19 month photos

I can not believe that Aniston is 19 months {& 11 days} already! Where has the time gone? I think we are both glad to be back in our house. Although we miss our family up North! Aniston is becoming quite the smart little girl. She is constantly pointing out body parts, colors, fruits, & etc. She loves to learn & find things in her books. As we drive down the road she is constantly pointing out stuff she sees - planes, birds, water, trees, puppies, kitty cats, etc. She is such a pleasure to be around {most of the time} Here are her 19 month pictures {which are getting harder & harder to take these days}

Neighborhood Bonfire

We got to have a bonfire with our neighbors while my Brother was in town & it was a lot of fun. It is also one of the reasons I love living in a small cul-de-sac! Here are a few pictures I got to take before I had to chase Aniston around. Enjoy!

Mimi, Jaelyn, Berek, & Aniston

Burglar Poppy & Berek

Looking forward to having another one on New Years Eve!

Merry {Belated} Christmas - Part 2

So finally got the password to our wireless & have my internet back instead of stealing borrowing my neighbors!

The girls Christmas morning

All the kids

Silly kids

Nadia & Aniston playing

Loving my baber

Christmas Kisses

Aniston & Aunt Leah

The aftermath from the Howard family

My Lego character

We had a wonderful Christmas & I really enjoyed getting to see all the kids open their presents! Although we all really missed you Berek & can't wait to spend next Christmas with you!

Merry {Belated} Christmas - Part 1

Things have still been pretty hectic hence the delay in this post. I worked hard getting work done in my Mom's kitchen & then we traveled back south. Once we arrived home we started the unpacking & reorganization which has kept us busy. But tomorrow we are going to do some shopping before my brother, Carey, has to fly back home. {Boo!} I wish he could stay longer but I know he has to get back to his family.

So yet another Christmas came & went & we really missed you Berek! But we did have a lot of fun too. All of the nieces & nephews spent the night at Mom Mom & Pop Pop's house which was exciting to have so many kids around. Aniston & Berek both woke me up at 7 am however Aniston ended up falling back asleep until 10:30 am. So she missed out on opening all of her presents with the kids. However when she woke up she enjoyed playing with everyone's new toys especially Keira's lipstick. As you can see no one was safe around her.

Pop Pop

Mommy

Aunt Nancy

Mom-Mom

Aniston

I have lots more pictures to post from Christmas plus a 19 month photo shoot of Aniston but unfortunately the internet is way toooo slow tonight. So enjoy these for now & I will try to finish this post tomorrow!

We love & miss you dearly baber!

Isn't cleaning suppose to happen in the Spring?

This blog has been neglected because I have been busy cleaning & organizing my parents new kitchen. This has been worse then any moves I have had to do so far mostly because my Mother can be rather indecisive & has absolutely no idea where she wants anything. {I love you Mom!} On top of organizing everything we have been cleaning up all the trash etc left over from the old kitchen & the construction that has been happening. Plus I have had to wrap ALL of the gifts my Mother has purchased for EVERYONE for Christmas. So needless to say I haven't had much time to blog about our activities. Luckily you haven't missed much! We did attend a Christmas party at our neighbor's house tonight for a little while. Aniston seems to gravitate towards older kids as she couldn't stop hugging them tonight. Then when we got home my Brother & all of his kids were here. We are having a big sleepover tonight & can't wait to photograph all of the fun tomorrow! Aniston was so excited to see her cousins tonight. She couldn't stop hugging them but unfortunately I didn't have my camera around. I promise pictures in my next blog post! I am combining Aniston's 19th month pictures with Christmas pictures this year.

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas! Tomorrow marks 1 month of deployment down! Woo Hoo!

