Insert excuse here (and updates)

Hi. I'm Ashlynn and I used to blog.

 

I know that I don't have to apologize for my absence, but for some reason, I want to!!  I'm sure all 10 of you missed my boring stories :)

 

This time of year is just crazy. I'm not sure where the time is going, but I can't believe it's December. I started buying Christmas presents online last week, but I still have a long way to go!

 

The Christmas decorations have come out and I've learned something about myself. I heart polka dots.

 

 

(The ribbon is polka dotted and my mom loves to tell me how ugly she thinks my stair decorating is hahah.)

 

 

I got this at Old Navy recently.

 

We have two trees this year.  This one in the office...

 

 

and one in the living room that is currently waiting for .... a polka dotted tree skirt!

 

I think I have a problem.

 

 

I've also been having a lot of fun with VeryJane.com and GroopDealz.com. 

 

 

I mentioned a few posts back that we were in the middle of tearing up our floors. I'm happy to say that the floors are all finished, but I don't have pictures. Why? Well, because when we tore up the floors, we had to tear our the baseboard too. The baseboard is still in the process of being painted. Things take SO long to get done around here.

 

Our bathroom currently looks like this.

 

Just good ol' drywall. We're getting there!

 

We also invested in a new dining room table. I just so happened to walk into a local store just to browse and almost fell out in the floor when I saw this table. We had been wanting to get a bigger one for so long (our old one only sat 4). I knew this one was it. The top of it is made from an old door!

 

After work, I've enjoyed coming home and addressing our Christmas cards. I actually have room to spread out!

 

 

In baby news, Miss Hollin FINALLY decided it was time to start holding her own bottle!

 

She has been such a sweetheart this week, even helping us pick out our Christmas tree.

 

Harper wanted no part of picture taking :( Per usual.

 

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Switching gears again, remember when I said hubby put in for the K-9 position at work?  He has an interview tomorrow morning at 9:20am. I am nervous for him, but excited too.  I know he wants this so much :)

 

Happy Thursday and I promise to come around more often!!

 

 

 

 

Thanksgiving 2012

The Holidays for 2012 have worked out so well for our little family!  Jimmy's schedule this year fell just right and he was off for Thanksgiving and will be off on Christmas Eve and Christmas! This is a far cry from last year when I dined at home alone on Christmas night with my two year old and 1 month old. :) See last year's Thanksgiving post here.

The Sunday before Thanksgiving, we went to my Mother-in-Law's brand spankin' new house for our first official Holiday meal.  I snapped a few pics of their home. Just beautiful.

(Forgive the small pics tonight!)

 



 

 

Here is Daddy and sweet Turkey Girl Hollin.  I keep wanting to say this was her first Thanksgiving, but it isn't. Last year, she wasn't even a month old yet. So this is her first "aware" Thanksgiving :)

 

We had to strip the poor girl down to eat. 

 

 

 

Her plate!

 

 

I tried to get some pictures of Harper, but he is very anti- camera right now. 

 

We had a great time and the food was absolutley delicious!!

 

We woke up early on Thanksgiving morning and headed back to my hometown.  We stopped in "Nanny's" house to change our clothes.  I let the kids travel in their Christmas PJ's for maximum comfort.

 

I was determined that we made it back home to see at least the end of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade so that the babies could watch Santa arrive.  We made it in plenty of time, but Jimmy and I had to get on the road to make it to my cousin's house by noon, so he and I missed it :(

 

We had a great time at lunch and we stuffed ourselves silly.

 

Jimmy and I with my cousin's little one, Simon!

 

My mom and Simon.

 

 

 

 

Aunt Jackie loves Miss Hollin!

 

My dad cutting the Turkey! Is it good Jeff? Hahah.

 

 

The afternoon usually ends with some type of outdoor excursion. This year it was an ATV/ trailer combo.  We're from the country and we like it that way :)

 

We left their house and hit the road around 3pm. The babies and I caught a nap :)

 

We arrived back around 5:30 and went straight to my Father-in-Law's house. They had decorated so nice and the food smelled amazing even though I couldn't think about eating any of it.

 

 

Aunt Bridger and Hollin!

 

 

I kept trying to get a picture with Harper, but this is what I got every time. He is a bit grumpy these days because Mommy and Daddy are being a bit more stubborn with food in an effort to get him to eat something other than peanut butter and pretzels.

 

 

Hollin enjoyed all the food!

 

 

I was a little sad on the way home because I realized that I didn't get a family picture of the four of us. I don't think it would have happened anyway, seeing as how Harper purposely looks away. I don't think we got one last year either! It must have something to do with being in the car for 5 hours on Thanksgiving and just trying to keep the little ones happy :)  Here is hoping that we can get that picture next year!

 

We hope you and your family had a fantastic Thanksgiving!

 

Love,

 

The Cushings

Hollin is 12 months old! The Official Post

Miss Hollin Kea, you are 12 months old!

