My Disney Princess

A week ago Lillie and I went to the local showing of Disney Live! It was a reinactment of the stories of Snow White, Cinderella, and Beauty and the Beast. I surprised Lillie that evening with the news of going to see princesses and she was so excited. Lillie loved it, she was so shocked every time a new princess would come onto the stage. She'd gasp and cover her mouth, it was really cute. And Lillie was kind of a celebrity herself, everyone loved her costume, kids and adults, I had a couple people come ask me how I made it. There were a lot of little girls in princess costume, but I only saw one other Rapunzel. Lillie loved her costume so much that she wanted to go down and dance during intermission, I was surprised at her boldness. It was a fun Mother Daughter night!

Henry the talker

He has learned about 10 or so words now....here he is showing off a few.

15 month stats

Henry finally got back to the doctor after a 6 month hiatus. We were in ID when he turned a year old and so we didn't have a pediatrician or even insurance to be able to take him to the doctor. We had to wait for our insurance to go into effect here and then I was able to go in. He was such a good boy during the checkup. He was totally amused by what the doctor was doing to him. So, besides getting 5 shots, we were able to get his stats:

Height: just short of 33 inches, 91st percentile
Weight: 23 lbs, 35th percentile
Head Circumference: 65th percentile

Henry also had a rash on his torso, which the doctor called pityriasis rosea. Which was probably caused from a viral infection. It's harmless and should resolve in 6 weeks. Hopefully that's true.

More from the Island

We took an hour long ferry ride out to the island, seeing so many dolphins along the way. Really cool! Then we relaxed on the beach, I read a little while the kids played in the water and in the sand. The water there was a little different than on the coast. It was a little cooler, which was enjoyable, because then it was actually refreshing, more like being in a pool than being in a bath. It also had waves, which was nice to listen to. Lillie and I went to go search for sea shells at one point during, and I was out in the sun more than I had anticipated, because we kept finding more interesting shells the farther away we went, and I got a little sunburned. I let her keep her three favorite and left the rest for someone else to find. We had a blast and would go often if it wasn't quite so pricey. Oh well, I think we'll have to go again at least once.

Henry said Boat for the first time on this trip and Bye Bye too. He's been talking so much lately!

Ship Island

VIDEO0020 a video by ericwin99 on Flickr.

We enjoyed a nice saturday excursion to a little island off the gulf coast. Warm clear water, dolphins, crabs and great weather make for a fun weekend.

Our Playground

Henry likes to find treasures on the beach, like shells, sticks, rocks, charred wood, etc. And then he has to show every single thing to me.

Lillie likes to build sand castles, but this sand is so fine, it's finer than sugar, that it's kinda difficult to get out of the bucket. I need to work on my castle making method.

A little bocce ball on the beach.

Henry goes crazy chasing the birds around on the beach. These birds are the sea gulls of the south, I'm assuming. It's funny to listen to him shrieking, trying to sound like the birds.

It is SO NICE living literally a couple minutes from the beach. We have been spending quite a bit of time there because we can just stop for an hour or two without much planning and often without our swimsuits. The kids love to play with the sand, chase birds and actually get into the water. The water is seriously bath water. Kinda creepy warm. Definitely not refreshing when it's 90 degrees outside, but in the evening when it's cooled down a bit, it's perfect. And the kids LOVE it. The beach isn't super busy we can just kind of let them do their thing. We go there more often than going to the park because then we don't have to worry about Henry climbing the play equipment, crazy boy.

It's hard to believe that it is even salt water because there aren't big waves, it's really warm, really shallow, like knee deep for 200 yards, and doesn't smell like seaweed and fish. We kinda love it.

My Mini-Triathlon

Last Saturday, the 10th, I competed in a mini-triathlon here on base. We trained for about a week and a half, but it was actually pretty fun. I even kind of miss getting up at 5:15 to go bike. There were a few extra obstacles in this race for me, I woke up that morning with hives all over my torso, so I competed while drugged up on Benadryl, my front tire popped minutes before the race began, fortunately there was a spare, and during the run, my hair band broke, so I ran with my hair down which was hot. The bottom picture is of me with three of the four other girls from my ward who competed. I did pretty well, I think my official time was 1:03, which was also my number, so it was meant to be. I am just glad that I completed it, I was really worried about popping another tire. So happy that didn't happen. I know I look like death, so please no judging. :)

Oh yeah, it was a 200m swim, 9.2 mile bike and 2 mile run.

Hank at 15 Months

Henry turned 15 mos on the 4th. He loves:

-to follow his sister around and wants whatever she's playing with.

