Gobble Gobble

Our Thanksgiving was long and busy, but lots of fun. Mark (Matthew's brother) and I kicked off Thanksgiving Day with the Turkey Trot. I missed it last year so I was glad to run it again, even if it was hot and humid.


We spent Thanksgiving day with Matthew's family. Mallory wasn't too excited about the turkey, but she loved the sweet potatoes. She got to have some fun times with Aunt Laurie too.


On Friday, Mallory and I went to my parents house while Matthew stayed behind to work. Mallory and her cousins had lots of fun playing together. She wowed everyone with her walking skills. She wont walk far, but if I put her down arms length away she will step towards me. When she took some really good steps on Saturday Nathan said, "that's incredible." He said it with such sincerity and amazement at his cousin. It was so sweet. I'll try to get some video posted soon.

We had a little photo shoot Saturday trying to get some Christmas card photos. After that experience I can say that getting three kids to look at the camera at the same time is tricky! These are some of my favorites that wont be in anyone's cards.

I love that I caught Mal just as she was starting to fall in this one.

On Sunday it was just Mallory and I with Mom and Dad, so she got have all the attention!

We stayed an extra day so I could help Mom put up the Christmas tree. We tried to barricade Mallory away from the tree. You can see how well that worked.

I think this was Mom's favorite part of the tree decorating. She always wants to rock her grandkids, but they aren't big rockers. Sunday afternoon, Mallory let Dee rock her to sleep and then took a nice long nap in her lap.

Mallory was VERY interested in the tree when she woke up.


And in other news...WE'RE MOVING! No, I'm not looking forward to moving a second time in 4 months. But, I am looking forward to living in a house again!!! Mallory must be excited too since she's already in a box and ready to go. ;) Our last move was not the smoothest, so we're hoping this one goes better. Just the fact that it will be December not August has to make things a little better.

Getting to Know Me

My mom forwarded this to me. Instead of answering them via email, I decided I would blog it and whoever feels like participating can.

1. What time did you get up this morning? 6:45
2. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? either Sex and the City or Expelled (how's that for a contrast)
4. What is your favorite TV show? Gray's Anatomy
5. What do you usually have for breakfast? cereal lately
6. What is your middle name? Ellen
7. What food do you dislike? mushrooms
8. What is your favorite CD at the moment? none
9. What kind of car do you drive? highlander
10. Favorite sandwich? does a hamburger count?
11. What characteristic do you despise? fakeness
12. Favorite item of clothing? jeans
13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? somewhere warm and sunny
14. Favorite brand of clothing? not sure if its my favorite, but New York & Co was the last thing I bought
15. Where would you retire? ???
16. What was your most recent memorable birthday? 30
17. Favorite sport to watch? college football these days (except last night)
18. Farthest place you are sending this? to the ends of the blogworld
19. Person you expect to send it back first? ???
20. When is your birthday? September 25
21. Are you a morning person or a night person? night
22. What is your shoe size? 8 1/2 narrow
23. Pets? just Mallory's puppy
24. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us? God is good
25. What did you want to be when you were little? a nurse
26. How are you today? great
27. What is your favorite candy? skittles
28. What is your favorite flower? I don't have one
29. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? Tuesday, Matthew's next day off
30. What is your favorite pastime? running
31. What are you listening to? the air conditioner
32. What was the last thing you ate? Blue Bell Birthday Cake ice cream
33. Do you wish on stars? nope
34. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? red
35. How is the weather right now? not as cold as I wish
36. The first person you spoke to on the phone today? Matthew
37. Favorite soft drink? Dr. Pepper
38. Favorite restaurant? Pappasitos (it was the first thing that came to mind)
39. Real hair color? Brown (and its back as of Friday)
40. What was your favorite toy as a child? i don't remember
41. Summer or winter? summer
42. Hugs or kisses? hugs
43. Chocolate or Vanilla? chocolate (is that really a question)
44. Coffee or tea? iced tea
45. Do you want your friends to email you back? sure, but you can blog your answers if you want
46. When was the last time you cried? can't remember
47. What is under your bed? empty bags
48. What did you do last night? had a good night sleep again thanks to Mallory
49. What are you afraid of? apartment fires
50. Salty or sweet? sweet
51. How many keys on your key ring? a few
52. How many years at your current job? 10 months or 6 years
53. Favorite day of the week? Thursday
54. How many towns have you lived in? 5
55. Do you make friends easily? not as easy as I wish
56. How many people will you send this to? all my millions of blog readers
57. How many will respond? I hope at least 1

Where Did She Go?

