Happy 1st Birthday!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.