What Aniston has learned this week & why I believe she is a Daddy's girl

Aniston is growing up way too fast & learns so many new things everyday! She just randomly started counting to 5 the other day while hanging out with Mom-Mom & she does such a great job. When we are in the car & she sees a blow up Santa she always says "Pop-Pop" {this just makes Pop-Pop's day because he has always wanted to be Santa.} But she thinks snowman are Santa so she always says Santa when she sees those. We are working on this but secretly I don't want her to stop calling Santa "Pop-Pop" because I know how much he loves it. She now says please & thank you. She loves to pretend to cough every time Mom-Mom does. It is so cute & sounds so fake. She just smiles so big afterwards. She also has started to love farting {Definitely Daddy's girl} She busts out laughing every time she does & even tries to do it again & again. Sometimes she is successful in doing it repeatedly & she just thinks she is the funniest person ever. She also loves shoes so much that she prefers to wear a pair on her hands & her feet but luckily this is something she only does at home. I wish I had a picture of this but she tends to do it in the living room which is a total mess because we are currently living through an extensive kitchen renovation. She still loves her bows & asks for them anytime she spots one sitting around. She also no longer hates getting her diaper changed {Thank you God!} This actually changed once we got halfway through our trip up North. I guess she wanted to make a fool out of me because I had told Uncle Tysun & Aunt Carrie how much she hated it. But of course she laid there so peacefully when I changed her diaper in the hotel. Lately she loves to say "Mommy" repeatedly sometimes when she wakes up as well as other random times. When she gets super frustrated she will hit my in the face {more like tap me with her hand} & follow it up with a hug because she knows it isn't nice. So we are working on that but before she didn't even know it was not a nice thing to do. So making some progress there. But she has been super cranky lately between teething & having a stuffed up nose. I barely got any sleep last night & she cried for a long time in my arms {our poor sweet baby girl.} But hopefully the teeth will arrive sooner than later.

I am holding the fort down though Berek so don't worry about us. We miss you dearly!

Goodbye Grammie & Happy 21st Robbie!

Well tonight Grammie headed back home & we were all sad to see her leave. I am so grateful that she was able to come stay with us for 2 weeks & help me out. We will definitely miss her but hopefully she will visit soon & bring Grampie too!

Shortly after I dropped Grammie off at the airport my brother, Carey & family came over before Robbie's 21st Birthday dinner. Even though Robbie turned 21 two weeks ago we decided to celebrate late so that Aniston & I could celebrate too. It was a great dinner with all of us there & definitely eventful. Aniston ate some chips as she always does but must have accidentally swallowed one of the pieces I had given her when I was chatting it up with my family. The next thing I know she was choking so I started patting her back to clear her throat but it was not working {OH NO!} so I proceeded to pat her back again & again & again. Eventually she cleared her throat of the chip{s} as well as the contents of her stomach. {Yuck.} Thank God for my brother helping me clean up the mess. {He definitely deserves a brother of the year award for every year.} Luckily Aniston also had a shirt under hers which was a life saver. She seemed okay after the incident & I decided no more salsa chips for her ever again well at least until she is older. After that she had plenty of room in her belly & was able to actually eat some of her dinner but saved most of the room for dessert just like her Momma. Luckily the rest of the night went pretty slow smoothly.

Here are some pictures from the night -

Robbie {Birthday Boy} & Gina

Carey, Berek, & Robbie

Aunt Nancy & Uncle Rob

Mom-Mom & Me

Aniston & Daddy

Camden wishing Uncle Berek was with us

Camden & Aniston

We love you Berek!

Aniston loves cupcakes {& bows too}

The Whole Gang wishing you were here Berek! We all love you very much!

Busy Busy Busy

Well we had a safe trip up North it was long but we got to stay midway & visit with Aunt Carrie, Uncle Tysun, & baby Lily! Aniston did pretty good on the car ride up occasionally she ripped her bows out & lost her toys but Grammie did a pretty good reaching almost everything. She barely napped {boo} which is way different then our previous road trips. It has been pretty cold up North but not too bad {Thank you God!}

We have been pretty busy since we have been here visiting with family & friends. I got to crash my neighbor's Bunco party {Thanks Mrs. Joetta!} I also got to see my friend Hilary & her adorable baby bump. I can't wait to find out what she is going to have. Everyone was guessing Girl. Then Boy. Then Girl. Then Boy. I guess we just have to wait. Yesterday we spent 4 hours in BJ's & I swear I will not go back there during this visit {or maybe ever.} Ughhhh the cheap deli meat is hardly worth waiting 45 minutes for. Then last night Robbie & I started discussing our love for cheese fries & decided to go to Glory Days at 9pm to get some. They were delicious & even better they were only $5. Heather then texted me to make sure we could still get some more on Thursday & I was like OF COURSE! {Duhhh doesn't she know me better then that?}

Life has been surely interesting living in a construction zone with Aniston {& all of us really.} But she does really well & loves playing in the new kitchen area. It is so much bigger then before. I can't wait to see it all done! We have been waiting all day {well since 8 am} for the new cabinets to arrive but they aren't anywhere in sight.yet.

