Happy May!

I am so so so bad at updating, and I apologise to anyone who actually reads this.

April was great and I am glad that it is gone and we are getting closer and closer to Austin's mid-tour leave! We are in the "teens" days until he gets back and I can't wait. Lyla has changed so so much and I can't wait for him to get to play with her, because she actually plays now!!

Happy 2nd Anniversary Austin Conley!

I love you so much and I am so proud and thankful to be your wife and the mother of your baby girl! Can't wait to celebrate with you when you get back!!! 

Austin and I are planning on FINALLY taking our honeymoon cruise ((2 1/2 year after the fact))when this deployment is over and I absolutely can't wait. So much so that I have already been looking at cruises and trying to figure out where we want to go and on which cruise line... I have yet to make a decision. As they say, Better late than never! 

A photo from our REAL wedding day! 

<3

And then the fun with the cake!!

Lyla turns ONE!

WOW! A year has gone by...really? A whole year already?!!?

What an eventful one, yet again, it was! Moving from California to Germany and being in Georgia in between and now back in Georgia for the duration of this deployment.

I think our family is just meant to go through many trials and changes and to do it often. Lyla has been a trooper through all of it adjusting fairly quickly to time changes and new schedules. 

I think yesterday, Lyla's birthday, will be the hardest one of this deployment. We really missed Austin being at the party. And silly me... no one filmed a thing! Lots of pictures, but totally forgot to film her eating cake and the singing and all of that. :(

Any way, to Lyla I say:

Lyla, 

You are the greatest gift we have ever had the honor or receiving. Like the rest of our lives, the day you were born was a very trying but joyous one for me. 28 hours of labor and a c-section later we finally got to hold our little girl that we had been waiting to see for so long. We couldn't imagine our lives without you in them and are so thankful to God for giving you to us. 

Lyla's Smash cake!

Yummy cupcakes for everyone else to enjoy!

She got into a present early! 

This is how she was the morning of her birthday, but luckily after a nap, she was MUCH happier for the party! 

Goodies for the chocolate fountain.

Candy bar

Me with my Love Bug before the party started

With Nana and Papa

Opening present with Aunt Bekah!

MMMM CAKE!

The day was absolutely perfect other than her Daddy not being able to be here. Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate with us!! 

What a month...

Well the time finally came for Austin to leave on the 22nd and he is now in Afghanistan for the duration of the deployment with the exception of R-n-R later this year. 

Lyla and I have had a great time being here with family, but we sure do miss Austin. I can't believe our beautiful baby girl will be a year old in one week from today. Although the first few months were kindof a blur, it feels like she was that tiny newborn just yesterday. 

She is SO active these days, running everywhere and just having fun exploring her world. She babbles all the time and is getting more and more teeth in these days. 

We had a quick but great trip to Texas this month to see Hallie and Ross get married. Beautiful wedding and a great time shorty visiting with family. Other than that, we have somehow managed to stay busy every day...maybe one day of down time here or there, but that has been a blessing to keep busy while Austin is away. It really helps the time pass by. 

Here are a few photos from this month to enjoy:

Home on the range...

Well Lyla and I are back "Home". Quotations due to the fact that the word "Home" is very relative in our lives. Georgia will always be Home to me though, so thats what I will always call it! 

Our flight back home was....interesting. From Germany to London she slept (1 hr plane ride) then she slept maybe 1 1/2 hrs the rest of the time. SO my 9 hr plane ride was spent trying to keep a baby (baby that walks=toddler) from trying to terrorize the other passengers. Luckily we were sat on the exit row (no- we were not responsible for the exits, as we were in the middle row) that had this neat pull down thing, almost like the tray you eat off of, but the flight attendant attached a carseat/bassinet to it so she could sit it in! How cool is that?! (will add a pic later)

So she wouldn't sleep and we finally get to ATL around 5:50 PM, I put her in her carrier and we get our bags, get through the passport check, she finally falls asleep THEN...

