Steven Graduates

Yesterday, Steven graduated from The Basic School! Steven graduated in the top 10% of his class. We are so proud of him!

The program was great- it was just under an hour long. Olivia did great. She was very wiggly but didn't really fuss much. We did go to the back of the theater at one point to join the other moms who were trying to keep their little ones quiet. After watching them, I had it easy. She squeaks, but she wasn't a toddler yelling no at their mom hanging and at the arm. I know my time will come probably though.

One great thing about having a baby: people become instantly friendlier. I am still feeling pretty new to the idea of strangers walking up to me and asking to hold her. It happened a couple of times with the people sitting next to us. One lady had her first grand-baby on the way and the other was her friend. After a quick assessment, she was clean and boxed in so I deemed it safe and passed her off.

Steven shaking Major Pion's hand

After graduation

Pablo, Steven with Olivia and Jana

Steven & Mark with their daughters

Us with Mark, Neena & Kaia

Neena, Kim & I

This next part is not related at all to graduation. It's just me assessing Virginia and its pest control problem.

I have always been bitten a lot by bugs. Bug spray and I are very good friends. The other day, I didn't have any on. Between the car and our front door (roughly 15 steps), I managed to get three mosquito bites on my two arms. On the way to graduation I managed to get bit right under my right eye! It did swell a bit but was mostly down by the end of the ceremony.

Then this morning, Pablo went to take suitcases out to the car. A gecko/lizard thing came into the house! It wasn't too hard to get it back out since it was behind the front door. But still.

Blessing Day

We have two special people visiting us- Olivia's Grandma and Grandpa Sifuentes. They came out from Seattle for her baby blessing and Steven's graduation this week. Today was Olivia's blessing. Her great grandmother sent her a blessing dress all the way from Mexico for this special occasion. It was pretty amazing to see Steven give her a blessing in church.

After the blessing we had several guests over to the community center for a taco lunch where we had a Cafe Rio inspired lunch. Thanks everyone for coming and celebrating her special day!

Olivia with her Abuelo Pablo

Steven & Olivia

Olivia learns to sit and smile

Olivia added two new things that she loves this week- sitting up and smiling. She loves to sit, assisted of course. Whether it's on your lap, on the couch or the counter, she usually prefers to sit up. She mostly looks like an adorable version of 'elf on the shelf' when she sits. If you're holding her, she prefers the sitting position rather than snuggling; which is what I prefer. 

This week, she also learned to smile. I love this! I love to see her look directly at me and smile. It melts my heart to see her do the same with Steven when he comes home from work. 

You can also see she seems to be smack dab in the middle of having baby acne. Perfect timing for her blessing weekend. 

for the record- he knows i'm posting this 

All ready for church

Playtime with mommy. This is her furrowed brow look.
She has been doing it since the day she was born. 

Meeting her Uncle Eli

We had a special visitor yesterday. Olivia met her Uncle Eli for the first time. He was a little nervous about holding her since she is still kind of small. I keep thinking to myself that she is getting so big- she is already 9 pounds and starting to get her baby chunk. Then I realize, my tiny human is still only 9 lbs.

Steven, Eli and Olivia

Eli and Steven met at the Naval Academy Prep School in Rhode Island several years ago. The prior enlisted Marines all became pretty close there and continue to stay in touch now. He is leaving for his deployment soon and was visiting his family in Pennsylvania. We were so glad he took the evening to drive down here so we could see him before he leaves.

The best moments

I'm so glad my phone has a camera on it- because it helps catch those moments that I love when I never have the camera out! This morning Olivia was having a fussy moment while Steven was getting ready for work. Once he was all dressed and ready he sat down with us on the couch and took her. She promptly burried her face into his chest and fell asleep. That was all she needed- a little daddy time. This picture seriously melts my heart!

I took her to the pediatrician Tuesday to check out the reflux she's been having. She weighed in at an even 9lbs and was 20 1/2 inches long. I know she was born at 20 inches, so they say. But at her follow up appointment after being born, she only measured 19 1/4.

They have her on a medicine, but I'm not convinced it's doing its job. She doesn't seem to be in nearly as much pain or discomfort, but she still has projectile and it's still coming out her nose. So for now, we will keep an eye on it until we go back next week.

We also pulled out the Bumbo. She doesn't seem to mind it too much. She's just kind of chill in it.

Getting the hang of things

Well almost anyway. I finally feel like the three of us have an almost routine. Things in life seem to change on a day to day basis so quickly that we try to keep up and stay in the flow of things.

Olivia and I are finally getting back into helping out with the Young Women (aka: church youth group). We help out with the 12 and 13 year old girls. Last night for the activity we did what was known as a heart attack. Basically, you cut out all sorts of heart shapes, write nice things on them, and then go tape them on a person's door and leave a treat for them to find. The girls loved doing this. We were going to make our own cookies, but that didn't work out so well. So there may have been a last minute call to Steven to run to the store and pick up cookies there. We then placed them on our own plates for the delivery. Our recipients were more than happy about it from what I hear.  For one of the spots, we had to drive. All of the girls wanted to come in our car because of Olivia. They LOVE her. Well as it turns out, she was less than thrilled about being in her carseat, and no one could really calm her down or talk over her. So our car was a bit of a buzz kill for a bit.

