Thank You Mally Rae!

This morning it took me a little longer to get motivated so I turned on Regis and Kelly.  Mallory was running around playing and when Kelly was on the TV Mally pointed to the TV and said “Momma!”  I giggled and said, “Does Kelly look like Momma?”  She said “Yesh”  (She adds an ‘h’ sound to the end of her yes.)  Oh Mally Rae!  Thank you!  I would love to look like Kelly!

Then a few moments later they were interviewing the girl from the Twilight movies.  Mally stops what she is doing and points at the TV again and says “Shannon!”  “Does that girl look like Auntie Shannon?”  “Yesh”

Mallory has been talking all about her Grandparents, cousins and aunts & uncles.  Today all I heard about was Grandpa!  I had to go to Grandpa’s this afternoon to pick up some stuff – so I tell her after her nap today we can go see Grandpa.  Well then all I heard was “Grandpa Bye-bye.  Grandpa Nap.”

Then Uncle Jerry showed up at our house to work on our garage.  Then all heard about was “Jerry Working.  Daddy Working.  Maggie.”

I am amazed that she can put people together.  She knows that Jerry and Steph go together.  So after we talked about Jerry then we had to talk about Steph.  I told her Steph was working but she could see Steph tomorrow.  “Steph working.  Steph morro.” 

Mallory wakes up from her nap and I open the door to get her and she immediately says “Grandpa!”  How in the world does she remember this stuff at this age?  She truly amazes me every day!

She got to see both her Grandpas tonight – she was a happy little girl!

Christmas Frey Style

We started off our Christmas vacation by getting out the snowmobile and playing in the snow.  However, Mally woke up that morning with a massive cold – so we just went for one little ride and back inside she went.  There was also a bonfire which Mally and I did not attend either.

All three of us squished onto the snowmobile.  It was my first snowmobile ride in 2 years!  I love snowmobiling and fell in love all over again.  Hopefully this year I can get out at least one time before I get too big that I don’t fit in my winter gear.  Mally seemed to enjoy the ride too.  I think I caught her saying “fast” and “weeee”.

Mallory and her Uncle Jerry.  This whole weekend all we heard about was “Jerry”.  If Jerry was around that was all she would say and she would have to be by him.  He was late coming to Christmas and Mallory kept asking for Jerry.  When Mallory would open a present she would have to take it over to Jerry and show him.

Christmas Eve we stopped to see Jesse’s Mom’s side of the family.  And this garage was right up Mally’s alley…

This little girl took Mally out to the garage and came to tell me that Mally found a bike and was riding it.  What a shock.  ; )  This girl finds a bike anywhere!

Grandpas were also out in the garage.  Grandpa on the left is Jesse’s Grandpa (Mom’s side) and Grandpa on the right is Jesse’s Dad.

She also found the lawnmower and had to climb up there.  Such a little tom-boy I have… except her Mommy dresses her completely girly.  : )  She sat on this lawnmower for a long time.

Then it was off to church.  Now when we go to church I always tell Mally she gets to go play with the kids (in the nursery).  However, there is no nursery during Christmas service.  She did not understand!!  I opened the truck door and she says to me “Play”.  No, no play today.  We go sit down in the pew and she is arching her back trying to get free saying “play”.  Nothing worked.  No snacks.  No books.  No colors.  Finally her Grandma took her to play in the nursery and watched her.  Little stinker thinks church is a place to play.  : )  Granted I am very thankful that she likes the nursery that much and has no problem with me dropping her off.  She walks right in like she owns the place. 

Our last stop was my family.  I did not take any pictures.  My Mom took a family picture of us on her camera which I stole…

And that was the end of our Christmas Eve!  We took our sick/tired little girl home and snuggled her in bed with a humidifier and some Vicks in hopes that maybe in the morning she would be better.

I woke up on Christmas morning well before everyone else.  I waited patiently for Jesse to wake up and once he was awake we went out to the living room and decided that since Mally was still sleeping we would exchange our gifts to each other while it was just the two of us.  Mallory didn’t wake up until 9am and she woke up with this little hoarse/sctachy voice! 

