BREAKING NEWS!!

Hayley took her first steps today!!!! (And you can see the fear in Chloe's eyes)! Over the weekend Hayley became an expert at pushing her walking cart around and much to our excitement this afternoon she took her first few steps to Daddy! We may just get to have an Easter Egg hunt after all this year!

Things change...

... but somehow they stay the same. When Brian and I met, he was in the Army. Before we got married he got out of the Army and joined the civilian world. After being married for 2 years, he ended up in the Reserves and being mobilized. For a year I experienced the life of an Army Wife before Brian returned to the civilian world. Now I'm once again going to be an Army Wife and little Hayley is going to be an Army brat! Brian has been mobilized again, this time under Operation Enduring Freedom. Over the years I've come to learn that you can take the man out of the military, but you can never take the military out of the man.

It's definitely going to be a big change for us. We've enjoyed the luxury of Brian working out of the house for the past three years and his short commute from the bedroom to the office will be replaced by a significantly longer commute from our home to MacDill Airforce Base in Tampa. He will be a Contract Officer, a job that he is optimistic will be fulfilling. He's going to miss getting to walk out of his office and play with Hayley on his lunch break and I know that Hayley is definitely going to miss seeing Daddy all throughout the day.


We spent the weekend tying up some loose ends around the house and spending time together with Hayley. We took Hayley over to the community pool (which is heated) today so she could get a dose of swimming followed by some quality time in the swing.


Hayley is finally beginning to get the hang of holding her own bottle (which would be a big help to us)!! Obviously you can tell she is quite pleased with herself and I couldn't help but share this picture!

And the winner of the swimsuit competition is...

So Hayley has REALLY been enjoying her swimming lessons. She's turned into quite the little fish and squeals with delight when we walk into the pool area. I'm sure she doesn't mind the fact that her boyfriend Kolby is in her swim class either! We had our fourth lesson today and the instructor has helped me work up enough nerve to start letting go of her in the pool. Hayley's problem is that she gets so excited while swimming that she wants to squeal and ends up swallowing a bunch of water! However, she is determined to swim and I'm hoping that over the next few classes she'll be able to swim to the side by herself.

A Visit From Mimi!

We've had a busy weekend! Mimi flew in on Wednesday and Hayley has been busy showing her all her toys and daily activities. G-Grams had sent Mimi with a special gift for Hayley, a new stuffed bunny. Hayley LOVES her new bunny and has been giving the bunny lots of hugs and kisses!

We spent Friday evening at a rehearsal dinner and Saturday evening at the wedding of some good friends. Brian had met Phil while attending the Army Advanced Course in South Carolina two summers ago. Phil married Allison who was and raised in Venice, FL which is about 30 minutes south of us. We have enjoyed several dinners with Phil and Allison over the past two years when they would come to Florida for a visit and Brian was honored to serve as a sword bearer in their wedding. It was a beautiful military wedding and we enjoyed getting to talk with some of these men and women, most of whom have spent a significant amount of time in Iraq. It was refreshing to hear some opinions on the war straight from the mouthes of the Soldiers who are endangering their lives for our security.

We will be very sad to see Mimi head back to Colorado tomorrow afternoon, but Hayley has so much enjoyed her time with Mimi and is already looking forward to her next visit!