Buzz Lightyear!

Trick or Treat!

James had a great time tonight!  He did a great job saying "Trick or Treat" and "Happy Halloween" at each door!  We're just soaking up all the fun daddy time we can before he leaves next week.

 

Lauren's Baby Shower

Just a few weeks away from meeting Lauren and Scott's sweet baby boy!  We showered her with love and gifts :)

 

 

Baby #2

That's right.  We're having another baby!  Feeling blessed, excited and pretty scared.  We'll be having this baby when Steven is deployed, I'm due April 10th.  yikes.  there's no good timing in the Army, but maybe we could've thought this one through a bit more :)  Oh well.  I'm most likely going to travel to Ft. Wayne to have this baby there to get some extra help with James and some family suport.  We're still trying to figure out the details, but in the meantime, we're super excited!  We'll find out boy or girl a few weeks after Steven deploys. 

Casing of the Colors Ceremony

Before deployment, each battalion has a formal ceremony to "case the colors."  This means the Battalion flag they fly at Ft. Stewart gets packed up to be taken with them to Afghanistan to fly over there.  It makes this upcoming deployment all too real. 

 

Washington Visit

We only a few weeks before Steven deploys, so we took advantage of his block leave and traveled to Washington to visit with his family.  We had a great time with mom and Grandma Shirley exploring the Ape Caves and the amazing lava tubes!  Lava tubes are the holes that are left after Mount St. Helen's erupted, lava covered the land and hardened around the trees.  Once the trees burned away they left these perfectly shaped tubes in the ground that sometimes twist into amazing tunnels.  James and I got to explore these dark, damp and kinda scary lava tubes...and he's here showing you his big muscles after he climbed up out of the hole.  so fun!

 

We visited with his dad and grandma Fundingsland too, and of course, hit the beach with mom.  James loved flying the kite and walking on the boardwalk.  Such a great time with the family!

 

Ft. Wayne Children's Zoo

We were in Ft. Wayne for a week for an awesome visit with my family during Steven's block leave.  We had a great time and James especially loved the zoo!

Goodbye Grandpa

Six weeks to the day of losing his wife, my grandpa Clarence Dowling passed away.  I have been so fortunate to have known and loved my grandparents for so much of my life.  They have always been there for me, from attending every sporting event  (and there were probably thousands), to spoiling James with love and attention.  It's going to be so hard to visit Ft. Wayne and not have them there.  Miss them.

 

We did get, however, get to say goodbye to Grandpa.  We came up to Ft. Wayne to visit during Steven's block leave before heading to Washington and got a chance to see him the day he passed away.  Love you, Grandpa.