15 Months Old

Photo by Rachellee Jones

Sweet Mallory is now 15 months old. She is in the 20th percentile of weight, 50th of height, and 60th of head size. She is saying new words every week but my favorites these days include"tootsie", "eyton" or "baba" for Peyton (Brother), and to hear her quack like a duck. She babbles and points all day long, loves to "shake her bootie", and give real kisses "Mah!" She loves to sit in little chairs, dig through my jewelry box, splash in water, eat snacks, and play with her brother. Her current best trick is to show anyone and everyone her dimple. She points to one of her cheeks and flashes you a dimply grin. When I picked her up from MOPS last week her teachers told me that she just kept showing them her dimple :) Such a cutie. Here are some pictures of our precious baby girl- a Momma's dream come true!

How high can your pony tail go?!?!?

Can I take a message?

I love my ladybug riding toy!

Hey Barney- Do you want to see my dimple?

Ba Ba! Wake up!!!

I love my brother.

But I can also take him down.

Show me your dimple :)

She was sooo into Peyton's Valentine's goodies and would follow him around the house while he fed her pieces of cookie.

Climbing into little chairs at Peyton's school Vday party.

Mallory Ann Yates- we love everything about you!

Valentine's Surprise

Grandy and Dandy sent Peyton and Mallory a special Valentine Package. We had so much fun opening it together this morning. Here are my two little valentines, ages 3 and 1.



So much love for each other :) (most of the time)

Thank you Gigi and Dandy for our presents. We love them!






Happy Valentine's Day!

Daddy's Sweethearts

Happy Valentine's Day Daddy!

We love you very much! We are always SO happy to see you after work!






Love, Mallory and Peyton

Iced In

(Front yard)

The first week of February 2011 = lots of quality time together. It has been icing, snowing, and below freezing all week long and with school being cancelled and our car stuck in our garage we've barely left the house.

Mallory had a horrible high fever virus all weekend and Monday so we were already going a little crazy when the bad weather rolled in. By Tuesday morning the temperatures were in the teens with ice covering all of Dallas, and our driveway, which meant we weren't going anywhere. Last night it also snowed so now we are covered in snow and ice. This means that the Mom (me) has had Peyton, Mallory, the dogs, and new baby in belly STUCK in the house all week long. No school, no playdates, no Target trips, no fresh air. Just lots of together time. Thankfully Bebe could drive her car and sprung us for a playdate at her house on Wednesday, this helped break up the week. I will be honest and say this has not been my finest week as a mother, nor has it been their shining moments as children! We are ready for some sunshine so that we can all shine again. Here is some insight into what we have been doing this week:

Lots of time in the playroom:
Sitting on chairs.

Being Really Bored.

Mallory Simmons from KISS Serenading us
Even using the guitar pick!


Going a little "BATTY"- Boredom brings on Destruction. (seriously, no matter where we hide this bat she manages to find it and loves it)
Why would you think this isn't a good idea?

Off to destruct!



Might as well put them to work! Peyton vacuuming up dog hair, another fun thing from the dogs being inside all week. He is really good at it.




Way too much TV= TV Coma.


And I will let Peyton briefly tell you what went down at the breakfast table one morning.



So that is a little glimpse into our week together. Notice we wore pajamas for most of it. Today Daddy is home from work so that will help so much- he and Peyton are out sledding in the neighborhood (it is still snowing) which allowed me to write this blog post. Dad took the train into work this week since we couldn't get the car out- such a hard worker. We are so glad to have him home today, did I already mention that? It is worth mentioning again!

Peyton and the Crocodile

When Peyton was very little his SILLY Daddy told him there was a crocodile in the bathtub drain. I think Peyton kept pulling up the drain and releasing all the water, so Daddy told him this to keep the plug in. and it worked-Too well. Peyton has talked about Daddy's "Tockadile" in the drain almost daily. Don't worry- he now knows this is just a "story". We got a flip video for Christmas and I want to test out posting video to the blog, so here is Peyton STILL talking about his "Tockadile", 2 years later. Thanks Daddy:)
I just love his little voice and intonations, wish I could keep him this little forever! (I had a cold so ignore my voice)

Our Christmas in Pictures

Christmas Eve Mass and Dinner Loving on our Gigi. Merry Christmas New Baby! Christmas Baby. Christmas Eve= fancy coat from Kristen, it is so cute! Dandy's Juice, V8, it does a body good! One of the only healthy things this child loves.

Christmas Eve Dance Party with DJ Jazzy Gigi and DJ Dandy Dancing! Dance, Dance, Dance. Fa la la la la la! Grandy and the Kids Dancing to Christmas Music Jingle Bell rock. Dandy's Legs.

Getting Ready for Santa
Watching the Santa Tracker for news about Santa's sleigh. Writing a letter to Santa. Santa doesn't really need these cookies, does he?


Bright and Early Christmas Morning
All of the gifts and lots more under the tree. First glimpse at what Santa brought. He said "Oh Oh Oh, Oh Geez." very quietly Only one of many new musical instruments, this is his electric percussion pad First spin on the roller coaster A princess coupe for our little princess. Now she goes down all by herself! The Garage. The only thing that Peyton said he wanted for Christmas. It is the same garage that David and I used for our matchbox cars when we were kids, Santa found him a 1977 Hotwheels Service Center. He told everyone that he wanted a "garage" for Christmas. In fact, his MOPS teacher was a little perplexed when she handed me Peyton's drawing of A gift he would GIVE to baby Jesus (like the gifts the 3 wise men brought). It was a drawing of a garage. I think she was thinking he meant a car/house garage and was a little confused.

After presents we went to Marshall's brother's house for Christmas dinner and more Christmas gifts with Marshall's whole family. With all of the fun there we forgot to take pictures!It was so much fun to be with everyone on Christmas day. Peyton got a bike from Bebe and Papa and it was a huge hit. It was so much fun opening presents with all of the Yates cousins too.

Here are some special memories from this year:
1. Peyton couldn't hide his disdain at receiving clothes, socks, etc. for Christmas. Of course, these are the presents that I liked best for him because he really needs it. I tried to teach him to be graceful when opening things like that but he would just throw them across the room and say he wanted to open a toy. This is why we don't open presents at birthday parties at this age!

2. Mallory just wanted to eat everyone's breakfast and could care less about the present part. She snatched up Peyton's entire bagel and walked around eating it while he was busy with presents.

3. Peyton's favorite presents as of Christmas morning (this will change throughout the year) had to be his roller coaster, garage, bike, drums, and car/garage/key toy. Mallory's favorite presents as of Christmas morning was definitely the roller coaster and her shopping cart.(she climbs in it and growls for people to push her)

4.Christmas Eve mass with the kids was a circus but that won't be changing anytime soon.Peyton really enjoyed feeding the reindeer, watching The Grinch who Stole Christmas before bed, and being totally spoiled by all that love him.

It was a precious Christmas with our precious children.

Hard Hats

Peyton: "What Smells?"

Mallory: "Ta Da! It's Me!!!"

The kids got these cute hats at a recent "Construction themed" birthday party. And this was the best picture I could get of the two of them wearing them. Funny little people.