Our Little Valentine

Our Valentine's Day was spent moving and I was a little bummed out about having to celebrate early. I am all about celebrating every little holiday this year because they are all Avalyn's firsts! You can't get those "firsts" back so I make sure that Brian and I go that extra mile to make them special for her, even though she will not remember them. Plus I totally love having an excuse to take those special photos, buy those cute holiday onesies, and start those memorable little traditions. 

With that being said I made Avalyn a tutu to go along with her Valentine's Day onesie. It was the first tutu I had ever made and I could not believe how easy it was to make! We also used this tutu in Ava's photos we had done down in Ponte Vedra, Florida a few weeks prior. 

I also could not resist having a tutu made for little miss and finding the perfect hair bow. I am thinking of a tutu tradition? How old is too old for tutus?! I am OBSESSING over babies in tutus! Ahh! Isn't she just so gosh darn cute?! 

Anywho, our Love Day was spent cleaning and moving...

She just cracks me up! She was being such a good little bird while Brian and I finished up cleaning our home in Kingsland. 

Okay, so how exactly did you celebrate?! 

Well, we took Ava to Build-A-Bear and she made a Valentine's Day monkey a few weeks before the move and also treated her to a new Sophie the Giraffe toy; which she absolutely loves! And we made salt dough hearts to send to our parents!

We stamped Avalyn's foot print into the dough; it was in fact the biggest pain in the butt! I thought that it was going to be really easy, but it actually took us two batches to get a decent heart. All of my frustration aside, it was a fun time watching Ava squish the dough in her hands and watch everything with curiosity on her face. 

HAPPY (belated) VALENTINE'S DAY! <3 

p.s I forgot to share with you all...

Brian and I celebrated our TWO year wedding anniversary on February 5th!

Here we are at our duplex in Kingsland, GA
in the middle of a move and with our newest family member.

And here we are a year ago in Saint Marys, GA
at our first apartment on our one year!
I was actually pregnant when this was taken, but did not know it yet!

PCS Move: The In Between and Everything Else

After all of the craziness of our house being packed up and trying to get everything cleaned, I had some time to reflect on our time spent in Georgia/Florida and our last few days up until the move. The one thing that really made this entire experience pretty difficult was the fact that we were saying good by

to the place where little Ava was born. 

Now I know that some of you are probably wondering why that is such a big deal? 

Well, think about it, our first born was conceived, born, and spent the first five months of her life in the Kingsland/Jacksonville area. Not to mention the fact that the first two months of her life were spent in the care of some pretty awesome doctors and nurses; if it were not for them, we may not have our little one here with us today. 

Another thing that got me a little emotional did not have much of anything to do with the area, but it was the saying good bye to the car that Brian and I created so many memories in for the first three years of our relationship. Now you are probably thinking, "Whaa?". 

Yes, it is true, Brian and I bid farewell to his '92 Mitsubishi 3000 GT also known as "Hoot". 

"Hoot" named for the odd hooting sound it would make while going down the interstate, took us on many adventures. We took this car to numerous concerts, went on several road trips, and made several donuts in the snow.
I had a love/hate relationship with this car particularly because of the maintenance it required. But my oh my was it a looker! I still remember the first time that Brian and I met; I saw him pull up into my parent's drive way in this car and I thought to myself, "Ooh dear.".
It was very unfortunate that we did not have the finances to get it running again (the transmission went out back in 2009) and did not have the time to find someone to sell it to. As a last resort, the car was sold to a junk yard. :'( It definitely broke my heart watching it go.

