Better Days to Come...

Marshall here...my mom can read my thoughts and I told her I wanted this written down. I have had a rough month. Its been a lot of fun too, but I just keep getting sick. In the last month I have had two ear infections, two bouts with pink eye, the stomach flu, and now I have another cold, and to make things worse, I slipped on the tile by the front door to our building and now I have a fat lip. Being one can be rough. I hope better days are ahead!

Christmas Day

Well I'm finally getting around to documenting our Christmas day! It was a wonderful day and very relaxing! Richard and I slept in until 8:00 and then played Bananagrams until Marshall woke up at 8:45-I'm guessing this will probably be our last Christmas sleeping in for a long time, so it was great to take advantage of it!

When Marshall woke up all he wanted to do was play in his closet; he had no desire to come out to the living room. It probably took us ten minutes to get him to the end of the hallway so he could see his new slide. But, once he finally saw what was in the living room he was hooked! He LOVES his slide!

After Marshall had some time on his slide we moved on to the stockings. Richard was pleasantly surprised when he opened this classy BYU jacket-it was all he wanted for Christmas!

Marshall got his favorite cereal in his stocking, Trix, yummy!








And a fun ABC book; he loves it!







After the stockings we took a break for breakfast and then moved onto the presents under the tree. Marshall helped to open a couple of his presents, but then lost interest. He opened this doctor kit from Corey and Bekky first and then that was all he wanted to play with!

When all was said and done this is what Marshall walked away with! Richard and I have since decided that next year we probably only need to get this little tike one gift for Christmas and everybody will take care of the rest; he sure is loved...and spoiled!

Well, we sure had a fantastic day-so relaxing, and it was so great to just spend the day as a family! Can't wait for next year!

Happy New Year!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Just Some Thoughts...

One of the gifts Richard gave me for Christmas was our blog made into a book! I was very excited about it and once again realized that this blog is really a great journal for our family. So, I just wanted to spend a few minutes and document the cute things that Marshall is currently doing. Yes, he does have a baby book, but I must admit I have not written much in there, so here's to the blog, and to Marshall!

Marshall will be 16 months old on the 5th; I cannot believe how fast time passes by! He is such a good little boy and we are so blessed to have him in our family. He brings us so much joy, much laughter, and great entertainment. So, here's little Marshall at almost 16 months...

*He can say daddy, happy, and apple. He still doesn't realize what all these words mean, but it just melts my heart to hear him say "happy"!
*Today he learned his first alphabet letter, can you all guess what the letter would be?! If you guessed "Y" you are correct my friends! He says it every time we point to BYU's stretch Y; he doesn't recognize it in any other form, but who cares, Richard is thrilled! He's probably said "Y' about 100 times today; it is just adorable.
*When he wants us to pick him up he will raise his hands up to us. Once we've acknowledged him he will turn around and with his back to us will inch backwards until we've picked him up. He just started doing this yesterday; it is hilarious!
*His recent, and surprising food likes, are grapefruit and blue cheese-both of which disgust me.

Well, those are just some Marshall-tidbits that I will always want to remember. We just love him dearly and we're so glad he's ours!

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we got together with the four other families in the cul-de-sac who were staying for Christmas. We all had dinner at our place and very much enjoyed the evening. The food was delicious and of course the company was wonderful-thanks for a great night you guys!

Jon, Shandra, Richard, Chuck, Shay

Braden and Nikki

Tom and Jamie


Marshall opening his Christmas pajamas!

Leake Family Christmas pajamas picture-I just love Marshall's Batman flannel pajamas!

After we put Marshall to bed we got everything set up for Christmas morning-it was SO much fun and probably the highlight of my Christmas! Christmas is so much fun when you have kids-talk about anticipation and excitement-can't wait for next year!

