Mallory and a Few of her Favorite Things

Since its been a while, I thought I would catch you up on Mallory and a few of her favorite things these days.

This picture combines 2 of her favorites: shoes and her daddy! Her love for shoes has shown no signs of going away. No shoes are safe when the Shoe Bandit is around. If you take your shoes off, she WILL find them and she WILL wear them. She also LOVES her daddy (as she should). When he is in uniform, she loves to check his pockets and find the star on his badge.

She got this bike for Christmas and loves to ride it around the house. That's one benefit of all our tile.

More shoes and her "Nay-Nay" jammies. The only footie pj's that Mallory has are all hand me downs from Nathan. The first night she wore them I told her she was wearing his jammies. She must have thought that was pretty cool, because now when she wears any of them she tells us many times that they were his. There were a few mornings when it was the first thing she said when I got her out of bed.

She still loves her books, but coloring is definitely one of her most favorite activities. She loves to put her hands down for us to trace, but she doesn't stop there. She will put a single finger, her foot, her face, her cheek, or even her mouth on the paper to be traced. Silly girl!

Mallory is a big dancer! We catch her dancing to the music of her toys all the time.

Here she is watching me in the kitchen. Just about every time I go in there, she pulls up a chair from the table to watch.

She loves her PaPaw!

"I slide" is one of her most frequent requests. She loves to slide on anything. When a real slide isn't available, Mommy or Daddy do just fine.

Climbing in and out and playing in the bathtub is entertaining too!

Running, Rabbits and Some Randomness

Good news, I still remember how to sign in to blogger! I have gone back and forth in my head debating continuing my blog or just giving up. After reading back through my old blogs and remembering different things that were going on I decided to put some effort back into my blog. Also, my sister went and posted last week so I can't let her get ahead of me! I do have one condition; I want comments. I don't like talking to myself! One of my goals as I restart blogging, is a little more variety in my subjects (not just Mallory). I love her to pieces and she is the cutest thing I've ever see, but sometimes a little balance is good. So, here goes...

I read an article in Runners World this week that a "mommy runner" had written that I really related to. The writer told how she, her husband, and her son all agree that life is better when she gets to run. I really do feel like I'm a better me when I get to run. I can let my mind wander and think about anything, everything, or nothing and just be me. I'm very thankful for Matthew and his mom making my Saturday morning runs possible.

I've been blessed to make some great friends through running, but today I was all alone thanks to a late start and road construction. Fortunately I did have some company with my ipod. Seriously, what would we do without them? It was a beautiful day and I really enjoyed my 13 miles on my own with Jack. That's what I've named the voice in my ipod. Don't worry about me hearing voices, he works with my nike+ chip and just tells me how far I've run or have left. Nothing else.

I say I was alone for my run, but that's not entirely true. I think I saw more people out running today than ever probably because it was the first time we've seen the sun in what seems like weeks. There were 2 organized runs going on along A.P. and downtown. There where people everywhere! I even saw a rabbit hopping along next to me for a sec. I thought it was pretty crazy to see a little bunny rabbit in the shadows of downtown.

I also wondered if today was "Walk Your Dog" day or something. There were people walking dogs everywhere! I even saw two different women pushing their dogs in strollers. One was a small dog wearing a sweater. The other was a collie with a crazy collar/necklace thing that looked ready for Mardi Gras. Nuts!

I also saw a homeless man doing his laundry in a bucket next to a water faucet. Just another reminder these days of just how blessed we are. We may not have everything we want, but there is not a single thing I need that God has not provided!

Well, that's enough for now. I've got a whole list of things to do tonight to be ready for church in the morning. Stay tuned for more earth shattering posts from me. I promise, the next one will star Mallory Joy!

A Farm and A Pumpkin Patch

Last Friday Mallory and I went with some of our play group friends to Old McDonald's farm. Mallory was NOT interested in any of the animals to pet. I took her in to pet the pigs and all she wanted to do was hang on and shake the fence. They had pony rides too, but when I tried to put her on the pony she stiffened up her legs and made it clear that she was not going to have any part of that. Even if she wasn't crazy about the animals, we had a fun time getting out with our friends. Mallory's favorite parts were the swings and the slides. Give her a slide and she is happy for hours.

After she slid out of this swing, I realized she was in it backwards. Her legs should have been through the holes with the chain behind her. Now we know.

Her friend Troy liked to slide too. They were both very eager to get to the top.

Mal loved this fort! It had this ladder that led up to a big dirt floor to run around on and look over the side. There was a slide on the other side to get down. Some bigger kids were playing on it too. One of the older girls was pretty much climbing over Mallory to get to the top. When I went to help Mal out, I her going "Ya Ya Ya Ya" or something like that. I'm not sure what her word was, but she was letting the other girl know that she did not like being climbed over!

Mallory was very excited about her pumpkin on the ride home.

But the excitement wore off very quickly!

Later that night, I went out with Monica while Matthew and Mallory headed to the local Pumpkin Patch with his mom and aunt. I think Mal had a lot of fun running around in all of the pumpkins. We took her to the same one last year. If you want to see how much she's changed since then, here's that post.

