3 week round-up

Ahhh, I feel overwhelmed by guilt (I have not updated you all in FAR too long and sooo much has happened) and anxiousness (this is too exciting to tell you about in a parenthetical sentence). There is a wonderful smell coming from my oven a.k.a a nice Rhubarb pie and I can hardly wait to put a dollop of vanilla ice cream on the warm, gooey, tart pie. I just discovered Rhubarb pie thanks to Claire (Cameron's wonderful stepmom) and I think its my new favorite pie.

ANYWAYS! Gosh, I can't even remember what I wrote last and what has happened since. Let me think......something to do with hell, Science Fiction Museums, lobster tails, an additional tooth and some new moves. Sounds interesting, eh? OK, before you die of excitement let me explain.

First, my sister, Lydia and brother-in-law, Joel graced us with their presence for a while. It was so great to have them here. They are such kind, fun, and cool people. And Malone absolutely loved them. We tried to get out of the house quite a bit, because although our house is cool in aesthetic, it was not cool in temperature. We found ourselves in the middle of the Tacoma Heat Wave of 2008. It was crazy! We went to the Glass Museum in Tacoma and Experience Music Project and then something we never thought we would see....the Science Fiction Museum. We learned a lot and I think Lydia and Joel were in Science Fiction heaven.
Picture 2: Lyddie, Joel and Malolo at the Seattle harbor Picture 3: The Museum of Glass and Lydia's glorious head
Then the day after Lyddie and Joel left, Cameron's dad and stepmom came for a little visit on their way to Oregon. Malone loves her Grandma Claire and Grandpa Jay. We enjoyed just visiting with one another. By the way, they bought us a "little" gift, a not so little lobster tail. Its the biggest thing I've ever seen. Here's the pictures. We haven't fixed it yet. We're saving it for a very special occasion.
Picture 4: Malone with Grandma & GrandpaPicture 5: Malone and Granpa Jay enjoying a coffee breakPicture 6: The infamous lobster tail Picture 7: Look how big it is compared to my arm

Then, our friend Justin came for visit. Justin is one of our oldest friends and we enjoyed catching up with our dear friend. And now, my old roommate Eryn is here for a visit. I love Eryn and so does Malone. I think they are new best friends.

So there you go. You are semi-caught up on our happenings. Oh yes, and Cameron has gone back to work and started flying. He is loving this new phase of his job (actually getting to DO his job). I now call him my "international man of mystery".

Lastly, Malone is on the move!!! She crawls as fast as a cougar (does a cougar crawl?) and get this....the other morning, I went into her room and guess what she was doing?! She was STANDING in her crib waiting for me. Standing?????Umm...we are so not ready for that. Needless to say, it was not a fluke. She is currently pulling herself up by just about anything she can get ahold of. Which also means she is bonking her head quite often. I spend so much of my time keeping an eye on her now and moving her and lots of objects. She's growing up so fast. She's even reading now (even upside down!!! So smart!)

Here's some pics of her in her Alabama onesie. These pictures are dedicated to my family in Tuscaloosa and Brian and Brandi Steorts (we miss you guys!!)

Christelly is here for a visit!

Sorry for the long overdue update. With Cameron home and my little sister visiting not only have we been keeping busy but there is also serious competition for the computer...mostly Cameron and his 500 subscribers blog. So let me fill you in on a few weeks worth of events.

First, Cameron was gone two weeks ago for some military training involving things he can't tell me. Somehow I think this secrecy thing will only increase as he gets into his new job. I'm not one for secrets and therefore am not too excited about this :) While he was gone, Malone and I tried to stay busy and nearly melted in the heat like M&M's (haha, get it M-alone & M-arelize, oh my wittiness is amazing!)

He got back on the fourth of July in the evening just as our whole neighborhood was starting the unofficial neighborhood block party/fireworks show. It was pretty incredible considering I have never lived anywhere where fireworks was legal inside city limits. We didn't know about it, but were fortunate to have some very nice neighbors who let Cameron help them shoot their fireworks. Next year we will definitely be ready! Oh and Malone slept through most of it. Amazing!

Then the next day my little sister, Christelle came from Alabama for a visit. It has been so great having her here. She is a joy to have around and has discovered the key to making Malone giggle. We've been hanging out with her, showing her around town. We went to the Point Defiance "Zoo & Aquarium" although both seemed a bit lacking in the animal department. Nevertheless, we had a good time. We also went to Seattle and Ikea, the norm for out of town visitors. Us girls went shopping and out for an afternoon at Borders, some good quality sissy time. Oh yes, and on Saturday we went to the Puyallup (pronounced PEW-WALLUP) farmer's market. It was awesome and definitely a highlight for me. I think we're going to make it a weekly activity.

