Off To The Zoo!!

Today we were invited to go to the zoo with Lauren and her son Bobby. It was nice to meet them and nice to know someone else going what I'm going through since her husband is on the same ship. Levi also met a new friend being Bobby is not much older then Levi. So it was nice for them to play and run around while were trying to keep up lol, we did a pretty good job at it though.

Before I started driving to the zoo. I told Levi to say "cheese" and he knows that when I say "cheese" it means smile, or picture. So since he smiled I took a few snaps of him! He is just so cute and I love it when he is cheesing.



So off to the zoo we go...

The Norfolk zoo is pretty small, but it has been awhile since I've been to the zoo. It was a nice to see the animals, scenery, and just enjoy some fresh air. It was in the 80's yesterday when we went and not in the 100's which is a huge plus!

Here are a couple of the animals we seen at the zoo. A giraffe.

Elephants.


Also a picture of Levi and Bobby playing. They were so cute!

Levi having fun and laughing! I love it when he has a good time.


Levi and I(This is one of my new favorite pictures.)


Thanks again Lauren for inviting us to the zoo!! Can't wait to have more play dates together! Next time the hubby will be at the zoo with us :)

Cookies For Daddy!

So a few weeks ago Levi and I decided to make some yummy chocolate chip cookies for daddy! I'm wanting to make this a tradition with Levi to bake things. I think as he gets older he'll enjoy it more and more. I found this cookie mix on sale. Not all the time will I cheat and use a boxed mix. I just wanted to this time.  So here is a picture of all of our ingredients. We needed butter, eggs and our cookie mix. 

Then I tried to get Levi to pose and smile for me before we begin. Of course I was unsuccessful. Later I'll post pictures of him cheesing when he wants to. lol That sure is cute! He's just to focused on what were about to do.

Afterwards we got down to it! I emptied the mix into our bowl, added the butter, and the egg. Then stir stir stir. Levi's doing pretty good right now stirring, but he's one smart boy acting good and all! 

Until...

Yup in the mouth. "Mommy I have to taste it." I let him, being all of us have done it. It sure is good! So after I finally got the mix from him again. I formed them into balls(or ones that somewhat look like balls) on to the pan. Had the oven preheated already and put them in. 

Also that night I made for the first time Baked Ziti. It's to the left of the cookies and was good!

Last but not least our finished cookies! We love you honey and hope you enjoyed the yummy chocolate chip cookies! I can't wait to bake more goodies with Levi!! I know one day I'll have to show him how to make peanut butter cookies, his daddy's favorites!

Levi's Home

So Levi came home Wednesday evening and we couldn't be happier. Yes it was a little earlier than we anticipated but I wanted him to see his daddy before he left again. He is very much a mommy's boy when he wants to be and a daddy's boy. Of course I think he is more of a mommy's boy, but I may be a little biased :)

Since Levi has came home he has discovered a new toy. Not really "his" toy, but him playing it can't hurt anything so it could be his if his dad gives it to him. What toy is it? It's rock band! The drum set that is. He loves jamming out with it! He will grab the drum sticks and go at it. I love watching him play. Patrick has a drum set at his parent's house in Missouri and loves playing so I am sure Levi will follow in his foot steps. The only thing I played before has been the flute and some on a organ. I didn't do a lot though. Levi playing the drum set he would jam and bang his head. It was truly a moment to watch. I love seeing him and his daddy having a good time.

The other thing I wanted to blog about was that Levi has found out how to help mommy! So I had the cabinet all nice and organized of our can goods. I had the corn lined up, cream of chicken in a line, cream of mushroom, etc. You get the idea. Well Levi has found the cabinet and decided mommy needed some help with it. So he takes the cans out and puts them back in. He loves it. Though it's not all nice and neat as it once was it's the thought that counts. I decided not to organize it all again since I'm going to let that cabinet be his in the kitchen. Here are some pictures of him playing with the cans. It just reminds me of when I was his age and would do the same thing in my mother's kitchen. I even climbed in the cabinet.

