Breakfast with the Easter Bunny (and an egg hunt)

Last weekend we had our first Easter celebration, breakfast with the Easter Bunny! Gabriella had seen the bunny at the mall and REALLY wanted to get her picture taken with him. I delayed her knowing we were all set to go to breakfast (we didn't inform her ahead of time in fear of the 4am wakeup ready to go).

So we went, had breakfast, saw the Easter Bunny, had Gabriella's face painted, and did some bowling. It was a busy morning! Here are some pictures of our fun morning!
After our breakfast we headed home for a little break. Then it was back to base for an Easter egg hunt! We had never been but were told to get there early. So there we were, 30 minutes early, and it was COLD outside. So we headed back to the car and found any layers that happened to be hiding in there. We headed out of the car and back into the chaos of people waiting.

Right before the gates were opened we were informed that there were 10,000 eggs on the field so everyone would get plenty. As soon as the gate opened we rushed into the section for Gabriella's age and she went to it! She had a great time! After her basket was full (and the eggs were gone) we headed back to the car. I happened to look at the clock and realize that it had been less than 10 minutes and EVERY egg was gone! How crazy is that? We were glad to be making even more memories with our sweet girl.

We hope everyone else is enjoying their celebrations this spring season!

So this is what we've been up..

Meet our new baby boy! I'm 20 weeks pregnant so we've hit the halfway point. We had an ultrasound on Wednesday and confirmed it was a baby boy. Gabriella's been telling us this since we told her there was a baby coming, but it was nice to have a confirmation. He looks good although we need to get another ultrasound done due to him being a lazy little guy (the tech couldn't get any pictures of his face).
I had some issues in the beginning of the pregnancy, then we moved (just a couple of streets over), and now we've just been busy with every day things. This is the reason for the lack of updates. Ricky is finally on shore duty. We've got about 3 years of him being home and we're loving every minute of it!


Spring is on it's way, or so we hope. I can not WAIT to be able to spend time outside with Gabriella. She's right in that terrible two phase, and to think we only have 2 months until she'll go straight into the terrible? three phase. We'll see how that works out.

Tomorrow we're going to breakfast with the Easter Bunny on base so hopefully we'll have a few pictures to share! For now here's a picture from Wednesday. Gabby was torn between being in the picture and going out to the garage to ride her tricycle.

First snow of the year!

On Sunday we had the first snow of the year! Gabriella's been waiting for this with her snow boots, pants, hat and mittens, etc. When we woke her up we let her look out the window. It took a minute for her to realize what it was (lazybum wakes up slowly) but then she was SO excited. She did think it was Christmas (that took some explaining) but was just as happy to go out and play. We had plans for Gabriella to go to a friends house so Ricky and I could do some Christmas shopping. That meant the outside play had to be fast so we could all get dressed. We decided wearing jammies with her boots and coat were warm enough.


Later in the day we decided to make our Rice Krispy house. We found it at a craft store last week and it seemed right up our alley. We try gingerbread houses every year and they don't work so well (or Gabriella starts eating everything right away). We had fun and we each were able to make a house.


One last picture for this morning. Gabriella LOVES houses decorated for Christmas and here's ours. We just added the snowman pathmarkers last night (sorry it's blurry, I was cold and shook the camera).

Christmas festivities continue!

We've been very busy the past few days. On Friday we went to the base tree lighting. It was very cold but we dressed in all of our winter clothing and had a great time! Here are some pictures:




Ricky may have scared some kids, but he sure was warm! That's what he wears when he's at work and cold. It worked well that night too.

The next morning we had Breakfast With Santa on base. The morning started out rough. Our alarm didn't go off (as Ricky said, good thing I have insomnia and wake up too early), we got stuck at the red light by our house, realized we had forgotten the tickets (came back and got them since the light was STILL red), and then I got stopped driving on base. Ricky had JUST said to me to be careful of my speed when the cop stopped me. It wasn't for speeding though, but apparently for following a car too closely. The cop asked me if I was in a hurry to get somewhere and I said yes, to breakfast with Santa. He had to hold back his laughter as he looked in the car at Gabriella. I can guarantee I gave that cop an amusing morning. He just gave me my things back and told me to have a good morning.

Anyways, here are a bunch of pictures! Our friends Lesa and Kylie were there too. We were able to see Santa, go bowling, decorate gingerbread cookies. We had a great time!




We are enjoying our holiday season and we hope all of our friends and families are too!

Santa Claus is walking to the town!

That's what Gabriella says. She's in LOVE with Christmas, the lights, the decorations, and of course SANTA! We were so excited to take her to see Santa. It was actually two visits in one day. Gabriella and I went to the mall with some friends and stopped at Santa just to wave and say hello. We wanted to wait until the Daddies were with us to get our pictures done. Well Santa suggested that the girls just go and say hi while they were there. Gabriella ran underneath a rope blocking the exit and jumped into his lap! I was shocked but thrilled :)

Ricky happened to get home from work early that day. Gabriella told Daddy all about Santa and we decided to go back while she was still excited. Here are some pictures we got that day:

So very thankful..

I know I've been slacking on the blog. I apologize. Life's been hectic, in good ways and not so good ways but we're hanging in there.


We had a very Happy Thanksgiving yesterday and we hope our friends and family did as well. It hasn't been the easiest year and I'm glad that we were able to relax and have a wonderful family day. At lunch we decided to say what we were thankful for, Gabriella did as well. I'm hoping it'll become a tradition.

• I am so very thankful for Ricky and Gabriella. Family means the world to me and they are wonderful. I don't know what I would do without them.
• I'm thankful for my extended family as well. It was the first time in a few years that we weren't able to join even part of them at my parents house and that was sad. But we used our web cams and were able to say hello to everyone and wish them a Happy Thanksgiving! Gabriella thought that was pretty cool.
• I'm thankful for my friends. I don't have many close ones, but the ones I do have help get me through the hard times.
• I'm thankful that in a little over a month Ricky goes to shore duty. I'm so excited for 3 years of Ricky being at home. It's been a long run so far and I think we earned this break.
  

I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving! Here are a few pictures of Gabriella to update you all :)

Here is our family on Halloween. We had a great time with our friends even though I was sick with a fever (what's new is my attitude about that. One of us always sick on a holiday).


Gabriella on Thanksgiving. I don't know where she found the shower cap. It's from a hotel visit (Nana and Gaga maybe?). She thought it was pretty cool though.



Gabriella and Daddy watching Charlotte's Web yesterday. I was finishing up the dishes and found them like this. They are the loves of my life!



Our Christmas tree (and our beautiful Gabriella). It's been up for a few weeks now. Gabby and Daddy got so excited they decided it had to go up! I couldn't argue with their excitement.

It's been awhile..

It's been awhile and this isn't going to be a full blog. I apologize for that. Short version of what has been going on is that life got in the way. My dad's been sick but he's getting the help he needs and is getting better. It's been a rough month or so but our family came together in an amazing way. I have to say my daughter is amazing. During very bad times she brought a smile to all faces (or so I thought so, anyone can correct me if I'm wrong). My husband who came home and had missed a lot of things became the amazing support he always is. I'm so glad that we are SO close to shore duty. We are just over 2 months away.

We are very excited for the holidays this year. I believe the Clifton Family is going to stay in CT but that's okay. We have our wonderful new webcams and we're making use of them to see the rest of the family. Gabriella's going to be a butterfly/fairy/princess (pretty dress with wings :) ) for Halloween. Nana made the costume and it is adorable! Take a look:

I happen to think she's quite adorable, but I am biased.

I guess that's it for now, at least it's some sort of an update. I'll try to get more up to date soon.