Olivia: Eighteen Months Old

My sweet Olivia Ann,

     Happy half birthday my love, you are eighteen months today! Having you in our life has been more wonderful than I could have ever dreamed! You are my mini and still completely attached to me. Today we have also hit a big milestone: eighteen months of breastfeeding.  After all the struggles I had with your brother, I never in a million years thought I could do it! It has created such a sweet bond between us, and I will never forget it! Even though I am ready to get better sleep and have you sleep all night, I know that I am going to miss it when you eventually decide to wean. I love you so much beautiful girl. I hope the next 6 months go by really slow because I am not ready for you to be a toddler.

XOXO,

Mama

Family Pictures

    Family pictures are something that I find very important for us to do, at least once a year. I love seeing how we have grown and changed over the years when I look back at them. We hadn't had any done since before Aaron deployed, so it was time. I booked a photographer months before Aaron came home so that she could be there for his homecoming, but when I found out he was going to be coming home in the middle of the night things changed a little. We decided to do a family shoot a couple days after Aaron returned home instead.

Love Day

   Valentine's Day was on a Thursday this year and we are so happy Aaron was home to celebrate it with us! Connor and Aaron both had a four day weekend, so it was almost like it was on a weekend for us. We celebrated as a family by going out to dinner and eating Chinese, my favorite type of food!

    Connor also celebrated Valentine's Day at school with his friends. I wasn't able to attend his party because siblings weren't allowed, but he said he had a lot of fun. As soon as he got home he started digging through his Valentine's to see what kind of sweets he got.

Homemade Valentine's

    Every year I like to get creative and make homemade Valentine's with the kids. This year Olivia sent out bows to her best gals {just like last year} and Connor gave out bubbles with his. I think they came out pretty cute!

Welcome Home Daddy

     This morning, at 12:21 AM, we welcomed home our soldier! We are so excited and have been on cloud 9 all day long.
    Here's how the evening leading up to his homecoming went: We wanted to surprise Connor, so we told him we were going to welcome home one of daddy's friends because he didn't have anybody to take him to his house. Yep, we lied, but it was for a good reason! Since it was going to be in the middle of the night, I got the kids dressed after their showers and put them to sleep at 7. Once they were asleep, I started to get antsy, so I started to get ready. We left the house around 10:30 and got to the gym with plenty of time. Both kids were awake, and surprisingly in a really good mood. One of my friends was already there and saved us a seat in the front. It was the perfect spot!