Real FOOD!

Malone turned 4 months over the weekend. We're such dorky parents that we actually semi-celebrated it by singing to her with all the gusto we could manage. Somehow this "birthday" just felt like a real milestone. Along with being 4 months, she received a few presents. First, we're pretty sure she is in the process of receiving her teeth a.k.a teething. All of a sudden she's not the sweet-all-the-time baby we've grown accustomed to. Plus, she is wanting to chew on everything including fingers, fists, blankets, legs of her toys, I mean everything!!! And drooling is flowing like water from a waterfall. Second, she tried her first bites of real food. I'll let you figure out from the pictures how she liked her Gerber Applesauce. The pictures are in order of events.

Picture 1: Awaiting the so called "real" food.
Picture 2: Growing impatient as she decides to feast on her hand

Picture 3: Me giving her the first bite
Picture 4: She looks a little mad at me for giving her this terrible food.


Picture 4: She looks confused
Picture 5: Look at that face...we were laughing so hard at her face.
Picture 6: Cameron trying
From the looks of it she didn't really know what to think. And luckily for us, there was no spitting out of Applesauce either! Maybe we'll try the banana variety today.

By the way, it looks as if we will be heading out on our Washington journey fairly soon. Hopefully, Cameron will have his final flight here in Altus on next Wednesday, we'll head out to Enid for a few days on Thursday and make it to Colorado Springs sometime the following week (probably June 4 or 5). Then on to Wyoming for a few days and cross our fingers, make it to Washington by June 14th. Any tips on traveling with a 4-month old? Send them my way!!!!!

Mother's day...long overdue

So I've been working on this post since last Sunday and only now have come to post it. It kind of feels as though life has been busy, but really hasn't been. Cameron has had these last few days off and that has been nice. Last week, we went to grand metropolis of Lawton to go look at paint colors at Home Depot for the interior of our new little house. We found some great colors and I'm excited to announce for you that we will have a nice and colorful, spicy, interesting, cool house! No more white walls with awful seventies floral wallpaper like in Enid!! And the crowds rejoice!!!

In anyways, as I've been thinking and preparing for Mother's Day, I've been trying to think what I have learned about life being a new mom. I'm still working on it, so watch out for the deep, intellectually stimulating, heart strings pulling post coming up sometime in the future. One thing I have realized it how incredible my own mom is, and I make sure I take full advantage of her with many, many phone calls starting with, "Mom, Malone is doing this....what do I do?" Thinking back to all those years when she balanced being a mom with working very full-time jobs, with helping my dad in the ministry, plus going to school, proves that she is amazing. I don't think I realized her value fully as a mother until I became a mother. So here's a toast to my mom!

Meanwhile Cameron and Malone did their best to show their appreciation of my "mothering" by getting me some beautiful roses, new running shoes (I know, most people would be offended by this gesture, but I really wanted them), brunch at the Officer's Club and a beautiful new Starbucks coffee mug. According to Cameron, I needed a mug that suited my personality better as well as one I could microwave, as I often have to drink my coffee cold and my last cup had the un-microwaveable metal on the bottom of it. It was a great day and I truly felt loved!!

Here's some pictures of the day:

Picture 1: Malone and I on Mother's day. Look at her pretty little dress.
Picture 2: Cameron and Malone at brunch on Mother's Day. Malone was a little sleepy.
Picture 3: Getting ready for a summer outing.
Picture 4: Just hanging out getting ready for bed.
Picture 5: Playing with her favorite hippo. She tries to eat his legs and he doesn't fight back...match made in heaven.

Super Saturday

We have a love/hate relationship with Saturdays here in Altus. We look forward to Saturdays because a) its just Saturday, b) we can "sleep in" and c) no silly responsibilities like work. On the other hand, its a total letdown because although we have all this "free time" on Saturdays there is not much to do. Not this Saturday. The big talk of the town was the Altus AFB "Wings of Warriors" Air Show held right here on base. Now, under normal circumstances I would not have thought twice about an air show, but friends, these are not normal circumstances.

