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.

Hot Husband and Sweet Baby

So, I'm taking a break from watching American Idol right now, because to be honest, Neil Diamond night isn't exactly super exciting. Ahhh, my love/hate relationship with American Idol. Anyways, thought I would brag on my husband and little girl for a minute or two...

This past weekend, we went to Oklahoma City. Why? Cameron ran Sunday morning in the Oklahoma City Marathon! I'm so proud of him and incredibly impressed by his physical prowess (hey, hey, get your mind out of the gutter, I'm impressed by his athletic abilities). He finished the 13 mile Half Marathon in 1 hour 43 minutes, which is a really good time. What makes this feat so astounding is that he didn't really train that much. I think his longest run in his "training" was a 8-mile run. I have to train just to be able to run 2 miles, never mind 13. OK, lets just stop for a second and put that into perspective. Running 13 miles is running 52 laps around a track (Ughhh, that would be terrible), for you Colorado friends running from church to my old house, aka the Holt Manor, which would take me 20 minutes driving, running from one end of the town of Altus to the other end and back, or running for the equivalent of the amount of time it would take to watch a movie...there's me watching Mr. & Mrs. Smith while Cameron runs his half marathon. Can you believe it? Needless to say, I'm so proud of him. And now that he's gotten a taste of sweet running victory he'll begin training for the Seattle Marathon (26.2 miles) in November.

I always wonder what one thinks about while running for an hour and a half or more. Well, I'm about to find out. Cameron has convinced me that I too can train for a half marathon in Seattle. I'm a little skeptical because I don't exactly have a loving relationship with running. When I played sports in high school, running was used as a punishment for doing something wrong. Didn't rebound enough? "Get on the line!" our coach yelled. Didn't play with full force? "Get on the line!!" Didn't hustle enough? "Get on the line!" How do I rebuild my relationship with running when it was so horribly torn down? But I've decided to do it, have something to work towards physically and I'm kind of excited. Now, me mentioning this to you means that I really am going to have to do it. May I mention that I've had 2 knee surgeries?..ok, ok...you're right, I'm just making excuses in case I can't/don't do it. And unlike my competitive husband, I really could care less about the time in which I will run the longest 13 miles of my life. My goal is just to finish, just do it, as the Nike ad would say.

OK, so on to me being proud of Malone. First, she slept through the whole 2 hour drive to Oklahoma City. Then when we went to the mall, she just sat in her stroller and looked around, enjoying the Oklahoma people gazing as much as we did. Then, as if it couldn't get any better, when we went to dinner with our friends, Steven and Yami, she just sat in our laps and looked at the scrumptious P.F. Chang's food, being as quiet as a mouse. Isn't she wonderful? We went to sleep pretty late and had to wake up pretty darn early. When we arose at the ungodly time of 4:30am, she woke up, ate and went back to sleep as we got Cameron ready for the race. We were all ready to go watch him run the race, but unfortunately we weren't quite ready for the rain and 40 degree weather. So we sat in the car while Cameron ran the race. BUT....she slept the whole time, which made it a million times easier.

All this to say, I'm so proud of my husband for his perseverance and so proud of my little girl for being soooo sweet and good. Hugs and Kisses to them both!

Here's some recent pictures:

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 check-up

Malone had kind of a hard day on Monday. First, she didn't sleep so well the night before because there were heavy thunderstorms, sirens going off due to the very close proximity of a tornado and then the tv on for a few hours (I was a bit freaked out and had to track the storm at 3am). We were hoping that Monday would be a great day, Malone's 2 month doctor's check-up.

The good news is that she has gained 3 lbs and 2 inches, just perfect. She is in the 50th percentile for her weight and head size and in the 75th percentile for her height. The doctor said that he liked her curves....ha ha...growth curves, that is. So yay, for Malone growing!!!

Not so yay for what had to happen next, her first immunizations. Missy was already getting hungry and tired, so she didn't need a reason to be cranky. Four needles shoved into her little thighs, one drink of some sort of gross immunization, blood on her clothes and lots of pitiful goat screaming later and she had had enough! But now she is protected from all kinds of gross bacteria and diseases, so it is kind of worth it.....I think.

Picture 1: Look at her little legs. Note the blood on the bottom of her little onesy. Ouch :(
Picture 2: Here's the other little leg
Picture 3: Her sleepy, groggy, scared face all day Monday

In other news, I think Malone is having a style identity crises. I don't think she can decide whether to be a ghetto gangster or a punk rock star. My vote is for the punk rock star.

Picture 4: Her ghetto gangster self relaxing while waiting for her homeboys to bring her some food.

Picture 5: Her punk rock self practicing singing into her...ehm...microphone...
Isn't she getting beautiful? Just too cute!

Picture 6 & 7: Just hanging out while mom folds the laundry. I think the camera kind of scares her...she always looks terrified.