at the pumpkin patch

The fall is my favorite time of the year! I was so excited because this was the time last year that Eric left for Iraq, so we are just now getting to experience the things he missed with Eli. Going to the pumpkin patch and Halloween were the first pictures I sent over to him and he said it broke his heart to be missing that. But now we are all together and enjoying the beginning of the holiday season! And Eli is a much better age to be enjoying all this, last year we propped him up near a pumpkin and tried to snap a shot before he fell over! This year for Halloween Eli was a dog, it was a great soft dog suit (might have been a bear?) from Costco, that he loves and would bark like a dog while he wore it. perfect. He was a huge hit around my parents neighborhood. I felt a little greedy taking a baby around to collect candy that is obviously not for him! Oh well, we all had a good time.

Speaking of Halloween, I just have to say this- some people have a hard time deciding whether they will let there kids partake in the tradition, and I realized that I love Halloween! Not because I am evil, but because around our house growing up it was always a time for great creativity! We almost always made our costumes and came up with great things. It drives me CRAZY to see little teenagers going door to door in there street clothes with a cheap scary mask on- just to get candy! In our home we will always celebrate Halloween, but there is no need to teach the creepy part, just use as a chance to be creative and have fun!

Like this year, at the ABSOLUTE last minute I had an idea:

taken from Lori

I am -Melea
I want -to do right in life
I have-a WONDERFUL husband and a beautiful baby
I wish -on 11:11 pretty often, since junior high- might be Heathers fault!
I dislike -nuts in sweet things.blah. they don't go in cookies,cake,ice cream. I tell most people I am allergic to avoid eating it.
I fear -Military junk. Way to close to home.
I hear -nothing.ahhhh. baby asleep.
I search -for good deals.
I wonder -what we will do next. where we will live. where will the money come from. how many kids I will have. will I raise them right...wonder is equaling worry.
I always -check my e-mail, maybe 5-10 times a day. sad.
I usually -clean my house daily, I LOVE a clean house with a scented candle lit at the end of the day.
I am not -a girly girl at all! I am sadly not concerned in the least bit about prettying myself up and sometimes I scare myself in the mirror.
I dance -like a 1 year old with Eli. Its usually a booty dance.
I sing -not enough anymore. I should do it more often, I think I have lost my skills.
I never -go to bed angry.
I rarely -rarely, rarely do the dishes. That is man's work.
I cry -pretty often, I think with pregnancy, breastfeeding, deployment and all the hormones in between, I have been crying for about 2 years straight!
I am not always -honest.
I lose -baby socks, they are tiny.
I'm confused -period. Alot of the time.
I need -to lose weight. I am not eating for 2 anymore, and I can't seem to get that through my head.
I should -keep in contact with friends far away more, I try with all the Internet stuff, but sometimes I wish I could see people more.
I dream -not very often, or I can't remember things.
I love-my life.

girls weekend

Cousins, mom, aunties, sister-in-law, and a baby oh my!

Here's a picture from our girls weekend in Seattle 2 weekends ago. We surprised Aunt Darlene by taking her up to Seattle for a shopping/eating/hang out spectacular. It was very fun! We all drove up together in our pary (party) wagon! And all shared the penthouse suite. what what. (you have to do it in that gangsta voice) The weather was AMAZING! It made me realize how much I love Seattle and need to go up there to hang out more often, its a cool city. Not pictured are our Seattle natives that joined us for lunch on the wharf. Super fun weekend! We should do it more!

so sad

So it is official. Eli is done breastfeeding. :( My last post was almost a month ago, when he started to stop. The next couple days I tricked him into it a few times, but he was just not into it! I got him to nurse on both sides one morning, then one side at night, and the other side the next day. Every time he was pretty frustrated with me. So I let him do his thing, and now over the past few weeks ANYTIME he signed milk or points at my chest I'd offer it to him, he usually just laughed and ran away! I didn't know if this was just a nursing strike or if he really was self weaning. From the info I read, babies don't self wean before 12 months, but more likely between 18-24. What about the in between? He is 14 months, and he for sure weaned himself. no tears...on his end at least! I wasn't so sure about being done with nursing...tear. I looooved breastfeeding and would recommend it to every mama out there! There's nothing better than looking down into that little babies eyes while your providing the best thing for them!
old picture of Eli and I on our way to Japan.

