Please pardon the hiatus... I had a baby!

So after about 3 months, I finally have a minute to blog. Here's a quick update on our little family in pictures:

23 March: Daniel graduates from UCT as distinguished graduate and earns the Outstanding Contributor and Sadler awards. This "trifecta" of honors had never been achieved before and he did it!

25 March: Daniel Jr. joins our little family after 28.5 hours of labor and a successful VBAC! The doctor and nurses were wonderful at the hospital on base. It was such a different experience compared to the C-section I had with Anna. The recovery was so much quicker and I'm already back to my pre-pregnancy weight!

28 March: Mom and Dad come to visit! We had a great time showing them around and it was so nice having help with our 2 beautiful babies. Anna loved going to the park behind our house with her Pap Pap in her pajamas first thing in the morning! We took them to Tatonuts donut shop and introduced them to our friends.

8 April: Happy Easter! We celebrated Easter at our house with some of our Air Force family- the Powells and the Ten Hakens. It was so nice even though I was exhausted at the end of it... it may have been a little much to host something like that just 2 weeks after having a baby, but I wouldn't have had it any other way. Daniel was a huge help in getting everything ready and we had some delicious food with some help from our friends! Thanks to Meghan & Jason we had enough chairs for everyone and Bri let us use their oven so everything would be ready at the same time!

Our colorful Easter eggs!

22 April: Anna's 2nd birthday party- it's Minnie's Bowtique! 

We had a great time celebrating with our friends and Anna loved her cupcakes (pictured below)

These cupcakes were delicious and pretty easy to make- I used a chocolate cake mix & canned frosting that I dyed with food coloring. I added white chocolate chips to make polka dots, mini fudge stripe cookies for the ears and a small amount of fondant to make the bows.

Digging in after she blew out the candle!

29 April: Welcome to the Catholic Church, Daniel! We had Daniel Jr. baptized at Our Lady of Fatima at the 8:30am Mass (which we normally attend). Godparents, Kelly Mackey and Chris Wrinn traveled great distances to bear witness and take on their responsibilities as godmother and godfather. Kelly flew in from Seattle, WA and Chris drove (with his wife and 2 little boys) from Ft Worth, TX! 

Nana flew in for the occasion, too! She got to meet Daniel and spend some time with us after not being together since Thanksgiving! It was so nice and Anna loved getting her own Nana time.

15 May: Two weeks into Daniel's TDY in Florida, I take a trip to Pittsburgh with the kids. It's Daniel Jr's first plane ride! I was called "brave" so many times, I lost count, but it actually wasn't that bad!

Anna loved having her own seat and was very well behaved on both flights to Pittsburgh (Gulfport to Houston, Houston to Pittsburgh). She loved looking out the window!

Aunt Gracie with Anna and Daniel. This is the first time my siblings got to see our newest family member!

19 May: Cousin Billy and his beautiful bride, Alex, tie the knot in Philadelphia! It was quite a road trip, but we managed it! It was a great celebration and so nice to see our family!

Daniel hanging out with Uncle Bobby.

23 May: Saying goodbye to Aunt Katie and heading home to Mississippi.

24-28 May: We took a mini-vacay to Florida to spend some time with Daniel. He had to work for the majority of our stay, but we spent every night together and got him all to ourselves Sunday and Monday. We went swimming in the Gulf and Anna loved it. Daniel Jr spent most of the time asleep in the carrier!

Me and my sweetie. We all missed him while we were in Pittsburgh!

11-15 June: Sharon visits! She is one of my best friends & Anna's godmother. We hadn't seen each other since we visited her in August 2010! We went to the Biloxi lighthouse (pictured here), Tatonuts, Lovelace Drugstore, the beach & Beauvoir. It was a great trip & she was a huge help since Daniel was still TDY.

My babies & I at the beach.

That brings us up to date! Daniel has training this week & next and then he's home for good! Once he gets home, we'll be packing up for our next move. Expect posts about potential houses soon!

