Baby Gary turns 1

Well, we've been so busy lately I never posted anything about baby Gary's birthday.  He turned 1 on April 17th and we just had a little family thing with the four of us at home.  He got a few toys, one of which is a Mickey Airplane ride-on toy that I just had to have.  I made cupcakes for his birthday and I'm pretty sure he liked them!

He's been walking while holding onto things for a while (the table, couch, etc.), but just within the last week he's really started to make the effort to let go and start walking on his own.  He's doing pretty good, except for the occasional run in with the table.  He got a pretty good goose egg on his noggin on a table in Gary's office last week.  He is such a "busy body" and gets frustrated if he's confined and can't crawl or walk around.  He's just like his daddy!

Giggling and Clapping

Baby Gary changes so often that I wanted to show a few of the latest things going on at home.  Here's the first one - baby loves to play and be tickled.  Although what baby doesn't?

One of the newest things he's learned to do is clap.  He loves it when we clap and say "yay!" so he has learned to imitate, at least on the clapping part.

He's also been pulling up for a good while, even since before Christmas.  He could pull up before he could officially crawl, and he's been working on getting around the coffee table that he loves to pull up on.  He loves to move around, so he'll get frustrated if he's in his highchair or saucer too long.

Happy Friday!

Love my boys!

I am so proud of all my boys. They have been busy lately!

Caleb is doing great in school, and enjoys Cub Scouts and AWANA. This past Friday his school had an Awards Assembly. He received the Teacher’s List Award for having all A’s and B’s, and also the Spelling Award for doing so well on his spelling tests each week. He takes after me on that one. ;) Then later on Friday we had the Pinewood Derby with our Cub Scout pack. Daddy knows how to help make a winning car. :)    Caleb came home with second in the Wolves and third place overall.

Baby Gary has been progressing with several things. He’s been working on trying to crawl for a while, but as of a week or two ago, he can officially crawl now. It’s not really fast yet, but he definitely gets around. He loves to play on the floor and crawl around, and loves to pull up on the table and walk around it. He likes corn now and LOVES to eat cheerios! He gets excited when I pull the yellow box of Cheerios out of the pantry!

Gary has been busy at work this past week! On Monday, he took command of Bravo “Beast” Troop in 1-33 Cavalry Rakkasans. He works really hard and I’m so proud of him. He was excited about taking command and so far he loves his job. He has four platoons - I think each has roughly 25 soldiers, and he has 95 soldiers total. This is the troop that he will train and then deploy with later this year. Now that he is the commander that makes me the new FRG leader for Bravo Troop. I have some great ladies on my team to work with and I’m really looking forward to this role and helping the families.  This picture is of us after his Change of Command ceremony last week.

New Food Processor!!!

I think its kind of funny that I am this excited over a new food processor, but I am!!!  I got one for Christmas from my parents - it was the one I had asked for, but I didn't know how big it was.  I don't really need a 12 cup processor.  So after getting home and looking at it, I decided to exchange it at BB&B for a Cuisinart 7 cup food processor.  I was so anxious for it to come in, and I finally got it yesterday.  I was so anxious to use it.  Our little 4 cup food chopper just couldn't handle the job.

I've had some trial and error trying to figure out the process of making your own baby food.  Fruit is fairly easy.  I buy golden delicious apples (6), cut them up and cook them like my book says to.  At first he made hilarious sour faces, but now he really likes the applesauce.  Now I also buy canned pears and peaches and he seems to like both of those pretty well, too.  Three vegetables that have worked well so far and he seems to like are sweet potatoes, acorn and butternut squash.  All three of those are fairly easy to make, too.  I tried peas from the beginning, but their shell is hard enough that it was difficult to get them smooth enough.  Again, our little chopper (or wannabe food processor) couldn't get them smooth enough and he didn't like them.

While at my mom's house over Christmas, we used her Cuisinart food processor and saw a big difference in the food, which made me all the more excited when I got a new food processor for Christmas.  The food was smoother, more like something you'd expect to see in baby food.  The peas were still a bit chunky, but he ate them a little better.  Once we got home last week, I decided to try canned green beans.  I decided to cook them first on the stove, figuring that it had to work better being cooked (even though technically things like green beans and peas are already pre-cooked).  They came out pretty well and he ate them okay.  This weekend we ran out of vegetables for him (and almost out of fruit), so we got carrots, peas, potatoes, pears and peaches.  The carrots and peas were a bit chunky, so I don't blame him not liking those.  If you know what I mean by the "raking" babies do with their hands, he does this in front of his face when he doesn't like something.  I also tried the potatoes and he really didn't like them, which surprised me.  I think they were too thick, though, and he just spit them back out.  Fail.  Good thing Gary bought more green beans and an acorn squash the other day.

