Mothers are the best medicine

My mom came out for three weeks to help us settle in to our new place... it was great to have her here for so long and I was pretty heart broken to have her leave! So come visit us soon! Here are some pictures of her visit!...

my mom and I the day we first saw our new house!

eating at our favorite pizza place Giordannos!

Jace and Grandma down by the pond in our housing community

Jace relaxing with Grandma!

at the Lincoln Park zoo in Chicago, we went for my moms birthday!

We sure miss you mom, and cant wait for your next visit! Love you<3

Jelly Belly

On Saturday Sean, Jace, Bobby (which is one of Sean's shipmates, and Jace adores him) and myself went to the Jelly Belly Factory in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. There you take a thirty minute tour ride on a train throughout the factory and see how the Jelly Belly candies and a few others are made! After the tour you exist into a huge Jelly Belly store. It was pretty interesting, even Jace enjoyed himself! 

 on the train ride, you're required to wear hats!

 my little Jelly Belly factory worker :]

 stopping for lunch at Culvers, sitting with Bobby!

Road Trip..

So I thought I would fill you in on how our road trip went... Jace like I mentioned was a great traveler. Prior to our trip I was extremely nervous. He is usually not a fan of getting in his car seat or being in a car for longer than give or take 10 mins. I dont know where this Jace came from but I was sure glad he did he made traveling a whole lot easier. We drove a little over 2000 miles over 5 days! We started in Upland, California drove about 5 hours to Zion, Utah. Then from there drove only 4.5 hours to Salt Lake City, Utah. Drove 7 hours (this was the worst, most boring, ugly drive ever) through Wyoming to Laramie. Then 8 hours to Lincoln, Nebraska and finally 9.5 hours to Gurnee, IL. Jace slept most of the way, but he also enjoyed singing in the car, playing with all of his new toys his Aunt Lynne and Aunt Barbara packed him with. We also made sure we planned stops that we could all get out and stretch our legs and let Jace and Molly too let loose. 

swimming with mommy and daddy at our first hotel stop!

 breakfast at our hotel!

 snuggling in the car with Molly.

After lunch at yummy red robin, Jace got to ride the carousel, which he loved!

 Our trip to StealNetwork :] 

 lunch at Little America

In our hotel in Wy, getting ready to Skype aunt Lynne

 Daddy and Jace being silly

 Back seat buddies

 enjoying our stop eating some ice cream

and riding some horse saddles.

WE MADE IT!

At our new place!!

just like daddy...

So while I was writing our catch up blog I forgot to tell you about Jace and his ear troubles (hence where just like daddy comes in to play...) Well since October Jace was having ear infection after ear infection, well finally his poor ear drum had enough and actually ruptured. The ear actually drained for 28 days, let me tell you that was a mess. We took Jace into the ENT and they deep cleaned it (twice) and did a hearing test on him. The hearing test came back not so well, he had 50/60 hearing a normal range is 10/20.  The ENT told us that if he had another ear infection he would rather just surgically put tubes in his ears and it should also help with his hearing loss.. well wouldnt you know 2 weeks later Jace came down with an ear infection, so on March 5th Jace had his surgery. The procedure was scheduled for 2 that afternoon which meant he could not eat or drink anything 8 hours prior to that. That was hard, Jace kept signing eat and milk and it broke my heart to tell him he couldnt have any thing. Luckily the hospital was extremely accommodating  and we got a private room up in the pediatrics ward until they called him for surgery. We walked and walk the halls, when he got bored with that we watched tv, cuddled and read books, finally they called him down. I was able to stay with him up until the very last second. The whole procedure lasted only 30 minutes, and Jace did great! He woke up not very happy, but I was able to go into recovery with him which eased him a bit. When we were finally taken back up to his room in pediatrics they had a juice sippy cup and food waiting for him. We were told we had to slowly give him food due to his anesthesia but my porker wasnt going to allow that.. a bottle of milk, two cups of apple juice, squeeze pouch of apple sauce, a grilled cheese, and some cheezits he was satisfied. Jace's nurse for the day was a true God send. Small world, she is actually the mom of one of Sean's shipmates from bootcamp! She gave Jace a Spongebob stuffed animal and was just so nice and lovely to us all, which really made the whole day so much easier! Two weeks after his surgery they did a hearing test and I am so excited to say his hearing was at a 10/20!!! I truly do think the fluid in his ears being gone changed my little boy so much! He is happier, talks and babbles more, and isnt in anymore pain! Im so glad that he is feeling better, his hearing is better, and hopefully the tubes continue to improve his problem with frequent ear infections! 

Jace at his 2 week check up, thinking he owns the place lol!

Playing Catch Up...

Oh boy.... so my last post was in August, we are now in April. I'd say Im a little behind in blogging, and not to mention these last 8 months (really 8 months, yikes) have been so busy! Ill start with Sean graduated bootcamp on September 30th, 2011. My mom, dad, myself and Jace all flew out to Chicago to see his graduation. We had a great week in the windy city and seeing Sean for 9 long weeks. Sean then had to stay in THU (temporary holding unit) for almost 4 weeks while he had surgery on his ears to have tubes placed in them. He then went to San Antonio, Texas for A school. He was there for 13 weeks. He graduated 4th in his class out of 90 other guys, way to go Sean! We celebrated Jace's first Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas! He also turned ONE on Feb. 5th. We had his first birthday party on the 4th of February. The theme was Jace is ONE can you dig it. So boy, and it fit him so well! Sadly Sean was not able to come home to celebrate but he was there in spirit. In March we found out we were going to be stationed in Great Lakes, Il. Great Lakes is home to the Navy bootcamp and about 40 miles north of Chicago, in fact we are considered North Chicago! hehe. I was really excited to find out where we were going, however I was not quite excited about our destination. Being the brave person I am, decided to drive the 2000 miles to Great Lakes with a 14 month old, our dog Molly and Sean and myself. To our surprise Jace did amazing! He is a great traveler, (I think he heard me talking about going to Disneyworld in November and was trying to prove to us he could go) haha. After 5 long days of traveling and hotel stays we finally made it to IL!! And the best part about it was my mom was waiting there for us. She had come out for 3 weeks to help us settle in! Well we arrived, and apparently IL was not ready for us, because we were greeted with the news that our furniture would be delivered 3 days later, which meant 3 extra nights of hotels. Jace, myself and my mom all got food poisoning on our second night, let me tell you that was a horrible experience. Three people, throwing up, in one tiny hotel room! Yikes!! But I can say three weeks later, we are in our house, mostly settled in and so far loving it here. Of course it would be much better if my family was here, but that just means plenty of visitors. I promise to try and keep up with the blog, mainly so my family and friends at home can see Jace and our daily adventures! 

Jace on his first airplane ride...

Seans bootcamp graduation 

Jace's first halloween, my bear!

Jace's first Thanksgiving

Jace's first Christmas

Jace's first birthday at Disneyland

Jace's first birthday party, can you dig it?

Road trip, top photo visitng Jana at the StealNetwork warehouse, bottom photo how Molly our dog thought she would travel on our road trip! :] Silly dog.