So much going on....

Welcoming a new addition to the family has been a fabulous experience so far. We aren't quite a week into the swing of things, but I think life will be good. I try to eat up as much time as I can snuggling with Hunter. He has been VERY laid back so far. We all really do love him to pieces. Melanie looks forward to coming home from school everyday so she can hold her little brother. She is fabulous with him, and Julia doesn't mess with him much. We hear her talking to him sometimes and trying to carry on a conversation (i.e "Hunter... we're going to the library, we're going to have fun.... right??) with him. I find myself trying to just enjoy this week with Jeremiah since he will leave once it's over. Then the fun begins. We haven't been crazy busy... just busy trying to enjoy each other. I think Jeremiah is just loving it up. Life without the belly bump has been wonderful. I enjoy moments of being pregnant - at the end however... I'm just miserable!! Bending comes easily, I can roll over in bed without problems, I can bathe the girls, and I feel like my energy is back! (still waiting on some of it though - gearing up for some workouts in the next few weeks) HOORAY!!

During the past few weeks, many of you know I have been called to serve with the Young Women of the ward. I am SO excited! I look forward to the activities and chances to get to know them (as well as the girls from the other ward). My first activity as a Young Women leader was to go crabbing with them. Here are a few pictures from that.




We're hoping to get a chance to head up to the temple this weekend as well. We aren't sure if we will be attending the meetings with our stake, but we look forward to partaking of the spirit there as a couple before Jeremiah has to start work ups. Hopefully our next duty station will place us MUCH closer to a temple so we can get there more regularly. I am so grateful for my family that is fortunate enough to be able to help us when we plan these temple trips. They normally come down to the temple as well and help watch the children while we go in for a session.

Melanie has also started school and has been enjoying it for the most part. It is sometimes crazy to think she is that big, but then she will do things that are proof she is growing up. Hopefully school attendance will help her with her listening skills. Since she is in school, it ties us down here in the area a bit more. I don't have as much freedom to just pick up and go out of town for a bit - most of my visits will have to be during the holiday "off days". I think it will make the holiday time off a bit more rewarding and special. We certainly can't be too lazy in the mornings now!

Pictures of Hunter's big Debut

 

(from left to right)
Top Row: Hunter's first bath, Mommy after delivery, Lying around
Middle Row: Hunter with his girls
Bottom Row: He fell asleep in this position today - too cute!, Daddy with Hunter right after delivery, Going home outfit

Pictures are In....

Well, Hunter finally joined our family on Thursday Sept 10. He weighed in at 8lbs 4oz and a length of 19 3/4 inches. It took forever to get him here, we had a lot of trials through the ordeal and overall, the blessings triumphantly dominated. We are so thankful for all that Heavenly Father did to help us welcome Hunter to our family that day. His face is a little purple/bruised because they told me I delivered him too quickly (two pushes). Because of his facial bruising, I waited a day to take most of his "newborn" pictures. He has made a lot of progress and doesn't show too much of his mother's early unintentional abuse. Here are a lot of them... with more to come as time passes.

Have I ever mentioned that I have wonderful friends?

I have the great blessing of having a lot of ladies from church that I consider my friends. I enjoy every chance I get to visit with them and hang out. The last Saturday in August I got to "hang out" a little bit with some of them. Only... there was a little twist, it was held to celebrate the upcoming birth of my first little man!! Brief explanation about that: I have ALWAYS wanted a male in the family....I begged my parents for a brother for years and of course I put in a lot of orders for a son before getting pregnant with him. As well as a lot of prayers that it was a boy up until the ultrasound day when we found out for sure. It's definitely been something that I have REALLY REALLY wanted for a REALLY long time. My friends wanted to help me celebrate that and threw a shower for me!

Upon arriving at my dear friend Allyn's house (she was gracious enough to let us borrow her house for the afternoon) I was totally shocked. There was tons and tons of delicious food and a beautiful cake (picture below) not to mention the super fun decorations in the living room (which I didn't get a picture of - I don't think). Well, needless to say, we had great fun, played a few games (I found out that I am 11 toilet paper squares around right now), and I think Hunter is set for the entire first year of his life!! The clothes were beyond adorable and I'm excited to see him in each of the outfits. Thank you guys for throwing the shower for me and going through all the trouble of planning and preparing. I love you all and am truly grateful for your friendship!! Hopefully I have the product that caused all of this celebrating REAL soon so you all can see him. My hospital room is open for visitors anytime!


Tara's beautiful cake. The top layer is coconut and the bottom layer is chocolate!

