Happy Birthday!!

I'm going to go ahead and document Aubrey's arrival before her 1 month birthday that way I'll have the complete year on here.

Aubrey Nicole arrived on December 12th, 2012, at 7:07pm.  She weighed 6lbs 15oz and was 20 3/4 inches long.  She came out yelling and had an Apgar score of 8.5!  She ended up arriving by C-Section in a semi-emergency after her heart rate started to drop during contractions.  She was turned sideways and looking at my hip instead of back.

A couple things we noticed right away...
   - Her head was really coned from getting stuck
   - She has huge feet and really long toes
   - Her fingers are really long
   - She is perfect!!

 Cone Head!!

Hi, Mom

Big feet and toes!

Cutting the cord

First family picture

All clean

Bundled up

Made it to our room

A little light to reduce bilirubin levels

Yea!  We're headed home!

1 week old - Play time with Daddy hide and seek

2 weeks old - Merry Christmas!

3 weeks old - "You want me to go to sleep now?!?"

E

2013

I can't believe it's 2013 already!  To be honest, I've been dreading this year for quite a while and didn't really want to "ring in the new year" a few nights ago.  There were so many exciting and fun events in 2012 that I was able to forget about Matt's upcoming deployment in 2013.  Now that's the only thing I can think about. 

Since I didn't blog at all in 2012 I think I'll list a few of the highlights just for my memory...
  - We found out we were expecting a Christmas bundle!
  - Tara graduated high school
  - Abby graduated with her Masters
  - Matt and I spent a week in the Bahamas at the Atlantis resort
  - Found out our Christmas bundle was going to be a girl!
  - Matt finally got to start flying again after almost 2 years
  - I got to go to a Patriots game
  - Abby got married!
  - I "celebrated" 5 years at Boeing.
  - Matt "celebrated" 1 year at Boeing.
  - I rotated to a slightly different position at Boeing.
  - Aubrey arrived!!!!

Now we're gearing up for deployment.  We have an event next weekend to find out more details but here's the schedule as we know it so far:
  - I am scheduled to go back to work Feb 6, but will take FMLA leave until Matt leaves for Texas
  - Matt goes to Boise, Idaho, Feb 2 - Mar 3 for high altitude and weapons training and Aubrey and I will practice how to do "this" on our own
  - Matt should have enough vacation time at Boeing to take off most of the 3 weeks he's home in March and we plan to spend as much time together as possible since I'll still be home from work.
  - March 23 is the scheduled deployment date, but there will be a couple days of ceremonies or something in Jeff City
  - April 1 he is scheduled to arrive at Fort Hood, Texas for 3 months of pre-mobilization training
  - Sometime around the first of July he should head over to Afghanistan for 9 months and the countdown will begin for his return

I promise that upcoming posts will have more pictures and less words!

E

Blogging Again

Hello again!  It's been a while but... I've decided to start blogging again.  I don't really want to put pictures and updates of Aubrey all over Facebook, I think I have a little more control over who can view this blog, and I plan to use this to keep Matt updated while he's deployed so this is my plan. 

You can submit your email on the right so you get notified when I update but my goal is once a week. 

E

Feb 15

... the day after Valentine's day
... the day after my grandpa and friend's birthday
... the middle of February
... 46th day of the year

February 15th doesn't seem like that significant of a day until this year.  Today would have been my due date.  Today was hard and emotional.  I can't believe this day has already come.  For the last several months I've wondered how I would feel on this day and it's about like I thought.  It was tough to concentrate on work, but I didn't have another option since my list of things to do at work is growing too fast for me to keep up. 

I also took some time to look around and really see how blessed I am.  I received a card from a good friend who remembered and knows better than anyone what this week would mean for me.  Thank you. 

In a way I'm glad this day has come and passed.  It's easier to look forward now.  I know that God's plan for my future is a perfect one.  There's no promise it'll be easy, but it will be perfect.

E

Hair Cut

Well so I'm going to go a little out of order.  I still don't really have graduation pictures so I'll just skip to my hair cut.  All my friends from Alabama only know me with long hair and don't realize that's just not me.  I feel soooo much better now that I'm back to my old self.  My hair was just long enough to donate to Locks of Love and when I asked if the hair dresser could donate it I was given a "gladly".  I'm just now looking at their website and seeing that she had no idea what she was doing and that my hair would not have been accepted.  Bummer!  I probably should have done a little more research myself ahead of time, but I was so excited about getting it chopped I just went ahead and had it done.  Too late now and I'm not letting it grow again. 

