Week two in Spain!

 Well not a horrible lot to write about this week but I did want to write a little bit since I've been having problems with my Facebook since we've gotten here...and I can't really fix it thoroughly because I'm on my phone and can't get on our laptop because I tripped over it in our hotel room and now it won't work...ugh...that was a bad day :( I'm still mad at myself over it :( 

Anyway- this past week has been a lot more of classes, paperwork, mark starting to go to work, which is mostly just more paperwork and stuff getting situated. We've also seen more houses, met some more people (mostly from church) and spent a lot of time in the hotel room! :/ not so much fun there but there have been a lot of rainy days so me and the kids have been pretty stuck :( every couple days it's sunny though so we try to enjoy those days as much as possible! It's so nice here when it's sunny :) we have our houses narrowed down to two though so should be in one in the next couple weeks so not too mucho get! Although we'll probably ice into a tempt part house on base while we wait if it's gonna be a couple weeks...this one room hotel has long past it's "we're ok here" status :) 

Here's some pics from our past week though! 

I went to marks class the day they went on a field trip out in town...nice to get away from the kids for a little while! ;) (they were at the child care center on base) 

One of the stops was a yummy bakery! 

Next was the local church...which like a lot of the buildings, was super old and awesome! This is the ceiling

And a pano of the altar area!

We also went to the Wednesday market- this little tent was full of olives! I've heard they are really good but the line was too long so I didn't try yet 

Some pics of the kiddos playing at the hotel...a new friend let us borrow some trains for Andrew, which he was so excited about! Then little lizzie is just so good! I love watching her play- she is starting to him and talk to herself  as she plays :) :) :)

This past weekend we went to a flamenco dress store to look for some dresses for me and the girls for the upcoming festivals or "feria". It was so fun looking through the dresses! But so hard to find one for me...those suckers are tight!!!!

This is the first one I tried on evelyn and I looove it!!!!

And this was one of the very few they had in Lizzie's sizes but luckily it's adorable on her :) 

Some more hotel room pics...evelyn wasn't feeling too well a couple days this week- whih was nice because she spent most of the day quiet and calm!!!! ;) 

She fell asleep on one of our walks :)

And this is how she spends half her naps in the hotel! In my lap :)

Enjoying some sunshine! He's not too bad with s soccer ball!

More rainy days :( 

We've been super bored...

And this is little lizzie today! We sent the other two to the CDC to get out and play for the morning so me and lizzie just hung out :)

So that's pretty much all for now! I'm very anxious to get out of this hotel and into a house! And then the wait for our household goods REALLY starts :) 

First week in Spain!

I said I wanted to do better blogging once we were in Spain so while we have a lot of downtime I figured I'd start now! Mark is taking a mandatory class this week so the kiddos and are stuck at the hotel while he's gone (we do have a car but it's a manual which I don't know how to drive...yet...Mark is determined I learn since pretty much everything here is manual :/ ) Anyway...like I said we have a lot of down time while we wait for him to be done so I'll just do a little update on our first (nearly) week here!

The day we flew it was kinda crazy..we had to drop off our car to the shipping people but our flight wasn't til  8pm so we had a lot of downtime in between but had to check out of our room or pay another full day...ugh...it was nuts...so we got to airport early, which luckily they had a big playroom for kids (it was an airport on the air station there cuz it was a military chartered flight over...which was nice because it was a direct flight from Norfolk to Rota!). SO we spent all our time in the playroom waiting for our flight..which then got delayed of course..and we didn't actually leave until like 10pm...so everyone was cranky and tired and hot but we finally got on and settled and the kiddos all went to sleep fairly easily (it was about a 6 1/2 hour flight), but then the two littles kept taking turns waking up and both wanted me so I barely slept the whole flight :( Luckily they actually played good movies on the plane so I was entertained by that :)

Overall though the flight wasn't too bad..helped a lot that it was at night. We got into Rota at like 9:30 am or something there time, then had to deal with checking in/going through their lines of info, getting our bags and kids and carry ons...which was quite the ordeal :) Luckily there were quite a few people from the command that were there to welcome us and help us into the van they brought and they brought us over to the Navy Lodge where we settled into our room and took naps! :) haha...

