Camping

And......I'm back! July has proven to be a busy summer month for our family so I won't even attempt to post about everything we have been up to. We did, however, enjoy our annual camping trip with the Hoelzle family to Arkansas a couple of weekends ago and this is definitely post-worthy! We had a great time as always and were very surprised at how great Mabry did on her first real camping experience.....sleeping in a tent and everything! She had a blast playing with her cousins, Jacob and Caden, and of course her Mimi and Pappy and Aunts and Uncles, too. Her favorite part of the camping experience was no doubt being in the river, especially if she was with her Daddy. Mabry and Andy spent lots of time sitting in the river throwing rocks and she couldn't have been happier. It's so much fun to see our baby enjoy the great outdoors. Here's to many more great camping trips for our family!!

Little Missouri River (right by our campsite)

Me, Mae, Catie and Jacob

Mabry riding in her "boat" in the river

The boys had another "boat-building" competition this year. I believe the idea is to build a "boat" out of sticks, vines and things you find in the woods and then you all put your boat in the river and throw rocks at eachother's boats. The boat that survives the longest wins.

Andy's boat (his boat was apparently sponsored this year by the can he found in the woods).

The boys putting their boats in the water (you can see Hilliard's in the bottom right corner, since he has to take all the pics:) I believe Braden's boat was declared the winner this year. The three engineers in this contest might have been a little upset by this outcome. Better luck next year Andy, Hilliard, Scott and Jacob!

Sunday morning we woke up and it was raining outside so we played in the tent for a little bit. Mabry LOVED being in the tent.

Trip to the store for an ice cream treat!
Braden, Bethany and Caden cooking dinner. Yummy!Sweet Boy. I love the curls!
Jacob lost his first tooth on Saturday morning. What a great camping adventure!
These are pics of Andy and Mae throwing rocks and playing in the river. Thanks Hilliard for the great pics!

2008 Venables family pic
2008 group pic (turn around Mabry!)

5 minutes into our drive home. Camping wears a girl out!
God's beautiful creation....Until next time!

Eat Much??

We have been having quite a time with our little angel lately. Trying to make her sit in her highchair has somehow backfired to say the least and she is now hardly even eating anything at all. I don't know if this is related to the highchair ordeal or not, which by the way....we totally lost that battle since now we are just focused on getting the child to eat something anyway we can! Forget that crazy highchair! Mabry refuses to eat breakfast most mornings now and it is a struggle to get some lunch into her belly before her afternoon nap. And....what we do get her to eat, it isn't much......just enough to get by. I am at the end of my rope here. I am starting to get worried about her and wondering if something is wrong as to why she won't eat. Not to mention, my patience is being tested since she is super cranky for large parts of the day since I am sure she is super hungry! This is one strong-willed girl. If she makes up her mind she doesn't want to do something, you can bet it is going to be a fight to get her to do it. I am currently trying to make her think eating is her idea and not push her into it. We'll see if this works.:) Please let me know if any of you Moms out there have any grand advice! Love to hear what you have to say.:)

In the meantime, I wanted to share some sweet pictures of Mabry from Memorial Day weekend that didn't make the earlier post. I love these pictures because I think Mabry looks so big and grown up. They also help remind me that she truly is our little sweetheart, despite the tough times we may encounter.

Hope you all have a blessed day!

Beach Fun

We took Mabry to the beach for the first time this past Saturday. We had a GREAT time! The weather was wonderful and I must say, I was pretty impressed with the beach in good ol' Galveston this time around. Mabry was a little unsure about the water at first, but by the end we couldn't keep up with her when she would take off running into the water. So fun! We spent about 2 hours playing at the beach and then headed to The Strand for a yummy chocolate malt. Can't beat it! Here are some not-so-great pics of our time at the beach. Oh, and of course I got burned to a crisp since my skin hadn't seen the sunlight in about 2 years!:) Luckily we were good parents for once and put sunscreen on the babe.

Hot babes playing in the sand.
So sweet. Mabry had the best time with her Daddy in the water. She definitely gets her love for the water from Andy. I have a feeling they will be going fishing together in no time.

Mabry LOVED sitting on Andy's lap and letting the waves crash into her.

More fun in the sand.
Beach Babe
Happy Summer!

Summer Days with Mabry

Just a quick post to fill you in on some of the new things going on in Mabry's life. She is growing and changing so quickly, we can't keep up!

Mabry has started saying "Cheeeese" when I get the camera out sometimes. Super duper cute.

CHEEEEESE!
M loves to climb in and out of all the "big girl" chairs inside and outside. Fun for her, but makes Mom a little nervous.:)

Mabry has decided that sitting in her highchair to eat is not fun anymore so she CONSTANTLY wants to get out when we are eating meals. This is quite frustrating considering the girl isn't the best eater to begin with. So, usually the only way to get her to eat something is while she is on the run but we are trying to break this habit and make her sit at the table. Good times at the Venables household.:)

Here is Mabry eating her yogurt out of a "special cup" (a margarita cup). Whatever works!