We had dreams of waking early Saturday morning, getting Malone all dressed in her first real summer outfit of the year...ok, of her life...and walking down the street, a little summer family of three complete with hats, a stroller and camera in hand. Unfortunately, dreams are only dreams and we woke to a blustery, chilly morning. But again, we were determined to make this work. Malone had her summer outfit on under her bundle of sweatshirts and blankets. We walked down to the airfield a cold little family of three ready for some airplane action. Luckily, the airshow did not disappoint. Just about every airplane in the Air Force was there including the brand new F-22 (apparently the new darling of the Air Force needs to be heavily guarded by big, scary men with machine guns) and Cameron's C-17. We were pretty cold and took shelter in the C-17 which was open all the way from the tail through to the cockpit for us to see. We waited in line for about an hour or so to see the cockpit, which was fine because we were starting to regain feeling in our fingers again and Malone had fallen asleep on Cameron's chest (too cute). It was amazing to see what Cameron will be flying and the responsibility of this enormous aircraft that lies on his shoulders. I have to admit that it made me pretty impressed with Cameron.

We walked around, Cameron spouting off little known facts about all kinds of amazing aircrafts and watched some demonstrations showcasing the abilities of these planes. We enjoyed all the best flavors of a fair like freshly grilled corn, hamburgers, nachos and I even saw some people walking around with huge smoked turkey legs. So fun!! But soon, Malone was not having so much fun anymore and our time had to come to an end. We went home and had the best naps ever! And so ended our fantastic Saturday. I'm not quite sure whether we enjoyed ourselves so much because we have been "fun" starved for the past however long, or whether it really was fun. Regardless, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and will put this in the books as possibly the "Best Saturday in our time here at Altus".

*** Just a little side-note, Cameron just came into the bedroom to clean Malone's diaper and it was the poopiest diaper I have EVER seen in my life. It was like it exploded everywhere, which is not an uncommon occurrence in our house, but this one was different! We both had to clean it, it was a team effort. Pretty comical, I know. ****

In other news, this week has been a week of discoveries. We have discovered that Malone has toenails. I know it sounds funny, but her toenails always were so soft that they didn't even look like she had them. How did we make this shocking discovery? I was playing with her and she scratched me with her razor sharp toe-claws. Now there's something else to dread clipping...have I told you about our bad relationship with clipping her nails...oh that's a few stories for another day. Oh yes, discoveries, Malone has also discovered my hair. She doesn't pull my hair, but rather looks at it and mockingly laughs at it. At first I thought it was the funny faces I make at her, but soon realized that she's not even looking at my face but is fixated on my hair. Is my hair that funny looking? I know I haven't gotten a haircut in a while, but I didn't think it looked that bad. She doesn't really laugh at much right now which makes me think that it must look REALLY funny. Out of the mouths of babes....

Here's some pictures from our day now known as "Super Saturday":

Picture1: F- 22 Raptor- Homage to our favorite friends, the Skelley's.

Picture 2: Here's the Schaefer family by the C-17

Picture 3: Malone and I standing by the engines. They are soooo huge! Can you see us?
Picture 4: The C-17 cargo ramp. This is where we entered and stood in line from the entrance all the way to the cockpit.
Picture 5: Here we are standing in line. Apparently, Malone wasn't too impressed with her dad's plane.
Picture 6: I'm in the cockpit

Picture 7: Malone awoke to find herself in the cockpit of a C-17
Picture 8: Look at all the buttons. Cameron knows what each one does...WOW!
Picture 9: Malone and I on Friday night. How pretty is her dress? My mom got it from Ecuador...I think.
Picture 10: Malone found my chin and thought it was a pacifier.
Picture 10: My beautiful girl hasn't learned yet that its not very ladylike to show your "under-things" to the world...she'll learn.

Picture 11: Pretty girl

Pictures Galore

Friends,

Since I didn't post too many pictures yesterday...the day before...who knows what day I last posted...I thought I would share some fun new pics with you. We kind of get bored here in Altus and so we take lots of silly pictures, watch LOST, work out, and work on our blogs.

Picture 1: Malone and I hanging out the other day.

Picture 2: Then she ate & fell asleep.

Picture 3: We were at the hotel (love Marriott's nice, big, fluffy beds!) this past weekend and had some time to kill. What's better than a family photo shoot? Here's when it was still fun.
Picture 4: Here's when it wasn't so much fun anymore.

Picture 5: Malone has recently started playing with toys. She concentrates very hard and sometimes her hands can't quite catch up to her will, but she tries anyways.
Picture 6: Playing

Picture 7, 8, 9 & 10: We were just finished eating dinner, about to watch American Idol and Malone was in a really funny mood. Here she is in all her glory.