There's a birthday at our house today.

This little kid is 3. I can't believe it. I literally spend day after day wondering at what point in his life I'll react with, "Oh, yeah, I've known this was coming for his whole lifetime and I'm not at all taken back by how grown up he is." Because the last almost 1100 days have failed to be "that day."
This kid is my favorite. Favorite first born, that is. He is full of it! He is so observant, that it is constantly blowing my mind. He also is good at copying. My favorite is when he copies Tyler... the younger brother. And, oh yeah, when he copies "George." We watch a lot of Curious George at our house and from time to time Marshall will tell me about things he did that day and I start to wonder, when did you go to the zoo? or feed the bunnies? or paint the room? Then I realize it was from "George." That 's what we call it at our house. George. A couple months ago he went through a phase where he was always talking like George. That was a little far from favorite for me. I had a really hard time trying to understand him for those couple of weeks. Luckily he has yet to copy any real troublesome George behavior. This TV watching habit has saved me more than one time. Once I had to explain the process and need for an x-ray to Marshall (it was not M that needed it) and I couldn't figure out a way that wouldn't be too scary until I remembered... "Marshall, remember when George was climbing the dinosaur and fell down and hurt his leg? Remember how the doctor took a picture of his leg bone? That's what's going on..." It is so entertaining to me that he's such a little sponge. Until Colby turns to me and says, "he learned that from you" and I can't deny it.
Marshall can be really quiet and thoughtful AND really loud and insane. He treats me so well. He'll tell me multiple times a day that he loves me. And he'll tell me thoughtfully and quietly and sometimes he'll pop up in the kitchen and scream, "Mom! I love YOU!" You never know with this kid.
The other night I walked outside and Marshall said to me, "Hi Woman!" We all laughed so hard! And no, Colby didn't put him up to it, he said it all on his own.
Some things Marshall likes lately:
George
Mow (pronounced like cow) - its Marshall's name for Lightning McQueen
matching his brother - He'll exclaim, "Tyler! We are the same."
singing
working with Dad in the yard
swimming at 'rama Schachee's house (Grandma Stratton)
actually anything at 'rama Schachee's - He asks to go there every day.
exercising with Mommy - his stretching is the best to watch
picking his shirt himself
dressing and undressing himself
Mom, unless Dad's around then its ALL Dad
'ali'ornia - We went there a couple times in the last few months and he talks about it a lot
answering the door
buckling himself
I love you kiddo! Happy birthday.

I was hoping all the other kids would take the candy home.

We had a great Easter weekend that was kicked off with a great Easter Egg Hunt and Great Gma & Gpa Stratton's house. Some of us mom's decided it was time to reinstate a family egg hunt. There was some discussion about the age limit being too high and the little ones being at a disadvantage with everyone going at the same time. I, for one, was hoping the older ones would take advantage of the situation so I didn't have all this sugar following me home. I should have known to put a blindfold on Marshall or something.
Marshall knew just what to do when we said go. It really surprised me when Colby said that Marshall picked up one egg of every color (part of the "rules") without any signs of confusion. Then he wandered the yard picking up only the candy that he liked. A couple times he picked something up, analyzed it, then put it back down after he decided he didn't really like that kind. The picture with the basket in his face was only after about 5 minutes.
Tyler got VERY attached to the first egg he found and didn't want much to do with anything else. He didn't even know what was inside, he just knew he grabbed it and that no one else could have it.
Yes, Tyler's little green basket held only his eggs filled with various prizes. And yes. The other two baskets you can see belonged to the shining example of a candy loving child named Marshall. He seriously got as much (or more) than his 10 year old cousins without any help from Mom & Dad. I even felt a little self-conscious when it was all over. I thought for sure someone would figure I'd helped put this hunt together so my kid could get all this free stuff. Which is the exact opposite. I wanted all the other kids to take it home. But its OK. I can feel all this sugar inching closer to the trash can as I finish this post.

Happy Easter 2010

I'm going to tell an embarrassing story on myself. In my head, it is the reason my sweet boys are laughing at me in this picture.
I've been trying to figure out their Easter ensemble for a LONG time and finally found something I really liked. All I had to do is find the right ties. I had seen a bunch of them at a store at least a month ago so I went back last Saturday to get them... and ALL of them were gone. I went home determined to find some online and realized I should have checked Etsy so long before. So I found the ones I liked and got them ordered so I'd get them before Easter Sunday. I was feeling so good about myself until I was sitting in church last Sunday and saw two little boys running down the hall in adorable matching outfits. I wondered why they'd be in their "Easter clothes" a whole week before and then it hit me. Next Sunday was General Conference. Next Sunday was Easter. I had thought about both of those things (independently) multiple times and it never clicked in my head that we would NOT be at church on Easter Sunday. I hate when I do dumb things like that. It seems like I've been having those blond moments over and over and over lately. How frustrating!I blame it on "Mommy's syndrome." You know, the fact that I've donated my brains to these little munchkins. As frustrating as it can be sometimes (the brainlessness), it's well worth it.
Anyway. Happy Easter. Hope you have a lovely weekend.

Busy Blogger

My! My! I feel like I've posted so many times in the last week.

This is my favorite portrait from my family session I had today.

Thanks for the fun!

This holiday weekend has brought a lot of activity, and I hope to get it up on the blog soon.

Introducing...

...my newest little friend, Taft.

His momma is one of my oldest friends.

I think he gets his adorable nature from her.
His dad may have something to do with it too, I guess...

He's so sweet to let me learn with him.
As you can see, seeking perfection can be exhausting.

Look forward to seeing more of this sweet babe. I promised his parents I'd try to keep him little while he's busy growing up. I hope you can all enjoy this journey.

Just one...

A little sneak of the first of many portions of my latest project.
Could you follow that?
Prepare to meet little baby Taft.

Man of the House

My little man Marshall makes me so proud. On the way home from St. George today the truck started sounding really wacky and I pulled over not knowing what I should do and how far I should drive (gotta love "breaking down"!). I told Marshall the truck was broken and he immediately responded, "I will go to our house and get my tools in my tool box on my workbench and I will fix the truck for you." (I wish you could hear it coming out of his sweet little mouth. Leave off the g and f sounds from the beginning of the words... that should help you hear it in your head.)

I love how he instantly knew how to fix the problem and that he was eager to help me. Grandma soon made it to the scene to help us and Marshall started walking away, down the highway towards home. I asked him where he was going and he seemed almost annoyed when he had to remind us he was going home to get his tools. As we tried to get him to come back to us by the vehicles he got so frustrated with us because he really needed to get home so he could bring his tools to the truck to fix it.

Tonight (two days later) Marshall was talking to Colby on the phone and Colby asked if he was able to get his tools and fix the truck when it broke down and Marshall was so cute: "Almost. Mom wouldn't let me." I love you Marshall.