"La la la la, la la la la, Elmo's World!"

Our friends, Laura and Maddie, invited me and Morgan to Sesame Street Live. We had so much fun! Laura found amazing seats (first row off the floor).

Sweet little friends. Maddie and Morgan are 6 months apart.

Cotton Candy! I refuse to pay $10 for an Elmo balloon (that you can find at Walmart for $2!!), but can't resist the popcorn and cotton candy. Somehow spending $10 on snacks is different??!!

Love Maddie's pigtails and "poofs"! She would just sit in Laura's lap flapping her arms like crazy the whole time!

I couldn't get her to look at the camera...mesmerized or scared:)

Where's Elmo? There he is!

While we were singing along to Elmo's World, Brad and Mallory had a zoo date! She was so cute about it. I knew where they were going, but when Brad told her, he said it was a secret. I asked several times and each time she told me she couldn't tell me. "It's a secret Mommy, you don't tell secrets!" Unlike when she spilled the beans about my peacoat...

We were having fun with the camera before we left. Here's Morgan's picture of us. She turned the complete opposite way of our faces, so we all leaned waaaaay over!

Mallory was dying to find out where we had been. Hey, if she can keep a secret, we can, too! Brad told her we went to see Elmo. She responded, "The real Elmo?" "Not uh!" Poor girl. I've already told her that she and I will have a little date together soon.

On a different note, I woke up without a voice this morning! No, it was not from screaming at Elmo:) I started getting a cough on Friday and I guess all the hacking and talking yesterday made it go away. It's been really quiet around here. Amazing how much less yelling happens when all you can do is whisper!!

The girls are cracking me up. Mallory just laughs when I try to talk...and asks me to keep talking because it sounds funny. When I do whisper, she usually whispers back. Hopefully it will be back soon...it's going to be tough ordering my Coke in the drive thru tomorrow:)

Valentine's Day(s) 2010

We celebrated a lot of love this year!

First up? Build-A-Bear with Mimi and Grandpa (and Aunt Terri, she was in town from Idaho!). We stayed at Tate's house the night before, which the girls LOVE! He read them a bedtime story.

Three little peas in a pod. They were watching "Happy Feet". You know your kids have watched the movie too many times when they can sing the songs, complete with head motions and "Ugh, ugh, ugh" in the right spot!!

Can I just say that Build-A-Bear is INSANE????!!!!! It's a little sesory overload when you walk in. But, the kids had a blast and ate up all the cheesiness of it. Here they are with Mimi and Grandpa with their "bears". Tate was the only one who left with an actual bear...well, I don't know if you would call it a bear when it has royal blue fur and peace signs all over it:) Mallory picked out a Dalmatian and name her "Alisha". I have no idea where she heard that name! Alisha has become a part of our family. Mallory feeds her, takes her in the car, sleeps with her and tells me when she needs something. Hilarious to see her little imagination. Morgan picked out a cat and we named her "Maddie" (after our favorite 19 month old).

It dawned on my mom that there are three generations of sisters in our family! How fun is that? So, we took the photo op in Grapevine Mills. I don't look like I belong in this family with blondes. Dad, Brad and Wade...no comment!

The night before Valentine's Day, we had a very romantic dinner in Waco. It was the FCA Coache's Appreciation dinner. Actually, it was a nice night with a free dinner and free childcare...can't beat that!

Mallory got a haircut since the last time I blogged. We chopped her hair off due to the tangles and tears she had every. single. day. morning. and. night. She LOVES her hair! The day she had it cut (and shampooed and styled!), she asked for me to lower the rear view mirror so she could look at it. As soon as we got home, she ran to her bathroom and stood on the stool stroking her hair. I walked by and she said, "Mommy, I do look good!" She also looks about 10 years old!

Morgan is sporting a new hairstyle these days, too! Here are her first (pathetic) pigtails!! Can you see them? Look really close by her ears and you'll see the tiny little poof of hair. Yes, those are her pigtails:) She thinks she's big stuff with pigtails. She shows them off to anyone who looks her way!

I was so excited Valentine's Day fell on a Sunday this year! We went to the late service at church and enjoyed a real breakfast (we don't normally have time for anything more than waffles!). No, that is not a heart shaped pat of butter...that was the first pancake from the batch. Why does it take a couple of pancakes before they come out golden brown? Or, is it just me?