Lets finish off that Germany trip already

As I said we stayed at a resort in Garmisch Germany and took day trips from there. We got to see a lot of Bavaria, which is amazing! The mountains all around and the most ADORABLE little villages. It was like a fairy tale place. We had some of the best food I have ever tasted! Eli got addicted to spaetzle and ate it at every meal. At the end of the trip we flew through Amsterdam and had a 20 hour layover. We got to see Justin and Jen and stay at their (not their) house. I wish we could have stayed longer, but it was so good to see them and thanks for helping us discover our personalities, I never knew who I was before! Anyways, we had a wonderful vacation. We are back in town now all settled into our new apartment and Eric has started classes. I will post next about our place!
Our hotel



























Munich


Ettal Monastery
Mittenwald, Germany

I just wanted a frickn' picture

For the life of me I couldn't seem to get a decent picture of the two of us for our anniversary. My weird faces and Eric's half opened eyes! ugh. Well happy 6 years to us.

FINALLY, our trip to Germany

Our first full day in Germany at our hotel in Garmisch. Its a military resort that is about an hour outside of Munich in the Alps on the border of Austria. It is at the base of Germany's highest peak, and is a major winter sport area. I would love to come here in the winter, there was alittle snow on the mountains while we were there. It is a beautiful town and the hotel is so nice.



















This is the town we stayed in, it was so cute! And they were having a festival the first few days we were there! These were cool Renaissance people, not the weirdos we have in the states!






















Eli being extra cute for pictures on the train ride to Munich. He loves trains now, we got him alittle wooden one and he can say "choo choo"

busy, busy, busy

recovering from a wonderful trip to Germany, moving into our new/very old apartment downtown, and dealing with a baby who quit nursing...cold turkey?? Its been 3 days now, and he is just not interested at all, he fusses when I put him on my lap. Is he done? Should I pump, or just let go? Any BF mama advice?

Wedding Pictures

Well, haven't been blogging in awile. I do have some pictures from my brothers wedding to share with you all. It was about 2 months ago now, so I am alittle behind. We are heading out on our big trip to Europe soon, so many posts to follow!
















Jonathan
Chelsea















Micah embarrassed to have everyone looking at him!















The four kiddos, in order oldest to youngest













The whole family

photos

My dear friend Jenica who takes beautiful pictures came to Eli's little party at my inlaws. Even though Eli wouldn't smile the entire day she still got some good pictures of him! Love you Jenica!!!
http://www.lemondropsphotography.com/2008/08/baby-e-is-one-year-old/

teething bites

I am teething right now!!!

Wow this is one of the worst times, he is whining, crying, drooling, burning up, needy, sleepy, and choking on his food cause he wont chew! He also has a runny nose and is sneezing alot? My mom says this all points to teething. He only has 4 teeth, so he is due for some more soon. Yesterday we stopped our afternoon nursing and he successfully got through the day with only morning and nighttime. But then today at Costco with him screaming and no snack, I brought that feeding right back. darn. We will try tomorrow.

cleaning out the pics on my camera

Eric being sworn into ROTC before we left Tennessee. He was so proud of this, he asked me if I would make sure to put it on my blog :)















Eli and his buddy Aiden. Nothing is better than hot Tennessee days with naked babies in the pool! This was a rare shoot to get no little wee wees in the picture.















We spent one of our last days in Lynchburg,TN and toured the Jack Daniels Distillery. It is a very cool "rare" small country town with 1 stop light and about 500 residents. This was a picture of our lunch at Miss Mary Bobo's Boarding house. Dinner is served at 1pm and all the guests sit around a dining room table and share a family style meal of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, fried okra, baked apples and different dishes daily! It was soo much fun.




















Eli's Birthday Party with his buddies!! These were the mamas I was pregnant with when I first moved to Tennessee. Little miss Charlottle is 1 month older than the boys, Aiden and Eli are just 2 days apart. Although they don't look too excited, they had alot of fun opening presents and eating there birthday bananas!














I love these people!!

update on us

So for those of you that didn't hear...Eric got accepted into Green to Gold Program, which will allow him to go back to school and finish his degree for 2 years and then become an officer. We packed up the house a couple days ago and are back here in WA. My mom flew out to help us with the move. It was nice to have her there, cause with as many times as I have moved I have never had to do it with a baby. He was a lot more affected by it than I thought too. He walked around the house whining while everything was moving, then when it was empty he started crying! About half way through the day during all the hustle of packing we realized it was his birthday! No wonder the kid was crying! He better get used to this crazy life. We figured out that we have moved crossed country/world a total of 7 times. Life is a little crazy right now trying to figure all this out, but the 2 years at home together will be worth it.

happy birthday to you

One year! Wow, I don't know what to say. I was brought to tears this morning singing happy birthday to him, knowing that the years are going to keep going by this fast. I can't believe its already been a year! It is so cool to have childern, such an amazing new connection to your spouse, to your parents and to God! To know that he lets us be apart of creation is such a special thing. I love this little boy so much! Happy Birthday Elijah!

oh mamma

Mamma Mia! I love Love LOVE this musical. I am not an ABBA fan, but eveyone loves dancing queen! I got to see this play when it was in Portland about 5 years ago or so. Just saw the the movie and they did a great job! It is such a fun movie, every girl needs to grab a friend and go! Everyone at the movie theater was singing along at one point- how fun is that?!!

