Follow the Yellow Brick Road!

To Mallory's Wicked First Birthday Party! (and Costume Party in Oz)
There is only one thing that even comes close to my love for my children and that is the musical Wicked. :) So it made perfect sense (to me) to create a "Wicked" 1st Birthday Party for my sweet baby girl Mallory. We scheduled it for Halloween weekend so the Witch themed, Wizard of Oz, Wicked worked really well. Sweet Mallory didn't seem to be feeling 100% but still had a great time and was ,of course, the perfect party host. She dressed up as Glenda the Good Witch, but you will only see a few pictures of her in the costume because she threw up about 5 minutes after putting it on. Thankfully we had another party dress on hand!


I dressed up as Elphaba, a pregnant Elphaba that is!, and Peyton wore his triceratops costume. I guess Marshall was a Longhorn Fan? Glad to know there is still one fan out there with their current losing streak!

Mallory invited her best baby friends, their parents, and a handful of our close friends and neighbors to the party. The guests arrived to a Yellow Brick Road that led them to Mallory's Emerald City, complete with a balloon rainbow. I will never forget trying to get about 50 inflated rainbow and emerald green balloons into my neighbor Mimi's car without them getting tangled or popped, on Halloween weekend with about 5,000 crazy Halloween customers at a party store. We created quite the scene and traffic jam! But the balloons were very festive. We should also mention her Bebe who arrived in a surprise perfect "Munchkin" costume, dressed head to toe as a clown. Soon after arriving Bebe picked her up and that is when Glenda decided to spit up her entire bottle, all over the clown costume. At least we got one picture of Bebe in her costume! And finally, God bless Gigi (Grandy) for traveling to Dallas, helping me prepare for the party all weekend and making sure it went smoothly. We love you all!

Seconds before the demise of the Glenda and Munchkin costumes.

Trying to walk the Yellow Brick Road with Grandy

Here are some pictures of our "Oz" scenery: I searched high and low for "Wicked" birthday party decoration ideas without a lot of luck, so maybe this will help another Wicked fan some day :)

Rainbow cutouts of each guest's name







Here is a sprinkle of our Citizens of Oz!

I'm sorry I can't post everyone!




Follow the Yellow Brick Road Dorothy!


Look, the Cowardly Lion is right behind you!









It's Cake time!










One of my favorite lines from Wicked is when Elphaba says to Glenda, "Well we can't all travel by bubble." So I sent each baby home with their own bottle of Glenda bubbles.



Mallory went to bed a little early so woke up to all of her presents.





It was a perfect party with perfect weather, a winning Rangers game, and special time with many of Mallory's closest friends. The musical Wicked has some great messages including friendship, goodness, growth, and the positive effect that others can have on us, if we let them. Sweet Mallory- I wish all of these things for you in your wonderful life to come and can already see these things working in you by your sweet personality and the loving influence of our friends and family. And of course, "Because I knew you (Mallory), I have been changed for good."

So now we head into Year Number 2 with Miss Mallory Ann- keep "Defying Gravity" sweet baby girl!

So Glamorous

Motherhood can be a lot of things. Glamorous is usually not one of them. Example:
Mallory broke my glasses over a month ago. I am still wearing them broken because it is just not easy getting to an eyeglass store with 2 little ones in tow. It has been on my to do list for weeks now but always gets trumped by something else. Maybe I'll end up starting a new trend. Or wearing my contact lenses more.

Pretty Ridiculous!

You know what else isn't glamorous? Snotty Noses. I thought about editing the dried up snot out of Peyton's pictures but this is our real life and I want to remember it as is. Plus he is probably one of the only people we know that thinks my broken glasses are still cool so I can deal with a little dried snot.


Actually, it looks like most of the Yates family is digging this new trend. Maybe I AM glamorous! Roll call!







Uh Oh. I think we know where this is headed......Although I doubt she can do much more damage.

Economical Fun

Who needs new and expensive toys when you have.......

a BOX!?!

Good Old Fashioned Fun with one of Peyton's Favorite Friends.


Does childhood get any sweeter?

(Thank you to Emily for taking these great pictures of our boy's imaginations at work!)

Is this really happening?

We experienced quite the laugh on Sunday during the Cowboys game. Marshall was snoozing on the couch with Peyton while Mallory safely played on the floor around them. I was in the other room. All of a sudden I heard Peyton's small 4 wheeler rev up and Marshall yelling "Meredith!" I ran out to find Mallory on the four wheeler, sitting like a pro, driving towards me. She had climbed on his 4 wheeler, found the button to accelerate and was riding around the room. Marshall said he thought he must have been seeing things because it couldn't have been real, he had opened his eyes and there was his baby girl headed towards him. I just couldn't stop laughing. This 11-month-old baby can't even walk yet but is driving around the room on a 4 wheeler? The whole scene looked like it was fake and definitely couldn't really be happening.I tried to get some "in action" shots but we were worried she was going to fall off so tried not to encourage the behavior. Thank you Mallory for the uncontrollable fit of laughter, I needed that!




Look Ma, No Hands!



