November and December

November flew by and December is almost over too! Where has the time gone?!?!

With November came Thanksgiving and Grammy and Granpa! YAY :) I don't know who was more excited about them coming to visit and meet lil man. I was so happy to finally have them here and get to spend time with them. We had a good visit, saw some of the local sites, and went to London. It was a short visit and I was sad to them leave, but we will get to see them again soon :)

With the end of November and beginning of December brought our first snow! We were super excited about it... and I was super nervous about driving in it. Not only do I have to drive on the wrong side of the road and car and drive a standard, I have to worry about snow and ice! Are you kidding me? God really does have a sense of humor... and I'm sure he gets a good laugh every time I drive. Now on the 21st day of December, and first day of winter, I have decided that I'm tired of the cold and spring can come at any time. (If only)

Our little man is growing SO FAST! It's hard to believe he is 3 months old! He has started to try and roll over, and is trying so hard to talk and make sounds :) He has the sweetest smile that we can't get enough of and he just LOVES to look around and see what is going on. He's a little ham already, which I'm sure will make our lives interesting when he gets a little older.

Here are a few pics of little man, snow and Grammy and Granpa.

Little Man

Winter Wonderland

Granpa, Grammy and Little Man

I want to say a quick thank you for those of you who have been praying for my grandpa. After multiple surgeries and almost 40 days in ICU, he has been moved to another hospital that has a rehab center. He is not anywhere close to being back to normal but he is on the road to recovery.

1st Halloween and set of shots

The past couple of days we have experienced a lot of firsts!! Like Colin's first Halloween. We enjoyed some time at the Fall Festival at the Fire Station. We even got to watch Bubba in a donut eating contest. (he didn't win)

 

We then went Trick-or-Treating with some friends and passed out candy too. Even though Colin slept the entire time he was super cute in the outfit his aunt Hannah got him. 

We even took time to take a little family picture :)

On Monday, Colin had his two month appointment. He is now 11 lbs 4oz and 22 1/4 in long. He is growing so FAST!!! I told him he could slow down a little. He also got his 2 month shots :( He took them like a champ and was asleep by the time I walked out of the clinic. He was extra fussy all day Monday, which isn't like him at all, but he is back to normal. :)

Bubba starts taking a math class this month, and George and Julie are coming to visit! YAY! We had lots of fun last month when the Wests came to visit. Here are a couple of pictures from their visit!

 

Newest Member of the West Family

So it has been a couple of months and things in the West household have changed so much! So here is a QUICK rundown of what has been happening.

 Starting in July... we celebrated the 4th with a BBQ, friends and fireworks! So much fun. Also we celebrated our 3 year anniversary!

August- Bubba turned 22! I am now a stay at home mom!

September- 15th we welcomed Colin Ray West into the world at 19:15. He weighed 7lbs 9oz and was 19 1/2 inches long. I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful baby boy! He is perfect in every way :)

October- We welcomed the West's to England. It was fun having family come and visit. We went to Edinburgh, Scotland, London, and a few places around our house. They were so excited to see us and of course their new grandbaby/nephew. They spoiled him rotten for two weeks and I'm sure it will continue even though they went home. Bubba went back to work :( so Colin and I are trying to get into a routine... hahaha

Life has definitely been busy with Colin here. Just trying to get all of his paperwork (passports, birth certificates, etc) done has been a daunting task, but we are almost done :)

Now that things are settling down (and I'm on a schedule) I am going to be updating more. Keep checking in for updates on what we are doing, where we are going and Colin's growth :)



Love ~The West Family

Time flies???

So here I sit as another month has gone by... Where did it go? Before I know it our 3 years here will be over and we will be headed to a new place with a child! CRAZY!!!

Life has been... an adventure the last month. I think we have FINALLY gotten our routine down.... maybe. I started working in May and so far I like it. I work at the Child Development Center on base and work in the 6wk to 6mo room. I rock babies all day which is wonderful. The only thing that is bad is I work 40 hrs a week as a part time employee. It's hard only getting to see Bubba for 5-6 hrs every other day, but I guess I should be thankful we get to spend time together at all.

Our little man is getting bigger and bigger everyday, or at least my belly is. We are almost at 26 weeks. TIME FLIES! I can't believe we are going to be parents in September. Went to the doctor last week and everything looks great. Baby boy is growing and healthy and I am healthy. I don't think I could ask for anything else :)

We have done some more traveling. Well we went to London with some friends to the aquarium. We really want to go back and see more of London. I have pictures posted on facebook so if you haven't seen them you can go look.

Wow... I guess I should update this since I have been here in England for a month! It really is starting to feel like home (minus good mexican food and family). We are SLOWLY getting the house in order... it's a process. When we received our stuff we asked the movers to unpack everything, which is really a good thing, except now I have stuff EVERYWHERE! Everyday we get more stuff put up and it looks more and more like a house and less like a storage unit.

