35.5in x 30m

Today our little Mallory turns 2.5! We can't believe how much she has grown in a year! And that her brother already weighs as much as she did this time last year!!! (Click here) She is at such a neat age....she is trying to do more and more on her own...I often sing, "All you women who independent...throw your hands up at me!!!!" throughout our day....here she is trying to tie her sneaks...

She is soooo tall now...we took out a yard stick the other day and she is almost as tall as it is!!! She is 35.5 inches at 30 months! (Hence the title of this post!)

She often surprises us with the connections she is making when we do activities....she loved doing the Resurrection Eggs...once after we opened an egg and talked about what was inside she started singing..."Thank you for the cross" on her own...it was such a neat moment. Other times she is a typical 2 yr old with her melt downs...Dinner time has been a challenge as of late bc we want to chat with her and enjoy that special family time. She wants to eat and be done...so we are working on staying at the table a bit longer...here she is after dinner last night after we looked inside our final egg....

This morning she had fun going back through all the eggs and chatting about the contents...

We are so grateful for our little girl and she brings such JOY and CHALLENGE to our life....we love it...as she grows we are growing too! :) Always something new to learn for both parties! We have this planned for Friday and we are so excited...we haven't told her yet, but we will when we wake her up Friday morning...she is going to be awestruck seeing her favorite people in real life!!!! :)

Stay-cation Part II

We really enjoyed pretending to be out of town this weekend while on our stay-cation. When we heard the term we were all about trying it out! When we were engaged one of our pastors suggested that newlyweds go on a weekend trip once a month their first year of marriage and Mike and I thought that was such a great idea and we did go out of town once a month to "get away." It was fun to reminisce about past trips over the weekend and dream about vacations to come. It won't be long before we can go on family camping trips!!! But even if we couldn't go away this time it was so nice to have "scheduled unscheduled" time or "nonnegotiable negotiable" time. We really enjoyed our time of R&R as a family doing nothing!

Here is our girl dunking with Daddy!

And dribbling...

Carter enjoyed watching us play and then had a great time on the swing in our backyard as Mike grilled out for dinner...

Some bubble blowing and catching...

Love this little guy!

The cats even enjoyed the slow paced weekend...

Daddy protecting and comforting his little girl when Elmo loses his blanket to the mean guy in Grouchland. Such sweet memories...

We finished up the weekend with big naps for 3/4 of us...it was a rainy cozy day for sleeping and I headed out to a baby shower for my friend Casey and had some good "girl time"...I'm so glad I was actually really in town to celebrate! Then I came back with Papa John's pizza for dinner to finish out the weekend. We are really looking forward to the "real" vacations we have planned for the summer! But realize that vacationing can really be a "state of mind!" It's amazing how excited you can get about staying home and concentrating on your family!

Stay-cation Part I

The kiddos were feeling better by Friday and MiMi is out of school for the summer so we headed to the zoo together! :)

We had a great time and enjoyed our picnic lunch before leaving...several times Mallory called MiMi "her MiMi" which I thought was so sweet. :) MiMi and PaPa asked if the kids could spend the night for part one of our "Stay-cation" so of course we said "YES!" We are so grateful for all the memories they are making on sleepovers!! I have so many wonderful memories of that with "my Sug (short for sugar)". It's so great for all 3 parties involved! And it freed Mike and I up to go out on a date!

This morning PaPa made French Toast for breakfast and then Mallory and MiMi played with Playdough before we picked them up after sleeping in and going out to a leisurely breakfast! Now it is naptime and school time for me and then if the weather holds out we are going to the school to shoot some hoops and play on the playground as a family!

