Life Lately

How is January almost over? No clue. No. Clue. But a new year means we are back to reality and it has seriously smacked me straight in the face. 

First, my littlest boo is almost two. She's funny, sassy, independent and yet doesn't want to let go of the boob. I was hoping she'd self-wean by two but its not looking like that's going to happen, so my plan is to sloooooowly wean her myself. I know it'll take months but I'm already feeling guilty about the process...but its time. I love nursing, I know its best for her nutritionally, I know its amazing for her immunity, I know its mother nature at work, but I also know that while nursing her has luckily been very easy, and natural, and an amazing bonding experience its also been almost TWO YEARS and we plan to have one final kiddo within the next year or two and I'd really like to give my body a break (and have it be MINE again haha) before getting pregnant and then starting this nursing experience with our next kiddo. 

Ari is kicking ass in gymnastics, but then again she kicks ass in everything she chooses to do. She's so happy and bubbly each time I pick her up from gym and that just makes my heart so happy. Also, the kid has researched the housing market in various parts of the United States, selected which University she'd like to attend, and has a 10 year plan. So when she asked when she's getting her driving permit i really shouldn't have been shocked. Its coming and I'm terrified and elated all at once. Avery loves swim class and anytime we do back floats she thinks its time to nap and nurse. Seriously, she's a squealing ball of energy when we are doing jumps off the edge into the pool and then in the next minute when its time to back-float she gets heavy-eyed then asks for "milkies". Like, no baby-boo, we are in the middle of swim class. Ethan is turning 17 in a few weeks. I don't want to talk about it. Moving on. Owen continues to be "the little professor", he loves learning, has an insane memory, and is so witty and funny and I just can never get over it. 

I've got a lot of big things in the works as well and they should all be in full effect within the next few weeks. I've been wanting to do these things for a while but kept putting them off, waiting for "life to slow down" but guess what? Its not gonna slow down; my husband's office is a multi-million dollar fighter jet, I have a toddler, a tween, a teen, and an older teen that will be heading off to college in like 18 months, a house to keep clean, bellies to keep filled, brains to develop, souls to nurture, and my own personal goals and needs so now's as good a time as any, right? I'm so excited for where this New Year takes us, 2016 was pretty awesome, 2017 has a hard act to follow. Much love, friends. Have a happy week.

Life Lately

Oh, ya'll. Can we just talk about how its almost 2017?! Why? Like where did the year go? Seriously, this year zoomed by. And I feel like with every passing year our family has so many huuuuuge life changes that come with it and 2017 is no different. First and foremost my oldest is going to be a senior. Guys, its my LAST year with him living at home. And now I'm about to cry just typing that out. I'm sad, and happy, and downright pissed because I'm like 'DUDE! I just gave birth to you a few months ago and now we are headed to go visit colleges?! Don't leave me!'. All the emotions, man.

Then there's a slew of other things on the docket that could (and will likely) change because that's what happens right? We make plans and then life happens and flips it all around and things work out differently but so far, despite any flips and turns, ups and downs, life has brought me here, to today, and I'm more at peace and happier then I've ever felt in my entire life. 2016 was so, so good to us.

Let's cooly segue to Sammy, shall we? Bitch has been trippin', ya'll! Like, she is the best dog ever, don't get me wrong, but she's been sooooooo BAD. She has started this thing where she digs in the trash when we aren't home. So I've started moving the trash into the laundry room as I leave the house and now she finds other stuff to eat. Like, I left a plate IN...INSIDE OF...not beside...but IN the sink and she licked the sucker clean, I probably wouldn't have noticed but the fork was on the kitchen floor when I arrived home. And last weekend Seth went to get us doughnuts, we ate a few then went about our Saturday, left the closed box on the counter and yep, you guessed it, she pulled the box off the counter and when we arrived home the empty doughnut box was on the floor. THEN! Yesterday I ensure every.little.ounce.of edibleness was out of her reach. I leave the house for the morning, get back a few hours later and she greets me at the garage door with her ears pulled back (usually a sign she did something wrong) I'm like 'what could you have possibly eaten?!' Well, between me and Ari we constantly have something baked and those baked goods typically go in the cake dish on our kitchen island. I scan the kitchen and don't notice anything straight away, as I walk closer I see that the GLASS cake stand is on its side, the heavy glass lid to the cake stand is balancing on the edge of the countertop, and the cake is gone. How she managed to not knock the cake stand to the ground, I don't know, but she knew she was in trouble. I opened the back door and without saying a word she walked outside, turned around to look at me, then laid down on the deck and sadly stared into the house with the saddest eyes. But I'm not fooled by her but face so she sat out there for a good ten minutes. Which to her is like 73 days and nights because she's a diva. 

