Oh Mexico

Oh, down in Mexico
I never really been so I don't really know
Oh, Mexico
I guess I'll have to go


Our hotel had about 3 peacocks that roamed around. This one always stayed around the restaurant, and if you flirted good enough with him- he'd open up his feathers! He liked me ;)



















The Hotel was beautiful. Filled with gardens and several pools. It was heavenly.

Beautiful Rachel and I. Or as I call it Ebony and Ivory.














Oh, man. The pool was wonderful. It was so nice to just have a vacation that was all about sunning, swimming, eating and alittle drinking ;)We did do one day trip into town, but otherwise no schedule at all! I also got 2 massages. I loved Mexico!















Rachel is a school teacher in Mexico City, my parents had planned on meeting up with her while they were in Mexico. They flew her over and asked me if I wouldn't mind coming to keep my buddy company. It was a hard decision, but I accepted. Eric was happy to keep the boys at home, which was sooo great of him. Thanks mom and dad for an awesome vacation!!!!

Oh, Mexico
It sounds so simple I just got to go
The sun's so hot I forgot to go home
Guess I'll have to go now

Army times

Most of you know Eric graduated this spring and had his Commissioning ceremony in March. We were so excited to be done with school, drill and ROTC! He had a great time the last couple of years, but was ready to be done. Here's some pictures from his Commissioning ceremony and ROTC dining out.

Eric got the USAA "Spirit Award" sounds very cheerleader to me!



















Us over looking the Columbia River at the Red Lion for ROTC Dining out



















My brother Jonathan got to come up to be Eric's First Salute














Eli, Darcy and I got to put Eric's new Lieutenant rank on

way,way,way behind Ashur's 6 month update

I actually wrote this a month ago- but didn't have my camara ready to upload some photos! I seem to have some spare time at the moment so alittle catch up... I haven't been as good as posting with Ashur as I was with Eli! Two pretty big reasons for this, I'm sure you understand! First is having 2 kiddos, and second, I posted mostly for Eric while he was deployed. Now we are just relaxing and enjoying life as a family for a change before we gear up for "normal" army life soon. Which will mean Eric gone for long days, maybe some months spent apart and most likely another deployment in our future. Its enevidable people, he's in the Army. We don't have a for sure date or anything, we are just preparing for it. Eric has 12 more years in the military and I'm sure we will see another seperation in that time. I don't know if that is within the next couple years, or in 10 years, but its possible. This is kinda how we live our life, always ready for something new to happen and change our plans completely on us. We have learned to totally and completely trust God in everything that happens. Its kinda this roller coaster we got on and are being taken for a ride. We don't know where its going up, down or spinning out of control! But we chose to get on it, and enjoy the good parts and pray in the hard parts. Its an amazing experience to fully lay your life out there, we are continually learning what life is about and I wouldn't trade my life with anyone.
uh hmm, well... What I had wanted to blog about was Ashur turning 6 months. haha. The little chunker weighed in at 19.6 lbs on April 21st. So by now he's a good 20 lbs I'm sure! He's doing good, rolling, crawling, sitting and going for everything around the room. His crawl in still an inch worm thing, but man can he get around that way! He is awesome, so happy! And to his Daddy's joy has started into the dadadada phase.

Easter Morning. yes, I was more than happy to put them in matching outfits!

6 months of no sleep!!!

The nights have been a struggle for us. Ashur started life great, nursing every 3-4 hours from the first week, and slowing started sleeping more and more at night. By only 3 weeks, he was sleeping through the night 9pm-8am! I was so proud of my little dream baby. Well...that didn't last long, around 2 months he started waking again in the night. No problem, 9pm-5am is a pretty good chunk of time too, but NO- some nights its midnight, 1am, 3:30am, 5am, 9am. He was all over the place waking up at different times every night. Eli was such a great sleeper and I think I kinda followed babywise method with him- but didn't need much, he just sorter did it on his own. So with Ashur, I still follow a schedule and put him to sleep awake and let him learn to fall asleep on his own, which worked great during the day and going to bed at night- but he just wouldn't STAY asleep. So we went through a trial of EVERYTHING I could think of. I tried each thing for about a week- babyfood and cereal, no change-moved him out of our room, no change-pumping at night to give him a bigger bottle before bed, no change- formula at night, no change-crying it out for at least an hour, the worst. Finally, finally, finally I thought... what is different from him and Eli? Eli slept great at my parents house at the same age. So I packed up the baby, kissed Eric and Eli goodbye and moved into my parents house in desperate need of a solid night sleep. And would you believe that the first night there- BOOM- he slept solid through the night!!! 9pm to bed and next thing I heard from him was cooing at 7:30am. I couldn't believe it! The only thing I can think is that its darker,warmer, quieter than the room he was in at our place??? And because it is warmer here I didn't put him in his polyester snuggly outfit- which they say to eliminate all polyester bedding to help a baby sleep? Really?! Well it worked, so at least we have reset his clock alittle and can now work on the right environment at our place. Or I may just stay here forever if it means sleep...precious sleep :)