Catching Up a Bit

I can't believe we are already in the middle of Christmas fun! This was one of the photos that one of our good friends Amber took for us. She took a bunch and I'm HOPEFULLY going to be getting Christmas cards out soon. I've never done them before...but you have to start sometime, right? :)

Sadly the month of November flew by and I hardly took any pictures! One of the fun things we did though was go on a retreat with two couples from our new married group Bible study. The weekend was so fun, and, since we all three have three young ones AND all three of the us women are pregnant, it was pretty relaxing as we centered most of our activities around nap times :)

Here are some pictures of us at the Santa Barbara zoo

The ONLY animal that got a reaction out of Kali May was the flamingos. Apparently in her book, animals should not be pink or something. Here's her face looking at them:
Our friends Mike and Jennie and their daughter Ashley
Our friends Morgan and Brittanie and their son Emmett


oh... and I know this is a random photo...it is back from Halloween time, but it is the best "14 week" belly photo I have. I have been HORRIBLE with taking pics of my belly this time around, but I will try to get another one taken SOON!
Other than retreats, Kali May and I went to Montana and spent a week there visiting my parents and working on various projects up there. We made it JUST in time for my dad's 60th bday, and we really just had a TON of fun the whole week. Poor and wonderful Scott stayed home and worked a TON of overtime. He said it made the week go by more quickly, but I think that's just his godly attitude talking.

Just last week for Thanksgiving we went to Scott's cousin Rob and his wife Kristyn's house for Thanksgiving dinner. It was very fun to get to hang out with Scott's family and also Kristyn's side of the family, and the food was AMAZING (and that's not just a pregnant belly talking!) We don't get to hang out with Rob and Kristyn very much, so it was a treat to get to spend a little time with them.

Well, I am off to go bake something... and enjoy Christmas music!!! I LOVE this time of year!!!

Halloween

So here are the most important things I learned this Halloween:

A) My daughter loves fires and trick-or-treaters, and the packaging of pretty much any candy

B) Oddly enough, pixi sticks are one of the most popular Halloween candies you can hand out!

My husband had the brilliant idea to borrow the Niednagels fire pit and set up camp in our front yard yesterday evening. It was fun to get to watch everyone walk by. We walked around to a few neighbors with Kali May just to say hi.... but no we did not get any candy out of it (even though mom wanted to:) ).

Here are some pictures of the fun we had!

Scott masterfully carving his pumpkin

Pumpkins Done!!
Auntie Megan holding a very wide eyed Kali May - we didn't get any pictures of her smiling...but she was about as Hyper and happy as I have ever seen this girl. Could be due to the skittle bag she has in her mouth.....but I promise it wasn't open!
Starting up the fire
sadly alot of our pictures are blurry since either the fire was in the way, or we were trying to take pictures with the flash off. You'll get the idea though :) Grandma Marcia came over to hang out with us for awhile
another wide eyed look from our little pumpkin. or we thought she maybe looked more like a carrot :)
Me and Megs
Us with our pumpkins
us with Kali May.... haha she thought it was very funny to take daddy's hat off
waiting for more trick or treaters!

8 Months

So I've noticed a theme that all my pictures look blurry on here...and they aren't on my computer. any one know why that would be?

Anyways - here is our 8 month old!!! Being new parents, we just can't believe how much babies change when they are this little. A Month ago she was just starting to "scooch" around, and now she can crawl, crawl up into a standing position when she has something to hold (like the coffee table), and can walk along the edge of whatever she is holding. I don't even want to know how soon she will be officially walking without holding on!

She also has learned a couple new tricks. She can do "high five"! now, although she doesn't know that you should quit slapping the person's hand and well keep going as long as you want :) Also, we've always thought she was a little on the "charismatic" side. She loves to put her arm up and place her hand on the top of your forhead, as though "blessing" you. So now, every time she raises her hands, we yell out (nicely) "Praise the Lord!". She thinks this is great fun ha ha and has started raising her arms ALLL the time. I'm not sure what we got ourselves into.........

So far she really doesn't like eating solid foods at all, but she does much better with finger food type things than anything I give her with a spoon. hmmmm... I am not sure what else is new, but she is TONS of fun right now. oh, and her daddy whistling is her new favorite thing. She always gets huge smiles when she hears hm. Oh, and she can say "dadda" now in addition to "mamma" ! I don't think she quite says either one specifically to Scott and I yet, but she can say them :)

ok, I'll quit writing now. Here she is :)

kind of an odd/serious expression...but I love her hair in the picture - its so soft and fluffy right now!

Rainy Days and Pumpkin Patches

The weather here is great. One day it can be hot, and the next day it will be raining! I love it when it is like that - adds variety :)

Anyways, on the last rainy day we had to take advantage of this cute brown coat that a friend gave Kali May (since she's about to outgrow it) while daddy worked on cutting the baseboards for our floor. We definitely got the more fun job!


This weekend Megan's parents were here to visit (and like a dork I didn't get a picture with them!), and we went to the pumpkin patch yesterday. Here are a few photos from the fun.

The Perks of Unusual Cysts

As many of you read in the last post, we already found out that we're having a boy! I know I know, I feel really spoiled to get to find out so early. But, one of the perks of having an unusual cyst is that you get ultrasounds at EVERY monthly checkup. So, even though this last week was only my 12 wk check up, the doctor said he could check and see for me. He doubted that we would be able to tell, but once we looked our little guy was in such good position that even I could clearly see that we MUST be having a boy (or our little girl is playing a really amazing trick on us)!

