5 months old

Marley's Bubble Bath Today Marley is 5 months old!

Here are a few things we love about her!

• She loves to smile
• She love to communicate with us
• She thinks she is as big as MaKieley
• When she realizes she is sitting up instead of standing she goes straight as a board
• She still loves the water
• She is a great cuddler
• She loves to stand up in her exersaucer
• She gives five
• The funny faces she makes when you give her peaches
• Her laughter
• Her big Bright Blue Eyes
• All her pants fall right off of her
• She wants to crawl so bad so she scoots around on her back with her feet (causing herself a bald spot on her head)
• When she gets so excited to see each of us
• That God Blessed us with her!

Thank you God for Marley and the blessing she is to our lives!

A Conversation With MaKieley

SETTING: In the backseat of Grammie's truck while looking at one of Marley's favorite picture books (loaned to her by Tucker and Tanner - Thanks Boys!).

MaKieley: Look Marley, an orange orange

Marley: OOOO

MaKieley: and purple grapes

Marley: EEEEEE

Me: Why is it not Purple Purples?

MaKieley: What?

Me: Why is it not Purple Purples?

MaKieley: I don't understand.

Me: You have an orange orange - why not purple purples?

MaKieley: You're not making sense mom.

Me: Sure I am. Orange orange and Purple purples.

MaKieley: That is not how it is.

Me: (turn the page to a green turtle) Like this should be a green green.

MaKieley: No.

Me: Why not?

MaKieley: It's not a fruit! (very matter of factly)

Me: Oh! Ok! ( I turn the page to a red apple) A Red red.

MaKieley: No mom! That is not how it works.

Me: Why not?

MaKieley: Because God assigned it the name apple. And God assigned them the name Grapes and orange.

Me: Oh! That's how it works huh?

MaKieley: Yup!

WANTED: Snowman Killer

Here is our Snowman, guarding our house, about 11:30 last night!
This morning we woke to find tire tracks through the place where our Snowman stood.
I wish I knew how to be a real CSI and take tire prints! I would track down the person who did this!

What kind of person would do this to a child's creation?

To me the person who did this is a very unhappy person! Someone who has to tear down what others build to make themselves feel good lives a sad life! MaKieley was so sad to see her Snowman in a thousand little pieces! We talked about destroying others property though and now she wants to try and rebuild it! What a great teaching opportunity!

More Snowy Fun!

Marley was ready to play in the snow!
All my snow bunnies!
MaKieley and I had some fun giving John's car a face! MaKieley gave the car the eyes and I gave it a nose and mouth!
Marley was given a snow suit for Christmas (Thank you Jerri, Gerald, Jack, Kati, Buddy and Kelsey)! We never knew it would come in so handy! It was a little big but it kept her nice and toasty!! :)
Here John and Marley show off her snow suit! So cute!

Marley has fun watching Daddy and MaKieley build a Snowman!

Marley has her picture made with the Snowman!
MaKieley getting ready to play in the snow!

The Making of a Snowman!

The How To Steps of Making A SnowmanFirst you make a mound of snow and begin rolling it around to create a ball.
Roll the ball around awhile! You will need a big one for the bottom. Stop and check if it is big enough. If not...
...keep rolling! If it gets to heavy have someone help you roll it around some more! Team work is best!

Once it is big enough you might need to take a rest. The bottom snowball makes a great place to sit and rest!

Next you will need to start another ball for the middle. Do it just like before - just do not make it as big. Make one more small ball for the head.

Now you should pack some snow in between the snowballs to make them sturdy.

Next you will need to gather some items to make the Snowman's face. Here we have carrot for the nose, two suckers for the eyes and another sucker for the pipe.

It is always nice to have someone to oversee just in case you miss a step!

Here is our Snowman! He is so popular that after we came in to warm up we saw a guy pull up in his truck get out and take a picture of our Snowman with his cell phone!

20 Weeks

Well it's the BIG 2-0 for Marley! Weeks that is! She grows and changes everyday! Right now she is trying to help me type this and she keeps moving the cursor to different places on the screen! I guess I better stop here because she needs a clean diaper and who knows how long this would take with her helping me!

Marley's New Trick

Do you see this big Sippy Cup that is almost as big as Marley's head? Well she has been drinking out of it pretty well for a little over a month now! She has held it before but in the last week...
...she has been perfecting the art...
...of getting it into her mouth by herself and then drinking! She has done it!

