What Does the Fishy Say?

This is what happens when Daddy is home for the weekend.  Love it.

1st Birthday

Alta is 1 year old.  I can't believe it.  My baby has already lived on this earth for an entire year!  What?!!  Time really does fly, and I can't believe how much she has changed.  In so many ways I just want to stop everything, and stay here... right in this moment... FOREVER.  Luckily, there is just so much joy in watching her grow and change - that I feel lucky to get to be there for that too. 

At one year Alta:

Weighs:  24 lbs 2 oz

Height:  31 1/2 inches

Walks by holding on to things

Has two teeth (bottom front)

Drinks from her own sippy cup

Says Dada constantly, and Momma if she is in complete desperation

Says Alta

Says "Doh" for No

Says "Deh" for Yes

LOVES to hit Mommy in the face (not my favorite developmental milestone)

Will pick peas out of any meal - just to eat them first

Is still very much a Daddy's girl

Here are some pictures from her first Birthday Cake:

As you can see, she loves it!

You can see her little tooth on the bottom.  So cute!

Eating is great - but sometimes, it just tuckers her out. 

If you would like to see the full video of her eating her cake, check this out, oh and this !

For Veterans Day weekend we took a trip up to the North Carolina Zoo.  It was a massive Zoo, with huge habitats.  Great for the animals.... not so great for a one year old to be able to really pick the animals out.  Nevertheless, we had a great time. 

1st carousel ride:

Who doesn't feel like "cracking up" sometimes?

Lovin' her chubby cheeks...

Alta's found her favorite animal!  She loves Elephants (just like her Mommy!)



Alta, it has been an incredible honor to be your mother this year.  I am so grateful that the Lord chose to send you to us.  I am happier than I've ever been, and it has everything to do with watching you grow up.  I love you, and can't wait for this next year.  But please, stop hitting Mommy in the face. 

Goodbye Ft. Rucker, Hello Ft. Bragg!

Warning: Long post. But seriously, what did you expect?

Well, so much has happened since I was last able to write. We left Ft. Rucker, saying goodbye to Alabama...

And goodbye to all of our great friends! (Dang I miss these girls, and my running time like crazy!)

We drove from Alabama to Florida, to see my cousin Theresa's wedding. Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures (of my own) from that wedding. We were having problems with remembering to charge the batteries! Oops. But here is one with my Aunt Lynne. It was so great to see her!

From Florida, we drove up to North Carolina. Let me say this - Road trips are so much more challenging now. Planning food, milk, more food, diaper changes... all of it - a little taxing for my seemingly slower brain functioning. I honestly swear that I am getting dumber as the days go by. Here is a cute shot of Alta eating spaghetti while Daddy fills up the gas!

Eventually we made it to North Carolina, and spent the next few weeks living in a hotel on base. I did not take pictures, because I have no desire to remember this very dark time in my life. Hotel living is not for me. Especially not with a kiddo.

Eventually that ended, and we moved into our 1st home! I am so excited and feel so blessed to be living in a new home. I never thought that we would be able to do this. I honestly thought I might buy a home when we are out of the Army, and still not a new one. Well as it turns out, in order to live on-post (like we did in Alabama), we would have a year wait to get into the housing. So we looked at renting options. Turns out, everyone here knows exactly what the Army pays it's soldiers for housing, so they charge exactly that. Then you still have to figure out the utilities. So - it wasn't going to be cheap. Reluctantly we began looking at how much it would cost us to buy a home. You can't imagine my surprise to find out that it was our cheapest option. Like, save several hundred dollars a month cheap. And... it's ours? Wow.

For those of you in Utah... you will understand when I say that we couldn't live in Magna for the price that we bought this home. Home prices are low, so are the interest rates... to say we got a good deal... well ... I'm getting repetitive aren't I? Anyhow, the Lord has blessed us yet again, and here is our new home!

From the entryway... here is what you see when you walk in:

Here is our living room, I am standing in the dinning room:

Here is a shot from the living room, into the dinning room:

This is our kitchen:

You go upstairs, and then there are 4 bedrooms. Here is the master bedroom. You can see the opening to the master closet. (Walk in! Yes!!!)

There are 2 bedrooms that look the same... One for Alta, and one for the baby that is on the way! (Wait, you didn't know? That's right! I'm pregnant! I'm due April 27th!!) The third bedroom will be my craft room / office. I love it.

Here is Alta roaming around "her house." I say this because she thinks it's hers. She literally pushed me out of her room that she was playing in the other day - like... "you go back into the kitchen... you can have that... this is my room!" Anyhow, pretty funny.

Here she is helping Daddy sort through his Army gear so that he could be ready for his first day.

Which is a pretty good time to mention that Jaren is now going to be a Med-evac pilot. He's pretty excited about this. So am I! To those who don't know what that is... picture Lifelight - only Army style.

I couldn't resist throwing in this picture of Alta eating spaghetti again. Apparently she is a lot like me in this regard. We both LOVE spaghetti. And she really likes wearing it too.

Skip to Halloween. Alta was Thumbalina. I didn't have time to sew her anything... so next year... watch out. But she enjoyed playing dress up all the same. We didn't go trick-or-treating, because honestly, I think it's a little bizarre to take around your kid who can't eat candy, to basically get more candy for the adults... but apparently, I am alone in this thought process, because I watched all of my friends with kids the same age go out and do it. Next year, we are all in - because she will understand a bit more of what's going on, and it will be for her... this year... we just hung out and met trick or treaters.

A funny story: This is Alta getting ready for our first week at church. Well, our very first week, we actually went to the wrong ward. We tried, but ultimately the meetinghouse locater thing on the church website sent us to the wrong ward. (Don't worry, this didn't make me loose faith in the church!) Anyhow, after sacrament we went and met our new bishop for the right ward. He seemed super nice, and he loved Alta. The next Wednesday we get a phone call to to speak in church. For THAT SUNDAY. Yes, our first Sunday in the right ward. I guess that's one way to introduce yourselves. Ha! Anyhow, it turned out great, and the Lord must have known what he was doing, because since then I have met some really kind and friendly people.

One huge plus to this whole "living in North Carolina thing" is that we actually have a lot of stuff to do here! It is great! We have already been to 3 museums! Here we are at the museum of Natural Science.

And I had to put this one in, because Alta loves everything that her Daddy does. She LOVED the snakes. Jaren has always been a snake lover, and I'm sure I won't be able to stop them from getting another one someday. Although, I think I will make the rule, that Jaren has to be there to feed it. So no snakes until he can't be deployed.

Speaking of deployed. Yes it will happen. Yes he is going. Because of this, I am going to have to privatize the blog soon. I do not want personal family information available that could jeopardize him or any military operation. So I won't be posting that kind of stuff on here while it's not private. And even when it goes private - it will a bit vague. So if you want more details -

call me.

I am going to make an email list of people that want to read my blog. That way I will email you with updates, and you don't have to just wonder when I've posted. So if you want to continue to read my blog - let me know.