Belle is 4 Years Old!

Belle is 4 years old now! Life is going by crazy fast.

I remember rushing home over a 4 day weekend from active duty to see Belle right after she was born and then having to go right back out to Georgia. I love watching her grow up. Belle is very opinionated, yet also very caring. She is clumsy and often lives in her own world, but I wouldn’t want it any other way. Her random questions will always surprise you and she is very fun to hang out with one on one. Here are some of my favourite pictures of her.

 

Happy Birthday Belle, I love you.  – Dad

 

 

Chicago

So I’m in Chicago for a work conference. I’m supporting all the IT needs of my company’s booth. It’s going pretty well for the most part. Occasionally you have to try and fix something as quickly as possible that randomly went wrong. Its been kind of fun. The days are long, but its not too bad. The shortest day has been 10 hours.

The cool part is getting to see a big city. Having lived in the suburbs my whole life, it’s quite different. I’m taking the train and/or cabs to work everyday. The buildings are huge and the architecture is impressive. I wish I had time to do some more touristy stuff and see more of the city. I would probably never visit Chicago on my own, so getting to see it while working has been interesting.

It’s been a fun trip so far and I’ve still got two more days of the conference to go. I’m ready to get home and see my family. The cold weather is another thing I won’t miss. I think it be cooler to visit in the spring or summer.

That’s all for now. Later.

Derek

Jack is 6 years old!

Today is my son’s birthday. Time seems to be speeding up the older I get.
2008 seems like such a long time ago.
Jack is in kindergarten now. Watching him learn new things is quite amazing.

I can’t believe how good he is at reading.
I laugh at how juvenile and boyish his humour is. I can’t imagine what he’ll be like in jr. high.

He makes me want to be better for him.
I often feel like I am too hard on him.
He pushes me to be a better dadeven though I don’t always know how to do that.

I can’t wait to see what adventures life takes him on.
Happy Birthday Jack. I love you. -Dad

Here are some of my favorite pictures of me and Jack.

PT Test

A new fiscal year in the guard and that means it’s time for a pt test at drill this weekend.

Success! I passed. I’m proud of myself for never having failed one in my almost 5 years in the army. Although for some reason I always get nervous about them. This one I was a bit more nervous about since Caroline was just born 3 weeks ago and my training for the test took a serious hit due to taking care of a newborn.

But I got over 75% in each category for a score of 236. I’m happy with that.

On a side note, I don’t understand how some of these kids continue to fail. You know the test is coming and you know what is required to pass. Just google it! Do the math and put in some effort for a month or two before the test. It’s not rocket science. I’m old and body parts hurt, but I can still pass them.

Ok rant over.
Bring on the holiday food.

Derek

My Growing Family

Well it’s been a while since I’ve posted pictures on my blog or website. Mostly because I’m lazy, and with facebook and Amy’s blog, it’s usually easier to just link to those galleries. However, in the spirit of blogging more (even though I don’t expect any high amounts of traffic, I thought I would post some pics of my Family which recently got an addition of Caroline.

The photos were taken By Nicole Gillihan. She is a friend and an awesome photographer. You can check out her work on facebook https://www.facebook.com/NicoleGillihanPhotography or her website http://nicolegillihanphotography.com/.

Sweet Caroline.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Precious Isabelle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Awesome Jack.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brother and Sister.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Me and Jack.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The whole family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Me and Caroline.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My beautiful wife Amy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s all for now. Later.

Derek

 

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