iphone pics

one of the things i have come to love about my phone is the camera and note pad. i had a camera phone before, but the pictures were horrible. my iphone produces pretty decent pictures and the note pad allows me to keep lists and document little quotes or stories all on my phone. it has practically become my life line. i really don't want to forget these things they have said or done, and now, maybe i won't. i thought it would be fun to see some of the things we have captured since i got my phone.

this is miller at ikea in atlanta. when you go inside, they give you a pencil and paper to keep up with things you like. josh put his pencil behind his ear and miller wanted to be just like daddy. too cute!

carter trying on some blingetty bling bling shoes at macy's one night. i truly believe she walks better in heels than her mama. so sad!

"i sister!" is what miller proclaimed when he put carter's bow headband on his head one day at target. he is too funny!

the little mama one saturday morning with her "baby". we have been revisiting this game the past few days. i had to pry two children out of this stroller today alone.

never a better time to preserve a memory than when your children are riding a jackass with a skeleton! here they are outside one of our favorite mexican restaurants.

one sunday morning on the way to church, miller put a pull-up on his head and thought it was hysterical. carter and i thought so, too. i literally pulled over on the side of the road to take this picture.

moose ears and a book about cookie-gotta love the dollar section at target!

bob the builder, can you fix it?

bob the builder, yes he can!

miller helping renovate meme and papaw's house.

last week after preschool miller started talking about "mr.socky". i turned around to find this. no shoes or socks on his feet, but a fun little puppet on his hand. look how funny he thinks it is that "mr.socky is poopy"-ugh, boys!

and then sunday, i walked into the living room to find this. apparently, miller's moose wanted to check out the view. what do you see, moose?

i never know when i might need to capture something my kids say or do, especially if miller is involved. as seen above, that kid is FuNnY!

sunday morning 01.11

one sunday morning while josh was at church, miller found a box of packing peanuts by the back door. we believed they were in a safe location before being disposed of, miller believed they were the perfect opportunity to pretend it was snowing. that's right, snowing. 

first, he dumped the entire box on the floor. enter tired, blurry eyed mama. what in the world? he said ms.donna brought "snow" to school and they played and had snow ball fights and it was so fun. did you clean it up? i asked. no, ms.donna did. once the mess had begun, i just went with it. 

here carter is trying with all her might to push miller like he is sledding, but to no avail. by the way, the box is what originally contained the "snow". nice size, huh?

then, it was time for "snow" angels.

in case you are wondering where all the "snow" is-umm, try under every nook and cranny of my living room. the clean-up took for-ev-a. mostly because miller refused to help. he lost many toys to the attic that morning. we picked up peanuts for days. days, i tell ya. ms.donna, why didn't you help clean up at my house??

the above photos are all thanks to my only memory tracking device, the iphone, and were taken from my nursing perch on the couch.

newborn favorites

i don't know why or how, but we tend to forget so many things about newborns. i have had three children all of similar weights and yet each time i am shocked at how tiny they are. but, like i said, i have had three children and what i have found is that some things are, and will always be, precious about newborns.

1. milk lips: these are the milky white look of their lips right after nursing. it has to be my absolute favorite newborn trait. if you have no idea, what this is, look below. another favorite nursing trait, the nursing callous that forms on their top lip.

2. pterodactyl cries: this is my terminology for the newborn cries. i don't know about you, but all three of my children have sounded like a pterodactyl when they cried as a newborn. it is a distinct cry, not the same as the older infant or toddler cry.
here is spencer making the pterodactyl cry during her newborn photo shoot. of course, we had to change our idea due to this response.

3. newborn smell. i don't think you need any help with this one. ummm, so yummy.

