Our Abilene trip!

I absolutely love going back to Abilene. It will always feel like home since I spent so many years there. Brad and I miss lots of things about it, but also are really enjoying our current place that we live. All that to say, it doesn't take much for me to make an excuse to visit. This time, we killed a lot of birds with one stone...soccer!

Brad had 2 games in Abilene, so that is the first (and most important) reason we made the trek. But, since we were going to be there anyway, why not throw in ACU Homecoming and Sunday morning back at South Side?? The night before the trip I really was wondering what I had gotten myself into....

Thursday morning we went to my Bible Study and Chick-Fil-A lunch as normal. After lunch, I raced home, packed up the car and headed out. We weren't gone 5 minutes before both girls were passed out. I spent the next 1 1/2 hours in silence...it was great!!!

We rolled into Abilene and went straight to Meredith's house. I basically invited us over to Meredith's house, and being the hostess with the mostess she is, she accepted our invitation:) Mallory was a little out of sorts from the time we walked in the door until she went to bed...almost 3 hours! I kept thinking to myself, "this is just the beginning little girl!!" She was in for a very overwhelming weekend!! Mallory and Ella did their bonding at dinner while they were shaking their heads being a "spaz" and then later in the big bath tub. Morgan couldn't keep up with these girls. And, poor Hayden was outnumbered with all these girls around!

Mallory and Ella

Hayden

Once they were in their beds (pack n plays in Ella's closet), Meredith and I chatted until way too late. I'm sure Mark was in shock by how much talking was taking place.

Friday morning, we went to chapel. We met Kelly, Wade and Tate there. The kids had fun singing to the songs and watching the cheesy Elvis after it was over. We were really disappointed in the "pep rally". Not very peppy!

Hayden, Meredith, me and Morgan at chapel

After chapel, we headed outside to the GATA fountain and let the kids run around. Then, like the big alumni dorks that we are, we got a tour of the renovated Bean. It is sooooo much nicer than when we were there!



Brad's first game was on Friday against HSU. Unfortunately they lost, but fortunately, we got to see lots of old friends! Some of Brad's old Abilene High boys (and their parents) were there. It was fun to see everyone and for them to see the girls. We were pregnant with Mallory the last time we saw some of them.

These girls have known each other since they were in utero:) L to R: Mallory, Kaylee, Noelle and Brooke


Friday night was spent at the carnival on campus. It was fun, but kind of hectic chasing the kids around everywhere. After dinner with K, W and T, we went to the hotel to see Brad. Luckily, we had an extra room, so we put the girls in one room (with the monitor) and we slept in another room. It was great until 4am...when Morgan woke up screaming!!!

Saturday was CRAZY! We met K, W and T for breakfast at their hotel, headed to the parade, ate lunch with the Dows, headed back to the hotel for a quick nap and then made it to Brad's second game against McMurry right on time (a miracle for me!). Whew. After the game (they won!), I met Brooke and Lori (with their families) at Chili's for dinner (Brooke or Lori, do you have pictures from this??). After dinner, we headed to Tim and Kara's house to play. The older girls (Kaylee, Brooke and Mallory) had a slumber party together (which went surprisingly well with all 3 in the same room) while Morgan and I bunked together. Kara and I stayed up way too late chatting...of course!

Lori with baby Sophia, Faith, Mallory, me and Morgan

Since we got to the game on time, we started getting a little bored. Why not play in the tarp to pass some time? She thought this game was hilarious!

I feel the need to explain the bow. I forgot the headband that the bows clip onto and Lori graciously let me borrow on of hers. I'm not normally such a fanatic about bows, but Morgan totally would have been mistaken for a boy in this outfit. If it helps, the bow matched her shoes:)

Sunday morning was madness too. We made it to church (only 10ish minutes late) and got to more friends! We loved our church in Abilene and it was great to be back there and to see familiar faces. One of those warm and fuzzy feelings, you know? After church, we headed to TaMolly's with the Richardsons for lunch. This time last year, Kara was telling Tim that she was expecting Sydney...I think it was a record that no one was pregnant this year:)

I love this picture! L-R: Mallory, Kaylee and Brooke

We raced back to their house, loaded up the car and stopped by Hendrick Medical Center on the way out. This place is another "warm and fuzzy". I worked there during school and then it was my first "real" job as an RN. I bawled like a baby on my last day (probably didn't help that I was a week away from having my first baby too!). I got to see lots of the people I used to work with. They had never met Morgan and the last time they saw Mallory was over a year ago. It was fun to tell Mallory all about being a nurse and working in a hospital.

