Trick or Treat

We had a great time on Monday Trick or Treating with our friends on Monday and when we got home, the bowl of candy we left by our front door was empty. A successful Halloween in my book!

All loaded up ready to go

Mallory was well protected with Batman and Superman as her escorts

Twins

Trick or Treat

After just about every house Mallory and Cheyenne would hold up their bags and yell, "look how much I have"!

Fall Festival '11

Mallory and I went to the Fall Festival at church today. She had a great time! She loved loved loved all of the inflatables.

No, these are not snaps shots of Mallory dancing. Each one was a separate pose she quickly hit as if she was a professional model.

No clue why, but there was no chance the "princess peacock" was uncovering her eyes.

She LOVED climbing and sliding on this one!

This slide was a big hit too!

Popcorn...a very important part of the fall festival!

Riding the train was her favorite part of the fall festival.

"Mommy, the mulch is the water and this is my boat.  Climb up"

Not to brag, but she made a hole in one on her first put.

Sometimes,  you just have to stop and eat some nerds.

Even with the bribe of candy, this was the best picture these three could do!

Getting ready for the hayride to start.

Sweet Girl

I was scrolling through the pictures on my phone and noticed a theme.  Mallory and food. But not just any food, sweets mostly.  I guess she takes after her mommy the elf a little bit.

Who doesn't like a ice cream cone from the chick?

We went and toured the Blue Bell Creamery last week. Before the tour started our guide asked for someone to be the caboose. Mallory volunteered right away. We quickly figured out that she didn't make a very good caboose. Going slow and following everyone wasn't really her thing.

But eating ice cream at the end was definitely her thing!

Here's a little tip if you are going on the tour soon. Whoever is the caboose gets to go to the front of the line when its ice cream time.

Last Friday we settled in for a movie night, with popcorn of course.  Too bad Mallory decided 11 minutes into Tangled that it was not a good movie for her. 

We went to a birthday party for Mallory's friend Weston last week. Mallory enjoyed every bit of her cupcake, green icing and all.

We also made cookies last weekend. Mallory told me that stirring was a "Mallory Job". She decided that cleaning the spoon was her job too. She did it very well.

Last night was a BIG night at our house.  After much crying, Mallory slept all night long WITHOUT a paci! Her paci addiction had been getting a little out of control lately. There were a few times we found her hiding in her in bed in the middle of the day sucking on her paci because she knew bed was the only place it was allowed. It was definitely time!  So, we had to celebrate with a trip to Shipleys this morning.

She did ask me today where her paci was. I finally had to tell her that I send them to Baby Olivia because she needed some new pacis. Kellee, if we see you any time soon I hope you'll play along.

Before you get the idea that we are just about sweets around here, this picture should help.  Mallory picked out these 1 lb weights tonight. She called them her stretches and was hilarious exercising with them. We had to get them. Before we got home she already asked us if she could do her stretches in the morning

Is It Just Me?

Is it just me, or does the post plastic surgery Kenny Rogers look more like Reverend Alden (from Little House on the Prairie) than he does the pre plastic surgery version of himself?

Kenny Before

Kenny After

Reverend Alden

And yes, I know that my sister is the only one that may care about this post!

Because Who Doesn't Like Something for Nothing?

Since I went back to work, I haven't had time for coupons and deal shopping like I did in the past. BUT, I have a new favorite website: Ebates.com!  They give you cash back for shopping through their website! You go there and search for the store or product you're looking for and after you purchase something, you get cash back. You can even shop groupon through ebates and get a little back for your groupon purchases. I just started ebates in January and got a check this week for $15! Pretty nice for stuff I was going to buy anyways. 



One of my other favoites is Swagbucks.com. Its a search engine...works just like google. But, you randomly get swagbucks for different things you search for. Then you can trade your swagbucks in for all kinds of stuff in the swagstore.  I usually just swap them for amazon gift cards.  Right now I have enough swagbucks for over $20 amazon gift cards and I've probably just been saving those for a few months.  Seriously, money for nothing!

The Prowler

Mallory must have decided that sleep is boring. This was yesterday during naptime. What you can't see in the picture are the princess dolls (with and without their clothes), books, bucket, ball, 2 extra blankies, cars and other things she had filled her bed with. As I took this picture she was asking me if she could wake up. Oh, the irony!

Last night when I checked on her before I went to bed I fished a Dora puzzle and all the pieces out of her bed. I asked her about it this morning and she was so excited when she told me that she had played after I put her to bed last night.

