Sweetness

Turns out our little Elizabeth likes to be naked. If she's crying and all else fails, just strip her down and she's all good. Jack used to hate having his diaper changed, but she seems to love it. So it's not surprising that she likes bath time (and before bath time when we're getting things ready and she chills in her diaper). To steal a line from my friend Kira, these pictures from last night's bath are "so sweet you'll need a dentist."

The Sophster

Jack and Sophia (4) had a great time hanging out together while the cousins were visiting. When they were getting along they were hysterical to watch together. Jack isn't exactly down with sharing his toys so they had their moments, but sometimes even those slightly unpleasant moments were a little comical.

They rode bikes together (in their pajamas, of course)...Jack kept pretending to be stuck in the grass so "Pheeea" would help him.

They took a bath together and particularly liked splashing each other with water. One night at dinner Sophia was totally cracking up Jack. I can't even remember what she was doing, but it looked something like this.
Jack was laughing hysterically (with spaghetti sauce on his face and wearing his new Buckeye Kids' Club t-shirt ).

Jack had a great time with both his cousins here and was sad on Monday morning when he woke up and they weren't here. He asked for "Beya and Pheeea" all day. We hope to see them again soon!

Lords at the Beach

Kevin's sister and her daughters are here! Jennifer, Isabella and Sophia arrived from New York Friday night and we've had a great weekend. It's been a blast seeing all four Lord cousins together.

Yesterday we went to the beach and couldn't believe that some people were actually swimming in the ocean. It's warm here (low 70s), but it was very windy and overcast yesterday and it's freaking December so swimming was out of the question for our crew. The kids had fun running around and we took tons of photos. Here are some highlights. (I admit they are mostly Jack, but he just looked so darn cute in his little blue shirt with his bare feet and his crazy blond curls blowing all over the place.)

We also tried to get some good family photos with mixed results.

Christmas Morning

Jack woke up bright and early Christmas morning. (Waking early... what else is new? But the saying bright and early isn't exactly true because it was still very dark outside.) But, we all drug ourselves out of bed to see if Santa Claus came to our house. He did. And he brought Jack a train table!

Jack was a little out of it in this first video, but he quickly warmed up and opened every present he got his little hands on without realizing (or caring) that one might actually be for someone else.

I love that Jack sticks his tongue out when he's concentrating. Trains are hard work.

Jack got a lot of other awesome toys, too. He likes hammering on his new tool bench. Nevermind that he uses the wrong end of the hammer.He was also very excited about a giant Cars activity book.Elizabeth had a good Christmas morning, too.She got lots of cute clothes and a super cuddly bear.Hope your Christmas morning was as special and fun as ours.

Christmas Eve, Part II

It's Marsh tradition to open one present on Christmas Eve, and every year that one present is pajamas. Jack was a little disappointed with his gift until Kevin opened his present and it was the same thing.

We didn't get just any pajamas this year... we got matching pajamas! Dorky? Yes, but we looked darn cute!You may have noticed Ellie screaming in our family picture, so here I am "shushing" her in the girls picture.The pictures of the boys turned out much better.

Christmas Eve, Part I

Jack and Ellie in their Christmas duds!We got distracted and barely remembered to get a picture of the two of them together. Sadly, this is the best picture we could manage.

After church, we went to our friend's, the Barasch's, house for lots of great food and good company. Jack played on Nathan's new plane.We got a great picture of Jack and Allie!

Merry Christmas!

Love, Kevin Kate Jack & Elizabeth

Meeting Santa Claus

We took the kids to see Santa Claus yesterday and to try and get a cute photo of them with the big guy. As mentioned before, Jack is not a fan of Santa Claus so we've been reading Christmas and Santa books to him to get a little more familiar with him. On the way to see Santa yesterday, we told Jack to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas and he seemed genuinely excited to see Santa.

Jack happily sat on Santa's lap long enough to get a candy cane and say, "Choo choo pease Sana Crause."
And then he just wanted to get down.This is as good as it gets - Kids with Santa 2008.
Poor Jack was so sad when we left. He kept asking for his "choo choo." Apparently, he didn't understand that Santa will bring presents on Christmas and not when you ask for them and get your picture taken.


Later that night Santa and Mrs. Claus were at the restaurant where we had dinner. We tried to get a family photo, but the jig was up with Jack. He wanted nothing to do with Santa since he failed to deliver on the choo choo request earlier in the day.Elizabeth was happy to have her picture taken with Santa and Mrs. Claus.The evening Santa episode reminded us of last year - Jack with Santa 2007

Maybe next year...

Happy Anniversary

Can you believe it? Kate and I have been married for four years as of today! To start the day off right Jack and I went to the store to buy Momma some flowers and then made cinnamon rolls to serve Kate breakfast in bed. So...happy anniversary to us. Now it is time to start getting ready for Christmas!

Skulls Christmas Party

The 85 TES Squadron Christmas party was Saturday night. It was held in a fancy gathering room at the Emerald Grande in Destin. We made a mini-staycation of the night and took our circus on the road. Memere, Papa Lou, Kevin, Jack, Ellie and I spent the night in a gorgeous 3 bedroom, 2 bath suite. Memere and Papa Lou were on kid duty while Kevin and I attended the party.

It's clear we don't get dressed up all that often by Jack's reaction. When Kevin walked into the living room Jack said, "Dada cuuute." A few minutes later when I was saying goodbye to Jack he pointed to my high heels and said, "Mama shoes cuuute."

We hoped to catch the sunset Saturday night before the party, but it was really foggy and we couldn't see a thing. (I will not complain about the weather given it was 70something during the day.) The party was a lot of fun, but Jack sleeping in a strange bunk bed in a strange room was not. We got few pictures of the view Sunday morning once the fog lifted.

Jack's Bowling Party

We celebrated Jack's birthday on Friday with little bowling party with Claire and Memere and Papa Lou who are in town for the holidays from California! Jack was all excited to bowl and said "My turn" every couple minutes until it was actually his turn. After a few rounds, though, he'd had enough and just wanted to "ride the horsey" (carousel) or play with the Lincoln Logs Claire gave him. It was super cute when the kids were into the game, though, because they would cheer and give high fives to everyone.

After bowling, we all came back to our house for pizza and cake. The one hiccup in the plan was the traffic - there was an accident on the bridge home from Destin so we were stuck in traffic for an hour. Ugh! Jack was happy because he watched Thomas the Train on his dad's iPhone and Claire ate snacks and made friends with Memere.

Jack was worn out by the end of the party, but we had a great afternoon. The week of Jack's birthday celebrations is officially over. Now, it's onto Christmas!

**If the slideshows don't load on the blog, click "view all images" to see them. I'm not sure why the slideshows aren't working.**

It's like 0600 in the morning and Jack is watching Thomas the Train
and I am seeing if I can now post to the blog from my phone. We'll see
if it works.

December 19

December 19, 2006
December 19, 2007 - One Year Old

December 19, 2008 - Two Years Old