And so it begins... the story of us.

Would you stay a while? I wanna tell ya'll a story.

It all stems back to an evening in March of 2008. Imagine, if you will, a young, spunky blonde walking hand-in-hand with a tall, handsome soldier in a beautiful star-lit park. Sounds romantic, huh? This is just the very beginning so bare with me... it only better. That soldier is named Xavier and that girl was me... Hi. I'm Alexandra and this is the story of how "we" became "us."

Xavier was home from basic training where he became a soldier in the US Army. His MOS was 31 Bravo, or for those who don't know what the heck that means, he was in the military police, fresh out of bootcamp with orders to move to Germany. I was the girlfriend who was going to stay in the states and wait for her hero to come home... this all quickly changed. Lets get back to the story, shall we?

On that evening in March, Xavier stopped me in my tracks, just as it was starting to rain and got down on one knee... I was his from that moment on. This is where it all began. I turned in to crazy bride-to-be. I bought a beautiful, expensive designer wedding gown, had my maids picked out and spent all of my money on wedding decor. But a few weeks later, on April 1, I called my mom and dad from Xavier's grandparents house and told them that we got a marriage license and I asked for their blessing as we signed our lives away. CRAZY, huh? There went all my plans... the dress was out, the wedding was out... all because of two people were in love and they placed their signatures on a piece of paper. Looking back now, I think I must have been out of my mind. BUT when you are in love, you do crazy things. Gee, I'll say! BUT the story goes a little deeper... Although this happened quickly, it was premeditated. Xavier was going to be leaving for Germany and (being raised an Army brat) I knew the detail and time it took to do anything in the Army. If we would have waited a year to wed, then go ahead and add about 4 months on top that because thats how long it took me to FINALLY join him in Germany. I didn't wat to wait that long to be with him. So we did it. Hi, my name is Mrs. Alexandra Nenneman.

Now, I am grateful that we didn't wait and that we had a shot-gun "wedding" because while he was in Germany and I was in Kentucky (running back and forth daily to Fort Campbell to set up arrangements to get me to Germany) we got the much dreaded news that his company would be deploying to Afghanistan... HOLD THE PRESS, SAY WHAAAAAAT? Wow. If this didn't get me into full Army wife mode immediately, I don't know what would have. So to make a long story short, I finally moved to Germany, knowing that he would eventually be leaving and we started our life together as Mr. & Mrs.

We made so many friends, went to far too many bars, explored our new homelands and loved every second of our life together.

A year later, there I stood, holding the hands of the most amazing women I have ever met... my sisters in arms, my family away from family and we watched our husband ride away in a bus that was Afghanistan bound.

3 months into the deployment, Xavier came home for R&R. I got to live that story book fantasy of running into my soldiers arms at the airport as he came home from war. He was home for two weeks. Now, I'm not going to go into detail about what all occured in those two weeks but I will say that at the end of his R&R, I took a pregnancy test that came back positive! OH MY STARS, WE'RE HAVING A BABY!

Xavier headed back to Afghanistan , leaving me and our "bun in the oven" this time. It was a long stretch of 9 months before I saw him again... A lot changed, I had become slightly more round, to say the least and I was about to pop any day. (refer to picture below)

First time together after deployment
 

Xavier had no choice but to jump straight into daddy mode. He got home right before my due date of June 27th and on July 2nd (arriving fashionably late) Khai Jayden Nenneman was born in Landstuhl Germany.  He weighed 9 lbs. 14 oz. and after a few scares during childbirth, "we" became three.

 

SO LETS SKIP A FEW CHAPTERS. But here's a condensed version of what we missed:

We moved from Germany to Fort Campbell, Xavier got out of the Army and we became civilians in the real world... Oh, and in the midst of all the craziness, we had a second baby! A sweet baby girl by the name of Hailey Delilah.

Hailey Delilah. 8 lb 13 oz. Born 26 Nov 2011

in Fort Campbell, KY

  

Before I catch you up to date, here is a short photo montage of the last year of our lives... Enjoy.

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Khai turned 2!

 

 And Hailey turned 1!

 

Where are we now? Well, we are living in Indiana. Khai is 2 1/2 and Hailey just celebrated her 1st birthday. Xavier is working at a juvenile corrections facility as a detention officer and I am a stay at home mom to our beautiful babies! Khai has started preschool and loves it to pieces. We are as happy as can be our family is complete!


So there you have it! My story. How "I" became "we" and how "we" became "us." And in case you STILL don't think it's been a crazy ride, ALL of this happened within 5 years. :)