4 years...17ish more to go!

On May 13th Jason has been in the 4 years...meaning 17ish more to go until retirment! In those 4 years we have lived together for 2 (1 year of training, 1 year deployment), Jason has lived in 4 states (I have joined him for 3 of those), had a baby, celebrated 3 years of marriage together and much much more! I would not trade a moment of it...maybe that deployment could go!

Jason loves blackberries so in honir of his 4 years I made him a waffle with my new waffle iron and a black berry 4. He started eating the berries without even knowing what it was for...boys!

Mothers Day Weekend

Mother's Day weekend was a great weekend! Jason was on a four day weekend and that allowed us to go somewhere on Friday and miss all the crowds. We wanted to go somewhere we had never been before and somewhere we could spend a little time outside!

We decided on Tom's Farm in Corona and then we went to Norco. Norco si a cute little horse down that weird enough, I could see myself living there! Too bad I can't move the town to the South : )  

My favorite gift was this super cute oven mit my sweet baby boy made for me at school. The best part was when he gave it to me and he opened it before I could and told me thank you...poor thing didn't even know he made it!

Jason and Clayton got me this super awesome waffle maker from KitchenAide. It makes 2 waffles as once, so helpful when we are all hungry on Saturday mornings! I used to make pancakes on saturday morning but I have switched over to waffles for awhile.Yummy!!

Parenting the Strong Willed Child

I first heard of the book Parenting the Strong-willed Child in this blog on Chronicles of a Babywise mom. I have now read the book my self and believe that I could benefit from applying the methods discusses in the book to our "parenting plan".

The book is set up in a 5 week program, each week teaching a new skill and then teaching how to apply this new skill in order to show yourself and the child how to work through situations/commands/request from each other with out freaking out or breaking down. 

I am by no means saying that Clayton is a horrific or even bad child but I will say that he and I are testing wills a lot lately and it is nice to have a way to get through this without losing our relationship or me giving in to avoid arguing therefore losing control over him. I believe it is my responsability to make him a functioning person in society and a well rounded citizen...and if he is going to defy every request put upon him that is never going to happen! 

I am starting a preschool prep curriculum next week to keep us both busy and learning through the summer and thought it would be a great time to through in the 5 week program as well...we have never eased him into anything...cold turkey is our way to go. So my plan is to start the week with a little preview of the weeks lesson and my hopes and then recap what we learned and how the skill is working. 

I am excited and hope that by the end of the summer my little guy and I can communicate better with out so many tears and timeouts (for mommy) : )  

I won!

Check out my newest entry in my sister blog...I am so excited! My cricutting and paper crafting is taking on a whole new life and I am having so much fun!

No more monkeys jumping on the bed

Last week Jason went out of town (TDY for the Army folks) and Murphy's Law of hubby out of town kicked in hard core!

Now I know that children are going to fall and get bruises and Clayton has had his fair share but this one might be the worst :(

Clayton was laying on my bed watching tv while I ran to get his clothes across the hall. While I am picking out his clothes I hear a loud thud and the 'I'm hurt' scream...I run into my room to find him screaming without sound and then he vomited all over the floor. My first thought was to get him cleane up and rush him to the ER for a possible concussion. But I remembered that there was a nurse at the dinner I was going to so I just packed him up and we headed there....long story short he was ok. I think Clayton is going to be like me and have a weak stomach when it comes to pain and stress..great! After an ice pack some M&Ms and lots of love we were left with a cut and pretty good shiner!!

Jason becomes a Commander

This post is WAY overdue! On April 15 (see way overdue) Jason took command of the 11ACR Horse detachment. For non Army...after a soldier becomes a Captain the goal is to take command of a company/Troop (which is a smaller unit within a larger unit or Battalion/Squadron). This command is intended to exercise the leadership skills the captain learns in Captains Career Course and is necessary for advancement in their Army career. Often after completing career course the captain does a staff job while waiting for a command in their career field to open up. Well Jason was luckily enough to score this perfect job for him while waiting for a career qualifying command to open.

As the Horse Detachment commander he is in charge of a small group of 15ish guys and a handful of horses/goats/donkeys.

