Moments with the Maner's

Our First Trip Away

2009-09-12T19:14:00.000-07:00

The school year was quickly coming to a close and summer break was fast approaching. Josh and I had our very first weekend trip planned to getaway without Morgan! One of Josh's high school and college friends was getting married on May 1st, in Charleston, South Carolina. We thought this would be a great opportunity to have some adult time and make a weekend trip out of the event. To make the most of our trip we decided it would be best to fly and not waste time having to drive so far for just a short stay... so we booked our tickets and were set to go!

The week prior leading up to this weekend getaway, Josh and I had been doing some redecorating to our master bathroom. We had repainted the bathroom, had a new finish done to the counter tops, and laid new flooring. (All of course to help with the house being up for sale!) While we were working throughout the week I started feeling like I was coming down with the flu...I actually thought Oh, No! I hope that I do not have the swine flu, when we have such a great trip planned! So as the week progressed I started to get concerned about making the trip when I was not feeling so well. I was sharing with one of my friends at work how I was not feeling so well and she just bluntly stated, well maybe your pregnant, what I thought, no I am not! Well that stuck with me the rest of the day, so I decided maybe I just need to reassure myself that I am not pregnant and take a test, since of course we will be having a few adult beverages this weekend:) Well of course I decided not to worry Josh with any of this business because I was very confident that I was not pregnant, but to my sweet surprise...after taking the test it so quickly came back PREGNANT!!! What...I couldn't believe this...SHOCKED and SURPRISED were the only things I can say to describe my thoughts. After I let it set in for the rest of the day I wrapped the pregnancy test in a cute little bag and when Josh got home I told him I had gotten a gift for him to show him my love for him. He started to unwrap it and in a matter of time he knew exactly what it was...he just started laughing and said are you serious:) I thought, uh yeah honey, I can't make this one up! Needless to say we were and are so very excited for the soon to be added addition to our family.

Our weekend trip of course did not go according to plan, my lovely sickness, which we now knew was not swine flu continued to get worse each and everyday!

Here is Josh and I ready to go to the wedding in Charleston, and about 5-6 weeks pregnant! I think I look pretty darn good for feeling like I could throw up and I had to hide it from Josh's entire family that was with us for the wedding as well!

Spring At Last

2009-07-29T19:21:00.000-07:00

So yes I know it is almost Summer and I am just now posting about Spring. Here is my issue, I for whatever reason can't bring myself to just go from my last post to the most recent event in our lives and skip everything in between. I am terrible at scrap booking or journaling, all I have is tons of pictures in chronological order in photo albums, so if I do not put things in order on here and write about them I will not remember them.

Anyways...Spring did come and of course has already gone, but it was a wonderful time of year.

We went on our first family vacation. When I say first family vacation, it is the first vacation that my brother and his family, my mom and dad, and Josh, Morgan and I have gone on. We went down to our favorite place in Florida, Panama City! (favorite meaning free place to stay and good memories) We have been going to PC since Jeremy and I were in elementary school! It was a great time of hanging out on the beach and eating good food.

This was Morgan's second trip to the beach and I can say it was a much better experience than bringing her down when she was only 3 1/2 months old. She did awesome driving down and back for the six hour drive, thanks to portable dvd players and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse/Blues Clues. She absolutely LOVES being outside, so she enjoyed being on the beach! She unfortuantely was not a big fan of the sand, so we had to bring a huge blanket to lay her pool and chair on so she she would walk around with out freaking out! Another thing she absolutely LOVES is kids, younger or older. She thought she was such a big girl being around all of her older cousins.

This year we celebrated Morgan's second Easter. Josh and I reminisced on how so much has changed since last Easter. Last Easter Morgan was only a few weeks old and so we had all the family dropping in and out, bring food and of course seeing the baby. This year she is now walking all over the yard very excited to carry her small little Easter basket and pick up the colorful eggs. I was quite surprised on how quickly Morgan picked up on she needed to pick up all the eggs before anyone else! My Nana has a huge front yard that is beautiful and tradition has it that we always have an Easter egg hunt and lunch at her house.

Morgan with Gandma and Papa

This is just priceless! Josh was obviously holding Morgan and I decided he should wear Morgan's bunny ears, doesn't he make a cute Easter bunny!

Once Morgan got the eggs she truly thought they were for eating!

Happy 1st Birthday!

