Beach Baptism

When Olivia was a few weeks old in Virginia, we, along with Justin's parents, took her to the Atlantic Ocean and dipped her feet in the water. A sort of Boyd rite-of-passage since they love the ocean so much. Olivia loves the ocean and is showing her Boyd colors. We decided that Charley needed to be "baptized" as well so we took her to the Atlantic Ocean and dipped her feet in to carry on the tradition. What's cool is both girls have touched the Atlantic from the east side and west side now. Olivia in Virginia and Charley in Spain. We are sad that we did this without John (Papa Boyd) as he would have loved to carry on the tradition with us. But Mama Boyd was here and dipped Charley's feet in. And although the water is still fairly cold, Olivia could not resist going swimming.

Getting ready to run in.

Charley gets her feet wet.

Mama and her granddaughters.

Taking a stroll on the beach with my Charley.

Italica

We took a last minute road trip to Italica. It is an old Roman city outside of Sevilla. Roman Emperor Trajan was born here. It's beautifully preserved with a great gladiator arena and mosaic floors. We have been meaning to go and decided it was now or never. Also, Charley had to see some Roman ruins before she left Spain.

Olivia posing with a Roman statue.

Charley and Justin in the gladiator arena. Behind them is the lower level where they would have housed the animals that fought the gladiators. So cool!

Charley and her Mama in front of some of the mosaic floors of a Roman house still in tact.

Ballet Class

Olivia has been loving her ballet class here on base. We will definitely be continuing it when we get to San Diego. We are just sad she won't be able to perform the routine she has been learning to "Be Our Guest".

Parents are not allowed in so Justin had to sneak some pics of Olivia in class.

Already flexible.

Her class.

Charley's First Bath

Below are some pics Charley's first bath at home and the present she and Aunt Sarah and Uncle Aaron gave Olivia.

A Disney Princess backpack, magnet set and a small Rapunzel doll.

This is Ani, our housekeeper and sanity keeper and Olivia's baby-sitter for the last 2 years. She is a wonderful woman and has truly become a part of the family. We will miss her dearly.

Hardly the spa treatment but you make due with what you have.

Olivia helps clean Charley. Charley is not amused.

Charley Boyd is born

We went in for induction on March 16 in the morning. After a a long day of slow inducing, Charlotte Elizabeth Boyd was born at 4:22pm. I pushed for 5 minutes and the labor/delivery was smooth and painless. She weighed in at 8lbs. 13 oz. So far, she has been an awesome baby. Took to nursing right away, sleeps well in the night and never fusses unless something is wrong. We are so blessed!!

The last pic of me pregnant. Ready to start the process.

Charley is born and I am ecstatic.

We know she's not really smiling but Justin captured her at just the right moment.

Proud, proud big sis!

Could not love these three any more than I do. Justin and his girls.

Baby Charlotte "Charley" Boyd - first post

Charlotte Elizabeth Boyd was born at 4:22 pm on March 16 at the Naval Hospital in Rota, Spain.  The below video is Charley about 10 minutes after she was born.  There will be more pictures and videos to follow, after we get home from the hospital.  Baby and Heather are both doing great.

Diaper Shower Luncheon

I know that I have said it before but I will say it again.  We have met the greatest people while in the military.  We have been truly lucky and blessed so far by our duty station locations and the people we are continually meeting and befriending.  Because we live on a small base here in Spain in military housing, we have created tight bonds with our neighbors.  And we all learn to take care of each other whenever there is cause for celebration or concern.  When family is not close, you form your own.  It really helps us on days when we are homesick.  

Our GREAT friends here threw me and the other JAG's wife a diaper shower 2 weeks ago at the local Irish pub the Americans all frequent.  The other wife, Tomasina, is our connected next door neighbor and is due about 5 days behind me.  There will be a lot of newborn crying here in this unit in the next couple of weeks!  Tomasina is on her 3rd child and I am on my 2nd so we stressed to our friends (who refused to take "No" for an answer for even throwing a shower) that this shower must be low-key and we needed NOTHING.  So they (sort of) listened and threw us a diaper/wipes/onesies shower instead.  

Our area of the pub.  The girls decorated this little eating nook with all the essentials we'll need for the new babies.  The Spanish eating at the pub just kept staring at all of us curiously.  I don't think they throw showers for each other in Spain.

Tomasina and I.  I know.  She looks about 6 months and I look about 11 months.  The genius of genetics.

The 2 ladies that organized and threw us the shower, Jaime and Alicia.  These girls are absolutely amazing!  Here they are cleaning up the table so we can get ready to eat tapas.  Food was awesome!!

We have a professional cake baker that got stationed here last year.  She gets a ton of business and did O's birthday cake last August.  The girls ordered Tomasina and I matching small baby cakes.  Mine was pink and Tomasina's was yellow since she doesn't know what she's having. 

Holding my pink cake.  It was delicious!  Only one more week and those little toes under a blanket will be real.  Yikes!