working at the NCO Academy. He enjoys teaching but just isn't that happy with his job. But reenlistment time in coming around and he's making that big choice on whether to stay in or get out. With the job market right now he's leaning towards staying in. He's going through a lot right now so please keep him in your prayers. Aaron was diagnosed with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) about two weeks ago. This has stemmed from an untreated concussion he received while in Iraq. We really didn't know what was going on but I knew he was different and just not the same person he used to be. After a little encouraging he went to a counselor who sent him on to a doctor who then referred him to the TBI clinic. After lots of appointments and countless test he was diagnosed. Currently we are going through the process of getting him into the 12 week rehab program. His chain of command have been less than supportive which is making everything even more frustrating. Since appearance wise Aaron looks perfectly normal and since they didn't know him before his chain of command claims they do not understand why he needs to go. This is where I want to scream..."BECAUSE HIS DOCTORS SAID SO!" But I'm trying to be a good wife and support from the home front and just pray. But biting my tongue is very hard when it comes to my family and their well being. Currently we are waiting on a meeting between the doctors and the chain of command so the doctors can stress the need and help them better understand the situation and the effects TBI has on soldiers and what non-treatment will do. So please pray with us.

I am still working on post. Currently I am working with a very good doctor who does a lot of different types of dentistry so I'm really enjoying the learning experience. But I still miss doing oral surgery. I am contemplating going back to school to become an RN and specialize in surgery. I really do feel that is my calling but going back to school is just not something I'm wanting to do right now. So we will see. I may do a few online classes but we will see how things fall into place.


Logan is loving Kindergarten. He has learned so much. This past weekend Aaron told him to eat his eggs so he would energy to play. Logan informed him that "bread foods give you energy because they are carbohydrates." Really too smart for his own good! He is learning to read now. I didn't realize he would be doing that in Kindergarten but they do way more than I remember doing in Kindergarten. Logan was sent home from school yesterday for a slight fever. So I'm home with him today...which is the only reason I have time to do this! He is feeling fine. He's had a little cough but certainly doesn't act like a sick little boy today!

Lane is as wild as ever. He broke his other collarbone this summer. Crazy thing is he gets hurts doing the innocent things...like sleeping and falling off his Grammy's couch. But when he jumps off my couch or down the stairs he lands on his feet! We are trying our best to potty train. Too bad he's not trying as hard as we are! He has no interest in using the "big boy potty" at all. It does not bother him one bit to use his diaper! I have promised him everything if he will start going to the potty but so far no luck. Sad thing is...he knows how. He came in from being outside the other day just so he could go use the potty. Then two hours later, while wearing underwear inside the house, he refused to go. Then at school yesterday he went completely by himself. Walked to the bathroom, which in their room, pulled down his pants, took off his diaper and started going all before the teachers even realized. Then last night screamed when I tried to get him to go before heading to bed. Logan was so easy to train and had given up diapers way before the age Lane is now. But it is so very true that you can not compair children. They will do everything at their own pace!

I still can't believe that Christmas is just around the corner. We had just got back from Alaska this time last year. I am so very excited to spend our first Christmas in our new house. I currently have three Christmas trees up and want more but I'm trying to contain myself. I wanted one in every room but Aaron says that is crazy! I think it's a great idea!!! Hahaha. Once I get the trees completely decorated, hopefully by today, I'll get some pictures up. So I've got to get busy taking advantage of this free day!!! Have a great Thursday!

