Fall Photography at its Finest

I promised our “budding” photographer that I would post her pictures here on the blog. Bryanna absolutely loves to take pictures! Over the past few days, she has been vigorously taking pictures of the fall décor around our house. She is a lot like me when it comes to her festive attitude :) We love a house that is full of holiday spirit even if it is “too cute”.  As you can imagine, Jason is ready to move away from the cutesy décor and on to the more scary settings especially when it comes to Halloween. Luckily for me, I think I still have another year or two to get away with the cute stuff :) 

Bryanna's Room

Kalyssa's Room 

Travin's Room

Star of the Week

Last Friday, Kalyssa was chosen as Star of the Week. It is a huge honor in her first grade class. Over the weekend we sat down together and created a unique poster that represented some of her favorite things. After coming up with a long list of ideas, Kalyssa decided on a few items that she wanted to share. The picture of the poster isn’t that great but we all think that it turned out great! Kalyssa shared some of her favorite books, her favorite toy, her favorite movies, her favorite animal, a couple of her favorite foods, her favorite holiday, and of course her favorite place to visit DISNEYLAND :) We added a few family pictures that she picked out and of course we couldn’t leave out the state where she was born. The poster will be displayed in front of the classroom this week. Over the course of the week, she will have special privileges in her class (she is very excited about that). At the end of the week, she will get to take in her favorite book for her teacher to read to the class. I am hoping the book decision is easier now that we have finished the poster :) She will also get to take in one of her favorite toys for show and tell along with her favorite snack to share with the class. She has already picked out Pinky Pie (her favorite stuffed animal) and Rice Krispie treats because after all, “shmarshmellows” are one of her favorite snacks. :)

Some of Kalyssa’s Favorite Things:

Books: (we had a tough time with this one; I had to limit it to 5 :)

• Fancy Nancy
• A Bad Case of Stripes
• Pinkalicious
• The Kissing Hand
• Purplicious 

Toy:

• Molly (her American Girl doll)

Movies:

• The Little Mermaid
• Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue
• Barbie Island Princess

Animal:

• Dolphins

Foods:

• Mimi’s Café
• Cotton Candy

Holiday:

• Christmas

Favorite Place to Visit:

• Disneyland (of course) We added pictures of Kalyssa with two of her favorite characters Mickey and Minnie and a picture of her favorite ride Splash Mountain.

Kalyssa & Pinky Pie

Jean Day #2

As you know, the kids are required to wear uniforms to school. Every so often, the school will host a special Jean Day. It is usually linked with some type of a fund raising event. The students and the teachers are allowed to participate in Jean Day by donating what ever the school is asking for. For the first Jean Day event, all of the proceeds that were collected went towards St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. Each student had to pay $2 to wear jeans. The school ended up earning over $2800.00.

This past Friday, the school hosted Jean Day #2. Instead of donating money, the school supplied each student with a list of items. In order to wear jeans to school, each students had to bring in 2 or more items from the list. The items collected are going to be sent to the troops deployed in Afghanistan over the holiday season.

Jean Day is a very BIG deal in our household!

"Twothless"

Thursday was a day that will definitely be one to be marked down on the Mall family memory calendar. I wish that I could say that it was all giggles and smiles, but it wasn’t.


That afternoon when the bus pulled up to our street, the last thing I expected to see when the doors opened was my son in tears with blood all over his shirt and blood stains on his face. Panic mode immediately kicked in! Why was my son covered in blood? The bus driver stopped the bus, walked Travin down to me, and explained what had happened. Apparently the kindergartner (a little boy) who sits next to Travin on the bus, decided that he wanted to play a punching game. He punched Trav in the face and knocked out his two bottom teeth. I swear I wish I could make this stuff up! The bus driver asked me if his teeth were loose. I explained to her that one was almost ready to come out but that the other one still had some time. I had just wiggled both of them that morning. Our bus driver is absolutely wonderful and I don’t blame her at all. She felt so horrible for Travin. She kept hugging him and apologizing to me. On the positive side, the incident happened before the bus left the school. The principal was able to get involved. She pulled the little boy off the bus, wrote him up, and called his parents to pick him up. Luckily I was able to calm Travin down pretty quickly. I think he just needed a special “Travin-Mommy Hug” :)

We put his two little teeth in his special tooth pillow in hopes that the Tooth Fairy would make an early appearance. The Tooth Fairy came and did what she does best, but unfortunately, Travin wasn’t as excited about her appearance as we had hoped. He was pretty upset that the she took his teeth. Not exactly the reaction I was expecting. I think he is the first child I have ever met to be upset that he had money waiting under his pillow instead of his teeth!

This isn't exactly the way we wanted Travin to experience his first tooth loss. The good news is that he is a boy. The whole ordeal is old news now. We have moved on to bigger and better things :)

I lost two teeth they left a space

So big my tongue can touch my face

Now every time I smile I show

The place where something new will grow.

I miss my teeth as you can guess

But for now I get to brush two less!

Embrace the Camera: October 7

How does that famous saying go?

Oh yeah, "Another year older, Another year wiser!"

October 3, I woke up another year older and probably a bit more wiser. I guess that means it's been a productive year :) Anyhow, birthday's have always been pretty special in our household and this year, mine was no different. As I stood in the kitchen making a pot of coffee, I smiled as two little heads peeked over the counter top just to sing me the Birthday Cha Cha Cha. Of course their giggles made the song that much better.

I got to spend the day with my favorite bunch in the whole wide world. After a morning of decorating activities, we headed out to a late lunch that included one of my favorite desserts, cheesecake.

As we sat outside and enjoyed our afternoon, I realized that life is definitely moving full speed ahead. The days are passing us by and before we know it, a whole year is gone. Every moment is worth embracing especially when it comes to family.

My Birthday Poem from Bryanna

A Giant Card for YOU!

No need for small because you're you and that's the

best part.

Today is your Birthday and I just want to say

the way you are, I want you to stay.

You are you and that is great, but you are my mom

and I am proud to say that.

You are the best you play a fair game.

You are my Mom and I like it that way. 

Happy Birthday. I Love You. 

My Birthday Card from Kalyssa

I Love You!

You are the best mama evr.

You can be my mama for evr.

You and me.

YOU!

Happy brthdy mama and happy Halowing.

Happy Thursday!