30

I turned 30 this week. I don't feel much different. I know certain things about myself that I didn't know ten years ago and I have been blessed with the two most amazing children in the world so turning 30 really is more of a celebration. I have managed to stretch this celebration out for a couple of weeks, beginning with my 30th Bday Celebration with some of my lifelong friends in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

The Yates have a lakehouse there on a beautiful lake and this lakehouse has been the backdrop for much of Marshall and my relationship. He even proposed to me there about 6 1/2 years ago. A few weeks ago I met 4 of my best friends, my Mom, and my Mother in law out there for a quick weekend trip. There was a 90% chance of rain on Saturday and we endured some major storms overnight, but once the weather cleared we had a beautiful (albeit windy) day. Here are some pictures from the celebration!


Pictures from Beautiful Lake Hamilton





Old high school dance moves on the boat :)




Lake Tour Guide by Bebe!


Marshall and I found this Teeter hat with some friends floating in the lake many, many years ago. It has become our special lake hat, so of course I had to wear it on my bday!



I was the driver all weekend. Yes- I know how to drive a boat. Who would have ever thought it?!?


She is just way too agreeable. Most babies hate the life vest!Mallory, on the other hand, decides to nap in it.

We definitely enjoyed our party favor/photo prop this weekend. Mallory was such an enjoyable party guest!


Sweet Friend Kristen sent this precious outfit for Mallory for the weekend. She quickly became our photo prop! This is just a handful of the pictures we took of her!














We decided to do a photo shoot before taking the boat to dinner. We were really enjoying Kelley's new camera. I enjoyed it so much that I got one for my birthday too! Thanks Marshall!
















Grandy stepped away from behind the camera and got in on the photo shoot too!


The end of a perfect day. Sunkissed (sorry dermatologist friend Hallie!), full of wine and crab legs, and a suprise birthday Cake!

It was a relaxing weekend, games of scrabble, old dance videos, lots of wine, reading, girl time, and sleeping.

George and Georgina! You know the scene from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory? When all four grandparents are in the bed together for over twenty years? That has become a special phrase amongst my friends, used when people are all snuggled up in odd situations. Meet- George and Georgina! (it was 4:00 on Friday)

And finally- Keeping with tradition:
Visors on my 30th Birthday!


Visors on Marshall's 30th Birthday! (2 years ago mind you: I am the younger one)


Looking forward to many more visored celebrations!

Thanks to my dear friends, my sweet Mallory, my own Mommy, and especially Bebe for such a special weekend. Thank you also to Marshall for taking such good care of Peyton back in Dallas. I am blessed!

Snap, Crackle, Pop Rice Cereal!

Guess who started Rice Cereal yesterday? Sweet Mallory has only had breast milk her entire life so I'm sure this was quite the treat for her. She did a great job! She was able to manipulate the cereal in her mouth and swallowed most of it down. We'll keep practicing and should be adding fruits and veggies in no time. This baby girl clearly enjoys her meals :)

Before the First Bite


What is this?!?!


I think I like it!



Big Brother is never far from the scene of action

Hazards of a SAHM

This week has been a rough week for me and it is only Wednesday! I think I deserve a raise. Or at least a glass of wine.

To make a very long story short, on Monday we had AT&T to the house to install U Verse. They had some problems with the signal so had to pull the truck in the alley behind our house to work on the line. A neighbor came home around 5 PM, saw that he couldn’t get to his driveway, and went ballistic on our AT&T techs. He went crazy, yelling, honking, cursing, threatening, literally trying to run them over, hitting their car with his car, attacking them with a stick, etc. etc. I witnessed it from the start and called Marshall home. Cops came and arrested the neighbor and since then we learned he was definitely not in the right state of mind. Regardless- he clearly has major problems and it caused such neighborhood drama! (We live in a very nice, close knit neighborhood). I just can’t believe my neighbor tried to run over my U Verse guys. I just wanted to be able to record 4 shows at once! Needless to say, we still don't have UVerse.