I will get better at blogging but that is all for now. I love having both of my boys home with me! I don't know what I would do without them.

Missing My Little Man!!

It's crazy how attached someone you love so dearly is to you. Levi is my little man who I love very much. Well my mom flew out yesterday evening and I let Levi go with her so that he could go to his other grandparents since he doesn't get to see them nearly enough. He's going to be attending his cousin's first birthday party and playing with him which I'm sure he will love! I cried dropping him off at the airport. I'm going to miss him, but know in only a few weeks I'll have him back again. :)

Thankfully my husband is home at this time to keep me company or I'm not sure what I would do. Probably go crazy! I'm looking forward to spending some time with just him. We don't get much of that anymore, but I know it comes with having children. This coming weekend were looking forward to going on a date night to the  movies and seeing "Killers" it looks like a good movie let's hope it's still playing by then. In the mean time though while Patrick is working I'm going to catch up on one of my favorite shows Army Wives. I've missed all of Season 3 and their currently in Season 4 on television right now. Hopefully it doesn't take me to long. I will also enjoy doing some scrap booking and working on pages for Levi. I miss doing that.

We also got a new place and signed some papers yesterday for it! I'm so excited about it. It's a two bedroom townhouse, 1137 square feet, two bathrooms, a nice size kitchen with plenty of cabinets! In all the places we've been we never had enough cabinet space so this is something I'm looking forward too! I will share more on it later as well as pictures once we get all moved in! You will love it just as much as I do lol.

Getting Together and Meeting New Friends

So I've met some new friends the past few days and it was a lot of fun. All of these girls have spouses associated with the ship my husband is with.

Friday night I had a good friend of mine Amanda Bell over. Her and her two adorable daughters came over to the house. It was so much fun having them over. I made some yummy taco salad and Amanda brought over some delicious brownies to go with the meal. They were so good! I still have some left and may save them for the hubby when he comes home! Anyways we played some karaoke which was fun and that's all that matters! We were going to play Mario Party, but I couldn't find the controllers for the game cube. Next time I will have it all ready to go! We just had fun eating, talking, and playing. Even the kids had fun playing together! They tried singing too! Thanks again Amanda for coming over!!

Saturday the frg(family readiness group) had a pool party at the base. Despite the 100 degree weather Levi and I ventured out to it! It was nice and the water felt so good! At the pool party I had the pleasure of meeting Lisa and her baby girl. It was very nice to meet them. Lisa's daughter loved playing in the pool. Levi had fun too. He loved splashing and being silly. Eventually we moved to the kiddie pool where Levi could touch the bottom. Levi wanted to walk and go everywhere!! I was worried though of him going under so I made a barrier with my arms and/or legs. So that I could block him lol. He didn't like it but I knew he wouldn't like it if he went under. Also at the pool party they had some yummy Papa Johns Pizza(It's my favorite!) lol and got to see and talk to Jessica Trimble our frg president and Katrina Armstrong. It was great talking to them. I don't remember anyone else or know names. Hopefully as time goes on I will be able to know more people with the frg. Thanks again to the frg for hosting and fun and exciting pool party! It was great with our weather these days for people to cool off!

Sunday evening we got invited to go over to Sara's house. Sara cooked some yummy baked ziti for all of us. At Sara's house I got the chance to meet Michelle B., Laura, Sara(herself), Michelle H., and Jackie. Plus all the kiddos too! We had a great time chatting it up while dinner was cooking! I found out they like Army Wives too so hopefully/ or maybe well have Army Wives night and just watch the show! I have to get caught up first I'm a season or so behind lol. I'll get caught up eventually! I miss watching the show :) It makes you laugh and cry! The kiddos had a good time too they kept playing and going up and down the stairs. They were all nice to each other too :) Levi climbs up the stairs really good!! Down the stairs is what I worry about. All the other children slid down the stairs on their bellies feet first. Levi on the other hand was walking down backwards so I was scared he would miss a step and fall all the way down. I know most if not all children will fall down the stairs one time or another, lol I'm just not ready for Levi to do that yet. He's still a baby lol. Well a toddler. Falling down will probably scare him the most and then he'd be back to playing just like any other kiddo.

