norfolk botanical gardens & first landing state park (photo blog)

Norfolk Botanical Garden

Tulips

Azaleas

English Daisies

Bald Eagle Nest

Scenery

Columbines

Hydrangeas

Tulips

Tuplips

Scenery

Scenery

Scenery


First Landing State Park Scenery and Wild Life

easter trip to california

Before Micah left on deployment we decided that Hailey and I would take a trip to California and visit my Mom around Easter. This being Hailey's first Easter is was especially nice to spend it with family. Growing up in California, I remember every Easter Sunday as one of the most beautiful Sundays of the year! This year was no different.


This Easter was very special to me it was Hailey's first Easter. It was the first year I could tell my daughter of the awesomeness of our God! It was the first year I could tell her how blessed we are to know and believe the truth, that Christ died for our sins so that we can go to heaven!! Not that I don't tell her on other days, but Easter is a special day, it's Resurrection day! The only thing missing that day was Micah.


Until our trip the only person in my family who had met Hailey was my mom. Everyone had a lot of catching up to do! Just about everyone agreed that Hailey looks "just like her daddy". Hails learned a lot while she was there, and grew a lot too! She learned how to crawl and cut 2 teeth, her two bottom ones. On our way home, in the airport, she mastered the skill of sitting up without assistance (that seems to be her favorite thing to do.)

an ode to my dad

Cary Allen Brown
November 21, 1961- September 27, 2008
My dad had a heart attack at the age of 47.

Sometimes I get mad, most times I get sad.
He was always there for me.
He was my dad.
I was always a daddy's girl.
We even wore matching clothes.
And thinking back on those days
Doesn't make me ashamed

He planted the seeds inside of my heart
At a young age,
I knew not what he taught.
As I grew older
I remembered the words he told me.
I gave my life to Christ
And all things felt right.

I wish I could tell him how thankful I am
For trying his best to raise me just right.
I'm glad that I know that I'll see him again
But right now its hard because I really miss him.

footprints for daddy

Since Micah is on deployment I figured I would keep him updated with Hailey's growth not only with pictures and videos but her foot once a month. It seems like such a simple task especially since my child cannot walk or crawl or sit without a little support as of yet....WRONG! She may not be able to do those things but she can kick her legs, try to roll over grab her foot while I am trying to paint it. Needless to say I didn't get many pictures while making her prints (I was too busy trying not to get blue and pink paint everywhere) just the end results!

new year

Yes, I know that it is now thirty days into the new year but I've had a busy month. I don't have a new years resolution but I have a goal to finish loosing my baby weight by the end of July, when Micah comes home, and I can proudly say that I am over half way there! I tried extremely hard while Micah was gone this past month to exercise everyday and to make healthy food choices. I have a few exercise goals for while he is on cruise such as the Wounded Warrior 5k and the March of Dimes March for Babies in April. As well as attending a stroller class 3 times a week, starting at the end of February. I love being active and want to encourage my daughter from the very beginning to have an active and healthy lifestyle.

Micah came home last week, after being gone for about a month and it is really starting to sink in that he will be deploying in two and a half weeks. As the deployment is rapidly approaching us, I am trying my hardest to not think about it because I don't want our last 2 weeks together bombarded with stress and sad emotions. I want our last 2 weeks to be happy and wonderful so we can think about all the good times we had with each other while we are apart. I don't like saying goodbye's, I hate them. I really do. Having to say 'goodbye' or 'see ya' later' to the person you love even if it is just for a 6 months, sucks. I am hoping time will go by fast!

chrismtas 2008

This year we went to Micah's hometown to celebrate the birth of Christ with his family. It was Hailey's first Christmas, although I'm pretty sure we were more excited than she was about it. Here is a picture of her on Christmas morning.


