Sweetpea,
Let me start this message on the 9th of January 2014 by apologizing for not updating what has been going on with more frequency. We both love you bunches and we promise to do better as it was our New Years Resolution to ensure this blog was updated so that one day you might type in your name to a web browser and stumble upon all of this good stuff!
Last time I wrote to you (ashamed as I am) we lived in Charleston, South Carolina and since that moment we have been transferred to Houma, Louisiana. Needless to say this unit was not in our top ten places we wanted to go….or top 20….or top 30….yes thirty-four places we wanted to go aside from here. But as the Coast Guard saw fit, we wound up in Houma…Louisiana. I say it this way and with such shock and strife, the same way I would describe it to you the way I felt the day we got orders here. But 100% truth be told, it has been a wonderful experience and mainly because of you and the way that you, Alice Layne, have taught mom and I to grow together. We have learned and are still learning and growing with you every day to become better parents and to teach you the right way to do things but at the same time letting you establish your own little way of doing things…safely. I cannot ever explain in a simple blog or a few quick lines of text just how proud I am of you and how much joy I feel when I turn my key in the afternoon after a day at work that get to spend the next few hours before bedtime with you just amazed at every new little thing you do.
So a few highlights since I last wrote to you:
-Houma, Louisiana. Enough said. Friendly people. Great friends. Amazing Pool.
– (Fohoget Fie-day) otherwise know as Frozen Yogurt Friday. Every friday as a family we go to Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt and get a delicious frozen yogurt treat that you LOVE!!!! Doesn’t matter the flavor, toppings, size, temperature outside, temperature inside, mood you were in before we arrived or mood when it was time to go but you LOVE Frozen Yogurt Friday and so do we!
– The Little Things You Say – Right now, you are just like a Parrot. If we say it, you say it.
-Brown Bear
-Brown Bear
-Love you Daddy
–Luv You Daddy
-Go Tigers!
–Gu Tiguuws
Your fearlessness is astounding. Mom more than I gets the chance to take you to the park during the day and its nothing short of amazing when I tell you that you are so determined to overcome any fears that you are confronted with. The first couple of times Mom and I took you to the park, you were very skeptical of the whole thing, but each time Mom and I were with you to go down slides you participated with great enthusiasm and literally begged us repeatedly to go down slides, swing, and to just stay at the park, until we had to pry you away because it was time to go. But now you are so fearless, so head strong that you will climb over any obstacle and climb any apparatus in order to have a good time at the there.
As I said before, it is our New Years Resolution to update this blog with more frequency so that your Mom and I leave a ‘Time Machine’ of sorts to our little Sweet Pea! I continue to be amazed by you Alice Layne Hopkins!
I Love You!
Dad
AliceLayne 