The other great part about the ultrasound was that it looks like my cyst has disappeared! I have to go get a special ultrasound done some place next week, but my doctor couldn't find it anywhere on his ultrasound machine. We're so thankful, and I'm especially thankful that I didn't end up having surgery if it turns out it was just a normal "disappearing" cyst that some women get :) :)

Ok, that's all.... I just felt the need to explain how we found out about our little baby boy so quickly!

A Little Fun

Although we've been really slow at getting pictures up here, we have been having quite a bit of fun in the last few months. Here are a few fun pictures we caught of Kali May.....and I am realizing I haven't taken any of my husband lately! I will try to fix that!

"what....is there something on my head?"

Scott took this picture. She adores him, can't you tell? :)

Trying on Daddy's shoes!

Me at 10 weeks - let the belly shots begin! (oh, and we already found out it is a BOY!)

How a morning sick mom feels about baby food (smashed bananas and carrots to be exact)

How baby feels about baby food (smashed bananas and carrots to be exact)

Seven Months

As seems usual lately, I haven't posted anything in awhile! We actually have a lot more pictures, and hopefully I will catch up soon. This week I have been feeling a little relief from the morning sickness, so I am trying to get back on "track" with everything!

Kali May turned seven months old last week! She's doing lots of fun things now... she crawls...but it is her version of crawling...somehow her whole body remains on the floor but she is able to move wherever she wants... I think it is what a little snake would look like trying to "slither" with arms and legs :) She also says "mama", "baba", and lots of other letters followed with the "aw" sound, but I am not sure if she has a meaning for any of them, although Scott is pretty sure she knows what "mama" means. She is slowly warming up to eating, and her very favorite thing is to get my apple after I have eaten everything I want off of it. She tries to hold it and eat it just like me...its very funny!

Sneezes, Coughs, and Burps :)

I don't have a picture to go with this, but I just have to share that my daughter is so funny! Whenever she or I sneeze or cough or when she burps after her bottle , and I follow it up with an "excuse me/you" or "bless me/you", she lets out a loud laugh and gives me a huge smile like I just told her a joke. HA! who knows why she has decided these things are funny....but I like it!

Big Sister

That's right folks....Kali May is officially going to be a

BIG SISTER :)

Number two is on the way! I think most anyone who might read this blog probably already knows this and knows the story, but the "short" version is that I was scheduled to have surgery to remove a cyst in my right ovary last week. However, when we went in for the pre-opp appointment, my doctor did an ultrasound to look at the cyst one more time, and he found a little extra treasure in there!!!

Our baby is about six weeks along, and we're very excited. Except for the whole morning sickness part... I'm really not enjoying or very excited about that at all. Thankfully so far this week I have only been sick in the mornings - I'm praying it stays that way (or goes away altogether - I could definitely handle NOT throwing up any more)!

Also, in case you are wondering about the cyst, we are not absolutely sure what kind it is, but as long as it does not grow, my doctor does not see any "extra" risk being added to this pregnancy. And, if it DOES grow, it is possible to do surgery during my second trimester. Who knew you could have surgery on your ovary while you were pregnant!?!

So anyways, we are not worried at all (seriously!) because we know that God is in control of this whole situation and He is watching out for our baby much better than we could :) It was so funny... when we found out, the first thing that Scott said was "PHEW! I thought with this surgery and everything, our kids were going to be really far apart in age...like two years maybe even!" :) :) We both would love to have our kids close in age, and so it seems like at this moment that God is granting us that! :) We'll keep you posted on any surgery updates, but Lord willing I won't need to have surgery until AFTER Baby Mallon #2 arrives!

Birthdays!

Since Scott and I have birthdays exactly one week apart, we usually try to do something together. but this year, we celebrated my birthday the weekend before the actual day, then we celebrated Scott's ON his birthday, and on Saturday we are getting together with Scott's family for a bday bbq... but I guess three parties are better than one, right?

Here we are at TBo's for Scott's birthday

Last weekend for my bday Scott found crab at a good price, so he invited Megan over and cooked it (outside so it wouldn't smell up the house :) )!! The funny thing was, we all decided that we don't really like crab that much. But, it was really fun!!
Megan with her leg
Me with my leg

Scott with his leg... getting ready to tickle me of course

yeah!! we had super fun birthdays :) :)

6 months and lots of fun

Kali May is already half way to seven months old now... so I know I am really late in posting these up...but here are a few photos of our six month old!

Now, in addition to sitting in the chair, she has started trying to climb up in the chair when I put her down by it!

Here she is!
Trying out Daddy's hat and some cool karate move
HA!!! Kali May hasn't started crawling too far yet, but she "scooches" all over in a circle. I don't know if you guys can see this picture and the red marks on her face...but we really didn't beat her up.... she did it in her crib! She ALWAYS sleeps flat on her back, and just in the last two days when I have gone into the bedroom I will find her on the opposite end of the crib. This time, I think she moved around before she fell asleep and ended up on her tummy with her face stuck in a corner and in her blanket. there were red sleep marks all over!
Her first "owie" besides doctor shots
taking a "nap" with dad
First food..... she "loved" it. Actually... she HATES to eat. Any tips from moms????
a box!!! what a fun toy!

