Christmas

We finally moved into our home on December 5th--just in time to get into the holiday spirit. For me it was hard to feel the peace and joy of Christmas this year. I was so grateful for everything I had, but the stress and chaos of our lives was a bit overwhelming. Since we had just traveled east to west and west to east, we decided to stay put for Christmas and enjoy being with one another. Our friends the Balls and the Gordons all were in town for Christmas as well so we got together for Christmas dinner.

On Christmas Eve we took Jack to a Merry Madagascar event at one of the conference centers in DC. It was a very commercial event and both Jared and I commented on how we missed being with family and reading the Christmas story. Next year. We did have a good time though... Jack LOVED all the animals and the ice sculptures were amazing.

What was so amazing at this event was the fact Jack not only wore his coat (which at this point in time was a total meltdown every time we put it on him) but he also wore an extra subzero coat when we went into the ice sculpture arena. These coats were necessary as it was -5 degrees! Pretty amazing though.

This is Jack sliding down the ice slide by himself. I couldn't get the video to upload:( It was pretty cool.

On Christmas day, we enjoyed cinnamon rolls, shortened church, and exchanging gifts. Jack did so well waiting to open his gifts. And he LOVED playing doctor with his dinosaurs.

Cabin Fever

Being in a hotel with a two-year old for an unforeseen amount of time does not bode well for anyone in the family. We didn't take into account how much this change was going to affect Jack. Virginia is definitely colder than San Diego in the winter and going without toys, friends, and everything familiar for days on end took a real toll on our sweet little boy. We tried to get out as much as possible in between looking for housing. Jack's favorites are the subway and the natural history museum.

I feel we made some big decisions rather quickly though and bought a house in the Kingstowne area of Alexandria. While we were closing on the house, we decided to head to Washington state to visit family for Thanksgiving and give Jack some more room to run. What a blessing this was and so much fun! Pictures of the house to come later. We had some major renovations to get done first.

Halloween Spirit

Going back in time, I have document what has happened. Keeping a blog is the easiest way for me to keep up on Jack's baby books. So for at least one more year I will blog as it will help keep up on the new baby's first year book. I have no promises after that though!

Right around Halloween was when we moved from California to Virginia. We flew east on October 29th and even though I did buy Jack a costume (a monkey costume) to wear trick-or-treating, I forgot to pack it in our suitcases and it was packed away with the rest of our household goods.

For Halloween, our friends, The Gordons, invited us over for pizza and trick-or-treating. Jack and his friend, Zach, showed little interest in getting costumes on and going out in the cold so we stayed in and played with toys instead. It was a great Halloween for all:)

We did make it to Bate's Nut Farm in Escondido before leaving California. And as always, we had a blast. I wish I could say we had as much fun carving the pumpkins we picked out. Jack still doesn't like to put his hands in the slimey mess... not sure why, he does not have issues with his hands being dirty.

Big and Bigger

I don't know what bit of news is bigger, but we have lots of big news to share. First off, only because it happened first and it is the most exciting, is we will be welcoming another little Taylor into our home next April. We are super excited and feel very blessed to have another baby come into our home. This past week we finally were able to see the doctor and have an ultra sound. All of us in the room were surprised to see how active this little peanut is. All inclinations are pointing to boy. We'll keep you updated on that though:) All is well with everyone.

And the next bit of news that we also had delivered to us this week are our new orders for Washington DC! Yep, we'll be heading out to the Pentagon on November 1st. These orders came very fast and we are sad to say goodbye to good friends and good weather, but the opportunity is amazing for Jared. He will be working with the Admiral at the Pentagon and will be the Admiral's executive assistant and director for administration.

Here's to another year of exciting changes. How blessed we feel to have our faith, which helps lead and guide us every day.

Happy Birthday, Jack - Part II

On Jack's official birthday we first celebrated the day at the Wild Animal Park. We had fun feeding the birds and staring down the tigers and lions. Still to this day he hates the gorillas and makes me walk really fast by them. Crazy kid:)

Fortunately on the way home Jack fell asleep and took a nice nap and I did too (when we got home that is). When we woke up we decorated the house. Jack had gotten wet from a drink in the car and took a nap in his diaper, so when he woke up he of course took his diaper off because he prefers to be naked. I just felt why not spend your birthday in your birthday suit. This is Jack helping me make his birthday cake.

Jared got home from work early so we wasted no time in opening gifts. Jack LOVED this part and was so excited with each gift.

And although he loved the gifts, he loved singing happy birthday and blowing out the candles just as much... if not more (we only had to sing and blow out his candles seven times).

So glad we could celebrate this guys special day. He makes us laugh every day.

Happy Birthday, Jack - Part I

We officially have a toddler and a very independent two-year old. I guess the time has gone quickly when looking back, and I can't imagine life without Jack. We have so much fun together each day, whether it's building forts or building towers with blocks or just bringing every ball we can find in the house to the tennis courts to throw around.

Some of our favorite times are spent with our meetup group, North SD Babies. Jack and I have made some awesome friends in this group. This last month Jack and his friend, JR, celebrated their birthdays together. JR's mom and I had a Curious George themed cupcake party for all their friends. Here are a few pictures of the group. These kids are adorable together.

Time for Celebration

I'm slow to get things posted these days. No excuses... just pure laziness. I seem to enjoy my alone time when Jack naps these days. But I did not want to miss posting our big celebratory day earlier this month. It finally happened after knowing for a year. I got to "pin" my husband a Lt. Commander. We had a very small ceremony at work and then went out to breakfast at Wendy's. I know, I know... it needed more gusto than that, but when I did go out to buy things to decorate the house and dinner, CA had a major power outage that you may or may not have heard about, so we are still waiting to celebrate the big day. Here are some photos of the pinning ceremony at work though. Jared had asked his commanding officer, CAPT Jehu to lead the ceremony.