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My (and probably three-fourths of the Earth's populations) favorite holiday season is right around the corner and I'm totally digging it. Christmas itself I don't so much care about (simmer down) but its the coziness I feel in my house during this time of year that I adore. The chilly weather, the warm food, the house lit mainly by twinkle lights, the baking, the time with family and friends, I just absolutely love it. I think next year will be the first Christmas where the baby truly understands what all is going on but this year she understand bits and pieces. While she was taking a nap the other week I hung garland, lights, and our stockings from our staircase and when she woke to it she stopped halfway down the stairs, put one hand to her cheek, and gasped, "Piiiiiitty!" (pretty) and now each time she walks down the stairs she stops to gasp. It is thee cutest thing. The first few days we had the tree up she squealed, "BALL!" referring to the ornaments and proceeded to rip off as many as she could juggle in her arms. But after a few days of "Can you go put those back on the tree for me?" she stopped taking them off all together. Needless to say, after all the rearranging she did our tree does not look like it belongs in a magazine, but I could care less about that and can't be bothered to rearrange ornaments each time she messed with them. I think she's gonna lose it when it comes to opening gifts.

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We shall see.

Seth's sticking around for a while, at least through the holidays, thank you baby Jesus. In our five-ish months since we've lived in America he's been gone at least half of that due to work. I know its the nature of his work but its still not the ideal arrangement if we're being honest. And I'm not not one to burden him while he's out of town or at work, instead, if pure chaos is going down he'd never know about it and I'd suck it up and put out the fire. So its nice when he's home and can help assist with my Fire Chief duties. 

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Okay, I'm off to bake banana bread because I'm pretty sure today is my last day to use these bananas before we'll all die of some sort of over-ripened banana disease. I'll be back this afternoon with a giveaway with Nuby! So check back in. xx

Life Lately

With our time here in Europe coming to a close it made me stop and think about the chapter ahead. An international move on the horizon for starters along with a slew of other exciting and life changing aspirations 

And it also made me reflect on this past year as well as our years here living abroad. And oh man, it has been one wild, fun, crazy, unpredictable ride. 

For starters, it's the longest Seth and I have ever loved under one roof together consecutively. 

Can you believe that? 

We've been married seven years and this tour overseas was our constant. 

And as funny as it sounds, I think us being stationed apart so much helped us grow to be the strong couple we are today. We spent so much time separated due to us both being in the Air Force and never stationed together until our joint assignment to England that when we were together we cherished it. Because we knew in a few days he'd go back to his house and me to mine.

England meant we were a family under one roof.

It also meant an insane work schedule for both of us. 

Long, 

long, 

long

hours. 

Which meant our kids didn't get a lot of time with us. 

This was one of my biggest challenges. I'm not a career woman at heart. I'm just not. 

I don't desire to be some high-powered exec and work 12 hour days. 

What I long for is to be home with my babies. 

I want to be at home covered in play-doh and helping with science reports. 

And I tried my best while working; I chaperoned countless field trips in uniform, I spent lunch breaks volunteering to read to my youngest's class, I made sure to leave work on time to make it to concerts and plays. I scrambled to make it to drop them off at school dances and practice on time. I tried really hard to still do it all but I never felt like I could be the mom I wanted to be while I was working.

In these last (almost) three years here, we confirmed to each other that when life gets tough we have each other's backs, because at the end of the day who do you have if not your spouse? 

No matter what, we were a team. 

And anything negative we each had to deal with only drew us closer to each other and solidified our bond.

We travelled to countries more beautiful than I ever dreamed they'd be. 

We ate the food, attempted to live as the locals do. 

Our children have seen more cultures in these threes years than most people do in a lifetime.

We've learned to slow down. England has a slower pace of living. 

You can't always be connected to the internet and you can't easily shop at midnight. 

You aren't rushed to finish your meal in a restaurant, and Sundays are for relaxing. For everyone.

I worked long hours outside the home juggling mom and wife roles. 

Then we made the huge decision for me to become a stay at home mom. It's important to me to be in the home with and raise my kids when they are not school-aged yet. It's just what feels right for me. 

When I had Ethan I knew I was meant to be a mom. That it was my purpose.  So when Seth and I decided to have a baby, getting out of the Air Force was the next step. 

Then the babe came along and we fell in love.

We made life plans and they changed. And we were okay with that because if there's one thing I've learned so far in life it's that you just gotta roll with what comes your way.

And I look back on how much our life has changed since getting here. 

I have a high chair and baby toys littering my kitchen floor. 

