In case you hadn't heard...

Life has been a little crazy around the Gardner house! I just realized today that I haven't updated this blog since February and I'm sorry. My excuse is that I'm keeping facebook up to date with pictures and videos, but I thought it might be time to let ya know what's actually been going on. We have been traveling and spending as much family time together as we can because John is about to leave. His leave date was supposed to be tomorrow, but thankfully it got pushed out until Wednesday. As we speak, he is packing his bag so I'm happy for this distraction so I don't have to watch. The reality has started to hit and even though I know that he (and we) will be ok, I'm still nervous about it. I feel like I have a good routine down with the girls and can handle them by myself. The hardest part for me is thinking about trying to explain to Haylee why daddy is gone. But we will have some kind of countdown to help her understand and make the days go by a little faster.
What I'm looking forward to most is taking my first trip back to the States in a year and a half!! I am waiting on Jadyn's birth certificate to come back so we can get her passport. As soon as that comes back-hopefully by the end of June- I am hoping to get a military hop to Washington. I'll spend a week with each set of grandparents and from there, head down to Az for a couple weeks. Then I'll head to Texas for a week or two before hopefully getting a hop back to England. I know everyone is dying to see the girls (I'm just the chauffeur :) ) and I'm excited to see family and SHOP!!!!
So in the last few months, we have taken a trip to Edinburgh, Scotland, Northern Wales, London twice, and Great Yarmouth (the beach!). It has been great to get away as a family and explore different parts of this gorgeous country. Haylee is finally old enough to really enjoy traveling and not need a stroller anymore and Jadyn just loves watching her big sissy wherever we go. The two of them are quite the pair! Yesterday was our beach trip and we took the girls to the Sea Life Center. I knew Haylee would love it but I didn't expect Jadyn to get as into it as she did! I carried her around the whole time and she giggled and squirmed and smiled at all the fish. I loved watching their excitement as we saw everything. We spent the afternoon building sandcastles, burying John and Haylee in the sand and trying to keep Jadyn from eating the sand. It was wonderful!!!
I can't believe how fast these girls are growing! Haylee is, as usual, talking a mile a minute and asking about a million questions a day. I think I'm gonna start working on memory verses with her this summer. She's definitely ready! She loves playing outside so I'm really glad the weather is finally warming up! And Jadyn couldn't ask for a better big sis.
Jadyn seems to have gone in to overdrive with all of her "firsts". She sat up at 5 months, started crawling at 6 months, cut her first 2 teeth, started on baby food and started pulling herself up in the last month or so. If she doesn't slow down, she will be walking by the time we get to the states! Yikes!
I will try to keep everyone updated this summer about our trip and can't wait to see you all!!!