Like A Girl

Do you remember that commercial that came out that started the #LikeAGirl movement.  If you don't,  click HERE

I love it.

As a female, I'm a fan of all things female.  I like going against the norm, challenging stereotypes, but also embracing your true you, whatever that means to you.  I've been in the military for almost 16 years, I have two daughters and so what the future looks like for females, I'm a little invested in that.

Today, I am watching the MTV VMA's recorded, of course because who has time to sit down for 3 hours and honestly, I can tell I'm old because I fight the urge to say "what are those kids wearing????" and "was that a song??"

The catalyst for this post is the part where the all natural, very beautiful Alicia Keys comes on and makes an incredibly moving speech

During this, in mixed company, people are commenting and that's fine, but after it was all said and done, what is the first thing said in my mixed company, "Is she wearing that big dress because she got think?"

This is our world.  My sweet daughters, we have some work to do.

I want to be this.

Live so that when your children think of fairness, caring, and integrity, they think of you.

H. Jackson Brown Jr.

No way to capture it all...

Tonight I looked over at Neva, "reading" one of her books - which is her very favorite thing to do - and just tears welled up in my eyes.  She is so amazing and so just beyond a level of incredible I could have ever imagined.  I know every mom says it, but the amount of love I have for this little girl is immeasurable.

Things I haven't written about:
- She turned 1.  1, already!  I can't believe it.
- She walks.  It's like she was taking a wobbly step here and there and falling and one day she woke up and could walk.  It's things like that, that make me never want to look away because I'll miss something.
- She blows kisses.  It's so cute. She kisses the back of her hand and blows it out - I love it.
- She signs, just simple stuff - "more", "finished" stuff like that
- She does this weird combo of "lalala" and "gee gee gee" I can't even recreate it but I have like 1 trillion videos of it.
- Did I mention she's 1... I can't even believe it's been a year.  All of our neighbors came to her little party.  We are seriously so lucky with the neighborhood we are in.  They were so generous - her toy area is PACKED.
- We went to a pumpkin patch - she walked through it and touched every pumpkin.
- And for Halloween, she was a ladybug. It was hot here in Houston, so it was basically a cape with a hood and some gloves and slippers.
- She has playdates
- We went to the Zoo, once in Cincinnati and once in Houston
- She went to a Sweeney reunion and met a LOT of family she hadn't met yet
- She played in Mom's garden (first picture above)
- Air show here in Houston.  Thanks to my co-worker, we were able to get a pass to park on base and walk down the flight line to the show and we got to walk right by the Blue Angels hangers.  Evan was a kid in a candy store and I love that he and Neva were able to do that together.
- I think we're done with the bows.  She rips them off her head now, which lasted WAYYYY longer than I thought it would being my daughter and all.
- Lots of WONDERFUL visitors!  I can't believe how often people come to see "us" and by "us" I mean Neva - we love, love, love it!  If you have time, we'd love to have you!
- So many teeth!
- One million other things...

I have a baby book, that basically I just throw things in it and hope that one day when I have time, I remember what everything is an why I wanted to save it.

My apologies for the scattered events - I doubt I'll ever be as organized as Jessie but I do hope to have better time management and keep everyone in the loop more often.

Stuff with us is otherwise normal.  Evan is on a new plane and works with people that are much more positive and that's always good.  Houston is still warm, which I love.  Other than that - we miss everyone and love you all dearly!

Here are some pictures of recent events:

A shot I stole while Jess and Chris were setting up an amazing little photo shoot for us!

Here little play date Bryce

Daddy and Neva (Grandpa Mike took this)

Charley and Neva - Best friends

Nike still keeps a distance but gets a lick in now and then

Birthday Girl

Cake in the FACE - did not have a problem

Daddy helps her fly so high!

Little Ladybug

Family Pic at the pumpkin patch

More pumpkin patch!

SO excited about the pumpkin!

Daddy and Neva, Fat Albert and #7

Daddy and Neva & #7

Another awesome birthday gift!

This is Neva's birthday gift from Aunt Merry, but Charley likes it too

Sweet Niki

Mamma and Neva

She's 1, can't believe it.

Neva Soup

My perfect baby.

 

9 months...

9 months happened so fast.  Our little girl is crawling, pulling up on everything, side stepping along everything and babbling to say the least.  She hasn't quite got clapping down just yet, she kind of claps her fists together which makes it that much more cute.

