Haffy Birthday!

Mallory turned 18 months old yesterday! She continues to keep us laughing and smiling every day. She has also started to make me a little crazy with her stubbornness and her non-ending appetite. One of her favorite things these days is belly buttons. She loves her own and she loves ours. She thinks they are pretty hilarious!

"You should have known I'd make a mess with a cookie!"

Mallory still LOVES her books! She loves to sit in our laps and look and point at the pictures. She also loves to sit by herself and read them too.

She had her first Popsicle recently.

It was a big hit!

We went over to our friends house on Father's Day to swim. Mallory wasn't very interested in swimming. She was much more interested in climbing into the Hummer. Not sitting in the Hummer, just climbing into it.

She had a great time playing on the trampoline too! It was so fun to play on with her and watch her run around really really fast.

I looked up on Saturday and caught her playing while wearing this hat. I think it might have been her tribute to Michael Jackson. It reminds me of his hat.

Mallory Joy, we love you so much!

Happy Anniversary!

Today is our 7th anniversary. Mallory and I celebrated it with a dinner of left-overs followed by bubbles in the back yard while Matthew was working.

Since everyone loves pictures (right?), here are a couple from our big day 7 years ago. Blogger put them in reverse order, I promise it wasn't me.

This picture has always made me smile. I love the way Matthew is looking over his shoulder. Its like he's looking to catch the person throwing rose petals at him.

Cake anyone? It was good, I promise!

Anita made these flip-flops for me to wear at our reception. I wish I would have worn them for the ceremony too. That's the only thing I can think of that I would have changed. The shoes I wore were just plain ivory boring shoes. My flip-flops were much cuter and more my style.

~Just Married~
I Love you, Matthew!

Happy Father's Day...

...to my two favorite dads. I love you both!

Mal loves playing with her daddy just a little bit! When I picked her up from Bible class this morning, the first thing she said was "DaDa?"

She loves her PaPaw too!

Matthew's first picture with his little girl.

One of my favorite pictures from our wedding dad. Dad and I just before he walked me down the aisle.

How Not To Keep Your Child Off the Kitchen Table

Mallory is a big climber these days. When I caught her on the kitchen table recently, I decided to take a couple quick pictures while she was there. Even though it made for some good pictures, this is not the thing to do to discourage the climbing!

Sprinkler and Belly Button

Since its been about 1,000,000 degrees lately, we got the sprinkler out for Mallory to play in a few days ago. She was a little unsure of the water at first, but warmed up to it very quickly!





Mallory is very interested in her belly button these days. Her swimsuit was just perfect to show it off.

Because I can't Think of Anything Else

I'm really trying to be a better blogger these days, but I just never know what to blog about. So, I'm just gonna copy Erin. Don't be mad Erin, it just means I think you're really cool.

So, here are some of my generic v. brand name opinions.

• Cereal: depends. Kroger brand Cap'n Crunch is BAD. I tried it a few weeks ago and could not even choke down a whole bowl. The Hootie Fruities or whatever they're called in the big bag are just as good as Froot Loops.
  
• Diapers: We have been loyal Pampers users for Mallory. I have been curious about store brand diapers, but have not tried them. I'll admit I've been scare to gamble with diapers, since poop is involved. I might be brave and give them a shot since Erin says they're good.
• Peanut Butter: store brand. My sister was surprised by this last week and said, "Choosy moms choose Jiff." I replied, "Frugal moms choose Great Value."
• Wipes: After trying Target, Wal-Mart, and the name brand wipes, I'm settling on Sam's. (Does anyone else think its weird sometimes for there to be a difference between Wal-Mart and Sam's brand products?)
• Cream Cheese: I know I don't like store brand cream cheese, but don't exactly remember why. It messed up something I baked once, I promise.
  
• Deodorant: Secret all the way!
• Drink mix: Crystal Light has better flavors, but the Wal-Mart brand actually has a few less calories. Really, it just depends on which is the better deal.
• Chocolate chips: Ghiradelli chips are yummy!!!
  
• Formula: Sam's brand formula worked great and saved us big bucks!

That's all for now.

If you have any suggestions for blog ideas, feel free to share. I love Mallory and could blog about her all day long, but need some balance.

What's Cookin'?

The answer is Mallory's sweet little feet! I found her last week kickin' back with her feet propped up in her play oven as she sat playing with and listening to the "radio" on her kitchen. You can also see from these pictures that she has not gotten over her love of small spaces. There is probably just enough room between her kitchen and the fireplace for Mallory to sit. I guess that's why her feet had to go in the oven.

I Feel Like I Robbed CVS

One of my favorite stores these days is CVS. Yes, the drugstore! I've been working hard to pay attention to the ads and coupons. Today I got everything in this picture for $3.35. But wait...I also got $5 in Extra Bucks to spend next week. So its like they paid me $1.65 for all this stuff. In case you can't see from the picture, I "stole":

• 2 bottles of Dawn dish soap
• 2 tubes of Colgate toothpaste
• a bottle of Trident gum
• a Gillette razor with 2 cartridges for Matthew
• a Venus razor with 2 cartridges for me
• a 12 pack of Viva paper towels
• 2 tubes of Burt's Bees chap stick

What were my secrets:

• Read the ad for items that are on sale and/or offering Extra Bucks
• Match your coupons with items on sale. I had a coupon for everything I "stole"
• Save your Extra Bucks from week to week and cash them in
• Scan your CVS card at the coupon box when you walk in. I did this today and it printed out a $10 off of $30 coupon and a $5 off of $25 coupon. I used the $10 off.
  
• Ditch brand loyalty. Viva is not my first choice of paper towels. But I'll sure give them a chance if the price is right.

Now go get your ads and coupons out of the trash from yesterday's paper and get shopping!

Fun Times

We just wrapped up a super fun weekend of lots of fun with Anita, Nathan, Abby and even a little with Clay. As is usual for our visits, we jammed in a lot of visiting, playing, laughing, eating, shopping, and more.

The girls had lots of fun playing on the air mattress even if Abby need a little help remembering that Mal isn't quite big enough to wrestle with yet.
Could they look any happier?
Nathan had a little more girl time during the weekend than he cared for since Matthew was working. He was glad that Maf hooked up the x-box to give him a little escape from the girlies.
Mal learned to yo-yo.
Abby laughed and was silly a lot...
...but she still had her sassy side!
Nathan had fun...
...running and...
...diving on the bed.
He even got still for a picture with his mom...
...and sister.

Mal got her first turn on the x-box.
Nathan and I had fun making a fort on Sunday afternoon while everyone was napping. It was fun for me getting to spend a little one on one time with him. We even crawled inside for a game of dominoes that I'm certain Nathan made up as we went along.
He normally does not like to have his picture made, but he told me that since this was to show off his awesome fort it would be OK.
We even made cupcakes Sunday night after dinner.