Memorial Day Weekend

We spent Memorial Day weekend with the Hoelzle crew at Mimi and Pappy's house and had a great time! We spent lots of time visiting and hanging out in the backyard while the little ones enjoyed the baby pool. It was Mae's first water fun of the summer and I think she might finally be getting some sun on that pale skin of hers.....unfortunately Mom still has some work to do on her tan.:) Such a fun and relaxing weekend. We always enjoy time with family! Here are some pics (mostly of Mabry enjoying the outdoors) of our weekend......

Mabry and Cousin Ella
Mabry and Aunt Catie-Lou
Mabry LOVED the watermelon
Mabry and Cousin Caden being entertained by Aunt Bethany! Thanks Bethany!:)

Family Pic
Mabry in the baby pool
I LOVE this expression on Mabry's face....we see it quite often! I'm so thankful Hilliard captured it with his camera!
Mae wasn't too excited about getting water poured on her:)

Another expression we see all the time:)
Pouring water on other people, especially Daddy, is super fun!

Mae Mae

I feel the need to post some sweet pics of our little girl after that last post ended on such a sad note. I wanted to reassure all of you that she is still a happy, fun-loving girl and hasn't been scarred too much by her "Backyardigans" episode. These pics are old but they are all I have right now.....I will get some better ones soon!

TV Land Misery

So, somewhere along the way our daughter has found a love for the TV show "The Backyardigans". I am not really an avid TV watcher myself and not an advocate for my child watching very much TV at all. Most days, Mabry and I don't even turn the TV on during the day. However, desperate times call for desperate measures so I have occasionally been known to let her sneak in an episode of "The Backyardigans" (because this is the cartoon I like the most - I think their singing and dancing is super cute and it is a pretty mellow show). Thankfully, Mabry has never taken a TON of interest in sitting down to watch the TV show all the way through....mostly she just enjoys watching the introduction and the end when they sing and dance. This is probably because I would sing the theme song of the show to her and Andy downloaded it on the computer and has been known to play it for her over and over again.:) She has this super cute dance that she does with her hands in the air, swaying back and forth and shaking her cute little bottom so it is pretty tempting to play the theme song just to see her dance. So ANYWAY.....the other day I decided to turn the show on so I could video her cute dancing. Well, I didn't get any footage of the bottom-shakin' dance but I did get this video of some extreme emotions........




This video is of Mabry at the beginning of The Backyardigans........

And this is her at the end of the show.......

I am not usually one for taping my daughter crying and showing it for the amusement of others, but I thought her extreme emotions this day were pretty amazing. I had no idea this was coming....I had only hoped for some cute dancing but you never know what you are going to get with this girl.:) Needless to say, we haven't watched The Backyardigans since.

Mae in May

Here are some recent pics of our little fireball. Mabry is at a very fun age, although we can see the signs of defiance making their appearance.:) Unfortunately, my reprimanding doesn't seem to phase her in the least.....she just smiles at me and even laughs at times so we are going to have to find something that works and FAST! Mae is definitely an outside girl and loves to play with balls, pine needles, leaves and smell all the flowers (or "zsha zsha" as she calls them). Her favorite indoor activity is walking around in our shoes. She is the perfect mixture of girly and sporty if you ask me! But, I might be a little biased. Mabry never ceases to amaze us with her fun-loving personality. She is such a silly girl.....we have no idea where she got this from! She keeps us laughing and our heart full on a daily basis. Thank you God for blessing us so abundantly and giving us such joy in this life.

Mabry loves taking a bath!

Mae with a big-girl ponytail!

In other news......Andy and I had our first night out alone together since Mabry was born! We went to a beautiful wedding for one of Andy's childhood friends and Mabry stayed home with Oma (Andy's mom). We really enjoyed ourselves, although I was a little preoccupied with wondering how Mabry was doing. We made many phone calls to check in and we are SO thrilled that she did great. Thanks Oma for taking such good care of our baby! Here's to many more dates to come!!

Happy Friday!

Fun at the Zoo

So, we went to the Zoo a couple of weekends ago. (I am starting to notice a trend in my posts.....I usually get around to posting pics of an event about 2 weeks after they happen! Oh well. Better late than never??) Anyway, we met Andy's sister and her kids at the zoo and had a great time seeing all the animals. Here is our day in pics.....(sorry most of these pics are kind of dark.)

Even more exciting than the animals.....Mabry had her first taste of Dippin' Dots! Yummy!
Mabry spent lots of the day riding on Dad's shoulders which made my life pretty easy:)

The zoo is fun for kids and WORK for Mom! Ha. I promise I was having a good time, just ready to put this girl back on Dad's shoulders!
Is this ME in 10 years??!


Bryce watching the "monkey thing" eat peanut butter.

"The Zoo Gang" minus Andy
Julia, our sweet little navigator, showed us on the map where to go next.

All in all, a fun day at the Zoo!