Julie's back... Again!!!!

Yes! Our favorite Dane has come back to visit once again! There is a certain little boy who is soooooo exited to have her back! (We are all very excited, but Jackson is the only one who had an asthma attack from running/jumping/hollering due to so much excitement.)

Due to an internet outage, I'm posting from my phone and so I don't want to go into the ridiculousness we went through to pick Julie up from the airport. Poor Julie got off the plane with no one to greet her! :( But we did find her after lots of running and frantic searching.

There's also a good story of how I didn't get Julie's flight info before she started traveling, so after scouring the internet with only her arrival time, I decided I needed to email her family...not all speak English! But I was desperate to find her flight number so we wouldn't have to wander through every terminal looking! Her brother saved the day, but we still wandered (ran) through two out of three terminals anyway...

Anyways...

Jackson was SO excited to show Julie the sign he made with Grammy! And like I mentioned, he was ecstatic to see her and he barely l left her side all evening.

Even though I knew she'd be so tired from 20 hours of travel, I planned a surprise welcome party for her! Many if her favorite friends were here to welcome her back to the states. Everyone was just as happy to see get as she was to see everyone else!

And lastly, Julie got to see her new room! And by new room, I mean brand spanking new. Like... I just finished sanding and painting this morning. Just last week, it was barely even framed. But thanks to many volunteers the room has been wired, drywalled, sanded, and painted with doors and lights installed too!

(because I'm posting from my phone,I can't caption or pick the placement of   photos--they are ask just stuck at the end!)

Big and little (Danish Version)

We have a new Big and Little in the house tonight--of the Danish variety! Julie's older brother, Christian, has flown in from Denmark to spend his Easter break here in the states.

Maybe Tall and Not-Quite-as-Tall would be a more accurate description!! This picture looks as if Julie is short, but she is actually quite tall. Christian is just *that* tall. And they totally look so much alike. I was looking through the crowd of people trying to see which one was Christian when I saw a face I recognized even though I'd never seen him before (besides a few pictures and a birthday video for Julie)!! Wow, do they look alike!!

It was so cute watching Julie anticipate her brother's arrival. His plane was late coming in and she was going nuts just waiting! (I can relate.) She really needed to go to the bathroom, but she didn't want to miss when he actually came in. I finally convinced her to just go and then in a matter of minutes, people start walking off the plane. CRAP! I was so worried she was going to miss it!! I'm frantically walked down to the bathroom in the opposite direction of his arrival gate trying to get her to hurry. As soon as I saw her walk out, I am started yelling her name down the terminal. She ran over just as he is walking out of the tunnel thing. Whew. Too close! She met him as close to the doorway as she could and hugged him so tight. And then hugged him again for a solid three minutes. It was so, so sweet. I may have teared up a little... but Julie cried more!

I can only hope that one day, Belle looks up to Jackson with as much admiration as Julie does Christian. Though, I can guarantee that Belle won't have to look quite as far up!

We made it to Georgia!

With a little under five hours of sleep last night, Belle and I headed out this morning for our trip to Augusta! Grandpa drove us up to the airport, but not without a quick stop to get a Coke. I definitely needed some caffeine. Jackson insisted on a million kisses before I left the car, so after I kissed his cheeks, eyes, ears, nose, chin, arms (I called it quits when he wanted me to kiss the car)... we said our goodbyes and headed inside!

The trip went super smoothly. Not surprisingly, Belle captured all sorts of attention. Everyone oohed and ahhed and told me just how pretty she was! One teenage boy even said, "I like your baby!" Ha. The flight attendant on the first flight asked to hold her so I could get my bags and she showed Belle off to every single passenger we passed!

Belle practically never opened her eyes on either flight. We just cuddled the whole time-- it was probably the most comfortable I've ever been on a flight! She's just so snuggly. (ugh- look at those bags under my eyes! I even used make-up to try to hide them!)

I opted to use the same strategy from when we traveled last fall-- use the stroller for the luggage, not the baby!

And I decided to wear Belle. Have I mentioned how I looooove my Moby wrap?! I use it all of the time.

She was the perfect lap baby! This was pretty much how she spent the entire flight. She didn't even make a peep!

This super cute pug was our seat companion! The dog can sense when her owner is going to have a seizure and will go get help anywhere between one minute to one hour before it happens. How amazing that the dog can do that! The cuteness factor in our aisle was through the roof!

So, now we're just chillin' at the hotel! It's been a good day. I've really gotten the chance to cuddle and enjoy Belle all by herself, without several other things to attend to. So, I've gotten touch her super soft skin, play with her head full of hair, and listen to the coos I talk about her daddy. We can't wait for Derek's graduation tomorrow!

We're Ready!

Just plain ready! We've talked about Daddy coming to play all week. At the moment, Jackson's a little more excited to be going to the airport and seeing airplanes, but I know he is going to be so super excited to see Derek walk through the terminal!

And I have to mention the beautiful bouquet of roses delivered to my door this morning that Derek sent me with a message that says, "Can't wait to see you tomorrow." It totally made my day. In many ways, this last week has been one of the hardest yet. I feel like my will-power to keep going just gave up simply because I knew he was so close to coming home. Cleaning and being busy was my best attempt to avoid staying in bed all day, which is simply all I wanted to do! Being a wonderful husband, he totally picked up on my crazy mood (I blame the pregnancy hormones) and sent me flowers. I love flowers. He knows that. :)

He's heading out on a bus in about an hour (2:30am-ish) to head to the Atlanta airport and will arrive here in KC at 10:14am! Yay! He is sure to be super tired having only slept in short couple hour increments, but he is as excited to see us as we are to see him! And a family-nap sounds great tomorrow afternoon.

