a new addition...

My brother Steve and his wife Kyle just had their first baby girl on January 25! They ended up naming her Maya Isabel - which is as beautiful as she is. We are all so very excited for them. A baby is such a wonderful gift. We wish we could have been there to cheer them on, but she has a huge fan club here in Texas. Congratulations Steve and Kyle! We love you!

crawl soldier, crawl...

I had to share this video. When I was going through all of our baby photos the other day, I came upon our first video of Oliver. This is Oliver's first attempt to crawl. He was such a chunk and it was so hard for him to get his belly off the ground, so it looks more like an army crawl. So adorable. I do miss those days...

all over again...

After I had Oliver, I felt so satisified and at peace. If you're not a mom, you may not understand, but Oliver gave me peace. Not world peace, but peace with myself. I finally feel like I doing what I was meant to do. Being someone who I can live with. Tranquil. I love being a Mom. Michael started talking about having another one when Oliver was nearly a year old. I thought, how can I mess with fate? I have a healthy, beautiful, baby boy who I love so very much. My heart can't fit anymore love in it - I don't have the room. I was very hestitant this last year to even get pregnant, but Michael wanted another one and I truly felt Oliver needed a sibling. I have two siblings, so does Michael, and Oliver loves playing with his cousins. This pregnancy has been hard and I admit I've complained more than I did with Oliver. Again, I keep asking? Are we ready to do this again? The late nights? The house arrest for the first 6 weeks? Two kids? Really? Oliver is so independant and we really have so much freedom with him - how can I go back to square one? How will Oliver react when he's not the only shining star in our house? Will his feelings be hurt? Will he understand? Ugh! All these thoughts and worries. I'm due in May, but these last few months I just don't feel so ready to do it all over again. Then I take a look at his baby photos today. Tears start flowing and I remember how tiny and beautiful he was. The happiness we felt and the tears we shed for EVERY little thing he did. His first smile. His first laugh. His first coo. His first time to attempt crawling. His first everything! Truly amazing! Yeah, it was hard, but worth every minute of it! I think: Yes, I can do this all over again. Just take a look at Oliver. He's amazing. I'm looking forward to all the "firsts" again.

shake it baby!

This incident happened a while ago, but I had to share cause it still makes me laugh everytime I look at our carpet. Like most days in our house Oliver is into EVERYTHING and he's VERY independant and I'm so over chasing him down. I was in the kitchen and and Oliver was in the living room shaking it up! I thought he was shaking his maracas and I was dancing to the music while cooking. I was having a great time, so I walk over to the living room to dance with him and he has no maracas. Instead, Oliver is shaking red sprinkles over our beige carpet. Holy crap! All I could do was laugh cause it was my fault (I was too busy making cookies) and he was enjoying the tatsy sprinkles. Now our carpet has a lovely red color and I got some red candles to go with the new accent color. What can I say, that's life with a two year old.

brusha, brusha, brusha...

So I'm watching Oliver attempting to brush his teeth on his own. This is a BIG thing considering we literally have to hold him down (arms, legs, head, and all) everyday to brush his teeth. I'm excited, but I notice he's not REALLY brushing his teeth. He's only piling the toothpaste on the brush and licking it off. Ugh! I start to get mad and realize, I guess a huge blob full of toothpaste on the tongue is better than nothing at all and I'm thankful I don't have to hold his arms and legs down tonight and fight to get his teeth brushed! Besides, he looks so darn cute while he's staring at his gorgeous teeth in the mirror (don't know where he gets his vanity from). :)

oh baby!

Baby number 2 isn't due until May 9, but I already feel super HUGE! I know it's cause it's my second baby (the muscles and skin have already been stretched before - "it's like a rubber band" my OB tells me), but come on! We thought cause it's a girl, she'd be calm and quite in there, but she's as active as her older brother was (and he still is)! Poor Michael - 2 wild kids and one crazy wife! 16 weeks left and counting...

a day in the life of...

...the Marker bunch. So here we are! I thought this would be a good place to post some daily/weekly/monthly happenings and photos of the family. We hope you enjoy.