She thought this was the best fun! Last night when she was eating dinner she would get so excited everytime we would hand her the sippy cup! I will try to record her response sometime because it is so funny to hear her get so excited! She has been "drinking" out of a big person glass (no lid) for a while. But almost always 95% of the water dribbles out of her mouth and down her front! Not so with the Sippy Cup!

For a while now Marley has decided that anytime anyone is eating around her she should be eating too! So we have to make sure we have something she can eat anytime we sit down to a meal! Now I am sure we are going to need the Sippy Cup everytime too!

An Icy Winter Blast

"Baby it's COLD Outside!"
MaKieley and John have been singing that song all weekend! Just to give you a taste as to how things are outside our house, check out these pictures! The icy rain started Friday night and made EVERYTHING VERY slick by Saturday morning! John was supposed to go into work but after some quick talking from MaKieley and I, watching a driver almost take out our mail box and (John) falling on the ice he changed his mind. He worked from home instead!
When we woke up this morning things did not seem any better! At the bottom of the TV screen we could see all the church cancellations and the weathermen were warning against any travel! Our chuch however was the only one not cancelled - "Meeting as Scheduled" was under our church's name on the bottom of the screen! Since my mother, fractured hip and all, had decided to go we thought we should be there to help her if she needed us (which of course she didn't). So out went John (by himself) to drive the car around the block to see exactly how the roads were. Surprisingly they were not bad at all! So we all dressed and got in the car and went to church! The roads were fine until we got to the building! The road the church is on was icy and the parking lots were like an ice skating rink! But we had made it! We worshiped and then went to Mom and Dad's for lunch. We made our way home after lunce and found the loop was dry!
Thank you God for keeping us safe!

I'll have a Side Order of Patience Please

What a sweet face! Behind it is what is driving me crazy! MaKieley went through a while of not listening and minding, doing whatever she wants to, just general 6 year old rebellion! Well I thought that little girl who tries my patience on a daily basis had finally disappeared about Wednesday! She was listening and minding the first time, doing what she was told, asking before she did things and not showing much rebellion at all! Well as you have probably guessed... SHE'S BAAACK! 'Maybe it is the weather' is what I have been telling myself all day! For those of you not here - An ice storm came in over night and thank goodness today was Saturday and not a school day! We have been in our house all day! Marley waited until 4 pm to take a good nap - we would get her to sleep and she would sleep for 5 to 15 minutes and then she was up again, but she was not happy! She was very agitated because she was tired! And MaKieley was not helping the situation at all! So as you can see, today did not lend itself to a calm laid back stay in your jammies day! I know MaKieley has such a sweet heart and wants to help! It is just that she does not always do it in a helpful way! Example: We made queso this afternoon to go with our dinner. I put it in the microwave to heat it up and then had to hold Marley. MaK went in and took it out of the microwave and decided she would add some more of the Rotel juice (which I really did not want in there but it was not the end of the world). What made it worse was when I dipped the first chip in the queso I found out she had also found it necessary to add a hefty dose of Splenda! YUCK! Ok, I know my dad is reading this and cracking up and telling my mom to listen up! Now she is cracking up! I beg you to please think about the way you felt when I am sure I did something so similar to this you are having flashbacks! It has been a long and hard day and it is only 7:35pm and I would appreciate a tiny bit of sympathy right now! Thank you! If you could serve it up I would ask for a Side of Patience to go along with my tiny serving of sympathy. But I know that is not possible so I will just have to ask God if I can get a little extra patience to make it through this long weekend!

19 weeks old

Today Marley turned 19 weeks old! She has been eating green beans for a whole week and has decided to like them. Today we moved on to green peas! She liked them immediately so there are no funny face pictures to share! She has been sleeping in her big bed for the past several nights and doing great! Daddy on the other hand is a basket of worries. I feel fine with it since we have the monitor right by her bed and can hear any little noise she makes. She rolls over onto her tummy sometimes and John really does not like this! Her Pedi said it was ok if she rolled herself over to leave her that way (which is exactly what we did with MaKieley). Just make sure it is just her in the bed (Which we know already!). I guess we will just have to work through it! I love the fact John cares so much about his girls!
Marley is doing better with sitting up by herself but would almost always rather be in the exersaucer where she can stand up! She is laughing more - the recording below is of her laughing. We were visiting with our friends Tucker and Tanner today and she thought they were so funny! Of course the recording below is the tail end of the giggling so it is not real great! (It takes to long to call the recording number put in the channel number and password and get it recording! By the time you do it all you miss the really good stuff! Oh well! It is the handiest way to catch things when you are out and about!)
Gabcast! John's Girls #11 - Marley Laughing at Tucker and Tanner

Marley Laughing at Tucker and Tanner dancing with her!