I had her new table and chairs set up for her to see when she came to the living room and she instantly wanted down and went right to them and climbed in.

She started opening her presents.

At first she would hand every piece of paper to me.

I finally got her to throw the paper on the floor and then I think that became more fun then what she was opening.

I stood in a check out line for two hours for this big wheel.  : )  Before Jesse got the front wheel on she thought you rode it like this.

The final product!  Stickered up courtesy of Daddy! 

The Mallory sticker is from our neighbor.  He is a car guy and would go to all these car swaps and rallies.  When we told them we had a baby girl and we named her Mallory he said he wouldn’t forget that name because of “Mallory Ignitions”.  Then this summer he came over with this sticker for us.  Perfect on her bike!  Now her bike came with all these hearts and “Princess Cycle” stickers, but we are not into all that Princess stuff so Jesse decked out her big wheel with some of his stickers.  So she has Jeep stickers and motocross stickers on it.  I found two stickers that I liked that were pink with some fun swirls on it that he put on the bike for me.  : )

After our little family Christmas we headed over to my Aunts house where my Mom set up a photo booth.  OMG!  Was that funny!  She had all these props, hats, scarves, etc. for people to wear.  We took our family picture too – but again that is on my Mom’s camera but she hasn’t posted it yet so I can’t steal it.  : )  I also got a little into it with my brother, cousin, and aunt and we were the Village People.  I was the “construction worker” with my Green Bay Packer Helmet and hammer.  We laughed and laughed and laughed some more when we saw the pictures!  I got yelled at because my “C” [for YMCA] was backwards!  *oops* I guess it has been a while since I have been to a wedding and danced to the YMCA that I forgot!  ; )

Off to Jesse’s family we went in hopes that Mallory might catch a nap.  She still had her scratchy/hoarse voice.  She decided she had other plans and did not nap on the drive over.  However, she held it together and was such an awesome kid for not having any naps and being sick.  By the time presents came she opened a few and then went to sit on Uncle Jerry’s lap with her blanket. 

Some Christmas Memories:

~When Mallory would open a present she would go “ooooh” with each little tear of the paper.

~ At my Aunt’s house she gave Mallory a present.  Mallory opened the present sitting on Grandma’s lap and ripped a little piece of paper off and stuck her hand in and starting saying “puppy puppy puppy”.  When they got it open – it was a puppy.  This puppy and her other puppy (that she took from Grandma’s that was Elly’s) now have to sleep with her at night.

~ Year of the puppies!  Mally got so many puppies for Christmas.  I think they all know how much she loves her puppies.  I was afraid she would be taking all these puppies to bed with her, but so far it is just the two.  She even got a puppy purse – which is really cute!

~ We got our first baby boy outfit.  How funny is it to get baby boy clothes and to get BLUE clothes.  : )

~ Mallory was a trooper!  She didn’t take any naps.  She was sick.  She is getting her last molar.  She was out of her routine.  She never acted out or fused or had a meltdown!  I was so proud of my little girl!

To recover from all the running and festivities we are not leaving for a few days and recovering and getting healthy again.  Oh and we are sleeping in with no alarm clocks.  : ) 

18 Months

I have been meaning to get Mally’s 18 month stats up here and I guess now is better then never.  : )  To go with her stats I’m posting pictures of her in her first snow outing!  Little baby kids in snow suits!  I can’t get enough.  I just giggle and giggle the whole time!  She can’t hardly walk – she waddles.  It probably doesn’t help that this snow suit is way too big for her – but it was Ellyn’s.  She had a blast in the snow and even though her mittens were soaked and her cheeks red she still did not want to come inside.

~ Talking!  We are amazed at how much she says these days.  I think she talks pretty clear – but then again I am with her 24/7 so I may just be use to her and know what she means.  She just recently started saying two words together.  She says “Daddy Home” (with great excitement) when Jesse comes home for lunch.

