Practice Makes Perfect...

Practicing carrying a little brother around....and loving every min of it! :)
Whoops! WWE anyone!!?!?? And below she is loving on him in the car...smiling with her "pap-pee"....she loves her paci time bc it's limited to the car and crib time...
When we were at MiMi and PaPa's this Sunday Mallory fell in love with my old doll Tanner. We decided to take him back to our house so she could practice having a little brother! She loves the little guy and carries him everywhere (by the head!)!! :) Today when we were driving in the car she was passing him up to me to sit in the front seat at a stoplight and I was nervous that someone was going to think I was "pulling a Brittany" bc he looks so real! :)

We are so blessed to be heading to the Valley for a week and then the Beach! Can't wait to spend time with family and relax!!! We will be MIA until we come back...We will be taking lots of pics though to share on our return...have a wonderful 2 wks and Happy 4th of July!! :)

First Official Weekend of Summer!

Watermelon at the picnic....yum yum!
Daddy worked so hard clearing out a space in the woods for our future swing set and PaPa came over to help carry it all away...
Meanwhile MiMi helped Mallory water our plants on our deck!

We have had a relaxing start to Summer! It is so nice to have Mike home during the day now! We love it! He is helping out with all the Nannying kids too which is so wonderful for Little Miss Preggo! We went to the pool on Fri. and had a picnic...and then Sat. Mike spent a lot of time working in the yard...then Sunday we went over to MiMi and PaPa's to make their famous BBQ to take on our vacation this week....tomorrow we will be all about packing! Yipppppeee! :)

Baby *STAR* B-Day!

Having fun at the mall playground in a canoe.... Chatting and drawing at the restaurant! She is such a "Chatty Patty"!

So today Mallory turned 19 months on the 19th! :) I learned about Star B-Days when I was in college from my FABULOUS friend Ginny!!!...it's when you turn the yr of your birth day...so I was 4 when I had mine since my B-Day is Jan. 4th...(sadness! I wasn't aware!...Mike was 8 and unaware as well!) ....So we thought it could work for babies too for the month! Any reason to celebrate, right!?!? We can't believe the next time we celebrate her Star B-Day she'll be 19!!! What in the world?!?! Wonder what she will be doing then! Only time will tell! :)

Dunkin' Delightful Daddy!

Having breakfast while Mommy cooks in the other room....
A plate we made for Daddy to celebrate how special he is to us!
Feeding Daddy!
Our family....Neck hugs!!! The best!!! :) And below with both Daddies!

Overslept on Sunday and woke up to Mike in the shower and Mallory talking with her animals in her crib...so I had to act fast! Sat Mallory down for a little Sesame Street and made breakfast for Mike. (He had to be at church super early to set things up!) Then we sent him off to get his favorite...Dunkin Doughnut's Coffee! We also gave him a Celtics jersery...Garnet #5...since his team is doing so well this year! Hopefully they can win the series! :)

After church we went to MiMi and PaPa's for lunch and to hang out for the afternoon. Mallory loves her "PaPa" and says his name as soon as we get into their driveway now...she gets so excited to see him each visit! Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there!!! :)

Fiesta de Father's Day Part I

Learning about fish from Aunt LuLu....


PaPa changed the spark plugs on L's car...
Since we had Laura for a long weekend we got to have lots of family time! We had our first big meal on Sat. night and played games afterwards! So fun!

Sunning and Swimming with the Sisters!

Getting used to the BIG pool!
Mal preferred hanging out on the side of the pool after getting all wet trying to reach for a toy on the bottom of the pool and getting soaked by surprise! MiMi makes everything better!
Laura came home for Father's Day and we headed over to the neighborhood pool together on Sat. to enjoy some time together. MiMi and PaPa joined (for the first time in quite a while!!) this year since they have a little one to take with them now! Mallory was timid at first, but by the end she loved being in the water. :)

"Casting" Party

Mallory loved "riding" the train her cousins made out of couch cushions!

The cousins came over to spend the night for "Bro Night" on Fri and the kids had a blast as usual! As you can see Abby broke her arm on her trampoline and had to head off to get her real cast Sat. morning after the sleepover...

Doggie Daycare!

Hanging out with Marley!