The worst of this whole PCS move experience was when we lost our beloved Cody the cat. While Brian and I were preparing for our final walk through with our previous landlord, we let the animals roam around a bit before it was time to confine them to their carriers. Well, when it was time to put all three of them into their carriers, we noticed that Cody was nowhere to be found. There was nowhere really for him to hide considering there was absolutely nothing left in the house; we checked every single closet and cabinet and came up with no cat. My initial thought was that he sneaked out when Brian was coming in and out of the house, but he swore that he never once left the door open. Of course I was hysterical (he is my fur baby for goodness sake!) and began to really panic thinking the worst and little did I know that the worst of my fears was about to come true.
After Cody had been missing for two hours I had finally decided that he had gotten out of the house somehow. That was confirmed after Brian and I spent another hour walking around our house and I saw that the window to Ava's room was sitting strangely; when I walked over to it and gently pushed the screen in, I saw the bottom corner jut out. Cody had leaned up against the screen while he had been sitting on the window sill and jumped (I am guessing more like slid) out and made his venture into the wild. Cody is a big kitty, so it probably did not take much effort for him to pop the screen out.
The most irritating part of this whole ordeal was the fact that when we first moved down to Georgia I had told Brian that at some point or another we were going to have a cat go through one of the screens and sure enough! That was what had happened.
We spent all day and night searching the surrounding woods looking for him. We left our information with the neighboring fire department and the humane society in case someone had picked him up and brought him in. I made various posts on Facebook and several friends shared those posts. We left food out for him in case he returned later that night as well.
Brian and I spent hours tromping through the surrounding woods but to no avail and instead of going home with our cat, I went home with a TICK. I have never had a tick on me before so you can imagine how much I freaked out when I was sitting in Magan's living room, felt something crawling on my hand, looked down and saw a FREAKING TICK. I screamed and asked Magan what it was, was it a tick?! And she naturally clutched little Sarah and backed away from me and we both started screaming. I ran into the kitchen where Magan's husband, Brian was and began flailing my hand at him yelling to get it off of me. He grabbed my wrist and confirmed that it was a tick and turned on the kitchen sink and stuck my hand under it. Thankfully the tick rinsed off and did not bite me, especially while I was flailing around like a crazy person. The whole ordeal was quite hilarious after the fact.
Thankfully Magan and Brian let us stay at her home an additional night so we could spend the following day searching for Cody instead of leaving for North Carolina on time like we had planned. The day that we were scheduled to leave (the 15th) we spent looking for Cody and posting flyers around the neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods. Unfortunately we were unable to find my chubby kitty and we were forced to leave Georgia without him.
I still can't believe that he is missing and still has not been found. I miss him very much and am still not used to him being gone. Our other cat, Lammas has been missing him as well; he has just been sort of moping around our new home and I think that he has realized that Cody is not in the picture. I am starting to think the worst has happened to him and I hope that if he has passed that it was quick and painless. I like to think that he was taken into a nice family's home and is having his big ol' belly rubbed and his back scratched by a loving hand.
Amongst all of the chaos of searching for Cody, I learned that Avalyn really loves watching the show My Little Pony. Here she is completely enthralled by the colorful little cuties.

Before we left Georgia we said our "see you laters" to the Boatmans (they are PCSing to North Carolina as well in a few weeks) and then ran a few final errands before finally leaving town. Of course it took much longer for us to get on the road due to the fact that every time we drove by our old neighborhood I had Brian swing by the house to see if Cody was there. 

I also had him stop at the souvenir shop in town so we could stock up on peach cider and peach jam because they are our favorites and nothing beats a Georgia peach! It is definitely one of the things that I will miss!

We drove 7 hours to Wilmington, North Carolina where we stayed the night in a hotel. The following morning we drove to Jacksonville, North Carolina where more chaos ensued. 

I was feeling a little better despite the Cody incident and thought to myself, "It will get better." but the next series of events seriously made me question that thought. 

We arrived in Jacksonville and had to go and get a cashier's check to cover our security deposit and that took forever due to the fact that everyone in the entire city must have been at that particular bank at the same time! Once that was finished we headed over to our realtor's office to drop off the check, sign our lease, and pick up our key/s. None of that happened due to the fact that the previous tenant had just moved out that morning and the cleaning crew was at the house rushing to get everything cleaned in time for our arrival. Of course I began freaking out considering the movers were going to be arriving in a few hours to deliver our things. 

So we had to kill some time while the house was being finished; almost three hours later we were at our new house, signing our lease, and welcoming the movers. The house was not as clean as I had expected and the previous tenant had left behind some things, but by that point I was so over everything that I just did not care. 

Thankfully the movers arrived when they said they would and began to unload the semi. The worst that happened as far as moving in was the fact that it had begun to snow! I was so excited to see snow even if it was a little dusting; it had been a few months since I last seen snow! 

After saying goodbye to the movers we spent unpacked a few things and then called it a night. It had been a looooooooooong day! 

So for those of you about to PCS, know this, go into it with an open mind because no amount of planning will help you prepare for those uncontrollable moments. I survived the PCS by keeping an accordion file folder with absolutely everything we needed (orders, LES, bills, lease, etc.) and by keeping a positive attitude/open mind. I will admit that there were a few moments when I nearly lost my cool, but we made it through them. 

Always remember to keep calm and carry on! <3 

If anyone in the Kingsland area has seen this kitty, please call us ASAP!

Little Avalyn pocketed the money that Daddy got for selling Hoot.

Our little Georgia Peach.

"Hi y'all from Georgia!"

Craziness in the car!