Now I have my new food processor!!!  I was so excited when it came in that I cooked some green beans and got the canned pears out.  OMG.  He ate all of the green beans I gave him (I'd say roughly 3 or 4 ounces worth).  The pears pureed so smoothly they looked almost like yogurt.  Of course he enjoyed those, too.  So then I decided to re-do the carrots, peas and potatoes.  Not completely, I just took what I already had out of the refrigerator, poured them into the processor and added a bit of water to each (more with the potatoes) and they turned out so much smoother than they had been.  I was so thrilled.  The potatoes actually looked like yogurt, too.  Success!!

So at dinner last night, I gave Gary about 2 1/2 ounces or so of potatoes and he ate all of it (although he gets distracted easily so it took some coaxing).  I gave him his cereal, which he always eats, and then some carrots.  He only ate a few bites of carrots, but I think he may have just been full enough by that point because he ate them okay - no yucky faces.  And of course he ate all the pears I gave him.

If you decide you want to make your own baby food, I'd say go for it.  It doesn't really take that much time, so if you work, that's okay.  I was surprised that it was so easy.  It is so much cheaper than pre-made baby food and I guarantee you it tastes better, and it has to be better in quality too.  I think Gary and I figured out one day that on average, it is at least half the cost of jar food.  It does take some trial and error, figuring out how much water to add, etc., but I'd say one of the keys is making sure you have a decent food processor.  It makes a big difference.

Have a great week!

Great things in December

We had some family pictures taken by Kristyn, Gary's stepsister, while we were in Michigan for Thanksgiving.  I love how they turned out - baby Gary was such a ham!

Well, I’m not exactly sure how much baby Gary weighs now, but he’s doing quite well.  He’s still a chunk and he has to be at least 20-21 pounds now.  He will be 8 months old on the 17^th of December and the time goes far too quickly.  I still wish he could stay this way forever.  I still can’t get enough of him and I’m trying to take advantage of all the time I have with him.  He’s doing great and is such a happy baby.  The people in his room at church (during our Sunday School) just love him and are always excited to see him on Sunday mornings.  I have been so lucky and blessed with both boys.  They have both been very content, happy babies.

I just recently (this past week) changed his/our daily schedule.  I don’t know why I thought it was normal and don’t know how we got to this point, but we weren’t on much of a schedule during the day and he was still waking up in the middle of the night.  That left for a tired mommy every single day and it was frustrating and exhausting.  I have a great friend here at Ft Campbell, another fellow Captain’s wife, named Hillary who introduced me to the Baby Wise series of books.  If you don’t have them, get them.  I have the one that talks about getting your baby to sleep (which includes any and every aspect related to sleeping) and also the second Baby Wise book for your 5-12 month old.  I haven’t finished either yet, but after reading certain parts about feeding, schedules and sleeping, we are now in a great place.  We have a daily routine/schedule that we follow and he is now sleeping through the night.  For some reason I forgot the idea that it’s okay for babies to cry, and is actually good for them.  I was also putting him to bed at night after nursing, already asleep.  So he wasn’t falling asleep on his own.  Now he falls asleep on his own at bedtime and for naps during the day, and if he wakes a little during the night, he can get himself back to sleep.  Hallelujah!

He has been eating rice cereal for about 3 or 4 weeks now, and we just started him on vegetables and fruits a week or two ago.  Speaking of which, I am making our own baby food.  I’m borrowing a kit from the same friend that introduced me to Baby Wise.  I’m glad that I stay home with him and have the time to do this.  Although honestly, making the food doesn’t take long at all.  He has had sweet potatoes, peas and applesauce.  He’s not sure about the peas yet, but they didn’t blend very smoothly.  Caleb ate Gerber baby food just fine and he turned out great, but I love being able to make our own baby food and give him “real” food.  I’m still nursing, which I love, and hope to until he is about a year old. 

Caleb is doing great in school, and although he already had A’s and B’s, he continues to improve.  He somehow gets the idea that he can talk to us exactly like we talk (telling me what to do, lol), so he gets in trouble sometimes but we’re working on that.  He has friends in our neighborhood and loves playing outside with them as much as he can.  I don’t know what’s wrong with him, but he likes to wear short sleeves even when it’s 40-something outside.  Haha.  You wouldn’t guess he was from Texas…you’d think he came from Michigan with Gary.  I love it when he talks about things that he learns from AWANA or Sunday School at church.  We were talking about prayer requests yesterday – apparently he learned what that meant during church yesterday. J 