Thanks for the ride! I think I'll walk the rest of the way.

Never Wake a Sleeping......

Dinosaur

Peyton's Halloween costume came in the mail today and he couldn't wait to try it on. He didn't want to take it off. I decided to get a head start on dinner while Mallory was napping so I put Peyton on the couch with a Diego show for thirty minutes of "quiet time". It soon became way too quiet so I stepped out of the kitchen to check on him and found this.



A Sleeping Triceratops.

These are the moments that I just want to bottle up and remember forever. My sweet three-year-old boy (who is ALL boy) who insisted on having three-horns on his costume, making sure to be an authentic Triceratops, and making sure to tell me that he was a "friendly, nice" dinosaur-Not a mean one". I know soon enough Halloween will be about horror and gore and gross masks, so this little sleeping dinosaur just pulls at my heart.


These really are the simple,little moments that make being a Stay-at-home Mom all worth it. And this day is even better now that they are both sleeping!

Drum Roll Please

Peyton's most favorite thing to do is to Drum. Leave it to my child to choose drumming as a hobby at the age of three. He drums along to music, to tv shows, to movies, and to himself. He drums on his play kitchen (using fake carrots, spatulas, etc.) drums on pillows, trash cans, toys, and most recently, on Mallory's head. Drumsticks can be Q tips, kitchen spoons, pens, and even wet toothbrushes. Peyton pretty much drums his way through his day. There are a lot of loud noises in our house these days.

Well this weekend Bebe surprised Peyton with the most perfect gift.

A Miniature Drum Set.

With a miniature bass drum, three snares, and a cymbal. (I played the drums in middle school so I am totally hip to percussion lingo :) ) His face was just precious when he saw it. He gave us his trademark "i'm so happy, proud, excited, I know you're watching me so I'm kind of embarrased face" Few things elicit this face- his walk down the aisle as ringbearer being the most recent, so we know he was pretty thrilled.


Now you might be thinking that I have an evil Mother-in-law for purchasing my three year-old a noisy drum set, but she is great and is actually keeping the set at HER house. Which makes it an even better toy because we have to go THERE to play it!


So Bebe- we thank you, Peyton thanks you, and Mallory and her head thank you too!

11 Months, almost the Big 1!

Happy 11 Months Baby Mallory! It is the last month of your first year, the last monthly update, the last month of bottles, and what looks to be your last month of crawling. You are becoming such a little person, full of spunk and sass and smiles.

This month you started cruising and will take up to three steps by yourself. You now love to clap and do patty cake and say "pappy pappa papapapay" whenever you do patty cake. You love to do Mallory is "So Big" and to hide your face with blankets and clothes to play "Where's Malley?" You learned to say "Dandy" when we were in Austin and love to say "Hi" and wave to our friends.

You have a few more teeth busting through on the bottom but still only have vampire fangs :) on the top. You are starting to get into more things and protest when I tell you "No." You love Mom's car keys and get really mad when I take them from you (like when I need them to start the car) and the other day you went missing in the house. I finally found you in my room, with the door shut, eating your brother's fruit snacks out of a bag. You weren't making a peep (trying not to be found) and the door was closed behind you (sneaky girl!) so it took me awhile to find you!

You are still the sweetest, easiest baby and I love every minute with you.

Here you are FINALLY holding your own bottle. It took you 7 months to take one and almost as long to want to hold it by yourself :)



Here you are playing in dirt.



Here you are happily eating the dirt.



And here is a close up of your "fangs", so funny!



Happy 11 Months to our Little Cupcake!

One Down, Two to go

We have made it through the first trimester of Pregnancy Number 3! I am now fourteen weeks. This should mean that I will be a whole new woman any day now. The end of the first trimester for me usually means less nausea, exhaustion, and starting to feel human again. I think we are almost there...

Last week we had our Triple Screen (screen for signs of Down Syndrome and chromosomal abnormalities) and everything looked great in both the blood work and the ultrasound. This was wonderful news.

I apologize for the hiatus from blogging but it has been an interesting couple of months since learning about this newest little Yates.

I have been in survival mode and my house has barely survived to say the least. I have had one simple goal during this time. To make it through each day keeping both myself and my current two children alive and well. They are alive, and hopefully have not been too damaged by the mess, the chaos, and being raised by the tv channel Nick Jr. Hey- sometimes you have to do what you have to do!

As a Stay at home Mom I usually do a lot of cleaning and organizing throughout the day to stay on top of tasks. This has not been the case lately. Marshall has been a huge help and usually comes home to something that resembles an earthquake. One day he asked me if ten friends had joined me for lunch that day, that is how bad the kitchen looked. I basically stopped doing all the things that I usually did throughout the day. I've heard that stay at home moms should do this every once in awhile to remind their families of their usual (often unnoticed) hard work. Do it- they will take notice my friends! Lately Marshall comes home from work and gets to work on the dishes, the kitchen, and the house because I just couldn't get it done. Thank You Marshall. You have been very appreciated!

As mentioned, Nick Jr. has been raising my Three-year-old. If I hear that song by the Moose and Zee creatures in between episodes one more time, I might explode.
"I'm so excited I can hardly wait, today is just perfect, in fact it's plain great!"

