Me and my Baby

This is how happy Aubrey is after her ten o'clock dream feed. Luckily she goes right back to sleep! She is making some great progress with her singing as well as sucking on her fingers. I don't think it has to do with her 4 month weight of a petite 12 pounds or height of 25 inches but who knows?

Not only does she stick her fingers efficiently in her own mouth but she'll find yours as well. She is really coming into her own when she grabs your nose, lips, and jewelry (for Chelsa not me!). Now that she is almost 5 months I'm very tempted to weigh her at the grocery store the next time we go - I'm convinced she has put the weight on in the last two weeks. Our little baby is beginning to fill out.

Back to the singing, she is catching some pretty high notes for her age and is daily getting more confident singing around others. She sings the most when she thinks we aren't around and used to immediately stop once the cameras came into view, but now she is able to hold out for longer...I'll get a video of her up here soon.

26 & Avatar & Lemon Yogurt Cake

Aubrey and me at our special friend's Special Forces graduation! Yay friend!

Finally here are the few pics we took the evening of my 26th birthday! While my girlfriends - Emily and Rachael (thank you girls SOOO much!!) did the bedtime routine with Aubrey, Ben took me out to see Avatar in 3D. This was my first 3D movie.....and it was SO GOOD! I loved it!! Hence all the awards eh :)

We then went home to have a piece - or two - of the most delicious birthday cake... each year I pick out the recipe and Ben bakes it for me :) This year it was the Barefoot Contessa "Lemon Yogurt Cake" with Blueberry Sauce. Delicious!

Happy Valentines Day & Best Lasagna Recipe & Funny Daddies

Taking a morning nap to catch up on sleep from our "sick week"

ready for a walk~

Well, it has been a week of suffering and recovering from cold's in our home! It all started with Miss Aubrey, so there were a few long nights of lying awake (okay only me) listening to her cough and make sure that she didn't choke on the mucous....this week we learned that babies throw up the mucous that they can't get out.

So, our first Valentines day as mommy and daddy! Baby in bed by 6pm. Awesome!! Ben got the groceries and I made - what we both agree is THE BEST lasagna we have ever had. After our romantic dinner, we crashed on couch watching the movie "UP". At about 7:30pm, Ben went to check on our sleeping beauty. She was sound asleep. Whew. Looked like we were going to have ourselves a nice, quiet, valentines evening :) But about 10 minutes later, I just had this feeling we should check on her again. Ben crept in and felt the covers...intuition i guess. They were wet. We picked her up and she had thrown up a lot. Poor dear needed a bath. We're not sure why she threw up, she didn't sound too congested that night, but she may have been just getting the rest out. As i held her and comforted her she started moaning and threw up again. So for the next while we held and comforted our exhausted baby who did not feel like a bath...but needed one. Bless her sweet heart!!

Once sounds asleep again, with fresh blankets and jammies, we crashed on the couch and fell asleep to our movie.

Not too exciting, nothing "hanky panky" about our Valentines day except maybe the brand of my underwear! haha! But we loved it, just being a family :)

Here is the recipe we used for our Lasagna with my alterations :

Valentines Day Lasagna Recipe


Start with the following in a pot:

1 pound (450 g) of ground beef (I used ground Bison meat)
1/2 cup (120 mL) of chopped onions
4 cloves of garlic chopped

Brown the ground beef, onions and garlic in a pot until they start to cook. It takes about 6 to 9 minutes to brown the meat. Drain the meat if you want.

Then add
1 teaspoon (5 mL) fennel seed.
1 teaspoon (5 mL) Italian Seasoning (Or dried oregano and basil)

Stir frequently for about 2 min, [adding spices before the liquids allows all of their flavours to be released.]

Add the following:

1 (28 ounce) (784 g) can of crushed tomatoes
2 (8 ounce) (230 g) cans of tomato sauce
1 (6 ounce) (168 g) can of tomato paste


Gently stir this into the cooking meat.
Add the following:

2 tablespoons (30 mL) white sugar
2 teaspoons (10 mL) fresh Basil leaves chopped
1/2 cup (30 mL) fresh Italian parsley chopped
1 teaspoon (5 mL) salt
1/2 teaspoon (2.5 mL) ground pepper
1 cup sliced mushrooms

Gently stir these seasoning into the sauce.

