When Dad is Away

some snippits of what happens the first week dad is away:

1. first morning, the kids say "Mom, remember you have to feed us dinner tonight" (that was Dad's specialty - I am no cook)
2. Sienna finds every picture of Justin in our house and points and says "dada" she doesn't talk at any other time or on command even, so this is precious.
3. Michael and Aislynn want to sleep in my king size bed because dad lets them do that when I am out of town. That lasted 5 minutes because they were so loud and jumping all over the place. To which I hear, "Ah, you are not as fun as dad."
4. I am generally more of a pushover than dad, so the kids try all sorts of stuff to get out of anything they don't want to do. Mikey tries to get out of going to church by saying, "I love Jesus, but I just hate going to church"
5. Sunday - I thought I did so well getting to church 10 minutes early -- only to realize it was daylight savings time and we were 50 minutes late.
6. We skype with Dad on sunday and the children are crazy, out of control all over the place, they ask dad if he has recess at his Air Force school. When we end the skype Mikey says, "so is dad coming home tomorrow?"

Don't I wish. 4 MORE WEEKS!!! We can't wait to have him back.

December to March

March 8 - Dad leaves for Commissioned Officer Training in Alabama. He is a 2nd Lieutenant in the United States Air force.

February 20 - We finally get to Iowa and see our new cousin - baby Eli Casey. He looks just like his daddy.

January - I just can't get enough of Sienna. She is the perfect angel baby and she has a nice belly on her too!

O' Christmas Tree, O' Christmas Tree, why aren't my kids all smiling? We couldn't get one picture of them all looking happy and decent...oh well, this is reality at the Bucy household!

Sienna is 1 and eating her birthday cake. She likes toys she can ride on and matchbox cars and rocking chairs. She shakes her head yes and no in response to questions you ask her. Not a big talker. She can say dada and mimi (for mama) but doesn't say it too often. She knows some sign language as well, but she is just content and doesn't find she needs much. She keeps busy chasing her older sister and brother around the house. She LOVES to be outside. She is the best baby ever and I am so glad she is mine!

LONG TIME NO POST

Here is an update of this year in picture form:

Kids doing a Spanish song at the Orem Public Library

Wendy Graduation from Law School at Drake in Iowa.

Mikey Birthday

Late Easter pic

4th of July

Baby Dylann!!!

A girl of many faces

Trip to the Doctors for 6 month check up and Mikey's 5 year old shots!

Hanging out at the park

When Looney Meg and Will came to town....with baby cousin in utero!

School starts at Challenger

Aislynn's birthday - Princess crown cupcakes!

Ride in the cinderella Carriage for Aislynn's b-day.

Sienna is adorable and taking her first steps at 10 months!

The star wars trio for halloween - we had a big halloween party for friends and family.

Pumpkin shopping

Sisterly love!

The first sleep-over with Kawika and Makaiya Wright, what a fun time.

Now onto the HOLIDAYS!

After taking the bar - we bought a house and spent WEEKS painting it and cleaning carpets and now, here are some of the rooms that are finished!!!

Our Room -- what you don't see is the AWESOME master bath. 2 separate sinks and HUGE closet. It actually holds of my clothes and Justin's clothes.
Aislynn's Room -- she wanted pink and purple. We still have some minor touches to add, but I had fun putting this room together. Mikey's is not quite done, still needs a little more work (dad was in charge of that one ;) )
Kitchen -- love my table, Justin found it. The accent wall is cherry cobbler red.
Living Room -- brown and blue, Justin loves the fact that every seat in the sectional reclines. AND he loves his 58" TV also. I'm just glad we finally have ceilings high enough to hang my mirror collage.

COMPARISON

This is Sienna above and Aislynn below -- about the same age, Sienna might be one week older.

Can you tell who is who? Aislynn above and Sienna below this time.

My girls look so similar - Sienna just has a longer head than Aislynn and chubbier cheeks, since she's a little older in the pictures. What adorable girls!

2010 Rewind

Rewinding back to December -- I'll fill in how we spent our last month in preparation for 2010. First week of Dec. I had to study for finals, my last week of law school classes, and had my last OBGYN appt. Second week of December, the crazy blizzard that kept me shoveling at least 3-4 times a day during the week and then I had to shovel the road as well so I could get out of my driveway. Then the drifts came and luckily the neighbor had a snowblower because the drifts made it impossible for us to open our front or back door. The kids had their winter dance recital that Friday and Justin flew back to Iowa.

