Cutest Ever

Hiccup

Jovey Maboo

Her first car ride... isn't the hat so cute! She isn't enamored of the binky like her brothers were, in fact she screams at it most of the time, but she'll use it for a little bit after eating if she's working on a present for us.










Aww... newborn crossed eyes...










Coryn loves to hold her. He frequently comes and sits next to me and sticks out his arms without saying anything expecting me to read his mind and plop a baby in his lap! Of course, he also usually does this when she's eating...
Christmas eve pjs! I'm so glad she got to wear hers this year...










Great Grandma made these for her, snazzy, but a little short for this time of year. (and a little big for her still, so she'll probably get some use out of it in the spring)

(and just in case you're wondering the title of this blog is how Carter pronounces her full name, so we know he can say it, but prefers baby Jovis still)

Waiting... complete!

Grandparents came for a visit... unfortunately they weren't able to stay long enough to witness the new addition to the family, but it was wonderful having them here.
The day after Grandma flew back I experienced my first 'oh, my water broke' moment without the usually simultaneous labor pains. Yes, I had just bent over (to plug in my nearly dead phone) and pop! Followed by my leaping towards non-carpeted flooring. Interesting experience. Of course, Jackson was an hour away attempting to get his car fixed (faulty seat belt), Coryn was at school, and Carter had no idea what was going on... but then he is only two. :D
Three hours after that my contractions started, and another three hours later she came out. Much to the surprise of the nurses who had to deliver her after I had told every one of them that my labors start to finish are quick. (They claimed I never told them HA)
Both big brothers were very happy to meet her, and Coryn kisses her every night saying that she's happy to have such a handsome boy give her a kiss. So modest!
Carter is still unsure, but mostly because he's expecting her to pop up and start running around playing with him at any moment. He has given her the first nickname, calling her Baby Jovis, though sometimes I wish he'd stuck with Arizona.

No... Dad's not tired... not at all... as for Jovey, she came to us at 10 lbs 6 oz, 15 inch head, 22 in long, we named her Jovey Nauvoo. (and mom is doing just fine)

Its Beginning to look a lot like....

Snow. First snow of the year was on Halloween, second snow was my birthday, and then last week we got our third, and largest, snowfall so far. The weather guys are forecasting a twice than average snowfall for December... brr...







Out they went, spent over an hour moving and playing in the snow. So glad dad was home to help, since I still can't put on shoes and my big belly is making it hard to wear much of anything.









The kids had their first Santa visit a couple weeks ago (who happened to be a friend of ours from Virginia who also got assigned up here).




The kids are enjoying snuggling on the couch with a blanket and a lego advertisement...





and Coryn decided to pretend to be me for a while.

November birthdays

November started out busy, parties to plan, social gatherings to host, keeping busy while dad was gone at training. Of course, it got a lot less busy on the afternoon of my birthday... I fell down the stairs and broke my big toe, that combined with my being 8 months pregnant and I was laid up for a couple weeks and Jackson was sent home early to help out. Glad he was, it probably saved me from preterm labor.
Coryn's birthday was extra special since dad was able to be there, and he got about a gajillion legos that he got to build himself...



last year he gave us a list for what he was going to have on his cakes for the next five years... and though I don't remember exactly what order he put everything in, I'm pretty sure he did, and requested a Harry Potter cake. so I got the crazy idea to build a lego thing to put on the cake (not sure I'm talented enough for drawing HP in icing).
It was a huge hit!











The next day Coryn got to go get a hair cut. Lucky boy :D

Halloween

Pumpkin carving is a new experience every year it seems... Carter was willing at first, then grossed out.




Coryn didn't want to at first, but for the sake of trying new things, he slimed himself. :D






The one with 'scary teeth' is Carter's design, and the 'spooky mouth' is Coryn's design.
















There were several opportunities for candy collection, which was good because Halloween evening was sooooo cold, we only went around one block. I suppose that's what you get after it snowed that morning. (We trick-or-treated with some good friends we met in Okinawa and managed to follow to New York)

October birthday...

For Jackson's b-day we went to Canada. Started off with a fall foliage train ride, pretty awesome... pretty and the kids loved riding the train.



Next day we went for a walk all around Ottawa, capital of Canada, it seems like a very nice place. This made our fourth world capital within the last year we were able to visit... China, Japan, US, and Canada. Its crazy where you end up when you travel in the military! Of course, we also happened to visit Canada during their thanksgiving, which apparently they celebrate much like America does.
There are tons of statues around the parliament building, founders, recognition of important events, etc. This was the kids' favorite... I'm sure it has nothing to do with the sword.









It was a long walk and involved a stop at the museum of natural history. Tons of cool stuff there.

