Meeting baby Winston

This evening Marlee and I took dinner to our sweet friends, The Zwayers, and met baby Winston for the first time!  I talked with Marlee on the ride down about the new baby and was very interested in what she would think of a real baby since she loves her baby dolls so much!  She loved him so much and wanted to hold him...but then thought he was hers and didn't want anyone else to hold him but her!  It was so good to see our dear friends as now a family of five and we are so happy for them and their new bundle of joy!

 

Mommy's baby dolls are now Marlee's baby dolls!

I loved baby dolls when I was a little girl and have passed that love onto Marlee because she loves baby dolls as well.  The other day, my mom found my baby dolls from when I was a little girl and gave them to me for Marlee.  The look of amazement on Marlee's face when she saw all of the baby dolls was just priceless.  Marlee now has a grand total of 41 baby dolls and loves each and every one of them! We have baby dolls in the bathtub, in the car, in every room of the house, etc...  We don't go anywhere without a baby doll and now our sweet girl likes to tote not only one baby, but two babies everywhere she goes!  It just melts my heart!  She loves to rock them, sing to them, carry them, push them in the stroller, feed them, put them to bed, snuggle with them, etc...  She is such a wonderful Mommy to her babies!

Mar with some of her babies!

Marlee's idea of a fun Saturday night

Marlee was so excited to spend her Saturday night with the cows!  She loves cows and tonight Bear and I took her up the pasture in Lake Wales and rode her around looking at all the cows.  She would moo at them and wave...it was precious!  We got out several times and let her interact with them.  She is not scared at all of the cows and walks right up to them.  She had a blast and all of her smiles and giggles were priceless!!!

COWS!!!

 

Mary Kate came to play!

Aunt Bonny brought Mary Kate up today to play with Mar Mar on the water slide.  Marlee was so excited to show Mary Kate her slide and Mary Kate was so brave and went down the slide one time but that was all she wanted to do it.  She enjoyed playing in the pool area while Marlee slide over and over again with her baby!  The girls then decided to play on the playground before making their way inside to play with toys.  Bonny and I had fun watching the girls interact...they are best friends one minute and fighting the next...but they both love each other so much and have such a great time together!  We can't wait for our weekly play dates with MK this school year!

 

 

 

Pappy's Birthday

This evening we celebrated Pappy's 66th Birthday at Mammy and Pappy's house!  The kids swam in the pool for a bit before dinner and all enjoyed playing together after dinner.  Marlee discovered Mammy's baby doll collection and really enjoyed playing with the babies and swinging them in the swing.  Pappy and his precious grand babies all had fun blowing out the candles on Pappy's cake and opening presents!  We love Pappy so much and are so thankful to have him in our lives!

Mar and Aunt Bonny practicing cheer stunts!

 Marlee loves Mammy and Pappy's "Calvin" dog statue and always carries him around when she is there.

 The girls cheering with their Gator pom poms!

 Marlee swinging her baby doll in the swing

Pappy with his picture canvas that we gave him for his birthday!

This is the picture we blew up onto a canvas for Pappy...Marlee is wearing her shirt that says LuBear Futures Partnership, which is the company that Bear and Lukey own together.

 Time to blow the candles out!

Marlee and her baby snuggling with Pappy!

 The girls laying in Mammy's crib watching the mobile

 They do love their Pappy!

Blessed grandchildren :)

MGB Groves

When Marlee was born, we purchased a grove and in her honor, formed a company called MGB Groves.  Marlee loves to work in her grove in the evenings and on weekends planting trees, checking micro jets, changing the valves, playing in the dirt, and watching her oranges grow.  Here a few cute pictures I captured this evening of her helping Daddy work in the grove.

 Kissing her baby oranges!

Easton's 1st day of preschool!

Easton started preschool today! 

