Thanksgiving, Roswell and Carlsbad, oh my!

With Thanksgiving this past Thursday we were blessed to have a four-day weekend. I know the time will come when Matt is gone for months at a time so I really try to soak up family time whenever we have it.

Thursday
So to start our "weekend" we had a relaxing Thanksgiving at home - just the three of us. Matt cooked our turkey (all 7 lbs) on his new rotisserie and I made the sides (homemade mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, and homemade cranberry sauce). It was a lot of food for just the two of us, but it made it feel like Thanksgiving, which I loved. Other than cooking food (oh and munching on appetizers like pigs in a blanket and homemade bruschetta), we pretty much just hung out outside with Ethan. It was a gorgeous day so he loved being outside and we enjoyed relaxing.

Brining the turkey the night before

The start of my homemade cranberry sauce (cranberries, pears and oranges - yum!)

Let the rotisserie begin!

Playing catch outside

The delicious end result :)

Friday
We woke up Friday morning and took our time getting ready to head out the door. We knew we wanted to eat lunch at home and drive during Ethan's nap, so we weren't in any rush to get on the road. So around noon we started our drive down to Roswell, the first stop on our mini Southwest New Mexico trip. Fortunately, we had heard from friends that there wasn't really much to Roswell, so our expectations were set before we even got there. We did, of course, visit the International UFO Museum, which cost us $3 each and took us all of about 20 minutes (including a bathroom break) to work our way through. We were just happy that wasn't the real goal of our trip and was more of a pit-stop along the way to get to Carlsbad, and now we can say we've been there!

Naptime while driving to Roswell. He used his hat to block the sun. Smart little guy. :)

The best part about the UFO Museum? The man carrying around two birds on his back...

So after Roswell, we kept driving South to Carlsbad where we spent the night so we'd all be well-rested to go to the caverns the next day. We've learned that traveling with a toddler is totally doable, but takes a little longer and includes a lot more "rest" time than if it were just us. :)

Saturday
Saturday we woke up and headed straight to the Carlsbad Caverns, which were awesome. Seriously, awe-some. We took the natural entrance in, which is definitely the way to do it. It was much darker than I expected, for some reason I remember Luray Caverns being well-lit, but maybe I made that up? Either way it was really cool and I highly recommend it to anyone who comes to visit us or just happens to be in that area for whatever reason. Matt even made a video of our trip, which you can check out here, so I won't post a lot of pictures, since all the good ones are in the video. :)

Sunday
Sunday was the official start of Christmas cheer for me! :) I got out our tree, decorated that baby, decorated the house, drank eggnog and watched some of my favorite Christmas movies (in between football and a few episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, of course). And by the end of the day I totally remembered why I like to decorate so early - because it takes forever and there is no way I am undecorating the house for quite sometime! Lol.

The annual torturing of Beaker with the Santa suit :)

I got this advent calendar as a gift years ago and was super excited to hang it for Ethan this year. He has no concept of only putting one ornament up a day, but loved playing with it, so that's good enough for me!

My happy little reindeer!

All done (before Beaker climbed half-way up, possibly payback for the Santa suit...)

One of my favorite ornaments - my Dad's fire engine that Hallmark made into an ornament :)

So excited that we finally have a real mantel for our stockings! Also makes the whole "Santa comes down the chimney" thing easier to explain. :)

So that was our awesome four-day weekend to wrap up November! I hope everyone else had a great holiday and got to enjoy family and friends and do something they love. :) Now it's December, which means birthdays... and I'm 30. ;)

Mini Update & Thanks

I haven't blogged in awhile, so I just figured I'd give a mini update on life over the last month.

- The MP (aka Gigi) came to visit us for a week at the beginning of the month and man were we thankful! She helped us get so much done around the house in terms of unpacking and settling in. It was just so nice to have an extra set of hands and an extra spirit to keep us (read: me) motivated and moving. Plus, she helped me bake cookies - yum! We were all sad to see her go, but are looking forward to her visiting again (next time with Pop, too!) at Christmas time. :)

- Ethan has been at his new daycare for almost a month now and the kid LOVES it. Seriously, he's excited to go to school everyday and comes home singing (literally, his teacher sings all the time and now he sings at home too, it's adorable).

- My pregnancy is moving right along. I just hit 28 weeks on Monday (aka my third trimester) and am feeling great. My only symptom these days is a little bit of heartburn, but I had that with Ethan, so it was no real surprise. Maybe this little guy has a full head of hair, too? Only time will tell. :)

- As for Matt he is just busy with work. He actually worked this past weekend, so we're all looking forward to some family time over the long Thanksgiving weekend. Oh and he is super excited to use his new grill to rotisserie the turkey. :)

And speaking of Thanksgiving, I just wanted to take this opportunity to say what I'm truly thankful for this year. So many wonderful things have happened, I think it's important to sit back and reflect on those things and never take blessings for granted.

