Halloween 2009

Laura had a lot of fun dressing up as a ladybug for her first Halloween! On Friday, October 30th, we went to a party at the Coast Guard base, and on Saturday we went to Trunk or Treat hosted at our church.

The last few days have been a lot of fun watching Laura really take off crawling. She is enjoying her new-found freedom and being able to chase a toy after throwing it across the room! She is also talking now and loves saying "Hi" and "Bye" to everyone. She is even trying to say "Conner" (our dog's name), although it sounds more like "Cai" at this point. She just turned 11 months old yesterday, and it is hard to believe that we will be celebrating her first birthday soon. It may be a cliche, but the time really does go so fast!

Fall 2009 Updates

Lots of updates since the last post...

At the end of September, we celebrated Jon's 30th birthday by having a big party at our home. Many friends joined us in a fun evening, and Jon enjoyed several golf-themed gifts such as a practice net from me, a new golf bag from my mom, and some pink golf balls (to use at the ladies tees now that he's an old man) from our friends, the Hyatt's.

Laura is doing all kinds of fun new things these days. She recently cut her 3rd tooth, and is working on the 4th. She said her first word a few days ago, "Hi!", and is now able to imitate lots of fun sounds, including "Bye-bye." She seems to be on the verge of crawling as she can now push herself up on all fours and gets into everything within reach. She can also get herself into a sitting position and is quickly figuring out how to push buttons to make all of her toys work. She is a big fan of solid foods now, with some of her favorites being chicken, bananas, yogurt, cheese and cheerios. She is already becoming more independent and loves anything that she can feed herself, and she's also learned to shake her head "no" when she doesn't want anymore. We are starting to teach her some baby sign language and she can now sign "All Done!" She is a constant source of joy and delight to us.

Last weekend I took Laura on her first hayride, and we went through a corn maze and picked pumpkins. It was very chilly, but she loved it! Unfortunately Jon was on duty and couldn't join us, but we had a nice time with our friends. We are looking forward to dressing Laura up for her first Halloween - she will be the cutest little ladybug you've ever seen!

Hope everyone is enjoying the cooler weather and staying healthy!

Lots of fun in Morehead City

We recently returned from yet another trip...the fourth of the summer! Jon had to go to Morehead City, NC for a law enforcement conference and I have family in the area, so of course I said yes when he asked me if I wanted to come along. We arrived at the Hampton Inn in Atlantic Beach on Wednesday afternoon and I was excited to find out that we had a very nice suite to stay in (thanks CG!).












Laura playing in the hotel.


My cousin, Adam, lives in MHC so we met up with him for dinner at a Mongolian Grill....the food was awesome! The conference was on Thursday, so while Jon was working I met up with a friend of ours that we had met while stationed in Corpus Christi, TX, who now lives in Jacksonville. We had a nice lunch together while her son and Laura entertained each other (and us!).










Me, Laura, Sherri & Nate at Panera Bread.



That afternoon, Mimi and Aunt Bev met us in MHC where we walked around the down town area a bit, and then drove over to Beaufort and walked some more. We had dinner in downtown Beaufort at a place called Clawson's...and Laura tried to fit a whole dinner role in her mouth!











Laura enjoying a dinner role at Clawson's.



The hotel was so nice (and reasonably priced) that we decided to spend a second night there. Friday morning we walked over to the beach to enjoy the waves for a bit before packing up.











Atlantic Beach, NC.


We checked out of the hotel and drove to Hubert, NC to spend our last night at my Uncle Phil and Aunt Bev's house. We had a nice time with them and found out that Laura is a big fan of Aunt Bev's yummy home-made bread! Every time we gave her a piece she got very excited and said, "Mmm-mmm-mmm!" while eating it.










Laura and Jon playing at Aunt Bev's.



Laura also had fun playing with my cousin Eric's step-daughter, Christina. All-in-all we had a fun time enjoying our Labor Day weekend a few days early.











Christina and Laura.

