Few pics

Just hopping on to share a few pics and give an update!

Taylor is still sleeping through the night. Routinely going to bed at 8 or 9, and sleeping until 4 or 5, then she eats and goes back to sleep until about 8. Since Drew is on day shift right now we are both going to bed a bit earlier and taking advantage of it!

Yesterday, I made new friend! Her name is Michelle and she has a baby boy a few weeks younger than Taylor, and also a 2 year old. We met for lunch yesterday and totally hit it off! We seem to have a lot in common, so that's cool. I'm pretty excited to have met somebody new!

Now for pictures. Taylor got these shoes as a gift while we were in CA, and I was practicing with a homemade light box and was looking for something to put in there so I tried the shoes since they are just too cute! They wont fit her for a long time yet, but that's okay!



Here she is enthralled with her play gym! We're still doing tummy time every day, but she really doesn't like it, so we have to limit it to a couple minutes at a time, several times a day.



And a few from the zoo.

Flamingo
Singing Dog
These pics are taking forever to upload and it's getting late so I'm going to bed! I don't know if I'll get a chance to update tomorrow, we have a lot to do, but I'll try!

Hope everyone had a great week!

Is it Wednesday already???

Another busy week so far for us here! I went to my optometrist appointment yesterday and apparently my eyes have gotten bad! I went from being a 2 in one eye and a 2.5 in the other eye, to 2.75 in one, and 3.25 in the other, yikes! She said, well you're still legal to drive... BARELY. I hope that meant with my glasses off, not on! So, I ordered some new glasses since I've had these lenses and frames for 3.5 years now, they've about had it. Of course since my vision is so bad I had to pay extra for the thin lenses so they would fit in the frames and not be coke-bottle bottoms. Drew said he's not sure he could handle me having coke-bottle bottoms.. ha! Silly guy.

After that I went to Weight Watchers to weigh in and I lost 4.8 lbs.! Woohoo!!! I guess I did pretty good last week! Plus it was my first week really back on plan so loss is usually a little more then. I don't know if Drew has gotten on the scale yet to see how he's done. I've got him eating better too, and he's actually listening to my suggestions!

Taylor is still sleeping through the night. She sleeps about 8 hours at a stretch, followed by another 2 or 3. She's been going to bed about 9 (if she naps during the day), and getting up at 5. then going back to bed until 7 or 8. Last night she went to bed at 8, so she was up at 4, but then slept again until 8 so it's okay. It's currently 4pm and she's been napping for about 15 minutes now.

I'm already getting a little crazy now that we are back since it seems like I never have time to do any of my hobbies any more, and I don't really know anybody . I'm kind of a walking narrator in a monologue most of the time. It was to be expected I guess, but I'm taking it a little harder than I thought I would! So to help me out we're setting up a schedule so that I get a couple hours 2 or 3 days a week to do my own thing (stamp, photography, sleep! etc,) and Taylor gets full attention Daddy time! Where they can go on walks, or do some play time, story or tummy time, or baths so Daddy gets to do some of the things that Mommy usually does all day, and Taylor gets good quality Daddy time.

I've also been talking to a few of people in a wives group from the base. A couple of them have babies Taylors age, and a couple have dogs! All of which we can relate, so hopefully I'll actually get a chance to meet up with some of them. That will be nice for both Taylor and I (and maybe Cossie too!). Speaking of Cossie, he's been absolutely wonderful with Taylor. He's gentle, and protective. Worries abuot her when she cries, checks on her when shes' sleeping in her crib. It's too cute, I'll put her down and every once in a while he walk in her room and look into her crib to make sure she's okay, then walk back out.

I spoke with the puppy breeder yesterday for a couple hours. She's so sweet and loooves talking about Danes! She has sent pics too, so here's the pics of the pups! We don't know which is ours yet, she's watching their temperaments and has two of the four boys that match what we are looking for (calm, and laid back like Cossie). Here's some pics for you:


Okay, I'm off to put in one last faucet, and do acouple things around the house while Taylor is napping. I'm still working on Zoo pics!

Happy Easter!

Hope everybody is having a Happy Easter Sunday! Taylor got dressed up in her First Easter Dress, and we took some pictures! Since none of us are eating candy these days and don't particularly want it in the house (too tempting!), we just got her a small easter cup to pose with. :) and her bunny of course!


She looks like shes ready to deck the bunny!


Oh, and I almost forgot.. the bunny ears photo shoot!!

Not so thrilled here, lol!

Running Behind

I know I said I'd post on Thursday again, but I've been a bit busy the last few days. I'm still sick so that has made me a little slower than usual. It seems to be getting worse instead of better so I'm calling on Monday to see if I can get an appointment sooner than a month.