Day 4 and Counting

We are home again on Day 4 and I haven't imploded! God is good! :) Last night at dinner Carter started to run a temp so we headed to the Dr. at 630 in the evening (love that our ped is open late!) It felt weird to be back there after so much time away! His cold went to his ears and he has his 2nd ear infection.
Here he is above in his new carseat! He weighs 22 lbs now and we had to get a new seat bc he had reached the weight and height limit on his other one! We never had this problem with our "muffin"! This seat is convertible so we can turn it around in a bit! We love our happy boy and even when he is sick he has a smile. When the Dr. was digging in his ear to check it Mr. Man was cheesing it up with a huge grin...who does that? We love our "moose"!

Here is the Mal Pal on Day 1 of our "Sicky Retreat"...

I didn't have any After School kids yesterday so MiMi came over to help out after naptime so I could get lots of school in before dinner...I'm so glad she did with our impromptu trip to the Dr! She and Mallory washed the kitchen set that has been up in the "eagle's nest" on the swingset...this pollen is out of control! Mallory loved scrubbing it! Then PaPa came over and we had some Chinese for dinner!

I can really feel God changing me and helping me become more content just at home with my kiddos. I also see Him working on me in the peace dept. Last night when Carter started being fussy and had a temp the "Panic Patrol.....Party of One" (aka me) felt peaceful as I scurried off to the doctor and I knew that was God giving me that peace. This morning I'm missing my last MOPS meeting for the year and I am very disappointed bc I will miss seeing friends, but I'm enjoying extra cuddles from my 2 little ones at home and lots of reading. Today Mal was "reading" a Pooh book to me and said, "He's going to see Jesus!!!" It is so neat to see how often Jesus comes up in her read alouds...Once even Tarzan was Jesus!

I am going for a record of "being still" and I am grateful that God is helping me do it! We even have a "Stay-cation" planned for this weekend...a vacation on a budget...we plan on doing nothing and staying at home to relax! :)

Bright Sunshiny Day!

The song "Bright Sunshiny Day" has been going through my head all day with this incredible weather! I was paying a few bills this morning and Little Miss wanted to join in the fun so she drew on some post-its during a.m. naptime...see her "art gallery" above? Then when Carter woke up she wanted to bring him the pictures so he could see...so the gallery changed locations!

Then we headed outside to play (we did lots of "planting" as seen on the table below) and had a "nick pick" for lunch...the weather is perfect!!!!

The latest on the kiddos:
Mallory:
*Always says, "Be careful Momma!" (Before I do lots of things...I guess she hears that a lot from this Nervous Nelly Mommy!!!)
*Loves to introduce Carter to people ..."this is my sister-brother!"
Carter:
*Just learned how to clap and loves to do it!
*Is much like a camel at feedings...with all of his spitting :) He doesn't spit the table food at us so he has been eating more of that...yummy!

*The stacked sweaters in Carter's room are just another sign that summer is almost here...they are about to "Head North (aka The Attic) for the Summer"...Yay!!!

Pockets and the "Puter"

Mallory has been obsessed with her pockets for months...I love seeing her walk around like this...maybe she thinks there is a Wocket in there since we read so much Dr. Suess around here....After I took this picture she wanted to see it on the "puter"...guess my little girl is calling me out on my obsession as I'm calling her out on hers! :)

Hanging with Magoo and Magee!

Yay for sunshine again! We have had a restful 2 days...Mallory passed her cold onto Carter so I've been hanging out at home "on lock down" with my little "Snots Magee and Magoo"...we have had fun though and today we could go outside! Mallory and I enjoyed it during Carter's nap and then we headed to the grocery store (as Mal would say, "we do da Food Lion) and came back and played and enjoyed our lunch out in the yard as well. :)
I am 1/3 of the way through my online class to recertify! I am so grateful that we live in a country where we can go to school on our own schedule and at home! I'm enjoying learning again, but have been a bit of a "stress ball" at times bc it is so much material and so many things are due each day it gets a bit overwhelming at times! (I guess cramming a semester in 3 wks would do that!) But just 2 more weeks and I should be good to teach til 2015! Can't believe both our little ones will be in school by then!! :)