Random Updates

So I know this blog is mainly about Mary Beth but every now and then I have a few other things to share so I hope you don't mind. Since MB will be 10 months tomorrow, I will be back to posting about her in no time. Especially since 10 months has been a big month for her.

- House update - We have had our house on the market for over a month now. We have had eight people come to see it and all of their feedback has been great. They love the house but are concerned about the busy road. I guess everyone wants to be nestled in a quiet cul-de-sac these days. I have found the process to be especially tiring. The thoughtful (I say this very sarcastically) people who have wanted to come see our house, have given us only an hour or two notice. We have had two people give us one day advance notice but everyone else wants to come immediately. This puts me in a panic since it's either during my work hours or early enough in the evening that Dan is not home to help me get ready for them. Mary Beth has been a trooper and has gotten used to watching me vacuum and put all of her toys away in a very rapid pace. This probably wouldn't bother me so much if I was okay with showing a house that is lived in. However, I want it to be perfect every time someone sees it so I put extra pressure on myself. We have had one offer that came within the first week of having it on the market but that one didn't work out. We are sad that the end of April is here because we were trying to capitalize on the first time home buyers credit that is ending this month. We are going to leave it on the market until August and if it doesn't sell by then, we are going to take it off and wait until next year. The reason we are selling is to move closer to Dan's job (Marietta area). He is commuting over two hours a day and this is crazy to us. We also would like to have another bedroom and a little more separation between my home office and Mary Beth. We are in no means desperate but are hoping that it will sell this year.

- Since Dan is traveling more with his job, MB and I are going to get to tag along on some of the trips. We went to Huntsville last weekend and had a great time seeing Daniel and Karen Chandler, good friends of ours from college. We are going on a trip to Bonita Springs, FL in the next few weeks and I'm excited to have another long weekend, especially since this one will be on the beach.

- We have been challenging ourselves this year to increase our giving and give above and beyond our tithe. We are reading more and praying more about this and it's been an exciting thing. It's interesting to think about giving as a spiritual gift because I don't know if I have ever met anyone who has said that they have the spiritual gift of giving. Most times you hear people say that they have the gift of teaching or serving but few talk about giving. We have enjoyed thinking creatively about where to give the money above our tithe and we feel that it is important for us to give to organizations that are doing something for God. There are so many great organizations out there but we want our giving to be in Jesus' name and feel like that is the best thing for us to do.

- I am about to start a get healthy campaign. I have lost most of the baby weight but things didn't bounce back like I had hoped so I am going to have to put some effort into getting things back to the way they should be. I know better than to start this weekend since we are going to the Saunders' family reunion and this is in the top five best meals of the year. I would be putting myself through unnecessary torture to attempt starting before then. My goals are to eat more fruits and vegetables and lean meats as well as exercise 3-4 times a week. Also, I will not be partaking in any desserts until Mary Beth's first birthday. We will both be stuffing our faces full of cake! If anyone would like to join me for this campaign, please let me know as I could use the support. I have Dan's support but he already is in great shape so it's hard for him to understand my point of view. :-)

Getting caught up

Uploading videos is one of my least favorite things to do because it takes FOREVER! Here are a few that we have taken over the past month or so.

Who is this child and what did you do with my sweet talking little girl?

The little indian showing one of her new tricks.

No chicks were harmed in the filming of this video. Well, I hope not anyway.

I love this laugh! She is laughing at Dan of course, what's new?

Great times

Three years ago, on an unusually cold spring day, I walked down the aisle to marry my best friend and I haven't looked back since! Dan, you are the most amazing person I know and I love being married to you. I look forward to 60+ more years together!

The rookie preachers pulled it off!



Blissfully happy

We had no idea that three years later we would have a nine month old baby girl and be living in Atlanta.

Little Chick-A-Dee

We had a great Easter and have tons of photos to show for it. I had a great time buying little treats for MB's basket and she enjoyed the day. We knew it was going to be interesting since she only had a 15 minute nap but she was a champ. She had a melt down during the actual egg hunting but was able to recover and end the day on a high note with the chicks. Once again, she was fearless and grabbed the chicks immediately. I was afraid for their lives.

Mimi started off the week with an adorable basket full of goodies for MB.

Cheesing with Maw Maw on her 83rd birthday!

Taking a break from her busy schedule to enjoy a few puffs.

One of the photos we were able to get from out photo shoot. The adults were exhausted after it was over because neither one of the girls were interested in looking at the camera.

Love that smile and bare feet!

One of her many attempts to escape the pictures.

The loot (thanks for finding the basket Aunt Shanna!)

So excited to find that her eggs were filled with banana puffs.

Checking things out

Looking cute

Exciting about going to church on Easter

Family photo shoot before the picnic

Our little family

Not excited about the hunt, she had three eggs in her basket and that was more than enough for her.

Please don't poop on my pink grass.

This hurts me more than it hurts you

The poor chicks were trying to escape her tiny little hands.

Get back here

She had a ball with them!

The chicks now go into the category with the remote control and cell phone of the few things that she will crawl towards.

Pooped after a fun morning at church and playing with the chicks at the picnic. She barely made it out of the driveway before she was out!

Nine Months!

It's been a busy and fun month. Here are a few of the highlights:
- Starting to crawl or scoot around. She will only do this if she REALLY wants something that is out of her reach (i.e., the remote, our cell phone, cheerios).
- Eating more foods. She loves cheerios and puffs! She would eat a pound of these a day if I would let her. When she starts crawling more, I can envision me finding her on the pantry floor binge eating as many puffs as she can get her hands on.
- Her second tooth is making an appearance. It is the bottom left one but we are still enjoying her gummy smile.
- Mary Beth loves to laugh and have a good time. She has started scrunching up her nose and has developed a fake smile which is so funny.
- She likes to make new friends at restaurants. Since she is sitting in the high chairs at restaurants now, she likes to look around and make eye contact with people at other tables and flash a smile at them.
- She is fearless. We have to keep an eye on her because she likes to dive head first when she is on the ground practicing her crawl. This has resulted in a few tears but mainly lots of laughs.
- She loves to sing and watch us make fools of ourselves.