Taylor has been really clingy the past couple of days as well. Wants held and rocked or walked around constantly. The second you put her down she starts getting fussy and whiny. I think maybe she's been a bit more tired during the day since she's been sleeping in her crib. She is doing well in there, still waking up a couple of times a night, but I've noticed she talks to herself for a while before falling asleep. That's a good thing though, that means she's going to bed without having to nurse, be rocked or have her pacifier! I think it's making her a little more tired throughout the day though since she's not sleeping quite as soundly.

Yesterday I installed a couple of the faucets that Dad gave us as our housewarming gift! They look great! Here's the before and after pictures. I still have our bathroom to do, and the tub/shower fixtures. Though I'm not sure I'm brave enough to take those on alone. The sink ones are alright because I can see everything and make sure it's not leaking.

Here's the before bathroom faucet:


And the new one:

The old kitchen faucet:


And the new kitchen faucet (pull out sprayer instead of separate) and in-sink soap dispenser.

I also went to a jeweler yesterday to see about getting my ring fixed. I took Grammy's ring to see what they could do, the first jeweler said they could use the stones and make new bands to match my center ring but it would cost about about $1500 in all!! The second jeweler I went to was really nice! They were playing with Taylor and showing me different ideas. I had to wait a bit for the actual jeweler to come out, he was with a client (another jeweler) giving him his $90,000 ring!! I saw it in passing, it was huge!! I'd be afraid somebody would cut my arm off for it. When he came out, he said that he didn't think that the stones would mix well (mine and Grammy's) due to color differences, and the size of the stones would make it hard to match up, but that my ring wasn't really in ALL that bad of shape (really!?) and that he could fix it for $4-600 back to new). He said in the meantime if I wanted, he could rhodium plate Grammy's ring to make it white gold and resize it to fit so I could wear it. It would cost $46! I went for the latter option, because I feel Grammy's ring should stay in the family, and at least I could have something to wear for now. I didn't know that making it White Gold was even an option, and I'm just not a yellow gold kind of girl, so I was very pleased with this.

They called a couple of hours later to say that it was ready. It's absolutely BEAUTIFUL! It's still kind of tall for what I would usually wear but maybe I'll get use to it! It sure does sparkle and shine, and it's SO nice to have something on my finger again. He even took the dent out of it, cleaned and polished it all up. I'll take pics of it and post them, I tried yesterday but I had the wrong lens on to get a good picture and then Taylor was getting fussy so I'll have to do it later.

I can't remember if I ever posted a picture of my garbage disposal-ed ring, but here it is again just in case:


EDIT** Here's the pic of Grammy's Ring! Taylor fell asleep so I snagged one real quick. :)

We're off to get Drew a lawnmower today, our yard finally decided to sprout up (though its mostly weeds and wild flowers rather than grass) and it's looking pretty shabby.

Separation Anxiety

That would be me. Well, not so bad, just a little.

Taylor slept in her crib last night for the first time. We've put her in there for a few naps, but I wasn't ready for her to be that far away from me yet. While we were on our trip she was sleeping so well in her bassinet that we decided we'd try her out in her crib soon after we got back. Last night was the night! She only got up twice. Once at about 12:30 and the second time around 4:15am, then she slept until 7. So it wasn't GREAT, but considering it was a different place to wake up to than she's used to, it wasn't too bad!

I did okay, I was still awake when she got up at 12:30, but when I heard her cry through the monitor at 4:15 my pulse raced a little. I bolted up and ran into her room to see if she was really awake or just crying in her sleep. She was definitely awake so I picked her up, fed her and rocked her until she fell back asleep. It was strange going back to our room knowing she's not in there. Kind of made me sad at the same time.

She's been asleep in there since 10:30 tonight, so we'll see how it goes this time. I'm still swaddling her as she wakes herself right back up if her arms are free. Swaddled she puts herself back to sleep pretty well unless she's hungry or needs a diaper change.

I'll report tomorrow and hopefully update with part 3 of our trip!

LA to CA: Part 2

So, after leaving Lois and Steve's we headed for Dianne's (Drew's Mom) house. That drive was SOOO windy, since we had most of our things in the car instead of in the snail (easier to load/unload) we caught some wind under the edges of the snail and it flexed. We thought it was going to rip off the car so we pulled over and checked it. It was okay, but we slowed down to about 15 below the speed limit to keep it from happening again. We switched drivers and I drove through the pass. Let me tell you, I had some white knuckles and I think Drew had to peel me off the steering wheel by the time we got to San Diego! That was some wind, and cliffs, yikes!