~ Repeating!  Along with talking comes repeating everything we say.  I mean everything.  The other day I was changing a very messy diaper and things were not going well and I swore.  I don’t use language like that – but for some reason since I have been pregnant the curse words fly out of my mouth!  I said $hit… Mally says $hit clear as day!  I gasped!  I didn’t think she was paying attention she was reading her book.  Thankfully she hasn’t said it again. 

~ She knows her name is Mally.  One day during lunch she kept pointing at me and saying “momma”.  So I pointed at her and said Mallory.  I think she knew her name was Mally – but now you can ask her what her name is and she says “Maaally”.

~ She no longer calls Maggie “Maaay”.  I loved that she called Maggie – May!  She now calls her Maggie and has to say “Hi Maggie” when she sees her.

~ Telephone.  She loves the telephone.  We gave her an old cell phone that we can actually turn on and she can push buttons and it makes noise and it also plays music.  Just yesterday we found out that you can record recordings on it – so we recorded Twinkle Little Star, B-I-N-G-O, and counting.  So now she walks around playing those songs and I have to hear myself singing – not pleasant!  Anyway, she talks on that phone all day long!  It is so funny!  She’ll grab the phone – look at it – put it up to her ear – and walk around the house talking.  Or she will go sit in her chair and talk away.  The last couple of days she has been talking to Grandma when we ask her.  I never know which Grandma she is talking to, but one day I asked her what Grandma was saying and Mally says “woof”.  I start laughing so hard.  I think she was talking to Grandma Mary that day because the other Grandma would not be talking about puppies!  LOL!  Grandma Mary is the animal lover and would totally talk puppies with Mally.  Another funny thing she does when talking on the phone is pretend to laugh.  She fake laughs and then says bye.  Hahahahahaha.Bye.

~ She still loves her books and we read tons!  I am amazed at how much she pays attention while you read.  One day I yawned in the middle of the book (it is a very boring book) and the page I was on I was going to say “shoo” and Mally starts waving her hand saying “shoo.  shoo.  shoo.”  She knew what was coming up next!  She will also read books on her own – she’ll sit down with them and read away and sometimes you will hear words that are actually in the book.  If you ask her to get a certain book she will go get that exact book you asked for and bring it to you.  We also have this daily bible book (for when she gets way bigger) but she loves to sit and look at the book and turn all the pages.  She calls that book “heavy book”.  : )

~ Puzzles!  She likes to do the wooden puzzles.  I didn’t know that she would be ready for puzzles – but she loves to sit down and do puzzles and she is good at them.  My Mom sent some new puzzles home with us (ones she hadn’t done before) and she sat down and did them without me helping her first!

~ The Moon!  I don’t really remember teaching her about the moon – but she is always asking about the moon.  Even during the day she will ask to be picked up to look out the window at the moon.  I tell her the moon is sleeping and she’ll say “moon sleepy” or “moon ni-night”.  She will find moons in her books.  One day was standing at her toy box yelling about a moon.  I asked her to bring me the moon and she had a little book with a crescent shape and she was pointing to it saying moon.

~ Circles.  She knows what a circle is and finds them everywhere and in everything.  Places you didn’t even know circles existed.  We were in the bathroom brushing our teeth (she sits on the counter while we brush our teeth) and she points the counter and says circle… sure enough!  There was a tooth paste mark on the counter in the shape of a circle.  When coloring with her she will ask you to draw circles over and over again.

~ Color.  She really likes to color and for some reason I leave the colors out for her to color.  So when FreyMoto phone rings and I have to run downstairs and help a customer for a few minutes… I will come back to her coloring on her baby gate!!  One day when we were reading a library book – I discovered she had colored in the book!!  Then Jesse left a carpenter pencil (the flat ones) in his nightstand drawer (he leaves her all kinds of bad treasures in his drawer and she knows it) and I found her coloring on the bathroom wall with it.  I, on the other hand, have nothing in my nightstand drawer and Mally colored in my drawer with the pencil too.  And the bad part of this all is I know she has the crayon or pencil in her hand, but I’m just not watching her and keep doing my thing.  And then I’ll be like – hmm… I hear scribbling… Mally is kind of quiet… MALLORY!  NO!  One time she was even sitting on my lap at the kitchen table with a pen and paper and we had an insurance guy over and I was listening to him and not paying attention – she was coloring (with pen) on the table!  Thankfully – None of this stuff is any sort of prized possession or valuable.  I mean the bathroom has wallpaper from the 70s and honestly it looks much better with Mally scribbles on it.  And my kitchen table is a garage sale trash to treasure that my Mom did for us – and I love that table and I have a friend who tries to steal it – but another coat of white paint and it would be like “new”.  ; )