Nine months with the lamb

My favorite girl

This was taken a few weeks ago at Beth Cannon's shower. Little did we know at this time that Catherine Elizabeth would be born a few days later at 25 weeks. Please pray for the Cannons and that Catherine will grow stronger every day. She is a little fighter!

We were so excited to get a chance to meet the infamous Elsa Lynne McDade! MB and Elsa are only two months apart (MB is older) and are destined for a life long friendship. It was so fun to meet her in person.

I absolutely loved her adorable cheeks, she's such a cutie!!! Thanks for making time to meet up with us during your whirlwind tour of the states.

She loves dumping out the basket of toys....

until she gets trapped under the basket and has to call us in to rescue her.

Holding her daddy's hand, so sweet

Reading with cousin Sadie, it took a team of adults to get them to both look at the camera and smile at the same time.

Our sweet girl

Here we go again

So, it was 9pm on Wednesday night and we were planting pansies in the flower bed while it was raining. Then, 10pm on Thursday night we were changing the door knobs and cleaning out the fire place! This can only mean one thing and no it’s not spring cleaning….we are putting our house up for sale! Crazy, I know! Everything is happening really fast and in about one weeks time, we went from casually thinking about moving to pressure washing our house and cleaning out closets! Whew, I am tired just thinking about it. Our realtor came over last week to give us a few suggestions and she said that we are ready to put it on the market. What??? We thought we would have time to think about things and leisurely get everything ready. Oh well, we are trying to put it on the market before the first time home owners credit expires at the end of April.

For those that know me (which is hopefully everyone reading this blog), you know that I am a habitual mover. I move a lot and Dan has made me promise that I will not keep this up the rest of our life. For memories sake, I’m including my moves since 1997 when I first stepped foot on Georgia Tech’s campus. Twenty moves in thirteen years. Thanks to everyone who has ever carried some of my stuff from one place to another and to my family for arranging furniture and hanging pictures and artwork more times than they can imagine. Do you have a few more in you? We will slow down one day, I promise.

Harrison Dorm
Hopkins Dorm
Moultrie for the summer
8th St Apartments
Phi Mu house for the summer
8th St Apartments
Phi Mu house for the summer
Mexico
Tiff’s Apartment (I can’t remember the name of it)
CCF House for the summer
Collier Ridge Apartments
Washington DC to intern for the summer
CCF House
The loft in the Hale’s house for the summer
Capitol Hill in DC
Silver Spring
Pentagon City - The Potomac
Pentagon City - The Ashley
Atlanta AMLI Apartments
5816 Spalding - Current House

Eight (and a half) months!

I'm way behind on this post since Mary Beth hit eight months two weeks ago. Oh well, I'll try to get you caught up on some of the happenings around here. I can't exactly remember what happened during the eighth month but I will try to remember since this is my on-line baby book.

- Mary Beth LOVES to eat. She is trying all kinds of things and some of the highlights are avocados, boiled okra, squash, peaches, mashed potatoes, prunes and apricots. She also tried some spanish rice at one of our favorite mexican restaurants. We gave her cottage cheese and yogurt and she broke out in a rash around her face so we are not giving her any dairy items for a while. The pediatrician said that she may not be ready for dairy yet and we hope that she isn't allergic. We are going to try to give her yogurt again before her nine month appointment to see if she breaks out again.

- She is on the verge of crawling. She spins in circles during tummy time and can get to most everything withing a foot or two of her space. It's like she hasn't figured out that she can go anywhere besides a certain radius. We are in no way rushing this as we enjoy that she stays in one area for now. We will have plenty of time to chase her later.

- She has started getting separation anxiety. If I go into another room, she falls apart, especially if no one else is in the room with her. We think she may be getting spoiled since Cheryl gives her one-on-one constant attention while she keeps her in the morning. She has a really hard time on Sunday morning in the church nursery. It's during her nap time and there is too much going on for her to sleep so we have been naughty paged once during the service. She just moved up from the Turtles class to the Bunnies.

- We think she weighs between 15 and 16 pounds but we will know for sure in a few weeks when we go back to the pediatrician again.

- MB thinks that Dan is sooooo funny. She laughs the most when he is around and they have started wrestling some too which has been fun to watch. She has a good choke hold and likes to pull hair so she is a tough competitor.

- This has happened in the past several months but she is so easy to dress now. She's got the routine figured out and helps us get her dressed and she no longer cries while we dress her.

- She loves to play games, especially peek-a-boo and she is getting into books.

- She only has one tooth but I'm guessing that another tooth is on its way.

- She is obsessed with the remote and our cell phones. I'm not sure what that says about us as parents but she can't keep her hands off of them.

- She is a super laid back and easy going baby. The things that she is most passionate about is nap time and food. When I start making her food, she gets really loud and in her mind, I can't make it fast enough. She opens her mouth all the way and voices her opinion.

- When she gets really excited she flaps her arms up and down and shows off her gummy grin.

- She seems to be a risk taker, she loves to be thrown into the air and the more dangerous the better. We think she will love roller coasters and probably will follow in my footsteps and sky dive before she turns 20!

We love this little girl more than words and are having so much fun with her!

Eight months with the lamb

She was laughing at her daddy...

he's hilarious!


We walked to a swing in a nearby park and she loved it!



She liked going really high which made Dan nervous

More swinging

Looking good in her shades, thanks Joannah!

Here's looking at you

Working the camera

Loving her bath time