Bye!

I'm Still Here

I'm afraid I've turned into one of "those bloggers". You know, the kind that makes you wonder if they gave up on blogging because its been that long since they posted anything. I don't want to get too bad of a reputation in the blogging world so here I go...

September was actually a pretty busy month for us. Mallory and I celebrated Labor Day at Chick-Fil-A in our Tech gear with the rest of the country to get free sandwiches. It was fun seeing everyone dressed up when we were there and it was really fun to eat for that cheap!

Later that week we started school! It has gone great so far. Mallory is excited to go each day and we can tell she's picking up lots of new things too. Things are going really well in my class too.

The first day, her teacher had to peel her off of me to get her in the room. Within seconds she found this VeggieTales book and was done with me.

As soon as our first day was over we hit the road and headed north. Mallory got to spend the whole weekend in Ft. Worth with Anita, Clay, Nathan, & Abby. She had a GREAT time with her cousins! Here she is laughing at some of Abby's silliness in the car. I don't think she missed me too much.

While Mallory was in Ft. Worth, I hitched a ride to Lubbock with my parents. When we got to town my parents dropped me off at Shannon's for the weekend. It was just like all the times they had taken me to my friends houses when I was growing up. Shannon and I had a great time. She showed me around Lubbock so I could see all of the things that had changed. It was amazing! We spent lots of time eating and laughing at old times before going to the Tech v. Rice game. If you knew us "back then", you should be thankful we never got around to scanning the pictures we looked at that weekend.
These were the only pictures we took the whole weekend. She took me to the bakery, Cake, for cupcakes. I have been craving them ever since.

Since we got back from our trip, we've been busy with showers, school, a visit from my parents, colds, birthdays, stomach bugs, and creative ways to play with the slide.

Down We Go

When I went to get Mallory out of bed after her nap this afternoon she did all her usual tricks. She grabbed puppy, ran to the opposite side of the bed, asked for DaDa... Next she showed me a new trick. She pointed to a paci on the floor and then leaned over the side of her crib and reached for it. She had her whole torso over the rail. If she had gone any further, she would have flipped and crashed on the floor. Since I wanted to sleep tonight without nightmares of her busting her head on the tile, I found the tools and dropped the mattress to the the bottom setting. It is so low, she's barely off the floor.

I think she likes her low rider bed.

Sadly, it didn't take any time before she showed me this trick. I think with a little help from Puppy or the bumpers, she could get over the rail before long. But I'm not gonna think about that yet!

These pictures reminded me of this one of Mallory in her crib last October. She's changed a little since then, don't you think?

After her bed was all ready, we made a fort in the living room. Mallory loved picking up the sheet, sticking her head out, and saying "BOO!"

Hottest Half

We just spent a long weekend in Ft.Worth with my family. We had a great time. On Friday we went to NRH2O with Anita, Nathan, Abby and a bunch of their friends. On Saturday we celebrated Abby's 4th birthday with a Batman Swimming Party.

On Sunday, Anita and I ran the Hottest Half. It was a half-marathon around White Rock Lake in Dallas. It was Anita's longest run ever and she did great, even with a hurting knee. We got really lucky with the weather. For a run in Dallas in August with Hottest in the name, we could not of asked for better weather. The course was great too. Other that a large hill at the final .1 mile, it was relatively flat. It wound around the lake so it had pretty scenery too. I would definitely do it again. Our one wish was that they would close the course to bike. There were a lot of cyclists in the park that morning. Some were nice about letting you know they were passing you, most were not.

As with any run, there was lots of great people watching. We saw one woman wearing mismatched shoes and pushing a jogging stroller that was holding 0 children, 2 stuffed animals, and at least 1 metal lunch box underneath. I hope this was some sort of training activity or else she might need some therapy. I just saw my pictures from the race and she is actually in the background of one of mine. I saw a guy running barefoot. Still don't get that. There was a woman running about 4 months pregnant. I'm not sure about that. When I was pregnant with Mal my doctor told me that I could run, but only 1-2 miles. We saw a couple people in pants. I guess they didn't catch that it was the "hottest" half.

I think this was mile 9. Matthew, Clay, and two of their friends came out to cheer us on. 4 people with 3 cameras gave me a real paparazzi feeling, but its always great spotting some peeps during a race.

The hill at the end. You can't truly appreciate it from this picture, but believe me it was steep!

Anita and I before the fun. It was so much fun doing this with my sister!

Mallory's Tricks

Mallory has two favorite things these days. First, is shoes! Her love of shoes has been going on for a while and is showing no sign of fading anytime soon.

I'm losing the battle in keeping my shoes put away in the little cubbies in my closet. Mal loves to pull them all out like she is here and wear them or carry them off somewhere. She is thoughtful enough that she rarely separates a pair. At least I don't have a bunch of strays all over the house.

Her other love is climbing! She loves to climb up, in, or on anything she can. I even caught her last week standing on the kitchen table and reaching for the light fixture. I promise I had not turned my back on her for more than a second or two.

