My Perfect Night

Anchorman

A Nutella and raspberry sandwich

A sleeping child

Well, we have survived our first good bye!  We will see Daddy again in a month and can hardly wait!  Last night we had a Skype date and Emmalyn was so giggly and bouncy while seeing her dad on the screen.  I think it really upped his spirits to see that she was so excited to see him.

This photo was taken the night before he left.

A few days before Caleb left, we had an early birthday party for him.  Emmy and I picked out a card and a small present that he could use while in training.

And this is just a sweet snapshot of some playtime! 

I realized I had not blogged in a few days while blog stalking last night.  A lot has happened lately and will be happening, but I just don't know if it is worth blogging, however, I started this blog as a journal of sorts so I guess even the not so knock me off my rocker events could be relevant.

So, for your entertainment.... Maybe:

I cut my hair and I love it!  A picture will come soon...as soon as I take one I'm willing to post : )

I've been obsessed with the show Army Wives lately.  I've been watching the seasons on Netflix during Emmy's naps and am hooked.  Caleb even watched a few episodes with me.

I got contacts.  Not too sure how I feel about them yet though.  My eyes are pretty itchy, but I'm gonna give them the full two weeks so see if it gets better.  BTW, it's been two days : )


Last weekend a fellow photographer and I swapped shoots for our families.  It was a beautiful day and everyone was in good spirits.

Looking forward!

Today, things are looking up!  Even though d-day is fast approaching I have so much to be thankful for and so much to look forward to!

In April, he will come home for five or six days before heading on deployment for good, and April 24th is Emmy's first Easter!  I LOVE Easter!  I can't wait to dye and hide eggs and try to teach her what I can about God's unfailing love for us!  I'll also be visiting this lady...

In May I'll be heading back to Alabama to visit old friends and will make a special trip to see my nephew and his two sisters!

And best of all, I'll make my first trip to Texas to visit the hubby while he is on leave for the fourth of July.  I love the fourth of July!  I'm very patriotic and this is a perfect time for us to get to visit Caleb.

I'm so excited for what God has in store for us in the next year.  Even though (as a family) we are facing a difficult separation, God is good all the time!

FAIL

For anyone of you that were wondering, this was found at a gas station pump. I just had to take a picture.

Like Mother Like Daughter

Who's who?

The Zoo

Caleb and I decided to take a family trip to the local zoo to spend some time together.  I didn't really expect much from Emmy, but she seemed to have a blast, even despite the fact that she was sick.  We stopped by Groucho's (a SC mom and pop place that is amazing!) and Emmy got a hold of my pickle and sucked it dry!

We saw everything and Emmy didn't whine once even though she was due for a nap!  Our favorite part was feeding the parrots nectar and having them land on us.  At one point I had six birds on me and Emmy even had one land on her head, but as Caleb was trying to take a picture one bird started attacking the camera!

Then, we switched and Emmy got brave!

Caleb really wanted to have Emmy ride the carousel and she really liked it!  She's growing up so fast!

I'm so glad the trip went well.  I think I've been so consumed with the upcoming deployment that I've been pretty uptight.  I really needed this day to just spend with my family and I haven't laughed so much in one day in a long time!

9 Months

So, it has been nine months since I gave birth to Emmy.  It does not feel like a whole nine months has gone by.  If time goes by this fast with just one child, I don't want to even ponder how fast it will seem to go with multiple children!

Emmalyn's Nine Month Stats

Weight - 15.5lbs (8th percentile)

Height - 27in (28th percentile)

Head - 17in (35th percentile)

Size of clothes - 3-6 month, 6 month, and 6-9 month.  

Eye color - very brown

Sleep - Not so great the past week due to TEETH!  

Food - Anything we give her.  I think it surprises a lot of people that she eats so much and is so little.

Milestones -  WE FINALLY have TWO TEETH and has mastered the pincher grasp.  She is also more mobile. She crawls all over Caleb and I and loves to pull up on us and she also army crawls back and forth.  Still hasn't mastered getting around on all fours yet.  All my moms with multiple children tell me not to wish it too soon, but I'm a little worried that she is developing mobility so slowly, but I also know that this won't matter in 17 years!

Favorite activities - buckets and baskets are new favorite things!  We have about eight different buckets/baskets around the house that have random toys in them and I'll set one beside her and she's entertained for a good 20-30 minutes.  She'll pull everything out one by one and examine it and taste it and roll in around in both hands.  Caleb and I got her some plastic easter eggs and an easter basket that she particularly likes right now.  

She also wispers a lot - I have no idea where she got this from and says "da-  da."  Sometimes just to say it and other times she'll be near him and look right at him and smile.

Nap Time

This is what nap time looks like!

I've been a little behind on my blogging lately because I've been working on editing the 1300 photos I took on Saturday at a pageant.  I had so much fun and the photos are on my website if any of you want to take a look!

Other than editing, I've been trying to organize my life and spend as much time as I can with the hubby.

In other news:

Last week my longtime friend, Sarah, stopped by to finally meet Emmalyn and they hit it off right away!  We talked, played, and caught up for three hours!  It was so good to see her.

I have finally put away the clothes I bought right after giving birth to Emmy.  They have been put with my post-maternity clothes and the weight is slowly, but hopefully, surely starting to disappear.  I'm more motivated than ever right now too with the weather being so nice and having a small appetite due to the status of the hubby's job.

Emmalyn turns nine months tomorrow!  She is so fun and I've started racking up decorations for her first birthday party already!  I'm so excited!

I'm taking photos of two very precious families to me this weekend and am looking forward to the nice weather!

My brother is spending half of his spring break with us and we have had a blast with him around.  He cooks, so I'm off the hook for a few days!  We have also been playing a lot of games, which somehow he ends up winning every one of them...HMMMMMM?

We have found a church and I'm very excited to getting to know more people and getting involved!

I have more posts coming up, but now I need to get back to editing the pageant photos!

I will say this blog will NOT end up being a pity party for myself and my loneliness.  However, I'm NOT going to ignore the fact that I'm an army wife and sometimes it sucks!

Today, even though D-day has changed twice and we still haven't said "good bye," it is coming, and I feel like someone is inside of me punching the living daylights out of all of my organs until I feel like vomiting.

I think God realized my emotions needed a little more time to get use to the idea so d-day has been moved back yet again.

Don't get me wrong.  I love the army.  I love what the soldiers do for us.  And I love that my husband is one of them.  And yes, I signed up for this and I know I'm not the only one with feelings like this.  I just needed to get it out somehow before I have a nervous breakdown!

With that said, WHERE IS ALL THE EASTER CANDY?!?!?!

Just some snapshots from the past few days...

My sleeping beauty!

Caleb is re-staining Emmy's highchair and the weather has been great, so I put Emmy outside with Caleb so I could get some cleaning done inside.  However, the cleaning didn't get started until I got a few pictures of her loving the awesome weather.  I can't wait to show you pictures of the chair.  It is looking so great!

If you didn't know, Caleb played soccer in high school.  He was also the assistant coach all throughout college.  So, since we moved back to SC, only a few miles from our high school, we decided to catch a game.  The coach was really glad to see Caleb and asked him to come back to coach, but we all know that won't happen at least for another year!

 I actually have no idea who this kid is, but it was a good shot, so I included it.

Caleb and Emmy enjoying the game!

We actually won 3-0 but this is the only photo I got of the scoreboard because Emmy got tired so I had to distract her by walking around until the end of the game.