Friday, December 23, 2011

Merry Christmas from the Kirkpatricks!

Believe In Christmas Religious
Shutterfly custom cards for Valentines Day, Easter & Mother's Day.
View the entire collection of cards.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Thanksgiving 2011









This year, since my parents were in another country and the stores were only closed 1day for Thanksgiving, we could not make the 4 hour drive to Alabama. We were fortunate enough that John's family was willing to meet us in Jackson at John's sister's apartment for Thanksgiving. Nanny also made the trip down with John's parents, which made the trip extra special! It was fun getting to spend the day with them and Mallory loved getting to watch Aunt KK's cat run around the apartment. She also had fun playing Tea, playing baby dolls with Nanny, and hide and go seek with Granna! Looking forward to spending a few days over Christmas with John's family!

Here are some pictures from our fun day!

A Minnie Mouse Party














Well I have been really busy lately and have neglected to post since October!! We have a lot that has happened, so I will try and play catch up!

Back in November on the 13th we had Mallory's 2nd birthday party. My parents were leaving for a Biblical Tour in Turkey, so we had to have the party a little early.

Mallory had lots of fun opening gifts and eating some of her Minnie Mouse cake! She got so many gifts that at one point she lost interest in opening them. John's family and Nanny made the trip down here for the afternoon, which was so nice of them. Mallory's favorite gifts were the School Bus Aunt KK (aka Aunt Krista) gave her and the pink kitchen sink she got from Nanna, Pops, Granna, and Papa. She loves to pretend to cook and wash her hands!

At Mallory's 2 year old check up she weighed 26.11 pounds and was 33 in tall. The Doctor joked with me that she was finally now in the normal weight range! I guess all that Cheese she eats is finally paying off!! After seeing the doctor, she sent us to get Mallory's finger pricked to check her blood work. This was a first, and I wasn't to thrilled to see her go through this, but I knew shots were much worse! Once they called her name back there, the tech was trying to talk to her and the first thing Mallory does is poke her bottom lip out as far as she could. It was pretty funny and had the techs in the room laughing. Next the tech pricked her finger and we all kept waiting for Mallory to cry, but to our surprise it never came! Mallory is officially stronger than her mother when it comes to pain!!! Mallory just wanted to get the band aid on! As soon as we got back to the waiting room, the others in there commented to me that they kept waiting to here her cry too and couldn't believe what a big girl she was!! I was one proud MaMa!! Hoping she continues to get John's pain tolerance and not mine!!

Mallory is now talking up a storm, can sing row row row your boat ,and the wheels on the bus. She now knows what a sucker is and likes them. To be honest I wasn't too excited about that, but I guess it's about time!

She loves the play ground and every time she sees one she wants to stop and play. I can't believe Mallory is finally 2! I mean it seems like yesterday she was born. I just love seeing her blossom and learn. Her giggles make my heart smile, her hugs and kisses are priceless and can turn a bad day into a great one! She recently told me she loved me and this was hands down one of the best moments of being a mom so far! Praying one day that she will understand that there is a God who loves her even more than I can! Praying I am the motherly example God wants me to be!

Enjoy the pictures from her 2nd Birthday party! Stay tuned for a fun Thanksgiving at Aunt KK's in Jackson.

Monday, October 31, 2011

A trip to Mitchell Farms and 23 Months old!!












Recently, John, Mallory and I loaded up the car and headed to Mitchell Farms Pumpkin Patch in Collins. If you haven't been here or taken your kids you are really missing out on lots of Fall fun!! This was Mallory and I's second time to go, but John's first. He loved it just like we did!! It was so cute to see how much fun she had going from one thing to the next!! Her favorite was the slide and the train ride! I think she would have stayed on the slide all day if we had let her!! Playing in a pit of corn, a corn maze, tire swings, slides, a train ride, a wagon ride, and a animals petting barn are just a few of the fun activities you get to do at Mitchell Farms!! Mallory even got to help us pick out 2 pumpkins to bring home!! It was lots of fun and I can't wait to go again next year!!

On October 20th Mallory was 23 months old! Gosh where has the time gone??? I mean in less than one month she will be 2 years old!! Here are some recaps from the last month!

