Oh What Fun!!

We've been in Kansas now for 4 days, and boy have we been busy!!! Grant and Wyatt have had so much fun playing with their cousins!!! We've had fun playing in the slip-n-slide, sprinkler, playing baseball and having lots of picnics on the deck!! Wyatt has enjoyed the fresh Kansas air and the breezes that actually exist here! They both have slept like champs since we've been here, so that's awesome for me! We're slowly getting settled and finding a place for everything. If we've had this much fun the past four days, I can only imagine what's in store for the next few months!!!

Wyatt enjoying the Kansas breezes on the deck!

Baseball anyone?

Sprinkler fun with Mason and Luke (notice Grant is barefoot- that is definitely something we can never do in Florida- this grass is like carpet to us!!)

Picnic breakfast? Don't mind if I do!!

Getting ready to slip-n-slide!

Finally Smiling!

Go figure, Wyatt would start smiling the night that Levi left. I could tell the previous few days that he was trying to figure out how to smile, but couldn't quite get it. I guess he knew I would need some extra smiles that day!! I'd been waiting for him to smile for a good month!! Grant started smiling on April 10th, so I kind of figured Wyatt would start sometime around then too. But no, he waited til May 18th! He still isn't as smiley as Grant was, at least for now, but when he does smile, it sure lights up his whole face...and mine as well!!!

Whatever It Takes

Sometimes, you just have to do whatever it takes to get something done. I needed to clean/pack/organize/etc. and Wyatt was actually sleeping peacefully in the bouncy chair (which never lasts long) so I had to occupy Grant with something and quickly! He actually thought of this himself, so I went with it! He pulled a kitchen chair up to the sink to wash his "stity hands." While he was up there, he decided to play with the bottle brush and then went to find a car so he could wash it. So he was busy!! Unfortunately, Wyatt's little nap was just that- little! So not much got done...maybe if Grant stays there long enough he will wash those bottles for me and that will be one less thing on my to-do list!

The Road to the Boat

Levi becomes an Officer in the US Navy

August 29, 2005

The two of us after his commissioning ceremony!

Levi started Primary Flight School at Vance Air Force Base in Enid, OK. He flew a trainer jet, the T-6 Texan II.

February 2006 to September 2006

At Levi's track select at Vance AFB where he found out he would continue his flying career as a helicopter pilot.

September 5, 2006

On to Advanced Flight School at Whiting Field, Milton, FL. Levi flew the TH-57.

October 2006-July 2007

Levi earns his wings! He is the 29,015th person in history to be designated a Naval Aviator.

June 22, 2007

On to Mayport Naval Station to fly SH-60B Seahawk.

Part of HSL-40 from July 2007-March 2008.

Then to HSL-44 Swampfoxes from March 2008-Present.

As of May 18th, 2010- The USS Winston Churchill is what Levi calls home. Luckily its only 7 months out of the rest of our life, although it will probably be a long 7 months. But we know we'll make it through and we'll all be stronger when its over!

I'm so proud of you and know you'll do great out there!!

2 Months Already?

I took Wyatt to his 2 month checkup! Time has just flown since this little guy came into our lives!! The doctor said Wyatt looked great, even though he was 3.5 weeks early.

Here are his 2 month old stats:

Weight- 10 lbs, 13 oz. (25th percentile)

Length- 22.25 inches (25th percentile)

Head- 15.25 inches (25th percentile)

(Funny thing is, these were pretty much Grant's stats at 1 month! I'm sure he'll catch up eventually!!)

He also had to get his shots and he was sound asleep when we walked in. He screamed as soon as the shot pricked him, but stopped as soon as the bandaid went on. It helped that Big Brother Grant was patting his head and saying, "Shhhh" the whole time!! They were both super strong boys!!

Wyatt is a great baby! He is sleeping very well at night- goes to bed about 9:30, wakes up around 2 or 3, then again around 6 or 7. Last night he slept from 9:00-3:30!! He eats a 3 oz bottle about every 3 hours. He likes lounging in his swing, being held by Mommy or Daddy, taking warm baths, sitting outside, standing on my legs and looking all around!! He is a very alert little guy and loves watching Grant be Grant!! I'm enjoying watching him change day by day!

We Love You!

When I married that wonderful husband of mine,
there were some things I knew from the start.
I knew he was gentle and thoughtful and wise,
I knew that he had a big heart...

But I didn't know all the things I know now,
all the tricks that he had up his sleeve.
All the toys he could fix, all the swings he could push,
all the ways he could play make-believe.

The longer we're together,
the more I can see just what very good fortune I've had...
When I married that wonderful husband of mine,
I sure married a wonderful dad!

We love you Levi, always and forever, and we'll miss you like crazy!!

