Dress-Up and Trains

It's time to get this Little One some dress up clothes of his own.

Wordless Wednesday

{fondant flowers and cake made by Mom and BB at the fondant cake class!}

Celebrating BB!

Today was Aunt BB's {29th!} birthday {Happy Birthday, Little Sister!} and we celebrated in style. First up, lunch at Pei Wei. And then... cupcakes at The Cupcake Lounge!

Rolo, Dreamsicle...

and a double chocolate cupcake {I can't remember the name of this one... do you, BB?}.

And at dinner - presents! We love you, Happy Birthday!

♥

OKC Zoo

Nana, BB, the kids and I all went to the Oklahoma City Zoo today with Addy and Marlene {aka Ms. Marley, as Noah calls her}. Noah had told Daddy this morning on Skype that he wanted to see the monkeys and giraffes, but once he realized we were going to be there with Addy, it was all he talked about. The rest of us were most excited about getting to see the new elephant habitat and baby Malee, the first Asian elephant calf born to the zoo.

We had to ride the carousel, of course!

The new elephant habitat was amazing - it looks like something straight out of Jurassic Park!

And Malee? DARLING! Lines from Tarzan kept popping into my head as we watched her walk around with her Aunt and Mom.

One of the keepers told Aunt BB that she spends more time with her Aunt than she does with her Mom. Someone must have told Malee that Aunts like to spoil their nieces...

...maybe it was Ellie that told her?

Noah was pretty excited to finally see the "monkeys"... the rest of us were just too hot to argue that he was a gorilla.

Luckily, thanks to Ms. Marley, we had gotten into the zoo free, so it didn't bug us in the least to leave after having been there only a couple of hours.

But we did stop for some lunch at McDonald's...

and realized that we're going to have our hands full with these two!

♥

Noah, Mommy and Papa too! | Adventure #2

I've been looking forward to today for quite a while now. And, though the way I had planned and had originally thought it would go was missing one person, the rest was just as I good as I could have hoped for.

Daddy-Man, Noah and I went today to see Cars 2.

Now, I suppose it goes without saying that my family LOVES Disney movies. One of the first ones I remember seeing in the theatre was The Little Mermaid. My sisters and I pretended for years after that to be Ariel in our swimming pool by using our diving rings to turn our legs into fins. We were mesmerized. And, with few exceptions, we've seen nearly all the releases since then in the theatre as well. Some more than once. And, when they were released on VHS, now DVD or BlueRay, we are usually quick to purchase one. We all have our favorites {mine, for the record, include Sleeping Beauty, Tarzan, and Tangled}.

Daddy-Man has his favorites too. Two of his all time favorites are The Incredibles and Cars. Both of them he's watched a million times and has the movie lines memorized. And when we realized that Noah loved Cars as well? Well, that was the Christmas of Lightening McQueen.

So when we found out that they were making a Cars 2, well, I knew exactly who I wanted to make sure came with us when we took Noah for the first time to see it: Papa.

Papa, Noah, and I had our own little adventure today.

He was so anxious for the movie to start, asking us literally every minute {of the 20 minutes we had to wait after getting our popcorn and getting to Papa who saved our seats for us}, "Is the movie ready yet?"

Once it started, he mostly sat on my lap, oblivious to anything and everything around him, occasionally munching on some popcorn. He laughed at the kid-funny parts with us, while Daddy-Man and I snickered at the adult humor laced throughout it.

The only thing that could have made it better was if we could have taken Noah in the balcony and if the rest of the family could have been there {we SO wish you could have been there Benjamin-Dear One}! Thanks for going with us Daddy-Man/Papa, we had so much fun, and Nana, thanks for letting him come with us and for watching Ellie! ♥

Jessie's Bachelorette Party

Tonight, after mine and Noah's "adventure", was Jessie's bachelorette party. We started the night off with a "dance" class, had a {phenomenal} dinner at The Melting Pot {Ben, we are SO going when you get back!}, and ended the night with dancing at Cowboys.

