From the prairies to the mountains...

That was our weekend. AJ got a 4 day weekend, so we decided to make the drive to Colorado Springs to visit his grandparents. The drive is about 8-9 hours from Altus. Josh was really good on the drive, and we played peek-a-boo and some other silly Josh games.

Josh really bonded with his Great-Grandpa. They read together, played together, and sang together. They also played trains together.
Aunt Laurel got to come over for dinner one night, and Josh showed her his "Melmo".
One of Josh's favorite things to do was to pull Great-Grandpa over to the stairs, and play with some toys there together.
He also LOVED Great-Grandpa's train set. Grandpa sent one home with us for Josh, and we'll set it up sometime when he gets a little older. Grandpa's set is HUGE and very complex. Very cool...
We also got a chance to visit with our friends, the Guerins while we were there. They live up the mountains in Monument. Josh and Mr. Emile really bonded...they played cars, planes, and Mr. Emile taught Josh to do "Ta-da" with the arms out and the head tilt and foot stomp. I'll try to get it on video and upload it at some point.
He also really enjoyed playing with Mrs. Judy. She told us that Josh's measurement (height) when he turns two, when doubled, should indicate his height when he's full grown. So she tried to measure him with a measuring tape...then I tried to measure him...then Mr. Emile tried to measure him. Finally we settled on around 35" or so. Which means he'll be around 5'10" if he doesn't grow before his birthday in about a month. We'll see. He also really enjoyed pulling the tape out while Judy held the box and he would let it go and it would snap back in. He did this for a looong time!
By the way, we don't just take him out in public with no pants, but he had a messy diaper that leaked through his pants, so we had to take them off.
Josh and Grandpa on the stairs again...I told you it was one of his favorite things!
He also asked to play in Grandpa's truck in the garage. Grandpa taught him how to put the key in, turn the lights on, and everything! So fun!
Family picture on the stairs in Grandma and Grandpa's house. We have one similar to this of just AJ and me before we got married.
All of us.
Josh likes to show his binkies off. See Mom??

Welcome, Alexander William Lau!!

Alex was born via planned C-section at 0824 CET (Germany's time zone) at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, on Monday the 21 of July. He weighed in at 7lbs, 2.2 oz. and was 20 3/4 inches long.


Mom...Dad...
and Big Brother Brennan are SO excited he's finally here (so am I!)!

Brennan is, of course, still adjusting to the realization that Alex isn't just another name for belly, but so far has been very gentle with his brother.

Shannon and Alex came home from the hospital today and are doing well so far. Shannon's parents are able to be there and help out for a couple of weeks...yay for grandparents!!

I'll just leave you with a couple of my favorite pics.


**Just a little note of explanation on this one: I actually got this onesie for Brennan, and Shannon had gotten so many clothes, this one got misplaced. So when she was going thru Brennan's old stuff for Alex, she found it and put it aside. Apparently it has already come in handy, since one of the nurses thought he was a girl because of all his long pretty hair. (In case you can't read it, it says "Before you ask, I'm a boy.") So yay for a successful gift!**

Congratulations, Shannon, Vinnie, and Brennan!

And welcome, Baby Alex!

Hey there...

So it's been awhile, but we've been busy doing nothing exciting.

We're attempting to get everything ready to close on our house. While we're doing this (long distance, of course!), AJ has done his first simulator checkride, and did fine on it, and has also started his next grad school course, so he has a FULL plate! He's doing pretty well, and we go to the pool every other day or so, which seems to help him relax some. And there's not a lot I can do, other than try to keep the house clean. I say try, because our summer dollar store dishes can't go in the dishwasher, and we have so few of the items that can go in the dishwasher that I end up needing them before we run it, so I just wash all the dishes by hand. This means that I usually end up washing dishes at least 3-4 times a day...and it's never just a couple of plates, it's an entire sinkful...how does that happen???

And then there's our lovely son, who feels the need to dump not just some, but pretty much ALL his toys out not just daily, but at least 3 times a day. Which means we clean them up that many times, b/c otherwise in our tiny living room there's just no place to walk. All in all, I've got the easy end of it, but also the BORING end! I can't wait to have stuff to do again! Places to go and explore, and unpack and decorate and organize and all that fun stuff! Basically, I'm tired of limbo!

OK, so I've also got a few pix to post.
OK, normally I'm not one for random cloud pictures, but when I was driving back to Altus from picking up Josh in Hillsboro, there were just some really pretty clouds...let's face it, there's not much else out there to look at in that part of the world. So I hope they're not too boring...

OK, so we got Josh some Cars underoos (as AJ calls them), and Josh kept begging me to let him wear them. So I told him he would have to go peepee in the potty and let him wear them.
Cute, huh? What I didn't know while taking these pics was that he went over onto the lino to pee...after me asking about every 45 seconds if he wanted to go sit on the potty. Aggravating...

