Valentine's Day

We had a great Valentine's Day this year! Below is the card we sent Dallas

Poor Dallas had a bit of bad luck today.  They do a lot of races on holidays for the soldiers and Dallas ran in a 5K today.  A few minutes in, his ankle gave out on him and he completely faceplanted onto the concrete and got some road rash on his arm.  He said his ankle didn't hurt, so he started running again and a 1/4 mile later it did it again! He walked over to the doctor's office and he just had a mild sprain, which is great news.  Unfortunately, he didn't get to finish the race but if he baby's his ankle for a few weeks, he'll be set to run the 5k on St. Patrick's Day.

Dallas sent me these beautiful roses and a card. They perked up quite a bit after I put them in water and I think they will be gorgeous in a few days! Amaya puked Valentine's Eve at my parents, so we ended up staying the night there and in the morning my mom watched the girls so I could Skype with Dallas uninterrupted :)

Below is one of the gifts I sent Dallas;  a book by Oaklie to match the one Amaya gave him for his birthday (Amaya's can be seen here)

| View Sample Photo Books | Create your own Photo Book

Since Dallas left I've had the opportunity to become friends with a lot of other army wives. We started getting together on Monday nights for family home evening and the Bachelor. It's been a lot of fun and we had heart shaped pizzas and fondue on Valentine's Day.

For all of you who are watching it this season, I've just got to put in my two cents.  I was so happy that he sent Michelle home!

I really hope he

ends up with her

Because Emily is definately my favorite! Although to be honest, if I was single, I wouldn't date him. So I couldn't really blame her if she dumps him.

Anyway, here's a few more pictures from our night.

I need to take a picture of all of us together but I keep forgetting! Amaya kept loving on her friend and Eleanor would just walk away. haha

My friend Heather took this picture and this is what she said about it, which was so sweet

"I love that I have made friends because of this deployment, but I really love that my daughter made a friend too. Eleanor got visibly excited when Amaya walked in the door tonight. Later they were playing in her room and we could hear them laughing. We went in ready with our cameras and they were jumping on the bed!"

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

Refugee Camp Part 2

Another awesome email from Dallas that I wanted to share.

Last Sunday was one of those days that I hope I will never forget but I don't know if I was really thankful for it during it. We went to another IDP camp aka refugee camp that the U.N. is giving aid to. When I stepped out of my vehicle I couldn't believe what this place was like. It was a landfield that had been turned into some kind of little village for these people. In particular a noticed a couple little kids playing around in the mud and garbage and then i saw one little girl that was about Amaya's age. She was all dirty and was sitting in the back of a little wagon while her older sister was going through some rubble and finding spoons and bowls that they were going to use to eat with. It brought a tear to my eye to see how bad these little girls had it but then I started to think about my girls and realized how blessed we all are to have places to keep our children clean and warm. We have so many nice things and that I am grateful for. I think God gives me moments like this in my life so I can remember that I am blessed and no matter how hard or bad my day is there is always someone that is having a worse day.


Things are going well and time is really picking up now it seems like. It has been cold lately with the rain and all. Yes I know it has been below zero and a lot of snow in Idaho. Life is good though and thanks for all your prayers and support.

Love you all,

Dallas

 Refugees going about their day

1SG Howard and SSG Walker and the landfield aka refugees home

 

This is when I was deciding if I was going to go and get back in my vehicle or not because I thought I was going to break down right there. This place was bad. (Remember you never know when someone is going to take a picture of you either!)

His email made me think a lot about life and sacrifices. Today our lesson in Relief Society was about sacrifice and I thought about this email I got yesterday. I realized I don't always have the best attitude when I am asked to sacrifice, but sacrifice is really a blessing.  It's hard to have Dallas gone and we really miss him, but we are very blessed to have the opportunity to serve other people. My prayer is that because my little girls had to sacrifice playing with their dad and seeing him for a year, other little children might have a home to live in, a place they can feel safe, and the opportunity to go to school.  And for me, knowing that one child's life in better makes all of our sacrifices seem so small and so worth it.

 

Refugee Camp

Here's some pictures and captions from the email Dallas sent me the other day.