~  She is starting to take interest in the pottie.  Which is very exciting to me – however she doesn’t fully understand it yet.  I have heard many people say you can’t force pottie-training – so I’m just being patient and letting her explore and get use to it.  But I also have hopes that maybe she will be trained before she is two and maybe before baby2 shows up… maybe… I’ve got 4 months…

Garage Update

The builders are all done with their portion of the garage.  All that is left is electricity and then we need to finish the office portion ourselves.  I took some pictures today while Mally and I were playing outside.

Here is the front.

The side – the porch

  The unfinished office.

  Inside the garage looking towards the office.

 

While I was outside today with Mallory looking at our new garage I took a moment and thought about this summer when we are relaxing on our porch watching Mally play and snuggling a little baby boy eating fresh salsa from the garden and drinking margaritas.  And then I woke up… relaxing… ha!  The Frey’s don’t know how to relax!

But this summer we may need to learn how!

Snowed In.

The snow storm that I asked to hold off until 10pm last night so that I could get a mommy break… it held off and we made it home before it snowed.  We did get one heck of a storm today!  It has been snowing all day (and still is)!!

Mally and I were suppose to go to my Mom’s house to make cutout cookies with the cousins today.  My alarm went off at 6:30 and I put my glasses on, looked out the window, saw that it was snowing and went back to bed.  I wasn’t going anywhere!  So since we were suppose to have a cookie day and I was kind of in the mood to make some cookies… except I don’t bake so I don’t have any baking supplies to make a cookie.  However, I found marshmallows, rice krispies, and some butter!!  We made rice krispie treats after her nap in honor of the snow and cookie baking.  : ) 

When I got Mally up from her nap she was so cold.  The wind was blowing from her side of the house and she had a chilly room… so I tossed a hat on her to warm her up.  She left her hat on all afternoon.

Her job was to put the marshmallows in the pot and she, of course, had to sample some of them.

This morning when we got up Jesse went out and plowed snow.  Then tonight he went back out and did it again!  While he was out there I had a flash back of being a kid and my Dad going out to plow after a big storm and it was windy and blowing so he put his snowmobile helmet.  Tonight Jesse grabbed his snowmobile helmet and went out and plowed.  I tried to get a picture but my flash and the headlights from his plow just made a big mess of a picture.

I can’t get the front door open to the house.  I went to the house garage and opened the door and took this picture.

Then I stuck my hand out the door and took this picture of the front of the house.  That is a Maggie runway on the left.  She is not liking all this snow at the moment because it is so fresh and fluffy and deep – she can’t move in it.

Here is the new garage all snowed in.

Jesse ventured out tonight to get us a frozen pizza from the gas station.  He told me it was a good excuse to get the Jeep out and go for a spin.  He came back and said there is tons of snow out there.  They are plowing the streets and leaving the middle of the road with snow (until they can get another snow plow truck to come and blow it in the back of a truck and haul it away).  Some of those paths are like six feet tall!!

Could be a snow filled winter this year!  : )

Today's Time Line:

7:30am - Dog starts making awful throwing up noises and runs upstairs, but stops at the landing by the front door.

7:30am - I start screaming (thankfully I am already downstairs) at the top of my lungs for this dog to get out of my house immediately.

7:30am - Dog doesn't move. I can't go by dog because I don't do puke!

7:31am - Dog finally comes and goes outside still making awful throwing up noises.

7:32am - Email Jesse and tell him that HIS dog just threw up.

7:32am - Evaluate the damage. Find that yes this dog did throw up in my house and run past it gagging and run to the bathroom because I am about to now throw up.