Cover the pot and let the meat sauce simmer. Simmer on low heat for 1 hour and 30 minutes This is the ideal simmer time but not mandatory. If you don’t have time it will still be great after one hour of simmering. (I simmered for only 20-30 minutes).

I will sometimes make this sauce and refrigerate it after it finishes simmering. I will use the meat sauce the next day to put the rest of this recipe together. For some reason Italian meat sauce taste even better the next day. But that’s up to you.

Soak 12 lasagna noodles.

The lasagna noodles need to be soaked in hot tap water for 15 minutes.

While the noodles are soaking you can make the cheese filling.
Put the following in a mixing bowl:

23 ounces (644 g) of ricotta cheese. (I used about 1.5 Cups)
1/2 teaspoon (2.5 mL) fresh grated nutmeg

Grate fresh nutmeg over the Ricotta cheese.
Add the following:

1 egg
1/2 cup fresh Italian parsley chopped
1 cup frozen spinach thawed and drained.

Mix these ingredients together with a spoon

Now you are ready to layer!! Sauce, noodles, ricotta & mozzarella , noodles, sauce, noodles, sauce and freshly grated parmesan and mozzarella.

Cover with foil, bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Take off foil and bake another 25-30 minutes until edges are brown and bubbly!

You won't be disappointed!

Now for the funny Daddies Story. While us mommies write long, detailed, emails about the choices we are making for raising our babies, the daddies are actually doing the same. Only in their own special way. The other night I happened to glance over Ben's shoulder while he was checking his emails....and I caught a glimpse of something I think you will all enjoy reading :

And I quote :

ROSS : When should I start to be scared that the little one likes being naked? She will be crying and super pissed - undress her to change diaper and BOOM, I am a happy little girl...

I don't raise stripper babies. How do you best suggest I fix this problem?

MATT : I think we've got at least another couple months to straighten this behavior out. Oddly enough, Joella acts the same way.....great, they can encourage each other in their behavior...

BEN : Must be natural instinct for babies to want to be naked cause Aubrey enjoys it as well. The good thing I've noticed is that when you go to put lotion on her legs she'll try to close them up. While I may not be able to stop the nakedness at least I have a chance at training the legs to be closed.

I do have a plan for the nakedness though and it involves a pole... The north or south pole, an igloo, and some very cold weather. That should do the trick.

Haiti Pics

Picture Descriptions:
1. 1-73rd CAV sign proudly displayed in Haiti
2. This girl was saved from the rubble 8 days after the quake.
3. Our local national drivers felt empowered with us in the vehicle so he decided to go against traffic. Oddly enough I felt very comfortable riding shotgun with my driver Alex. (no he isn't "my" driver)
4. Food distribution line we were responsible for in the early weeks.
5. The cabana on the far end was where I laid my head at night. The pool was a very technical part of our operation... it helped the toilets flush.
6. I needed a picture of me drinking a Panamanian Red Bull in Haiti, courtesy of my DHL hookup. He was an integral part for me in the first week.
7. Hitching a ride with a Navy taxi (a lot of what the Army was able to accomplish the first week was due in part to the tireless effort of Naval Helicopter Pilots)
8/9. Views from one of my helo rides
10. I don't know what this is...

Hey there!

Over a week ago I had just enough time to make one phone call. I called Chelsa and of course it went straight to voicemail... So like I was saying I had just enough time for two phone calls, I called my Dad and told him to call Chelsa to let her know I was coming home. I was minutes away from boarding a Delta flight that could take me as far as Atlanta, free of charge and first class, but would need to find my own way from there.
I'm now safely home in North Carolina getting ready to celebrate a "wintry" Valentine's day and Birthday with Chelsa and Aubrey.

Almost 4 Months Old!!

These photos are for her daddy!! Sitting pretty in her little bumbo :) She is a strong little girl, but still tends to slide around a bit, getting her to look up for a photo is a little work! But oooooh, don't you love those blue eyes? She misses her daddy but is so proud of him!