- I am thankful for my husband. He is my best friend and my rock. I couldn't have picked a better person to go on this journey with and feel so blessed to call him mine every day.
- I am thankful for Ethan. He is the most wonderful little ball of joy and energy that continues to amaze me everyday. We have put him through so much this year with two moves and four different daycare classes, and he has just been awesome through the whole thing, continuing to show us his strength and ability to adapt with each life change.
- I am thankful for a healthy second pregnancy and can't wait to meet the newest member of our family next year. Now if only we could come up with a name... lol. :)
- I am thankful for my family. Leaving behind everything I knew in Maryland and DC was definitely a new adventure, but my family has been so wonderful coming to visit and making time to Skype and always keeping in touch. I know they are all hundreds of miles away, but they are always there when I need them.
- Finally, I just want to say how thankful I am for all the men and women in the United States Armed Forces. Joining this new squadron this year has opened my eyes to a different side of the military that I was never exposed to before. It's no longer "if" Matt will deploy, but now just a matter of "when" Matt will deploy and that has brought everything so much closer to home for me. I am just so thankful for all the men and women who sacrifice their lives daily for this country and wish them peace, health and happiness during this holiday season.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! <3

Our East Coast Visit

As most of you know, we traveled back East earlier this month for a two-week-whirlwind-family-and-friend-visiting-extravaganza. It was the perfect time to go since Matt just finished 13 months of training and hadn't been assigned any responsibilities at his new squadron (which can make it difficult for him to travel and get away from work) and I'm not too big yet to be really uncomfortable flying. As for our other traveling partner, let's be real, there's never a "perfect" time to travel with a toddler, lol. He did do really well on the flight out, but the flight home definitely pushed us to our patience limits a little more. Note to future self: Make sure the tablet actually charges prior to flying so you don't end up with a dead tablet 30 minutes into a 4 hour flight.

Anyway, we started our trip in Clovis (obviously) and drove to Albuquerque where we slept our first night. Then from there we woke up and flew to Baltimore, where we stayed at my brother's house. We woke up bright and early there and drove to New York, where we got to spend time with both sides of Matt's family and some of his friends, too. Next we went from New York down to Delaware where we stayed with one of Matt's best friends for a night. From Delaware it was onto Maryland where we visited with my family and friends. Whew. I'm tired just typing that, lol. It was seriously SO wonderful to see everyone, but darn if we weren't tired when we got home! And I think when all was said and done we slept in 8 different places... over a period of 14 nights. Ha.

Now for pictures. I'm just sorry I didn't remember to get my camera out and take a picture with everyone we saw, but hey, if you took pictures while we were visiting, please send them my way, I'd love to have them. :)

Hotel snuggles in Albuquerque

Flying from Albuquerque to Baltimore

Playground in Highland Falls

Apple picking in Warwick with Philly friends

Playground in Warwick

Visiting with Sarah and Kim

Ethan's first selfie

Feeding a friend's horse in New York

G-ma and Ethan feeding another horse

It's pizza time!

Ethan and Grandpa

Cousins!

Four generations (me, my mom, my grandmother and my son)

Matt's first ride in the firetruck

Dinner in DC with Matt and Candice

Me, my oldest friend and our babies <3

Boteler Family Photo

Tractor ride with Pop!

Goodbye, East Coast!

Pumpkin Carving and Trick-or-Treating

We got home from our two week whirlwind East Coast trip on Tuesday (more on that later) and took Wednesday to relax and adjust to being back at home. Then Thursday and Friday Matt went back to work and Ethan started at his new daycare. And even though it was technically only a two-day work week, it somehow still felt like a full week to all of us, lol. Anyway, we ended the week with Halloween, of course. So on the way home from daycare we stopped to let Ethan pick out his own pumpkin and then he and Matt carved it right before we all headed out for trick-or-treating. I might not have decorated the house this year, but all-in-all I'd say we had an awesome Halloween evening. :)

 

Yes, Monster had to go trick-or-treating with us

Adiós Albuquerque!

First, let me just say, we FINALLY have internet! Hooraaaay! We got here last Wednesday and have been living internet-less until about 11am today. You have no idea how happy I am to be back amongst the world of the connected.

Now that I've cleared that up, I have so much to fill you in on! On Thursday, September 25th, Matt passed the last piece of his last training checkride (aka final exam flight), yaaaaaaaaay! So from there, the packing began. And boy did we pack. And pack and pack and pack. Then finally on Tuesday morning we picked up our UHaul, loaded the truck (and loaded and loaded and loaded) and by Wednesday afternoon we were finally on the road to Clovis (Matt in the UHaul and then me, Ethan, Beaker and Natty all in my Escape).

Goodbye old home!

Hello new home!

After getting some major help from a few friends, we finished unloading the truck on Thursday, and that meant it was time to start unpacking. I'd like to say, now a week later, we're done with this phase, but ha. No. We have made a ton of progress, but we definitely still have a few boxes in the garage that need to be unpacked. We also haven't really "set up" any of the rooms. It's more just like things are placed in different rooms that are livable for now until we get to buy new furniture and really set up the house the way we want to. The only purchases we (I use the word "we" loosely) have made so far are a fancy new gas grill, shelves for the garage and a lawn mower. You see why I use the word "we" loosely, lol. Do all of these things benefit me? Absolutely. Do any of these things excite me? Not particularly.

Anyway, that's pretty much where we're at now. Matt went back to work this week and now with internet back in my life I should be able to get a little work done here and there when Ethan is otherwise occupied. Oh, and speaking of Ethan, he is doing great! Other than a little face-meets-hardwood-floor incident yesterday, he seems to be loving the new house and is adjusting really well. He'll start daycare early next month, but until then it's just lots of Mommy/Ethan time. :)