First Year of School

Mallory and I finished up our first year of school a few weeks ago.  It was a great year for both of us.  Mallory loved going to school and playing with her friends!

walking in on the last day

my little baby on her first day back in September

Not such a baby anymore!

Hangin' with Daddy during our school dinner

Mal with her teachers, Ms. Denise and Ms. Jeni

This and That

I was downloading pictures from our camera and found this hodgepodge of pictures that I thought I would share.  They pretty much sum up things around here lately.

Mallory has been getting more and more into pretending lately, this is her riding her "horsey".

 

Play-Doh bracelets with Daddy.

Crazy bubble blowing with Daddy

One of Mallory's most favorite activities, PAINTING!

She could paint for hours.

And hours!

Just a sweet girl outside

Mallory and her Dora coat (that's her name for it). I bought this for her before we went to the lake. I wasn't sure if she would wear it or not, but she loves it! This picture may have been the morning that I had to convince her to take it off so we could eat breakfast. 

Crazy girl!

No, I haven't put her to work yet.  Every now and then Mallory asks to help clean.  I give her a paper towel and she "cleans" the fridge.  I tried a real wipe, but it just smeared.

And when she's not cleaning, she just kicks back with her snacks.

Beach Baby

We've been talking with Mallory for a while about going to the beach, and today was the day! She was very excited on the way there talking about the beach and playing in the water. When we parked on the sea wall and opened the door, she said "go home" and freaked out.  Matthew and I did what any kind and loving parents would do...we wrestled Mallory into her swim suit, put her sun screen on and carried her down to the water while she shouted "no, no, no" the whole time.  We stood her in the water to play, and after a few shakey minutes she was in heaven!  Looking back, she probably wasn't the first person who was promised a trip to the beach and got upset at the sight of the brown waters off of Galveston.

I LOVE her expressions!

Our plan was to go to the ice cream shop on The Strand for a treat after the beach. Mallory fell asleep while we were trying to figure out where to park, so we decided to just drive on home and get ice cream later.  I told Matthew don't be surprised if she asks for an ice cone as soon as she wakes up.  Sure enough when we turned into our neighborhood Mallory opened her eyes and in her sweet voice asked "ice cone"!  So, Matthew turned the car around and headed to Dairy Queen to get Mallory her cone. 

Mallory likes to tell us repeatedly about most everything she's doing while she's doing it.  Combine that with the fact that even the small cones at DQ are very large and it gets pretty funny because she doesn't say "ice" very clearly.  It sounds like she's telling us over and over about her "big ass cone"!

On a side note, I tried the chocolate covered strawberry Blizzard today and it was heavenly! Definitely my new favorite.

Fun Times at PaPaw and Dee's

Mallory and I spent last weekend at my parents house.  To say she had a good time is a bit of an understatement.  She and her cousins had a BLAST playing together!

but first, she had to do her chores 

2 monkeys sharing a banana

Abby and Nathan can crack Mal up like nothing else

getting some quick snuggles from Anita

even in just a diaper Mallory knows the importance of accessorizing

 

See, Mallory didn't leave her clothes at home

 

we went to the park twice on Saturday and these twins were in heaven

 

 Abby had some really funny things to say from this window, if only I could remember what they were

3 sweeties (4 if you count Mal's doggie) ready for church

I LOVE this picture, I just wish I knew how to use our camera better so the lighting wasn't so bad

Going Private...Don't Be Shy

I've been going back and forth on this for a while, and finally made up my mind.  I'm going to make my blog private before my next post (which will be soon, because I have some great pictures of Mallory and her cousins).  If you want to keep reading and seeing pictures, leave me a comment with your email address or send me an email so that I can put you on my approved list.  If you've been lurking in the dark corners of the blog world, don't be shy...there's a good chance I may have been blog-stalking you too!

Also, I'm guessing facebook will not import my posts anymore.  So if you're reading this on fb, let me know too so I can put you on the list. 

I Cook With Mama

One of Mallory's favorite things these days is helping me cook.  Whatever I'm doing in there, she has to pull her pink chair all the way in from the living room so she can help.  Tonight we had pancakes, which is one of her favorites and something she can help with so she was a very happy girl!  She can even tell me that we need milk and eggs for them. I had a good laugh tonight when she was pretending her hand was the egg and was cracking it all over the place, including my leg. 

These pictures arebfrom a few weeks ago when we made strawberry bread.  Don't be fooled into thinking she helped with the mixer.  She was actually pretty scared of it and wanted nothing to do with cooking when it was on.

My Goofballs

One of my favorite things in the world is watching and listening to Matthew and Mallory play together.  A good runner up is checking what pictures are on the camera after they've had a little time together.  Here's what I found today on the memory card after they played while I was in the shower. 

In case you're wondering, that's a ceiling medallion on Mallory's head.  Don't worry, I didn't know the official term either.  Its one of those things you see on some ceilings around fans or light fixtures.  We're still working on getting our "5 minute" fan hung in the living room that we bought last weekend.  I don't think they accounted for 50 year old houses in their 5 minute installation.

Of course Puppy, the fourth member of our family, had to get in on the fun.

Strawbaby

We went to pick strawberries with our play group friends this morning. It was a beautiful day and we all had a great time. 

Picking just the right strawberry

Mallory loved walking around carrying the bucket

Squeezing the strawberries was a little too tempting for Mal

So, we've got a lot of strawberries at our house.  Anyone have some good recipes? Or want to come over for some bluebell and strawberries?