Levi is One

We have a one year old! This year went by too quickly. I can't wrap my head around the fact that we have a one year old little boy, and he's just going to keep growing up.
I spent the week before Levi's birthday going through old photos of him still in my belly and of the night he was born. I read old blog posts and journal entries and looked back on how I was feeling about becoming a mom. After my one year anniversary of Motherhood, I'm feeling pretty good!

I don't think I've posted since we've made the move to Hawaii.

It was an incredibly long two days of traveling. Right before our flight to Hawaii, the airlines told us our crate for Piper was not 'airline approved'.  That caused a minor panic attack, but luckily there was a pet shop not far from LAX, so Taylor jumped in a taxi and was able to make it back in plenty of time.  After a long 6 hours in the air, we finally landed on Oahu. Home Sweet Home, for a while.

 

Taylor was given about a week of permissive leave, so we went out and explored as much as we could.

 

 

Waimanalo Beach

Hanauma Bay

 



Our favorite area is a small surfing town up on the North Shore called Haleiwa. The sun sets perfectly over there and they have the most amazing Thai food. I wish we lived closer!

 

 Our new neighborhood.

 Out on the western tip of the island.

 C-17

Haleiwa Thai



 Levi is walking all over the place.

 Boots and Kimos. He loves their Macadamia Nut pancakes.

 

Levi Owen <3

 

It's been a wonderful few months living in Hawaii!

 

-B

New Year

2012 was incredibly full, and I am happy with it.
But 2013 will be the best year yet.

Last year was the most life-changing.  We had our perfect baby boy, Levi Owen.  My husband, after years of hard work, received his wings. After a nervous ceremony, we found out he would be flying the C-17 Globemaster from Hickam AFB, Hawaii. This family is blessed!

Since my last post, we have done a lot of traveling. Thanksgiving with the Raglands in Arkansas, which actually turned out to be Pukefest 2012. We all caught the 24 hour flu. Taylor left for 3 weeks to complete SERE (Survival Evasion Resistance Escape).
Then off to Nashville for a week with my oldest sister. A fun week there mixed with stress of teething and no sleep.
Then up to my parent's house in the mountains for another week. A lot of relaxing and cozy cabin memories there. 
Then down to Maryville for time with the Raglands after picking up Taylor from the airport. He survived the brutal 3 weeks.

Levi's first Christmas was with all of our Tennessee family. He wore Christmas pajamas and tore open his presents (with some help), and it was so fun for me to think of all of the Christmases to come with our little guy.  To watch him grow and to start new Christmas traditions that are special to our family.

We traveled back up to the mountains to spend New Years with the Bowley family.  It was Levi's first time meeting his Uncle AJ.  The whole Bowley family was together (which is pretty hard to do nowadays!) and we were soaking up every minute that we could.  It will be hard to be away from our families.  Especially with Levi.  But we were blessed to have time with everyone before we left. 

This was a big month for Levi.  He had his first accident and bled.  He was on all fours trying to crawl and slipped and bit the ground.  I saw blood in his mouth as he was crying, and it was the worst experience of my life.  I started sweating like crazy and my heart was beating so fast. I got the first taste of what it was like to want to take away my kid's pain, but not be able to.  But after a few minutes of sucking on an ice cube, he was good as new. Mom was still in a panic though. I had anxiety about it for days! Anyone else experience the 'mom sweats'?
Levi also has been saying "Dada" all day long. Still working on "Mama". He talks so much now, it's one of my favorite new developments. I love his baby voice. 
Within these past two weeks he has finally become a crawler.  That by far is the biggest adjustment.  I'm up every few minutes chasing after him. I love watching him explore the house.  After ten days of 'slow crawling' he is now speed crawler. It's amazing how fast babies learn. I've entered a whole new stage of parenting. Today he has already learned to pull up on things, and I know that our next big milestone will be walking. Sometimes I just want to hold him and cry please, stay little, don't grow up but, I have more enjoyment watching my son learn and grow.  Most days..
After weeks of being awake through the night and constant teething pain, Levi now has 6 teeth, including his two front teeth. It was the toughest 6 weeks.  He looks so grown up to me now. Any time he giggles and smiles at me I see those teeth. No more little baby, now I see my little boy.

With four days to go, we are getting more excited about our arrival to Hawaii. 
The most beautiful photos to come next week...