And, finally, we were on our way home! We had to go through 3 drive thrus before I found a real Coke. I had to have something to keep me awake. It was a long and busy weekend! I don't regret going at all, or dragging my kids in so many different directions. I loved each and every place we stayed and person that we got to see! A HUGE thank you to the Powells and Richardsons for hosting us over the weekend. We loved staying in your homes and playing with your kiddos!!

Okay. I am so close to being caught up. We had 3 Halloween festivities, so that post is next. I think I will be done with all this back-tracking...hopefully!!! Thanks for acting like you all care:)

10 months old...2 weeks ago

I am behind on Morgan's big 10 month post, but to be honest, I'm just impressed with myself that I've kept up these monthly milestone posts!

So, Morgan turned 10 months old on the 18th. I feel like she has changed a lot in the last month. Not necessarily what she looks like, but what she is doing!

The girl is crawling everywhere. Soccer games are chaotic now. She used to be content sitting on the blanket and playing with toys. Not anymore. She wants to be where big sister is...and anyone for that matter! Next year will be much better. Hopefully they will just run off and play with the other kids and I can actually watch some of the game...instead of watching game film with Brad later that night! Along with crawling comes the pulling up. This just started in the last few weeks. She mastered pulling up to her knees and then all of a sudden, she was standing at the couch! Her most hilarious move is while she crawls, she will get up on her toes like a gorilla. I'm just waiting for her to figure out how to move while she is on her toes.

She talks all the time. There are no "official" words yet, but her repertoire includes mama (sounding more like na-na), dada and da-do (for hello). The other day, we had our first real "conversation" if you will. She was in her high chair and I was trying to feed her baby food. I think she is done with baby food by the way. That might have been the last jar I fed her. Sniff. Anyway. She would not eat any of it. She kept pushing my hand away and just lifting her finger pointing (one of her current favorite things to do). So, after getting a little frustrated, I asked her what she was pointing at. I looked over and it was her sippy cup! I gave it to her and she drank (for a while). The turkey was trying to tell me she was thirsty!! Amazing. She gobbled up the food after that. There it is. Our first real life conversation.

In most pictures you can't tell, but she is getting her hair in slowly but surely. It's pretty thick in the back. Occasionally she'll actually have bed head!! I've pretty much given up on the bows. She just yanks them down around her neck and chews on them. I reserve them for special occasions...or when I know people will mistake her for Mallory's brother instead of sister!

Morgan can give a "five", give kisses (open mouth, just fyi), give a hug (lay her head on your shoulder after you say hug), plays peek-a-boo, holds her hand or anything else up to her ear and says "da-do" like she is talking on the phone, actually sits still long enough to get through one book, loves to play with real keys and my wallet (she will scream at me if she sees it and I put it away before she can chew on it), loves to eat big people food, has a constant runny nose it seems, hates wearing socks, is a people person, has one tooth still (I think the one next to it is coming in), still sucks her thumb and snuggles with her purple blanket when she is sleepy and LOVES to be thrown into the pillows by her daddy!!

What a fun baby we have! It's amazing watching all of these milestones again. So many memories of Mallory doing these things. It's fun to see all the differences too.

Part 4

The road warriors were off to Roanoke for a fun-filled cousin/sister week. Wade was out of town for work, so we went to keep Kelly and Tate company. It was a fast and fun week!! Here's the recap:

Monday: Our first pumpkin patch of the fall!

Mallory and Tate could have stayed there all night long pulling the wagons, running through the maze and attempting to pick up all the pumpkins! Morgan went straight for the hay everytime I put her down...turkey.