I bought the girls just a couple of little things, but decided Saturday night, to take it all back. I knew they would love the mylar balloons just as much as a new Ariel umbrella...well, maybe not, but I can save that for their Easter basket! Sure enough, as soon as they saw those heart shaped balloons, that was it. They have played with their $2 balloons for two straight days! Cards are equally as exciting in their world. Morgan spent about 15 minutes reading and re-reading her card from BMom and Pop.

In honor of the day of love, the girls sported their pink! Here are my little Valentines with my favorite Valentine of all!!!!

Sunday night, we had plans for dinner with three other couples. We almost missed out due to a little 3 1/2 year old that woke up with a low grade fever and cough. Doesn't that always happen? Luckily, we were able to drop off the younger one at the reserved childcare and take Mallory with us to our friend's house. We stuck her in the bedroom with all the DVDs she could want and enjoyed a yummy dinner with our friends. We missed our friends that were sick and couldn't come:(

It was a great Valentine's weekend to celebrate the people I love!

Mallory

This little person is one of the joys in my life:

Mallory is growing into a little girl right before my eyes. I want time to stand still for so many reasons, but at the same time I'm loving her growing up. Last night, Brad was getting Mallory ready for her bath. Here's a little conversation they had:

B: We should pray for Morgan (she's been sick with a virus) and ask God to heal her.

M: But God's asleep.

B: God doesn't sleep. He stays awake all the time.

M: No, daddy. God sleeps. It says in the Bible he rested after he made the heavens and the Earth!

Brad couldn't really argue with that!!

Jelby's happenings

Check out Jelby's! I've just added my Valentine's Day shirts (for girls AND boys!) and I'm cleaning out my leftover Christmas shirts ($5 shirts/onesies!).

We wish(ed) you a Merry Christmas!

Better late than never! Here's my attempt to recap all of our Christmas celebrations....

Our Christmas card! I loved it this year, thanks to a super talented photographer and a super talented designer. Both are local by the way!

Santa Clause came to our town. Morgan wasn't a huge fan, but took her thumb out of her mouth long enough for a picture! Mallory told Santa she wanted a "Barbie kingdom and a Barbie doll". Apparently she heard one of her friends from school ask for that, so she thought it was a good idea!


We made the obligatory Christmas cookies. Mallory used her egg-cracking skills she learned from BMom to help out.

A little blonde two year old was EATING the flour I spread out to roll the cookie dough on, so she got booted from the kitchen pretty fast. She literally would run her hand over the flour and lick it. Turkey!



The 12 cookies (out of 36) that were decorate-able. My name is not Betty Crocker:)



We got excited about very small snow flurries before we headed out to church!




I would love to talk about Mallory hearing her first curse word at our Christmas Eve service, but that is another post. Mallory really enjoyed sitting in "big church" and singing lots of songs she's been learning all month.

After church, we had dinner with some good friends. The kids celebrated Jesus's birth with cupcakes! It was sweet to watch them all sing Happy Birthday, and remember the whole reason why we celebrate Christmas.



I was probably more excited than the girls when we got home. I NEVER got to open a present on Christmas Eve and it drove me nuts! We started a new tradition of giving jammies on Christmas Eve to the girls. Mallory was so excited they had feet in them!!




Another tradition I remmeber my dad doing (and wondering how he got a picture of everything Santa left!), is taking a picture of the tree/presents before Christmas morning.



This was the first year to wake up at our own home on Christmas morning. We missed out on lots of snow at both sets of grandparents, but we wouldn't change the excitement of the morning with our girls.

The girls could have just opened their stockings and been satisfied! Brad made a yummy breakfast for us and then we opened gifts.




Brad and I still go back and forth on Santa and how far we want to play it up. In fact, we totally forgot to tell Mallory that Santa brought her the Barbie doll she had asked for! Will she be scarred for life? Yikes.

Another thing we did this year is give the girls three presents each. Jesus got three gifts (right Mom??!!), so it seems like a great way to teach them the real meaning.

By far, the favorite activity of the month was our Advent calendar (thank you TBC missions garage sale!). The girls loved hearing the story over and over about Jesus. We sang different carols and read some books, too. Next year I want to add in things we can do as a family and verses to read each night.

Missing: video of Mallory telling the Christmas story...because Blogger is taking forever!!!! Maybe next time.

A month of fun!

We're about to celebrate our 3rd and final Christmas Friday, so I need to finish up posting about to December to have "all right in blogworld" before I post about Christmas.

Let's do a random, unorganized post from the end to the beginning. This might stress me out. I like to have all the pictures organized and to tell stories from the beginning (with LOTS of details, right Kelly?). Here we go....

