Weekend Wrap-Up: May 17-19, 2013

Happy Monday! This past weekend was such a fun time in our family! It was Mallory's birthday party weekend! I will do a whole post on the party for sure but that is what I worked on all Friday night and then we had her party Saturday morning.

Friday night, I went over to Brian's Aunt's and Uncle's, where we had Mallory's party, to get as much set up as I could so Saturday morning wouldn't be so crazy. As I was putting up some of the letters that Lyndsey had cut out for me on her Cricut, I realized I was missing the "y" from away. I looked everywhere and have no idea where it went but a quick text to Lyndsey and she came to rescue.

I tried to cut one a "y" out myself but it did not look well so thankfully Lyndsey was home and cut another one out. Crisis averted!

Saturday morning, we celebrated our sweet girl turning 2!

She had the best time and was so excited to see all of her friends and family! Her birthday is tomorrow so I can't wait to have more cake :)

Saturday afternoon, we all came home and collapsed. Naps were in order for everyone and then we got to spend the evening with our favorite nephews!

Brian made his famous french bread pizzas that Caleb and Cade love and of course, Mallory loved that her cousins were over. She had to be in the middle of everything they were doing. We had a great time with them!

Sunday morning, we headed to church. Mallory got to wear one of her new pretty dresses she got as a gift. She's now in Toddler D and I love that she gets to be with Samantha and Shannon!

Shannon sent me this cute pic of the two of them. Crazy girl!

Sunday evening, Brian headed to The Ballpark in Arlington to watch the Texas Rangers

While Daddy was gone, Mallory and I decided to take her new toys for a ride.

She got a cozy coupe from Grammy and Pappy and Brian and I got her a tricycle. She loves being outside and loves her new rides!

What a fun weekend celebrating our baby girl and I can't wait to celebrate with her all day tomorrow!

Hope you have a wonderful week!

Laughter

I'm loving the sound of Mallory's laugh today! Lately, everything is so funny and she busts out into laughter. I'm loving every minute of it!     There is really not a sweeter sound to hear!   Linking up with This Kind of Love

Celebrations

Saturday was a fun filled day of celebrations for our family! Mallory and I headed to celebrate our nieces's Kayden turning 6 and Kiersi turning 7 while Brian headed to our sister-in-law, Stephanie's college graduation!

Kayden & Kiersi! Seriously, time has flown because they are growing so fast! They are beautiful young girls and I'm so glad to be their Aunt! Their party theme was Candyland and Melody did a great job with everything! It was so much fun!

The awesome cake and decorations! Who doesn't love a candy bar?

Mallory loves seeing all of her family and got so excited to see Eva again! Kiersi & Kayden have a little trampoline in the back and Mallory loved jumping in it too!

All of the cousins - they just love when we get them all together for a pic - ha! Melody also had the kids play some games and one of them, you had to see how many gummy bears you could lick and stick to your face. Made for some cute faces!

The Bradley fam and me with the two pretty birthday girls! We had a wonderful time celebrating them!

After leaving the birthday party, we headed back to celebrate Stephanie and her college graduation!

The Estes boys rode together to the graduation so I took this picture of them before they left. They all look so spiffy and of course, Mallory had to join in on the photo.

The Estes Family!

Stephanie with her cake and Mallory!

We are so proud of Auntie and her accomplishment! She has worked so hard to get to graduation and I know she will be an amazing teacher! Congrats Auntie! We Love You!

Mother's Day 2013

What a wonderful Mother's Day Weekend! Having been a mother for almost 2 years now, it's still so amazing to be on this side of the Mother's Day celebration! Saturday, we headed to my brother's house to celebrate my niece's birthdays and we got to give Nana her Mother's Day gift there.

Me and my pretty girl that I love getting to be with every day!

Two of my favorite ladies in my life! Mallory, Mom and me

Mallory and Nana. Like I said in the Mother's Day post yesterday, Mallory loves Nana so much! She always wants her first and I love the relationship they have! My Mom went to my grandmother's to see her on Mother's Day so we were so glad we got to spend time with her on Saturday!

Sunday morning on Mother's Day, we got ready and headed to church. We did take some pictures before we left and I'm so glad we were able to get a good one :)

Love her sweet smile and all those teeth!

After church, we headed to Pam & Kam's to celebrate Mother's Day with Brian's family! 

