Howdy Austin!

Ollie had his first flight this past weekend to Austin, TX! The trips main purpose was to visit with his Auntie April.  But it was also a great excuse for me to dive into traveling with a child.  And I have to say we rocked the trip.  Both in the actual flying part of the trip and rocking Austin the city!

Ollie did a spectacular job on the flights.  I had 2 great pieces of advice: 1.) wear him with a baby carrier and 2.) feed him on the take off and landing.  That was pretty much all we needed and I had a quiet baby for the flights.  We did have a melt down at the end of our final leg home.  The door had been opened and people were leaving the plane, but Ollie felt they were not moving fast enough and voiced his opinion.  He calmed right down once we also were moving off the plane.  So I am feeling pretty confident going into our trip to Hong Kong.  If I can do 4 hours of flight time alone then 17 hours of flight time with 4 adults should be no problem, right?!

The more exciting part of our trip was getting to visit with Auntie April in her new hometown! Austin was amazing.  Well I should say, Austin's food is amazing!  Ollie enjoyed all of the outside time as we walked through Aprils very fun and hip neighborhood.  We walked to get all of the many meals we ate and we also enjoyed a train ride through the park.

This trip like many others I have had with April always makes me feel so content.  It's something that is hard to describe when you have a friend like April in your life.  To know that no matter what is going on you can always count on that friend to comfort you, to laugh with you, to share with you as an equal.  April is one of those friends who's resiliency astonishes me.  And she is always considering others.  Ok, Ok.  Enough mushy...here are some pics!

Our first taste of fried avocado! And the food trucks!
yummy.

On the Zilker Zyphyr train.

Something really ticked him off here.
Once we turned him around and he got to talk to the ladies in the background
he was all better.

Philosophizing 

I like to suck on your face! 

Morning quiet time.

Our little papa smurf!

Out for sushi with his ladies!

Back at Auntie Aprils house.

Torchy's Taco.  AMAZING!!!

And of course no trip is complete without a stop for cupcakes.  

When duty calls

We received news this week that Ryan has been tasked for a year long deployment to Qatar. The deployment will begin in early June. It's nice to have some time to 'prepare' for it. And yes, he volunteered for it. It was not completely out of noble reasons that he volunteered. He was/is due for a short tour and after discussing this opportunity we decided it was best for our family. And to us it is an opportunity. Ryan will be the deputy commander of the civil engineer squadron at one of the busiest bases in the Middle East. It will be quite the experience for him!

Ollie, Piccadilly and I plan to stay in the DC area with the freedom to roam as we feel the need to. Ryan has already started talking about getting a minivan sooner than what we were originally planning. But I have to admit (as painful as it is for me) the thought of having doors that magically open while I'm juggling a dog and a baby plus whatever road stop snack I picked up for myself is amazing. We will see if we follow through on that 'prep.'

We will keep everyone posted as we get ready for this change. We feel very lucky to have such an amazing support system of friends and family. That is a huge factor in making both Ryan and me feel confident and comfortable that, like so many other military family's before us, we will make it through this challenge stronger as a family.

2 main reasons for minivan talk!
Is this picture not just gorgeous!?

Bath Time

Ollie has always loved his bath time.  I am placing money that he will be the next Michael Phelps.  So we have been wanting to fill our garden tub up and take him for a little swim.  We finally got around to doing that tonight!  He seemed pretty good with it all.

Big Boy bath with Dad

Lifeguard Piccadilly on duty!

So friggin' cute. 

Splash intervention was needed by the lifeguard.

I'm only doing this for the safety of the public.

The surprise of the event was Piccadilly.  She was apparently very jealous of Oliver's fun in the water and wanted a part in it.  She stayed on the sidelines at first, but the splashing was too tempting.  She decided to step in, but just the front 2 paws.  With a little help from mom we got her all the way in for a photo op.

3 months! (really belated!)

We were lucky to have even got the pictures taken for Ollie's 3 month birthday in December with everything going on!  But we did and I am just now getting around to posting them.

Time really is going too fast and too slow at the same time.  It's so hard not to continuously think about what he going to do next, when you know you want to relish every bit of the now with him.