I no longer have combat boots in my daily wardrobe. 

I turned my hobbies into a business and I get to do it while raising my babies.

We came to England so differently than the way we are leaving. 

England helped bring us to where we are today. 

And it's not where I imagined I'd be, it's even better.  

England was a lot of things to me, if you know me well you know that to be true. 

But mostly, and perhaps most importantly, England was my saving grace. 

Italy in Photos - Part II

I understand that I shared the first part of our Italian adventures last year, but I'm just now getting around to posting the rest of the photos. What can I say? I'm unorganized, work a full-time job, have a husband, a dog, travel, and am responsible for keeping three humans thriving. So without further ado, here are some more of the photos I meant to publish…oooohhhhh…seven months ago or so? If you need your memory refreshed you can see the other photos here. Essentially, we ate a ton, saw the sites, and spent some awesome family time together. That's pretty much the gist of any holiday we go on: Eat, see the sites we have our hearts set on, shop, and hang out with on another. Call us simple. Or call us The Rumbargers, we answer to either one.

Ponte Vecchio was beautiful, and Florence had awesome shopping.

Of the numerous countries I've visited in our 11 months here, they all have interesting statues. Read: Europe has naked statues e'rywhere. But this one is kind of a big deal:

Everyone that truly knows me know that I have many blonde moments. I'll blame it on the facts that I was a blonde when I was little, my mother is a blonde, and my brain hurts when I think too hard. So as we are driving to Florence I see a speed limit sign and squeal something along the lines of Oh sweet Mary Magdalene, they have a 90 mile per hour speed limit! That's bananas, I'm taking a pic because no one will believe this. Seth, being accustom to my blonde moments just responded with, that's kilometers per hour babe. Don't hurt yourself thinking too hard again. And of course I immediately GTS and sure as shit he was right. Rat bastard.

But let's rewind, yes? We started the trip in the early morn a few days prior at the airport. Ari's headpiece is gorge if I do say so myself...This pic below is obviously blurry but it was too great not to share. Owen is not a morning person. A disdain for the AM runs in his blood - it comes from me. Every. single. weekday morning is a battle with him. He will find something wrong with everything. But this morning he was sweet as pie. And seeing his sweet smile on his sweet face made my heart happy.

I have a number one thing I want to see or do in each country we visit. This trip it was The Leaning Tower of Pisa. It was beyond impressive.

And check out the photo below. We took a family selfie in front of it as well. You can't see much of it since we have 374 people in our family but what can I say - family selfies have just become a thing for us. We never did it on purpose but after looking after photos from our travels around the world and the states I noticed we took a selfie of the five of us everywhere we went, so now we make certain to keep the tradition going. Even when we have an opposing we still crank out a selfie. I'm totally making a photo book with all said selfies in it at the end of this year. 

Food is another priority. I'm always stoked to try what it is the waiter/waitress suggests.

 Our rental car was itty bitty. We are a family of five so we are used to the big obnoxious American vehicles so to be in this thing was interesting. The kids where unwillingly all over each other. Ari eventually shut the boys out by getting lost in a book. She's my little bookworm. So is Owen, but he was more interested in the "walking stick" in his hand.

Seth loves going to aquariums. If we were childless he'd be shit out of luck because I think some of the things there are neat but not enough to go without the kids.  But the boyfriend likes and we have a slew of kids so we tend to go more often than you'd think. There have been times where I'm like, "Oh my goodness there's the Mona Lisa! Let's go get a photo in front of it." And he's like, "I wonder if there is an aquarium nearby."

We let the kids rip and run in the little apartment we rented. And they watched Rush Hour in Italian. They even laughed at all the right parts even though they didn't understand what was being said. I'm sure there is some type of scientific explanation.

If I made this post any longer it'd be a crime. So I'll wrap things up with a Part III in…oh, say, 10 months? In the meantime, shave your legs and brush your teeth. Oh, and gawk at my cute kids.

 Xo,

Lor

Farewell, 2013.

I have a few traditions I stick to, to name a few we make gingerbread houses on Owen's birthday, unless it is their Dad's year to have them in December (such as this year) in which case we make them on whatever day we celebrate O's birthday. We started this when he was only two and it stuck. And we began it per his request because I was that mom that wanted to make sure my December baby didn't feel like his birthday was lost in the world-wide celebration of Mary birthing a kid that turned out to be somewhat of a big deal. But at the same time, I take the brood's input on things they want in their room or for a party so when my baby said he wanted gingerbread houses built it's what we did, and it stuck. Other traditions we have are that I make a yearly family photo book, better known as our family Yearbook at the end of each year showing the highlights of our year (you can get a visual of what I'm referring to by clicking here). And I also make a video at the end of each year with the same premise. So without further ado, below is this past year's (2013) video. To see more go to the video page and you'll catch other videos from past years as well as random video shenanigans. Oh, and because I forgot to put it at the end of the video, the music is by JJ Heller, and it's called: The Boat Song. Enjoy.