Mallory and Aunt Pam aka Grammy

Auntie and Mallory

I love this picture of 4 generations. Brian's grandmother, mother, him and Mallory. 

All of the Estes's! Brian's Mom with her two sons and their families

Words cannot express how much I truly love being Mallory's mother! It is a gift that I think God for everyday! What a fun weekend celebrating all of the Mother's in our lives! I am blessed!

More Outside Fun

Monday was a beautiful day so as soon as I picked Mallory up after school we played outside until it was bath time. Brian came home, cooked burgers on the grill and we ate on our back patio for dinner. Finally putting our patio furniture to use!

While we were waiting for Brian to get home, we played, explored and pushed the stroller around.

We have a little walkway by our house that leads to a little creek behind it. We don't go back there much but we went to it Monday and found some pretty flowers. I put one in my hair and Mallory decided she needed to put it in for me. I'm not sure who she's talking to while attempting to put it in my hair.

And then she had to have a flower in her hair too :)

We've got to enjoy this nice weather before it gets too hot this Summer!

Walking down to the creek, we go a little downhill and Mallory realized that she could just let her stroller roll and not have to push it - ha! 

There's a chance of rain today but the weekend looks nice! Looking forward to more fun outside!

Sticky Faith

Sunday morning, we were asked to sit in on a class with our church's Youth Minister, Cory by our Children's Minister, Shelley. They, along with other ministers in our church, wanted to try a new class for parents of preschoolers to hear from Cory and parents from teenagers to help prepare us for what will come. You can never start soon enough praying for your children! I soaked up everything Cory said and he emailed parents of youth in our church and asked for them to share with us what they wish they knew 10 years ago, when their children were preschoolers. Even though it seems Mallory's teenage years are far away, they aren't. I know I will blink and she will be a teenager! Here are some of the greatest pieces of advice the parents shared with us:

"Go to church with your kids - don't send them"

"Make it normal for your family to talk about God and Jesus everyday...to have conversations outside of Bible story time. Doesn't have to be long - just weave Christ into your moments. That way it won't be awkward to have faith conversations when they are teens."

"Pray with them every night and in God's word every day. Start now."

"You are your children's first impression of what God can be like. Don't hold a grudge - accept apologies and move on."

"Children are observant and will pick up on everything their parents do. Be a good example."

"Discipline should be covered in grace"

"Start discipline early. If you to start at age 12/13, they won't accept it."

"Be their biggest cheerleader. Don't complain about them (especially joking in front of them). They need to know you are proud of them."

"10 years ago I would have told myself, my kids will not left behind if they don't sell out to an activity. God has a much bigger plan and sports are tools God can use but otherwise really unimportant in light of eternity.:

"Family dinner and family nights are hugely important."

"Don't think your teen doesn't want to be with you. Being present, physically, will provide many opportunities for them to talk, even or just feel safe and important."

MOST IMPORTANTLY - there isn't a Magic Answer

"You WILL make mistakes. Acknowledge them - ask your child to forgive you if appropriate, learn from the mistake, forgive yourself and move on."

I learned so much in a short amount of time from Cory and these parents. No, we won't be perfect and we have no idea what the future holds but we can do our best to prayerful and prepared. We received a book called Sticky Faith. It talks about kids who've left home and went to college and their faith stuck. 

I'm looking forward to reading it and learning more. I know how crazy college life can be and I want Mallory's faith to stick. I want her own faith, not Brian and I's faith, her own faith to stick and stand out. You can never not pray enough for your child. I'll never forget a couple of weeks after Mallory was born, she had fallen asleep in my arms and I laid her down beside me. I cried tears of joy thankful that God has allowed me to be her mother. She is His child and He has allowed me to be her mother while she is on this Earth. What a great privilege we have as parents! 

I'm also thankful for a great support group of Christian mother friends that I have. Let's lift each other up! More encouraging, less judging and comparing. Let's pray for the children our kids grow up with and their parents. We are in this together! Yes, Mallory will grow up and make her own decisions but I want her to know that I've prayed for her and tried to do the best I can as a Child of God.

Speaking of this little girl...the countdown has begun to her 2nd birthday!

Let's start praying the terrible twos don't find us :)

Weekend Wrap-Up: May 3-5, 2013

Happy Monday! It's a new week and I'm thankful to see all that it has in store! We had a great weekend with our little family! 