A Quarter of a Century... 25 Things I've Learned in the Last 25 Years

So it's a little weird to be turning 25. I remember telling people that my cousin was 25 and it seemed like that was a very 'adult' age to be, like 25 year olds have it all figured out with their lives together... well, that's a huge lie because I know plenty of people who are 25 or older who haven't got a clue, but when you're 18 (or whatever age I was at the time), 25 seems very far away and very grown up. I certainly don't have all the answers and some days I feel like I've got a clue, but I think I'm doing pretty well...

Here are a few things I've learned:

1. God exists, He loves me, and has a plan for my life.
2. My family is a bit crazy and far from perfect, but the love we have for one another is undeniable, unconditional and unending.
3. There is such a thing as a 'lifetime hotdog quota' and I reached mine around age 6.
4. When you have trouble coming up with reasons for dating someone, you shouldn't be dating them.
5. Good friends will tell you the truth, even if you don't want to hear it. And you'll love them more for doing so, just maybe not right after they tell it to you.
6. Tea makes just about any situation better, especially when shared with friends.
7. Getting right back on the horse after falling off is the best thing to do. (And yes, I mean a real horse that spooked and ran as I tumbled, head over boots off the back of it.)
8. NEVER chug wine, even when your friend tells you it's a great way to celebrate.
9. Knitting is a productive way to keep your hands occupied while trying to lose weight.
10. Mary Kay Skin Care and Color Cosmetics are high quality products that work. They keep my crazy pregnancy skin under control. Thank you, Mom, for sharing these amazing products with me!
11. When everything seems to fall apart, it's God's way of telling you He's building something better for your life.
12. Being a mommy is the most amazing job I could ever have.
13. Southern drivers are crazy. I'd take traffic up north over Southern crazy any day.
14. I am a huge procrastinator.
15. The Air Force 'waiting game' gets a little easier each time you play it, but it's still annoying.
16. I actually enjoy cooking!
17. Baking is something I find very fulfilling and extremely delicious... most of the time!
18. Don't write off the quiet guys, sometimes they turn out to be the most interesting and there is so much to learn about them, you decide that you need a lifetime together to figure just one of them out!
19. No matter the distance or time between phone calls, good friends are always there when you need them- to celebrate, to commiserate, to vent, to cry and to laugh with you.
20. You are the only one who can decide to make the best of the situation and be happy or wallow in self pity and be miserable.
21. Having a tea party with your daughter and her favorite stuffed animals is better than any fancy corporate luncheon with a CEO.
22. The more you know about something, the more annoying it is when people misrepresent it or decide their 'truth' about it is all that is important rather than finding out the facts- specifically for me, this applies to the military, the Catholic church, Mary Kay, and politicians.
23. The Facebook feature of "Hide this story" is wonderful.
24. Every woman can pull off a red lip as long as it's done correctly.
25. Dancing is a great way to beat the blues.

In the home stretch!

I still can't believe I have less than 3 weeks until I meet our newest addition. This pregnancy has gone SO quickly that it doesn't seem like the baby is almost ready to come, but the calendar and my belly size tell me otherwise!
TheBump.com's calendar of things to do told me to pack my hospital bag around 20 weeks... I'm now 37 weeks and the bag is still not packed... I will definitely have it done by the end of this week, I promise! (FYI: I've ignored 99% of their list, at least their timeline for doing things.)
Anna and I toured the Labor & Delivery wing of the hospital last week and I liked what I saw. The rooms are LDRP rooms which means I'll be in the same room for everything and so will the baby. They have a baby station where they do measurements, first vaccinations, bath, etc, so Baby P won't have to leave the room at all.
The other nice thing is that the nurse mentioned some of the standard procedures which gave me a lot of peace about having the baby there! One of the things that I'm most happy about is that unless there is something wrong, they let us bond with the baby before doing all the neonatal stuff. Since Anna was delivered by C-section, I got to see her for just a few minutes before they took her away while they finished with me in the operating room.
The other thing that made me very happy is that they only make you stay 24 hours after the baby is born (unless you deliver in the middle of the night, then you stay an extra night so they're not discharging you when you'd like to be sleeping!). Since our guess date (March 19) is so close to Daniel's graduation (March 23), I am praying that I am able to be there for his graduation so I can pin on his career badge. I'm stressing too much about this, I know God has a plan and He knows how important this graduation is to us!

