Wow! what a difference a year and some change can make! after the last post we had a few small and BIG changes. we got a new car, a sweet minivan, ivan and i are officially soccer moms. we moved, not anything big, just around the corner from our old house into a newly renovated larger one because... we had a baby! our new baby is already 7 months old! little ivy pepper was welcomed into the world on november 4th 2010 weighing in at a whooping 8lbs 4 oz and 20 inches long. she is growing like a weed and was a healthy 17lbs 5 oz at her 6 month dr. appointment, not too bad for a kid who had only had breastmilk at that point! we also experienced our first deployment, it wasn't as near as difficult as future tours will be. the sub ivan works on needed to go into drydock, so it was taken 7 hours away into another state that had facilities to handle the repairs. we (jax and i) were able to take aforementioned sweet minivan to drive back and forth to see him every few weeks.Jax and i also took our first cross-country trip about 13 months ago to go meet his newest cousin. We got there just in time, baby Ruby was born less than 24 hours after our plane landed! It was a great experience to be able to be there for my sister and brother in law as they were in the hospital, Jax got to spend some serious one on one time with his cousin gus and it gave us both a break from missing ivan. This past year has also been the year of hospital visits, Jax had an episode of severe croup and needed to be hospitalized overnight until swelling in his throat went down and his oxygen levels went up. We had to make an er visit with ivan because he became very ill, and ended up being diagnosed with pneumonia, sinusitis and a urinary tract infection all at once, then little ivy was born and it was my turn to be in the hospital for a few days, she was quite the stubborn kid and had a labor twice as long as her brother's, and then most recently the kids and i spent a Saturday night in the er waiting to be seen so that Jax could have a dried cranberry removed from his right nostril. i tried to be a good mom and make him some healthy trail mix to snack on, and he returned the favor by sticking it up, and having it get stuck in his nose. hopefully we can go without any more visits to the hospital for some time, otherwise i think they need to give us a frequent visitor punch card and give us a free shirt.
I think that's the majority of the big changes we've had. It is time to get ready for the next round of life's surprises!
