Mallory

Mallory, or Mally as we call her often is 19 months old already! She is at a super fun stage where she is starting to repeat words and figure more things out. She is also a little monkey! She loves to climb and jump and "explore", totally unlike Keaton so this was new for me. 8 ) Here are some of her current words:

"This" she says as she points to something she wants

"Caka" This could mean a variety of things-cookie, candy or chicken

"Poop" also could mean a variety of things-poop, toot, or Pooh (as in Winnie the Pooh)

"Sissy" is Keaton

She also says puppy, kitty, bye-bye, daddy, mama, play, and some others. The list grows daily!

Right now she is also into pens/pencils/colors...I am wondering if we have a future author on our hands...8 ) If there is a pen around, she will have it in her hands!

Another funny thing about Mally-she has no patience for being hurt. If she falls down and cries, she will see me coming and she will get up right away and run for her life. I don't know what she thinks I am going to do, besides comfort her of course--but if I get to that point, she just says "Play, play, play" as though I am not going to let her play anymore.

I just love watching the personalities of the girls form-they change so fast and it is fun to watch them change and grow!

Some Keaton Stories

It is hard to believe that Keaton will be 5 in January-where has the time gone??? Wow. Anyway, I have a couple recent stories that I want to get documented before I forget them:

I had gotten Keaton these soft pillows that light up and change colors. Well, we finally (after 2 years???) got batteries put in them and she was so delighted! Loved them! So Dan and I were putting her to bed and playing with the pillows and the following conversation takes place:

Keaton: I love these pillows! They light up so pretty!!!

Dan: And Keaton, we love you!

Keaton: But I don't light up! (With a very serious face!).

Too cute!

Next story: a couple weeks ago we took Mallory in for her checkup, shots etc. When it came time for the shots (which we all dread!), I of course was paying attention to Mallory, holding her, soothing her and dressing her after the shots. After I was done, I look over at Miss Keaton and she is silently standing there, tears rolling down her face. Melted my heart-she proceeded to ask if Mallory was going to be okay-she was crying for her sister! So precious. We went directly to McDonalds. 8 )

Right now Keaton is in this "loving hotels" phase, so our living room is a hotel, the kitchen is the breakfast room, etc. Totally cracks me up-she literally pretends to put the card in the door, open it and close it every time she goes in the living room! About this time last year, she was in what I call the "Magic Carpet" phase-on any given day, we would have 3-8 blankets on our floors and they were magic carpets. She would have dolls and stuffed animals on them, etc. Love the imagination of this girl.

Starting Over

OK, this is my second shot at starting a blog. I had done so a couple weeks ago, but mainly used it as a venting machine for political issues. So, since I got it out of my system, I decided to start over! Now, I am very passionate about politics, so I am sure some of my opinions will end up in some posts, but my main goal for this blog is to write about things that are important to me, like my family, friends, etc. Scrapbooking is a huge part of my life, so I hope to use this as another way to document my life and the lives of my family members.

So, I'll start with this weekend. On Thursday evening, we all went to Hastings to the Celebration of Lights. We froze our tails off as we waited for the downtown lights to be turned on and for the "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" song that Keaton has been singing all week. However, Miss Keaton missed out on much of the fun because she was freaking out the entire time, anticipating the fire works, which they didn't have this year. This girl-she is terrified of fireworks...I have no idea why, but she is. She is also very hesitant about large crowds and loud noises/music.

Anyway, after the Celebration of Lights, we headed to Lincoln to go to the C-2 State Championship game, which the BLUE HILL BOBCATS were playing in. Now, Keaton was in heaven at this point-she LOVES staying in hotels, so much that lately our living room has been the "hotel room" and we have to knock to come in. Now, the great thing about this, is that she keeps it clean as a result of her pretending it's a hotel room....love it!!! 8 )

We made a mistake on the way to Lincoln. We allowed the girls to sleep all the way. BIG mistake. It was a nightmare trying to get them to sleep-with the excitement of being somewhere new, and the fact they thought they just took a nap and were ready to play!

Friday and Saturday were a blast. The Bobcats won!!! (Yeah!!!!!), then we moved on to Omaha, went to this Pizza Place that had games, mini golf, bowling, go-karts (all indoors of course!), went swimming in the hotel, ate at Famous Daves (YUMMY!), then today went to the mall and happened to catch Santa Claus and even got some Christmas shopping done. Now, I am thinking today is Sunday and I am sure to be confused for the rest of the week.

I did do something very unusual this weekend. I didn't pull out my camera once. I am one of those, you know, chronic picture takers-the obsession goes hand in hand with this scrapbooking thing...anyway, I made a deal with myself that I would just have fun, experience the time with family, and remember it in my heart instead of on photo paper. Big deal for me, huge. However, I am sure I will find someway to scrapbook about the weekend, photos or not...8 )

I am anticpating a fun, but crazy week ahead with the wonderful holiday coming up. We have lots of family coming into town, which means the next few days for me are cleaning, shopping, and preparing! I am super excited to meet our newest niece, little Baby Shea from Colorado.