Picture 1: Here's Christelly, Malone and I at the zoo.
Picture 2: Here's the little fam of 3 at the zoo.
Picture 3: Look at her all decked out in her stroller and hat. The hat is a bit too big and kept on falling over her eyes. Then we'd have strangers say, " Ummm...your baby's hat is over her eyes" and look at us like we're terrible parents :)
Picture 4: Christelle and I at Pikes Place Market

Malone has also had a busy week of loving on her auntie Christelly and her daddy (well, and me of course, but she never gets a break from me).
Picture 5: Malone and her Auntie playing and learning how to crawl.
Picture 6: Malone and her daddy after a bath.
PIcture 7: Ummm...how cute is she??!!!
Picture 8: Malone in her daddy's beloved hat.
Picture 9: She looks a little like a granola baby, like her parents should be living on a commune (the one you always talked about, Jill) smoking something crazy and never washing our hair. But alas, she and we are quite the opposite sub-urbanites.
Picture 10: This one is just for fun...she started eating peas for the first time this week. It was just too cute to resist taking a picture of the big mess.
In other news, I know many of you are interested in my marathon training. OK, so I don't exactly "know" that you are interested but I'm just going to update you in anyways :) After nearly two months of not running (bad runner girl!!!) I am back on the path of righteousness. I found a gym near my house and joined. Now I know that typically runners don't enjoy running on a treadmill but rather loves to feel the cool, crisp air in their faces while running outside. Well, I am not one of those people. I have a safety issue with running alone, down the street where there are cars and random people. Good news though: With my new membership comes some free sessions with a trainer. So far I've had 2 sessions and let me tell you I was definitely feeling it this weekend. My trainer is helping me develop a plan to help with the training of the "13 miles of hell" (aka the half marathon) as the trainer likes to call it. I'm really excited about this opportunity although not quite sure what to think of my last session tomorrow. My trainer said and I quote, "Next session we'll do legs. You should prepare yourself mentally for it, because just to warn you, doing legs with James (my trainer) is hell!". Ummm...ok scary trainer man. How do I prepare myself for that?! So as you are reading this, drinking your warm, smooth, creamy, comforting morning latte, say a little prayer for me as I am surely dying a slow death and doing so many lunges and squats that my legs want to fall off and run away without me.

Love you all and hope you are doing well. We are working on doing a MTV Cribs of our house. Will be up soon, I pinky-swear. But in the meanwhile, enjoy some videos we've been taking of Malone and Christelly. I'll post them in the morning.

Home, Sweet Home

It is true, we have finally made it to Tacoma and in one piece I might add. We arrived Friday night, tired, hungry (worse for some named Malone than others) but excited to see our new house that Cameron picked out for us. I am pleased to say that we are all very satisfied with the choice of house and Cameron therefore gets a great, big, golden star! But before I tell you about the house and our recent and oh-so-exciting endeavors, let me catch you up on our road trip.

We left Altus....a while ago. It feels like so many worlds ago that I can't even remember when it was. We were in quite a hurry to get out of there for many reasons but mostly because Cameron still had to check out of Vance AFB in Enid and we were hoping to get out of Oklahoma before the weekend as to not spend extra time there when we could be on the way to Washington. We got checked out of Altus, then back to Enid for a few days then we hit the road to Colorado. As we left Oklahoma, we looked in the rear-view mirror and said, "Good Riddens!" Now, to all our Oklahoma friends, we love you and have loved spending time with you. So please don't let our dislike of 90 degree summers, mosquitoes, tornadoes, having nothing to do on a Saturdays, be any reflection of our love and appreciation for you!

Back to beautiful Colorado! We truly enjoyed our time in Colorado Springs. We stayed with my super hotty sister, Lydia and brother-in-law Joel and just enjoyed their hospitality. Malone of course bonded once again with Lydia (she came and stayed with us when I had M) and fell in love with uncle Joel right away. We also got to spend some time with many of our friends....shout out to all my Colorado Springs readers!!!!....and went to our old church on Sunday where we dedicated Malone. Pictures to come of this great and spur-of-the-moment event when Sarabeth gets back from gallivanting around the world with her camera. We were sad to leave Colorado but Monday afternoon made our trek to Wyoming with a pit stop in Ft. Collins to see Cameron's Aunt Marge. Its always good to be in Wyoming and see all of the people that Cameron loves so much and that now has grown to be quite special to me as well. Malone was introduced to the Laramie crowd and won them over with her wit, charm and good looks, not to mention a few party tricks here and there. She sat on the swing with Grandma Claire in the backyard and loved to play with Grandpa Jay's face. Overall, just a enjoyable time with family and friends. And then it was time to leave all those who showered Malone with attention and back to just the three of us. I was hoping Malone wouldn't be too disappointed.

