Confession

Hi, I am Mallory and I am addicted to sweets. Yup that is right. I have a HUGE sweet tooth. However, today it was this guy who wanted to go to Krispy Kreme. Though I am not complaining.
This girl didn't complain either.
Actually I think she was thrilled to be out of the house.
To cement the idea in your heads that I have a huge sweet tooth. On Saturday we did an outing just for Elephant ears.
We headed to Folk Life. The elephants ears were totally worth the outing.
We are not sure if we have ever introduced Lenna to the Space Needle, but we did on Saturday for sure. It was a typical over cast Seattle weather. Which was great actually because it means parking was easy to find, and there was no line to get elephant ears.
We also got to go to a sweet birthday party. Lenna's friend Paige turned 1. It was a dog themed party. I love that Lenna and Marie are looking at all the other kids wondering why they are crying.
To bad it is rainy and icky weather because if it was sunny it would have made this weekend uber sweet! Oh well. I am just glad it is a 3 day weekend which makes it only 4 more days till the next weekend yippee!

Hair Cut

This is the best picture of the day. Lenna kept handing me her sunglasses so I put them on her. Then she took them off and put them on herself. I can't help but want to say 'Word' while I look at this photo.
The big news of the day is I cut Lenna's hair for the very first time. I was brushing her hair after her bath and it totally looked like a mullet. Since I really don't like mullets it was time to even her hair out a little bit. I took about a half inch off the back. Jared thought it was funny because it was totally unplanned. I just told him to go get me scissors and it was done and over before Lenna had time to know what happened.
I think it turned out okay. One day I will take her to get a real hair cut, but my quick trim I think will work out for a few more months.
In other fun news of the day. Lenna is starting to learn how to color. She got a lot of dots on this paper. It is fun to see her learn new skills.
We also spent a few minutes outside since it wasn't raining. However, we used her rain coat just in case it started to rain.
This photo is just me goofing off on my photo editing.
It is almost the weekend. Yippeee! I really hope it doesn't rain tomorrow so we can go to the Folk Life Festival and have elephant ears. It is kind of a tradition in our household (we didn't make it last year - hence the kind of). Anyway in case you wonder how it became a tradition...3 years ago tomorrow we bought our current house. We were engaged not even married yet and we bought our house; we are crazy like that! We met at Lake Union to sign all the paper work. It was exciting and nerve racking, but I have never regretted buying our house. Actually buying this house seems so simple now that we are back to searching for another house. We started our search in April of 07. We went house searching on a Saturday and 3 days later made an offer on our house and it was accepted. Simplest house shopping ever! Sometimes I wish I had 5 options again and all I had to do was pick the best house, but that is not the case this time around. Anyway after signing our life away to a mortgage we headed to the Space Needle to have elephant ears. Now every year we try and go back to have a treat. So if you have never been to Folk Life I highly recommend going it is quiet entertaining. Happy 3 years of being homeowners to us!

Silly Girl

Today was one of those days. It rained so we couldn't go outside to escape when Lenna got bored of her toys. So she had to entertain herself a little more than normal with things around the house. She is really into necklaces and putting them on herself, and she likes to put bowls on her head like hats, but today she found a headband. She put it on all by herself just the way you are supposed to.
This morning she was talking on her cell phone like a pro too.
Her personality is starting to come out, but today was a whine day. Lenna is normally a great sleeper, she goes to bed at 6:30pm and sleeps till after 7am. Then to spoil me more she normally takes 1-2 naps each 2+ hours long. But today was not that kind of a day. She woke up twice in the middle of the night (reminding me of the newborn to 4 months old stage), and she only took one nap that was 1.5 hours long. I hope all this whining produces teeth, but we shall see. Here is hoping tomorrow/tonight has more solid sleep time!

You know you are a mom when...

So you know you are a mom when you take tons of pictures. You know you are a mom with grandmas who don't live near by when you take lots of pictures and put them on your blog. In the last 24 hours I have taken 36 pictures. I also know I have other 24 hour periods when I have taken more than that and less than that. But I can't resist snapping away on my camera since taking a picture costs me nothing but time, and gives me a snapshot of something to remember forever.

