Daddy's Home!

Brett's back! He arrived on Monday at the early time of 3:30am. I would have loved to take Gavin but didn't want to wake him in the middle of the night - luckily, we have a wonderful next door neighbor who watched Gavin for the night while I anticipated Brett's homecoming!

There were about 350 airmen who deployed to Iraq with Brett so the base reserved the largest hangar for the families. There were bleachers, movies, a bouncy castle, and refreshments for all of us but most were too excited to sit, watch a movie or eat so we huddled in our respective groups and talked about our husbands' arrival.

Here are the few pictures I took from the night...

Most (all?) of the wives of the 77th Fighter Squadron. There I am in the blue shirt with my 25 week belly showing!

The first buses pulling up. Brett actually ended up walking from the deployment processing center because the lines were too long to wait for the bus.

First airmen walking through the crowd, looking for their families.

Brett's welcome home committee (Thanks Christy for the picture!)

I didn't think to have anyone take a picture of us together but my friend, Andrea, did! She's a news anchor for Columbia's CBS affiliate, WLTX, and her husband is also a pilot in the 77th. She was sweet enough to put our picture on the 5pm and 11pm newscast!

I had to take a picture of the television because this is the only photo I have of us together from that night.

I picked up Gavin from Dana's house at 6:30am and he slept for another hour before waking up for the day. It was so touching to see Brett hold Gavin for the first time in 4.5 months - Gav's grown so much that Brett was in awe of him walking, 'talking', pointing, drinking, eating, laughing, bouncing, EVERYTHING! It's crazy to see them next to eachother. They resemble eachother so much except Gavin has my coloring, which I just say is a bit of "flavor" :). Brett's still catching on to 'baby proofing' our house such as keeping bathroom doors closed, locking the cabinets back up, NOT LEAVING CIGARS AND SWITCHBLADES ON THE GROUND! Haha - that last one is from his luggage from the desert. Luckily, I caught it all before Gavin got a chance to get his precious hands on them.

Brett's taking the next 3 weeks off and we plan to go to Baltimore, Washington DC, Savannah, and just hang out at home and unwind. It's so good to have him home!

Pictures from the past week

Dana got Gavin a cupcake for his birthday but he didn't dig into it like we expected. He poked around the frosting but that was about it...

Gavin eating strawberries and cheerios before settling down for bed.

Mr. Man in his new carseat.

Gavin and Ryan in the double stroller at Target.

Gavin eating lunch and playing afterwards.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANGEL!

I can't believe a year ago, today, our lives changed forever and Gavin was born! I couldn't have asked for a more angelic child and can't wait to see what his life has in store ...

Here are pictures from each month of his life. Beginning from day one:

One day old

One month


Two months


Three months


Four months


Five months


Six months


Seven months


Eight months


Nine months


Ten months


Eleven months


ONE YEAR! THANK YOU FOR THE CARDS, PHONE CALLS, AND PRESENTS!!!

Milestones in Gavin's First Year

Here are a few 'firsts' for Gavin in his first year of life!

First car ride on the way home from the hospital.

Gavin's first time coming home!


3 weeks - First bath



5 weeks - First real smile and I caught it on camera!!!!!



6 weeks - First time leaving Gavin alone with Daddy and I come home to this ... a shocked baby.



7 weeks - First time sucking his thumb which, not surprisingly, coincides with his first time sleeping through the night



First Christmas - Do Santa and Mrs. Clause look familiar?



3.5 months - First plane ride AND first time in AMERICA!



4 months - First time rolling over



4 months - First solid foods and he liked it!



4.5 months - First haircut, although looking at this picture, he needed one WAY sooner!



7 months - First time standing on his own



7 months - First mother's day ... and my favorite picture of my loves



7.5 months - First trip to the ER ... and not the only one in his first year of life!



7.5 months - First time saying bye to Daddy for a deployment :(



8.5 months - First time in the pool!



9 months - First tooth...



9 months - First time walking!!!!!!!!



11 months - First time at daycare. SOOOO sad!!!


11 months - First x-ray


12 months - First birthday ... We're celebrating when Brett returns so I'll post more pictures in a week or so!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so sad that he's growing up, but at least I get to do it all over again in 16 weeks!

Bye Steve!

As many of you have noticed, I hang out with my next door neighbor, Dana, often. No, A LOT. It works out perfectly: we're the same age, have boys around the same age, get along well, and our husbands are both pilots! Could we have selected better neighbors?

Steve, Dana's husband, has been home for the summer (aside from a million TDY's) while Brett's been gone and yesterday the time came for Steve to replace Brett out in the desert. We wanted to say one last goodbye as Steve and the rest of the squadron passed overhead so we put the boys in their strollers, brought out a portable DVD player, dinner, and camping chairs and set up camp in the middle of our cul-de-sac. Dana and I are the only two houses in the cul-de-sac so we consider it 'ours'. I'm sure the neighbors who drove by were wondering what we were doing but we didn't care. It was really relaxing and a great chance to get out before the boys' bedtime!

Dana, Gavin, and Ryan waiting for Steve to pass overhead.


Dana waving to Steve ... See the plane between the trees? It's filled with pilots (also Tiffanie's husband, Gabe, who is in an earlier post) going to replace Brett in the desert!

Gavin and I want to say good luck and we'll see you soon Steve, Gabe, and everyone in the 55th! Gavin says, "Say hi to Daddy and tell him we're waiting for him to come home soon!"

It's bittersweet that it takes Ryan's daddy to go to war in order for ours to come home but that's life in the Air Force. Don't worry Steve, we'll take just as good care of Dana, Ryan, and Toby as you guys did with us! Thank you!