Marlie is 4!

My baby is 4!  I can handle this one, but next year on June 11th you can bet on me being a complete disaster! I have taken the lead from another great friend and this year we are having a joint birthday party for the kids in July.  So today was just our day to have fun.  We started the morning off getting pedis!  I know that's insane, but if you read my blog post from last year I took Marlie once and she LOVES getting her toenails polished.  She has been asking to go back so I promised we'd do it for her birthday.  Her friend Lauren came with us and Lauren's Mom and I had so much fun too! 

We "lunched" at Chick-fil-A and then we were off to our friend Avery's bday party.  When it was time for cake I noticed Avery's Mom, Heather had a small extra cake.  I thought maybe it was Avery's very own cake (like the kind you get your 1 year old) but then I realized it said "Happy Birthday Marlie".  That was the sweetest thing and Marlie talked about it all night! Thank you so much Heather. 

Nene joined us for dinner and I made special M&M cupcakes. I let the kids decorate some too which they really enjoyed.  When Marlie blew out the candle I asked if she made a wish.  She said "I wish we could all stay together forever" and if that wasn't cute enough she looked at each one of us when she said it.  Our hearts were mush!

We opened a few gifts afterwards.  Marlie got some clothes and leotards and a new bike from Mom & Dad.  Matt was so excited to give her a pink soccer ball.  When she opened the card from Nene she was excited that there was money in it!  The first thing she said was "I can put this in the basket at church!".  So maybe as parents we are doing something right??  She is a very special kid with a very big heart!  Marlie we love you SOOOO much!  We thank God every day for you, even when you're a little feisty!!

On Sunday we were in for another treat.  We went with the McCready's out on their beautiful (and spotless I might add) boat.  The kids had fun and we did too!  Thanks McCready's for an awesome day! Matt and Hannah picked on each other and I thought it was hilarious because most of the time she would outsmart him.  Hannah also takes VERY good care of Marlie.  It's awesome.  Marlie & Hayden had fun too!  I'm totally thinking arranged marriages here...

Baseball - Spring 2011

I found the perfect song for this post and for some reason my music won't start when you open the blog!  So scroll to the bottom and hit play.  Then you can read this!  HA!

Matt and the rest of the family are so sad that baseball season is over!!  We had a fun year!! 

This year we played with a league here in Humble.  It was coach pitch and Joel decided he was going to coach.  It was a draft so we were lucky to get picked on Joel's team.  Dad decided to help and we were all set to go!  We were the Diamondbacks and we met a whole group of new friends! Matt was Lucky 7 baby!

Matt did so well that we tried to get everyone to come up and watch!  Grandpa drove up from SA several times just for the game.  And even cousin Tim came to watch too!

Matt did really well!  He played short stop most games.  He only struck out a few times all season and the first time he did, he held back his tears and hustled right back to the dugout.  We couldn't have been more proud. 

I forced myself to take a few videos.  Sorry you will get sea sick watching these.  Look at how focused he is!  Matt wasn't the best on his team but there wasn't a kid that tried harder. Coach Dan nicknamed him 110.  We nicknamed him "Tucker" because he is ALWAYS tucking in his shirt.  One of the Dad's said Matt was the only kid on the field who had every part of his uniform in the right spot...even the dirt!  Matt doesn't like Tucker so I guess it might not stick!

The kids learned a ton this year.  Coach Joel did great teaching them fundamentals and Dad worked with Matt a lot.  He made some great plays, caught a pop up and scored at almost every at bat.  Honestly I embarrassed myself.  I couldn't stop yelling at the games.  It was all positive but I couldn't stand to keep quiet which made taking a video extremely difficult!! Our team ended up 7-5 which was great.  3 of those games we lost by 1 run and probably should have won them.  The kids wanted to know the score at all times and wanted to win.  I didn't realize they had such a fire at this age.

Matt, we couldn't be more proud of you!  And I couldn't be more thankful to have such a wonderful Coach, and wonderful Dad and wonderful parents and kids to be around! You can see a few more pics in the slide show!

Turks & Caicos 2011

We have been planning this vacation for months so we would have been really excited when it finally arrived but the Wellmann's couldn't come because Melissa is in the middle of chemo, the McCready's cancelled because her sister recently passed away, and the week before departure Jenny's boss asked her to please cancel her vacation for work!  Moral of the story is maybe it's bad luck to plan a vacation with the Maziur's!

So off we went by ourselves!  First stop was the big city.  We were laying over in NYC and excited to take the kids into the city and see my friend Genieve and her family!  I have never met her husband or her kids so it was such a wonderful evening!  Matt got to go to the official Yankees store (where it took about 30 minutes to pick something out) and we took the kids to the M&M store so Marlie could get a little treat too!  What a great start to the week!

Then it was off to Turks! The resort was as great as we imagined and the beach was gorgeous!

We were like kids in a candy store...literally!

The Sesame Street characters were all at the resort! The kids got to bake cookies with Cookie Monster and Explore the gardens with Grover.  Marlie fell in love with Abby!

We had a great time playing on the beach! Marlie could have sat in the sand and built sand castles all day! Matt learned how to snorkel and it was neat because he got to see lots of fish! Matt and Daddy could have played in the water all day!

I enjoyed walking on the beach and just tried to take it all in so I could remember it when we were back home! This is what my Heaven looks like...except the sun won't be quite as hot and you won't have to put on sunscreen! And while I'm at it, maybe my skin could be like Matt's.  It's amazing how tan he is from this trip and we use sunscreen like crazy! It's the most beautiful honey brown color. 

We only left the resort one day.  Dad planned a wonderful trip for us.  We boarded our own "ship" (as Marlie called it) with Captain Alex and Alido.  They were great.  Alido took better care of my kids than maybe we would.  He was so careful with them every second.  He chased this kids around on the boat and was so cute!  If you ever go, please go to Silver Deep and request these guys.  Money well spent!  We decided we wanted to do some fishing.  Matt caught (or I should say Alex helped Matt catch) lots of fish and Dad and Marlie caught a few too!

I think Marlie had more fun throwing the fish back in rather than catching them!

Then it was off to a beautiful beach to look for sand dollars.  This beach reminded me a lot of Great Exuma and I could have stayed here all week! Matt was the only one of us that found a sand dollar.  Alex and Alido found about 10 for us and the kids were excited!

On our way back to the marina we saw JoJo the famous T&C dolphin!  He was swimming offshore and Capt Alex sped up the boat, got him right in the wake and JoJo put on a show for us.  The kids were so excited to see him jump out of the water.  It was the perfect day!  Thanks Dad for planning that trip for us!

We spent time in the evenings at the shows and surprisingly Matt was the one who was ALWAYS on stage.  The kids danced like crazy and Matt dragged Marlie up there anytime he had the chance!

We did a photo shoot on the beach too and I will cherish these pictures.  These are my favorite...

We had a really wonderful time! I spent time studying the kids and learning their similarities and differences.  Marlie is a homebody!  She was ready to come home on day 4.  Matt could have stayed forever.  He made friends with lots of kids, even those that didn't speak English!!  Matt loved the camp and Marlie just wanted to be with us.  Matt is going constantly and Marlie will tell you when she wants to take a nap.  But at night, Matt is out like a light and Marlie tosses and turns for at least 30 minutes.  Matt wants to do everything on his own, but Marlie wants help reaching the toilet paper in the bathroom!  Marlie is thankful for everything and Matt sort of expects everything.  We need to work on that! But both kids love vacations, love dancing and love shrimp!  They must have eaten shrimp for every meal except breakfast! It was so much fun!  There are some more pics in the slideshow. I can't wait to do it again!