1st Birthday!

Alright I'm a little behind on blogging.  We had Marshall's birthday party Sunday the 26th, we really appreciate our friends and family that made the journey to our house!  A ton of people came and of course Marshall got entirely too many gifts! 

I wish I would have thought to take a picture of all the food we had!  The menu included fruit and veggie trays, tamales (made by Maria Marshall's babysitter), chipotle pork loin and garlic chicken-these were put on either tostadas or soft taco shells, Mexican rice, refried beans, homemade salsa (also made by Maria).  Dessert had a marshmallow theme since we call Marshall our little marshmallow, rice krispy treats, chocolate dipped marshmallows, and twist on the traditional smore; I took marshmallow creme and combined it with vanilla and powered sugar, put it between two graham crackers, stuck them in the freezer and then dipped them in melted chocolate!  Of course there was cake with homemade butter cream frosting and ice cream too!

The Spoon

Marshall has mastered feeding himself with his fingers.  He generally gets about 99% of whatever he is eating into his mouth, so I decided to take a leap and hand him a spoon.  Up until now he has only used a spoon as a musical instrument, but today we tried applesauce with a spoon.  I filled the spoon up and he shoveled into his mouth.  Messy yes, successful yes.  So maybe I won't be letting him feel himself ALL the time, it's a work in progress!

 
These are the silly faces we got Saturday morning.....all in about 3 minutes....I love this kid!

We have been...

super busy!  After being on pins and needles and not knowing if we were going to be living in a house of our own, or moving all of our worldly possessions into temporary storage and finding a new rental.  We are officially homeowners!  We received keys to our new home at 3 pm on a Thursday (July 1st), and we had to be out of our rental Friday (July 2nd)!  Justin asked his crew from work to help move and what would have taken us into the early morning hours took about 3 hours, 3 large pizza and beer for the guys.  My Mom flew in that Saturday and was a huge help.  Not to mention my wonderful sister in laws Kacie and Tasha and mother in law Susan.  They came up and helped us clean!  The middle of the following week my brother surprised us along with his girlfriend Dawn.  It was great getting to see my family!

We have been spending our weekends trying to get the house in order, it's been quite the task now that Marshall is into everything.  He's climbing up the stairs, opening drawers and cabinets, lifting the toilet lid (and getting his hand stuck underneath it).  We have been trying to not spend all weekend doing house stuff, so we have been taking little trips here and there to get out of the house.  We took a trip to Mesa Falls one weekend, and fed the ducks last weekend.

Marshall is standing on his own for a little bit at a time.  I fear walking is right around the corner!  He got his first bloody nose this past Sunday, he slipped when he was reaching down for a toy and his poor face caught his fall.  I thought about taking a picture, but then I felt bad about it. 

Here are the pictures from what we have been up to!

Enjoying Popsicles!

Rescuing kitties

Visiting Mesa Falls

Making me nervous....

Helping sweep

And teething on the handle

Learning to point

Raiding the pantry

Feeding the geese

Family photo

Discovering potatoes.......

......don't taste very good raw!

In the last week...

Marshall has mastered pulling himself on things, mainly the railing that encloses the stairs to the basement.  One of two things that make me really nervous about the house we are renting.  Which is why we have been searching for houses......since January!  Looks like M beat us to the punch!

There has also been a couple of new treasures discovered.  First one the bookcase in Marshall's room, there can't be a book left on the shelf!  Then there is Dad's hat!  And the basket full of toys!

And finally, he cut his first tooth over the weekend (pretty sure the 2nd one is on it's way!).  This is the new teething ring he discovered!

As for Justin and I, not much is new.  I just finished the semester and have a small break before summer classes start.  Justin has started the crazy summer schedule, which has him leaving early and coming home late.  We are still have not gotten into a house of our own, between bank errors and homeowners who would rather be foreclosed on than negotiate on a price; we're still renters!  Hopefully it will change soon, but we have learned to not get our hopes up.  Marshall, Megan and I are headed to  Boise for a short weekend visit.  I wish Justin could go too, but he is staying home to work.  I'm sure he will enjoy the alone time he will have though!

