Abused and confused…

So just a little post about my recent discovery.  I’ve been getting these horrible bruises on my legs lately and hadn’t been able to figure out where they were coming from.  I don’t wear shorts often so I hadn’t really noticed them until now.  Brandon and I are constantly throwing around scenarios of where I’m getting them – dancing being our number one guess followed in a close second by Dayton kicking me while we’re sleeping.  Today when I was leaving the museum, the mystery was finally solved.  I wore shorts this morning and as I was leaving, I was commenting to the other moms on how HEAVY Mallory is in her car seat and when I looked down as I was walking the proof was in the pudding – the bruises are at the exact level of where the carrier hangs when I carry it.  I am beating myself w/ the car seat.  Isn’t that lovely?  I have this wonderful idea for an invention where I could install rollers under the seat and a luggage pull out handle behind the seat so that you could take it out of the car and slide the handle out and roll it where ever you need to go – isn’t that genius?  I know I would be the first in line to buy such a thing.  I would take pictures of the bruises and post them on here, but you see, my legs are so white that even I, the experienced photographer, cannot photoshop them to look decent – just nasty, white, bruised up legs.  So, if you see me in town and wonder why I look like my husband kicks me around like a dog, now you know.  It’s not him, it’s Mallory’s car seat that is kicking my butt!!!!

Strike a Pose…

I survived picture day up at the studio – yea me!  Everything went smoothly and my little dancers were just about the most beautiful things you’ve ever seen – love them!  It is always so much fun to see them in their costumes.  It gets me so excited about the recital that will be here before you know it!  May 22nd at 7:00 p.m. for those who can make it – I’d love to see you there! Consider this your “Save the Date” b/c we are throwing a wedding, you know!  The theme this year?  Dance Pizzazz presents “Tying the Knot: A Trip Down the Aisle”  We’re gonna take you all the way from the first date to the first dance to the honeymoon.  It’s sure to be entertaining ;)  So tomorrow holds a shopping trip in store for me, the kiddos and DeDe and MeMe, then dancing, again.  The weekend?  Maybe a  much-needed trip to the bay and a Zabodyn family reunion…

Some pics to hold you over.  Not great ones, but pics…

 

Ready for the library this morning:

Tonight the space station passed over to where you could see it.  I took my camera outside w/ me to play while I was killing time before it came by.  This was taken at 9:15 tonight, no flash and no light but that from the moon – I was jacking w/ my camera trying some stuff – the shutter stayed open for a long time and I moved a little b/c I was shivering b/c it was cold and this is what I came up w/!

Okay, obviously this is the moon.  I thought it was a good picture.  Sorry, no pictures of the actual space station.  They didn’t turn out very impressive looking…

Until next time…

Mallory is 5 months!!!

Wow – I can’t believe our little girl is already 5 months old.  She is growing way too fast.  We are enjoying her so much, but I just want time to slow down a little bit.  She seems to be doing things a little faster than Dayton did when he was her age, but I think she has him to thank for that.  She loves and admires him so much that she wants nothing more than to keep up w/ her big bro.  At 5 months her are a few things that she is doing:

-Eating rice cereal

-Giggling out loud

-Babbling a lot

-Sucking on her toes

-Rolling from back to front and front to back occasionally

-Still sleeping through the night

-Still eating 6 oz 5X a day

-Sitting up unassisted for a few minutes at a time

-Holding her own bottle

-Putting EVERYTHING in her mouth

-Giving sloppy kisses

-Blowing bubbles (spitting) at you if you do it to her

 

Here are some new pics from the past week.  We spent the weekend in Coushatta w/ Traci and Charlie.  It was such a wonderful time full of lots of laughs and talking and not worrying about anything besides losing money ;) and getting speeding tickets – Brandon got one on the way home –boo!  We had so much fun.  Now it’s back to reality and dance recital back on the brain for the next 3-4 weeks – yikes!

Mallory’s first bite of “food”.  She is doing well w/ it.  I have to admit, we’re not religious w/ it like we were w/ Dayton – poor second child.  We took a few days off b/c she wasn’t too interested it.  She was more like ‘Just give me the bottle!’ But, for the last two nights, she has eaten her whole serving, so it’s catching on.  We may start a veggie next week!

Excited to be eating w/ Big Brother:

Of course, Dayton had to take a turn at feeding her:

There’s nothing sweeter than this:

We do still have ourselves an occasional thumb-sucker!

When we played outside the other day, we attempted to take the kids for a short ride in the wagon…

It was just that – A very short ride!!!  Love this pic – he almost appears to be trying to get her in a headlock and she almost appears to be trying to defend herself and bite him!

So we figured it was time for Mallory to try out Date’s old riding toy and she LOVED it!  We gotta get her a pink and purple one now!

Doesn’t she look like she’s waving?

She liked this view/taste of the car, too…

Our birds are still hanging out:

We HAVE to break of this before school starts – it can happen anywhere.  I was just enjoying taking some outdoor pics of him when I turn around and see this…

One of Mallory’s new outfits.  I thought it was cute so we went outside and gave Mallory her first real feel of grass – she liked it.  In fact she liked it so much, I had a hard time getting her to look up for the pictures, she was too busy playing w/ it!

*Sorry about the occasional blurriness or coloring of my pictures.  I am still learning the ins and outs of this photography stuff.  ;)

JOY!