It was "tutu" fun for Morgan to turn TWO!!!! I really can't believe she's two...until she throws a fit or tells me "NO!", then I know it's for real:)

The "mini Morgan" doll that my friend Karen made for Morgan. Is it not the cutest thing ever??! Morgan wasn't feeling too great in this picture.

MckMama's rainbow cake that will become a birthday tradition in our family. It was pretty easy (but time consuming) to make. The slices are HUGE!!!

Ready to par-tay!!

Tate was dying to wear a tutu. This was the perfect photo op for a cousin picture! He will hate me when he's 18:)

For the second year in a row, we ended up in the doctor's office on Morgan's birthday! This time she had her normal well-baby check-up turned sick-baby check up. While we waited she practiced her 2 fingers for Dr. Riser.

Happy, happy birthday Morgie!!

Mallory had her first school program. She did great!

Before her debut:)

Another photo op for cousin pictures...matching gingerbread shirts! They were freezing and running around trying to warm up!

Tate had his 3rd birthday! Again, where does the time go? It was a fun train ride to Ft. Worth followed by Double Dave's pizza...mmmm!

Two little models for mommy. They crack me up...and each other!

Playing catch up

Sigh. I have neglected my "scrapbook" for WAY too long. How will my children know about the fun they had growing up, when all they see on the blog is posts about giveaways? It's time to get this thing updated so I don't end up posting about Christmas in July!!!

Let's go way back to October. I think I ended with pumpkin patches. We also had Halloween! The girls dressed up as butterflies this year. We got to use our costumes twice, at the Fall Festival and then trick or treating. Both were super fun!

Here are two cute pink butterflies. What? You didn't know there were pink butterflies? According to Mallory, everything can come in pink!

With our pumpkins...I've forgotten their names by now. Mallory requested a silly pumpkin and "girl" pumpkin.

Morgan got her first haircut! It was at home and quick. The mullet was getting out of control. Although I loved the curls, I did not love when the humidity straightened them and she looked a little boyish.

Before:


After:


The smile only a mother can love:)

In the midst of all of our fall fun, soccer happened, too! This was a fabulous year for Brad. His best yet, and UMHB's best yet! To say that we are proud of Brad is an understatement. He had a very successful season on and off the field. He would tell you that the best part of this year was seeing changes in the team dynamics. Lots of guys stepped up into leadership and there was a lot of teamwork this year. Both of those things were the reasons for their success (and a great coach, of course!).

Speaking of soccer, this little girl cannot wait until she turns four and can be a "soccer girl". Until then, striped socks and soccer shirts will have to do!

This year, UMHB placed first in conference and hosted the ASC tournament! First ever for UMHB. They also advanced past the first round of playoffs only to be beat by Hardin Simmons. It was also the first time ever (in ASC history) for an at large bid into the NCAA Division 3 playoffs. UMHB hosted the first game against, who else, HSU! We lost that game which ended the season for Brad. It was bittersweet, but we can't complain about the season....we just look forward to next year!

Right after he got doused with a huge jug of water!

Can you see the ice on the ground in the background? Brrrr!!!!

And, I can't leave out that Brad was named the American Southwest Conference Coach of the Year. So, so proud of him and his players!

Mallory had a Thanksgiving feast at school. I wasn't 100% I could make it up there to eat lunch with her, so I didn't mention anything about it. Well, I learned my lesson really quick. Mallory doesn't like surprises! The minute she saw me and Morgan, she started flipping out and throwing a fit. Finally, I was able to calm her down and tell her I was there to eat lunch...not to pick her up early. Turkey. She thought I was there to pick her up.

Once we all sat down (in the tiny chairs), she was all smiles, especially when Morgan got to eat with her!

Later at home in her turkey hat!

That afternoon, we left to go to Burkburnett. It was a fun filled, cousin filled, food filled 3 days there! BMom got to make a cake with all 4 grandchildren (and use the aprons we gave her last year!).

Matching cousins on their way to Chuck E. Cheese!


When we got to my parents the day after Thanksgiving, we went to the Gaylord Hotel to check out the lights. Obviously the girls enjoyed it....

You can check my sister's blog to see a really embarrassing video of us playing The Beatles Rockband. That was the highlight of Thanksgiving for us! Before all of the adults played, the kids got to practice, too.

We also enjoyed eating dinner with our long time family friends, the Barbarenas. No pictures, though!

Alrighty. That gets me caught up to December 1st!