This was the first attempt at a cute sister picture in the pumpkin patch. Not too bad!!

Tuesday: Meeting Miss Audrey for the first time!

One of my college roommies, Brooke, had a baby girl 2 days after Morgan was born. I had still never met her in person...until Tuesday. I finally made the trek up to her house to meet Audrey in person (and to see Brooke!). It was a great morning of catching up, letting the kiddos meet and then topped it off with a lunch at Chick Fil A. I love being around Brooke. She is one of the sweetest people that I've known. And, she has a great snort when she laughs (Mallory got to hear it in person!!!) I'm just sorry that it took me 10 months to meet this adorable baby!! Brooke and I compared stories about Audrey and Mallory. They seem to be kindred spirits as infants:)

Wednesday: Reunion of sister friends and their offspring!

Way back in the 8th grade, I met a girl named Jill. We went through middle school and high school together. We were also in the same youth group, so we obviously spent a lot of time together. She has a sister who is just one year younger than Kelly. Long story short, we had a mini reunion in March of 2007. Back then, there were 4 physical kids there, one in utero and one about to be in utero:) So, needless to say, it was a fun playdate with 4 mommies and SIX kids!! Being around Jessie and Jill is just plain FUN! They have great personalities and it's easy to be around them. There are no pictures to document this fun time...unfortunately I forgot my camera...or more accurately, forgot to take it out of my purse to take a picture. I don't know why it slipped my mind...

Thursday: Low key day and night out for the mommies!

We had planned on heading to the zoo or something fun like that, but it was overcast and a little cool outside. Plus, Morgan started having a cough and I was nervous to have her out in crazy weather just after having an ear infection. Bummer!

Wade offered (after Kelly told him the plans!) to put the kids in their beds while we went out and did something fun. So, like mad women after dinner, we bathed them and got everything ready for Wade. We were out the door by 7:15!! Being the crazy mommies that we are, we headed straight for Target. We sure did spend 2 hours in Target just leisurely browsing everything we saw and actually trying on clothes! That doesn't happen very often. After shopping, we headed to Johnny Carino's for some YUMMY chocolate cake/ice cream. It was great! Finally, we headed home around 11 and watched the tivo'd Office episode.


Friday: Back home to see daddy's soccer game!

Friday came way too fast! We left right after lunch. I'm sure Mallory was ready to be in her own bed and back to her normal routine. We got home just in time for the second half of Brad's game. We were all super excited to see Brad!

And that wraps up our crazy 2 weeks (which has now been 2 weeks ago)! I would say this gets me caught up, but someone turned 10 months old on Sunday and has been learning quite a bit of new things. Morgan's post is coming next...followed by more playgroup fun and our adventures in Abilene! I may never get to blogging about the day to day on time ever again...

Part 3...hang in there!

Monday morning was spent packing up the car like a mad woman! We were heading out of town (again!) after our playgroup met at the fire station. We arrived a little late, but met everyone up in the kitchen. This may be routine, but did you know that you can have birthday parties at your local fire station? They said we could use all of their facilities (including the BBQ out back) plus get an up close look at the trucks! Maybe one of the girls will be fascinated with fire trucks one year....

Anyway. Mallory loved the truck. She is always telling me whether it's a fire truck, ambulance, police car, helicopter or airplane making noise, so I knew she would enjoy it. She wasn't interested in trying on the helmet or boots, but she let the fireman pick her up (that is big time!) and put her in the driving seat. She obviously liked that since I got a real smile from her! Then, she got to pull the rope to ring the bell on the front of the truck. Good times in the life of a 2 year old. Right before we left, we got a picture of the (majority of) kids. We literally had 2 seconds before kids started screaming and catapulting themselves off the front of the truck!!

Mallory is pretty fascinated by older kids...or babies...or anyone for that matter. She can stare down the best of them. Here she is with one of her faves, Sydni. When Mallory plays outside in her cozy coupe, she always says she is going to Sydni's house to play with glue. Hmmm.