The least incriminating photo of the night? ;)

A Noah and Mommy Adventure

Noah has been missing his Daddy. And has been craving some attention lately. We're {hoping} this is the reason he's been acting out of the norm the last couple of weeks. So this morning, I asked him if he'd like to go on a date with Mommy. His response?

"Yes! Less' go on an adventure! Noah and Mommy can go on an adventure together!"

So, we did. We left Ellie with Nana and Papa and started our little adventure.

Lunch together at one of our favorites, the "little quesadilla store" {aka Taco Bueno}.

After we finished eating, we headed over to the Sam Noble Natural History Museum. From Memorial Day to Labor Day, all military and families are admitted free to the museum and today was also "Library Day" {if you have a Library card to the Moore Public Library, you can get in free}, so we were doubly covered. I had not been to this museum since I don't even know when {maybe college? or elementary school?}, so it was a fun and new adventure for me as well.

Noah's favorite part, by far, was the dinosaur bones.

Though, the crafts provided by the library...

and the stinky buffalo were definitely a close second. {Daddy-Ben, I forgot to mention how he saw the buffalo exhibit from down the hall and immediately ran for it, shouting, "Look, Mommy! It's my stinky Buffalo! Take pish-ure to show Daddy!" ha!}

After a quick stop in the gift shop {from which, we managed to escape without anything!}, we got back into our {hot!} car and headed off to the last leg of our adventure...

Braum's!

He was extremely excited about his ice cream and continued to tell me, several times, that "'B' is for ice cream, Mommy. See? {pointing to the side of the ice cream cup} It says here 'B' is for ice cream."

While we were sitting and enjoying our ice cream, Aunt Jessie sent me a photo of what Ellie was doing:

enjoying some shade after a stroller walk to and a swim at Aunt BB's house with Nana.

She got to have her own adventure too.

I sent Jessie this photo back. ♥

Noah, Buddy, it was great adventuring with you today! I love you and I'm already looking forward to our next adventure together!

"Pop!"

With the exception of when I put Ellie in her pack and play, the kids have been routinely waking around 6:15 each morning. MUCH earlier than we had been getting in Abilene. It's been wearing on me, but I think it's starting to wear on the kids too. {I'm figuring here in a couple of years when I NEED them to wake up early, they won't!} I went into the kitchen to start preparing lunch and left Ellie sitting on the couch with a book. I came back around in less than 3 minutes to find her like this:

Passed out completely.

Which gave me a good opportunity to snap a couple of pics of her almost healed-up arms and legs.

She got to sleep all of 15 minutes until I woke her for lunch. Lucky for me, she {and Noah!} still slept over 3 hours for an afternoon nap. During their nap time, I got the bike trailer put together while Nana took the bike to put some air in the tires. All morning long, the kids had been walking around the house with their helmets saying, "Mommy, let's go ride our bikes! Come on, less' go!" {Noah} and "Haaaat, Haaaat!" {Ellie}.

Noah could barely contain his excitement when he looked out the front door and saw it ready to go after his nap.

We got helmets on, all loaded up, and snapped down the cover...

and not 20ft out of the driveway, "Pop!"

The back tire popped.

Noah was sad, I was sad, and we're still not sure if the tire was over-inflated, if it was just an old tube, or if we were just too heavy for it! We're hoping Papa can replace it for us and we can try again soon.

"I so sorry the wheel popped, Mommy."

When we left for our bike ride, we were on our way to Aunt BB's house for pizza and swimming with the family. So, we got into the Sequoia instead and headed over there.

And, despite not being able to bike over there, we still had a blast!

Shopping and Sleeping

Mom, the kids, and I went this morning to pick up my dress for Jessie's wedding. Next door to David's Bridal is Target, so we stopped in so I could get my birthday present {since the one I wanted was finally on sale!}: a bike trailer. I've had my eye out for one since late last summer and since we've got plenty of opportunities to ride here in Oklahoma {and people to ride with!}, I decided it was what I wanted for my birthday from Ben and the kids {and was helped along with helmets for the kids by the grandparents: Grami and Papa, Grandma Lucy, and Grandma and Poppa Haze!}.