The next couple days Mark was busy with paperwork and checking into the command and all that fun stuff. One of the other wives though contacted me on facebook and came over to meet us with her kids and then she drove us around Rota, took us to the beach, and went out to lunch with the hubbies afterwards! Then she very nicely took Evelyn off my hands (she has a little girl that Evelyn was playing with) and me and the littles took a nap. :) After that we went over to a friends house for dinner...they lived in Jacksonville with us and came to Rota last summer so it was nice to have a contact here to ask q's before we came and get info from. And it was nice to have a place to go to for even dinner to get out of the hotel! :) Anyone who has stayed in a hotel for a length of time knows how quickly it becomes old and stressful :) especially with three kiddos! :/

Friday was much of the same, paperwork and such and then we met up with a photographer I got in touch with a few months ago. She took us into the city part of Puerto de Santa Maria and showed us the Castle of San Marcos and took us to a yogurt/dessert place where we got some yummy treats! I got a nutella filled crepe with chocolate gelato on the side and the kids and Mark got frozen yogurt with toppings :) It was deeelicioso!

Saturday was kind of laid back...we did go out later in the day to a neighboring town, Jerez, and walked around Ikea and ate dinner there...took up some time and it's fun to walk around :) Sunday was the same...we went to the beach on base to check it out and then the littles took a nap while Evelyn and I went to the base theater and saw the new Cinderella...which was AMAZING! Beautiful job on it and so good!!! I loved the costumes and scenery.  Then that night someone from church stopped by to meet us, she has a little girl Evelyn's age who was anxious to meet her and it was nice to meet another friendly face here :) It seems to be a pretty small, everyone pretty much knows everyone in a roundabout way type of place.

So yeah...it's not too horribly exciting right now...we are going to look at houses off base all this week and hopefully pick one (the ones on base are small and old and half are empty cuz no one wants to live in them and the newer renovated ones are full to end of summer so we can't get one ;( )...but the ones off base look pretty awesome! Spanish tile everywhere and not your blah-cookie cutter on base housing :) So hopefully it's goes well on our search! I hope hope hope it goes quick to pick/get one cuz these kiddos need to get into a steady place soon...for their sanity and mine! :) :) :) It's not fun being in a one room hotel room with three kids...it's not horrible yet except baby girl is sleeping terribly (which she's teething as well so that doesn't help at all)...which luckily the other two aren't woken up by her at all but I am so I'm exhausted...we're doing pretty good with the time difference, it's just naughty little baby girl making me tired! :)

Well I think that's all for now! Mark is done with class and we are going to go look at a couple houses today! :)

in the playroom at the airport

finally on the plane!

Welcome to Rota!

Lizzie enjoying some outside time and sharing her food :) She loves to share now

Evelyn made some friends the first day we were there :)

Rota Beach!!!

This crazy little girl also loves the slide now...

but she likes going up instead of down! And she can do it too!

the yummy desserts we had! crepes and gelato might be my new favorite thing :)

castle of san marcos! 

This girl...man! she's so quickly getting out of the baby stage :( and she's trying to prove it too! Lately her favorite thing to do has been to use a fork at every meal. She tries so hard! 

pano pic of the beach on base!

There's some cool trees in the courtyard of our hotel and Evleyn loves to climb this one!

napping at the beach! :)

This girl has the BEST bed head! :) 

seriously love her!

enjoying some sunshine while daddy is in class! :)

Elizabeth {1 Year Old!}

I can't believe I'm already posting this post...this day seemed SO far away for SO many reasons and it's here now and will be gone in a blink of an eye! My sweet, adorable, wonderful little Lizzie girl is one year old today! I'm not gonna lie, this year has been a long, hard one for obvious reasons, and I honestly was pretty worried when I found out I was pregnant with her but God knows better than me and everything turned out more than wonderful with her in our family! I don't doubt I would have made it through the past year just fine if she wasn't here but Heavenly Father must have known I would need a little extra sweetness and happiness on those hard days and He sent her to me. I love my kids so much it's incomprehensible sometimes but there is just something extra special about my Little Lizzie and I just absolutely adore her. Anyone who has seen her in person can certainly agree she is one wonderful little girl! :)