A couple of days ago we escorted a high ranking official from the United Nations to a refugee camp. His name is Antonio Guterres. Here are some pictures that I thought you might like to see.

Crazy french guy that works for the U.N. security. aka Froggie

 

Old man

Me

These guys were cleaning this road up because they thought that we were coming that way and in the end we didn't. Good work guys...

 

The group that we were taking care of at the camp.

 

Some of the camp.

 

The big boss.

 

End of mission, time to go home.

Mr. Guterres is the High Commisioner of Refugee affairs in the world for the United Nations.  He has the same rank as a four start general or an ambassador.  So it was pretty cool to be tasked with it all.  As much as many people from the United States hate on the U.N.  they are really doing a good job in helping the cause here in Iraq.  I find it funny that as Americans a lot of times we think that we are the best and we are the only ones doing any good in the world. 
 things are going well and I am enjoying what I am doing. I think it is cool to support the last little bit of the mission here in Iraq because it shows that we have accomplished a lot and that the people of Iraq are starting to take resposibility and dealing with it pretty well. I do think there is a ways to go but I am glad I have been able to see two different views of Iraq.


 
Right now we're trying to get Dallas' deployment approved to count as his internship for his sociology degree. It would be awesome if we could get it to work so that he could graduate the April after he gets home (2012). Not too bad considering that Dallas graduated in 2004,  served a mission (2 years) and had two deployments (18 months and 12 months). Keep your fingers crossed! Also, we just want to say thanks to everyone for your prayers for our family. We have been so blessed these last few months and have been touched my the love and service shown to us by so many wonderful people.

Ragtags

On days when we have nowhere to go, Amaya, Oaklie, and I hang out in some form of our pajamas looking like ragtags. January is a pretty uneventful month and  we've been doing it a lot, so I thought I'd share some pictures of my little orphans. I'm not in any of these because I think it's funny to take pictures of them for future blackmail, but blackmailing myself would just be stupid.

Amaya is obsessed with these snow boots. They're the only shoes she can put on by herself, so she wears them around the house all day pretending to go "bye-bye". She also steps on Oaklie, and trips over her own two feet while wearing them, so I usually hide them from her because they drive me nuts. Amaya is like a bloodhound, she can track down these snowboots anywhere in the house. The "hat" is her sister's church tights.

Little Miss Oaklie. She's five months now and rollling over and practicing sitting up. She's such a good sleeper for me (8:30 pm to 7:30 am) and is a little party animal when she's awake!

 Amaya has been talking up a storm lately. For a while I was keeping track of all the words she could say but I lost count when she started naming all the characters on Sesame Street.

Amaya and her Grandma Clark. Guess who's idea the armchair hats were?

If you said Amaya, you guessed wrong.

Proof that I do occasionally get my kids dressed and fix their hair.

Oaklie and her Great-Grandma Clark at Nate's bball game.

This is how Amaya slept the other night. I snapped this picture before I went to bed and I was jolted awake at 3 am by a very loud, screaming Amaya. I went into her room and she was hanging upside down from her toddler bed, terrified of falling to her death.

Slumber party

I think we're going to make Amaya go as Annie for Halloween next year, what do you think?

Amaya's cute older girl cousin got makeup for Christmas and gave all the little girls "Makeup Overs". Ever since Amaya has been obsessed with all things makeup. This is her after putting on my eyeliner. I caught her the other day smearing chapstick all over her face and her baby doll. They looked beautiful!

Sorry Amaya, you will never be able to pull off a sweet mohawk because of that curly hair.

Oaklie started eating rice cereal a few days ago. Feeding a five month old rice cereal is like trying to buy a soda from a broken pop machine. You straighten your dollar bill and keep sticking it in again and again, only to have it spit it back out at you. It's not frustrating at all. Luckily Oaklie is cute enough that I don't stay mad for long :)

Looking sexy! Amaya learned the hard way that walking in high heels isn't all that fun.

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Who else's kids look like they're homeless sometimes? Please tell me I'm not the only one!

