Fun at PaPaw and Dee's

After Matthew and I got back from our "Family Reunion", Mallory and I hitched a ride with my parents back to their house. We spent the week there with Anita, Nathan and Abby. We had lots of summer fun all week long. Nathan went to Golf Camp every morning, we went swimming, ate watermelons, made homemade ice cream, the girls went to the zoo, and Anita and I even got to run together twice. Matthew drove up on Thursday to get in on the fun and then bring us back home Friday.

Watermelon eaten the proper way. I think this was Mal's first taste of watermelon. She loved it of course. Nathan did not eat any because he says it makes his tongue feel funny.

Me, Mal, and our friend the zebra

What was Mal's favorite part of the zoo? Eating her snacks while riding in the wagon.

Abby loved pulling Mallory in the wagon.

These two had lots of fun playing together all week.

These two had a lot of fun together too. Mal was VERY excited to see her daddy when he got there!

Its pretty hard to get a picture of our squirmy girl these days.

The pool had lots of really shallow areas that were great for Mallory to wade around in and play. She also managed to get go under a few times. Every time she came up she thought it was very funny!

Playing in the back yard waiting for our hot dogs

Matthew and the girlies

Anita has more pictures on her blog too. Check it out if you want more sweet pictures.

Family Reunion

Last weekend Matthew and I went to New Braunfels with our college friends for our annual Family Reunion while Mallory stayed at home for some fun with PaPaw and Dee. It was such a great weekend with great friends! There was lots of laughing, lots of eating, and lots of wishing we could do this more often. We stayed in an awesome house just around the corner from the river. So, Friday after everyone got there we floated the river and then went to the Gristmill for dinner (warning: if you are going to the Gristmill, ask for a table that is not in the sun). We spent Saturday at Schlittlerbahn, the "Happiest Place on Earth" according to Shannon and then Sean cooked our traditional family dinner that night.

The house had big front and back porches that were great for hanging out and made for great pictures too.










The guys even posed for us!
(Sean, Matthew, & Ben)











Swingin' with Sara












The whole family!
(Ben, Krissy, Anne, Sara, Matthew, Me, Shannon, Tiffany, & Sean)







On Saturday night we celebrated Tiffany's birthday in our new Tech shirts accented with boas and matching flip flops of course.










We had to show off the back of our shirts too!

Tagged by Libby

Libby tagged me on this recently. Since I'm sitting here at my parents with some extra time, here goes...

5 Favorite Pictures of the last year: this was VERY hard to narrow down. I have hundreds of pictures from the last year. I wont say these are my absolute favorites, but they are some of the best.

This was my favorite outfit Mal wore last fall. It was so soft and cute. I wish I could pick up the chubby little baby in this picture and give her a bottle.

A great night out with some of my best girls!

Thanksgiving weekend. Mal was just learning to stand on her own and take a step or two.

I'm a sucker for any picture of these two. I just LOVE how much they love each other and how happy they make each other.

Could this be an ad for Shipley's or what?

(this one is a bonus. it goes with #1 under mommy confessions)

5 Random Facts:

1. My memory can be freakishly good. (sorry Libby)
2. I once got in a wreck with a KISD police officer in the school parking lot during high school.
   
3. I lived in 1 house for my whole childhood. Since 1997, I have lived in 4 dorm rooms (in 2 different states), 8 apartments, and 3 houses.
   
4. I use grocery sacks for shower caps.
5. I DVR Jeopardy everyday.
   

6 Things I Wish I Could Do:

1. Run really fast.
2. Write with pretty handwriting.
3. Find more vegetables that I like.
4. Win big on a game show.
5. Go back to Key West for a new Margaritaville visor. (I lost mine at Schlitterbahn on Saturday).
6. Go to bed earlier.

5 mommy confessions:

1. I really wanted Mallory to have blue eyes like me. Now, I couldn't imagine her having anything but her beautiful brown eyes. I posted that last picture because it shows just how different our eyes are.
   
2. Now I just hope she'll have curly hair someday.
3. I fed Mallory ramen noodles and canned chicken for dinner recently. I gave her some vegetables too, just to clear my conscious.
4. Sometimes I wish Mallory would sit still and watch tv for a little break.
5. I think that the feeling I get when I hold my sweet Mallory is the best feeling in the world. I think it must be a little like what drug addicts feel, because there is nothing I wouldn't do to keep that feeling going.

5 Favorite Current TV Shows (i added the current part):

1. Grey's Anatomy
2. Lost
3. Friday Night Lights
4. Big Bang Theory
5. the new 90210

The other two categories were 7 favorite movies and 6 bands to see in concert. I was stumped on the movies and like Libby, I'm not much of a concert goer. I am actually not even very good at knowing who sings a song when I hear it, so I'm just gonna skip these two instead of staying up wracking my brain.

Bows, Bows, Bows!

We were starting to be overtaken by bows in our house. I had been storing Mal's bows in this basket on the kitchen counter. Even though it was very convenient, the bows were getting squished and were overflowing the basket.

So last night, I made this "bow board". It is much better. Now my only problem is that it is almost full! What's a girl to do with so many bows?!?

Since I've never shared her room with you bloggers, here are some pictures of Mallory's polk-a-dot room. Yes, we painted the dots. We had a stencil, but it was not fun!

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!