2009-06-21T19:09:00.000-07:00

Well all of the planning for the Morgan's first birthday finally came to an end. We decided that since it was the first that we do the whole "go all out" and boy planning a party like that is exhausting, but it turned out just perfect. The theme for the party was based on colors of pink, green, brown and cupcakes! You will see a common theme of these colors from Morgan's clothes, to the food, all the way down to the invitations (which I do not have a picture of). The day turned out to be absolutely beautiful, it was sunshine and warm, which in Georgia and the month of March you never know what the weather will be like. We had all of our family and friends there to share in making wonderful memories.

Since we didn't have Morgan's birthday party on her actual birthday, my mom and I decided that we still had to make her actual birthday March 10th special. So I dressed her in her very cute "Birthday Girl" shirt and my parents came over for dessert that night! Josh and I waited to let Morgan open her gifts from us, since she had more than enough at her party to open.

We took Morgan for her one year check up, which check ups always include lovely vaccinations. It becomes so much more difficult to watch your children get shots as they get older. You can see the look of terror in their eyes the moment the get the shots, because they are so much more aware and you just want to tell the "it's not Mommy that is inflicting that pain on you!" Her stats were great! She was healthy and growing like a weed the doctor said. She was still in the 90% on heigth and 75% for weigth! We Maner's know how to feed her well:) Busy is still the name of her game! She started to walk a couple steps a few weeks before her birthday and then she decided that she was just going to go on a strike. When I say strike, I mean if you tried to lift her up by her arms to get her to put her feet down she would put them straight out in front of her, parallel to the ground, absolutely halarious. She called it quites and decided that she just wanted to still cruise around the furniture. She has a very cautious personality, so I guess she wanted to stay safe for a while longer. I of course was totally fine with that, I wasn't quite ready to chase around a mobile child on foot!

January and February

2009-03-15T12:08:00.000-07:00

The New Year came...Morgan finally got better and was completely clear from her ear infection by the time I had to return back to school from Christmas break. The business of the holidays calmed down and we had some down time as a family.

We took Morgan to have her 9 month wellness check up a month late, due to her being so sick. She is growing just perfectly! She is actually in the 90% for height, she has a really long torso, which is surprising because Josh and I are not very tall people. She is also 75% in weight, the funny thing is that she is not fat, just solid. She has perfected her pulling up on everything and started to cruise to anything she can get her hands on. The only word that describes her is BUSY! She is so BUSY, but in a good way.

Her favorite word to say still is da-da, which Josh always loves to hear. She has started to say ma-ma, na-na, and other letter sounds. She constantly is just jabbering, so when she can actually put some words with the sounds she makes she will be talking none stop, I wouldn't know where she would get that from:) There are times when the sounds she makes sounds like she is saying "whats that" and "oh boy".

We started the beginning of February off with Josh's 29th birthday, I can't believe that next year he will be the BIG 30! We went with both of our families to P.F Chang, one of Josh's favorite restaurants.

Then Morgan's first Valentine's Day came! Josh and I don't make a huge ordeal about Valentine's Day. We will usually just get something small for one another. Josh was really sweet about Valentines this year, he went out and bought a toy for Morgan, but the sweetest thing was he bought her a card and wrote her a letter that was absolutely prectious. He let her know how special she is and how much he loves her and I know one day when she is older she will look back on that card and cherish it.

Here is Morgan opening her Valentine's Day gifts. She got a very cute pair of pink crocks! She loved them so much she started to eat them.

To bring February to a close, we have been busy planning Morgan's first birthday party. I can not believe that I am about to have a one year old, it seems like she was just born. This first year of parenthood has gone by so fast and has been such a blessing in so many ways. Morgan now has an additional three teeth, she got another one on the bottom and has her two top teeth. She looks so adorable with a mouth full of teeth.

December...Tis the Season

2009-03-14T17:13:00.000-07:00

So the month of December was one to remember! We started off the month with Morgan being sick. To rewind for a moment, Morgan was sick for the first time since she had been born, the week before Thanksgiving with a cold. The cold only lasted for a few days and she was all better. Well the week after Thanksgiving she became really sick running a high fever up to 103 degrees, throwing up everything, and NO sleep longer than every two to three hours. It was the start of the NEVER ENDING ear infection. What started off as a common cold turned into an ear infection, three rounds of antibiotics, and to finish with a fabulous shot of Rocefrin. (not sure on the spelling) I just love the preventive medicine that pediatricians have these days...can you since my sarcasm. This lasted for almost eight weeks before she was better, so the holidays were a blast with no sleep for Morgan and mommy.

Morgan eating the only thing that she could keep down...so pitiful!

Then...we started all of our Christmas get together!