I must say that I was very surprised how easily Malone handled all the new people and let just about anyone hold her. A few times I could tell she was getting a bit overwhelmed but those moments were few and far between. She was a trooper and if we were a Daddy Warbucks kind of family we would shower her with gifts because of how good she was.

We drove the first day 600 miles from Laramie, WY to Twin Falls, ID, leaving at 5:30am and driving until about 6pm. It was long and tiring but good to make huge progress. Malone slept quite a bit and had a few melt downs but nothing too serious. The next day we made it all the way to Tacoma a distance of about another 600 miles. Malone slept for most of the morning and then a good chunk in the afternoon, but I knew life could not be so kind as to have her sleep the whole way and my streak of good luck was about to end. And boy, did it! As we were about 2 hours away from Tacoma, it started raining and Malone woke up with a vengeance. As we were crossing a mountain pass in the POURING rain I had a baby screaming in the back seat. Then we got lost...oh and Malone was still SCREAAAAMING. And then we finally arrived at home and Malone was still crying. It was really sad and by then I was ready to cry as well. BUT, we made it safe and sound!

So that was our journey through 8 states, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, and finally Washington. I think Malone is the most well traveled baby ever! So here we are in OUR home. We are currently sleeping on an air mattress because our furniture won't get delivered until Friday, but that's ok because we are home. We've been painting (and by we I mean, mostly Cameron has been painting), putting up curtains, buying a few things here and there and mostly just getting organized. We love our new home and can't wait to further explore this great state. By the way, the weather is terrible right now. I'm a bit frightened for things to come...its been about 55 degrees and cloudy or raining every day since we've gotten here. They say it is very uncommon for this time of year, but I think I'm seeing what winter will be like and I'm not sure I can handle the sun-less-ness. Luckily our house is some nice bright colors to liven it up a bit.

OK, its time for bed, but you can go to sleep knowing that I will post some pictures once we get our furniture. Also tomorrow, I'll tell you all about our IKEA adventure and the famous Pikes Place Market today. Sleep well friends!

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.

A visit to the Ouma and Oupa

So sorry for the long blog world absence, but yes, we are back and lots of pictures to share!! Malone and I ventured out and traveled together for the first time this week. We went to Alabama to visit my parents and little sister and Malone's Ouma and Oupa and Tannie Christelly. *Ouma is Grandma in Afrikaans, Oupa is Grandpa and Tannie is Aunt. We had such a splendid time visiting with one another. But instead of me narrating to you about it, I'll explain the whole story in pictures.

I admittedly was a bit nervous traveling with a three month old. So, like any neurotic new mom I called the airline a few days ahead and asked a poor customer service agent a million and one questions. My friend Hillarie volunteered to take us to the airport in Lawton (the closest semi-large town about an hour away) early Tuesday morning. We headed out wondering if there really was an airport in such a small town and soon found out that there indeed was an airport although it was little more than a building, strip of pavement and 2 airplanes. Let no one say that I was not prepared for everything but a hurricane!Picture 1: Here we are on our layover in Dallas, stroller, car seat, and backpack filled with everything I could possibly need for a few weeks. Imagine trying to go through airport security where I had take Malone out, hold her, break everything down, take off my shoes, put everything through the x-ray machines, all while holding Malone with one arm, and then setting everything back up again. Needless to say, next time I think I'll take it a bit easier on the stuff.

Malone did great and slept on most of our flights...to the great delight of everyone on board who was visibly nervous about the lady with lots of stuff and a baby.
Picture 2: Here is Malone on her first flight ever. Apparently they are very serious about the fact that the baby HAS TO sit by the window. I found this out after the flight attendant repeatedly made an announcement on the plane PA system saying, "Ma'am, the baby has to be by the window." It took me a little while realizing she was talking to me :)

Finally, we arrived in Birmingham where we were met by my parents. It was love at first sight, Malone and the family. Everyone fighting over who would get to hold her, play with her and rock her to sleep....with the exception of changing diapers. My dad informed me that part of being an Oupa was that you no longer had to change diapers :) Tannie Christelly blew on Maloney's belly to make her laugh and had numerous photo sessions with her.Ouma rocked her to sleep, worked on her hand/eye coordination, held her, and played with her endlessly.Oupa would come first thing in the morning to make Malone smile and giggle with his stories and even had "tummy time" with her on the floor.Oh, and they did their part to make sure that she will be a bi-lingual baby, speaking only Afrikaans to her the whole week.

