Our baby is growing up!

Well today our Johnbug officially turns one! He decided to celebrate the occasion by waking me up at 4:15, right around when I started having contractions with him (My water had broken 45 minutes prior, but I didn't start labor til around then.) It's crazy to think it's been a year since that wonderful day that changed our life. John has grown up so much, and for the most part I think I enjoyed and relished in every change! It is amazing to me that children come into this world so helpless and within a few short months are moving and exploring this world and beginning to try to converse with you to tell you their needs and wants. I love that I get to spend every minute with him, watching him learn and figure things out. It is amazing to me to watch and see the world through a child's eyes. Oh how we get jaded so quickly. I wish I could go back and always see things with such wide eyed wonder and exploration. I love the little joys he gets out of playing in water, throwing a ball and following it, and playing peek a boo. I love to see him smile and hear him giggle, and sometimes we get a full belly laugh, and that just makes the day perfect!! I love his blue eyes so trusting and inquisitive. I love how he sleeps so peacefully. I love how he loves people and will still go to pretty much anyone, albeit sometimes with coaxing! I love how he gets dead set on something/somewhere and won't stop til he gets it/there, even if it's the most random places (ie the middle of the room)! I love how he loves being outside and being a boy, playing in dirt (and eating it), figuring out how tools work, watching daddy mow the yard, picking up sticks and finding little bugs. He is so precious and I can't wait to see what this next year brings, especially as he will soon be a big bro.
I love you my JohnBug!
Here are some pictures that we took from the day:
Hmmm, what shall I do today!

HI MOM!
I think I'll help mommy with the dishes

Then, I'll show daddy how I can grill!
Maybe explore Kebap's crate and see if he hid anything in here for me!

I finally get to see the world, and mommy and daddy now that my carseat is facing forward!!
Taco Bueno, my b-day meal!
Life is good!!!

*So, this post was initially started on John's actual b-day, and we had so many plans when daddy got home: turning the carseat around, getting his b-day gifts, cutting his hair, eating out, and maybe a little ice cream! Well, Chris had an extremely rough day emotionally at work, as he was called to ID one of his soldiers who decided to kill himself. So, we didn't get everything done we had wanted to, and I took a mini hiatus from posting to deal with all the emotions (both mind and Chris's) surrounding the event. Through lots of prayer, Chris has been doing very well. Those first couple of weeks were hard to sleep and thus lots of waking in the middle of the night praying, so I'm finally catching back up on sleep. I think I'll leave the post date July 29th, even though it finally will show up a month and a half later to read! The next few posts will show the rest of the b-day week, and the fun we had!

4th of July

We decided to stay local this year, the first time in our marriage (kind of-2 years ago, I was local, but Chris was gone). We woke up, and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast, until we realized that we were running behind if we wanted to get a good seat at the parade in Belton. Despite us arriving 10 minutes after the parade began, we still found a decent parking spot, and an awesome front row seat. John enjoyed waving the flag he received and watching the horses. He also enjoyed the music! Unfortunately there weren't too many floats, just a lot of cars holding political campaigners. Ugh! And, no one gives out anything anymore either, boo! We ended up leaving before it was over in hopes that we could give John a nap, since we had a big day ahead of us, and he hadn't been feeling well (fever & runny nose).

Had to get a cheesy picture of myself in here, plus it's one of the first where you can kinda see my belly!
Some of the soldiers from Chris's unit marched in the parade!
General Wentz



John being patriotic waving the flag!

John curiously watching the parade!


Some of the better "floats."
"I'm having fun!"


After John's nap, Chris treated us to Chick-Fil-A (totally a traditional 4th of July meal, right!). We ran into some friends from church at the mall, and so we ate with them. They directed us to some good sales there. Unfortunately Old Navy didn't have any of their patriotic t-shirts that we've been getting year after year. We got home in time to meet Mac. We had wanted to go to some of the events on Ft. Hood, particularly the horses, but b/c John wasn't feeling good, we decided to just let him rest, and hang out at home, especially because we knew it was going to be a late evening.
Chris noticed these "independent" clouds on our drive back to Killeen. Quite fitting for Independence Day!


For dinner we went out and celebrated with the Navigators and their group at Art & Robin Allen's house. We got to reacquaint ourselves with some people who we had met before and meet new ones. John loved climbing and crawling all over their lawn, especially to go see/play with their dog Faith.

Exploring Art & Robin's backyard
Chris entertaining the older kids. Getting ready for 12 of our own!



