Watch Sprocket be born with dark skin and a head full of black hair!
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August 2, 2010
This weekend we took Marion for her first official play in the sand trip to the beach. We went back in December when my mom was in town, but even in Texas, December isn’t exactly beach weather.
We drove along Seawall Blvd (for those of you familiar with Galveston) and when Marion saw the water, she got so excited and all we heard from the backseat was “water water water!” As we kept driving and she saw the water wasn’t stopping, we heard “big, big, big, big, BIG WATER!” Yes, the beach is in fact big big water sweet girl. She also learned “sand,” “seagull,” and “seashell” on this trip too.
At first, she was a bit apprehensive about the water so we didn’t stay in for long. We moved on to building sandcastles (correction, mama built sandcastles and sent Josh to fetch buckets of water for the moat) and all of a sudden, the beach because a really fun place!
And when you put Josh in charge of taking the sand castle building pictures, and he’s jealous of my super sweet sand castle building skills, this is the only picture of your awesome sand castle you end up having on the camera.
Marion had a lot of fun realizing the dogs could come out in the water with her.
Oh yes, Mr Brown Dog came with us.
Marion also learned that if Dada turns his back for a few minutes, she can reach her own hand into the potato chip bag and get a lot more chips than she’d be allowed to have.
Swimming with my boy. PS – Nanuq would be totally useless if I were ever actually in trouble in the water. The scardey cat would drown me trying to save himself.
Poor Gracie spent most of the trip trying to decide which of her herd members needed the most watching. Marion or me. All of Lou’s herd dog instincts come out when her flock separates. Not that we would ever test that on purpose.
Our first children
Learning how to play in the “waves”
The beach brings out the puppy in him
My brave girl. Her little fall didn’t phase her one bit.
Nothing cuter than a ruffled bum!
“Seashell mama, seashell! Seashell water mama!” Yes Marion, I know there are seashells in the water. We only heard that about 100 times.
Compared to our last family picture at the beach
How two years changes things!
June 29, 2010
Josh took last Friday off of work so that we could have a little vacation before the three become four. We decided to visit the Texas hill country since we haven’t been yet and have heard so much about it. Full well knowing this is going to make more than a few of my Texas friends upset, I still have to say it. The Texas hill country is one of the few things we’ve found in Texas that truly lives up to its reputation. It was wonderful and amazing and I think we’re already trying to sneak another trip back in before Sprocket comes along.
We rented a place to stay through our old stand-by of VRBO. Now that we have a child (almost children) staying at a hotel has become the opposite of vacation and so we love to rent VRBO. We’ve used them for stays in New Orleans and San Antonio and now Boerne and have yet to be disappointed in a rental. I’m not linking to the place we stayed though, as we want to keep it a secret for ourselves. 
We weren’t the only ones enjoying the property either!
His ears were ridiculously huge, by the way.
The weather was so amazing when we were there. We were able to eat breakfast outside on the porch both mornings.
It was somewhat cloudy while we were there, but no rain (thankfully.)
And this is the motivation for the whole trip
Peaches!
Because, you know, we haven’t picked enough fruit this year
We went to Marburger Orchard and had a fantastic time
They had four varieties to pick from that day
We went with the Harvester variety, a freestone peach good for jam making and canning.
This is the third fruit we’ve picked this summer, and I think probably the most toddler friendly
The trees are pruned so that they grow fairly low to the ground, making it easy for littles to reach
She was very proud of her work!
I’m pretty sure parts of heaven are going to smell like tree ripened, sun warmed peaches
The hill country is truly gorgeous
Peach picking makes for a very tired Widget!
But not too tired to have fun with Dada!
(Almost) 27 weeks pregnant. Oh yes, I still have 13 weeks to go!
Enjoying the fruits of her labors
After peach picking, we headed up to Fredericksburg for lunch and a little window shopping. We had lunch at Rather Sweet Bakery & Cafe on the advice of my friend Shawnda. It was absolutely delicous, even if Josh was the only man in the upstairs dining room while we were there. It get’s crowded, especially on the weekends, so get there before 11:30 to get a good seat with no wait.
After lunch and a little browsing, we headed back to the ranch we were staying at for a family nap and a restful evening.
Sunday morning, we said goodbye, but we know we’ll be back soon!
When we drove up Friday afternoon, we came up through San Antonio since Boerne is between SA and Fredericksburg. Coming home, we decided to run by the Wildseed Farms and drive home through Austin.
It was very, very warm but still a cool place to visit.
Look at all those butterflies on the Blue Mist (I’m pretty sure that’s Blue Mist.)
The Hibiscus blooms were as big as her head!
The sunflowers were as big as Josh!