First, we went out to dinner with our small group bible study. This year we decided that we were not going to buy gifts for each couple...instead we drew names and had to purchase a toy that resembled the person who's name you drew. We unwrapped the gifts one by one and decided who they represented, it was a lot of fun and interesting to see what people think resembles you. Then we donated the gifts to toy for tots. Here are all the guys and gals from the group!

Next, we took Morgan to go see Santa Claus. We actually heard that there was a Santa at the Avenue shopping center and you get to take your picture for free and get several 5x7 copies. It was great because we didn't have to wait in line for hours like at the mall. I had Josh give Morgan to Santa hoping it would help with the separation anxiety, to our surprise Morgan did great with Santa and loved the fur on his coat!

Then the week before Christmas we celebrated Christmas early with my brother who came up from Brunswick and with Josh's family. We decided this year that since we had Morgan we were going to spend most of Christmas day at our house, setting new family traditions. Ever since Josh and I have been married we have always bounced around to so many different houses on holidays and we wanted to change that and start new traditions now that we have Morgan.

Last, we had a wonderful Christmas morning. Morgan was so much fun to watch open her gifts.

We had both of our parents come over for a huge breakfast.

November Has Come and Gone

2008-12-04T18:01:00.000-08:00

So it has been quite some time since I have blogged. This past several months have been so hectic so I am about to update you on the past four months:)

First... let me start with Morgan! Her 8 month birthday has come and passed and she is about to be 9 months, 9 months, I can't believe it. She has changed so much in the past two months. She has developed quite the personality. (I wouldn't know where she gets that from) She is always smiling, laughing, or screaming with excitment. Talk about personality and I claim that she got this from her wonderful father. Out of nowhere one day she starts clinching her fist and grunting, almost like a temper tantrum. I know, my first thought was are you kidding me, where in the world did that come from. Every time she would do this my response was "Morgan Caroline no ma-am" and Josh's response is laughter, isn't that typical of the dad. Thankfully it was just a very short lived phase and she no longer shows that hot little temper.

She has mastered many new milestones this past month, it is almost like they hit 7 months and it is game on, something new every day. She has perfected sitting up all alone and going from lying on the floor to sitting straight up. She continues to shout her favorite word which is still "Da-da". We discovered what it was to rock on all fours and from that we learned that we have knees which help us to pull up on things...this world is so fabulous I am sure that is what she thinks:) Since we now know that we can pull up on our knees, she thought that it would be great to try that out in her crib! Last, but not least she has finally gotten her first two pearly white bottom teeth, which helps with all her finger foods she has been gumming.

Aside from Morgan, Josh and I celebrated our three year anniversary! The past three years have gone by so very fast. I can truly say that it is so true that you fall more in love with your spouse each and every day. We spent our anniversary having a wonderful date night. We went do dinner at Maggiano's, which is where we went on our first date and then walked on over to the Cheesecake Factory for dessert and coffee. A fabulous evening as always!

Our first Thanksgiving with Morgan was spent with Josh's family the weekend before Thanksgiving. Then we left to head down to my grandfather's farm for actual Thanksgiving Day. This was a difficult trip to make this year, seeing how my grandfather who I love so dearly and was so close to was no longer with us. It was a very interesting trip, we had fourteen people in a four bedroom log house for 4 1/2 days, out of those fourteen people there were five children...YIKES!

When we came home from the farm, the very next Thursday Morgan

decided that it was time to be on the move and she started to crawl and

clap all in one day. As you will see on the clip she was on all fours and decided that

she wanted the camera case really bad, soooo, I pulled it all the way down the hallway and

there she went right after it.

Closing Day

2008-11-09T18:08:00.000-08:00

It is official, this past Friday we finally closed on our land. Some of you already know and some of you may not, but Josh and I have been in the process of purchasing land this past month. God is good, that is all that we can say. We were not even searching for any land or the thought of it at this time and out of no where land was up for sale off of Burnt Hickory road. My parents encouraged us to call in inquire about it and so we did. Well the inquiry turned from just inquiring to us making an offer and here we are new land owners. Our goal is to be able to build within one year!

This is across the street from the lot, looking down Burnt Hickory, towards Due West Road.

Morgan's First Word

2008-11-06T12:55:00.000-08:00

So we are going on about three weeks of Morgan saying her first word. She just out of the blue one day started saying "Dada" and has not stopped since. We have experienced her favorite word when she wakes up in the morning to greet us, playing with her toys, eating food, taking a bath, and even in the middle of the night. (that is always fun!) You know of course Josh is one PROUD daddy, what father's heart wouldn't melt hearing his daughter say "Dada" all the time. As a mom I have to remind him that it is the easiest sound for her to make and she has no correlation with who it refers to, or what it means.