-Thomas the train! He's got a train book, pajamas, a ride on train and a small green toy train, whose name is actually Henry. We've started to record Chuggington to watch in the morning, because Thomas shows are painfully awful and this is at least tolerable.

-to play with cars, airplanes, and balls too. The kid can throw way better than his sister. :)

-to talk. Most of it is his made-up words, but he has recently added a few new words. He can now also say Jesus, yeehaw, choo choo, and a few more words. He calls sippy cups, bottles and his pacifiers all Baba, which gets a little confusing at times.

-to torture me with his sleeping habits. Some days he's up at or before 6, and he takes two naps, and sometimes he sleeps in past 7 and then only requires one nap. But I really cannot plan anything in advance, because I'm not sure if it'll be a one or two nap day.

-his dad just as much as me, which is seriously so great, I cannot even say. LOVE THIS.

We just love this little guy. He's started to show off with his dancing skills and other tricks which is just hilarious. I need to get videos of it all.

First Day of Preschool!

Lillie started preschool yesterday! We're doing a co-op preschool with a couple of Lillie's friends, Jack and Katy. She's loved it and I knew she would. Lillie has talked about going to school since she first learned to talk. It's three times a week for two hours and our week is the week after next. I need to start preparing!

Our Pal, Lee

Well, we are in the middle of our first tropical storm. It's rained A LOT. And has ruined our plans of spending the Labor Day weekend at the beach... I was really looking forward to that. Instead we have been having a fun time hanging out inside, watching movies and playing, so it really hasn't been too bad so far. Our county has been under a tornado watch for the past 24 hours and I'm really hoping that it doesn't happen. Like REALLY hoping.

The storm has also ruined my plans for training extra hard this weekend for the mini triathlon I have coming up next weekend. I could really use the extra practice swimming or biking or running. I mean, it was nice to sleep in past 5:45, but I think I would have rather been out training. I don't want to crash and/or drown on the day of the race.

But Lee is not all bad, I have been forgetting to water my lawn since we're only supposed to do it in the morning or evening, and I don't remember until it's too late. So some areas are looking a little (okay, ALOT) parched. Anyway, my lawn is loving that is raining and so I guess I'm glad someone's happy about it.

Our New Digs

So we've been in our new place for a couple weeks now, and have had our stuff for a little over a week now. We have been working hard to make it into a home, but we're still bombarded with boxes and stuff that I just don't know where to put. But I'm not complaining too much because we really do like our house... a lot.
It's so nice to be able to say house and not apartment! I love my garage, large laundry room, ample storage, and large living areas. It's completely quiet here, which I appreciate so much. But I must admit that I do NOT love the weather here. It is too hot and humid. Argh! We really aren't spending much time outside unless we're in water.
We've made some good friends, 6 out of the 10 in Eric's program are LDS and all have 2 or more kids. So we're planning to do a co-op preschool, since there's about 5 or 6 kids about the same age. Which will be fun! And we all live in the same little neighborhood.
Life is different on base. You cannot speed at all, there are police around every bend. I have to show ID every time I get back on base. There are these intercoms in the neighborhoods and all over base that warn you about the weather, if it's above 90 degrees or if there's lightning, and at the end of the day a trumpet plays a tune called retreat and then the national anthem plays. You're supposed to salute (if you're military) or put your hand over your heart while it all plays. It is nice to be so close to the grocery store and the food is so cheap. Too bad it closes at 7, so I haven't figured out a good time for me to do my grocery shopping since I want to do it sans kids. Eric is able to come home for lunch every day, which is the best!
We haven't been able to much exploring of the area yet, although we did get a membership at the local children's museum, I know we'll be spending a lot of time there. The kids love it.
We haven't taken pictures but I am always thinking that I should because things are different here. Anyway, I do have a couple that Eric took to show me the area before I came.

This layout is similar to ours, except we only share a wall with our neighbor's garage, the upstairs are separate, so it's not all that similar. ha!
Ignoring all the dead bugs that Eric collected on his drive cross country, this is a view of one of the streets in our neighborhood.
The effects of Katrina are still present. You'll see damaged buildings every now and again. Sometimes there's no building at all, like there's nothing but a sidewalk and a stoop, or nothing but a crumbling brick fireplace, or a road or parking lot that leads to nothing. But overall the area is doing pretty well.
The base is right by the beach. We love seeing the water and sand everyday.
This is the commisary and bx.
This is the bay right behind the big wigs' houses. I've heard that there are alligators in there. This is like a couple blocks from my house. Kinda scared to see one. I had an intense nightmare last night about them.

Anyway, we're just trying to finish getting settled. I spent the most of today making curtains for Henry's room. We're hoping that the blackout liner helps him to sleep past 6.

