Sadness

I was going to finally share some more new pictures last night. But instead, I learned of a horrible tragedy. As a lot of you know, I'm part of a internet mommy board with a bunch of great girls that have babies born in August of 2006. One of our friends, Teresa, has been dealing with a tough marital situation. Around Christmas, she got up the courage to leave her husband and was doing great. She sounded so happy! She has two girls of her own and is step-mom to another. She also found out she was expecting again. I logged on to the board last night to find a message saying that she'd been murdered by her husband. This is the news story. I know we lived across the country from each other and have never actually met, but I've still lost a friend.

Please pray for her children. They are now left without a mommy and their daddy is in jail. How awful.

A little catching up to do....

Ahh, finally a minute to sit down and breathe! Mallory's taking an early nap, so that we can meet up with Grandma, Grandpa and Tessa for lunch before they head back to North Dakota. We've had a very busy week what with three Christmas celebrations and all. Mallory and I managed to get the gifts finished and wrapped (she's now a tape expert!), treats made....yep, that's about it. Don't ask about the condition of our house right now, sore subject.

We spent Christmas Eve at Matt's parents' house with his family. Everyone was there (except Tera, who is still with her dad in Maine), so it was a full house! We had a delicious supper of ham, cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole and PIE! Then, off to open gifts - and there were a lot!

Mallory has the present opening thing figured out!

What do you know? Another dolly! At last count, there are now SIX in our house. The two from before Christmas and four more. Poor Matt, he tried really hard to get her interested in other things - no luck. :(

She did get a kick out of the blocks, though. At first, she worked on stacking them up. But then soon discovered it is WAY more fun to knock them down. I have been dubbed "official tower builder" while Mallory is the one girl demolition crew. (And I'm no longer just talking about the blocks!)

Ah, yes. My Christmas gifts. Well....this is what was under the tree to me from Matt.

Yep, a PICTURE of a Black and Decker power scissors. He claimed he didn't have time to get to the store. Hmph. Fortunately, he redeemed himself by pulling this out of the back:

I think he finally got tired of me cursing my other sewing machine. Too bad though....I've handed down my old machine for him to use when sewing up his work coveralls and pants. I don't want that stuff near my brand new beauty! :) Hmmm....I wonder if I'll still get that scissors?

Just for good measure, one last picture of Mallory and dolly. She was showing off her burping skills here.

That night, Matt was up late playing elf. Sort of. This was actually supposed to be from Matt and I, but it was kind of hard to transport to Grandma and Grandpa's for gift opening. Matt put it together Christmas Eve night and it was waiting for Mallory on Christmas morning. If she actually understood anything about Santa, it probably would have confused her.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I was just a little concerned, though. As you can see (if you look closely), her dolly is taking a dry sauna....in the oven! But, Mallory was thoughtful, and allowed a cool-off in the refrigerator every so often.

We had to wait until after church for her stocking, as she was so enthralled with the kitchen set that we ran out of time. I think the pretty beads were her favorite Santa gift. Oh, and this is also a picture of her Christmas dress that I made (with my new serger!). It's cute, but a bit big. I was so worried that it would be too small, that I erred on the other side. Oh well, maybe she can wear it again next year.

And finally, I'll leave you with a picture of my naughty kitty. Well, they're both kind of naughty. Daniel enjoys climbing the tree, while Chloe is the chewer! In fact, I had to do some emergency Christmas Eve day shopping for new computer speakers....she managed to chew through the cords! Thankfully, she picked the $10 speaker cords and not the more expensive computer cord!

Someone is smoking something....

I saw this on my friend Jay's blog and thought it looked interesting. I never expected these results!




I really wonder what they were thinking!

For the record....I tried it a second time with a different picture for Matt and it said that Mallory looked equally like both of us. Weird.

Santa Claus is coming to town!