4. tininess: is that even a word? tininess. i love that everything is tiny. especially with this one. 

miller was not. his head was (and still is) huge. not on the chart until after a year. he was long. 21 1/2 inches long. and he grew quickly for the first year. 

spencer has the tiniest feet i have ever seen. so tiny. her head is so tiny. she is so tiny. with this tininess comes tiny diapers, tiny clothes, and tiny everything else. 

it's these things that make the sleep deprived nights, caffeine induced stupor, and baby brain seem a worth while exchange-well, at least for a little while.

and baby makes three

oh my goodness! i couldn't decide which one i liked best, so you get to these few. i could just eat them all up, especially miller's giggle face in the second one. they just love her as you can tell. they want to hold her hand and sit with her in their lap and show her their toys and sing to her and kiss her and hug her and teach her where her hands are and on and on and on. it is just too sweet! and the best part is, there is no sibling rivalry with her yet!

with her, no one makes ugly faces or screams or takes her favorite toy or hits or stomps or says mean things or colors on her paper or on and on and on. that's right, we have begun the battle here. don't get me wrong, it is not all day, and they love on one another way more than they fight. and the way they love each other, almost makes you forget that a few minutes ago they were playing tug-of-war with the stroller and carter was making an ugly face with her teeth bared together while miller screamed his shrill scream at the top of his lungs and i nursed spencer while screaming over it all to stop fighting. oh, the joys of motherhood! it makes you realize your parents were right, even more than you already thought. and if you are reading this, thinking my children won't act that way-ha! just wait a few years, or months!-because we all fight with our siblings, just think about your own!

word world

carter has always had her own vocabulary. she mispronounces words or creates her own. i know we should correct them, but i know one day they will all be pronounced correctly and i will miss each one. now, don't fret, we don't perpetuate the situation by pronouncing them the way she does. we just allow her to make the correlation on her own. but, some are so cute, i just have to share. 

hamptry (n): a room designated for storing non perishable food products and the washing machine, clothes dryer and any such materials.

created from a combination of the words hamper and pantry.

for those of you with a large house, you are thinking how can this be one. in our tiny house, we are just thankful to have our washer and dryer indoors and next to one another. in our first house, the washer was in the kitchen next to the stove and the dryer was in the pantry. so, if you have a hamptry in your house, consider yourself lucky!

pictographer (n): a person who takes pictures

created from a combination of the words picture and photographer.

carter's preschool class is currently discussing community helpers. she came home saying her friend's dad is a dentist. he is actually a lawyer, but i am not sure how the confusion began. she talked about dentists several times before i asked her if she knew what josh and i did. she said, "yes, daddy is a pictographer."

babing suit (n): a item of clothing typically worn in the warmer summer months when at the beach, pool or sprinkler park. 

mispronunciation of the words bathing suit,

or created from a combination of the words babe and bathing suit.

this is one of her first word creations. it started two summers ago. we relished in it thinking it would be corrected the next summer, but it wasn't. and, deep down, it made us happy. 

everyone loves a little boy in uniform

seriously, how cute is this?

but, wait, i think this may be even cuter! i can't decide. what do you think?

too bad the firemen & emts that visited our house early new year's day weren't this adorable. 

yes, you read right, we had a short visit, followed by an ambulance ride, early last thursday morning. spencer was born last monday and we came home from the hospital on wednesday around noon. early thursday morning, after i finished feeding spencer, she turned her head and spit up blood. what appeared to be pure, red blood. i calmly woke up josh and asked him to turn the light on and get a burp cloth. then i told him spencer had spit up blood. as i sat and looked at it in the light, i was suddenly struck with "now what?" i got up to see if our pediatrician had an emergency number and josh started looking it up in the biggest waste of paper ever printed. as i was about to call the office on my cell phone to see if they listed an emergency line, spencer projectile vomited blood and brown yuck all over me and her. i freaked and dialed 911. this is the bottom line-my baby was 2 1/2 days old. it was a holiday. and it was 5:50 a.m. no one else was available and i wanted to know for sure why there was so much blood. although the emts were not concerned about her condition (she was calm, she was pink, she was breathing) they did think we should be assured that the blood was mine and not hers. they speculated the blood was mine, but it just seemed like a lot to me to be all mine. so, i held spencer in a blood stained gown, blanket and burp cloth wearing mismatched clothes also covered in blood all the way to baptist in the back of an ambulance. surreal is all i can say. surreal. once there, spencer endured various tests including a tube down her throat to pump stomach contents, 2 vials of blood drawn, blood pressure cuff, rectal thermometer readings, etc. they collected blood from the burp cloth and sent everything off for 2 different tests to be run. after 2 hours, they both said that the blood was all mine. apparently there is a nursing condition called "rusty pipes" in which blood in drawn through the milk ducts during nursing. the condition is more likely to occur with subsequent children and occurs in the beginning when oxitocin is released in the body during nursing. thank goodness the emergency room pediatrician knew a lot about breastfeeding. he called a lactation consultant at baptist women's for any recommendations (just more nursing). and, we were released and home before 10 a.m. so, spencer and i took our first ambulance rides together-me at 30 and her at 2 1/2 days. let's pray it will also be the last for all of us!

oh, but now that you have read that crazy story that i had to document before all the details are blurry, look back up to the top at those adorably cute pictures. now, that's better!