Here are a few before and after pictures.

E

Family Day

Matt passed his final checkride on November 24th, yes that was a long time ago, and then he had a few weeks to "out process" from Ft. Rucker.  On December 11 I drove by myself to St. Louis.  On Monday I had to do the walk-through on the house to be ready for the Friday closing.  Tuesday morning bright and early, Matt's parents, brother, our friend Chris and I headed back to Alabama in my parent's mini van.  It might be more fun to make a 12 hour trip with 4 other people, but it's still 12 straight hours in a car.  Wednesday we got to hang out with Matt and see the Apache up close.  He flies a pretty cool aircraft.

Chris

The Pilot

Steck Family

This was going to be our Christmas card but if you were wondering if yours got lost in the mail, it didn't.  Just didn't get them out this year.

A little game of cards after a long day packing up the apartment.

The 4-time Poop-head himself

Thursday morning Matt headed out for graduation practice while the rest of us finished cleaning the apartment and packing the truck.  We then went to graduation and a luncheon (post with pictures to come as soon as I get the pics from Chris) and ate some good southern fried chicken.  Around 2:00pm Chris, Matt and I headed back to St. Louis.  We arrived around 2:30am and then Chris continued on to Columbia so that he could be at work.  That should be my last drive from Ft. Rucker to St. Louis.

E

It's Been a While

It's been 7 whole weeks since my last post.  A LOT has happened in the last 7 weeks.  Instead of trying to cram it all into one super long post I'm going to break it up into several shorter ones.  So coming up really soon... Matt's family day, graduation, moving, the house almost completely decorated and unpacked and my long awaited haircut.

E

Thanksgiving

I can't believe that it's almost December already.  Because we didn't get to see any family, it doesn't really feel like we had Thanksgiving yet.  I think it's also hard to believe because for Thanksgiving I was in shorts and the A/C was on.  I'm not sure how warm it was but it was some where in the 80s and we were sweating in the kitchen with the oven and all the stove burners on.  We celebrated with some friends here and had all the food you could think about eating.  I was entirely too busy stuffing my face to take any pictures and that's probably a good thing because I'm not sure it would have been pretty.  It was a fun relaxing 4 day weekend, the first weekend with no studying in a while. 

Speaking of it almost being December, I have 2 weeks before I head back to St. Louis for the house walk through and less than 3 weeks till we close!  I had better get busy packing.  We've got a good start but still a long way to go!

E

Matt Has a Cool Job

Well, it's official!  Matt has passed his final checkride and is now just waiting for graduation day which is on Dec 16.  I'm so excited and proud of him!!

About a week ago I went out to try to watch him doing some of the shooting at night.  I just have to say if I was a terrorist, I would be scared of these things.  The moon was really bright, but I still could barely see them.  I took a couple videos and you really can't see much but you'll know when he starts shooting.  The flashing light is the helicopter and the video isn't much worse than in person.

This first one is him coming in and then firing a rocket and then the guns.  I'm not that far away but the sound is definitely delayed.  The second one is just him flying toward me and going directly over head and then passing another aircraft as it comes the opposite direction.  It's not that exciting since all you see is a flashing light, but that was the best I could get.

They also shoot at a target while hovering but I pulled up just as he was finishing.  I was a little uncertain about whether I could drive back near this area and apparently when I pulled up his instructor pilot noticed my car sitting over on the side of the road and called me in to the tower.  A couple minutes later a truck pulled up to check me out.  They let me stay and watch but I was a little scared for a second.  I was standing right next to the big "Do Not Enter" sign with warnings about live fire.  At least I was on the right side of the sign!

E

It Looks Like a House

or at least it's starting to.  I've probably said this a hundred times already, but I'm getting very excited about the house!!  I got some pictures from last week that really show how much has been happening.  First my friend, Jeremy, went and took pictures after work on Thursday.  Then my mom and Tara decided to drive to St. Louis on Saturday to look at the progress in  person.  It was actually good that we got pictures when we did because there are several things that weren't the way they were supposed to be.  It isn't anything that can't be fixed now (some different color paint and the wrong cabinet) but I'm glad we can get it corrected now and not when we're trying to close.

So basically the outside is 95% finished, the painting has begun, the cabinets are up in most places, the linoleum is in, the trim is finished, the doors are installed, and all the lights are up.  There aren't any pictures of the upstairs because we are going to paint the colors up there and there isn't as much to see.  Enjoy!

Only 5 weeks till move in weekend!

E