This past month has been a pretty big one for my little girl and our family. Not long after her 11 month mark we went up to Norfolk to welcome Mark home from his deployment! He had to check out there but came in on a Friday of a four day weekend so couldn't until Tuesday so we went up for the weekend and had some nice family time doing things around Norfolk...or what we could find to do that was inside! It was SO COLD that weekend! That last night we were there it snowed though which cancelled work for the base for the next fews days, which sucked for us because it meant we had to leave Mark there all by himself and we went back home because the movers were starting to come that Thursday. :( It was so ridiculous and frustrating!!! But it had to be done and it was done and Thursday night he was home for good. We spent Thursday and Friday with movers packing up our stuff and then took a little break over the weekend to spend time with our NC friends and to celebrate my birthday (I'm 28 now!). Then Monday it was back to getting ready for our move! The main movers came tuesday and Wednesday and our house was all packed up and cleaned by Thursday! Our amazing friend Morgan took us in for the couple nights we were without furniture and unfortunately had to deal with our little family getting sick and staying an extra night to recooperate. Not exactly the way I wanted to start out our pre-move trip but luckily it was all over in two days!

It was SUPER sad and hard to leave NC though! Little Lizzie won't remember it but Evelyn had a lot of little friends she had to say goodbye too and Andrew had his best bud Max to say goodbye to. It was SO sad! Especially since Andrew didn't quite realize he wouldn't get to see Max anymore :( I also had a lot of amazing people to say goodbye to there too...this is the longest we've stayed in one place and I have had the best people around me! They've been amazing friends and so supportive especially this past year and with the arrival of two kiddos during our time there. I'll be ever so grateful for all their help and will cherish their friendships! Thank goodness for technology nowadays...I can stalk all of them on facebook/etc :)

Anyway..this is supposed to be about Lizzie...it's hard to separate everything right now though! Our life has been pure chaos and craziness this past month....it's hard to keep track of everything and remember what all has gone on and what Lizzie has been up to! She still loves to eat and eats anything and everything. She's been noticing music more and will dance and "sing" now but my favorite is when she's super happy or happy eating something and does what I call her "little fat girl happy dance". If I can figure out a way to get it on here I'll post the video I took of her during her cake smash session :) it was SO funny!

She loves to play with her brother and sister still and loves a new playmate with dad being home. She still loves to nurse but that's gonna end soon after our move! :) She gets so excited to nurse though, it's so cute, so it'll be sad to cut her off but this momma is done! :) She still only has the 6 teeth and I don't really see any new ones coming in right now. She hasn't made any progress with walking...doesn't seem to care all that much about it...she'll walk with a walking toy or when you hold her hands and help her along but once you stop or let go she drops down. Not too upset about that really, just means i don't have to deal with a new walker on the plane to Spain! :) :) :)

She is a pretty impatient little thing and is still exercising her "attitude" and seeing what she can do with it ;) she shakes her head at me now and has mastered a very good "I'm not getting what I want/I can do it myself" face/yell (they look the same :) ) She has to have whatever Andrew is having, mostly in regards to food, but wants to play with everything he has too. They've been so cute together lately now that he notices that she'll play along/with him. They still get a little rough but she's also pushing back at him so he'll learn quick that she's not gonna let him get her anymore :) They really are adorable though and are gonna be such a fun/crazy/get into everything little duo.

After our stuff was packed up though we went on a little road trip to visit family before our big move! The kiddos faired pretty well considering we were all just sick. Our first stop was a night over with Grandma and Grandpa Erwin in Georgia. Our time with all the Erwin's got cut a day short since we were sick so that was sad :(  We all enjoyed some quiet time with the grandparents before heading off to Alabama for a couple days to visit with Michael and Jessica and their kiddos! The kids loved playing with their cousins as usual and Mark and I enjoyed our time with the adults! :) We always love visiting them and have such a great time. It'll be sad to not be within a days driving distance of them any more!