* my mom corrected me. the condition is called rusty pipes, not leaky pipes. crazy baby brain! i told you i needed it documented before i couldn't remember the details. you're lucky i used the correct child's name! 

baby love

spencer abigail malahy arrived monday, december 29th at 1:51 p.m. weighing 7 pounds 5 ounces and measuring 20 inches long. 

we are all smitten. she is just precious! 

thank you for all your thoughts and prayers!

fyi

i promise to post pictures by tomorrow of the baby. i had to catch up first and now i just have to go through the ones josh has taken. 

welcome christmas, christmas day

due to carter's ear infection, we decided to not go to christmas eve service and dinner at my brother and sister-in-law's with the rest of the family in hopes that she would feel better and be well rested for the next day. so, we preceded with our regular christmas eve traditions. after putting on christmas pjs, we loaded up and looked at lights for a long time. then, we fed santa's reindeer. i have no idea why everyone is so excited to feed the reindeer. 

next, we got santa's milk and cookies ready. watch out, santa, i think miller is thirsty!

and, lastly, josh read the night before christmas to everyone.

we decided last year that we needed to determine what christmas would look like at the malahy house. we decided that santa would be downplayed as it seems a little off to us to spend all of december focusing on the birth of jesus and then have christmas day be all about what great gifts santa brought you. so, santa brings stockings and several small things including a stack of books to share. then, each child receives three gifts from mommy and daddy that represent the three gifts the wise men brought to baby jesus. of course, this year they each opened two gifts on christmas day due to "inclement weather and shipping companies." 

carter was so ecstatic that santa remembered her request for make-up 

very simple wrapping and tags this year

carter opening her most wanted request. remember how i had to hunt it down? well, when i got online to order it before thanksgiving, the blond haired, blue eyed bitty baby was on backorder until the 18th. seriously?? when i called to see about the backorder date and other options, they offered me the brown haired, brown eyed version. i responded, "that would be great if the baby i am expecting might have brown eyes, but i don't think she will." it's like the year i went to the post office to purchase christmas stamps and the disgruntled postal worker offered me stamps for hanukkah or kwanza, because they are the same. really? so, i purchased happy birthday stamps and wrote "jesus" under each one. yes, seriously.

back to the bitty baby, even though they couldn't promise the backorder date, they did tell me how to contact the store in chicago to see if they could send me one. so, the day before thanksgiving, i spent an hour and a half on the phone trying to get through to the store. ag is still such a small company that they only allow the flagship stores to mail items and they have no idea what a store has in stock. the chicago store was low in inventory as well, but they arranged for the new york store to mail me one. thank you, thank you, ag!! carter was so excited and climbed in my lap later that morning and said, "thank you, mommy for my bitty baby!" totally worth it!

look at her excitement!

miller opening his stocking

one of miller's gifts was a custom made cape. i found it at this etsy store.

when he put it on, he announced, "i need super hero eyes." guess mommy needs to bust out the sewing machine! he runs all around yelling, "super hero to the rescue!"

miller's other gift was animals. he loves animals and thought it was so great that he immediately did this: 

later that morning, we exchanged presents with my parents. 

i love the look on her face!

guess who came through for miller?? meme & papaw! they found the "choo-choo train you can ride on and say 'all aboard!'" when they brought in all the presents, carter said, "well, my present is a little big, but miller's present is giant!" 

miller taking a ride on his new train! it takes up half the playroom, but it is totally worth it!

someone else likes it, too!

these are the adorable chairs uncle chris and aunt margaret gave carter and miller. they have their names embroidered on them which they thought was so fun! note carter's socks that santa brought her. she also had on white l'amours at one point-nice ensemble, huh? we also had christmas with josh's parents, but he didn't take a single picture of the kids opening gifts. you are all probably very thankful about that right now after reading this ridiculously long post!