It All Started with a Little Skittle...

One of Gabby’s favorite places to visit is Chick-Fil-A, but she calls it “nuggets” or “slide with friends.”    Since we are frequent visitors of the establishment we decided to celebrate Cow Appreciation Day for the first time.   For those of you who have never celebrated (or God forbid never heard of) Cow Appreciation Day, it’s a “holiday” created by Chick-Fil-A cows in which you dress up like a cow and receive an entire meal free.   You could go for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if you like.    Michael and I opted to eat dinner at home because he was working hard building a Murphy Bed (a post for another day) and I wasn’t sure if Gabby would be in a good mood by the time he completed the project.   Lucky for Gabby, Daddy finished the bed in time to make it to Cow Appreciation Day.   Being a procrastinator I hadn’t picked out an outfit for Gabby and I had to make her into a cow fast! While Daddy took a bath I rummaged through her closet and...

 My favorite picture. She's really enjoying that cone! So nothing really exciting to report.  Gabby and I are watching a tiny baby named Kit on my days off for a month and so I am trying to take advantage of every moment Gabby and I are alone so she has fun and doesn't feel neglected.  Today we had to run a few errands before the baby came over and Gabby some how decided she needed ice cream and for some reason I caved.  I guess because it's rainy and I didn't have any other great fun ideas.  We sat on the porch and watched the rain and ate ice cream.  Apparently this made for an awesome morning for Gabrielle. A mini ice cream cone was the best investment I've made in a long time! I will never forget watching the rain and giggling with Gabby for an hour on the front porch.  I love this sweet girl!  Praise the ice cream!  It's not good unless the proof is on your face.  Gabby thinks the self timer on our came...

Okay so maybe that isn't the actual name of a "Peppa Pig" episode, but it at least sounds like the title of an episode.  Gabby's favorite show is "Peppa" and I told Mike about one when day Gabby found a piece of toy bread that looks exactly like the french bread Peppa is always feeding the ducks in her show and she was feeding it to her rubber duck.  The moment I told Michael this we decided that it was necessary to get the exact type of bread and take Gabby to feed ducks. Sunday was finally the day! The sun was shining and the weather was perfect so I told Michael I wanted to take Gabby to feed ducks. We picked up 4 small loaves of french bread and Michael found the perfect place to feed ducks.  There were literally probably around 50 ducks in all. On the way to the duck pond Gabby watched all of the Peppa episodes (we downloaded them and put them on the portable DVD player) where Peppa feeds ducks to get her extra excited.  (Yes I know we are awe...

Gabby didn't officially have a birthday party as most people would imagine it, but it was a day of celebrating her .  All of her grandparents went with us to the aquarium (thanks to my friend Natalie's suggestion) and we did all of main attractions.  Gabby adores fish, if you recall she begged us to go to Bass Pro Shop three days in a row because they had an aquarium of various bass fish. Gabby answering how old she is.  In case you didn't know 5 comes after 2 when you are mature for you age. We started Gabby's Day off by riding the train, which was really neat, there were sharks sleeping above us and the sharks swimming all around us in their aquarium, and finally at the end of the train ride we were scared by a shark popping up at the end of the ride, which we all admittedly jumped, but Gabby didn’t even cry.  Next we went into the large aquarium which was hundreds of thousands of gallons of water with amazing varieties of fish.  Michael was h...

Two weeks ago Daddy was out supposed to be out of town for a week and a half.  I had promised Lacey that I would come and visit her and Patrick some time in February and it just so happened that Michael would be working in Shreveport during part of his trip.  Gabby and I packed up when I got of work on Thursday and bravely drove the 4 1/2 hours to Nanny's house with the help of a portable DVD player and my new navigation system.  Maybe you don't know this, but Gabby HATES the car. She despises the car so much that before the 20 minute drive to my parents house is done she is usually crying or pitching some sort of tantrum.  So, needless to say I was very nervous about the drive by myself.  Gabby was an angel on the entire trip. I left at night thinking that she would sleep during the drive, but not with the DVD player on. Instead I had to stop every 90 minutes or so to put on a new "show" for Gabby.  I would allow her to choose the movie and then pop it in....