One thing we did this time around that we didn't do last time was to have professional maternity photos taken. We used our self-timer feature to get some when I was pregnant with Anna and that was enough for us. This time, we were lucky enough to find wonderful photographer who was giving away 2 free sessions to help build up her portfolio. We took the pictures at a beach in nearby Ocean Springs and we are so happy with how they turned out. Here are a few of them. I'll be picking up the CD with all of them this week- I can't wait to see more!

My very own, real life Suzy Talks A Lot

Our Anna is one chatty Cathy. She is always parroting us and trying out new words. Some 'stick' better than others and get quickly incorporated into her vocabulary. Others tend to get tucked away and she'll bring them out at the most surprising times.

Here are some of her more entertaining and extremely adorable phrases:

• "Key not work, Daddy" - when she tried to unlock the bathroom door with a car key
• "Daddy, I worked it!"- when she opens a door successfully
• "Bri. Rebel. Best friends."- Bri & Rebel are friends of ours who are married. We have a book about Gossie & Gertie (little ducks) who are best friends. She's decided whoever you spend the most time with/are seen together with is your best friend. Although, it doesn't apply to her, she says Uncle Ben is her best friend and she hasn't seen him in person since November!
• "Mommy, no talking!"- She has finally figured out that just like I can tell her no, she can tell me no. The only difference is that she can't put me in time-out!
• "Anna want puppy"- We were at a friend's house and she has 2 dogs. Anna asked to see Shelby (another dog she knows) and I told her that Shelby doesn't live here because she is Bri's puppy. After thinking about this, she told me she wanted one, too! (Not a chance! She's getting a younger sibling in 3 weeks and there is no puppy in our future!)
• "Ar-besque, sottay, shepay" (translation: arabesque, sautee, echepee)- 3 of her ballet moves she's picked up from Little Einsteins. She'll say them as she does each one. I'll be posting a video soon so you can see our beautiful ballerina.
• "Bestest movie ever!"- we're still not sure where she picked this up, but she says it every time one of her shows comes on.

Anna in one of her many 'princess dresses.'

It is so much fun to watch her develop her vocabulary. She's recently started waking up and calling us in to her room, then tells us that she had a dream. It always contains a princess, who is usually running to a castle. :-)

I *heart* U

Four days ago, Daniel and I celebrated our 5th Valentine's Day as a couple. Each Valentine's Day, we've exchanged cards and Daniel has given me beautiful flower arrangements- always with red roses- and something chocolatey. This year he gave me the best 'assortment' box ever! Dove chocolates: peanut butter meltaways, dark chocolate filled with milk chocolate and chocolate caramels..... Yummmy!! Over the years, I've given him different gifts to celebrate the day and this year I took the phrase "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach" to a whole new level.
For breakfast, I made him delicious, from-scratch, heart-shaped cinnamon rolls. This was a true labor of love because even though I made the dough, sliced it, and placed it in the pans, I still had to wake up to pop them in the oven and make the cream cheese icing. This meant waking up when Dan's 5:30am alarm went off and not immediately falling back asleep! The recipe I used is from this blog. To get them in the shape of a heart, you simply roll the dough from both sides and meet them in the middle.

For lunch, I made some heart shaped breadsticks and calzones. I used Pillsbury breadsticks and pizza crust, both found in the refrigerated section of the commissary. I added some melted butter, garlic salt and Italian seasoning to the breadsticks for extra flavor.

My heart-ish shaped calzone.

