29 Months old and Easter Fun!

So it's been a while since, I have posted and of course they have changed the blogger website all up! I never got around to posting about Easter weekend this year. This is partly due to our camera getting dropped in a cup of water and breaking, so I didn't get to take any pictures. I guess on the bright side of this I did get to purchase a newer and better one!

Easter weekend was a busy one. Saturday we drove to Meridian to attend Krista's engagement party. I was really nervous about how Mallory would do at this function, being that normally children especially, little children, do not attend these parties! To be honest I probably would have considered leaving her with my parents, but John's sister(the bride) and John's mom wanted Mallory to be there.  I was pretty much nervous for nothing, cause Mallory was so good that unless you really looked for her you wouldn't have even known she was there! At the party they had a 2 person band, one person played drums and the other guy played guitar and sang. Mallory would have sat there all night watching, listening, and dancing to them! The highlight of the night was when, Mallory finally wanted to sit with PaPa and actually have somethinhg to do with him! This is major change and I know John's dad has been waiting for this day to happen for over almost 2 years now! Ever since Mallory has been aware of the differences in people, she didn't want anything to do with John's dad(aka Papa). I always felt terrible about this, but for some reason all men over 40ish except for Pops(aka my dad) Mallory didn't want to be near. I am so thankful that Mallory now shows love to her PaPa!

After a late drive home, we got up Sunday morning and the Easter Bunny made a stop at our house and left Mallory some new puzzles, pj's, and candy in her basket. She loved it! We had a wonderful morning at church and then we came home to let Mallory take a nap before we headed over to my parents for the Easter egg hunt and some yummy dinner, with the Davis family! Since my camera was broken, sadly I didn't get any pictures, however my dad took some. Maybe when I get some time I will be able to look through them and post some.

Mallory is now 29 months old!! It doesn't seem possible that she is almost 2 1/2!! Her little personality is starting to shine more and more! She is still pretty timid with people she doesn't know, but talks non-stop to everyone else! Her speech has also taken off and her sentences amaze me every day! She has been using the word frustrated for a while now, but one day we were in a shoe store and she proceeds to tell me that her shoes were very frustrated. After a little chuckle, and proceedig to tell her your shoes can't be frustrated, this older lady's is laughing and grinning at us the whole time.  Later that same day, we were in the bathroom at the local chick-fi-la and after changing her diaper, I decided to use the bathroom myself. As I am going, Mallory decides to look down at what I am doing and out loud say "Mommy I see your booty"! The next thing I hear is some laughing coming from the other lady in the bathroom. I guess I better get use to getting embarrassed in public!!

Here are some other facts about Mallory:
- She eats more meat now than she ever has as long as there is a sauce to go with it! Her favorite is still Chicken or deli turkey and Ham.
- She still loves to read!! She will actually sit for 30 to 45 minutes and read books with me! Some of her favorites are Brown Bear Brown Bear, Curious George, Richard Scarry's Best Read-it-yourself Book Ever, and a book about trains. The Richard Scarry book is 188 pages and 2 times we have sat down and read the entire book!! I can promise you she didn't get this love for reading from me! Ha!
- She has really started playing with her baby dolls lately. I will catch her telling me she is feeding them, they are napping and just yesterday she put one in her high chair and started to pretend feeding her a hot dog! A nursery helper at church told me during church that morning, Mallory told them the baby doll had pooped and that she had to change her diaper! They thought that was pretty funny and cute!
- She is constantly asking me to go into another store when we are out shopping and also would eat at every restaurant if she could! We have had a few fits from Mommy telling her we were eating at home! We don't even eat out every week!
- She knows her some the shapes now. She can point out circles, squares and triangles! She can even sorta draw a circle.
- She can count to 10 pretty good.
- She is getting better with her colors, but usually gets some of them wrong unless it's pink!
- She gets really upset if we do not listen to her Kid music in the car! Her favorite songs are: The wheels on the bus, row row your boat, This little light of mine, Jesus Loves me, Skip to my Lou, Shake Shake Shake, Yankee Doodle, and the ABC's. She knows the words to all of them! She really loves to sing her ABC's!
- She will eat ketchup plain just like her daddy did when he was little!
- She still loves puzzles.
- She recently had ear infection that infected her eye. After a doctor visit, some medicine and eye drops we are much better!
- She weighs 30 pounds.
- Mallory's favorite cartoons are Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Jake and the Neverland pirates. She begs to watch them all day, but is only allowed to watch them in the morning when Mommy is getting ready.
- She still takes great naps! Recently she has been sleeping 3 hours on some days, but sually it's only 2ish.
- She is wearing 2T clothing, but some 3T in PJ's. Her shoe size is an 8.
- She still loves to wear hair bows and will ask to wear one if she doesn't have one on.
- Mallory is still sleeping in her crib and appears to still love it, so I have made no effort to change it into a toddler bed yet! No climbing out yet thank goodness!
- Mallory was doing pretty good with going potty on the big girl potty, until we moved. The doctor told me to just wait a little while to try again. This whole process make me very nervous!! One day in the near future we will venture down this road again!!

Well thats about all I can think about right now. Stay tuned for some updates about our New Sunday School Class, some sewing projects, and a shower next weekend for Krista in Cordova, Al.  Enjoy the recent pictures!

We were put on this Earth to Serve not be Served!

