Is it possible to catch you up on the last 3 months of random, everyday fun and Ezra's developmental milestones in 10 pictures or less?

It is when you know how to cheat! :)

So what's happening these days?

Ezra has made a lot of progress in his eating! He's almost completely off of baby food and onto table solids. He also likes to drink water and juice, as well as mommy-milk. His new favorite food is soup - of any kind. Which is great because I can sneak in meat and vegetables when he isn't look...
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Since Russ went back to Afghanistan, I've really been struggling. Struggling with what? Well, just everything. I think that 90% of the time I feel utterly exhausted and overwhelmed. There's a song that has a line that says something like "You can only be strong so long before you break..." Which is true. But I think that most of the time people don't realize that I'm not even trying to be strong - I stopped trying a LONG time ago. Mostly, I'm just trying to survive.

I have chronic fatigue, fr...
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Where have I been the last month? um...I'm not even really sure that I know! But, I'm going to attempt to remember enough to write this rather picture-heavy series of blog posts. I'm glad I take a lot of pictures, because without them I don't know if I would remember--it's been that crazy!

Shortly after Russ left to go back to Afghanistan, Ezra and I flew to Chicago to spend 10 days with my family again. Ezra managed to get sick - again - while we were there, but we had a great time....
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My husband and I have extremely different tastes in music. I like country and operatic pop. He likes 80s-90s rock and trance and a bunch of other random stuff. He likes to poke fun at my favorite country songs by making up his own words and renditions. It has become a little bit of a game to us. And, over the last few years our tastes have begun to mesh just a little bit. I've found some awesome 80s songs that I like, and he's found some country songs and artists that he likes. 

Darius Rucker ...
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I was going to get on here this morning and apologize for running behind on blogging...yet again.

Then I realized that I didn't really care that much.

I love blogging. I love sharing my photos with the world. I love having a place to share inspirational thoughts or vent about life as it is. But I'm learning that time with my son is so much more important.

The older Ezra gets, the harder it is to spend time online. 1) Now, unless I am sitting at the kitchen table, he can reach the computer and ...
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Running behind on my blog...yet again! Catch up time!

Two weeks and 2 days ago, my little brother got married. It's really crazy to me to think about...we haven't been able to spend a lot of time together since we were in highschool...I've been married and gallavanting across the country following my soldier husband; Michael has been in school at Pensacola Christian College. We've only seen each other a few times a year since 2006.

Michael married a beautiful girl named Mandy - the short versi...
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Russ and I have been discussing some concerns with our website for quite some time. We want to be able to share with family and friends, especially those who aren't on facebook (and thus privy to every little detail of our lives! lol), without bringing ourselves unnecessary danger by having too much information out there on the internet. Thus, we have renamed our website, taking off our last name.


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November was a good month for us. We started out with a pre-Thanksgiving trip to North Carolina to see Russell's family. The baby traveled amazingly well. On the way there we drove through the night and he slept the whole way except when he wanted to eat! Ezra had a lot of fun visiting family.


We also took a day-trip while we were there to visit Ezra's "Aunt Maggie" down at Ambassador. We got to hang out on campus pretty much all day and meet some of Maggie's friends, as well as talk with som...
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I have to just tell the world how thankful I am for my mom and how much she has done for me.

• Countless emails, phonecalls, and IM conversations discussing everything from diapers to playyards to epidurals. She's been just a WEALTH of information!

• Going with me to the stores to register, helping me know what was essential and what was fluff, giving me things to think about, and asking me the questions to help me think through what I needed.

• Doing most of the putting-together of our crib, dresser,...

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Haha I know it's only been a few weeks but it feels like a long time because so much has happened. I hope that you will bear with me as I have a ton of pictures to upload and things to update everyone on! The past few weeks have been a flurry of baby activity. Much to come so keep checking back!

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Well I can already tell that this post will probably just be some random chattering about a little bit of everything.

Fall (or shall I say "Autumn" in honor of all of my Australian/New Zealand friends!)...Fall has officially arrived here in Kentucky. The leaves aren't changing quite yet but the temperature is definitely dropping. Most mornings it's in the 40s or 50s and I wander around the house in long pjs and a big fuzzy robe. I'm loving it really. The cold weather is giving me what I have d...
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August and the first week of September was really a whirlwind for us. We found ourselves in North Carolina, then back in Texas, through Arkansas and Tennessee on our way to Kentucky, then back through Tennessee on our way back to North Carolina...oh and we went through West Virginia too! Such was our life..I really have no desire to be in our car or see another suitcase any time soon.

It was a good month, with wonderful visits with family, a smooth PCS, inprocessing completed, and we got to se...
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I probably couldn't write appropriately enough to express how grateful I am to our heavenly Father. He is more amazing than we give Him credit for, and I feel ashamed for every time we have ever doubted Him.

On Monday afternoon, while the movers were at our apartment, I spent quite a bit of time on the internet just trying to stay out of the way. About 1PM I decided once again to look at AHRN.com to see what off-post houses were available for rent in our area. I found a new listing well within...
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disclaimer...I'M NOT PREGNANT!

(yet hehe!)

But it is a matter of much discussion in the Donaldson household.

Last week I was trying to explain to Russ the purpose of prenatal vitamins and the function of folic acid in the development of a baby. His response was this: "So it's like yeast...to help bake the baby!"

Then this morning we were having another discussion and Russ said that we could have a "superbaby" by "baking it faster." He said that once I'm pregnant he will put me in a tanning b...
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wow...amazingly original title...ha!

No I'm just tired and can't think of anything better.

Russ has been home for almost 2 weeks now!! (If you haven't already, make your way over to the HOMECOMING page for some more details and pictures.)

I'm just going to *attempt* to put the emotions of the last two weeks into a relatively short post.

The day of homecoming was really all I wanted and hoped for, if not more. Everything went as planned, no long waits or plane delays (thank you God for making it e...
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On Wednesday I drove up to the battalion rear detachment HQ and picked up a paper copy of Russell's orders. I can finally definitively say that we ARE moving to Kentucky this fall.

Russ will be home early this summer. We will be taking a trip up to KY to find housing and then over to NC to visit family the first week or so of August. I figure we will be moving sometime in September. Pray for us that God will give us the kind of rental home we are looking for within our price range.

Pray for us...
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I was awake for 20 hours yesterday, so I'm apologizing in advance if this post doesn't make a lot of sense. : )

After working for 8 hours, I flew up here to Chicago. After grabbing my bag and walking to the car, my daddy greeted me with a single yellow rose. He tells me I'm the "yellow rose from Texas." Aww he is a sweetie.

I stumbled into the house and my mom said, "I know you're tired but I have something to show you...upstairs." So we walk upstairs into "my" bedroom, and there is a male figu...
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God has been doing some marvelous things in my life, and teaching me some lessons, but he has used the medium of "change" to do so.

Part 1:

I am in the process of either leaving or largely scaling back my participation in a Christian forum that I have been apart of for the last 2 1/2 years. I am not going into all the circumstances or reasoning behind that decision at this point, but let it suffice to say that it was NOT an easy decision for me to make. It is a process that began a few weeks a...
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