My Baby Girl Turns ONE!!!

It still blows my mind how much time flies! It seems like it was just yesterday that I was in the hospital looking at Nixon for the first time. It was the first time I truly experienced love at first sight, and my love has grown stronger and stronger everyday. Now a year later we are celebrating Nixon's first birthday!

It has been an incredible year, and I have tried to capture every facial expression, every sound, every movement that she has made in the last year. It is amazing watching your "heart" grow up through their first year. She has developed so much and loves discovering new things every day.

She has been an amazing blessing to our family, and I wanted to make sure that her first birthday was as special as it could possibly be. (I know, I know, she won't remember it. But at least she will be able to see pictures!)

Thursday, February 10th, Nixon's Grandpa & Grandma Peters flew in to celebrate the special day. It only took a few minutes, and Nixon had already warmed up to them. On Friday, the 11th, we started the day by singing "Happy Birthday" to Nixon. She heard that song from me about 100 times the remainder of the day! We went out that night and celebrated with dinner with Grandpa & Grandma Mack, Grandpa & Grandpa Peters, and Uncle Ty. She enjoyed mashed potatoes, applesauce and raspberry ice cream. She LOVED every single bite! :) When Saturday, the 12th rolled around, she definitely realized that something special was happening when everyone showed up for her birthday party!

The birthday party was themed in Lady Bugs. Nixon wore the CUTEST lady bug outfit, and the whole place was decorated in Red, Black and White. She was a perfect social butterfly, and just like it was at Christmas, Nixon was showered with LOTS of gifts! She had a blast.

Here are the pictures of the birthday girl! Hope you enjoy!


February 11, 2011: Nixon turns 1 year old!


All ready for her Lady Bug Birthday Party!


A year ago, Mommy and Nixon were looking a whole lot different than this shot!


The start of Nixon's presents....Yes, there were more!


All the party snacks!


Lady Bug Cupcakes! :)


Nixon is the social butterfly!


Opening Presents


The Peters Girls


This is one of her favorite presents. I haven't been able to get this guitar out of her hands since the party!


Mike has been in training and wasn't able to fly out for Nixon's birthday. However we had him on FaceTime for the majority of the party so that he wouldn't miss out. THANK GOODNESS FOR TECHNOLOGY!!!


She really couldn't figure out what she thought of the candle!


She was being so dainty and delicate with the cupcake. I was expecting her to destroy the thing and make the biggest mess. But she kept taking small little bites!


FINALLY!!! We started making progress on the cupcake and getting it all over her face! :)


Birthday Girl and Mommy


The cutest Cake Face I've ever seen!


I absolutely love this girl! I still can't believe that she is already one year old! But I look forward to watching her grow each new day. She is my world and I couldn't imagine life without her! I love you baby girl! Happy Birthday!!!

Nixon Growing Up! Volume 2!

I may not have been 100% dedicated to blogging, but the one thing that I was dedicated to, was taking Nixon's picture every time she turned a month older. Here are pictures of my sweet baby girl for the last 5 months.


September 11, 2010: Nixon is 7 months old!


October 11, 2010: Nixon is 8 months old!


November 11, 2010: Nixon is 9 months old!


December 11, 2010: Nixon is 10 months old!


January 11, 2011: Nixon is 11 months old!

WORLDS WORST BLOGGER!!!!

Ok, it is official....I am THE WORLDS WORST BLOGGER! It has been months since my last post, and obviously we have had A LOT of things happen with our little family.

Since my last post, we left off with Mike graduating boot camp. From boot camp, he had 12 weeks of A-school training to become a Hospital Corpsman. His A-school was located in Chicago which was 6 hours away from Nixon and I. It was still really hard being away from him, but we were able to talk every night on webcam and Nixon and I made the road trip to Chicago about every 3 weeks. It was also really nice having him somewhat close when the holidays rolled around, and he was able to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with Nixon and I.

