Kalie Vidales
Go and Do It: Choosing Adventure During Deployment
10 months is a long time to be without your spouse...or your dad. 10 months is just short of a year. 10 months will be almost half of our youngest’s little life. 10 months...
Invite Her Anyway
"Do you want to come over this morning?" I rushed out on the phone, half expecting my late invitation to be turned down. "Yes, actually that's exactly what I need today. I can be...
4 Things to Do with Your Kids to Prep for Deployment
Whether you (or I) like it, if your spouse (or you!) is in the military, separation is a big piece of this life. No matter if it's a field exercise, trip to a training...
Zoom In: The Best Deployment Advice I’ve Been Given
Deployment is hard. It's messy. It's unnerving and overwhelming. It's chaos and calamity wrapped up in the ever changing emotions of kids and parents alike. It's not for the faint of heart. Or maybe...
Love Them Differently: Loving My Kids Equally but Not the Same
I have 3 kids, two of which were born pretty close together. I called their infancies and toddlerdom my “baby years.” My baby years that were full of the same. The same cup. The...
My 5 Favorite Winter Gear Items
I saw the sun today. It makes me feel like winter might just be coming to a close. I also feel like that just might be the naivety of a first-time-up-state-New York transplant. For better or worse...
The Last 1st Birthday
It happened. My baby turned 1. To be more specific, my youngest baby turned 1. "Baby." Is she still a baby now? Something tells me she'll always be my baby. My forver baby but...
An Army Kid Interview to Melt Your Heart
I have 3 Army kids. 2 are walking and talking and school age. The 3rd is a roly-poly baby with no opinions except that she loves blueberries and the dog. So for the sake...
The Meal I Always Have on Hand to Take to a Friend
I love to take meals to people. You got a sick kid? Lemme bring you a meal. Your husband is in the field all week, you have a dentist appointment, speech, and soccer to...
“Let ‘Em Play!” A Mother’s Entry into the World of (Flag) Football
So I married a Texan. A Texas flag-hanging, Whataburger lovin', Cowboys fan-till-he-dies, Lone Star Man. And with that comes a lot of extra obligations. Bluebonnets? We don't pick 'em. H-E-B? I'm sorry, do you...
Thoughts of a Mom Sending her First Child to Kindergarten
I'm sending my son to Kindergarten this year. This week actually. We are mere days away from our oldest, and sometimes wildest, child heading off into the great big world. Without me. I'm handling...
3 Reasons Hiring a Doula was More than Worth the Money
Hey friends! After a small hiatus- I'm back! I wanted to do a follow up to my previous piece on why we hired a doula. You can find that here. I figured it might...