Chris went back into the active army at the end of April. What soon followed was extremely stressful. To make a long story short, many people in the Army don't know what they are doing, but it all got worked out. We moved out to Seaside, CA so Chris can attend the DLI (defense language institute) in Monterey and study Chinese! I am so excited that he is learning the language I spoke on my mission. It's a dream come true! He has been taking the Chinese class for a week now, and I'm impressed and proud of how far he has come in just a week. I think he will be a natural at the language, and as I found when I learned Chinese, his musical background is helping him.
We love our new home. They just built new military housing on Ft. Ord for military families here. We are the first to live in our new home which is gorgeous! Claire has settled in nicely into our new home.
Claire often likes to wear her daddy's "hat" when he gets home from work and changes. She also has his slippers on.
Claire on her rocking horse she got from her Oma for her birthday. She loves it. Check out how long her hair is getting!
Claire enjoyed 2 whole blueberry pancakes that morning. She's getting good using her fork, and as you can see, really enjoyed the blueberries!
Our neighbors gave Claire this piano. Isn't it awesome?! Claire loves it!
Our living room. I want to say it's one of my favorite rooms in the house, but I really love it all! Notice our cool new coffee table that opens up and has storage.
We finally bought bedroom furniture! I'm so excited. I love what we got. We got a new bedspead to go with it. Since Chris had most of the furniture we have before we got married, it was my first big furniture purchase. (We'll be upgrading the night stands at some point. We didn't want the ones with the set.)
Our house! It's a duplex - the one on the right.
This is the view of the playground from our bedroom window. Yes, Claire is in heaven and we try to go almost every day.
Some of the views of our cross country trip. I think this was in Wyoming somewhere.
I think this was Wyoming too. It's a pretty desolate state.
Claire helping me pack in PA.
Claire loves to be a little mommy. This is when it all started when we were still in PA. I walked in the room to her just changing her baby's diaper. She had the diaper pad, diaper, cream, wipes. She was a pro! She still loves to change her baby's or other stuffed animals' diapers. She also makes sure her baby eats when she eats, feeds her, folds her arms to pray, puts her "nigh night", etc. She's such a good mommy. She even helps me clean the house! She loves to take a wipe and clean - her face, her toys, the table, the floor, whatever she can get that wipe on!
On my birthday, I was away from Chris, so my mom tried hard to make it special, which she did. We went to the lilac festival (a favorite birthday tradition in the last few years.) Unfortunately, most of the lilacs had already bloomed and were gone by the time the festival started due to the unusually warm weather we had at the beginning of April. There were still some left which, as you can see, Claire enjoyed smelling. We enjoyed walking around and got a huge bag of kettle corn which we all (especially Claire) enjoyed eating. YUM! After the lilac festival, mom and dad took us to the Cheesecake factory for dinner and dessert. Double YUM! It was a lovely birthday, and I'm so grateful that I have such a loving mom who made it special.
The first week in May, my sister, Wendy, came to visit while her husband was away on business. It's always fun to get the cousins who are just 2 months apart together.
Before heading to my parents' house the first week in May, I attended my niece, Lucy's, first communion. She's wearing the flower girl dress her older sister wore for our wedding. So useful! Don't I have gorgeous nieces and nephew?!
Claire making a hammy smile. I asked her to smile for the camera and this is what I got. :)
Claire LOVES to read books. More now than ever! I could read her stories all day almost! Before we left PA, she decided she loved to sit on the couch or chair, have a blanket on her lap, possibly a pal, and a good book. Every time she had a book, she needed a blanket, and every time she had a blanket, she needed a book. Too cute.
Before we left PA, we had a list of things we wanted to do. One of those things was to go to Penns Cave which is about 30 minutes away from State College. One warm April day we got to go. It was a lot of fun, and pretty cool. Here are a few pictures from our adventure.
I have a few videos I would like to share, but the blogging site is not downloading them properly. Once it gets worked out, I'll show you videos of Claire being a ham, dancing with a huge monkey, and hugging her cousin like crazy.
I love reading your posts. I am chronological as well and understand your frustration. Weird that it wouldn't let you move the pics.
ReplyDeleteLoved seeing all the pictures. Miss you!
Thanks, the pics look great! So good to see what you are up to.
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