 

Some of the photos my friends took for me - all surrounding the notorious face shot of Deborah and Jenn!! A collage just isn't a collage without that kind of picture! Please don't mind the pregnant face - or belly for that matter!

Growing up?? WAY too fast!

So I hear that this time of year is like this for a lot of parents. I find myself being a little anxious and excited for Melanie this year. I think she will do great and have so much fun she'll forget about dear 'ol mom! To me, that is what being a little kid is all about though - enjoying yourself. I can't believe that come Tuesday.... my little girl will technically be a big girl. I'll update this post with some pictures of her first day and some of her own "quotes" as well. For now... enjoy the commercial.... a few friends told me about it.

And the Winner Is....

I remember a few months back, Vicki saying that her son would be on Wipeout. That episode got postponed and was scheduled for tonight. I decided I would watch (I do occasionally) and see how he fared. Low and behold.... he WON! He did a great job! Imagine that... someone we know (sort of) just made 50,000 on a TV show!! If you've never checked out Wipeout, you can catch it on the ABC website tomorrow. The episode should be available then. Congrats Travis!

Running out of Space and Time

I'm starting to think that my son must really have the wrong impression. It seems as though he thinks I still have plenty of room to spare in that uterus of mine and that my organs don't really need the amount of space they are currently taking up. Maybe he is shooting for some kind of goal to make sure my stomach and bladder stay as flat as pancakes so that he can continue with his exercise routine. My theory continues with the realization that there must be about a month's worth of memory erasing that happens the moment the baby is born. Gone are the memories and suffering of heartburn, restless nights, constant punching bag practice, and of course natural delivery.

My time is almost up, that egg timer is really getting ahead of me. There is so much I want to accomplish and that I need to do. My body is gradually giving up! Anytime I take the opportunity to lay on my side to "relax" a bit... my eyelids start drooping and I nod off to sleep. Now, that isn't going to help my nesting instincts! This week has been a little busy for me with taking that driving course test (which I passed by the way), phone conferences, trying to enjoy the last few days of Jeremiah's leave, school orientations, and hospital preparations. I'll find out Monday if my body is really as ready for this as I'm thinking it is. I'm hoping I'm dilating already, even though that doesn't mean much for predicting the big day. Tomorrow will make it official that it is finally "safe" to have the little man without the fear of him being pre-term. Yay!

Would you want to hang out with these guys for a week?

I got to hang out with these cuties for a week. I was so excited to have some time with some babies (I need to fill the void I currently have). Now that vacation is over, I just have to hang in there for a few more weeks before I get to have my own! Not to mention that I don't get to give this one back when he's hungry or wakes up in the middle of the night. Eh...I'll just have to live. I do have two amazing helpers though - the girls were just beside themselves trying to help with these little ones. It was wonderful to watch!

Baby Brooklyn at 5 months with her Momma Steph


I love those cheeks!


My husband's cousin, Tristen's, little guy. His name is Julien. How cute is he!? He's just a month old! I didn't get to hold him... but watching him was WONDERFUL!

Julien with his grandpa (known to us as Uncle Tom)! Yes, Jeremiah's family is just filled with big guys.


This is Tristen, Julien's proud daddy. I was hoping to get some family pictures done before the week was done, but they had to scoot out earlier than the rest of our pack.

Part II

We headed off to Hatteras/Buxton for some exploring one morning. Jeremiah climbed the lighthouse and I stayed with the kids (there was a height limit... and no carrying allowed - that's two strikes for our girls!) and waited as the temperature outside started to climb for the day. We also tried exploring some other things, but pretty much just got pictures of the lighthouse.

 

The girls were HILARIOUS at the beach. Julia was really into the water, once she was "bored" with that - she hung out in the sand and dug like a champ! She even made some fun poses for the camera. She cracks me up. Melanie was mostly busy playing with the sand toys and running away from the water when her dad wouldn't hold her. I just sat there on a boogie board in the sand and looked 9 months pregnant. Oh wait, I AM!

 

Justin joined in the digging fun and Wyatt even came up to punch my shoulder for a close-up!







The Dads were having some fun tossing the kids up in the air - and of course the kids loved it more than the dads! Cousin Tristen stood in to be Mel's tosser since Jeremiah was busy with Julia. It was great to see the guys in the water with the little ones.

Uncle Ben used to work with a lot of pools and hot tubs. One day this week he decided he would help educate the children on different parts of the pool and how to stay safe. It was so cute to watch the kids just watch him and be so excited about their "game".

