Marshall's 3rd year

When Marshall turned two, life started to get easier and easier to be out and about.  He was flexible on the time he had to eat and sleep, and loved to go to new places.  Everything was a hotel to him when we were not at our house.  He went through a phase where he loved car washes.  He loved seeing them and building them with his legos and blocks, but did not like going inside them because they were too loud.  However, listening to him, you think he could eat, sleep and live in car washes.  I would have to say Marshall's favorite toy was, and still is, his imagination.  He loves to pretend.  If you would then bring the real object to him to play with, it just was not nearly as fun.  He aslo starting loving to play with others especially his cousin Kylene since they had been staying at Nana and Papa's together. 

I do not have any pictures of this, but Nana had to have foot surgery and could not watch Marshall during the week in the summer while she recovered.  I had to find part-time daycare for him which is a task within itself.  I desparately looked at the state's website and just started cold calling places near me.  I found Mrs Kim that lived in Selma and had a in-home day care for 18 months and up.  She only had space available during the summer since many of the kids' Moms were teachers.  So, I started to take him there.  I had practiced a couple of times with the neighbor down the street and at the daycare gym and new he would cry when being dropped off.  The first couple of weeks were hard on me, but of course the minute I left, he would stop crying.  He adjusted and I have been so happy with Mrs. Kim.  She does so many learning activities with them and has a nice structured schedule which Marshall was able to adapt to.  When the fall came around, she ended up having an opening.  I was reluctant to throw him in full-time and I think my Mom was very reluctant too because she loved coming and spending time with him once a day.  We were able to work out a schedule and eased him into the full-time daycare.  I have been so pleased with her and Marshall has grown so much.  I could tell he was getting to the age where he needed interaction with the outside world.  When I had off, we would always have to go do something because I felt just sitting at home was a waste of our time together and we were both restless.   



On the boat

Marshall and Kylene at the zoo.

Relaxing Sunday afternoon

4th of July in Schertz

Enjoying Inflatable Wonderworld with Emma

 



Showing Lyla how the bubble machine works

We took our annual Kunz Family Beach Trip.  Marshall really got into playing in the sand this summer.  His favorite thing to do was to make train tracks, holes, and hills and create a little beach obstacle course to run on.

At a wedding

We also took a coast trip with just the three of us since we enjoyed it so much last year.

On the road, he loved watching is Cedermont Kids Childrens songs DVDs that drove Daddy crazy.

Fishing with Daddy

Relaxing with Mommy

Another trip to the zoo with Kylene



Family night at Retama.  It was really hot and humid.

Oma loves Vegas and since she has always been so nice to come down and babysit, we gave her a Vegas trip for her birthday.  It was a mother/daughter trip since Opa and Clay are not the biggest Vegas fans.  This was the first time I stayed downtown and I liked it so much more than the strip since I was not exhausted from walking.  We also planned our trip at the same time as Emily's family trip.  It worked out well since I can not hang with my Mom and her video poker so I had somebody to play the tables with.  Also, it was destiny because New Kids on the Block were performing in Vegas at the same time so we were able to go to their show at the Palms.

Downtown Vegas.  I loved the Golden Nugget pool.

Here we come NKOTB



During the summer, I had Fridays off to spend the day with Marshall. 

 

At the New Braunfels Children Museum



Train ride at the zoo

My college friends and I are living in different cities, so it is hard for us all to get together.  We planned a girls trip to Dallas where we went to the Britney Spears concert, got pedicures, and just had girls time hanging out.  My friend Jessica G is an event planner so was able to get us a great deal and a nice hotel.  It is nice that no matter how long it has been that we have all been together, we are able to pick up right where we left off.

On the plane with Krista, not a fan of flying, so I think there were some beverages before.

Waiting for the train to go see Britney

Hanging out after the concert

Hanging out at the hotel

Eating green eggs and ham

Picking out a pumpkin at the Pumpkin Patch

Carving the pumpkin

Final product

"Will you have this dance?"

Cat in the Hat Halloween costume

We had a work Halloween party and always have to decorate the office.  My group used the Candy Land theme and won 1st price for best decorations.  We dressed like M&M's to coordinate with the Candy Land theme.  Marshall and Amy's son, Layton, were also M&M's.

Marshall's cousins came over for some trick or treating Halloween night.



We went to the Air Show at Randolph Air Force Base.  It was bad weather so we could walk around and see the planes, but they could not perform in the sky because of the fog.  It was still very interesting to Marshall.

Marshall made propellers at Mrs. Kim's in honor of the air show. 
He went through a little bit of an airplane stage and it was very easy to get him to bed
by playing "airplane" all the way to it.