We stopped at a McDonald's in Hillsboro (when I picked Josh up from my Mom) and they had a playground in part of it...it was really cool, but this was as far as Josh could get. The next step upward was too tall for him to climb up. But he had fun playing and making faces and banging on the plastic window on the second step.
Josh level toys
So cute! I really missed him, but he didn't really seem too bothered by the week away from me and 2.5 weeks away from Daddy.
He was TOTALLY excited about the "Melmo" that I found at the KB Toys outlet in Hillsboro. He sleeps with him most nights and kisses and hugs him goodnight, and when he doesn't sleep in Josh's bed, Melmo has his own bucket "bed" that he sleeps in. He also likes to feed Melmo and give him juice from his sippy. So cute! Basically Melmo is his baby!
Sleepy Josh

OUR HOUSE!

OK, so per everyone's requests, here are pix of our house...it's not really ours yet, but we did come to an agreement on terms for it, and after we finish the paperwork, we can close on it, hopefully in August sometime. YAY!
It's in North Charleston, in a neighborhood called Whitehall. It's a nice established area, with lots and lots of trees. There's a pool/park/tennis courts in the neighborhood, and looks like lots of kids and stuff. We're totally excited to live there!

OK, I'll walk you thru the house with the pix as much as I can...try to keep up!
Outside of the house...big driveway, double garage, and half porch. There are steps leading to the front door, which I'm not thrilled about, but it's ok...only a couple of them.
As you walk into the house, the foyer is wood floors, and is two stoies high. You look up into the upstairs hallway/loft where all the bedrooms are.
To the left as you walk in the front is a formal living room, which we'll probably use as a study/library type room, since we just don't have a lot of extra furniture. Plus our big bookshelf will look really good in the front...it's my favorite piece of furniture we own, and it's very striking. Anyway...
The front room arches into a formal dining room, which I'm not sure we'll use as one...we'll have to see how we like it.
That room leads into the kitchen, which is nice and BIG! Please don't look too closely at the picture, since our agent is making a really unflattering face in it...Sorry Patty!
There is a built in microwave and a smooth top range. There's a dishwasher, but we'll have to buy a refrigerator, so if anyone has any input on what type of fridge to get, please leave your comments!
I LOVE how the counter comes around a little so the sink overlooks both a window to the backyard and the family room. It means when I'm washing dishes/food/chopping stuff I can keep an eye on Josh if he's playing in those places. It also has a nice size pantry, which is great.
This is the great room. The wood floors run straight from the front door to the back of the house and into the kitchen and great room, and I really lilke them, even though I said I hated them in our house in Germany. I mostly hated the tiled great room, not the wood. And it gives us a place to show off our fancy Turkish rugs. The family room also has a gas fireplace, which runs off an above ground propane tank behind the fence. We had never heard of this, and thought it was kind of weird, but not really in a negative way.
This is the screened in porch, which is right off the eat in kitchen area, between the kitchen and the family room. It has a fan and is finished, although we kind of hate the horrible carpet in it, so we're hoping to replace it with either tile or flagstone someday.
Here is the side of the porch...you can see how nice the yard looks....just redone and it looks awesome! Lots of shade, but enough sun (we hope) to keep the grass growing.
The entrance to the garage is in the little hallway that leads from the foyer to the kitchen/family room area.
Across from the garage is a nice sized laundry room...
And a half bath.
Up the stairs, the first bedroom on the right is this one. The walls are actually kind of a light greyish blue color, but the look lavender with the purple drapes. Just so you know we don't automatically have to repaint the room immediately if Josh decides he wants to live in this room vs. the other front bedroom.
In between that room and the other "kid" room is the hall bath, which is a decent size.
This is the other bedroom that could be Josh's, should he so choose. The other one we will probably use as a guest bedroom for now. And no, the airplane didn't really play into the decision to buy this house!
This room is next to the airplane room, and is the fourth bedroom. It's connected to the master suite with a double door, and right now is done as a study, but we think it would be perfect as a nursery...hopefully, someday...
This is a picture of the backyard from the top floor...so pretty.
Here's the master bedroom. Nice sized...
And if you look at the top left of the pic, there's a cute little shelf to put our nicknacks on.
This is the master bath...a little smaller and not as updated as some we saw, but it's not a huge issue for us, and we can redo it at some point if we need to.
I do like that the toilet is on the opposite side from the tub and shower.

And next to the bathroom is the master closet, which is pretty big...yay! But I kind of hate that kind of rod to hang things on, b/c they don't slide...harder to get the hangers on and off, so we may play with putting in a real rod, instead. But I love the size! Notice the flight suits here...the people who just moved out were a pilot and his family, too. They were renting, but the owner is also a pilot...man...so many of them...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaghhhhhhhhh! Just kidding...mostly...

So that's our house. I wish I had a picture of the two story foyer, since that's one of my favorite things about this house, but I don't. Oh well. When we get our stuff all moved in and unpacked I'll post more pix. Hope you all enjoyed this little tour.