Happy Birthday Grandma

Ok, so I wanted to do this for all of the grandma's birthdays, and I already just missed Grandma Jean's (so this can be a late present for you too Grandma Jean - we love you too!), however, it was my mom's birthday yesterday and Kali May and I made a sign for her and I actually got around to getting some pictures taken :) (I've been bad lately!)

Here's my attempt to get pictures for Grandma:

Look at her sitting up skills! and look at her belly :P!
There we go..... the best attempt :)!

Remodeling :)

Ok, so in the LITTLE spare time that Scott has had this summer... he has been busy remodeling our living room! We are now pretty much done...except for finishing the baseboards around the floor...but here are some before and after photos. (Oh, and my mom and I made curtains..that was our contribution although I give most of the credit to my mom!) I'm so thankful for my husband's "handy" skills and that he WANTS to redo things. I know that we would not be able to/would not want to spend the money on such home improvements if Scott wasn't able to cut the cost a TON by doing everything himself. So three cheers for my husband - I love him SOOOOOOO much!!! God was very kind to me because I grew up with a dad that was very good at all kinds of "handy" stuff as well, and I never knew how used to that I was until I got married and got a place of my own where things needed to be fixed, and I realized I wouldn't even know where to start on my own! So I am DOUBLY thankful for both my dad, and for God providing me with a husband very much like my dad in that way :)

"Before" Living Room - notice the blanket being used as a curtain since the blind was missing
"Before Shot" of the wall and tile floor behind it - Scott just getting started.
"Before Shot" of the wall from our stairs..and you can see that we just had blinds on the windows
and...AFTER!!! Ta DA!!! I LOVE the hardwood floors much better than the very stained carpet and the tile floors that were in there...and Scott did an amazing job putting them in! and he was very patient with me when I tried to help :) haha. Also, the funniest thing I think is that after we finished...we both agreed that although we love having hardwood... a living room needs some carpet! so, we bought an inexpensive rug to complete the room... and we love it all!
another view of the living room and our big windows
The living room now with the curtains... no more blanket. yeah!!
Some "demo" pictures of all of Scott's work! Notice the dust in the air
Me trying to snap a photo. this is Scott's "putting up with me but I'm tired - I just tore down a wall!" look
me wearing some very needed headphones. I think they'll be coming into style soon
Scott smoothing out the concrete after removing the tile. This was a HORRIBLY tedious and long job.

Yeah - hardwood floor!
Scott putting in the last piece!!! yeah!!!

Uncle Andrew's Visit

The first week of August my brother came to visit for the WHOLE WEEK! It was great fun! I really wish he lived closer, but I'm very thankful that we got to just hang out as much as we did.

Here are some photos from the week:

Megan came over to say hi (since Andrew is practically her brother too)

Kali May trying to sing opera??? I guess she was putting on a show for Andrew
My cool brother eating lunch with us after Church.
Andrew introduced us to playing frisbee golf. It was a LOT of fun, although I was very thankful that Andrew and Scott were there to help push Kali May's stroller through the course grounds (they don't exactly make them "stroller friendly"). Kali May liked the frisbees too!
Andrew's professional throw stance
Scott's skills
ha. my "skills" :)
The three amigos heading to the next course
Kali May and I taking a break while the guys finished up the last 5 holes
Andrew monitoring Kali May's attempt to get my camera
Yummy - Uncle Andrew's feet all to myself!!!!
Ice Cream at Coldstones. I probably should have tried to capture a better shot... but I think Andrew posed like this on purpose :)
Uncle Andrew and his niece :) :) Thanks SOOOOOOOOOOOO much for visiting us brother! :) we love you!

5 Months

Kali May keeps growing!! (I know... totally unusual for a baby, huh). Here are her chair pictures plus a few others

My friend Abby came to help babysit Kali May while I did some housework, and ended up taking care of a baby with a fever! It was Kali May's first time to ever be even remotely sick. I am guessing she is in some stage of teething, as she was really upset for about three days..... but no sign of an actual tooth yet! Here is Abby trying to imitate Kali May's look while we put a cool washcloth on her to cool her down
Kiddie Pool!!! Kali May is a little young to just "let loose" in the kiddi pool....so after awhile of trying to hold her afloat...
...we put the bumbo to good use! Does anyone know if I just wrecked my bumbo? It seems fine...but I didn't read the instructions to see if it was made to be submersed in pool water or not. It worked GREAT though... it floated her around and everything! (don't worry we stayed right by her side)
Kali May's newest trick... she can sit up (with just a little assistance from the boppy). Here she is with her favorite toy of the day... dad's deodorant!
isn't deodorant interesting???
let me just look at the bottom of this thing...
oops.... got a little distracted :)

Sorry for the delay in posting. It seems like this month has been so busy....I really can't think of what is keeping us busy...but just life I guess :) Scott finished up some major remodeling projects the beginning of the month (pictures to come), and then he was also gone on a four day backpacking trip with some guys from Bible study (pictures to come). He's also on a line crew right now that works a ton of overtime... so right now a 60 hour week is about the least he is working. God's definitely given us TONS of blessings this month and we have nothing to complain about..... but I won't mind at all if the overtime hours get reduced in the near future so Scott can be home with us more :)

Kali May and I have mostly just been hanging out at home. It's so fun to get to see her grow and change so quickly. When you babysit little babies, you are never quite there to actually see their little brains working and watch overnight as they learn a whole new skill......I never knew moms and dads got to have so much fun! :)

Fourth of July

We spent the 4th at Grandpa Mike's house (and the pool) :) It was great fun hanging out with Scott's family...and my mom and Megan and Monica were there as well! Here are a few photos!

