Nice family picture

Had to share this picture of us from last weekend. My girlfriend Suzanne caught it on her camera...too cute not to share!

Some Christmas shots

Merry Christmas!! Well unfortunately for me the battery in my camera died on Christmas and I did not have the charger with me. So I have been relying on some family members to send me some of the shots they took. Here are a few...

Curtis and I at Lawry's Christmas Eve...Marcus is in his highchair...he looked pretty cute...too bad we didn't get a pic of him.

Cuddling with his mommy on Christmas Day...he was pretty overstimulated and overdue for his nap at this point.

Hanging with Daddy...happy about one of his presents! :)

Battle wound

Marcus took a nasty (did I say NASTY) spill on Saturday while playing in our front yard. I was right behind him when it happened. He tripped and fell right on a big rock that apparently had a pretty sharp edge. It cut him right under his bottom lip...he was bleeding pretty bad. Luckily he didn't lose any teeth and the cut didn't go all the way through his chin. He has two cuts on the inside of his mouth too. He is recovering nicely though...

He definitely doesn't let it get his spirits down!!

And there he is with his Grammy...hanging out this afternoon

Cancun

Our lovely talapa at the resort...Marcus is taking a nap next to Curtis. It was really nice that we were able to put him down for a few naps right by the pool.

My baby boy...oh I mean my toddler enjoying vacation...

Silly boy!!

The whole gang...Curtis' family...his mom, dad, sister, brother-n-law, 2 neices and the three of us...

The girls, Marcus and I dancing in the lounge...oh I miss that!

Papa with Marcus

Marcus playing at the beach right outside our room.

Marcus' favorite toy in Mexico...one of the days he seriously didn't want to get out of it the entire day.

Papa and Grammy with the boy...some sweet shots!!

Our beautiful neices! They were great entertainment...Marcus loves his cousins....

Too precious

Taking a stroll with Auntie Renee before leaving

No...not Santa!!

All I have to say is Marcus does NOT like Santa!! Everything was perfect until I placed him on Santa's lap...that's when the total meltdown occurred...

Cousin Alexa stepping in to help & take a photo with him but that didn't really work...

With Mommy before the Santa experience and yes, like I said, everything was fine.

And Heather (my sister-n-law...my bro Albert's wife) and her daughter Alexa

Our little family

And snow in Pasadena...can you believe it? Yeah, it's fake...so what!?

Marcus' birthday party

It was a small gathering at our house which was really nice for us and Marcus. :)

Waiting for Marcus to open his presents

Grammy and Auntie Heather playing with him and his new drum set from Auntie Heather, Uncle Al and Cousin Alexa

That is the Elmo cake that I made for Marcus (my mom helped out...thanks mom...she used to make special themed cakes for us on our birthdays so I wanted to continue that tradition with my son). I am very proud of it except Geronimo got to it before we did. He got a good chunk out of it. I was pretty sad but we were able to salvage it. Luckily my brother caught Geronimo or he might have gotten away with the entire thing. That would have been bad...at least it makes for a good story! :)
Oh I made cupcakes too...

Marcus enjoying the goods...

I think he liked it!!

Marcus' first birthday

Happy Birthday Marcus!!!!!

I cannot believe it has already been a year. This past week has been extremely emotional for me. I think Curtis explained it the best way possible...it's like a REALLY late post-pardum for me. It's the end of the baby year and on to the toddler years. It is definitely bitter sweet. It's just been hard for me to say goodbye to the baby chapter even though I am soo happy to say hello to Marcus' toddler years. And he sure is toddling around...the 18th was the first day he let go of my hand and started walking completely on his own. Needless to say that brought tears to my eyes. Life moves so fast, as we all know. All of this just reminds me to stay in the moment and savor it!!

Here we are getting ready to go to the Children's museum in SLO...We're diggin the fohawk
Marcus, Nolan (Marcus' buddy and neighbor) and I in the firetruck at the museum...
Daddy and Marcus playing with the train set at the museum...

There's my big boy (sniff sniff tear tear)... Daddy playing with Markie and Nolan...

Mommy and Marcus snoozing on the way home (I didn't think we played THAT hard).... Fohawk Marcus and Papa opening b-day presents...
Opening one of the presents Curtis and I bought him...a xylophone (our little musician LOVES all instruments...next is a real drum set...that's definitely a musicians son)...
He's not to sure about it...My wonderful fam!!!
He sure is enjoying feeding Grammy some :)...

Halloween

Marcus had such a fun first Halloween!! The three D's went trick-or-treating with Grammy (Curtis' mom), Papa (Curtis' dad), and Uncle Howie (my bro).

The best part though was after we got home and were getting tons of trick or treaters. It was such a riot seeing Marcus light up with each visitor. He even followed some out of our house and over to our neighbor's house. He knew something special was happening and he wanted to be part of the action. Curtis & I were so happy to see him in action! He was practically running up the street (with our help of course) while loudly babbling to the groups of kids on the street. It was a blast!! We are already looking forward to next year!!! :)

My little lamb...he looks a little unsure here...

With the Smith family, Grayson and Dixon (our neighbors across the street)
With his buddy Nolan (another neighbor from across the street)
With Papa...he's helping Marcus collect candy

Marcus, Uncle Howie (yes, Howie is in costume) and me