A fresh start

This past year I have learned so many things. I have learned that no matter how you plan for your life, it almost always will never go the way you'd planned. I have learned how difficult it is to raise a toddler on my own. I have learned that people who really truly love you, will always want the best for you and will love and support you no matter what. I have learned to pray when it is hardest to pray. I have learned that marriage requires an epic amount of work and doesn't just happen. I have learned to lean on people at my worst even when I never thought I'd need to. I've learned that love is something that needs to be nourished. I have learned to forgive and move past things that I never imagined I would, and love when loving seems impossible. The list goes on and on but the biggest thing I've learned, is how absolutely, incredibly strong I am. I stopped the blog and took a good long break from it, but I've decided to start it back up. I enjoyed it so much and have so many memories and pictures from Kayla's birth and first year that I'd love to keep it going. Well, technically I'm starting it over. I was very hesitant to delete all my previous posts as I'd kept up with it for a long time, but I had the blog printed into a couple of books last year so I have all of the posts and pictures! So we are starting over, in every possible way.

We have had a few changes inside the household and no longer have our two cats with us. They passed away about 6 months ago. However, we recently adopted a rescue dog! She is about 3 years old and is a great dane. Absolutely a sweetheart and is fitting right in with our family. Her name is Zoey. She is so patient with Kayla, especially when Kayla climbs all over her or pulls her tail, Zoey will just lay there and let it happen. Lady has very much warmed up to her too and they are best friends. They wrestle all the time and I even found them last night curled up on the same dog bed in our room. Zoey has been an amazing addition to our family and we got so lucky finding a dog that is so great with us, Kayla and Lady. 

Kayla is 2 now! I can not even believe it but it happened, we have a two year old. I'm not sure when it happened but she grew into this little kid and is no longer our tiny baby. It is just crazy to me how big and independent she is. She is stubborn like me and sweet when she wants to be, but taking on the terrible two roll very nicely. We are working on potty training which she is doing well at but you have to catch her. She isn't big on telling us when she needs to go, so that's been a challenge. She can say her ABC's and count to 10. She also knows part of the "Call me maybe" song which is hilarious! Kayla is such a joy of ours and very exhausting at times but I'm still so thankful and lucky to be able to stay home with her. These are important years and I wouldn't miss them for the world.

I am taking an online photography course through the Photography Institute! I have always loved photography and finally decided to take a small step towards that career goal. I am finally enjoying the course but it is definitely information overload sometimes! It's nice when we get to do an assignment based on a photograph and editing but the technical aspects of it can be daunting sometimes. We'll see how far I can go with it but it is still a big love of mine.

Kyle has been at his command here in GA for a year now and while he likes the job, he isn't crazy about where he works. It's a lot of desk work and he is used to being up, moving around and hands on work. So he is looking into switching to a different area on base but doing the same job. Hopefully he can make that happen and be happier at work. He has a little less than 2 years left at this command and then who knows where we'll head off too! We discussed heading overseas but not sure we're sold on that yet. Talked about going back to VA to his old command since he loved it there and a lot of the work is hands on. Plus we know and love the area and even have some friends left there! We'll see though, still have about 2 years here.

We went camping last weekend up in the mountains of GA and it was beautiful! Absolutely perfect weather and with it being Kayla's first time and our first time with the dogs as well, it was great. Kayla loved it and there was a stream that we camped near that Kayla loved to play in and through acorns in. The dogs did alright too but they are wanderers, who took off on us. Kyle found them about a half mile up the road! It was a lot of fun though. After that, we spent the rest of the weekend with my parents at their house and I was able to go to my best friends baby shower. Very fun filled weekend!

Well that catches everyone up on the Furlongs for now. We are very happy and enjoying what life has to bring for us right now! I plan to keep up with this blog the way I did the old one so I hope you enjoy reading about us and seeing pictures of our family!