Mallie and Dallie's Visit

Mallie and Dallie flew in for a week to celebrate Presley's birthday a little early and just spend some time with us. We had a great week with them! 

David loves shoes, I just bought him new ones today and he refused to take them off! Cameron always asks him as a joke where are his shoes cause he will stop whatever he's doing to bend over and look at them. He loves putting on all our shoes, especially slippers.

He is growing up so fast all of a sudden. He's talking more and more and added lots of new words to his vocabulary. He's still sleeping and napping great. Before nap and bedtime, Cameron shows him the Bo Jackson poster hanging in his room and he always waves night night to Bo... kind of ridiculous and awesome at the same time.

 My sassy girl is loving life these days. She loves her school, all her friends and especially loves going to her dance class. Mallie and Dallie got to watch her do ballet this week, after a quick run to Dunkin Donuts that morning. Our children can easily split a dozen donut holes. David could eat about 7-8 himself, but we usually cut them both off.

 We then got to play outside while the weather was nice.

 Presley and Dallie enjoyed their ice cream treats together at night. 

Dallie probably played this airplane game with David for 30 minutes one day.

 David loves cars and planes.

 And Dallie got to play dress up a few times... he's a good sport! Presley still just adores him. They are best friends, as she would say. He puts her to bed every night, tells her stories, brushes her teeth, the works! They are two peas in a pod! They watched a few movies together with their popcorn bucket and after naptime every day, she would request Dallie come to her room. I heard them up there as she was going through each of her 100 Care Bears and telling Dallie all of their names and which were her favorites. He is so patient and gives her so much attention, it makes me happy to see these two reunited!  

 She also has a special bond with Mallie. Mallie planned some special activities and brought the kids several presents.  We had an early birthday party for Pres since Dallie will be out of the country during her birthday and they weren't able to come then. We made Cinderella cookies (since her party will be Cinderella themed this year). Presley loved helping bake cookies and decorate them all with the sprinkles.

 Then, she got her big gift... a Barbie Jeep! Here she is walking out in the garage after Dada and Dallie had put it together. 

 

 Of course, David wanted to go for a spin!

 We decided it probably wasn't the best idea for her first drive to be with David so he rode in the Step 2 and followed her in the jeep.

 What birthday is complete in our house without a trip to the zoo! We have really enjoyed our zoo membership this year.

We caught the meerkats sunbathing and she thought it was hilarious they slept like Phil.

 We tried a few new restaurants this week. This pizza place turned out to be really good and they had a cute castle play area for the kids.

We went through Presley's closet to pull out the clothes she's outgrown and unload some of our awesome new clothes from Olivia. Presley started picking up Olivia's clothes and just putting them on. Here's what she ended up with... I did have to tell her this is a Christmas skirt and she is now counting down till Christmas to wear it again. Silly girl!

My parents were supposed to leave Tuesday morning, but extended their tickets when Cameron's change of command got scheduled that afternoon. I am so grateful they were there, not only to help with the kids, but it was nice for them to get to be a part of one of our many Army ceremonies and get to meet some people from our new unit. I don't know how we could have managed without them, since we also hosted a reception afterward. It was so nice to have all the extra hands with the kids. We had a really great visit and can't wait to see them again.  We had a bit of a tear-filled trip to the airport, but Presley knows they will be back to visit soon. David really bonded with Dallie this trip and said Dal the whole trip home. I think he really missed his buddy playing with him while we were in the car. This is just the beginning of the company we have coming... can't wait for our next visitors, Amelia and Daniel, then G and Grandmom! 

And, I will leave you with this pic of my little man... he cracks us up and loves being the clown!

Cameron Takes Command

Cameron took command today of a company at Fort Carson. The kids and I went to his ceremony, along with my parents. I'm so grateful they were still in town and able to help out with the kids! David ate goldfish the entire time in Dal's lap and was quiet outside of saying "more." Presley was so excited to dress up for Dada's ceremony.  She wanted to wear her red Christmas dress, but we opted for a nice gray dress with some of her fancy jewelry instead. She sat there so perfect, mostly because I told her if she could sit still we were going to have chicken nuggets and cake afterward at the reception. She did great, not surprising, and really enjoyed the food!

We are excited for Cameron to start this new job and this new chapter in his career. I know he's eager to get started...which works out well I guess since he has to be back at midnight tonight.  It's definitely going to be a much more time consuming job (for both of us), but it's exciting to get started. 

Playing

We have been enjoying the past few weeks doing a lot of playing inside, playing in the snow and some fun outings. David is still pretty obsessed with Cameron. One day when Cameron was at work, David was having Dada withdrawals so he carried around Cameron's boot... pretty funny! 

 In between the snow days, we've had some awesome spring-like weather.

 This little man cracks us up, and loves doing it! He loves to make Presley laugh at dinner and close his eyes and shake his head.

This kid has been packing in the food these days! I can't wait to see how much weight he's gained at his next appointment. We get the kids donuts on the weekends and he can eat 7 easily by himself (in addition to yogurt and some cheerios). 

 After Presley's dance class one day, I took the kids to the mall to play and have a Chick-fil-A lunch.

 We went to the zoo last weekend before our next round of snow hit. David and Pres fed the giraffes this time.

David insisted on walking the entire zoo! He did it and was so mad when we left. He waved and said hi to all the other kids we passed. He is quite a social boy.

 Presley got to enjoy a treat at the zoo for doing excellent on her chore chart the week before. Of course, she picked ice cream and even shared some with David.

 One day while Pres was at school, I took David to a bounce house. It completely wore me and him out, but he had a blast.

 

We then enjoyed a snack in the car before we had to go in and get Presley. I am trying to do some fun things with David before the baby comes so he gets a little one-on-one time with me.  I wish I had more energy to keep up with him these days.