Daddy Is Coming Home!!!

As exciting as the headline seems it's actually very bittersweet. Jake's dad, Britt, found out he has stage 4 lung cancer this week so the Marines are actually being really great and are gonna get Jake home for the holidays to be with his family. He'll be in Nebraska for about 2 weeks on leave and then he'll be back stationed here in North Carolina after that. They considered sending him back to Iraq after his leave in Nebraska, to finish up his tour, but thankfully they decided against that! It was starting to seem like March was never gonna get here. So anyways, as excited as we all are to have Jake home 3 months early we all just wish the circumstances were better.

Cruz and I will be coming to Nebraska on Monday and then Jake should get there Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!!!

Can you tell by the picture that Cruz and I are very excited for Jake to be home?:)

9 month check up

Cruz had his 9 month check up today, he's a healthy little boy. He weighed 22lbs and was 29 1/4" tall. He's in the 75th percentile for weight and between the 75th and 90th percentile for height. He's gained 4 pounds in the last 3 months and grew 2 1/4".

Yesterday Cruz and Eve exchanged Christmas presents so I have a few photos of them opening the gifts. Cruz was more interested in eating the wrapped presents then unwrapping them!

Well some exciting news for us is we are to the half way mark in the deployment. Jake doesn't have a for sure date to come home yet but we're at least half way done, yay! Cruz & I will be back in Nebraska a week from today and will be there till January 5th, we can't wait to see everyone!

9 months

Cruz is 9 months old today. It was a rainy day here so I dressed him up in his Christmas outfit and we took some photos. Happy Birthday Cruz! O and I noticed tonight he has a top tooth coming in so that makes 3 teeth, yay!

Santa

I took Cruz to see Santa today. He did really well with him and didn't cry until the crazy lady taking the pictures made some weird loud noise to get his attention. Needless to say the picture she took he looks scared to death in but I did get these two other shots with my camera that turned out better.

Army Crawling

Here's a quick video of Cruzer doing his army crawl.

Thanksgiving

Well we got back to North Carolina last night. We had a really nice trip home and will be heading back again on the 22nd for two weeks over Christmas! Everyone definitely said Cruz had grown since they last saw him and I got a lot of comments like "wow he's a big boy" or "gosh he doesn't miss a meal huh":) He goes in for his 9 month check up on the 15th so I'm anxious to see how much he's grown in the last 3 months. He did start army crawling the day before Thanksgiving so hopefully once he gets more mobile he'll lose some of that baby fat!

I really didn't take many pictures when I was home this time for some reason so here are a few. My mom and I tried to take Cruz to see Santa on Tuesday but I guess Santa doesn't work at the Fremont mall on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday's. Hopefully I'll have time to get him to see Santa here in North Carolina!




Cruz & I, Tim, Erin & Ava and Steve & Leah (Jake went to high school with Tim & Steve)






Kenna & Cruz







Uncle Mick







Great Grandma Sawyer








Uncle Heath






Michael & Cruz







Aunt Katie helping Cruz finish Thanksgiving dinner and Great Grandpa Keller watching closely!