We're Back! Vacation Part I

We finally arrived home from vacation today. It was sad knowing that our week of "away" time had already come to an end. However, with Hurricane Bill off in the Atlantic, it made parting so much easier this year! On the way home we encountered numerous bits of congestion with people stopping for 2 inches of water on the roads. Then the roads were lined with parked cars - people waiting to catch a glimpse of the waves. There were plenty of surfers out there just checking out the surf. I couldn't see the water from the road because the dunes were so high... but I could see the people hanging out at the tippy top of the dunes so I guess the waves were coming in pretty close.

Anyway... .
the beginning of the week started with the girls, boys, and Dads on a "monster truck" ride at the Grave Digger attraction. The girls were loving it and screaming the whole way. Wyatt was um... yeah... pretty terrified. He kept screaming (in a frightenend kind of way and trying to cling to Jeremiah) and Justin loved it so much that he cried when he had to get off! I'll do what I can to post the video I got, I don't seem to have the best luck at posting those. Hopefully this time we will be successful! They also had a little "petting zoo" that wasn't really being run at the time. The kids just looked at the pigs and chickens - but really enjoyed seeing them for sure



Then we had tons of time in the pool - swimming almost everyday. The girls really took to the water this year, I'm smelling swim lessons for this fall! Then we headed off to the beach.




Since we went so far south this year, there was 4 wheel drive access at the beach we went to and Jeremiah drove the Xterra onto the beach where we were "camped out". After loading up all of our gear (plus ourselves) we got a little stuck in the sand. After a few minutes of letting a bit more air out of the tires and having a Sand 101 lesson, we were as good as gold!

OcraJoke

Since we are staying further south than we have in the past, we thought it would be fun to see some of the "sights" near by. There was a map in the vacation guide of Ocracoke Island. In order to get there - you need to catch a free ferry ride from Hatteras Island to Ocracoke. Needless to say.... we had to wait 2.5 hours to get on the ferry for a 30 minute ride to the Island. Then upon finally arriving...quite a few places were closed/out of business and there was WAY too few parking spaces available for the different shops. It seemed as though the beaches were catching the biggest crowds. We would have loved to see the lighthouse there, but there were no parking spots and definitely no space on the road to park anywhere and walk to it. Quite a disappointing (not to mention hot as well) day. Fortunately, once we finally turned back for home... the return wait for the ferry was about 20 minutes. YAY! I think the girls enjoyed the ferry the most out of the entire day. The sights were so disappointing, I didn't even get pictures! Poor Jeremiah was excited to see Teach's Hole (Blackbeard exhibit) and was so disappointed, he didn't even stop to go see! Upside is, it did have some great views when you could see over the dunes to the ocean or sound sides.

Hanging in Hatteras

Here are a few of the things we've been up to this week. It's sad that our time away from home is almost over. Jeremiah and I went for our first massage at a spa today - I forgot to get a picture of the place... so we'll run by tomorrow so that I can have documentation.

 

Having Fun

We arrived here in Salvo, NC safe and sound on Sunday afternoon and checked into our "home" for the week. We took a few stops along the way to stretch and get those kiddos out of the car a bit. I think overall everyone enjoyed it. By the time we reached the house I was wishing Hunter was already here so I didn't have to be so uncomfortable. I even got sunburned on my right arm and right knee (where my shorts stopped)from sitting in the car so long. Ugh. OH WELL!! We also quickly discovered that we had left all but one of the girls swimsuits at the house (Jeremiah washed them up on Saturday and we just forgot to get them in the bag). Needless to say - we bought a new one Monday so that Julia could go swimming - we hope to go to the beach early this morning before the temperatures get too warm. So excited!

Drum Roll....

It is almost vacation time, I am so stinkin excited. I hope this year is extremely relaxing as I think that is going to be the only key to my survival with these past crazy stressful months/weeks/days. Here is the place we will be calling "home" for a week starting Sunday. It should be fun and I hope I don't go into labor while I'm gone!

Explaination

For those of you who saw my facebook and noticed I had a pretty rotten day yesterday and care to read my small novel, let me elaborate.

