MLK Weekend

   What better place to spend Martin Luther King weekend then in Montgomery, Alabama! He was pastor at the famous Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and led the Montgomery Bus Boycott all in this historic town!!

The National City Lines bus where Rosa park made her stand!

   We had a great time visiting with Forrest's parents, grandparents and enjoyed a date night to ourselves! It's so nice only driving about 3 hours and being surrounded by family. Friday night we kicked back, relaxed and went to bed early...nothing too exciting!

Lovin' on sweet baby girl-to-be!

Haha Camylle took "kicking back" to a whole new level!!

Camylle and our sweet dog, Layni!

  Saturday we lounged around with Forrest's parents, did a little window shopping, took a nap and then that night Forrest and I went out on a date! We kept with our date night tradition and went to a Japanese Hibachi Grill, which was awesome as usual! I'm so in love with their ginger salad and fire onion train, haha! Then we went out to the movies to see The Hobbit. Thankfully it was still in theaters cause we've been wanting to see it for some time now! It was the first time Forrest and I had been at the movies together since BEFORE Camylle was born!!! So crazy to think that we haven't had a movie date in almost 3 years!!! We had such a fun time together and indulged in some theater popcorn, icee and sour patch kids! YUM!

   Sunday we slept in and then went to visit with Forrest's great grandmother, Nannie :)! We surprised her with out little visit and she was so excited to see us! Camylle was a little sheepish at first because she was unsure of Nannie's wheelchair but she quickly warmed up to her and thought the wheelchair was super cool "Mommy I go, vroom vroom", haha!

Camylle and her GREAT-GREAT-grandmother, Nannie!

Hugs and Kisses for Nannie :). 

   The rest of Sunday was full of nap time, football and hang time with Forrest's parents. Very relaxing! Monday morning we had breakfast with Forrest's grandmother, MeMe. We went to Cracker Barrel, the best breakfast restaurant out there! Camylle loaded up on the pancakes! Yum!! It was so wonderful spending time with MeMe and hearing all the updates!!

Camylle remembered who she was and hugged her and said "It's MEME!".

Loving on her GREAT grandmother, MeMe!!

Hugs and kisses for MeMe!

  Before we headed back to Florida, we spent some more hang time with Bob and Jannah, Forrest's parents!

Camylle was being so goofy!

Andaddy helping Camylle with her shoes.

Girl pic!

Grandaddy aka "Andaddy" and Camylle.

"Daddy, HIKE HIKE!"

Swing time with Grandaddy and Babby.

Chasing Layni!

   We had a great long weekend! It was sunny and full of great family hang time! In other news, Forrest passed his last big test for EOD school!!! Whoop Whoop! This means that he is pretty much home free from here on out! I can't believe how fast time has flown by in Florida! Forrest graduation date got pushed back to March 22nd. They were given hurricane warning days off a few months back so it pushed back the days just a bit. It took Forrest and I about a week to realize that March 22nd is also our 5th Anniversary! It's going to be a very eventful weekend!!! Graduation, Anniversary celebration and family hang time!! I can't believe that in just about 2 months Forrest will officially be an EOD tech and that we will be moving to Louisiana!

   I hope you all (y'all) had a great long weekend! Lots of Love!!

Baby News & Army Orders!

   I'm bursting with excitement, so I have to address baby news first! We are having a GIRL!!!!! Another GIRL!!!! Yay! I'm so happy that Camylle will have a sister close in age and I know they will be the best of friends! I love both my sisters and couldn't imagine not having them in my life and I'm just so happy that Camylle will be able to experience a sister bond! I had my ultrasound on Tuesday, while Camylle was at school, and it went wonderful. Her heart beat is healthy and she is growing right on target. I had the technician put the gender reveal pic in an envelope and seal it up so we could open it as a family when Forrest got home.

We gave Camylle the honor of opening the card.

"Mamma look!"

It's a GIRL!!!

Our sweet baby girl. Looks like she might also get Forrest's bubble nose :)!

She looked straight at us and gave a big "Hey Mom!!".  It made me feel so happy like she was excited to see me!

   In other news, we got our orders!!! Finally! We are going to Fort Polk, Louisiana. Yep, you heard right, Louisiana. Humm....well that wasn't one of our top 12 list!!! In fact it wouldn't have been in the list ever! I'm not gonna lie, I may have cried a little bit once I read it....ok so I cried like a little baby, haha! It takes time to adjust to any big change in one's life and this little bit of information is definitely something I needed time to accept.

Yep, I suppose I'll have to get used to this!