We have a new little something to announce, on Gary’s end from work.  We didn’t expect this to happen so soon, but Gary will be taking command of a troop on January 23^rd.  To explain a little…Right now he is on staff in HHT (headquarters) for our battalion, which consists of five troops including headquarters.  So there’s Headquarters Troop, Alpha Troop, Bravo Troop, Charlie Troop and Delta Troop.  Gary will be the commander for Bravo troop, which roughly consists of about 91 guys.  Because of this, I will be our troop’s FRG leader (Family Readiness Group).  It’s a good bit of responsibility and I have some things to learn, but I’m excited to be in this position.  After all, this is what we came here for.  The best part is that Gary and I will be doing this together as a team.  They are scheduled to deploy in September, so it’s good that he will be taking command now.  He will have 8 months to get to know his soldiers and to train with them before leaving.

And…Christmas will be here very soon!  I can’t wait to see Caleb open his gifts, and I can’t wait for baby Gary to play with his new toys!

October Updates

Baby Gary had his six month checkup the other day.  He's doing well and is 19 pounds 2 ounces.  Chunky butt. He's doing well with sitting up, but he falls over sometimes.  He likes sitting in his saucer and loves the johnny jump-up.  I bought him a kick and play piano and he seems to like that quite a bit - except that he pushes it away from himself, not meaning to of course, and then can't reach it.  I asked my doctor the last time I saw her about baby food and told her that I wasn't ready to feed him baby food yet.  She said usually people are eager to feed their babies food already, so she said it was totally fine to wait, as long as he seems to be getting enough and is thriving.  He's still definitely getting enough.  I just don't see the need to rush into it yet - babies were meant to just have milk until they could eat real food anyway.  Kind of weird, but the pediatrician told me the other day to start him on baby food, cereal first.  Sorry, doc.  I don't agree with you (we didn't see his usual doctor that day).

Caleb is doing really well in school.  He brings home his first report card today, so we'll see for sure. :)  He told me today at lunch (visited him at school for lunch) that he didn't miss any on his spelling test this morning.  Good job, buddy!  He seems to do well in most things, and I can constantly see him improving - especially in reading and spelling.  His best subjects so far are science and social studies, but for some reason they don't give letter grades for those yet.  He is in AWANA at church on Wednesdays and I love seeing him learn more about God and learn his bible verses.  A couple of weeks ago he and Gary went camping with Cub Scouts and they had a great time.  As much as he loves sports and I would love for him to play sports in school when he's older (maybe soccer like he did before), I think he learns so many more valuable life lessons by being in Cub Scouts.  And I think it has helped him to come out of his shell a little bit, too.

Here's Gary playing his piano...I need to get more video of both he and Caleb.

Happy Friday!

Video!

Ok, thanks to my sweet friend Britni, I can now post videos!  I tried to the other day of a cute video of baby Gary, but was having error messages.  Now I figured out how to post onto YouTube to share the videos (don't worry, the videos are private so the world can't see).  Here's a recent video of baby Gary having some tummy time and learning to sit up.

Here's a second video.  It might seem slow, but I was trying to get him "talking."

Also, here's a picture of Caleb's ocean habitat project for school.  :)

The last 5 months...

Here is my attempt at blogging about the last five months.  I’ve been wanting to blog ever since I had baby Gary, but it’s definitely been at the bottom of my priority list of many other things.  Needless to say, things have been very busy for us since Gary was born…or at least since we got our house in Georgia packed up.

Baby Gary was born April 17^th at 5:02 am.  I was pretty sure that may labors would be very similar to my moms, so I knew that he would come quickly (because I came very quickly for my mom).  I started early labor the day before, but awoke at 3am with unmistakable labor pains.  We left the house by 3:45 and were admitted by 4:15, and 45 minutes later we had a new baby boy.  I had planned on having an epidural.  It did not happen that way.  I was very much less than thrilled when the nurses told me they’d have to run my blood first before they could give it to me.  Really?  For those of you who have had a child naturally, you know how I feel.  Anyhoo, thankfully it was a quick labor and before I knew it I had a sweet little boy in my arms.  I had known for the past 9 months that I would have a little boy at the end of all this, but it was amazing to finally see him.  I didn’t get much sleep in the hospital between feedings and people coming in and out.  Thankfully, my mom had come in town just the day before, so it was perfect timing.  My mom and Caleb came to the hospital, and Caleb was so sweet.  He just had a huge grin across his face and loved his new baby brother.  I am so happy to finally have baby Gary and I just can’t get enough of him.