It all started on Friday, July 10 when I went to the temple. I hadn't been in ages and I wanted to have my little sister Jocelyn down for a visit before she had to get back to school (and I had to gear up to have a baby). We were traveling 95 south and was still in North/Central Virginia (interpreted as still over 100 miles until home) in CONGESTED traffic. I know that is so hard for all of you who have ever traveled up to the temple to believe. (sarcasm) It was about 3 pm too. Anywho.... a State Trooper decided he wanted to pull over the pregnant lady from Pennsylvania and accuse her of going an outrageous speed in such conditions. Not to mention that I saw at least 20 State Troopers on the road that day up and down 95 (I really counted and there were AT LEAST that many). So... he pegged me with 77 in a 65 and didn't even bat an eyelash when I told him it couldn't have been me and that I was traveling safely at a speed of 70mph. He gave me a ticket (my first ever) and proceeded to let me continue on my journey home (which took 4 hours by the way.... yup, you guessed it.... it took me 7 hours to get home from the temple that day). The court date on the ticket was for August 13 (a day I think I will always sleep through from now on) at 9:30 am in HANOVER county VA. Jeremiah was hoping to get off work but the request was denied due to his duty day conditions (he was the only one there for duty in his entire division... doesn't make for much opportunity to get off work then... eh). I took the trip with the girls - we left at 6 am to make the 100 mile trip (with plenty of time to spare incase of traffic) to Hanover County. We arrived at 7:40am and walked around the court house and administration offices for the county for about an hour. Then we went into the court house and had a potty break and tried to settle in for the appointed time. 9:30 came and went, 10:30, 11:30, 12:30... all passed without me being called (I was waiting in the lobby area due to my two children having to tag along with me and the baliff was supposed to come get me when it was time). Finally a little after 12:30 the baliff comes out and says I'm getting close. Ok... FINALLY. They call me in... I plea not guilty to the judge, police officer adds his dity and the judge makes me raise my right hand and swear to tell the truth (to which I agreed). I proceeded to tell him the truth but was honestly scared to death and didn't really know what to say other than I had a clean record, I was only driving 70 mph and I was being passed by other cars on the road when the officer decided to come after me. By the time I explain I was being passed (all less than 30 seconds mind you) he was looking over at the officer with the most bored expression on his face that could be humanly possible. He didn't even give me two glances... he says, "Ok... you're guilty but I will dismiss the charges if you are willing to take a driving course" I asked what that would entail (as I am holding Melanie, Julia is asleep in the stroller and I have this huge belly) and he told me I could even take it in Pennsylvania if I wanted to. So, I humbly agreed and went to wait my turn AGAIN for the clerk's office. I ended up paying half of my ticket ($61 court fee that is AKA processing fee on a ticket) and then sent on my merry way to make the 100 mile trip home. My children put in a 6.5 hour day before the judge even saw me. Then add another 2 hours to that to travel home. Upon reaching home and reading the information I was given about driving school... I called the courthouse to verify some information. I was told I would have to take a course that was recognized by the state that issued my license. Ok... check with PennDOT... fine. I call PennDOT and am told they do not have such things. So... call back the court house and the lady tells me she's never heard of that and that she doesn't know what I'm going to do and, I quote "Nobody else here is going to know what to tell you either."

Eight and a half hours with my children (no food allowed during most of that time) - and we all know my kids... they screamed and had their fits throughout the waiting. I had cried a total of at least 3 times throughout the day and I just broke down crying after talking to this rude woman. She finally told me that I could write to the judge and explain my situation. If he didn't listen to me even after he made me swear to tell the truth... what makes a letter better than looking at my face!?

Then, the power goes out at our house (happens a lot... maybe that's the military's way of cutting down on housing costs is to shut down the power a few times every few weeks). Upon restoring our electricity... my computer dies. (I am writing this on Jeremiah's laptop) Thankfully we bought a large capacity hard drive shortly after Jeremiah getting home and put our pictures and music on it. So, I only lost my word documents so far. I am still trying to get the computer up and running and will hopefully only have to purchase a new mouse instead of a new PC. As of bedtime last night though - I had no luck in restoring my computer to working condition.

Poor pregnant lady has to attend driving school before the beginning of Nov, had to pay half the ticket for court costs, drove 200 miles round trip and spent 8 hours of my day waiting to be basically told that I didn't have a fighting chance against this ticket anyway.... and all before I was able to get to bed.

After sleeping on it and trying to figure out my court problems this morning, the day has so far gone much better. I was able to find out that since PA doesn't have any policy about driving courses, I can just take a VA course and that will be sufficient. They accept online courses as well which will be good since I'm having a baby in a month. Then with reformatting the hard drive on my computer... hopefully that will be fine after I fix the water damage my children did to the mouse while I was trying to get everything done this morning. Not to metion Julia taking my deodorant to our television screen last night while I was having a nervous break down (Jeremiah had duty). Pretty emotional past two days. I think I deserve a vacation... don't you??

