Birthday Party Fun

Today we had the honor of attending a birthday party for one of Eden's friends. Nelson turned 1 yesterday and his party was this afternoon. Man, did Eden (and all the other kids) have a good time! They had a bounce house, LOTS of food and candy, cupcakes, balloons, and of course some toys to keep the little ones entertained! Whitney did an awesome job with the party, and I'm stealing some of her ideas for Eden's party! Be prepared to see some similarities in some of the pictures of Nelson's and Eden's birthday parties.

The cutest 1st Birthday idea ever! A picture of Nelson from every month of his first year of life. (I've already made my month labels, I've added the pictures online so I can order the prints, and I'm getting my clothes pins from Whitney! I can't wait to have Eden's done.)



Eden and Nelson, the birthday boy, sharing a toy.

Did I mention that Nelson was Eden's first kiss?! When we visited Gymboree Play and Music in November, Nelson was a current student and he and Eden got along really well. They loved to sit and laugh at each other. Of course they liked to grab at each other's faces (because who wouldn't think that was fun?!) and one time when Nelson was going in for the face grab, he gave Eden a kiss instead. Little Miss didn't back away from the kiss - we'll have to teach her about playing hard to get later - and she seemed to love every minute of it. 

A Picture A Day:

January 30 - Lane and I did an at home workout together. Cardio X from the P90X workout DVDs was the pick of the day.

January 31 - We had meatloaf that had carrots in it for dinner and Eden dropped 2 carrots that stuck to her in the most hilarious places! It was too perfect!!!

January 31 - I went to a friends house to learn how to sew (I've never used a sewing machine before this day) and she helped me make some pillows. Thanks Heather!

February 1 - the Happy Birthday Eden sign that I made for Eden's birthday party.

February 2 - Eden got to feed herself applesauce at lunch today. She did a good job holding the spoon...and trying to eat the applesauce like it was a finger food.

February 2 - She was really good at putting the spoon in her mouth when she actually did decide to use it.

February 2 - But then she decided the spoon wasn't effective enough, so she thought drinking it (and licking the bowl) was a better idea in the end. She's her father's daughter!

February 3 - She got tired from all that crawling, so she stopped for a water break...and layed down on the floor in the kitchen.

February 4 - Dinner for a Weight Watchers champ! Pork chops, asparagus, and 2, yes 2, croissants! I saved enough points to be able to eat 2!!!!!

February 5 - Eden discovered that she loves balloons today at Nelson's birthday party. She didn't even get scared when some of them popped.

February 5 - Eden in the bounce house. She loved it. She waved her arms up and down in hopes that it would bounce her. I guess we need to start working on jumping soon.

So Soon?!

It's that time, well, almost. Lane's second phase of flight school is coming to a close. I didn't think he would ever start primary, but here we are, about to be done! Most of me is REALLY excited about this milestone in his career, but there's a part of me that is a little hesitant to be 100% excited. While he's in school, he's non-deployable and he's home every night. When he's done with school it will only be a matter of time before a deployment comes into our lives. I know that this is exciting for him, so I try to stay excited for him, but I like our time together (not that he doesn't, but he doesn't feel like he's started his career because he "hasn't done anything").

All that being said...HE'S ALMOST DONE!!!!! He has to complete his flights today and then he's back in the simulators (sims) with just a few flights to follow those, and he's primary complete. What a relief...then on to advanced. This is all based on Lane finishing his 2 flights today and then getting 2 sims each day until next week when he will fly his last flights. Fingers crossed that everything goes according to plan, and then we'll celebrate my birthday by him getting to select where he's going for advanced!!!

On another note, Eden is starting to become more and more confident with her walking. She's actually willing to take a few steps - voluntarily - to get to where she's going. Today she wanted to get closer to me so she could play with/pull my hair and she stood up and took a few steps to get there! I think this is partially because when she and I are trying to make it from point a to point b and we're in no rush, I'll hold her hand and let her walk with me instead of crawling beside or behind me. I don't know why I didn't think of this before?!

Eden and I went for another run this morning. I ran about 2 miles and Eden hated every minute of it. It's really cold down here again, so I think it was just too much for her. When I say I ran 2 miles, I'm still walk/jogging the trail that we run, but last week I was running .2 mile stretches and today I ran .4 mile stretches. Each time I was walking .1 mile between the running stretches. All in all I'm excited that I did twice as much running as last week! Next week I'm hoping to up it again. We'll see how it goes. I'll be sure to keep you posted.

I had my second weigh in for Weight Watchers last night. Things didn't go the way I wanted them to go. I went up by half a pound, which isn't a lot, but it was the wrong direction! The leader of the meeting reminded me that because I've started exercising more that it will initially increase my weight before bringing it down. Fingers crossed that I keep it up (eating right and exercising) and things start moving in the right direction. I told Lane's sister that I did sort of lose the excitement that I had for it all last week, but I haven't lost my determination. I know I'm doing all the right things, so the scale will have to start tipping in my direction sooner or later!