Play Ball

Shortly after we arrived in New York I got one of those four day weekends that the military likes to hand out and took Carter for some one on one time with dad. Our destination? The quaint village of Cooperstown, NY, about 110 miles south of us. Odds are, when you hear Cooperstown you either are not a sports fan and have no idea what one would find there or you immediately know that it is home to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. I love baseball and have always wanted to go to Cooperstown and while I didn't get to spend as much time there as I would have liked I still spent four hours there, which is about the max limit of a two year old who didn't really care for the exhibits so much as running around like a crazy person while dad kept one eye on him and one eye on everything else. Now, I left the camera at home so all I had was my cell phone, and while the camera on the phone itself is actually better than my actual camera I'm still getting used to it so not all the pictures are of the same quality. With that being said, here is a small sampling of what we saw that fun September day.

These seats are part of the "Diamond Dreams: Women in Baseball" exhibit commemorating the All American Girls Professional Baseball league that started up during WWII and lasted for about 12 seasons. This league gained widespread notoriety with the 1992 Tom Hanks and Geena Davis film A League of Their Own. The seats came from one of their stadiums and Carter really enjoyed walking up and down the row raising and lowering the seats. It was all I could do to get him to stop and pose for a picture.

I wouldn't say that the seats were his favorite part of the museum though. He was absolutely phascinated by the Philly Phanatic, the mascot of the Philadelphia Phillies. He really wanted to be get inside the display case so he could give the phanatic a "biiiig hug!"

It is no secret that my favorite baseball team is the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim so I had to make sure Carter saw all the awesomeness that was displayed in the team locker in the hall. Something only slightly less awesome was on display in the San Francisco Giants locker, the ball Barry Bonds hit for this Major League record breaking 756th home run. The last several years of Barry's career has been shrouded with allegations that he used "performance enhancing drugs" to achieve several of his historic records including 7 league MVP awards, 14 all star team selections, single season home run record (73 in 2001) and career home run record (762). Home run ball #756 was the ball that broke Hank Aaron's record for most home runs and while it's difficult to make out in the picture (open it at full size and you can see it), the fan who caught the ball turned it over to the hall of fame AFTER he had marked it with a big asterisk signifying that he believed the record to have been set with the help of artificial means.

There is a wall dedicated to every perfect game/no hitter thrown in major league history. The majority of the wall has a ball used in each game, a picture of the pitcher, who they were playing, basic information like that. At the end of the wall is a shrine to Nolan Ryan, who has more no hitters than any other pitcher in the game. The first four of his record setting seven such games were as a member of the Angels.

I think my favorite exhibit at the wall was a display with a World Series ring from pretty much every champion in baseball. Unfortunately the lighting the room and the reflection from the display case didn't equate to good pictures (at least from a Driod) but it was pretty cool to see the evolution of the general size and gaudiness of the rings over the years. There was a lot of bling in that case. My only question is if they were actual complete replicas or if they were cubic zirconia instead of actual diamonds/other gemstones. I was of course drawn to the Angels 2002 ring, they're only one in the case... so far.

The most famous part of the museum is the plaque room where each of the 232 players, 20 managers, 9 umpires, and 31 pioneers and executives inducted into the hall of fame have their likeness and bio immortalized forever in bronze. I thought that I had snagged a picture of the five original inductees from 1936 (Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Babe Ruth and Honus Wagner [who by the way, is also the face on the most valuable and covited baseball card]). I thought I had taken a picture of the five initial inductee plaques but I did not, I did, however get a shot of this monument in the plaque room recognizing the service of each hall of famer in the armed forces from the Civil War through the Korean War, including two veterans of two wars Larry MacPhail (US Army in WWI and WWII and the father of the only father and son hall of fame team with Lee MacPhail, neither players but executives) and Ted Williams (USMC in WWII and Korea).

Of course, this is not the last time that I will visit the Hall. I plan on taking my dad before I leave Ft Drum, and then again at some time in the future when they let Carter in!

September...

Went to the Burrville cider mill, established before Watertown was founded.









Old place, good apples.











Pretty waterfall.












The leaves fell off the tree in the front yard.











Coryn started school! thanks NY for having a later enrollment acceptance.












Yup, Coryn has sided against his father's wishes with the yankees...

Hair Cut #2 for #2

One of the first things we did up here is cut off the hippie's hair... and he was super ready for it this time. I wanted to have her just trim it, but when she did it started looking like Beethoven or Einstein, all crazy like, so I went with a full chop. He started out excited.
It takes so long! Getting bored....















Almost done!











Aren't I cute?


















Brother had to get his hair styled too... he didn't need a cut, but the nice lady gave him a mohawk as well.

North Country

Ah, North Country, otherwise known as upstate New York, in the 1000 Islands region. Where signs like this are common, including "beware falling ice" and "road slippery when wet or frozen".

One of the Amish strongholds.











Apparently also the birthplace of the tree shaped car fresheners....















And now our home.