The whole gang-minus one or two disobedient kids:) And, proof that Morgan was there too!! It never crosses my mind until after the incident that maybe, just maybe, Morgan would like to get out of the stroller to experience some of this. Sorry little girl!!

Okay, I'm smokin' now (thanks Kelly). Up next, our week in Roanoke with Aunt Kelly and cousin Tate. I told you we got to see almost every immediate family member...I didn't lie!!!

By the way, I just want everyone to know how nice of a wife I am. Since we were out of town Monday-Friday, that meant Brad had the WHOLE house to himself without any whining kids or a whining wife!! He owes me a week like that, don't you think???

The past 2 weeks...Part two

Okay. I have to hurry this catch-up along or else I will be so behind I may have to stop blogging all together. We're headed to Abilene this weekend for fun Homecoming festivities, friends and of course....SOCCER! I love it when I can kill so many birds with one stone. That expression just isn't right. Say it to yourself slowly. It's kind of sad!

So, I left off with the reunion of Mallory! Brad left from Dallas for Arkansas and then we stayed the night at my parent's house. In hind sight, the next fun event might have been bad timing on my part...but, it was worth it in the end. I got to spend 24 hours with my best friend and the girls got some quality time with my parents. We all won.

Around lunchtime on Friday, Kara, her mom Lisa and Morgan's look alike friend Sydney came to pick me up. Yes, I left my child that had already been away from me for almost a week. There were some tears (by her), but Mimi handled it well. Thanks mom!!

Moving on. The next 12 hours were spent eating, driving all over Dallas, shopping (places I could afford and places I browsed...Restoration Hardware, why do you have to be so pricey??), spending quality time with Sydney in the backseat and laughing a lot! We scored some great finds at the Dallas goodwill (right by Highland Park, cha-ching!) and then I got some not-so good-after-I-got-home-and-tried-them-on deals at Forever 21. Let's just say that a medium at Target and a medium at Forever 21 in the "personals" section are not equal:) Moving on again.

Here is sweetie Sydney. She was a trooper! Hardly ever fusssed and when she did it was for obvious reasons. They look more alike in person with their expressions, but she is too cute not to post a picture of!

We rolled up to our hotel after midnight to check in. Are we crazy, or what?? We got to eat wonderful breakfast and then headed out to North Park mall. I got to experience the store Anthropologie for the first time ever. It was wonderful!! I didn't buy anything there, but I enjoyed browsing for sure! Lunch was at la Madeline...mmm! Then we headed back to my parent's house to drop me off in the real world again. It was a blissful 24 hours and I am so glad I did it...even if it wigged my oldest daughter out just a bit!

As soon as I got there, I loaded the car up and headed back to our real home. Remember the part from the last post about offering to host a baby shower? Yeah, it was the next day and I hadn't been home in 3 days to get ready for it!!

Brad didn't get home until 4am Sunday, so he was out of pocket until around noon on Sunday. Mallory or Morgan had a fever sometime on Saturday, so we stayed home from church. The shower was a hit and Katie got TONS of cute stuff for baby Ryleigh! The girls did great. They both slept through all of the loud girl talk.

We are almost to the end...of the first week! Stay tuned!

The past 2 weeks...Part One

I always hate it when I get far behind in blogging. I feel I owe it all the faithful readers out there to backtrack and blog about the time I've been away. I am a little type A sometimes and can't go out of order, so we'll be starting 2 weeks ago, when Mallory left for FIVE glorious days!!!

She left with BMom and Pop after Brad's soccer game...around 6:30. As you saw in the last post, there were no tears or worries about Mallory leaving for such a long time. I knew she would have a blast with Julia and her grandparents...although we found out after the trip was over that Larry wasn't even home the whole week! God bless Sharon. She kept two 2 year olds for almost a week straight and didn't lose her mind!! I guess it helped that they are her grandchildren and she planned lots of fun stuff to do. Here is what Mallory's week was like: church on Sunday in matching outfits (her and Julia ended up in a Sunday school room with Pop playing instead of the nursery), Chuck E. Cheese after church (Brad's Nanny got to go too!), feeding ducks, manicure and pedicure, pictures in matching outfits, making cookies, shopping at Target, visiting the hermit crabs at BMom's work, lots of picnics on the porch, a high school football game, sleeping in the same room as Julia (the mommies didn't think this would work, but it did!) and lots of other secret things that Mallory probably didn't tell me about:) It was a sweet reunion at Brad's game in Dallas. She ran to me and wouldn't let me put her down for the whole first half. She just kept looking at me and smiling and laughing! It was like she couldn't believe I was back! Thanks again BMom. Mallory and I had a lot of fun that week!!