Smarty Pants

There have been so many fun things in the past couple of days that I have made myself wait to post and not put something new on here ever 5 minutes!

On Friday, Lane was able to be invited to an Academic Award Ceremony by the Commodore. The Commodore is usually the one who hosts the ceremony, but Senator McCain was on base to be with his son who earned his wings of gold that day and the Commodore was with him, so Deputy Commodore Colonel Grace hosted the ceremony. Col Grace was a funny and entertaining man who was very proud of the individuals receiving different academic awards. Lane got an award for completing the academic portion of Primary in the top 10%. I am a proud wife, of a smarty pants husband!

Yesterday and today, little Miss Eden has also shown us how much of a smarty pants she is too! While I was putting her diaper bag in the car to get ready to leave yesterday morning for the awards ceremony for Lane, he blinked at her to play a game with her, and she will now blink back in a VERY exaggerated way! We have named this game "The Blinking Game" because we're oh-so-clever! When we picked Lane up from work yesterday evening Eden started The Blinking Game without having to be prompted.

Some of the other fun things Eden is doing:
Me: "Eden, what does a dog say?" Eden: "woof woof" in a way that only makes sense to Lane and I!! We couldn't be more proud of her. We're working on "moo" now!!!

Eden points with her single index finger. She heard a dog barking when we were out on our walk yesterday and she pointed in the direction of the dog, and of course followed that with "woof woof" to bark with the dog.

While at playgroup we were talking about kids eating and how they will throw food on the ground. When I said something about Eden throwing food on the ground another mother told me that she was shocked that Eden ever dropped food because "it seems like she's always eating something!" I guess she really is her mothers daughter!

What am I doing these days, you might ask. I'm just trying to keep up with the 2 smarty pants at my house! I'm still goin' strong with my Weight Watchers and exercising. I went to Mommy Fit on Wednesday and today, I ran on my own on Thursday, and yesterday Eden and I just went for a walk. I'm working on being that better Brittany that I posted about a few weeks ago!

A Picture A Day:

January 28 - Lane getting his certificate from Col Grace

January 28 - Lane and me with Col Grace.

January 29 - Eden's birthday outfit. The tutu is from Ms. Whitney (www.diaryofapreppymom.blogspot.com) and the embroidered shirt, bib, and hat are from Ms. Michelle (www.eandsembroidery.blogspot.com)

January 29 - Close up of the outfit. Can you tell I was just a LITTLE excited to get this in the mail today?! Oh, and the pink fabric sparkles!!!!!



Stroller Brigade

Today was my first experience with the Stroller Brigade - or Mommy Fit, as the group more commonly likes to call themselves. This morning we did a track that is 1.7 miles and I was in the walk/jog group. We jogged .2 miles and walked .1 miles at a time. I had to turn around and do about .3 more miles total because Eden conveniently dropped her hat half way through the course and I didn't notice it in time, so I didn't pick it up. Luckily there was a walking group behind us, so they saw it and grabbed it for me. It's a good thing too, because it was one of our favorites!

A Picture A Day:

January 22 - Jello, made and in the fridge. Eden started a liquid diet on the 23rd to help get rid of the runs, to help get rid of the worst diaper rash you've ever seen because of teething!

January 23 - Daddy and Baby watching TV together

January 23 - tired baby after a long day shopping

January 23 - the "pillows" on the couch is what we got when we went shopping. The red pillow is a true pillow, the other 2 are fabrics that we got in order to make pillows to go with the new living room decor.

January 24 - evil palms! The thorns are the size of your face...not really, but when you get stabbed by one, you'd think it was that big!

January 24 - the naked palm with the torturous trimmings

January 24 - this will eventually turn into the cupcake tower for Eden's birthday party

January 25 - Grandpa went to LA to be with his mom as she was having surgery today, and he stopped by for a day to hang out with us.

January 26 - our morning with the stroller brigade. This was after our jog/walk, so Eden was tired and not amused at the fact that I wanted to take her picture.

Weight Watching

I've been trying to lose 10 pounds for A LONG time! Before I got pregnant with Eden I wanted to lose 10 pounds. Well, as you may have guessed, I didn't want to continue that goal after getting pregnant, so my goal then, was to just maintain a healthy weight gain throughout my pregnancy. I did that, and I did that with ease. After Eden was born I was able to drop weight at a rapid rate and this was very promising to me. I think this was also what helped me come to a stand-still really quickly. I didn't do much in the beginning to drop the weight as quickly as I had and so I thought it would just continue to fall off...wrong.

