8 Months!

Well, it's that time again...where I say, "I can't believe our baby girl is..." 8 months old!!!! I really can not believe it!! I'm so sad that she's growing so quickly!! She's just the best little baby and I just want her to stay like this. She really is a doll and I am in love with her! She warms my heart and makes me smile EVERY day. She continues to have an easygoing personality, but gets frustrated now when we take something away from her that she can't have. She loves to watch Boo play and also loves his trains and cars (Boo does not love this about her). She loves to take a bath. She's doing well with her solid foods, having gone through all varieties of fruits and veggies and is now onto combinations. She can get around by army crawling. I just love her so much! We all do! Here are her photos this month.

She's into yoga, liker her Mama and BeBe!
(she's better at it than Mama and BeBe too)

She was very intrigued by her picky sticky this month.

It's bow time!

"What? I thought we were finished with the photo shoot."

This is how I get bath time done while B-man's out of town.

Boo loved this jumpy when he was itty bitty and Lil Bit is following right along.
She loves it too.

If you need someone to find minutiae, Bit is your girl.

Army Crawl

Train ride.



We love you Lil Bit!!!

Airborne!

We were very excited when we found out we were moving to Alaska. But, B-man's excitement grew even more when he discovered that he would be coming to an Airborne unit. He's in 4th Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division. And it is an airborne unit. In fact, he had to sign something saying he knew it was an airborne assignment and he agreed to go to an airborne unit. If he refused the airborne assignment, they would have taken away his wings!

Anyway, it's been a l-o-n-g time since he went to Airborne School. Let's see, that was the summer after his junior year in college...1997. Fourteen years ago! What??? OMG, that makes me feel old! Airborne school is grueling, to say the least. But airborne school in July in GA, is something else. I'm always amazed at his airborne school tales. After going through the course, you have five jumps on your record and if you haven't jumped since then, you're called a "five jump chump". Basically, this means that you've been to airborne school but you've never been to an airborne unit (if you haven't been to airborne school, you're called a 'leg'). Anyway, when we arrived here in Alaska, B-man found out he would need to go to a BAR (basic airborne review) course before jumping. So, they did that on Monday. He called me afterwards and said they were going to jump on Tuesday! But, they didn't make it onto that jump.  Long story short, too many people showed up and there weren't enough chutes. But, while they were there they got on the manifest to jump on Thursday. The Thursday jump was going to be out of Blackhawks AND they were going to have a German jumpmaster, so they would earn German jump wings too! Can you believe it? B-man's first jump in 14 years and he was going out of a helicopter and was earning foreign jump wings at the same time!? Most people have 20+ jumps under their belt before doing something like this. He was really stoked to say the least.

Here are the photos from the day...
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B-man and three of his team members (only 4 of 6 jumped on Thursday).
The yellow line wrapped on their chutes is the static line. That is hooked up to the chopper and is what pulls out their chutes!

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While we were waiting for the choppers to arrive, this Sherpa was also doing a drop.
If they had jumped on Tuesday, it would have been out of a Sherpa like this one.

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They have their arms over their reserve shoots. Once you're geared up, you have to keep it covered so that it doesn't get caught on something and deploy.

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Here come the choppers!!!!

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B-man's team will be getting on the second one.

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Landing to pick up the guys.

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Loading!
B-man is the first guy in line with a kevlar on.

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Going around to get in on the other side.

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B-man is on the other side.
But some of these guys are his teammates.

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There they go!
B-man is in the second chopper.

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And, there he is!!!!

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It was so cool to be there!

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All of the guys from his chopper. He's on the far right.
There were six guys on each flight.

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Landing!

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Coming in off the drop zone!!

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No longer a five jump chump!

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We were so happy to be there and share this with him!
Of course, Boo wanted to do it too.
I told him he had to wait until he grew up to be a man, like Daddy.
So, now he keeps asking me to help him be a man.
I tell him I'm helping him become a man everyday! :)

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B-man telling his team that he's an expert now!
I guess they think that's funny! ha!

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Getting his German wings pinned on by... a German Major.

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Kind of scruffy looking, huh?

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Post jump photo.

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:)

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Bit wouldn't look at the camera. I guess she was watching the drop zone.

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His German wings!

This is a video of his jump.
I was taking pics in one hand and taping in the other. And, I could NOT see the choppers through the view finder on the video camera b/c of the bad glare. So, of course, I missed the moment he jumped out, but I got the rest of it. I hope it doesn't make you sea sick! The quality is terrible!

It was a GREAT day!!! B-man was awesome and we were/are so proud of him. I'm so happy we were able to share this with him (again, another reason to come along to AK).

He really is our hero!

...and is no longer a five jump chump!





