Here we are stumbling into 2014 and somehow 2012 ended without summary! As it always does, life has run away with me, and while I have still done a decent job of "keeping the camera rolling" so to speak, I have not been great about sharing all that I have captured and narrating it for your blog stalking pleasures ;) In true form to the reformation spirit that inevitably accompanies the new year, I have set a goal for myself to pick back up all my projects of ol' and begin again to blog and scrapbook all the memories I have captured throughout the year(s)!
For those of you who might be curious what I have been up too since I last blogged in late 2011 (I am sure you have all been waiting with bated breath for these past 24 months, lol) Here is 2012, done the only way I know; with a "little" photo and my wordy mojo.
In our house, no matter where it might be located at the time, each year starts out with the same celebration, that of the birth of our patriarch Bradley "Daddy" Carter. Born on January 7th, in the great year of 1980. Bradley turned 32 this year! He had been wanting a fire pit for the back yard and as fate would have it, even though they weren't in season at the NEX, one happened to appear at the curb a few houses down from us, just days before his birthday! So we snatched up that trash-picked find and a good time was had by all! And of course much like the obligatory "new tie" gift Brad received his new bottle of 12 year old scotch. I guess its really not like the tie since he loves scotch, but in essence its repetitive gift characteristic is the same.
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| January - Brads 32 Birthday, new family photo and chillin by the fire. |
Later in the month, we finally decided to take our first big venture back out to see some more of the Spanish sights. We packed up the babe, all her accoutrements and hopped on an MWR tour to Seville(seh-vee-ya). It wasa gorgeous day and the city did not disappoint. After editing all the photos I was only able to whittle down the album to about 75 pictures. It was just wall to wall amazing details and I loved every photographic minute of it! I may have to do up a whole separate post just to share all those wonderful images with you.
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| Late January - Seville majestic. A great choice for our first day trip with Sonora. |
Of course the star of this show is the unsinkable Sonora Carter. In February she turned 4 months, tried her first cereal, started jumping in her bouncer, and saw her first Cirque du Soleil! A traveling show stopped by Rota(Spain) on its European base tour, and put on a spectacular show. Sonora slept through most of it, lol, but I guess thats to be expected when you're 4 month old.
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| February - Baby, Baby, awwwee baby! Sonora's first cereal as she turns 4 months! |
In March, Sonora met Joyce, and it was love at first face grab! Joyce became Sonora's sitter, and we always knew she would have fun when she was over at Joyce's busy house. In the beginning of March Brad and I had our first night out without Sonora since her birth in October 2011. It was so nice to find a good sitter that we could call on anytime.
Toward the end of March we made the long journey back to the states for a round of visits with the family. During our journey Sonora discovered the magic of the iPad, which is a love affair that has not faded with age. This was Sonora's first plane ride, quite a long trip, so we broke it up. On the first day we went from Jerez(Hair-eth) to Madrid and then Madrid to New York City where we stayed for a couple days of sight seeing. My Aunt Barb met us in New York City and was perfectly content to do nothing but dote on the baby which was a great treat for Brad and I to tour the city in turbo mode!
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| March - Sonora meets Joyce, the iPad, Aunt Barb, air travel, and America! Quite the big to-do. |
In the two days we had to tour we hit all the cliches, which is one of my favorite things to do when traveling to well known places for the first time. I love to see places in movies or read about them in books, and think, "I know exactly what they're talking about because I was THERE once!" Everything from Time Square, to the subway, Radio City Music Hall, and of course the Empire State Building. Our picture from the top of the Empire State Building weren't that great because it was foggy as all get out, but it was still a great experience. I am so grateful for my Aunt Barb who baby Sonora for us all day; running around a busy city is much easier when its just two grown folks.
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| Highlights of the sight in New York City. |
After our brief but epic stop off in New York City, we climbed back aboard another jet plane, and headed for ye' ol' SEATAC. Bremerton bound we were greeted by the whole clan! We had a wonderful dinner out at Ron and Louise's and even got the whole family together for a picture. My mom was on cloud 9 for her entire trip, just content to soak up Sonora time, and we even got my dad to hold her, which is quite the feet since he probably hadn't held a baby since 1985.
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| This trip was FULL of family. Even my parents made it to WA for this trip. |
No trip to the pacific northwest would be complete without a jaunt down Portland/Vancouver way! We stopped in and visited with Brad's sister Kym, and her son Tyree, and then of course spent some time with my fabulous Aunt Mary and her brother, my Uncle Mark. They always show us the best of times, with great food, classy accommodations and most importantly great company. I captured one of my all time favorite images of Sonora on the super swanky bed in our vintage glam hotel room.
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| Our Portland/Vancouver crew. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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As luck would have it, near the end of our trip in Bremerton, our renter informed us they would be moving out, so Brad decided to stay behind and take the lead on doing some updates and repairs to the house before we looked for a new renter.
So Sonora and I ended up making the trip back to Spain sans Daddy, which ended up not being all that bad when we got bumped up to business class on our leg from JFK to Madrid! I definitely felt like a Clampett impressed with the cement pond, as I marveled at all the luxury of my business class seat, but I just enjoyed the ride and let the rest of the richy-riches think what they liked.