Fun Times with Family

On Sunday we returned from a week spent with Jon's family in upstate New York. We had a fun time there, an exhausting drive to and from, and some oh-so-fun plumbing issues at the end. On the way up, we spent a fun evening and morning with Dan Shearin and his adorable kids. After the the longest day of my life (traffic + fussy baby = NOT a fun car ride!) we made it to NY and received a warm welcome from parents, sisters, brothers, nieces and nephews. The Evans family (Matt, Becca, Bo, Lydia and Abigail) had arrived the day before from Canada, and we were glad to be there with them since it's been well over a year since we've seen them...and we met our niece, Abby, for the first time. The Watson family (Paul, Jen, Chris and Paulie) live just down the road and it was nice to see them for the second time this summer.

A couple days after we arrived we had a big family get-together in honor of Jon's grandfather, Adolph Laubmeier. It was a nice opportunity to take some multi-generation family photos with everyone there. The next day we all went to the pool at Minekill State Park and even though the water was cold, Laura did pretty well with it.

On August 13th we celebrated Abigail's first birthday by having the grandparents over for dinner and cake. Laura tasted her first cake...and she liked it! (Big shock, I know!) After the kids were in bed at night, we had a fun time playing poker together. Toward the end of the week, the plumbing problems began. At first we noticed that the toilets were acting funny, then they wouldn't flush. Poor Lydia was suspected of flushing a pull-up diaper down the toilet...she's 3 and seemed the most likely culprit. After the sewage lines backed up into the downstairs tub (ewww!) we realized that the problem was serious and we could no longer use the toilets or showers....and there were 6 adults and 4 kids in the house! Thankfully, Jen and Paul were willing to share theirs, so Jon and I showered at their house Saturday morning before we left to come back home...that could have been one stinky day in the car! Turns out, the problem was caused by a crack in the drainage pipe leading from the house to the cess pool, and poor little Lydia was innocent!

Laura learned a new trick while we were in NY...she can now wave hello and goodbye! It's more of a raised hand than a wave at this point, but fun nevertheless. Overall, we had a nice time, but it is also nice to be back home where the plumbing works and the internet is fast! :)

Catching up on Summer 2009

I'm starting this blog to keep our family and friends updated on what's going on with our family. Since the Coast Guard keeps us far away from many of you, hopefully this will be another way to stay in touch. I'm planning to update it on a weekly-ish basis, depending on what's going on.

We have been having a very busy summer so far! We started off the summer by spending two weeks in June visiting with family. We spent a couple days in Pennsylvania, where Laura got to meet her great-great-grandmother. Then we traveled to Jefferson, NY and spent a little over a week with Jon's family. Before coming home, we spent a few days in Williamsburg, VA with some of my family to celebrate my grandmother's (Mimi's) 80th birthday.

In this photo are Eric Hughes, myself, Melissa Young, Adam Hughes and Elizabeth Brown. (Mimi is seated in the bottom left corner.) This was the first time all of us cousins had been together since Jon and my wedding. We had a great time hanging out together, especially on the day we all got to go to Busch Gardens together.

A couple weeks after that trip, we went to Swansboro, NC to spend a weekend with my Unlce Phil and Aunt Beverly while Jon played in a raquetball tournament in New Bern, NC.

Jon has had two deployments with the International Ice Patrol out of St. John's Newfoundland, in addition to his regular work duties.

Laura has been growing like crazy, of course. She is 8 months old now and can roll over both ways, sit up on her own, and is learning how to feed herself little snacks. Her two front bottom teeth are coming in, so her adorable tooth-less smile will soon look a little different. Her favorite thing to say is "da-da" and although she doesn't know what it means yet, her face lights up whenever her daddy walks in the room.

This week I am helping out with our church's Vacation Bible School. I am in charge of the crafts, and it's been a fun, crazy, busy time. This weekend we are heading back to New York for another visit since Jon's sister and her family will be visiting from Canada. We are looking forward to seeing them again and meeting our niece, Abby, for the first time.