Halloween

Saturday we drove an hour and a half to Todd's and Abear's house to celebrate Halloween. We carved pumpkins and pretty much spent the entire day there. They introduced us to a new game called Mille Brones. I would recommend it to anyone.

"I'm ready to Uncle Todd and Aunt Abear."

"Ohhhh, a pumpkin just my size"

Notice the how Abear used the bump on the

pumpkin to create the nose. Todd's pumpkin

is eating the little pumpkin. They are so creative.

The seven of us. Can you guess where the other two are?

Caroline is the coolest baby ever!

Tim and my pumpkins. Can you guess which one is Tim's?

This is my version of a pregnant pumpkin while going

through morning sickness.

Caroline's Dedication

On the 17th of October my parents and Uncle Aaron came down for Caroline's baby dedication. We had a nice ceremony at the church that Saturday just for the parents, babies, and family. There were songs, a slide show of the baby pictures and a word from the paster. Then they feed us lunch afterwards. It was a wonderful way to dedicate your child and we appreciate having my parents and Aaron there is support us.

Caroline's One Year Birthday Pictures.

Here are some beach pictures we had taken the first week in October.

Caroline's Birthday

We can't hardly believe it; Caroline has been ours for a year now. Caroline turned one on Friday the 23rd. Our squadron had a Halloween party for the kids so of course I had to get Caroline dressed up and show her off.

"I'm a Fairy Princess!"

"Look at my beautiful blue eyes."

On Saturday we had about 21 friends from work and church and 4 children come over to help celebrate her birthday. Caroline's Nonna, Granddaddy and Uncle Aaron were there too. We had a backyard cookout on a beautiful fall day. Caroline did well with the gift opening but soon lost intrest so mommy had to finish opening the rest. I think her favorite gifts were a leap frog dog that plugs into the computer so it can say Caroline's name when it talkes, and a rocking pony that her Grandma Billings got her.

Caroline's all smiles on her pony ride.

Our Commander's secretary made Caroline's cake.

Caroline insisted on eating with a spoon.

She doesn't like textured food so I don't think

she really ate one bit of the cake.

Since then we have made a switch with her childcare provider mainly for safety reason but also because she kept getting bits all over her body at her childcare provider's house. Since then a friend has been watching Caroline temporarily until another provider is able to get training. We are so happy with where she is at now. We get sheets with Caroline's feedings, changing times and sleep schedule. It is such as relief to know she is in good hands and not getting anymore bits.

Our Summer and Caroline's Now Ten Months

The Cincinnati Zoo in July!

Well pretty much the whole summer has flown by without me writing a single blog. This past Fourth of July we drove up to Georgetown, KY to visit Tim's parents. We took her to Cincinnati to see the zoo for the very first time. We also saw two of Tim's brothers and visited Mike at the fire station where he works at. We of course had to take a picture of Caroline in the driver's seat of the Fire Truck.

Honk! Honk! Caroline is on her way to save the day!

We have been keeping busy with working on the house and attending summer cookouts about every weekend. During the last two weeks of August, Tim went TDY to Alaska. He went up there to see how things were done up in the Alaska National Guard and the Alaskan NORAD Region. Of course this only took up 4 of the 14 total days up there. The rest of the time was spent hiking, going to the zoo, airplane rides to look at glaciers, and of course all the excellent seafood restaurants. We really missed him. I had no one to wash bottles for me. :-(

Tim on his AK Vacation

I wish Daddy would come home from Alaska.

While he was gone I worked on turning one of our living room closets into a cloffice or closet office for Tim's birthday gift. He was very surprised. I also went on shopping date with Abear and Todd at Ft Walton and then spend the rest of the evening at the beach with my parents to celebrate Dad's birthday. That was a lot of fun.

Tim's New Cloffice

But the biggest news of the summer is that Caroline learned to crawl last Thursday. The first video is one of her laughing. She thinks it is so funny when I crawl on the floor or run around the room. I was just running from one side of the bed to the other to get her to laugh this hysterically.

A Minute of Laughter

Caroline goofing off at the resturant!

I love to read!

