Happy Easter

We had a wonderful Easter out here on Guam. Although, it was the first holiday that Andrew and I have been apart. So it was bittersweet. The festivities started last Saturday at the squadron's Easter Party. Elizabeth was able to partake in her 1st Easter Egg Hunt. It was very cute to watch. I sat her down in front of a brightly colored egg. She immediately crawled over to it, snatched it up , and started chewing on the plastic egg. I guess she doesn't know that the candy inside taste much better than the egg. I think next year she will understand a little better.

Easter morning we went to church with some great friends. It was nice to have Julie, Tommy (Julie's son, aka Elizabeth's boyfriend), and Lisa to go to church with. It was packed. Now, I usually go to Mass on Saturday evening, but Easter Vigil is very long and I figured Elizabeth would not have the attention span for a 2+ hour service. Sunday morning mass was beautiful and packed. Luckily, they had the a/c cranked on high and it wasn't "too hot" here. After church all of us went out to breakfast!

Elizabeth and I then spent the afternoon in the sun with Julie and Tommy. They were able to play in the pool! The benefit of living somewhere warm, is that any holiday calls for a pool day:) Elizabeth was exhausted at this point since she had not napped at all.

Easter dinner was fantastic. Our wonderful friends, the Robinsons, hosted 50+ people over to their house for dinner. The food was FANTASTIC. Tessa you really should start a catering business!! It was great to be surrounded by great friends, especially since Andrew is gone. But it was a fantastic day!

On another note, I only have about a month left before I start my journey back to Maryland. I say journey b/c I will be venturing on a space-a flight. Which for those who have not flown a military flight, there are no guarantees. So I don't know when I will actually make it back to Maryland, but hopefully before Mother's Day! It is bittersweet to leave Guam for a couple months. I have really grown to love the people out here. I have made some great friends, that it will be hard to say bye to them. They have helped me through the couple months of the deployment. I don't know where I would be without their friendship. But I am looking forward to see family and friends back east. And of course, welcoming baby Sean into the world sometime in July.

Thank You USO

The USO has a fantastic program for military families. If there is an USO at the base where the military member is deployed, they can go there and make videos for their children. The USO then send the book along with the DVD to the child. Andrew went and made a video of him reading "Where is Spot". Elizabeth loved it. Here are some pictures of her enjoying reading time with Andrew.

I have also attached a video of her listening to Andrew reading the story. It is absolutely priceless! I am so glad that the USO provides this opportunity for the military member to stay in touch with their kiddos! THANK YOU

Elizabeth Crawling

Sorry it has been awhile since I have posted any new pictures or videos. My camera broke so I had to go find a new one. It isn't as easy as it may seem. Guam doesn't have a Best Buy or Circuit City. I had to search online for the camera I wanted and then had the great adventure of trying to find it. Luckily, the Navy Exchange had what I was looking for. Enjoy the video of Elizabeth. The dog in the picture is Oscar. He is my good friends dog. I am watching him, while she is back visiting family. He reminds me so much of Buck! Elizabeth started crawling only a couple days after Andrew left:( She has become quite fast. She is now pulling herself up on everything. Just yesterday she discovered the dvds on the bookshelf.

Mowing the Lawn

Just a thought for the day. I don't mind mowing the lawn. It can actually be therapeutic at times. What I don't like about it, is that if I don't mow the lawn I will get a lawn ticket. Does the housing office really think that we are going to let our grass (I mean weeds) grow and grow. I think they would be pleasantly surprised that if they stopped that lawn ticket system, people's yards would still look nice (They would be saving tax-payer dollars too). Yes, the yard may not be mowed every 7 days, but really what lawn needs that. I also don't like that every time I go by a bush I am terrified that I am going to get swarmed by boonie bees and swell to the size of a watermelon. Knock on wood, I haven't been stung this week. Plus side of mowing the lawn. It saves us some $$ so I don't feel bad buying decor for the house. It is a little bit of a workout. And I get a little bit of sun at the same time. I am sure I could get a killer tan if I wore my bikini. But 1) don't think the neighbors would like seeing a pregnant lady in a bikini mowing the lawn. 2) my Dermatologist would be mad at me. I would blog a little more about mowing, but I have to wake up bright and early to finish. The "inspector" apparently makes the rounds around 7am...

