Summer Happenings

Other than my post about Mike's Air Force Graduation, we haven't updated the blog for the last two months. Here's our attempt at a quick update...Those of you who know me, brevity is not my strength!

We can't believe how big Katelyn is getting. In a matter of days, I'll be at her nine month check-up. My favorite thing to ask her is "What did you do with our baby?" We feel that she is such a big girl, very grown up. Her latest accomplishments and discoveries are eating finger food, army crawling (gone are my days of setting her in one spot and expecting her to stay there), crawling over legs, and pulling up.

She knows she's number one in our book. This pointer finger action is very common as she explores everything with it from the fuzzes on the floor to her touch and feel books.

Her daddy still adores her. She has lunch on her face in this picture.

We celebrated my twenty-ninth birthday. Yikes! I feel like I need to live this year up and work on becoming the woman I thought I would be by the time I was 30. I have a long way to go. Israel was so sweet! I woke up to find this on the kitchen table. He had ordered a Cricut cartridge and made chocolate chip cookies. He made the letter shapes by hand, very impressive! His chocolate chip cookies are divine!

He took a picture of them before he baked them in case they didn't look like letters after baking.

I don't look so cute in the morning. I also need posture lessons. I love that my husband listens to me explain which scrapbooking products I love and have on my wishlist. This conversation was months ago. He pays attention, remembers, and is extremely thoughtful. Thanks hun!

Newsflash, we moved! We moved into my parent's house while they are in Switzerland for the next 3-5 years. My brother and his daughter came up to help us. We couldn't have done it without their help and the help of Elder Quorums on both sides of the move.

Katelyn slept during the whole loading experience and woke up right before it was time to drive away.

So much of my July and August was organizing, packing, unpacking, situating, cleaning, etc. Here's a picture of our hallway before the move.

Here's a picture of our hallway during the move. Besides the U-haul with our "big" stuff, I took loads down in my car or the Suburban for two weeks before the actual move. The hallway was the holding place for boxes and stuff that was ready to go.

Katelyn has crazy hair when she wakes up! I couldn't resist the "Bedhead" picture.

This adorable outfit came with a matching hat. The outfit is almost too small, so I had to get a picture. I think she just went through a growth spurt. Notice the boxes in the background.

Besides moving all our stuff, we spent a lot of time at Grammy's house helping her get ready for her air, boat, and long-term storage shipments.

Katelyn loves sitting in the big kid high chairs when we go out to eat.

Israel and I have been spoiled this summer. We've had quite a few date nights. We went to the Houston Symphony at the Miller Outdoor Theater and went to Carrabas (the location of our first date) and Cold Stone for our anniversary. My favorite was going to Wicked with my mom and dad. I absolutely enjoyed it! I was amazed with how the story intertwined with the Wizard of Oz. The music was fantastic! I Want to Be Popular and Defying Gravity are among my favorite.

I had my last activity as activity committee chair. Enter sigh of relief. We held a Pioneer Day Extravaganza. Once again I couldn't have done it without Israel's help or my mom's (She watched Katelyn).

There was homemade ice cream, pie eating contest, potato sack races, relay races, horseshoes, and just a lot of good old fashioned fun. A storm blew in an hour into the activity, so we raced to get everything inside before the torrential rain started.

Katelyn loves meeting new friends. On July 10, we went to a pool party for Israel's work.

Our Airman

This past weekend we had the chance to attend by brother, Mike's graduation from Air Force basic training. I was so proud of him! It was really neat to be on a military base and feel that uber patriotic spirit. I know I never could make it through basic training and am so impressed with Mike's dedication, strength, and discipline. Here's how the weekend went...

Thursday night my mom, Katelyn, and I left Spring later than planned and got to San Antonio between midnight and 1:00 AM. Katelyn had fallen asleep during the first fifteen minutes of the drive and slept the whole way there. She woke up when we got to the hotel and was wide awake, very alert checking everything out. I fed her and then expected her to wail when I put her down in the pack and play. Nope, she just rolled over and cooed for a few minutes and fell back asleep. The next morning we attempted to see the Trainees Run. When we arrived at the gate, they informed us that we needed a visitor's pass. Mike had already got our information so they could do background checks beforehand, but as the clerk said someone didn't do their job. Somehow we were not the only ones that didn't have one. I ended up circling a small parking lot with way too many cars in it while my mom waited in the building for them to call out her name. The building was also very small and people were packed in there like sardines. We finally got our pass, but had missed the run. The next event wasn't for an hour or two more, so we ended up waiting on hot bleachers in the Texas sun for a long time. We took turns going in the reception center. Katelyn was a trooper. She sweats like crazy, but she was fairly content as long as she was entertained, being fed Banana puffs, or drinking water. Here are the pictures of us waiting. Luckily, Toni (Mike's girlfriend) and her daughter beat us there and saved us a spot.

It's only been eight weeks since I saw Mike, but when they started lining up outside the arena, I got so excited. Toni and I ran out to try to find him. All the airman look the same in their uniforms. Any tall kid that walked by with glasses, we'd be like there he is. We finally spotted him and got some pictures. Later, he informed us that he saw us out of his perphial vision and had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing as we tried to find him. It was fun to watch them do drills as they prepared to enter the arena. During the Airman Coin Ceremony, the trainees were given their Airman Coin and became official Airman.


We met up with Mike, but only long enough to say hi before the Honor Graduate Ceremony. Luckily, this one was inside. Mike was in the top 10% of the 700 graduates. Here he is with some important Airman. Mike could tell you their rank and importance, but I just know they are the big wigs on base. As the one on the right shook their hands, he about knocked them over.

Mike had the rest of the day to spend on base with us. We checked out all the hotspots on base, Godfather's Pizza and the mall if you can call it that. Everywhere we went it was very crowded and it felt like we couldn't get cool enough. You can see how sweaty Katelyn's head is in the picture below. That's us inside.

Here's a picture of Mike and Toni. Notice the space between them; Mike had very strict guidelines about PDA. It was good to have a chance to get to know Toni a little better. She's been so supportive through this whole ordeal.

We were exhausted by the time, Mike had to get back to his squadron. We went back to the hotel and relaxed and went back out later for a little shopping and dinner. We went to Panda Express because my mom had never been there. They were closing though and out of orange chicken, so she'll have to go back to try that yummy goodness. Israel had to work on Thursday, so he drove out Thursday night and met us.

5:30 wasn't early enough to get us all out the door in time. (Are you noticing a pattern?) We got to everything on time, but Toni was there saving us seats again. They bussed us to the parade ground, so Katelyn got to experience her first bus ride.

They had old planes that circled the parade grounds.

Grammy and Katelyn

Daddy can make Katelyn smile with his goofiness. Daddy doesn't care what the adults around him think. As long as his little girl is happy...

Once again in the heat, sweating and waiting. Israel actually took Katelyn in the shade because she was so hot toward the end of the program.

Mike decided to have us walk to his squadron, so we didn't have to wait in line for the buses. We agreed because we could see buildings. After a lovely 45 minute stroll with a baby, a three old, and most of us in flip flops. We got to his squadron. Did I mention, it was hot.

Mike showed us every little detail about his squadron. Exactness would be the word I would choose to use. Every knot, every button, every angle had regulations. We had Mike check to see if a coin would bounce on his bed.

The airman had a city pass for the day. We went to Papacitos and then to a movie, Salt. This was Katelyn's first movie experience. Once again despite the heat, irregular feeding schedules, lack of normal naps, Katelyn continued to be a doll. I think she's a future world traveler.

Mike, we're super proud of you and love you! Good luck as you finish your specialized training.