Mike graduating A-school December 18th and officially became a Hospital Corpsman with the United States Navy. We were extremely proud of him, especially since he graduated as the leader of his class. He has done an amazing job in the Navy so far and has a lot of recognition already! :)

From A-school, Mike was assigned to FMTB (Fleet Marine Training). Since the Marines do not have a medical unit, they depend on the Navy, and the Hospital Corpsman have to go through Marine training as well. He is currently in Camp Pendleton, CA completing his training. It has been a lot more difficult having him that far away, especially with the 2 hour time difference. We still get to see him on Webcam, but Nixon is now limited to only seeing him on the weekends since she is in bed before he gets done with Training. It's also been hard having to be away from him in person longer than 3 weeks. We were definitely spoiled being able to travel and see him as much as we did. However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel! Mike is scheduled to graduate FMTB March 24th! At that time he is free to finally live with Nixon and I again, and we have been assigned to live in San Diego, CA! (I see MANY beach days in our future!!!)

As for right now, I have LOVED watching Nixon grow up! Since August, she has crawled, talked, walked, and is now into EVERYTHING! But she is still the best baby that I could ever ask for! I am also doing a little schooling on the side, so that I can get a job out of our home and still enjoy watching her grow everyday! :)

We are looking forward to the next month. We will either be living back with Mike or we will be getting REALLY close to it! Until then, we will stay in MO until the middle of March. At that time we will make the move back to Arizona where we will patiently wait to find out when our home is ready. IT CAN'T COME SOON ENOUGH!

Hopefully everyone is doing well, and I will TRY and be a lot better at the blogging!

Here is a few pictures from the last five months! Hopefully it gives you an idea of what we have been up to!



Visiting the "Pumpkin Patch" in Chicago! :)



Nixon is my "little monkey", so it is only fitting that we dressed up like a monkey and a banana! Happy Halloween! :)



Nixon's first Thanksgiving! :)



Mike is officially a Hospital Corpsman! Way to go, honey!!!




BEST date night EVER!!! At first Mike did not think that it was going to be his cup of tea. But in the end, we both REALLY enjoyed the show! One word...AMAZING!





Nixon's first Christmas...and may I say, She was a VERY good girl this year, and Santa left her LOTS of presents! :)

My Husband, the Sailor! :)

After being away from Mike for 9 1/2 weeks, Nixon and I were finally reunited with him this last weekend!

Mike graduated boot camp for the United States Navy on August 27th, 2010. He is officially a sailor! I have been looking forward to this day for the last year and a half! (Knowing that we would be separated for that long without any contact except for paper letters, was weighing on my mind since July 2009!) So needless to say, I was ECSTATIC when it finally came!

It was amazing to have our little family together for the weekend! It was even better when I had one of the proudest moments of my married life, watching my husband receive The Navy Club of the United States Military Excellence Award! And just so everyone can understand how important this award is....Mike was #1 out of 425in the entire boot camp, not to mention that he is in the top 50 out of 50,000 for the year!!!!! It brought tears to my eyes to see my husband standing there and being recognized. He is truly amazing and I am SO proud to be his wife!!!!!

My summer without my Hubs.....

As many of you know, Mike joined the Navy last year. He is wanting to pursue a career as a doctor, and Med school is out of our price range at this time. Once we started looking at all of our options, joining the military was the best option. Not to mention the fact that Mike is extremely outgoing and the military is right up his ally!

Since he chose a career in the Navy as a Hospital Core man, he was unable to ship out til this summer. (I believe it all worked out for the best since he was around to see our daughter born and watch her grow up for the first four months.) It had been hanging over us for an entire year, and I was dreading the actual day when he had to ship out.

Once he shipped out, they told us that there would be no emailing, no web cams, very few phone calls and only paper letters. All in all it would be an 8 week process and I was praying that the time would go by fast. So far we are on week 6 of 8! Mike graduates on August 27th, and I could be more excited that the time is finally approaching!!!!

Since Mike shipped off on July 1st, life has been filled with my baby girl. I try to capture every moment with her so that I can write Mike every night and give him little updates on her. It has definitely been hard having him away, but I think that it has been harder for him since he has to be away from both of us. So I make sure that I write him every night to try and make it a little easier on him.