PCS Move: Packing/Moving Day

On February 13th, the packers and movers arrived at our home around nine in the morning. Wielding boxes, a vast amount of packing tape, and mountains of packing paper we began our quick walk through so they could decide where to start. There were two packers and one of them had a broken hand and as I tried to keep Avalyn occupied I over heard them ask Brian if our home was a three bedroom. He replied, "Yes." and I heard them say something along the lines of "They told us it was only a two bedroom, I am not sure if we have enough supplies.". Of course after hearing/seeing that my stress levels began to sky rocket. I began to get very overwhelmed and extremely worried that we had too much stuff and that we would go over our weight limit of 8,000 pounds or that they would run out of supplies and not be able to finish packing everything in one day.
I tried calming myself down in order to take care of Ava until our good friend, Magan could come and pick her up. I knew that if I had a freak out that Ava would freak out and the last thing I wanted was for her to get upset. It was already bad enough that she wanted nothing to do with her morning nap with all of the commotion of the packers packing everything.
So I did what I thought was best!

I pulled out the Baby K'tan (before the packers got a hold of it...they literally pack EVERYTHING) and quickly put Ava into it. I was a little nervous about wearing her considering I had not used the K'tan since November and we had had issues with her staying high enough up on me (she was a little too small for the position shown). But she was big enough and comfortable enough for me to wear her and this helped us out tremendously! I was hoping the snugness of this position would help her fall asleep since it was indeed time for her morning nap, but instead she kept popping her little head out from under the strap like a little gopher and looking around at everything. She was so alert! She was also very keen on gumming the strap. Silly little bird.
She eventually did take a little bit of a snooze, but of course not long after I had to take her off of me due to the sudden rise in temperature. Apparently the upper 70's is common this time of year in South East Georgia.
Not too long after, Magan came and picked up Ava and she spent the day with her and Baby Sarah.

While there she was able to stay entertained and socialize with other people (and baby!). Magan made sure to snap this photo of little Ava gumming up a stuffed bunny. I was so nervous about Ava being away for the day, but from what I was told, she did really well.
During Ava's stay at Magan's house, Brian and I monitored the packers and tried to be somewhat helpful. The thing that I hated the most about the packing was not being able to do much. I felt like a big lazy bum just sitting there at the table watching our things being packed up. It also bothered me that I did not really have a say in where and how things were being packed.
After a lunch break, the movers/driver arrived and helped the packers finish packing, take inventory, and load up the truck. It was a very long day despite not having done much of anything except observe.
So, what is the point of this post?
Well, for those of you getting ready to PCS and are worried about the move, here are a few suggestions that helped us feel better about complete strangers being in charge of taking care of our things until our move in day and ways to help make things a little easier.

#1- Designate a "Do Not Pack" area for things that you don't want the packers and movers to see or pack up. These people will pack up everything and if there are things you do not want them to see or pack up...pack it up and move it yourself.

#2- Offer your movers/packers beverages and food; Brian and I made sure to provide bottled water and soda because let's face it, who wants to be stuck in someone's house, doing their grunt work and not be able to quench their thirst. You can buy a 24 pack of bottled water for $4 and a six pack of soda for like, $2. We also bought them lunch; which was a $5 pizza from Little Caesars...also very affordable! There is no need to deny these people the luxury of a full belly because think about it, they are in full control over how things are packed, etc.

#3- Pay attention to what is being packed! I will admit that I forgot a few things to stick in my "Do Not Pack" area and almost had important things packed up.

#4- Try to stay out of their way while being observant; they know you are there to monitor them, but try to do so while staying out of the way...no one likes trying to do their job when someone else is hovering.

#5- Have ziplock bags on hand! The packers will use them when they take things apart; they took apart things like Ava's bassinet, the kitchen table, and the coffee/end tables, etc. You don't want to loose the screws, etc.

#6- Do not sign the inventory list until you have double checked it. It is better to be safe than sorry!

#7- If you have animals or children, definitely arrange for a babysitter and designate an area for your pets.

#8- Keep a pen on hand! Someone will need one at some point considering how quickly they seem to disappear. You will need it at the end of the day in order to sign off on the inventory list (although your driver will most likely have one).

#9- Make sure that you have a plan ready in regards to where you and your family will be staying once the movers leave. Whether it be a hotel stay or staying with a friend, make sure that you have everything confirmed the day before your move.

#10- DO NOT FORGET TO PACK EVERYTHING YOU NEED FOR YOUR BABY! Or child/ren. I forgot bottle caps...of course we got by without them, but it was still pretty annoying.

