Kimber's Navy Family

So I've been conflicted for the past couple weeks about whether or not I should blog about our miscarriage. On one hand, I would love to talk about it because it is so isolating. On the other hand, it feels so personal. In the end, I think talking about it is the best thing to do. From the beginning, this pregnancy was showing signs of problems. My OB/Gyn does a first trimester ultrasound. The ultrasound had abnormalities... the weeks weren't lining up right... we did blood tests... the numbers went up, but not as much as they wanted... more ultrasounds... After several weeks of this up and down, one step forward and two steps back, it was clear the baby was not developing and was in fact miscarrying. We decided to try the medication, this pill you put on your cervix, to try and have the miscarriage at home without surgery. This way we wouldn't have to line up a sitter for an early morning surgery with recovery time. The pill didn't work and I ended up still needing a...

  My husband and I have had a tight past couple years. We didn't think we made a lot of money while he was an E-5 on a submarine. We lived in Hawaii with a toddler and-- I admit it-- I am horrible at sticking to a budget. Well, moving to North Carolina for the STA-21 program, we lost our sea pay, sub pay, nuke pay, sea pay kicker, COLA... And then we had twins. And moved locally-- twice. Of course we feel that the STA-21 program is worth it and we are exceedingly grateful that the military is paying Hubby to get his degree. However, we've had many, many, many late night talks about the budget. We've struggled over how we should spend our money and what expenses are necessary. It is amazing what I feel is necessary and what he feels is necessary. For instance, last semester, he took a very heavy load at school, being his senior year. He left in the morning before preschool started and came home after the kids were in bed. Near the end of the semester, he wasn't getti...

  Discipline... Perhaps with our oldest we focused too much on discipline. Sometimes, I really feel that way. That we expected too much, that we wanted him to behave more than was age appropriate, that we were too strict. I think that dads have a tendency to do that, but I really think I put a lot of expectations on him as well. The past couple weeks, I remembered a few specific times where I wish I had cut him a break. And then there are other times where I see his behavior now and I think, "Man, all that hard work has paid off." He is respectful; he is working on his table manners. He follows instructions (for the most part). And he knows that we are serious when we tell him yes or no. I feel that with the toddlers, we let a lot of things go. The other night O was throwing a tennis ball in our living room. I cannot stand things being thrown in the house. It absolutely drives me crazy. I especially do not want things thrown near our television or lamps or other various ...

Picture taken by TwinBug Photography twinbugphotography@yahoo.c om The other night I made cookies with the boys. While the toddlers sat in their high chairs yelling, "Mooow! Moooow!" (their attempt at "more," their universal word for want/please/give me) and pointing at the oven as the cookies baked, our preschooler worked on some math. I drew 5 circles on a piece of paper, representing each family member. (He quickly drew chocolate chips, so instead of circles, there were 5 cookies.) We then counted out how many cookie dough balls we had and represented each cookie with a counting bear . His goal was to as evenly as possible spread out the counting bears over each circle to see how many cookies each family member would get. We were working on his math and trying to teach fairness. We had 11 bears and 5 circles. 1st Attempt I explained to our four-year old that each bear was a cookie. However many bears were on your circle were how many cookies you would get...