New Family Member

Greetings All,

This month has been extremely busy for us. Between work, Caroline, and the house, we have had barely any free time. But we do have some interesting news. Because of our loss of Alex, our other dog Tucker started to mope around. After a couple weeks for mulling it around, we decided to adopt another Beagle. This is not to replace Alex, but to give Tucker someone to play with. We were wanting to get a girl dog that was older than 1 year old. Well, the very next day we received the most random call from Lynn Haven Animal Shelter saying that they had a 2 year old female Beagle that they rescued from Bay County Animal Shelter. Apparently she was about to be put to sleep. Well, it took all of about 2 seconds to realize that God was putting her into our lives. We picked her up the Friday before Memorial Day. The family that gave her up called her "Blaze". I'm not a name expert, but what kind of name is that for a girl dog?? So we decided to call her Blair, since it's the closest female name to Blaze that she would easily recognize. She and Tucker are getting along about as well as expected. Tucker sniffed her hiney and I don't think he has looked her way again. We think he's still missing his buddy. Last weekend the Base Vet Clinic held a "Lunch On A Leash" so Dog and Cat owners can come out with their pets and get free food as well as raffle prizes. Tucker did just fine, but Blair was, as quoted by Tim, "a complete embarrassment!" She barked at every dog, cat, and human that she saw the entire time were there. I guess that's be expected from a dog that was locked up in two shelters over a week and a half. Well, that's about that. Enjoy the pictures and movie!

Here is Tim and Blair. She's not very photogenic.

Learning to Clap

Our Family Picture at Mandi's Wedding; 2 May2009.

Uncle Aaron stayed a short visit this weekend.

I walked in Caroline's room this morning and found her lying in this position. How uncomfortable!

Caroline posing with mommy's old Cabbage Patch Doll.

This weekend Caroline learned to clap. Here is a video of her shortly after we saw her doing it for the first time.

Alex Our Beloved Beagle

Today we had a tragedy in the family. Alex our beagle got out of the yard today and went to the nearest highway just a block away. He went into the road and got hit by a big truck. The worst part of it is it was a slow death. We are very sad about our loss. Alex was such a good dog and very well behaved. He was quirky and made us laugh. Every morning when we woke up in Oklahoma he would stretch and make the funniest sound. When we were in England this past summer we constantly talked about how we missed the dogs and made the same sound Alex made and laughed. This mishap was a bit of a wake up call to us always make time for ones you love for you never know when your last moment with them is.

I'm reminded of a quote from Nicholas Nickelby by Charles Dickens "In every life no matter how full or empty one's purse there is tragedy. It is the one promise life always fullfills. Thus, happiness is a gift. And the trick is not to expect it, but to delight in it when it comes, and to add to other peoples store of it." We love you Alex! -Dad and Mom

In loving Memory of Alex

March 5, 2006 - May 5, 2009

April

April has been a big month for us. It first started out with a visit from Tim's parents. They stay with us for a night on their way back from Disney World. I didn't think we would see them so soon after Christmas. What a treat! Tim's mom brings a little bit of his old stuff every time we see her. So Tim was happy to be reunited with his model air planes, two Air Force teddy bears and pottery. It was like Christmas for him all over again.

My parents didn't have to work on Good Friday so I took off of work and stayed home with for the day. We had a great time. The big excitement of the day was our dinning room table finally arrived. So we all got to test our our formal dinning room. I will post pictures when we get our art work from the UK on the wall. That will really pull the room together.

The day before Easter we worked a Gas Buy-Down in front of our church. We had cars lined up in roads in front of the church and directed traffic for the cars to drive across the street to the gas station. For a few hours we served our community by make gas cost only $1.09 as opposed to the $2.09 everyone else way paying that day. That gave a big intro for our church moving to four services on Easter Morning. Every service was packed. No, we did not dye any eggs with Caroline but we did take family pictures in front of the house. Maybe next year we will do the whole egg thing.

Easter Sunday

We spent last weekend and the weekend before whacking down our azaleas in the front and back yard. They are 29 years worth of a huge mess. We basically took the plants down to sticks. That was a big task. Now we just have to haul everything to the dump this coming weekend. I'm not really looking forward to that. In addition to the yard, we removed a built in desk and book case that took up an entire wall in our down stairs bedroom. It looks in bad shape now but it is just a matter of preparing walls for painting, painting, having carpet installed and putting up new crown molding and baseboards.

On the 21st we celebrated our 2nd anniversary. It is hard to believe we reached two years already. We took the day off of work and had breakfast at IHOP. We dropped Caroline off at her child care place and went to the frame shop on base to frame our art work for the dinning room...and off to the beach we headed. We sat in chairs and read magazines. It was very relaxing. We also had lunch on the beach and went out for dinner. A no cooking day...that is what I like. I enjoy cooking but takes so much time away from my family.

Caroline had her half birthday on the 23rd. Six hold months and every minute has been awesome being her mom. We attempted to feed her yesterday...below is a picture of it. I don't know if she really gets the point now but we will see how she does by the end of the week.

Just Chillin'

Caroline Sitting and Playing

Caroline is such a big girl! Look how well she is sitting own her own. She is changing so fast these days.

5 Months Old

Caroline turned 5 months today. She likes playing Patty Cake with Daddy.

