Happy Independence Day!

We had a nice day as a family today.  We stayed home, I made so super yummy buffalo chicken dip, and some 4th of July angel food/cool whip cake.  We just lounged in our pool and enjoyed being free.  It was our first 4th being home and out of the Army.  It was weird to not go on post and watch the fireworks and join in the festivities.  Here are a few pictures from our day of celebrating!

Somehow, we didnt end up with any pictures of us or the girls.  Sometimes, that happens but its rare.  Of course it had to happen on our 2nd favorite holiday!

Let It Grow, Let It Grow, Let It Grow :)

Okay, Its technically 1:21am on July 4th (happy independence day! but i havent been to bed yet so it still counts right? right.

Alright folks, I have decided to begin something that I have wanted to do for a long time, but just havent done because I didnt want to face the music, or split ends in my case.  I have decided to begin my hair growing journey.  HAHA i sound crazy right now, its okay, I understand.

This is something I have wanted to do for about a year, but knew that doing this the right way would mean chopping off all of my damaged ends.  This has been my biggest deturrent from actually moving forward with this process.  I havent really cut my hair since before I found out I was pregnant.  I cut about 8 inches off in December of 2009.  Since then, just little trims have happened.  My hair grew a LOT while I was pregnant, and It hit its longest point ever in August of last year.  Then I trimmed it, and it hasnt been the same since. 

So I have decided to begin by sectioning my hair into three layers because, well, its already in three layers.  I trimmed each layer and measured them after cutting.  The beginning stats are as follows.

Right Side of My Head

Longest Layer ::24.5inches
Middle Layer::  23 inches
Shortest Layer::21 inches
Bangs Layer::  11 inches

Left Side of My Head

Longest Layer::23.25 inches
Middle Layer::20 inches
Shortest Layer::18.5 inches
Bangs Layer ::6 inches

Now you may be wondering why the lengths are different for each side of my head.  Do not fear, my hair is even, however my part is on the left side of my head about an inch- inch and a half from the center of my head.  So the layers on the left are shorter.

So I am going to update each month and add what products are working for me!  Let me go over the hair growth guidelines I am following.

1)  No heat.  no blow dryers, curling irons, or straighteners (this will be the hardest one for me!)
2) No more hair color
3) moroccan oil
4) deep conditioning coconut oil masks once weekly
5) trimming 1/4-1/2 inch every 3 months
6) switching to a 100% boar bristle brush and a large tooth comb

among other sub categories to the aforementioned  rules, thats it!

Midnight Cleaning

Pinterest.  Its becoming somewhat of an obsession.  I am loving all the beautiful things, creations, photography, everything.  I love it all!  I just want to spend all night awake, on Pinterest, pinning everything I can.  

Unfortunately, I am not going to be doing that, as my night has other plans.  Like cleaning.  I am going to be up for hours and hours before my mind can rest.  In light of this heat wave, I have been a big bag of lazy ass and havent done any housework.  AT ALL.  Hey, in my defense we are on a brown out, causing everyone to cut on the energy they use.  Apparently to me, that ment the energy I use as well, with my body.  

So I have a nasty kitchen, living room, and entry to tackle and its not going to be pretty.  I guess I had better get to it!

July Blog Challenge

I have decided that I am going to take the July Blog Challenge (which I conveniently made up in my head)  Which means I will write a blog post every day for the month of July!  I am excited to start this challenge and see what I can accomplish with this Blog a month from now!

 Also, if you want to see something really funny (at least we cant get enough of it) here is Episode 1 of Ask Impact.  Impact is our horse and he has decided to answer some questions for us.  If you have any question you would like to ask the magic 8 ball...I mean Impact, leave them in the comments below and your questions will be featured on next weeks episode!

Marriage Takes Work

For those of you who are married, you know exactly what I mean by marriage takes work.  At least if you want a happy, successful marriage.  Nick and I have been married for over 4 1/4 years and I will tell you ere have been some rough times in that short amount of time.  It takes a lot of effort to work through your issues and come out stronger on the other side.

A lot of the time it starts out to be just small problems, but they can build up.  10 small problems become one large problem.  Now, if you're like me, you try not to say too much about the little things.  I'm not trying to start arguments over dirty socks.  But sometimes, those 10 little things become combined with a bigger thing.  Maybe he wants to hang out with his friends on the weekend, and suddenly you seem to be spending more time alone, and less time together.  Mix that with the 10 small issues that you may already be a little irritated about and you could end up in a fight.  

Unfortunately, this happens to every couple, and living together takes some getting used to!  Its normal to have little quarrels about things.  But what if you begin really missing each others signals.  What if you start fighting over everything.  You're stressed, he is stressed, the electric bill is way higher than you anticipated and someone is to blame.  It happens.  The point is that you have to be rational and understanding of one another.  

It takes hard work to make a marriage run smoothly.  As humans we fend for ourselves.  There is a definite learning curve to accepting maybe a different way of doing the laundry, of drawing up the budget.  You have to learn to cohabitant and that can take some getting used to.  Don't feel bad!  It is okay and a normal part of every relationship.  You need to find your groove as a couple and once you find that, life becomes smoother once again.

Adding children into the mix can take a perfectly happy marriage and jumble it all around.  When people are exhausted, frustrated, and are dealing with caring for a new life, things can get stressful!!  Try to remain connected and be a team.  Life can be stressful.  You just have to try to find a balance.  Finding time for each other is key.  You have to remain connected.  Making time each day, even if its 5 minutes a day to just reconnect, give each other a hug, talk about your day, or just say "I love you"  Investing just 5 minutes a day in your marriage can pay you back big time in the long run.  

You are in this together.  Sometimes you may feel more like enemies than partners.  But at the end of the day when you go to bed, you are a team.  Keep in mind that you chose each other, in good times or in bad.  Never go to bed without a kiss and saying I love you.  It re centers you and reminds you that "hey, i do love you, and were going to be OK"

We are now VLOGGERS!

Thats right folks.  We have started a daily (almost) vlog channel on youtube that you should check out!!  Dont forget to subscribe to get updates!  We are doing this because I feel like I miss so much, and when I video tape things, I can just look back on them and remember!  Also its nice for Nick to get to see all the things he missed while he was at work.  Its mainly all about the girls, and thats the awesome part!! 

 
See our VLOGS here!

thanks!
Sam

HAPPY EASTER!

I hope everyone had as good of an Easter Sunday as we did!  It was pouring rain and thunder this morning, and we thought our Easter egg hunt wasn't going to happen :(

Thank God at around 1pm the clouds parted and the sun (and the HEAT) came out and we were able to do our first Easter egg hunt!  It was a beautiful day that ended with corned beef and cabbage! (we missed making it on St Patrick's day, so we did a make up!)  Enjoy!