Anyway we had a busy last 24 hours. On Sunday Lenna sported this cute dress. I am a sucker for polka dots. Lenna is a sucker for balls. I am also a sucker for LOST. Which Jared and I watched while Lenna slept. I didn't love the ending, but I didn't hate it. I am going to say LOST ending = neutral for me. I think maybe I am just more sad that it is over than anything else.
This morning when I was cleaning up after Lenna's breakfast it was really quiet. So I went to see what was up. Lenna happened to find a glass daddy left by the couch. She was so very very proud of herself for finding something so awesome. You can tell by this picture she is in the pack it around phase. Since both hands are completely full.
This morning since it was nice we headed to the zoo. But I took no pictures. NONE! Gasp! I know. It was a fun trip but a little disappointing since we went to see the new meerkat exhibit and there was no meerkats to be found. After a nap we headed to the beach.
Lenna was very daring and walked herself right into the water. She also enjoyed toting around rocks.
Since she was all wet and sandy her socks, shoes, and pants had to go before we got in the car. Which meant when we got home she was running around like this.
Notice the 4 necklaces around her neck. She really really loves to put on necklaces and wear them around most of the day.
Since she was hungry and tired from our adventures to the beach and dinner wasn't ready we headed outside for some distractions. I pulled out her car we had gotten on craigslist a year ago.
And we pushed her around.
Dad had fun too.
But after awhile she got tired, and her hair got all static -y.
And now she is like this in her crib, I hope! (This picture was taken Sunday during her nap time, she loves her bunny so very much.)
Lastly a quick video of Lenna running around babbling. One of these days she will be able to tell me things and I will understand them. Until then I will just enjoy the babbles.

I just want to say thank you to the sun for coming out when I wasn't expecting it. It makes Mondays much more bearable when there is an option to go outside and play.

She definitely knows what she wants

Lenna hasn't really started to talk. She babbles all the time, and screams mom mom mom when I am in the kitchen but nothing really in the form of talking. But she has an opinion, that is for sure. Today we went to Krispy Kreme for donuts. She loved it.She didn't stop eating even though she was paying attention to everyone else around her. Plus you can see her part of the donut is all over her face.
Then at dinner time, if she didn't want to eat something she gently put it to the side of her bowl. That is better than the floor in my opinion. Lucky for me she isn't super picky in eating. She definitely has her favorites but she will eat a lot of different foods.
The next part of this blog has nothing to do with Lenna. It has to deal with my new love/hobby/obsession with couponing. Truth be told I was not a huge shopper growing up. I could shop for myself just fine, but I was never into just shopping for the fun of it. But then I had a kid, and then I found couponing, and this combination made me love shopping. I get to find deals using coupons thus making couponing a game AND I get out of the house. Win - Win. Anyway this week was not overly exciting on deals, but still good. Earlier this week we got Huggies Diapers for $3.50 a pack making them like 15 cents a diaper after tax. Another day we hit up Walmart and got free Ketchup and pantiliners. Then that night I went to Target and got free toilet cleaning stuff and lotion. The Target people were funny. After my transaction was complete the manager was like you saved $30.85, that is amazing! The only down fall is you have to pay sales tax on things. So I guess you can't say I got them for free. I paid 2 bucks in sales tax. On Friday we hit up Starbucks and got vouchers for free Mariner's tickets. Which will be a most awesome date night! Lastly for this picture today we went to RiteAid and got wipes. I love wipes. Whoever invented them is great. I don't however like to pay a lot for them. So the stars aligned and I got 8 boxes of wipes for 8.43 after tax. That is cheaper than Costco or Sam's Club! Ahhh my cupboards are getting full. I better find a bigger house sooner than later!

I am excited

I will admit, I love shoes, and bags. I tend to have a lot of them. And in all honesty I should probably down size and get rid of some. I do throw away shoes since they eventually fall apart, but on most of my bags they get circulated and used, or forgotten and stuff in my big basket in my closet. However my very first diaper bag got so used and abused that I threw it away. It was replaced by a Christmas gift, but I was feeling it was time for a change and something new. Then this arrived in the mail.I am in love. A diaper bag that doesn't look like a diaper bag! I switched all my stuff over immediately from my other diaper bag! I also love that my mom will go to the JJ Cole sale for me and get me awesome stuff! Thank you mom!