About 2 months ago, our new pastor, asked John and I to have lunch. I kept thinking what in the world does he have up his sleeve!! As we were having lunch at Jimmy Johns, he starts talking about how there is a need for a new Young Married couples Sunday School class. The age gap in our current class is 20's to 40's couples, so John and I new this was needed in order for growth! Not to long after that, he just comes right out and asks us if we would start it!! Now, to be completely honest, at first I was not only shocked, but I was thinking he was crazy... I mean are we really qualified to lead a Sunday School class?? I knew John could handle the teaching, but I wasn't so sure I was up for the commitment that this entails!

After leaving, I had all these things running through my head. Here is a few of them:
1. I knew how time consuming it was for John to prepare a lesson each week, and selfishly I didn't want to give up that time.
2. I knew it would not be as easy to be out of town on Sunday now, unless we could find a sub to teach.
3. I was nervous we didn't have enough wisdom to teach young adults, since I consider my self one of them! At least I knew John would do most of the teaching!
4. I kept thinking timing wasn't right, due to wanting more kids ,and all the projects we want to do at our new house. Really I think the thought of such a big commitment was making me nervous!
5. I already help run the sound on a rotation bases for worship Sunday mornings, I teach the Cubbies class during Awana on Wed nights, help with nursery/extended session, and on the children's committee... do I really want to add more to my plate??
5. I also knew it would be so much fun to get to know some young couples and have socials at our house! I knew from experience that if there are couples that have no family here, we could be their family away from home. This is exactly how our 2 prior Sunday School Classes were in GA and FL! Our time we lived there wouldn't have been the same without those special teachers and couples! They truly made those years such a blessing! The thought of getting to give that back to other couples was exciting, but also overwhelming!

After explaining all of these worries to John on the way back to work, to my surprise, he informed me that there would never be a good time to us, and that's God's timing is always better!! Boy did that bring me back to reality and help me realize that all my concerns were silly and that God was about to bring us both out of our comfort zones!! Isn't that where we grow the most... getting out of our normal comfort daily life??

The weekend after Easter, April 15, 2012, John and I will start a new Young Marrieds Bible Fellowship Class at Hardy Street Baptist Church! We are both getting really exciting! I am hoping we have some couples show up!! We prayed and researched about what our first study would be and finally decided on "The Five Love Languages" by Gary Chapman. This particular book John and I have actually been through 2 times. Once at our church in Valdosta, Ga and once at our church in Tallahassee, Fl. It really did help our marriage both times we read it! I am looking forward getting a refresher!

I am praying that God will use our class in a mighty way to reach His kingdom! Praying God's blessings will flow through us to touch the lives of each couple we meet and that visits are class!

Matthew 20:28 says: "For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many."

John and I are excited to have been given this awesome opportunity to serve and can't wait to see all God has in store!

28 Months Came Way to Fast!!!

Mallory is now 28 months old and weighs about 28 pounds! She amazes me every day at all the things she knows and is learning! She still loves to read and has started using words that I wasn't aware she even understood! She loves to point out water towers, buses, motorcycles, and big trucks!

One day in the car, several weeks back, she asked me.."Mommy are you frustrated?"... I was actually speechless after she asked me this as I was driving down the road. A week or so later, she said to me in a sad little voice "she was frustrated". Last week in the car, she told me her blanket was frustrated! I really had to refrain from laughing, and proceed to ask her why it was frustrated.. she then informed me "cause it's dirty mommy." I told her that we could wash it when we got home and she gave me a happy smile!

Mallory is getting a lot more opinionated. I guess that comes with the 2 year old territory!! At times, she will fuss about which sippy cup she gets, which spoon or fork to eat with, and even where ketchup is put on her plate! However, she is getting better at eating meat even though we have to call all meat some form of chicken! This has been working, well, as long as there is ketchup or some sauce to dip it in! She now loves strawberries, when she wouldn't have anything to do with them about 3 months ago. She also still loves to sing. Her favorites she can sing are her ABC's, Jesus Loves Me, Skip to my Lou, Wheels on the bus, Row row your boat, Happy Birthday, This little light of mine, and several more. She also loves to play outside with Daddy's old mini wheelbarrow and wagon. She will follow John all over the yard and help him pick up sticks!!

My favorite thing she has recently learned is that she can now count to 10 pretty consist!! She has been able to count to 5 for a while, but just recently she started counting all the way to 10!! Now, if I can just get her to learn her colors! She has pink and black down, but all the others she confuses!!

She still loves to go to church and usually asks me every day if we can go! She is still very shy/timid around people she doesn't know, but she will talk our heads off!! Every time we are driving in the car, Mallory tells me she wants to go eat at a restaurant ad will start pointing at any building we are next to! This girl wants to eat out every meal!! Needless to say she doesn't always get her way!! I usually respond to her by saying, "we are going to eat at home today." Which in return causes her to say, I not want to eat at home mommy. No eat at home!

Mallory is way tougher than I may ever be with boo-boos. The other day at school and at home she fell and scratched her leg. To our surprise, as well as the teachers, we didn't find out about it until we saw blood running down her leg. I was really impressed that she didn't even complain or cry! She is such a big girl!! Now if we can continue to keep her allergies under control maybe we will stay pretty healthy!!

Mallory is definitely growing up way to fast!! I have to remind myself often to stop what I am doing and just enjoy spending every day with her! One of God's greatest blessing is children!