Introducing: My Family

What's up! It has been a loooooooonnnnnnggggg couple of weeks for me filled with running my children from activity to activity, canning over 750lbs of peaches with a local canning club, organizing my life and thoughts...the list just goes on and on.

With that being said, this blog post will be a little different. I finally got the hubster to read my blog and he insinuated that it was lame to not use our names. So without further ado, I would like to introduce myself and my family.

Clockwise - Hawaii, pretending to sleep, I love eating, my boyfriend, sleepin'

I am Christina. I am old and mom of four. I had an interesting childhood that created this weird, cooky, crazy person that I am. I served eleven and a half years in the United States Air Force (practically right out of High School). I was stationed in Nebraska, New Mexico, and Japan before moving to my last base in Florida. I served almost six month in Iraq during my enlistment. After marrying my third husband (yes I said third, which was my fourth marriage) I finally had someone who supported me no matter what, so I separated (for various reasons that just kept adding up). I attempted to get a few part time jobs (because I wanted to be with my children more) and failed, so off to college I went (because I got paid to go to school, thanks GI Bill). I was a horrible student when I was a child/teenager, but boy did I excel at it now. So, I am a mother, military spouse, and college student.

Clockwise - date night, Hawaiian shirt love, working in the yard

This is my husband Lew (of which he is 7 years younger than me, so not quite old yet). We met in 2005 at Misawa AB in the Enlisted Club (I know, I know, you are not supposed to find a husband in the club, but I did...woot woot). It has been a fun and interesting ride with him for almost five years of marriage and seven years together (nothing like my past relationships, thank goodness). He is in the Air Force (joined out of High School when he was only 17) and has been stationed in Korea, Japan, Turkey, and Florida. He has been deployed twice. I am thankful that his job does not deploy very much. He loves to play football (I have been nagging at him since we moved here to play again, I love watching). He is so loving and giving (I hope he reads this blog since all he thinks I do not have nice things to say about him :P) and a wonderful father to our 4 beautiful daughters (he chose to be a father to my older three, a big challenge for any man).

yes you can take my picture, no! don't take my picture

This is my oldest daughter Kailah and the only one I ever gave a pet name to (Kailah Bear - she hates it). She is 13 years old and by far the most challenging child that I have which is not always a bad thing. I would be extremely bored and complacent if it was not for her making me use my brain to parent her. Anyhow, her favorite colors are pink and black. I made the mistake one year of thinking that was the only colors she liked and everything I bought her was pink and black. She finally corrected me....lol. She has been playing the flute for a year and has expressed interest in learning how to do tumbling, so she can be a cheerleader in high school (compete shock to me :-O). She will be starting cheernastics (that is what they call this new tumbling only class) in the fall. She is extremely smart and I wish should would use it for good more than evil at times. She is a wonderful writer and artist. According to her pins on pinterest, she seems to want to be a crafter, clothes designer, hairdresser, nail tech, and comedian also. She is not very social, but when she does hold a conversation with someone it is either very intelligent and well thought out or completely goofy and silly.  She reminds me so much of myself at times. It is hard to show her that I love her, but I try everyday.

releasing our butterflies, tennis, ladder ball w/ Highway 98 Country Music station

This is Kairah, my second oldest. She is 12 years old. This is my little helper (although it is a good thing most of the time, it can get a little challenging when she tries to parent her siblings). She is very athletic and I push her to be better and she fights me on it all the time. She has participated in cheerleading, dance, football (flag and tackle) and soccer. I think she finally decided to play soccer "forever" now. She has played the clarinet for a year. She loves to be goofy and silly. She is a great big sister and babysitter to my youngest when she sets her mind to it (or to purpose as they would have said in ancient times...lol...I could not help myself). Out of my three oldest, she gets along best with her stepfather (or Dad as they call him). She has never been skiddish around much. She will get dirty helping in the yard, kill a spider in the house if needed, save a lizzard from her dog (Champ)...you name it. She will try almost anything.

loving Twister, meditating in-front of her scene she made

This is Kaijah, my third oldest or second to last youngest, however you want to look at it. She is 10 years old.  She was my baby for 8 years and she will never let me forget it. She refuses to grow up which is quite refreshing to me in this society where kids grow up too fast. I have not quite figured out her personality yet (probably because she refuses to grow-up and chose). She recently had to deal with her cat passing away. I am so proud of how mature she has handled this whole thing. She "adopted" her cat from my ex-sister-in-law after my deployment. Kaijah stayed with her while I was gone and fell in love with the cat and brought him along when we moved to Florida. She focuses all her time on playing and Girl Scouts. She is a great student, although 4th grade was hard for her, but I know she will be back on top next year.

"I'm pretty", reading at the library, riding the bus like a big girl

This is Charlie, my youngest. She is 2 years old (almost 3). After being married a year, my husband and I decided to have one last child before I got old (ha ha ha). Raising my youngest daughter has been interesting and challenging. It is my first time being a stay at home mom. She is so smart and loves to read, put puzzles together, and play outside. A regular kid, AWESOME! She is also very grown for her age in her thought process. She has to understand everything before she will do it. Her best friends are Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goody, Clairabel, Pete, The Octonauts, The Pirate Band, Annie, and June. She has learned everything she knows from Disney Jr. (so nnnmmmm :P to those who think TV is bad for kids).

On one final note, here are our new guests at our house:

Momma bird made an amazing nest in the fold of our umbrella outside. There are four of them, although you can only see 2.