7:35am - Put myself back together and walk out of the bathroom.

7:36am - Email Jesse back and ask him really nicely to come home and take care of it for me because I can't.

7:40am - Jesse calls and says he can't leave.

7:45am - Decided if I can do it or not. Just thinking about it sends me back to the bathroom gagging. Can't do it.

7:50am - Mallory wakes up.

8:00am - Feed Mallory breakfast and she doesn't want to eat and is very fussy already and she has only been awake for 10 minutes!

8:15am - Dog is outside barking like a lunatic.

8:17am - Dog is still barking like a lunatic. I'm angry. I stick my head outside and yell and yell and yell. Dog won't stop. Finally two guys peek their heads around the shop and look at me. *CRAP* They tell me they are the electricians here to wire up our new garage. I sheepishly say okay and explain to them "Maggie's Situation" meaning she is a big dumb dog and she just acts like she is crazy and well she may be crazy so please just take her with you when you leave. Thank you.

8:20am - Go downstairs to put Maggie in her room because she is still acting like a big dumb dog. She won't come in the house. The electricians are looking at me like I am now the crazy! I tell the electrician that her and I are just not getting along today - they again look at me like I am the crazy!

The rest of the morning Mallory cried and whined. I tried snuggling and cuddling but she doesn't want that either. She doesn't know what she wants. I put on some Mickey Mouse and she climbed in her chair and watched it while I did dishes and de-stressed. When she was getting out of her bouncy chair it tipped over. She came to find me in a puddle of tears yelling about her chair. Oh she is so funny when she is like this. Funny as in... funny now looking back... not funny when in the moment.

After lunch I laid her down for her nap. She was practically begging for her nap and kept saying "Nigh-Night" over and over. So I put her down and she woke up 20 minutes later saying "no no no no no".

Did I mention we have a babysitter tonight? : ) : ) : )
Happy Friday Night Mommy!! : )

P.S. Dear big mega winter blizzard snow storm, please stay away until at least 10pm so this Mommy can go out for supper and meet some new friends! Thank you!

Move over Pink here comes the BLUE!

We had our ultrasound late Wednesday afternoon and we were told that we are going to have a little baby BOY!  It is a definite boy – she showed us (multiple) times little boy parts.  : )

It was kind of a busy ultrasound… I think I can say busy… not sure how else to say it.  Mallory wanted me.  Mallory didn’t want to sit and eat her snacks or drink her juice.  Mallory wanted her mommy.  Mallory didn’t like that someone else was touching her mommy.  : )  Poor Jesse had his hands full with her.  (She is working on another tooth which makes her very much a mommy only girl and we had to wake her up from her nap to go this appointment… which any parent knows is a dooms day waiting to happen when you have to wake a child from a nap.)  While Jesse is trying everything to please Mallory and I’m having to ignore them because if I talk or try to help it just makes her want me more… the ultrasound tech is telling me what is what and she keeps saying “here is his… this is his…” I was just about to say “you are saying a lot of ‘his’” and then she said… oh you are having a boy.  : )  We told her we wanted to know – so she knew – but it was just kind of funny how she told us in the mist of chaos. 

This ultra sound tech was a little rougher then any of the others I have had in the past.  She was trying to show us that he was definitely a boy except he kept putting his feet/legs in the way.  So she would jab at my belly until he moved. 

Then she wanted to get a picture of the front of his face because she said he was the perfect type for a 4D picture.  I’m not sure what makes a baby a perfect type – but apparently she thought he would be.  However, he had his hand over his face and we couldn’t get a good shot.  She jabbed at my belly some more trying to get him to move – he wouldn’t.  But the shot she did get in 4D was kind of fun to see.