Now, Yesterday I was trying to be productive and was doing loads and loads of laundry. I went to pull my load of clothes out of the dryer and was greeted with this:



Yes folks, that is a SNAKE!!!!!!!!! A Snake in my dryer!!!! It looks small, but it was all shriveled up. I can barely even look at this picture and have had the heebie jeebies since. I cannot even tell you how traumatized I am by this. I am going to go with the simplest answer and say that the snake crawled through the dryer vent from the backyard in between loads- but even this freaks me out. The thought of it being in my closet, in my hamper, in my clothes, is just too much for me to handle so we will go with the dryer vent theory. If I thought doing laundry wasn’t fun before yesterday, now it is terrifying. I still have wet clothes in the washer that need to be moved over but am scared of what I am going to find next. A python? A boa constrictor? A dragon? Marshall removed it when he got home, poor snake was hard as a rock due to the drying process. (And no it wasn’t a fake snake- although I did check with my sister in law to see if her boys had fake snakes since we spent the weekend with them) I wish that was the case!

Just a typical day in the life of a Stay at Home Mom. Aren't you jealous?

Pansies, Peonies, and Pinchers

Dallas has a wonderful Arboretum that has children's programming multiple times a year. Right now it is Dallas Blooms and the entire arboretum is filled with gorgeous flowers. We spent last monday morning there with our friend Travis. Here are some pics of our sweet boys and Peyton, doing what he loves most- dancing, performing, and running away from me.



Here is a quick family picture. I just look tired. Because I was! Since then Mallory has been doing much better at night so hopefully the next pictures will have me more rested.

On the way out Mallory started screaming in the side by side, double stroller. She never cries. I noticed a man stop dead in his tracks and stare strangely at Peyton. I saw Peyton's hands on Mallory's side of the stroller and told him to keep his hands to himself. I calmed her down, put her back in his stroller and caught him reach over and pinch her fat,bare, baby legs, making her cry again. He had been pinching her the whole time, thus causing the man to stop and stare! 2 year olds and their fascination with cause and effect. "If I pinch her, she will cry." Poor Baby.

Better watch out Peyton- Pretty soon this arm will be long enough to whap you in the head! She's working hard at it! And I don't blame her one bit.

MOPS

My first year of MOPS has officially ended. MOPS has been such a blessing in my family’s life this year. My friend Emily loved her mops group last year so when we moved back to Dallas she sent me the registration form for this year. I really didn’t know what to expect but it has become one of my favorite things about Dallas. MOPS is an international Christian ministry to moms of preschool aged children. Different churches sponsor MOPS groups and the one that I attend is at a bible church in Northwest Dallas. We meet every other Friday from 9-12. The children go to Moppets (basically a Sunday school class) and the moms go to a large, decorated room for coffee and brunch, fellowship, “swag” (raffle ticket prizes), inspiration and prayer, and amazing speakers. We are put in small groups with a discussion leader and a “mentor mom” (older mothers in the church) and receive understanding and compassion from other people in our exact same shoes. (Those being MOM Shoes) Mallory was little so she stayed with me once she was born, and Peyton just loved his teacher Ms. Janna. My small group leader was amazing and my mentor mother actually knew Marshall and his family very well growing up! Small World!

We can’t attend the last MOPS of the year next week because we will be at the lake celebrating my 30th (gasp!). We will be doing it again next year, but I wanted to quickly write up some tid bits from the year that have stuck with me. We have had a slew of speakers about different topics and it is so funny the things that strike a chord with you- here are some of the ones that I can recall quickly!

1.When disciplining your children use a stair-step down tone of voice. Don’t get all in a frenzy!

2.Put Christmas cards you receive in a basket on the kitchen table, and pray for/talk about different families’ cards each night during dinner.