I submitted this photo to BabyMelons.com and they put her photo on their website! Check it out : http://www.babymelons.com/products/baby-dolce

Mini Snow Sessions

To see more of their photos, check out my photography blog :):

My First Trip to Canada

Here are a few snapshots from Aubrey's first trip up to Canada! We had so much fun relaxing at Nana & Gramps' house...and it was so great to see friends and family. I wish that I had taken more photos of people that she met for the first time! Notice the photo with Nana, she is in the drooly stage that is for sure!

Stranded in Peru

Remember Lindsay and Dav? Well they were hiking in Peru when the mudslides hit, leaving 2000 stranded in a small village! Here is an email from my mom :

I talked to Lindsay tonight and they are doing well. Our phone connection kept cutting out but we were able to talk for quite some time. The evacuation has been slow but it is getting there. About 475 of the 2000 tourists have been taken out. They started with pregnant women, families with young children, the ill, and elderly 60+... oh and a few others who paid their way out (I think there is a story there). IF the weather tomorrow allows the helicopters to fly all day, there should be another 800 or so evacuated (those in their 50's, then 40's etc...) SO Lindsay and Dav (in their 20's) will be several more days.

Dav was quick thinking at the very start and secured rooms at the hotel for the 40 persons in their group, they have beds, hot water and electricity (sometimes).
There is still some food in the village, restaurants are down to offering only spaghetti. the stores still have water, as well, the helicopters are bringing in supplies. By the river there have been large 'campfires' with people cooking large quantities of rice and beans that are being brought in and they are feeding hundreds.

The locals of course will be there for the long haul and have to protect what they have... Lindsay said they kept busy today by helping fill sandbags. I hope she is taking lots of pics... their blog will be very interesting!

I am so thankful I talked to her this evening... I had too many moments today of what could happen... it wasn't always good.
So I will sleep better tonight.

hugs and good night,

Articles about the Medics

I wanted to share some links to articles that talk about Ben's unit. This first one, in our local newspaper, is about his medics. At the end of the article, they talk about a man being treated for gunshot wounds to the back of the head. Ben told me about this on the phone last night...what the article doesn't say is that he was shot by the police. Since the prison was destroyed, the police are shooting prisoners, execution style, on sight. Talk about corrupt.

FAYETTEVILLE OBSERVER ARTICLE

There are a lot of good news clip videos with our guys on this site :

VIDEO CLIPS

Things seem like they are moving along in Haiti . There is less chaos now. Here is another excerpt from an email from Ben :

You talked about pain the Haitians are in... I don't know what percentage are in pain, but as you walk through the tent cities, or drive through the towns you see markets up and running, countless numbers of people on their cell phones and people in the street trying to sell whatever they can. Talking with the locals this isn't how it was before the earthquake, not because people weren't selling, but they have been displaced from where they used to sell their goods. How much of a difference that makes in their lives who can say. You look at these people and you see how quickly they're adapting and you can tell that this nation has been through tough times time and time again. They appear to be used to this and are just evolving to this new way of life. I wouldn't say they are moving on as a nation but absolutely they are moving somewhere.

Many are still hurting and children are missing mothers and fathers. Parents are missing kids. Some homes are totally destroyed while others were spared. I can't make sense of it and I don't know if God wants us to. I don't know how it worked out but over 80 orphans were just adopted from families in the states. I had the opportunity to see them come in on the bus and get in the c-17 for Denver and that was pretty cool. (I got a picture with one orphan for the memory) If I start asking myself why did these children get saved and others not I know I will get bogged down in nothing good. The focus should be thank you God for saving these 80 and please save many more. God is sovereign and for now I'll leave it at that. (this is one of those things I know in my head but it hasn't exactly made it's way home for me so i think I'm doing more lip service then anything)

You talk about famous people helping out. Well check this, Sean Penn just sat in on our update brief to the SCO tonight. He and his team are trying to get supplies, especially medical, without having to go through the red tape. I was briefing him on how I think he might be able to get the supplies in... It's cool but really I could care less. Great actor but give him another name with no famous part to it but with the same ability and I'd be just as happy. It's nice to know they're coming out here.