The Line Up

Mary loves bath time. A few nights ago she lined up all of her toys and wanted to count them. What a cutie!

Bath time is part of her bedtime routine. After saying goodbye to water going down the drain she says "teeth" because she loves to brush her teeth. Well, really she just likes to eat the toothpaste. Then we get her in her jammies, read books, she says goodnight to a picture of Jesus by her room and turns off her light. She usually waves goodbye to us as we close the door.

We love nursery

Mary is 19 months old now so she has been going to nursery at Church for the past month. Mary LOVES going into nursery. Before she was old enough to go she would run to the door and cry wanting to go in while children on the other side of the door would cry to come out. Mary's nusery leaders are the best! They really are fantastic ladies that make it such a special place!


I wish there was a two-way mirror because I would get so much delight out of watching her interact with the other children and teachers. I couldn't take it anymore and so I went in "to take pictures".


I am told that Mary does pretty well during her time there. She participates during singing time for the songs that we have sung with her. She likes to tell the other children to "sit" while she pats the ground to show them where. Of course she totally enjoys snack time :) She is always proud to show us the wonderful page she colored or craft she made and yes our refrigerator is full because I have yet to throw them away. Maybe I am a completely emotional pregnant woman but I can't explain what it does to me to see her doing all these things. She isn't a baby anymore.

Chuck E. Cheese, Please

We took Mary to Chuck E. Cheese last night for some fun. She has been so good while we drive all over the place looking for a minivan, we thought she needed an activity that was just for her!

She loves to say "peez" (please) and it works like a charm. It is so cute Murray and I give into almost anything she is asking for. Mary's favorite part was putting the tokens in the rides. She wasn't all that interested in actually riding the rides. It was pretty funny.

She would run up to other kids her age and try to talk to them. She is one social little girl. She turned her tickets in at the end and picked out some little frogs to take home. We still have some tokens left, so I'm sure we will be back again soon.

Mary signing "more" so she can get another token.

Putting the token in the machine.

Look at all these tickets I won!

peach jam

I have never done canning before but I heard that it was pretty easy. I ran into a few problems though .

1.I have a ceramic stovetop which doesn't get hot enough for canning.
2.I bought jars that were too small.
3.The fruit wasn't ripe enough so the skins didn't come off
4.I did this while trying to tend a 3 month old baby for the first time
5. I didn't have any of the tools you need such as the pot and the thing that goes inside etc

Thanks to Kristi Landon who let me pack up my car with jars, sugar, peaches and babies to come and use her kitchen, tools and all while she showed me how to make jam.

It was fun and I think the jars look so pretty I put them on my cabinets and wish I had more!

The left overs..thank you Janae for the advice. I boiled, skinned, halved, pitted and froze the rest. yea for peach milkshakes!

Miss Laura

Mary just had her last lesson with her wonderful teacher Miss Laura. Miss Laura has come to visit Mary with fun activities for the past 8 months through a program called Parents as Teachers. She would bring developmentally appropriate games, books and activities. I loved learning new ways to interact with Mary and reading more about her development. We will miss her visits so much!

These are some pictures of Miss Laura letting Mary make pudding, yummy!

Mississippi River Walk

We went to the Mississippi River Walk with our friends the Lant's. The walk is a representation of the lower Mississippi River from Cairo, IL to New Orleans, LA. Each step you take equals about one mile of the actual river. It is right by downtown Memphis on Mud Island, which is an island in the Mississippi River.

Mary loved walking through the water with her friend Lucy. It was great weather and not crowded at all.

Mary and Lucy standing in the River

Margaret, Heather and the girls

The families of three :)

Our family sitting with our feet in the river and Memphis in front of us :)

Family Night Fun

On Monday we had family night at the SCO activity center (a place at Murray's school where you can work out and play games). We went with our friends the Fishers and it was totally fun to have family night with another family. We ate BBQ for dinner, read a story and then played together! The kids played with bouncy balls in the raquetball court and we tried to play a game of kickball.