3.Thaw/store chicken in a bowl full of cold salt water in the fridge for moist chicken. (random I know, we have been doing this before grilling chicken breasts, and oh my it really works! The chicken is so flavorful and moist)

4.Your family’s age is the age of your oldest child, and everyone else is just trying to keep up. So talk to your children now about the hard topics because if you don’t, someone else will. Example: Although your kindergarten child might be your first born, innocent five year old, he might sit on the school bus next to the baby of three older brothers- think of the things that child will teach your child! You want that info to come from you, so start early.

5.While folding laundry, pray for the person whose clothes you are folding.

6.Know your family’s message about the birds and the bees, and answer all of your children’s questions using that message as a framework. Practice so that you are prepared, and start every uncomfortable question with “I am so glad that you asked!”

7.The breakfast you eat at MOPS will probably be the only meal that you get to eat sitting down, while still hot, with adult conversation, all week.

8.Laminate your children’s artwork and use it as placemats for special occasions- great conversation starters.

9.Try to smile and welcome your husband home excitingly at the end of the day- do not unleash the day’s complaints on him. (harder than you think!)

10.Look for God’s work/plan in even the worst of events- good things can come out of bad times in our lives.

11.Don’t call it the terrible 2’s or it will be terrible- think of it as the terrific 2’s! (I guess we should say the same for threes by the look of thing

I know I am missing tons and tons of valuable stuff that I have learned this year. The speakers have been so wonderful. I am going to miss MOPS this summer but look forward to next year- both kids will be in Moppets. :) It is hard getting all three of us dressed, out the door, and to MOPS by 9:00 but it is worth it.

Here is a picture of most of our small group from Christmas time. 3 of us had either just had or were about to have babies- so we are a little swollen. Or maybe it was all the delicious breakfast food we had just consumed :)

Our Soundtrack

My friend Aimee gave Mallory this CD before she was born and it has turned into Peyton’s sleep music. It is played in it's entirety at least twice a day, every day, and therefore has become the background music of our lives. The music is so tranquil and peaceful, and is perfect for children AND adults. I love lying with him and listening to it, just winding down.

Hopefully we won’t wear it out so much that Mallory can’t enjoy it too. I know 15 years from now it will break my heart to hear it because I will long for the days when I could snuggle my young babies in bed. Or maybe hearing it 15 years from now the familiar songs will heal my heart, years from now when they are no longer babies and I am sleeping eight hours a night, alone (hopefully with just Marshall again), with no baby monitors buzzing or dogs barking, no cries in the night, cries for more ice in their water, looking for lost giraffes, lost binkies, cries for a boob, just pure, uninterrupted, unanticipated, sleep. :) Sounds promising, but for some reason I think I'll be willing to trade that sleep in for these current precious, but very sleepless, times.

Easter Recap

I love Easter. Mainly because it celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ and is so important to our faith, but also because I get to dress my children up in seersucker, argyle, and petticoats in honor of the celebration :)

We made a bold decision to make it to the 8 AM Mass to avoid the overwhelming Easter crowds. The nursery is closed on Easter Sunday so all four of us would be attending mass together. Even the easiest of 2 year old has a hard time sitting through a one hour mass so I knew it would be challenge for Peyton. Thankfully we had plans to dress him very cute so any offenses may be taken less seriously- plus he had the cast sympathy card working in his favor.

We woke up after a short night of sleep and quickly hunted for our Easter Bunny baskets. Peyton found them in my closet and was most excited about his Thomas the Train and his Ring Pop. Mallory really didn't show much enthusiasm either way. :) We quickly got the children dressed and made it to church just a few minutes late. We ended up squeezing into a row in the cry room with a friend from the Mother's Club at church. This deflected the behavior of my children just a little, hers may have been worse! People just oohed and aahed at Peyton in his argyle sweater, knickers, derby hat, and toddler cast while we walked through the masses to our seat. Once seated Peyton started talking about Jesus. This is currently his favorite topic. He wanted to see him, wanted to touch him, where was Jesus, etc. etc. I made a mistake and thought that if I walked him out to front he would be appeased. Big Mistake. Well, if you give a mouse a cookie....- Peyton refused to stay put, wanted to go wherever he wanted, his Daddy tried to carry him out, he threw a huge fit, and his Daddy got popped in the face with the cast in front of basically hundreds of people. Good times! Mallory and I followed them out and the people on their path out were shaking their heads and laughing. I know these are the times we'll remember. :)