Lately, on Friday night's, we've ordered pizza for dinner. I say it's our treat for making it to the weekend :) We still love our local Pizza Cucina. Our favorite pizza place in town!

We played for a long time in the playroom. I got Mallory some new crayons because she tends to break the skinny Crayola crayons and I think I was just as excited as she was! I love sitting and coloring with her! When it was time to put her pajamas on, she decided to be fun and do everything except put her pj's on

I ended up getting this cute picture. Her hair is getting more thick and curly in the back. Love her!

Saturday morning, we got up and headed to Party City to pick up supplies for a little girl's 2nd birthday party coming up! Mallory thought she was in balloon heaven there. And, of course, we had to go down the aisle with Minnie, Mickey, Elmo and even Lightning McQueen from Cars. Daddy always chooses Cars to watch if they watch a movie together :)

After Party City, we ran to Target to pick up some other things and then headed to Raising Cane's for lunch. Mallory probably thought she lives the life and it looks like she does with her leaning back with popcorn in one hand and her daddy's Icee in another.

Saturday evening, we got a visit from Nana and Eva! I so wish I would have recorded Mallory opening the door and seeing Eva! She loves her cousin so much and they both get so excited when they see each other!

Mallory took Eva to her playroom for them to play and they played hard. I'm so happy I got to love on Eva for a little bit too!

Sunday morning, we headed to church and Brian and Mallory matched in their black and white. Love these two!

Brian and I got to go to a class with our church's youth minister and got to hear from him and parents of teenagers now. They talked about how we as parents of preschoolers now should be praying for our child as they become teenagers and high school graduates heading to college and being on their own. It seems so far away now but I know as our Children's Minister, Shelley said, it goes by so fast! I'll post on it more about what we learned but it was so great and informative! 

After class, our SS class ordered pizza and had lunch together. Since our class has so many little kiddos, we can't always go out to a restaurant because it gets a little crazy so we just order in and let the kids play together and run around.

Liam and Mallory were definitely worn out and decided it was nap time :)

We stopped by our neighbors house for a quick sec to tell Grant, Happy 30th and then headed home for naps! Later in the afternoon, I have to give props to the husband for putting up a ceiling fan in our playroom/guestroom. There wasn't a fan in that room when we moved in and since we are now finally using the room, it was time to put a fan up.

We aren't sure what the 5 minute fan means because it definitely doesn't mean 5 minutes to put up! But Brian got it all done and it's up! We are slowly but surely getting home projects done!

There's our weekend for ya! Have a great week!

It's Friday, Friday

Happy Friday friends! We made it to the weekend - woo hoo! This is a post of randomness but here you go:

When I was looking through the pics I took of us outside, I forgot this one. Apparently Mallory has no fear of any bugs. She was barefoot walking around the driveway and just stepped on any slug or ant she saw. She's staring at some bug here before she stepped on it

Of course, when I saw her step on the ant, I freaked because the only thing that showed up on her allergy tests last year was fire ant so I was afraid she was going to have a reaction if she got an ant bite but thankfully, she hasn't had any bites lately so we've been good.

Yesterday was our niece Kiersi's 7th birthday! I cannot believe she's 7 years old - Crazy! I Face Timed with Kiersi and Kayden yesterday afternoon and just had a lot fun chatting it up with them

Kayden's birthday is at the end of the month so they will have their joint birthday party next weekend! I can't wait to celebrate them!

So, it's May and we've got this weather:

First of all, it wasn't raining like it says from my weather app but it was coooold. Where's Spring??? Come back - I'm ready to put my winter coat up until winter!

Mallory's been on a Cinderella kick for the past couple of weeks but a couple of days ago, she wanted to watch this movie and now it's all she wants to watch now:

We watch it when we give her a breathing treatment because she will sit still and watch it with the inhaler on and not fuss so it's a Win/Win. I can stand to watch it again and again if it calms her.

Speaking of treatments, we got Mallory's allergy test results back and nothing showed up meaning...she's not allergic to anything. What?!? Well, she did have two bad allergic reactions last year but the ER doctor did tell us that we may never know what caused it since she was so little. Soooooo, we move forward treating her cough as asthma. Thankfully, her cough has almost gone away so I'm hoping the treatment is working and will continue to work. I've heard many children grow out of it so maybe that will be the case!

