Gypsy Life

Well, a day after my last post, I realized that Grammy and Papa have the same camera that we do.  So I stole their adapter and Viola!  Enjoy!

Rest in Peace Casey Mae

Casey Mae was in her twenties, and she'd had a great life on the Country Love Farm.  Her last visitors were LC and Ellis.  Ellis was unimpressed and Leyton was terrified to be so close.

It is so nice to visit with family

Our new winter gear is definitely getting a workout

Nicole and I met in Kindergarten, so we have been friends for 28 years.

So sweet

Easel AKA: Weasel.  Both girls really loved drawing on it at Gramma and Grampa's.  Unfortunately it also caused a lot of sibling strife.

After a VERY long car ride, we made it to Grammy and Papa's house!  Princess Leyton is giving Papa guitar lessons.

Snack at Grammy's awesome princess table

What a natural!

This wasn't LC's first snow, but it is the first she remembers and the first that she is excited about.

Ellis was unimpressed

Can't sled in a half inch of snow, but we got it out anyway, just for a picture

"Why are we out here in this freezing stuff??  I can't walk and I am COLD!"

Leyton wanted a snowman but this snow wouldn't pack, despite my best efforts.  Her snowman was literally about 2 inches tall.

She really liked doing snow angels.  Soon I will stock us up on snow gear, so we can play outside for more than 5 minutes.

Country Living

I apologize in advance for the lack of pictures.  The adapter that we use to plug in the camera to the computer is somewhere between California and Japan.  Unless of course it is hidden in one of our 5 suitcases upstairs... which is also possible.  Just add it to our list of 'wish we would have packed that.'

We are now in Virginia, spending time with family and friends.  The girls have been great with all the transition.  No more tantrums than normal (notice I didn't say NO tantrums... just no more than normal).  Leyton has performed, not once, but twice, at church.  She sang an impromptu solo of "Jesus Loves the Little Children" in front of the whole church in Kentucky and then joined her contemporaries on the drums in Virginia.  I am amazed at how brave she is to do such a thing.  Leyton loves to see all the cows and she even had a sleepover at Poppy and BB's house.  Ellis is now gaining a new word or sound each day.  She also wraps everyone around her little finger with her smile and epic bear-hug.  She is really into books and phones.  She is also standing up to her sister.  A few days ago, Leyton headbutted her and Ellis, in turn, bit Leyton.  That seemed to settle the matter, whatever the matter was.

We have been especially blessed with visits from two of Mommy's dear friends.  Nicole and her daughter, Anna, came to visit us in Kentucky for an evening.  Anna is four, so the girls had a great time playing dress-up.  Then Hillary and her daughter, Samantha, came to visit us here in Virginia for a few days.  Sam is two, so the perfect age to play with both Leyton and Ellis.  It was so nice to see them all.

Ryan is home this weekend, but he has been in Pensacola for school.  He is busy and the Florida weather is cold, so no need for us to be jealous.  We all miss the California sun, especially when we see pictures of our friends on the beach.  Every few days I drag the girls outside and we freeze for a little while.  We either need to adjust to staying indoors all day, or get warmer clothes.  Problem is, I can't buy us much now, because our suitcases were full when we came, and when you add-in the Christmas gifts, there is no room for anything else.

To keep myself from going completely crazy, I joined the CrossFit Lynchburg gym for a month.  I get to go a few days a week and blow off some steam.  It's a bit of a haul though.  A 40-minute car ride instead of the 4-minute walk I was used to.

I use the drive to learn Japanese.  I am proud to announce I can get through a full 30 minutes without a headache.  I can now greet you and say good-bye, count 1-99 (except I keep forgetting what '8' is), and say 'thank you' in Japanese.  I can understand a few more words as long as it's the lady on the CD speaking slowly (the man speaks too fast).  I am proud of myself, but I haven't even finished CD #1 of 4 of BASIC Japanese.  I have a few more weeks to practice though.  Then, ready or not, here we go!

We are officially half-way through our two-month US travel break.  That is amazing.  A short month from now, we will board a plane for Seattle, spend the night, then wake VERY early to check-in for our 10 hour flight to Japan.  When we arrive, we will have a 2-hour car ride to the Navy Lodge on base, where we will live for about a month.  During that month we will find a house, get a Japanese drivers licence, buy a couple of cars, and complete some classes on how to not offend people.  I have already memorized the word for 'I'm sorry,' so I have a head start :-)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We are having a lovely Christmas in Kentucky.  LOTS of presents, eating, and relaxing.  The weather is much colder than we are accustomed to, so we do miss our SoCal sunshine and playgrounds.  Letyon told us today that she wanted to go home.  It's hard to explain to a 3-year old that she technically has no home.  All-in-all, though, the kids have been great.  They have adjusted well and seem to take each day in stride.

Leyton modeling Daddy's shirt ages ago when we still lived in Coronado.

Our little princesses

Snow Belle

We had a lot of fun with Mimi the Elf this year

Ellis showing off a little trick she learned from Daddy.  Before we left, Ellis had her 15 month check-up.  She was 23 pounds, 12 ounces (83%).  They measured her at 2 ft 6 inches (32%) but she was very uncooperative so I am certain she is taller than that.

Tiny dancer

These poor kids have to wear two jackets.  We only own one pair of kid mittens, so LC wears them and Ellis' hands turn red.

We've made a couple of visits to Eeyore the Donkey.  The girls like him... from afar.

Christmas Eve Song and Dance

Kentucky Campoamor Clan

Christmas morning.  Leyton got a Doc McStuffins doctor bag.  She has been giving us all check-ups ever since.

