Summer Family time

We have been so busy with house guests the past few weeks and I just haven't felt like posting stuff so here is a short summary of our fun times with Grammy and Jacobi.  Grammy was here for a whole week and Marshall and I enjoyed her stay.  We played around the house alot, visited Tom, Jess, and Leah, went to the Children's Museum, and ventured down to Friendswood for the day to see Grams and Gramps and go swimming at Misty's house.  I haven't been to the children's museum since I was a kid so it was totally different from what I remember.  Marshall is still a little young for the whole museum experience but he had lots of fun in the Tot Spot area.  The day Grammy left Nick came home from his almost 3 week stay in Wyoming.  We were all so happy to have him home, especially my crazy dogs!! 

After Nick was all settled in for a few days we all left to go to my parent's house on a Friday afternoon because we had a wedding to go to in Dallas on Saturday.  Marshall stayed with my parents for the day and when we got back we loaded up again and drove home with one more passenger, Jacobi.  She stayed here all week and she just went back yesterday.  We had such a great time and time moved slowly so that made the visit even better.  We went to Misty's house for a few days so we could swim and go to the beach.  I promised to take Jacobi to the beach while she was down so Misty watched Marshall and I went to the beach with just Jacobi and Paige.  It was a nice afternoon and I think the girls had fun too.  We came back to my house on Wednesday and just chilled out the rest of the week.  Jacobi and I did get to go shopping and see a movie, so that was fun, and I didn't even fall asleep.  Overall, the week was great and I am so thankful that Jacobi was here to play with Marshall and be a little help to me as well.  Here are a few pics from the past few weeks:

Marshall at the Children's Museum

Grammy and Marshall at the park

 

Marshall and Tricia playing drums with tupperware

Marshall knocking down Tricia's tower

Paige, Tricia, and Jacobi

Paige, Jacobi, and me

Typical photo of these two

Marshall loves Jacobi

What is Marshall doing these days??

Marshall is growing up so fast and I wanted to share some of the things he is doing these days:

-He has noticed airplanes and points them out when we are outside.  An airplane probably flies over my house every 5-10 minutes so we see our fare share.  Three helicopters flew by last week, a huge jumbo jet flew by really low yesterday and a propeller plane pulling a banner flew by today, so there is always something new to see.  This picture is of him watching a plane in our front yard.

-When Marshall eats a snack I hand him the food and he puts it on the floor then eats it, so wierd!! We were at the splash pad last week and he kept putting his goldfish on the ground and of course thought it was funny when I tried to stop him.

-For those of you who do not know this, Skippy barks when Marshall cries and now when he makes loud noises.  Marshall has learned to chase Skippy yelling to get him to bark.  It sounds funny and cute but it's really a huge pain and it drives us all CRAZY.  I have been meaning to get a video of this so I will definitely post it when I do.

-Marshall has found two bungie cords in the garage and loves to play with them outside.  He carries them around one in each hand and if he drops one he HAS to go back and pick it up so he has both.

-Marshall has started picking up two balls at a time in one hand.  He doesn't seem to think anything of it but I think it's pretty cool.

-Marshall has started turning around in circles.  I have no idea where he learned this from but it is definitely fun to watch him get dizzy and fall down.

-Marshall has learned if he runs full force at me I, of course, will catch him.  When I put him down he walks backwards and runs at me again.  Now he has started running back and forth to Grammy and me and totally wearing himself out.

-Marshall is learning new stuff all the time and slowly but surely it is starting to show.  It's funny how I have been working on "The cow says MOO" for the longest time and he still hasn't gotten it, but when I tell him a "kitty cat says meow" he gets it in a day.  He makes noises for a lion and a fish and I'm pretty sure he said tweet tweet tonight.  Marshall knows him head, mouth, toes, hands, and he knew his nose and ear but he forgot them and points to his head when you ask him those.

Hope everyone has a great week!!!

