To say the very least, I had an amazing and crazy 2011!! I want to thank everyone that was a part of this big year and the biggest of thanks to my awesome family for helping us get through it all!
January: This month should have warned me how the rest of the year would be (crazy!). While being 3 months pregnant, we had to move out of our Mission Viejo apartment, move me into my parents house, put everything else in storage and send Chance off on his last deployment! After finally getting everything moved, it sunk in that I would be without my husband for the majority of my pregnancy...bummer! I adjusted to living with my parents again and looked forward to the phone calls and skype sessions from Japan!
 |
| First sonogram pictures! (Jan.) |
February: Not much happened this month. I was taking my one class at CSULB to finish up my bachelor's degree and working at The Cheesecake Factory. Working as a server is not the easiest thing when pregnant. Let's just say that bathroom breaks are usually few and far between during a busy night and that is not good news to a pregnant lady! Yikes!
 |
| My barely there bump (Feb.) |
March: I finally started looking pregnant this month and yet people kept telling me how small I was! I also went to my first baby shower held by mom's and volunteers of my husband's battalion! This was such a fun experience mostly because those sneaky women surprised all of us pregnant, emotional women. They instructed us to move into the large ballroom for another game so we all changed rooms and sat down for the video of directions for the game. SURPRISE!! It was not a video of directions, it was a video of messages from our husbands overseas! The best surprise EVER!! Of course I cried like a big baby, along with all the other pregnant wives, and then we played some more games, ate some more food and won tons of awesome prizes.
 |
| Our team for the games! (Mar.) |
April: This month was full of apartment shopping and clothing adjusting. Chance was coming home in just a couple of months and I needed to find us a place to live (kind of important!) I was also starting to no longer fit into my regular pants so along came my friend the BeBand! This thing rocks. It allowed me to wear my regular pants but they were unbuttoned and unzipped. The band held the top of my pants flat onto my growing belly so no one would see that I was half undressed!
 |
| Definitely looking preggers now! (Apr.) |
May: Woo Hoo!!! New apartment this month and it's HUGE! This apartment is so nice because not only is it close to my parents but the living space is seriously so big that it could actually be a bedroom and a living room. I was so happy to have found this place because that meant we didn't have to live on base! Another big event this month...I graduated college!! I was so sad that my hubby was still gone and didn't get to see me walk across the stage but it was a great day none the less. I looked massive in my tent of a graduation gown but it was worth it!
 |
| Graduation Day! (May |
 |
| Our gigantic living room! (May) |
June: Another awesome month for me! The hubby came home, we had the most amazing baby shower and we finally got to start living in our new apartment! I will let the pictures do the talking!
 |
| So glad he is home!! |
 |
| Looking large! |
July: HELLO BRAYDEN!! Obviously this was the most exciting month of the whole year! We became a family of 3 and welcomed our precious son Brayden into the world. After only 6 hours of labor (30 minutes of pushing) we had a little boy depending on us to take care of him and love him always...easily the best job ever!
 |
| Love at first sight! (July) |
August: This was the month full of diapers, breakdowns, breastfeeding, sleepless nights and tons of love! A crazy month to say the least! Also, Auntie Samantha had been home from her stint on the reality show "Love in the Wild" and we were all ready to view the final episode, celebrate her birthday and have the whole family finally meet Mike! Of course Brayden slept through the whole party!
 |
| Silly boy already! (Aug) |
September: Well this was a sad month for me because I started student teaching. I had to give up my days home with Brayden to spend them in a classroom full of crazy children attempting to teach them something valuable. It was definitely hard to start my days in the early morning after having to wake up in the middle of the night to feed Brayden. I think I may have resembled a zombie this whole month!
 |
| Family walk for charity! (Sept) |
October: Well my little Brayden turned into the most adorable lobster you have ever seen!! Not much else happened this month except for the continuous sleepless nights and breastfeeding!
 |
| LOBSTER!! (Oct) |
November: I can see the light at the end of the student teaching and TPA tunnel!!! I am almost done with student teaching and my two huge assignments on top of that but I am still a basket case! Huge amounts of stress due to working full-time for free, being broke, massive papers to write and a family to take care of on top of everything. I am pretty sure my house was a disaster this WHOLE month...yuck! On the bright side, it was also a month full of family and food...my two favorite things! Brayden also got his professional pictures taken early in the month and he was great! He only peed while naked twice and only had one meltdown and that was because he was hungry! Do we have a model on our hands?!?
 |
| Thanksgiving! |
 |
| Brayden's Professional Pictures! |
December: BEST MONTH EVER!!! (Besides July!) I finished student teaching and successfully graduated from CSULB with a bachelor's degree (officially). We got the biggest tree our ceiling would permit and decorated it to the max! We spent so much time with family and Brayden was finally all mine again! Such a happy mommy to be home with my baby boy!
 |
| First picture with Santa! |
 |
| Oh Christmas tree.... |
 |
| Opening presents! |
 |
| Awesome family! |
