Phil's Pinning

Over a week ago now was one of the most important ceremonies in Phil's career.

We were so proud of him when we first found out he had made Chief and did our best to support him through the induction season.

His pinning marked the end of this process and the beginning of his time as a Chief Petty Officer. I thought I'd share some pictures and things from that day.

Phil was able to choose 2 people to pin his new anchors on his collar. He asked me to do one of them and had the boys work together to do the other. Jeremiah put on the front of the pin.

And Josh had the difficult responsibility of putting on the back. We realized shortly after they had done it that it ended up being put on upside down. I think that only added to the cuteness of it, though. The boys did a really good job with it.

After we did our part, Phil's sponsor put his new cover on for the first time. 

After the ceremony was mostly done, each new Chief walked down the center aisle one at a time. It was so great to see each of them. It was such a proud moment.

Afterward we grabbed a few family shots with Phil in is brand spankin' new khakis.

 As proud as we have been of Phil this whole time, it has definitely been a difficult few weeks to get through and we're so glad now to finally be on the other side!

We did find out that because of all of this Phil will be transferring soon. We'll be staying in the area (so we don't have to try and sell the house yet) but Phil will now we working from a different base. I still have work to do on learning about this new command so maybe once I know more, I can share a little more. In the mean time, it's so nice to be done and settled and ready to move on after all those months and months of waiting in limbo not being sure if we'd be able to stay in the military or not!

All Sorts of Updates

This has been quite a couple of weeks for us! Things are just starting to quiet down today so I thought I'd get some pictures out for everyone to see.

The first big event was Jeremiah's 5th birthday. We spent the entire doing things Jeremiah wanted to do. Waffle House for breakfast, playing video games, Chuck E Cheese,

 chinese food for lunch, and a bounce house place. My Mom and Dad were coming in on a flight that evening so we went to soccer practice while we waited. They came in right after so we grabbed a pizza and enjoyed their company until bedtime.

That's when the rest of the family started getting here for Phil's pinning... which was the very next day! I'll put pictures together from this event on a separate post since I have so many.

The day after the pinning was Jeremiah's birthday party. It turned into such a fun day!

He had asked for a Hot Wheels theme. I had a car cake pan from when Joshua had asked for the same theme. We gave each kid a car cake and let them go to town decorating their own car. We had so much fun doing it!

We even had a guest appearance of a 3 foot Darth Vader at the end. :) This is him with his Uncle Adam. Notice the toes. Those are my favorite part!

After everyone else headed home, my parents stuck around for a bit. Because of work, my Dad had to head back Sunday evening, so we did our best to enjoy the last little bit of time with him by heading to a museum here called Nauticus.

It was pretty interesting and we had just enough time to get my Dad off to the airport and headed home.

My Mom was able to stay for a week longer so we tried to have as much fun with her as we could.

At the end of the week Phil and I were able to go to his Khaki Ball while my Mom watched the boys. We stayed overnight and had such a good time!

The day before my Mom had to leave, we all headed to the Children's Museum that has been completely remodeled since the last time we were there.

Wow! I had forgotten how fun this place was for the boys. The price has gone up since the remodel, but it is definitely a completely different museum now!

Only a few things were reused and the layout and design of the place now is spectacular! It definitely made for a memorable time for the boys and the adults as well.

We'll have to go back sometime soon.