Mary even played shuffleboard with her friend Eli.

Mary's favorite activity every family night is doing ring around the rosy as a family. Also, lately she really enjoys saying "amen" loudly at the end of prayers. Watch out because if your prayer is too long she will say "amen" in the middle of it to let you know you should be done by now. We love that Mary is a part of our family!

Growing like a weed

Here is Murray and Mary with a weed that has been growing in our back yard for a few months.

Can you believe the size of this thing! We found it growing behind the fence around our air conditioning unit. I guess that is why we never got around to pulling it. When it started to reach for the roof Murray had to crawl back there and pull it out!

Mary is growing fast too! This week she likes laughing and saying "money" which means "funny" and "mama, where are you?"

Peachy Keen

I heard about a peach orchard in Millington, Tennessee (about 45 minutes from us) and have been wanting to go every morning since. We finally got to go on a family outing to Jones Orchard on Thursday.

The weather was great because it wasn't too hot. There were so many tress loaded with peaches, it was endless! There were a lot of low laying branches so Mary had a great time picking them and throwing them in the basket!

We filled a basket which was half a bushel or 22 lbs. of peaches :) It was way fun! I think we will have to go each summer and make a tradititon out of it.

Only if I can figure out what to do with 22 lbs of peaches...I will figure that out and post about it later...

Our 3rd Anniversary

Murray and I celebrated our 3rd year of marriage on Wednesday :) It was the perfect day for it to fall on because Murray already has Wednesdays off from work. We were able to spend the day together as a family. Later that evening our nice friend Cara came over to tend Mary so we could go out together. We went to the Mesquite Chop House, a nice restaurant across the street from our house. We have heard friends and neighbors talk about it but it is very pricey so Murray and I didn't plan on ever going. We decided to go for it and splurge! It was fun to be waited on and I know maybe not everyone likes it but I enjoy it! We had a great meal and the most amazing carrot cake of our lives. I am way too passionate about food.

We exchanged presents in the morning. Murray gave me the DVD set of the first season of Gilmore Girls :) yipee and I got him the first season of Fresh Prince of Bel Air! I know we are silly. Murray also got me a pretty bouquet of flowers with a sweet poem I can't share with you but you wouldn't want to hear it anyway, even though you should because it was the best!

Now I have to say how incredibly lucky I am to be married to my very best friend! Murray is the best guy in the world! I love sharing life with him! I am very grateful for his love! I love you Murr!!!

Super Cool Mary

I know I have been posting like a maniac! I have to post this though! I took Mary swimming this afternoon and got pictures of her with all her swimming gear on. I mean it when I say gear!

Mary has floaties that tuck inside her swimsuit in the front and back, rings for her arms and sunglasses because it is really bright in the pool. The funny thing is she loves her sunglasses! You can tell she feels pretty cool with them on. Her buddy Kate has the same get up in different colors. These girls crack me up!

July 2008 Slideshow

Go to July 2008 Pictures

We miss you Brenna

For around the last 6 months I have been tending baby Brenna. Sadly, our days together have come to an end. I could only tend her up until december 17thish (baby's due date). Brenna's Mommy started looking for other options and found a great place with an opening she had to take. It seems that there are only so many openings and when you are offered one you have to take it. We just spent our last day with Brenna and we will miss her so much!!! Mary has been pointing to the door and saying "Benna, Benna". We can't even say her name because she will get so upset, we have to spell it. We went by to see Brenna and Mary was so sad to leave her. I have never seen her that way.

These two really enjoyed playing together. Their favorite activity towards the end was Mary running around the kitchen table dragging a ball popper, Brenna crawling after and the two of them squealing and laughing at the top of their lungs. They also loved to rest together with their bottles watching teletubbies.

We really loved our time with Brenna and I am thankful that she and Mary became good friends.