 Uninterested in the water pad, more interested in the people. She laid her head in different positions of the brick wall walking all the way down it.  She loved doing this for some reason, so cute!  Discovering the water....  Completely soaked. No one like wet jeans. Going back for more fun in the sun!  Gabby escaping with nothing but a diaper.  Can you believe it's this hot in January in Texas?! "Meow" after running through the fountains with Gabby Gabby and I had a Mommy/Daughter day while Daddy was at the Texans first EVER playoff game.  We went to the Woodlands to hear about my friend Erin's honeymoon and then we met up with my long time friend, Genny, for a little catch up time.  Genny took us to this water pad while she ate her lunch.  Who ever said you needed to spend money to have fun didn't have kids. This was a really fun (and free) day where we made great memories.  Gabby had a blast in the...

On November 9th a momentous occasion occurred for the McIlroy family.  We officially became homeowners yet again! We bought a foreclosed home that needed hardly any work (new exterior locks, paint and two light fixtures). Michael and I painted and cleaned the house with help from my parents (thanks a million!) from the day we bought it until that Saturday when Michael, my dad and two amazing friends helped move all of our stuff in!  Surprisingly we moved in smoothly, but it is taking us a lot longer to unpack than I expected, because we moved from a 5 bedroom house to a 3 bedroom house.  We love that we live in a one story rather than a two story house and we are excited that Gabby will go to a good school now.  Our main concern with moving was Gabby's reaction because it took her a long time to settle in at my parents' house, but to our pleasant surprise Gabby instantly knew it was home!  She has slept through the night since the second day and she has been v...

Today was a day of pride for Michael, because Gabby attended her first ever Texans football game. To celebrate I surprised Michael with a new red Texans shirt and even found one at Good Will for Gabby for $1.  You would be surprised how many battle red shirts I found there for such a low price.  I think Michael enjoyed Gabby and I fully participating in the event, attire included.  If you have never been to a professional football game, it is a day event.  We left the house around 9:15 and didn't get home until about 4:30.  Before the game we allowed Gabby to walk around to burn off some energy.  She danced and met three of the cheerleaders, who signed her shirt and took a picture with her and Daddy. Once in our seats Gabby was not too sure about the loud noises, but quickly acclimated when given (usually forbidden) snacks.  Gabby received a lot of attention including hi-fives and behaved surprisingly well throughout the game (e...

About a month before we moved out of our house, I decided to have a Girl's Night In party for Gabby and all of the sweet girls in her life.  I thought the moms would enjoy the little memories and I thought it would be a fun way for Gabby to learn how to socialize with other children in a comfortable atmosphere.  All of the girl's ranged in age from 1 year to 11 years, which made me worry that all of the girls wouldn't have fun.  Luckily the older girls entertained the younger girls and everyone ended up having a lot of fun! They danced, ate chicken nuggets and ice cream sundaes, and played a game of hide and seek (which consisted of a lot of running, squealing, and giggling girls). Ice cream cones! Yummy party favors fit for a princess....Ring Pops! Sundae toppings: Dinosaur sprinkles, chocolate chips, homemade whipped cream, and the biggest hit: maraschino cherries. Gabby having her first ever box of popcorn.  She was so proud of herself wat...

Today Michael and I decided to have a fun day for Gabby since she had to go 5 days without much Daddy time since he was out of town for work.  Gabby has a birthday party to attend at Chuck E. Cheese's in a few weeks and sometimes she gets overwhelmed with new chaotic situations, so we decided to introduce her to the fun!  Gabby did well, but honestly, she enjoyed watching the chaos of kids more than any of the games.  When she was ready to go I told Michael to entertain her while I cashed in the tickets.  The two of them met me with their 125 tickets they won off of one spin (which was more than we had accumulated during our hour and a half)!  Gabby left with a koosh ball, lollipop, straw, and about 60 of her 90 tokens. Then we took Gabby to the mall play area where she simply stood in the middle and was continuously ran over by the overly energetic children playing chase.  Gabby didn't seem to like the play area as much as she usually does, maybe because...

Gabby had a wonderful first birthday party.  There were tons of friends and family there to celebrate her first year of life. It truly amazes me how many people adore my little girl. I don't think she has any clue how blessed she is to have such a huge group of such wonderful people who love her!  Seriously, people traveled HOURS to come to a one year old's birthday party! Gabby should feel very special and loved.  I think everyone's love contributes to the sweet loving little toddler she has become. Nanny and Mommy stayed up until midnight preparing and decorating for the party.  Then we continued working from 9:00 in the morning until moments before the party started at 2:00 (I will plan better next time)! Grandma made pretty signs for the party.  Gabby received a plethora of gifts which included toys, precious clothes, and even money which we put directly in her savings account.  Thank you everyone for such lovely gifts. The party was great because...