What a day!

Or rather what a whirlwind of the past two weeks!!

Here is what has happened recently:
-I turned a year older...YEAH! ;)
-My darling hubby had 2 weeks of super cram time before his final boards :(
-Matt got a 3.4 on his final oral board and a 3.0 on his final watch board!
-Alan is teething...what else is new???
-Alan had his 15 month check up and is doing GREAT!
-Shots are no fun....no matter what age your baby is
-Alan just learned the "L" sound and the "guh" sound.. sounds like he is saying Gullah Gullah some times :)
-We took a mini vacation! We went to see our friends David and Jill and their 2 boys up near Clemson, SC.
-Most necessary vacation I have ever taken in my life!!!
-Alan was a pill the whole time and was up at 6-7am every morning and didn't nap all day...2 cups of coffee was necessary each morning.
-We baby proofed Alan's bedroom because he is Houdini.
-Alan has a referral in to see a pediatric ophthalmologist because his left eye is starting to wander just like his mommy's. I know that I was really hoping that I was just seeing things but then Matt told me that Alan's eyes were doing funny things so I knew then that it was legit. But at least we are at one of the best eye institutes in the nation and they did a great job on my eye. I have complete confidence that they can get things figured out for Alan. :)
-We are heading out to NM on October 9th to see our friends from Mesa Baptist!!! I will never admit that I miss NM under any circumstances....but I will say that I miss our church and the people there. I know we will never be at a church like that again unless the Lord puts us back there!! :)
-WE HAVE ORDERS!!!! We are going to Bangor, WA on the USS Nebraska! We will be moving there at the end of January.
-Matt leaves for CT at the end of this month until we move to WA. "Lord, please give me the grace and strength I need to be strong while he is gone." I may have to set up a separate private blog so I can vent my frustrations when he is gone.

So that is really it in a quick nutshell. But I can't leave you with just info and no pictures!!! So here you go! :)
Alan finally got the fork thing down....took long enough!! But he doesn't do it all the time. :(
Daddy and Alan reading Goodnight MoonAlan giving Mommy her birthday present :)Alan after his last big boy haircut. Much better looking!!
Alan and his piggy bank from "Auntie" Erinn...He LOVES this thing!!!

NO!

That is Alan's new word of choice, NO!, followed by some tears. Then when I give him the dirty look for yelling no at me he gives me the biggest grin and says what I can only think is "What are you looking at me like that for? What did I do wrong? :bats beautiful blue eyes:" Boy am I in for trouble. Now his no sounds more like "NAW" but we all know what he is saying. :) Alan also wants to say hi to everyone! v cv ivf c,ef T589BI9PBH IIIIKJMN, , MNNNNBH c.

Slacker! :)

Yes I know I have been slacking on this. As usual, life gets busy and the blog goes by the wayside. But at least I am still updating! :) So little man is a regular walker now....as long as Mommy or Daddy are not in the room. ??? I don't get it but oh well...if he only wants to walk with other people around and not us then that is fine with me.

We went to North Carolina at the beginning of August for a week. We went to go see my Nana and Pop Pop and my sister Patricia. Everyone was just tickled by Alan and how much he had grown! Alan was 3 months the last time Patricia saw him and 6 months the last time Nana and Pop Pop saw him. He wasn't so mobile then! But we had a great time up there. Alan got to go swimming in the pool a few times and he also went to the beach twice! He didn't like the sand at first but once he got used to it's "shifty-ness" he was much better. He loved the water too!
Rocks and sand and shells were also his favorite thing at the beach......to eat. Yes my son thinks that sand is a delicious and nutritious part of a balanced diet. Who would have thought that beach sand was yummy?
We also got confirmation, while in NC, that our son HATES, and I mean HATES grass. He wants nothing to do with the stuff and will cry until you get him off of it. He even went to the point of sitting on the grass with his hands and feet up in the air so he didn't have to touch it with his bare skin. Crazy kiddo. But he likes sand....what a weirdo.
Alan also got a pretty nice "boo-boo" while we were up there too. But he recovered quickly. He had a chicken fight with the marble coffee table and lost. :( Busted lip, bruised tongue and cut gums later, he is still smiling! Got to love it. My little dare-devil boy just can't seem to let me rest for even a second. But boys will be boys right?
So "exciting" stuff going on with us now... Matt just took his 100% exam last week and he thinks that he did pretty well. Test results should be out sometime this week. But that was the last "BIG" written exam he has to take until he leaves this command. We are all very excited that he is done with that test! I have my last post-op eye surgery appointment on Thursday. Hopefully we get a "thumbs up"! They have finally figured out what is going on with my crazy body and have started me on medication to fix it and I go to see a nutritionist next week to tackle the unexplained weight loss issue. I find it slightly humorous that I had been "threatened" with a visit to the nutritionist during my pregnancy and before then and now someone is following through. Go figure. :) But hopefully this will get my back on the right track and get some healthy high calorie diet ideas that won't make Matt put on the same amount of weight as I am. That is going to be the tricky part...making 3 different meals at dinner time. UGH. That is all I have to say on that one! :) But other than that life is pretty calm. We should be getting orders here in the next month or so and Matt graduates the beginning of October! We are hoping for Washington state but where ever the Lord sends us is fine. Well that is about it for now. Hope that everyone else is doing well!

Walking what?

Alan decided on Sunday that he wanted to finally walk. All by himself with a toy in his hand, he took 4 steps and it hasn't stopped since! We are just so proud of him!

How many did you say???

4!! 4 I tell you! My son now has 4 teeth! Took him forever to get those last 2 in, but now he has 2 on top and 2 on the bottom!! The top 2 just cut through today!! :) I am so excited about his new teeth!!!! Once they come in a little more and I can get a picture of them I will post it up here but until then YAY!!!!! :) That's all for now. Just wanted to let everyone know my son now has more teeth! :)

Bread.

That is all I have to say. My son LOVES bread! You can toast it or not and he doesn't care. Just give him some good old 100% whole wheat bread and he is the happiest boy on the face of the earth. Who knew?!?!?!!? And you don't even have to break it up for him...actually he prefers that you keep it as a whole slice and he will tear the pieces off himself. I do have to thank the Lord that Alan doesn't have a wheat allergy or a gluten allergy!! It is bad enough with lactose intolerance and I think my son might just freak out if he couldn't eat his bread.

Granted in the picture he has toast, eggs and watermelon. The only thing that he finished was the toast. :)

Happy Birthday Little Man!

Today is Alan's 1st birthday! I can't believe how big he has gotten over the past year. This time last year was a massive onslaught of emotions. We were frustrated that there wasn't more done to help him keep baking, elated that he was born, devastated that he wasn't healthy and above all, mentally and physically exhausted. But the Lord was with us each step of the way, whether is was a step forward or backwards He was still with us. Now we have a beautiful...well Hansome....young man that never ceases to amaze us each and every day! Here are some pictures from his birthday and a few videos!



















Good Morning Birthday Boy!! He was extra happy this morning when I came in to get him...but his diaper was really gross so I think that is why he was happy ;)

Eating his birthday muffin....9am is a little too early to do cake so we did muffins instead!


Here we are singing Happy Birthday to him along with Matt's explanation as to why we are doing it so early. :)

Checking out his new toy from Mommy and Daddy! It is a little push/ride car. So far he really likes it! I just hope this helps his balance and walking skills! :)

And here is his trying to get around on it. At least he has figured out how to get off of it without falling!!! :) Always a good thing!