We just got back from Oklahoma and Neva and Vivienne met for the first time! These are in their little outfits from Auntie Jessica. It was so great to see the Oklahoma family and to have the "Cincinnati Maxie's" in town too!  Definitely feel lucky to have family so close!  Saturday we will be arriving in Cincinnati for the first time since JANUARY and I can NOT wait to get there.  There are still some people from my immediate family that have not yet Neva yet.  Being a Cincinnati girl - this is very foreign to me.  I was always close to my family so I get a little emotional when I think of aunts, uncles and sisters that haven't met our baby girl yet!  So this is a big, exciting week!  Fingers crossed that all travel goes well.  The last time we flew, Neva wasn't such a big mover.  I have faith in her - she's a pretty chill kid.  I think we'll keep her.

Otherwise, things in Houston are going well.  We have amazing, amazing neighbors.  This past drill weekend, Evan, with the help of our neighbor James, was putting a new outlet in the garage and somehow a water pipe was hit while drilling.  No problem - water was shut off and they went to a plumbing store and got the piece to fix it and all is well.  Well, at about 11:30 on Saturday night, the doorbell rings, I'm sleeping because I have a fitness test the next morning, and I hear rain, AGAIN (it's been raining a ton here).  I answer the door and our next door neighbors are speechless and just pointing up at the roof over our garage where I see a legitimate waterfall coming from our house.  It wasn't rain after all.  The guy at the plumbing place gave us the wrong piece and it burst.  I run in, try to turn off the water, pulled off this panel where the water shutoff valve is NOT located.  Luckily Eric (the neighbor) ran in and shut it off.  So Evan runs out - has a few choice words and he and Eric climb into the attic with towels to start soaking up the water and hopefully keep it away from the walls while his wife and I wring out towels below and try to clean up the insulation and dry wall that is just falling from the ceiling.  James comes down - drills holes in the ceiling and water just comes pouring out.  More towels, more water, more choice words.  This is where Evan and I are probably best separated in situations like these.  I'm in the front, now with two other neighbors, just cracking up because I'm so in shock and wringing out towels and sweeping up insulation and I just stop and laugh - because, what else can you do?  Evan and the other neighbors are up in the attic just setting up fans, trying to find the problem and just being all "guy" about it all.  If he saw me laughing, I think he'd divorce me (just kidding!).  So, it's like 2am and we are still cleaning up, water is off, plumbers obviously are not coming out and obviously, I will not be making it to drill the next day.  Next day, Home Depot, supposed Master Plumber gives us another wrong piece.  We luckily run into yet ANOTHER neighbor that works at said plumbing store, comes and looks at it, takes Evan to the closed store, opens it, gets him the right piece, lets him borrow the correct tool and all is fixed.  Plumber finally shows up, he looks at the work and says it's better than he has ever seen.  Evan still checks the garage every 5 minutes but at least I can take a shower now.  We have fans and everything setup in there to dry it all, but Houston is humid and mold is no joke - so Evan, James and ANOTHER neighbor just tear out the sheet rock and damaged insulation and all that so that it can just be replaced, which is much cheaper than mold taking over.  It's just a mess, but seriously, could a worse situation be better?  And while this was a very long story - can we just take a second to just marvel at how INCREDIBLE our neighbors are and how lucky we are to have landed here. I just can't believe it.

Evan started training on the 777 and he's been home every night.  It really has made the move worth it.  It's very hard to be away from family, but I love having him home every night! This plane is GIGANTIC!

Our puppies are amazing.  They actually stayed with the trainer that has helped us with them earlier in the year while we were in Oklahoma and did just wonderfully.  I have to admit, there are pros and cons to rescue vs. breeder/NEW puppies - but I will forever, forever be a fan of rescue and will always get my pets from a rescue.  I'm not at all criticizing those that do not, just saying for me - I can see the difference.  They know you literally saved their lives and they are grateful and loyal and just amazing pets.  Even with the bumps in the road with my two pups - I'd do rescue again, over and over. 

Here's the thing.. time gets away from you.  I've been trying to add to this and post it - there is so much to catch up, but now I leave for Cincinnati in 7 hours.

Goodnight all... more to come another time.  Much love...

Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly offers exclusive layouts and designs so you can make your book just the way you want.