2013 from Lorri Rumbarger on Vimeo.

Fruit Roll-up

After hearing very loud laughter interspersed with shouts of pain, I walked into the living room to check on the shenanigans my little two were partaking in…

Me: What's this about?

Ari (giggling): We're playing fruit roll-up

Italy in Photos - Part I

I have loads of photos from our October trip to Italy. So I'll break them up into different posts. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and I'd agree, so I'll let the photos do the majority of the talking. I'll just say that I love this European lifestyle of ours - the experiences we have together are unbeatable.  They are memories many people don't get. And we Rumbargers are blessed enough to get them.

Sun-squinted eyes and all, these are the three cutest kids in existence.

I didn't get to focus on her face in time before she flipped off her brother. Imagine him giving her a piggyback ride then her letting go to do a backbend off him. 

The London Eye

The London Eye. Because seeing Parliament and Big Ben from the ground isn't good enough for the five of us. 

And because we are known for taking family selfies, we kept the tradition alive:

I need to compile all our family selfies at some point. It'd be funny to see them all at once, because there are five of us so someone is always partially cut out of the photo. At least I'm not no longer giving my $800 camera to a stranger in Atlanta because I trust them to take a photo. Seriously, it happened. Long story short: This dude offered to take a photo of me and my girlfriend during a trip we were taking and I was all Oh my god that's so nice, yeaaaaah. As I stand up to head over to him to hand him my camera my street-smart girlfriend grabbed my arm and sternly muttered, Lorri. No! Sometimes I can't help it. I'm too friendly. It's like the time I got in trouble when we were driving around DC when I was little and I went to roll down the window for the homeless looking guy selling newspapers. Apparently you're not supposed to do that. Sorry, Daddy! I blame it on the fact that I grew up wanting for nothing and in the country, yall.  I don't know a thing about how to survive these  cold, mean streets of *fill in the blank*. I feel like I everyday my children should remind/tell me the line from the movie Mr. Mom, where the little boy, as he's talking to his mom as she's leaving for work tells her to be careful because, "It's a jungle out there."

Real talk, ya'll.

A Look Back

This year is almost over - crazytown, right? So I was going through my thousands of photos to start organizing them so that making this year's family photo book  would be easy peasy. And I came across some moments I forgot about. Good thing I'm camera happy, I love looking back on the photos now and then and laughing with the kids about a memory or remembering a precious moment in life. And to think this past year I pretty much did alone because the hubby was busy flying multi-million dollar jets in North Carolina while I was still stationed at Eglin. It was tough at times but it also reminded me that I got this. Always. Because all these things and more, were done with no other adult as back up.

Let us begin with some good ole fashion child labour...

This girl *points to self* singing to mah jam...

Silliness...

And first days of school...

Family visits...

And sass during road trips...

Purchasing a guppy, then realising she's pregnant...

Spilling paint in my brand-new car...and on my boots...

Soccer games...

Promotions via Skype in our box-filled, it's-almost-moving-day, condo...

Too much pizza because all our pots and pans are packed away...

Selfies...

Hallway gameplay?...

Trips to the beach...

Creatures found by my middle child...

Knowing Lowe's like the back of our hand...

More selfies...

A pretty little girl that's not afraid to get a little dirty...

Selfies. You sensing a theme?...

My number one getting way too big...

Scarring my youngest for life with a scary face as he instructs me to 'smile fo' da camera'...

Finding mommy's childhood jellybean bunny at Nana and Papa's house...

A Christmas tree that looked good for the first five minutes it was put up

Messes. Fun, fun messes...

Cuties that are mine...

Fro-yo on the fly...

Hotels with interesting conveniences...

Movie nights...

Sugar. Way too much sugar...

More freckles by the year...

Poses struck...

Taking in Fall, my favourite time of year...

Shopping with my boo, and choosing each other the ugliest outfits we could find to try on... 

Trips as just the four of us...

One smooth dude...

Pumpkin patch yumminess...

Late night trips to pick up boxes for yet another move...

Craziness...

And with all the fun we have, we still have those moments were we get frustrated with each other. Case in point, Owen's note to me that he set outside his bedroom door after I sent him to time-out.

There are moments when it's good. There are moments when it's fun and exciting. There are moments when it's really hard. But at the end of the day I wouldn't trade it for anything.