Our week with Paige and Tricia

My nieces, Paige and Tricia, came up for the week to keep us company since Nick is in Wyoming on Catostrophe duty.  We decided to go to the zoo on Wednesday in hopes of small crowds and no school groups and we succeded.  Normally when I go to the zoo I go all the way to the back and make my way forward but we decided to take the route to see the giraffes and elephants first and I'm so glad we did.  The cheetah was out right next to the fence and the giraffes were all hanging out with their keepers but the highlight of the day were the elephants.  Baylor, the new baby, was out playing with his mom and another young elephant.  We were all super excited to see him and I could have watched him all day but there were other animals to see and it was very HOT outside.  The zoo has a new Dinosaurs exhibit that costs a little extra to get into but it was totally worth it.  In the exhibit you follow a path around to see different animotronic very real looking dinosaurs that move around and make noises.  I thought it was pretty cool and I think Marshall liked it too.  The past few times we have gone to the zoo we have been so tired at the end that we end up not riding the train, but this time I was bound and determined so we did.  The train ride was longer than I expected so I'm glad Marshall enjoyed it. 

The rest of the week we ventured out to the mall to buy pink hair color for Paige, hung out at the splash pad at the Woodlands Waterway, played in the rain and had fun hanging around the house.  Misty came up on Friday and they all stayed to babysit Saturday night so I could go to Allison's 30th birthday party.  It's always nice to have someone else here with me when Nick is out of town so I'm really thankful they were here, but it was nice to get my house back in order once they left. 

Paige and Trish

On the train

playing in the rain

Paige's pink hair

The perfect "Old Navy" ad

Memorial Day weekend

We didn't really have any plans for Memorial Day weekend but Nick got called for Catostrophe duty in Wyoming so I decided to pack up and go to my parent's house in Tyler for the weekend. Marshall and I left on Friday morning with Sandy and Skippy in the back of the truck in their kennel. My dogs LOVE visiting my parents because the backyard is huge and there are lots of squirrels and birds to chase. Marshall was so excited to see his Nana and was even saying her name a bunch. We fed the ducks down by the water and all Marshall wanted to do was get in. Jacobi came over for the night and we all went to visit my papa and then went out for frozen custard.

The next morning we went up to McKinney to see Meagan and Tatum one last time before she leaves for Virginia this week. It was a very spur of the moment decision but I'm glad we went. We spent the day with them, played, shopped, had an early dinner and ended the day at the park. We got up the next morning and drove back to my parent's house. Marshall slept the whole time thank goodness!! Once we got there we ate lunch, got back in the car with my dad and drove to my granny and papa's house in Gun Barrel City about 45 min. away from Tyler. Marshall wasn't exactly too excited about this and I felt awful putting him in the car again but we needed to go. My Aunt Cindy and Uncle Len were there loading up stuff from the house since it is getting rented out soon so we got to see them. It also gave me a chance to look through the house one more time for anything that I wanted. We finished up and went back to Tyler and Marshall helped Nana water her flowers. She didn't realize how much he loves the water hose and he ended up soakin' wet and had a blast!!

On Memorial day we just hung out around the yard the majority of the morning and went to a picnic at my parent's church that afternoon. After the picnic we went out to my sister, Belinda's, house to see the horses. We got there and there was a horse all saddled up ready for Marshall to sit on but Marshall didn't really go for it but he did give the horse a kiss. We then checked out their puppies and bunnies, kitties, and chickens in their barn. It was fun to hang out at their place for just a short time, next time we will definitely spend more time exploring their land and hopefully get to see the cows. We drove home Tuesday morning and it we were all happy to be back, including the dogs. My nieces, Paige and Tricia, came over last night and will stay the week with me so I will write more about this week later.

It was a long weekend with lots of driving, but totally worth it with all the loved ones we saw!

A nice view of the yard and lake

Skippy on guard on the table.  I think he thought it made his chances of catching a squirrel greater!

Marshall giving Tatum a kiss

Marshall watering the plants

Marshall laughing at me telling him not to play in the dog water

Marshall giving the horse a kiss