Cousin Kendall at her first race

At the zoo after we cheered on Kendall


Rock'n'Roll Half Marathon time



13.1 Miles down and looking a little rough.

Kylene's 3rd birthday at Inflatable Wonderland.  They just love this place...obviously.

Marshall was still really into trains, so we decided to go to the Transportation Museum for their Christmas in San Antonio where they had Santa and a real train ride.  Well, Clay and I thought it was pretty lame considering the train ride just went for a half a mile one way and then backed up.  However, our little 2 year old loved it.  They had all of their train models out on these huge tracks, so he was in heaven.

Ready to go on the "big train ride"

 

Mid December was a little bit rough for Marshall.  He managed to get RSV, so was out of commission for awhile.  With that, we had to reschedule his surgery for the end of December.  Marshall also managed to get the swine flu in October.  The swine flu was much easier to deal with because he just slept and relaxed.  With the RSV, he was coughing all the time and could not get comfortable.

Helping Mommy make some cookies

Taste testing

Christmas at Nana and Papa's house

Christmas at Oma and Opa's house.  Enjoying some milk with Daddy.

Showing Oma how to play the piano

Opening presents on Christmas Eve

Christmas day at home

Playing with his new Geo Tracks

The Hansens came down at the end of the Christmas holiday to ring in the new year.  The guys went camping and hunting at the "OP" while the girls held down the fort with the kids.  Marshall just had his surgery and was recovering like a champ.

The guys getting guy time

Krista, Lizzy and I at Vern Daddy's house warming party

Happy Valentines Day

Marshall decided he loved movie night on the weekends. 
This consisted of blankets, pillows and of course popcorn.

Relaxing at the "OP"

 

Marshall got really into cleaning.  He loves anything with water or spray bottles.  I can't complain....

Cleaning the windows

Cleaning the boat

Writing his novel

We put our house for sale and there was a squirrel that made a nest in the roof of the porch that was giving Daddy the biggest headache.  After many attempts he managed to trap it.  We released it into the Converse park where it could live happily away from the house.

"There goes the squirrel"

Hunting eggs with Oma and Opa on Easter

Confetti egg on Daddy

There was so much going on in the spring.  We had sold our house and were looking into building a custom house on an acre lot we had purchased.  We were trying to use U-Build It to cut cost and were looking into rent homes.  Well, plans changed a little when we found out there was going to be a new addition to the family.  Clay got a little overwhelmed with trying to build a custom house semi on our own and I got a little overwhelmed with the thought of juggling a newborn and a new position I had just transferred to at work that would require overtime hours.  Not to mention, the plans of the house got a little out of hand and it was going to be a little more house then we originally wanted.  Needless to say the cards were just not lining up for us at the moment.  There was a new home tax credit that was expiring on April 30th.  I called our realtor and asked to look at existing houses for sale on April 27th.  We went the next day and looked at three houses.  I felt like we were on House Hunters.  The last one we really liked and saw the potential to make it into our own.  We slept on it and went for a second showing on April 30th.  We made an offer and they accepted it at 10:00 that night with two hours to spare before the tax credit expired.  Clay and I were excited and relieved about our decision.  We were able to move in, not have to worry about a rent house, and get settled in before our new addition got here with an expected due date of December 3, 2010.  I also worked it out where I got transferred back to my old job at work to avoid working the overtime hours and to have a flexible schedule after the baby arrived.  There are somethings that we miss sometimes about a custom house that we made just for us, but at the end of the day it was just not the right time in our lives for it and we felt much more comfortable buying the house we did.  Here are a couple pictures of the house after we moved in.  We ended up getting new master bedroom furniture and a king size bed with a comfortable mattress......best investment.

Marshall enjoying the new comfy bed.

One of the exciting things going on that summer was my good friend and roommate from college, Sarah, was getting married.  Sarah was also such a good friend and has hosted many bridal showers and baby showers for all of us and it was time for the spotlight to shine on her.  We decided to host a destination bachelorette party in Port Aransas.  We had done this previously for Jessica and Amanda and always have a blast on the beach and going to Sharky's. 

Dinner Saturday night

Sharky's

Marshall's birthday approached very fast right after we moved into our house.  We just wanted to do something low key and easy, so it was a repeat of his 2nd birthday at Inflatable Wonderworld.  He still appreciated it just as much with his favorite cousins and his buddy Dylan.

I don't know when it happened, but between the ages of 2 and 3, Marshall lost his baby look and turned into my sweet little boy.