I'll Be Home for Christmas

We had a great Christmas this year! Here's a few pre-Christmas pictures.

Enjoying the suckers they bought with their Christmas money from Great-Grandma Breedlove.

Gingerbread houses we made at Activity Days.

We call Oaklie the nighttime hoarder. After bedtime, she gets out of bed and gather a variety of items in her bed for a few minutes. Then she falls asleep. Why is still a mystery to us.

Dallas came home right before Christmas! When we were driving to pick him up "I'll Be Home for Christmas" came on the radio. It was very fitting! The girls hadn't seen their dad in almost THREE months! I told them we were going on a drive to pick up a surprise present. They were so surprised and excited when they saw Dallas get off the bus! (He took a shuttle from SLC to Rexburg)

Waiting for Dad to show up.

They were glued to Dallas' side for three weeks. Talk about Daddy's girls. 

Notice the stack of boxes--we moved right after Christmas. It was a blast.

We spent Christmas Eve with the Abrams' family. The girls got to ride Grandma and Grandpa's new pony.

The annual nativity. This year Amaya was an angel and Oaklie was a shepherd. It seems like we always have a new baby to be Baby Jesus.

Christmas morning.

Reading the Christmas story

Coming downstairs

New bikes woo! I got a sweet deal on these online.

Amaya's favorite present was the tea party set.

Oaklie's was her "tricycle".

And dress up clothes! 

Great-Grandma Baxter gave the girls Color Wonder markers and Amaya is still obsessed with them. She worked on this picture for half an hour. It's a princess in a purple dress on top of a tower.

They got this fancy piano from Grandma and Grandpa Clark. It's like a baby Clavinova with fancy buttons and a real microphone. So fun!

It was a long day.

The day after Christmas I had my FIFTH and final surgery of the year to take out my port, do another biopsy, and move a few things back in place :) We moved the next week. Needless to say it was exhausting. Thankfully we had tons of help with the kids, help moving, help cleaning, and so much more. Our family is awesome and were total lifesavers.

Of course I looked magazine worthy the whole time. Right.

OCS

Don't get me wrong, I love the Army. But a few things about the Army are a little annoying. Like acronyms. Seriously they have an acronym for everything. And it takes forever to learn all the acronyms and I still have to ask Dallas all the time what things mean. For example, Dallas spent the last few months (Sept-Jan) at Fort Benning, Georgia for OCS (Officer Candidate School) where he was a BOC (Basic Officer Candidate), IOC (Intermediate Officer Candidate) and SOC (Senior Officer Candidate). Currently he is stationed TDY (Temporary Duty Assignment) at Fort Lee, Virginia for BOLC (Basic Officer Leadership Course). Unfortunately it is not a PCS (Permanent Change of Station) so the Army wouldn't move us. We opted for a DITY move (Do It Yourself) on our dime. See what I mean? Acronyms are annoying, right? Anyway, we are living in Virginia for the next 5 months or so and hanging out while Dallas finishes up his training. I need to catch up on my blog and write about Christmas, etc. but I want to update about Dallas' OCS before things get too busy and I forget.

For some reason when I uploaded these the pictures got all jumbled up. So this is just a little taste of what Dallas has been up to the last few months.

Grad Social

Intermediate Candidate Ceremony.

Senior Officer Candidate Ceremony.

Branching Ceremony. Dallas got his first choice at branching--Transportation. We head to Fort Campbell, Kentucky this summer for Dallas to start his job!

Graduation

In the classroom.

PT (another acronym! Physical Training)

Graduation

Can you spot Dallas?

Dallas and his roommate.

Swearing In

More pictures of graduation coming soon!

Gymnastics

For the past few months Amaya has taken gymnastics from Madison Gymnastics Center. She has loved every minute of it! It's been amazing to see how much more confident she is and how much coordination she has gained. I get some one-on-one time with Oaklie each week, which is good as well.
Today was Amaya's last day because after Christmas we are moving to VIRGINIA!!! I am hoping to find a good gym there because I think it would be good for her to get back into it. So far, the only places I have found are super expensive. So if you have any recommendations for gymnastics is in the Prince George/Chesterfield area let me know :)

Oaklie is a good cheerleader.

Waving at Amaya

I love my little gymnast! 

Oaklie and I watching gymnastics.