Marlee's Birthday Party

Tonight we had Miss Marlee Grace's 1st Birthday party, at the ballpark - of course!
The party was in the pool area by the playground. We set up the food in a cute little gazebo.
My Mom and I made cupcakes with roses.

Marlee's cupcake was the big one on top of the cupcake stand.

A shot of the food table. We had fajitas with all the fixings. We found out the Marlee LOVES guacamole.

The birthday girl in her ruffled bloomers.Looking cute in her highchair.
Marlee and her buddy JJ. She loves him.
Marlee was ready for some food.After everybody ate, the kids all went swimming. Marlee hung out with Grammy for a while. She loved her shades!

Lane would have spent the entire evening in the pool if he could have.
Grampy was the lone soul brave enough to get in the pool with the kids.

After some swimming we sang Happy Brithday to Marlee. She was so cute, she didn't know what to think of everyone standing around her singing.



She wasn't too sure about her cupcake at first.After Marlee ate about half of the icing flowers she picked up her cupcake and dug in.

Girlfriend ate and ate and ate.

Marlee ate about half of her cupcake before I finally took it from her. She was stuffed!

And then she got to open presents! The big kids helped her open everything up and showed her how her new toys worked.

By the time we got home she was out!

We had a great party and with Marlee's real birthday tomorrow we have lots more celebrating to do!

Little Swimmers

Marlee and Lane are official! They both passed this year's swim lessons. Thursday was family day so Daddy got to come into the pool area to take pictures of our little fish in action.
Lane's little class with the teachers.
Our big fish! Marlee getting her certificate from her teacher. She loved him! And now for some videos:
Marlee going under

Lane doing his tricks

Marlee swimming to the ball. She loved putting those yucky things in her mouth.

There's another video of Lane I wanted to post, but blogger isn't letting me... I'll try again later.

Day Trip

Today our little family took a day trip to Arlington to Cowboys stadium. We had a great trip and lots of fun checking out the amazing stadium.

Lane and Marlee had fun checking out the seats.

Daddy was amazed by the ginormous video boards and all the sparkling speakers. They really didn't sparkle but they may as well have the way Clint looked at them. Lane and Daddy posed in front of the smaller video board that sits on the side of the two big daddys.

On our way, we passed a sunflower field and remembered the exit number to stop on the way home. We got a few cute pictures of the kiddos.

We are all exhaused from our trip. Tomorrow is our last day of swim lessons so we'll have more to post tomorrow!

Lane's 3 Year Well Check

Friday we went to Lane's three year well check. Lane was so excited to go see Dr. Chang. He loves to go to the Doctor! We got into the exam room and the first thing Lane did was climb up on the exam table. He checked out perfectly! He is in the 95% for both his height and weight. He weighed in at 39 pounds and is 40.25 inches tall.I was able to take a few pictures of Lane up on the exam table while we waited for Dr. Chang to come in after the nurse left. Lane was so funny, he wanted to lay on the table while we waited. I had to bribe him to get him to sit up.

Bad Blogger

It's been weeks since my last post and I can't tell you why I haven't posted anything. I think that I let baseball get the best of me. Now that I've confessed my lack of blogging the past few weeks I can write a new post and maybe even go back and post some old happenings. Whew, such a relief to get that off my chest!

Swim Lessons

My swimmers before their first day of swim lessons. Can you tell neither of them would cooperate for a picture?

We started a two week block of swim lessons on Monday. Lane is going on his own to class this year and Marlee is going to her class with Mommy or Daddy. Lane wasn't happy to go on his own today. He got upset when I left him with his teachers, but once the teacher picked him up and took him over to the pool he calmed down. Marlee did great in her class. We weren't sure how she would do, she is all over the place in the tub and she hadn't been in a big pool until today, she was a natural when we got into the water. She was so sweet and cute. Before class Lane filled Marlee in on what to expect. She was all ears. Lane's class. He is the last one on the right.

Marlee with me and our teacher working on blowing bubbles in the water. She didn't do it Monday, but Lane and I are working with her!

Lane on the right. In his class the kids sit on the side of the pool and take one on one turns with their teachers. Lane was between two boys at one point who were both kicking their legs and splashing. I saw Lane turn to the boy on his right and ask him to stop. The boy didn't stop and I watched Lane turn to him again and shake his finger at him while he asked him to stop. Hmmm... I wonder where he got that?

A little snippit of Lane in his class. On Monday they practiced jumping in and then swimming back to the egde to climb out. Lane cracks me up when he jumps in.


Marlee's class concludes with a little song every day. My little ladybug had a great time swirling in the water.

My two little swimmers after their first day of class.

Marlee's 11 Months

This month I sat Marlee down to take her 11 month pictures just a day after she turned 11 months. She was already dressed in a cute little sundress so I thought getting a few pictures would be a piece of cake. I was wrong!! Marlee did not want to take pictures. So instead of deleting the pictures and trying again later I went with it. One of the things that I love about Marlee, and sometimes am exhausted by, is her determination. She knows what she wants and does whatever it takes until she gets it. This day she didn't want to take pictures and there was no getting around it.

The familiar reach to get a hold of her headband to pull it off. I changed out her headbands thinking maybe the other headband was bothering her. Boy did that make her mad.Marlee got her headband off and took out her aggression on her poor doll. Then she threw Samantha down and tried to push her way out of her chair.Lane tried to help me calm her down and climbed up in Marlee's chair with her. She did smile for a second...Then, we tried to get some pictures in the red chair. Lane showed Marlee what to do.
And she refused to look at me. Stinker

Then she pulled her bow off, for the last time, and waved it at me.

I love my girl! I can't wait to see where her determination takes her in life!