Happy 2nd Birthday Marshall!!!

Dear Marshall,
What an absolute joy and blessing you are to us! These last two years have been mind-blowing...every day a new adventure and every adventure, better than the one before. Your spunk is contagious and your sweet, friendly spirit is refreshing. Happiness just explodes from your heart and it's truly an answer to prayer...I hope it never fades with age. What an honor to be your parents! You remind us everyday that God is bigger and greater than anything we can imagine and the depth of responsibility we have to guard and protect that little heart and mind of yours inspires us to be better parents. We are in no way perfect at the job, but we serve a perfect God, so I'm thrilled that he can heal you from any of the hurts we accidentally give you.

This verse is a new favorite of mine, because there's nothing I want for you to know more than there's nothing to fear, because although we love you...there's a God that loves you even more than we ever could...you are His!

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.
Isaiah 43:1b-2

Happy Birthday Marshall, we love you to the moon and back and although we're really quite anxious about you as a 2-yr old, we're hopeful you will use your spunk for good and not evil! :)

Love,
Mom & Dad

We had Marshall's two-year pictures taken last weekend and as always, Miss Whitney did an outstanding job!!! She is always perfect at capturing Marshall's hilarity at this stage, which is what I've provided below...these are the bloopers. I'll save the winners for another post. Enjoy!

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.