The Next week, I was induced on my due date, December 16th (also Aunty Meg's birthday) and Sienna Jo was born after 12 hours of labor. We named her after Aunt Megan Jo since they share a birthday and we adore Meg. She's been a second mom to my kids and the best sister in law in the world I am pretty sure.



The week after Sienna was born we celebrated Christmas at the Bucy house - where we stayed from Dec. 12-26th. They were so wonderful in helping with the kids and Aislynn and Mikey got their share of fairytales while helping Gma Mary in the kitchen. Justin also loaded a Uhaul and finished cleaning out the duplex with the help of some of our best Iowa friends.

These are my favorite 2 guys and gals ever. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family. On December 26th my dad flew out to Omaha and we picked him up so he could help us in the move from Iowa to Utah. We got stuck in Nebraska due to the highway being closed, but eventually made it there. We are staying in my parents basement until we find a house. IT is such a nice basement apt. set-up with laundry and everything. It was fun to get to see my all of my siblings when I was in between studying and taking care of the baby. AND both my sisters on this side are prego so that is fun to have so many babies coming into the family.

And this is my new little angel. She really has lived up to the monicker of angel baby that Aislynn came up with while I was pregnant. She is so calm and easy-going. Not much a crier, more of a squeaker. She makes my schedule of being a stay at home mother of 3, studying for the bar and trying to unpack and house hunt, actually manageable because she is so low maintenance. It is so nice to be here with family and have all the help to keep me sane and motivated to do everything I need to. We truly were so blessed this last month and appreciate all the help and love that has been sent our way. IT's very special to have a new baby at a time of year when we celebrate the birth of the Savior and the miracle of his life. What a great reminder Sienna has been of the miracles we are blessed to be a part of as God's children.

You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch

This is the Grinch who stole Christmas -- being very scary with his long Grinch fingers.

This is the Grinch now a happy Grinch who is going to give back the Who's Christmas with the help of little Cindy-Loo Who.

This is Cindy Loo so happy she could help the Grinch's heart grow and help him love Christmas!

I took them to the Jolly Holiday Lights walk for the Make-A-Wish foundation. It was a two mile loop with lots of AWESOME Christmas light displays and I pulled them in their Radio Flyer "sleigh" - so I guess that would make me the Grinch's dog Max. They had a blast, it was a beautiful night, and they got their picture taken for the newspaper, so I consider it time and labor well spent.

HALLOWEEN is COMING!

Mikey and Aisy dress up just about every day as spiderman, a princess, skeletons (glow in the dark jammies), or whatever their imagination comes up with. {we also did a play using the miss muffet nursery rhyme - they memorized lines and we video taped it too!} HOWEVER, they know Halloween is a special dress-up occassion.


Tinkerbell - she didn't want just the regular green fairy costume, she wanted her tinkerbell to have pink on it too.

Peter Pan - "Mom, this is how peter pan stands when he fights Captain Hook!" And when he is peter, he jumps off everything and tries to fly. my couches and beds will never be the same.

Best friends Peter and Tink! They are already combing the many halloween costume magazines we get in the mail for ideas of what to be next year. The front runners are batman and bat girl or a princess and prince. I love that they want to coordinate their outfits, they must be my children!

For Love of a Dad

We got to see dad in Omaha, NE over the Labor Day weekend. We had so much fun at the waterpark hotel and fun center. I got to do some leisure reading and exercise because there was another adult to do the supervision and entertaining, it was wonderful! However, we are going on our second month without dad and it is clearly taking a toll on Mikey.

This picture was taken at the airport as we dropped dad off. Aislynn was basically asleep, but as we pulled away from the airport, Mikey put both of his hands up to his face, covering his eyes and began to BAWL - like the catch your breath type of crying with streaming tears. I quickly tried to rectify the situation by reminding him we would see dad again soon and just think about how much fun we had with dad this weekend, and then Mikey's hands drop from his face and he looks at me with his furrowed brow like I am just not getting it. And he says, "But Mom, my heart hurts."

So of course being pregnant I start crying too and say "My heart hurts too when dad leaves and sometimes we just need to cry to help it feel a little better." After we got over the worst Mikey asked if Sissy's heart hurt too - and I told him he could ask her when she woke up.

Aislynn replied to Mikey, "No, Dad said he was going to take me on a date!" Apparently money and time with dad alone speak volumes to this girl and that holds her over until the next time we get to see dad.