I'm having some real "Where did my little baby go" moments lately. Mallory is just looking so much more like a big girl these days. She is doing better and better standing on her own. She walks great while holding on to someone or something. When she's feeling brave she even walks with just one hand for balance. Tonight, I discovered a new tooth peeking through. That's number 5 if you are counting. We got her second flu shot today, and my brave girl didn't even cry!

Here are a few shots from our week.

I love how she looks like she is posing with her puppy.

Here she is with Matthew today. I think the jeans and shoes really made her look grown up to me.

We got to celebrate Aunt Laurie's birthday tonight at Texas Land and Cattle. Mallory didn't get any steak, but she did get some yummy squash that Laurie fed her.

She got to practice her walking with Laurie too.

This is where I found her a few days ago while I was checking in on Facebook.

What has her laughing so hard? Just playing with her daddy! She is a big Daddy's Girl these days. I think it started at the beginning of the week when I was not feeling well and she knew he was more fun.

That's just a peek into our fun times this week and all the fun times I get to spend with my little girl and her daddy!

10 Things I Love About You, Mallory!

1. You are learning to eat without making such a mess. You even make the cutest little crunching sound now.

2. You have such sweet little feet.

3. I get to watch you and your daddy play and laugh together.

4. You make us laugh every day with your love for getting into tight places.

5. You love to cuddle with your puppy and chew on his tail.

6. You rarely make this face anymore, unless we don't give you your bottle when you want it.

7. You are so fun to watch playing and entertaining yourself with your toys.

8. You wave bye bye with a big smile.

9. You greet us when you wake up standing and facing the door with a smile on your face.

10. You are our sweet baby girl that God made.

Happy 10-month birthday, Mallory!

Happy Halloween!

I decided to participate in the 6-6 picture post going around. You are supposed to post the 6th picture in the 6th folder on your computer. My 6th folder didn't have 6 pictures (i guess it was a slow day), so I went with the 6th picture in the 6th from last folder.

This is Andy and Renee on the last WHCC staff fishing trip I went on. I sure miss all those fun people I got to work with. Not sure who the stranger in the back is. No offense, but I can't say I miss him.

And just to be fair, here is my part in the other one going around. The rules: Grab the nearest book. Open the book to page 56. Find the fifth sentence. Post the text of the next two to five sentences in your blog along with these instructions. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

"If I hadn't studied Scripture for a number of years and learned to recognize behavior that was characteristics of Christ, I might have marked the first two statements. I tend to cheer for the underdog, and strictly from appearances, I might have been tempted to think Jesus didn't seem to give them a chance. Since we know His heart was perfect and patient, something more was going on in that encounter than meets the eye. Murky waters like these force us to dive in and see what's stirring on the bottom." From my Jesus the One and Only workbook by Beth Moore.

Another Punkin

Matthew told me I left off his favorite picture. Here it is:

Punkins!

I have been on a mission to find a pumpkin patch so that we could take some pictures of Mallory in the pumpkins. Well, we found one and took about 100 pictures today. I'm not exaggerating. Don't you just love digital cameras?!?

Mallory wasn't to generous with her smiles. But smiles or not, here are a few of our pictures. If you really want to see the other 95 or so, let me know. We'll work something out.

Here she was checking them out.

Jessica, I thought of your comment and made sure I got on the other side of the camera for a change.

I think all the grass and straw were her favorite parts.

We were the only people there, so Mallory had free reign to crawl around as much as possible. Since our apartment is TEENY TINY, we let her crawl and crawl and crawl. Man, is she fast!

The one picture where both of them were looking anywhere near the camera.

What, Two Posts in One Day from Marcia?

Don't get used to this kind of wild and crazy activity from me. My dad just sent me these pictures. Since they went with the last post, I thought I would go ahead and share them.

Mallory and my Grandma.

Grandma Clara is Mal's only great grandparent she's blessed to know.

When we saw Grandma this summer I was mad at myself for not taking any pictures. This time, I didn't make that mistake. Maybe next time I'll wear make up.

During the whole time we spent with my parents after Ike, this was the only picture we took of Mallory with them.

Bloggers Block

If there is such a thing as blogger's block, I think I have it. It feels like I've been slacking at the blogging lately. Since I definitely have not been slacking at the blog reading, here is my contribution to the blog world.

I think I'm finally starting to feel settled here in our apartment. Mallory and I are going to Bible class at a Baptist church in the area on Tuesdays. I'm enjoying the study and she is doing great in the nursery.

