Six Months Old

I can't believe my baby girl is already 6 months old! She's growing up WAY too fast.

At her 6 month well baby visit, she weighed in at 17 pounds, 14.4 ounces and was 27 inches long.

She has been eating solids for a couple of months now. We have just started feeding her Stage 2 baby food. She is such a good eater! She barely makes a mess (except when Shawn feeds her and that's do to feeder error).

She can roll over both ways, and does so often. She never stays in the same place anymore. It won't be long before she figures out the crawling thing. She can't sit up on her own yet, but if we sit her up, she'll stay that way for a couple of minutes. She is constantly "talking" to us and even tries to wave bye bye.

So much for her staying little forever!

Flat Stanley

A few weeks ago, we hosted a Flat Stanley for a lady I met on a message board. Flat Stanley flew all the way out here to Hawaii from Pennsylvania.

We had fun showing him around our beautiful little city. Unfortunately, we didn't get the chance to take him many places, but he did get to see Pearl Harbor, the Iolani Palace, the beach, and Diamond Head.

For some reason, my goofball boys like wearing pants even though it's 80 degrees outside. I haven't been able to break them of that habit.

I would love to do another Flat Stanley project someday, but unfortunately it won't be here in Hawaii.

Valentine's Day

So, yesterday was Valentine's Day. I love to get the kids a little something every year. I LOVED having a girl this year because I got to dress her in a cute little Valentine's dress. Isn't she precious!

I bought Abby a little white stuffed puppy dog. It is so soft and cute! I bought each of the boys a little stuffed devil, a little box of chocolates and Bambi II.

Unfortunately, Shawn wasn't home for Valentine's Day this year, so I didn't get anything (unless you count the box of turtles I bought for myself). I did buy him a a little gift basket that contains two little bottles of wine, some kisses, and a little stuffed monkey, along with a box of chocolates. He just got home today after being out for 2 weeks, so he'll get them tonight when he gets home. I'm sure I'll still get nothing, but that's okay. He bought me roses for our anniversary.

Gymboree

Gymboree is hands down my most favorite place to shop for Abigail's clothes.

I mean, look at her. Isn't she just adorable!

They are having a great sale right now. And you earn gymbucks. I picked this outfit up for her today and I placed an order online. I bought a bunch of stuff for her to wear next winter in Washington. Everything I bought was on sale. It's really not as expensive as some people think.

They have cute boy stuff too, but definitely not as cute as the girls stuff.

It's going to be a sad day when Abby outgrows their stuff. Luckily, that's a LONG ways away.

My Grandpa Rzonca

My Grandpa, Ben Rzonca, passed away today. This is a picture from the last time I saw him, 2.5 years ago (July 2001).

The boys and I had sent him some pictures last Tuesday (the boys drew him pictures and I sent pictures of the kids) and I am told that it was one of the last things he saw this morning before he passed away. My dad said the nurses had shown Grandpa the pictures and Grandpa understood what they were and who they were from. They said the pictures made him happy. I am glad I could do that for him.

I am terribly sad that I didn't get to spend more time with him and that he never got to know my children. But I will always remember the fun I used to have with him as a kid. He called us "zipper buddies" because we had both had open heart surgery. We joked with each other all the time about the other one being our pillow. He watched golf all the time and loved to play too.

He will always have a very special place in my heart. I know he is in Heaven now with my Grandpa Jack watching over me and my children.

I love you Grandpa! You will be forever missed.

Decision Made

As I've stated before, Shawn is up for new orders this year. I mentioned previously that I had no clue what we were going to do.

Well, we finally made a decision. We have decided to extend onboard Shawn's current boat and transfer with it to Washington in the fall for decommission. Actually, the boys and I plan on moving in late April/early May.

We really didn't have any other choice. The detailer was pressuring us to either extend onboard or stay in Hawaii. He pretty much refused to send us back to the East Coast, which is where we both really want to go. We figured we'd do what he wants now and hopefully, if what everyone is saying is true, once the boat is decommed, we can have our choice of available orders.

So, now I have to get busy and start getting ready to move. April isn't that far away!