Scott and the girls blowing bubbles....and no we didn't even have to ask Scott to join in the fun... I think he started it!

Kali May and her daddy taking a swim together for the first time!
He got smiles out of her! (I haven't been able to yet)


the girls :)
the girls eating Grandpa Mike's amazing steaks :)

My mom and me :)
We celebrated Emma's birthday too! She wasn't too sure about the cake though..... as she had really wanted a "Dora" one.....
Getting ready to blow out her candles!
Paige helping her open her presents
now who were these presents for...? :)
The four of us escaped (while Grandma Marcia ad Grandma Bee babysat Kali May!) to watch fireworks
weirdos
weirdos 2
weirdos 3
weirdos 4
THE weirdo :)
yeah! happy 4th of July!

Mom's Visit

I can't believe my mom's visit is already over! She flew back to my dad (we were sad he couldn't come but it is a busy busy time on the farm!) yesterday, and Kali May and I miss her tons already!!! (oh and scott too :) ! We had tons of fun and mom was so helpful with all kinds of things and really gave me a break from my normal tasks with Kali May.... I felt VERY spoiled!!!! :) I could write lots of stuff about our adventures, but I think people like pictures better....so here are some pictures :) :)

We started her trip off by picking up an exersaucer that our good friend Deidre is loaning us....this was Kali May's first time in it and you can tell she was super excited - thanks so much Deidre! :)

Smiles for Grandma :) This is what she looks like 90% of the time, but for some reason I have a hard time capturing her smiles on film usually!
Found her feet!!! She has now graduated to inserting her foot in her mouth every chance she gets
laughing with Grandma
laughing some more :)
Grandma and Megan giving Kali May a bath!
Grandma and Kali May :)
We pretty much went to the pool every day. it was so great!
We went to Grandma Marcia's house and played with Aunt Katie and her girls alot too. I sadly should have gotten more pictures of this (ie like one of Grandma Marcia at all.... !).... next time I'll do better!
Paige and Emma posing in their ballerina outfits
Kali May and I at the pool
checking out the water. she was fine with it until her mean mother let her face go in the water...
This was the funniest thing. Whenever we got in the water and Grandma would hold her, she would kick back into a "tanning" position....pull her hat down over her face...and go to sleep in the sun! it was so cute!
Grandma and Kali May
Megan and her sister Monica...they took us to Hollywood Bowl on July 3rd
Trying to take a picture by a really cool tree...haha... slightly awkward poses but it worked!
Kali May waiting for the concert to start
Group shot
The Concert!
The girls helping me cover poor little Kali May's ears from the noise!
my mom rocking Kali May to sleep under the blanket :)
Fireworks at the end of the show!!!

a few more

ok so I couldn't quite adding more pictures. the smiley ones below are really how she looks 90% of the time...but for some reason when we pull a camera out to take "nice" photos (not just random ones for fun) she is stubborn and "refuses" to smile really big.....haha.... is this a sign of personality traits to come?? :) :) 

Four Months!

Last Tuesday Kali May turned four months old! My mom is here visiting, so we had fun doing a little "photo" shoot. Here are just a few of my favorites :) 

and of course...the chair picture!

First Beach Trip

While my uncles were here we headed out to Ventura Beach... it was Kali May's first time to touch sand or the ocean! We HAD to take lots of photos of course...here are just a few of them :)

My mom is sure Kali May is trying to write her name in the sand here...

Testing it out...
Look at me!!!
Do I like this stuff?
I'm sinking I'm sinking!
Cute chubs :)
I LOVE this picture :) 
Family Shot!
Daddy and Daughter checking out the ocean

First time touching the ocean water
First impression of the cold ocean water! haha! (aren't we cruel?)
Packing up.... safely in daddy's arms away from the sand and the ocean. She was done after the above picture.
Goodbye beautiful ocean!

Visit from my Uncles

This weekend two of my uncles (from my dad's side) were able to stop by and visit! We had a ton of fun with them, even though Kali May was a little out of sorts for the first day or so. She warmed up to them quickly though :) 

At church with Uncle Phil

All the guys and Kali May at the beach
The Girls and Uncle Joe
The girls and Uncle Phil
Listening to Uncle Joe tell a story...or she she trying to tell him a story....? 
Thanks for coming to visit us!!!! :) 

Bible Study Game Night

Last Thursday we had a game night at our house in honor of Bible Study being done for the summer. It was great fun...I think Kali May enjoyed it the most :) Here are some photos!

Caught in Action

here are just a few pictures that we randomly took that I like :) 

Kali May "caught" in the middle of trying to eat her turtle. This is a pretty calm attempt compared to some of her puppy-like attacks to her toys/blankets/peoples' fingers! ;) 

Bubbles! Kali May is always making bubbles. 
Cute chubby cheeks :) 

Three Months

Here are Kali May's 3 Month Chair pictures. I took these last week and decided I wanted to wait for Scott to get home to help me get better ones. When I'm all alone I am a little nervous about her toppling over and hitting her head.... so it is not easy to concentrate on that, taking a picture, AND making her smile! :) But... a week and a half has now gone by and I haven't taken the time to redo the pictures... so alas her three month ones don't show off how smiley she usually is...but the do show how big she is getting!! :) 

Rob and Kristyn's Wedding

This last weekend we drove down to Del Mar (near San Diego) for cousin Rob's wedding. The long anticipated weekend went by SOOO quickly!! We stayed at a hotel right near the beach.. however, everything happened so fast that we didn't even get a chance to take Kali May to the beach :( (Scott and I did get to take a nice walk along the shore though while the Grandmas babysat :) 

Here's some photos from the very fun weekend! 