Aaron's new job

Things have been super busy in our household and I have neglected this blog a lot! Today I'm home and trying to catch up so that's why I'm posting so many all at once. I know I've said before that I would try to do better but when I get home from work I just want to spend time the family. So that's what I do! I do want to share about Aaron's new job. He got selected to be an instructor at the NCO Academy. For those who don't speak Army it means he will training soldier to be leaders in the Army. WLC (Warriors Leaders Course) is a 15 days class that every soldier in the Army MUST attend before being promoted to E-6/SSG. The school teaches them how to be the best leaders and does a field exersice that involves land navigation which is Aaron's favorite part. The hours are a little crazy. Aaron will basicly be working for 15 days straight and then have about two weeks of off time. He started this job on Monday and since then has had to be at work at either 4:45 or 4:00 AM and works about a 17 hour day. He does have to work the weekends while the class is going on which kind of stinks but when the class is over he gets an easy two weeks and plenty of time to spend with me and boys. The hours are long but this is really the best job he could have taken on for his career. The Army looks at a lot of things when it comes to promotions and having an instructor position under your belt looks really good. I'm so proud of him. He has enjoyed the last few days. They have been out in the woods doing fun boy stuff and believe it or not...Aaron loves teaching and is pretty good at it if I have to say so myself. So keep him in your prayers. Getting use to all this is going to take time and will keep him on his toes. But I know he's going to do excellent!!!! Keep up the good work SSG Potter!!!!

Lane's 2nd Birthday Party

We had Lane's birthday party on March 13. My parents and brother drove up for the celebration. We had a tropical luau theme. Everyone wore leis, there were palm trees, seahorses, and this super cute fish cake!!!

Oh yeah, and those little umbrellas for your drinks that are just too cute!!! Our friends who were stationed in Alaska with us and are now stationed here with us joined in on the celebration. Lane had tons of fun and played the whole day. He loved it when we sang to him.

I think he had a little help blowing out the candles!!!

Did I mention how good this cake was!!!!

He had so much fun opening presents. He's so goofy!!!

We played pin the tail on the donkey. My mom's camera has the pics from the kids doing it but I managed to start snapping when the adults went. Mel won out of the "adult girls." LOL
Amy and my mom didn't have as much luck. Amy tried to cheat and still didn't even get it on the board. LOL That's what you get for cheating huh!!!!

My poor mom went in the wrong direction the whole time. Once she finally got turned around and head in the right way...kind of...she still couldn't get it on the board!!!

The two on the door frame are my mom's and Amy's...hahahahahahaha!!!! All the kids did great but Johnny and Logan tied for first place but Logan amitted he was peaking! At least I raised an honest child right!!!!

The party was a blast and to top if off my parents stayed for the night. We rented movies and enjoyed a lazy evening. I had to throw in this last picture. I think Aaron secretly wants a girl. Although it's probably best that we never have one since he would be so protective over her that she wouldn't leave our house after the age of 5!!! But he doesn't have to worry...I'm not having any more kids unless I have a 100% guarentee that it will be a girl...hahahahaha!!!!!

Family visit

Aaron's sister Amy and her family came to visit the weekend after Lane's birthday. We were so excited to see them and all the kids enjoyed every second of it. We were lucky to have a sunny day. However I was sick as could be on their only full day there. I woke up Saturday morning with a horrible sinus headache and no energy to move off the couch. Lane was getting over his cold so at least the kids were feeling well.

Logan took this picture...he was playing photographer!

We had a little birthday celebration for Lane while they were here. We got a little cake and sang to him. He had the cutiest little look on his face when we sang to him.

The trip was way to short but we are so happy that they got to come. It's so nice living close to our families again.

Lane's 2nd Birthday

I can't believe that I'm really saying this. My sweet precious little baby boy is two!!! Time flies so quickly. Of course to him it was just another day. His birthday fell on a Thursday (March 4th) so I had to work and Aaron was in a class that lasted ALL day! He really did not NEED anything for his birthday and we were not planning to have him a party until the following weekend (March 13) but I wanted him to feel special on his special day. The day of his birthday I carried cookies to his daycare so he could celebrate with his friends. I was hoping to be able to be there but there was no way I could be there at the time they planned to share them. But his teachers said he enjoyed it and they all sung happy birthday to him. That night we sung to him here at home and gave him his gift. It wasn't anything to elaborate but he was excited.

Every time he saw one of these Wolverine guys in the store he would play with it until we literally pulled him away from it. He loves this little toy!

New job

For those of you who are on my Facebook you know that I got THE job I was hoping for a while back. You all may not know all the details and how much God blessed me with this job. So here is the whole story.

