2013 in the eyes of Google+

Google+ sent me this little movie that they/it made. I loved it!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Visitors, visitors & more visitors

Over the last couple of months we have had a ton of visitors. Most of them came out because we needed a babysitter for Jackson. Yep you read that correctly we don't have anyone out here that we trust with our child so we have family fly out here from WI. It seems crazy but in reality it usually is cheaper for us to do it that way instead of paying for daycare for the week.

In May the Man's sister Faith and her daughter Dahlia were awesome enough to drop everything on very short notice and stay with us for 2 weeks when the Man started his new job and was training on days. Having them out here was really nice. It was Jackson and Dahlia's first time meeting....Jack is 7 months older than Dahlia. Jack acted super protective over Dahlia, every time she would cry or fuss he would go by her and start pointing and yelling at one of us to come and help her out.  I'm hoping this means he will be an awesome big brother like I had already hoped and thought he would.

The day that Faith & Dahlia left the Man's Mom arrived. She came to watch Jack for the last week that the Man was working days. Jackson loved having her out here as always.

After she left we had about a week before our next visitor arrived. The Man had to go on a 2 week det for the Navy Reserves. My cousin Kelly was kind enough to come out for those two weeks and watch Jack.

We are very grateful for the people that were able to come out and help us over the last couple of months. We really don't know what we would have done without them. And trust me we are working on trying to find at least someone that can watch Jack once and awhile out here that won't cost us my entire paycheck.

After Kelly left and the Man got home from being gone for 2 weeks, we had 2 weeks to ourselves again. My Dad then arrived with his girlfriend and her two kids. They were here for 5 days and mostly did touristy things on their own and just used our place to eat, sleep and shower. They actually just left yesterday. did you notice how fast May to July just happened! We were able to celebrate 4th of July with them which turned out to be one of the nicest days they were here. We went to the Nationals vs. Brewers that morning and then back to downtown D.C. for fireworks that night. It was extremely hot all day long but Jackson was a trooper and napped in between the two events and ended up staying awake till midnight!!! Jackson LOVED the fireworks and was grinning from ear to ear the entire time. I will post pictures from the 4th later, I'm tired and lazy and thinking about having some popcorn....sorry that means this post will be ending and pictures will have to wait!

Long time coming

So life happened and blogging didn't for a long time...sorry, kind of

Here is some of what happened and hopefully maybe if I get a huge burst of energy I will go into more depth on some of these events in other posts.

~ My Dad came to visit the end of February/beginning of March. It was awesome to have him here. He helped a ton with Jackson and even watched him so the Man and I could go on a little date!

~ The Man joined a geek club at school....apparently our schedules weren't busy enough so he thought we should add another thing to the agenda.  In all reality I am really happy that he joined this club, he loves it and it gives him some time to himself that isn't work or school, its just fun.

~ The Man was scheduled to go on a 1 week det for Navy Reserves. He has to do 2 weeks every year. After finding out he was going about 3-4 weeks before he was suppose to leave and getting lucky enough that the Man's Mom could come out and watch Jack so I didn't have to take a weeks worth of vacation to sit at home with the little man. Two days before he was suppose to leave that changed and now he is going for 2 weeks in the beginning of June. And that's life in the military

~ Like I said above my Mother-In-Law was a saint and took off of work to come out in the middle of March and watch Jackson with very short notice. Even though the Man didn't end up leaving it was amazing having her out here. She helped did all of our laundry for us and also agreed to watch Jack so we could have another little date!

~ Easter happened! Jackson's technically 2nd Easter, last year he came home from the hospital Easter Sunday. The Man had to work, Jackson had a cold, and I ended up getting one of the worst flu's ever that night. Jackson loved his Easter basket and didn't mind that we didn't end up having a special meal or anything else.

~ We celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary! We didn't do anything to special but the Man did have off of work so we were able to have an at home date night together after Jackson went to bed and it was perfect!

~ Jackson had his 1st birthday!!!!! Yep that's right we have a toddler in our house now.  The Man had drill on his birthday so Jack and I spent the day together playing and just hanging out. When the Man got home we did cake & presents. It was simple but I don't think Jack minded.

~ Family Vacation!!! The Man and I both took a couple days off of work and headed to the ocean this past week. We rented a fully furnished condo for 2 nights...it was incredibly relaxing! The only thing that could have made it better would have been if Jackson wouldn't have gotten sick.

Well that pretty much summarizes all the extra things that happened in my life besides the normal work, baby, husband, house duties.  I am hopeful that I will get at least some pictures up from some of these events but bare with me since my Mom arrives on Friday and I have a huge work thing happening next week.