Scott and Kali May sporting a hat that she has outgrown already!

Let's try another hat!


Grandma Jean and Kali May keeping cool in the ocean breeze
Taking a snooze.... she really likes her blankets :)
Scott and I all dressed up for the wedding. Scott was an usher so I was excited that we "had" to get fancied up :) 
The Three of Us
Uncle Eric and his girlfriend Barb
Katie taking pictures of her girls

Pretty flower girls!


The cousins...one last shot before Rob is married :)
Getting ready for a family shot
Family Shot :)
Me and Emma ;)
Us with the girls :)
Rob's family plus Scott and Katie
Rob and his dad
Grandma Marcia and Emma ;)
Rob and his mom and step dad
Waiting for the bride to come down the isle...

Rob and Kristyn :)
My handsome husband! I LOVE him!! :)
The wedding photographer stopped taking pictures and offered to take ours with OUR camera...we felt privileged to get a free professional photo haha ;) 
here they are !! (the flower girls that is) Emma just having fun and Paige, the sweet older sister, trying to direct her:)

Here's the bride... so beautiful!! She waited until this moment to have Rob see her walking down the isle... they did all their pictures together after the ceremony.
Introducing Rob and Kristyn Tupper!
Family exiting the service
Scott having fun with the food ;) 

Rob's dad, Mike, and his sister Christy
My dad in law and me :) 
Grandma Marcia and Kali May
Kali May's reaction to the wedding...hehe just kidding ROb and Kristyn :) 
The three cousins. Kali May LOVES these two and is already captivated by their every move. I can only imagine she will be following them around begging them to let her play too very soon :)

The Kinder "Garden"

Aunt Katie teaches kindergarten at the same school that Paige goes to kindergarten at, and so we went to check out their big end of the year project. The whole school had a theme of "outdoors", and so the kindergarden class decided to play off their name and create a large outdoor "kinder - garden." It was really cool!!! We didn't get too get too many pictures of Katie as she was busy helping run the day, but we got quite a few of all of their projects and of Paige. Here they are!

Paige doing a her presentation to tell us all about worms. 


The whole group (except Grandma Marcia who is taking the picture). Grandma Jean and "Aunt" Penny (Grandma Jean's sister) were down here for the cousin Rob's wedding, so they got to come too! 
Giant Ant Hill!
Butterflies
Emma playing by the caterpillars

Dragonflies
My favorite part was the Beehive!!! Maybe it is because my mom was always known as "Mrs. Bee" in the classroom...but I just thought this part was the best! 



Grandma Jean and Aunt Penny taking care of Kali May for me :) 
Lunch time for Kali May
Kali May just LOVES Paige! She can always get a smile out of her :)
Grandma Jean and Kali May trying to talk at the same time! 

"Auntie" Megan's Birthday!

Aunt Katie's Birthday!

Fun with Daddy - Practicing my Standing

Outside Fun

Last weekend we needed to repaint our fence to keep up with our home association's requirements..and we decided to take Kali May outside and let her enjoy the grass (and ants and who knows what other bugs found her) for a little while.

Here are some photos of her in the grass, and her daddy painting the fence (the paint on his cheek is compliments of his loving wife.. I only wished I could have gotten more on him but he's too quick!)

Kali May's Talents

Ha, so before Kali May I would always read all of my friends blogs and it seemed like they were always giving this random "list" of things that their baby could do. I never understood why it was so important to blog about that, but now that Kali May is learning to do more things than eat and sleep... I have to "eat my thoughts"....because I just can't wait to share all of her "talents" with the grandmas and aunts and so ons that read this... so... here goes my first official list of things that Kali May can now do at the old age of 2 and a half months:

ROLL ING OVER

(from her tummy to her back).... she just did this for the first time TODAY!! I was so excited because up until now she has HATED being on her tummy and wouldn't do anything but pull her head up and whimper like "are we done with this yet?"

SMILING/TALKING

Kali May has been smiling ever since she was born. She still has not decided/figured out how to laugh...but she keeps getting more and more smiles to show us all the time...it's so fun! She also is using her voice and "talking" all the time. 

KICKING

Kicking is her FAVORITE favorite favorite thing to do. She can be perfectly content for a LONG time just laying on her back, staring at some mysterious wonder on our blank ceiling, and kicking away. 

STANDING

Standing is her next favorite thing to do. She can stand straight up and balance herself while only holding on to one finger in each hand...and she gets SOOOO proud of herself whenever daddy comes home and they practice this. We, not being biased at all, are SURE she'll be walking in two months or so. 

WATCHING/EATING TOYS

While she's laying on her back I hang a little mobile on an arch thing that we got from my uncle...she loves to lay there and kick the arch so that the toys jiggle. She also has a doll (name Suzie Chrunchkins due to her very "chrunchy and krinkly" sounding clothes) attached to her car seat. She will look at Suzie Chrunchkins and smile and smile like she is a real person. then, as quick as can be, she will grab her feet and insert them in her mouth...and proceed to try as hard as possible to soak them in slobber before lettting her go. Poor Suzie.... 