New Discoveries

Two weekends ago Caroline learned some new things. She now can make raspberry noises and she found her foot. Also last Saturday she woke up with clear eyes. So finally after four months she no longer has blocked tear ducts. We're glad to see that go away. She is really getting the hang of our nightly routine. I give her a bath at 7:00, then a massage her, and rock her to sleep while I'm feeding her. It only takes thirty to forty minutes. And the best part is there is no fuss when I lay her down and she stays asleep until I wake her up at 6:00 a.m. What a blessing. She makes parenting a compete joy. I'm excited to see what her personality is going to be like later down the road. If she smiles like she does now, everyone will want to be her friend.

"I got my toes."

"Daddy's class of students had a party last Saturday. This is me hanging out with crazy, future Air Battle Managers."

"I love my new outfit. Thank you Grandma Billings!"

As for tim and I work, work, work and more work. Tim did score a goal last night at his soccer game. I took at run on the beach yesterday with the squadron. It's so awesome to see such beautiful scenery while you are working out. This weekend we are hiring 1-800-got-junk to haul of all the junk in our garage. We have so much stuff, our little cars can't carry it all. A lot of it is shelving units and wood that was left behind when the previous owners moved out. We will have so much space, Caroline will have room for her garage band when she gets older. We are going to have so much more space. Then we have plans to work on the lawn, that is if it does not rain on Saturday.

Raspberries by Caroline!

Four Months Next Monday

Our lives seem to be in a constant state of busyness. Now that Tim is instructor qualified at work we ride ride separately with him getting up at 4:30 a.m. and me at 5:00 a.m. With traffic we end up getting home around 5:20 or 5:30 p.m. By the time the kitchen is cleaned and our bags are packed and ready for work the next day, we finally can relax around 7:30. So that leaves us with an hour and a half for the three of us to sit on our bed and watch t.v. and get ready for our 9:00 bed time. Tim and I laugh at the sight of me leaving the house in the morning; I look much like a donkey loaded down with luggage. I have my purse, a lunch box, Caroline's diaper bag, my bag for my breast pump, a cooler for Caroline's milk, and whatever two inch binder I brought home to study for the next days lesson that I will be teaching. Did I mention Caroline in there somewhere? So you can see why I don't have as much time to post blogs with our new routine. Thanks God for Presidents' Day!!!

During the last full weekend in January, Janel and Julia came to visit us from late Friday night until Monday morning. We had a wonderful time. That was the first time we have seen Julia and Caroline's first visit from an aunt. We got a visit from Granddaddy and Nanna on that Saturday, we went to Church and to the beach Sunday. That was both Caroline and Julia's first visit to the beach. I know they are going to be good friends when they get older. They are only four months apart and closest in age as far as cousins go. It seems like they hardly got to play with each other because they were on opposite sleeping and eating schedules. But there was one evening when Caroline was sleeping in her bouncer on the kitchen table and Julia was sitting in the bebe pod on the kitchen table and Julie leaning over and pulled of Caroline's socks. Quite funny to watch.

Julia and Caroline

Caroline's First Trip to the Beach

Caroline's First Laughs

My Mom stayed with us the on Thursday night since she had a work conference in town last Friday. It's always fun to see Nanna. She feed Caroline and got her dressed for me so I got to sleep in an extra thirty minutes that morning. Thanks Mom!

Nanna and Caroline

Caroline in her Valentine's dress from Grandma next to her tulips from Nanna.

Funny Story: We have noticed Alex, our smallest beagle, has been getting out of the yard this week. We would find him outside the gate whining in the driveway for us to let him in when we came home from work. He is known for not been the sharpest crayon in the box, but it seems he had us fooled the whole time. Tim noticed he was outside the fence yesterday and when over in the neighbor's yard to get. So the neighbor introduced himself to Tim and told Tim that Alex comes over quite often. Then he explained to Tim that Alex goes through their cat door and eat all the cat food and leaves. From the sound of it he has been doing this for quite a while now. Luckily our neighbor was not mad at us because we had no clue what was going no. It just goes to show you looks can be deceiving.

"Cats Beware: I'm coming after your food next."

Tim has been working on our living room every weekend since the beginning of January. He took a book case out of the wall and created a stud wall, drywall and painted the wall up. The most important thing about the project is that this wall holds our 52" screen TV. He also added sconces next to the TV...and there are NO wires showing. All the electronics are held in a closet of to the side of the TV. We also removed a wood burning stove in the living room and the hearth underneath it and continued the same hardwood flooring. I am so proud of Tim, he truly is a weekend warrior. My father also came one weekend to help with the demolition and the creation of the wall. Thanks Daddy!!!! I'll have before and after pictures posted when the room is complete. He still has to paint the wall, trim and replace some closet doors.

Caroline loves Elle the Elephant that her Uncle Jeff got her for Christmas.

Does anyone want a bear hug?