Just a few updates

       Well we are all just hanging out here in Ft Sill. Mostly we've been keeping busy with the little man running from here to who knows and then back again. Since most mornings we go to another building at the hotel for breakfast, Eric has started running towards "breakfast" when we go outside. We definitely have to keep our eyes on him when we go out!! Eric is getting excited to meet his little sister and will come snuggle with Samantha (not mom) when he's getting ready to take his naps. It's adorable! If I tell him it's snuggle time he grabs his blanket and a book and then comes and lays his head on Samantha. After listening to her and a few pages of the book he starts "kissing" her, which quickly turns into head-butting... At which point we usually finish reading the book and then he takes his nap.

      Other then that Matt and I are pretty boring. Matt has had a lot more homework lately, most of is entails going out and buying this that or the next thing for his classes. Other then that Matt has been keeping busy helping me at nights with the little man so that I can make dinner or whatever else needs my attention. Sometimes it just means giving me a chance to have some alone time not spent sleeping.

       As for me and Samantha, we've been keeping busy with contractions, dropping and getting ready to meet this little princess. I've been so grateful that Matt has a friend here that we both trust and is willing to take Eric when I go into labor. We also found out that since we aren't going anywhere for Christmas Matt will still have to report for most of the days that we were originally told we'd have off. But that also has turned into a blessing in disguise as it means that Matt will have leave saved up and will be able to take 10 days of paternal leave when Samantha decides to join our little family. All in all life here has been interesting, thankfully now that means in a good way :)
 
     Other then that we've been looking forward to Christmas, I'll take some pictures of our tree and what few decorations we have up. Matt and I made our tree out of felt and have it up in the living room stuck to the wall. We also cut out ornaments out of felt that Eric can play with as he wishes and I don't have to worry about him hurting himself or breaking anything. Eventually I will decorate the ornaments more, but for now they are plain. I would love to decorate some of them now, but the 2 that I did add some decorations to Eric promptly removed them. So we will wait until he's a little older and understands better to not pull them apart.

     That's really all the news there is for now... If anything exciting happens you'll be the first to know!!

Super Sloooooooooooooooow Internet

       Well I'm trying to finish catching up on all the pictures we took on our way to Fort Sill. Unfortunately the internet connection here is soooooo incredibly slow (we're talking 1.5 Mbps slow) that it takes forever to get anything to upload, and videos are out of the question :( So for now I will slowly keep trying to post pictures of what we've done and will do. But for the time being I'm so frustrated with the connection that I'm just going to go work on Samantha's blanket and start designing the sleeves for her blessing dress.

Playing Catch up with Pictures - Eric's Sweater

       This is one of the many knitting projects that I've been able to finish since coming to Fort Sill. Sadly the camera died before I was able to get a good picture of Eric in his new sweater. But he's still adorable all snuggled up with Dad on the couch :) Next time he wears it (assuming he ever needs to again...) I will try to get a better picture of what the sweater looks like. 

Playing Catch Up with Pictures! - Exploration Center Wichita, KS

       We originally went to the Exploration Center in Wichita, KS because their site said that they had a Star Wars Exhibit. Unfortunately, they don't update their site very much, because it was taken down as soon as school started. They did however have an Arcade Game exhibit. They had one of the first games ever made for an Arcade as well as some of the newer ones. Eric liked the driving ones the best and Matt had fun just walking and trying to play some of the REALLY old ones :)

Medieval Exhibit 

Toddler's Exploration Room

Aviation Exhibit

       They had several other exhibits including a farm exhibit, brain teasers exhibit and some more that I can't remember... Eric had a lot of fun running around and just being a kid. And since this was meant to be a place for kids I didn't feel too bad letting him just run and have fun.

Playing Catch Up with Pictures! - Eric Driving

     The night before we left for OK. Eric was helping Daddy pack :) 

Playing Catch Up with Pictures! - Painting in the Tub

      These were taken before we left for OK. I was having a hard day and needed Eric to just be happy and busy all by himself so I could just sit and rest for a while. So I took some shaving cream, added some food coloring and we ended up with some bath paints just for Eric :) And as you can see, he had a lot of fun! 

Saturdays :)

       Well life has actually settled!! (as much as living on base can!!) I finally got a hold of someone in the ped's department to give me a real answer. Sadly the answer was not what I wanted to hear, however it was an answer and I finally know what to do. So when I go in for my next dr's appt I will take care of getting Eric's set up at the same time. Hopefully I'll be able to do it sooner then that, but it all just depends on what happens with Matt's trainings in the mornings.

       As far as everything else goes, Matt and I have been enjoying have Saturdays 100% to ourselves and being able to just do what we want to do as a family. Last Saturday we went to the mall and got Eric and Samantha semi-winter jackets and mostly just tried to relax as a family and just be together. It was so nice!!

