We made it

After a long and exhausting 19 hours of flying we have arrived back in America. David and I got about 3 hours of sleep before our flight because we were busy packing and cleaning the house. When the alarm went off it was very hard to get up. We arrived at the airport trying not to leave too much time just sitting there because the lounges aren't open at 5 am. We couldn't have timed it better. By the time we got all checked in and went through security it was time to board the plane. We didn't even sit down before boarding. The flight to Narita, Japan was a little rough with the kids. We had called United to make sure we had kids meals requested for them and when we checked in they said they had. When meal time came around there were no meals for either of my children. Great. Luckily Kameron will eat anything so he wasn't gea big concern but McKaila is picky. We did manage to get her to eat some eggs though.
Between landing in Narita and boarding the next plane to Dulles we had a one hour layover. We knew it was going to be somewhat tight but I didn't expect to run to our next gate. Our flight into Narita was a little late and by the time we had landed we had 25 minutes to get off the airplane and go through security and get to our next flight before it took off. Of course we were last off the airplane because we have two carseats and bags and David can't carry it all up at once so rather than him trying to push through people to get back to us we just waited till we were able to move around. Then they told us to wait for our stroller at the jetway. So we are waiting for about 5 minutes and another lady said oh we sent your stroller to your next plane because you don't have much time. You are telling me. Thanks for not telling us sooner. So then the next few minutes consisted of "McKaila run, run, run. We have to run or we'll miss our flight". Then she would reply "I want to walk". We get to security finally and I about died. There were massive lines. We went through the business line and just cut in front of everyone and tried to explain we had less than ten min. before our flight left and we aren't on it. Needless to say, we made it. It was crazy though. I had on a backpack, a shoulder bag, was carrying Kameron and trying to pull McKaila along and keep her running. It was quite the scene. David was behind us with another backpack and our two carseats.

When we were about to take off the captain told us we'd be arriving like 20 min. earlier than expected. That was music to my ears. The kids were doing fine for so long and then they started getting a little crabby. Kameron pooped EVERYWHERE!!!! Oh my goodness did he make a mess. David said he needed a diaper change so I offered to do it since I was closest to the bathroom and David would have to climb over someone else to get out. As soon as I picked him up all I hear from David is uh-oh. He had leaked out the sides. I think he had too much apple juice because it was horrible. It was all over his pants, shirt, blanket, carseat, and me. I think it took me a good 30 wipes and 30 minutes to clean him up. I would have just put him in the tub if we were home but even the sink in the bathroom was way to small for him. Ewww it was nasty. Thanks Kameron. When we were in Bangkok we got some medicine from a pharmacy to help kids sleep on airplanes. We had tried it out before hand but it didn't really seem to do anything for McKaila. We decided to try it again anyways on the airplane and sure enough it worked (along with the lack of sleep). I think out of the 12 hours of that flight the kids slept about 7 hours. Not too bad. They would wake up and cry for about ten seconds and then you'd cuddle them and they'd fall back asleep on you. This happened several times with both of them. Overall it wasn't too shabby of a day. Oh I almost forgot. So on the flight to Dulles they only had one child meal for our two children. It was around lunch time and they brought us a tray. We where so excited. It was chicken nuggets, french fries, applesauce... you know kid friendly foods. We give that to Kameron first because he was more hungry than Kaila was. We told McKaila that hers would be here in a few min. When a few min. had passed we asked where her meal was and they said they only had one child meal requested for us. We were so upset. Mainly because when we checked in they told us we had all meals requested. Then when we were on our first flight they didn't have any and they said they'd call the ground crew to let them know to have it for your next flight. A flight attendant took my name and my two kids names and I saw him write 2 kid meals. Even the captain called the ground crew. Then our next flight they only have 1 meal. This is so frustrating to me. When we were flying to Bangkok from Idaho 8 months ago we didn't get any meals for the kids. They had forgot them also. Geez United come on. Make our life a little easier by giving us kid meals like we requested. The pursor was really nice and gave us a card with a number on it. We are to go onto United.com and complain. Last time we did this we got bonus miles. She apologized over and over and even brought McKaila some ice cream. At meal times she would ask what of the items we were having she could bring extra of (bread) that Kaila would eat.