The only country in the world that does this: we had to go through another security and I had to take her off of me and wake her up!!!!!

But it worked out because when we got to the house I just put her right to bed and the time change was relatively easy. After only a week she is not waking up at night anymore. And even before then she only was waking up once to eat, just because her time clock was so off. 

We are back and enjoying visiting friends and family, but we sure do miss Austin. Thank the Lord for Skype!

Christmas in Deutschland

Frohe Weihnachten

("Merry Christmas" in German)

 

We had a very Merry Christmas here in Germany thanks to our wonderful families! Lyla's first Christmas was like none other that I have ever seen. By this I mean... she got to stay home all day, not rush around anywhere, and play with her mountains of new toys! 

 

This year Christmas was very different for us. Definately for me. I am so use to having at least 5-6 places to be between Christmas eve and Christmas Day. We enjoyed our first Christmas with Lyla in the quietness that we have here and looking out on beautiful snow fall. 

 

Beyond that we got to enjoy a really neat German tradition: Christmas Markets! We only got to go to one this year, in Rothenburg, because we were snowed in most days, but it was really great. We ate our first German braut, Yummy Crepes, and I had my first mug of  Gluhwein (warm wine) which was so yummy! We also got a "snowball" which is fried dough covered in all kinds of goodies... mine was covered in Chocolate of course!

 

All in all we want to thank our familes for making Christmas kindof feel like home with the showering of gifts! We love you all very much and miss you!

Here are pictures from our Christmas Adventures:

 

Rothenburg

Beautiful snowy sights along the way...

After a 2 1/2 hr drive, we finally got there!

Walking into town, looking for the Christmas market

Starting to see more decorations!

Finally made it to the market! We had been talking about going for at least 2 weeks!

All Christmas markets are centered around the Church!

The biggest Christmas store I have ever seen! They had so many beautiful hand carved items.

HUGE tree! I would sat at least 30 ft tall!

This was just as big as the tree! All hand carved wood. So beautiful!

The walls surrounding the city as we were leaving. Very cool

Christmas

In her first Christmas Hat!

The beautiful Candle holder I got in Rothenburg

Lyla's first ornament! It says Merry Christmas in German

The hand painted ornament I got in Rothenburg

Glass ornament we bought in Kiaserslautern (AKA" K-Town")

Our Tree with most of the goodies under it

We tried Very hard to get her to sit infront of the tree... this is the best we got!

Our family pic on Christmas Eve

Lyla with all of her goods

Opening on Christmas Eve

And Christmas Morning after the madness!

 

We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

To Germany we go....

November 10th, Lyla and I flew to Germany to be with Austin before his next deployment. The flight was amazingly easy considering Lyla fell asleep at take off and woke up when we landed! When we got to Frankfurt, that was another story. Austin had gone to the wrong airport so Lyla and I went all over the Frankfurt airport trying to find him! Two hours later and we were finally together again! We are just getting settled in and our home goods should be delivered this coming Friday, December 3rd!

November has been a good month for us. Lyla turned 8 months old and is learning so so so much. She is standing and cruising on everything and even took a step with out holding on the Saturday after Thanksgiving! She just continues to amaze us all the time. We have already found a play group here and are enjoying going when we can. We are just really enjoying being together as a family before Austin's next deployment, which is coming up faster than we want it to.

Thanksgiving was great this year. We had our first snow in Germany (which wasn't much for them, but more that I usually see in a whole year!) and we had two friends over to celebrate with us. This was my first time cooking the whole dinner by myself, but everything turned out great!

Here are some pictures from November! More to come...

Right before we boarded the plane

Out big plane to Germany!

 Finally back hanging out with daddy!

 She got a new toy when we got here because we didn't have much for her to play with.

Yummy wipes!

The view from our dining room

Headed to the park to swing for a few minutes

 We went to an FRG meeting. It was close by so we walked!

 Playing guitar with daddy!

 Helping daddy make breakfast for dinner...yum

Our first Germany snow day!