- If you ask Mallory how old she is she will tell you 2 even though she is still actually one. She thinks since her cousin EE is 2 she is too!
- She goes pee pee on the potty at least 1 time a day sometimes more when we are at home. She even held it all the way home one day for me! I was so proud of her!! I hence full force potty training in our near future! She gets a sticker for going, which she loves!! We tried M&M's and those were not a hit... she wouldn't even try them! Ha!
- She is still some what a picky eater, but if you have the right food I think she would munch all day! She loves Ice Cream!! I have learned the hard way that I need to fix a separate bowl just for her or she will want to eat all of mine!
- She is constantly asking me "Where Dada go?" "Where Nana go?" ,"I want to play with EE" or "Where school bus go?"
- She is still really into School Buses. She gets so excited when we see one in town and she loves to wave to it and say "Hey School Bus"! It's super cute!!
- Her favorite friend at church right now is Cadence. She tells us "I want play with Cadence." It's really cute!
- She is at the stage where she doesn't like changing clothes unless they are wet or she is getting to take a bath. She is great at having melt downs. I guess that is part of the terrible two's coming out! Thankfully it has been a little bit better lately.
- She got her first busted lip at school recently. She was trying to climb up onto the changing table and fell. This was all after she had been told not to climb on it! I guess she had to learn the hard way, but she got a Popsicle out of it!!
- One morning when I was in the carpool line to drop Mallory off at play school she started pointing at this little boy, grinning really big and saying Nate Nate... I asked her do you know him? She said uh huh with a big grin! So when the teacher came to get her out of the car, I asked her what the little boys name was and to my surprise she said "Nate"!! I proceeded to tell her that Mallory was just pointing, smiling and calling him by name!! Mallory's teacher thought that was super funny... since Nate is not even in her class, although they do play on the playground together. She said all the girls love Nate!! Well I guess our little Mallory likes Nate too!! Ha Ha...
- We have finally moved up to size 4 diapers, I think we were in size 3's for a really long time!! Now it's time to focus on no diapers!!
- Mallory loves wearing jackets and sweaters. Sometimes she will get really upset if we try to take it off. Not sure what caused this!
- Lastly, Mallory loves Football!! She loves to go to the games and have it on TV! Hoping this continues and she likes to watch it as much as I do!! The other day I turned on the TV to watch the news and she kept asking me "Where football game?" . Explaining to her that college football only comes on certain nights of the week was pretty funny!!


Stay tuned for a fun Minnie Mouse Birthday Party!! Enjoy the pictures!

Thursday, October 13, 2011

A Rainy trip to the Happiest Place on Earth!!



















So, yesterday afternoon John, Mallory and I returned from our very wet trip to the Happiest Place on Earth, Disney World!! Our dear friends that we met while living in Valdosta Georgia, invited us to tag along on their fun adventure to see Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Beware: this may end up as a very long post!!!

At first, I admit, I was a little hesitant since Mallory is not even 2 yet and I knew she would not remember this trip at all. However, just getting to see our friends Pam and Jeff Sweatt and their 3 year old Anna, made all my hesitations go away! To my surprise both girls were great!! They didn't even fuss about all the rain!!

Our first stop was in Tallahassee, where we spent the night with some dear friends. I wish we could have had more time to see others, but it was great to see a few of our friends again. I was super grateful to be able to break the 11 hour drive up into 2 days instead of 1!! As you can imagine how 11 hours in a car with a 1 year old would be.

On Friday morning we got up and headed to Orlando to meet the Sweatt's at our condo. This whole time, I am trying not to worry about the weather even though the forecast shows 60% to 100% rain the entire time we are going to be there. And not to my surprise, as soon as we hit Orlando the storms start, but hey a rainy day can be fun as long as Mickey and Minnie Mouse are there right??

The first afternoon, we headed to magic Kingdom and it had stopped raining!! Mallory loved riding a horse on the carousal, the mad hatter tea cup, and Dumbo. She even cried when we had to get off the horse!! I was finally not worrying about the rain forecast at all now. Just seeing all the smiles on Anna and Mallory's face was priceless!! Since it was getting close to dinner time and it looked like it was about to rain we decided to head back to the car. Well right when we got off the boat ... the bottom decides to fall out... so let just say we were soaked by the time we got to the car. Surprisingly, that was thankfully the wettest we got the whole trip.

