Texas

I'm a slacker! I haven't been keeping up with the blog much at all lately. Sorry to the two readers I have. ;)

Well, we did it. We made our big move to El Paso, TX (Fort Bliss) and we are living the army life!! I got back from the hospital on January 5th and then went to pick my mom up in Tucson on January 7th. She spend a couple of weeks with us helping me out with the kids and packing. It was probably a boring visit for her, but I was grateful she came. 

  

I'm disappointed in myself that I didn't take more pictures. :( Man, I can't believe how little he was. He's changed a lot since then. 

Anyway, my mom and Sandee threw a baby shower for me and Allison (her daughter in-law). I don't have any pictures from it, but hopefully I can get some. For anyone that came, thank you SO much for coming and for the gifts. I couldn't ever find my gift list after we moved, so I never got around to sending thank you cards. I feel AWFUL about it, but I really hope you all know how VERY much I appreciated them. And especially for coming! And a special thank you to Sandee for opening up her home once again to make it a wonderful day!! You're a great friend, Sandee.

Kylann officially graduated from AIT. Sandee and my mom were able to come for it. A HUGE thank you to my mom and Sandee for helping me pack up the kitchen!! I doubt I would have been able to finish on time if it weren't for you guys. 

My mom flew home the next day and then we were due to move within a few days. It was a quick, crazy move! Guess it wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't been so tired and put off packing for so long. Our wonderful ward came and helped us pack up the moving truck. So loading it went by really quickly. We still had more packing to do, so it took us an extra couple of days. Also, we were waiting on our license plate for our new vehicle AND trying to find a place to live.

We got extremely lucky on the living situation though. We called the housing office on post about two days before Kylann had to report and the actually had an opening. We felt very blessed and lucky to have gotten in. As we have heard that there was like a year waiting list.

So we finally got all the loading and cleaning done and headed out on our 5 hour drive to Fort Bliss. We left a LOT later than we wanted to and didn't get to our hotel until well after midnight. Next move, we will be planning better and leave in the early morning. It was rough on all of us driving so late. Especially having a two week old baby. We stayed in a hotel for about three nights before we got into our new home. Literally brand new!! As in we are the first ones to live in this townhouse. This is a another neighborhood on post, but this is what they look like on the outside. 

It's the biggest place we've ever lived in! And each kid has their own rooms. We have TONS of storage and we love it!! The backyard is tiny, but at least we have one. Nothing compared to what we had in UT though. I miss that yard. We have stairs for the first time in our marriage. Kylann hasn't ever lived in a house with stairs, so it's a complete first for him. 

We really were not thrilled about continuing to live in the desert. The wind and dirt hear is awful!! But it does cool down a lot more at night than it did in AZ. We live in a great ward and I've made a lot of great friends and we're a little bit more financially secure. So we're making the most of it.

Travin

He's here!! We welcomed Travin Scott Penrod into the world on January 3rd this year. He was born at 6:58am, at 8lbs 20inches. Kylann barely was able to be there for the birth. January 2nd, we went to Tucson for a doctor's appointment for me. While there, I got my membranes stripped. We stayed in Tucson for the evening just in case I went into labor. We decided to head back to Sierra Vista around 8:30/9pm or so. On the way out there, I started having contractions. Around 10:30/11pm they were really strong and getting closer together. We went back to the base and he spoke with one of his commanders to see if he could get permission to spend the weekend with us since I was most likely going into labor. After about an hour or more of the boys and I waiting in the car, we finally heard back that he had gotten permission. He had to check back in Friday, but could spend the rest of the weekend with us. However, when he called to check in on Friday, he spoke with another commander and they made him go back that day. :( But they let him come back and spend Saturday and Sunday with us. We were grateful for the days they gave us. 

Anyway, we decided to just go home and try and get some rest. About and hour and half to two hours later, I told Kylann we really needed to head back to Tucson cause they were about two minutes apart by then. It's almost a two hour drive out there so that wasn't very comfortable for me at all, but we made it. We dropped the boys off at Grandma Penrod's around two in the morning. Of course they were wide awake. Sorry Jolene! :( We made it to the birthing center. I really wanted to try a water birth this time around, but they told me when I got there that I couldn't do it because I had GD. Which kind of upset me cause I was just told earlier that day, that I could. So I decided, if I couldn't do that, then I would go to the hospital and get some pain relief. I have to say, I'm not sure how well I would have done if not for the epidural. Though this dose must have been stronger than ones I've had with my other two. It took quite awhile for it to wear off. Well, after almost four hours of being in the hospital we welcomed our 8lb little Travin into the world. Some things about his little personality and what's going on with him...

*He'll be 11 weeks old tomorrow and he's over 13lbs already. 

*So far, he's been my best sleeper!! The past three nights, he's been sleeping over 7 hours at night! I LOVE it!! (Though I've been a bit sore when he finally does wake up). It's a huge relief after having two boys who were bad sleepers. He's pretty good about napping during the day too. He will usually stay awake about two hours at the most and he eats every two and a half to three hours. 

"Aunt" Sandee and her daughters came to visit as well.

So cute!! Chase was so excited to have a baby brother!

Chase is such a proud big brother!

"He's tryin a talk to me and tryin to on the ways me doing." I think that's what he said anyways. I think he meant, "He's trying to talk to me and ask me what I'm doing."

This picture cracks me up! It's like he's saying, "What the heck is this thing??"

Aunt Kristen, cousin Sophia and Kristen's mom came to visit. Her mom is a nurse in the hospital.

Big brother Kyler!

He had a hematoma on his head. Two lumps. We said he had horns. Luckily they went away on their own.

Just having a chat...

Kyler missed his nap that day

Smiles for Daddy

Daddy's idea of multi-tasking

I thought he was just taking a picture of Travin. So I tried to move my head out of the picture. 

Daddy snuggles!

That scowl kills me! LOL

*He's a mamma's boy. He used to calm down for Kylann right away, but now he always does with me. 

*He has a very infectious smile!

*He has my scowl face! (So does his brother, Kyler). It's just a face I do a lot without even realizing it. I hate it! But it's darn cute when it's the kids. 

*He's a talker! He loves to talk to us and be talked to. It's adorable! 

    

*He laughed for the first time (while awake) a couple of days ago. 

*He loves to be standing up. He'll push up and get as tall as he can most of the time. LOL. 

*He hates lying on his back for very long. 

*Like his brothers, he's developed eczema. So far we've been able to control it with Aquaphor. 

*He loves to be held. (Makes a little difficult when there's stuff to get done).

*He hates the car seat and car rides. (Never understood how some people put there kids to sleep that way. It's never worked for any of my kids).

We think he's pretty darn special. I think we'll keep him. ;)