Car Seat Canopy

I ordered this awesome fabric about a month ago to make our little guy a car seat canopy.  I've never used one, but, I'm pretty excited about it.  I LOVE the fabric and finally made it.  It only took me about 2 1/2 hours, which I was happily able to complete in one afternoon :)

I also made this teddy bear a while back.  It was a complete experiment and turned out pretty well for the most part, a little wierd and uneven in places, but I think I like it.

He even has a little tail

Well, that was fun!  I love making projects, and completing them.  I feel so accomplished and fulfilled when I complete a creative "work of art".  Thanks for letting me share.

Florida trip to visit Denise/Memories

We went down to Ocala, Florida a few weeks ago to visit a close friend of mine, Denise, who was passing away from cancer. I played volleyball, basketball, and did track and field with Denise for 4 years throughout all of high school, and the group of friends that played together have remained close as we have all grown up, married, and moved all over the country.  I wanted to see her before she passed away and help her family out with anything they might need.  We had a good visit with them and were even able to watch her 2 little girls for a day to help them out.  Denise passed away on October 24th, about a week after I saw her for the last time.  I'm so grateful we were able to visit her and thankful to have been friends with her.  She was always such a wonderful friend and example to all who knew her. Funeral services were held in Florida, where she lived, October 29th.  Memorial services are being held today in West Jordan, Utah (where she grew up). Wish I could be there.

Denise and her family, about a month before she passed away

 Some memories of our sporting days

 Homecoming dance junior year

 Senior basketball team girls, such good friends

 Track and field, junior year, always a blast (one of my most favorite photos ever)

 With our basketball coach, junior year

Mutt Strutt

Mike and Arcee participated in a 5K mutt strutt the Navy base was putting on a few weeks ago.  Basically, it was an opportunity to go running with your dog and a bunch of other people.  It was pretty fun.  Anabelle and I went along to watch (I wish I could run, but there's just a little something holding me back).  They did pretty well, ended up in second place!  This even scored them an awesome trophy and prize bag, which included a new rope toy for Arcee and a Halloween marshmallow sucker thing, which reminded me far too much of nasty Peeps, but of course Anabelle loved it.  Here are the photos.

 I married the strongest man alive!  He carried Anabelle the whole 3 miles ;)
Just kidding.  She did run to meet him down that last stretch and he carried her through the finish line though.  It was pretty cute.

 Yes, the other dog is dressed up as a pumpkin.  They also had a costume contest for the dogs.  And no, we did not even think about dressing Arcee up.  Not our thing.

 Nice little trophy to take home (that has just been sitting on our counter since we got it...awesome.)

The Pumpkin Patch

We have had a lot going on lately, and a lot to post pictures about, so I am VERY far behind.  But, I'll just start from the beginning.  A few weeks ago, we took Ani to the Boone Hall Pumpkin Patch.  She loved it, and had a blast.

 Mike had a lot of fun, too, playing on the big toys like a little kid again.  If you know Mike, then you'll know that he wishes all the cool, fun stuff made and sized for children were really made and sized for a big guy like him.  

 A big tube swing.

 Pumpkin Checkers board.  Anabelle watched some kids play and just HAD to go play herself.

 She loved seeing the pumpkins and bringing one home :)  She gets excited and points them out every time she sees one.

 Anabelle is obsessed with all types and forms of bounce houses.  She has been lucky enough to play in some on a few different occasions lately.  The slide ones are her favorite.

 They had an enormous jumping pad, don't remember what they called it.  Mike and I each took a turn with Ani up there.  It was pretty fun, but not the best prego exercise (but I do love me a good trampoline-as my open gym friends know :)  )

We had a great family outing that day! She even got to feed a goat.

Nuke School Grad

So yes, it has been an entire week since Mike graduated from Nuke school, but here are the photos :)  He was a distinguished graduate among 50-60 or so (can't remember exactly how many) officer graduates.  He did very well throughout this training, working very hard and putting his engineering brain to great use.  Here is a picture of his class section

 Such a handsome man back there :)

 This is a photo of all of the officer grads, plus 3 of the 11 enlisted sections of Nuke school graduates.  All in all, the whole ceremony took about 2 hours because there were so many graduates.

 Anabelle did great!  I brought plenty of snacks and activities to keep her busy.  I even got comments from other people about how well-behaved she was.  That was nice :)  By the end, though, she was saying "I want to go home" and I was covered in princess stickers.  We had a nice time and the weather that morning was great!
Here is Mike being congratulated by the Captain of the Command.

 Getting his diploma.

 Anabelle is so funny.  She HAD to have her cheek right up against mine during all of the pictures.  Pretty cute, eh.  And this is my prego belly at 32 weeks.  Yay for Mike!  We were so happy to be able to celebrate this with him.

 For his congratulatory gift, Anabelle and I went shopping for a bunch of different snacks that Mike loves (because whoever knows Mike knows that he loves junk food).  This is the card I created for him.  Needless to say, he was pretty excited when he saw it.  And he even still has quite a bit of the treats left.

Well, we love Mike and are so thankful he works so hard.  We will enjoy the next 2 weeks with him before he heads up to CT for his next training.  We're taking a family vacation next week up to the Great Smokey Moutains!!! We're very excited, as we haven't been on an actual several day-vacation that doesn't include a "moving across the country" road trip in quite a while.  Yay!

Mike's birthday and other fun stuff

By far, Anabelle's favorite thing to do is to get thrown up in the air by her Daddy.  She's always wanting to "go up in the air", "jump and spin", or do "helicopter".    They are so fun and entertaining to watch, and both Ani and Mike's faces just light up when they're playing together.

 

And some more pictures of us

 This is Mike's "comp stache".  It's a Nuke school thing.  They earn the right to grow a comp stache once they  reach a certain number of points from all of their cumulative test scores.  Mike grew his for about 5 weeks.  Upon taking and passing his comp this Tuesday, the comp stache is now GONE. :)  Congrats to Mike for passing his comp!! He scored a 3.56, and did very well all throughout school.  He graduates tomorrow.  Now we get to enjoy another 3 weeks of having him home with us before he leaves to Connecticut for another 10-week training.

Mike's 27th birthday was yesterday!  We had a nice day.  He took Anabelle fishing in the morning.  As you may guess, she was thrilled!  She absolutely loved it.  Mike even caught a fish (his first stroke of fishing luck here in SC).  It was about a 5-lb bass.  Some pics of AB fishing with Daddy:

 She loved it so much that she talked about wanting a princess fishing pole of her own.  When Mike came home from his birthday shopping yesterday afternoon, guess what he had for her?!  They practiced casting together for a while and then Ani sat in front of her little swimming pool and fished for at least a half hour.  She did it again later.  What an awesome Daddy she has!

 And now Mike has a fishing buddy who will actually be excited to go with him every time :)

 For his birthday dessert, Mike asked for a lemon cake.  I am not a huge lemon fan, but it's his birthday.  He wanted his mom's recipe.  So I made it.  It was surprisingly delicious!  He loved it too.  And of course, so did AB.

 Happy Birthday Mike!  I love your guts!!!

Also, as you can see from above, I've been dying my hair.  I've had to re-do it once or twice because it seems to fade quickly, but all in all, I like it for now.  Here's a pic from before it starts to fade.  Also check out my gnarly neck burns.  I know they look nasty (and they're gone now).  Hot oil splashed up from the pan I was cooking in and attacked my neck.  OUCH!  It hurt.  But like I said, all better now :)  Sorry it has taken so long to update.