My 1st Birthday - June 4, 2010

Landon's first birthday was a very hard day for me since Shane is away for his first son's birthday. We celebrated the day with Jennie (his nanny) making him a banana pudding cake and then a dinner celebration at Cheesecake Factory. They brought out a piece of cake and sang happy birthday to Landon. Everyone in the restaurant thought it was the cutest thing. You could hear them all saying ... "ahhh". Happy Birthday Buddy! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

Deployment

It was finally official on Friday, May 21st...Shane left for his first deployment on the Truman Aircraft Carrier. I did pretty well the week leading up to his leaving. I did not really cry until I drove Shane to his plane. We got to his work walked in the door and I just broke down. It was so hard not to. The mood was just so depressing. Landon and I got to stay with Shane until he flew his plane off of the base. It was really cool being able to see him gear up, walk out to the plane, and watch him take off. This was my first time ever seeing him fly. Granted I did not see much because my eyes were swelling with tears...but I saw enough.

I am very excited for Shane to go on his first deployment. He has been preparing the last 4+ years of his life for this day and it has finally arrived. He has gone through a tremendous amount of work and he finally gets to use his training.

Landon and I will pray to God every night to keep him safe and for the strength to make it through the next several months without us.

WE LOVE YOU DADDY SO MUCH!

First Birthday Party

Yesterday we celebrated Landon's 1st Birthday with a good old backyard BBQ. With daddy scheduled to be gone when Landon turns one we decided to celebrate early. We had about 15 people over and 2 kids, Evan & Matthew. Landon got a ton of presents...a lawnmower, farm toy, legos, books, and more!

I decided to let him get a whole cupcake of his own and I thought he would dig right into it...but he didn't. I don't think he really liked it all that much. He hated the icing on his fingers. He kept on flinging his hands around to get it off. It was pretty funny.

I can't believe our baby is almost one. Where did the time go??

Bush Gardens - Happy Mother's Day

On Mother's Day I woke up to wonderful sound of my baby Landon talking on the monitor. I was hoping he would say "mama". Instead I heard "dada...dada" and his monster voice. After getting Landon out of bed, Landon and Shane gave me my gifts...an apple computer & AWESOME card made by our little peanut.

We decided last minute to go to Bush Garden's with our friend Alex. It was a blast. Landon LOVED the teacups. He laughed so hard at daddy spinning the cup round and round. Landon went on the ride 2 times in a row and I think that was enough for him. We also rode on the carousel, but he did not have as much fun since the ride was slow. I am finding he is a dare devil...the faster and more daring the more he loves it.

Quick Update

My blogging about Landon has come to a pause since our personal computer crashed :( I no longer have a computer to upload photos or video.

Anyway, Landon is almost 1 and it is so hard to believe. On Saturday (5/1) he took his first steps. We were at a BBQ and he let go of one of our friends and took 4 steps to come see me. Shane and I could not believe it. He looked like he had been walking for months.

Landon is also crawling to the door in the afternoon when he hears it open to see if it's his daddy. He starts saying "dada dada"...It breaks my heart because pretty soon dada will be gone for months on deployment and he won't see he dada walk through the door.

It's starting to get real now that Shane is leaving in about 2 weeks. I hope I can handle the housework, my job, being a great mom, and all the day to day stuff by myself. I pray this deployment will be safe for him. I know we will get through everything together even though we are separated.

WE LOVE YOU DADDY!

Family Vacation

We took our first family vacation last week, Feb 25 - March 6, 2010, to San Francisco and Napa, CA. It was wonderful...probably the best vacation. It was so great to get away with Shane and Landon to spend quality time.

The first 2 days we were in San Francisco and we stayed in Union Square, the shopping mecca. We rode on the Trolley car, went to Alcatraz, fisherman's Wharf, and walked a ton around the city.

After 2 days in the city we drove to Muir Woods (redwood forest) and then on to Napa, CA. We spent 3 days in beautiful wine country. We stayed at a Bed and Breakfast right in Napa, but I recommend staying in Yountville which is right by Napa...more "wine country feeling". We did an all day bike tour through the country side and visited 4 different wineries. It was BEAUTIFUL. The next day we went to more wineries of course, Cakebread, Ehlers Estate, Frog's Leap, and Minor Family. As expected the day after we went to more wineries...but just one, Quintessa. Then we made our way back to San Francisco for 2 more days.

Back in San Francisco we went to Golden Gate Park, The Academy of Science Museum and spent the majority of time at our hotel, The Ritz Carlton, enjoying the pool, spa, and etc. It was nice to spend those last couple of days relaxing after a busy week.

Peanut by the way, did awesome on the plane. Did not cry or make any kind of sound at all. I think he enjoys flying just like his daddy!

All Dressed Up

Landon's first Tent...Well Sort of

We started taking Landon to a kids gym in Ghent Norfolk called Tumbles. At Tumbles they have these tunnels kids can crawl through and Landon is absolutely in LOVE with crawling halfway through the tunnel, stopping and playing. I thought...hmmm... I can do this at home, only at home I'll make a tent out of a blanket and use the living room furniture to hold up the blanket. I knew he was going to love it. So, two nights ago we tried it out and as I imaged...Landon had so much fun playing inside his little tent. He would crawl under it, then stop to play and then crawl back out. He played for maybe a good 20 minutes, which for baby time is 2 hours. LOL. It was the best. Grandma & Grandpa if you are reading this, Landon would love a real tent for his birthday...or sooner.

Our baby is Mobile

Landon finally started to crawl at 7 1/2 months!! I was upstairs in my office working after the nanny left for the day, I looked over at Landon playing in the hallway and there he was just crawling around. I can't believe how in a split second it clicks with them and they are off. He has been crawling like crazy ever since that Friday afternoon. I now see from Landon's pants how dirty our hardwood floors are...guess I need to start cleaning more often.

White Trash baby

Every parents needs photos of their baby playing in just their diaper. Notice how happy daddy is...He loves it when I take photos in the morning.

Slumber Party in My Crib

Landon finally learned how to sit up in his crib and he thinks it's the most fun to do at 2 am. After he sits up in bed, he would cry for us to come in and lay him back down. We were doing this like 5 times a night for about 3 days. Finally, on one Saturday morning I wanted to get some sleep so I made us a bed on the floor in his room and had a slumber party. He LOVED it. These are the moments I will cherish forever.

Landon's new playroom

I love wrapping paper!!!

Landon's first Christmas was filled with lots of toys and even more traveling. In a whirlwind of a week we drove home, attended 7 different family events, drove back to Norfolk. Peanut was great the entire time in the car, thanks to the greatest invention since sliced bread....our portable DVD player. With one DVD of Dora the Explorer we successfully made it 30 hours in the car with minimal crying and as a bonus mommy and daddy can recite two full episodes from memory. Here are a few of our favorite pictures from the week.

Monster!

I finally got on video Landon's monster voice. It's hysterical! Oh our baby boy is already turning into a monster.