Our New Home (We Made it to Virginia!)

Way back in April, we found out we would be moving to Langley AFB in Hampton, VA upon Dan's graduation from F-22 Raptor B Course in August. We were thrilled! It was our number one choice, and I will say, now that we've been here for a couple months, we are SO happy.

There's a lot to do here with and without kids, unlike our last base, and we have been having fun checking out many of the fun things to do. Annabelle is settled into a new preschool that came highly recommended, and Josephine is settling into her new routine as a one year old (more to come on that soon!).

We bought our house, and it's been fun putting effort into decorating it this time around since we know we will be here for three years instead of just one! It feels like an eternity, and I am so glad! We have been married for 4.5 years and have moved across the country FOUR times already! We moved from Colorado to Ohio... Ohio to Texas... Texas to Florida... and now Florida to Virginia! We are SO ready to stay put and lay down some real roots here.

2016: A Year in Review

This is one of those posts that probably won't interest too many of you, especially as I've blogged (not too well this year!) about many of these topics already... but this is more of a post for the books. For my memory. For my family... and especially for my daughter. 

Regardless, 2016 was good to us! It was less life-changing than 2015 was, but it did bring along a cross-country move and home-ownership for the first time. Each month was filled with many different events, and I want to remember as much as possible.

In January, we took our first family vacation to Niagara Falls, Canada (with a stop at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio on the way) when Annabelle was four months old. 

In February, we had lots of visitors to our home in Ohio - my mom, followed by Lydia, followed by Michelle! 

March brought Annabelle's half birthday, Dan graduating with his Master's in Applied Physics from AFIT, and saying goodbye to good friends in Ohio before moving to Texas. 

We stopped in Missouri to see family for Easter on our cross-country drive and got settled in Texas in April. Annabelle went to her first air show and (kind of) enjoyed it. 

We traveled to Oregon, Washington, Colorado, and New Mexico in May, and Annabelle got to go on her first six flights, including one Space A flight on a C-17. We visited family and friends on that trip and even took Annabelle to our favorite places from our years in Colorado Springs. At the end of the month, Dan and I celebrated two years of marriage. Exciting! 

In June, Dan promoted to 1st Lieutenant and started pilot training at ENJJPT, signifying the real beginning of our life in Texas. 

July was hot, and we spent a lot of time walking around our neighborhood in the mornings before it was unbearable. 

August was spent with a trip to Branson for a wedding and a trip to Kansas City for a bridal shower and bachelorette party. Dan flew his Dollar Ride in the T-6, and Annabelle and I went to the airfield to watch Dan fly his first solo in the T-6 - how fun! 

September brought our sweet and sassy Annabelle's first birthday, which was a blast, and a family trip to Dallas to take her to the zoo for the first time. That month ended with a trip to Kansas City so I could stand by one of my best friend's side as she became a wife, and then Annabelle and I visited another best friend in St. Louis so we could meet Baby Huxley! I also finished my exclusively pumping journey, which was a long but well worth it year-long extravaganza for me. 

In October, Annabelle and I returned from our road trip, and we celebrated her second Halloween by taking her to a Trunk-or-Treat event on base. 

November was busy with Dan flying long hours, hosting a giant Thanksgiving dinner, and just living life. 

December brought about Dan completing his training in the T-6 and traveling to Missouri for Christmas and New Years! 

What a wonderful year we had as a family. Here's to 2017 - hopefully it will be even better!

Hello, Texas!

Well, we made it to Texas! We are moved in to our new home, and we love it!

We've been taking our time unpacking boxes, figuring out where we want things to go (isn't that always the worst when you have a new layout in your home and certain things just don't seem to fit anywhere?!), and getting settled in.

We've checked out some local stores and the base, and it seems like we're really going to enjoy our time here.

Lieutenant Lovemuffin doesn't start pilot training until June, so we have a couple months to relax before the full-blow CRAZY begins... and I'm okay with that.

I'll be going back through everyone's blog posts from the past week and a half and going on a commenting spree to play catch up... so I apologize in advance about that! ;-)

Do you enjoy moving in to a new home?

We're Homeowners!

Dan and I have been keeping some pretty big news a secret lately! It's not that we didn't want to share... the timing just didn't seem right quite yet. But now that we know we are closing in less than two weeks, we are finally sharing...

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!

That's right! We are so tired of renting. We were going to live on base when we moved to Sheppard Air Force Base this spring because of Dan's pilot training schedule (crazy hours and whatnot), but they only allow two pets in base housing, and we have three.

That made us mad and started the thought process: what if we bought?! It seemed silly at first since it's another 18-24 month assignment, but we know that lots of military members come through that base, so we decided that if we could find a home to buy, we would do a little work to get it up to date, and then we can rent it out after we leave!

We wanted a four bed / two bath home so we can have guests over and have an office for Dan to study in. We ended up only finding three bed / two bath homes in our price range, but this house has a hidden gem: an office off the kitchen! It's not huge, but it'll be plenty of space for Dan to study for his flights. 

I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking... and yes, we plan on painting all of the bedrooms! We actually plan on having them painted before we even get there. We have picked out paint for Annabelle's room (a neutral light gray - Polar Star, to be exact), and we're working on picking the color for the master bedroom and guest bedroom. 

Proof that it snows in Texas! I'm so glad! I really want Annabelle to experience snow next year. She loved it this winter in Ohio, but she was too young to really DO anything other than look at it... so PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make this picture come true next winter! 

Do you own a home?