Hibernation Ends...

Like a pack of wild bears, we are thawing out and arising to the promise of a soon-to-come spring.  If it's even possible, we've had a busy yet uneventful winter (well, except for that little part about having another baby).  Life's been full of the normal and mundane: preschool, swim lessons, dance & gymnastics, jaunts around town to any indoor space that will let preschoolers run free.  Not a lot of newsy stuff ... simply the joy of the kids growing up and growing together.

In a nutshell, here's what's new:

*  I'm about 5 months along (20 weeks) and we've got a big ultrasound next week that will not only tell us the gender of Baby Cookie, but also (hopefully) confirm the blessed news that the baby is healthy and developing normally.

*  In lieu of a blow-out, adults-only European vacation-style celebration of our 10th wedding anniversary, the family packed up and headed to sunny SoCal for a week.  It was GLORIOUS.  Really special times with old friends, a tear-filled return to Canyon Springs for Sunday morning church services, LOTS of fish tacos & In-N-Out, and just a perfect visit with my sister in Santa Monica.  I'll post some photos of our trip.  It was amazing.  Kids were great, sun was hot on our skin, the sea-air smelled just like home.  I couldn't have asked for anything more.

*  As I mentioned above, the kids have been busy.  Both took a session of swim lessons and learned to love the water.  Mils is dancing her fool head off at a ballet/tap combo class (she is THRILLED to get to wear her fancy tap shoes and is lobbying hard for a sequined top hat to finish off her outfit).  Simon's still doing gymnastics which mainly consists of him running uncontrolled around the perimeter of the gym.  I'm doing a lot of apologizing and clothes-lining as to avoid major collisions.  We're going to skip the next session.  Soccer starts back up tomorrow so all other activities will start closing down as we prepare to leave here in May.

*  Preschool and house-hunting in Norfolk will happen in a few weeks.  We've narrowed it down to a few neighborhoods and schools so now we're praying that just the right house becomes available at just the right time.  I'm optimistic about the preschool situation and apprehensive about the doctor search.  All will work out in the end, I'm sure.

As promised, photos from the first half of our week in Cali.  I'll post the rest of them soon, and I'll see if I can try to be a bit better about keeping the blog current.

While my friends surprised me with a baby shower and brunch at my favorite little bungalow, the Dads stayed home and wrangled the kids.  We drove up to the house to find the most hysterical lemonade stand I've ever seen, complete with costumes. 

Hazel and Simon mind the stand.

Morning at the Ippolito's.

A visit to the seals at the Children's Pool in La Jolla.

Was there ever a more beautiful day?

We checked into our hotel and right away, Millie made an exciting discovery...

A Potty Phone!

We stopped for a quick photo during our walk to breakfast.  We stayed on Coronado Island and walked the path with a view back towards downtown.  As beautiful as ever.

We even made a return trip to Sea World, thanks to their generous program offering one-time free admission to active duty military and their families.

Look!  A reunion with Anna!  This was heartbreakingly sweet.  Those girls just grow cuter and cuter.

Making Plans

I love to do it.  I make plans for weekend adventures.  I've got a system to schedule, organize and track a cross country move.  We just planned and then bought plane tickets for all of us to head back to sunny California for a week's vacation in March.  We even dream about plans for a romantic, extravagant European vacation for our 10th anniversary.

In the bigger picture, we are settling into a great family groove.  We've got a great little three bedroom house that fits us all perfectly WITH a guest room.  Our dining room table for four, though a bit rickety and worn, already holds a special place in our family's routines.  Mils and Si LOVE each other and have become inseparable playmates.   Heck, I've stopped buying diapers in bulk with the great looming dream of Si being potty trained any minute...

And so God laughs.  And reminds us that our plans are just wishes, ideas, dreams.  HE directs the path of our lives.

HE decides that we should be a family of five; keep on buying diapers in bulk; ask our guests to sleep on the couch; dig out the long-buried infant gear and prepare to WELCOME ANOTHER BABY.  Yep, I'm pregnant and we're expecting a new little one this summer!  The due date's a bit in flux...officially it's early  August...but I'll need to deliver a few weeks early...but Christopher might be far away on an aircraft carrier...but it all makes my head hurt so for now I'll keep focusing on the joy and the exhaustion and keeping my breakfast down.  The kids are thrilled and have named the baby 'cookie' (very gender neutral, though Millie is dearly hoping for a sister.  She told Christopher the other night the she couldn't handle having "two rascals").

Now, more than ever, I'm holding tight to my favorite verse, Jeremiah 29:11

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Holiday Happiness...

Really?  A month?  I should be unveiling some kind of photo masterpiece at this point.  Instead, I've finally found and organized a few photos from our Christmas trips (with a few Thanksgiving pics thrown in for fun).
As a recap:
Thanksgiving = Greers in Delaware (the whole family plus Christopher's cousin Jeremy down from his hip, happenin' life in NYC to join the fun)
Christmas Part I = Steinbeiss' in Maryland with Aunt JuJu in from LA and Uncles Mike and Matt in from Denver/Boulder
Christmas Part II = Greers in Delaware with the Hardys and Uncle Tim in from Connecticut.

Heartbreaking Good News

Just before Christmas we got the news we've been holding our breath for...our next orders.  Norfolk, Virginia...here we come.  The news is the true definition of bittersweet.  Christopher's going to a really great job, and we are both so very very thankful for the opportunity ahead of him.  We'll move in May, after he graduates from the JAG school, so the circus of house hunting / preschool searching / pre-move organizing will begin soon.  Friends, if you have ANY information to share with me on the area, fire away!  I'm desperate for some great recommendations.