P.S. B-man left Friday morning to go to Ft Polk for a little over a month. BeBe arrives in a couple of weeks. I'm almost done unpacking the inside of the house. I think I have three boxes left. And then it's on to the garage, which really doesn't look too bad. I have more adventures to share, but that'll be another day. And, someone turns 8 months old this week!!!

We're Back Online!

We've been busy bees unpacking all of our things that we I couldn't live without. We did really good purging the house before we moved, but I'm at it again. It feels really good to get rid of stuff.

And late this afternoon the cable guy arrived and now we're back online and can rewind live TV! We've really been spoiled by that one! I'm so tired from unwrapping everything so I'm keeping this short. But, I wanted to say a quick hello.

B-man is back at work brushing up on his airborne skills. There are several jumps planned for this week! I'm hoping we can get out to the drop zone to see one. He's very excited. I am too.

I had to share this tidbit from Boo as well:
Boo: "Mom, I want to go up to heaven to see Jesus."
Me: "You do?"
Boo: "Yeah, I think we're going to need a ladder."
Me: Smile

Moving In Day

It's raining and the moving truck is broken down at the gate! But I'm still smiling because tonight we'll all be sleeping in our beds!

Lake-ing

We've had kind of a rainy patch here in South Central Alaska this last week. We still wanted to get out and explore, but we decided to stay closer to Anchorage. So we went lake-ing (that's not really a word nor is it a term the locals use, I was just trying to come up with a catchy title for this post). We drove up to Eklutna Lake. It's beautiful! There's a State Recreation Park there and you can camp, hike, bike, and kayak. Very cool. It might be the first place we go camping. We got there late in the afternoon, so we kind of just walked around to check things out.

Lake Eklutna
See how small the kayakers look compared to the mountains.

I love pics of boys being boys.




He loves a stick.



In case you were wondering if the only clothes I had to wear were my pink jacket and gray pants, this pic is proof that I do have other clothes! Ha!
I LOVE our new double jogging stroller! I've been wanting one for a LONG time, but hated to shell out the money for it. I finally decided to just do it. And so far, I love it!

More boy stuff.
Boo said they were building a house.

Chillin' in her new ride.



B-man--"Boo, stand up straight and look at Mom!"
Boo--(stands up straight and looks at mom)
Lol!



Looking up the mountain.
B-man- "Boo what do you see?"
Boo- "Umm, a mountain."

Boo l-o-v-e-s to walk through any puddle, mud, water, etc that he can find. And, I must say, he gets it honest...from his father. B-man is the same way (but instead of walking through water, he likes to drive through it)! Here he is testing out his new muck boots.

Beautiful trail.



Me: I heart this stroller!

Later in the week, we went to Otter Lake here on Fort Richardson. They have some cabins that you can camp in and they have some canoes, kayaks, John boats, and paddle boats that you can rent.
I've been wanting to kayak since we found this lake soon after we arrived in Alaska. We decided to take the canoe out first so that we could all get out on the lake. It was a flat bottom canoe, (read: less tippy) and B-man was a pro at paddling all four of us around!



That's me taking our pic. Lil Bit is in my lap.



Boo got to help a little.
He kept saying, "Can I row, row, row your boat????"

There she is!

Ahhh, finally! Mama gets out on the lake by herself!
I just kept thinking...I'm kayaking.. on a mountain lake... in Alaska!!!!
I never thought I would have this experience.

While I kayaked, Boo played.

B-man spotted another bald eagle.



:) :) :) :)



B-man went next.
My pants were drenched with water from my paddle when I was finished.
B-man didn't get one drop of water on him.
I told you he was a pro.
All of those summers canoeing on the lake as a child are still paying off!

Cute lil family enjoying a day at the lake.

My handsome husband!

And, for the record... we left the lake and drove up to  the Upper Lake Campground just around the corner and as we were driving around looking at the campsites, we saw a bear in the woods!! I'm serious!! It was a black bear, too.
It must have heard the truck because it looked back at us and then just turned back around and walked away! I couldn't get the camera out fast enough, so we don't have a picture of it. Thank goodness we were in the truck!

We went back to Otter Lake yesterday to meet all of B-man's team members. He's on a six man team and all of the families were here this week. So, we all got together at the lake for a cookout. Lil Bit got to go on the swing for the first time. Let's see....

 ...do you think she liked it?

I bet you thought I was going to post a picture of our house today. I mean, it is the 13th and the milk technically expired today. And yes, we did get our keys! But, I forgot to take a picture while we were over there today. We decided to move some things over today and stay one more night in temporary lodging since our stuff doesn't arrive until tomorrow.

So, I'll try to post a picture from my phone tomorrow.
Happy Wednesday!