Summer Project

We decided to start a raised vegetable garden in our backyard. I do one with my class every year, and this year we got inspired to do one of our own. I hope Marin will have fun harvesting her own fruits and vegetables in the future! It's as close as we get to farming in Ross Bridge. I'll update with pictures every so often so we can see some progress. Right now we have planted rosemary, basil, strawberries, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, okra, peppers, cucumber, squash, zucchini, and carrots (from seed). Here are some pictures from Day 1. Didn't Mark do a great job building the bed? It wasn't an easy task!

Easter

I think Easter might be my favorite holiday. The weather is always so pretty and I just love the pastel colors and sweet Easter dresses. It's always such a nice sign of spring after a dreary winter. We enjoyed a beautiful Easter weekend in Montgomery. We went to the club at Baba's and Fly's house (we're working on Marin to come up with her own name for them) and saw the Easter bunny and watched a bunch of kids play! I thought Marin was going to scream with the Easter bunny, but she didn't mind him at all.

Wondering who/what is holding her

We had a nice cookout that night at the house. The next morning Marin made her first appearance in church. I wasn't sure how it was going to work out since we had to wake her up a little early from her morning nap (I don't like to interrupt nap time). Plus Marin is not a fan of loud noises or large crowds. She did GREAT!!! She loved listening to the music and looking around at everyone.

The Easter Bunny brought Marin her very own little chair for the front porch!

A Week With Daddy

Mark has been between jobs, and he was able to spend a week home with Marin. They had so much fun together, and I know he'll look back on that time with her and smile. I loved getting his texts and picture messages with updates of what they were doing throughout the day. She had a great week with Daddy!

She played with Daddy's Auburn hat.

Being a perfect angel

They enjoyed hanging out on the front

porch together.

She played in her walker. This was the first time she circled the island in the kitchen... so proud of herself.

She stole the remote from Daddy.

They enjoyed some nice lunches together.

Playing with her toys... she is really good about playing by herself, which is really surprising since she has always had our undivided attention.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

This weekend was a perfect example of why we chose to move to this neighborhood. The weather was just beautiful, so we were able to spend a lot of our time outside. This was Master's weekend, which usually means Mark is glued to the TV, so I was shocked when he said he would just record it and watch it at night. I was pleasantly surprised that we were able to spend the weekend together! Friday night we walked up to Robb and Megean's house and grilled out. It was a nice relaxing evening, a beautiful night for a walk, and Marin enjoyed playing with Cameron's toys! She loved playing on her baby piano. Like I've said before, she's a little musician.

Saturday morning our neighborhood had several garage sales. We walked around and visited with some of our sweet neighbors, and Marin even got a few cute summer hats and little toys. That afternoon we sat out in the park in front of our house with our neighbors. We let the dogs play, while Marin played on a blanket and the adults just relaxed (the boys had some adult beverages of course). We met some new neighbors that just moved in a couple houses down and they have a little boy that Marin is excited about playing at the pool with this summer. Whitney and I took Collins and Marin and Bentley on a nice long walk. When we got back to the house, we got ready for dinner and headed down to the resort. The restaurant was crowded, so it took a long time. This was Marin's first time to sit in a high chair at a restaurant. I wasn't sure how long she would last, but she did great! She acted like she was just one of the adults at the table!

On Sunday we started a little project for our backyard. I'll write more about that later, but we're pretty excited about it! Sunday night Marin had her giggle box going! She just thought everything was hysterical. She laughed at everything... even a sneeze was funny! It's so cute now how I can look at her and laugh and she laughs right back at me. We even "talk" back and forth. I'm loving this age. All the outdoor fun must have worn her out because she fell sleep during her bedtime bottle. Then when I put her down in her crib she fell asleep on her side right in the middle of rolling over.

This weekend we also discovered that Marin actually does love baby food... just not the baby food that I make. All along, I thought I was being some sort of Super Mom and making all of her baby food. I was so proud of myself thinking it was cheaper and better for her. However, she never really loved it, so I decided to try some store bought jarred baby food. SHE LOVES IT!!! I'm not sure if it's the smooth texture or if it just tastes better, but it definitely is a hit. She has been eating a lot! Oh well, I tried! Unfortunately it was back to work Monday morning, but it's only 7 more weeks until summer!

Showing off her legs!

One of her garage sale finds... hoping she continues

to be a thrifty shopper!

6 Months

I just can't believe the first half of Marin's first year is over. She is an absolute joy and makes me laugh everyday! I wish I could freeze her at this age because it's just perfect. She can do so many things, but I'm not having to chase her around yet. She had her six month checkup today and she is 28 inches long and 19 pounds 3 ounces; both of those put her in the 95th percentile. Here are a few things about our sweet angel at six months:

• She is a pro at sitting up. She's been doing this since 5 months, but now she's good enough to where you don't have to worry about her tipping over.
• Marin has two sharp little teeth right in the bottom front. They started coming in at about 4 1/2 months.
• She loves to jump and swing. She has gotten pretty good at scooting around in her walker, but she moves it with both feet at the same time.
• She sleeps on her tummy most of the time. Marin is like clockwork when it comes to her daytime schedule. She's a great napper, but she rarely sleeps all the way through the night. She made it an entire week last week, but not so much this week.
• Surprisingly, she's not really into eating solids. She does love peaches, apples, and oatmeal, but pretty much everything else comes right out.
• This week she has really started talking... lalala and dadada. It's so cute to watch her try to talk to us and really use her tongue to make sounds.
• She has also started reaching out for when she wants to be picked up.... so sweet.
• Marin loves loves loves being outside, and Bentley always makes her smile. He is really good about letting her pull his hair and ears, although I can tell he's not too thrilled with it.
• Her favorite song is "Itsy Bitsy Spider". She can be fussing and once we start singing that song she gives an immediate smile.
• She hasn't really shown any interest in crawling yet, but she does get up on all fours in her crib and kind of scoot backwards.

To sum it up, Mark said the other night he wishes we had two of her!

My buddy

Swinging at the park

Fun times on the front porch

A new trick... she blows all the air out of her lungs and the takes a big breath!