Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

2011 has been as easy as 1, 2, 3.  One baby, two moves, and three different jobs. 

In January we thought we were pretty busy preparing for our new addition, both of us working full-time, Albert going to school full-time, and deciding to purchase a foreclosed three bedroom condo that needed major renovations. 

Quentin Albert Cortez was born on February 21 at 8:22 PM.  He has been such a blessing to us and has brought so much joy into our family.  We had no idea how much becoming parents would change our lives and ourselves. 

Albert had a temporary position at the headquarters at working in Aviation Safety and was able to switch to a permanent position in Human Resources, also at the FAA in April.  Since Albert was able to get health insurance Tiffany was able to resign from her position working as a project coordinator and stay home with Quentin full-time.

We closed on the condo in March and started renovations in April.  We moved –in May 1 and the renovations were finally done a couple weeks later.  In July Quentin and Tiffany went to Wyoming to visit his maternal grandparents during an otherwise non-eventful summer. 

Things seemed to remain quiet in the fall and we were mostly concerned about what sort of party to throw for Quentin’s first birthday and looking forward to spending a long Christmas break in Florida with Albert’s family. 

On Albert’s birthday, October 25, he received an email telling him his class date for his air traffic control training in Oklahoma City, OK was December 15 – April 15.  Last year we were told that it would be three years before he would get a class date so we were not prepared to up and leave our comfortable life in Alexandria.  We even asked if we could postpone until spring, but to no avail.

We sold almost all of our big furniture we had acquired in the last year and some from years prior.  We also squeezed in a five day trip to Florida the week before Thanksgiving to make up for Christmas and we bought a new-to-us Chevy Traverse and traded in our beloved Yaris the day after Thanksgiving.

We packed and packed and invited our friends over to help us move everything downstairs to the container we rented.  It all went very smoothly.  The last week we were in town we were able to get renters for our place, friends from our previous ward (church congregation) who are moving back to DC.

We drove to Oklahoma City and visited Nashville and Graceland on the way.  We are staying in a one bedroom fully-furnished apartment that includes breakfast and dinner and weekly maid service.  Albert trains during the day and studies in the evening.  He will most likely have evening classes at some point.

Quentin has been a real trooper through all of the changes.  He is in the 80th percentile for height and weight.  He low crawls very well and occasionally crawls on his hands and knees.  His favorite thing to do is climb up on things.  He eats well and particularly likes sweet potatoes, apple sauce, bananas, and chili.  We are very busy chasing after him all day trying to keep him out of trouble.

In April 2012 we will be moving to Albuquerque, NM where Albert will be working as an air traffic controller, yet another new adventure!

We will miss all our friends in the Washington, DC area and hope to stay connected to them in years to come.  Start planning your trips to the southwest for next year!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Albert, Tiffany, & Quentin