I also made some extra special sweet treats for desserts. The first creation was a large batch of peanut butter chocolate hearts (think Reese's cups!). I used this recipe and instead of rolling the peanut butter mixture into egg shapes, I used a heart shaped cookie cutter.
Dipping them into the chocolate was by far the hardest, most challenging part of the process. Though the peanut butter hearts had been refrigerated overnight, the chocolate thinned with Crisco, and I was using my fancy double boiler from Pampered Chef, it was not easy to make them look pretty and have them evenly covered with chocolate. The original blog post says she used a skewer to dip them, but I found a carving fork (like the one from this set) sprayed with a little Pam worked the best. It allowed for the hearts to remain secure and not fall to pieces and the Pam helped to slide them off onto the wax paper for cooling.
The last thing I made was a batch of super-moist chocolate cupcakes. I got my inspiration from this blog:

Source: glorioustreats.blogspot.com via Kelly on Pinterest

Though I didn't use the recipes for the cupcakes or the icing, I did do the heart-shaped decorating technique. This was definitely the easiest thing I baked all day! I used a double fudge chocolate cake mix from a box and canned thick and creamy vanilla icing (Betty Crocker). I used a couple drops of food coloring to turn the icing pink and when the cupcakes were cooled, I sliced the 'dome' off of them and cut out the hearts with a small cookie cutter. Then I simply iced the flat part of the cupcake and replaced the dome. I didn't use powdered sugar, but I was pleasantly surprised that my cupcakes looked a lot like the ones in the picture!

Daniel enjoyed everything- and said he probably gained about 10 pounds! It was an extra sweet Valentine's Day for us- our last one as a family of 3. Anna also got to taste everything I made, though I think her favorite was the lollipop that came with her flower & teddy bear from her Daddy.

Our little love bug enjoying her sucker.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

For everyone who wants this recipe, here it is! And to answer Jeff's question, no, it does not contain crack or any other addictive substance! This recipe comes from my mom, who is the hostess with the mostess and knows how to feed lots of people delicious food!

Buffalo Chicken Dip

Ingredients:
(first numbers gives you 6 quarts, numbers in parentheses will give you about 3 quarts)

• 4 (2) chicken breasts
• 4 (2)cups of Frank's RedHot
• 8 (4) cups of cheddar cheese [I used 4 cups of mild and 4 cups of sharp]
• 4 (2) 8oz. packages of cream cheese
• 3 (2) 16oz. bottles of Ranch dressing [For an spicier version, you can simply reduce the amount of Ranch you add. Daniel said the 6 qt version had a pretty good kick with 2 bottles, but the 3 bottle variety had a broader appeal.]

Directions:

• Trim the chicken and boil it until it's thoroughly cooked through.
• Cut the chicken up into chunks then put the chunks into a food processor until it's finely chopped.
• If you're making a big batch, I recommend you make it in a slow cooker on High. If you are making a smaller batch, you can make it on the stove top in a large pot on medium heat. If you have a really big pot, feel free to make the larger portion on the stove top, too.
• Combining the ingredients:
• Add the cream cheese and cheddar cheese, stir them together and allow them to start melting together (the melting part is more for the stove top version)
• Add the RedHot, chicken and Ranch dressing
• Continue to stir occasionally until everything is combined into a beautiful light orange dip that is simply irresistable- especially to Class 12006. :-)

This was the food table from Drop Night- the beautiful Stacy is
cutting up King Cake next to the big crock pot filled with Buffalo Chicken Dip!

• It took about 45 minutes in the slow cooker for everything to melt and combine. Be sure when you stir it in the slow cooker that you stirring everything on the very bottom or it might start to burn the stuff on the very bottom. Once it was all cooked, I turned it to warm since I was serving it immediately.
• For the stove top portion, I'd plan for about 20-30 minutes of cook time before it's ready to serve.

Serve hot with tortilla chips- Tostito's Scoops work very well! [6 qts will require about 4 large bags of chips.]

Refrigerate any remaining dip in a covered container.

Enjoy!

Drop Night!

It finally happened....the assignments came down, the murder board* happened and drop night occured. What a relief to finally know where we're going after Daniel graduates!
*no one actually gets killed at a murder board, which is where the instructors decide who gets what assignment and apparently it can get pretty ugly.