PEEK A BOO

Kali May is not at ALL entertained if we try to play peek a boo with her by hiding our faces and then jumping out with exclamations of "peekaboo!". Not at ALL. However, If we put a burp cloth or light blanket over her head, she will grab it, pull it down, and then look at us to make sure we are watching and laughing before breaking out into huge smiles. 

I think those are her main talents thus far. She also is very good at grabbing things with her hands, and will often clasp them together in front of her (I'm sure she's praying :)). She tries to eat her whole hand...and sometimes both at once when she's really excited... whenever I forget to give her a pacifier....she LOVES to have things in her mouth.  We've also discovered that she doesn't really like to be "cradled" in your arms...she much prefers the upright position, or facing outwards, or anything like that. And when she's sleeping... she HAS to have something soft and cuddly (receiving blankets are great) up against her cheeks....possibly even covering her whole face if mommy isn't watching carefully. 

Ok.... non-moms can now make fun of me too for making lists of my baby's talents! :) Thanks for reading to whoever actually go through all this!

Grandpa and Kali May

My Aunt Bonnie has some amazing photoshopping skills, and she has been having some fun with "decorating" pictures of little Kali May. This one is one of my favorites because it has Kali May AND my Grandpa :) 

First Shots

Kali May got her first set of shots yesterday :( Although she did let out some load screams/cries right when the nurse gave the shots (boy would I hate to have that job all day long), about a minute later she looked just like she did in the picture below.. as happy as can be. Thank goodness babies don't have too grand of memories at this age :) !!!

Remodeling

When we moved into our house we had a weird little "tv nook" in the middle of our entry way. It wouldn't be that weird I guess if we had a tv that would have fit in it, or anything else we really wanted to put in there....but we had no use for it, so we deemed it "weird." 

This weekend, Scott decided to get rid of it!!! We are also planning on redoing our fireplace, and then finally putting in hardwood flooring in both the entry way and the living room... so this was really just the first of three steps :) Here are some photos of the big event... hopefully more coming soon!

The "weird" nook still in place

The beginning of demolition
doesn't it look kind of fun?
My strong husband tearing down walls

All gone~ although I think we will have drywall dust all over everything FOREVER
ha. We had put Kali May up in our bedroom with the door closed so she wouldn't inhale the dust. When I went back up to get her...this is what I found. She apparently can sleep just great to the background music of loud saws and hammers pounding. 

2 Months Old

I'm a little late (haha as usual lately) getting these up, but here our some photos from April 24th when she turned 2 months old!

Family Photo Attempt #1

Family Photo Attempt #2
She is standing almost all on her own! It is crazy seeing her little legs support herself. Scott will help her "stand" every night when he gets home and she gets sooooo proud of herself every time. She LOVES it. 
Scott TRYING to get her to smile for the camera
The best smile we could get after MANY tries. ha. but look how much better she is sitting now!! 

First Swim!

Last week we decided it was time for Kali May to test out the blue waters of the swimming pool. We discovered that not many parents must take their two month olds swimming, since there wasn't a swim suit or swim diaper even CLOSE to her size. However, that didn't stop us. We secured her diaper and swim suit on with hair ties in the back, and in she went!

The water was super cold, so she only lasted for a total of about three minutes, but I think we definitely saw some Michael Phelps qualities in her. 

Making Faces at Daddy

Scott and Kali May have so much fun together every day when he gets home from work. Here are just a couple faces i caught her making at him :) 

Montana!

ok, so I know it has been FOREVER since I updated this! I wanted to post some photos from Montana, but sadly half of our photos were on our moms camera, and for some reason the cd of pics we made to take with us won't work on this computer! So anyways, these are just half of the photos that I hope to have... I noticed that none of the group pictures were in this half...and also there are no photos of my mom and Kali May in here!! I will try to get a few on here soon :) 

Here we are on the road... Scott the Hero Driver!! He drove the whole way up and back except for about and hour each way (and it's a 26 hr drive)

On the way up we stopped and stayed at Scott's Aunt Rhonda and Uncle Larry's house. We had tons of fun with them!

A "Burping" Stop

In Montana! Scott and dad hooking up dads contraption for catching new born calves to tag them.
Dad in action 
Dragging a newborn calf to a safe and warm pen since the mom was sadly not taking care of it right away!
Dad holding his grandaughter for the first time :) 
Four Generations :) 
Four Generations again, this time with grandma instead of Grandpa
Great Uncle Joe. He and his whole family had a really fun get together with us while we were there!
Silly Faces with Kali May

Cindi and Larry (Megan's parents) meeting Kali May

Scott's favorite meal of the trip... meat :)
My brother Andrew, Megan's sister Monica, and her boyfriend Andrew hanging out
Scott working on decorating an Easter egg Ukrainian style (Sp?)
You take this took and melt wax into it, and then use it to make designs and different colored patches all over the eggs!
Scott and Kali May at the sunrise Easter service. We have it at the church cemetery. Isn't that kind of funny?
Kali May all bundled up with socks on her hands for the early morning service.
Easter Flowers
The final eggs from Andrew, Me, and Scott (in that order from left to right)
My brother informing Kali May of important things
Moms amazing cheesecake!
my good looking brother
My daughter and I :) 

ha. an attempt to put a bow in her hair

ROAD TRIP

Yeah!!! Kali May is officially getting ready for her first big road trip. Scott decided to take the next two weeks off of work, so we are DRIVING to Montana starting either tonight or tomorrow.... 