Zackery's Birthday Party

Zackery's birthday is tomorrow, so we threw him a birthday party yesterday. We had it early so Shawn could be there (his schedule is never certain). He asked for a GI Joe theme, which led to it being an Army theme.

It was really cool! We set up an obstacle course. First, there was a wall climb that the boys had to crawl over. Next came the balance beam they had to cross. Then the rope swing over a tub of water. That was followed by a stomach crawl. Finally there was the "tires" (we made them out of rope tied into circles). The boys loved it. Shawn stood there yelling at them like a drill sergeant. We were cracking up.

Shawn also set up a battlefield for a capture the flag/water balloon game. I think the boys had the most fun with that. We also had some water guns they played with. The adults couldn't fill the water balloons fast enough. Shawn had set up some rules of the game, but they were quickly set aside in favor of an all out war.

Zackery said it was his best birthday ever, which made all the time and money we put into it well worth it.

Abby's Eating Vegies

We decided to start feeding Abigail jarred baby foods this week. She has been doing well with the infant cereal, so we felt she was ready to move on.

What better vegetable to start with than...carrots!

Yummy, yummy carrots!

She did awesome with the first 2/3 of the jar. I don't know what happened after that, but she just flat out refused to eat the rest. We even tried adding a little cereal to it, but she wanted nothing to do with it.

Luckily, it was a one time deal. The next two nights we fed her carrots and she ate the whole jar in no time flat. I think our little piggy likes baby food.

Happy Anniversary!

Today is our 10 year anniversary. I still can't believe we've been married 10 years already. Sometimes it seems like only yesterday.

January 18, 1996: It wasn't anything fancy. We picked a JP out of the phone book and then pretty much just randomly picked a day in January (the first day where both of our work schedules worked out). We were married in the JP's office in downtown Charleston, SC. I don't remember everything about it. I'm pretty sure we were both wearing a nice pair of jeans and a nice shirt. We had it tape recorded, but sometime throughout the years, we seem to have lost the tape. I remember us both giggling during the vows. Afterwards, we went out to dinner where Shawn ate too much and ended up getting sick.

For anyone who is reading this and thinking "how pathetic", we did have a big church wedding a couple of months later (March 4). The JP thing was just so the Navy would pay to move us both when Shawn transferred in February. I do agree that the whole JP thing was pretty pathetic though. But it's a good memory to look back on and laugh at.

10 years. Wow!

Where Did The Time Go?

How has it been a week since I've posted anything? I thought I was doing really good, but I guess not.

All the boys have been sick. It started in the middle of the night Thursday with Nicholas. Sometime during the night he hung his head over the side of the bed and puked. Then he crawled into bed with Zackery.

When he woke up, he said he felt fine, so I sent him to school. Of course I get a call telling me he puked all over his desk and I need to come pick him up. Saturday morning he feels all better.

Saturday afternoon rolls around and Zackery starts complaining his stomach hurts. He's outside riding his scooter when his brothers come in and tell me Zack's puking all over the street. Turns out it wasn't the street, it was the neighbors driveway. He comes inside and throws up some more all over his bed.

Sunday comes and goes. Monday comes and goes. I'm starting to think we're out of the woods. Then Tuesday night rolls around. I'm dead asleep and then I freak out because I hear someone in my room. Turns out it's just Joshua and he's sick. I had to get up and clean up his bed so he could go back to sleep. I learned my lesson from Friday though and so I kept Josh home with me today. Now I'm just waiting for me or Abby to get sick. That'll be fun (NOT).

Speaking of Saturday, the boys had their first soccer games on Saturday. Zack's was at 9:00 and we all got to watch most of it. He did pretty good. I had to leave early, so I don't know if he won or not (AYSO regulations state that his age group and lower doesn't keep score). At 10:00, I watched Josh play and Shawn watched Nick play. Josh's team was so cute! They are so little. Josh played the first quarter, sat out the second quarter, was supposed to play the third quarter but decided he didn't want to and sat out the rest of the game. Nick, on the other hand, kicked butt from what I understand. They were scoring goals like crazy. And Nick actually scored some! I'm watching Nick next time.