Back.....

Yes, It's me again. I'm here! I promise this time, but by now, not sure how well my promise is holding up.

To catch people up I will go back and add a few events that are important but I'm pretty sure I'm just going to move forward from May 20th on. Why May 20th?!? That is the day the Kevin left for Deployment. I will add fun facts up here, after they have happened of course.

So right now as I'm trying to figure out what I should write and not write, what photos to post and not post, I am listening to Jake and the neverland pirates with a small person laying her head on my leg. For now I must run, but enjoy catching up.

Later!

And we begin...

So tomorrow is the day. tomorrow is the day Kevin leaves and I come back strong to this blog! So I promise to post some photos from the past few months, the important events that should be posted.

Thanks for being patient. Wish us luck tomorrow and keep Kevin in your prayers as they leave for 7 months.

Another Long Hiatus

By now I know I probably have no more followers. I understand I deserve it. I have finally started getting my house together, managing my day to day with Josephine and having a great time hanging out with Katie and Tessa when I can.

Ship life is not what I expected at all. Do I see Kevin... yes... As much as I would like... NO. I know Josephine really misses him and that is why she says DADA or Dad-dy first. ;)

So I promise I will start writing again and start posting photos again. I promise.

As for right now I'm waiting for my new external harddrive to come in (Thank you Best Buy Rewards Zone points). It should be here this week, so you can expect a full recount of Jan, Feb and Mar. and I hope to fully return in April.

I will also be attempting uploading videos here and keeping them up to date!

Thanks for being here

Jo

Twelve Months Pink Birthday Invitation

Turn those cute photos into baby's 1^st birthday invitations.

View the entire collection of cards.

Fantasy of Lights

Sue had come home that day saying that we should, if we wanted to, take Josephine to this drive thru lights. Of course I wanted to, since I love Christmas lights and we did. Josephine wasn't really into the lights and that was cause just yesterday we had drove all the way to Columbus. So I just put some Mickey in the back for her, and she loved the drive. Here are just a few of my favorites from the experience.

Mom, Why are we in the car again? It's cold outside and I'm tired...

At Grandma's for Christmas time

So Josephine got to wake up this morning to the smiling face of her Grandma Sue! Josephine slept like a champ in her pack and play and acted like nothing had changed. I'm really very proud of her. She has turned into a perfect sleeper. Didn't look like that the first few months, but now I would never be able to tell she would only sleep with Momma.

She soon started to realize that Grandma and Grandpa's house is not child proof and she could get into everything she wanted. First was the cookbooks, to probably make some demands for her xmas dinner.
Then she crawled her way into the bar room and found the tree and her presents. This is her first look at presents. She was just so curious by them. For an 11 month old, I wasn't sure just how well she was going to do with the tree and the presents, but she didn't bother them for the most part. She would play with the presents before the tree and ornaments. (Wow that was a mouthful and probably could have said that better, but alas I'm also watching Josephine and making sure she doesn't hurt herself.)

My Bed "Mate"

What a drive!!! Thank god we got Kerry's old room cause she had two beds in there. One for Kevin and one for Bailey and I. What a wonderful situation! The drive went great, just extremely tired! Looking forward to the rest of our trip and to Josephine's first Christmas!

Over the river and through the woods....

to Grandma's house we go..... So today we did the drive from Norfolk to Columbus. We left at 8am and made it all the way by 630pm! GO US! The drive is suppose to take 9 1/2 and we did it in 10 1/2 with an 11 month old. We only had to make 2, yes I said 2 stops total! Our first one wasn't until 1130 and the second one was at 330. Way to go Josephine! Santa may be bringing you an extra something.... ;)

The drive was uneventful which are always the best kind. We hit absolutely NO weather and NO traffic. Awesome! We are just happy to be here and really looking forward to Josephine's First Christmas!

Do you see what is there on the top? Her 2 front teeth!

GONE... All gone

The heavenly aroma still hung in the house. But it was gone, all gone! No turkey! No turkey sandwiches! No turkey salad! No turkey gravy! Turkey Hash! Turkey a la King! Or gallons of turkey soup! Gone, ALL GONE! From A Christmas Story!!

Well in our case, it was my (Avi's) steak! Kevin decided to make us a fantastic dinner and guess who thought she would jump up and take the raw steak? Bailey! I could not believe it when I was in the living room and next thing I know she is dragging it across the living room floor. So Kevin got the steak dinner and guess what. I got the chicken nuggets which is what Josephine was having for dinner. The asparagus was AMAZING. Thanks Kevin

Sons of bitches.... bumpuses!

SANTA!!!!