Here I am, a year after Eden was born (almost) and I'm now 3 pounds OVER my pre-pregnancy weight (which is still within the "normal" limits) and therefore I've not reached that "easy" 10 pound goal that I had set for myself. Because I've had no luck, and no accountability, I decided to join a Weight Watchers group, and I will be weighing in once a week, and I will be attempting to drop these extra few pounds that I've gained. I know many people have joined Weight Watchers and had great success - a friend lost 30 pounds, a family member lost 30 pounds, and other friends have lost various amounts and haven't been specific with their weight loss numbers.

My weight loss goal is 15 pounds. I haven't thought about an date to accomplish this by, but I think I want to be able to do it in time for Eden's birthday party. I would love to be able to get a new dress for her party when I know that friends and family will be in town so I can show off my results. I don't know yet if that's too soon, or if that's a realistic goal because I've not started counting my points as tonight was the first night I've gone to my meetings. I will keep the end of February in sight as a tentative goal for myself (so that I can have time to shop for my new dress before the party!) and keep everyone posted about how that's going.

I had started going back to the gym and taking a class, but I no longer have the child care available to me for Eden, and therefore everything I do has to be done at home, or with a "home group" of other moms. Tomorrow I will meet up with some of these ladies and we will be running and other active activities in a near-by neighborhood. I remember, when Angela lived in Virginia, she called the mommy group that did fitness in her neighborhood the "Stroller Brigade" and that is what I will be doing in the morning! I'm really excited to have this opportunity, because I feel that the group will be another accountability tool for me to use.

So, now that 2011 is underway, I've got 2 resolutions that this blog is helping me keep up with: A Picture A Day and a Better Brittany - physically, emotionally, and spiritually! Thanks for coming along for the ride with me and here goes nothing!

Saying Goodbye is Military Life

Over the past year that we have lived in Florida, we've had to say goodbye to many families as they've moved on for different reasons. The Bible study group I've been going to has a quick turn around. Women here never know how long they'll be here because of their husbands' training. The long and short of flight school is that there are 3 parts and you could be here for just one part, or you can be here for all 3, it depends on what branch your husband is in and it depends on the need of that branch.

Since we've been here in Florida we've said goodbye to the following families (this doesn't even TOUCH on the families that we left behind when we left Atlanta OR Virginia!):

Hakes family moved to Oklahoma
Cole family moved to Oklahoma
Zasadny family moved to North Carolina
Kelso family moved to North Carolina
Christensen family moved to California
Staffenson family moved to California
Hubbard family moved to Japan
Cohoon (single friend) moved to Texas
Anderson family moved to California

And most recently, the Vanwingerdens - the Vans - moved to Mississippi and the Dunlaps will be moving to Texas. The last 2 families mentioned are the ones that are making all of this a reality. Most of the families mentioned we met down here after coming from Virginia, but the latter 2, have been along for the ride with us since Virginia, which makes saying goodbye a little harder.

Lane went to TBS in Virginia with Van and Dunlap, and then went through IFS in Virginia with them too. We all moved down here around the same time and all of the guys have started training around the same time for phases 1 and 2 of flight school. Now, that phase 2 is complete, people are going to different places to complete phase 3 - we'll be onto phase 3 in about a month-ish and will probably stay here. Don't get me wrong, we still have fabulous friends down here in Florida (I wouldn't even want to start to try to name them because I know I'd leave many families out) - and now, all over the world - but going through so much of the beginnings of the Marine Corps with these people and then having to say goodbye, makes me realize the lifestyle that we've chosen to live. I've always known that this part was coming, but was hoping that it wouldn't be so soon.

To all of our military friends and family all over the world - thank you for the sacrifices that you make on a daily basis. It is more than fighting for our country. You and your families have left behind friends and other family members to do what you're doing. It isn't always easy, but it is always an adventure, so thank you for your many adventures!

A Week in the Life

January 18 - the flower on Eden's birthday tutu, I'm hoping to use this for decorations and the cake!

January 18 - When teething gets you down and you have a fever and a runny nose...TAKE A BUBBLE BATH!

January 18 - Getting her toys down for bath time

January 18 - Eden found the drain in the bath. She only realizes that it makes noise when lifted, not that it lets the water out of the tub.

January 19 - She's our little climber!

January 19 - Loving on Nugget.

January 19 - This is a big deal...we've had the same bedroom stuff for almost 4 years now and I just NOW put up curtains (not to mention we've been in the same house for over a year now)

January 19

January 20 - One of Eden's favorite past times (and one of Lane's favorite workouts!)

January 20 - 1...2...3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

January 20 - WWWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

January 20 - No, she didn't get on top of the cabinets and jump down!

January 21 - Eden didn't want to be stuck in the gate anymore, so she wrapped it into itself to put it away.

January 21 - only a month later!