Playing

Marianne is really growing up! These pictures are a little outdated since some are more than a month old but they show how much more she is able to do. The first few pictures are from when we watched our friend Campell for an evening while her parents went out to eat.

Getting ready to play together!



I love this picture because Marianne is looking at Campell like

"What are you doing with my toy?"

Time for a tea party! Marianne likes the singing tea pot.

Tasting the "food" she just cooked in her "kitchen"!

Zoe's 3rd Birthday

We had so much fun going to Charleston for Zoe's birthday party! Marianne and Zoe are so cute together. Zoe loves to help Marianne by feeding her or showing her to how to play with her toys. She was very gentle with Marianne and liked to give her kisses. Marianne thought Zoe was hilarious. She laughed a lot as she watched Zoe bouncy around the house. We are excited to watch the two of them grow up together!

Zoe's party was a dress up party which is why you might see us in some crazy clothes! Marianne was a ballerina. Zoe was Sleeping Beauty. Chris was a baseball player (shocker, I know!) and I was a princess. Mimi wore a poodle skirt but Papi went as himself.

Papi always said he wanted a blond granddaughter on one knee and and a brunette one on the other. His dream has finally come true!

Perfect example of Zoe helping Marianne. After a long day of partying Marianne was a little fussy at dinner. Here Zoe is trying to calm her down by giving Marianne her pacy.

As an extra special treat during our weekend in Charleston we got to visit with one of our favorite people, Mrs. Hamilton. It was great to see her and I think she enjoyed getting to spend some time with Marianne. Mrs. Hamilton has seen us grow from a dating couple to a young family. It was fun to walk down memory lane with her and to share how the Lord has continued working in our lives as the years have passed.

Eating

So Marianne is now eating solid foods and she loves it! She likes sitting in her highchair and she thinks eating is fun. She even likes to try to feed herself as you can see! When she tries new foods she always makes funny faces but so far she has not rejected anything. Peas are by far her favorite.

Christmas 2010

After more than a month with no Internet we are back online! So now for long posts and many pictures. Hope you enjoy seeing these glimpses of Marianne's first Christmas. She was a real trooper opening gifts in four different places at all hours of the day over the course of 3 days!

It was a real treat to start Christmas off by going to church in Chapin. Our family was asked to light the advent wreath so that is why we took the picture with the wreath in it. It was good to take some time to focus on the real meaning of Christmas and to reflect on what that means to us before we embarked on our whirlwind few days.

This was the gift that started our Christmas marathon!

Check out all the fun things from Grandma Ratchford!

Marianne loved the beautiful ornament from Aunt Andrea and Uncle Darren!

One day she will realize not all gifts are chew toys!

Aunt Sandie was so excited to be spending Christmas with baby Marianne!

Chris had fun buying presents for Marianne.

Sadly we don't have a picture of it but this present was the book "Hello, Cocky!"

Cousin Zoe had fun showing Marianne how to play with her new toys!

Marianne is excited about her new toy from Gigi and Grandaddy in Hampton!

"Daddy, is this for me?"

Christmastime is here!

As we finish up getting ready for Christmas I wanted to show you how Marianne has been preparing for all the festivities!

Marianne is not sure she is ready for all the excitement!

Here our friend Raluca is holding Marianne while she looks at her first Christmas present that our friends Matt and Julie brought over! Marianne was not quite sure what to do with it but she is going to love wearing the cute clothes and playing with cool new toy!

Marianne is ready for her first Christmas party!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Family at Thanksgiving

The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas seems to get shorter every year even though it is always pretty much the same give or take a few days. Once Thanksgiving was over we had the SEC Championship and then a wonderful surprise visit from Julie all the way from Hong Kong. In all of this activity I realized today that it is almost Christmas but I still haven't posted pictures from Thanksgiving. If they had just been pictures of Marianne I might have left them off all together but because they are pictures of Marianne with family I though they were too priceless to not share. Sorry for the delay but better late than never! (As a side note can you believe it was so hot on Thanksgiving that Marianne ended up spending the day in her onesie?! )

Four Generations

Proud Great Grandparents

The Ladies

It is such a blessing that we are all able to get together and enjoy special days! Hopefully one day Marianne will be able to appreciate this fact too.

And Craig thought Marianne didn't like him!

Grandma Gigi loves Marianne!

Cousin Sarah came to visit all the way from Idaho!

Isn't this smile just the best? I love it!

Live Nativity

On Saturday our church had a craft fair and live nativity at our new church building. We wanted to let people know that we were going to be moiving into the area soon and to invite them to our Christmas concert. Our family helped out by playing the part of Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus for a little while in the live nativity. It was cold but fun and Marianne was a super sport! One of our friends who is a Clemson fan wanted to make sure we got a picture of Marianne with the "gamecock"!