We were only in Georgia another month before leaving to move to Fort Campbell, KY (we live in TN).  We took some time for a little bit of a vacation and visited my family in TX before officially moving and checking into Ft Campbell.  I loved getting to visit home to see friends and family, especially now that we had Little Gary.  Once we got to TN, we stayed with friends for a few weeks before we were able to move into our house.  Gary’s mom visited us that first week we were in the house, which was perfect timing.  She was such a great help at unpacking and helping with the boys.  Gary’s dad and stepmom visited us July 4^th weekend and we had a great time with them. 

About the middle of July, Gary got to take some leave from work so we took a last minute family vacation to Washington, D.C.!  I had been before, back in summer after 7^th grade with my church youth group, but Gary had never been.  Luckily he has an aunt and uncle that live only 45 minutes from D.C., so we stayed with them for a week.  We got to visit that part of his family, and we took a couple of rest days while we were there.  Between the driving and walking all around D.C., we were exhausted.  But I have to say that I love D.C.!  We had a really great time.  We also took part of a day and drove to Annapolis – walked around the Naval Academy a bit, and the historic bay area around there and had lunch.  We were hopeful on being able to see the White House in D.C., but didn’t get to, although we did get a great tour of the Capitol building by our TX rep’s intern.  We got to meet up with one of Gary’s good friends from Ft Benning while we were there, too.

Since D.C., we’ve just been unpacking and trying to get settled.  We’re pretty much done, except we’re hopeful on being able to organize the garage enough to get both cars in there.  We’ll see.  Caleb started school at the beginning of August and is doing well so far.  He has more homework this year and he’s doing well.  The spelling and reading is definitely more difficult but he’s doing pretty well with it.  I like seeing him improve in his schoolwork.  We have him in Cub Scouts so far and he’s enjoying that, and we just signed him up for AWANA at church that started last week on Wednesday nights. 

Gary stays pretty busy with work and that’s going well.  He just finished his last triathlon for the year, until next spring (they stop at a certain point during the year because the water will start getting too cold for the swim portion).  In the triathlon on Saturday, he shaved about 8-10 minutes off his previous time.  It’s an Olympic distance triathlon, which is about .9 miles swimming, about a 30-something mile bike ride I think, and about a 6 mile run.  I’ve been staying pretty busy myself, between taking care of Little Gary, trying to keep up with cleaning the house, dishes, laundry, etc., getting together with new friends, helping Caleb with homework, and I’m now involved as the treasurer for our FRG (Family Readiness Group).  We have a great group and I enjoy our meetings and get-togethers. 

My mom got to visit us at the end of July right before Caleb started school, and my parents just flew up here last weekend for Labor Day weekend.  I’m glad they both got to come up and visit, and I can’t wait to come back home to TX for a visit.

Little Gary is getting bigger all the time.  Sometimes I wish he could just stay like this forever.  He will be 5 months on Saturday, September 17^th and as of last Friday he was 17 pounds.  He doesn’t skip any meals. J  He started rolling over at least a few weeks ago, but is doing it more often and better now.  He’s been drooling for a while now, so I’m sure within the next month or two he’ll start cutting some teeth.  When he’s in my lap, he tries to sit up, so I’m sure within the next couple of months he’ll be sitting up on his own, too.  I try to do tummy time (which I wasn’t doing much of), but he hates it.  I know it’s good for him, so sometimes I just have to let him be frustrated.  He can now sit up pretty well in his exersaucer.  He likes to “talk” and blow bubbles a lot, which is so cute.  I can tell he will probably be very active, just like daddy.  

More to come later, but I think that’s enough for now!  More pictures to come!

36 weeks and 3 days

I had my 36 week checkup today and things are going well.  My belly continues to slowly grow – luckily that’s all that’s growing these days.  I think I’ve gained between 20-24 pounds according to my scale at home (depending on what time of day I weigh).  I actually lost about 4 or 5 pounds within the last couple of months or so, which is a good thing.  I gained too much weight between my December and January appointments, so I changed my eating habits and started exercising regularly, mostly every day.  I blame desserts and the holidays.  I haven’t been exercising quite as much lately because I developed a stress fracture in my left foot several weeks ago. L  I can still exercise, it was just recommended that I not do walking as exercise anymore…for now.  Obviously the doctor didn’t want to take x-rays for the time being. 

I’m feeling pretty good, although my back hurts in different areas randomly throughout the day and it’s a toss-up every night whether I’ll sleep well or not.  Between waking up for bathroom breaks and trying to get comfortable, sleeping sometimes feels like a chore.  Other than that, I usually feel fine.  Oh, except for the almost daily heartburn.

