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!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to my amazing Mom!

She's the most wonderful mother and grandmother! I'm the mother I am today because of her and I hope that I can be as good as a mom she is! I know I can can always go to her for anything and she always welcomes me with open arms!

This is one of my favorite pictures of my mom and Mallory. Mallory loves her Nana so much and I love the bond they have and I hope it only continues to grow as Mallory grows up!

I'm so blessed to be my mother's daughter!! Love you Mom!

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!