Visiting Derek, part 1: The airplane

So, my test is over and I can finally blog guilt-free about our trip. I'm going to break it up into a few different sections so it's not just one crazy long post. I know that not all of my readers care about all the little details, but I lack all scrapbooking ability and desire, so this also serves as my memory book.

Tuesday- The Flight
On the morning we were going to fly out to Georgia, I told Jackson that we were going to see Daddy. His response, "Yay!" and clapped his hands. Then he said, "air-pain"-- and didn't stop talking about airplanes all day.

Going through security was a pain-- taking off the shoes (no belt with stretchy, maternity pants!), unpacking the liquids, the medical liquids, major electronics, collapsing the stroller, and loading all of our bags onto the belt to be scanned. It took for-ev-er, but no hassles!

Jackson had a blast looking out of the windows at the planes. But then, he kept talking about trains and I couldn't figure out why. I know the kid loves trains, but there were clearly no trains on the runway. Until I realized he was talking about all of the little carts that carry two or three luggage cars, which I do suppose look like trains!

When it was time to board the plane, he walked his little self all the way down the ramp with his bag some friends let us borrow. I knew he'd want to roll that thing all by himself!

It was practically an empty flight-- less than half full, which was nice. Jackson had his own seat and between eating dinner (Jimmy John's) and watching home videos of him and Derek... we were landing in no time.

So, as if flying "up, up" in an airplane wasn't enough excitement for one day, we got to ride not one, but two trains at the Atlanta airport. Jackson was just in little boy heaven (and Forrest a little bit too). What was really funny, is that Jackson would mimic all of the sounds he heard-- the dinging noise when the doors would close, the vroom sounds as we started to go, and even the "psshhh" of the brakes. It was so cute.

And what other purpose does a stroller have at an airport than carrying all of the luggage? It's certainly not going to hold the busy-body son of mine... and this is only a portion of what I really pushed around! Right after this picture, we picked up the car seat which fit upside down... and then when Jackson got tired of walking (because the Atlanta airport is humongous) , he sat on top of the upside-down carseat, on top of the stroller. If you do look closely, you can see Jackson's Daddy doll holding on for dear life, so at least there was some sort of baby in the stroller, even if it was pretend.

After we got our rental car, a very nice 2011 something-something minivan (seriously, this thing made minivans cool) with a whopping 265ish miles, we made our way down to Columbus to check into our hotel and prep for getting to see Derek the next morning!!

(There will be no post about the flight coming home. The flight was past bedtime and completely full. I was peed on, sneezed on, jumped on, wallered on, spilled on-- both water and Coke, cried at, and anything else you could possible think of... longest. flight.ever. Jackson only has a couple more weeks to qualify as a lap-child for a free seat anyway, but I would never, ever, ever take him as a lap child again. Ever. But we made it home, that's all that matters, right?! Who cares if the people sitting in front of and behind us, hate us!?!?)

And now I have a daughter

I got Julie's room finished yesterday with just hours to spare for her arrival! Here's the final result! If she's anything like me when I was 15, it will never be half as clean as it is now!

A friend and I painted welcome signs for our students. I picked up a few balloons and we were off to the airport.

Steering a busy almost 2-year-old through a crowded airport was a daunting task at best, but he was having a blast! There were several soldiers scattered throughout the terminal, and Jackson referred to each one as "Dada"... even a tall, buff black man. I assured him that Daddy does indeed have a uniform (I may have called it an outfit) like those men, that Daddy won't be home for awhile. It took most of everything within me not to cry, but I managed to focus on the present excitement to pick up Julie!

We got to her terminal with only minutes to spare as her plane was early (since when does that happen!?!). Some random lady came up to us to tell us she took a picture of us when we met and said she'd email it to me, so I'm hoping she actually gets the chance to send it. I'd love to have it!!

We drove over to my parents house to drop him off so that we could come home and Julie could get settled without his help. We got her all unpacked, she told me all about camp, and showed me pictures of her friends and family from home. She was so excited to see the McDonald's arches from the highway that I took her there for a late lunch before we headed over to indulge ourselves with a pedicure. It was her first one and I am sure it won't be her last! The guy even asked if we were sisters!

We basically just hung out for the rest of the evening. I showed her around the house and how to use the shower, microwave, etc... She asked if I could teach her how to use the washing machine, but since ours is still full of water and will not drain, I told her it'd have to wait. After talking to Derek on the phone (one of the highlights of my day), he said we should just invest in a new set since our dryer is broken too. So, Julie and I headed over to Home Depot to check out what their selection (they offer a 10% military discount) and Julie got to know more about washers and dryers than she probably ever thought possible!

Because I hadn't gotten around to doing it before she came, we had an extra key made for her and she chose this one:

I knew from the moment her mom told me in an email:

"We talk a lot in this family. When nobody's home, we talk to the dog."

that we were going to be a great match.  And even after meeting her and having her here, I am more even convinced that she is the perfect match for us!!! I am so excited and I know that we are going to have a great year!!

(and we did watch two episodes of Veronica Mars)