After church we went to Bebe and Papa's for a big Easter lunch. Our friend Peyton (the original Peyton) joined us. We had a delicious meal and played cards and the children, and Marshall, napped.

That evening we left the children at home with Original Peyton and joined some of our best friends for an Easter Dinner at Emily and Reid' house. It was such a nice end to the day. Brisket, wine, and great conversation with Megan, Travis, Mary Marshall, Ryan,Emily, Reid, and Beth and Josh who were in town from New York. I think we may have a new tradition!

Happy Easter to all! And thank you to Grandy for the precious Easter outfits! Mallory was a poofy, pink cupcake and Peyton was very dapper!

Malley is 5 Months Old!

Today is Malley's 5 Month Birthday. I adore this baby and I adore this age. She is all smiles and love all the time. My Sweet Mallory- at 5 months you are finally sleeping longer stretches. You have officially dropped your midnight feeding and are basically eating one time in the middle of the night between 2 and 4 AM. You still don't take a pacifier but are learning to put yourself to sleep by yourself. You love to roll around and love to sleep on your tummy. You make Mommy nervous because you snuggle into your mattress! Sophie is still your favorite toy but you really enjoy your exersaucer too. You are the most easy going, adaptable, mellow child that I have ever encountered. Therefore-I feel like the luckiest new mother in the world. The sound of my voice, and a few select others, brings instant open mouthed smiles to your face. (High school friends: Reminds me of my smile during my drill team's Miss Otis pom routine- senior year :) ) You have chubby fat legs and dimples in your arms and I love it! You have started having a party in your bathtub and kick and splash and love me to pour water on your hands. You bring joy to my day and just the sight of you makes me happy. Happy Five Months my sweet girl- I hope you are always this happy!

Pronouns and Peytonisms

One of my favorite things about Peyton’s language development is his misuse of pronouns. Peyton’s language is amazing to me and he likes to talk and talk and talk about everything. Sometimes he gets his pronouns a little messed up and I love it so much that I have a hard time correcting him. Here are some of my favorite little gems (both pronouns and general Peytonisms) from the last couple of weeks.

“He’s in his jammies!” (Mallory is in HER jammies)

“Mommy- Hold you!” (Mommy hold me)

“Pick Him Up.” (Pick me up)

“Oh No! I got shoes on my dirt!” (Oh No, I got dirt on my shoes)

"I need paper toilet" (toilet paper)

While at Easter mass, and not quietly:
"Mommy, Where’s Jesus? I don’t see him!” Where is he? I want to see Jesus?”

“Jesus is naked. Jesus is wearing underwear” (while looking at a picture of Jesus in a loin cloth with his Bebe)

"Coke is for grownups. I want to be a grownup too."

“But I want to pet him!” (Talking about touching his sister)

“I go to church. Ms. Darsi tell me to be quiet” (His preschool teacher and what I am assuming is talking during chapel at school)

When he doesn’t like something that I say, or if I tell him to stop doing something:
“I Want Mommy to go to Work!”
“I want Mommy to Leave”
“I want Mommy to run an errand.”
“No Like Mommy”

“I like Daddy. He gives me his shadows.” (flashlight)

“Papa has miskers (whiskers). He take them off in bathroom. He need to go to store to buy more.” (Talking about Papa shaving)

“Malley tooted! I want to toot too! Mommy- help me toot please”

"Mommy loves you" (Mommy loves me)
And I do Love you Sweet Baby Boy!!!!