We'll be moving to Ft. Meade, Maryland!

Daniel got a great assignment that will certainly challenge him and keep him interested while we're stationed there, which will probably be 2-3 years. We are so thrilled with this assignment. Our #1 goal was to be closer to our family up north and this certainly puts us within reasonable driving distance (right now, we're 17+ hours from them!).

Overall, the drop night was great. We split up the food and drink responsibilities between the class & the spouses and had quite a spread! For warm dishes, we had pigs in a blanket (mini hot dogs in crescent rolls) that disappeared completely within the first hour and buffalo chicken dip. We also had some chips & pretzels with dip and an authentic King Cake from a bakery in New Orleans!

King Cake!

While most would think the military runs likes clockwork, the actual drop night didn't begin until 5:30, which turned out to be OK since most of the guests were fashionably late. I completely lost track of time because I was busy setting things up, chasing Anna around and talking with my fellow spouses about how anxious we all were for our husbands and friends to get there assignments!

Bri and Ayla (whose mom, Jackie made the girls matching dresses!)

Audrey (Ayla's big sister) with a Mardi Gras umbrella!

Anna in her Mardi Gras gear eating King Cake

Since the class is made up of 8 men, giving out the assignments didn't take very long. Daniel designed the slideshow that displayed pictures of each classmate, their hometown and favorite quote, along with a slide to show where they were going. Since it was Mardi Gras themed, he had beads fly up and knock away the 2 choices that weren't the actual assignment. The one remaining was where they were heading and would get nice and big before they switched to a video from the squadron the person would be going.

They were the Krewe of Nerf because they are having an all-out Nerf gun war in their classroom. And yes, these are the same men defending your freedom. :-) Don't worry, they will use more than Nerf darts to fight the terrorists.

Here's where everyone is heading:

• Josh: McChord AFB, Washington State
• Andrew: Barksdale AFB, Louisiana
• Justin D.: Columbus AFB, Mississippi
• Caleb: Holloman AFB, New Mexico
• Justin M.: Kadeena AB, Japan
• Daniel: Ft. Meade, Maryland
• Rebel: Nellis AFB, Nevada
• Byron: Fairchild AFB, Washington for the Air National Guard

I took video of each assignment as it was given out, capturing the person on stage and then panning to the choices on the slideshow. When it came to Daniel's, it took a second to focus so 2 out of the 3 possibilities that I saw were Qatar and Ft. Meade. (The other one was Curtland AFB in New Mexico.) I think my heart stopped when I saw Qatar, but thankfully, that one went away pretty quickly and Daniel said that it was supposed to be a joke... yeah, a joke for the class but not for spouses who see it and think "Oh my goodness, my husband is getting a remote tour where I can't go with him and we're about to have our second baby and I'm going to be in Mississippi far from family for 2 years and my friends are all PCSing away." (Not kidding, in the 1.2 seconds it was up there, that's what went through my mind.)
I was so relieved and happy and excited about Ft. Meade that I couldn't stop smiling! And the next assignment given out kept me smiling since Rebel was next and got his #1 choice, which sends my friend Bri to Las Vegas!
After we mingled and celebrated and cleaned up the room we used, we headed home so Dan could change and then we went to Olive Garden with Rebel and Bri to continue celebrating and get some real food in our tummies!
Once we got home and put Anna to bed, Daniel went to the after-party down the street and brought more of the buffalo chicken dip. Apparently, it was a huge hit because Daniel sent me a text that they were swarming it as soon as he walked in the door. I was worried because I made 6 quarts of it, but half was gone at the end of drop night and another 1.5 quarts was polished off at the party afterwards. Several people have been asking for the recipe, so I'll be posting that next. :-)
I still can't believe we're moving up north, or that I have friends already there and another friend from Keesler who will move there just a month before we get there. What an amazing feeling to know that we'll be in one place for 2-3 years, with friends, and in an area of the country we really wanted to go!
God is so good and I'm looking forward to the plans He has in store for us when we get to Maryland!