Out with 2012 and in with 2013

Since it is already 2013 and I have been pretty awful at blogging this past year I thought I would do a little recap of 2012 to send it on its way and bring in 2013

January:

~ the Man came home from being deployed overseas for 5 1/2 months

~ Rented an apartment online without ever looking at it or the neighborhood it was in scary stuff that ended up turning out really well for us!

February:

~ booked a moving truck & packed up all of our stuff to move across the country

~ drove from California to Maryland in 4 days at 34 weeks pregnant

~ the Man became apart of the Navy Reserves instead of reenlisting as active duty Navy

March:

~ Started my job in its new location I kept my same job but transferred from CA to MD, so different people to work with

~ the Man got enrolled in college for the summer

~ We bought a new car

~ the Man found a job

~ the moving truck delivered all of our stuff

April:

~ Celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary well kind of, we had planned on going out to eat and to the movies a couple days later but I decided that our new apartment was a disaster and not ready for a baby to come home to yet so we stayed home that night and then I ended up going into labor

~ Welcomed the most amazing little boy into our lives

~ My mom came out and visited and met Jackson for the first time

May:

~ the Man's parents came out and visited and met Jackson

~ My dad & sister drove out to visit us and deliver a few things from WI

~ the Man started his college classes

June:

~ Celebrated my 27th birthday with a visit from two amazing friends! Still can't believe you pulled off that surprise

~ My maternity leave ended

~ Nicki came out to babysit for a couple weeks until the Man and I were on opposite shifts

July:

~ the Man switched from days to 2nd shift

~ the Man finished up his summer college classes

~ Jackson started to laugh and smile when he thought things were funny not just when he was sleeping

August:

~ Took a vacation to Wisconsin

~ Jackson's first plane ride

~ Jackson was baptized

~ Celebrated the Man's 26th birthday with friends in WI

September:

~ the Man started the fall semester of college

~ the Man switched to working 3rd shift

~ We took Jackson to his first baseball game, the Brewers played the Nationals

October:

~ Jackson and I flew to WI by ourselves

~ Celebrated my Mom & Bill's wedding

~ Jackson turned 6 months

~ Jackson's bottom 2 teeth popped threw

~ Jackson started to eat real food

~ Jackson started to crawl and with that get into EVERYTHING

~ Took Jackson trick-or-treating for the first time

November:

~ Celebrated Thanksgiving with new friends in MD

~ Jackson started pulling up on furniture and moving around it

~ Welcomed our niece Dahlia to the family we cannot wait to meet her!

December:

~ the Man finished the fall semester of college

~ we celebrated our first Christmas as a family of 3

~ the Man's parents came out and visited for Christmas

~ ended up signing a lease at our current apartment for another year
~ Jackson's 3rd tooth popped threw

I know that I probably missed a ton of milestone's and things that have happened this past year.  Overall 2012 was a pretty amazing year filled with tons of ups and a few downs.  I know both Josiah & I are looking forward to see what 2013 has in store for us and our family.

Happy New Year to all of you and your family's. Here's to family, faith, love and new adventures & opportunities in 2013!

October Photo Overload!

Here are some pictures taken on our actual camera and not my phone from this month!

Holiday's are approaching!

October is almost over....Holy Crap 2012 is almost over!!!  In my world the holiday season has started full force.  Not sure if other people notice/realize but holiday baking stuff was on full display since October 1st...I spent way to many hours building a display and now my hours at work have been used to keep this holiday baking display full.

I am so excited this year for the holidays...between the fact that the Man will be home to celebrate with me and that we get to start our own family holiday traditions with Jackson!!!!!  I mean seriously I really did enjoy having Nicki around last year for Thanksgiving and Black Friday Shopping but KFC just isn't the same as an amazing Thanksgiving day meal.

Last year was the first year I ever went Black Friday Shopping and let me tell you I scored some really awesome deals!  Most of them were actually ordered online for either a black friday or cyber monday sale.  With wanting to give Jackson an amazing Christmas I am really hoping to get some great deals on Black Friday or Cyber Monday again.  I have already created a Christmas list for Jackson using Amazon...did you know that you can add things to an Amazon wish list from other websites and that you can share your wish list with select people, the public or keep it private!  My Dad has already asked me what Jackson wants/needs for Christmas so I have already sent the link out to a few people.  The other great thing about the Amazon list is that the products that are on the list from Amazon let me know if the price is cheaper than when I first added the product to the wish list....this is the part that I am hoping helps me get awesome deals during the holiday sales! 

