Easter Weekend

We had a fabulous Easter weekend! It was busy, but time well-spent with friends and family. Saturday morning, we decorated our Easter Eggs. Yuri really enjoyed it! After that, our church had a Community Easter Egg Hunt. It was a great time, including awesome activities for toddlers (and older children too). There were sand tables, play-doh centers, arts and crafts, face painting (see pic), and bubbles. The Easter Bunny was there but Yuri only liked him from afar! Yuri took part in 2 hunts for eggs, but the first was a bust. All the eggs were snatched up in no time. The second one was much better and Yuri really go into it!

After that, we headed out to the Laughlin's baby shower. I actually went to the shower and Michael and Yuri went with Mike Laughlin out to the Morrison's. They took the kids to another Easter Egg Hunt while the women "showered". After the shower, we met up with the guys and kids and ate pizza at the Swinigan's! Great Day!

Today (Easter Sunday) was wonderful. Church was awesome and my mom joined us. Yuri was decked out in her new dress that her and Daddy picked out (an Easter tradition). She was not a happy-camper this morning, molars coming in! She was fine at brunch, though. We met my family for brunch.

Sorry about the lack of blogging. I find that blogging is the last thing on my list of things to-do. We keep pretty busy around here! The pregnancy is going well. Nothing to report. I am 28 weeks along and we have much to do around the house yet (to prepare). I will *try* to do a better job of posting. Here are some pics!

Elf Yourself

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Christmas Traditions

Last year, I got so excited reading everyone's blog about Christmas traditions! I was so excited to start some Malone family traditions. So this year, I made sure I was ready for the Christmas season.

Advent countdown: We decided to go with the Christmas socks. Each day, we place a sticker or small treat in the sock for the appropriate day. We turn around the numbered clothespins for the countdown. I was also thinking of adding a bible verse in the sock each day. Perhaps the Christmas story, seperated throughout the 24 socks. Here are some pictures. Yuri is fascinated with the socks!

Of course, there is the search for the Christmas tree!

Next, we are still doing the Christmas PJs on Christmas Eve. I think this one is pretty wide spread. I do enjoy this one, though!

Every year, the whole Jeffery family (my side) has a Christmas party. I have a fairly large family. To put it in perspective: my great-grandma is still alive (104 years old) and she has 22 great-great-grandchildren (and 3 cooking now!) I have 11 cousins (not including husbands and significant others.) We have always been a very close family, and growing up, I have many fond memories of family parties. It is nice to get together with everyone. We no longer can have the party at my grandma's house, and for some years now, we have had the party a bowling alley (classy!) Some of the party traditions include a healthy game of "Rob Your Neighbor," children's craft (yours truly in charge of that this year), countless group pictures (perhaps more demanding than my wedding day), and new this year- an inspirational Christmas story.

Here are some (of the many) pictures!

These are just a few traditions! I don't have much time tonight; papers to grade. What are some of your traditions? Do share...

Think about it...

I think we can all use this reminder this Christmas season...



I saw this on my friend's blog and thought I would pass it along.

Yep....

Happy Halloween!

What an exciting day! Yuri (a.k.a. Tinkerbell) loved her costume and enjoyed the day parading around! At school, the babies at the daycare parade around for all the classrooms to see. Here are some pics of her and her friends.

Tonight, Mema came over to give Yuri her "treat." Then Michael went to pick up Will and we took Yuri and him around the neighborhood. Our neighborhood has a lot of kids so we enjoyed some time talking/playing. Here are some pictures of our this evening's festivities! Will's costume "fit like a glove" as Michael liked to say. I didn't do a very good job of picking the correct size!

Happy Halloween!

Catch up...

I know, it may seem hard to remember me, but I am finally getting around to updating. The Guest Blogger has decided to do all his picture/video uploading to Facebook, so he hasn't really been taking up my slack! Sorry!

I have a lot to talk about but I am just going to give snips of life a the Malone House for the past month. It will be a picture journal, starting with...

On September 22, my Great Grandmother turned 104. AMAZING! So, here are some pics from her party. We took a two different 5 generations pictures: one regular and one with just our hands. Grandma Jeffery saw another family doing that so she wanted us to.

Here is a video of Yuri doing "Ring Around the Rosie". Listen carefully, she is actually trying to sing the words. It may be hard to hear from the background noise.

Last Sunday was my first St. Louis University Softball Alumni game. That's right, I am/was a softball player. I played in college and going back for the alumni game brought back a lot of great memories of being a collegiate athlete. I didn't make a very good showing as a hitter though (ironically enough since I do hold the career record for hits!) It was still a great time!

Yuri loved the water cooler!


Friday night was the annual Fall Festival at SLCS (where I work). Yuri had a great time walking around. She even did the bean bag toss-by toss, I mean she walked up to the hole and put each bean bag in.

Last night was my 10 year High School Reunion! It was a good time at Morgan Street on the Landing. I saw a lot of people that I haven't seen in a long time and was able to reconnect with some "lost" friends!




Last but not least, we went to Eckert's Farm today. We started the tradition last year-going with my mom (Mema), my sister, my brother-in-law, and the boys (the cousins). Yuri was so much more engaged this year (obviously!). She went down the big slide, played mini-golf, watched the pig races, went through the corn maze, fed the animals, and picked out a pumpkin.

These were taken when we got back from the farm. We decorated one of the pumpkins with Mr. Potato Head parts.