I have had many people ask how things are with him and with Nixon and I. Nixon and I are doing really well. It was extremely hard the first couple of weeks without Mike. There was a couple of nights that I would wake up in the middle of the night reaching out for him. I missed talking to him everyday and having my best friend around. So I tried to stay busy and concentrate on our daughter.

As for Nixon, she has just been growing away and posing for the camera every time I take a picture to send to her daddy. One of our biggest fears was that she would forget Mike while he was gone since she is so young. So to try and make that NOT happen, Mike tape recorded his voice reading her books to her. We listen to about 2 books every day. I also try and show her pictures of Mike on a daily basis and tell her that "daddy loves her and misses her". I think that it is somewhat working because the little phone calls that we have received, I have put Mike on speaker phone and Nixon looks around the room.

As for Mike, he is doing AMAZING!!!! Anyone that knows Mike, knows that he is very outgoing and determined to do a great job at anything he puts his mind to. Shortly after he got there, I was informed that he was put in charge of 78 recruits. And just this last week, I received a letter from the Officer/Director stating that Mike would be receiving an award at his graduation for outstanding performance. I have never been so proud of my husband. It is truly and honor to be married to a man who is willing to sacrifice so much for his country and is doing an amazing job! He truly is an amazing man in my eyes and a hero to our family and country.

Spending Time with Family!!!!

Since I have been a "stay at home mommy" all summer long, Nixon and I have been able to attend the family reunions. It has been so much fun showing her off to everyone!


On July 7th, Nixon and I drove to the Mack Family Reunion with my mom and Steve. This year the Mack Reunion was located in New Mexico. I was a little weary taking Nixon on that long of a road trip, but she pleasantly surprised me and everyone else! She was a complete angel! She did not make a peep. She slept most of the drive and when she wasn't sleeping she was just looking around and happy to be with everyone in the car.



While we were at the Mack reunion, Nixon experienced her first zoo. :) I carried her around in her Baby Bjorn and she was able to watch all the animals. It was fun watching her face every time she saw them. It is a look of complete interest and intense thinking, as she watches the way they move. She is very observant, and I can't wait for the day that she will actually be able to make the noises that the animals make and be able to distinguish between them! :)

Nixon also experienced her first hike with the entire family. The Friday of the Reunion, we all got together and took the tram up Sandia Mountain. (I'm assuming that was the name since our tram conductor said that!) We spent the entire day up on the top of the mountain, and after lunch we hiked across the mountain to a little peak for about a mile and a half. Again, Nixon didn't make a peep, she just sat back in her little pack and enjoyed the ride! :)


That Saturday was the day that everyone left to go home. We had a really good time, and it was nice to be able to meet and catch up with that side of the family. :)

Then July 28th, Nixon and I ventured up to Idaho so that we could spend a few days with my dad and Carolyn before we had the Gutierrez Family Reunion. It was nice to spend time my parents and have Nixon spend time with her Grandparents. Her Grandpa and Grandma Sommer love her to pieces and couldn't put her down! They were constantly showering her with kisses and love!


After spending a week with my parents, we joined my mom's side of the family for the Gutierrez Reunion. We had a blast, and it was SO nice to get to see all of my Aunts, Uncles and Cousins that I haven't seen in a LONG time. It was also fun to show off Nixon to everyone. My Grandparents, Nixon's Great Grandparents haven't been able to come out and meet her, so it was the first time they got to see her. They fell in love instantly, and again, Nixon was loved by everyone.


Nixon is also the first great granddaughter of a granddaughter of a daughter to my grandmother....HAHAH... did that make sense?!? So it was the first four generation picture that my grandma has been able to take. :) We weren't able to get it professionally done, but it was fun none the less. Next time we will schedule an appointment and get a professional one taken so that we can have it framed.




All in all it was a great time spending the 2 weeks with family! Nixon fell in love with everyone and it was hard to say our good-byes. Hopefully it won't be long until we see everyone again!