Halloween 2013

This year for Halloween Marlee dressed up as a fairy.  She did have purple fairy wings to match but Sam broke them in an attempt to make them stay put.  I think Marlee still looked cute without the wings.  Now she can be a fairy or princess or ballerina.

Marlee also had a glow in the dark wand to go with her costume.  I like the bottom right picture because it shows Marlee's favorite treat from trick-or-treating.  We found out she LOVES suckers!  The photo also shows how sticky she got! 

We took Marlee to the Mall for trick-or-treating and to the ward trunk-or-treat. Both times she went to one place, saw that they gave her candy, and was happy to stop with one piece of candy!  It amazes me how little it takes to make her happy.  


 

 Sam and I carved our Jack-o-Lanterns.  Marlee painted hers.  She had soooo much fun too.  I kept turning the pumpkin so she would have more canvas.  She painted for a good 45 minutes!  For Marlee any activity that lasts more than 5 minutes is amazing, so 45 minutes is a record! 

  

Sam always goes for the spooky jack-o-lanterns and I like the happy ones.  So I guess you can tell who carved which one :)                     

Ball Pit

September 9th 2013

This Summer we stopped by the yard sales to see if we could get some fun stuff for Marlee.  One place had a storage bin full of ball pit balls.  Sam and I kept browsing, but Marlee didn't want to leave the balls.  We let her play for a minute and then told her to say goodbye because we didn't want to pay as much as they were asking.  The owner saw all this, jumped in and offered us the container and balls for $3.  We figured that was worth it and brought it home.  

These pictures show how happy the ball pit made Marlee:

Eventually we discovered that the Banana chairs and a pillow make a pretty good ball pit.  This is how we play with it now and Marlee has discovered how to dive in and loves her ball pit. 

Artist Marlee

August 23rd 2013


 I found a book with activities for toddlers .  One activity was to squirt paint on a sponge and let the little tyke finger paint.  

 



 Marlee was a little unsure about the texture of the paint at first.  After a few tries she decided it was fun, kinda like Mom and Dad asking you to make a mess! 

 

Marlee stayed surprisingly clean until we tried to take pictures.  Then the painty fingers went right in her hair!

Coloring :

Marlee will color forever if she is in the mood.  She just started laying on her belly when she colors and I think it's super cute!

On this day Marlee thought under the table was the best place to color! Apparently it's easier to color with her shorts off :) 

River City Bandits

August 9th 2013

Every year our ward here has a ward baseball night.  We had a ward picnic and then went to baseball game together.  We had the cheap grass seats way out in the outfield.  It was fun to go as a ward and get to know some more ward members. 


 















The ball park is right on the Mississippi River with the Centennial Bridge there in the back ground.  Sam wondered if that meant there were home run balls in the river, but some one else thought of that too because there was a big net backstop thingy set up to catch home runs!  


















My two cuties! 



















Enjoying the game together!

Maquoketa Caves Revisited

August 7th 2013

We had so much fun going to the caves the first time we decided to go again.  This time we took the trail on the back side of the caves.  It was more like a nice hike than cave exploring, but we liked that. (Is it really a hike if there is a boardwalk and stairs?) 

The area was so green and pretty.  Marlee did really well following the path.  She was really excited when we found....

... stairs!  Only Marlee loves it when there are stairs out in the middle of nowhere!  Her Dad was so good to climb the stairs we her.  :)  

More pretty scenery 

This little bit of graffiti reminded us of our soon to arrive cousin and nephew!  

I couldn't believe that Sam crawled into this little cave!  Who knows what was living in there!  It didn't bother Sam, though, and Marlee thought it was funny.

Taking a break. Don't these two look cute together!

We couldn't leave without stopping by the largest and coolest cave!  Marlee really wanted to jump into the water on either side of the walkway!

If you build it they will come....

We had a lot of fun visiting movie site for the Field of Dreams! 

Marlee: "Look where we are!"

I'm pretty sure everything is still the way it was in the movie.  I haven't seen it for a while but we have been wanting to watch it ever since we visited the movie site.  Behind us is the white house featured in the movie :)  

We wanted to see what would happen if we walked into the corn.  Would we disappear? 







Marlee wasn't going to disappear!  She didn't really like getting too close to the corn at all. 

Bye Sam!

We tried to get marlee to wear a baseball cap but she would have none of that!

Sam was able to play in the perpetual baseball game they have going on. 