      This week we were a little more adventurous. We started out the morning with a trip to the Lawton Craft show and found some cute flowers/headband for Samantha. I can proudly say that I walked out of there only spending $3.52 even though there was a lot more that I wanted to take home with me!! Matt got out with only spending $3.00 on homemade Root Beer. After that we came home and let Eric take a much needed nap before going down to Wichita Falls, TX to go to the Parade of Lights. It was very interesting and a lot of fun actually. We started out just walking around the different vendors (there were about 15 total, and of those 14 were food). Had a hodge-podge dinner of a corn dog, curly fries, funnel cake, kettle corn, Mexican soda and tacos. I have to say the tacos and corn dog were my favorite. They had a mini petting zoo, they called it Zoo2You. It was actually really interesting. They had a mini Zebu Cow that was surprisingly really cute! It was $5 to get in, so we didn't go into the area with the animals but the man in charge gave me a baby giant some-thing-or-other rabbit to hold so Eric could pet him, he was SOO soft!!! It was adorable to watch!! Eric got all giggly and was just so happy to see the animals and to touch the rabbit! Once Eric was done with the rabbit I let a few of the other kids waiting to go in to pet the rabbit before I gave it back to the man in charge. They had a wallaby, mini-hog, 2 deer, 3 miniature goats, the miniature cow and about 5-6 baby rabbits.   The parade started once it got dark and almost all of the cars/trucks that were in the parade had Christmas lights either wrapped on them or around them in someway. They had a couple of the local schools play in the parade and the local football team. We ended up leaving before the parade ended to get Eric home for bed. 

The Adventure Continues...

       Well we got to Fort Sill on the 31st and things have only gotten more exciting since.

       The first hurtle was actually getting our room. When we got here we were told that our room wasn't ready and would be ready on the 1st. So we got a room for the night and then between the time we were going to be room-less I was able to find the hospital where I will most likely be delivering our little princess. While there, in true Army fashion, I got the run around until someone finally knew what I was supposed to be doing. Once that was done I got about 10 pages of forms to fill out and then I could schedule an appt for my first visit here. After that we got a call from the hotel telling us that our room wasn't going to be ready until the next day and to go back to the room we were originally put in. At this point I was SOOO over packing and unpacking. So I didn't even bother unpacking anything, waited until I was out of control tired and called down to the main desk to see if we could just stay in this room and not have to pack and move rooms yet again... Thankfully because we were down sizing from a 2 bedroom to a 1 bedroom they let us just stay! I was so glad to finally know where we were going to be for the next few months (at least until Feb, at which point we will have to re-reserve the room until April). So then came the unpacking and figuring out what all we needed.

       The second hurtle was trying to figure out what was going on with Matt's class. We found out the day that he reported that his class had started a few days earlier, but that they had failed to let Matt know about the change. Thankfully he hadn't missed anything important and was able to get all caught up quickly.

       The third hurtle is a sick little boy. It started Friday night. He was restless and grumpy but thankfully was able to sleep pretty okay. Saturday he started sounding a little horse but not too terrible, by Saturday afternoon I was starting to get worried when he stopped eating/drinking like he normally does. Saturday night was an adventure, Eric and I spent most of the night on the couch. Him sorta sleeping on my chest and me just listening to his breathing getting worse. Sunday we went to Sacrament meeting and to try and find someone we could call or ask for help with giving Eric a blessing. We ended up finding out that 2 of Matt's friends from ROTC are here and in the ward that we attended. So we are opting to stay in that ward were we have at least a few people that Matt knows and that I will get to know better. Thankfully Sunday he didn't get too much worse and we were able to get Eric a blessing. We did end up making a trip to the Er on Sunday just to try and find out what we were supposed to do about getting him a dr's appt. So Monday morning I called and was told that Eric wasn't in the "system and couldn't be seen by a dr." So frustrated out of my mind and getting more worried about my son who refused to eat and wasn't acting at all like my son, I called Matt, got the car and took Eric to the ER. We got there at about 1240, waited until 1450 to even see a Dr. Finally got someone in to listen to his lungs and let us know what was going on and then spent until 1715 waiting for nurses to give shots, RT to give a breathing treatment, Radiology to do a chest X-ray and then the Dr to give us the Rx's we needed to start getting Eric better. After all that, we spent the rest of the night picking up Matt, getting the Rx's filled and trying to find out where to get a nebulizer (which we still don't totally know), going to the store to get food for the week and then home to sorta relax.

     The forth hurtle is trying to figure out how in the world to get Matt's Id card and DEERS all set up so that we can start getting everything else figured out. And that's currently where we are. So Matt is sitting up at the welcome center waiting to see someone who will hopefully give us an answer... And hopefully it'll be sooner rather then later so he's not missing a full day of classes. But my little prince is calling and is in desperate need of a shower and some book time.

       Hopefully now that things are actually starting to settle down some I will be able to post all the pictures that we've taken. Some will be good, others will be from my phone so who knows how they will turn out...