The Name Game

I follow a few blogs that my friends write and lots of them use nicknames on their blogs for the family members. I have thought about this several times and never could find something catchy, fitting and obvious (so the reader that knows us will still know which person I am referring to).

The other night at dinner, the subject of call signs came up. What is a call sign, you ask? It is a 'nickname' for pilots. It usually has some meaning behind it or a fairly good story. Well, my man is known in the Navy world as 'Juice Box'. We don't drink, which is an oddity in the military world. So at 'good ole boy' functions, 'Juice Box' would fill his mug with beer from the wardroom draft and not drink it, or just fill it with soda.

The girls got to talking and we came up with these names.

Meet the family...

Juice Box

"Boxer" (get it? Box-R)

 B-Box

 Boxy (get it? Box-E)

  And then there is me... Mrs. Box or Juicy

What is your vote, Mrs. Box or Juicy? Post it in the comments below... or email me with your vote!

" I LOVE MEATBALLS!"

I have raised picky eaters. I am not sure quite how that came to be, but it did. I have tried EVERYTHING! One night when I was at my wits end I did yet another tireless google search for "how to help picky eaters".

I read one article that listed about 8 tips. I had already tried 7 of the 8 items.

The other: Make a rule, for each new food, you must take three bites on three different nights.

"When you take that first bite you’re scared and you’re going to hate it no matter what. But now that you know you aren’t going to DIE from eating that broccoli, you take a second bite to truly taste it. The third bite is the decision bite where you get to proclaim love, meh, or hate"

Simple enough. I made a list each night of what was on the dinner table. Three bites of everything went on the girls plates. The oldest, being obedient, took it in stride. An occasional up turned nose appeared, but once reminded of table manners fixed undesirable behaviors.

Now the middlest, oh the middlest, did NOT take it in stride. There was food being spit out, hands over her mouth, LOTS of head shaking, grunts, tears, oncoming stares from others waiting to be excused. It was PAINFUL for ALL of us. The youngest even starting mocking these undesirable behaviors. UGH!

About 3 weeks into these nightly battles, we turned a little but significant turn for the better. She would put the unmentionables into her mouth on her own, she whined while doing it, but SHE did it. The second time eating ground beef in pasta sauce, she stated, I still don't like it but it is fun to chew. We will take it!

About a week later, a meatball in red sauce lay on the middlest's plate. This is the third time she must take three bites. After staring it down for five minutes, the middlest bravely put it in her mouth. Then next thing we know, the second and third bite are being digested. Then, just then, the angels looked down on us, sang a hymn and the middlest shouted "I LOVE MEATBALLS!!!" She was so proud that this proclamation was shouted over and over. We all celebrated. I even teared up a little. Then the rest of the meatball was consumed!

She loves meatballs, she wants me to cook meatballs again soon. This is a big deal people! She has never liked beef before this day.

Three bites, three times... it works in this house!

2013 Bucket List COMPLETED

This post is a few months behind, but I can proudly say we kicked the bucket...list in the behind! We had it completed in late October.

I orginially made this list right after our move to get us excited about the new possibilities in this new town. Remember this list was created over a year ago.

Here it is:

-go on a rocketship (Reese)

We visited the Virginia Air and Space Center in Hampton, VA in September. We explored all sorts of air vehicles including rocketship. We also got to see a rocket take off from our front porch one night! We kept the girls up so they could witness this extraodrinary event.

-go swimming (Reese)

-Perform an Ariel show with my doll (Reese)

This is not the Ariel show pictured... but we get 'shows' on a daily basis. No really, EVERY day. Sound of Music is the most recent theme of most shows.

-go for a hike (Brady)

No hills in our hikes, but we do enjoy the mile walk through our neighborhood (base). 

-go to the zoo (Brady)

-go to where Felicity lived (Brady)

The older two girls were treated to a couple trips to Colonial Williamsburg last year. They enjoyed learning about the differences in life and culture, including tea and curtsy lessons.

-go to the Botanical Gardens (Christy)

Among our multiple trips to the Botanical Gardens to play in the World of Wonder kids' garden. We also explored the Christmas light display during the Polar Express event. The girls also got their first taste of hot cocoa.

-go to the Great Wolf Lodge (Christy)

-go to DC and watch the Giants play (Karl)....

This one wasn't completed in its original form...instead Karl go to see the Giants play in San Diego, even better right!?!?!

-go see Kaddie's (now better known as Pop Pop) fish (Christy)

-go to the Children's musuem (Reese)

-go to the Aquarium (Brady)

-eat Cheesecake Factory cheesecake (Karl)

You know he ate this too fast for me to grab a picture of it!

We did so much last year, much of which is not even listed on here. Glad that we were able to kick the bucket...list!

Stay tuned for the post previewing this year's to do list.

Tree Skirt Tradition

Three years ago, I started a tradition that I have grown to love. I know as the years pass, I will love it more and more. 

I have taken our old quilted tree skirt (it has a snowy county scene on the other side) and added the kids' handprints with their initial and the year. This was our first step in decorating for Christmas this year. 

 Elli was very interested in the painting of her hand...

