Pete's 32nd B-Day!

We had a fun-filled weekend for Pete's birthday. Pete was able to take the motorcycle safety course on post and had a good time with a lot of his WOC class buddies hanging out and riding motorcycles!

Here at home, we had cupcakes to decorate and as requested homemade chicken wings plus beer for a snack! Here are some pics.

Decorating the cupcakes:








The finished product of lemon cupcakes with lemon frosting...YUM!




On his actual birthday Pres and I blew up balloons for him to come home to! We hung some at the mailbox and the rest were waiting inside. These were such a big hit-not only with Pete but with Pres as well. He had a blast playing in them!







My chicken wings turned out great and I found a new sauce to make that Pete loved. Here they are along with the funniest shot of Pete eating them! I'll call this eating shot a little birthday hazing (sorry babe...I couldn't resist!).




Ashlyn and I were there-I promise! I was in charge of the pictures and the food so not much time to pose in front of the camera. Here's a somewhat fuzzy bathroom pic of the growing belly taken on Pete's birthday.

Doc update

Today I went to the OB here in Enterprise, AL for the first time. He came highly recommended from just about any woman I had talked with as well as the pastor at our new church. He was nice and his office was nice as well. He didn't have my medical records yet so we'll have to go into more specifics after he gets them. I will say that after talking with him, I am really torn. I'm sure he is a good doctor, but he in NO way comes close to the caliber of care I was receiving in Florida. Frankly if he stepped foot into either one of the doc offices that I have in Orlando I'm sure he would feel extremely inadequate.

I left his office not really knowing what to do. Pete and I are going to go ahead and do the hospital tour in the area. If the hospital and the nursing staff instill some confidence, then we will go ahead and do the delivery here. After all, the nurses really end up the ones being there for you in the long run. If not, I'm sticking with what I know and will head to Florida to give birth. We'll keep you all updated. It's hard to make these decisions when I am feeling a bit hormonal and therefore am extremely judgemental on everything about this small southern town.

As far as the Ashlyn goes, her heartbeat was very strong! That's what we want to hear with the medication I am on. It is not having any effect on her at all!!!!

Next up...the local cardiologist. Yikes! I have my doubts about a specialist in a small town (see the judgemental thing again) but hopefully I will be proven wrong!

I am an Occifer now!!

Well after 5 weeks of school with 2 weeks of Christmas exodus in the middle, I have finally graduated Warrant Officer Candidate School and I am now a WO1. The school taught me a lot about the ins and outs of the Army, and brought some new perspectives about leadership and my career. The days were long and planned out from 5:25am to 11:00pm, but it all came to an end soon. I had a great class of 53. This was the first school I didn't want to punch someone out!!! 19 of us were aviators and I will spend the next 2 years with them. I had a guy in my class named Garret that will be in my unit in Clearwater (he is in the middle of the picture, with my friend Justin on the other side).
I am currently in a hold pattern called a "bubble" for the next 6 to 8 weeks before I start flight school. In this time I have plenty to do around the house, study for the beginning of flight school, get in shape, do more with the business and start my masters degree. Oh yeah, and become a father to a beautiful little girl. This year will be very exciting for the Dean family. We will keep you all posted on everything that is going on.

We're having a...........................

GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I told Pete the news today during his promotion ceremony so now I can share with everyone. Pete, Pres and I will be welcoming Ashlyn Elizabeth Dean in less than 5 months!!!!!! Megan came and took some pictures for us of the graduation and she was able to get the exact moment I told Pete on camera. His face was priceless. I'll share more about that and the pics later on. It's been a busy week with lots of visitors and fun with our new friends. My feet are swollen and I am exhausted!

Warrant Officer School: Class Song

Today was class day with Pete for his Warrant Officer School. I had two classes with him a finance one and an Army courtesies and traditions. They were both a bit redundant and boring. I can sum them both up in a sentence each.

Finance:
Plan and spend wisely

Army Courtesy and Tradition:
Respect for yourself and others (also don't let your wife dress like a hooker!)

It was very nice to be able to just sit with Pete! I've missed him and it felt like I was back in high school trying to secretly hold my boyfriends hand without the teacher knowing!

In between the two classes they had to break for lunch and to sing their class song. This is a long standing tradition for the WOC candidates. They write and come up with music for their class song. They then have to perform it in the Chow Hall in front of everyone is this symbolic "hanging of the hat" thing. I'm not 100% clear of the whole history behind it but it basically ushers them into their senior phase of school and allows them to now have the right to talk to each other when they eat.