It ended up raining the next 2 days, but we were prepared with tons of rain ponchos!! The first morning there, we had reservations to eat breakfast with Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy. I wasn't sure how Mallory would react to these large characters!! Not to my surprise, she was ok with them at a distance, but didn't want them near her!! Anna on the other hand loved them and it was precious to see her smile with excitement!! Even after the expensive tab we had, I would do it again!! It was well worth it and the food was really good!!

We spent the rest of the day at magic kingdom and got to see all the princesses. Mallory was not nearly as scared of them as she was the larger characters.

I am still impressed how well both girls did, considering how much it rained. I mean they didn't even complain!! All of us adults probably complained more than the kids did!! Mallory even napped in her stroller some each day!!

The last day we went to Animal Kingdom, which by the way I would not recommend for younger kids. It was fun, there is just not a lot of stuff for pre-schoolers. That morning, we decided go see mickey and Minnie again... and to my surprise this time Mallory actually walked right up to Mickey and gave him a hug!!! I was so excited and in such shock!! It was so cute to finally see her excited about seeing Mickey!!

I am looking forward to many more trips in the future!! It's almost like you become a kid again when you are there!!

Here are my tips if you take a child to Disney that's under the age of 4.
1. Bring your stroller, pushing them around is much easier than making them walk and much faster!!
2. Bring lots of snacks, juice, and bottled water, the drinks and snacks in the park are expensive. They will allow you to bring a soft cooler in the park and you can store it in the bottom of your stroller!
3. Purchase a autograph book before you go to the park for the characters to sign. Also, have a large pen handy. They sale these at Target in Orlando and they are inexpensive. The kids will love getting each character to sign it!!
4. We always went to see the characters first, as the lines seemed to be shorter first thing in the morning. Have your camera and autograph book ready!!
5. If your camera takes batteries, make sure you have plenty extra. I took so many pictures, that I had to change the batteries more than normal.
6. Before you even leave for Disney, buy a bunch of throw away ponchos in case it rains!! You will want them the minute it rains and they cost less than a $1.00 at Walmart and Target. The local Orlando Target also had some, since we had to replenish our stock from all the rain!! Note: the ponchos at Disney cost $8.00 for just 1!!!
7. If it rains, use extra ponchos to cover stroller. We taped a poncho over the stroller and it helped keep Mallory even dryer!!
8. If you set a budget for your trip and are terrible at spending over it, then get it all in cash. Once your cash is getting low you know how much is left. Note: it's very easy to spend money at Disney even if you are a conservative spender!!
9. Share a lunch with your child. I never bought Mallory her own meal in the park. I just ordered something she could eat and we shared. We also, drank our bottled water instead of paying extra for a drink.
10. Take a backpack or small bag to put your important stuff in it. You don't want to leave your valuables in the stroller while you are riding a ride or watching a show.
11. Before you buy all the cute souvenirs in the Disney park, check out the local walmart and target first. Their stuffed animals were just as cute and a little bit cheaper. I will tell you they do not have near the amount of stuff, but its worth a look!
12. Favorite rides at magic Kingdom our girls loved: Dumbo, Mad Hatter Tea Cup, Winnie the Pooh, It's a small world, and Buzz light year.
13. Favorite rides at Hollywood studios: Toy Story 4d ride(interactive and lots of fun!!)
14. Shows we loved: Little Mermaid(Ursala can be kinda scary), Muppet 3d show, and Disney's Junior Live on Stage.
15. Taking a child that is 2 and under has it's advantages. Everything is free from entrance to the parks to the character breakfasts!!
16. Don't be scared of the rain!! John and I actually think the rain was almost more pleasant than sweating and gobs of sunscreen!! Just through a poncho on and grab your umbrella and have fun!! Made a whole new meaning of Singing in the rain!!
17. Pack band aids just in case you need them or get a blister!!
18. Don't get worked up about the lines for rides. Look at it like you get out of the sun or rain for a while. We also noticed that most of the wait estimates were over estimated which made for a shorter wait!!
19. If it's close to someones birthday with you then ask for a birthday button and every employee in the park will tell them happy birthday all day!! Jeff got John one since his birthday was the week we got there and the first day to my surprise he actually wore it!! Ha ha... and every where we went we heard "Happy Birthday John".. It was pretty funny!!
20. Most importantly have fun!!! Disney will be what you make it regardless of the weather!!