Better Late than Never

So this is the first day Marianne walked. It was the week of Thanksgivign but even though it is a bit outdated it was too cute not to post. Thanks, Deidra, for fixing it up!

11 things we are thankful for in 2011

• Our salvation in Christ. It is a precious gift that we do not want to take for granted.
• Marianne growing up healthy and strong.  And her first steps this week!
• A great job for Chris.
• Good friends that also stay home with their children so that Marianne and I can have fun and fellowship during the day.
• Where we live.  We love living in Atlanta, our part of town, and even our little neighborhood.
• Wonderful friends who are always fun and supportive.
• Our church and the fact that it is thriving and growing. 
• Our marriage.  Eight years have flown by and they have been a blast!
• That the Gamecocks have won back to back national championships in baseball!
• Our families that love us and encourage us and are alway there for us.
• All of the amazing things God has given us to simply enjoy.  Things like beautiful parks, sports, art.

Our Little Duck

Marianne had a full week of Halloween festivities.  We started by going to the botanical gardens for their annual Halloween celebration.  Marianne joined in the costume parade, made a snack of crackers and pretzels that looked like a spider and got some free books.  She loved looking at all the kids in their costumes and playing with the hula hoops and balls that were out in the lawn.

A few days later Marianne went trick-or-treating at Chris' office.  She loved all the decorations and picking out candy from a bowl and putting it in her bucket.  She didn't know it was edible at all.  She still thinks of it all as fun, colorful toys!  I forgot by camera that day but here are some pictures of her checking out her stash.  Her prized possession from that day is the collection of plastic spiders she got.  She loves those silly things!

On Halloween, we crashed our friend's neighborhood party.  Marianne and I watched the huge parade complete with a police escort and then joined everyone down in the park for some social time.  Marianne and Campbell played in the yard while the adults handed out candy.  When Chris got there we took the girls trick or treating in the wagon.  We hit maybe five houses but that is about all they could take.  We had chili and grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner and called it a night.  All in all I think it was a great time!

Apple Picking

A few weeks ago my parents came to Atlanta and then we drove to Ellijay (in the north Georgia mountains)to go apple picking. They usually do this in North Carolina so compared to that the choices were not great! But after settling on a small farm we got started. Most of the trees were picked over and the apples we wanted were no longer on the trees so we mostly filled our bags from the apples that were already picked. But we had a wonderful time.

This marked the entrance to the apple orchard which was the perfect place to take some pictures.

This was my favorite of the ones we took on the hay.  I love the look Marianne is giving my mom!

  We stopped the wagon on the way into the orchard to look at the view over the valley. 

I did get a picture of the view but this smile was too sweet not to post!  Marianne just loves being outside!

Off we go into the orchard to get our apples!

The orchrad had a petting zoo on the weekend. 

We couldn't pet them but Marianne loves watching these guineas run around!

And check out these turkeys!  They are perfect.  They even gobbled for us.

Marianne could have watched them (and the goats) all day!

Marianne played with the apple as much as she ate it but she seemed to enjoyed it. 

And she has really enjoyed all the apple goodies we have made! 

Our Beach Trip Part 2

Here are a few more pictures from the beach. Marianne just liked exploring and taking it all it. We had a bucket and shovel for her to play with but she used them more in the room than she did in the sand. She was happy just crawling, splashing, and observing.

Here are her first steps in the ocean.  She wasn't sure about it but after a while she didn't want to get out!

Marianne loved watching the pelicans fly overhead.

Marianne did not like crawling in the sand.  She either spider crawled or asked us to walk her around.

Marianne was much more willing to crawl in the soft, cool, wet sand.

She liked the water until...

it knocked her over! She was a bit shaken but she recovered nicely from her face plant into the shore.

Our Beach Trip Part 1 (Or: Marianne and her Daddy)

At the end of August we went to the beach for a few days. There were so many good pictures I decided to break them up and only put a few at a time. The pictures are from our first trip out to the beach. It was late afternoon when we checked into the hotel but we wanted to at least show Marianne the beach before dinner. As you can see she loved it all: the wind, the waves, the pelicans. It was a joy to watch her excitement and hopefully you can experience a bit of it through these pictures.

Julie's Birthday

Aunt Julie has now joined the 3o year old club! Devin threw her a dinner with some surprise guest and we got to be a part of it! He is one good husband. It was a fun time and Julie captured some great pictures of our time together.

All dressed up for dinner!

Devin and Marianne waiting for our table at the restaurant on Sunday morning.

Marianne is excited about her blueberries at brunch.

Marianne helping Julie open her card and gifts.

