there's no place like home: January 2012

New year's day

New Year's Day was a perfect start to Mallory's year - it snowed!

Casey tried to share the snow with me ... inside the house.

It's part of being a kid, right??

I got to play inside with this cute little diaper buddy.

She found her favorite ornament:

Elvis - Suspicious Minds

and we danced while Mallie and Daddy cleared the driveway.

We went to my brother's house on NYE for dinner and ... well, not much else. While we were making dinner, Ember and Mallory found their way into some fairy costumes that had us all giggling. (I can't help but point out that they are only 10 weeks apart. I guess we should stop hanging Mallory upside down before bed every night - she just keeps growing taller!)

They are two peas in a pod!

Mallory looks a little "Harry Potter meets Fairy Princess" here -

about to cast a spell with her wand.

We all came downstairs after dinner and Abby was not excited about the 'no stairs' restriction.

So we moved the gate to the top of the stairs.

This gesture was lost on her. :)

Until it was her idea.

Then she was thrilled and pretty proud of herself.

She even posed for a few other pictures.

When the littles went to bed, Mallory and Ember were interested in a snack. Being the parents of the year that we are, we figured the 5 gallon tub of gourmet popcorn would suffice. They were totally on board and proceeded to eat not with their hands but with spoons and utensils from the play kitchen.

And you can see that the silliness continued ... Mallory is in a hamper and Ember is sitting on a doll stroller.

When that got boring ... they switched.

They topped off their evening with a little coloring by the fireplace (there was no fire!) Us big people had a few drinks, watched a few movies and some of us even updated our blogs. We really know how to party!! (and we're totally okay with it. :))

Tidbits from Christmas

We started the Christmas season with Mallory's program at her school.

She sang 3 songs with her class:

Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer

Frosty the Snowman

Sleigh Ride

She had a lot of fun and did a great job singing and doing the hand motions, even if she was the only one in her group of 10 kids that didn't want to wear the Rudolph nose. :)