Dinnertime With Marley

Below are a few conversations between Marley and John while he fed her dinner tonight. I just could not stop with one recording! Beware of the bottom two as they have quite a bit of squeeling in them!
Gabcast! John's Girls #8 - Dinnertime conversation with Marley

Conversation with Marley while she was eating greenbeans



Gabcast! John's Girls #9 - Dinnertime conversation with Marley

Marley eating cereal



Gabcast! John's Girls #10 - Dinnertime conversation with Marley

Eating cereal and greenbeans

It's Over!

The Holidays are Over! I know that sounds really bad, right? I just was not into them this year like I normally am! Blame it on a new baby, not having real winter weather, tiredness......whatever you choose. Today is MaKieley's first day back at school and she was excited! She got out of bed as soon as her alarm went off (despite going to bed 30 minutes late and not going to sleep for at least another hour) and dressed herself, brushed her hair and was ready for breakfast when John pulled himself out of bed. Yes I did say John and not Sarah. I stayed in bed with Marley who had already been up to eat twice since 2 am. I was not asleep but since John seemed to have everything under control I stayed right where I was (not a normal thing). This really was part of one of my New Year Resolutions to give up some of the control and not worry about everything being perfect all the time. We will see how long it lasts. Anyway - Marley and I did get out of bed in time to wish everyone a good day and see them off at a decent (not late) time. You see it takes appx. 15 minutes to get to MaKieley's school so we can not leave the house late! Or Else! John informed me they got to school in plenty of time for MaKieley to walk in at a leisurely pace. Normally we are pulling up to the school telling her she needs to get in the building and go straight to class! No playing around (which she loves to do)! She informed her daddy she liked getting to school at this time.
Now at home I feed Marley and we watched one of our new Baby Einstein DVDs (Thank you Aunt Lyric, Uncle Andy and Cousin Ollie) and then it was time for a much needed nap! So right now she is sleeping in her big bed dreaming of whatever she loves! I am updating my blog, doing laundry, doing some picking up and enjoying the little bit of normalcy!
I hope everyone has a great day!

Big Bed

Ok I did it! I put Marley down for her nap in her crib! I had to make MaKieley stay at the kitchen table and paint (Thank you Cousins Kati, Kelsey, Buddy & Jack for the paint set! She loves it!) because pretty much anything MaKieley does makes some kind of noise. It will be easier after school resumes tomorrow.
Marley took an hour and fifteen minute nap in her crib! I think I will try to start her off in it tonight at bed time. (That is if I can talk John into it!) I am pretty sure she will not make it all night since she is in a growth spurt and likes to eat a lot."Do you like My Marley Mohawk?"

Was it a Fluke?

Today I was holding Marley after I fed her and she was talking! I held my hand up in front of her and wiggled my fingers and said give me 5! She looked at my hand and then at me and back at my hand. She lifted her hand up and planted it square in mine! I looked around to see if anyone else had seen it too and sure enough my mom had been watching. My first thought was no way and then my second was try it again! So that is exactly what I did! And she did it again. And again. And again. I am sure she did not know what "give me 5" meant but she sure knew what to do when I held my hand up!

Marley Eats Greenbeans

Marley is now 4 months old and was oked by her pedi to start veggies and fruits since she has done so well with rice cereal. We decided we would start with GREENBEANS! Well the initial reaction was so funny! You know the face you make when you get a bite of something that does not taste like what you were expecting? That is exactly what we got plus a full body shiver! Followed by gagging!It got better from there! She was not really thrilled about the taste still but she ate it like a pro. She did a lot better when we mixed the greanbeans into her rice cereal! It is a learning process! MaKieley did not like them at first either and they became one of her favorite foods! Hopefully the same will be for Marley!We will bring more updates as we try more new foods in the coming weeks!