We finally arrived in Dulles and once again we waited till the plane was empty before we got off. They had told us customs was backed up and it would be a while. I didnt' think it could be that bad but I was wrong. The line came all the way into our jetway. I think we got about 10 ft off the airplane and had to stop because of the lines. It was going to take us forever to get to our hotel. Luckily a lady came back asking who was staying in Dulles and since we were we got to pass everyone. Apparently everyone else was waiting for plane transfers. I hope they made them. Finally after 26 hours of travel time we made it to our hotel. We walked over to a Target to get a few groceries and the kids crashed on the way and way back. They woke up about 2 this morning and I went in gave them snuggles and they went back to sleep. Its 5 am and I'm wide awake typing this. Sorry that this is going on and on.

Oh I forgot to mention. My feet got really swollen on our last flight. I have to say my feet have never been fatter. Honestly it was that bad. You'll see in the pictures. It wasn't just my ankles either. It was all the way up to my knees. My legs were rock hard. They were that swollen. I had no ankles. I could barely move what would be my ankles because they were so swollen they didn't have a lot of room to bend. Even when I was 9 months pregnant I never had this big of feet. The swelling has finally gone down and my feet can move freely. I have ankles again. YEAH.

( I tried to download the picture but it isn't working so it'll have to wait)

Juice please

Kameron can really throw a tantrum. Here is the proof. He was upset because he asked for juice and I mistakenly gave him chocolate milk since that is what his sister was having. He didn't even try it. He saw that it wasn't juice and he ran away to his playroom to throw a fit. He started throwing things and getting upset so we put him in time-out. He does really well and stays in there by himself till he can calm down. What a smart kid. This fit went on for about 5 minutes (not joking) after I shut off the camera. Then he willingly took his chocolate milk. The thing that makes us laugh is he puts his head against the wall when he gets really upset. He doesn't smack his head against it he just nicely rests his forehead on the wall or the bookshelf. (the reason the bookshelf is empty on the bottom is because the kids keep pulling movies off of there). Enjoy.

My little ballerina

A few weekends ago David and I took McKaila to a ballet class. I am glad it was just a trial class. The class was for children between 18 months and 3 years. It was a little too advanced in my opinion. The owner had her hopes set a little high when she expected everyone to be quiet and cooperate the whole class. She wanted a lot of toe pointing and nice and gentle movements. You don't get that with kids this age. Atleast not with my daughter. They had a balance beam, a bar, and some other climbing toys off to the back of the room and McKaila would rather have played with that. I think gymnastics is more for McKaila. She was awfully cute though in her little leotard and tights. Once they brought out wands and wings the kids seems to cooperate a little better. Of course McKaila was still running around. Thats my daughter.

We're having a ....

BOY!!!! I bet you thought girl once you saw the pink writing. Did I trick you? That was the guess the doctor had at 13 weeks as well but David was so convinced it was a girl. I had my hopes up that it was a girl as well. We even named her. Oh well. I am happy to have another little boy. I hope he is like Kameron because Kameron is such a good baby (most of the time). We (David) is having a hard time picking a name. David is saying no to everything I come up with. Its a good thing we have plenty of time to decide I guess. The doctor gave us 38 pictures on a cd but I picked the best two. Sorry they aren't even that great. A lot of the pictures were of the brain and heart and diaphragm and stuff like that. We got two pictures of his little thing and this is the only one that you can tell its a boy. The other picture is just a blur to me. The baby was being a little shy but he finally decided to reveal what he is. So in this picture you can obviously tell where his parts are. There is a leg above and below the word BOY.

Here is another picture of our little boy. Right now he is in the breech position but he has tons of time to move so the doc. isn't concerned at all. He'll be moving a ton in the next few months and then he'll settle head down hopefully. The doc. labeled it for your viewing pleasure :) His head is kinda chopped off in this picture but his rear end is sticking up on the right side. This is how Kameron sleeps. On his tummy with his bum in the air and his legs tucked under.

As far as the moving goes we are scheduled to fly out of here next Friday, July 18. We have movers coming this Friday to just evaluate what they need to pack. Then on Monday and Tuesday they will pack us out. Wednesday we have our housing inspection, Thursday David finishes everything with the sign out process at the embassy and Friday morning at around 4 a.m. we'll leave our house. I am not looking forward to 19 hours of flying with two little kids and being pregnant. The stupid thing is that we have to fly in economy. We have been lucky to have the opportunity to fly business all the time. We have the points to upgrade but apparently the flight is only allowed so many upgrades per flight and they already have maxed out. We also checked with the airline and they are overbooked in business as well. Great. We will atleast hopefully get economy plus to have a little extra leg room. I'll update everyone when I know more. Thanks for all the well wishes and thoughts.