We've been having fun dog sitting for friends over a long weekend...Mallory loves dogs, so she has been loving it! When we take the dog for walks Mallory likes to hold the leash with me. She likes to play and get kisses from the doggie and when she has had enough she tries to snap (it's the cutest thing) and says, "go!" It's funny bc I think she has been watching me when we interact with the Nanny dogs bc I do that...when we need a little space! Some other cute things that Mallory has just started doing in the last week are: giving neck hugs! They are the best!! She used to think hugging was just leaning in with your whole body...She also now nods "yes" when you ask a ?...She knows how to answer in the affirmative! Yay!!!! And lastly when she gets in Time Out and we have a conversation afterwards about why...when we finish we always say something to the effect of "we had to have you have a Time Out bc we love you, okay?" and she says, "kay." :)

A Real SCORCHER!!!

Mallory didn't want to give the Moonbounce a try...maybe next year?!?!?

But she loved the bubble machine....
Hanging out with Daddy....

We had our neighborhood Block Party yesterday even though it was 100 degrees (108 wuth the heat index) outside...a real "SCORCHER"!!! It was a small crowd, but a lot of fun...it was hard to be outside with the weather being so oppressive...so a lot of the people who RSVPed didn't make it....who could blame them for staying home in the ac or at the pool?!?! But we enjoyed sno cones, music, cotton candy (Mal looooooooved hers and ate it in .5 secs!), burgers and hotdogs, and chatting with neighbors.... :) (Thank you MiMi and PaPa for hanging out with Mallory as we got ready for the party! It was so nice to have the extra hands and only have to have her be in the heat for an hour!)

And today the 3 of us have done a whole lot of NOTHING!!!! We took a little vacation from everything and stayed home and hung out as a family without any distractions...it was so NICE! :)

What?!!?!?!??

Susan and I gave out the loudest "girly screams" when we went outside this afternoon....I heard a "rattling sound" and saw a snake in our flower bed! It was the snake rattling the leaves it was slithering through...It ended up being a "harmless" black snake...but snakes of any kind freak me out...PaPa "the Nature Boy" had to put the snakes and the cats together to see what they would do...and Mike took some cool pics...then the guy slithered away to the neighbors...I hope he doesn't come back to visit any time soon!!!!!!!!!! And this morning we were just talking about not wanting our yard to be like a show from "Animal Planet"....how crazy that we would see the first snake in our yard in the 4 yrs we've lived here!!!

Rescuing Raphael!

Our 3 cats ganged up on a poor bird this morning....such a horrible sound! And we can't bare to have it all "Animal Planet" in our backyard....so Mike saved the little guy from an untimely fate...He is currently taking little "Raphael" to a lady who does rescues in the area...she nursed the last bird we found "Roger" back to health about a yr and half ago. Good luck little Raphie!

Back to Middle School!

We had the Middle School Girls spend the night last night from church...it was a lot of fun...we made homemade choc chip cookies...listened to all the girl's ipods (lots of artists we didn't know!) and watched some movies...the girls all crashed by 2:30 am....Lots of fun, but hard to hang as a preggie....Can't wait to snag a nap today! :)

Happy Little Guy!

Thanks for the fun lunch date today Laura and Peter! What a cheery personality your little guy has! Mallory had fun playing with him and hugging! He was very patient with her "smarmy-ness"! Hope to see you all again soon! :)

Silly Mommy "Trix" are for kids!

We started out our day planting our hydrangeas in bigger pots...Mallory enjoyed watering them, but got soaked in the process! Then we had a wonderful hr and a half nap! (Daddy worked his magic and got her to take both naps on Sat....kids--- once you think you have them figured out they change things on you (hence the title of this post)...so I guess we will try the 2 nap thing a little longer....it's def nice!)

Then we headed to MiMi's for lunch and fun this afternoon...Mallory loves the fish pond that PaPa made several yrs ago. We even had a "special delivery" from the mailman...A package from Aunt Joyce! (Thanks for the cute pink jogging suit! Can't wait to put Mallory in it!) We went on a nice walk and hung out with old neighborhood friends...then I was off to Summer School Training for PreK. It was good to get back in teacher mode and see old coworkers! I'm excited to meet my class in July! :)