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!

And....HE'S HERE!!!

Micah James Duncan

7lbs 12 oz & 22inches

7:53am

**Now there is a wet rag on my forehead...yeah, it was getting bad!**

Ahhh, my own room with my new son. It felt great to hold him, and I was so glad to be done with the whole C-Section thing!

Our first picture as a family of FOUR!!! One of the best moments of my life!

Elli and Daddy loving on "Baby Micah"...it's what E STILL calls him :)

Sweet Boy

Nana getting some sugar from her grandson!

Little Snugglebug

M in his "Going Home" outfit...love it!

Heading Home

My 2 precious blessings. I am so very, very thankful.

Final Stretch

It's been forever since I've blogged! It's easy to blame our cute little toddler, or the fact that I'm exhausted...but really, I just sometimes feel like I don't have much to say. Our lives have settled into a pretty normal routine, and while there are definitely days that are out of the ordinary, most of the time it's pretty even keeled around here :)

My wonderful friend, Tara of TLohse Photography, did a photo shoot for us recently, and I think the pics turned out really lovely. We wanted to document E's 2nd birthday, my pregnancy, and get some family shots as well. Tara has a gift for capturing people's emotions, and when I look at the work she did for us, all I see is LOVE.

Nothing much to report on the pregnancy; however, after much consideration and prayer we have decided to go ahead and schedule a C-Section for early November. I didn't have Elli via C-Section, so this has been a totally new (and quite overwhelming) experience. There are many extenuating circumstances behind our decision, and we definitely feel like it's the right choice for our family...it's just that the unknown can be kind of scary sometimes.

We're also in the process of house-hunting. Exciting, right?! After extensively looking into the possibility of building, we've decided to switch gears and look for a house that is already complete. I think the process would go much more smoothly if we weren't so darn picky...oh, and if we could wrap our heads around housing prices out here! They are crazy! So, while we've found a few that we're really interested in, I'm not sure we'll be homeowners anytime soon. We'll just have to see what God has in store for us :)

I just can't get over this picture. Truly, I can't. I just love these two. And I can't wait to see our sweet little boy added to that mix of emotions!

My cup runneth over.