I am pretty sure that I covered everything...there are other things that your moving company may ask you to do before the movers come, but every company may be different. Ours asked us to remove everything from the walls, unplug all electronics, and to disconnect our washer and dryer because they would not do those things for us. They also informed us on what they will and will not pack, so we took the measure of either discarding those items, giving/donating them, or bringing them with us in our vehicle.


Apart from the obvious, my best advice for your packing/moving day is to try to stay calm, try your best to be prepared, and try to keep a smile on your face!

Less Than One Week: PCS Move Update

Well we are less than a week away from our big PCS (permanent change of station) move; four days to be exact. My stress levels are up and down on a daily basis...surprise, surprise!
There is still so much to be done in such a short amount of time! I am confident that we will survive though.
The good news is that we were approved for the house that we had applied for last Sunday! I will be mailing out "moving" announcements to friends and family. I know, moving announcements?! Yes, that way I do not have to text it out to everyone a billion times. Plus I had found a really cute idea on Pinterest and just could not resist making them.
We will be signing our lease on the 15th of this month; which is the day that we are moving in.
Now that Brian is completely checked out of Kings Bay, we have been enjoying our time together with Avalyn when we are not cleaning, organizing, etc. Today there was a Mardi Gras Festival down in St. Marys, so we jumped at the opportunity to take Ava to her first big social event.
I did not think that the festival would be of much interest to little miss, but she shocked us (once again)! We arrived down town early this morning to see the parade and Ava managed to stay awake the entire time. She was so fascinated by all of the activity, people, and sounds that sleep was far from her mind.
Here is Avalyn enjoying part of the parade!

My apologies for the sideways view, that was just how Brian had filmed it. I do not have the patience to deal with rotating it (my computer freezes up while in the process of doing so). 

It was so much fun experiencing this with her! Brian and I had a blast dancing and laughing and catching beads for her! Doesn't she look just so gosh darn cute!?

So as the days get closer to our big day we are soaking up as much as Georgia as possible! 

I also wanted to give everyone a quick update with how our introduction to solid food is going! 

While we were up in North Carolina house hunting, we noticed how often Ava was paying more attention to us as we were eating. She began to watch us as we would pick up our food and put it to our mouths and then she would try to mimic our "nom, nom, nom" motion. Then while I was eating some Goldfish Grahams in the hotel room with Ava sitting/leaning against me, she reached for my cookie! I told her "No, no. You can't have mommy's cookie!" So then she proceeded to smack it out of my hand! It was then that I had an idea that she was close to being ready to try rice cereal again. 

When we got home, we gave it another go!

As you can tell, she managed to keep a lot more of the cereal in her mouth and not so much all over her face! I was so proud of her! Now we are working on having a little bit of cereal with her evening bottle until she is ready to graduate up to cereal with her mid-morning bottle. I can't believe that soon she will be "nom, nom, nomming" on stage one foods! It is all so very exciting! 

With that I leave you with some adorable photos of our little Bug the last few weeks before she turns SIX MONTHS OLD! AHHH! I am shocked beyond belief that next week we will be celebrating Ava being half way to a year old! 

Man, time sure does fly!!

Posing with Daddy before he goes to work. 

Just getting my tan on!

Little Penguin. 

Gimmee more beads!! 

The House Hunt

This passed weekend Brian and I packed up little Avalyn and our furry little Bandit and headed up to North Carolina to look for a house. Because Brian is being stationed at Camp Lejeune, we knew we had wanted to find a house for rent in the Jacksonville, NC area. Jacksonville is one of the surrounding cities to Lejeune and is the most conveniently located area that is within our price range. 

Unfortunately we only had a weekend to look at every house we possibly could and decide on the right house for us; this means that we had two days to travel and one day to "hunt". Can you imagine? One day to view and find your home for the next two years. You would not believe the amount of pressure and stress that put on us. 

Needless to say, after a nine hour drive up from Kingsland, we made it to North Carolina.

As you may be able to tell from Ava's clothes, it is definitely colder up here! I have not been able to fully warm up since our arrival! Isn't it funny how this native Northern Illinoisan can be bothered by 30-40 degree weather?! I have lived down in Southern Georgia for so long that I was spoiled with the never ending warmth. 

I must admit, I was a little concerned with the area once we arrived, but I told myself not to be so quick to judge considering it was after 7:00 p.m on a Friday night. All I could seem to pay attention to were all of the tattoo parlors and bars and that really made me nervous! It must have been my mother's defense/s flaring up. Haha. 

Our first night in Jacksonville was pretty uneventful...it consisted of a trip to Target (yes! we do not have to drive over 20 minutes to go to the closest Target!), Taco Bell for dinner, and a night of watching American Pickers on the History Channel. 

