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.

No Posts for the Month of June

At the end of this post, you'll see why there have not been any posts for the month of June. Here are a few pictures of what's been going on at the Arciniega's house.

Father's Day

We spent the evening down at my parent's house. We got back a little late, but Katelyn woke up from falling asleep in the car just in time to see Daddy opening his gifts.
After drying her off and putting on her diaper, I ran into her room to grab something. She was laying on her towel, but this is what I came back to.

I love little shoes. She loves her dolly from Grammy. Her Bumbo is a thing of the past since she is now sitting up for long periods of time without it. Now if she would only learn that it hurts when you throw yourself back to the ground.

This is the second day of vegetables, the day she discovered she could splatter it all over by blowing with her lips together. We're much cleaner now with feedings. It might help that I don't feed her in the bouncer anymore. That sure made it hard to get the spoon in her mouth since she loves rocking herself. She's graduated to the upright highchair, such a big girl.

(SEI Kit)

(Summertimedesign-Believe)

(Summertimedesign-Golden Sunshine)
Israel actually made these. I had second thoughts of me doing the scrapbook after he completed these.

Shabby Princess--MoodyBlues

Pebbles in My Pocket-Baby Girl

Summertimedesigns-Beautimous

The real reason I haven't posted is because I've started digital scrapbooking. All of you know, I used to be pretty serious about scrapbooking, but since I moved to Texas three years ago I've hardly done any pages, a few here and there. Needless to say, I'm very, very behind. I debated over how to scrapbook Katelyn's life and decided if I ever wanted to get it done, I should do it digitally. So that's the plan, our family album will be in the traditional format with the kids done digitally. That might change after working on Katelyn's digital version though; I love the perks of the digital format. Here are a few of my creations, not much but they're done. They look much cuter side by side in a book. I've actually finished about 80 pages, but... By the way, I'm still debating if I should do a 12x12 format or a 11x8 format, Wal-mart's size. Oh the stress of decisions in my life. :)

If any of you are interested, I've found some great websites for free digital downloads. Among my favorite are:

http://www.summertimedesigns.blogspot.com/ (She has about 40 amazing kits all for free.)

http://www.digitalscrapbookexperts.com/ (You can sign up for their Collect-a-kits. They email you a piece of a kit everyday. Super cute!)

http://www.shopsei.com/ (They have three free downloads.)
http://www.shabbyprincess.com/ (They have about 10 awesome kits for free.)

http://www.freedigitalscrapbooking.com/ (I've only downloaded one paper packet so far, but looks promising.)

To end here is what our latest dinner conversations sound like.

Our Little Fishy

While I was in Austin visiting Marte and Lauren (a post on that to come--I'm waiting on some of the pictures), Katelyn experienced her first time in a pool. She absolutely loved being in the water! When I put her in, I thought she would hate the shock of the cool water. It didn't even phase her. She started kicking her legs and squealing with excitement. I actually just sat on the edge of the pool thinking she might not like it. Nope, after a trial run we both were in the water. It looks like this summer will include a few trips to the pool. Next time we'll make sure we bring Daddy.

I was so excited for her to wear her bathing suit. We got it as a baby gift, and I've anxiously been waiting for her to be big enough to wear it and be in a pool.

She was pretty good at splashing!

She enjoyed trying to eat the towel.

Marte, Katelyn, Lucy, and Lauren catching some rays.

I'm Leaving On a Jet Plane

My sister flew me out to Tennessee to do a writing camp with her girls. Katelyn and left on Tuesday, May 4 and flew back on Wednesday, May 12. I was very anxious about traveling by myself with a baby for the first time. Of course, I thought of everything that could go wrong. Surprisingly, our travel days went very smoothly for the most part.

We flew to Dallas first and had a three hour lay over. However, three hours doesn't seem that long when you have to eat lunch, feed the baby, change a diaper, walk to the new gate in a different terminal, and make phone calls on the pay phone because you left your cell phone at home (the one thing that did go wrong). Then we flew to Chattanooga. Russ and Becca picked us up and we drove the hour and a half to Knoxville. Katelyn was fantastic. She slept on both the planes, and luckily we ended up with an open seat next to us both times.

Her "Oh my goodness, I'm going on a plane" look!

I had to put the cloth over the latch because before she fell asleep she kept playing with it and I was afraid she'd pinch herself.

On the way home, we again were blessed with open seats on both planes. We flew to Chicago and then to Houston.

Katelyn has gone through several stages where she wants nothing to do with pacifier. Gratefully, she enjoyed her Binky's on the plane rides.

Katelyn loves her crinkle books.

BBQ at the Park

My nephew, AJ had to plan and cook an outdoor meal for a scouting requirement. We turned it into a fun evening at the Spring Creek Park. I hadn't ever been to the park and thought it was a fun place to go. It's very pretty with all the trees. We didn't get a chance to check out the walking paths, so I've put it on our lists of fun to do's. They also have camping sites, maybe next spring.

Katelyn enjoyed herself all evening until we went home.

The slides at the playground were monstrous. The red slide went up so high. There was actually part of the slide where you would hear the kids clunk because the drop was so drastic.

You needed a pair of brakes for this slide.

Daddy met us there after work.

My mom and Matt

Matt's family

AJ with the soccer ball we used as a basketball.

We shot some baskets after we ate. We played Around the World. Matt joined in later and ended up smoking us. I used the excuse that I couldn't shoot very good because of my incisions, which was partially true. The mostly true part wass that I don't have an ounce of coordination in me. Regardless, we had a good time.

On the way home Katelyn got beyond fussy in the car. I've gotten to the point where if she gets fussy in the car I don't totally freak out. Well, she wasn't slowing down and she kept choking on her spit, so we stopped. We were in a mostly deserted shopping center, but when I got out of the car with her, a car was driving by. The man stopped in the car and commented on what a cute baby she was. I found it pretty funny that he would stop the car to compliment a baby.