A GREAT DAY INDEED...

This was not everyone. I think the final count was 43.

My Monk showing out for the kids.

Kristy feeding Alexis.


P.S. The stores open at 2200 tonight and yes I will be out fighting the crowd finishing up my christmas shopping.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL...

Hope everyone has a wonder Thanksgiving as I know I will since our Soldier and his new baby girl and wife will be joining us this year. We won't have to leave an empty chair as he is home and if all goes as planned he won't be returning to Iraq EVER...

I am again hosting my Dad's whole side of the family at my house. It will be close to 50 here this year and my new house is almost 1/2 the size of my previous one, but I promised my grandmother before she passed away years ago that I would carry on the tradition and have Thanksgiving at my house. I'm a glutton for punishment I do believe. Actually I love having it at my house, just hate the clean up afterwards.

I'm off work until Monday of next week, and I plan on enjoying every single minute of my time off by spending it with the ones I love.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all. Please keep our TROOPS that are in harms way in your thoughts and prayers on this day.

Pictures of Alexis

Daddy checking her out to make sure all toes and fingers are there.

One proud Daddy.

Thursday when I picked him up from the airport and we surprised Kristy at the Hospital.

Leann holding Alexis.
Alexis's first kiss from her MiTa.

JoJo (Kristy's Mom) showing off our little princess just moments after she was born.

Her Daddy is spoiling her every second he gets the chance. They were at the house last night visiting and showing her off to my sister and her family.

Daddy meeting Alexis for the first time

Priceless

Promise to post more pictures later. Alexis was born November 17, 2009 via an emergency C-section @ 1146 am, weighing in at 5 lbs 2 ounces and 18 inches long. 6 weeks early. Mom and baby are doing fine now. It's been a long 2 days trying to get Alexis's daddy home from Iraq.

Sorry for not posting any sooner, just wanted Daddy to meet her first before we let everyone else.

Our England Friends

It's been a very busy weekend. Friday evening Dad, Mom, Owen and Dawn (friends from England) came to the house for the weekend. We shopped, shopped some more, went to see my baby sister and her family (which is also in the photo) and then we ended up at a Japanese Steak House for supper last night with Kristy. I don't think they have ever seen a show put on like our chef put on last night. It was great. They left earlier this morning headed to meet Dee and her family for lunch then they were going to head back home.

It was great spending time with family and wonderful friends.

We were all able to chat with Michael for a little while online. He is counting the days down now until he arrives home for R&R/Baby's birth.

Alexis's new outfit

I just could not resist yesterday when I passed by the Army Surplus store at Camp Shelby on my way to the Coast. Thought this would make a great Daddy/daughter photo when he gets home.

Stacy Lee's iPhone

BABY SHOWER

Alexis's first diamond necklace and earings. Yes she is already spoiled rotten.

Kristy and one proud Paw Paw.


It was a great baby shower. The baby is set to go, except for diapers. I think she only got one package of diapers.

BABY SHOWER

The first baby shower was great. Kristy got so many nice things.

Pictures to follow.

HURRY UP PLEASE...

It's been 116 days since his BOOTS HIT THE GROUND and only 71 DAYS UNTIL ALEXIS IS DUE.

I think we are all ready for this baby to get here.

Michael text me Thursday night and then called me Friday night and we talked for almost an hour. It had been almost two weeks since I had heard from him. He must know after about 12-14 days he must call so I can just hear his voice. Lots going on with him. He is give out. Working 12 hour shifts, 7 days a week is getting the best of him I do believe. He is exhausted. I can hear it in his voice.

I did tell him that we can start our countdown now for his R&R.

We all think that the baby will arrive before he gets here. Just a feeling we all have. For Michael's sake, I really want her to wait on her Daddy though.

Yesterday I was also able to text with him off and one while I was out and about enjoying my day off. Nothing better than hearing from him.

I'm missing him really bad right now. Sure could use one of his big hugs that is knows how to give at just the right times.

That's all for now I guess.

SHE'S READY FOR ALEXIS TO GET HERE...

She is just too cute with her little belly. The photographer took lots of pictures of Kristy with a flag draped around her and then put them on a CD for her to mail to Michael. He should have them by now hopefully. I don't think he has time to check the blog, so I think I am safe to go ahead and post these.

The doctor said she could go back to work, but to take it easy and no standing on her feet a lot.

HOSPITALS

I sure do hate them. Spent Saturday night and up into the wee hours Sunday morning there with Kristy. She has been put on strict bed rest by her doctor. She has a UTI, and he gave her some antibiotics and put her on a low sodium diet for all the swelling. He also put her on strict bed rest until he figures out why she is swelling up so bad. I did not know until we were told by the nurse that a UTI can cause you to go into labor. She had several contractions while they were monitoring her and the baby. It's way too early for Alexis to make her grand entrance at 6 months, so lets hope the bed rest and antibiotic will work.