When Aaron was going through "inprocessing" when he first started work here he picked up a number for me to call about a job. From the moment we found out we were moving I said that I wanted to work on post for multiple reason. The main one being that I would have a lot of the same off days as Aaron. I put the number away and planned to call them when things were settled and I was ready to get back to work. Well on January 15 I was working on sorting through our stuff and started thinking about that number and wondering where I had put it. I dropped what I was doing and took off to find it. To this day I don't know why this crossed my mind but it did...and can only say it was God because when I found the number I called it. That lady gave me another number so I called that one. The lady that I talked to there told me to email her a resume. Well I had not even updated mine. I had one because we had done one for one of my school classes but I had to go update my last job. I did that and emailed it on. Only about 45 mins had lapsed during all this. Then the shock came. It had only been 10 minutes since I hit the send button and my phone started ringing. Since no one else had our house number I knew it was related but thought they were calling to say they couldn't open the file or something. To my surprise it was a man...not the lady I had talked to before...who said he would like to offer me a job. All I had to do was fill out the online app over the weekend and he would call me first thing on Tuesday (that Monday was a holiday) to give me the official offer! I was about to scream!!!! Aaron and the boys were outside so I took off running to tell him. I was in total shock!

On Tuesday I got the call and the official offer. From there I started getting email after email telling me everything I had to have to get my "credentialing" done. I have to say this was the oddest hiring technique I've heard of but I am working with he government now so I should have expected it. I had to have everything you can think of. Security clearance, fingerprints, shots, labs, physical, tons of signatures, letters of reference. All of this was done over emails and faxes! I have yet to speak face to face with anyone! Weird I know!!!! After I started to get everything done we started working on getting the kids in daycare. I had a long wait when getting the boys in daycare when we were in Alaska. Two months for Logan and over a year for Lane. So you can imagine my shock when they accepted Logan right away and then told me Lane was first on the list!!! Logan started the end of January and then Lane started a week and half ago. Huge blessing!

Since January though I've just been gathering info and waiting. All my stuff has been turned in since February 5 but I had still not been giving an official start date. Granted the snow has closed post and then Monday was a holiday and Tuesday was a DONSA (Day Of No Scheduled Activities) so that pushed things back since the people in charge of me now are military people. One of Aaron's friends said..."your in our world now!" Meaning I will understand just how the Army moves...and how "hurry up and wait" applies to everything military!!!! But finally yesterday I got the call that everyone who needed to approve me had approved me and I was finally ready to start. So Monday morning I will report at 0730 to start "inprocessing" (another military term) and training for my new job. Also on Monday I will find out what clinic I will be at. I was hired as a "dental assistant" and that job title could put me at any dental clinic. There are 5 on post and all treat only military member. No spouses or dependents. Even though my schooling was mostly "general dentistry" I have never worked general and haven't trained in general for almost two years. I will be grateful where ever they put me but my prayer is that they will put me in oral surgery which is what I love and where I would be the most comfortable. I have no doubt that I would pick the general dentistry stuff up quickly but it would just make my first day a lot better if I was completely confident in what I was doing and the instruments I was using. So if I can get you to pray with me that would be wonderful. But no matter where I end up I just want to thank God for putting this opportunity in my hands. God has been blessing my family over and over and I just can't thank him enough!!!!

Valentine's Day

Valentine's day has been a day that Aaron and I have always missed out on spending together. The Army always keeps us apart!!! Our first Valentine's day together the Army sent him off for training, the next year he was deployed, in 07 he was home but on last minute notice and after I had already started cooking a special dinner he got put on CQ (a 24 hour duty where he has to stay up all night at work) so I carried him dinner at work. Talk about romance huh!!! Then in 08 we were finally together but I was enormously huge and about to pop with Lane that there was no romance going to happen! I was doing good to waddle around. He did surprise me with beautiful flowers though and let me pick where I wanted to go for dinner...I was craving Taco Bell!!! Then in 09 he was deployed again...so this year was really only our second (in 6 years) uninterrupted Valentine's day together!

