Kimber's Navy Family

Our newest family member has finally arrived and we are over the moon for him. Welcome to the world, baby #4! He was born weighing 9 lbs 4 oz! This is a record for our family. His three older brothers weighed 7 lbs 14 oz, 6 lbs 6 oz, and 6 lbs 5 oz. However, they all look like duplicates of each other. I put together this collage of all four of our boys as newborns. I'm obviously over the moon for these boys! Even better, today our boys met their new brother for the first time. My husband and I were very unsure how it would go, not just meeting the new baby, but also bringing 2 3-year olds and a curious 5-year old to a hospital. We were also worried how our toddlers would feel seeing Momma in the hospital and saying good-bye to me here when their visit was over. Our fears were unfounded! One of our toddlers cried saying good-bye to me, but my hubby was quick to pick him up and give him hugs and the sorrow of leaving Momma was quickly replaced with an Altoid mint. :) I...

Using our Baby Jogger City Select with our 3-year old twins When my husband and I found out that I was pregnant with twins, we knew that we needed to buy a new stroller (among many other things!). Stroller shopping was overwhelming! There were so many different types of strollers on the market in all different price ranges. I talked to my dad about it and he reminded me of his system when making a large purchase. I touched on his system in my blog post, " I love my stroller ," but after a recent conversation with one of my girlfriends regarding stroller shopping, I thought it warranted its own post. Large purchases are often hard to make, especially when you start tying a lot of expectations to that purchase. It is easy to become paralyzed by the thought of buyer's remorse. Here is how my dad has always advised me to approach a large purchase and how I applied that to stroller shopping. 1. Take out a piece of paper and draw three columns. The first column is ...

I am 38 weeks pregnant with our fourth child. We live in South Carolina and it is hot and humid . We also have three boys and are expecting our fourth boy. Apparently all of this put together has left people rather flummoxed when trying to make small talk with me. In order to fight off the I'm-beyond-hot-and-exceedingly-pregnant bitterness that accompanies the late third trimester while pregnant in the South, I'm putting together a list of polite things to say to other gals in my situation, should you choose to start making personal remarks to strangers.   10 APPROPRIATE COMMENTS TO MAKE TO A PREGNANT WOMAN   1. "When are you due?" This comment takes the place of these inappropriate comments that I hear all.the.time regarding how far along I look: "Wow! You are about to POP! Holy cow! I saw you walking up and I thought WHOA!" "Goodness, any day now, right?" (Why is this rude? Because I started hearing this a little before 30 weeks. An...

This post is not about how to cloth diaper, but about the cost of cloth diapering. We have not cloth diapered before. I really wanted to cloth diaper with our third pregnancy, but when we found out we were having twins, I feel like I talked myself out of it. In some ways I wish we had (budget); in other ways, I think it all worked out (convenience of disposables). Regardless, this time, I am cloth diapering come hell or high water. Realizing this morning that I am almost 36 weeks pregnant, I figured it was about time to get baby #4's things together. My sister and I set out this morning to get all the last minute supplies I need before we have a newborn in the house (nursing pads, breast milk storage bags, pacifiers, etc). We also went by my new favorite local baby store and picked up all the things we will need to start off cloth diapering. I'm pretty pleased when I look at the bottom line of cloth diapering compared to the bottom line of disposable diapering. As of ri...

It seems a lot of people avoid the commissaries for any number of reasons or are in support of them for the " lower enlisted ." Personally, I think commissaries are full of savings that benefit all ranks, especially our family of five (soon to be six). I also think that shopping at the commissary and thus supporting it with my dollars is a way to ensure continued commissary benefits both for my family and for other military families, especially the OCONUS locations where the commissary benefits are crucial. Some of the complaints against the commissary, I believe, are made without an understanding as to how the commissary operates and is funded. I hope this blog post sheds some light on why you should shop at the commissary and how to get around the somewhat inconvenient aspects of commissary shopping, such as limited hours and tipping. Commissaries are a non-profit organization ran by the Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA). From the DeCA website : Although commissaries col...

I suppose every mommy blogger at some point has to write a post on yelling. Is it possible to raise kids without yelling? I'm throwing this out there: no. I know that there is someone reading this right now with a look of indignation on their face, "What?! I would never yell at my kids!" Good for you. Now before I get lots of mommy judging, we really put forth an effort to not be a yelling family. My husband is just naturally gifted at not yelling. His even temper is one of the things I love most about him. It genuinely takes a lot for him to lose his cool, so much so that in our seven and a half years of marriage I can count the number of times that I have heard him raise his voice at me. I mean, we are talking about a very mellow guy. Me? Yeah... I am a lot like that. Except opposite. I would describe myself as a passionate person, which is why my husband and I work well together. I bring the passion; he brings the logic. Frustrated or angry feelings toward our...