We also had a few visitors who came to meet Malone. Malone and I worked very hard on her first impressions, but alas, I think she missed the part where you are not supposed to scream a lot when there is new people. That and how farting in front of people was a bit of a faux pas. On Thursday afternoon, one of my best friends, Emily came to see Malone and visit with me. We had a great time catching up.

Then Friday night the Oom Johan and Tannie Karin, longtime South African family friends of ours arrived for a nice weekend visit. Saturday morning we woke up, drank some tea and ate beskuit (very South African) and later had a nice brunch outside while the sun was warming us up nicely. Malone just sat on Ouma's lap and looked at all the people, even joining in the conversation a bit. Later, Christelly and I had the best bike ride ever! All in all just a great weekend. Here's Malone fascinated by my mom's coffee cup.

Uncle JD sent Malone a beautiful pink blanket as well as a lovely letter written in Afrikaans. My mom is reading it to Malone.

By the way, in the midst of our trip Cameron and I finally officially became homeowners as we closed on our new house. Here's a picture of our house. I'll put up a few more pictures in a few days.

Sadly, our lovely time with the family had to come to an end. I packed up our stuff, which somehow had increased quite a bit since I had arrived, and we were off to the airport. We truly enjoyed the trip so much and I'm sure Malone will miss her Ouma, Oupa and Tannie Christelly very much.



Here some more pictures for you:

Malone trying to figure out what's going on as we're on the airplane.

Just for cuteness.

How cute is she when she wakes up?

Malone loved the swing at Ouma and Oupa's house. She tried to hard to play with her toys.

She was soooo tired when she would take a nap. It would take forever for her to fall asleep because she was just too interested in everything going on.

Auntie Christelle and Malone bonding a bit.

2 month birthday!!

I know its been 10 days since I last made a posting, a fact I am shamefully admitting. However, I want to make sure that your visit to my blog is worthwhile and since our minutes are not all full of excitement I collected our newsworthy moments for a post like this.

We've been enjoying lots of family time lately because Cameron has been doing his C-17 training at night instead of during the day. Malone has really enjoyed some extra time with her daddy. She loves the songs he makes up for her and appreciates his crawling coaching. She is growing like a weed. We've noticed that she looks a bit chubbier (only to make her cuter), especially in her cheeks and legs. Here's a nice chubby picture of her in her car seat.

Check out those cheeks.
Here's a nice one where you can see the rolls on her legs....FABULOUS!!! She was really excited to go on a walk.
But not to worry, she doesn't just lazy around all day, she's working on her sitting and spitting up skills. She is getting so strong. We bought her this awesome little chair to help her with her sitting up. She loves her chair even though she just has little 5 minutes stints in it at this point. Here she is trying out her Bumbo chair.

The weather has really been warming up, making it really nice for us to go on walks around the base in her sweet stroller. The other day, we put on Malone's first summer outfit, a sunny yellow tennis dress. I think its a sign of things to come, Malone playing tennis with mommy and daddy. How yuppy of us?! Here's some pictures of her in her super cute summer tennis outfit.

She was kind of giggly and getting sleepy so not so sturdy in the neck and body department.We've come to realize that Malone doesn't like pacifiers. How? By her vehemently spitting them out with disgust every time we try to put one in her mouth. She doesn't suck her thumb either. Rather she sucks her whole hand! Its so funny to see.

She randomly fell asleep the other day on her Boppy pillow. Cameron and I call this her lazy boy...and she fell asleep on it without us even noticing. I think we were doing something and all of a sudden she got kind of quiet (which made me nervous) and I looked over and she was doing the eyelid dance. The eyelid dance is when someone is so tired, but they are desperately trying to stay awake. So their eyelids kind of dance between being closed and open. Then all of a sudden she was out like a light, with her hands resting perfectly on her belly. SO cute!

Last but not least she is a squabbling machine. She is making all kinds of noises that sometimes even resemble words. Every once in a while Cameron and I will look at each other in amazement and ask, "Did she just say 'hello'?" We love hearing her interacting with us a bit more and can't wait until she can actually talk. Here's one last picture for you of Malone and her big beautiful blue eyes.
We are so thankful to have this little girl. It feels like she has always been in our little family. So here's a toast to Malone and her 2 month birthday! Hip, Hip Hooray!