Reflections

I know that it is already the 9th of January, but I never posted about the new year, so here goes. I always enjoy January rolling around because, to be honest, Christmas has never really been my favorite holiday. It just seems so stressful and it's so cold outside, I look forward to January every year. It's so interesting to think back to where I was one year ago (barely pregnant with Oaklie), two years ago (a newlywed and pregnant with Amaya), and three years ago (in high school! haha!). Yikes, my 2008 recap made it sound like we had a shotgun wedding! For the record, we got married, and then we got pregnant. haha. All the changes we'ev had lately make me a little nervous to see what January 2012 will bring. So here's my reflection on 2010 for the Abrams family.

January last year on New Years Eve we were at the hospital because they thought I might be miscarrying Oaklie. Thankfully, everything turned out ok and now she is so big and healthy--it's such a miracle.

February and March these months were a bit of a blur, but we were really happy and having fun being a family. I spent a lot of time on the couch being pregnant and trying to get Amaya to crawl!

April in April Amaya started pulling up and getting lots of bruises, we found out we were having a girl and chose a name and we/I moved out of our apartment (half of the time Dallas was at training, but he moved the big stuff). I remember the when I shut the door on our empty apartment I had the thought that I would look back on this somewhat boring time of our lives and miss it--and I was right! Things got really busy after that but we have also been so blessed.

May This month was spent in Houston. We got a phone call end of April/beginning of May letting us know that Dallas was leaving for Iraq in the fall so we spent a few weeks deciding what we wanted to do and ended up coming back to Idaho so we could spend more time together. Dallas was at training again the end of May and I turned 20 on the 23rd while he was gone.

June In June we moved back officially and I went to Bear Lake with the Abrams while Dallas was at training again. At this point I was feeling very, very pregnant with 2 more months to go! I already knew that Oaklie was going to be a good little baby because she was so soft and nice when she kicked my ribs!

July The 4th we spent with family in Menan and that weekend had a party for Amaya and Dallas. Then Dallas left for (surprise) another training. Luckily Amaya and I were able to go to Boise and meet Dallas for her 1st birthday and we were able to bring him home to celebrate his 25th birthday. Amaya started walking and she hasn't stopped since!

August August was a fun month, we spent 3 weeks together hanging out and having fun and Oaklie was (miraculously) born the day before Dallas was supposed to leave for training. He left again for Boise and Amaya and Oaklie and I went home and spent lots of time sleeping, nursing, and hanging out with family. Dallas and I also hit the TWO year mark at the end of the month, something I am quite proud of!

September In September Dallas came home on leave for a week and a half and we blessed Oaklie and spent a lot of time with family. Looking back now, the week or so we were able to spend as a family of four really feels like a fairy tale to both of us. It was so fun and it makes me so excited for when Dallas comes home. Then Dallas left for Mississippi which was hard but good. I spent the rest of the month singing "Wake Me Up When September Ends"

October This month was a blur of kids, diapers, schoolwork and phone calls to Camp Shelby. Oaklie started smiling and Amaya started trying to make Oaklie laugh. All I can say is that I am so so thankful for all the help we had from friends and family because it was a crazy month.

November The first of the month we moved (again) and  I went to New Orleans to see Dallas. He left Mississippi for Kuwait and then ended up in-country on Thanksgiving.

December This was one looong month. We started Skyping with Dallas which was awesome, the semester ended, and we had Christmas. Amaya really took off on the talking and is now saying TONS of things, and Oaklie just grew up so much. She's so alert and giggly, they're both really so fun.

Looking back on the last year, I just feel so very, very blessed. Elder Bednar says, "The Lord’s tender mercies are the very personal and individualized blessings, strength, protection, assurances, guidance, loving-kindnesses, consolation, support, and spiritual gifts which we receive from and because of and through the Lord Jesus Christ." (read the talk here). I know this is true and I have seen His tender mercies in big ways and it very small ways so many times this last year that I am really so very thankful.We became a family of four which is so amazing! 2010 was a great year, and 2011 is going to be awesome as well. I pray that it is slightly less eventful, but I'm excited because 2011 is the year that Dallas comes home! Gotta love new beginnings!