Look closely, that is Mallory peeking out from inside the built in laundry hamper in her bathroom. This one is getting really old for me because she has to toss out all the dirty clothes before she can get in.

Take Two

Mallory and I are getting ready to head back to school in a few weeks. Yes, both of us! We are going to be going to pre-school together. We had been planning for Mallory to attend a school close to our house. Last week, our friend Melissa that is the director of the school at our church asked me if I was interested in working there this year. You're probably thinking "hold on Marcia! Didn't you try that last year?!?" Yes, but here are a few reasons why I know this will go so much better this year.

• I will be the assistant in the 3 yr old class instead of the lead teacher. I will not be responsible for the planning and getting the room ready.
• I am not in the middle of unpacking into a tiny little apartment. Last year we had just gotten into our apartment when school was starting. We were still trying to get unpacked as I was trying to start a new job that I had no experience in.
• We are really excited for Mallory to go to school this year. I wasn't really ready for my baby to go to school last year. This year we're ready and I know she will have a lot of fun.
• If Mallory had stayed at the school we were planning on her attending, she would have only been able to go one day a week. At The Vine, she'll get to go two days like we really wanted.
  
• I know this will be a great opportunity to get to know people better and make some new friendships.
• I'm NOT going to break my hand or any bones this year. Anita has a strict no broken bone policy at her house, I'm putting that in force in our house starting now.
  

A Trip to the Big City

I had to go to Luke's on Friday to pick up my running shoes that they were holding. Matthew and Mallory came along to make it a fun trip. We decided to check out Discovery Green downtown. At first, we thought it was going to be a bust. The fountains were being overrun with a couple day care groups full of big kids that would have bulldozed Mal! So we found the play ground and let her run around there for a little bit.

And I got to play around too!

After we baked at the playground, it was time for lunch. Warning: if you plan on taking your own lunch to Discovery Green, be prepared to hunt to find a place to eat. We were surprised that a park with so much planning to it didn't have a real picnic area. We finally found some tables that were in the shade of the building and didn't have a sign on them forbidding us from eating there.

When we were done eating, the water fountains had cleared out. So, we quickly got Mallory changed and headed to the water. She had a blast running around in the water, laying on the fountains, and getting in and out of the water area. We had a blast watching her have fun and get braver in facing the fountains the longer she played.

Mal's 'check out my belly' pose

One strange thing happened while we were there. I was standing on the side watching Mallory. I could hear some ladies sitting in the chairs behind me talking about Mal. They were saying what a cute little girl she was. Duh! Then I heard one say to the other, "I'm gonna take a picture of her." I was pretty uneasy about these strangers planning to take a picture of my baby. I casually took a few steps to my side to block their view. Thankfully Mallory also thought this was a good time to take off running to the other side.

*****

Rewind to buying my shoes. I knew exactly which shoes I was getting. They were holding them for me, so I didn't spend much time trying them on. When I was done Patrick, the sales guy, gave me a high five! I was excited to be getting new shoes. I guess he was excited for me too.

Seriously?

I have our piano listed for sale on craigslist. Its the piano that my sister learned to play on. We have no room for it, so its got to go. We're not having much luck so far with selling it. I did receive an offer for a trade a couple days ago. The offer was so funny to me (especially the third item) that I had to share it with you.

We found your add for a piano for sale on craigslist. We are looking
for a piano for our 10 year old son who would like to take piano lessons for the
next few years to prepare for band/percussion in junior high. He is so
excited about this that he is willing to sell his almost brand new Wii Game
system with all of the games and accessories that he paid for with his own money
in order to buy a piano. We are about to list it on Craigslist along with
a like new Nordic Track Elyptical so that we can pay for the piano and I thought
I would see if there is anyone interested in a trade first. We also have a
bamboo business and grow and sale clumping(non-invasive) bamboos for
lanscaping/hedges etc. if someone might be interested in that type of
trade.

Fun Times

Mallory and I made a trip to Ft. Worth last week for some summer fun. It ended up raining so we didn't get to have the fun we were planning on, but we still had a great time.

On Tuesday we went with Anita, Nathan, & Abby to my grandma's house in Muenster for the day. We had fun at Grandma's with lots of aunts and cousins.

Someone had the great idea of setting up this table in the middle of Grandma's living room. It made a great place for the kids to play all afternoon.

We got to meet sweet Maddie, my cousin Julie's new baby.

No, Mallory is not trying to moon you. She's just doing one of her tricks. She loves to bend over like this and look at the world upside down. If you see her do it in person, bend over at look back at her through your legs. She thinks its really funny!

No trip to Grandma's is complete without some dominoes. Anita and I teamed up so we could take turns playing and watching the kids. Even still, we didn't have much of a game.

Mallory has earned the name of Shoe Bandit recently. She LOVES shoes of any size, shape, or color! No shoes are safe when she is around. These are Grandma's that she swiped to wear for a while. The first thing she did this morning after getting up was to grab her sandals to put on. She wants to have shoes on all day long and is not happy if we try to take them off.