Enjoying our Time Off

Brian and I both enjoyed some nice time off of our work around Christmas and New Year Eve/Day. We had a lot of fun during the holidays and enjoyed some family time which included some relaxing days of just not doing anything! Mallory has really loved playing with all of her new Christmas gifts and each Barbie has ridden the elevator multiple times on her Barbie House :) Here are some other things we did during our time off

After Christmas, we went and got our supplies for New Year's Eve. Mallory loves Party City so she modeled the 2016 glasses for me.

Sadly, that night, a terrible tornado came through close to our town in Rowlett. We were in the area not too long before it hit so I'm very grateful we came home when we did. As soon as we got home, we headed to our bathroom which is our safe room during a storm. Mallory brought her colors to keep her occupied while we waited the storm out.

We were texting family and friends all during the night to make sure everyone was ok. We do have some friends whose houses were damaged but everyone we knew was ok. I'm so amazed and proud how the people of our community have come together to help everyone in need. It was a very scary night and are still in prayer for those impacted by the horrible storm.

We got out Mallory's new Easy Bake Oven to make some treats. She was so very excited to use it! We both but on our new aprons and got ready to bake.

She told me she would read me the instructions :) I honestly had to read them a couple of times because the last time I had used an Easy Bake Oven was about 25 years ago. 

She had the biggest smile on her face the whole time!

And done! They were very small cookies but they were good! We both had a great time baking together and I look forward to more fun with her new oven.

A couple of days after Christmas, Mallory, my mom and I headed to East Texas to see Joyce. We enjoyed our time just visiting and we always have to go eat at my favorite place: Catfish Village! Bring on the catfish, hushpuppies and coleslaw! Sooo very good!

Growing up, we stayed at Joyce and Earl's alot so it is my home away from home. She has a lot of pictures of us when we were younger and it's fun to look at them now and see that Mallory does look some like me when I was younger.

On our favorite swing

Mallory says Joyce's house is in the trees and it is. It's up on a hill surrounded by lots of trees with so much room to run and play.

We always have to go down to the pier and the pond. It was pretty cold that days so we didn't stay for long. I was so happy to get this cute picture of my girl on the pier. 

I took the same picture when she was 14 months old and it's been my desktop background on my laptop since then. I could update it but it's one of my favorite pics of her in one of my favorite places.

It was a quick but great visit! We stopped on our way back for Mallory's dentist appt with my friend Melissa who is a pediatric dentist. All I can say is it was definitely humbling. She has done fine the first two appointments but this one: not so much. Let's just say: she screamed with her mouth wide open enough that Melissa was able to clean her teeth and get a good look at all she needed to see - someone how we all survived. I don't think Nana will be coming with us to anymore dentist appts after that :)

Brian worked the couple of days we were in East Texas and then I worked a couple of days before we were off again for New Year's. Brian used his gift cards from Christmas to get an Apple Watch. He had been wanting one for a while and was happy to get one! He loved being able to call me from his watch

On New Year's Day, Brian headed to Arkansas for his Annual Duck Hunting trip so Mallory and I had a girls weekend. We hung out in our pj's a lot and enjoyed some more down time. I worked on making a countdown to Disneyworld for Mallory. It was fun making it and we are now 37 days out!

We met Kate and Eva for a movie date to see The Good Dinosaur! These two cousins are so fun and I love that they love being with each other!! We had a great time!

We enjoyed some good Blue Bell ice cream. She kept telling Brian we were going to eat ice cream while he was gone so I was happy to have some alongside her!

She decided to bring all her stuffed animals and babies to our bed. I was able to find some room to sleep each night Brian was gone.

Sunday morning, we went to church and after talked about all we had learned. She learned about Jesus healing the sick and our sermon was on the Bible. I told her we sang the song "The B-I-B-L-E" in big church and she couldn't believe it. We sing that song a lot in the car. She put her sunglasses on like me so we took some photos. She said we had to pose on the first one.

Tomorrow, we start our regular routine of work and school. I am so grateful for the time to rest and recharge as we get ready for this new year! I saw this on Instagram last week and loved it!

I hope we all remember that as we head into this new year! I know I hope to each day!