   I'm blessed to have amazing people in my life and as usual they gave me words of wisdom and encouragement: "That's the army life or the blessed hand of God. I tend to believe the latter and look forward to see what God has in store. Love you all so much", "God must have big plans for you", "Searching for houses is always fun! You get to dream about living in them and decorating them!", "It is listed as the 'Best Hometown in the Army'!! The town is FULL of historic places and so much history!!! Sounds like a wonderful place to be!! You will be right on the Texas border!!!", "God has a plan and will provide wonderful relationships for you", "So cool! I'm definitely coming to visit so we can go gator hunting! (my brother Nathan, haha)". So after my boo hoos of not going anywhere up North and accepting that my winter clothes will once again stay in a box.....I decided it is what it is and really it's what you make it wherever you go and by golly I'm gonna make this next place memorable just like we did in AK, TX and FL!

   So that's the latest and the greatest of news in the Hull house! Oh and a big praise report because Forrest just passed his last major test in the course and so the rest of training should be a breeze! His graduation date is March 15th and it will be here before we know it! We don't have to report to Fort Polk till May 10th so we will have a good chunk of time to travel and visit with family and friends!

   I still can't believe I'm having another baby girl and that she will be born in Louisiana! God sure does have a sense of humor! 


Love Always~~ Krista

Good Bye 2012 and Hello 2013!

   Wow, well where do I even start! So much happened this last year that even thinking about it makes me kinda woozy! 

2012...

Well, for starters this time last year we were living in El Paso, Texas where Forrest was stationed at Fort Bliss. As you may know, before that we were living in Alaska, so it was a major climate shock when we went from freezing tundra to scorching desert! But we LOVED it....seriously we did, way more than we thought! About 2 months after we got to El Paso, Forrest got accepted into the EOD program, explosive ordinance dissposal. But we had to stay in TX for a year before we could move and so we made sure to make the most of our time! 

Texas highlights:
     Bought our first home, met great friends, found an amazing church, hiked the in Guadalupe Mountains, stood in awe of Carlsbad Caverns National Park NM, went to the Albuquerque Hot Air Balloon Festival NM, splashed in the Rio Grande, went sand sledding at White Sands National Park NM, hiked at Dripping Springs NM, watched the world's largest enchilada be made at the Whole Enchilada Fiesta NM, snowboarded/skied at Ski Apache in Ruidoso NM, bought a car- Chrysler Aspen (the mom mobile!), rescued our sweet dog Layni and made her a part of the family, watched Camylle's first 1 1/2 of life, heard massive thunder storms, walked sideways in dust storms, killed my first of many roaches, freaked out about spiders and indulged in authentic Mexican food! Man alive do we miss the food!

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Phew, that was a mouthful of adventures! I'm sure I probably left out some stuff but the ones I listed are the ones we'll remember for a lifetime! In March 2012, Forrest left for 2 months for the first part of his training at Fort Lee, VA. During that time I wrapped everything up in TX and packed up our little life! Thank goodness, my amazing sister, Esther, came to help me travel across the country to Florida or I would have been a total wreck!! Esther and I had a little fun on our way to FL: saw extended family in Arizona, visited with Forrest's Aunt and Uncle in San Antonio TX, went to Sea World, visited with Forrest's parents in Montgomery AL and his grandparents at Lake Martin AL! My sister stayed the whole month of May and not only helped me move my life across the country but also helped me unpack it! I seriously owe you, Esther!!!!

After the big cross country transition, Camylle and I made our way up to Alaska to visit with my family for the month of June. The trip home was of course amazing in every way!! I got to spend tons of time with my family and friends, be in, my bestie, Haley's wedding and enjoy many little Alaskan adventures! It had been a year since I had been home so I'm sure you could only imagine the kind of attention Camylle was getting!!! It's so much fun getting older and having your friends, you've grown up with, have children too! Camylle had so many wonderful play dates and wonderful time with my family! June went by way to fast but we were ready to get back to Florida so we could finally see Forrest again!

Camylle's first manicure and Pedicure!

Dear Florida, thank you for your white sand beaches and sun bathing weather!! The month of July and August were spent almost entirely at the beach! Yay :)! Camylle looked like a little brown bear by the end of the summer! I turned 27 in July, wow times goes by fast! Camylle turned 2 on August 2nd and we were able to celebrate, in Alabama, at Lake Martin with Forrest's family and my friend Melissa! We also got a chance to spend time with Forrest's grandparents, Hallie and CG at Gulf Shores, AL! Camylle and I did a little trip to Orlando, FL with Christine and we were able to visit with our good friends the Griffin's! And I've also got the opportunity to visit with my dear friend, Sarah, at her grandparent's house in Mobile, AL! It's been so nice being close to his family and our friends! We try also to go to all the different events here in the area and have done a good handful of Geocaching!

