half birthdays, deployments + the sweetest homecoming

It’s been a little while since I posted any pics or updates of my sweet baby girl, who is going to be SEVEN months already this weekend (quick, cue the sniffles, time is flying WAY TOO FAST).  My little miss has been sitting up on her own since 5 1/2 months, she popped her two bottom teeth right before that and lately, it’s been a lot of downward facing dog (I swear, I have days left before she starts crawling!) After snapping this pic last weekend, I couldn’t resist sharing:

A lot of you have asked how Gunner has fared with the adjustment of having a baby in the house – these two have a bit of a love/hate relationship; she LOVES her Gunner and can be in the middle of a meltdown and break into a fit of giggles at just the sight of him.  He, on the other hand, is still completely indifferent.  After an entire decade of being the only “baby”, I can’t say I blame him.  This picture says it all about his patience, though:

The last month has been a pretty exciting one; I’ve never been one to celebrate a half birthday, but when you’re daddy happens to be coming home from a deployment on the same day you turn six months old, a celebration is definitely in order!  This post is a month overdue, but I wanted to share anyway because homecomings are a very big deal around here.  We get all dressed up and bake cakes and count minutes, hours, days and nights until daddy comes home after months and months away. In the eleven years we’ve been together, we’ve been through our fair share of deployments, but this was, by far, the sweetest homecoming yet:

After leaving when baby girl was just eight weeks old, he made it home in time for her half birthday and the 4th of July, another biggie at our house. Here she is getting a personal escort from Daddy after her baptism back in February:

Motherhood is the most amazing, challenging, rewarding, tiring, exciting, happiest thing EVER.  It is, BY FAR, the best job I’ve ever had, but going at it alone the the last four months has made it even sweeter for me.   Every month I think, “it can’t possibly get better than this” and then, the next month it goes and gets a little bit sweeter and I think my heart will explode. 

I am over the moon with excitement that her daddy is home to share in the adventure (and, I’m not going to lie, I’m thrilled to have a second set of hands to help out!)  A full return to blogging is right around the corner; thank you all for continuing to read and check in to see how things are going.  I’m eternally grateful for all the sweet comments and emails!  Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!