I am madly in love with this little girl...

Friday the 13th has always been a special day in my mind, never unlucky. My grandpa was born on Friday the 13th and soon, my sweet Neva will have Friday the 13th birthdays. Today is her 3 month mark. Let me let that sink in for a minute.... we have a daughter.

Neva Rose was born on October 13th (due date was the 31st)at 11:06am, she was 7 lbs, 4oz and 22 inches long. Big feet too.

3 months went by so quickly. I can't even pretend like I'll be able to capture all of it in this blog. The actual birth itself...indescribable. I remember thinking that I'll remember all the details, but it was scary and amazing and at the end of it, Evan and I had this amazing little girl. I ended up having a c-section, which was a big change from my wanting to go ALL natural and no pain meds, but my little lady had a different plan. So after about 24 hours of labor, 2 pushing, we finally went in for the c-section and there she was.

We were so lucky - had an AMAZING nursing staff...seriously amazing and both grandparents (my mom and Evan's parents) were able to get there the DAY she was born to meet her. I was so so happy about that. My mom stayed for two weeks and then right after that, Carolyn and Jessica came for the weekend then Kathy, Evan's mom came for another 2 weeks with an added bonus of the Martin family the last day. Then Aaron randomly had a flight layover in Houston and got to meet Neva as well. Somehow Evan was off for that entire time as well. I do not know how we would have survived that first month without the grandmas and family here. Evan and I seriously lucked out on families. They're so amazing!! Neva got some sweet threads while Auntie Carolyn was here too and a little spoiling from Jessica who DID NOT put her down the entire time. It's okay though, babies can't be spoiled that young is what I'm telling myself. In addition to this amazing family, our neighbors have visited, both in the hospital and at home and also some of my members from my military unit visited us while in the hospital. It's crazy the support system we have.

She is AMAZING (have I used that word enough) and grows so fast. We are learning as we go. My sweet baby sister, Erin, came this past weekend to help out and watch Neva while I went back to "work" - just my first drill weekend back after having her. It was so tough to leave her for the first time, but I could not imagine a better person to leave her with for this stage. Erin is a nanny in "real life" and I'm not kidding, the girl worked wonders. Neva is more active, talks more, mastered tummy time and rolled over for the first time while Erin was here. Erin also reorganized Neva's closet and it flows MUCH better now, setup a tracking system for sleeping, pooping, eating AND kept the house clean which I'm SURE Evan appreciated! While I was away, she sent me pictures of what was happening and even kept BOTH of my dogs happy and entertained. She stayed up for the 2, 3,4am feedings with Neva so I could sleep. And did I mention she cooked for my husband AND had skyline dip waiting for me when I got home. Oh and followed Mom's orders and put her in every dress she owns and took pictures. I learned a LOT while Erin was here. Does it get better than this? I cannot WAIT for the rest of the Sweeney family to meet her.

I actually had to take her to the base with me a couple days and she was perfect. This was her all day. I swear this little girl is so amazing. When she went in for her 2 month vaccines - not even a tear, from her. From me.. that's another story. See the band-aids?

We've learned some lessons the hard way, like how expensive professional pictures are! What I wouldn't give to live in Cincinnati where I KNOW and have amazing photographers as close, personal friends. Learned not to lift her up by her butt after she poops and that I don't know all the words to any nursery rhyme like I thought I did.

We have been so lucky. Lots of hand-me-downs. Constantly getting packages from family and friends and surprise showers all over. I think Erin has bought every newborn book possible. And I am INCREDIBLY lucky to have the friends and "brain bank" to call and ask all my questions - thank you everyone that has given me advice. And thank God for Skype!

For those of you that know my new obsession with doggies - ours are doing great and are so gentle with Neva.

Best of all.... not only did I marry the most amazing man and husband I could ever dream of but also the most and by most, I mean most times infinity AMAZING father. Evan is so so good with Neva. It is so sweet when they play or he sings to her or she gives him the biggest smiles she has to give. He gets her in the morning and lets me sleep in, he jumps to change every diaper and will just hold her and dance with her all day. It makes my heart melt every day. He is so wonderful.

I'm sure there is more, but for now, my little one is passed out so I am going to catch a snooze too. Here are some pics for now - more to come and also you can check out my Flickr site. I try to update it as often as possible and Neva has her own album.