I wanted to watch the fireworks on Ft. Hood, cuz I wanted to hear music along with the fireworks. To me, fireworks are beautiful, but they are so much more amazingly patriotic when they are in time with patriotic music. So, we left Art & Robin's around 8:30 and headed toward post. We stopped by daddy's office thinking we could maybe see the fireworks from there. We changed John into his pj's, hoping he would fall asleep shortly. We finally found a spot where we could see the fireworks really well, and I tried to feed John to help put him to sleep. No such luck. He was still awake when the fireworks started, so we took him out so he could watch them. He was pretty much in awe. We couldn't hear the music as well as I had wanted (hence the whole reason for going onto post), but Chris found a great patriotic station, that seemed to go with the fireworks. It was really neat to watch the fireworks together as a family and with Mac there, and on a post that has men and women fighting for our freedom.
"Hmm what are we looking for?"
"Oh, that's what the wait was for!"
Family 4th of July
"Wait I'm missing some!


There was one interesting thing that happened, that if I had paid attention to what was going on, I probably would have stepped in and gotten more involved. As we were sitting watching the show, a young man came up and stood a distance away from us, but started talking to us (kind of). He kept saying he was left behind, and then exclaiming (with some explatives) how beautiful the fireworks were. As the show went on, he stepped further back, and started crying, and then we looked for him at the end and he wasn't there. As we drove away we saw him weeping on the side of the road, being comforted by a stranger. We realized that he was either talking about being left behind, here in America while his unit was overseas, but more likely that he was referring to being left behind by the death of soldiers and friends he had served alongside with. I wish that we had had more of an opportunity to minister to him, but Chris reminded me that we had John and that he really needed to get to bed. It is so hard to balance the desire to minister to others when it conflicts the needs of your children. It's something I constantly struggle with and probably will for a lifetime.

Ron's Promotion

On June 19th, Chris's Company Commander got promoted to Captain, finally!! Ron & Leslie have become good friends of ours, and so it was fun to be able to go and support him/them. Leslie is due with her first baby a week after we are due with our 2nd. We are both really down to earth, and so we get along really well.
It was also really neat to watch a promotion on the officer side, as the only ones that I had been to were of my enlisted friends. There isn't a lot of difference, except the officers have to wear their class A's instead of their ACU's, and the Col gives a little speech about them. Oh, and they have to provide food for the company, something frugal ol' me is not looking forward to when Chris gets promoted!!
Here are some pictures from the event:
Leslie waiting to pin on the new rank

Col Krogh giving his speech
Becoming Captain
The receiving line
Chris & his commander!

Father's Day Weekend (June 13-15)

Father's Day weekend was packed for us as well, as my good friend from college/nursing school, Natalie & her hubby Ben, and daughter Annie came to visit us. Natalie hadn't met John & we hadn't met Annie. They came back from Liberia to have Annie due to complications with her pregnancy. In addition to switching mission agencies that they went with and re-raising support, Annie has since had other medical problems that have kept them here a full year. She was born tongue-tied (where her tongue can barely lift off the floor of her mouth) & they also found that she has urine reflux which can lead to a number of kidney infections and ultimately scarring of the kidney. They have to wait until she is closer to one year old to do any procedures.
Chris had a 3 day weekend that weekend, so he went with us to meet them at the Whataburger in Belton, where we also got to reconnect with one of my favorite nursing professors, Dr. Pehl (OB nursing) & another of our classmates, Malaika & her mom. We spent nearly 2 hours there catching up. It was so much fun. It was really neat to hear Dr. Pehl being anti-technology for normal birth. I knew she was, but it was refreshing when so many are only taught technology. She didn't think it abnormal at all that we had John in a birthing center and that this next one we will have at home. She was completely all about the hospital being for higher risk pregnancies and not normal ones!!! Yay!!
After lunch, Ben & Nat & Annie walked around UMHB to see all the professors who were still there. I had forgotten John's stroller, plus he was getting to be a bear and needed a nap, so we drove around exploring Belton, and all the changes they did to UMHB since we were last there. He slept for maybe 30 minutes, ugh!
We got home, and thankfully the kiddos went down for a wee nap, and we prepared dinner for our friends, Eli & Kelly who were coming over with their kids later that evening. It felt like old times when we were living together, preparing food together, and then again, when we were all together later that evening. The older kids thoroughly enjoyed entertaining John & Annie & even playing with Kebap & Tess. They loved all the new and different toys they could find here. Kids are so cute! Whether they have lots of toys or a few, other people's toys are always better. Nat, Kelly & I enjoyed having girl time and talking about anything and everything. I have no idea what the guys talked about. I usually try to listen in, but we were just jabbering away, and I didn't even think about it!
Saturday was hang out day. Ben made us some yummy Dutch pancakes, and we hung out all morning. Chris took his dad out to lunch for father's day, so John joined them. We were supposed to meet another nursing classmate that evening, but she wasn't sure if she was going to make it, as she was packing for her trip to Florida, so we decided to not pack everyone up to go to Belton, if it was just going to be us. So we had pizza for dinner, instead of Mexican food. That evening we taught Ben & Nat how to play golf (the card game). Annie supervised in the swing.
Sunday morning was Father's Day. We kind of were slow moving that morning. John gave Chris a father's day card that he had signed himself (with some help from mom of course). Unfortunately we were about 3 minutes late to church, and so Ben missed winning an award for being the dad with the youngest child. I tried to convince them to stay for the beginning of second service to see if they could win an award then, but they decided not to!! I let Chris enjoy the service and entertained John (as he had done for me on mother's day). We then went home and let the little ones nap, before meeting some friends at a Mexican restaurant (yay!!!)
Later that afternoon, the guys went out for coffee while we watched the kiddos. They were really sweet, and brought us back some frappuccinos!! :o)
I got to talk to my dad for a while and also to my grandpa, who ended up passing the phone around the whole table, and I got to talk to almost all my aunts & uncles and even my cousin Pete, who I haven't seen in 4 years. It was really special.
It was also fun watching Chris be a dad, and how he has grown into the role. I can't imagine him not a dad now. He is so amazing with John, and he absolutely adores the kid. John feels the same way. He cannot wait for his daddy to get home and throw him up in the air, or swing him by his heels!! He gets so excited and crawls really fast to the door when he hears it open and hears Chris's voice. I can't wait to watch the kids grow and Chris be able to teach them all the things he knows, and to play with them, and love on them. I think he'll just become a better & better dad as the years go by. I'm excited to have a front row seat to watch it all!
Nat & Ben & Annie left Monday morning. It was rather sad to see them go. We felt a connection with them that we hadn't had in a long time. We truly saw eye to eye on everything, and it was refreshing to be around a couple our age who was passionate about missions.

