Our Newest Adventure!

Baby Dean!

ETA: December 26, 2010

however if he or she came early that would be cool too! ;-)

This is what Sandi greeted Nolan in on April 15th...
He didn't quite understand at first....

Since our old neighbor is a big sister, and her mom had given me a bag of her (the mom's) old clothes, Nolan simply thought I had been going through the clothes and decided to put a "Big Sister" shirt on Sandi...
Since he wasn't "getting it" I said, "No... I made it!"
THEN he got it!!! ;-)

Although no worries Nolan, neither of my parents got the picture either! haha

YAY! We are going to be parents!
Out to eat at Apple Bee's to celebrate!

4 - 5 weeks pregnant
a "before" if you will

Its first photo...
7 weeks and 4 days,
which changed my original due date from December 18th to December 26th!

a close up since it was so tiny!
heart rate = 167

12 weeks
(not really seeing a difference yet - "thickening" around the waist as one book put it.. ha!)
My stomach muscles have been getting a workout trying to stretch... laying on my stomach or stretching my arms up was rather painful from week 7 - 10...

I have been super nauseated from the beginning... I would be fine in the morning, but by the time my lunch settled I was feeling sick until bedtime! Blah! Working the first three months has turned out to be a blessing, because I was always so busy, there wasn't time to feel sorry for myself for how sick I was feeling!

On Tuesday, June 15th, I had my second appointment in the morning, then went to work and resigned that afternoon! What a day....
At 12 weeks and 2 days, its heart rate was 150-ish according to the midwife I saw, who used my watch to time it... :-)
I was hoping for another ultrasound/picture to take home at that appointment however, I learned since all seems well, we will get to see Baby Dean again at 20 weeks and hear its heartbeat again at 18 weeks...

Since I have been a bit paranoid about miscarrying, we didn't start telling people until the 15th/16th of June... and since then word has been slowly spreading through friends and family...

The 20 week appointment will be a gender scan... roughly the week of August 8th... yay for an early 28th birthday gift for me! ;-)

Summer!

Whoop!

June 10th was our 4th wedding anniversary! AND my last day at school (with kids)... the 15th was the last teacher work day!!! We saw Shrek 4 over the weekend to celebrate 4 years (good timing Shrek creators ;-) thanks! ) and went to a Hibachi restaurant on the night of! It seems like it was just yesterday when we met for the first time, at the end of Nolan's freshman year of college, and talked about trees... Seattle is soo much greener than Texas! ;-)

We were thinking the other night...
It is wild to think back to our first 2 bedroom apartment in Stafford, VA, which was a little cramped because of all of our handme down stuff, but it was perfect for us! Little did we know, 8 months later we would fall in love with our 1900s Pensacola house, which was a few hundred yards from the water. When we added Sandi to our family in May 2007, we began visiting that beach nightly. Then came the opportunity for Nolan to switch from NFO to Pilot. We talked and talked about the pros and cons, sought wise-counsel, etc... I feel silly now thinking about how I cried about having to leave what I felt was a perfect house, because we would have to move to Milton for pilot training... I should have known it was going to be a great decision for us! Nolan switched, we moved and he began pilot training in November 2007. We experienced a two-story house for the first time... although it felt less homey than the one story...
In the beginning of 2008, I was able to take part in Taxi Day! What an amazing experience! Nolan finished the first part of flight school (T-34) and we once again we began talking about/seeking counsel about what platform he should put on his selections choice list... Ospreys, C-130s, helicopters... He got his first choice and we were off to Corpus Chrisit for TC-12 training for 8 months! Being back in Texas was great, although we didn't realize until we got there, that it really wasn't that close to any of my family! haha Wishful thinking!
Soon we would move back to Milton for helicopter training and move into a base house duplex with just one bathroom! ;-) Before we knew it Nolan winged and we were on to Jacksonville, NC! We moved into a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house (1500 sq ft - the biggest yet) and built our own backyard for Sandi. With the school year ending, we both feel like we should be moving again...
Random thoughts to go with this...I have found and resigned from about 9 jobs, we have moved 7 times, some across town, others across the country, and even once in and out of storage, we have become great friends with people and had to said goodbye to them 8 months to a year later; although we are trying our best to keep in touch with them!
And our adventure continues... here is to many more! :-)


So far Nolan and I have both enjoyed me being home the past three days... I can take him a warm lunch (since we live on base) and make a decent dinner too! haha Fun times!!!



For a little catching up....

At the end of March we flew to Seattle for Nolan's mom's LPN Graduation! :-) Congrats!!

During April I tried my hand at being creative and made this diaper cake for my friend Inga, who is expecting in July... I think it turned out okay! ;-)


More recently...

Nolan was selected to be promoted to Captain, last week, so we are thinking he will pick up Captain in July 1st / August 1st?! Whoop for Nolan! :-)

We were thinking we would be moving (to the front of the base, from the back) this summer/fall, but that has since changed to Spring 2011... hopefully before Nolan deploys in May 2011....

We don't have any huge plans/trips planned for the summer, but we are hoping to get down to Myrtle Beach, SC and see the sights, hang out with each other, as well as go to Medieval Times! :-)

Nolan has been quite busy at the squadron, especially as of late....

The weekend of May 22 -23 Nolan flew in the MCAS Cherry Point Air Show...
Here is my shaky/dizzy (for those watching) attempt to video the MAGTF (Marine Air Ground Task Force) demonstration! :) Nolan is flying the second Osprey ("Dash Two") that passes over each time! Very cool!

Okay the video isn't loading, maybe it is too large of a file! Boo!!!

Once he was home from the air show, he began final preparations to head to New York (Teterborro) for Fleet Week 2010 the week prior to and during Memorial Day weekend!

The back of the Osprey, packed for NYC!

Nolan was very busy flying (literally all over between Jacksonville and New York City) and standing duty, but he was able to get out and see the city on two evenings.... He was also extremely lucky to get to see the Phantom of the Opera Broadway Show (for FREE!) and meet the cast afterward!

Nolan in Times Square

Saturday, June 5th, was a squadron dining out, which doesn't seem to happen to often in the Marine Corps, so we were excited to be a part of that. It was held about an hour east of us in New Bern, a quaint little town. It was a tame version of a dining in, which is for Marines only....

After dinner picture outside The Chelsea