Happy 1st Birthday Mallory!!!!!

Mallory has officially turned 1!! I can't believe it!! Last weekend we celebrated her day with a family party at my parents house. I think she had lots of fun and got way to many gifts!! I had lots of fun decorating and making her dress and birthday hat! Her dress however would not have looked nearly as good if John's Nanny had not helped me with the collar... boy she was right when she said collars are hard to sew!! I think it will be while before I try another collar!! Ha! Mrs. Beth Robinson a longtime friend of our family made her adorable cake!! It was not only delicious, but super cute too!! Enjoy the pictures I have included! Most of you may have already seen these on Facebook.

Mallory has also started walking more and more since then, which is so much fun to watch!! Luckily we haven't had any accidents yet, but I am sure there will be some to come!! Mallory has also started to say more words. Her letter of the week must be "D" because she has said Daisy, Dog, Daddy, and Duck!! I sure to love watching her learn!!

Answered Prayers, Birthdays and Mallory's First Halloween!!

Mallory's first Halloween was very low key this year. Due to her age we didn't take her trick or treating and our church didn't have a fall festival here so we opted to go with a friend and her little girl Kensley to the ZOO BOO. To be honest it was fun getting out, but all we did was push her around in the stroller and I didn't get very good pictures but will post some for you to see her. At first I wasn't even going to get her a costume but after some friends fussing at me and my friend Carrie finding me one on clearance with shipping for under 12 dollars we ended up with a really cute and fuzzy white tiger cub with the cutest pink ears! I am not to sure what Mallory thought of it but she didn't complain about wearing it, which surprised me!

Mallory's first birthday is coming up in less than 3 weeks now!! It's hard to believe that she is almost one!! We are having a low key party with just family this year and I am trying to do most of it myself except the cake of course!! Our wonderful and talented friend Mrs. Beth is making her cake and I can't wait to see how cute it will be!! The pictures are a sneak peak of her party dress and invitations!

The next good news is we officially have a new realtor, and don't get me wrong I liked our last one and he was super nice,but it was just time for a change since it's getting close to a year that the house has been for sale. Hopefully our new one will work her magic and sell our house!! She sure did put my mom and I to work with her long list (3 pages!!!) of recommendations she suggested we change!! The funny thing about the list is a lot of it was getting a females perspective over a males!! However, after we completed the list the house looks more like a model home than a personal residence and the best part of all this was most of the changes were free and didn't cost a penny!!

Lastly, I took Mallory off one of her digestive/reflux medicines about a week ago. She is still on prevacid ,but I took her off Reglan. This medicine is known to have some very bad permanent side effects and has the worst label (Black) a medicine can get by the drug approval people. You might have also seen commercials about attorneys sueing over this medicine!! I am sure you are now wondering why on earth would you give such a medicine to your child, well without going into a long history all the problems we have been through, I will just tell you that the risk of side effects did not out way the benefit she was getting from the medicine. In order for Mallory to keep food down, digest any solids at all, not choke on her spit up and gain weight normally - we had to have this medicine. I can honestly say that without this medicine I am not sure where we would be today with her eating and weight gain, so in a nut shell that is why we opted to give her the medicine. Well moving on to last week, Mallory all of a sudden started doing some strange stuff with her tongue, which is a side effect of this medicine ,plus we have been on it way longer that it's recommended, so I decided to stop it. So far so good, we have spit up a few times, but nothing like it was and she has been able to digest all the solid foods I have given her ,which is a huge answered prayer!! Also, the weird tongue stuff has subsided ,which is also a relief!! Praise God for all this cause I didn't know if we would ever make it this far about 3 months ago!! I will say that Mallory has been a little extra fussy since taking her off and I am hoping it's not cause she is in pain from the lack of medicine, so I will continue to monitor this, but until any other negative changes we are REGLAN free!!! My prayer now is that one day in the near future we can introduce some of the foods that she wasn't able to digest even while on Reglan and once that happens I will know her digestive system is finally maturing!! Praising God for all these steps in the right direction and for answering our many prayers!! God is good all the time and all the time God is good!!

I will close with one of my favorite bible verses. It's Philippians 4:4-7

”Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Two days in a row!!

Well I am on a roll... posting two days in a row that is... but I am sure it will not last ! Ha!

Recently, my sister had to take Ethan to a birthday party at Mitchell farms in Collins, and she asked Mallory and I to tag along for the ride since Craig had to work. I can honestly say it was not an easy trip... and next time we will be taking another adult along with us!! I did manage to get a few pictures, but not very many since Ethan was running off and I had to hold Mallory most of the time cause she isn't walking... I can say I admire people who have twins and don't see how that do it all the time!! Katy and I were worn out when we got home and didn't even make it home with our pumkins we were suppose to get!! Ha!! Besides having our hands full while we were there, it was a really neat place that I hope to make a family tradition in the years to come! Here are some of the pictures we took. Enjoy!

It's about time!!

Ok so I know it's been way to long since I updated our blog. It seems like every time I thought about sitting down to update, Mallory would wake up from a nap or laundry was calling my name. Hopefully I will do a better job in the coming year!!

I don't even know where to begin to update on our crazy life!! Mallory is almost a year old and is growing way to fast!! She has gone from just laying around to crawling and now to pulling up and pushing toys around the room. I am sure walking is just around the corner!! She loves to clap ,put her hands in the air and do the "touchdown" move!! She has also started dancing to music now which is so cute to watch!! We have 4 teeth on top and 2 teeth on the bottom and I can honestly say the teething process is not much fun but part of having children!! We recently went to the doctor and she weighted 18.10 which for an 11 month old is only in the 12% but thats ok. Eating has been another story all on it's on. We have battled reflux since birth along with Gastroparesis, which is a delayed empyting of the stomach. Although we are on two different medicines eating certian solid foods it quite the issue. I am praying she will outgrow this problem and will one day be able to digest regular food and eat like a normal child, but until then we will take one day at a time and continue to eat what we know she can digest! All in all God has blessed us with such a wonderful sweet little girl!!

It has been so amazing to see Mallory blossem and grow. It's hard to believe how different she is from almost a year ago. The Lord's blessing of children is truly amazing and I thank Him for every day I have with her!

On a different front, John has taken a new job. He is now working for my dad selling tires in my hometown of Hattiesburg, MS. Our house is still admist the wonderful Florida housing market and that requires me to drive back and forth to check on it every so often, but hopefully in time it will sell. It's just such a blessing to be back where I grew up and so close to family!! Mallory will now get to grow up with her cousin Ethan, which is great since they are only 10 weeks apart!! I can honestly say after living in GA and FL that Mississippi is the best place to live hands down!! The is no place like home and that home to me has and will always be in Mississippi! Excited to see all God has planned for us back in Mississippi!!

Well that's about all the updates I have time to write today, but will try to update again soon!! Next big event coming up is Mallory's 1st Birthday on November 20th!!Enjoy the recent pictures I uploaded!