Halloween Party

2008-11-03T14:02:00.000-08:00

Happy Halloween! As you can see Morgan was a fabulous flower for her first Halloween. We took Morgan to her first costume party last Wednesday to celebrate Halloween with our small group bible study, friend, and family. We had a great time and Morgan actually enjoyed being in her costume very much.

Here are the three girly girls from our bible study...Morgan, Kelsey, and Lauren. Some of you may not know, but myself and two other girls in our bible study were all pregnant and due within three weeks of each other. It has been so much fun to all be pregnant together and see our girls growing up together!

Are they not just PRECIOUS!

Here is the whole gang! Carter, Andrew, Morgan, Kelsey, and Lauren.

The Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-25T17:42:00.000-07:00

Today we decided to start a new family tradition and take Morgan to Berry Patch Farms to pick pumpkins, this was a first for each of us. We were not really sure how much interest Morgan would have with the actual pumpkins, but she surprised us! Morgan loves being outside and she enjoyed the hayride, picking pumpkins, and trying to eating them.

Happy 7 Month Birthday...a few days late!

2008-10-14T18:07:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that 7 months has come and gone. Ever since Morgan was born, her Gandma and I always make a big deal the 10th of each month as her monthly birthday. We always spend the day saying "Morgan it is your (whatever the month is) birthday" and just use it as an excuse to go buy more cute clothes, as if she doesn't have enough!

It is amazing how fast they grow and change. Here is the changes of the past seven months. The day Morgan was born!
2 months old!
3 months old and her first beach trip to Panama City!
4 months old!
5 months old and my new outfit that Gandma bought me for my birthday!
6 months old eating Mexican with Mommy and Gandma, our favorite food!
7 months old and loving life!

I've Been Tagged!

2008-10-10T16:13:00.000-07:00

So I never thought that I would ever enter the world of blogging, but here I am. I owe it to my best friend Tara. Several months ago she sent me the link to her blog and I became addicted to reading about peoples lives. It is amazing how you can get caught up in reading about the every day life of people you know and even strangers. The other day I was reading Tara's blog and saw that she had been tagged to list quirks about herself, her and I were talking and thought what better way for me to get my blog started then being tagged.

Where do I begin...Here are my six quirks about myself.

1. I have to have a calendar posted somewhere in my house. I have to be able to write down all of our activities for the month, birthdays, appointments, days I work, days I teach Jazzercise, and anything else of importance. Then as the days pass I get satisfaction in crossing of the day and counting down until the end of the month. It is so bad that the other day I just decided that I would go and buy a whiteboard that was a calendar, that way I could color code things on the calendar. This was not as big of a deal before I had a child, but I feel that if I don't write things down I can't remember ANYTHING!

2. A staple in my diet is I MUST have chips and salsa at least every other day. This is something that I always have in the house to snack on whenever the craving hits. This does go hand in hand with the fact that I have a great love for Mexican food. I could eat Mexican food every day if I was allowed.

3. I am a very structured and routine person. I do the same routine for several things for example getting ready, I do the same routine showering, drying my hair, and putting on makeup. I have a routine for the way I pay our bills, balance the check book, and grocery shopping. I get really annoyed if something interrupts my routine! Wow, I have issues.

4. I can't stand to take a shower and get out and throw clothes on right when you get out and you start sweating while you are getting ready. I really feel that it defeats the purpose of taking a shower to get fresh and clean. So I am very fond of what is known of air drying until I am completely ready.

5. I analyze things way to much. I think through things from every angle. I will play devil's advocate with myself on any important situation, discussion, or arguement. My husband will state that this is my biggest downfall, but I always tell him it is thanks to my dad that I am so anal:)

6. Praise the Lord for video monitors. If you have an infant, are pregnant, or will have children in the future it is the best investment we as new parents have spent. When Morgan was first born I would go in to her room a hundred times to check on her before I went to bed. Well when she was about three months we bought a video monitor and it has saved me from getting up so many times. Unfortunately as the little monitor sits by our bed, I am obsessed with checking it oh I don't know a hundred times to check on her before I actually fall asleep. The problem is there is no real reason that I feel the need to check on her that many times, she usually is still in the same spot or has not moved every time I check!

As I sit here and think about these few quirks I realize that I have so many more than just six...just when I thought I was somewhat normal, but hey really what is normal.