How fast it all goes...

I was just thinking how big Eli is getting, so I thought I'd do a little photo slideshow showing his progression. This would probably make more sense when he will be 1, but I couldn't wait. :) It's just 1 photo from beginning then 1 per month. :)

Okay... Everyone fess up!

I want to know who else is in the "Worst Mommy of the Year Club" for letting their baby fall off the bed!? :( Well, we went up to Shorty and Barbara's for the weekend and since we didn't have Eli's crib he slept with Ryan and I on their King size guest bed. Well, he started out the night in between us, but he was exceedingly fussy, so I kept moving him around to try to get him comfortable enough to sleep. Well, somehow I managed to put him on my side of the bed and when he woke up in the morning he rolled right off the bed with a great big thud!! :( Needless to say the crying commenced followed by me trying to quickly wake up out of my fog to pick him up! As worried as I was that Eli was okay and hadn't hit his head or anything, I was just as worried hoping that Ryan wasn't going to kill me! ;) Eli falling off the bed has been a fear of his, so I knew he would not be very happy that he was sleeping on the edge of the bed when he rolled over! Thankfully though he chose to just ask how he was and not give me to much grief knowing I was already very upset at myself about it!

Anyhow, Eli is fine and surprisingly still loves me! So, fess up everyone, who else earned this?

Some fun pics of the fam...

We took these a couple weeks ago, but I am just catching up to them, so anywho... Here you go! ;) Hope you enjoy!

rub-a-dub-dub...

It was time for Eli's weekly bath (j/k) :) and I decided to give him his first bubble bath... At first he didn't quite know what to do with this funny water, but eventually he got the hang of it! His new favorite thing to do when taking a bath is climbing the sides of the tub, which can actually prove quite dangerous if he slips, so Mommy and Daddy definitely have to be on their toes! Anywho... hope you enjoy the pics and hope everyone is doing well!

I love bath time!

Yay, I'm mobile! ;)

What's up?

What happens when Mommy goes to do the laundry...

...and leaves Daddy in charge of watching Eli...This is what I saw when I walked in... Eli was under the recliner with a bag of dumped pretzels! ;)Can't you tell how worried Dad is about it! :)My favorite part was all the residual salt that ended up on his pants!Gotta love the fun memories!

It's when it is silent that you really have to worry!

This is what happens when you attempt to put an adventerous baby down for a nap! ;) I laid him down drousy, and he instantly started screaming, but I knew he would eventually give up and go to sleep. I thought it was odd that I didn't hear him crying after only 30 seconds... I thought, wow, he really gave up fast! After a couple minutes I decided to check on him and this is what I found... (Please ignore the pink walls! We're moving soon!)

"Please send my Mommy to come get me..."

"Yay! She came!"

"Alright, we're cool Mom... Now get me out!"

Our Impromptu Trip to San Antonio...

Well, Ryan had a 4 day weekend because of President's Day, (he had Saturday - Tuesday off), so we were kind of bumming around on Saturday, and I threw out the idea of heading down to San Antonio for the rest of the weekend cause it is something we really wanted to do before we left for Alabama. Well, we decided that we should just pack up and head down that night so we could wake up in San Antonio and not have to wake up and travel. So, I got online and found us a good deal on a hotel in the downtown area and we were on the road in less than an hour! We made really good time and ended up getting in a little after 9 pm. We ordered some pizza and just relaxed for the night and woke up bright and early to enjoy our day... I'm disappointed that I somehow didn't manage to capture any pictures of the Riverwalk, but we were having so much fun it kind of slipped my mind! We had so much fun walking around and shopping in the authentic Mexican markets... We even decided to get Eli a cowboy hat which got him even more attention than he normally attracts! He was so cute in his stroller with his little cowboy hat! He left it on the whole first day, but by the second day he had definitely figured out that it was on and he would slowly take his hand and pull it off! We still had our fun with it though, so anyways, here are some pics from our exciting mini-vacation! :)

Here's a pic I stole off the internet of the Riverwalk... It is just so pretty!

It is around 3 miles of walkway!

