Wichita Falls

Today we decided to head on down south to Texas for a little family fun (and shopping!). Our first stop was Kids Hair Safari for Madilyn's very FIRST haircut!!!! She was sooooo good. I thought she might be afraif of the clippers, etc, but she was a real champ. They every had super cool seats for the kiddos and everything.  As you can see, she had quite the mop of hair in need of some serious attention:

In the middle of her haircut:

All done! What a sweetie :)

Next stop was Hobby Lobby. BUT, we were hungry so we stopped on by IHOP for a bite to eat along the way. Here's Madi enjoying the candy bracelet she picked out of the prize bucket at the Salon. She kept looking at me and shouting "mmmmmm, Mommy, NUMMY!!!!!"

Then we went to Best Buy (can't bring Daddy along to the city and not go to Best Buy!), the mall, and out to dinner at Olive Garden; yum! Madilyn saw the camera while we were at dinner and immediately posed with Matt. She's such a little ham!

Madilyn Picasso

It seems we've got a budding artist on our hands these days. The sight of crayons, markers, paints, or anything similar make Madilyn go crazy. This girl LOVES to color.

I have her art table sitting in the kitchen so I can let her color while I'm cooking dinner, but every so often I have to take my eye off here for a moment to grab something out of the fridge, etc...

Well, I think Madilyn has finally had enough of all the "white" in our home. The other day while I was cooking, she decided to add a little color to our home:

Don't worry, they're very washable crayons and everything has since been cleaned up. I just had to snap a few pictures first. I knew it would happen eventually!

Welcome Home Matt!

What a busy day we had today!

Our day began at 5am when I woke Matt up for our flight to Phoenix. He sure was confused! He had no idea I'd been planning this surprise for him for so long. I don't think he really knew what was going on until we were almost halfway to Phoenix. All of a sudden he turned to me on the planed and said, "hey, we're going to Phoenix!". Why yes, yes we are!

Once there we were so excited to see everyone, especially miss Madilyn.

The surprises just kept rolling for Matt all day long. Around 230 this afternoon I told him I was going to bring some things over to my brother, but I was actually headed to the airport to pick up a Adam, a good friend of his. The look on Matt's face when Adam walked through the door was priceless. He was in total shock (success!). The guys hung out for a while and Matt seemed to be having a great time. Around 5, ding dong....... lets get the party started! Matt's extended family along with my immediate family and some of our local friends arrived. I think poor Matt was a bit overwhelmed at this point, but he took it in stride. A big thank you to everyone for coming, I know it meant a lot to Matt to see you all there and it was wonderful seeing you!

Just when he thought we were done and people headed home, another friend of Matt's, Mark, showed up.  It was really all by accident that he was able to make it ( Mark is a pilot stationed in northern California who just happened to have made a trip to Tucson, where the plane broke down. Since it was going to be a while, they decided they'd wait to take-off again until morning. Upon hearing this, Mark knew about the party for Matt and decided to rent a car and drive up for the night.) We had not seen him since our wedding more than 2 1/2 years ago.

Madilyn then went for a sleepover at my parents house and a few of us went out down on a Mill Ave.

What a great day!!!!

Ps.....Heather, we should have taken a pic together too....what were we thinking?!?

What a Storm!

This last week has been quite the adventure. On Wednesday we heard they was a storm that might be making its way through Altus. I don't think we really had any idea what to expect.  Either way, I thought it might be a good idea to grab a little extra milk, bread, eggs, etc and put gas in the car. 

Thursday morning we were woken up to a phone call from the base pediatrician's  office alerting us that Madilyn's appointment had been cancelled due to "extreme weather conditions". Of course, we decided to get up (this was only 7am and Madi was still sound asleep at this point) and see for ourselves. I guess they knew what we didn't, because at 7am it just looked cold. 

We spent the morning inside, playing with Madilyn.  It seems that whenever there is a cold or dreary day, I'm suddenly inspired to bake. So, chocolate chip cookies it was! 

By 10am, the ice was coming down pretty hard. This photo is of our neighbors tree.

and across the street:

I'm so grateful Matthew moved our car out of the driveway before the worst of it hit. Just a few hours later, this was what we found in our driveway:

It would have crushed our car!

Around 4pm Thursday base housing lost power. We were hopeful that power might return, but tried to remain realistic as well. By Friday morning, we still had no power and it was getting pretty cold in our home. The base opened the gym as a shelter in place. They had generators running so people would have a nice warm place to hang out (and charge their cell phones!). The chow hall was also opened up to  serve warm meals.

We stayed in the gym most of Friday, but Madilyn was having a very hard time settling down with so many kids running all over the place squealing and running, etc. We decided to try and get some rest at home again, but it sure was COLD!!!!!! We all piled into one bed, with several layers of clothing and hats. We also opened up the down comforter and another sleeping bag on top of that. We were able to get a *little* rest and stay fairly warm this way. However, by the time we woke on Saturday morning, the house was in the 40s!!!! BRRRRR

Saturday afternoon, we left Altus and made the trip up to Oklahoma City. Here are a few pictures as we were leaving the base.

Don and Sandy joined us here on Saturday night and we were able to spend some great time with them. It was also wonderful to be in a place with a warm room and power (and internet!) again. Don and Sandy left this morning and have graciously taken Madilyn back to AZ with them for the week. She thrives on routine, and we know she'll be very well cared for! I'm certain she'll be out at the park enjoying the 70+ degree days there while we try and clean up the mess this storm has left behind.

Our original plan was to make our way back to Altus today, but we have since been informed it doesn't look like Altus will have power any sooner than Wednesday. We have extended our stay here another two nights at this point.

We are very thankful to be able to get away to a warmer place for a few days and continue to pray for those families who remain without power. Please keep these families in your thoughts and prayers as well.