Our Fresh Blog Start

Hi Friends!!

Thanks for stopping by our blog! You may already be a follower, but you may also be visiting after receiving our family photos. :) As you can see, I've been kind of bad at keeping up with this blog...but I've decided it's about time I pay a little more attention to this, especially for our friends and family who may not have Facebook. The last time I updated this, Aden was just starting to eat solids...and now he is running and climbing and jumping off of just about anything!! There are quite a few things that have changed, and most of you are already updated...but just for the sake of our 'fresh blog start', I'm going to give a quick list of all the major happenings in our exciting and busy life...

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Our little family went on quite the roller coaster of emotions and events throughout 2011...Harold was flown out to Bahrain where he joined up with the USS Enterprise to finish out a deployment tour in the Persian gulf. Aden and I stayed back in Idaho to spend time with friends and family until Harold came back. Aden and I packed up and made the trip across the country with Harold's Dad Randy and his Aunt Kim (and of course Harley and Daisy!) just in time for the Enterprise Homecoming.

Once Harold returned home, after spending a few days exploring Norfolk (our new station), we began a search for our first home together. We found our home and started the process of purchasing our first house! Soon after we began that process we found out we were expecting our second baby. As the holiday season came around, we experienced the heartache of a miscarriage of our sweet baby at 10 weeks. It was something we never could have prepared for or dealt with as well as we did without the support and love we felt from our friends and family. So here is a special thanks, in case you haven't heard it from us yet, for your thoughts and prayers. <3

Harold left shortly after that for a short underway (mini-deployment). During the underway our happy little Aden turned 1!! As soon as Daddy returned, we celebrated together with a special red truck cake. We are so thankful for such a healthy and happy little toddler!! Christmas came around a week later and Aden had the best month of his life!! Gifts galore!! :)

We brought in the New Year with hopes of closing on our home, but alas, January came and went and it wasn't until February 3rd that we FINALLY signed the papers for our first home together!! Harold was, however, on yet another underway when the papers were officially signed, and he just returned home to us on the 10th of February.

And so, nearly 3 years since our wedding, we find ourselves living in our first home in Hampton, Virginia sharing our lives with our son, Aden, and our two dogs, Harley & Daisy. It's been a really fun and also very trying journey together and now we are preparing for another new adventure: Deployment 2012.

On March 11th, Harold will board the USS Enterprise to take part in the ship's final scheduled deployment. They are supposed to return sometime in the end of October/beginning of November. This is bound to be a difficult year for us as Harold is heading into the Persian Gulf once again, taking on the task of staring down Iran. But we are determined to make it!! And we know that with God on our side, we can handle this. :)

Between now and then, we will be taking things one day at a time, and for now we have planned an exciting vacation for a week in Washington, D.C. next week! I'm really looking forward to some time with my boys. If there is anything I have learned from this military lifestyle, it's to appreciate every moment I get to share with my husband.

I think I've covered just about all the major life events that there were to tell! Of course we have many photos to share...and I'm still trying to get the hang of this blogger system...so bear with me as I get the photos of our family and our home uploaded to share with you!! :)