Yeah! I am very excited that my husband has two whole weeks off to spend with us, and I'm very excited that my dad and family in Montana will get to meet Kali May, and I'm very excited about being on the road with a six week old for over 26 hours of driving. haha...ok....maybe I'm not to sure about that last part, but it will be an adventure for sure!!! 

wish us luck! :) 

A Day with Emma

On Tuesday my niece Emma came to spend the day with us. She was such a good little helper with Kali May all day long! We had fun taking a few pictures in the afternoon...

silly faces

I kept getting Emma with her eyes closed! Kali May was trying to talk.

 a little better if I just would have got Emma in the picture more!

"what's going on?"

Emma holding her cousin

Lion King

Our pastor, Rick Holland, has a fun tradition of presenting all new babies up in front "Lion King" style. This Sunday was Kali May's turn...and here she is! *the picture is a little small but you get the idea**. Also, it was fun because our friends Caleb and Jessica also got to "Lion King" their son Elijah...you can see them off to the side in the picture

Cousin Ray's Wedding

My uncle Phil (on the Borntrager side of the family) and his family live in Califorina, although a little ways away from here, and this weekend his son, Ray, got married to his very beautiful wife (now) Lindsey! 

Since the wedding was on a Friday, Scott wasn't able to get off work and come....so I convinced my friend Megan to come! We had a ton of fun, and the wedding was very festive and fun. 

Here are a few pictures of it....

The Ceremony Theme: Star Wars Music and Lollipop Decorations :) 

 

Lollipop Decorations

Wedding Cake Top :)

The official arrival of the married couple at the reception. Greeted by official Star Wars light Sabors :)
One of the COOLEST parts of the wedding was the bride and grooms first dance. They had put together about 10 different songs and styles of dancing, and put on a huge show for us. They were amazing!!!
The Happy Couple
My Uncle Phil holding Kali May with an evil grin on his face. If I know my uncles he's seriously thinking about tickling her.
Megan and Kali May :) 
Me and Kali May!! I think this is our first official photo together other than hospital photos...and I dub it in honor of my sister in law Julie since she has voiced her well deserved opinion that there aren't very many pictures of us two! :) Too bad Kali didn't know it was our first photo.... I think she was distracted :) 

One Month Shots

Happy Birthday Grandma Marcia

March 13th was Grandma Marcia's birthday. We were horrible and forgot to call her that day, but we tried to make it up with chocolate cupcakes a few days later... which I think I might have been more excited about than her (she works at See's candy so she is around chocolate all day :) ). Here she is celebrating with Kali May :) 

An exciting life....

So besides the OH so exciting activities of eating, sleeping, burping, and getting her diaper changed, Kali-May's favorite activity thus far is definitely getting held by all the people that love her :) 

Of course, the top of the list is daddy. He's her favorite :)

Also, the other day Katie brought Paige and Emma over, and they got to hold their little cousin for the first time!

Emma and Kali May
                                                                Paige and Kali May

Newborn Size Photo Shoot :)

So following in the footsteps of my good friends Terah and Josi, I wanted to start taking pictures of Kali May in the same place each month to track her "growth progress." Scott and I decided her little rocking chair would be a good spot...so here she is! 

She is actually two weeks old in these photos, but since she weighs less at this point than she did when she was born... I think we can qualify them as "newborn" size pictures :) Actually, you can be praying that little Kali-May starts gaining lots more weight! She is a really "lazy" eater and so the doctor is having me use a pump to try to feed her extra at each feeding just to make sure she starts gaining a little more weight. She's really cute so little, but we are praying she becomes more of an aggressive eater SOON! 

Don't worry....this looks scary but she was really ok, I promise! :) 
uh oh! slipping down..... 

My two favorite people!!!

d

Some cute ones

I thought I heard that babies don't know how to smile at first....but that is most definitely not true of Kali May. Mom actually caught one smile on camera.... 

sleeping away!
Never put a hat on your child while sleeping.... 
I just like this one... she is always doing something funny with her hands ;) 

Firsts

Here are just a few pictures of some "firsts" for Kali May...

All set (but not so happy about) for her first walk!

The first family walk...hehe ok corny I know :) 
First bath
First time in a bath robe
First Manicure :) 

Grandmas and Grandpas

Now that Scott and I are parents, I am sure we are going to be learning about and appreciating what are parents did for us more and more every day... so I thought it was only right to post a few photos of the proud grandparents :) 

The grandpas sadly were "before and afters"... my dad was out here visiting last weekend, and he was able to go to the hospital with us Monday night, but he sadly had to fly out before Kali May arrived. 

Here he is at the hospital...next to his "dream" truck hehe... one of the doctors at the hospital drives this!

Here is grandpa helping give me a foot massage to try to induce labor naturally... haha.. we tried just about everything 
Here we are waiting to get checked in. I can't WAIT for my dad to get to meet Kali May, hopefully SOON ;) 
Opposite of my dad, Grandpa M. didn't make it over our way until AFTER the delivery. He was able to pay us a quick visit on Friday, and here he is with his little Kali May
The Grandmas were both able to be there for Kali Mays delivery, and both of them were such a huge help to us!!!!

Here is Grandma Marcia with Kali May
..and..and good grandma already, here she is with Paige and Emma in the waiting room
and of COURSE, bringing us See's Candies!! :) :) 
My mom got the best (and probably most challenging) end of the deal.... she was able to fly down here and stay with us for two weeks before the delivery, and all of this last week. She was such a huge help, and I definitely have never appreciated her as much as I did this last week with everything she did at our house to help make life easy...mostly for me! thank you so much mom and I miss you tons already!!