The next morning Drew and I went to go see if we could find his buddy at work, but he wasn't there that day, so we decided to go get a lunch of good ol' SoCal mexican food and visit the beach! We went to his favorite place and got some burritos, then went to Ocean Beach. We ate lunch, then took out the stroller and walked with Taylor up and down the trail a bit. It was windy, but so enjoyable! I sure love some California sunshine (and I can't complain about Mexican food either).
"Enjoying" her first trip to the beach!
Not to happy here! It was bright and windy, and she was getting hungry. We couldn't find a hat that fit her so I just rushed her out for a quick pic then put her back under a shade. (We did find a couple hats that fit when we went to visit Dad later!)


We also went to see some friends of ours (Thomas and Lisa) from TeamZx2 that also just had a baby 3 weeks before. We were pregnant at the same time so shared or stories and births! It was nice to finally get to see them! It was Taylor and Christopher's first "play" date!

When we got back to the house, Drew spent some quality time playing with Jenny (that would be the cute little blonde down there, not me!) I snapped a picture while I was upstairs and he wasn't looking (obviously, lol).


We had a lovely dinner with the family. I finally met Jeff (Drew's Brother) and Hannah (our niece) for the first time. It was really fantastic! Of course here is where I failed with the camera! Though I did get some the second time through.. we'll get to those!

The next morning we got up and Drew, Taylor, Dianne and myself took a trip to the San Diego zoo! It was wonderful, and a beautiful day! I did get lots of pics, so I'll post some of my favorites tomorrow. It's getting late and I still have things to do tonight while Taylor is sleeping!

Busy 2 days

I need to get to part 2 of our trip, hopefully this evening but I wanted to give an update on things since we've been back!

Some awesome news: Sunday night Taylor slept from 10:3opm to 7AM straight!! I couldn't believe it. Except when we woke up at 7, I had a sore throat and a headache and it continued to get worse all day long. Also in the morning I called to schedule her appointment which I knew was going to be a few weeks late, I figured they wouldn't be able to get her in until next week since they usually schedule about a week out.... well get this, they wont see her until APRIL 14th!!! So she's going to start her vaccines a month and a half late! I was kind of mad, but it's my fault I guess for not calling on the Friday we left to schedule.. I just didn't think they'd have the schedule open that far because they didn't previously.

I called and got myself scheduled for an eye exam which I so desperately need. I haven't had them checked in 4 years and I've noticed a significant change in my vision over the last year or so. That's next Tuesday for me, since it's off base I don't have to wait a month.

This morning I woke up at 2 AM to the cat chewing on a plastic bag and the dog barking at her (he knows she's not allowed to chew on plastic), and I was feeling worse than ever so I took some DayQuil since it's alcohol free. Taylor got up at 5 (but had gone to bed at 9:30, so that was still awesome!) and then we went back to sleep until 8. I'm feeling much better now though I still have a bit of a headahce

I also joined Weight Watchers again, and went to my first meeting today! There was another girl there who just joined today also, she's a military wife and she came toting her 4 week old! We have a lot in common it seems so perhaps I'll make a friend? It was a very interesting meeting.. everyone is just so.... SOUTHERN! Not in a bad way of course, it's just so different from either CA, or England. I'm pretty excited to weigh in next week, I'm determined to finish what I started and reach my goal!

I'm off to try and do something about this house.. when we unloaded the car it kind of just exploded everywhere!

I'll update with part 2 after I do some things around here!

LA to CA: Part 1

Since there's SOO much to share I'm going to do this in sections while I have time and I'll start from the beginning! I took a lot of pics, but I should have gotten more. You don't realize how much you miss until you go back and look! But I'll do my best to cover everything!

Friday the 29th Drew went to work and I loaded the car and got ready to go.
He got home at 11pm that night and we got on the road just about 11:30pm and started driving. Taylor slept most of the way, I would pump a bottle and whoever was sitting in the back with her would feed her. When she needed a diaper change we'd stop at a gas station and change her and top up on fuel so we didn't need to make any unnecessary stops. We took turns driving so one of us could get some rest.

On the way there we saw saw lots of this:


Also while we were driving, we saw the Dukes of Hazzard car and the Ninja Turtles Van! Whaaat??

It took about 20 hours to get from our house to Lois and Steve's in Mesa, AZ. What a long drive, but we were so excited it was no big deal! Louis held Taylor, but she was a little fussy, to be expected after such a long trip!

It's after midnight and I need to get some sleep while I can. To be continued.....

We're home!

I'll update more tomorrow, but I just wanted to let everybody know that we got home safe and sound at 2:45AM (Louisiana time) on Sunday! It's now an hour later and we're winding down, the dog and cat are getting settled in after inspecting every square inch of the house and it's good to be home.

While it was a whirlwind of a trip, we had a fabulous time and were so glad to see just about everybody. Thank you all so much for all you have done for us!

Love,
Jen, Drew, Taylor, Cossie and Eibach