I'm sure you can guess the 'heartbreak' side of this news.  It's just not San Diego.  When we left this summer, I just KNEW we'd be back.  Even now I'll catch myself longing for a Sunday morning at Canyon Springs Church or a simple family outing to Coronado or a breakfast at Pipes.  Millie and Simon will be at the same preschool next year and oh how I wish we could rejoin our friends at College Park Preschool.  Should I even begin with the fact that today's high temperature will top out at 25 degrees here?  As always, I know that God has a reason and purpose for all things.  We will make a life for ourselves that is fun, meaningful, adventurous.  We'll make great memories, dive into the fullness of family life with precious little miracles to raise, and embrace the chance to create a new "hometown" for ourselves.  What a crazy life.

Christmas Glimpse

What a great Christmas.  We spent two full weeks away from home, visiting both families over the long break.  My brothers flew in from Denver/Boulder and my sister was in from LA, so we hit the Steinbeiss house first.  We spent long, fun days reading, playing, movie-watching, cookie-making, eating (oh the eating) and just catching up with each other.  Christopher had a meeting in DC so the kids and I made a quick dash in with him one day to visit a couple of friends.  It was a perfect, low-key, family-centered holiday.

After Christmas we headed up to Delaware for the Greer celebrations.  The cousins were reunited,which is, for me, one of the highlights of our visit.  Kaitlin and Millie are the same age, just four months apart, and LOVE playing together...baby dolls, singing, silly made up games.  It's all so sweet and makes me thankful we are here on the east coast so these girls can build their relationship.  We had a great visit with lots of game playing, lots more eating and lots of laughing.

So here's the deal on the photos.  I intentionally left my camera alone for most of the holiday.  I wanted to really be IN the moments of these times with the kids instead of scrambling to find a lost camera and then stressing about goofy smiles, mis-matched outfits, or potential melt downs.  Thankfully, on both sides of the family there are photographers MUCH more talented than me who jumped right in to document the memories.  Once I get my dad's photos and sort through Tim's generous collection of photos I'll post a few.

As a preview:

With Caedmon and baby Genevieve.

Aliyah, we missed you!

The Holy Family, Simon's Version

Introducing: Baby Jeejus, Jofus, and Murray.  I've been egging him on to say this about once an hour for weeks now.  I think it's so funny and I don't ever want to forget it.

Choo Choo? Shoe Shoe.

I was here in the family room, on-line Christmas shopping my little heart out while Simon was downstairs in the foyer happily playing by himself.  I kept hearing him say "choo choo", so I assumed he had made up some kind of train game.  Awesome.  As long as I could hear him playing, I felt less guilt about being on the computer while we were home alone together.

"Hey Mom!  Come look what I made!"  Uh oh.

He was so proud of his OCD organizational skills.  Please tell me this behavior is a normal developmental stage for 2 year olds...

Christmas Kick-Off

Now is it just me, or does it feel like we hit the Christmas season REALLY early this year?  Like straight from rationing Halloween candy to monitoring candy-cane intake.  From fear of candle-lit pumpkins to the terror of being too close to a real live "Ho Ho".  From countdown to costumes to the magic of advent.  Anyway, here we found ourselves (ON NOVEMBER 19!!) kicking off Christmas with the rest of Charlottesville at the tree lighting on the Downtown Mall (hub of all activity here in C'ville).

It is the height of irony that Simon chose a flaming candle for his face decoration.  The kid is terrified of fire.

A captivating store window for kids...check out those knitted hats!

"...and a purple fan for my baby because sometimes she gets hot..."

"Are you kidding me?  NO WAY.  NEGATIVE.  Staying right here, far away from that Ho Ho man."

All topped off by a fun horse-drawn carriage ride down the middle of the pedestrian mall.  Horses' names? Sonny and Cher.

Being on the east coast has its benefits (the sub-freezing temperatures at noon are NOT among them).  We are close enough to drive to our parents' houses for important events.  All the grandkids gathered at the Greers for a girls-only event at their church.

Hooray for hot chocolate...in our bellies, down the fronts of our shirts, smeared across our cheeks!  The evening of tree-decorating coincided with a 'get yourself dressed in whatever you want to wear' day for Millie. Whoa nelly.

A Message for The Ho-Ho

Just in case Santa (aka The Ho-Ho) reads the blog:

(Translation: He'd like Santa to bring " legos and blocks and legos for me")

(Translation: She'd like a scooter and a fan for her baby.  This fan looks like a ceiling fan but sits on the floor.  And it's purple.  And it's two inches tall.  Good luck, Santa.)

Ten Short Years

Ten years ago this week, Christopher and I sat at breakfast on our Caribbean island honeymoon and imagined where life would take us (we really hoped that somehow it would lead us back to that paradise vacation).  All these years later I am so happy and surprised that our journey together has been so easy, so eventful, and so much more satisfying than I could have dreamed.  I married the most amazing man.  We celebrated our anniversary on Thanksgiving and it was fun to remember the crazy perfection of our wedding.  

Christopher reading his vows.  Nat (best man, best friend) guarding my ring and my husband.

The moment at the back of the church, just after we were pronounced husband and wife.  Elation, shock, relief.  One of my favorite photos of the day because of the memories it evokes.