On an exciting note, I bought baby boy clothes a few days ago.  I recently found several great items at a consignment store but bought a few new things, including the little outfit he will wear home from the hospital.  I know that people always talk about buying little girl clothes and how cute they are (which they definitely are), but I think that little boys have equally cute clothes and it’s so fun!  I remember how I loved picking out clothes for Caleb and getting to dress him in whatever I wanted.  I get to do that all over again now, which is awesome because I definitely lose the clothes battle when it comes to Caleb.  I have all the clothes and blankets washed and the bassinet is ready, so now I’m trying to get other things ready (diaper bag, my hospital bag, etc.).  I’m a bit nervous that Baby Klein will come and I won’t be ready…which is funny, I don’t really remember feeling that way with Caleb.  You would think some of my nervous or anxious thoughts would have happened the first time around, not the second!   

I go back in less than two weeks for my 38 week checkup, and they’ll start checking to see if I’m dilated or effaced at all.  The more I look at the calendar and think of timing, the more I realize how close it really is…3 1/2 weeks!  Or less!

Caleb is doing great and got to go swimming this past weekend.  I know, swimming in March?  Our apartment complex’s pool is open year-round.  We’ve had great warm, sunny weather lately.  The pool water was still cold, but he didn’t care.  So he swam while Gary and I read our books.  He’s reading a book about resiliency (which I want to read when he’s done) and I’m reading Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge (which I very much recommend).  Today I just got through Chapter 5, which was very eye opening.  Caleb’s spring break is coming up soon – it’s late out here, don’t know why.  Gary starts a short course in a few days that I think is about a month long.  I don’t think spring break around our house will be very exciting this year.  Gary will be in his course and I’ll be waiting to pop – we’ll have to find some fun things to do that don’t involve traveling.  We also just recently broke out the Nintendo...the AWESOME 1985 version with Mario 1,2 and 3.  Caleb loves it, mostly Mario 1 and Duck Hunt.  Gary and I played Mario 3 the other day...literally ALL afternoon.  Great fun!

So many things going on...

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, so let’s see if I can recap the last three months! 

In December, my mom, sister and her kids all drove from Texas to visit us right before Christmas.  We had such a great time!  My dad wasn’t able to visit due to work, but he’s coming to visit us very soon and we’re really excited.  I’m so glad that Caleb got to play with Emma, Megan and Bodey for a few days.  For Christmas the three of us drove up to Michigan where Gary’s family lives.  On the way, we stopped to check out Ft Campbell (Clarksville, TN) where we’ll be moving in May, and also got to spend the night and visit with my Aunt Linda.  Caleb got to play a bit in the snow in Michigan, which is always fun.  I have to say that this year, maybe because I was pregnant (or maybe because it was just cold!) I wasn’t so interested in playing in the snow.  I tried to stay warm inside!  We had a really great time visiting with all the family.  I think Caleb’s favorite gift was his scooter – he can’t stay off the thing.  My favorite Christmas gift was from Gary – he had a friend of ours make me a diaper bag out of one of the uniforms he wore while in Iraq. J  So awesome and very special.  I can’t wait to use it!  For New Years, we spent the time down in Florida (great weather!).  Our hotel was on the Naval Air Base in Jacksonville – awesome!  We went to the Michigan/Miss St bowl game in Jacksonville (sad that MI lost).  We also spent time down in St. Augustine just south of Jacksonville.  We toured the city a bit and went to an Alligator Farm.  Great weekend in FL!

 Here's the diaper bag - now I have Gary's name thing on it (our last name) along with "U.S. Army" on the two front velcro areas.  The two sides have his previous patch from Ft Hood (1st Cav) and the patch where we're headed at Ft Campbell (101st Airborne).

In January, I took a parenting class on post based off a book called 1-2-3 Magic.  After the class we bought the book and plan to implement the rules with Caleb.  We actually bought the Christian parents version of the book.  If you don’t have it or have never heard of it, I highly recommend it.  http://www.parentmagic.com/

The newest things going on…

About three weeks ago Gary ran in a half marathon (trail run) just west of Atlanta.  He got sixth place overall and finished in 1:53:53.  This past Saturday he also ran in a full marathon in Albany, GA and finished 14^th in his age group at 3 hours 46 minutes.  Great job, baby!!  Wednesday Gary had his MCCC Graduation (pic at the top is us at the graduation).  This is the course we came here for that he’s been in since last September.  He did AWESOME!  He was recognized as the Distinguished Honor Graduate, having the top GPA in his class of 175 guys.  He also won in his weight class against 4 different people in their Combatives Tournament (specific movements for fighting/wrestling…that’s my best explanation without asking him, lol), and he won 10^th place in their “ironman” competition.  He also received recognition for doing so well on the papers he wrote for the class.  By doing so well overall in the course, he was awarded three medals: two of the Army Achievement Medal and also the Army Commendation Medal.  So very proud of him!