You are doing so many funny things.

You have a bottomless pit for a stomach. We just can't feed you fast enough and you still eat everything!

You are taking more and more steps. Over the last few days, you have been trying to walk more than crawl. Mommy was so sure that you'd be fully walking by 10 months, but we think you've been holding out on us :)

Your schedule is so much more predictable. You nap twice a day, at 9:30am and then again around 2pm. You still go to bed at 6:30pm, wake up sometimes during the night for a bottle and are up by 7am.

Sometimes I tell other people that you are the busiest baby in the world and I really believe it. Almost no one can hold you. You just want to be put down.

Mommy took you to a special little garden on your birthday and got some pictures of you. You are such a beautiful little girl and I could just stare at you all day :)

I say this every month, but you are so affectionate. You will do anything for a laugh, especially from your brother.

You have never been able to be still when mommy is feeding you your bottle. As you eat, you are pulling your blankets up by your face or moving your arms and legs. You even did this when you were nursing.  Wiggle worm!

You absolutely under no circumstance will hold your bottle.  It would be so nice if you could do this and help mommy out a little!

You are in the 40th percentile for your weight and 92nd for your height although what the nurse wrote on your stat sheet is a bit confusing :(  All we know is that you are tall and slim!

These last twelve months flew by so quickly and every day we love you more!!

An update, of sorts

Ya'll, things are just busy.  It's a good busy, but still.... just busy.

You may remember a few posts back when we had our plumbing issue.  The water that spilled out from the bathroom toilet did a bit of damage to our kitchen floors.  The previous owners had installed engineered hardwoods, so they buckled pretty quickly and looked really bad.

We filed a claim with our homeowners insurance and lo and behold, we were approved to have the entire kitchen floor replaced!  We have selected flooring that will match the existing, original hardwood floors throughout the house and we are so thrilled that things will look more cohesive when it's all over.

During the process, we decided to have the same hardwoods installed in our teeny, tiny downstairs bathroom. I didn't necessarily mind the tile that was there, but since it was already being done in the kitchen directly off the bathroom, then why not?

What I didn't realize was that in order for hardwoods to go down in the bathroom, the tiled walls would have to be ripped out about a foot above the floor. No biggie, right?

I left to go get my hair done on Saturday and came back to this:

What I dont have a picture of is the fully-gutted, down-to-the-studs project.

My living room currently looks like this:

Apparently, my husband thought that since we had to rip out about a foot of the tile, then why not go ahead and rip out all of it? Again, it was something we had wanted to do at some point, but somehow getting our floors replaced has turned into a guest-bath remodel.

 

We have enjoyed a cute little blonde-haired helper around here.

 

The crew is coming tomorrow to rip out the floors that you see above. With the Thanksgiving holiday, they won't be back to install the new floors until Friday. So, we will be walking around on subflooring for several days.

 

I know the end result will be worth it!  Thank goodness we are traveling this year and not hosting at our home :)

 

We have a busy week ahead, but we are looking forward to the improvements!

 

 

My husband surprises me once again

I love my husband. But I kind of want to beat him up at the moment.

Why?

Well, because he kind of, sort of, put in for a new position at the Police Department without telling me.  We had discussed it, yes, but I thought we were on the same page.

On the flip side, I can't be all that mad at him, because it's something he has wanted to do for as long as he has been a Police Officer.

Source: Uploaded by user via Kingston Police on Pinterest

Right.

K-9 Officer. (Not sure who this is by the way, thanks Pinterest!)

I have talked about it on the blog before. What a lot of people don't know is that these positions only come available once every 5 years or so. When a dog retires, or if a former officer didn't work out, etc. So when the position opened, it was decision time.

Jimmy and I talked about it at length. We already have a German Shepherd, two babies, construction beginning in our backyard (hopefully very soon) and a full-time school schedule starting for him next year. Can we really add another layer? I thought we had agreed that no, we can't, but then he drops the bomb on me at dinner last night!

There are Pros along with the Cons. The immediate perk would be that he would get an SUV that will better fit his 6'5 frame. 12 hours in the patrol car over the last few years have taken a toll on him physically.

I don't know what his chances are of getting the position, but we (as a family) meet all of the requirements so far. We own a home, have a nice sized back yard and so on. If he were to be offered the job, there would be lots of training in the beginning and then a schedule change at some point. Sometimes I feel like the last 5 years of my life have been change after change after change.  When I sit back and think about it though, isn't that kind of what your 20's are all about?

That's another post for another time.

If there is one thing that I have for my husband (besides unconditional love), it's trust. I trust him with everything.  If he thought for a second that he couldn't do this, he wouldn't have put in for it.

Please say a prayer for us as we wait to find out if he will be offered this position. It will be quite some time before we know for sure, but knowing that his name is in the hat makes me a little nervous:)

Happy Veteran's Day!!