The Grand (Mis)Adventures of Naterbug and Ladybug: July 2011

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Her real birthday!

She is a year old today. It is hard to believe. One year of additional sweetness added to our little family. I have so many favorite things about Marissa: her smile, her eyes, the way she turns my face toward hers as she eats and locks eyes with me, the funny positions she sleeps in, her 8 toothed grin, the way she goes after bananas, the way she climbs all over Daddy, her frantic rush to ascend stairs, the way she adores her big brother...but what has to top the list would be her laugh. She already knows how to whole-heartedly laugh (especially at her brother), my prayer is that she never loses this joy. It is contagious. You cannot help but smile when she guffaws! Marissa, my hope is that life always gives you reason to smile and that you always bring joy to the lives of those you come in contact with! Happy Birthday, sweet girl!

Here's a quick monthly review of her precious smiles over this past year:

Sheesh, I love this beautiful little thing!

She had a busy actual birthday. Church followed by a visit to the hospital to see Grandpa who had carotid artery surgery. Oddly enough we were at the hospital at 1:15, the exact time we had Marissa a full year ago today! Then we hit up a birthday party for our friends, Avery and Collin. More cake, more sugar. It was a fun day for all.

Party #2, the Luau

Welcome to 'Rissa's Luau

Seriously, what else can you do when your birthday falls in the heat of the summer?

We had an adorable rainbow fruit tray (if I do say so myself)!

Some rainbow cupcakes that almost made Mommy crazy trying to figure out how to get the rainbows to stay up. Thanks to mommy's friend Christy, and the magic of royal icing, there were no saggy rainbows at this party! Marissa will never know or fully appreciate the work that went into these. Mommy now has a whole new respect for cupcake icers. No matter how hard she tried, she never perfected the art of smoothly icing cupcakes. Oh well, at least the rainbows stood firm and they were fairly cute anyway!

We had a ton o' fun in the baby pool with our friends

Then we opened presents. Bubba helped a lot. One may think he was being sweet but I am pretty sure he was just trying to get to the stash of goodies before Marissa did!

Then we sang the traditional birthday song and dug in!

It was a great day. She is one blessed little girl to be surrounded by so many people who love and care for her! Thanks to everyone for coming out, we missed you if you were unable to make it, and we apologize to those who did not get an invite! We love you all!

Birthday Party #1

Since the family was all together for the wedding, we also celebrated Marissa's first birthday.

She indulged, delightfully!

My baby will be 1 year old a week from the day we had this party! It is amazing how the year has flown!

Riverwalk

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Rafting the Royal Gorge

Another great thing about visiting family in Colorado is the opportunity to go whitewater rafting. I have loved rafting since I was a kid. My sister and I drug our hubbies with us last time we were all in Colorado on some mild rapids. Since they had been broken in previously, we decided to go a little more intense this year. It was so cold, but so much fun. We rafted down the Royal Gorge in class 3s and 4s. While my Mom and Aunt entertained 4 young children! I don't know which group was taking the bigger risk! Thanks Mom and Aunt Debbie!

Boys will be boys

One of the best things about our (rare) trips to Colorado are our sleeping accommodations. My family has a fantastic house on some land with amazing scenery and they are always wonderfully gracious hosts. Of course the weather is phenomenal compared to our South Texas humidity so most nights you can find the "elder" men outside on the balcony/porch chatting about whatever it is men of this age chat about as they gaze at the mountains in the background.

And the younger boys find this to be a dream play area. There are lots of rocks at the house and the boys spent a lot of time searching for the just-right rock. A fight or two may have broken out on weather it was a rock or a circle/oval/whatever shape they magically found and about who found the biggest rock.

There were all kinds of discoveries.

Look closely......

The boys also found a spider. Nate began pointing it out and I went to see if indeed there was a spider or if it was another rock. YIKES, it was a tarantula! Unbeknownst to us during our discovery, (which also freaked Daddy out!) Uncle Kent had placed it there just for the boys' sake. It has long since been dead, but it was still a sight to make our hearts jump!

And then there were the evenings where every little boy's dreams came true as they were allowed to run naked in the backyard.

Nothing quite like turning your aunt and uncle's home into the local nudist colony! They boys were in Heaven. My poor baby girl is way out numbered with these boys (and we get to add another 2.5 year old in the mix now!). All she can do is sit back and laugh!