March Madness

Here's a little recap of all our happenings in March. Spring is here, so we definitely sprung into action with more outings and fun adventures with our little toddler.

Our playgroup braved the DART Rail and took a little trip down to Mockingbird Station to enjoy a bite to eat. The kids were in heaven and there has been much train talk ever since!

The DART passengers didn't quite know what to do with all of us and our 8 toddlers!

Some of the boys: Zane, Egan, Caleb & Marshall

A man's work is never done

My brother-in-law, Andy, also came in from Afghanistan for his two-week leave and we were SO excited to see him. We are so thankful the Lord has kept him safe the last 8 months and continue to pray for safety and strength during his last 4 months there. We are so proud of him!!!

We took a trip to Tyler to visit Gana & Papa and we went to a cool playground that had an old fire engine, tractor and caboose. Unfortunately Marshall suffered his first major boo-boo when a swing ran into his face...which resulted in a very minor black eye. It's that awful feeling of watching something in slow motion that you know isn't going to go well, but you just can't get there in time to save them. In typical Marshall form, he was happy to point it out to anyone he met...anything for attention!

Driving the fire truck with Gana

Driving a tractor is serious business!

Marshall's first bubble bath, EVER! Even though he looks pleasant here, it took us 10 minutes to even get him to stay in the tub on his knees. He refused to sit on his bottom, WAY to freaked out about drowning, poor baby!

Marshall went to his first birthday party of the season for Miss Lily! It's next to impossible to take any pictures of a bouncing boy, which means he had a blast! Such a fun party for a sweet little girl.

Finally, we headed down to the Arboretum for our annual Dallas Blooms trip and it did not disappoint! So beautiful and so much space to run...the boys were in heaven and Mia did a good job of holding her own. Grandma got to join us and I was so thankful for the extra hands for our little busy bee!

Grandma & Marshall

Marshall & Hudson: our little strawberry blond buddies...they are just too cute together!

Running ahead to check out the toad water fountain

Runnnnnnnnning!!!

Only time he was still was when he was playing with the dirt.

Sweet Mia, she knows how to pose!

Peek-a-boo!

Happy Friday!!!

Cheerful Banter

I hadn't uploaded any videos of Marshall recently so here's a little one that just captures his sweet 23 month old personality and lots of cheerful banter! Enjoy!

Boots

Daddy got some new boots for Valentine's Day, but Mr. I Heart Shoes had his eyes on them. I think a little boot purchase might be in our future for this little buckaroo!

22 Months

Our little boy just continues to grow into a fun little kid with lots of energy and tons of laughs! I can't believe there are only 2 more months until he's two!?! Here are a couple of things he's up to these days...

Talking - still not putting two words together, but his vocabulary has recently exploded and he adds new words each day like: various numbers and letters, "hewwoah" aka hello, "odee" aka open, car, hiding, color, paint, spoon, fork, eat, sit, show and see. He does a great job of accenting the "t" for words that end in "t", very cute!

Getting into Trouble - I always know Marshall's up to something when it gets too quiet. It usually means he's hiding with an item he's not supposed to have. I need to take a picture of him because he does the same thing every time...laying flat on the floor with the object tucked under his body. He's either in dad's side of the closet or in the front living room wedged behind the chair and the wall. Which is why he knows the word "hiding"...it happens a lot!

Love for all things with wheels - When we go to get him out of bed every morning, the 3rd word out of his mouth every time (after "momma" and "dada") is cars...like clockwork! It's all he thinks about and typically he's always holding at least one at all times, most of the time it's up to 4. Currently he's fond of the matchbox blue bus (which is actually a police inmate transport vehicle, it says so on the side, we can thank Aunt Betsy for that one!)

The twos are quickly approaching and he shows us a glimpse of that little 2-year old will every now and then, it ain't pretty folks...should be fun! We love you boo-boo!    

Playing in the first snow of 2011 - more pics to come of the 2nd snow of 2011, sigh.



Don't tell his Dr., it was only a matter of time before Mr. Potato Head's ears made it into Marshall's!

We took at family trip to the Dallas World Aquarium and it was fabulous! Marshall had a great time and didn't have time for looking at camera's...too much to see!

A day in the life...the car in hand, goggles, beads and bear slippers are a daily accessory around here.

Feeling Fenced In...

Everyone in our house is feeling a little fenced in with all this ice...literally! Thankfully we haven't experienced any power outages, so we're keeping our fingers crossed.

Christmas 2010

We had a great Christmas this year, nothing too crazy, just a nice time with family, friends and especially food! We went to the Christmas Eve service at Watermark with my family and enjoyed a relaxing evening at our house afterwards with my parents, Vicki and the kids. We opened our Stocking "bags!" (You have to get creative when you have little ones around that ask why the adults still get stockings from Santa, so my sister and mom sewed special bags for us to use to continue our family tradition of giving stocking gifts.) But this was our first time to open them on Christmas Eve and it worked out really well. My sad confession is that I didn't take many pictures this year of our families, we were too busy trying to wrangle Marshall and get some decent shots of him. But we did take TONS of video footage, which I will spare everyone of, but it will be fun to enjoy when he's older.

Christmas Eve with the cousins

My sister hosted a brunch on Christmas day so we had plenty of time to enjoy all of Santa's bounty before we headed to her house, here's the goods from Santa!!! Now, I'm coming to realize that evidently Santa doesn't "display" his gifts out like this for everyone. He wraps gifts for some people, gasp! What's this about wrapping!?! The joy of Christmas morning was running out to see what Santa had brought and to play with it immediately! None of this waiting until everyone opens presents and then happen upon a Santa gift. Next year I'm going to take a pole in my facebook status to see who he wrapped for and who received the display, because this wrapping stuff is for the birds! (BTW, evidently he wrapped for my husband and Betsy...it makes me sad for them...)

The Santa spread...Maggie was obviously not startled by Santa when he came down the chimney!?!



Like I said, more excitement in the video, but he was just taking it all in!



Christmas morning

We took a couple of pictures when we were opening gifts with my family, but blogger wouldn't let me rotate them so I'm sparing you from the neck strain. We had a fabulous brunch, Vicki did a great job and we even got to skype with Andy in Afghanistan a couple times. Marshall did really well with opening the gifts, he just didn't understand why we wanted him to keep going when he just wanted to play with the one he had just opened. Sweet boy!

After Marshall's nap we headed to Creighton's parents for more Christmas day celebrations. Jack made some delicious osso bucco with risotto and it was divine! I made a Mocha Mousse Torte for dessert that was so yummy, I still think about it now and how I should make it more often! I'm all about non-traditional food on holidays so dinner was perfect! While opening presents, the craziness of the day finally set in and Marshall was in rare form...time for bed. It was a beautiful day with family to celebrate a beautiful baby...our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!

Sitting on Thomas, a fabulous chest that holds a train set! Thanks Grandpa & Grandma!

Reading Ranger Rick with Gigi