One Week

This past week went by quickly, but in other aspects in went at a snails pace. I will recap the few days before he left for you all. We were blessed to have a long weekend together. The week before he left he literally was working from 930am to 11pm. So I pretty much did not see him at all. He had to get a bunch a qualifications in before he left for the deployment. So when Friday came around, we were so happy. We could actually spend some quality time together as a family! On Friday afternoon, I went to go get my ultrasound and found out we will be having a little boy in July:) Andrew was suppose to go with me, but had too much work to do. So I surprised him with the news when he got home.

Saturday was a great guamazing day. We went over to friend's house for a Birthday BBQ. We were able to play in the pool with Elizabeth and Andrew was able to show is beach volleyball skills! We then came home and went to an ice cream social to welcome a new family that just arrived at the squadron. We didn't stay too long b/c we had an AMAZING dinner to eat at home. Andrew is an amazing chef and grilled up some rib-eye with some amazing sides. I am surely going to miss his cooking.

Sunday was a day where we ran errands. Getting all the last minute stuff that he needed. Who knew all the random stuff that someone would need in the desert. Note, that he has not started to pack. We then relaxed the rest of the day watching the Olympics, playing games, laughing, joking and treasuring all the time we had together.

Deployment Day:( Well the day had finally arrived and we figured it might be a good idea for Andrew to start packing. Well Miss Elizabeth wanted to help:) Her smile definitely kept the mood light.
So now it is 4:30pm... I just wanted to freeze time right then and there. Wouldn't life be too easy if we could do that. We packed up the car and headed out to dinner. Andrew didn't want anything fancy, just some good old pizza. Andrew and I were not very hungry. He only ate 3 pieces. If anyone knows him, you know he can EAT. I think we both had so many emotions running through our heads that we didn't have much of an appetite.
Daddy and his little girl
I dropped Andrew off with his bags and then parked the car. I couldn't believe that the time had arrived to say good-bye. Elizabeth and I quickly parked the car and went in to find Andrew. We had some time to kill before he had to go through security. So we sat on a bench and talked for awhile! You would think that we would be teary eyed while we were waiting, but that is what babies are for. Elizabeth had just mastered a new sound. We call it the "raspberry". Pretty much when she makes this sound spit goes flying everywhere. It was very humorous. She was also talking up a storm. Wanting to crawl over Andrew. Maybe she had a sense that this was the last time she was going to see him for awhile. The time to say good-bye came. At this point I lost it. Andrew gave me a great big hug and comforted me. A part of me is still holding onto that hug and will be for the next 6 months! The drive home was lonely. But when I arrived back on base I was fortune enough to head over to a friends house. Where we made some hot chocolate... chocolate makes everything better:)

This past week Elizabeth and I have been trying to stay busy. I guess the good thing about living on a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean is that you can go to the beach in February:) We are fortunate to have great communication with Andrew while he is gone. We either skype/call/email once a day! I love how far technology has come!!!

It's a Boy!

We were lucky enough to be able to find out the sex of the baby before Andrew deployed. We bit the bullet this time and found out the sex. We decided that since Andrew wouldn't be at the birth, it would be nice to know the sex! Sorry the pictures aren't all that great, but I could not figure out how to use to scanner with a mac. So I was creative and used the camera on the computer to take pictures of the ultrasound pictures!! We are both very excited about the little boy that will be born sometime in July!! It will be a lot of fun having a boy and girl so close in age. Enjoy the pictures! Aren't babies just the cutest

Hangout time with Andrew

Andrew was incredible busy that last couple weeks before his deployment. Fortunately, we were able to have some good family time on the weekends!! We went down to Dadi Beach, which is on the Navy Base. I know all of you are jealous. Here we are lathering up with sunscreen for the beach and you are bundling up to face the snow!!!I just can't get enough of this precious face. She keeps me on my toes for sure as she is about to start crawling. She left the shoes on for about 2 seconds and then decided that they would function better if she used them as a teether. She now has her 2 bottom teeth. She was a champ with the whole teething process. Hopefully that continues!
Andrew giving Elizabeth smooches. As you can tell she was ready for him to stop, but he had to give her a lot since he will be gone for 6-7 months
Elizabeth LOVES the water. I think she would prefer for it to be a tad warmer. I don't think she knows how good she has it. I mean going to the beach in February!! She loves splashing around! I am so happy that Andrew was able to get some Daddy time in with Elizabeth before he left.