2013 Annual Awards Banquet

Friday night, Andy and I attended the annual awards banquet for the base. He was nominated for CGO (Company Grade Officer) of the year. A BIG deal! I have to admit that I was less than thrilled to look for a formal dress to wear at 8 months pregnant. The thought of schmoozing at a formal event didn't exactly light my fire either. I'm so proud of him though so I didn't complain too much.
Avery took a pic of us all dressed up. I swear it makes me look bigger standing next to him being all skinny in his uniform :p


We went for social hour and had some snacks (and drinks for Andy) before everything started. Apparently I was the first pregnant person anyone there had ever seen because everyone wanted to chat about my belly and give opinions or try to touch me. It was Andy's night but everyone was all over me. Soooo not my thing at all but I played nice. ;)
Then we had to wait to be announced and walk under the sabers. This was the most exciting part for me personally. I wanted this at our wedding and we couldn't get it worked out. Finally! I was walking (okay, more like waddling) under the sabers.

We had dinner at our assigned table and then the awards ceremony started. There were all different types of awards for volunteer of the year, key spouse of the year, NCO of the year, etc. There were at least 400 people there. Andy was up against Lieutenants and Captains in his wing then up against the winner of the other wing on base for the base-wide award.
He won for the wing! Check out this statue. It is too big to be called a trophy. This thing is huge!

Then he won for the entire base! Not sure why the size is smaller although this award is "bigger"

I am sooo proud of him. This is a huge accomplishment for him! He was excited even if you can't tell in the pictures. :)

It's a.....

He's back! Welcome home, Andy!

Today was a big day at our house. Andy is finally home! We have been looking forward to this day for 4 1/2 months and they kept getting delayed and changing the time. I was a stressed out mess. I was getting an eye twitch. They returned early so A&E stayed home from school to go meet Daddy. My friend Christie was awesome enough to meet us and take pictures for us. Her husband is new to the squadron and wasn't on this deployment.

I'll skip over the timing stress this morning but we made it in plenty of time and everyone was shuttled to the flight line to meet them when they got off the plane. It was COLD. We waited a long time but it was worth it. Christie was going to try to get reaction pics but Andy snuck up on us. We are all so glad to have him home. As soon as he laid his hand on my belly, sprout gave him a kick.

Freezing & waiting not quite so patiently

I saw him first!

The look on Evan's face is priceless
It was pretty emotional but I kept it together pretty well
I had to squeeze in for anything once A&E got to him
Our little family together again!
They were not letting go!

31 weeks

It just keeps growing and growing. In fact, Evan asked me Saturday morning if my belly was just going to keep getting bigger and bigger until the baby comes. I assured him it would. This child has no filter (like his father). ;)

I am exhausted. I miss sleep. I am getting hungrier. I had a dream about my favorite fast food place in East TN (the only place they have Pal's!) the other night. I woke up starving. In fact, I wake up in the middle of the night and have to eat. Can't wait until I can send someone else to fetch my food...ahem, Andy. :) Still nauseous. I think at this point the only cure is to have a baby.

Hopefully we will be finding out the gender around 32 weeks. I HOPE!

I'm really bothered by the fact that I have fat elbows now. How am I gaining weight in my arms??!

Snow!

We got quite a bit of snow on Christmas. I don't like snow. It's cold and it makes driving tough. This state pretty much shuts down if it snows. However A&E LOVED it and so did Murphy.

30 weeks pregnant

30 weeks and growing. Sprout must be fattening up in there. That is what I'm telling myself anyway. I think my belly is getting rounder every day. I am exhausted. Sleep is a joke at this point. I take short naps throughout the night. My back issues are getting worse. I got a prenatal massage last week (heavenly) and went to the chiropractor. Even after the massage to loosen my spasming muscles, the chiro couldn't pop my lower back at all. I spend a lot of time with ice or the heating pad on my back. Still nauseous but wearing the tacks in my wrists helps. I think it helps more than acupuncture. I'm craving sweets now, especially cake. Mmmm cake. 2 more months, 2 more months, 2 more months. Not that I'll get sleep then. ;)

Recent pics

Watching a movie


How I found them one morning before school


Mexican for dinner. Their favorite!

First basketball game & cheer

A&E had their first game (to play basketball and cheer) this past Saturday. This is the only time they have the same schedule so I tried to enjoy it. Evan plays at 8 am every Saturday morning (who the heck made this schedule) and Avery cheers at a different game every Saturday. We have to get up earlier for the games than we do for school! Not a fan. I was soooo excited for Avery to cheer. So far I am NOT happy with how it is going. They learned 1 chant before the game and that was all they knew. I have offered to help but the two 16 year old coaches want to do things their way. I cringe every practice. SIGH
They were so excited although it was sooo early in the morning. How stinking cute are they??

Here they are "in action". Evan scored 2 goals and got a star for offense. He was really into it. Avery said she liked cheering but didn't seem as enthusiastic.

Some video. Seriously these cheerleaders need more work. Evan needs to work on his dribbling. He got a little excited. lol

Christmas

We had a quiet Christmas Eve and morning with just the three of us. Thankfully Andy was able to skype with us Christmas morning and see A&E's reactions and opening gifts. Now where do I put all this stuff?!
this was actually before Christmas but we built a gingerbread house

Christmas Eve was nice and in the low 60s so I let them open a gift from us early so they could play. Scooters! Yes we spent Christmas Eve in pjs ;)

We made sure we put out reindeer food in the yard

We also baked cookies for Santa

Since Andy couldn't be here to keep up the tradition of reading Twas the Night Before Christmas, he sent a recordable book so we could listen to his voice reading it

Christmas Day!