Last Week

Today marks the beginning of Eric's last week of Officer's Training. (Insert Hallelujah chorus here.) Tomorrow it will be six weeks since we've been together! However, we have been lucky enough to be able to talk every day and have skyped twice in the last two weekends, which was really nice to see each other's faces while talking. The kids really loved being able to see their Daddy, and Eric loved being able to see them being goofy together, Henry walking, and Lillie throwing up... okay maybe not the last one (but he did get to witness that.)
It really seems like it can't possibly have been six weeks, but at the same time, our kids are so different since the last Eric's seen them. Lillie is a completely different kid here. She's so happy when she is outside playing all day, every day, by herself or with cousins. She gets so dirty but has been so much easier to deal with since coming here, I usually don't see her much. I know it will be really hard for her to leave, life on a farm is pretty amazing for a little kid. She has become especially attached to my mom, hands down prefers her to me. But hopefully being able to spend time with her Dad, will compensate somewhat.
Henry is also completely changed. He LOVES being outside as much as Lillie. He loves throwing rocks, swimming in the kiddie pool and jumping on the trampoline. He is walking now and is doing a great job. He also likes to talk in his own language. If you weren't listening closely, you might think that he was speaking English. Very chatty baby, just like Lillie was. He has also become very attached to both my mom and dad. It will be hard for him too but I hope wrestling with Daddy will lessen the blow.
I am so grateful to my parents for letting us invade their lives these past 7-8 weeks. There is no way that I could have done this by myself. I am so indebted to them, seriously, they are saints for doing this. And to all the rest of my family for babysitting or playing with my kids or entertaining me. I have had so much help, THANK YOU. I've loved being here this summer. We've had a lot of fun.
Anyway, there are five days till we see Eric. We get to spend Saturday afternoon together as a family and then we will fly out early Sunday morning to our new home.

Eric has changed too, he's gotten a new wardrobe and a new haircut. Can't wait to see this guy.

Lil's New 'Do

We were in the middle of family prayer last Monday morning when we heard a SNNIPPP! I opened one eye to see Lillie with scissors in one hand and a handful of hair in the other. Grrr.... So, she got a haircut, losing about six inches. Thank goodness it wasn't worse than it was. She does look pretty dang cute with a bob.

So soon??

I always knew that the day would come where I would miss Southern California. Seeing these photos only confirm that fact.














But the thing that I miss most in SoCal are the people that we left. There were so many wonderful people in the ward and especially in our building.

Lillie was talking a lot today about her friends Taylor, Hallie and Hayley. Started to make me nostalgic.

hank's first year

Henry Turned One!

Way back on June 4th, my baby turned one year old! We were at the cabin and celebrated two days early so that our Iowa and Utah cousins could be there. We had a small little party which Henry didn't really seem to know what was going on, but two days later when we opened his present, he loved it. We got him this Fisher Price race track with little cars. I know he'll love it again when we get to MS.
What Henry is all about:
-Henry took his first steps at twelve months, it's funny because Eric was so sure that it was going to happen when he was at Officer's Training, but he actually did it before then... while we were both in Oregon. Oops. But, Eric did get to see a couple steps before he left. He has one stint a day where he walks between 6-10 steps, but is still a little wobbly. We've got three more weeks to perfect it before we see Daddy again.
-Hank's vocabulary at 12 mos included Mama, Dada, Baba, and Uh oh. Now he also says ball and kitty. And I hear him all the time repeating me and it sounds like real words. He jibber jabbers all the time too.
-Henry alternates between two naps and one a day. But they're usually a good amount of time though so I can't complain too much. I picked him up a doggy pillow pet the other day which he loves to snuggle up with.
-His nicknames include: Hank, Hankie Pankie, Hankster, Hen, Henzy (my mom calls him this, so I'll let it slide.)
-He hasn't had his 1 year check up yet, since we don't really have a permanent home yet or a doctor, but I think he's pretty average sized. He's majorly slowed down, still wearing clothing he wore six months ago.
-Henry is my little snuggle bug, he loves to be held by me, as much as he can. This is frustrating when I'm trying to get things done, but I've got a really strong right arm now and can do quite a lot left-handed.
-He has got 8 teeth! I think he's gotten better at this teething thing since he's done it nonstop for months. I don't even hardly notice them coming in.
-He loves animals, being outside, wrestling with his dad, and his big sister.
-He is really ticklish. I love it.

We sure love this little guy. Don't know how we ever lived without him. Hope this is your best year yet, Hank!

Miss This Guy

Eric's been gone for two and a half weeks. Not quite half way.







Lillie only misses Daddy a little bit, she's too distracted with cousins to care much. But Henry and I miss this guy tons. Can't wait til August 6th.