Steven loves to laugh at the things we do and names that we give them. Every once in a while, I'll tell him a story about girls camp and the silly things that we would do. He always gives me such a strange look and then teases about it for a while after. For instance, we would decorate our port-a-potties. Each camp was in charge of one to make sure it was stocked and clean. It just so happened that at girls camp, we would also decorate them. Everyone did it- and it was cool. I mean, no one wanted to clean those nasty smelling things, but as long as we had to; they were going to look cool. Anyhow, he feels the same about heart attacking someone.

Now for a little down memory lane....

The first pictures were taken in Ireland. Sometimes we just ran into road blocks. For instance here, we were being blocked by a man herding his cattle down the road on his bicycle. And like the majority of roads in the country, it was only two lanes to start with. It was very entertaining at first and then after 20 minutes, it wasn't. 

These pictures were from London. One of the things that Steven loved to do was go to the gym. While he did work out very hard, it was also his social place. He made a lot of friends there. Typically he is not a group exercise kind of guy. He did make an exception for a couple of the classes. This one below was a class called Park Fitness. The class was run by a former Royal Marine named Jon. He tailored the class for each person, just to make sure you left really sore. Anyway the class would run from the gym to the park and then do various exercises. I tried it a few times and liked it, but generally found myself exhausted after the warm up.  

Jon was also very talented at making sure that every inch of you was either covered in dirt or had a grass stain on it. Given the amount of birds in the park during the day, I'm sure it wasn't all dirt. Oh well.

 We actually were able to get to know this group pretty well and had them over for dinner a couple of times after the workouts in the evenings.

Steven doing bench push ups in the park

Jon and his girlfriend Flo

Steven making sure his back was just as dirty as his front

see- you get filthy dirty in this class

Xander Simon

Another baby is here! My sister Elisha welcomed her first child this morning. His name is Xander Simon. He came at a great weight of 8 1/2 pounds.

Xander Simon

Both baby and mom are doing well.

Did I mention only 16 days until TBS graduation? I'm pretty excited for that!

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mother's Day to the amazing women in our lives. We are grateful for such wonderful examples that we have been given and are grateful to our moms for all that they have done and do for us. 

Today was my first Mother's Day as a mommy. I loved it!

Steven made me breakfast- oatmeal and english muffins. It was delicious. Next he did a lot to take care of Olivia. I even scored a morning nap.

We did a low key lunch of leftovers and sandwiches. However dinner was amazing. The little chef came out in him- brown sugar salmon, wild rice and asparagus.

We took these pictures after church.

In other news, only 17 days until Steven graduates from TBS! 

Bella Grace

It was a great week! We are so excited that Isabella Grace is here. My sister Brooklynn had her 4th child yesterday. Bella was born at 7lbs and 15 oz and all natural! I'm thinking she looks like her sister Lucy. 

Bella

Proud big sisters Katie and Lucy, her dad Parker with Bella, and proud big brother Jackson!

Olivia wishing Bella a Happy Birthday!

 Steven made it back from The War. I knew it rained a lot, but didn't think it rained enough to make this happen. Hind sight is 20/20- they all agreed they should not have gone down this road in the end. 

Olivia was more than happy to snuggle with her daddy as soon as he came home. I was pretty darn happy to see him too!

When Olivia met George

Over the weekend, we stopped by a friend's house to check in on her two cats while she was away. The cats names are George and Pablo. Below is George.

I was busy filling up their food and water bowls and when I turned around, this is what I found. George was watching her with a lot of curiosity. I started thinking of those two siamese cats in the movie Lady and the Tramp. I wondered if they would be nice to her or if they would be horrible like the cats from the movie. Pablo ran away at the first sign of her squeaking. George on the other hand just kept watching. For the record, they are really sweet cats. It will be fun to see how they are with our friend when she has her little boy in August.

George and Olivia

I know.... what an outfit right?!

Last night we headed out to dinner with some of the other 3rd Platoon wives. Rachael, who is Steven's Captain's wife, invited us over to answer any questions about the impending moves most everyone is about to make. Their previous duty station was in Japan, so she knew a lot of the in and outs of those who were going there. We may not be going to Japan, but the company and food was great. We had bison soft tacos. I would recommend them if you have a chance to try! Olivia pretty much slept the whole time and offered a few squeaks to the conversation. 

On our way out to dinner. 

Because she is so stinking cute!

And for a walk down memory lane....

March 2012 we went to Tenerife with the Moriarty's and loved it! We went to the farm one day where they will take you out to the countryside on horses. Well, while we waited for the horses to get ready for the ride, we made friends with some of the "free range" animals they had there.

This goat thought we made great play mates. I tried to get away from him at one point so he couldn't head butt me anymore. I just forgot to take into consideration that he can climb too.

Trying to get away from the goat

Steven was great and pulled the goat away from me. However, that clearly meant that Steven wanted to play with the goat. He would head butt Steven, and then Steven would push him back. This continued until the owner finally came and put him away in the pen. 

Steven playing with the goat

Finally riding the horses.

I don't know if you can see the saddles on the horses. They are not your typical American saddles you see in the Western movies. They are English saddles. What's the difference you ask? The difference is the American saddle, you can't really fall out of. Not true for the English saddles. You fall to the side when you trot. Our awesome tour guide had to redo my stirrups several times to help me be more steady. In the end, we went slow because I kept falling :)

Riding the camels