Checking out the stocking stuffers

Riding Grampa's tractor has been a big hit

Jingle Belles

Ellis got an awesome helo

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Farmer Ellis

Eeyore is partial to candy canes

The girls with Great Grandma C

Trying to get a picture after church

After about 20 shots, we got one

Modeling some of her new clothes

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

What just happened?

Leyton Lee Campoamor

Hotel Del Coronado

Ellis Lane

Playing on the beach in December.

Get off me!

 

We are going to miss beautiful Coronado at it's sunsets. 

We sit here comfortably in Kentucky at Grandma and Grandpa's house reflecting on what just happened over the past few weeks. We accomplished quite a feat.  Coordinating and packing out all of our house hold goods, getting all of us medically screened to travel to Japan, arranging transportation for our dog, Sasha, submitting paperwork for passports and checking out of San Diego and my helo squadron. To say we were busy over the past few weeks is an understatement.  With all that, we are officially done with San Diego and on our way to Japan via Kentucky and Virginia. We left "sunny" San Diego where temperatures were in the mid-70's and now buckling down and hoping for a white Christmas/December. But, we are now finally able to relax and reflect on all we accomplished. 

We are now in Kentucky for Christmas and will be making our way to Virginia shortly. I have a Navy school in Pensacola, FL for 5 weeks from 7-Jan to 7-Feb. After that school we will head back to San Diego for ~2 weeks. I have a(nother) school to attend, we'll pick up our passports and plane tickets, and then off to Japan for the four of us. 

We are planning on getting to Japan mid to late-February via a lovely 12-hour plane ride. Once we get there we are scheduled to attend a 2-week "indoc" called Area Orientation Briefing and Inter-Cultural Relations (AOB/ICR). We will learn some cultural awareness, get our Japanese drivers licenses, and go on a field trip. Once that is complete we will start looking for a place to live. We are still hoping to live off base to get the "full experience".  We honestly are super excited to get there but just not looking forward to the flight. 

Hopefully you will make the cut to receive a Christmas card from us but if you didn't, don't worry -- here are some pictures we printed. 

Hopefully everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Wow!

Well to say we've had an interesting few weeks would be an understatement.  Ryan was gone for two weeks for his last workup before he leaves his squadron.  He was supposed to finish up there the first week of December, go to school in Pensacola for 5 weeks beginning in January and then come back here to start his department head tour at a squadron down the hall from his current one.  However, we found out last week that his new squadron will actually be in Japan.  So we are moving there... in a few months.  Now that we've had some time to wrap our brains around it, we are very excited.

I went to the library and checked out some Living Language audio and books for me and Learning Japanese for Kids for the girls.  They LOVE it.  And I am actually learning a lot more from that DVD than the study on my own.  It's more my speed.  Plus it helps that we watch it at least 5 times a day.  Leyton repeats the words back to the DVD and she's pretty good.  And Ellis babbles a lot and I just pretend she's speaking Japanese and I just don't understand her.

Before learning Japanese, Leyton had a little trouble with her English.  Back in May, she started speech therapy, for a moderate speech impairment, twice a week.  They told us most kids do speech therapy for a year.  A few weeks before her third birthday, her therapist mentioned that Leyton had already reached all the goals they had set for her.  They retested her after she turned 3 so they could compare her results with standardized results from other 3 year olds.  Her results were awesome.  She still makes mistakes in her articulation of language, like the 'sh' 'th' and 'v' sounds, but these are all normal mistakes that kids her age make.  Her score for articulation was the 51st percentile, so completely average for her age.  They also tested her Mean Length of Utterance (how many words she typically says in each sentence).  Her score was a 4.32.  According to research, this score is expected for a 43-46 month old kid... she was 36 months at the time of the test.  So basically it proves that she talks a lot :-)  After the test, they kicked her out of speech therapy because she is now talking, not just as well, but BETTER than her peers.  To borrow her phrase, "Way to go, Leyton!"

Also, Leyton had both her 3-year check-up AND her annual dental visit recently.  Last year these were both horrible, because she SCREAMED the entire time.  This year was a completely different story.  She was so brave!  Even though she knew she would have to get a flu shot.  She is 3 feet, 2 inches tall which drops her all the way to the 70th percentile (she's been 90+ her entire life).  She is 31 pounds, which is the 52nd percentile (she's never been more than 20th percentile).  So her numbers are evening out a bit.  The dentist said her teeth looked great too.  Ryan said she was still a little scared of the dentist, but nothing like last year.  I think it helps that they gave her 'surprises' (a new toothbrush, toothpaste, a toy and a sticker).  Once again, so proud of our girl.

And I can't do a post without mentioning Ellis.  She is hilarious.  She is fast and picking up speed every day.  She is also becoming quite the sassy pants.  She can't really talk yet, other than Mama and Dada, but she manages to sass very well just the same.  She is going to end up in timeout VERY soon!  Together with her sister, it is NEVER a dull or quiet moment.  Or if it is quiet, you better check on them... because they are doing something they aren't supposed to:

Leyton's 'I-know-I-am-not-supposed-to-do-this-but-I-am-hoping-I-am-cute-enough-to-get-away-with-it' face

Ellis copying her sister... which is going to get her in big trouble one day soon

yes, that is our Christmas tree... up already

Leyton was VERY disappointed with all the Halloween decorations started disappearing (especially our neighbors awesome spiders), so I told her that when Daddy got home, we would put up our tree

Daddy came home, so I kept my word.  They both love to move the ornaments around and decorate.  Side note: we have a little stash of broken ornaments on the counter awaiting superglue

This is what quiet kids do.  Leyton was supposed to be coloring My Little Pony.  Instead, she colored Ellis.  Purple.  

And Ellis didn't mind.  It was one of those really funny moments that I couldn't laugh... instead I had to put Leyton in time-out... and then take pictures

My silly girls

Love them!