Exploring the House

We are still in LA (for a few more days), but I realized I could use my mom's pictures in the blog. I thought these were too funny. He is discovering all kinds of places these days. This stand-up shower is one of my niece/nephew's most favorite hiding places. Well, I think it will soon be one of Riley's favorites as well. He had a blast crawling in and standing up, but then needed me to help get him out (he is a little scaredy-cat sometimes)! Sorry the pictures are loaded backwards...I couldn't move them around.

Truth

Hi! I am visiting family in LA so won't be doing a "real" post for awhile, but I really want you to go and read this http://www.mycharmingkids.net/2009/09/honey-strawberries-and-truth.html post by MckMama when you get a chance. This is baby Stellan's mom (I've talked about him and his health before). She is such a great example of letting the Lord use her through her blog!!

First Family Vacation

Over Labor Day, we took our first family vacation to Myrtle Beach, SC. It was only a 2 night vacation, but I think that was the perfect length of time with a 10 month old. To get even more excited about the trip, I decided to watch the movie "SHAG" the week before. It's one of my all time favorite movies! I couldn't wait to see some of the landmarks from the movie (like the SHAG pavillion where they have the contest). I am very sad to report that we didn't find it. Honestly, Myrtle Beach looked nothing like it did in the movie. So sad! We still had a great time. We took Riley to the aquarium and did lots of shopping at the outlet mall. I think Riley's favorite part of the trip was looking out of the full length window in our hotel room. Go figure!! Here are a few pictures from the trip!


This is what our shopping time did to my son!! At least Daddy was there to snuggle with him while I spent some money!



This is Riley's new smile when we get out the camera. It is just too funny! We actually had to use the stroller to get him to sleep at night. Good thing we had it with us in the room.

Football Time

UPDATED POST: This week has been full of much anticipation!!! Why? College football season, of course!!! Edmond and I are both huge college football fans. He is more specifically a Georgia fan and me, of course, LSU...so we really have fun with football season. I decided that I would wear purple and/or gold every day this past week to get in the spirit. I didn't realize that there is a college not far from here whose colors are also purple and gold....oh well! Riley joined in on the fun Friday. This first picture was taken Friday. In all fairness, I pulled out his Georgia place setting that Aunt Casey and Uncle Stuart gave him before he was even born. He had a blast playing with it all. If we had any Georgia clothes for him, I would have dressed him in those as well, but we honestly don't have any!! I can't believe it, but we don't.

We were a little (really alot) disappointed on Saturday because when we turned on the TV for the Georgia game, they were showing the Michigan game instead. I mean, we are in North Carolina...you would think they would show Georgia over Michigan. We finally found the game on the radio. And then were even more disappointed by the end of the game when GA lost. By the time the LSU game started (10:30 our time), I was just about asleep. I think I made it up for kick-off, but that was it. We did keep the TV on and whenever I would wake up, I would check the score. Next weekend we will be in BR for game day and I am going to get to go to the game! Yipee!! I can't wait! Geaux Tigers! Here are a few pics of our little man all ready for game day! Thanks to Elizabeth for the precious jersey! We LOVE it!

10 and 2

Today is Riley's 10 month birthday! And he has 2 teeth...only 2, can you believe that?! I mean, I am not complaining because the 2 have made life quite interesting (not sleeping well, drooling all over the place, biting on everything), but I am just surprised!! He has been a little under the weather lately, but seems to be getting better. I may take him to the Dr. this week anyway just to make sure there is no ear infection because we are flying home next Wednesday and I don't want to take any risks. I hope that doesn't make me a crazy, overly worried mom!

Today to celebrate his 10 month birthday, we met Daddy for lunch on base. Riley has a blast anytime we go out in public because he loves to people watch. He will just smile and laugh at anyone. He almost jumped out of the buggy (we also went grocery shopping at the commissary) trying to touch the little kids who would walk by. He keeps me hoppin', that's for sure!
Here he is tasting some of Daddy's sweet tea. I was sure that he wouldn't sleep for the rest of the day after this, but he is down for a nap right now.

The only way I could get him to look somewhat in the direction of the camera was to get Edmond to stand by me. When his daddy is around, he only has eyes for him. Oh, I love this little thing boy much!!

First Attempt

Ok, so we tried sidewalk chalk on the driveway. We are giving it a big thumbs down just because it took much more effort than I thought (it was so stinkin' hot and I like to avoid sweating whenever possible). It may have been able to work, but Edmond said that right as he would have been flying over us, the instructor gave him the controls and he really wasn't able to look for our house. Riley and I saw a helicopter at the right time, but who knows if it was actually Edmond. I guess we will say it was just for the sake of making it fun and exciting. This will probably happen several more times so we are thinking about getting some cheap white shower curtain liners, stapling them together, and drawing something big. This we can reuse again and again. I'll just have to find flower pots, etc. to hold it down. Here are a few pics of our fun!!

Waiting for Daddy!

Maybe Daddy?

Our artwork!

Any Ideas?

A few days ago Edmond finished his last simulator flight!! He will have his first actual flight in the CH-53 on Thursday (let me just take a second to add that I am getting a little freaked out because initially they told us we would be here 5-6 months...this would put us here through Christmas which was great to me because I really wanted to be with family for Christmas, BUT once he starts flying, they say we will only be here another 2 months...AGHH).

The first day we were here, we realized that we live right under what they call "course rules" (and I just call a "route" for all of us non-pilot people) for going on/off base. I love it during the day because I always point out the helicopters to Riley we wave, like crazy people, and I even talk about Daddy flying (does it make me a bad mother if I say that Daddy is flying it? I want him to relate helicopters with Daddy, but maybe I shouldn't lie?! ). But at night, or when he's napping, it drives my crazy because they really sound like they are going to land on the house!! They are so very loud.

Anyway, here's the idea part....it is very likely that at some point he will get to fly over the house!!! And, I want to come up with a way to "mark" the house. He said that he will probably be able to call in-between the brief (when they talk about where they are going and what they need to do) and when they take off, to let us know if, in fact, he will be flying over us. So, I need something that I can do pretty quickly! Here are some ideas we had:

* use a sheet in the backyard (how do I get it to stay put and will it be big enough)

* use sidewalk chalk to draw something on the driveway (will he really be able to see it)

That's it!!! Those are our only ideas. I wanted to see if you had any other thoughts because I know many of my friends are so very creative!!

Of course, when/if he does fly over, I will take a ton of pics (he's hoping the instructor let's him just tilt the helicopter just a little so we know it's him) of both him and of Riley watching. I hope it's as exciting as it seems like it will be.