Big News on the Stroud front!!!

and no, I'm NOT pregnant! ;)

Well, long story, but Ryan and I are really not happy here at Ft Hood especially with how his unit treats him and the fact that he is already slotted to re-deploy in December. We understand that deployments are par for the course in the Army, but I think it is just ridiculous to expect familes to hold it together when your husbands are gone for 15 months at a time! On top of the fact that we've already spent 2.5 years apart! So, we went to talk to the Career Counselor about Ryan's possible options. He considered switching jobs, but then we would have no choice over where he would be stationed after training and he may end up in a situation just as bad or worse then Ft. Hood. So, we then talked about re-upping to obtain a transfer out of his unit and Ft. Hood. There were a few absurd options, but we landed on a position in Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. I had never even heard of this base, but apparantly it is mainly a training and research post, so there is very little chance of him deploying, which is great news... There is an AIT there (a schoolhouse where they train soldiers) and Ryan will be assigned there to take pictures and write stories about the students. The housing looks really nice and the post is mostly civilian, so we're hoping it will be a little more laid back than the typical Army Base. He has to add 2 more years onto his contract, but this means that we will have 4 years of Medical Insurance to decide if we want another baby, and this will also give Ryan enough time in to qualify for the Troops to Teachers program that he is interested in once he gets out. There was also talk that he would report to Alabama in June. He put his name in for the position on Thursday of last week, and by Monday they had an answer back that he had gotten the position! He then had to officially re-enlist on Tuesday and the new unit needs him as soon as possible, so we are now supposed to report at the beginning of April, not June! That means we'll have only been in Texas for a little over 4 months when we leave! Yay! (Sorry to all the Texas lovers out there, but it REALLY stinks around here!) We thought there might be a few issues with our lease since we are already paid up till the end of May, and I was the only one on the contract. Well, we went in on Tuesday and added Ryan on the lease, so now the military clause is in effect and all we have to do is go in once we have his orders and they will release us from the lease and we will get a refund of our deposit and the money for the extra months. I'm really hoping all that will go smoothly and we should have his orders by next Tuesday! (We still wouldn't leave until end of March - beginning of April, but once we have his orders we can start planning everything) Ryan is very excited since he has been at Ft Hood since July of 05... He is more than ready to leave and hopefully be in a lot better situation. We know the Army can mess with you at every turn, but if we can do our best to put close to 3 years between deployments, then we're happy to take that risk.I can't believe we'll be in Alabama in less than 2 months! Oh, this also puts us like 3 hours from his parents and 6 hours from mine, yay! I love that I'll be able to drive up there instead of having to catch a flight! I can't believe all of this is happening so fast! Yay for green grass and trees again!!

See how happy and amazed we are... :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Even though Daddy doesn't like this holiday because he thinks it is fake, Eli wants to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day! :)

We love you!

Catching up on some more pics... :)

Well, when we were home for leave, we decided to take a little day trip to the World of Coke while we were in Georgia... I had never been, and Ryan hadn't been to the new building yet, so we were both excited for a new adventure! :) There was this Crazy Stuffed Coke Polar Bear and it was unbelievable because his head was like animatronic, so he could move his eyes, open and close his mouth, while he moved his head independently of his body, so he would sortof roll his head in circles and blink his eyes and open his mouth in a big smile, which had to be the creepiest thing I've seen in a long time! I told him he was really creepy as we were trying to get some pics of Eli with him! ;) Thankfully he didn't really mind and was very obliging to all our crazy pictures! Eli was so good the whole day before he finally crashed... After the Coke Factory, we went over to the CNN building for lunch, so some of the pics are from our walk back... Hope you enjoy! ;)

Hannah's Senior Pics

I took these before I left for Texas, but in all the craziness of the move and Ryan getting back I managed to delay getting these done and edited. So, anyways, hope you enjoy and let me know what you think... :)

Eli's "6 month" appointment! ;)

Well, since we moved here over the time that Eli was turning 6 months and then went right back for vacation, we were unable to get Eli scheduled for his 6 month shots till today! There is a ridiculous wait to get an appointment around here, it stinks! Anyways, he'll be 8 months on the 11th, so I think it is kind of funny that we are so behind on it! Anyhow, he did really well, and came in at 22 lbs 12 ozs and 28 inches long with an 18 in head. :) He is only like 75th on his length, but he is like 95th and 97th on weight and his big fat noggin. He did really well with the 3 shots and I really like the pediatrician here... He is a lot different from the down home type pedi that I had in NC, but he still seems really helpful.

Oh, also I finally got around to calling WIC to see if we qualify. I didn't realize they didn't factor in what we get for housing, so we are well under the amount that they call "poor" enough, so I go the 12th to talk to the WIC counselor... I so wish I would have done this a lot sooner, but oh well, at least this should help with the formula and juice. They do a different brand here, which kind of stinks, but oh well, I'm sure he'll do fine on it.

Anyways, that's what's going on around here. :) Hope everyone is doing well! ;)

Here are a couple pics to keep you sane... We were messing around in Walmart and had a little fun at Eli's expense... Hope you enjoy! As you can see, he didn't quite know what to think of it!