Oh so grateful

Keith gets in touch with his manlier side

Annika finds the Vermont Hibernation Kit

Our friends Keith, Katherine, Sam, and Eden in CT

Grammy and Anni

and Mr. Pix E. Fuzzybuns

Adam and Laura Lamb (becks bro and sis'n'law

Eli, Noah, doted one...

There is so much to be thankful for everyday of every year. We've just returned from a lovely visit with family and some friends. Our trip started Wednesday and we headed to Atlanta to the night to drop of Rachel (my 20 yr old sister who is currently living with us) and let the fam see our little ham. Then, Thursday morning, we were off to Moss Point, MS for Thanksgiving with the Phillips and Keith's grandparents. It was a grand ole time of taking TONS of pictures of the baby, people watching and holding the baby, everyone sitting around staring at the baby, and then of course, feeding the baby. She had her first bite of meat!! Thanksgiving Chicken! (O: She didn't love it, but I mixed it with peas, so I don't know which she liked least! We left on Sat afternoon and headed to Enterprise to spend a night with Uncle William (aka Mr. Chick, Mr. Griffin, etc.). He was doing well, and it was really great to spend a meal with he and Mary. They fed us a great Thanksgiving meal for folks that don't cook much! Annika loved their dogs and their new kitties. It was too wet and rainy to introduce her to the cows and goats. We waved at Becky (the heifer) and Polka Dot (the goat), though.

We took a trip to Vermont to visit Grammie and introduce her to Annika. They got along quite well and Uncle Adam and his recent bride, Laura, joined us in the latter part of our visit. On the way up we visited with the Kramer family (pastor of the church we visited in Pennsylvania) and on the way back we made our last visit to the Blake's home in Connecticut, they'll be moving to Chattanooga, TN in March.

Otherwise in life, we are still trying to finish the garage. Every day brings a million more things we want to do, a million we should have done, and lots that we're doing. Basically, even this blog is something I intend to keep up with weekly or at least monthly, but like at the moment, a screaming baby desirous of attention keeps me hitting "save as a draft for months."

Here are a few pictures, so that this actually gets posted, no need for all this writing. Pictures type the words for me.

Come Fly with Me...

Today Annika and I had the wonderful privilege of seeing Keith fly, and he flew REALLY close to the car. I had to keep her in the car most of the time, it was pretty noisy and I never knew if he'd kick up some gravel or not! This was his first flight since December! He did great! and he enjoyed flying in scenic Pennsylvania. South Alabama is great for some things, but scenery isn't one of them!

Looks like a frog, or an open mouth fish from behind

Here, Mom, I'll take the video!

Smile for the camera, Mommy!

Our aircrafts


Indiantown Gap

Annika and I then went over to a part in the area, and guess who found us?! Its "tadpole's Daddy! The frogs bulging helicopter flew in almost every direction! He went "pop pop pop" as he flew toward us!"

Pennsylvania

Howdy! I've been alerted that its been quite sometime (since May) that we've updated this bad boy! I'm sorry to any who have been trying to keep up here. It seems to be a never ending battle to try to stay on top of lots of things in life.... especially with this baby that is growing SO fast! She has been attracting lots of visitors to our neighborhood and home, and we'll have to update those pics later because right now we're hanging out in Eastern Pennsylvania at a Quality Inn. Little AJ is taking her morning nap and Daddy is at work in the simulators. In order to get the unit up and flying quicker, they are dishing out some of our guys to different locations that have aircraft and instructor pilots that can help our guys to progress (be ready to fly in the unit). Keith got tagged to come here to PA, while a few others got to go to Kansas and Ft. Campbell, TN/KY. I think we got the pick! We are in a little valley in the Appalachians, the App. Trail goes through here just a few miles away. We are about 30 minutes from Lancaster County attractions, not far from Hershey, and our favorite things to do revolve around the mountains and hiking trails. Annika and I are here for a week or so, Keith will be here for about a week and half after we leave and got here 4 days before us. The Army gives him a hotel room and a food allowance, so its kinda like a free vacation for us!

We did a little exploration around Lancaster County on Saturday. We didn't know what to expect I guess. I had the impression that Amish country would be quiet and relaxing, full of a quiet people who sell quality goods to the public and allow us peeks into their lives. I was pretty disappointed in the circus that seemed to be going on around them. The traffic through their towns was pretty insane, lots of people from lots of states stopping to take pictures of horse and buggies with little kids poking out the back, and lots of commercialism utilizing the Amish for their marketing. Hotel signs saying "Come explore the quiet life of the Amish with us! Wireless internet and free Cable." Huh?! Does anyone else see in dichotomy here? We do like the landscape though (minus the subdivisions dispersed throughout the countryside). And we all fit in well... because it is quite a "cOrNy" place!

