Role Confussion: Dada is Mama?

Mary Beth's favorite word the last two weeks is "Mama"
I was so thrilled that she FINALLY figured out who I am...
but then I realized that everything is mama,
so now it has turned into a game.

I haven't been able to get it on video yet but
the funniest conversation goes like this:

(Laura) Who am I?
(MB) Ma-ma
(Laura) Who is that? [pointing at Stephen]
(MB) Ma-ma-ma [laughing]
(Laura) Who are you?
(MB) ma-ma? [laughing harder]
(Laura) Who am I?
(MB) Mama.

Since my post in June about learning Dada,
Stephen was out of town for 3 weeks
and she kinda got out of the habit
so now she we need to really work on it.
The only other words we are picking up on now is
"hi" and "ball",but she talks non-stop!

First Steps

Mary Beth has officially taken her first steps!
Stephen and I have been practicing with her for the last couple weeks,
but she didn't seem all that interested.
Today as we were playing, my mouth hung open as she took a step
and didn't lose her balance! Then took another step!
We are so excited for her.
Tonight in the church nursery she showed off her new skill again,
so after bath time tonight we got out the camera
and tried to capture the first day of walking.

I have to apologize for the awful videography,
definitely some of my worst.
I kept trying to get a better clip
but she was getting sleepier by the moment.
Stay tuned... I'll put up some more video in the next few days.

The Fence is Finished!

In the midst of their hectic summer schedules,
Stephen and Bucky spent their spare time building a fence in our backyard.
Our dogs will really enjoy the freedom of not having leashes on
(not to mention the huge pregnant woman
who wont have to walk them outside when its 99 degrees)



All in all, it took about 25 hours over the last 6 weeks to finish the project,
but I am so excited that its finished and so proud of my husband
for putting his own sweat and blood into it
(rather than spending 3 times as much to have someone else do it).
It looks so great!



Also, I have to say a huge THANKS to Bucky -
Stephen couldn't have done it without you!

And I don't want to leave anyone else out that lent a hand:
Thanks Scott, Stephen, Lankey for helping
and Jim for letting us barrow your tools.
We really appreciate your everything.

Trip to Georgia

We had a great time visiting with my parents and Granny in Georgia last week.
It was a relaxing week, I read a book, took naps in the afternoon, and hung out with Beth.

(being tickled by Granny)

Julie lent us a baby pool to take so grandmother and granddaddy
could see Mary Beth swim.
Dad got out the camera and took about a thousand pictures
but it turned out that he caught some of the cutest expressions.
Enjoy!






(sneaky, sneaky)



We also ate a lot while we were home.
Grandmother and Granny love to cook and with all the summer vegstables, they were constantly cutting or chopping something to include in our next meal. We had fresh tomatos, fresh squash, corn on the cobb, watermellon and all kinds of goodies from the farmers stand down the road.

Busy Summer!

The summer is flying by!
I think I have finally got the blog caught up, so we'd love for you to take time to look at all our pictures and posts of our summer adventures. Let us know what you think!

Let me recap in a nutshell. We have stayed busy with trying to build a fence, keeping Myles, Stephen going to Puerto Rico, Beth coming to visit, then Stephen going to DC, my parents visiting, then going to Florida for the weekend, and then celebrating Mary Beth's birthday yesterday. Needless to say the last month and a half seem like a blur.

Hopefully this week will be the last week of chaos and then things will start to wind down. Stephen left this morning for his 3rd (and final) week-long trip, and tomorrow I will be heading to Georgia to hang out with my family for a week.

As I was thinking about how things were going to calm down soon, I looked over and saw the baby countdown - ONLY 99 DAYS TO GO!!!! Thats a big deal - double digits! Jackson is going to be here before we know it!

So even though things will be calming down a little bit, we'll be back to a crazy, zombie-like state before we know it!

Birthday Girl - Part 2

We had a few people over for cake and ice cream last night.

Well, the main attraction that everyone wanted to see was, Mary Beth eating her first cupcake.
She seem to have a great time - a little confused about why everyone was watching her eat. We have a video of her eating but its about 5 minutes long so I just thought I'd show some snap shots instead.


Birthday Bubbles!

We made strawberry cake and some cupcakes for the kiddies.

why do you keep putting this thing on my head?

getting cleaned up!

She is really going to enjoy all the books, toys and outfits.
Thanks so much to everyone, your generosity is always such a blessing!

Birthday Girl - Part 1

Birthday Breakfast: Banana Bread


hmm... whats this?

mmm! thats a lot better than a bottle


let me see if will all fit in my mouth at once?

Our dogs really enjoyed Mary Beth's Birthday Breakfast too!

More to Come...

Family Pictures

We had some family pictures taken while we were on our

4th of July trip to see Stephen's family.





We also thought we'd take advantage of the sceenery
and get some "1 year pics" of Mary Beth too.







Here is the whole family picture.
(its not often that New York, Jacksonville and Spartanburg
collide in the same place)

We hope that you and your family had a wonderful 4th of July!

The Boat Ride

While we were in Florida, Stephen's dad rented a boat for the morning.
It was great weather and we were able to see manatees and dolphins.


I'm ready to go!


Chillin with Nana and Papa


Look at me, I'm driving!!!

Going to the Beach

This was Mary Beth's first trip to the beach last year (in Sept)...

she didn't enjoy it very much.


But this year was a different story...