Again it was nice to meet other wives of the ship and will help when the guys are gone more and more. We all have to stick together! I look forward to getting together with them all again!! Thanks girls for some good times and many more to come!!

**I will get pictures with the other girls sometime!**

Scrap Booking!

So everyone has tons and tons of pictures! I know I do and sometimes I don't know what to do with them. Well a year or so ago I found a love for scrap booking just never had the time to do anything. That's all going to change! I have a week from Friday left working then will be a stay at home mom once again. In my spare time I hope to have time to scrap book. I also hope to have a section of the house just for scrap booking. It does get time consuming to get everything out and putting it back all the time. lol So it'll be nice to just have it all out and ready for whenever I have a minute, during Levi's nap or some other time. It's something I truly enjoy and something I can use my creativity side with. You can do so many things with the pictures. Recently I ordered from a site and got my package today! I'm amazed at how nice the products look and can't wait to use them!! Some different themes I'm planning on scrap booking are:

• My marriage/ceremony to my wonderful husband Patrick. 
• Our pregnancy adventure and the birth of Levi. 
• Levi's first year. 
• Family Trips.
• Christmas and Holidays.
• Birthdays. The list can go on and on.

I can't wait to go through the many pictures I have of all the occasions and display them in a scrap book to look back on for years to come. It will truly be nice. Here are some of the pictures of the supplies I got in the mail today! 

My Two Boys

So I've been thinking about something to write about and figured why not write about my two favorite boys? I love God, but my two favorite boys are my husband Patrick and my son Levi. They are my world and more. Let's start with my amazing husband! 

♥My hubby Patrick♥

My husband Patrick is amazing. We met in September 2006 a month before he left for boot camp in the Navy. We met at McDonald's in Missouri and I will never forget what I thought when you first meet someone. You don't judge a book by it's cover. Well when I first met him and my aunt Heather was asking what I thought. I told her she was crazy lol, because of his fro. Needless to say I fell in love with him. I look forward to his letters from boot camp, text messages and calls when he was in school and more. I got all giddy and happy whenever I would get something or hear from him. I knew I was had. After a year or so I moved to SC to be with him. We were having a long distance relationship up until then. We got engaged at about Christmas time and became husband and wife April 18th, 2008. I wouldn't change any of it. It's what made me who I am today. The great things about my husband is that he makes me smile when nobody else can, he is always there for me, he's fun to be around, supportive, we enjoy ourselves together playing games or cooking a meal, he's my best friend and more. I could go on and on. All in all he's a wonderful man and I'm a very lucky girl to have him as my husband and best friend!

♥Now about my ambitious, rambunctious, adorable son!♥

Patrick and I got pregnant not to long after our wedding date. My grandma calls our son Levi our honeymoon baby. lol. Levi was born January 9th, 2009 at 1:20pm. Today he is 18 months old. He' walking, and jabbering along. He says "ma ma" , "da da", "bye bye" and more. He doesn't talk as much as a normal 18 month old does that you can understand , but in time I'm sure he will get there. Levi loves dancing to music, banging on something making it a drum(His daddy plays the drums.) He enjoys watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Handy Manny. We are working on the abc's with him. I'm using the repetition teaching method. I'll sing it normally and then go really fast which makes him grin and laugh. He loves it when I sing fast or silly lol. Levi is a joy to be around, he is a very happy baby and always has been. He loves cuddling with mommy and/or daddy when he's home. Daddy enjoys it too. Whenever they are on the couch cuddled up together it's a special moment and one to always remember. They sure do love each other. Levi also loves going outside. If he could live outside I'm sure he would. Lately it has been very humid so our outside days are limited. I can't wait to see the man Levi grows into. I'm sure he will be a great one just like his daddy.

♥These are my two boys and I will always love them.♥