Last stop on our little trip was Missouri to see my family! We spent a few days there since we don't get to see them as much and there are more people there to see :) Evelyn played pretty much nonstop with her cousins there and was such a crank because she was staying up too late! I'm going to be so happy to be settled in a house in Spain and get these kids back in a normal routine...it's been so hard on them with so much change and travel! Andrew is the saddest because every day he is asking to go home :( He is such a homebody! My poor boy :( Lizzie has done ok...she's good with all the "new" people but is still a bad sleeper at night...I'll be so glad to stop nursing and get her in a good sleep pattern after that!

We had a lot of fun with the family in Missouri though....Mark spent a lot of time with the kiddos at the farm while I spent some extra time with my mom, sisters, and niece Carmen. I got to go to the temple one day with my momma, which was so nice to do! Then all the girls went out to lunch one day and another night Mark and I went on a double date with Carmen and her boyfriend :) The last night there we had a little "going away/Happy First Birthday Lizzie! Party" so I invited my usual gang of friends, Jeanie, Rori, Cheryl, and Shauna so I could see them before I left! It was awesome as always to see them and catch up! We don't all talk too much in between times we see each other but I love those girls so much and will always have them on my lifelong friends list! I love all the friends I've made in college and now in the military but these gals have been my friends since 2nd grade and 12 years old and that's something that no one else can share with me! We've had some amazing times and I've loved seeing them on my yearly visits home :)

Sunday we had to leave our family in Missouri though, which was also super sad to do! I hate being away so far and now unless they visit us in Spain, it's going to be an even longer time away! I'm so excited for our move of course but it is a big change and big step and I'll miss my family! We took two days to drive to Norfolk though...which went ok...could have gone better but everyone was tired of the car and running low on sleep so it went ok...we arrived in Norfolk though and are now getting ready to board our plane today to fly to Spain! EEEK!! I honestly feel weird about it still...like it doesn't feel real that I'm moving to Europe for three years...just seems to crazy! We of course put something cool on our "move" list every time it's time to pick a new spot but I didn't honestly think I'd get a spot and in Spain?!? AH! I'm just so excited!!! I promise, after we get fully settled, to do better on my blog. I know I'm gonna want to remember these memories and won't with my terrible memory so my blog is gonna be my go to spot to record them. So you all gotta keep on me to post about our adventures and the kiddos!!! They're going to grow so much in the next few years away and I know they'll miss you and you them so this'll be the place to watch them :)

I'll leave lastly with pics of my dear Lizzie over the past month, since this is supposed to be her one year post :) but I wasn't gonna do two to go over everything so this is what it is :) Next time you'll hear from me I'll be in Spain!!! Wish us luck on the plane!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I saw someone do a shot like this with a one year old session and I haaad to do it with my chunky little girl! I LOVE this shot!

My big (nearly) one year old! I don't know exactly how big she is since we havent' done her one year appt but when we weighed her at Grammy's she was nearly 25 lbs according to that scale! :) 

 This little girl was the funnest little thing to take pictures of for a cake smash!!! She was SO INTO IT. She went right for it and was SO happy eating it (did her happy dance and everything) and didn't want to stop! It was so darn cute. I just love this girl!!!

This was her face when we finally took it away from her...so annoyed with us!!!

My girl looooves ice cream

She watches everybody all the time and tries to copy everything we do :) she's getting so big! 

So happy daddy is home!!!

Her it's pony ride :)

Having some fun at a trampoline park :)

The troublesome two! :)

Her stinky little, I'm not getting what I want face :)

Looking cute in a cowgirl hat at Grammys! 

She went out to lunch and antiquing with the girls :)

Me and my girl at her birthday party at Grammys! 

We got ice cream shakes on our drive back to Norfolk and she took her sisters and started going to town! She wouldn't let it go!