This is what Richard had the privilege of setting up for Marshall on Christmas Eve. My parents got this for Marshall and during the whole assembling process I think Richard was regretting the approval of this present. :) I simply reminded him that this would be the first of many Christmas Eve frustrations. But, once all was said and done and now that Marshall loves to play on it, Richard is glad he stuck with it and got it all put together.
Note for my mom: The balls that came with the set needed to be inflated and once they are inflated will be fairly big and hard. So, we decided not to use them until we can take them outside lest Marshall throw them in the living room giving me cause to cut them up. :) For now, we will just use these smaller, softer BYU balls-less damage can be done!

Utah Trip-Part 2

The last night Marshall and I were in Utah we had the annual Yancey Family Christmas Eve dinner and program a couple of nights early. This has been a long-standing tradition with my mom's side of the family and my Grandma Yancey's highlight of the year.

This tradition began with young grandchildren playing simple Christmas songs on my grandma's piano and it probably lasted all of ten minutes. Over the years the talents have grown to include other instruments and singing. This year was perhaps the biggest and best year ever. We had solo and group singing, piano solos, guitars, trombones, saxaphones, book reading, dance videos, and from the great-grandkids, a welcome, letter identification, rattle-shaking, and dancing.

It was such a great evening and there were so many participants we actually had to split it into two acts-what a night! It was a fantastic way to conclude my Utah trip-the food was yummy, the talents were inspiring, and the company was wonderful. Thanks everybody-I love you all!

I wasn't able to get pictures of all the talent acts, but here's what I have...










Enjoying a cracker from the cracker drawer.


The kiddos takin' a break from all the performances, the cracker drawer proves to be much more enticing for these little ones. :)

Utah Trip-Part 1

Marshall and I were lucky enough to spend a week in Utah just before Christmas. We had a fantastic time and enjoyed seeing family and friends, here are the highlights...

Marshall had endless entertainment from his fun-filled uncles, thanks for all the laughs you guys!

Marshall and I were able to spend a day with the Leakes while we were in Utah and we had such a fun time. We had a filling lunch at Tucanos and Marshall got to spend some quality time with his cute little cousin, Katelin. After lunch we took the kids to the children's museum and let them run wild-it was great!

I just love this expression on Marshall's face-he loved these windy tubes!

Cute Katelin-love those eyes!

Marshall and Katelin did not enjoy the horse...at all!

Thanks for a fun day Leakes! It was wonderful to see all of you!

What do you think this little guy is thinking about?! He definitely gets these expressions from his dad!

Anyway, Marshall and I were able to make a few visits to my grandparents' home so they could experience some Marshall fun.

My grandparents have always had a cracker drawer that the grandkids loved and now the great-grandkids are enjoying it. My grandpa showed Marshall where it was soon after we walked in the door and Marshall proved to be a quick learner. He enjoyed many crackers from that drawer during our visits!

Marshall found this vibrating neck pillow in a cupboard; he loved it!

Marshall was fascinated with great-grandma's cane, what a silly guy. :)
















Marshall also got lots of quality time with Grandma and Grandpa Toney, they're just great and love him to pieces!

Lunch time with Grandpa Toney/G. Toney/Grandpa Du. My parents still haven't decided what their official grandparent names are going to be! :)

Marshall also got to meet his new cousin, Benson. They are just about one year apart and Benson is Marshall's first boy cousin; these two are going to be great little buddies!

Marshall was able to have his first Temple Square experience; I think he was less than thrilled. It was a pretty cold night and he wasn't really liking his stroller. So, we made a quick pass through all the lights, but did pause for a quick picture by my favorite spot-the back corner behind the Assembly Hall-always gorgeous!

And to wrap it up, at least for now, here are a few other random happenings...

Uncle Kevin and his 3-D glasses, what a stud!







Jordan's gingerbread house disaster. He was almost done and all just started caving in. Many rescue attempts were made, but there was nothing we could do but laugh, and laugh we did! Thanks for being such a good sport Jordan!





And my cute little gingerbread men for Danny. :)









And of course I have to wrap this up with a cute Marshall video-this kid just loves to dance!