After my ultrasound appointment I had my appointment with my midwife.  She changed my due date, yet again, back to April 29th.  When we told her that the ultrasound tech could clearly get the sex of the baby and how much movement I have been feeling and for how long I have been feeling the movement… she decided that we needed to go back to the April 29th and it was going to be that date from now on.  : )

I was also told that I am behind on my weight gain.  I should have gained 10 pounds by now and she says I am minus two (because I lost so much with morning sickness)… so I need to gain 12+ pounds ASAP.  However, I just busted out the maternity clothes today because my normal clothes were starting to feel really uncomfortable.  Let me tell you – I wasn’t wearing maternity clothes at this stage with Mallory… so I think my weight gain is just fine.  However, I will indulge in a few more snacks thanks for giving me the okay to eat.  : )

I am also in *love* with my maternity jeans right now.  I wore my first pair (this pregnancy) today and oh my!  So much more comfortable.  With this pregnancy I feel like my belly is really low and I feel like baby is really heavy already and I’m having lots of low pressure (and kicks) on my belly… so to get rid of low rise jeans was fantastic!  It is crazy to feel like baby is heavy already and he is only like the size of a banana… to me it feels like a pumpkin!  LOL.

Who Needs A Mop

Sometimes I think pregnancy effects one’s brain.  This week I felt like my cheap little Swiffer mop wasn’t cleaning my floors good enough.  I decided that they needed to be cleaned the old fashion way – hands, knees, bucket of water and wash cloth!

I have to do these sort of things while Mallory is still awake because during nap time is when I have to work.  I thought it wouldn’t be a problem – it was just a little water.

Sure enough as soon as a I plopped my bucket of water on the floor little munchkin came running and plopped on the floor and started saying “help.  help.  help.”  So I gave her a wash cloth and let her go to town.

Do you see the water all over the floor.  She was watching me dip my wash cloth in the bucket… but she must of missed the step where I ringed my wash cloth of excess water.

Lately, when I ask Mallory to smile – she gives me this look.

Then she decided that she need to take a bath.  She started washing her face.

And her legs.

If I would get too close to her she would slap her soaking wet wash cloth against my leg.  Which was naughty… so then she would take her wet chubby little hand and try to wipe all the water off my leg that she just splashed on. 

It was worth it in the end even if we were both wet and Mally needed a wardrobe change.

Mismatch of Stuff

My sister and I have started the tradition back up of having craft day around Thanksgiving.  As kids we did this with our mom and aunts and cousin – then we all grew up and got big and must of complained about craft day because it stopped.  : ) 

This year Shannon and the kids came to my house and made it an overnight celebration.  I wasn’t going to show you what we made because they are gifts… but what the heck… here is what we made.

Dangly Earring Holders!  Now if you get one from us – act surprised.  ; )  We even had to make one to give to each other because they were so cool.  It took us forever to make them - we worked until about 10pm that night! 

When all the kids were here they wanted a snack before bed.  I don’t usually give snacks before bed – but when the cousins are over all rules go out the window.  Except… you had to still eat your snack sitting on a flower.

My color is so off in this picture it makes me want to hurl.  Anyway, when Mallory gets a snack she gets a little dish from the cupboard and gives it to me and then goes and sits on a flower.  (which is painted on my kitchen floor)  I don’t know what I am going to do when I finally get my kitchen makeover and there are no flowers to sit on.  I use that all the time – if I am opening up the oven and she is in there she has to go sit on a flower.

This weekend someone decided that she could crawl up on the kitchen chair and sit at the table like a big girl!  Here she is eating her first lunch at the table like a big girl. 

More horrible lighting pictures – I’m sorry.  That sunshine was coming in and I wasn’t going to block it!  : )

Drinks from a real cup and is practicing her fork skills.  Where does the time go?  I’m not liking this!

Now you can see what kind of hair I have to deal with on a regular basis!  Its super fine!  Its super wild!

After she did so well eating her lunch here – I packed up her highchair and took it to the basement.  She loves sitting at the table with us and feeling like a big kid.

I did some Black Friday shopping.  I didn’t go crazy early – I went when I woke up which was about 6:30.  I just wanted to go to this home improvement store and get Mallory (and cousin Garrett) a big wheel bike which was on sale for $15!  I went to the store – and see massive amounts of cars parked on the street and in the parking lot.  Had a minor panic attack because I was afraid of finding a spot where I could park the truck and get back out of safely.  But I found one and it was the 3rd spot from the door!!  I was so excited because it was –2 with the wind chill and I wasn’t in the mood for a long walk!

