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!

Mallory's Birthday Party- Gabba and Little Gym!

Mallory had an absolute blast at her Little Gym birthday party.  She enjoyed it from start to finish.  It was  so worth it just to see her have such a good time.  We decided to really focus on Mallory and her same age playgroup friends and a few neighborhood friends, this allowed everyone plenty of room to jump, swing, and dance.  It was the perfect party for a 2-year-old. They started with free play, then the staff led a mini class of dancing, tricks, parachute, and trampoline.  We had pizza and cake and then ended the party with basketballs and bubbles.

Highlights Included:

Seeing Mallory and Gigi dance together on the open floor

Watching Mallory just stare and stare at the Yo Gabba Gabba friends on her cake.  It was like they were the only people in the room and she couldn't believe they were at her party :)

Watching her run in circles and dance like no one was watching to songs like Twist and Shout

Watching Peyton do his "trick" for the group- a very fine tuned Sommersault

Nolan crawling all over the gym equipment

Mallory just having a ball! She continues to say "More Happy", meaning more happy birthday to her!

Here are a few pictures from her fun party!

Nolan's THREE Grandmothers :)

My Gabba friends are here too! I can't stop staring!

I just can't believe they all made it to the party- Foofa, Brobee, Plex, etc!

That taste good to you too, Baba?

Mallory Ann is TWO

Mallory Ann turned 2 on November 7th.  In some ways I can't believe my baby girl is 2, but in other ways I can't believe she has only been with us for 2 years.  She is so important to our family that it is hard to remember our lives without her.

We celebrated with a Yo Gabba Gabba themed birthday party at The Little Gym with 10 of her closest friends.  To say she enjoyed it would be an understatement. She had the time of her life! It was the perfect party for her.  Afterwards we opened her presents with Gigi and Bebe and Papa back home. On her real birthday she brought special treats to school to share with her class and got a special balloon and birthday cake after dinner.  It was a great weekend.

I will post her stats from her 2-year-old appointment next week, but here is a snapshot of details about our little girl at age 2.

Mallory Ann- At age 2 you have started talking and your little personality cracks everyone up.  You love baby dolls and try so hard to be a mommy to your little brother Nolan. The problem is that he only weighs about 3 pounds less than you so mothering him can be a little hard, but you never stop trying to feed him, hold him, burp him, carry him.  You love your baby stroller, your babies, your shopping cart, and tutus and dress up.  You have recently developed a STRONG opinion about what you wear in the morning and usually end up in a very fancy dress with fancy shoes. You adore Yo Gabba Gabba. You will watch it over and over again and know all of the characters names.  The phrase "MORE GABBA!" is often yelled throughout the house. You love washing dishes and playing in the sink. You sleep with your Tootsie, Blankie, and Brobee from Yo Gabba Gabba.  Your favorite books are Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Nursery Rhymes, and Moo Baa La.  Each night we read about 4 books together and sing a song.  You love Twinkle Twinkle the most the days but your absolute favorite song is Rock-a-bye your Bear by The Wiggles.  You like to eat and your teacher says you are usually the last to leave the lunch table.  You love school and run straight into the classroom. You love my purse, shoes, jewelry and make up. You are funny, sweet, spunky, a dare devil, and the light of my heart.

Mallory, I cherish my days with you.  When I was little I dreamed about being a mommy, and had little girl baby dolls that I treated like real babies. (it was a little crazy :) ) I even planned birthday parties for them and sent out invitations and baked a birthday cake for them- the full treatment.  So you see- I have been practicing being your mommy my whole life, so to spend time with you,  sing and dance with you, plan your birthday parties, and just be your mommy is truly my dream come true.  It is just even sweeter that you look like me :) I will always remember how I felt when I was getting my 18 week sonogram when pregnant with you and the doctor said "It's a little lady."  Tears of true happiness sprang to my eyes because I felt like I already knew you in my heart. You were meant to be and meant for me :)  The best part is that I could never have imagined the type of little girl you would be- I love that you are feisty, funny, daring, sassy, yet, still my little princess.  I'm sure your Daddy would say all the same things about you, well- maybe not the part about planning baby doll birthday parties, but he loves you so much too sweet girl. He can't wait to get you on a soccer field. :)  Happy Happy Birthday Mal-Mal, Souci, Sissy, Rump, Mal, Sweet Girl.

Mallory Just Born
November 7th, 2009

1st Birthday
November 7th, 2010

2nd Birthday
November 7th, 2011

*birthday party post up next!

Nolan's Shadow

I have a funny shadow, it is bigger than me.  It has blond hair and bigger clothes but it thinks we are a team.

When my shadow gets me up from nap it likes to hop right in, but the best part is it usually brings all of my toys with him.

Sometimes I think there isn't room for anything but me. But my shadow always finds a way to squeeze right in you see.




I love my funny shadow, it makes me laugh all day.  My shadow Peyton is the greatest thing to ever come my way.

Love,
Nolan



Peyton would do anything for Nolan. I am so glad that God gave him a brother to love and to grow up with. As Peyton says, "God knew I wanted a brother, so he made Nolan a boy."  And we are all so glad!

7 Months and on the Move!

Nolan turned 7 months old on October 28th.  The biggest accomplishment since last month is that he is crawling!  About 2 weeks ago he went from rocking on all fours to full on crawling and now he is a pro and can get everywhere.  He crawls around the house looking for me and his siblings and is doing a great job sitting on his own and is starting to try to climb onto things, not far from pulling to standing.  He has only had one major incident, when he crawled straight off a small step in our living room.  I heard Mallory say "Uh Oh Baby!" and seconds later he starting bawling and I found him off the step.  Other than that it has been pretty smooth crawling :)

Nolan also started eating baby food in his 6 month but we are still working on that.  So far he only likes things that involve meat :) I jumped straight into the 2nd stage mixed blends after he flat out refused the real baby food. We are kind of working backwards :) Bananas, Apples and Chicken, and Sweet Potatoes and Turkey are his favorites.

Nolan also got his first tooth and is now up to two teeth, both on the middle of the bottom gum.  He loves chewing on things to help with the teething.

At a recent doctor's appointment he weighed 21 pounds and is ridiculously tall.  He is still wearing 12-18 month clothing and is just a chunk of love.  I adore this little muffin and kiss on his chubby cheeks all day long. He is mellow, happy, loud, loves blowing spit bubbles at Peyton, loves laughing at Peyton, crawls to keep up with Mallory, and is a precious, precious boy.

It has been a busy month with new teeth, eating food, and crawling! He has grown from an infant to a sweet baby boy. I want to slow time down so I can keep him in my arms forever. Love you Nolie Noo!