It was so strange leaving the game with one child. We went to eat dinner and it was so quiet. Truthfully, I think Morgan was extremely bored with just me. The car rides were a lot quieter, meal times weren't near as entertaining and baths were boring. The girl LOVES her big sister. I do think she enjoyed getting some one on one attention, but was super excited to see Mallory by the end of the week.

Morgan got to spend some quality time with her friend Madelyn. They are almost exactly 6 months apart. Usually big sister is hogging her, so Morgan was excited to finally be able to talk to Maddie herself and play with her. Random side note: Lori, I totally think Morgan looks like Faith in this picture. It's probably the lack of hair!!

We started off our week with a playdate at Chick Fil A. It was fabulous! I put Morgan in a high chair and actually got to carry on a conversation with the other mommies! We left early for a doctor's appointment. 30 minutes later we were back home with Amoxicillin for an ear infection. That wasn't going to put a kink in my plans, don't worry!

Pretty much every night and naptime (minus a few naps for mom here and there) was spent sanding, painting and rearranging the furniture in our living room and the "new" kitchen table I scored from our church's garage sale. So, needless to say, the week was not very relaxing, but I did get a lot accomplished! I'm saving before and after photos for another post since I haven't finished the chairs yet. If you ever want to be motivated to get some stuff done around your house, offer to host a baby shower!!!

And, the best part was a date night with another couple! We went to dinner and then to see the movie Fireproof. Very good! The beginning started off a little rough with the acting, but I highly recommend it for married couples to see. Whether or not you relate to Kirk's struggle, there are parts that every couple can relate to in their marriage. It will make you thankful for your marriage and pray for it more!

If I'm going to be honest here, I didn't really miss Mallory. Of course throughout everyday I would think of the silly things she says or does, but I really enjoyed the one on one time I had with Morgan. It gave me time to focus on her and get to know her a little more...if that makes any sense. Jenn and I agreed we need to make it a tradition every October. I am also thankful for grandparents (my parents included) that are willing to keep their grandchildren for a week when they haven't done it in a LONG time!! That takes a lot of energy! I know Mallory and Morgan will appreciate it when they are older.

I also had time to gear up for the un-spoiling that is still in progress from a crazy 2 weeks with Mallory back! She has seen every immediate family member (minus LaShay and Steve) in the last few weeks. To say that she is a little off balance is an understatement on some days:)

Update coming soon...

It's been forever since I've posted. There is quite a bit to update on...including Morgan's 10 month birthday today along with her first tooth cutting!! But for tonight, I'm off to bed with Kleenex in my left nostril from lovely post-nasal drip. It doesn't get much more romantic folks. Seriously.

Freedom...sort of

Some of Brad's fam came in town over the weekend for soccer (which was better than last weekend, one win and one tie!). It was super fun to hang out with everyone and for the kids to play together (Julia-5 months older than Mallory, Johnathan-6 weeks younger than Morgan). But, I must say, I was looking forward to this weekend for a more selfish reason....

Mallory and Julia headed back home with Brad's parents (BMom and Pop) until THURSDAY!!!!!

This was our reaction after we loaded the girls up in the car. Jenn teared up a little. Am I a bad mommy that I wasn't even sad??? I didn't think so:)

Here's Morgan's reaction when she found out she'd be the only child for FIVE days!!

You may be asking, what I will do with all this free time? Sleep? Eat bon-bons? No way! I've got a BIG list of projects to do during naptimes and after bedtime. Stay tuned...