Claire

I've been waiting to hear officially whether Josh is coming out for Claire's birth or not before posting again but until I hear from Josh I wont know.  He does not seem to be worried about not coming home which, in itself, is really exciting :)  Communication has been vary sparse and frustrating between him and I due to the fact that at any moment his internet will cut out and it may not work for days.  Also, he doesn't really have access to a computer right now so emailing is not something he has the luxury of doing.  Right now he is waiting for another guy to be done with his time there and then he will take over his desk/computer area.  So now we try not to get frustrated when we cant communicate, and anticipate the day when we are back together again.  :)  




My dad and step mom gave Nathan a gift that is very special to us that is helping Nathan with his daddy being gone:

Here is a video I took when Nathan woke up from his nap to see it for the first time:

What a special thing for Nathan to have while Josh is gone...Im so very grateful and I know it means a lot to Josh too.  :)


So now about Claire.  Claire is due on August 10th but we are planning on inducing on August 3rd so that Josh can be here for it.  If Josh gets the ok to come home he is planning as of right now to fly home on August 1st and be here for 10 days.  Im so grateful the Navy gives their dads paternity leave.  I remember how special it was for us when Nathan was born.  Being in the Navy is really hard on the family but they really do try to take care of us. :)


Anyway, my dad is planning on flying out sometime earlier that week:  July 30, 31, or August 1.  Im so grateful and excited my dad will be out here this time.  It was so hard for him not to be here when Nathan was born.  He will be here for a week or so...not sure how long yet.  


We are doing 2 week check ups now with our Doctor, Doctor Bannister.  Im also really excited that with the induction, my Doctor will be the one working with us.  When Nathan was born she was not on that day and couldn't make it in for the birth :( but this time she will be :)  On Wednesday we will go over our birthing plan so we are on the same page and I can have a better understanding of what is going to happen.  Im "nesting" right now so i'm trying to plan EVERYTHING!  :)


Ok so about Claire's Nursery.  Her theme is classical winnie the pooh.  Here is some of my inspiration:

I've made a "registry" with Amazon.com but only because I needed to save what I found so we can get what we need/want bit by bit :)  We basically have everything but clothes thanks to Nathan and all the gifts we received from family and friends with him.  :)  


Josh is negotiating orders to our next duty station so as soon as I found out I will let you all know.  I hope everyone is well and thank you for your thoughts and prayers for us.  :)

To Josh

Josh is probably boarding his plane to Cuba right now.  The morning started a little shaky.  We had planned on skyping while Josh was waiting for 3 hours in the airport...this being probably the last time Josh and Nathan could see each other since video skype does not seem to work well down in Cuba.  I got Nathan up.  Changed him and got him his bottle and put him on a pillow and put on baby einstein old mcdanold like I do every morning and went back and brushed my teeth and went to the bathroom.  (sorry if tmi)  Came back in the kitchen to make my coffee and heard my phone go off so I thought Josh texted us to say he was ready to skype.  Instead I saw a missed call and voice mail and immediately tried calling him back...2x.  When I couldn't get ahold of him, I checked the message and heard Josh say "I love you and they are boarding us now.  I will call you when I get to Cuba"  So let me preface this with I have been handling him being gone very well.  Mostly because he has been accessible and still in the states.  When I heard this message I lost it.  Could have something to do with just waking up and being emotional...oh yeah and i'm pregnant! :)  Anyway, reality hit and it hit me hard!!!  I was grasping at anything positive with this and coming up short but I was pleading with God to help me trust HIM in this.  The hardest thing was Nathan and Josh not getting this chance to see each other.  Best laid plans right?  


Well...the Lord decided to bless me, Josh, and Nathan (though he has no clue) for no other reason than to just do it.  Josh called as I was sending him a message on facebook and I probably started crying again I was so happy.  (forgive me if this is too much information...I need an outlet) :) Apparently they were boarding the flyers who were families taking a plane hop.  So we got to skype him for about 40 minutes and I will cherish it for the whole time he is gone. :)


I wanted to upload some videos especially for you Josh and of course for the rest of the family to enjoy :)

Josh's hockey team, the New Jersey Devils won their playoff game last night to put them in the Stanley Cup Finals :)  He was a very happy man! 

I love you baby and am sooooooo proud of you. :)

And It's Begun!

Saturday morning was the big day.  We left for the airport around 6:30am and just tried to enjoy our last couple of hours together.  Nathan woke up in a very good mood and was highly entertaining. :)  


When Josh was checking in they asked if we wanted to go the gate with him!  I couldn't believe it!!!  What a blessing.  So Nathan and I headed to the security gate with Josh...I definitely was excited to be able to sit with him at the gate.  We got some breakfast and hung out at the gate. I took some pictures and video of this time:

On Friday we did a little mini shoot with daddy in his uniform.  Here are my favorites :)

Nathan's Baptism

Nathan's baptism was on mother's day, May 13, 2012.  What a very special day it was for us.  Here are some of the pictures that were taken during it.  Unfortunately our video is too big to post on here.

Baby Claire and Our New Adventure

I am going to try this thing called blogging.  I have many reasons for doing this.  One is Josh is leaving in two days and I would love to have a place other than facebook to share things that are going on with the family for him to enjoy.  I guess the second reason is similar but for the rest of our family.  I've never been good at this but i'm excited to try my hand at this.  

Here are the most recent pictures of baby Claire.  We went to the doctors yesterday for my appointment and they allowed us to have another ultrasound so that Josh can see Claire one more time before he leaves.  What a blessing it was for these pictures and for being able to see how active she is.  She smiled for us and was very photogenic. :)