May Day

In an attempt to get excited for Spring, the girls at work decided to have a Spring Festival.  They decided to do some demos and kids crafts along with a petting zoo.  Of course this week it starts snowing on and off again; it's hard to get excited about Spring and Summer when it's snowing!  So even though the weather was cold and windy today we decided that we should take Marshall to see the animals at the petting zoo.  If nothing else it gave us a chance to get out of the house for a little while.  He didn't get very excited and it kinda bummed me out some.  We only got a couple of smiles out of him.  He seemed to be interested in the chicks more than anything else.  He got to pet a bunny, goat and lamb; the pigs were a little wild so we didn't attempt to pet them.  I told Justin that I think he will probably be much more interested in the animals at the fair this year, he'll be almost a year by then.  As we were coming it home it started snowing again.....so much for May flowers. 

Happy May Day!

Archery Shoot

When Justin and I started dating, I would sometimes tag along with him to archery shoots.  Usually it's a great way to get in some exercise and I really enjoy supporting Justin doing something he is passionate about.  Last spring and summer the mosquitoes last year were horrible because of all the rain, I didn't make it to any of them.  So this year I decided when the weather is nice Marshall and I would go too. Last weekend we went to our first shoot as a family in Rexburg.  We slathered Marshall with sunscreen and put a floppy hat on him, put him in the front carrier and away we went.  He did really well! He took a couple of little naps along the way and everyone of course though he was adorable.

    
This past month has been a big one for Marshall!  He started army crawling, he sits unassisted, feeds himself puffs and yogurt melts.  He moves from his belly to sitting unassisted, so we lowered his crib mattress because he loves standing and holding on to the couch; I have a  feeling he will be pulling himself up in no time.  He babbles like crazy, ya-ya-ya-ya, da-da-da-da. He has also discovered that blowing raspberries while eating creates a mess to play in!  Marshall is also dropping things, on purpose; and then looking for them.  He is growing up so fast, I keep thinking to myself "Where has the last 7 months gone?"

He is such a ham for the camera these days!

A Face Only a Mother Could Love

I've been doing the solo parent thing since the last Monday.  Justin is in Northern Idaho spading trees for work, so that has left me and Marshall at home to fend for ourselves.  I'm pretty sure Marshall misses Justin as much as I do.  When he is sitting in his highchair at dinner he is always looking up towards the loft where Justin usually is at his dinner time (he gets too distracted if Justin sits with us). 

Marshall is sitting up really well these days!  He's also army crawling!  How did the last six months go by so quick??  His babbling has also turned into things like dada-dada and ya-ya; still working on ma ma!  I have been on the hunt for a baby book for Marshall.  I have seen a lot of super cute scrapbook baby memoirs; but let's be honest here as much as I always love everyone elses' finished product I don't have the patience to do my own.  So I instead found a website that allows me to create a baby book online that I can printed; plus it sends me weekly reminders to create a new journal entry!

Chelsea (love her!) came up yesterday with baby Oliver (so cute!) and we had a little slumber party.  It was so great to have more than just a few minutes to try and catch up.  It's so great to have such a wonderful friend; we always pick right back up where we left off no matter how long it's been.  I blew my diet with our slumber party, so back on the wagon I go tomorrow.  Okay so it's no really a diet, I'm just trying to maintain healthier eating habits.  I really want Marshall to develop healthy eating habits and Justin and I agree that in order for that to happen we need to set good examples.

This week I also discovered I have more credits completed than I originally thought!  So I think I will be able to graduate a semester earlier than I had anticipated.  It will be such a relief to finally complete it! 

Oh and I guess I should probably tell you what prompted me to write this blog entry to begin with.   Marshall has started to make this face; he scrunches his nose and curls his upper lip back.  He has done it all day long and I don't think it's helping the situation that every time he does it I laugh.  I'm pretty sure I'm just egging him on at this point.  Most of the time while he makes this face he is breathing hard through his nose.  It's so goofy, I just love it!

See a face only a mother could love :)