This weekend we are going shopping for Mallory's party supplies! Lots to get and lots to do but I'm so looking forward to it! Thankfully, I met with my fellow party planner, Lyndsey, this week and we she made some labels and we started on Mallory's birthday banner! Hope you have a wonderful weekend friends!

Outside

I'm loving the weather we've had the past couple of days! I'm thankful that now when Mallory says "outside" that we can go outside! Of course, this is Texas so it will be freezing tomorrow so we have to enjoy the weather we have now! I love our neighborhood and there are a lot of little kids outside enjoying the nice weather too! These past two nights, we've walked around the block, colored with the colored chalk on the driveway, and just enjoyed the outdoors.

Getting ready to go for our walk with her sunglasses on

Pardon my very white legs but it was nice to put my walking shoes and get some exercise 

Love this picture of my little girl! I can't believe that she will turn 2 years old this month! Where has the time gone??? We mailed her birthday invitations this week so I'm looking forward to celebrating her! Time to get my party planning on!

Linking up with This Kind of Love

Weekend Wrap-up: April 26-28, 2013

Linking up with Carissa

Happy Monday to You! Well, this weekend we had originally planned to go to my hometown to their yearly carnival called Wildflower Trails. I was planning to see a lot of friends and stay with our family friend, Joyce but when Mallory got a fever on Thursday, we knew we weren't going to get to go. I was sad but told Joyce to hold our reservation for next year because we would definitely come.

Since we were home, we did enjoy our time with nothing planned Friday night or Saturday (that quickly changed when I knew how much cleaning we could get done!)

Friday evening, after Brian got home from work, Mallory grabbed his hand and told him to come to her kitchen and he did. She loves making us good food 

Brian went to cheer on our nephew, Cade, at his baseball game so Mallory and I stayed home and I got some good snuggles.

Saturday morning, we were up bright and early. I used to be able to sleep in but those days are gone. Once we realized we had all day Saturday at home, we decided to tackle some home projects that needed to be done. We started with cleaning out the garage. Thankfully, we got some great help from Cade. 

Of course, Mallory was thrilled that Cade was there and they played together and he helped me in telling Brian that he didn't need half of the stuff he had :) Thanks Cade

When we got finished cleaning it out, Brian, Mallory and Cade decided to play a little baseball. They were cracking me up! Yes, those are Brian's targets from the gun range. He wanted to hang them on our front door for security but I felt they wouldn't make our friends and family feel welcomed so they are hanging in the garage. Helping Hands got a lot of good stuff from us and the dumpster got a lot of stuff from us too. It really is crazy how much stuff you can accumulate. The garage looks great, we have more room and it is more organized now. Project #1: complete.

Our 3rd bedroom has honestly been our junk room since we moved in 1 year ago. We just threw everything in there that we didn't have a place for at the time with intentions to go through it all and clean it out. Well, when I was home Wednesday with Mallory, I cleaned it all and decided we would make that a playroom since Mallory has so many toys. Her room was getting a little crowded with all of the toys so Saturday, my parents brought over the mattresses for our guest daybed and I set up the guestroom/playroom. I'm so happy with it and Mallory loves for me to pull out the trundle bed for her sit on or climb to the top mattress. Project #2: complete.

I didn't take a picture but Project #3 was hanging up curtains in our living room. We have a sliding glass door that leads to the backyard and our living room can get pretty warm when the sun's out so we finally got some curtains put up for privacy and to keep our house cool. Project #3: complete. All of that and Brian mowed and weedeated the front and back yard while Mallory and I went to eat with Nana and Papa. Busy but productive day for us!

Sunday morning, we headed to church and afterwards, I headed to a little tea room downtown for one of our Sunday School class member's, Jenna's baby shower. She is having baby Dylen next month so it was fun to celebrate her and her baby boy! 

Lyndsey made the cute diaper cakes with the airplanes on top and Brettni made the very yummy cupcakes. We had a great time and can't wait to meet Dylen!

Sunday afternoon, my older brother got to throw out the first pitch at the Frisco RoughRiders game!

He sent us this picture of him throwing the first pitch and him posing with the baseball and the RoughRider's mascot, Deuce. He told me threw a strike. I'm sad we weren't there in person to cheer him on but I'm so glad he got to have such a neat experience.

Sunday evening, we relaxed after our busy weekend. I think our bodies were ready for relaxation - just in time for another week to begin! I hope you had a wonderful weekend! Here's to another week!