Family Visit

A couple of weeks ago, Marshall, Steph and I made a trip down south to see our cousin, Meredith, who came out from Tennessee to visit our grandparents. We really enjoyed getting to visit Merry, her husband Anthony, and their adorable 5 month old son, Blake. We spent afternoons at the beach and weathered unseasonably warm temperatures. A super trip, overall. Here are some highlights:

Great Grandpa, Blake and Anthony

Gram Gram and Marshall
Steph, Merry and Emily

Steph, Marshall, Grandma and Lucky

Marshall and his grandma's rose

Funny Little Boy

Marshall keeps me laughing every day. Here are some recent fun shots:

Yogurt mess

Sweet shades!
Daddy's flip flops

What does that sign say??

Insisting his caterpillar wear a diaper.

Easter

We had a really fun Easter weekend. On Saturday, we had breakfast with friends and then headed to the local park for the kiddie egg hunt. On Sunday, we had brunch at the Brown's and dinner at the Tamisiea's. Two more egg hunts for Marshall! We stuffed ourselves full of great food and really enjoyed the time with our friends.

Egg hunting with Grammy Mary Ann.
He quickly got the hang of the egg hunt concept.

Chris and Marshall in the park mob.

Toddler Swearing

Today I am feeling like a definite mom failure. A couple months ago, I made the mistake of calling the dog a "dumb ass" in front of Marshall. Though I have been careful to not repeat it, Marshall latched onto that word and unfortunately says it semi-regularly (and accurately, I might add). This morning, we were all in the kitchen as Riley came in through the dog door. Marshall cheerfully yelled, "DUMB ASS." I said, "we don't use that word. Let's call doggie a Silly Sausage." Marshall replied, "silly dumb ass sausage." I laughed until I cried (not the appropriate reaction, I know).

The other Emily-ism Marshall has adopted is, "get out of my way, people." He mostly uses it while pushing his trucks around but will occasionally give this directive to actual people (how embarrassing). It sounds so harsh when he says it but given the context in which he learned the phrase, it is actually mild. It is what I say when I drive (I am a recovering road rager) and given what I used to say (pre-child), "get out of my way, people" is really, really tame. Unfortunate that my forward progress is contributing to Marshall's verbal delinquency. Ah, there is so much to learn as we go as parents!

The Newest Bors

Last week Chris traveled to Iowa to meet our new nieces and nephew. Chris' brother and his wife officially celebrated the adoption of Enrique, Jasmine and Autumn. Hurray!

Back row: Chris, Terri, Chet, Enrique

Front row: Patty, Autumn, Jasmine

Enrique, Autumn and Jasmine
Jasmine and Autumn with their snowman. Chris was stunned by snow in April.

Chris and Enrique

All Boy

Chris found some of his old matchbox cars and gave them to Marshall over the weekend. He LOVES them. He "vroom vrooms" the cars everywhere. They hide under pillows, crash off the couch, and run errands ("blue car go to Starbucks"). When he woke up this morning, the first thing he said was, "Marshall play with cars please." Other boy activities:

"Marshall napping with kitty." Amica was predictably thrilled.

Lauren nicely watched the zebras at the zoo while Marshall decided he needed a closer look.

Reading a book about dinosaurs to his dinosaurs.

Ride 'em cowboy!

Marshall Turns 2

Hard to believe I have a two year old...the time has flown by. The week before Marshall's birthday, it was sunny and warm and of course, the weekend of his b-day was freezing and cloudy. Oh well! We had a small party on Saturday, which was a lot of fun. Both my mom and dad made the trip up, which was great. We also got to celebrate with Marshall's birthday buddy, Tom.

Very stylish, thanks to Aunt Stephie.

A sleepy two year old.

The new potty was his favorite present. The birthday boys.

The cutest cowboy ever!