I am also in love with afternoon naps. I got a 2 hour nap in and Lenna is still going strong. I should probably go wake her up now that I think about it...or maybe I will just start dinner. Maybe I shouldn't be blogging when I am groggy....Yay naps!

Rockin' Out

Yesterday I felt like a cool mom. I took Lenna to the library to see Caspar Babypants. It is not every day that you are excited to take your kid to the library to see a rock star. Caspar Babypants is the lead singer of the band The President of the United States of America. Do you remember the song Peaches? Ya I liked that song growing up. Well he sang kids songs and a Nirvana song, and it was so much fun. Anyway here he is jammin' out with all his little buddies.
Here are a few of my buddies. They were the best. They got there early and saved Lenna and I a spot. They were even pretty patient about waiting for the show to start.
Here are more of my buds. They are both awesome!
I laugh when I look at this picture. Having kids is the best! Even if they all don't want to smile for you when you take a picture.
Lenna loved getting tickled. And she loved the show. She totally just sat on my lap and clapped and had a good time.
Here is another picture of Caspar Babypants.
I also took a bunch of random videos. Some of are the Caspar Babypants performance. And one is of Lenna smacking her lips together. She likes to smack her lips while eating her yogurt in the morning. I think it is pretty funny and cute.







Today we had a surprise visit from a friend and she ate lunch with Lenna. These two enjoyed talking to each other while they ate.
So fun and so cute! One day Lenna will be older and will tell me I can't take pictures like this because it will embarrass her and her friends. At least right now the girls with both smile for me!

Trouble

This morning we are up early. I am not a fan of early. Anyway Lenna has a new trick. She has discovered she can open drawers and cupboards. ALL OF THEM. Which means that I am constantly picking up messes. This is where I found her this morning.She brought her baby with her. She must be teaching her baby the art of destruction. Look how proud she is. I think this means I am in for lots of trouble with Lenna from here on out.
On a different note. Yesterday was Lenna's very first time eating McDonald's food at McDonald's. She ate her entire cheeseburger, some fries, and some milk. Seriously where does this girl put all her food!
Happy to be out and about.
Laughing with her friends! Thanks for inviting us to lunch we had so much fun!
Yesterday I spent a lot of time in the yard. We really neglected a lot of the yard work last year. But this year we are bound to make our yard look nice. The only problem is the yard waste collection day needs to come more than every two weeks. We have almost filled out our yard waste can and it won't get emptied for another week! Oh well at least our yard is starting to look nice.

Duct Tape Really Does Solve Problems

Yesterday I was determined to get one of my tomato plants planted. I had been contemplating the upside down method for a few years, and almost bought a container to do it, but then I thought I could make my own container. Yesterday was the actual day I was inspired to try and do it myself. I stole a 2 liter pop bottle from our food storage reserve. Which I will replenish. Speaking of which anyone want to give me an empty 2 liter bottle? Anyway after getting the pop bottle I got out my Dremel (yes it is my Dremel) and safety glasses and drilling and cutting happened. After getting it all ready I realized there was NO WAY I was going to get the plant into the pop bottle nor was I able to thread the roots through the pop bottle spout. I was upset! I really wanted this to work. And with all this trying I may or may not have really injured the plant itself. Then I thought why don't I just cut the pop bottle in half and then duct tape it back together. It worked like a charm. And I think the plant is okay. This morning there was a blossom on it, so I am calling this project a success. Thank you duct tape!
Yesterday we also went to the zoo. We even let Lenna run wild for a little bit.
We saw some orangutans walking and sleeping under burlap bags

Which must have gave Lenna an idea to sleep. She passed out on the way home.
Today she woke up and was totally upset I wouldn't let her play with dvds and chocolate chips, so I figured I would let her have her melt down in her crib. After she calmed down I peeked in to find her reading to herself.

What a silly girl!
As an added bonus today she did so well at church we didn't even have to take her out. Woohoo!