We had planned to stop by Kerbey Lane Cafe on the way back through Austin. But someone has decided not to sleep in a car anymore, and of course, fell asleep 20 minutes before Austin. So we drove and ate at McDonalds when she woke up. Oh well. At least we can strike “visit Austin” off our list of things to do in Texas, haha!
April 5, 2010
Oh yes, Marion and I wore our boots with our Easter dresses!
Happy Easter, Texas style!
After nap time, it was Easter basket time!
Or in this case, Easter brown bag time!
Where, in true toddler fashion, she was more interested in the empty plastic eggs than in any of her proper toys
She got a little gnome
Quickly discarded in favor of another egg
Jackpot!
Toys vs eggs
Finally a toy gets her attention!
Her Farmer Jane gnome
It goes very well with her new tractor
Her itty bitty school bus
And her most favorite
Her elephant!
We bought her wooden toys from this fabulous Etsy seller Woman Wood Worker. She has a great selection of handmade toys at very good prices and her shipping prices can’t be beat. We’ve ordered a few other hand made wooden toys for Marion and none of them compare to her quality. The little windows in the bus are totally smooth for little fingers to inspect. We’ll be ordering Ginger quite a few baby toys from her I’m sure. So if you’re looking for a good gift, I can’t say enough good things about this shop.
Gnome pattern found here.
And for a cute video
Easter basket fun!
January 7, 2010
Christmas morning!
Trying to keep her away from the tree was a losing battle!
Presents!
Something it’s okay for her to get in to!
January 6, 2010
Four generations!
Josh, Marion and me; Bob and Mary; Grannie; Savannah and Taylor; Sarah; Chris and Abby.
Not pictured, the five dogs and one cat and a partridge in a pear tree!
We were too busy eating the world’s absolute best spaghetti sauce in the world to take pictures! Seriously Abby, that was the best stuff ever!
January 5, 2010
Houston has a lot of great parks, but Atlanta parks have one thing Houston park’s are missing – friends and family!
We spent one morning at a local park with Libbie
Swings are so much fun!
Old school metal slides are a little scarier!
And tire swings are entirely out of the question!
But she still had fun!
Then we had an absolute blast meeting up with my friend Jen, her husband T.J. and baby Joseph. Last year when we saw Joseph, he was still in Jen’s tummy, so it was great to meet him on the outside!
Joseph’s checking Marion out already!
My odd child carried around a dinner roll the whole time we were there.
Taking the occasional nibble
Sweet baby girl
And Joseph thought it was way too cold to be swinging!
So we packed up and headed to Knitch where the daddies babysat and the mams were too busy oogling yarn to take pictures!
January 4, 2010
We’re trying to settle back into the post-holiday routine here so I’m going to use this downtime to recap our holidays. Sorry for being boring, but really, does much interesting happen in January?
First up, a Mississippi Christmas!
Another (failed) visit to Santa!
Santa also looks less than thrilled.
My brother and Santa have an in-depth conversation about beards
You know if that whole history thing doesn’t work out for you…
Sweet Rosemary looks like she could be doing something better with her time
Marme’s gorgeous tree
Presents!
Mar and Papaw share some reading time
Hey Belle, you stole my Pap!
I can assure you the chaos was controlled
I have no idea what she’s doing in this picture
Now it becomes clear. The baby bottle goes in your ear!
All the cousins!
And in case you can’t read their super cute shirts
From left to right, Isabella (3), Andrew (almost 4), Rosemary (7 months), Lauren (almost 19 months old), Marion (15 months)
December 6, 2009
It should go without saying this is a pretty picture heavy post…
Marion and I flew to Mississippi a few days before Thanksgiving so we could be with my niece at her third birthday party!
And yes, Marion already knows who Elmo is.
Marion enjoys some of the forbidden plastic toys we don’t let her have
Isabella is the grumpiest Care Bear
More forbidden plastic fun
Sunday afternoon, Belle came over for a playdate at Marme’s house
Mmmmmm, popcorn, animal crackers and milk!
And here, Belle is teaching Marion the worst trick ever
How to close her straw cup lid
But not to open it!
We had some gorgeous Mississippi fall weather, so we spent a lot of time outside
She really was happy about it!
Come along little doggy
Marme, Lauren and Marion enjoy some post-Thanksgiving meal reading.
Clark The Toothless Shark is a family favorite
Do you know how hard it is to get four children under four to sit for a picture?
Andrew knows this isn’t going to be any fun!
Just a few outtakes…
Poor Mar gets left out 
She’s done with this!
This can lead to no good
Marion knows what’s coming
We now have a new holiday tradition of Marion getting choked down by Belle. Fun for all!
Happy Thanksgiving!
