V for Victory

Sunday, March 18, 2012

November 2011: Las Cruces!

Spending 3 weeks in Las Cruces, visiting my family and Kelly's parents was a great way to get a break. I As you can see we had lots of fun! Poor Kelly missed out. Unfortunately on my way home all my luggage and wallet were stolen out of Kimball's car. I lost so many clothes, shoes, laptop, makeup, jewelry, hair products and flat iron, daphne's expensive gear, and random things. It was so tragic. Even now I still wonder where something is and then remember it was stolen. Kelly says I'll be using that excuse to buy things for years....I am grateful our insurance reimbursed us with 2/3 of the money we claimed, even if that was a lot of annoying work!

In LC at Grandpa and Grandma Hakes'. Daphne found a cat in one of my mom's model homes and needless to say we still have it.

Pushing strollers all over the house

Oh what fun on the slide. She only fell off once!

Isn't it so beautiful in fall?

Grandpa Wood treated us to see the animals at NMSU

Mom and I all dressed up to attend Dad's bank Thanksgiving party. Too bad I lost that dress and pearl necklace in a week.

Random, but cute Thanksgiving day photo of Aunt Debbie and Mom

I love this temple. I love getting to see it when we visit family.

Seeing the temple lights with the family after Thanksgiving.

October 2011: Playdates and Halloween

During October I did my best to stay busy with friends, projects, and my calling to keep my mind off of Kelly being gone. Daphne had her first nightmare after he left, which was sad. They are common now when something new happens or someone leaves. I hate thinking about what she might be dreaming. Daphne also started getting very clingy to me this month. I became very sneaky when leaving her somewhere. With Daphne walking now I began to feel a new sense of freedom. We cheered Kelly on from afar by skyping as much as his schedule allowed.

The rest of the month is explained below.

One of her first days at Mother's Morning Out

Making jam at my friend Megan's house with her little "helpers"

This girl loves to read books!

She learned how to dress up all on her own

Shopping with Ori and Sia

Reading her card from Daddy who's in Qatar

More dress up

Picking up Grandma Hakes in Olympic Park-sadly no pictures of Grandma

We were trying not to get wet but Daphne loved the fountains

Trying to fill Dad's shoes by taking Daph to Petsmart

Even though it's October, Daphne still loves putting on her swim gear

Daphne is a JSTARS for Halloween-made by mom (can't you tell?)

I am Kelly and Daphne is his jet for Halloween-aren't we his biggest fans?

But the costume didn't make it to Trunk or Treat or Halloween day

Handing out candy

Blake the cute dog and Daphne the little lion

Here's Kelly on his air desk. So handsome

Sunday, February 26, 2012

September 2011

September was a very big photo month!

First off: Daphne had her first solo photo shoot. I found this adorable ballerina outfit and knew she had to wear it. Kelly put his Nikon to some good use and we had the most active photo shoot. Some things I remember from the shoot:

1. She wouldn't sit still or smile without a huge workout on mom's part.

2. Daphne's little shoes wouldn't stay on her feet!

3. She almost completely destroyed the flowers while we asked her to “smell” them

4.In this photo she is watching me begin a run and leap right behind the camera so she will smile and look at the camera

5. But somehow they turned out and she looks adorable.

6. Even if she kept trying to do her fish face

Secondly: Before Kelly deployed again, we had an overnighter in Atlanta just the two of us! My friend Megan watched Daphne for a night while we experienced our first night away since she was born. We went to the Bodies Human exhibit. We shopped in various stores, including Ikea, for as long as we liked. We did the Temple. We ate at the Colonnade restaurant, which I recommend if you’re looking for good Southern. Unfortunately I have had so much Southern that I didn’t love it. We shopped at more stores and went swimming in the hotel pool. Well we tried, but it rained and the Jacuzzi wouldn’t get warm. The next morning we went to Olympic Park and went to the Coke museum store. It was a very nice 36 hours. (Photos at bottom)

Third: Carrie and Meese stopped by for a night. Carrie was moving to Boston and Meesa came along for the adventure. We took them to Atlanta since we had to take Meesa to the airport. Below you'll see pictures of us in Olympic Park. Carrie and I went to The Help together. I loved that book and the movie was pretty awesome too.

Fourth: Kely left for Doha, Qatar. But before he left we got insome lunch dates and Monkey Joe’s with Daphne. We were sad to see him leave, of course. We are grateful for Skype. Last deployment we were unable to use Skype so this was a huge treat. He flew on the JSTARS, which do recon missions over Iraq and Afghanistan. He said there wasn’t a whole lot of activity on those 15 hour flights. I guess that’s good! Deployment is a lonely boring time when you’re not flying. From the pictures he sent, it looks hot and white. (photos at bottom)

Meanwhile, to pass the time I visited Bear in Boston for conference weekend. After a crazy first night with Daphne in the apartment with noisy roommates, I was almost ready to go home. But, we checked into a hotel room and enjoyed the last 2 nights in the beautiful city of Boston. It’s very alive and exciting. Not exactly a place to visit with toddlers! But, I loved seeing Bear’s life.

BCM with Bear

Love this one!

The big event is Daphne learned to walk!! She took her first steps the few days before Kelly left, but really starting walking every where the day he left! Figures...

My tomato plant attracted an ugly big caterpillar who ate all the leaves because I thought he was too cool to remove until Kelly saw it. Unfortunately by then the plant was bare!