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!

Christmas with the Strouds...

Well, here are some pics from our trip down to see Ryan's side of the family... Hope you enjoy!

Christmas at the Swaringens...

Well, there really aren't too many "Christmas shots" as I was on a mini-camera strike, so I could actually enjoy spending time with my family, but here are some of the pics taken while staying with my family... :)

I guess you have to accept reality someday...

...so why not today?

Well, we finally were able to pick up Ryan's Chrysler LHS today from Shorty, and Ryan decided that it probably wasn't the most dependable car, so we should just trade it in and find a more dependable, reliable vehicle. We need a 4 door car because it is really annoying getting Eli in and out of our little 2 door Cavalier especially having Eli's carseat in there means whoever is riding in the passenger seat is going to sacrifice their knees because the seat is pushed up so far!


So today we headed into town to look for a nice pre-owned car. After lots of looking in the ridiculously cold, blistery weather, we ended up settling on a 2007 Ford Taurus with just over 21K miles. It wasn't our original choice and definitely isn't at the top of the cool cars list, but it is dependable, roomy, and gets half-way decent gas mileage. So that is what I am finally accepting... We are a growing family that needs a family car, so old people car, here we come!


I had called our military bank, USAA, and had gotten pre-approved for a loan, so it was really nice being able to not have to haggle with their finance guy, but to hand them a check from our bank and just worry about dealing with our bank not whoever they deal with. They also admitted that we got a considerably better interest rate than they could have given us, so that was also nice to hear!


I believe we handled everything really well and got $1800 knocked off the initial asking price... (After about an hour of back and forth haggling) That stuff is so much fun! The Salesman who was a former Army First Sergeant says that the dealership only made about $53.00 on the sale, but I really highly doubt that. They did fight hard with us over that last little bit, but we weren't budging on our intial demands...


Anyways, after literally 7 hours in the dealership, we finally headed home, and we can't wait to really start enjoying our "new" vehicle!


Here is a pic I found online. This is the closest I found to the actual color... Ours has a little spoiler though...

Our little Christmas at home...

Well, this year because we were heading down to our hometowns for Christmas, we decided we should open presents here, so we wouldn't have to haul them back to Texas... There were still some that I had for Ryan that I left in NC, and he shipped some down as well so I would have something to unwrap, but the bulk of mine and Eli's was definitely here. ;) Ryan though had equal amounts here and there...

Yes... I am THAT cool...What can I say... My toes just taste good!The Loot on Christmas Eve...I promise I like Daddy most of the time!My first chance at the presents on Christmas Morning! (Notice how Ryan didn't wrap most of Eli's... That will not be happening when Mommy does it next year!!!) ;) My first Bible... Yay... Now let me eat it!I love Tigger!Wow... what's this Mom? Monopoly?You mean you got me a game that I have to wait to play till I'm

like 8 yrs old!? What in the world, Dad!!!I guess I'll just have to play soccer then... Daddy's pile of loot... (He had a little more than this in NC)Mommy and Eli's pile of loot! (Daddy spoiled us this year!)One of my fav presents... It is a Mommy holding her little boy... I stinkin' love it! ;)Do you think he had a good Christmas!?

I guess I'll just start at the beginning...

Well, there is so much to go over, so I am just gonna show you some pics I took of Haylee and Eli for Christmas... Renee posted a lot of them, so I'll post some of the ones she did and some of the ones she didn't... ;)

We had so much fun taking these and Eli was so good... I made that little shirt for him, and he was just too cute in his little hat.

Alright, hope you enjoy...

Something to wet your whistle...

Well, we are finally back home, and we are so excited to be getting back to life as usual! Don't get me wrong, we had a blast back home, but it is time to get back to our routine...

Anyways, the house is a disaster, but I wanted to post a pic of little man so you won't forget how cute he is! Just kidding... like that's possible! ;)

Hope you enjoy! Will hopefully be back to blogging as usual in no time at all.

How does 7 months go by so fast?

Well, no one fall over dead, but I just had to post this blog post! ;) Trust me, I am not forgetting about our blog, but we have been in North Carolina and Georgia for the last 24 days or so, and I wanted to spend as much time with our families without focusing on Blogging. Plus I didn't have my Photoshop there and I hate posting pics without editing them! ;)

Anyhow, I wanted to blog about how our beautiful boy is now 7 months old!! I cannot believe that he is that old, but I guess I just need to get used to time traveling so fast! ;) He really is a wonderful baby, and we are so very lucky to have him in our lives. We have so many pictures that we took over the holidays that I will be posting once we get settled back into the house!

Sorry for no new pics, but I promise... they will come... ;)