So many updates!

Many apologies from us to you about our lack of upkeep on here, hopefully we won't have another 8 month lapse in posts.
lets see if i can do the quick abridged version of the past few months:

June:
The weekend after father's day Ivan had one of his long weekends between shift changes so we took advantage of it and went away on our first family vacation. We went to Atlanta and got there about lunchtime to go straight to the zoo. Jax was really excited to see all the animals, but we agree that the elephants were his favorites. The next day we went to the World of coca-cola which is something of a mix of a museum, bottling factory and shrine to all things coke. we ate the varsity, the largest drive in in the world and walked around the Olympic park. our last day there we went to stone mountain, which is a little northeast of Atlanta. It is a huge monument (3 times the size of mount Rushmore) dedicated to the confederacy from the civil war. there is a relief carved into the side of a large granite mountain. from there we came home.

July:
Ivan had to work evenings during the first week of July so he missed out on fireworks. Jax and Nora went to the fireworks display on base on the 3rd, where Jax did really well with his first experience with fireworks, he was a little scared at first but ended up enjoying them. Our friend Logan came to visit at the last minute, which ended up being a lot of fun. We went for a picnic on the beach at Ilse of Palms, walked all over downtown after hitting the farmers market, and went to the angel oak tree. Not too long after her visit, Nora's mom flew in and treated us to our first ghost tour downtown. It was a fun way to learn about some of the history of this old city and it's residents.

August:
Jax started taking his first unassisted steps, and finally on the 29th he got his first tooth, followed shortly by his second on the 31st. He also finished his first set of swimming lessons. Next summer we'll do it all over again so that he is comfortable in water. Nora started going to a quilting class on base.

September:
September was a big month for us, Jax took his first plane ride! He and Nora were needed in Odessa for a friends wedding in which Nora was in the bridal party. This was Jax's first trip to Texas and he got to meet so many family members and many "aunts" who were ready to spoil him. He did amazing on the flights and the travel (there was a roadtrip to Dallas) . And he got to have his first of his 2 birthday parties.

October:
Jax turned 1!!! He had a great birthday party with a few of his friends. Not too long after Ivan graduated prototype school, where he received an award for personal excellence. We celebrated by heading to Virginia right after the ceremony to go to Busch Gardens where Jax rode his first rides. Jax was walking pretty regularly by the end of the month and going days at a time without crawling.Ivan got selected for staff pick-up which means that we're staying put for the next 2 years. Jax got to do a little trick or treating this year, but he mostly just hung out with daddy while he passed out candy to the trick or treaters.

November:
another slow month, I'll save you the details, but this was Jax's first time to get ahold of a dirty diaper, we found out that we can sterilize a baby and his room in record time. Also we moved Jax into a bigger room and switched his old one with the office. It's a little further from our room, but he has so much more space for his limitless supply of toys. By the way, if you are thinking of getting Jax something, please no more toys or stuffed animals, board books are great and so are clothes. Ivan had to work nights for Thanksgiving (boo!) so we were lucky enough to dine with some other friends who have boys close in age to Jax.

December:
We decided at the last minute to take advantage of Ivan's military discount to Disney World and went the weekend before Christmas, for both our second family vacation and our little Christmas gift to ourselves. Jax finally got 2 more teeth, bringing the total up to 4! We were able to ride most of the classic family rides and enjoyed nice weather, we left on a Thursday after Ivan got home and stayed until Monday evening so that Ivan could be back at work Tuesday afternoon, so we were able to devote 1 day to each park. This was every one's first trip to Disney World and it was really successful, we have already started making a list of all the things we want to do the next time we go! Ivan had to work Christmas, but ended up getting Christmas eve off so we went to the festival of lights on John's Island (about 10 mins on the other side of downtown Charleston), where there is a 3 mile drive through Christmas lights. A few days after Christmas, Nora packed up the car with Jax and drove off to Texas for a late Christmas with some of her family because Jax's cousin Gus was flying in as well.

January:
January was filled with roadtrips and relatives for Nora and Jax and work for Ivan. Jax managed to get 2 more teeth in Odessa followed by both of his top molars cutting through in the same evening, luckily it was a few days before they were scheduled to head home so he was doing much better with the teething pain by the time they hopped back in the car to leave. The trip home was more eventful than we would have liked plagued with bad weather and a fire alarm going off in the middle of the night, but we made it back in one piece. The end of January was just spent enjoying being home and spending time with each other.

February:
So far this month has been pretty awesome, Ivan made E-5 so he is now a second class petty officer!!! Also he turned 25, way to go! We got a new bedroom seeing as how our old set was falling apart and missing drawers and we upgraded to a queen size bed, that's right, we'd been sleeping on a full size bed for over 4 years!So that may not be very exciting to anyone else, but it was super exciting to us. Tonight we are experiencing the first measurable snowfall in 10 years, we took Jax out but he really didn't care for it, it was (and still is) snowing and he didn't want it in his face or anything. (it's where our picture came from) He better get over it by the morning because we are going out and making him his first snowman whether he likes it or not! We switched Jax over to a big boy bed and he has been doing incredibly well with it, his first night he went down for the first time and didn't get out until 7 and a half hours later! It has only improved since then. We are still using the crib at naptime, but he is getting better at knowing that his bed is where he needs to be sleeping now.

I realize that I need to update pictures soon, until then go to youtube and look up nordorr for a few videos of Jax!