Adventures in Babysitting

Mallory is really close to her Auntie Bobo and Uncle Brian, so they volunteered to watch her for the evening so Mom and Dad could have a "date night."

The group went over to the Eden Prairie mall and checked out some of the rides.

Then it was back to the Murray house for some fun with Bobo and...

...whatever it is that Mallory and Brian are doing here.

Reading with Mom

On a cold winter's day, Mallory took the opporunity to snuggle up with Mom and her favorite blanket (Pooh Bear). Mom doesn't seem to be sharing the blanket too well here...

Story time!

Cheer up guys, only three more months until the snow is gone.

2-Year Photos

Shortly after the 2nd birthday festivities, we took some pictures of Mallory to see how far she has come in the last year. As you can see, the balloons were still going strong.

If the huge balloon in the background isn't obvious enough, she just turned 2.

One of her new favorite things was to get up as close to the camera as possible and shout "Cheese!"

And what set of 2 year old pictures would be complete without a picture of Mallory and her best buddy Samson.

Balloons

Of course, what birthday would be complete without giant balloons, courtesy of Bobo and Brian.

Mallory loved playing with these balloons...

...for what seemed like an eternity. When they are that big, they don't lose air that quickly, unfortunately.

2nd Birthday Party

For Mallory's second birthday party, it was a much smaller affair at our house, with just immediate family.
She put on her pretty red China dress and helped Nama decorate the cake.

After she was done with all that hard work, it was time to open presents. First up, a set of dominoes.

Of course she had to play with them right away. Amazingly, I think we still have all 56 pieces.

Then Mallory got to show up the new skirt she got from Bobo and Brian that she uses when playing dress up (Dad's favorite activity).

Birthday Dessert

While Dad was off in Canada for work, Mom and Mallory went for a special birthday dinner with Bobo and Brian at Big Bowl. Of course they were quick to tell the waitress that it was Mallory's birthday in order to get the free dessert.

As you can tell, Mallory was luke warm about the whole dessert thing initially.

But after a while, she had no problem mowing it down.

Clean plate, not so clean hands and face...

Fire and Ice

Plymouth has a winter festival in early February known as "Fire and Ice". Since we have lived here over 5 years, we figured we should finally go check it out.

Mallory and Dad went for a ride around a frozen Parkers Lake behind an ATV.

It was a frosty afternoon, so everyone was bundled up to keep warm.

One thing that helped us keep warm was going over to the fire to make S'mores. Guess whose idea that was???