 Here's a pic of Gary finishing the half marathon

Caleb and me in front of the Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta we visited after Gary's half marathon.  

Gary shaking General Brown's hand  - check out the bling on the uniform!  :)  Oh, sorry about the heads in the way.

Caleb is doing really well, also.  He does great in school, is progressing in reading, and has done a great job at learning to ride his bike.  He has done really well in Cub Scouts and we are very proud of him.  Gary and Caleb went to the DeSoto Caverns in Alabama in February for a Cub Scout trip.  Caleb got to go through a life size maze, panned for gemstones and went through the caverns.  Great father/son trip!  Last month for Cub Scouts they had the Pinewood Derby.  If you’re not familiar with it, the kids are given a specific piece of wood with wheels and axels, basically a blank slate.  You can cut the wood into whatever shape of car you want (but the more aerodynamic, the better).  The boys paint and decorate their cars, and each car can weigh up to but no more than 5 ounces.  Then they race.  We wanted a simple car – simple is better.  The more you pile on the car, and the more of a weird shape, the slower it will go.  Caleb ended up winning first in the Tiger Cubs (first graders) and third overall!  Caleb has also started piano lessons with my Aunt Marilyn (actually my second cousin) up in LaGrange.  He is really catching on quickly and doing well, which is really exciting for me since I took piano growing up.  She said she thinks he really has some talent.

Caleb playing the piano at Aunt Marilyn's

Here's the winner with his trophies.  

On my end, I’m doing great.  My OB checkups are good and I am 34 weeks now.  A part of me can’t believe I’m having a second baby, but the closer April 18^th gets, the more excited I get.  Other than some normal pregnancy complaints (heartburn, legs and back hurting at times, some Braxton Hicks, and lots of strong kicks from the baby), I’m doing just fine.  I have been eating better/healthier and I exercise every day.  I’m just anxious for the little guy to finally be here.  As far as the name goes, I think we have it picked out, but everyone will just have to find out when he arrives!

Belly pic - this is about 32 weeks I think

Bday, Turkey Day, Cub Scouts and Baby K!

Gary, Caleb and I celebrated my birthday at home with a yummy dinner, and Gary and Caleb made my favorite cake – yellow with chocolate icing.  Simple, but yummy!  We celebrated my birthday with the rest of my family when we visited Waco during Thanksgiving.  Caleb and I were able to spend a whole week at home in Texas, and Gary joined us on Turkey day.  I had a great time visiting with friends and family over the week, and celebrating Thanksgiving with the family.  I didn’t really have any belly pictures before that week, so there’s a couple my mom took of us at my grandparents house. 

The week after Thanksgiving, we had our monthly Cub Scouts Pack Meeting.  Caleb received his Bobcat and Tiger badges that day.  Each time the boys get a badge, they put that badges pin on a parent.  Good work, buddy!  We are so proud of you!

The Friday before Thanksgiving, I had a doctor’s visit (checkup for the belly) and an appointment in Radiology for my ultrasound.  Very exciting day!  We found out that day that we’re having a boy. J  As excited as I was to go to the appointment, I was even more anxious and excited to tell Gary what we were having when he got home from work!  And a very odd thing, in my opinion – the Army doesn’t give you the ultrasound picture that shows the sex of the baby.  Really?  Honestly, what am I going to do with the picture but just keep it for m yself?  Stupid rule.  So, here are two of the best ultrasound pictures they did let me have.  Can’t wait to meet him!!  We’ve talked about names, but since we already know that he’s a boy we may be keeping that part to ourselves – because we can.  Haha! J 

I’m very excited about Christmas, as always.  We have our tree and decorations up, so now I just have to finish my shopping!

Updates from the Peach State

Gary’s doing well in his course, staying busy busy. He’s been hunting a couple of times each weekend trying to find a doe. Well, luck finally came last Sunday evening. He knew what he was getting himself into, but it turned out to be a very, very long night for him. Hours and hours later, we ended up with a bunch of deer meat in our freezer. I must say I was initially very sad for her (there may be reason for that if you’ll read on), but Gary was very sweet about it and thanked God for providing her to us. And I must say, the steaks we had for dinner last night were VERY yummy. Good job, babe.

Caleb has been doing well at school, also. He does well on his homework, spelling tests and reading AR books. He was a very cute Darth Vader for Halloween, but I didn’t have my camera. We went trick or treating on post around the officer’s housing with some friends and we all had a great time. Cub Scouts has been going well and we continue to enjoy being a part of it. We had a Cub Scout camping trip at the end of September and had a BLAST! This past Friday the first grade classes at Caleb’s school had a field trip to Butts Mill Farm up by Pine Mountain, and I tagged along. The kids had a great time petting animals, riding horses, playing, riding on a kiddie train and a hayride, although I must say it would have been nicer if it hadn’t been so COLD outside that day. Caleb and I developed some cold symptoms because of it. Oh well…the sacrifice for fun in the cold. Here’s one of my only recent pictures of Caleb – his school pic.