Look at you girl, you get your own blog!

Eli took his very first steps at the beginning of July, and is now an official walker. He only crawled for about 3 months and now will only crawl if he falls down to get over to something to pull himself up to walk. Its so cute to see this little baby walking! He really is little too. The doctors said he is only in the 10th percentile! From birth to about 7 months he was always big, now he has just slowed down the weight gain. My friend Becky and I agree that those charts are for freakishly large formula fed babes. And that our breastfed, all natural baby food (no french fry) babies are just fine at their weight!! Speaking of Becky, if your reading this, I am going to miss you and your family so much. You guys are the only reason I would want to stay in Clarksville! I am so glad we got to be pregnant, have our boys just 2 days apart, and soon celebrate their 1st birthdays together! It is so nice to have someone with the same ideals for our children. Ahhh, enough sappy stuff! How about some pictures of the little monster!

He LOVES his teddy and gives him hugs and kisses every morning.

whoa am I behind

Well since we have been home we had my brothers wedding and our family reunion. The wedding was beautiful and perfect! I will get pictures as soon as some come available. The same weekend as the wedding was our BIG family reunion. Now this is not one of those extented, extended family reunions- this is just my dads siblings and their kids! Grandma and Grandpa had 8 kids and this is what happend! Lots of people and very fun. As soon as we get back home I'll get you all up to date on good stuff like Eli walking!

he is standing

The funny thing about this picture is that I sqeezed his little fat feet into the cute converse shoes, but he crawled over to his shoe basket and pulled out his robeez and was showing them to me. I guess the converse weren't to comfortable. He is so cute.

oh i love opryland

If you ever come to Nashville you have to go to our favorite place. Opryland. This is where the Grand Ole Opry is at, but it is also an amazing resort. Its actually kinda like Disneyland. A whole indoor city and Atrium. Beautiful live plants and flowers through out this like 6 acre property. They even have a river inside! The absolute best part though is that it is a constant 69 degrees! It was so nice to be enjoying the "outdoors" showing Eli all the plants and fish at a decent temperature. We went up and spent the weekend there, got to eat wonderful food and enjoy our little family!

two are better than one.

Eli is growing so much and changing by the day! At the beginning of May he FINALLY perfected the crawling thing. He was getting around just fine like a inch worm, but being up off his tummy has made for less spit up! The same day or so he started fast crawling he was pulling himself up on the furniture and cruising. So I really don't think he will be crawling very long.

He still only has two teeth, but is eating a lot more solid foods. Before Eric came home Eli was still nursing 4 times a day and only eating 1 meal of solids at dinner time. I just figured why give myself more work of feeding him when nursing is so quick and wonderful. Now his schedule is nursing in the morning, lunch, nurse in the afternoon, dinner and nurse before bed. I wouldn't be surprised if he stops the middle of the day nursing soon, cause he is eating ALOT of food. Eric is having fun getting caught up on how to feed him and make homemade baby food.

And not to brag, but I think he might be the best sleeping baby ever. If I knew how we happened upon this schedule I would write a book! Seriously, I feel so bad for everyone who struggles with their sleepy babes. He goes to bed from 8pm-8am SOLID naps from 10-11:30 and then from about 2-4. Here is an except from my future book: "I always , from day one put him to sleep awake, and once he was in his own room -ran a humidifier and play a lullaby cd." You'll have to by the book to get any more pointers :)

I am so glad Eric is back. Eli has taken to him so quickly! He really will go to us equally, which is so nice!! Daddies are the best teachers cause in the week Eric has been home he has taught him to wave hi and bye, sign for "milk" and "all done" say night night (when he is sleepy or wants to nurse) Its crazy seeing him do so much in such a short time! I guess two parents are better than one!

Eric's tattoo

Eric's coming home gift was to finish up his tattoo. He started this tattoo about 4 years ago in Hawaii. A friend of mine drew the design of an asain style koi fish half sleeve. After a 4 hour sitting he had all the out line done. Then a year later in Monterey he had another 4 hours worth of work done on the shading. Now, finally, we had a tattoo artist here in Clarksville design a new part and complete the rest of the shading. This sitting was about 7 hours over two days. By the way, each of these sessions is about $100 an hour! So you can see why it has taken us 4 years to complete. Eric loves getting it done, he says he feels like he is a walking piece of artwork.

Done at Alpha and Omega Tattoo by Caleb Almond

http://soundclick.com/ambulanceplusshotgun he's a musician too