Anna Grace's Big Trip!

A little background: So I finally became Facebook friends with my brother, Bobby, and was looking through pictures of him this evening. There were plenty of pictures of him running, hanging out with friends and going to homecoming and prom... plus a ton of pictures with our amazing cousins. Many of them were from the past several beach vacations we took as a family to Sunset Beach.

Cousin pyramid 2009!

Bottom: Me, Daniel, Bobby, Zach Middle: Megan, Hannah, Katie Top: Patrick and Maura

We have gone to Sunset Beach, NC for about the last 14 years. It was originally just my immediate family but after a few years, my Uncle Terry and Aunt GiGi with their girls (Megan, Hannah and Maura) as well as my Aunt Annie and Uncle Tommy with their boys (Zach, Patrick and Ryan) joined us. Also within the last couple of years, our grandparents have also become a part of the "Beach Crew." Daniel was welcomed into the crew last year when we joined the family after our honeymoon.

Knowing that Daniel would be in pilot training this summer, I figured that last year would be my last time at the beach for awhile since I didn't want to go without Daniel but our little surprise of a beautiful baby girl changed that. Since Anna hasn't met most of the family, I've planned a 3 week trip to introduce her to the family and the first stop is Sunset Beach!

Anna and I will head out from Oklahoma City and make our way to the beach by way of Dallas on Sunday and spend our first week soaking up the sun, the ocean and the salty sea breezes. At the end of the week, we'll drive back to Pittsburgh with my family where we'll get to see the rest of my extended family and some family friends.

Pittsburgh at night

Following our Pittsburgh visit, we'll head to the windy city: Chicago! In Chicago, we'll be visiting a few of my college friends including my freshman year roomy, Emily who is expecting her baby in early August. We'll also be staying with Anna's godmother, Sharon, and her husband. Hopefully, we'll also get to see Annaliese and a few other friends that live in the city. After our visit there is finished, we'll "follow the star to where the world begins" and head home to Enid!

I'm really looking forward to all of our visiting especially with our family. Anna is the first baby born far away from Pittsburgh and I'm eager for her to meet all of her great-grandparents, cousins, uncles and aunts. There's nothing quite like family.

Tough day as a mommy...

My sweet little angel girl had to get her 2 month immunizations today. Thank goodness that Dan was able to be there or else I would have been even more of a mess! She had to get 4 vaccinations- 3 shots and an oral one. I held her and gave her the oral dose which she wasn't too sure about. She made the same face that she gives us when we give her the Vitamin D solution- I guess when you drink nothing but breastmilk, anything else tastes a little funny.
The shots were quick and the nurse did a great job but that didn't stop me from crying as I held Anna and kept her little legs still as she got poked- twice in the right leg and once in the left. I had never heard her cry like she did today. Usually she only cries when she wants something, but this cry was one of pain and shock. It broke my heart to see her like that!

"Three shots and a drink, sounds like we're in a bar!" - Nurse that gave Anna her vaccinations trying her best to relax a very nervous mom...

Thankfully, she settled down by the time I had finished talking to the Referral Management people about getting her a well baby check up with a pediatrician off base since the one we had (and loved) recently separated from the Air Force (meaning he fulfilled his obligation and is now a civilian doctor). She fell asleep in her carseat before we even left the clinic. I figured it would be a good idea to get some infant Tylenol in case she had a reaction to all the vaccines and got a fever. Of course, there was a recall on this recently so it took 3 stores and a phone call between 2 Walgreens stores to find a generic equivalent but we got it.
Anna did really well the rest of the day. She took a really long nap (so did Mommy) and was pleasant this evening when Daniel came home. She was all smiles for her Daddy and is now fast asleep in her room.

Happy Father's Day!

First of all, I'd like to wish all of the dads out there a very happy Father's Day, especially my own wonderful Daddy. He's always been there when I needed, provided a great example for me my entire life and since I've become a parent myself, I've grown to appreciate my own mom and dad even more. I wish I could give him a big hug right now, but there are just too many miles between Enid and Pittsburgh.

My baby with my Daddy

Today was a simply wonderful day for our little family. It's Dan's first Father's Day and I wanted it to be special, especially since he gave me such a great Mother's Day. I let him sleep in as long as possible and Anna and I were very quiet with her early morning feedings. After we all were up, Dan opened gifts and enjoyed a pancake breakfast with fresh squeezed grapefruit juice. His gifts included a keychain from YorkPhoto.com that had Anna's picture on it, a Willow Tree "New Dad" figurine and a certificate that entitled him to a grill plus all the accessories needed to be a grill master.

We had a potluck with his class in the afternoon where I got to spend some time with the wives of his classmates while some of the boys played Mario Kart on the Wii. When Anna started to fuss because she was hungry, we headed home and enjoyed some down time. After a little while, we headed out to "Daddy's favorite store" (Lowes) to pick out Daniel's grill. With Anna in the Baby Bjorn, we picked out a great grill, some utensils and a few handy accessories- a grill brush, a holder for the utensils that attaches to the grill and a grilling basket for making grilled veggies and other sides for summertime meals.

Daniel and Anna

We finished the night off with a meal at Chili's which Anna slept through giving Daniel and I some time for grown up talk and a delicious dessert of a brownies sundae. All in all, it was a great day and I hope we'll have many more happy Father's days like this.