The last couple of weeks I’ve been busy with a 6-day course for Spouse Leadership that goes along with Gary’s course. It was a great class that was very informative, fun and I was able to meet many other Captains wives. We were taught A LOT of different things, from resources the Army has, protocols, customs and courtesies, FRG (Family Readiness Group) Leadership, stress management, crisis coping and grieving, etc, etc. Many or most of you may not have heard about FRG’s. It’s mostly led by the wives of the commanders, though it doesn’t always have to be the commander’s wife, and it’s completely voluntary. It’s a group that leads and coordinates for events, fundraisers and is a great support group, especially during deployments. It isn’t just made up of wives, but families also including parents of soldiers (especially those of single soldiers). When the guys are deployed, it’s a great way for families and parents of soldiers to keep in touch and get information about the unit and what’s going on. When Gary becomes a commander at our next unit, I hope to be the FRG leader for our company, so this class was incredibly helpful. Speaking of which, we have received our orders for our next duty station, and we’ll be at Fort Campbell, KY (Clarksville, TN) with the 101st Airborne. I’ve heard it’s a great post and I’m excited that we’ll be living in Tennessee. If you have heard of the Battle of the Bulge or have seen the Band of Brothers series, that company was a part of the 101st Airborne during WWII. GREAT series to watch, by the way.

And last, but certainly not least, Caleb is finally going to have a sibling. :) We’re expecting!! I am about 17 weeks as of now and I’m due April 18th. Luckily, we will be able to stay here at Fort Benning for the birth and while Caleb finishes this year in school. We were a bit worried that we’d have to be moving around that time. Thankfully, the pregnancy has gone very well so far. I have a sonogram picture but it’s quite fuzzy, so I’ll wait until we get the next one. We don’t know yet what we are having, but we will be able to find out soon. I’m kind of hoping for a girl, just because we already have Caleb, although I know that Gary is wishing for a boy. No surprise there. :) I am sure that we will both be very happy with whatever God chooses to bless us with. God has already blessed our family in so many ways and continues to do so, and we are thankful and happy for what we have been given.

Labor Day Weekend

So this post is a bit delayed, but better late than never!  My parents came to visit us on Labor Day weekend and we had a wonderful time!  They got in on Friday soon enough to go with us to pick Caleb up from school.  Caleb was so excited. :)  We went out for some yummy catfish on Friday, and Saturday my parents took Caleb to see Despicable Me.  Saturday we went to some hole in the wall restaurant, but they had wonderful food!  We were stuffed! That was Gary's belated birthday dinner (great choice on the restaurant!).  Sunday we all woke up super early to watch Gary compete in his second triathlon, which was up in Callaway Gardens.

Beautiful place with beautiful weather!  Gary did great - he placed in the top third in his age group!

That day we also got to go to the National Infantry Museum at Fort Benning.  Really neat place - lots of history about the infantry, plus a lot of history about the different wars.  Here's a picture of Caleb and my parents in front of the museum.  We get to see them again in a couple of weeks - can't wait!

Gary's Birthday

Gary turned a wonderful 29 this week on Tuesday. He doesn't make a big deal of it, but I like to make people feel loved on their birthdays (especially my own husband!). We mostly went about our usual day, but I asked Gary to help me make his birthday dessert since I'd never made a pie before. :)

 Thanks to our friend Laura Leigh and her recipe, we made an amazing apple pie (with a homemade crust!). Here's the apple pie, minus some of the crust that came off with the aluminum foil. Caleb was SO anxious for Gary to open his cards and gift, but we kept telling him he had to wait until dessert after dinner.

He was so excited when Gary opened his gift. Caleb and I both made him homemade cards and gave him a new cycling shirt. Once all that was done, Caleb decided to be a superstar and model daddy's new shirt.

Oh, and I have to throw in the picture of Caleb with his toy gun modeling Gary's Army boots and backpack, and a very mean face. :)

Happy Birthday Love!!

First Grade and Air Assault

So last Monday (August 9th) Caleb started first grade at Blanchard Elementary School in Mrs. Moody's class. He has a great teacher and he seems to be fine and doing well. He wouldn't let me take pictures of him the first day of school (first day jitters I suppose), so he let me take a few after school on the second day. Better than nothing!

