christmas celebrations part one

reading a new book with uncle kirby
telling gg thanks for the awesome tent
camping with uncle kirby
breakfast



peaking out of her new tent
crawling thru the tunnel, with no hesitations what so ever

riding her horsey before church in the wonderful dress granny made for her
pushing her new shopping cart from grandma susie around
hanging with uncle kirby in front of the fire
the family
checking out granny's tree.


we have had several christmas celebrations here, and they were all wonderful. i started using my film camera, so these are just a few of the pictures. it is getting harder and harder to find places that will develop film. i went to walgreens, were i always get my pictures developed, and their machine is broken and they're not sure they're going to fix it. crazy. anyways. we had our first celebration with eric and lori the sunday before christmas. we got to here mom ring her bells, ate a big lunch, and opened presents. it was lots of fun, but i have no photos yet. we celebrated again on christmas eve with our traditional christmas morning, b/c ben had to work christmas day. marley was very excited and santa was more than generous with her. we had more fun watching her, i think, than anything else. kirby flew in the day before and marley remembered him right away. uncle berbee. we had our breakfast tacos, cooked and served in some great new kitchen gear. and then mom did dinner and then off to church. my aunt erin is coming into town later this week, so i imagine we will do christmas again then. kirby and ben took down the tree today. it was a little sad, but we had had it up since the beginning of december. i guess that's long enough. kirby's here for just a few more days. seems like it was just the beginning of december and here it is already almost over. time sure is flying by.
when ben went and got marley out of bed this morning she had taken her jammies completely off, except for the feet. she hadn't managed to get those off yet. and had the biggest proudest grin on her face. very cute. i personally hate new year's eve. i think it is the worst holiday ever. always have. but if you are going to be out celebrating, please be careful. and have fun.
i took a lot of pictures, so there will be more soon....

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sprinkles!


making fairy drops with granny
baking with meshell




learning to wash dishes, which might have been her favorite part.

well, it's been awhile since i updated here and i feel like a ton has happened, although looking back it's mainly just been the day to day stresses and crazyness. last tuesday we celebrated a year in texas. this past year has flown by, although when i look at video of marley she is now such a big girl. she was still a rolly polly baby last year. we also made fairy drops at granny's house, which marley loved. it makes a ton of cookies, but some how there just aren't that many left. so we are off this morning to make more cookies at granny's. meshell came up for a visit on monday. we made cookies and drank hot chocolate and watched christmas movies. it was very fun and very relaxing. there seems to be a lot of baking going on, but where are all the cookies? the rest of this week is jam packed. just wanted to take the opportunity to wish every one a safe and happy christmas, hopefully surrounded by loved ones.

marley and her animals

yesterday wheni went to get marley from her nap i had quite a surprise waiting for me. marley knows how to take off her diaper. and since it was warm, she slept in only a t shirt and her diaper. or so i thought. i walked in to find a naked baby and a very wet bed. she was quite happy with herself too. just a grinning. but as my mom pointed out, it could have been much much worse. code brown worse.
i noticed something weird about myself yesterday that is probably news only to myself. i have an incredibly boring wardrobe. i own two or three shirts with patterns. everything else that i own is a solid colour. how did i get so boring with my clothes? and how did i never notice this before? oh well, i guess i'll have to try to expand when i buy new clothes.

ben and marley and i went to breakfast this morning. the recording isn't the best, but as you can tell it was very important to marley that we discuss important things.

fun in the sun

helping me rake

showing me what i missed
wading thru the huge piles
the most precious little face
my beautiful silly imp
burying herself in leaves

attempt at a self portrait

yesterday marley and i headed out for some much needed vitamin d. we played with the leaves in our front yard for about two hours and now are both a little rosy faced. marley loves to be outside.

christmas spirit

ben and i pre fancy pants party
thanks to my mom for baby sitting and my aunt resa for the awesome jewelry.
ben and marley on the hayride trip out to get our tree
marley tugging ben along laughing
ben being manly and cutting down our tree
marley sitting next to her tree
so excited!
me and my baby girl on the ride back
telling dad how to put the lights on
inspecting the lights
channeling uncle kirby
hanging her first ornament
somehow it turned from putting the ornaments on the tree to haning them on granny
wonder and awe
our beautiful tree

we found out christmas spirit here this past weekend. we started off on saturday night by going to ben's company christmas party. it was a super fancy pants affair. and it was fun. we didn't really know what to expect, but it's a great company ben works for and the directors of all the different sites were there and all were very friendly. we danced and had dinner and won a christmas present. a nice warming chair massage-er, which should come in handy for me soon. on sunday we finished our christmas shopping and ended the day by cutting down our own christmas tree. marley liked that part the best. she laughed and ran around. thought it was a great adventure. and she even helped decorate it. overall, it was a wonderful weekend.

on another note, not to preach, but just to put the thought out there. with economic times as they are there are even more people in need. and the holiday season can be especially dreary to those already struggling. ben and i have decided to cut down on the amount we spend on christmas presents and instead make a donation to a charity. we're choosing one i worked at in philly, for my own sentimental reasons. but as i get to watch marley's excitement and wonder grow the closer we get to christmas, the more i want to enable another child and their parents to experience the same thing. if you don't know a charity, united way is always a good place to start for local organizations. also the gift of your time can be invaluable. the holidays are a very lonely time for people. what might not mean much to you, can be the highlight of some one's day or even their week. and you never know how blessed you will end up being in return. ben has had an interesting dilemma at work this past week and it's something we have had to talk about how to handle. in the end we have both decided that we should set the example we want marley to learn from, particularly in our actions. sometimes that is not the easy decision. and sometimes it is as simple as being thankful for the blessings we have and doing what we can to share them.