 ...but wasn't too fond of the stamping part.

 This is this years' result.

Game Night Liar

Game night is our Friday night tradition. We have been going at it for about a year now. The girls really do look forward to it, but they refuse to have game night when Daddy is out at sea. They say we aren't a family when daddy is not here.

As a preface to this story. I believe heavily in making sure that my girls lose games on a regular basis. I rarely 'let the girls win.' The only time I will purposely mess up to give a daughter advantage is when the game skews constantly to one kid so I will set the other kid up for success. For example, in memory if one girl gets all the matches for the 5th game in a row, I will try to show the other where her card is through a pretend mismatch. Anywho...

Last weekend, we played Brady and Reese's all time favorite game night game...Life. At the end we were counting money, First Karl announced how many 100,000 bills he had: "13" then Brady speedily proclaims "I have 19!" Reese jumps in with "I do too" (I thought I heard her count only 18, but I think it was an honest mistake). There I sat with 21 100,000 bills in my hand (yes I know that is 2.1 million but I am working with 4 and 6 year olds). No one looked my way, but I was completely okay. No need to claim victory here. I am not competitive and what ensued is much better then claiming victory. The girls SQUEALED in delight that they had "the same exact money and they BOTH are the winners". They danced around for at least 15 minutes singing the victory song of the dual champions. I cleaned up the game with Karl and then snapped pictures of the closing ceremonies in the game night festivities. They were so excited about the tied 'wins'...now who could break the news to them with faces like these. So, yes, on this night I 'let them win'!

Three-peat

It is the second Saturday in April and you know what that means right? WIENER DOG RACE DAY! I know I know, only in Pensacola...

In case you are new to the blog, feel free to read a brief history of Champion Admiral Dewy of Dayton (AKA Dewy) here for 2010 and here for 2011.

This year was a blast just like the past two years. The girls are older and can interact a little more and we have our system down now. The only let down was we promised the girls we would buy them snow cones again this year, well it would have helped if there was actually a snow cone vendor there....

We got there early this year and got front row seats! The girls were ready and set, expect that we got there 45 minutes early and they started 45 minutes late, needless to say they were very patient.

 Here are some of the initial race heats. I took the picture before all the dogs were listed, but there were about 12 initial races. This year they formatted the races different and grouped by pounds. Last year there were three categories with a range of pounds.

 This was our attempt at a family shot (remember we leave Pace at home since he doesn't like the heat or being on a leash). You see the top of Dewy's head? With my belly he had to sit on the end of my lap ;)

 I bet you can guess the result of the first race...Yep, Dewy didn't let us down! He got first place!

 Well there is one problem with have a fast dog...you have to wait around for the next heat of races. Tough life having a Dewy Dog!

 And it is a tough life if you are that fast Dewy Dog... you have to sit around in the sun waiting for the next heat of races, that is unless you have a master that will hold an umbrella for you!

 The second heat of races was between some of the lighter dogs that had won their individual heats. We didn't get any pictures of this race, but as you may have guessed Dewy was the big winner again. The interesting thing is Karl and I both noticed that Dewy wasn't as into this year. We would slow down before crossing the finish line, not run directly to Karl and just not as into it. But both of the first two races he was the undisputed leader! So after all that racing (which in the past two years that was it) the event held one final race for the top three dogs... we didn't know what to expect, they have never had this race...could Dewy come out on top?

I kneeled at the start line, Karl got the toy in his sights and backed up to the finish line squeaking the toy. This is our method every time and it has not let us down. There was a slight delayed but normally that just gets Dewy more into it. The MC says, "ready set" and then something to Dewy's right caught his attention, he looks right..."GO". I let go of a distracted Dewy who took off with a slight delay.

We walked away from the 8th annual Pensacola Wiener Dog Races with the third place overall title! We are proud of our almost nine year old Dachshund. And yes, Leroy the winner was 3 years old and Dewy only lost by a dog's length...

 

This will most likely be our last time going to these races since we should be moving within the year. I will have to say the races will mark some of our favorite memories here in Pensacola! We are proud of you, Dewy!

Hoppy Easter

We got our family Easter underway by dying eggs the day before. Reese thought we were 'killing' the eggs since we "died" them. We decided to go simple this year and only do solid colors. I know that disappoints some of you (andi and mom) but gives them more to look forward to right? We used a mixture of white and cage free brown eggs, so we got several different beautiful hues. 

 The Easter bunny came over night and filled the girls' baskets and hide their dyed eggs. Here is Reese's basket.

 and Brady's basket.

 The girls were thrilled that the Easter bunny was able to make it to our house.

 After the baskets were searched through, the girls ran off to find their 24 eggs.

 Brady was an awesome sister today. She showed Reese some eggs instead of swiping them all for herself, this made me happier then I can put into words. And you can tell she enjoyed helping her sister out.

 Then outside for springtime fun.

 Which included rehiding the eggs for more search and find fun.

 Well, hide and seek turned into crack and smash...but the fun was still had!

 But again, my heart was happy. My girls cleaned up their mess...how did I get so lucky?!?!?!?!?!

Happy Easter to all!