Our New Adventure Awaits!

      We are happy to announce that Brenton received his #1 choice for his assignment.. RC135s to Offutt! He is very excited as am I. While I don't like that his assignment is very dangerous, I am thrilled he gets to do what he wants to do. I am also overjoyed at the fact that we will be around shopping once again! After living down here in MS I actually did get used to it, but I can't tell you how excited I am that we will be just minutes away from many shopping areas and actual grocery stores.. oh and a Target.. a Super Target! I am also very excited for Eli. We will be just minutes away from an amazing zoo and there are tons of childrens' activities and things to do around there.. one of which is a hands on children's museum.. can't wait until Eli gets old enough for that! I am so glad that assignment night is over and we can finally relax on the topic of where we may be going.. now we just need to get dates and start house hunting.

    Let's reverse a little bit and review how assignment night went.. as any UPT spouse knows, the weeks leading up to assignment night, not to mention the day of.. wears on a person's nerves. While Brenton had created his 'dream sheet' a week before, I still had made up my mind I was expecting nothing.. anything can happen. Many people were called up before Brenton.. one guy received C-5s to Dover (our #2) so I was like okay, well thats out. Then the next guy received RC 135s to Offutt (our # 1) and the guy after that received C 21s can't remember what base (our # 3) so I became very very nervous. I was thinking oh my.. where oh where are we ending up? This cannot be good. Please, please let it be in the US. While there can be more than one C 5, C 21, and RC 135 in a drop.. its not very common. I was on the edge of my seat at the point. As his name was finally called (which seemed like an eternity) I noticed his slide.. his slide read that he was from the "show me" state and that he was most likely to end up with more kids than the octomom and never deploy.. do I even need to comment on that? After he suffered through his roast, (which  I did not really find comical) the big map came up on the slide... and a line went straight to Nebraska.. I about peed my pants! Brenton was beyond thrilled and actually picked me up and swung me around..  I wasn't expecting that either.. The night went on to be a very good night and the weekend to be a very good weekend. We had some family in town visiting Eli for the first time and were able to hang out and relax with some really great friends! A memorable weekend for sure.

                              Brenton so excited that he decided to pick me up and swing me around..

                                    The Jones family will soon be moving to Omaha!

   It has recently been brought to my attention by several people that I have not started my career yet. My reaction to these comments: thats fine by me and I am proud of that decision. I became a mom at the relatively young age of 22 by choice and for many reasons I am not getting into. As of right now, I enjoy my job title: I am a mama, wife, and student. I am proud of who I have become.. its not easy being a military wife, let alone finishing a degree and raising a child. With that being said, I do not regret one thing. In fact, God willing.. Brenton and I do plan on having more children in the future. I do plan on working (as childbirth education is my passion) but I also plan on staying home whenever time allows to be with Eli. My goal for him is to have the childhood I did not have growing up.. I am going to try my hardest to make sure that happens.. he deserves it so much. I know this is the life I signed up for, I don't need reminders.. again, I made this decision. I know I will have a husband who will be deployed frequently risking his life, I know sometimes it will seem like I am a single parent.. I have prepared myself for these things. I am not asking for sympathy, thats the last thing I want. If anything, I just want to be acknowledged in a positive way. The last thing I need is to be criticized and looked down upon with what I am doing and who I have become. I am proud of the mother God has shaped me to be, the hardworking and persevering student, and the loving wife that supports my husband 100%. This will never change, and I thank God for this life every day. I have my fair share of struggles and know that more lie ahead.. but with each new struggle I am learning more and more of who I am and who I really want to become in life.

Eli's First Easter/Upcoming Events

     We hope everyone had a great Easter, we sure did! Easter is a very important holiday to Brenton and I, and while we do enjoy giving one another candy to celebrate, we also know the real reason behind Easter and feel very strongly in teaching our children the real reason we celebrate. To do this, we of course went to church (Eli is in a stage right now where he loves church, he loves the singing and tries to sing along. Its cute, I am just enjoying it while it lasts!) Another way we do this is by Resurrection Eggs. For anyone that doesn't know what these are: Resurrection Eggs are plastic eggs that hold some object with a scripture that helps tell the Easter story) I decided to make the Resurrection Eggs for Eli this year even though I know he had no idea what I was talking about or trying to convey to him. I thought it would be a great idea to make them for his first Easter, and then make it a tradition to get them out every Easter afterwards. As he gets a little older I think he will start to catch on, not only will it make a great family tradition, but a nice family keepsake for years down the road.

    Other ways we celebrated yesterday included coming home after church and having a yummy brunch (Thank you pinterest for the idea, and thank you to my lovely crock pot!) Afterwards we spent the rest of the day with friends and ended the evening with giving Eli his Easter basket. Inside there was: said Resurrection Eggs, a 'grow with me sippy' and a stuffed bunny. Not a whole lot, but does a 3 month old really need a lot of items in his Easter basket? I don't think so. While Eli could care less about the eggs (although he did sit still and look at me when I was explaining them to him ) he was quite interested in his stuffed bunny. In fact, he was so interested in it that he threw a fit when I took it away from him to look at his sippy cup..  after a bit he calmed down and became interested in said sippy cup.. success!

   Overall, we had a wonderful day and made great memories :)  It's hard to believe that next Easter we will have a 15 month old running around and talking.. scary but exciting thought! Below you can find Eli discovering the contents of his Easter basket..

                                                                Our first Easter as a family!

                                                           Loved the bunny!

                                                               Okay mama, I guess the sippy is kinda cool..

                                                                    Give me back my bunny!


       As mentioned several times previously.. we will soon be finding out where we will be moving to and what plane Brenton will be flying!! FOUR more days! Can't wait to make that blog post :) So many things are happening.. could be a lot of exciting news to come in upcoming posts.. stay tuned!  Until next time.. take care and God bless!