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Another fun thing we got to be a part, while being down here, is meeting my sweet little nephew, Dalton! He is so stinking cute and is so loveable and cuddleable (I'm sure that's not a word but it should be)! Frazier made it back from Afghanistan just in time for Dalton's birth. It was such a great week with Frazier being home, sweet baby Dalton and celebrating Thanksgiving! Speaking of holidays, we had a great Christmas with Forrest's parents! They came down to Florida and got a beautiful condo and we all stayed together, spent time at the beach and did a little shopping. Camylle was so spoiled this year by family and friends! We've got one VERY loved little girl! All I got to say is Aunt Hay Hay wins most obnoxious toy award! Dora the Explorer singing microphone is definitely her favorite little toy to jam out with and it has no volume control...that's right I said no volume control! I'll get you back when you have kids!  

2013...

Forrest has been doing awesome in school and is my hero for all the dedication he's put into it. He really loves what he is learning and is looking forward to applying it once he graduates. Aside from his training and outdoor adventures we spend a lot of time relaxing in our apartment that is like the size of my pinky....haha but it probably just feels like that since our last place was a perfect 3 bedroom Texan home. Sometimes I just want to go to our storage unit and stare at the other half of our life! We're soooo ready to get out of this claustrophobic box and into a new place! Which leads me to the most recent news....

We have ORDERS!!!! But too bad that's all they wrote in his military account, "you are already on orders", jeesh talk about suspense! Forrest should hopefully be finding out today where the orders are taking us and where we will spend the next 3-4 years of our life :)! Naturally, our #1 choice is to go to Alaska so we can be near my family but our runners up are Fort Lewis, WA and Fort Carson, CO. I really hope he finds out details today because he's set to graduate March 15th and for crying out loud that's in 2 months!!! I still can't believe that we are going to be moving in about 2 months!!! Time here has flown by but we are so ready to start somewhere fresh again and get settled! 

And why do we want to get settled so bad?!? Because BABY #2 is coming!!!!!! May 29th is going to be here before we know it and then we will be a family of 4! Lets talk about how excited we are about that....so beyond excited! We should be moving when I am about 7 months pregnant which will give us 2 months to get our new place all unpacked and homey before our next little love bug arrives! Camylle has been so cute about it too! Christine, Forrest's brother Frazier's wife (say that 10 times fast!), haha aka my sista-in-law just had her sweet baby Dalton and we had the joy of watching her little belly grow the whole pregnancy. So it was great because Camylle now understands what it means when I tell her that "mommy has a baby in her tummy" :). Too bad she doesn't understand that my tummy is not something to be crawled all over on but hey I gotta get all the solo snuggle time I can with her because I know it will be harder once the baby comes. Tomorrow I have our big gender reveal ultrasound!!! We kept Camylle a surprise until birth and decided that it would be fun to find out this time around! This week is going to bring such exciting news!!!! Ahhhh the suspense of it all is killing me!!! 

I feel like my brain is skipping all over the place trying to remember everything I was wanting to talk about! I suppose I should give you updates on Camylle :). I could talk about her all day, naturally, cause lets face it my world seems to revolve around her! For starters, she is finally almost completely potty trained! Thank you Jesus! It happened all of a sudden! One day she was like "Mommy I go pee pee" and then she was consistent after that and loves wearing her big girl panties! Although I really think someone needs to invent a toilet paper dispenser, like the electronic paper towels, cause for some reason she thinks that she needs the whole roll! This of course has led to me standing in shock as I see half of the roll in the toilet and the other half all over the bathroom floor. She's learning slowly  to use it in moderation, haha! 

She started Wee School a couple months ago and she loves it! It's at our church and they have a wonderful CDC program. She can count to 10, knows her shapes and sings her ABC's really well. She knows her colors..sometimes. I keep trying to tell her not everything is blue, jeesh! She's getting better and I think school has been helping her out a bunch!

She's so independent and wants to everything by herself. Today she was crying cause I took her out of her car seat and she goes "Mommy my turn, my turn!", so I put her back in the car just so she could get out all by herself, haha! She also does this when she goes to the bathroom, "Mommy, I do it! Go away!", she reminds me so much of myself! Little miss independent! I'm thinking this is a good thing because when the baby comes I will be so thankful that she wants to do things on her own so I can use my hands to take care of the baby!

One last thing before I completely overload you with info on our life...I have officially put myself in the cyber world for advertising my photography website! I have a facebook page for Clearly Precious Photography! I had a wonderful photo session on Christmas day and those pics are up! I am having so much fun with my business and I'm just so happy cause it's something I love to do, flexible and something that I can bring with me wherever we go! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Clearly-Precious-Photography/152403504866347?ref=ts&fref=ts and here's my website: http://clearlyprecious.smugmug.com/. 

I hope everyone is having a fabulous New Year so far!! My New Years resolution is to keep you all up to date on my blog! I hope I've done a good job so far! I swear the future ones won't be this long!! I love you all, dear family and friends, and look forward to telling you where we are moving and if we're having a girl or boy! 

Love~~The Hull family