Trapped

Stella thinks that she can trap her brother in a corner because he keeps getting into all of her stuff. Either he's Houdini or Stella's trapping skills are seriously lacking.

Swimming

Our first swim of the year (Malcolm's first swim ever)was at Grandma Dibble's house in May.

The water was still pretty cold and he sure didn't like the first few minutes, but after just a little while he was kicking around and loving it!

Stella is a fish. She swam better at age 3 than I do now.

We also went swimming over at Aunt Lindsay's house with Hannah and Brynlee. I forgot mine and Malcolm's swimmers, so so Malcolm just had a swim diaper, but the girls had a great time.

Hannah and Stella especially liked their activity of Hannah pushing Stella in by her buns.

Bryn is learning to swim without the lifejacket. Taking breathes at appropriate times in the next lesson.

Stella and the girls dried off after they were done by laying on the cool deck for just a little bit and Stella sunburned her buns. Arizona sun does not joke around folks.

Some May Stuff Too

I should empty my phone pictures more often so I don't forget about these:

I love Grandma Sycamore's bread.  It's like candy.

You can tell in this picture that I love that Grandma Sycamore's bread a little too much.  But lets focus on that tubba-bubba getting his 2nd haircut.  He's so cute.

This little Hannah loves shopping.

Malcolm thinks I'm funny.

Eyelashes.

Cuddling with me babies.

A May birthday girl Claire.

Strange.

Malcolm longs to go outside.  He eventually did just drop himself off the doorstep.

Batman will never show his identity.

She is not soft with him.

What, she's not.

Birthday boy Uncle Adam.

I got to see what it was like to have a toddler and a baby out in public.  Harder than I thought, but thankfully we had a monkey backpack.

I don't have to wait for Christmas anymore.

Malcolm unplugged it, it is only right that he helps fix it.

Malcolm is 9 Months Old!

I'm just telling you right now that we cannot do without this boy. He is pretty much shine of our sunshine (Stella's the sun) and he's hilarious.

Malcolm weighs 24 pounds 11 ounces (94%), he is 29 3/4 inches long (85%) and his head is 18 3/4 inches (95%).  I know, TURBO.

Malcolm eats a bunch of food, but it's still baby food because he still doesn't have any teeth. His favorites that he doesn't make faces at is sweet potatoes and applesauce, but he also likes pears, squash, zucchini, butternut squash, and spinach. He still does not like peas. If I put some in his mouth, he will just hang his tongue out of his face until it drools off onto his bib.

Malcolm is a pretty great sleeper. I don't have any complaints. If he does wake up in the middle of the night, it's only once and he always goes right back to sleep after a bottle and diaper change. Malcolm still takes 3 naps for about 1-2 hours (around 10:00a, 1:00p, and 5:00p) and goes to bed around 8:00p. It's much easier to put Malcolm to bed before Stella goes to bed otherwise they just play with each other. Malcolm is super easy to put to bed. He still uses a binki when he sleeps, but only when he sleeps.

Malcolm pulls hair.

Malcolm will give Mommy and Stella kisses. Open-mouthed ones. Daddy's face is too scratchy.

When Malcolm is really tired he starts sweating.

Malcolm can wave with both his hand and his whole arm.

Malcolm got to meet his namesake, E. Marshall McCoy (Elliot's mission president).

Malcolm likes to dance.

Malcolm is most ticklish on the palms of his hands. I bite him. His shoulders are also very ticklish.

Stella makes Malcolm laugh the easiest, but Mommy and Daddy can get some good ones out of him now too (instead of just the grunts).

I'm so sorry, but Malcolm still doesn't like you. Yes you. And to show you he doesn't like you, he will push your face away if you get too close. Or he'll just look away and act like you're not there.

I'll give you a quarter if you can make him smile.

Malcolm hates the gym and everyone there.

Malcolm went on his first airplane flight to Utah for Daddy's cousin Morgan's wedding. He was very interested in everything and pulled everything out of the pocket in front of us and then fell asleep for the last 10 minutes of the flight.

Malcolm thinks he's such a big boy when he stands. He didn't pull himself up in this picture, but he can pull himself up in his crib. One night Stella yelled from her bedroom, "Mom, there's something wrong with Malcolm!" So of course I frantically ran into their bedroom . . . only to find him totally smiling and standing up in his crib. Stella and I discussed our choice of words to describe different situations as Daddy lowered the crib mattress.

Malcolm slithers around and gets absolutely filthy doing it. It started out as a pull with his arms as he pushed off with his right toes, but then it turned into an army crawl. He's pretty quick now and has discovered so many new areas of the house and things that open. He laughs really hard when I try to get him to get on his knees.