Today was the "big" day for us considering it was going to be nothing but being dedicated to viewing as many houses as daylight would allow us. I woke up feeling nervous and pretty pumped up; I have been telling myself to stay positive and it had gotten me amped. We had breakfast at Dunkin' Donuts because we all know how I can't seem to function properly without a frozen caramel coffee in my system. 

Complete side note! Frozen coffee when it is below 30 degrees outside does NOT help you feel any warmer. I know, I know, my friends and family up North are probably going on and on about how it is below zero up there and your snot will freeze the second you step outside, but just bear with me. 

So, I had coffee in my system, a positive attitude, and our binder full of houses to view and I was feeling good about the entire day. Brian had called our first realtor to confirm the appointment time to view the house (which was 9:30-9:45 am by the way) and we were told that she (the realtor) would meet us there. 

We pull into the driveway and no one is there yet, cool, no big deal right? Brian and I are checking out the house from our car, discussing what we like from the outside, etc. etc. We look down at the clock on the dash and 9:45 am is fast approaching. 

No realtor. 

No problem, she could have just gotten caught up in traffic. 

Brian gets out of the car and walks around the house and checks out the backyard, takes Bandit out to go to the bathroom, and gets back into the car. 

It is almost 10:00 am. 

No realtor.

Alright, I am starting to get annoyed and Ava is starting to get uncomfortable. 

Brian calls the realtor and there is no answer.

Ok, now I am really starting to get irritated and Ava is fussing.

Realtor calls back and says that she will be there in 10 minutes.

10 minutes goes by.

We are distracted by a little Boy Scout walking around (he was not technically "little" but he could not have been more than 12-14 years old) wanting to talk to us about a food drive. We try explaining to him that we do not live at the house, that it is for rent and we are merely there to view it. He becomes very confused and extremely nervous, tells us to have a nice day, and then heads on to the next house.

Brian and I share a chuckle and then realized it has been more than 10 minutes and this realtor has still not shown up. 

An hour has passed and we both decide to leave so we do not miss our next appointment.

Not even five minutes after we leave, the realtor calls. 

Brian is very irritated and ignores her call.

She calls back 10 minutes later and Brian answers and explains to her that we could not wait any longer because we are only here for the day and have other appointments to see other houses. Her excuse as to why she was late was completely ridiculous and for her to have wasted our time like that was beyond unprofessional. 

My positive thoughts went out the window and it was taking a lot of effort to maintain my calm. I kept thinking the worst because of this one realtor. 

We arrived at the next house and the realtor had not yet arrived, so of course I assumed it was going to be the same thing all over again. 

To my surprise the day took a turn for the better when the realtor arrived and we started viewing houses. 

The first one had potential, but it did not feel like home to me. 

The second, we fell in love with, but wanted to see more homes before making the ultimate decision.

The third, we met up with a second realtor (a different company) and the house completely creeped me out. Basically that was when Brian and I decided that we needed to up our maximum price range in order to find something nicer, but wouldn't break our budget.

The fourth, Brian looked at without me while I fed Ava. He said it was really nice and was definitely a possibility, but he liked the second house more.

The fifth, still has a tenant, but will be vacating very soon. I LOVED this house. I can not get it out of my head. I think that it may be "the one".  Our only concern? Will the current tenant be out of the house in time for us to move in?

The sixth, we also really loved. It was not the fifth house, but I also can not get that one out of my head. Our only concern? The listing says, "Outdoor pets only". We are not quite sure what that exactly means so we are trying to contact the owner to find out.

The seventh and final house was nice, but was over half an hour away from base. It also did not have a back door and that worried me. I also would not have had a place to put our kitchen table. 

After a day of house hunting we had some decisions to make; while we were discussing things, we decided to go on base to take a look around. 

WOWZA! 

Lejeune is definitely no Kings Bay! I was seriously starting to suffer from some major culture shock! Everything is just so much bigger and I am not used to being around so many Marines; Kings Bay is predominately Sailors. It will definitely take some getting used to!

We have spent the rest of our evening trying to decide what houses we like more, if our budget will allow it, eating pizza, watching Pawn Stars, more discussing, etc. etc. 

So, thankfully I can say that we survived the worst part of the PCSing process! The next (worst) part is deciding what house we want to rent and the application process! 

I am still trying to remain positive that everything will work out and fall into place in time for us to pack up and bid adieu to Georgia.

Must think positive thoughts, must think positive thoughts!! 

On that note, doesn't Avalyn just look so gosh darn cute hanging out with Daddy and playing with her monkey?!