We are also getting used to Bubba's new work schedule. It's hard that he is gone every other day but he is off for 3 days every other week, which is nice. I will hopefully be starting a job at the Child Development Center in a week or so... hopefully. I'm not completely done with all the paper work, but we a keeping our fingers crossed.

Life here is VERY different from back home. Most things (in our area) are closed by 9pm, some even earlier. It's different getting used to that and the fact that if you want to go out to eat your choices are limited. There is not a whole lot to do around where we live and you have to drive at least 30 minutes for a larger town. (even though it is 15 miles away)

For those who keep asking about the baby (and now that I have internet at home) I will try my hardest to do a better job at keeping you informed. I will also try to convince Bubba to take a belly picture so you can all see. (He thinks belly pictures are weird, whatever) Everything is going good and my last appointment went well. I have an ultrasound on the 17th of this month and we will hopefully find out what we are having :) We are excited and getting a little nervous, but everything in the "baby department" is going good. (Now if we could get the room cleaned out so we can get baby stuff in it)

We miss everyone back home, but are enjoying the time we have together over here. We were able to go to Scotland for a couple of days and go see a couple of castles. We really want to go back and see more, but have to wait on leave and things like that. The weather is nice right now, about high 50's low 60's everyday. It rains every couple of days (usually for about 5 mins) but supposedly we are in a heat wave... I can handle this kind of heat wave.

We will definitely try harder to keep you informed about what is going on in our lives. We miss you all :)

5 days in England

HELLO ALL!!!!

I have been in England now for 5 days. I still feel like I am on vacation but I know that will end in a week or so when we move into our house. England is a pretty cool place but there are some things that drive me CRAZY!!! For example... speed limits are an exception except when there is a security camera, It rains... everyday (and not hard, just misting enough to make you mad), roundabouts... They just make me nervous, and everything here is backwards (you switch the light down, instead of up to turn it on).

As much as those things give me a tick, there are some amazing things and people here. I love that the towns are old, every building, every stone. It gives these places so much character. I love that there are daffodils EVERYWHERE!!! They make the dreariest day bright. Fish and chips are the BOMB dot COM! (and you have to eat them with salt and vinegar!) I can't wait to keep exploring and letting you all know more about England. Hopefully, if all works out and Bubba doesn't start work til Monday, we are going to try to take a day trip to London this weekend.

This past weekend we went to the south to the town of Paignton. It's a costal town, you can walk to the "beach" (a tiny bit of sand compared to American beaches). We stayed with an awesome couple who took us around to see the town and sights in the area. We can't wait to go back! On our way we passed Stonehenge. I got pictures from the road, it's crazy how you are driving along and the hills are green and then out in the middle of nowhere these rocks just pop up. It was pretty neat to see. I have a few pictures I'm going to post on facebook so you can see some of what we have seen from this weekend!

I'm leaving on a Jet Plane!

Ok, So I don't know exactly when I am leaving but will hopefully book my flight tomorrow! I am so excited. My visa is on it's way to Goodfellow and will then be on it's way to me :) I am ready to be in England with Bubba!

Bubba has been in Lakenheath for a week now and loves it! I can't wait to get there and see all the things he has told me about. This is going to be such an exciting adventure for us :)

Update on the Baby news is... I am 14 weeks pregnant! The baby is doing great which excites us very much. I am doing great too. :)

I will let you know more as I know more!

GUESS WHAT!?!?

We got some AMAZING news in the West household this week! READY!?!?!? We are going to have a baby! That's right in September we will welcome the newest member to the West family into the world! We are super excited and can't wait! :) We will be sure to keep you updated!

In other exciting news... Bubba graduates from Fire School on February 25th! He is ready to be done so we can focus on moving in the next month. Bubba will move March 13th and I will follow in April. (I am waiting on my paperwork to get finished) There is still a TON to get done but hopefully the movers will come before he leaves.

It has been an exciting week here. Can't wait to let you know more!

I've GOT to do BETTER

Wow, I have done awful the last couple of months with keeping up this blog. I know most of you who read this talk to Bubba on Facebook and keep up with him that way. BUT... here is what is going on in the lives of the West Family.

Bubba has 5 1/2 weeks left of fire school!!! He is VERY much ready to be done and get the move underway. Having gone through fire school once has been tough but he is making it. In the next week or so they will start doing their live burns, which Bubba is excited about. He has been wanting to fight fire since day 1.

As for me, I am trying to get all of our stuff ready for the move. I'm also trying to get all of my paperwork filled out and turned in so I can live with him in England. I know what all goes into moving, but I had NO IDEA how much it takes to move to a new country. I will TRY to keep everyone updated on the moving situation.

After Bubba graduates, he will do two weeks of work with his recruiter (2 weeks FREE VACATION)... I mean he will have to go in to work but HE WILL BE HOME!!! Then we will move. This puts our move date around March 19th or so. We are excited but a little nervous too! Can't wait to get over to England and get settled in!

So, with that 2 month summary, I promise to do better keeping you all updated on our life!