Malcolm follows me everywhere. He's also learned how to unplug the computer.

Malcolm had his first fever of 100.5 degrees. It was sad to see him not feeling very well.


Before Malcolm started slithering, he practiced his wicked plank position all the time. Then he'd get angry.


Malcolm is a very happy baby (even though you only see him being very serious) and loves to play "So Big" and "Patty-Cake" and "Wheels on the Bus" and "Peek-A-Boo" and "Eensy, Weensy, Spider".

Malcolm learned how to clap his hands.

I've been working with Malcolm to learn how to blow (Stella blew out her candle on her first birthday, so I'm trying to make all of my kids do it, seriously, what 1-year-old blows out their own candle?  Mine do.).  He will blow back at me when I blow in his face, but once I get the fire in front of him, he just wants to grab it.  We still have 3 months to fine tune.

Malcolm loves his bath.






Grandma found a picture of Elliot when he was 6 months old. I don't think they look like each other at all right now, but Elliot and Malcolm might have been twins in 1978. You don't see it? How about now.

If you try to hand something to Malcolm, he'll usually just lean forward with his mouth open so you can put it in his mouth. He might be lazy.



Malcolm went swimming for the first time on Memorial Day. He was ticked that the water was so cold, but then he really liked kicking around and showing off his new swimming moves.


I'm pretty sure Malcolm's eyes are going to stay blue, despite what you all say.

A BIG Birthday Day!

Stella's cousins Hannah and Claire both had their birthday parties on the same day and they were both super fun!  We started out at Hannah's waterslide party and those kids couldn't get enough of it.  Eating cake and opening presents was a bother when they just wanted to slide!

Stella went on it a thousand times and got me soaked.

Then we were off to Claire's adventure party at her Grandma Wiscombe's house.  She got to ride the 4-wheeler with George . . .

Ride the zip line . . .

Ride this thing . . .

And go swimming . . .

You'd think she would have been exhausted, right?  There is nothing besides barfing sickness that gets this girl tired.  I'm not even kidding.  Not even a little bit.

Malcolm McCoy meets President McCoy . . .

I'm the worst. I am seriously just super lazy when it comes to bringing my camera to places or even just digging it out of my bag. Even at important events like weddings and/or meeting your namesake. Lame. But we did get these pictures with our phones.

At the end of our Utah trip, we made arrangements to have dinner over at Elliot's mission president's home (President E. Marshall McCoy and his wife Suzanne) in Springville, Utah. I love them. We also made sure that Mark and Sarah Christensen could come (Elliot's favorite companion) because we love them too.

What a great couple of hours we had sitting around the table talking about their missions and shared memories. I loved hearing the different perspectives of Elliot's stories from both Mark and President & Sister McCoy.

Elliot has such respect and love for President McCoy that we named our son after him. We had planned this before we even decided to have children. Malcolm cooperated for one picture.

One of my favorite stories is from the perspective of President McCoy. Elliot had 3 mission presidents on his mission. Yes, three. Unheard of, right? Well, it's true. Elliot has told the story that at one point in his mission, Elder Richard G. Scott from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles came to visit. He was interviewing all of the missionaries and just before Elliot thought it was his turn, Elder Scott had to leave and Elliot didn't get to be interviewed by him. He has always been disappointed by this.

However, President McCoy tells the story like this. Elder Scott came to visit and told President McCoy that he only wanted to meet with the worst offenders in the mission, he wanted his companion (can't remember who came with him) to interview the mid-offenders, and he wanted President McCoy to interview everyone else. So it turns out that it was a good thing that Elliot didn't get to meet with Elder Scott because he was one of the good guys. Good boy.

Oh, I love the McCoy's.

Everyone Gets Sick On Vacation . . .

We were fairly recovered from the busy wedding day and Stella was ticked that she had to leave Jude, Greta, and Ezra. Seriously, we are so happy that we got to stay there. Love their house, love their kids, love the parents, love this family. Love.

Hope they don't mind that we're going to stay with them again when we come to Utah. Love.

Kennan took snapped a picture of our photogenic family. We were having an off day. Stella was complaining of a tummy ache, but pushed right through it to be able to play the last little while with Jude and Greta. But by the time we go to Uncle Roger and Aunt Terri's, she looked like this.

She was sick. May I just reiterate that this girl DOES NOT TAKE A NAP. So when she actually does, I know something is wrong with her. She asked Daddy for a blessing and he was happy to do it with the help of Grandpa and Uncle Roger who were both there. She barfed, rested, and then was able to feel better the next day and was back to her old shenanigans.