Ellie loves her helmet and everyone {including a lady at Target} can't help but giggle when they see her in it.

Noah took a little convincing to put his on. And I'm still not convinced that I bought him the proper size.

The nap-time/sleep-time-in-the-same-room drama is still going on...

but at least she sleeps well in Nana and Papa's closet, or as Papa likes to call it, "the cupboard under the stairs". ha!

So well, in fact, that I had to wake her for dinner. Though, that probably had something to do with the fact that she woke up at 6:15 this morning and decided to hop into bed with Noah and sit on his head.

♥

Words {only} Wednesday

I really meant to take some photos today. Like while we were at the "doughnut store" in Abilene, enjoying some still warm from the oven doughnuts. Or while we were loading up the Sequoia with some of the last items at our house. Like when Noah REALLY wanted to help me with the air mattresses. Or when Mom was sweeping, I was vacuuming and the kids were running around the very empty house like it was the coolest play area ever - all while Noah was asking where his toys were! Like during our drive back to Oklahoma which went a million times better than the drive there - all thanks to the portable DVD player... that I had with me on the drive down. Or once we got home, unloaded the Sequoia and watched the kids go crazy playing with the toys that Noah had been asking about in Texas.

But I didn't.

I. was. too. exhausted.

I'm sure you understand - I know Nana, the Super-Helper, does!

{STILL} Packing.

Mom, the kids, and I all loaded up in the Sequoia early this morning to head to Abilene to finish packing up the house and to clean it a little better than we did before we left a few weeks ago.

The drive was tough.

My normally good travel companions, Noah and Ellie, were not their usual selves. Crying, kicking, acting out, and all around stinkers.

Our first stop was the base clinic to get Ellie's vaccines caught up and official copies of their shot records. We arrived at the clinic 8 minutes after it closed for lunch. Awesome. So, we grabbed a bite to eat and headed back over. Noah, once he found out that Ellie was going to get shots, insisted that he "needed shots for all his owies" too.

He didn't get one.

We then went to the house to load the car up while the kids napped... and we waited for our babysitter, Hayley, to come down so Mom and I could take the loads to the storage unit without having to worry about the kids being in the car. It was awesome. And Ben, we should have done that while you were here!

Oh, hey Benjamin... do you see your box of uniforms in there that contain your green boots?

After taking two loads, we let Hayley go, picked up the kids and make one more stop at the unit to look for Ben's green boots {in vain. Darn you, Air Force, for changing regs on us AFTER we've already packed all these things up!}, we went to dinner at Chili's.

It was a much needed break.

Baths were done by Nana, while I sought out help from our next-door neighbor, Bob, to remove the satellite. Bob and JoAnn, if you ever read this, you are better neighbors than we deserve - thank you!!

Once the kids were in bed {Noah in his room, Ellie in the closet in anticipation of us painting over the mural... which didn't happen}, Erin came over to help us finish up and spend some time with us. I stepped outside to take out some trash, the sky was such a crazy shade of green and then yellow that I grabbed them both {and then my camera!}... and we totally laughed at how the entire neighborhood was coming outside to see the crazy colors that this Texas sky was providing!

Mom, Erin, thank you! For packing and for being such a great support during this time! And Erin, don't forget the propane tank in the garage! ;)

Melt My {All-American} Heart

{click image to enlarge}

Ellie woke at 5:45 this morning. After getting her settled in the pack and play {verses putting her back in the room with a sleeping Noah}, I talked to Ben and then went back to sleep. I woke a little later to find Mom helping Noah getting ready for a walk with her and Daddy-Man {who took today off}... and encouraging me to lay back down while I could. My still-sore throat and I gratefully went and almost slept through her asking for my camera. When I checked it later for the photos, my heart almost melted.

Especially since last night I gave him the choice of two sets of PJs and he chose the ones he named his "Daddy 'jamas".