A day of "FUN"

Lately, not much has worked out for our little family to have much time to plan anything fun to do together. Jeremiah has had a day off here and there - only to be called back into work for an "emergency". (Basically... he's the only one that can fix anything - and no one else wants to do their job or figure it out - so he has to "Save" them) Saturday was FINALLY the first day we didn't get a phone call from the boat and were able to enjoy our day together. (Honestly, we didn't stick around near home long enough to give them much of a chance at getting us to come back home to "rescue" anyone) We took off for Williamsburg for some adventures. Since my husband is from around here - a lot of the area on that side of the tunnel is his old "stomping ground" and since we won't be around much longer... it was great to let him reminisce. We will have to do it again soon and take pictures of all the places he wants to remember. We headed for the outlets to check out some clothing stores (for the girls of course!! ;) haha... and Hunter too) that I had coupons for. We ended up running into some friends we were hoping to visit with over there and the girls got to play with their grandchildren (also girls). They had a BLAST! We went swimming (I conveniently had swimming suits for the girls already in the car and we stopped in at Motherhood Maternity Outlet to grab me a colorful - yet cheap suit of my own to use at the last minute), cooked out, and really enjoyed catching up. Their daughter, who already has 2 daughters as well, is close to Jeremiah's age and is also expecting a boy (their third child too)that's due next month (just like me!!)It was nice to get to know her better and visit with another pregnant lady (that doesn't mind talking about babies). I would have liked to take some pictures of the day - most of it was reminiscing, running around to different stores, walking, checking out Pepperidge Farms outlet, bathroom breaks, and lots of playing with new found friends. It was great starting the day with no expectations, so that we could really fully enjoy the day together.

Baking time coming to an end

This pregnancy is almost done. I can not believe it! I know that having 6 1/2 weeks left for most is FOREVER (and it can be) but with how time has been flying in this family, it's just around the corner!! The last 2 weeks of Jeremiah's deployment went fast and now he's home starting his first week back to work! In two weeks, I'll have a month left until my due date! Yikes! Once it all gets down to the "nitty-gritty" time frame.... I get all anxious about how the delivery will go. Naturally, the prayers are starting up about the baby not being too big, delivery going well, baby Hunter being healthy, etc. I'm looking forward to the family vacation this year and hoping that I get some time to kick back and have some "re-charge" time. I'm just so eager to see what this little guy is going to look like! Our family is incredibly blessed!

He's Home

Hooray, he's home!! We picked him up from base about 2:30ish on Thursday and have been enjoying a work free day with him today. I am super excited about having him back and the girls are just loving him to death!! He was supposed to get off the boat sooner than he did, but they decided they wanted him to help hook up the boat instead of getting off to be with his family. I wasn't expecting for them to be finished with all of their work when I got the call from him saying he was getting ready to leave the boat. I had just gotten the girls out of the tub - so we quickly dressed and did hair and off we went! We parked the car and took a short (yet hot) stroll to the pier to find Jeremiah. When we got there - we saw him coming toward the gate and waited there. I showed Melanie where he was and when he walked through the gate - she kept looking around him for a different guy that was supposed to be her dad (he had sunglasses on and they never see him in his whites). So... she looked right past her daddy. If you notice the picture where she has two lollipops - she insisted on bringing one to the pier to give to her Daddy. I guess she figured he would like the same flavor she did .... green apple! Julia later told him, "Daddy, we found you!". Everyone got hugs and kisses when we got back to the car. Here are a few pictures....


The girls posing before we head down the road for a short stroll to the pier to pick up Daddy!













Here is my little family.... all reunited again!

















This is the best picture I found on my camera of our little family. Photography isn't a strong point in our family.









Daddy taking a nap while the girls watch Bolt. It was the cutest thing.

My hair

I figured I would post a picture of my "do". It is too short up front because of me. I can't blame anyone but myself. Hopefully it will grow out fast and I won't have to sport the almost "perfect" bob for too long. P.S. Leg shine courtesy of Venus (thank you!)

Dresses.... check!

The paper links are almost gone, the to do list is getting shorter. One of the biggest things I needed to get done to get ready for the return of my "better half" is make those white dresses for the girls. I finally finished them at 1:30 am this morning. I worked (along with a long time favorite "A Knights Tale")late last night to get them all together and I absolutely love how they turned out. They are very simple, and they give me the chance and the option to dress them up with flowers, bows, whatever I want basically. For now they will stay simple and the girls will have a bow accessory courtesy of the fabulous Tara (thanks again!). They tried the bows on this morning and LOVED them!! Here is the finished product. I'm so proud of myself! Stay tuned... I hope to have some actual Homecoming Day pictures to load later in the week and then I'll have models for those dresses!