Jingle Bells

This little "performance" in Mallory's class of new 2-year-olds put the biggest smile on my face.  Mallory sure loves to jingle. 

And am I dreading the day that Peyton figures out the real words to Jingle Bells.  This is his third year saying "Oh Muck Fun" instead of "Oh What Fun, it is to ride!" and I LOVE it.  He also made some other lyrical changes for this version.  

These 2 little elves are making my Christmas spirits bright. Oh Muck Fun it is to be their Mom. :) Merry Christmas!

Mallory at School

Mallory loves school.  She runs into her classroom, hardly says bye to us, and sometimes doesn't want to leave.  She loves music and dancing and coloring and she loves her teacher.  Her teacher tells us she has quite the personality. We get a slip of paper every day that tells her disposition, her diaper changes, what she ate, and what her delights were.  I've only had a "bad" report once or twice and that was when she was sick.  Almost of her reports list her as happy or with a big smiley face.

Her teacher, the amazing Mrs. Joan, sent me these pictures this weekend.  It is so interesting to see what your child does while you aren't there.  There is a story behind almost every picture, that is just life with Mallory. Most involve her wardrobe choices.

Mallory on Picture with Santa Day.  She is breaking the cardinal rule of "No White Shoes" after Labor Day.  She put on her fancy dress and INSISTED on wearing these white shoes.  It just makes me laugh that a little person that just turned 2 can have such an opinion about which shoes to wear with which dress.  And they really did match, So White Shoes it was! (they are about 2 sizes to big)

It was not wear your pajamas to school day as you might think from this photo.  In fact hey don't have a pajama day at school.  These are actually baby Nolan's jammies and Mallory wore them to bed and wore them to school.  I couldn't get them off of her to get her dressed and she looks mighty content going about her day in them.  Mrs. Joan texted me a picture later that day of Mallory in real clothes because she was  finally able to dress her.  And Yes, Mallory and Nolan wear the same size and swap jammies often :) Got to save money somewhere.

I guess they get to eat cupcakes on birthdays.  I see she didn't eat much of her lunch but is sure enjoying that frosting.

Protected from a  Rainy Day outside?  No. Mallory likes to wear her rain jacket to school most days.  It has only been worn in the actual rain once.  Such a Fashionista.

Hood and all.

Fun Times at school!

That is a rare glimpse into Mallory's life at school.  This girl has got personality. She got her ear tubes last week and is talking so much more, it has been life changing for her.  I am loving seeing her little personality unfold- wardrobe battles and all!

Coach Marshall and Player Peyton

Peyton and Marshall just finished their first soccer season with Marshall as Coach.  I feel very blessed to be married to a man that would take on the task of coaching 11 4-year-old boys.  Marshall left work early once a week to practice with the boys and had a game almost every single weekend and some week nights.  He also kept the team organized and dealt with the soccer league, not an easy task! He now has 10 4-year-old new best friends.  He had a great assistant coach, Coach Phil, who is one of our friends in the neighborhood.  We formed a team of boys Peyton's soccer age that will attend kindergarten together (these boys will start kindergarten next year, Peyton will start the year after but for soccer purposes has to play with his birth age)We had hoped Marshall coaching would get Peyton more comfortable on the field but for most of the season Peyton chose to sit on the sidelines and play at random whenever he felt like joining in.  Marshall was so patient with him and really let Peyton pick it up at his own pace.  By the end of the season Peyton was playing entire games and even making some contact with the ball! Their team, the Panthers, had the unfair advantage of accidentally being placed in the league with teams that had played previous seasons.  Our team had never played and are only 4-years old so I'm sure you can picture the chaos :)  They pretty much got their bottoms kicked every single game (like being outscored in the double digits) but they had a great time and handled it all so gracefully, thanks to their coaches.

I think Coach Marshall would say that he enjoyed the season as much as the kids did.

Here are some pictures from our final game and pizza soccer party.  The trophies were definitely the highlight of the kid's season.  Way to go Panthers!

These 2 were usually along for the ride but they usually didn't stay strapped in for long.

Coach Marshall and Coach Phil

Talking Strategy

Pizza Party after last game!

Trophy Presentation!

Recap of the season

This was from an earlier game when Marshall and Peyton wore jerseys in honor of our Aunt Nicki. Aunt Nicki is fighting breast cancer and her son's college soccer team, Davidson, made these shirts in her honor.  The silhouette on the shirt is of our cousin Chip- who is an AMAZING college goalkeeper.

Look Who's Talking.......

Nolan has a new trick. He started it yesterday and woke up doing it this morning.

Watch here and wait for it!



These are the moments that make this the BEST job in the world!

And I always guessed my larger than life baby would have a deep voice :) I was right!

8 Months and Standing

Nolan turned 8 months old on November 28th. He has learned many new things since our last post!  Nolan started crawling in his 6 month and pulling himself to standing in his 7 month.  I caught him standing in his bed and now he pulls up on everything and has started cruising along the couch.  He will be walking soon.

His first stand- he greeted me like this after a nap.

He has been sick recently and is fully in the wanting Mommy phase.  He rarely lets me put him down and he is a heavy little baby!  He likes to eat table food, is nursing twice a day, sleeps awesome at night and pretty well during the day, and loves, loves, loves baths. In fact- he climbed into the bathtub on his own the other day.  Good thing it was empty and a good reminder to keep all doors closed, always! Mallory has become more gentle with him and says "HIIII NOLIE!!!" every time she sees him.  She still tackles him a lot but they also have started interacting and laughing a lot together.  He is becoming more independent every day and is definitely not a little baby anymore.

And for all of you new Moms out there- the 8 month mark also marks the month that I officially lost every single pound of baby weight I ever gained. I'm back to pre baby weight though all moms know our bodies will never be exactly the same.  I'm proud of my mommy body though. So hang in there, it took me almost as long to get it off as it took to put it on.  And I highly recommend the Weight Watchers Plus program.  Anyone that works for weight watchers want to give me a job?  :)  I think at this point I could work for the company.


  8 Month Sibling Pictures:

Peyton, January 2008, 8 months old

Mallory, July 2010, 8 Months Old

Nolan, November 2011, 8 months old

Here is a picture of Nolan standing so you can see his height at 8 Months.

And here he is on the move.  There is no stopping this baby- he is climbing up and over a steep step to get where he needs to go. Which is usually on a hunt to find me.  There is no hiding!

LOVE YOU BABY NOLIE! Happy 8 months. Can't wait to see what the next few months bring!