When I woke up Valentine's morning all my boys were sitting on my bed and they had this huge card that they had made for me. Aaron doesn't like Valentine's day at all. He says "shouldn't we treat everyday as Valentine's day!" Granted he is right but we all get caught up in our busy crazy schedules and we don't always do something special for our loved ones EVERY DAY. So to me V'day is a day to really express your love and spend the day showing the other how much you care for them. So the fact that Aaron made the card meant sooooooo much to me. I had already instructed him that I didn't want flowers...too easy!!! Right ladies??? I didn't want a bunch of money spent on me. I wanted something from the heart. He did it up just right. This was everything I wanted and it couldn't have been more perfect!!!

Here's the front...

And when you open it...
My parents always got me something for V'day. Sometimes candy, sometimes a stuffed animal but either way I always got something special too. My real dad would send me roses on V'day. That always made me feel extra special! So I picked up a little stuffed animal for the boys and the movie Wall E that Logan had been begging for. They were so excited and carried their doggies around all day. (I did get them each one but when I went to grab them to take a picture one was MIA!!!)I got Aaron an iTunes card for his new iPod touch that I got him for Christmas and some chocolates. No pictures of that though. After our gift exchanges Aaron headed downstairs to work on his honey do list. He hung the last of our blinds and worked on getting things ready to hang my chair rail. That was really the greatest gift he could have come up with!!!! Later that night we headed out to eat and then rented some movies. In all it was a great day and what made it perfect was just having Aaron here to share the day with!!!!

The Dining Room...A Work in Progress!

One thing I have hated about living in rentals is that all the walls are the same ole boring white or ivory color. No matter how much decorating you do there is just nothing that compares to the way a new paint job can change a room. The builders would have gladly painted every color I wanted but of course they wanted extra money for that. So either spend $40 on paint and do it myself or spend about $300 per extra paint color! Needless to say we decided to paint ourselves! The befores! Even though we had plans to paint we not planning to paint right away but Lane changed that plan for us. Little stinker banged the wall with a toy gun and left black marks on it. No problem right? Wrong! The builders used flat paint on our walls and for anyone who knows anything about paint...flat paint is almost impossible to clean. I grabbed the magic eraser which has worked wonders for me in the past but this time it just scrubbed the paint off my walls. So one wall in my dining room had a huge white spot. Well we could have just grabbed the extra paint that the builders had left but my amazing hubby said we would just go ahead and paint the dining room!!!! I was so excited I couldn't get dressed for Lowes fast enough!!!!!! I already knew what color I wanted I just had to find a sample of the color in my head. Once that was done the paint was mixed, chair rail molding was bought, and home we went. The next day I taped everything off and when Lane went down for his afternoon nap Logan, Aaron, and I got busy. After the first coat I was pretty nervous. It looked horrible. After the boys headed to bed that night Aaron and I stayed up til about 2 in the morning and put the second coat on. The next morning I was still worried. We were out of paint and the walls were not looking the way they should. One small wall was ok but the rest...well they were far from ok. So out to buy another can of paint. I was determined and decided to stay up late another night and finish. As I started the 3rd coat the worry began to fade. Things started to come together and the walls started looking good. I was overjoyed!!!! My walls were finally the same color that I saw in my head!!!! Merlot!!!!

(Looks like I might be doing a 4th coat of paint...do you see those roller marks!!!! Red paint is sooooo hard to get perfect!)

I still have a lot I want to do in this room. If you will notice there is a curtain rod with no curtains...well I bought some, came home and hung them, only to hate them! So I took them back and now I'm just waiting to find some more that I like. Also we found that huge bowl on the table and for some reason I fell in love with it. In person it's the same color as the walls but these pics give the walls a pinker tone than what they really are. Now I just have to find something to fill that giant thing with. I put these balls in it but I'm not happy with them. I keep telling myself that whatever is meant to be in it will just jump out at me one day! So far nothing is jumping. I just have to be patient...something I'm not good at at all!!!!