Visiting family is sometimes stressful especially with a big family, there are so many schedules to work around. When we visit family we consider it our vacation, since we do not live by either of our families. Most of the time it's not what a vacation is suppose to be at all, there's hardly any relaxing and I think I stress more than when I am at home, everyone plans everything before asking if it would work around our schedule. We ended up only having 2 days where we could do what we wanted. I'm not just saying this about his family because my family is worse at it. and yet among all the chaos we still had a good time!


This picture was taken at one of our family dinners... I will post a blog just about it. It was a night of family, food and fun!

christmas party weekend

On Friday we went to Micah's command Christmas Party, it was a good deal of fun. It was the first time I was away from Hailey, without her being at home with Micah. With no family around I am so thankful that we have someone we can trust to watch our baby girl. I kept texting our babysitter to make sure she was OK and every reply I got back from her saying she was fine made me feel like my heart was breaking...someone else can actually take care of my daughter for me? That's my job! I actually started to cry at the party because I missed her so much.

It was also the first time I had any sort of alcohol this year, I had 2 small glasses of wine. White Zinfandel is my new favorite type of wine. I won Micah 24 hours of special liberty in a raffle. I am still kind of bummed about what we won because he never takes special lib. and I could have won a TV, iPod, or a portable DVD player. *Maybe he will use his special liberty when we move next month! When my husband finally decided to appease my separation anxiety I was so relieved, I have never walked so fast in heels before! Here is our 2008 Christmas Picture:

On Saturday, one of our good friends Vanessa (her and her mom were our babysitters on Friday night) graduated from college so, we went to a luncheon in her honor. While we were there we were invited to a Christmas party later that evening. We decided to go and we had an OK time. We didn't know anyone but the people we came with, since we had just met the host and hostess earlier that day. At the party we participated in an elephant gift exchange, we ended up with Iron Man on DVD and a Victorian style glass lamp. Going to the party did give us something to do other than staying home so all in all it was a good night.

climbin'

Me and my husband love to go Rock Climbing. We go at least once a week if not more to the local indoor rock gym. I am a very new rock climber since I was pregnant the entire year and then had to recover before I was able to do any sort of physical exercise. With that being said I have only been climbing for about a month and a half Micah and our climbing buddies on the other hand have been climbing since the beginning of the summer. (They are a lot better than I am!) It is a total blast! Anyways yesterday I got an early Christmas present from Micah my very first pair of rock climbing shoes! I got a pair of Evolv DEFY's.

They are the most comfortable rock climbing shoes I have ever put on and if you have ever used rock climbing shoes you know that they are not comfortable at all!


On a side note I bought an exercise ball to help with loosing my "baby weight" and it is really working. I've been exercising with it everyday this week and when I am doing things that involve sitting down I sit on the ball, like when I am folding laundry or typing a blog. I would recommend one for anyone who wants to work on their core, balance and all over muscle tone.

there's always a first

This year has gone by so fast! My husband will be deploying soon and my daughter is almost 3mo old... I cannot even fathom the amount of love I have for my family! I thank God everyday for them.


Micah will be deploying soon... and as much as it hurts my heart for him to leave, I know that it is something he has to do, not something he wants to do. I will think about the positive points of him leaving.... I will have to tell you later as I can't think of ANY right now. But in the mean time we will be spending as much time as we can with each other doing the things that we love. I try so hard each day to make him happy and to keep the house orderly so when he comes home from a stressful day at work he can relax in peace. I know I don't always meet even my own cleaning standards but seeing our daughter smile and hearing her sounds of excitement when I talk, sing and play with her comes way before tidying up the house.

With only knowing each other for 2 and a half months it amazes to me that I know Hailey as well as I do. If something hurt or scared her, if she's tired, hungry or just flat out wants her mom I know the difference in the sound of her cry. She is growing up so fast (too fast for my liking)! I cherish every moment I spend with her and every time she wants to be held I just have to remember that in a short while she will be squirming out of my arms trying to crawl after Dixie. Although it breaks my heart to even think of that, I do acknowledge it will happen someday.