Crazy girl!

This and That

 Not too much to share from around here, so here are a few highlights of the month.

At the beginning of the month Matthew and I went to Lubbock to meet baby Noah and see our Tech Family. We were very nervous the trip was going to fall apart because of the weather, but most of us made it. It was a great time with great friends.  We had lots of fun hanging out, eating and reminiscing all the fun we had way back when...

Sara played with knives

Anne played rock band

Sara snuggled with Noah

I struggled at Rock Band

Krissy showed off Noah

Sara and I entertained ourselves with pictures while waiting at Home

Matthew and I posed by the double-t bench. He proposed to me right here 10 years ago this week

we posed in the snow inside the awesome giant Tech ring

More fun in the ring

And now some evidence of the fun you can get away with when Mommy is as work.

Building towers on the kitchen counter in your night gown

cruising through the kitchen in your new scooter

Safety first...even when eating pb& j

Marathon Recap

This post has been waiting a week or so for me to come back and add pictures.   Since that never happened, here it is...

Sunday was the day for marathon #5. In the last couple weeks and days leading into it, I was very nervous. But in the end, it turned out great!

Warning, this is a long post you may not want to read. But, its the only want I'll remember all this stuff.

Why nervous? On my last long training run I had started having some knee/IT band issues. I decided that was a good reason to rest up plus I did a lot more stretching and exercises with a foam roller plus bought a knee band. Somewhere around mile 1 I realized that I had forgotten the knee band. Thankfully, that was the last I thought about it for the day because I had no issues at all.  This was such a relief because before the race I had just decided that this would just have to be a very painful race. I was so thankful that was not the case.


The other reason I was nervous was the weather. On Saturday they were predicting rain and thunderstorms for Sunday morning. They were even talking about shortening the course or having to cancel it if there was lightening. I really had no clue what to do to prepare for this or how to dress. I was already planning to run the Cowtown at the end of February for a "make up marathon". On Sunday morning I even tried on 3 different shirts because I was so unsure of what the weather would bring. Thankfully, all it did was rain. The rain was annoying and brought some serious blisters, but we got to run the whole race so I was happy.

I had 5 of the best cheerleaders on the course supporting me. Matthew and Anita along with Mallory, Nathan, and Abby braved the rain to come watch me! I got to see them around mile 7 and again just before the finish line.  They just missed me several times other times.  Looking back, I think that was a good thing.  There were a few times that if I had seen them I would have been very tempted to stop for a minute.

I was able to run 99% of the race with my friend Heather. We ran most of our training runs together so that was great.  We got separated a couple of times, but I crossed the finish line just a few seconds after her so we could high five. It was great haveing a friend along the whole way.  We even managed to get our picture on the Chronicle's website.

As always there were lots of great signs along the way. The best were for a runner named Geoff. I don't know who he is, but he has some great friends. They had posted a sign near every mile marker with his picture and a quite. Some of the best quotes: "When Chuck Norris hits the wall, it falls down" & "Who needs toenails anyways?" I saw a "bazinga" one too that made me laugh.

Back to the rain...on my drive down that morning  I heard the Todd Agnew song Grace Like Rain. These lyrics stayed in my head all morning: "Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me / Hallelujah, and all my sins are washed away". As the rain was coming down for much of the race, I loved having that in my head so the rain could be a reminder of something so much bigger.

As for my time, it was awesome! I finished with 4:19. It was a major PR (personal record) for me so I was thrilled!

All in all it was a great day. I'm pretty much recovered except for my big toe which is throbbing as I type.  Might need to get some help for that...

Just a Glimpse into Days with Mallory

Mallory is a crazy hilarious girl that makes us want to pull our hair out and fills us with complete joy all at the same time. In the last few days she has told Matthew the ceiling fan was messing up her hair, there wasn't enough pink in her shoes, and that he needed to learn how to fix her hair. Yeah, she keeps us laughing a whole lot (and may be a tad bossy)!

Here are a few random pictures of her having fun lately.

A busy mermaid princess fresh out of Abby's beauty salon

Some kind of ice cream tea party

She LOVES her cousin!

These two pictures may look like she's in the middle of some kind of 3 year old fit, but actually she's playing baseball. Dressed in a princess dress. Wearing high heels. With who knows what on her head. Using a golf ball for the ball and a bath mitt for a glove.  Perfect!

Another favorite activity of her's: playing with "daddy's new toy". I'm positive she knows how to work his nook better than I do.