We LOVE YOU GRANDMAS AND GRANDPAS!!!

The Big Day

Here are a few pictures from Kali May's delivery! 

Here I am, the final side shot before I was induced on Monday night....

It was a party in the waiting room! We were supposed to get admitted at 5pm, but when we got to the hospital, 8 women were in the last stages of labor all at the same moment, so there were no nurses to check me in!! We didn't mind waiting... as we thought it was good to know that the hospital wouldn't take a nurse away from someone in the middle of pushing just to check someone in to be induced :) We all walked to In N Out for dinner, and then came back.

Here we are, back at the hospital around 8pm Monday night... they had just induced me, however I wasn't feeling any contractions yet... 
Here I am around 7pm TUESDAY night.... after going through the whole day with natural delivery pains, I decided that I would get epidural, even though my original plan was to not to. Once they gave me the epidural, it only took 30 more minutes to get Kali May out into this world!
Here is daddy, cutting the cord! :)
Dad and Kali May
Grammie B 
Grandma Marcia
Aunt Katie
Dad again :) 
Kali May Mallon :) 

Born at 7:47pm on Feb 24, 2009

7lbs 13oz

20 inches

The Baby is Here!

Our new baby Kali-May Mallon. She came last night (2-24-09) at 7:47pm weighing in a 7 pounds 13 ounces and a height of 20 inches. As a new parent with zero bias I must say she is the cutest thing I have ever seen. I mean honestly I have seen a lot of babies but there are just none that can even compare. We will post more pictures later... As of now we are using the hospital internet which runs at an amazing 1 mile per week. Seriously folks any of you still using dial up must be in agony.

2nd Anniversary

I can't believe that our second anniversary has already gone by! It feels like Scott and I just met at Starbucks not too long ago and that we definitely shouldn't be already in our third house together (well first house that we've owned but third place to live) AND with a baby on the way!

This year our anniversary was kind of at a funny time for us, so we decided to not do anything too major. Since it was my first week not working, I was the one to get to plan it out. Since we were celebrating on a weeknight, I didn't want to go to far away. My PLAN was for us to go to Castaic lake and cook our dinner over a campfire and then make homemade cocoa and watch the stars (sounded somewhat "anniversary-ish:)"...however, Scott got stuck in traffic on the way home, and by the time he got back we didn't even make it that far! 

We tried to cook our "hobo" steak dinner in our fireplace...but it ended up in the oven to speed the process along and we just enjoyed the cozy fire :) we are just wild and crazy people, we know :)

Here we are all dressed up in our pajamas and all!! :) I can't tell you how much I am thankful that God put the two of us together and I love Scott Mallon SOOOOO much. I can't imagine being more thankful for him or loving him any more, but I am sure that every year that God allows us to spend together, he will somehow become even MORE of my best friend!

Waiting for Baby :)

So I know that my little baby ticker says it's TIME...but there is still no sign of baby yet :) I have a doctor's appointment today just to check up on baby and see if I've dilated anymore (I was at 1cm last week haha), and to talk about options (ie how long to wait before inducing, etc.).... but in the mean time I thought I better post some pictures of the baby room while I have a free chance :) 

Here's the wall I had fun painting... I was trying to make it a LITTLE girly since I didn't choose pink :)

notice the cute quilt that Grandma Jean made for us...it's on the little rocking chair 
a dresser scott and I refinished (more pics below of that)
the crib we are borrowing from the Niednagels...all of their kids slept in this very place :)!
my very soft "baby" blanket, and another hand made blanket behind it....this girl has lots of fun blankets!
So here is the dresser that Scott sanded down, I repainted, and we put new handles on....scott even sanded it a little after I painted it to make it look more "distressed" like I like :) 
this is a different dresser, but it is what the above one looked like before
this was my grandpa (my mom's dad)'s "Christening" outfit when he was a baby...it is so pretty (even though it was for a boy)
look how small this kid's diapers are!!!

Baby Showers with Boys!

So I have been OVERLY blessed with several baby showers in the last few weeks. Sadly, I didn't take very many pictures at them. However, Scott's mom and dad threw us a "Baby BBQ" last weekend, and mom took tons of pictures and sent them on over, so I wanted to put them up. I have love each one of the showers I have had, and this one was fun and different because BOYS could be there :) 

Here are a few photos:

Scott and I with our "s cubed" cake. Mom and Dad decided that since we haven't named our baby yet, they would take a chance that her name starts with "S"...thus making our wedding slogan "S Squared" to "S Cubed" :) we liked it!

Scott, Baby, and myself :) 
Mom's good friends from work
some more of the crew...


all of our presents!
Jim and Jan :)


Scott at his first "shower present opening" fiesta :) 
"Kiss Me I'm Irish" :)...our baby will only actually be about 1/16th Irish... but hey, that's enough for the Mallons to celebrate :) 
Scott, Katie, and Rob
Rob and his beautiful fiance...only a few more months until they're married!!!
Emma and Paige "helping"
scott trying out the new outfits
emma trying them out as well :) 

34 Weeks!

ha. so I am DEFINITELY getting big :) :) And actually, I am a week late in taking this picture..... tomorrow it will officially be 35 weeks, which means only 5 weeks (at the MOST) to go!!!! I was working on finishing up painting the baby room this weekend, and hopefully I will have it a little more put together and have pictures up soon :) :)