I gave Aniston her Daddy Doll when we arrived here in MD & she loves likes it but sometimes I think it freaks her out. ha. I will share pictures as soon as I can get a less cluttered area to do so. But for the record Berek you make a really cute stuffed daddy doll & it makes me want to suggest they make a body pillow sized doll because snuggling with your face at night would be better then an actual body pillow. We send our love baber.

Merry Christmas - St. Augustine Style

Tonight we decided to continue the search for amazing Christmas lights because Aniston really enjoys looking at them. We figured we might as well look while we are in Florida because once we get to Maryland we will have to drive around. Boo! I heard it is really cold up there & I am not looking forward to that at all! {I really wish that you could have been here with us tonight Berek but I am looking forward to going together next Christmas.} We also went to our favorite food spot for dinner. It was delicious. Aniston got to get out of her stroller for a little bit & we walked around. She loves holding my hand & I love holding her hand too. {One day she will love running away from me. Ehhhh not looking forward to that.}

Berek wait until you get home because Aniston has changed a lot in just the last week. I can officially ask her questions & get her opinion. Sometimes she says yes & sometimes she says no but it seems like she gets the difference & is happy with the results after. I am glad that she has finally learned this as things will only get easier from now on! She also recently started feeding her baby bottles & enjoys it. She is going to be a great Mom one day {Must be because I am freaking amazing & setting a great example!} She is still teething but has only one tooth has started to break through. She absolutely hates having her diaper changes these days which is just loads of fun for me. I just keep reminding myself that I am getting an Apple computer of my choice soon. {BOOOYAH!} We show her pictures of you & talk about Daddy often. Her Daddy Doll has arrived at Mom-Mom's & I can't wait to see her initial reaction. I will take pictures when she gets it. Speaking of pictures I signed up for 2 photography classes to learn more about my DSLR camera & can't wait to use my skills when you get home.

This is Aniston's present I got her the other day {as in it was in my gift closet for months} It was the best $5 I spent as she absolutely loves it!

Christmas is in the air

Yesterday Grammie & I had a busy day. First, we had the Navy Marine Corp Relief Society Christmas Party. We had a lot of fun at the party {missed having Berek as my date though}. We both participated in a secret gift exchange & had fun seeing what everyone got {the good & the bad}. I passed on getting my usual gift of Costco sized Cheez-its in hopes that my friend Dave would get them. Unfortunately he never does & leads to complete awkwardness when one of the older women get them. Here are pictures from the dinner.

{Let me introduce you to my other Mom Monika. Hi Mom!}

Next we went to my VP-16 Officer's Spouses Meeting {where there was more great food but we had no room to eat a.single.thing.} A lot got accomplished during the meeting & we made lots of plans in the future. It will be good for all of us to stay busy while the boys are deployed & I am very excited to get together with the girls.

Tonight Grammie & I took Aniston & our neighbor Jaelyn on a walk around the neighborhood to look at Christmas lights. It was a beautiful night & about 70 degrees. I wore shorts & a long sleeve shirt & it was awesome. I love living in Florida especially during winter however it does take some adjusting too because mentally I still think I should be wearing lots of layers {must be the 24 years I spent in MD.} Anyways here are Aniston's two favorite houses {not in any specific order.}

{House #1}

{House #2}

Grammie is here!

We are so glad to have her here with us! It has been so nice to be able to interact with an adult again. I have really enjoyed my time with Aniston since Berek has left but definitely was feeling a bit lonely not having an adult to interact with {or more specifically to tell to turn off the tv & get the bathrooms clean!} We have been having a lot of fun & even managed to get some last minute Christmas shopping done last night. Grammie had brought us our Christmas money so it was time I started shopping for me & Aniston. I scored this for me

Gap $59.95

& I doubt I will ever take it off. This morning I even told my MIL that I should have bought a second one. {No worries Berek I won't & I did have a 40% off coupon}

No shopping trip would be complete without buying something for Aniston so she got these

Gap Baby $16.50
& yes Berek I had a 40% off coupon for those too.

Well there was one other thing I bought for our family

Williams-Sonoma $36.95

Although we got the single version for $19.99 plus 20% off. {Did I mention that I love coupons? But not the crazy couponing way on tv.} I also got the recipe book so I can go beyond our imagination {which really consists of juices & frozen fruit.} Hopefully we will get to have some real soon like after Santa drops it off Christmas morning.

We got to Skype with Berek this morning & it was great to see {a blurry version} of the man we all love.