So having Josephine meet Santa was not on our agenda today, but as you can see. It did happen today. We had to go to the NEX to finish up our shopping and there was no line, and luckily Josephine was in red. So we figured why not right? At first she started to whine and we were just bracing ourselves for the crying photo. But then she looked toward him and was fascinated by him. I do like how her little hands are almost fists. Maybe she was planning how to take out Santa? Either way. I love it. My baby's first Santa picture and meeting! I love how it turned out.

The caption should read "You stink! You smell like beef and cheese. You're not the real Santa"

My Purple Grape

As Josephine gets older, her love for Bailey grows to. She talkes to Bailey throughout the day. She squeals when Bailey runs laps around the house. Giggles uncontrollably when Bailey plays with the squeaky ball. I just love how this photo shows that. Josephine stands up to get closer to Bailey and Bailey makes room for her. Love. Pure Love.

So today Katie came over so we could all go to our favorite store. Target! Josephine needed to all bundled up warm so under her jacket she had her awesome snowflake fleece. Every time I put her in purple, Kevin likes to call her a grape. She's a cute grape though
I wish in this photo you could see her top two teeth are coming in on the bottom of the gums. Soon there won't be any more gum smiles. (Which I really love the no teeth smiles on babys) Why must they grow up so fast :(
Our afternoon naps have been getting a little longer, and that makes me wonder in the next month or so if we are going to phase out her first morning nap and just have one really long afternoon nap. Maybe... Maybe not. Most likely I am just reading too much into it. As usual. So in this photo I had to wake her up from her nap cause it was already 5 pm. So I just brought her downstairs, kept the pacifier in, and I got some cuddle time in my recliner. It was amazing. I miss our cuddles. I can't believe 6 months ago she was taking all her naps on my chest. I do miss it.

Daddy is home!

So this week we got a taste of what our lives are going to be like for the next, oh I don't know, 156 weeks? Yea I know right? Kevin had his first duty night on Wednesday so Josephine saw him Tuesday night and not again until Thursday night. In that time she kept saying Da da da da da. I already missed him, but she made me miss him more. Later on during her bath time, Josephine actually looked up at Kevin and said "Daddy!" and pointed! My mouth dropped and my heart melted. It was the cutest thing I have ever heard. She is just a little talker!

While Kevin was on duty, I decided that I was tired of it not feeling like xmas, so I decorated all by myself. YAY ME. Not it feels so much better. You are asking, why 5 stockings? Well first off there are 6, you just can't see the 6th one (It's for pancakes the guinea pig) but the 5 Stockings are from L to R: Mine, Josephine (who has gotten a different one since I took this photo), Bailey, My dad's (It's not right to me to not have it up, who knows maybe next year he will be spending it with us) and Kevin's (who should be home next year from deployment)
This photo cracks me up, cause Josephine was so happy he was home that she would just sit near him. But anytime Jeopardy is on she just watches it, like she is playing along. In this photo I can see the similarities between them. Like father like Daughter.

Mmmm Water.

So as you can see, and I know I have posted this before, she is a huge fan of her straw cup. She especially seems to like her dinosaur cup. When I went to the NEX to buy her first straw cup all they had were boy cups (apparently people only buy the girl ones) so we ended up with this. I'm pretty happy with this purchase! So the drinking of water has been going fantastic and she is starting to drink more and more, sometimes with just a little splash of juice. Looks like the weening should go pretty smoothly hopefully. Yes you read that right, I'm still nursing Strong! GO ME! 10 months and 3 weeks later still going. My goal is 12 months and I know I can make it. WooHoo

Snow in Norfolk

"MOM!!! IT'S SNOWING!"

So today was a nice surprise. Had no idea it was suppose to snow, but here it is. I noticed some flurries mixed in with the rain before Josephine and I went down for our nap and when we woke up this is what it looked like! Pretty cool. And yes that's my car covered in the snow in the driveway.
I really wanted to get Josephine to pose with the snow without taking her outside all bundled up to see it. I will wait until it is deeper to do something like that. She really was mesmerized by the white stuff falling from the sky. (isn't her penguin outfit cute! Thanks Melissa W for it)
Her favorite thing to do was to have me help her stand on the windowsill and let her pound her hands against the glass or she would wave (at what not sure). I love the snow, but I sure as hell do not like the cold!
PS: Hope finals are going well Krystle! POKE! ;)

PJ'S

Last night we decided it was time to break out her Old Navy Merry Christmas PJ's. I can't believe how stinkin cute they are! They really do look like adult flannel pj's. I would totally wear them! This was her this morning watching Handy Manny and playing on the floor with her Christmas Dolly.
This was her getting all excited at me taking pictures of her. I have created a monster huh? She saw the flash go off and then her face lit up and she got all excited!
I want to title this one "Ta Da" As you can see, she is a very happy baby in the morning, especially when she is playing with her Black Kitty that her Uncle Greg got her.