I got my cast off about a week and a half ago! It is so great to be rid of that thing.

We visited a different church this morning. I think we will be going back there, even though we miss West Houston. It is a good feeling to be closer to finding a new church home.

When we moved we got U-verse for our Internet and TV. Sadly, I love the DVR because we can record 4 shows at a time. This will come in handy on Thursday nights when Lost comes back on since we already have The Office, Gray's Anatomy, Er, and Life on Mars to watch. Yes, I may be a little of an addict. (Matthew wants me to clarify that WE only watch The Office and Lost, the rest are just me). I did get rid of one show...Private Practice. It just wasn't getting me that excited and I was getting tired of Addison Forbes Montgomery the super doctor. Seriously is she a neonatologist or a obgyn? This is just one of my pet peeves, because in the real world I don't think these medical specialties overlap. While I'm at it, here's another. On Brothers & Sisters Holly went from being a moderately successful actress to a business genius overnight! Do these things bother other people, or am I just a little crazy?

For someone with blogger's block I sure am blabbing on and on about nothing. So, here's what you really want to see.

Mallory wore a sweet dress to church this morning that was Abby's. I can't find the charger for our good camera, so sadly these pictures aren't as good as they could be. So trust me, SHE WAS CUTE!

On of her habits is chewing on the edge of her crib. There are scratches all around the rim from our little woodchuck.

Matthew worked extra jobs last Saturday and Sunday morning. Since he was going to be working from about 6 am to midnight all weekend Mallory and I hit the road. We went to Anita's and then to Muenster for a family reunion. We got to see lots of family. We spent Sunday night with my parents at my Aunt Paulette's. Not that I am pushing Mallory to walk right now, but we thought it would have been special if Mal had taken her first steps at Paulette's since I walked for the first time there. Mallory did great on the car ride. We even made the trip up without making any stops.

Mallory continues to love maneuvering her way through tight spaces. We hadn't been at Anita's an hour last week before she was trying to crawl behind the couch.

This is one of Mallory's favorite toys. Don't recognize it from the toy department? That's because its the strap to attach her paci to her shirt. We have two of these and she will play with either one endlessly.

She prefers feeding herself these days. Maybe because when she feeds herself she can pick out the all the chicken sticks and leave the peas? Last night I watched her discover that she could reach the kitchen table from her chair. After that she sat there and pick up peas one my one and sat them on the table. She did eat some peas too so don't worry about her becoming malnourished. ;)

Well now that I've gotten rid of my bad blogger guilt, I'm giong to try and take a little Sunday afternoon nap before Mallory gets up and we go to the park for some swinging. My blanket is fresh out of the dryer since I spilled dr. pepper on it last night. Oooooo, its going to be cozy!

Nine Months

Since Mallory turned nine months old last week, I guess its time for a 9 mo post. She is just more and more fun every day. We love her to pieces.

She got another good check from the doctor this week. She weighs 21 lb 5 oz so she isn't off the charts anymore. For whatever its worth, she's somewhere in the 75th and 100th percentile
She and I went to have dinner with my friend Monica last night. We met at Monica and Penny's apartment first. Penny is her bulldog. Penny and Mallory were very interested in each other. Mallory would have loved to kiss and hug Penny. She laughed big time when Penny licked her tummy!
Mal sill has just the two bottom teeth, but there are two on the top ready to pop through any day now.
Mallory is an expert at getting into tight spaces. Here she is under the kitchen table yesterday. Last month she and Matthew were in the living room. I thought Matthew was awake. I went to our room for just a second to put something up. When I came back I couldn't see her anywhere. I went into a quick "Baby Jessica in the Well" panic for a few seconds as I woke Matthew up asking where Mallory was since we could hear her but not see her. I think I even looked in the fireplace before realizing that her sounds were coming from behind a chair. She had crawled behind it and was stuck between it and the wall. I look at it now and have no clue how she got back there because an air conditioner filter is filling up the space now.
I'm just a sucker for any picture of these two together. Watching them play and laugh together is the best.
This girl LOVES to eat! If you put her in a high chair you better have some food. She knows what a high chair is for and is not happy if it is not being use for eating. Here she is eating a biter biscuit. They are soooo messy, but sure do keep her happy for a long time.
This girl does NOT like to be still. We have pretty much abandoned the changing table for diapers and dressing. The only way to get her somewhat still is on the floor with a leg across her like Matthew is doing.