John pushing Annie in the swing
Playing with Kebap, and being cute, and cheesing for the camera

These were the best out of the six we took. John just decided he didn't want to smile, no matter what we did.

Chris has started reading to John at bedtime, and I thought it fitting to catch him at it on Father's Day.



Playing with Annie!

Wow, as I look back on these pictures, I don't have any good ones of Ben & Nat, just John playing with Annie. Oops!

The Rest of the Weekend

Saturday morning John & I woke up around 8, and had a lazy morning..0.0
0.30..203.0 (John had to add his input!). Chris had to get up early to fix the windows at our old house, do to a poor home inspection guy who left them open and they ended up falling forward and breaking. If you want the full story you'll have to ask Chris, but it was really pathetic how the guy left our house.
We were supposed to meet James & Galyn for lunch, but ended up being a wee bit late as John decided to take a late nap. We had some yummy grilled Tuna & Cheese Sandwiches, Wheat Thins, & Grapes, which was so yummy I have duplicated that entire meal multiple times since that date (and I don't usually like grapes or tuna). John loved playing with Noah & Bryant. It was fun watching them together. They for the most part all shared everything. So cute!




Noah showing off his skills!

We stayed there til 3:10, which made us rush around crazy as the wedding we were going to started at 4, and we still had to get gas. We somehow made it the 20 miles from the Lacewell's to Dave & Sarah's, in record time, changed all three of us in 3 minutes and were back in the car, and made it to the wedding at 3:59 (about 15 miles away from Dave & Sarah's). We ended up making it there in plenty of time, as they were waiting for her grandma to make it.
By 4:30 the wedding was underway. It was beautiful and totally them. I really enjoyed the pastor's words and charges he gave. They were traditional as far as being Scriptural, but not traditional in that we had never heard them before used in a wedding. It was really cool. He spent a lot of time talking about the purity of the bride and the responsibility of the husband. I really enjoyed it. John actually made it through without making too much distraction. We enjoyed a wonderful reception, where Charity (the bride's) dad had made the majority of the food. John & I danced, and Chris & I put on a show for everyone on a really fast two step. It was really fun!! We realized we haven't danced in over a year. Hmm, gotta do that more often.
Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to show from the wedding, b/c I left my camera at James & Galyn's. So instead of getting wedding pictures this is what we got:






Ah yes! You can't have better memories than this!!

Sunday we enjoyed church at Wayside, and a fun lunch at Chacho's and Chalucci's with those that we hadn't had a chance to spend much time with that weekend. Then back home. It was one of the most relaxing weekends we had had, aside from the window issue! We were actually a little sad to leave and come back home. We miss our San Antonio family.