Yay!! Santa made it to Mallory's day care today. I was able to leave my camera with Jojo, so I have some pictures to share with you. Wasn't that thoughtful? I think the best part of these pictures is that Mallory wasn't scared of Santa at all - she looks so comfy! Which is strange, as she wasn't too sure about him when he was at the grocery store for pictures.

It's a dolly! Mallory is in love. I guess she carried it around all day (had to keep it away from her nemesis "S"!) - and also took it to Wal-mart and McDonald's tonight. Then, we came home and dolly got her diaper changed and played with her rattle....see?

Tomorrow is a big day for Mallory and I. We have treats to make, gifts to finish, gifts to wrap, a house to clean, babies to bathe....somehow the list keeps getting longer!

Santa was cancelled

...okay, not actually cancelled...more like, postponed. There were only 5 kids at daycare today, instead of the usual 12. I guess the stomach flu is going around. Blech. Matt was sick yesterday and now Paula and Grandma Deb have it. As horrible as it is to say, I hope they got it from Mallory so that it means that we're kind of out of the woods. I HATE throwing up!

Anyway, hopefully everyone will be feeling better tomorrow and Santa will be able to make an appearance. And I'll be able to share some cute pictures! :)

At long last....

I might finally get some new pictures up! We've been keeping fairly busy since last time I posted. That busy-ness mostly revolves around Mallory getting brave (ie. crawling onto things she shouldn't) and ornery (ie. I think we're starting the terrible 2's early!).

I did, however, manage to snag Matt for an evening, as we went to our clinic Christmas party on Friday night. My sister Kasey came up from Holland to stay with Mallory. It sounds like she had her hands full with munchkin and Joshua! At least Mallory was asleep when we got home and stayed that way until 7:45 the next morning.

Then, Mallory and I returned the favor and went to Holland to help Kasey get ready for the open house they were hosting for their congregation today. I was in charge of frosting sugar cookies and dusting. I can manage that. :)

I had mentioned before that I'm trying to be more environmentally friendly and am starting to use cloth diapers when we're at home. It was all going great until I got a brand new batch of diapers and apparently didn't get all the residue (?) from the manufacturing process out before putting them on Mallory. So she now has a not-very-nice-looking rash "down there" and is back in disposables so that I can treat it with A&D ointment. The diapers have also had a talking-to and have gone through several more washes. I hope that helps! Poor kid - try to do something earth friendly and look what happens!

Finally got things ironed out for Christmas....I think. We'll be staying down here for Christmas at the Evans' and then to Grandma Lorraine's Christmas Day. Then my mom and dad are invading Kasey's house the following weekend and we'll join the fray! Best part is.....I pretty much have all my shopping done! A few projects to finish here and there (they're secrets!) and I should be good to go.

Okay, if you've made it this far I will now reward you with pictures of the person everybody comes to see. Speaking of - I went to church by myself today (Mallory stayed home with Matt for some "daddy-time") and no fewer than 6 (!) people asked where she was! BEFORE they said hi to me! Chopped liver, that's me. :)

Sorry, I digress.....here you are:

She kept pointing into the toy box, but didn't want any of the toys I gave her. So I finally just put her in and she was happy as a clam! Weirdo.

This one is a two-fer. First, she's wearing her super-cute Christmas outfit. No, I did not make it. This is an ebay purchase. But it's still cute! :) She wore it to visit Santa last weekend. She didn't smile very well, but at least she didn't burst out in tears, either. Second, she's showing off her kitty-wrangling skills that Grandma Kathy taught her. I think the kitties would both be happier if she hadn't figured this skill out for a while!

And finally, Mallory looking all grown up in her new bathrobe. This was part of her gift from our mommy-board gift exchange. She also got some cute jammies - they're French! Well, at least French-Canadian. Our gift is headed to Canada, too....but I can't say where...it's a secret! :)

I haven't forgotten....

I really am still here! In fact, I even got some pictures loaded onto the computer so I could share....and then Matt took over the computer for the night. Oh well, I did get some sewing done...and I'll try to update more tonight. Kisses....:)