The Man and I also have a pretty big gift that we want to get for ourselves as a Christmas/Anniversary gift...a new tv.  The tv we have picked out is the LG 55 inch Google tv.....currently it is WAY out of our price range but I am crossing my fingers that in a month it will be there!

I really really enjoy finding and giving people gifts that I think they will enjoy.  I already have purchased a few Christmas gifts for people and have been searching for other potential gifts to help make other people's holidays just as amazing as mine!!


Well this is enough rambling about stuff that really doesn't matter :) 

2nd Trip to WI a.k.a. Mom & Bill's Wedding!

I realize that I still haven't posted anything from our trip that we took in August back to WI but here are some photos that I took on my phone from our recent trip. Jackson & I went back for a short 4 days for my Mom & Bill's wedding which was Jackson's 6 month birthday.  We had an amazing time and wish we could have stayed longer and that Josiah could have came!  I hope to post more about the wedding but if not, it was a great day and I am extremely happy for my Mom & Bill!  Congrats again :)

Visitors, visitors & more visitors

Since the little man was born we have been fortunate enough to have our parents & my sister visit.  Thankfully they weren't all at the same time...that would have been a little much.  And next week our friend Megan is visiting! Since I have had some pretty word heavy posts thought I would share some pictures from when my Mom, Josiah's parents and my Dad & Nicki were all here....it might be photo overload!

 my Mom & Jackson

 my Mom bought Jackson a pig that you tickle and it sings and his ears wiggle....its pretty funny!

Josiah's parents & Jackson 

my Dad & Jackson

reenacting The Lion King

Josiah & my Mom on our first ever Metro ride

At the Smithsonian National Space & Air Museum

Notice the baby not in the stroller...he preferred to be carried whenever he wasn't sleeping :(

At the capital

Josiah's Dad & Jackson

Just meeting for the first time!

First time using my new ring sling, shielding baby from the sun with the "tail" part

my Dad touching the top of the Washington Monument

Nicki at the World War II Memorial

Getting some last minute snuggles before leaving

Not sure what exactly happened but not all the pictures are in the right order but you get the picture.  Lots of fun stuff happening here!! 

Thanks!!

Well Nicki has been gone for almost a week now.  I really do miss her cooking for me!  But soon enough I will be on vacation in WI for the holidays and then the Man will be home.

When Nicki decided to come and live with me for 4 months I wanted to make sure she actually got to do some cool/fun shit.  So now that she is gone I thought I would recap some of the notable things that we did.

August:
- Motley Crue & Poison concert
- She got to meet the baby for the first time

September:
- Went to Las Vegas for a night

October:
- Watched the Blue Angels at the airshow on base
- Dad came to visit
- Went to Yosemite National Park
- Went to Monterey Bay & the Monterey Bay Aquarium
- Saw the Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra perform the Wizard of Oz

November:
- Went to San Diego for the weekend
- Got to experience 2 hours of stand-still traffic on our way to San Diego
- We found out the sex of the baby
- Had our first Black Friday shopping experience

Overall I think we did a lot of fun things.  So I have to say thanks to Nicki for only taking 1 college class this semester so I wouldn't have to live by myself for so long.
  

Monday Market

So this past week Nicki and I were lucky enough to have our Dad come visit us.  While he was here we did a few different things.  One of the small adventures we had was going to the Monday Market in the neighboring town.  I have always wanted to go but was honestly to scared to go by myself...so I made my Dad and Nicki check it out with me.

The Monday Market is a flea market type event that happens every Monday from 6 a.m. till 2 p.m. Because it is there EVERY Monday I didn't think it would be a very large thing but was I ever wrong!  This was probably the largest flea market I have ever been too.  I wish I would have taken more pictures of how many people were there shopping and with booths set up.  You could buy things like fresh fruit & veggies, spices, clothes, purses, jewelry, new furniture, garage sale type items, dish network, or if you really wanted there were a couple people selling birds.  It was crazy and never ending.  We ended up purchasing some oranges, grapes and churros.  Oh and we also tried Cocos Frios....it is a cup of cut up fruit (we had watermelon) that they then put some spices and lime juice on top of it the only reason we tried it was when I first moved here someone told me that I had to try cocos frios because it was amazing....They were wrong!  Watermelon should not be spicy and salty with a hint of lime.  So we ended up throwing most of it away but at least I can say I tried it.

Ok enough with the words and on to some photos!

baskets of peanuts

Candies