Here's a video of their class song. Pete is in the center section on the right hand side. You can't really see him, but it's neat to hear the song.

Good job guys and congrats on making it this far!

I found out, I found out!!!!!

This morning after having Honey Nut Cheerios for breakfast and drinking a whole 8 oz bottle of Welch's Fruit Punch, I had my ultrasound. Two things happened: 1. I had to pee the whole time and was afraid I was going to burst and 2. Baby Dean #2 was active and awake on a sugar high and spread open the legs to give us a very quick and fleeting peek at what was between them!

I haven't told Pete yet so I'm going to leave it a little guessing game for a bit longer. I will however post the picture from the ultrasound that shows what it is and you are more than welcome to guess! I had to cut a little out of the picture because the tech wrote on there what it was.

Here you go with arrows and all! Can any of you pro moms tell what it is?????

2008 in Pictures

So Megan did this great blog of their year in pictures. I loved it and decided to completely steal her idea. Here we go with our year in pictures. We've had a lot of changes this year and are looking forward to at least one big change next year!

January

January brought Pres at 6 months and crawling all over the place! It also brought in two bottom teeth...OUCH! Pete turned another year older and put his 20's well behind him by turning 31.





February

February made me another year older at 28 and was a calm month full of family fun!







March

March began our first step toward heading to Alabama. We renovated the kitchen to make it more appealing. This took a little longer than expected as it went into April, but it was well worth the effort! Pres was beginning to get into everything and his strong willed personality was coming out full force over the battle of the TV doors. Eventually we took the doors off and admitted defeat!





April

This was my best month. Pres just blossomed and was so much fun. Gramma and Grampa Blanchard visited us this month as well. We also made a lot of head way in the kitchen renovations.








May

This was my first Mother's Day with Pres and we had a great time celebrating with my mom and sister while daddy was having a boys weekend in Vegas. This was also the month that Pres discovered the fun of the toilet and I learned to pick my battles (in other words, he can play away in the toilet because I have bigger "no's" to say to him!)






June

June was a big development month for Pres. He celebrated his first b-day, began to walk which opened up a whole new world of things to make messes with. I got to see my FF gals in St. Louis for Chrissy's first baby shower and Pres and daddy were alone together for the first time. His obsession with books was also in full force and I read "Hickory Dickory Dock" and The Itsy Bitsy Spider" more times than I like to think about!

We had our first family trip this month to Disney World and had a wonderful time celebrating Pres' 1st birthday at the Shades of Green Resort!














July

July was a busy month. Pete and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary and I went to Canada with Chrissy for her second baby shower. Chrissy came and Pres was able to meet his Aunt Chrissy for the first time. Jen and Greg also came to visit, meet Pres, and fill us in on their beautiful wedding that we missed due to lack of babysitter :( Pres continued to leave behind his babyhood and was well on his way to being a toddler. We also had the big water leak of 08 in the Villas and Pres found a new best friend...Grandpa Mike!













August

This was our big bumps and bruises month. Pres decided he wasn't content to just walk and would run everywhere. This led to so many nasty bumps and cuts that I didn't think I he would come out of this month unscared (he did, but only by the grace of God).

We took our second Disney trip this month and took the plunge to get year passes!







September

This was a scary month as well. Pres got sick for the very first time and it was a doozy. He had a fever of 104 and 105 for three straight days and even the Motrin could not keep it down. There were doctor visits and some scary nights but eventually his fever came down and we were brutally introduced to the childhood disease of Roseola.

The offical Alabama move countdown began this month as well and I stressed for the whole month about moving to a new place and then being left alone.







October

October we enjoyed the Food and Wine Festival at Disney. We had a great time at the Winter Park Fall Festival with Grandma and Grandpa Crotty, Dyer, and Beanie. We also had a trip up to Fort Rucker and found our house. As if that trip wasn't big enough, we finally decided to let the world know that we were expecting baby #2!






November

November brought our big move and Pete's departure. THe first few weeks here in Alabama were tough but things are slowly getting better (much in part to the awesome people I am meeting...Alabama itself still sucks!)

Pete also left for WOC school and we began our new time in a new place without him.






December

December has brought lots of wonderful new friends into our lives and Pete was able to come home and spend it with us! I am sad to see him go on Friday, but am looking forward to the new year and all that it will bring!