Love,

Laura, Grant, and Wyatt

Driving Mr. Grant

There comes a point in the day when I just run out of the things to do with Grant!! It's even become increasingly harder to keep Grant busy now that Wyatt is around and insists on being held 90% of the day. Grant has done a really good job keeping himself busy and adjusting to not having me as a playmate all day long. But sometimes both of us just get bored!! So today we ventured outside to play chalk and bubbles, and as I opened the garage, Grant said he was going to drive and started saying, "Bye." Grant always jokes when I buckle him in his car seat that he's going to drive instead of me. Well today he got his chance! I rolled the windows down in the car and he "drove" for a good 30 minutes! He pushed every button, pulled every lever, turned every vent, and opened every compartment!! It might take me 30 minutes just to get everything back to how it was!! But he sure enjoyed himself!! As for me and Wyatt, we just kicked back and enjoyed the fresh breeze from outside. I was holding Wyatt (as usual) but my arms got tired, so I buckled him in the stroller and he just relaxed!!

Check out the eyelashes on this guy!!

Regress Much?

Grant sure has enjoyed all the baby gear that's been pulled out these past few weeks!! He's reliving his "babyhood" and giving all the toys another go around! He eventually realizes he doesn't like them all that much anymore, but it doesn't stop him from going into Wyatt's room a few times a day to pull out a new baby toy!

This was right after Wyatt came home, but he still likes to get the crib and play with the mobile!

He found the johnny-jump-up buried in the back of Wyatt's closet. He put the parts that hang over the door molding to his ears because he thought they looked like a giant stethoscope, so I showed him what it really does. Of course, he had to get in. The second he got in, he realized he hated it (exactly like he did when he was a baby!).

This was also being stored upright in the back of Wyatt's closet. As we were getting ready to run errands one day, I heard a loud crash from my bedroom and ran in to find that Grant had pulled it out of the back and turned in upright and was having a good old time!

He also loves sitting in Wyatt's car seat. He pulls the sunshade down in front of his face and calls it his space shuttle!!

The Boppy is always good for watching TV!

We're Going to Sea World!!!

We just got home from a wonderful weekend at Sea World!! Thanks to the "Here's to the Heroes" program, we were able to get into Sea World for free!! We thought, what a better time to go than one of our last weekends as a family before Levi leaves for deployment! We had a fantastic time!! I would've handled it being a little bit cooler, but we made the most of it! We'd been planning the trip for about a week and told Grant all about it! He couldn't stop talking about "wor world" (that's how he'd say it) all week long. We got to our hotel Friday evening and went straight to the pool- that probably would've been enough for Grant if we just stayed there the whole weekend!! He LOVED the pool!!

Probably the most fun we had at Sea World was the Blue Horizons dolphin show. It was amazing to see how they could train the dolphins to do such incredible things!! The show ran about 30 minutes, and I'm pretty sure Grant didn't even blink!! He clapped with such enthusiasm with every dolphin jump!! We actually saw the show twice it was that good!!

They were able to get 6 dolphins to jump out of the water at the same time!! At the second show, they had 8 jump out at once!!

Then we saw the Shamu show. I have to say, I thought it would be the best show, but after seeing the dolphins, Shamu just didn't live up to them! It was incredible seeing how big Shamu was and watching him jump out of the water!!

We saw lots of other things while we were there- stingrays, 3 huge sea turtles, sharks, penguins, pink flamingos, two different aquariums and Levi went on the two roller coasters! I would've, but I had a baby strapped to my chest and somehow, going on a roller coaster by myself just didn't sound that appealing!!

Grant enjoying the view from Daddy's shoulders!

Wyatt along for the ride!!

Grant checking out all the fish in the aquarium!! He was fascinated! He even thought he saw one that looked like Gilbert, his beta fish he got for his birthday!

Here's Wyatt strolling around!! It was about 92 degrees and pretty humid, so we were all a sweaty mess!! Wyatt seemed to enjoy himself though!!

We stopped to feed the dolphins, which is something I'd always wanted to do!! It was so cool how they just came right up to the wall and just opened their mouths begging for food! We each had a little tray of fish. Grant wanted NOTHING to do with this! Levi had to step back with him while I fed the dolphins and then we switched so Levi could feed them. We were able to touch their chins, which was really cool!! Later that night at the pool, Grant was pretending to be a dolphin and we had to feed him fish (leaves he found in the pool) and we had to pet his chin. So apparently, he got something out of that experience!!

It was a wonderful weekend as a family!! It definitely was an experience sharing a hotel room with all 4 of us- definitely not much sleeping going on!! But we had a great time!! I wish I could say we had more of these kinds of weekends planned, but sadly with Levi leaving soon, it will be a while before that happens again! We'll cherish these memories and will be looking forward to the day we get to do something like this again!!!