I find my big wheel bikes and wonder around for a bit to see if there was anything else on my list.  Found .79$ twisty crayons and some .99$ coloring books.  Grabbed those and headed for the checkout.  I wanted to get to Target before I had to get back home.

I stood in that checkout line for an hour and half!!!!  I stood in line way longer then I shopped!  Now this store I am in is just a home improvement store that happened to have a few toys and other accessories for this special shopping day.  I can see if I was at Kohls or Target… but I wasn’t.  I was so bored!  I was all by myself watching people with their kids and babies in this massive crowd of chaos.  I started texting people and calling people.  I ran out of people to text and call so I literally opened up the box of crayons and started coloring in the coloring book!  Mallory won’t mind!  I had to see how well these twisty crayons colored! 

I stood in line so long it ate up the rest of my time I had so I never made it to Target and had to go home.

I did go back out on Saturday with my mom, sister, and aunts.  I got a pretty amazing deal that I just have to tell you about.  We are at Kohls and my aunts are telling us about Bobby Flay’s line of dishes that they are in love with.  We are checking them out and pretty soon we are all falling in love them.  We are oowing and aahing and giggling and drooling.  Bobby’s line of dishes was 50% off.  I found a chili pot with 4 bowls that I flipped over to check the price and it was already marked down 60% off.  I wondered if I would get another 50% off since all his stuff was on sale.  I found a Kohls girl and asked her – she told me YES!  But that is not all – I had a 15% coupon on everything.  So I was going to get another 15% off on top of that!  I did a little jig and screamed and got very stern looks from my aunts, my mom, and sister because this was the only chili set and I had my hands on it first.  : ) 

I paid about $10 for this…

Now I just need to prefect my chili recipe.

Being Creative in the Winter

It is just the beginning of winter and I’m already starting to feel a bit stir crazy because we can no longer go outside.  Once our garage is finished it will be heated and we can go out there and she can ride her toys around, which she will love and so will I.

In the meantime I have been trying to think up things to keep us entertained.  I remember being kids and loving it when my mom would make us homemade play dough.  I’m not sure how she did it because she would make it on the stove top… my recipe I just mixed flour, water, oil, salt, food coloring together and wa-la play dough!

Mally thinks she can eat it!  I repeatedly tell her it is yucky and you can’t eat it… however she still insists on trying it.  She will get a chunk of it and eat it and then shiver as she swallows it because it is so salty and then ask for her cup.  And then take another bite!  LOL.

We also have to get creative with her hair!  My goodness this girl has a mess of super fine unruly hair.  The hair on top of her head only grows in the middle (think mohawk) and then in the back of her head.  Well the hair on the top falls into her eyes and I’m not ready to give her bangs – I don’t think I want her to have bangs… too much maintenance having to keep them trimmed and out of their eyes.  (Maybe it is because I have bangs right now and I have been cursing them and want them to grow out.)  The hair in the back gives her a look of mullet-esk.  LOL.  So one day I had enough and put a pony on top of her head and one in the back. 

Jesse came home on lunch and sees it and started laughing at her hair.  He asks me “Lynn, would you wear your hair like that?”  Oh Gosh No!  However, if I had hair like her’s - then I might have to!

We colored a picture for the coloring contest at the local grocery store.  However, we never submitted it – but she had a blast coloring it one afternoon!

Books.  Books.  Books.  She loves Books.  Books of any size, shape, color.  It doesn’t even have to be a book – it can be one of my magazines.  She’ll grab my magazine, sit on the floor, and turn the pages and just look and look.  She also likes little manual.  We got a manual with our new TV remote and she spotted it and sat on the floor with that owners manual and jabbered away “reading” it. 

We also run around with daddy’s glasses!

This weekend I bought water colors and paint brushes and paper.  Hopefully it will keep us entertained for a couple weeks until I think of something else fun to do!  : )