The Detachment is used to represent the Army at rodeos and parades as well as act as a mounted color guard at formations and other events. If you know Jason this job is great for him! He loves the tradition and the Cavalry and that what this job is all about. And the best part is his new uniform is Wrangler jeans and a t-shirt and either a baseball cap or cowboy hat. Love it!

Since there are so few of these units in the Army there are also few commanders so when he took command there was a huge write up on the 2nd page of our post paper!  I expect this to be a great year at the stables!

Torrance Armed Forces Day Parade

Part of Jason's job as the Horse Detachment commander is to attend and particiapte in rodeos and parades. Usually, like this weekend they are pretty far away(7 or 8 hours) but his first one was only 3 hours. I know you're thinking 3 hourse, close but for us that is about average to get to anything...a whole other post! 

Back to my point...On May 15th the detachment was asked to walk in the Torrence Armed Forces Day Parade.  

Clayton waiting on the parade to start...see his poor black eye :(

Jason is the one on the left...once he gets Cav Certified he will get to ride

instead of walk with the poop cart...hehe

4 members and 4 hourse of the 11ACR Horse Detachment

Easter 2010

I know this is SUPER late but hey at least its here!

Like crazy people we agreed to host Easter at our house one week after we moved into our new house. It was a great urn out and the food (pot luck) was fantastic!

Clayton and I preparing food the night before

(Emily can you see the packages for the bread tubes!)

Clayton's Easter goodies...watermelon and pepper green house kits. He dug them out of the pot the other day :(

Clayton's Easter outfit and he very thrilled face!

About a week after Easter, Jason and Clayton planted the veggie/fruit greenhouses together...sweet

Elmo Says Clayton turns 2!!

Clayton celebrated his 2nd birthday 2 weeks ago and we had a blast! He is currently obsessed with Elmo and has a liking for the other friends on Sesame Street as well...here are some pictures from the little guys party

Birthday breakfast before heading off to school

Blueberry muffins in Elmo wrappers of course

A fellow Army wife made this cake for Clayton and it was so yummy! There was a layer of real strawberries in the center....ummm 

Opening presents with a little help from Daddy

Blowing out the candle

Chowing down on some of that yummy cake

Clayton's birthday banner that I made with my Cricut...you can read all about it here

The party was a success and Clayton got so many gifts! Thank you everyone who celebrated with us :)

diapers.com

As many of you know we are living in a very isolated area. The commissary and PX do not always care what I am looking for or have it in stock and the nearest town which is also hit or miss is about 40 miles away so when I heard about diapers.com I was intrigued. I have seen the ads in magazines and websites but I had never really paid attention because I always had a store nearby that had what I wanted. I decided to look on the website and see how true the $10 off you first order of diapers and the 2 day shipping were. They are so true!! I saved about $20 in gas, shipping and overall saving on a huge box of diapers....maybe the last we will buy, for Clayton that is! I ordered the diapers on Saturday night and they got here this afternoon...that is super fast and they count Sunday as a business day which most companies do not.

They also have a friend referal program if you have never ordered from diapers.com and you enter DANN9208 as a coupon code you can get $10 off your purchase (i'm not sure if that is in addition to or instead of the other $10 offer) and I get a $5 credit on my account! Win win!!

Jogging Stroller

When Clayton was born I bought a travel system from Graco.

I love this stroller but I had a small car and traveled by plane often so I decided I needed a lightweight but sturdy umbrella type stroller. I got a Combi Flare.

Well then we moved to Fort Irwin where it is impossible to walk with a stroller that is not made to go off road so enters our newest member of or stroller collection

The Baby Trend Velocity Matrix....I love this stroller soooo much and would recommend it to anyone that strolls in rocks or anything but even ground

I know it is crazy that we have 3 strollers for one child and that we may end up having to get a double in the future but they are essential!!

Our Fort Irwin Home

There are so many pictures of our new house I thought this would be the easiest way to share them...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2082783&id=51100448&l=a28a7b3540

Tumbling Tot

They offered an on post tumbling class for 2-3 year olds so we decided to try it out since 2 of Clayton's little classmates were also in the class...he loved it. At first he cried and then he ran around not really listening but by the end he was doing great! Now that the class is over he shows off his skills to anyone that comes over.

Clayton doing his seal stretch

Clayton waiting for his turn

Forward Roll

Climbing through the tunnel