He has been rolling over every once in a while since Thanksgiving, he can bear all his weight on his legs, he giggles for us (rarely but so amazing when he does!), he talks up a storm in the mornings (including his ability to yell-he gets that from mom) and we easily drown in his blues eyes everyday!

And for comparison see his 1 month pics with the link!
http://www.crowleyhokies08.blogspot.com/2011/10/1-month-ago.html

Major, done professionally.

Ryan had a photographer at his promotion ceremony and here are (some of) the fruits of the photographers labor!

The National Anthem

Pinning on.

The Crowley's!

Taking the oath.

Ryan busted out some jokes.

The Air Force song

Oh this is MAJOR!

Another exciting event occurred for our family this past month, other than Christmas! Ryan pinned on Major! Today was his first official day of work as a Field Grade Officer.  The promotion ceremony was held on 23 Dec, so many of our family and friends were able to attend. It was a very nice ceremony and we are very proud of Ryan.  Here's to what the AF holds for our new Major!

Ollie's first assigned seat! Don't let the smile fool you.
He ended up screaming through the actual ceremony in the back room,
until he was taken to the ladies room where the flushing toilets and mirrors lulled him to sleep.
(see sleeping picture below!)

The pinning on!
I feel I did an amazing job of making sure the oak leaf was perfect on his left shoulder!

So lucky to have the majority of Ryan's extended family there!

Grandma Noanie was on baby duty during the screaming
and then the subsequent passing out.

So proud of our Major!

Wrapped up

We have been wrapped up in love, in craziness, in gifts, in changes and in family this past month.  Ryan and I really feel lucky for all of the people we have in our lives. And we were even more lucky to have been able to visit and see so many of you over the past couple of months.

Grandpa O and Noanie came up for the Army/Navy game.

Cousin Joseph was up for the game also, so he stopped by!

Ollie with his good friend Drew (The Pochets youngest).

Ben and Kristi were in town on their Home for Christmas tour.
So it was a chance to get the Adams, Pochets and Crowleys together.

The Weeds were in town for the holidays so we were able to grab brunch with them.
Ollie got to reunite with his girlfriend, Amelia.  

A pre-Christmas shot!

Christmas was a big one for us this year, in more ways than one!  Of course the biggest part of our Christmas was getting to celebrate it with our son. But we also had our first go at hosting a large Christmas gathering at our home.  My parents, Ryan's parents and the majority of Ryan's extended family all gathered at our home this year for Christmas.  It was wonderful to have so much of our family with us. Everyone pitched in and things went much more smoothly than we were expecting (20 people in our townhome!?! Someone is bound to loose a toe or at least poke out an eye, right?!?).

Ollie's first gift from Santa!

Our tree and wall of stockings!

Christmas morning!  

Somebody got spoiled!

Some of the grandkids and Grandma Putnam.

Christmas dinner table #1!
(With their crowns from the Christmas crackers.)

Christmas dinner table #2!

We finished the puzzle!

And Christmas is wrapped up for us!  Literally... Ryan had our Christmas decorations down and put away within the week following Christmas.

So with Christmas full of family and glee, we decided to lay low for New Years.  Ryan and I sat down yesterday and reflected on some of our goals for the upcoming year.

Traditionally I have always been one to make a resolution to not make a resolution.  This year I feel the need to set goals and challenge myself.  Without a job leading the way for how or where I advance to I am found reflecting on the past year of being a stay at home mom and thinking, what did I do?

Of course that whole making a baby thing was/is a big deal.  But what else did I do.  Am I satisfied with how I took advantage of the past year.  And more importantly if I'm not, how will I change that for this year.  So I've set a few goals:
1.) Run a half marathon. With the cloud reaching goal of running a marathon.
2.) Complete Oliver's scrapbook.  (yes, I do scrapbook. Don't hate.)
3.) Try 2 new recipes a month.
4.) Decrease road rage. (seriously.)
5.) Create a weekly routine.  (I might bust out the covey again.)

There are some more but these are my top 5.  And we of course set some family goals as well. I am actually pretty excited to see how we progress on them at the end of this year.  It gives me something to reflect on and something to hold myself accountable too.

Here's to a happy, healthy and memorable New Year!