I both hate Nick Jr. and Love Nick Jr. Peyton has been wonderful about giving Mommy "rest time" during Mallory's afternoon nap and watches Nick Jr at this time. The impact has been immediate. He now says "OH MAN!!" (like Swiper the fox from Dora), " We did it, We did it! (Diego or Dora) He has also fallen in love with the movie "Land Before Time" and responds to questions like Ducky the dinosaur. I'll say, "Do you want cereal this morning". and he'll reply "Yup Yup Yup!, That's what it is!" or "Nope, Nope, Nope". Oh well, at least we've had good rest time.

It has also been the small things that have helped us survive:
I couldn't drink coffee for the longest time so I get to treat myself to REAL Cherry Coke in the mornings as my small caffeine allotment for the day. Peyton usually manages to sneak a sip too. Win Win for both of us.

Peanut butter crackers and breakfast muffins really curve that morning nausea.

And unlike the other pregnancies, My biggest craving has been for salad. SALAD?!?!? Thankfully Wendy's has a new line of great salads- I really recommend them.

What else has helped?
Fall clothes shopping, a few new maternity for me and lots of fun stuff for Mallory (My friend Peyton got her this super cute denim jumper)


Crazy hair styles to pass the time




Back to school!

First day of school for Peyton!


Surprise happy face cookies from Gigi delivered to my doorstep


Quality time with Daddy (putt putt golf, running, outside playtime while Mommy napped)


College Football(Touch Down!)


The Death of a Dining Room

This room is now a full time playroom. We needed the playroom/fourth bedroom for a bedroom and a better place for the kids to play so we converted our sitting room to a dining room, and the dining room to a playroom. So far so good.

Lots of time at home, just being silly babies.




Waking up to this sweet face!


Kisses, Kisses, and more Kisses


And looking forward to growing this little one, and meeting him/her at the end of March. Here he/she is saying "Hey Guys!"


So welcome to the 2nd Trimester! As Peyton and Dora would say, "We Did It! We did it! We did it! Hooray!"

A Perfect 10

Mallory turned 10-months-old on September 7th. Less than 2 months until the big year mark! She has five teeth now (2 funny ones spread out on top and 3 on the bottom) and her baby smile has turned into more of a toothy grin. (she is modeling this new grin in the above picture)

At 10 months Mallory is quite the personality and quite the handful! She is in to everything. She is holding strong in the "Dumping' stage of the "dump and fill development stage." She dumps things out of cabinets, drawers, my baby bag, her dresser, anything she can get her hands on. I am constantly cleaning up after her. We have found her trying to get her hands in toilets, trashcans, and dog water. She is fast and will disappear briefly and is usually up to no good when I find her!

Her new favorite hobby is wrestling. She attacks her brother and then laughs hysterically. She loves to climb all over him. She learned these moves from him so he is getting a taste of his own medicine!

That blonde, ball underneath her is her big brother's head! Love this picture. (disclaimer: no three year olds were hurt during this picture- he loves that she rolls around with him) I'm glad she can stand up for herself!

Speaking of standing, she is standing by herself for longer periods of time and has started cruising on furniture and trying to push her walking toys. She isn't far from walking! She went to her Mops classroom for the first time and did so well without her Mommy. Such an easy baby. (but not as easy as she used to be.)

She says the words Mama, Dada, Brobo (brother?), Papa, baba (bottle), Up and Hi. I'm not sure if she really understands the meaning of each but she loves to say them.





These two crazy babies keep us very busy. It really is more than a full time job just keeping up with them and keeping the house clean in the wake of these two tornadoes. Can't imagine life without them though and soon we will add another to this crazy mix!


ps: That baby play house is Mallory's "Laugh and Learn" house available at Babies R Us. Best baby toy ever and even preschoolers love it. It has a permanent spot in our living room right now.

Party of 5

Yates, Party of Five. That will be us come this March. (2 chairs, 1 booster seat, and 2 high chairs.) We recently found out that God has blessed us with Baby Yates Number 3. Number THREE. We always planned on having a third child, just never in a million years thought it would be so soon. The quote "Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans" has run through my mind many times this month.

So here we go, there is now a third little Yates, just as perfect, wanted, and loved as his/her brother and sister. And we will meet him/her around March 31st.

I usually wait to share our baby news until the very end of the 1st trimester, but this is about to become the worst kept secret in Dallas. Third pregnancies show a lot faster than the first two (I am already showing!) and I am pretty sick so people are bound to catch on soon. We have already had 2 ultrasounds and everything looks perfect so I am comfortable sharing this news and thought that you, my few faithful blog readers :), should be some of the first to know.

So for a few short months this year I will have 3 babies ages 3 and under. When this baby is born Peyton will be 3 1/2, Mallory will just be 16 months old. It is bound to be crazy, hectic, and hard, but I love my life as mom to these precious children. And as of now we don't plan on finding out the sex, we will just keep it as the year of surprises!


This is what our swingset will look like next summer, Marshall is filling in for Baby Yates # 3.