Marlee ran the bases!

Marlee was more interested in the stairs than posing for a picture.  

This is the view as you drive into (or out of) the Field of Dreams.  We went in July but it really felt like a September or October day.  It was pretty chilly all day started to rain when we left, but I was glad it just wasn't scorching hot.  

Marlee had so much fun running around and playing.  Literally, we had been in the car 2 minutes and Marz was already nodding off. 

Witch Doctor or Chiropractor's Daughter?

Chiropractors around the world, and in this house might be offended that I grouped them with witch doctors :)  So just so everyone know, Chiropractors are real doctors, they help millions of people and are not known for wearing cervical vertebrae around their necks!

That being said, for Sam's Spinal Anatomy classes he had to buy a complete spine model.  To study each each section he separated them onto yarn.  Marlee, however, thought they were a fun necklace her daddy made for her.  When ever she wears it we call her the witch doctor.  This picture was taken back in March but this necklace is still one of Marlee's favorites.  

Croft Family Visit!

     The Crofts visited during the second week of the Palmer Break.  We were so excited to show them around and spend time with family.   I'm going to break the visit up into activities.  Our first tourist stop was Davenport. 


Davenport:   

Palmer was the first stop on the Davenport tourist list. 

 
Marlee had more fun climbing stairs and walking on benches than touring Palmer.  

 We were able to tour the B.J. Palmer Mansion.  The founder of Chiropractics is D.D. Palmer and his son B.J. is know for getting Chiropractics and the school going.   B.J. traveled a lot and apparently had a thing for Asian art.

 After touring around Palmer, we went to the sky bridge that overlooks the Mississippi.  It was raining pretty hard when we got there so Andy and Sam decided to go play out in the storm.  

 After watching her Dad and Uncle Andy, Marlee decided she needed to play in the rain as well.  

We went home shortly after this picture was taken.  It turned out to be a good thing because that afternoon we received a Tornado warning.  The trees whipped around and the rain pelted our windows.  It was a little scary, but no tornado touched down near us. We didn't even lose power.  I don't think it helped Grandma be excited about where we live though. 


Botanical Gardens:

Our next stop was the Botanical Gardens across the river in Rock Island, Illinois.  The gardens were very pretty but they weren't labeled very well.  We were in luck though because we had Andy with us!  He didn't know that he would be getting a plant quiz but quiz him we did.  I think he got a little tired of us saying, "Hey Andy, what's this plant?" over and over again.  Even though we asked a bunch, Andy knew what all the plants were.  Pretty amazing, huh!

The Botanical Gardens had a Hawaiian garden area.  It was my favorite.  I've never been to Hawaii, but it came pretty close to how I pictured it with the waterfall and vines.  

Marlee found all the kid actvities that were scattered throughout the garden.  Here there were kid chairs painted with different insects.  She liked the dragonfly chair the best.  I love her scrunchy nose :) 

This activity center had fun books.  I especially like this picture because it shows Sam being the awesome dad that he is! Marlee loved spending time with him during his break.

This is what everyone else was doing while we were reading books and trying out chairs with Marlee.

 

Nauvoo:

Our Next stop was Church History site, Nauvoo, Ill.  We walked up and down the restored historical Main Street.  A few places we stopped included the gun smith, bakery (for the free cookie, Marlee ate mine too!), tin shop, Brigham Young home and the John Taylor home.   

 If we had been wealthy enough to afford horses, this is the type of wagon a family like ours would have taken across the plains.  It makes the moving truck we just used to move here look ginormous! 

 Marlee didn't really like to ride in the stroller.  More often she was running off into the grass that was taller than her.  I like that she is turning back in this picture.  To me it's like she's saying, "Watch what I can do" as she ventures off.  

The next three pictures are from the...yep that's right... the Brigham Young Home.  How did you guess.  

The Fam outside the cellar.  It really was cooler inside there. 

Marlee went round and round this well for a good ten minutes.  She'd squeeze through this little opening and then run round and do it again.  I guess that is the second use of the well.  One to get water, two to be a playground toy. 



















While we waited for Dada and Grandpa to get the cars, Andy rested on a bench in the shade.  Marlee, on the other hand, sat down in the dirt and played.  I really think this was her favorite part of Nauvoo!


























We had so much fun having family visiting.  Not pictured are the many games we played (I won Ticket to Ride!) and the time we just relaxed and enjoyed one anothers company.