Roomies: Enid, America Edition!

I had some great roommates during my four years at Saint Mary's but none quite compare to Annaliese, my roomy since 2006! We had some good times, some bad times and some really crazy fun times. One of the best and biggest adventures we had together was my trip to Ireland to visit her while she studied abroad there during our junior year.

Roomies: Ireland Edition

While visiting, I met her boyfriend, Brian (bree-un) who is an Irish native who hails from County Cork. At the time, Annaliese insisted it was just a short term thing but after more than 2 years, several transatlantic visits and thousands of emails, I'd say it's more than a few dates to the pub! He's a true sweetheart and he makes my roomy happy so he's a good guy in my book.

This summer they took a road trip to visit some friends in the heartland- Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma. We were happy to host them in Enid and had a great time showing them around the base. Annaliese was thrilled to meet Anna and it was so cute to see Brian watching the World Cup with Anna on his lap. We went swimming on base, watched Dan do some training during the Aerospace Physiology and had a Sonic picnic in the park. We also watched a lot of soccer (or 'proper football' as Brian would call it.) since the World Cup is going on. Their visit went too quickly, but it was great to see them. I hadn't seen my roomy since my wedding- July 25,2009! Hopefully, we'll be able to see each other in August when Anna and I are in Chicago.

 

Roomies: Enid Edition (plus Anna!)

Welcome to the Catholic family, Anna Grace!

It's been a crazy couple of weeks and I've loved every minute! My friend, Sharon, came out to visit for a whole week including Anna's baptism on June 12 since she is Anna's godmother. She was the driving force behind all the unpacking that happened before our families came in for the baptism festivities. Even though Daniel's family helped us over the weekend to pack and unpack the entire house, there was still a lot to do and with Anna's 4am wake up calls, my motivation and energy level weren't very high... and that's where Sharon came in and saved the day. "Do you want to unpack some boxes? Where does this go?" were frequent questions and little by little we got boxes unpacked and our new house set up.

Daniel started pilot training in the middle of Sharon's visit but still was home to enjoy the fun of having a friend here in the evenings. We had some great meals (with 2 new recipes) and lots of fun with board games and our ever-entertaining Anna Grace. She was all smiles for her Aunt Sharon and we captured some sweet pictures of the two of them.

On Thursday, my family arrived and I was so happy to introduce my brother to his little niece for the first time and show Dad, Mom and Gracie how much she'd grown since they were here in April. Unfortunately, my sister, Katie, was unable to make it. With a case of mono, an eighteen hour car ride was not the best thing for her. We missed her a lot but I'm looking forward to seeing her in August!

My mom, the party planned extraordinaire, helped me plan my first big celebration as a mom- Anna's baptism luncheon. She brought her delicious Italian sausage from Pittsburgh and I made some shredded beef for sandwiches. With pretty pink plates to go with our pink theme, our guests enjoyed lots of yummy food, including this cake:

After a little clean up, our little family headed home so Anna and I could grab a nap and then we were off to St. Francis Xavier Church to get our little girl baptized! She slept through the whole thing except for a few peeks to see what was going on when Father Kevin poured the water on her head.

After the Mass, we headed back to the community center to eat some leftovers and finish cleaning up. It was a wonderful day and I was so happy to have our friends and family here to welcome Anna into the church!

The Joys of a DITY Move

In the military, last minute notices are just part of life. But I'm still adjusting to all this. So when Daniel found out that his training got bumped up from the end of July to next Wednesday, it was a bit of a curve ball. However, after the initial shock, we have found some positives in the situation and one is that we get to move into a new home before he hits the flight line. We had hoped to move in the latter half of June so we could avoid moving while we had house guests. But that isn't happening...

What is happening? Well, we found out on Wednesday that we have to move by June 19 or we'd have to wait until August to get into a renovated house. With that in mind and knowing that in August Daniel would be flying, we decided to move this weekend. It all happened really quickly. We got a call Wednesday at 4:30 that we could move and by 6:30, we had a list of 4 houses to choose from and toured one of the possibilities. Yesterday morning, I looked at another one and decided to go with the first option. Daniel and I wanted to stay on our current street and it turns out that our move will be across the street...literally feet from our driveway.
Easy move, right? Just walk everything across the way and be done with it.... Not quite. Not when the Air Force is reimbursing us for the move and they need to know how many pounds of stuff we have to move. So we rented a 26' moving truck which we'll pick up, drive to a weigh station (to weigh it empty), drive it to our house, load it up, drive it back to the weigh station and then take it back to base to move our stuff about 50 feet across the street from our current home. It's not exactly the most practical, but it's the way it has to be done. Thankfully, Dan's family (mom, dad and brother) and his best friend from home are driving up tomorrow to help get us moved and set up before my friend and Anna's godmother, Sharon, arrives on Monday.
Once we're moved, we'll have lived in 7 'homes' in about 7 months and Anna will have lived in 2 different houses in less than 2 months. The house we're moving to is the same type of house that we're living in now but with a few improvements: wall-to-wall carpeting, new tile in the kitchen and bathroom, ceiling fans and new light fixtures, new countertops, updated shelves in the laundry room, and the exposed brick walls are now covered and so are the cedar ceilings. Also, instead of a carport, we'll have a garage which will be so nice in the winter!
I'll post again when we're moved in- now it's time to get packing!!