Michael had come online about the time we were headed to the emergency room with Kristy, so he was very worried about her and would not get off the computer until we had gotten all the test results in. He was exhausted by the time we finally figured out what was wrong with Kristy. I was able to record the baby's heart beat and emailed it to him. He thought that was pretty cool. Thank goodness for iphones and an application called voice memos that I was able to download. He feels helpless being 7000 miles away, but he knew that Kristy's Mom and I, along with her best friend were taking excellent care of her.

She will now go to the doctor once a week until Alexis is born.

Will update when we know something else.

3 LONG MONTHS

It sure seems like longer than 3 months since his boots hit the ground in Kuwait. Melinda can probably tell you right off the top of her head how much time our guys have left. Me, I don't even want to think about it.

Sure miss his smile. He called again Tuesday night and everything is good with him. He's excited about the baby girl that will be here around Christmas time. He's got lots going on, and will be able to share once everything is final and he gives me to go ahead to tell what all is going on with him. It's all good, I promise.

FINALLY

IT'S GOING TO BE A GIRL.

Sonogram this morning told us what we already thought, but we just needed it to be confirmed.

Seems as though it's time to start shopping now.

Michael called last night and he and I talked for an hour and a half. The delay was terrible, but so worth getting to hear his voice. The excitement in his voice about finding out today if the baby was a girl or a boy was overwhelming him I do believe.

He is working night right now. Says he prefers nights over the days and said that it was much cooler at night. Other than that, he is good. He's so ready for this deployment to be over with. We are keeping our fingers crossed that he can come home for the baby's birth.

ANOTHER CALL

It's been a very hectic week around here. Michael called again on Tuesday, which was very unexpected. He sounded great, but said he was tired. I received a card from him yesterday and yes it made me cry. He's missing home terrible.

I ordered these two shirts for Kristy and I and they came in yesterday. I also ordered Kristy's Mom one as well.

I'm anticipating that it's going to be another crazy week.

Baby's first outfit

Michael said that I would never find anything on it that said "MiTa", so I had to prove him wrong. The first question he ask me was what colors did I have it done in. I could not think of a better color scheme that red, white and blue.

JUNE 13TH.....

It was a long day for us all. Think I walked in the door around 1:15 am this morning very tired. Kristy decided to drive on home, so she was closer to 2:00 getting home. It was a very quiet drive down. We stopped at Rasing Cane's for supper and met up with another soldier and her other half and then we headed further south and finally got in the South Gate at Camp Shelby around 8:45 last night. They had formation at 9:30 pm and then we were able to hand around until around 11:45 pm. Everyone was tired I think.

They bought the build a bear yesterday, and it has a message for the baby inside of it along with a little heart.  The bear is the newest on the market Kristy said.

We heard rumors last night of several dates when they will be shipping out, so I guess we will sit back and see which one comes true.

COUNTING THE DAYS

Not what I really want to be thinking about, but don't have much of a choice at this point. What's really sad is that the time is not creeping, its zooming right on by us and not a thing in the word I can do about it. Life is just not always fair. 

I said that I was not going to count the days this time, but without even thinking about it, I know exactly how many days we have left until we tell him to BE SAFE...

He's got a lot more on his mind before he goes this time.  He's going to miss so much over the next 10 months.  He will become a daddy for the very first time and yes I will be an official Grandmother. [I have let the cat out of the bag]  He's going to miss out on some very important doctor's appointments, but we all are ready with our video cameras to capture each and every minute for him.  

If all goes well next week he will be able to get a pass and go with Kristy to have her first sonogram done. That will be the only doctor's appointment that he will be able to go to since he will be thousands of miles away.

I'm too young to be called Grandmother or Granny, so I think we will go with "MiTa" [pronounced 'myta'].  It's different.  Who knows, guess we could just wait and see whatever flies out of the little one's mouth the first time he/she wants something.

Going to be one spoiled baby for sure.

FAMILY DAY AT CAMP SHELBY

He was very happy to see us all. There's no better way to spend Memorial Day than with approximately 111 Soldiers who are getting ready to deploy to Iraq in a few short weeks. They needed this family day as much as the families needed it. Thanks to their Company Commander for making this day possible.

Amber, Charles, Donna (Kristy's Mom), myself, Brandon Godfrey (MP at Camp Shelby who is a very good friend of Michael's), Michael and Kristy.

It was a long quiet ride back home.  Very few words were said between us girls.  It was all I could do to keep the tears from flowing.  I think all I managed to say the whole ride home was to tell Kristy that it does not get easier, that it will actually get much harder over the next several weeks as we say those dreaded words (GOOD-BYE) time and time again.  

Our next big day will be June 2nd, and we are all excited about that day.  More to come about that big day when it gets here.

ONE OF THOSE DAYS

And I'm sure there will be many more to come in the next 11 months. Just thinking of all the things he will miss out on. A lot of FIRSTS for him. I would do just about anything for him to be here, but nothing I can do to make that happen. Lots of pictures and videos will be taken I can assure you of that.