We stopped in the city of Lancaster for coffee in the late afternoon and really enjoyed this city. It is very walkable and we found an awesome place to sit. Rachel's Cafe and Crepere! It was a pretty authentic crepere with an expansive menu of both sweet and salty crepes, with salad crepes too! I got a Nutella Mocha and it was AWESOME!! I'm not normally a mocha fan... too sweet normally. But they just sweet this espresso and milk with nutella and it is delicious! As cities go... we both enjoyed this one... and that isn't really typical of us.

We found a random road near the hotel that had signs for a Hawk Watch, and after bumping up the mountain, past military live fire training ranges, we got to the top of the hill with a beautiful lookout! Annika decided to be super cute for us there! She does that most places, little booger!

We went to church yesterday at the Union Salem Evangelical Congregational Church, attendance (including the 3 of us):14. It was a simple service with a decent sermon. And the Sunday school following the sermon was led by the elderly pianist and was an excellent exposition on the book of Jonah. The pastor's family was very welcoming and invited us back next week and to their home for lunch next Sunday. They are very nice people, and we look forward to spending some more time getting to know them.

I think thats about the bulk of our excitement for now. More later?!

Barn Raisin

I managed to con Alliance Roofing (happens to be owned by my daughters grandfather...aka my Dad!) into spending their Memorial Day visiting with Annika, and working on building our garage in their spare time! In the wee hours of Friday night there was only a slab with a lot of lumber in piles in our backyard. These first few photos are from Saturday, where most of the framing was completed and the last photo was taken just a few minutes ago, with where they left off. I couldn't believe how fast things progressed while my dad, Adam & Timmy (brothers), Keith and Jonathon (friend from Ft. Rucker who lives here now... has the roommate with a plane!) worked their tails off! Keith had a ball, but they were all quite tired at the end of the day/weekend. We took Sunday off and took the family to church and toured our area to show them where we live. Danielle (sister) came up to visit with us, although I think her primary motive was to hold on to her niece as much as possible... which I was happy to let her do! So we all earned our Alliance Roofing tee-shirts one way or another, being covered in sawdust, spit up or flour (had to suck up to my dad and make all his favorite goodies!). THANKS to all who came and helped!!! We'll update with more pics as Keith and I slowly finish the project!

Springing

Spring has come and is almost gone, but we were able to get a few plants in. Mom and Dad (Lamb) sent a pretty pink hydrangea for my first mother's day and we planted it in our front yard, we'll see if we can keep it alive! Annika is growing always and smiling more all the time. She is very much a Joyful child, I believe there is something to a name like JOY!

Getting Settled

La Viva et Bella!

We closed on our new home on the 22nd. God was gracious and gave it to us 3 days early, and we were able to have our "stuff" delivered the 23rd. By stuff, I mean the tremendously large amount of junk that we own that we for some reason thought we needed. Two weeks later and we are still throwing things away. Part of the downsizing is common sense: if we didn't open the box while we lived in Alabama, we probably won't here. And we are also moving into a similarly sized house, but there is a kid in this one... who has a whole bedroom to herself! We also are trying to compensate for the lack of garage (one is in the works) and smaller closets. All in all we are VERY pleased with the house. God has been so good. We have so much more than we deserve!

Rocking chairs on front porches are so underrated. I realize it is not yet the peak of mosquito mania, and its not too warm yet, but we've used our tiny front porch many times in the last few weeks to relieve some stress. We have had some speed bumps in the getting settled process, to include the roots in the sewer that backed up our pipes for the second time today. The city will be doing the repairs, we just have to be careful until they get done. We are trying to adjust to Keith's work schedule. Its not much to complain about, but it is further from home than anywhere we've lived before (there were very few homes closer to the airfield), and we're unable to have our breakfasts and lunches together everyday. The beautiful noise coming from the lungs of my sweet baby have been a slight hindrence to unpacking boxes. It takes both Keith and I to get much done right now. But we are so close!

The neighborhood is QUITE interesting. If you want a really good comparison, watch Gilmore girls... we have it all, complete with a Babette! I am attempting to be a happily married Lorali, but I'm not quite funny enough. More about the characters of Haymount later.

Here some great pics of our sweet bundle...she's smiling (almost) all the time!

How we spend most mornings...and afternoons... Annika's favorite things are dogs and trees!

You're funny lookin'!

Hmmm... I think she literally wants an answer to, "got milk?"

Sunday afternoons were made for this!

Working on the push ups

Come on, lets play!

Oooh!

The dairy princess