We will be chasing her before we know it!

Ms. Marlee has been up and rocking on all fours for the past 3 or 4 weeks.  That little stinker is going to be crawling around before I know it!   She has absolutely no interest in rolling around.  She will roll from back to front, get annoyed, rock back and forth for awhile and then be ready to quit.  She’ll whine and cry until I sit her up.  She rarely rolls from front to back.  I think she knows if she whines long enough her Momma will make it all better. J  Once sitting up, she’s happy as a clam.  She just loves sitting there, playing with her toys, talking to her sister, smiling at us, ooh and aahing at Jersey…. But, I think her favorite is Mickey Mouse.  She’s watched a few episodes with Victoria (Mickey Mouse Club House is Victoria’s favorite show) and she gets the HUGEST grin when she sees Mickey come on the screen.  It’s pretty stinking cute. I think someone is going to get a stuffed Mickey Mouse for Christmas J  I always wonder when the best time is to bring your kids to Disney World and I know they won’t remember it, but I think my babies would ABSOLUTELY love it now.  If only all my “leaves” hadn’t fallen off my money tree. J  But back to Marlee, I just can’t believe that my littlest monkey is already 7 months old! With Victoria, we were so excited for her to move on to that next stage, have another breakthrough in her development…  With Marlee, I just want her to stay my little baby forever!  She’s such a sweet little girl, with the prettiest smile and most contagious laughter.  She only really cries when she’s tired or hungry but is otherwise perfectly content and happy with whatever we are doing.  I am excited to see the little girl she becomes, but for now, I’m happy that she snuggles deep into my arms and I can cuddle her to my heart’s content.

(On all fours)

Brown Eyes

My brother’s girlfriend, Jennifer, has the most adorable nephew, Tyson. He’s has such a contagious smile and deep brown eyes that just pull you in - he’s going to be a little ladies man when he gets older J I asked Jennifer and her Mom if I could take some pictures of Tyson to get some practice with my camera and we had so much fun! There were so many cute ones that I just had to share!

Ar-Kansas

One of my favorite cousins, Derek, had been begging our family to make the road trip south to visit him and his wonderful family in Arkansas. Eventually, he talked to the right person and Grandpa decided that he could use his frequent flier miles and get us all down there!


So, in mid October, we all boarded the plane for the 1.5 flight south (much better than the 10.5 hour drive!). This was Victoria’s third trip in an airplane and Marlee’s first. Victoria was beyond excited to get on the plane. As we walked through the airport, she kept asking “where’s the plane?”, “where’s the plane?” When we got on the plane, she waived to the pilots, crawled into seat, buckled her own seatbelt and patiently waited for takeoff. Once in the air she kept saying “this is so fun!” She was a great little girl and loved going back and forth from sitting by Grandma, then Mommy and then Daddy. We were lucky that we were all sitting by each other, but all got to spread out to have open seats by us. Marlee was also fantastic, and played and played and finally closed her eyes, cuddled into Mommy and fell asleep.

On Friday, the boys played in a golf tournament and we girls went to this adorable nail salon that had a princess parlor. Victoria was lucky enough to get a manicure AND a pedicure. She chose the color blue and sat perfectly still as the lady trimmed, filed, lotioned and polished her nails. They didn’t stay perfect for long, but it was still a great experience and she LOVED it :) This salon also had an adorable boutique where Marlee modeled some items and was spoiled by Aunt Linda with fun little hat :)

Saturday night, with the girls in Grandma and Grandpa’s care, Ted and I got to go out and spend some adult time with my cousin Jody, my cousin Derek and his wife Hannah. We were toured around Dickson Street and enjoyed drinks, conversation and entertainment via Derek and Ted. Those two are pretty entertaining separately, but you put them together and you can’t help but laugh :)

We spent the rest of the weekend at Aunt Linda and Uncle Stan’s house relaxing, eating, and visiting. My cousins Derek and Jody each have 3 kids of their own, and the girls just LOVED all the attention that they got from all of them. The youngest ones, Sadie and Genna reenacted their Christmas skit, and Victoria jumped in to join their dance routine. It was ADORABLE! I wish I would have caught it on video, but I did get her standing “on stage” with them.  Aunt Linda and Victoria also played "make-up" and they both had a fun bath in the kitchen sink :)

Thanks to Grandpa and Grandma we had a very fun-filled, relaxing vacation with family that we don’t get to see nearly enough. It was just what the doctor ordered :) Thank you G and G!!!

Boys....ALREADY?

Had to share this funny story :)

Last night, on our drive to gymnastics, I was telling Victoria all the things that we would do there that night…trying to get her excited about going. “We will get to do somersaults, jump, walk on a balance beam, meet new kids, play….”…she then interrupted me and said…”and boys, there will be boys!?!?”…..

Ted buried his head in his hands….I LAUGHED AND LAUGHED!!! :)

Smarty Pants

Had to share a picture of my little smarty pants J

Want me to Help?

This is a common phrase that comes from Victoria’s mouth these days.  You can be doing anything and she asks “Want me to help?”  The other weekend, 2 weeks before Halloween, I thought we should make some Halloween Funfetti Cupcakes, and “she could help”.  Victoria got this adorable toy cupcake set and loves to pretend making cupcakes, so she was all for helping me make these.  She did everything from stirring, mixing, pouring, frosting and of course sprinkling.  They were delicious cupcakes J