 Since I'm not working right now, I volunteered to be the "room mom" to help with a few things. This week we worked on getting money from the kids to buy supplies for a teddy bear sewing project. Thank goodness the project was today - I was really tired of cutting teddy bears out of felt (44 of them) and shopping all around town for the supplies, plus threading the needles in advance. All the kids had fun sewing and putting the eyes, etc. on the bears. They turned out pretty cute. Caleb did a really good job sewing his teddy bear.

This past Tuesday Gary graduated from Air Assault school. It was a ten day class that taught everything about the integration between helicopter and ground combat forces. He had A LOT to learn in those ten days, which were very long days. Every day of the class some guys had to leave because they couldn't keep up either mentally or physically. Gary worked really hard at it every day, and sometimes I helped him to study. The last day was the kicker. They had to be there at 2:00am for a 12-mile road march with their ruck sacks that weighed around 40 pounds or so. If you had completed the class up to that point but couldn't complete the road march within three hours, you didn't graduate. There were quite a few guys who didn't, and several guys who fell out because of some medical reason - possibly either dehydration or just exhaustion.

The graduation was at 11:00am that same day. I went to go see Gary graduate, which was neat. And thank goodness the stands were covered, it was hot!  They did a demonstration of a typical person rappelling from a helicopter (but obviously this was just done from their rappelling tower, not a helicopter).

 There were three graduates (at the front of the picture facing us, Gary's on the left) who were the three best in the class of 143 graduates.  Gary received the Distinguished Honor Graduate award from the Battalion Commander - good job baby!

 Now we're just enjoying spending the extra time together until Gary's MCCC (career course) starts in September. I really enjoy that I'm able to pick Caleb up right when school's out. It's the first time I've been able to do so. Hopefully finding a part-time job will still allow me to do that. Gary and I both love reading, and right now we're reading Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover (thanks to Robin!). I have to say, it's my favorite book ever (you sense the sarcasm, right?). It's a great book and we're learning a lot of valuable things. I highly recommend reading it. I finished a book a while back called My Sister's Keeper. They made a movie out of it with Cameron Diaz. The story is amazing - we bought the movie and I can't wait to watch it now. Definitely a great read!

Excited to be a blogger!

Ok, so I finally decided to start a blog!  After spending lots of time getting it setup, I am finally happy with it and ready to post!  My mom thought it would be a good idea to keep people updated on our life as an Army family and I thought so, too.  For my friends and family I've left in Texas, I will do my best to keep in touch, but hopefully the blog will help.

Since the wedding in June, our house was packed up (and I LOVE the fact that we didn't have to do it ourselves) and we spent time with family before leaving Texas.  Gary left a few days before we did to check into post and let the movers into the apartment.  Then my parents drove Caleb and I to Nashville where my aunt lives, and Gary met us there.  My parents flew back home the next day while the three of us headed to Michigan to see Gary's family for a few days before getting settled in Georgia.  It was REALLY hard for me and Caleb to say goodbye to my parents.  Caleb has definitely missed them and has had to learn that it's a bit more difficult to visit when it takes about 12-14 hours in a car to get there.  But they're coming for a visit in a few weeks and we're excited about that.  We put a printed calendar in Caleb's room so that he can cross off each day that passes, and I highlighted the weekend they'll be here (also my mom's idea).  It gives him a better perspective of time.

So we have an apartment while we're here.  It's nice, but it's definitely much less space than our house.  Thank goodness for all the closet space!  We're in a nice area with a great strip mall and we're pretty close to Caleb's school and our church, and not too far from post for Gary.  I do miss having a neighborhood to bike, run and walk in.  We don't really have that around here unless we drive somewhere, but there's a nice trail by Caleb's school.

So Caleb started school on Monday, and he's in first grade now.  The first day of kindergarten last year was hard; he cried and it was hard for me to leave him.  He's grown up a lot since then, but he's still my sweet Caleb who still needs me (and I will certainly take advantage of that while I have it).  He did great on the first day of school (no tears!) and he seems to like it so far.  We met a little girl, Emma, and her mom the other day, Sarah, at the pool.  Emma is also in first grade at his school (different teacher), so at least he knew someone.  Sarah is also an Army wife and the first friend I've made since I've been here.  :)

Gary starts his MCCC (Maneuver Captain's Career Course) in September, so he's been taking a few shorter courses since then.  Right now he's in his third course, which is Air Assault - something about helicopters, hahaha.  I try to keep up, but it's like speaking another language.  Last week he was in a Combatives class learning basically hand-to-hand combat with specific moves (watch out! haha).  He would practice on me and Caleb, and Caleb thought it was hilarious.

That's all for now, more to come!