Flight Suits and Fairytales: March 2012

Christmas 2012

Christmas was awesome this year...seriously, the best one yet! We decorated for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving, and this year I was pumped b/c Chris got us a new tree! I'm a HUGE nerd, and super allergic to real trees, so ours was fake...but FABULOUS! It was pre-lit, had a button that you push to turn the lights on, was the perfect height, and it looked awesome in our front window. But, I digress...enough about the tree!

Christmas was so great this year because we started (and continued) some of our very own traditions. Not the ones that we necessarily had when we were kids, but special ones just for our family. We have a snowman advent calendar that we bought in Germany a few years ago that we talked about every night (we even made up a song, but my hubs would KILL me if I told you about it!). I got out all of the Christmas books that my mom has collected for me over the years and those were the ones that we read to Elli at bedtime. We got dressed up and went to the Christmas Eve service at a church we had never been to before. We woke up on Christmas morning and sipped hot chocolate while we opened our stockings, ate some yummy monkey bread, and then opened presents around the tree while listening to carols. It was like a dream for me, just the way I imagined it would be for my children. And I remember just looking at both of them in awe, praying that they treasure these times when we're all together because I know that Chris's job makes holidays as a family a little bit uncertain. We let the kids play with their toys all day, and then I made a birthday steak dinner for Chris that evening. We don't do the traditional turkey at Christmas yet...I'm still a little bit intimidated!

We have a HUGE family. The kids have four sets of grandparents, aunts, uncles, great-grandparents, and then us...it makes for quite a lot of presents! Now I'm not anti-present or anything, but I want to make sure that in the midst of all the holiday hoopla, the kids understand the REAL reason that we're celebrating. This year we (Chris and I) decided to do 3 "Santa" gifts to represent the 3 wisemen's gifts to Christ. We then did 4 smaller presents sticking the the theme of: Want It, Wear It, Need It, Read It. Micah was so young that we didn't really do it for him, but Elli got a microphone, a dress, some big-girl panties, and 3 books. She was thrilled, and it's definitely a tradition that we'll continue!

Here's some pics from our holiday season...

Guess who loves Santa?!

The kids first picture with Mr. Claus

My little guy and I at the Kids Christmas Party on base.

Our little family

Elli's present from Grandma & Granddad...can you tell that she LOVES Cinderella?!

My precious girl ready for church

Mall Santa...I might have cried :)

This might be my favorite picture of the season! I love Elli's face, and how Micah is just laying there...I want to remember it forever!

Merry Christmas from The Duncan's!

Micah soaking it all up on Christmas morning.

I know it was awhile ago, but what are some of your favorite holiday traditions??

Graduation!

Chris has spent the last 2.5 years in training. When we came back from England, he went straight into Pilot Training. From there, he completed an officer's school and then we moved to NC where he started training in his specific plane. Well, it was a long ride...but he's finally finished!! A lot of people think that it would be rough spending that much time training...both for the one actually doing it, and the family supporting them. At times, I would agree. But you know what? That was 2.5 years that I had my husband home almost every single night. 2.5 years that he was able to spend with Elli, and 2.5 years that he did not deploy...not.one.time. And I think that's pretty great!

Elli on Chris's graduation day...sportin' her "do I HAVE to?!" smile :)

Our little family getting ready for Red Carpet Day

My handsome pilot husband and I...I'm so very proud of him!

Cheesin' at Graduation Dinner

Yay!!! He did it!! He's officially a Fighter Pilot!!

**I have to add, because I'm so stinkin' proud, that he won quite a few awards that night!! I have pictures, but I thought that might just be rubbing it in :) Ha! And, at one point I actually DID a fist pump. Yep, I admit it!**

Micah accompanied us to the dinner b/c, well...he was only a few weeks old!

Chris's Dad & Donna were able to celebrate his graduation with us! What a blessing it was to share that night with them.

The Duncan Clan (minus a very cute Elli Girl!)

A Growing Boy...and more visitors!!

December definitely held some challenges for our little family. Micah had really bad reflux/colic, but he also wasn't getting enough to eat (which I would learn at about the 6 week point). It was hard to see him so uncomfortable, especially since we couldn't do anything to help him!

But, my favorite holiday is in December so it wasn't ALL hard!! We put up the tree the day after Thanksgiving (a tradition of ours), and it was so much fun watching Elli really get into it. It was the first year that she "understood" the whole Christmas thing, and we did our best to talk to her about it every single day.

She LOVED the lights!

PaPa and Micah hangin' on the sidelines :)

My sweet boy and my Daddy...love them!

I love this picture!! Elli wanted to be just like me, so she wrapped a towel around herself and put her stuffed reindeer in it. She's precious :)

I'm 1 Month Old!!!

Our last set of visitors, Chris's Dad & Step-mom...this was Donna getting some snuggles from our boy :)

Our kids LOVE Grandma!

Heehee!! Where's Micah?!

I can hold my head up...kinda :)

His first vest...I thought it was important to capture!

Is this not the most beautiful smile?! He started doing it around 6 weeks, and it just lights up a room!

Month 1 with Little Man

Admittedly, we might have had a few too many things on our plate the month that Micah was born. Looking back, I'm surprised that I survived it! Ha! In all seriousness, we had some MAJOR life changes that month, and it was really hard at times. Thankfully we had a lot of help, and the sweet Lord brought us some peace :)

Nana & Micah

This was taken at our old house. The one that was being packed up the week that Micah was due b/c we were in the middle of buying a house. It wouldn't have been so bad, but Miss Naive' over here thought that all movers were like military movers. You know, the kind that pack your whole house up one day, come back the next day to load it into the truck, and then deliver it and unpack on the third day. (If you're not military, you probably think I'm crazy b/c this is NOT how it's done in the civilian world!). So a week, yes 1 WEEK, before we're supposed to move I wise up to the situation and we face either paying an obscene amount to hire someone to pack and move our stuff, or we do it ourselves. Guess what we chose? Well...it wasn't QUITE as bad as doing it all ourselves, we hired someone to help with a truck, but Chris & his mom (yep, she's a saint!) did most of the packing and hauling to the garage!

So, in November we packed up our old house, I had a C-Section (and was literally NO help at all during the moving process!), we signed on our new house, we moved in, we had 3 different sets of visitors, we had Thanksgiving Dinner, and I totally lost my mind :) Ha! I didn't really, but at times I totally felt like it!

A sweet daddy-son moment captured.

After Micah's very 1st Bath

Precious? I think YES!

Gobble, Gobble!

Us w/ Elli

Brother & Sister

Our first Thanksgiving in our NEW HOME!!!

GG & her little turkey :)

BIG News!

Well, we have some pretty big news....we had our son!! And it's only taken me a little over 4 months to blog about it! I sometimes look at him and wonder where the time has gone. And then again, these past 4 months seem like the longest of my entire life :) HA!

So, here's the story in pictures...

Our last picture as parents of just 1 child. I was remarkably calm that morning. Excited, but calm. Not totally freaking out like I thought I would be! We got to the hospital at about 5am, and they wheeled me back to the OR at around 7:30am. The only really scary part was the first 5 minutes or so when Chris wasn't with me in the room. They gave me the spinal and got me situated, and I was relieved to see his face when everything was ready to go!

Note the barf bucket beside my head...nice, huh?! Glad that's in the picture! I get super nauseous when I'm nervous, and my nerves had really hit hard! Also of note, my trusty iphone. I was allowed to play music on it, and got to listen to the same songs that I listened to when Elliana was born. It was really special, and I'm so glad we were able to do it!