Molly Crocker

Molly plays with this kitchen so much!! I'm expecting her to be baking real brownies any day now!!


Malone Family

Christmas….a little late

We celebrated Christmas a week late this year. I had to work on Christmas day.  And, we wanted to wait for Grandma and PopPop (Molly’s new nickname for my dad) Thompson from Iowa and Karol, big Dennis, and Karrie Malone to come from Alaska.  There is really nothing better than having family around for the holidays.  So, we celebrated our Christmas on New Year’s Day.  Don’t worry…we checked with Santa.  He was fine with it and was a little excited to have a lighter load for Christmas Eve. 

So, “Christmas” morning we woke up and started making brunch, which included my dad’s “special” eggs (a recipe that has been passed down from my Grandpa to my dad and now to me) and some sticky rolls.  Not to mention coffee with Bailey’s and Kahlua and Bloody Mary’s (YUM).  Big Dennis, Karol, Karrie, Dawn and Thom joined us for the day of fun, food, laughter, and a billion presents to open. 

Lauren was pretty excited about everything she got.  She got the pillow pet that she wanted, along with an e-reader, make-up box, trunk full of princess clothes, art supplies, Legos, books, a tea set, etc, etc….I could go on and on.  Lauren and Molly also got a wagon to ride in. I was probably more excited about that gift than they were. 

Molly’s 1st Christmas was a huge success.  She mostly just ate the wrapping paper after Lauren opened her presents for her.  But, she really enjoyed her new doll, activity table, little house, balls, and even her pillow pet.  Having her with us this year just made this Christmas even more complete!

After opening presents, playing and hanging out for awhile, we decided to go to Zoo Lights.  We’ve made Zoo Lights a tradition for the past 4 years.  Lauren loves Christmas lights.  So, seeing her face light up seeing all of the lights was amazing!

We wrapped up the evening back at our house for a turkey dinner and a game of Trivial Pursuit. 

All-in-all, it was a great day for us.  Like I said, having family around during the holidays is so important and amazing!  We were lucky to have them all here!

Please bear with the pictures…..there are a lot of them.

~Giddy-up Grandpa!~

~Oh, Christmas Tree~

~The stockings were hung by the chimney with care~

~Baby’s 1st Christmas~

~Plates for Grandmas~

~Cookie plate for Santa~

~Karol and big Dennis~

~Karrie~

~The girls and their pillow pets~

~PopPop and his Hawaiian Harley shirt~

~Dennis and his Big Bang Theory shirt~

~Aunt Dawn~

~Uncle Thom~

~The Princess~

~Grandma and PopPop~

~Big Blues~

~Baby Blues~

~Keeping warm at Zoo Lights~

~Karrie and Dennis~

~A Grandma and her love~

~”Merry Christmas to all”~

~”And to all a good-night”~

Finally…..a game worth watching.

The Hawkeyes came to town again for the second time this season to play Mizzou in the Insight Bowl.  It was a great game to see and we got to take Dennis’ uncle, my parents and some good friends.  The Hawkeyes finally won a game in AZ!!

Preston was so excited about the win, he needed a moment to celebrate.

Good end to a decent season.

Nerd-o

Dennis was cleaning out his nightstand one day and ran across his Army issued glasses.  Lauren put them on and voila……

8 months

Molly turned 8 months old the day after Christmas and she tries to do so many big girl things.  She is crawling all over the place and pulling herself up onto things.  She gets into EVERYTHING! She’s seriously going to be my fearless daredevil.  But, she really enjoys exploring everything around her.  And we love watching her eyes light up when she discovers something new.  Here are a few pictures of her doing just that.

She figured out that she could crawl through the Exersaucer.

She thought she was pretty cool here.

This is where she starts to realize that she doesn’t know what to do next.

“I’m stuck, Mommy!!”

“Get me outta here!”

Afternoon at the library

We made a trip to the library today. I love how excited Lauren gets when we go. I'm hoping her enthusiasm for reading will continue and then wear off on her sister.


















Malone Family

Deck the Halls

On Tuesday night we went with some friends to see a house that was AMAZINGLY decorated for Christmas.  Lauren is extremely into Christmas lights and decorations this year, so she was super excited to go see this. Here are some pictures of the beautiful house and a cute video of Lauren .

These pictures just don’t do this house justice!

Molly fell asleep WAY before we even got to the house!

Lauren dancing to the Christmas tunes!