In the afternoon we went to get yogurt. Across from the yogurt shop was the this cool fountain that Marianne wanted to see. She loves to walk so walked over. Check out her shoes!

After brunch we took a walk. Here Marianne is looking at the ducks swimming in the pond!

Aunt Julie is HILARIOUS!

Recent and Random

June and July found us having a lot of fun with family and friends. Here is just a random sampling of some of the highlights.

Almost a month ago now our friends Justin, Raluca, Alina, and Nathanael spent the night at our house on their way home from Nashville. It was great to see them since they are moving to Colorado. Hopefully we will make it out to visit them and go skiing! The girls had a slumber party in which they both slept in the same room but since they went to bed a different times we did not realize they were wearing the same pajamas until the next morning! (The picture is a little blurry, sorry!)

Marianne is still learning to be gentle with a new baby but she had fun playing with Nathanael!

We had a lot of fun while Sandie and my dad were here. Here we are at the Coke museum where Marianne could not take her eyes off the polar bear!


Marianne is so happy to have her Aunt Sandie here with her! It was a very special treat to have her here for Marianne's birthday!

It is so fun to see how much Marianne and Zoe love each other. Here Zoe is helping Marianne drink her bottle. While she held her Zoe said: "My sweet Marianne" and gave her a kiss on the head. How precious is that!
This picture is right before we went to Matt and Julie's annual Bastille Day party. To get in the French spirit Chris and Marianne wore their berets. The dress looks great with the hat but it is Hungarian, not French!

Marianne's Gigi, Granddaddy, and Great-Grandma sent her some money for her birthday. Chris and I went to Target and got her this wagon! She likes to ride around the house and the neighborhood in it. It has two seats so that Marianne and her friends can ride together and the seats fold down so you can use it like a regular wagon. As you can see she loves it!

Marianne is 1!

I can't believe it! Chris and I were watching the major league baseball all star game on Tuesday and talking about how little Marianne was when we watched the game last year. She has grown up so much! It is fun and exciting and sad all at the same time.

One year ago she was so little and could hardly open her eyes!

Now look her!

The celebration started on Friday night since that was her real birthday. We didn't have cake but we had plenty of presents!

This ball is one of her new favorite toys. Also that purple ball in the background. She has one upstairs and one downstairs and she never gets tired of rolling them around.

Check out the rocking chair. She is still a bit young for it since she would rock herself right off onto the floor if we let her but she loves it! It is fun to see her rocking herself. Today she spent a lot of time sitting on the floor and rocking the chair against the wall...

Saturday was the party!
(Note: I have been struggling recently about taking pictures versus living out the experiences. I find that I cannot both engage in a situation and take pictures at the same time. I am either observing or being actively involved. Thankfully other people took these pictures for me and allowed me to be somewhat engaged with Marianne and our friends and family during the party. Thanks to everyone who snapped some pictures with my camera!)
A few years ago I taught two sweet boys whose moms now own a business that personalizes party supplies. We went with the Peter Rabbit theme but they have tons! You can check it out at: makeitmineparites.com! I thought it was a nice touch. Now we are going to hang this sweet banner in her room.

Since we had so many more adults than kids at the party we thought it would be fun to have goody bags for them. Here is the candy bar we had set up. I think more candy got eaten during the party than actually got taken home but I think it was a success.

My friend, Casey, reminded me about the hats and suggested that we take a picture of all the kids wearing them. They weren't a huge hit but it was fun to try.

Marianne worked very hard to get her hat off! It said "It is my birthday!" on it. All the other hats said "Marianne is 1!" Check out her adorable outfit! It is seersucker (from Charleston) and has a cupcake with 1 candle on it. Thanks, Wes and Lysa!

We planned on having bubbles out on the deck but the rain got in the way. Our dear friend Gary ran out in the rain to save the bubbles and the kids enjoyed them on the front porch. Here Marianne is watching the bubbles with Uncle Craig while still holding her hat!

No fancy cake here but it is hard to think of a way to decorate with cream cheese icing! All the cupcakes had these toothpicks so we took a few extras to put on the cake. The plate is from a Peter Rabbit set that someone gave me when I was a baby.

I was afraid all the singing might scare Marianne but she did great as always! She did need a little help to blow out her candle.

She loved the carrot cake! I think she would have eaten the whole thing if we had let her but once she started to slide it around and it almost hit the floor we decided it was time to take it away...

We had more presents to open on Saturday. Zoe was so sweet to help Marianne.


We had a wonderful time celebrating Marianne's birthday with family and friends. Thank you to everyone who made it so fun and special. We love you!