Pictures for your enjoyment

McKaila enjoying her ice cream cone

She got a butterfly painted on her cheek. She will be talking about this for weeks.

This is one of the games we played. They give you little gel like eggs, tomatoes, and peaches I believe. When you throw them at the board they stick. You try to take the egg and throw it so it splats on the egg. You do the same with the other foods.


Kameron really enjoyed his ice cream. If I didn't feed it to him fast enough he would scream at me.


McKaila did really well during the National Anthem. I guess her arms were tired and she had to hold up her right arm with her left :)

Kameron giving me a cheezy smile. What a goof. Actually I believe he is saying "cheeze" in this picture.

Happy 4th of July

I hope everyone had a great time celebrating the 4th of July. We didn't really celebrate the 4th of July because we are in Thailand and they don't celebrate it and aren't really aware of it so it was just another ordinary day here. Today we went to a big independance day party put on by AMCHAM (American Chamber of Commerce). It was such a blast. This was just what we needed with all of the stress going on right now with moving and whatnot. The kids did so well and didn't complain even once about the heat or being tired.
We headed out to the party around 3:30 in the afternoon and we got home around 8:30. When we arrived they gave us little stamp cards for the kids. It had about 6 different game stations for you to complete and once you completed those you were able to get either a barbie or a pack of 5 hot wheels cars I believe. Some of the game stations included face painting, art corner, ring toss, egg toss (not real eggs), a race car game where you tried to pop other peoples balloons with your race car, and some puzzle stations. The coolest one was by Hot Wheels. They took your picture and told you to come back in an hour to pick up your little car with your picture on it. They turned out so cute.
After all of the games we settled down in front of the stage to watch the presentation of the flags. After that the music began again and Kameron started dancing. Oh my gosh it was hilarous as you can see if the videos. Sorry I didn't realize I had my camera sideways on one so you have to turn your head.I was laughing so hard I was crying. Kameron must have had his picture taken 1000 times. He was so popular tonight :)

As we were sitting down waiting for the fireworks to start I remembered I hadn't taken McKaila to the bathroom since we left home. I rush her to the bathroom thinking she can't hold it anymore. Its been forever she must need to go. We I sat her on the potty and she sits there for a minute and then says to me "Mommy my pee pee no working". Poor thing couldn't go. I said try again McKaila and she did and was able to pee. She says the funniest things. We made it back in time for the fireworks but she wasn't too thrilled. She hid her head in my lap because she was afraid of the loud booms. I covered her ears and she perked up enough to watch the end of them. Kameron enjoyed the fireworks until we started cheering and clapping. Then he got scared and started crying. Once he had his blankie in his hands he was fine. On the way home in the taxi McKaila told me that she had fun. They she started saying that she saw big booms (fireworks). She was telling me that they were sparkly and about all the colors she saw.
We decided when we got home we would call our parents so McKaila could tell them about the booms (fireworks). So she started talking to grandparents and telling them about the booms and sparkles. We asked what else she saw/did and she said "the lion had a basket with jelly's (jello in tiny containers)". I had to think a minute about what she was talking about but then I remembered. There was a person in a lion suit with a big brown basket handing out jelly's to people. Kaila then told me she had a yellow one. She continues to amaze me. The things she tells me and the things she remembers. With her being my first child I am not aware at what age this really happens at. I am realizing now though how smart she is. I knew before that she was smart but she amazes me even more everyday when she learns something more. My baby girl isn't a baby girl anymore.
David and I were so glad we went to this party. It was a much needed break for all of us. We had such a great time as a family. The kids and I love having David home with us right now. I'll try and post pictures in the next post.

Moving

Just a quick post today. I just wanted to tell everyone that we are moving to Washington DC within the next few weeks. It is a very long story but we didn't expect to be moving this soon. We are working on trying to find a house that we can afford. My goodness the DC area is expensive. We found houses in ID that we liked for a decent price and we looked for that price range in DC and the surrounding area and its all shacks. Seriously its that expensive. We won't be living in DC because housing is pricey so we are looking around there. Well I prob. won't be blogging much the next little while because things are going to be very busy around here but I will blog when I get the chance.