He is more like a brother to Marlee and stays with us often when his Daddy is working.  Also with him living next door to us, he is over lots of times in the evenings as well.  He and Marlee play really good together now that they are both older and miss each other when they don't see one another.  Well, Easton is three and it was time for him to start preschool.  We were all a little sad that he would be gone during the day but know that preschool will be so good for him.  It was a team effort to get him all ready for school.  Marlee and I took him shopping for his school supplies and had fun picking it all out.  We talked about school, procedures, etc... and I could tell the teacher in me was really coming out as we were preparing him for school!  The night before preschool, Marlee and I went to his house at bedtime and I read him "The Kissing Hand".  We talked about the story and then I gave him and Marlee a kissing hand.  Easton wanted GiGi, Daddy, me, etc... to have one too so he drew one on our hands.  Marlee and I went with GiGi to pick him up from school and he was all smiles!  He had a great day and loves school!  Marlee was so excited to see Easton and they spent this afternoon playing together!

 Easton and Marlee's kissing hands

 Easton giving GiGi her kissing hand!

 E and his Daddy all ready to go!

Of course, since Easton took a picture like this, Marlee had to as well!

JW Marriott

Bear, Marlee, and I are soaking up as much of summer as we can, so this weekend we went and stayed at the JW Marriott in Orlando.  This was our first time staying at the JW Marriott and we really liked it.  We were able to check in on Saturday at noon which was great and it was not crowded at all.  It was very nice and had lots of great things to do there.  We ate lunch by the pool while the rain cleared and as soon as it did, Mar jumped straight in to the pool...literally!  Our girl has no fear and jumps right in!  They have a lazy river at this resort which is fun but you have to buy or bring your own tube to float on...I did not know this and I didn't want to buy the high priced ones they had so luckily we had brought Marlee a tube so we just let her float and we swam beside her!  She enjoyed the lazy river but wanted to spend most of her pool time just swimming and jumping off the side of the pool into the water.  After pool time, we took Marlee to the playground to play.  She was the only kid on the playground playing which was so nice.  She enjoyed playing and then building a sandcastle in the sand pit area they had.  After playing, she was ready to splash some more, so we took her to a little splash area where there was a big alligator and she had a ball splashing with him.  Again, she was the only kid splashing!   I couldn't believe it was not crowded!  After lots of splashes, we walked around the outside of the resort where there is a pond with lots of birds, a golf course, a garden, etc...  Marlee enjoyed the wide open spaces to run.  After exploring for a bit, we went to the room for a late afternoon nap.  After napping, we got dressed and went down to the lobby shops and browsed a bit and rode the escalator many times.  We left the resort and went to dinner at Kobe!  I love Kobe and Marlee likes it too!  She is like her mama and liked dipping in the white sauce they have!  She was very entertained at dinner with the show they put on and we all enjoyed a delicious dinner! We were all tired from a fun day and went to bed soon after arriving back at the hotel.

Sunday morning, we woke up and I was so excited to be able to walk right downstairs to the lobby and get a Starbucks coffee!  Yummy!  We took Marlee for a couple of more rides on the escalator and then back out to the playground.  She had fun playing again on the playground and then we played in the pool for a while.  We didn't have to check out until noon so we were able to enjoy the resort more before having to pack up and leave.  We stopped on the way home at Cracker Barrel for a yummy lunch and Mar fell asleep in the car before arriving home.  We really enjoyed our stay at JW Marriott and love our fun family getaways!!!

 Big girl wheeling her suitcase in to the resort!

 Showing her baby the fountain!

So sweet :)

 Playing on the playground...her new favorite thing to do, slide down the slide on her belly!

Sandbox fun!

 Having a serious conversation with the alligator...she is probably saying "Mr. Alligator, I am going to play with you but you better not eat me"!

Walking around the resort

 Monkey see---monkey do!!!

 Headed to dinner

 Cheetos and white sauce...yum yum!

Mar and her baby got a ride on Dada's shoulders

 Headed to the playground

 Cheese!

 Starbucks...yummy!

Pool time with her baby!