Sonora's first Easter was pretty exciting, she and I ventured out into town to watch the culminating procession of the Spanish "Semana Santa" or holy week. They had a huge procession as the once cloaked Jesus emerges from the church, risen and radiant. The band was very loud but it was definitely a sight to see! After words we spend a little time with my good friend Latella, and shot some cute Easter pictures of Sonora and I. It was great day only darkened by Brad still being in the states.
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| April - Semana Santa and Sonora's first Easter. |
May was full of sun and fun with just me and my best girl by my side. The "two weeks" of work that Brad had planned on doing on the house had already morphed in something much more. We ended up having the entire basement gutted, all the cement (that was improperly installed to begin with by the previous owners) torn out, dug down, re-poured, and finally completely refinished. In the end we removed the chimney completely, and put a sun tube in that ran from the roof to the basement. We replaced the furnace, the water heater, and redesigned the layout of the entire basement level. It was quite an investment, but we feel pretty well assured that we should never have to spend another dime on dealing with water issues in the basement.
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| May - Sonora taking charge of feeding time, starting to feed herself cereal and puffs, and just being all around adorable. |
My first mothers day arrived and Brad was still away, but luckily for me, my pregnancy buddy Aurelia was a watch widow while her husband was at work, and she decided to join me for a little breakfast and the babies had a fun little play date. Her son Isaac was about 1 month older than Sonora and they had a blast just hangin out doing what babies do.
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| May - My first Mothers Day sans Brad, but I didn't let that keep me down! |
Another month came and went with Brad still entrenched in the epic renovation project back in WA, so Sonora and I just kept on truckin'! June was filled with milestones, trying new foods, babbling and jabbering new sounds, crawling and he first "Da-da". After a couple months of trying to get her to say Da-da for Brad on Skype and on the phone, she was pretty much set on saying nothing else for many months there after! She only liked to say Mom-ma when she was crying, but like most new moms, I was willing to take what I could get.
Finally in July, Brad returned and life was still centered around Sonora. (I assume you have noticed the pattern) She got faster in her crawling everyday, and now with her new found mobility her ability to stalk her best buddies, Lennox and Pepito (the cats) was greatly improved. This period of time probably took years off both their lives!
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| July - Sonora starting to walk, and chillin' with her cat pals. |
By August Sonora was pretty much up and around fully walking! She had her first experience with the sand at the beach and she loved it. She also tried to eat it, so that was interesting too, lol. Never a dull moment with a 9 month old.
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| August - Sonora's first trip to the beach, fist dip in a pool, and first prison break out of the patio door! |
In September we got invited to a super hero themed birthday party for one of our friends kids, and I think Sonora was pretty much the best dressed baby in the place! My friend Latella had bought her the awesome Wonder Woman onsie, and I whipped up the crown and armbands from some felt we had laying around. Another notable milestone, for me this time, was me completing my Associates degree. Not a huge achievement all on its own, but since I did it while working more than full time saving the world, moving twice, and having a baby, it's a little more impressive.
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| September - Best baby super hero costume ever! And I finally managed to finish my Associates degree. |
On October 5th, I took the oath for the 3rd time and rogered up for 6 more years! OOYA! Stay Navy. My friends and family have always been super supportive of my choice to serve and I count myself luck to continue to do this work that I love, and have a way to support my family in return for their patience and sacrifice.
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| October - Re-enlistment day. |
Sonora's birth added to Halloween makes October a really big month for us. I built a gypsy themed costume for the whole family around a $10 monkey costume that I bought for Sonora off the bases yard sale webpage! We were a pretty big hit at the command Fall Festival. Sonora's Birthday was actually a little delayed because I was sick (which turned out to be a little more than your average stomach flu) But when we were finally able to celebrate our little joy, a great time was had by all.
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| October - Best family costume for Halloween, and Sonora turned the big 01! |
In November Sonora had her first big fever, I turned 28 :( , Sonora started to learn her daddy's love of reading.
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| November - More milestones...Sonora, Sonora, Sonora. |
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December was full of smiles. We attended the bases tree lighting ceremony where Santa and his elves fast roped in from a helicopter (you know we had to do it military style!) Sonora was of course super excited to "help" with all the Christmas decorating, and on Christmas morning she had her first bite of the Carter Christmas tradition of skivers. Needless to say, she loved them.
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| December - Christmas time! and all the fun of having a 14 month old during the holidays. |
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| December - Sonora catches the shutter bug, and Mommy came down with another case of BABY! |
To round out the year, Sonora fell in love with photography, or at least with turning the camera on and off. We had a point and shoot camera that something went wonky with it so you could only take one picture before you had to turn it off and back on again to take another picture. This defect worked into her love of turning the camera on and off anyway, so it was a match made in heaven. We also announced that my stomach flu back at the end of October was most likely related to the baby that had taken root, and was expected to appear on the scene in July 2013.
It was a full year, with a lot of work, and a lot of joy watching our first little baby wobble her way into her toddler years. We closed out 2012 with a very low key evening at home, and set our sites on the long crazy road ahead of us in 2013. We had an overseas move, a new baby, and all the fun that comes with an almost 2 year old to look forward to. Stay tuned...the saga will continue.
