So, I do have pictures

Turns out that I do have some pictures from our weekend in Williamsburg. I forgot that one of our friends took pictures while we were walking around Colonial Williamsburg. There aren't very many, but here's a few of the cutest ones!

Cuteness in Pictures

We just got back from a marriage retreat, paid for by the Army, in Williamsburg, Virginia. We had a great time, but unfortunately the weather was terrible. We didn't get to go to Busch Gardens (major bummer!) and walking around Colonial Williamsburg was quasi miserable. Because of this, the only pictures I have are of Jax in the car. So instead, I leave you with some recent phone pictures of my little cutie!

A Birthday Party

Today we attended a birthday party for Jax's friend Logan. He turned one on December 26th, but his mommy decided to delay his party since all the guys were deployed and half of the spouses were out of town. Today was his party and it was held at Chuck-E-Cheese's. The theme was The Very Hungry Caterpillar!

The Birthday Boy

I forgot to take a picture of the (cup)cake(s) before they were partially handed out... but isn't it so cute?! Logan's aunt Nikki made it!

Speaking of Nikki, she knew that Logan wouldn't be able to do the ticket-grabber thingy (technical term, isn't it?!) so she decided to take it upon herself to get his tickets for him. Nothin' like a grown woman grabbing at tickets like a fool. Ha!

Jax had never been to CEC so I was totally looking forward to taking him. He loves pizza, cake, games, toys and electronic things so I knew he would have a blast, and he did!

This is Jax's cutie friend Jacob

Hubs and I laughed because Jax most enjoyed sticking the tokens in the slots of the rides/games.

We spent most of our time on the game where the token drops onto a platform with tons of other tokens and you try to get them to fall over the edge (although I neglected to take a picture of that one. Mommy fail). Luckily for Jax, that also happened to get us the most tickets!

We traded our 336 tickets in for a tiny Buzz Lightyear figure and 3 Smarties rolls.... which will all be saved for his Easter basket.

It was a very fun day and I'm getting excited for Jax's birthday. It's just 2 short months away and I know it will fly by! I can't believe that my sweet boy is turning TWO!

A Recap

We've been home for one week and it has been full, busy, exhausting and fun all at the same time. Instead of writing an essay about it (because I'm wordy y'all), I though I'd just make a little list of each day's activities. I love me a list and the following makes me happy :) I also really just want to get to Sunday because it was a great day and I have fun pictures to accompany it!

Monday- We got up at 330am in order to shower and get to the airport at 430am for our 6am flight. We flew all day (2 layovers aka 3 flights) and Jax was a rockstar. He slept and played and watched movies and did so great. Even though he can be such a handful, we are really blessed with such a great (and adorable *wink*) kiddo!

Tuesday- We did a ton of catch-up shopping. We used our tax return, plus some leftover deployment pay to buy a few bedroom furniture pieces and 2 new couches for the living room. We turned the office into a playroom and put our old couch in there for Jax to watch movies and take naps on.

Wednesday- We did allllllll the unpacking. All day. Lots of stuff. Forever. So much. Never-ending. Yeah. You get the idea.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday- We continued to re-arrange furniture, do laundry, buy groceries, unpack, organize etc...

SUNDAY- We actually didn't have many plans for Sunday but it turned out to be a beautiful day so we took advantage! We went to church in the morning... it felt SO good to be back at our church. I missed it somethin' fierce. And we almost didn't make it because we kinda sorta forgot the change our clocks. First time that's ever happened. Oops! After church we hit up Panera for lunch with some friends. Jax was something else and hubs had to play outside with him while everyone else ate. Poor guy! After lunch we headed home and played outside all afternoon. It was so much fun to relax, wear short sleeves, play with the house and just enjoy being a family again. We (and by we, I really mean hubs) started our garden and I can't wait to see how things turn out! We are trying a few new things; onions, blueberries (which is really just a year-round bush), tomatoes, and asparagus. Plus the old favorites; basil, rosemary, thyme, bell peppers, and strawberries. Hubs actually built two planters for the vegetables, and I can't wait for things to start growing.

Here's one of the empty planters

Onions!

Jax had a blast playing with his water table ...

(Notice the water pouring out of the cup and onto his pants/shoes :-/)

...and diving into the leaf pile that his daddy created

It was such a great bonding time for the two of them. They got to be boys, and be rough and tumble, and get dirrrrrrty!

'Mom, stop taking so many pictures!'

Good little helper!

I'm so thankful that my family is safe, home and happily back together. And I'm thankful for the beginnings of beautiful spring weather. Thank you, Jesus, for this beautiful life!

I'm baaa-aaack!

I decided to take a little break from the blog to focus on my husband returning from Afghanistan and our life slowly returning back to normal. Sorry I didn't notify y'all that I was disappearing. I actually hadn't intended to take such a long break, but life got in the way :)

As a brief recap... my husband got home at the end of February, we spent a few days readjusting then headed to Vegas, minus the kiddo. It was my first time away from Jax so that was fun, but I missed him so much. I also knew that DISNEYLAND was right around the corner, so I didn't feel as bad about leaving him. We enjoyed time with family and friends in California for about a week then jumped in the car and headed to Disneyland for 3 days.

We went with my parents, my brother and hubs parents, and it was a blast!!! Jax is SO obsessed with "dih-tey" (Mickey) and all the other Mickey Mouse Clubhouse characters, so seeing them in real life was so fun. He couldn't stop pointing and naming everything he saw. I was nervous that he would be scared of the rides or of the real-life characters but he wasn't scared in the least. He rode tons of rides, ran around, hugged all the characters and smiled all day. It was a truly great experience! I have about 100 pictures but I'm going to pick out the best ones to share with you guys. Here ya go...

We had to get the mandatory ear with Jax's name on them!

(That's my cute patootie brother taking his picture)

Jax said "yaaaaaay" with his hands in the air on all the rides

One of his two favorite "people"... BUZZ!

(The other is Mickey, of course)

The Buzz Lightyear ride... we did this a few times and it was so fun

Another mandatory thing... a picture at the front gate :)

More "yaaaaaay!"

The first Mickey we saw, in California Adventure.

Jax was doing "bones" (or "bump it") with him.

There was a huge area in California Adventure for kids to run around on trails and climb ropes and explore "caves".... Jax LOVED it!

Dumbo! Another ride that we did a few times

Exploring the treasure on Tom Sawyer's island

Ringing the bell in Tarzan's treehouse

We played in Mickey's house as we were walking back to meet him.

Jax wanted to sit in Pluto's bed!

We finally met the "real" MICKEY!

This post has taken me two days (ha!), so I'm going to stop here. I have more updating about what has been going on since Disneyland... aka since coming HOME! I will try to get to that tomorrow. It's our first day back to our "normal" schedule with my husband back to work, and Jax and I at home so wish me luck ;)