I’ve decided that this should’ve been Mallory’s name.  Is it too late to change her birth certificate????  I’m probably jinxing myself, but we have the happiest little girl.  I’ve never seen such a happy kid.   Her eyes are always big and bright and her shrieks are always filled w/ excitement.  Her smiles are so big they make you want to pinch her sweet little cheeks off!  She doesn’t really have a serious face – she seems pretty carefree.  She never looks at anyone or anything w/ anxiety or fear.  She sees everything w/ wonder and adventure.  She soaks up the world around her whether it be something she sees or hears, she’s always sure to respond.  She has a bit of a bashfulness about her when someone new comes to tell her hello.  She’ll give them a smile but it’s always followed by a turn of the head into Mommy’s shirt or a look at the floor.  She is the pure definition of what joy looks like and the happiness she brings to not only me but also Brandon and Dayton is what joy feels like.  Joy. J-O-Y.  Such a small little word but it means so much; Mallory. M-A-L-L-O-R-Y.  Such a small little girl but she means so much.  We love our bundle of “JOY”. ;) 

 

Why don’t I have any pictures to accompany this sweet little blog?  Well, number one – I’m too lazy to upload any new ones right now and number two – you can’t capture exactly what I’m talking about in pictures – you have to witness it.  Sure, I have plenty of pics of her smiling, but those don’t do justice to how happy and high on life this kid really is!!!

 

What a great post to call it a night!

Getting back on track…

 

Okay, so I’m trying to catch back up – between wedding and dance recital stuff and everything else, I’m falling behind and I’ve failed to mention a couple of things that have been going on.  Here’s my attempt at cramming in a couple of pics from the last week and bringing you up to speed and also show off some of my new pictures, which are by NO means professional, but I am still learning!!!!

Last week, Mrs. Zabodyn took Dayton to Superior Motor Parts where they were having a tractor show.  He got to try out some tractors and eat a hot dog – boy was he in heaven!!!

 

Here’s Date and Mallory at DeDe’s house.  Mallory is in her Jenny Jump Up!

Mallory is still loving her jumperoo at home – look at my happy big girl!

 

Another pic of her in her jumperoo – thumb in mouth!  EVERYTHING goes in her mouth these days!

 

Okay, here are some attempts at some artsy pics at Glen’s house the other day – remember, I’m a beginner! :)

Bryn celebrated her first communion on Sunday – what a fun and special time.  She is growing way too fast!!!!

I haven’t had a chance to post on our new friends yet, so here we go.  I was trying to get some fun pics of them on Sunday evening as the sun was going down and the clouds were rolling in.  My dad built us the most wonderful birdhouse a couple of weeks ago.  Of course it is a Longhorn birdhouse – what else?  If any birds want to live in our backyard, they must be Texas fans!  Looks like we’ve got lots of little Longhorns flying around our place because the whole house is full – Date calls them “his birds” and “His birdhouse”.  We are having such a good time watching them all day!  They are Martins, I think…  I’m no bird expert!

This rose is in our backyard

Mallory was sitting in her carseat while I was snapping pics at the birds and flowers, here’s one of her sweet little baby feet…

 

Date and Daddy got home and tried to get in on the fun.  Date now has a “cheese” smile – this is his go to, fake smile for picture taking…

 

Okay, told you, I’m not that good.  Messed up the color on this one and that’s too bad b/c it was such a good pic of him!

Lucy loving on Mallory – look at the tongue going in for the kill – ha!

More pics to come really soon – Mallory had rice cereal for the first time last night – Daddy did the picture snapping so I’ll get some pics posted soon – so much fun!  Even Date got to feed his little sister!!!

Work in Progress…

That’s what I am!  I took a wonderful camera course over the weekend w/ Glen Frels and I am learning how to really use my camera.  It was so great – information overload, but so great.  I have been practicing my new skills and my poor kids are my best subjects so they have been seeing mommy go click-happy w/ the camera lately!  The only good thing for them is that we learned how to NOT use the flash all the time, so no more flashes for their little eyes! :)  Can’t wait to share some of my new images w/ you, but I’m going to try some photo shop on them first.  Not much time to do all this stuff lately – recital is beginning to consume my life!!!  Until then, here’s some pictures of “The Photographer” – ha!

 

A Zabodyn Wedding

Well, we attended a wonderful wedding on Monday evening.  After 29 years of being married, Mr. and Mrs. Zabodyn were married in St. Philip Catholic Church.  It was the most wonderful thing to witness!  How special!  It was so cool to stand there w/ Brandon and his siblings and our children and witness them profess their love to each other.  Following the ceremony and lots of pictures, we headed to Firehouse Grill for the reception.  It was so much fun.  Here are some pics from the evening!

Congratulations to DeDe and PaPa on 29 years of marriage!

 

Before the wedding:

My cool dudes:

The flower girl – DeDe even got her real flowers for her headband – how appropriate for our princess!

The Happy Couple:

Wedding “Bells”

The Family:

 

*Sorry I have no pictures of the actual ceremony!  We stood at the front so I couldn’t snap away.  Date was the ringbearer and he managed to drop the rings twice on his way up to the altar – guess we shouldn’t have trusted him w/ the real things!!!

 

Father Gary w/ Wayne and Diana:

Brandon and I were honored to be the witnesses!

Another pic of the whole family (Date, Brandon, Clint, Wayne, Diana, Samantha, Megan, Jenna & Mallory)

Aunt Megan and Mallory:

The Guys (Our weird child insisted on holding up the Horns – geesh…)

The Girls:

Married!  Again!!! :)

The bouquet and the rings:

The reception at Firehouse – sign in table:

The beautiful cake:

A family pic and it turned out decent for once!

Pretty Mally, Flower Child :)

Ready to eat some yummy food!  We had salad, lasagna, spaghetti, grilled chicken, grilled veggies and mashed potatoes – so good!

Clint and Megan, such a cute couple!:

Megan and Sam:

Ready to cut the cake:

Eating the cake:

“First” Dance:

Bouquet Toss:

Mommy and Mallory:

Cheers to a wonderful wedding.  It was a blast!