July 18, 2022

Sutton's License Plate

Sutton turns 4 months old today. She has her check-up/shots on Wednesday though, so I'll do a monthly update post for her later. 



Military kids are really unique and parents find all kinds of ways to celebrate them. Usually, all the kids from a military family are born in completely different states, which is so normal in my mind but really odd if you think about it. 

We are those military people who actually just kind of blend into the gen pop of wherever place we live. We tend to buy houses or rent off-post instead of living on base, I work in the local schools, and we don't spend a lot of time with other military families simply because we don't live on post. I don't know why this is the path we've taken, but we have. It does lead to a fuller experience than just being a tourist in your current town/city, I guess. 

In the past, we have bought vehicles in different states. When you do that, you just get a plate for the state you live in and pay those taxes. Until 2019, when we transferred everything to reflect our Alaska residency, we had accumulated plates from PA, AK, MO, CO, and WY. Once everything was replaced with Alaska plates, we had those others just sitting around. 

Which means, Wells gets a Wyoming plate framed and on his wall to commemorate where he was born. 

When Sutton, who was a complete surprise to us all, was born in Missouri this past spring, I immediately thought I could do the same for her. 

See, we have Missouri plates hanging around from our time stationed here in 2013-2014. Our Tacoma (that we sold in 2017) was bought in Missouri in 2013 and our Rav4 (that we still have) was bought in Missouri in 2013 too. 

The long and short of this story is that shortly after we bought that Rav4 in Springfield, Missouri, we were told we'd likely never have biological children. I was, quite ironically, told this in the very same hospital where Sutton would be born 8 years later. Like, literally almost to the day. 

This means that, also quite ironically, she gets that Missouri license plate to show where she was born. We'd renounced our Missouri claim years ago, changing the car registration to Colorado and then to Alaska. But I still had the plates. 

I know that's a little bit of a turkey trail to follow, but the point is that it's totally not lost on me that Sutton arrived exactly when and where she was supposed to, and this license plate on her wall is my enormous daily reminder of this. 

If you want to see how I put the license plate in the frame, click on the Wells post up there for a quick tutorial!

3 comments:

  1. That's so cool! I love this wall decor and tradition.

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  2. This is such a fun (and meaningful) idea!

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  3. I love that they have their own framed plates! I have plates from PA, MO, GA and AL, all the states I have lived. Alabama has changed plate styles several times, so I have one for each style change it has gone through too lol.

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