the party girl

oh boy sugar!

mmmm cake

what is this?!

admiring her new clothes

yea farmer jones!

ready to go outside in the sun

bring on the pool

her favorite

yea a bow!

this girl is one party animal

wearing the awesome hat from her grandma susie

we fit eleven people in our kitchen. it's crazy big. marley, ben, granny, mark, nancy, eric, lori, resa, aunt doodoo, great grandma, and walter

with her aunt doodoo

the beautiful cake i made her and decorated all by myself

discovering balloons with granny

loving the card her grandma susie sent...

after her brithday dinner of tortellini
ready to play baseball!

marley mae is one! we had a great celeration both friday and yesterday. friday it was just me and her dad and her, but yesterday her adoring public came to play. i can't believe how quickly this year has flown by. i never would have guessed what the year was going to bring, so who knows what will happen this next year?! after my c-section they made me wait for an hour before i could hold marley, and i remember just demanding to see her and hold her. once i did, i just couldn't believe it. it's amazing how much you can love one small little creature and how drastically she has changed our lives. for the better. marley mae was quite the trouper at her party, as you will see in photos. she loves all her new toys and clothes. thank you so much to everyone who helped to make this a special day for marley. and for us. we really can't thank you enough...

ta da!

marley mae got up and walked across the room on friday. all by her self. and she has since been walking everywhere...video soon

one more week

yum yum yum mac n cheese

oh boy tissues!

wasn't so sure about spagetti at first, but she warmed up to it

reading

taking a step

hmmm, which book should i read now?

oh i love my monkeys

11 months old!!!

her first hair bow

mum mums are her favorite snack

with aunt erin on nye

loving the blanket aunt erin made

cuddling with aunt resa

until marley mae is the big one! i can't believe it! ben has settled into his new job quite nicely. he loves to drink coffee, so i think it's a good match. =) marley is taking shuffle steps now. about one or two without holding on, it's only a matter of time before she just gets up and walks across the room. she has a mouth full of chompers now. i would love to tell you how many, but i am not sticking my finger in there. =)she loves to eat spagetti and macaroni and cheese. we're trying to get her to eat only adult food, but she is not sold on the idea. she's likes her pureed food. we are pretty settled into the new house. or we will be by the time her birthday party happens next weekend. she has started climbing on everything, which means she falls. a lot. here are a variety of photos...enjoy!

a very brief update

ack, it's been forever since i've written anything. we've been very busy. ben and i have a date tonight; a special show at the theatre. marley is busy busy busy. we found a place to live and are in the process of setting up shop. ben started his new job this past week and likes it a lot. as soon as we have our home computer station set up i will post more, but now i need to find something to wear tonight. =)

a new year

well, we had a very exciting new year's eve. i think we all managed to stay up until about 830pm. ben and i have become such party animals. marley has doubled her teeth since we have moved to texas. she had six when we got here, she now has twelve. they just keep popping out. the sunday after christmas we loaded up the car and headed to enchanted rock. louie appears to have a fear of heights, though he braved it rather than be left in the car. marley loves to go hiking. did not want dad to stop. thank goodness ben is strong enough to hike wearing her. i tried, but we didn't make it far. the weather has been gorgeous, though we are about to get a cold snap. marley had gone thru a serious growth spurt since moving here. and her hair is much fuller. i can't believe she's almost a year old. just blows my mind. she has also learned how to dance. she will dance to any music she hears. i've been playing one of my favorite movies, white christmas, for her. it has lots of singing and dancing, which she likes to join in on. it's really too cute. here are some pics from enchanted rock

christmas II

more pictures! also santa was kind enough to give me an address book for christmas, so i would really appreciate all e-mailing me thier addresses. my little slips of paper full of addresses system has failed. i know not where any are. if you leave me a comment, it sends an e-mail to my account and i will be the only one who can see it. it will not get published on the blog, have no fear. the pictures are stacking up, so i am hopeing to publish a few more. we keep having adventures, but i don't want to get ahead of myself...enjoy!

marley mae's first christmas

marley mae loved her first christmas. ben got lots of video, and i manned the camera. i'll probably have to make several posts to get them all in, the videos longer b/c we are working off my mom's computer but i'll do what i can. marley got tooth number eight for christmas. and lots of toys and cute clothes. she had a blast opening presents and wearing bows. she has a party hangover today and is sleeping most of the day. we had my mom's side of the family at her house, even kirby came down. it was wonderful to all be together again. kirby and i hadn't been able to share a christmas in ten years! ben and i are totally loving the wonderful warm texas weather. ben's been eating lots of bbq, while i have been trying to get my fill of guacamole. it was hard being away from the lonsert clan, but we made sure to carry their christmas traditions with us down here. the boys (kirby, eric, and ben) are off fishing and the girls are here relaxing. a wonderful meal of leftovers is on the menu for tonight. here is the star during christmas: