Rice Cereal!

Look at that messy mouth! :) After much deliberation on whether or not we wanted to start Elizabeth on food yet, we decided to go for it! Tonight was her first taste of rice cereal. She did amazingly well with it! I think more landed on her bib than in her tummy, but she was opening her mouth in anticipation of the spoon, then closing down on it to take the cereal. It was very exciting. It is so neat to see all these developmental milestones! Speaking of development, she had her 4-month check up this week. She now weighs 14 lb, 10 oz, and is 25 inches long! Both are in the 75th percentile. She is also getting a lot more hair and her eyes are definitely looking green-brown.

Tomorrow is a big day for Kyle. Please keep him in your prayers as we head to surgery in the morning. It will be outpatient hernia repair. We pray his recovery goes quickly and smoothly and that he can jump back into training ASAP!

There are also many families around us that could use prayer. My grandma lost her mom and brother this past week, and some dear friends lost their son in Iraq on Monday. It is so hard to go through these trials here on earth and to remember that God is in control and has a plan for everything, even when we can't understand it. Please pray for His comfort to these families and all affected until our joyous reunion in heaven!

Thanks so much for keeping up with us! I have been reminded this week to not take any moment with your loved ones for granted. It's hard to do when they frustrate you, but it is still so important to make positive memories and spend quality time together. We love you all! God bless.

Guess who is 4 months old...?

It is hard to believe this cute little girl is already 4 months old! She is growing and changing so quickly! Her next check up is on Monday, but we think she is getting close to 15 pounds already. It is hard to believe. She is laughing and smiling all the time now. She is also getting pretty good at being a "supported" sitter and is working really hard at rolling over. She shows a lot of interest in her toys, too. It is a fun age. She has also been a challenge recently... refusing bottles and not wanting to sleep in her crib. It has been a tiring week for us, but I am praying she gets the hang of it soon. Becoming a mommy has been a huge adjustment... we are still working on some parts of it! :)

We enjoyed a visit with Kyle's dad and step-mom last weekend. They came down to meet Elizabeth and see good ole' Ft. Rucker. We introduced them to the area's best pizza at Mellow Mushroom, toured the Aviation Museum here on post, and took them to church with us on Sunday.

Kyle is officially done with flight training, and we are just waiting to see what his schedule will be for completing the last 2 schools he has before graduation. We are anxious to learn where we are headed next to start looking at where we will live and to make plans for the next house.

I celebrated my 24th birthday yesterday. We had a nice lunch at Olive Garden and spent some time shopping around in Dothan. I called a one-day vacation from housework, so that was nice, too! ;) Elizabeth and I will spend the time Kyle is gone at SERE school getting the house ready for the movers and possibly visiting my family in Kansas for a little while. We really hope to scale down on our belongings before the move, so I have a good bit of sorting and organizing to do. I am definitely losing my "pack-rat" mentality, which I am sure my mom will be thrilled to read, so now I just have to take the time to go through everything I probably shouldn't have saved in the first place! haha

Hope all is well in your part of the world!

Christmas Break

Well, we took our Christmas vacation from December 20 to January 2, and it was a pretty good break. It was great to get away for a little while, and see Melody's side of the family. We flew out of Montgomery, AL and flew into Memphis, TN after a few delays, which would have made us miss our second flight. However, there was more delays and we made our plane. Elizabeth did extremely well on all of our flights. I was scared that she was just going to scream the whole time, but she just played for the first flight and slept for a lot of the second flight. We got to Kansas City a little late and that was the day of a big snow storm, so we didn't attempt to make the 2 hour drive back to Clay Center. So, we stayed with Karla, which is Melody's cousin. The next morning we braved the cold and got to Clay Center.

We had a good time with Melody's family and you know that Elizabeth got spoiled. She was the center of attention. She loved all the Christmas lights and all the people that wanted to see her. Everybody pitched in and helped us with her, which is always good. It was nice to have other people watch after her. In fact, Melody and I got our first "date" since Elizabeth was born.

Melody's brother is a Marine that is currently deployed to Iraq, so it was kind of an emotional Christmas dinner but it was fun none the less. Later in the day we got home and there was a message on the answering machine saying that he got to call and we had missed him by just a few minutes. Luckily he called again and called Melody's mother's cell phone. So, it was cool to get to talk to him. It wasn't quite the same without him.

Melody's mom took tons of pictures so we have quite a few and I will post a few of my favorites. Coming home was less eventful but once again Elizabeth did great on the planes. Oh and we got our favorite bbq while we were in Memphis, Corky's BBQ. Now we are back in the warmer South and waiting for more schools to start.

Elizabeth and her Grandma 'Chele

Elizabeth in her Christmas Dress on her 3 month birthday