fourth down....

Fourth month down that is. I can hardly believe we are almost half way through Mary Stewart's first year! My dear friend Suzanne recapped her sweet son Perry's month and I thought I would do the same with Mary Stewart.

During month four.........

-At the beginning of month 4 you were 13 pounds and 26 inches long.

-You tried cereal, avocado, & sweet potato. You LOVE sweet potato's.

-You began really rolling from your tummy to your back, especially when you are mad at me for putting you down!

-You want EVERYTHING in your mouth. You particularly love Sophie the Giraffe. She is your favorite teether.

-On Valentines Day you were baptized and were so blessed to have so many family & friends there.

-You have found your giggle, and though it's not often, it's absolutely precious.

-You love your pi (pacifier) & I'm wondering if I've created a "crutch"...probably so.

-I have discovered you are just a tad spoiled, OK alot spoiled.....but I wouldn't have it any other way!!

You have continued to capture my heart and made me ever so thankful for the loving kindness the Lord has shown on our family.

Baby Food 101

Today I broke out the Baeba Babycook maker. If you know me well, you know I don't like to read directions and I'm a "just go with it" kinda gal (ask me about my "go with it" sewing projects). The baby food maker seemed simple enough and I called my friend Judith who also has one, to get her pointers. As Judith told me, it was super simple and easy to use. I highly recommend this to all my pregger friends and those of you interested in making your own food.

I decided to make my own food for a few reasons:

- it's cheaper! Super Babyfood, a great book, shows you just how affordable it is.

- it's healthier! Only the best for my Mary Stewart.

- Why not? I'm home and I have the time (which it takes NO time at all).

So far I've introduced rice cereal and avocado to Mary Stewart. Tomorrow we will try sweet potatoes. All I had to do to prep for the babycook was peel the sweet potato and cut it into chunks. I placed the sweet potato chunks into the steam basket and filled with the recommended water amount. Turned the steamer on and unloaded the dishwasher. About 15 minutes later the potatoes were steamed and then I pureed them. I used the leftover water from the steamer to get my desired consistency. Voila! We have sweet potato baby food!

For me the babycook is ideal. It's an "all in one" baby food maker. If you had a steamer, blender, and food processor you essentially have what you need (but a lot more to clean up). Since the babycook is all in one, it will be easy to use when I'm in the kitchen prepping other food. I am excited to see what recipes are in store for Mary Stewart. I'll keep you posted.

Why a picture of Starbuck's? Again, if you know me well, you know I would rather a non fat carmel macchiato over just about anything. Our sweet friend Luke stopped by to borrow Matt's tripod and left me a coffee! It just made the rest of the morning that much more enjoyable!!

uncle ears

Everyone should be so lucky to have an "Uncle Ears." Uncle Ears, whose real name is Elliott, is married to my sister fabulous sister Holly (also referred to as Hattie by Mary Stewart). I have known ears somewhere between ten and fifteen years. He and my sister were in essence high school sweethearts (there is a great breakup story behind this...). I know Mary Stewart will look forward to the days when she will go to Uncle Ears house and look at the cows, ride the horses, play on tractors and annoy Eliza (this is their dog). Today is Ears birthday, February 23. Ears we hope you had a great day! We are thankful for the way you love the Lord, love Hattie and love Monkey Soup (this is ears personal nickname for Mary Stewart).

laughter is good for the soul

Over the past few weeks Mary Stewart has been discovering her voice. Recently she has found her giggle! I have only heard her giggle a few times. The first was when her Dee Dee had given her a crumb of her baptism cake. She got so tickled over the cake it brought tears to our eyes. Luckily this last time we caught it on video. Let Mary Stewart's giggle refresh your soul!

Avacado....

This week Sweet Mary Stewart tried avacado! To watch her facial expressions was priceless. I assume this is the first food that she has tried that truly has flavor (not sure rice cereal mixed with breast milk is that flavorful). Mary Stewart didn't love it, but she didn't not like it either. You could tell she was trying to figure out what this new texture was. The good news for me is I think I'll have someone to enjoy guacamole with me in the years to come.

This week I ordered the Beaba Babycook baby food maker! It came in today and I am anxious to be domestic with it! Don't worry I'll be sure to fill you all in on it!

Mary Stewart's Baptism

Valentine's Day was a very special day for our family, the baptism of Mary Stewart. What a day to celebrate God's kindness to our family by blessing us with such a precious child. It is our prayer that Mary Stewart will never know a day without Jesus as her Savior.

What made this day that much more special was Mary Stewart's dress. Matthew's grandmother (so Mary Stewart's great grandmother) Anna Mae let us use her wedding dress! My hope is that this dress will leave a legacy of an incredible marriage (60 years in September) to Anna Mae's great grand children. I know Anna Mae looked as beautiful in the dress as Mary Stewart did.

Matthew and I were so fortunate to have most of our family here to celebrate. After church we had lunch at our house with our family and friends. Truly a wonderful day.

Our sweet friends Chris and Katie have started a cake business. Check out their blog cakes on the corner. It was a beautiful and delicous cake.

"Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in a new way of life." Romans 6:3-4

Snow Baby

Snomageden as it has been referred to, finally reached Marietta this afternoon. The snow is absolutely beautiful! A great perk to living in Georgia is we usually get one good snow a year. By good I mean enough snow to make a snowman and to give children a thrilling afternoon, but it doesn't last too long where the negatives of the snow outweigh the positives. We have had a few flurries this year, but this is the first "big snow" of the season. Of course Mary Stewart was dying to get outside (ok so I was dying to get her outside in the snow). She seemed to enjoy the snow, more than I can say for Annie & Maggie (the labs that dwell in the basement) they sniffed the fluffy white powder and decided to get back inside!

Normally I am thrilled at snow and don't mind be cooped inside with my hot coffee, but this weekend is different. We are celebrating the baptism of Mary Stewart. Matthew's grandparents, aunt & uncle, brother & fiance & mom are already in North Georgia at Camp Donald (future blog on Camp D) but we are praying that my dad, sister & brother in law, father in law & sister in law & mom will be able to make it despite road conditions as most of them are traveling from Louisiana. Yes we are blessed to have so many who want to be a part of this baby's life. So I'm praying for God's sweet kindness to bring our family all together for this special celebration. For now, Mary Stewart in her bouncy and I on the stool are gazing at the beautiful wonder of snow!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Birthdays are always a great time to reflect on a person. I love birthdays! It's a day to truly celebrate a person's life (& to be treated like a queen or king....still trying to convince the husband of this). Today is my father's birthday. He has seen JFK shot, integration, several wars,the rock & roll era (which he enjoyed), the raising of two daughters, the passing of two parents, and oh yeah the Saints winning a Super bowl! We as a younger generation have a lot to learn from the generation ahead of us. On this day I celebrate a man who has an incredible work ethic. One who I wanted the man I married to emulate (& I have been blessed with a husband who does). A man who wanted his children to have opportunities galore in their life. Since having Mary Stewart, I have had a glimpse of desiring great things for my child. This is something I have always seen in my dad. So I thank my dad for the great desire he had to want to better his children & grant them new experiences ( a lesson I am confident he learned from his father)....We celebrate you dad, the maker of super dad toast (secret family recipe), corny jokes, and lover of raw oysters! Happy Birthday!

WHO DAT!!!!

Who would have ever thought the Saints would win the Superbowl!! I for one never really expected it and I would guess my parents generation never ever thought they would see the day. It has been fun to follow the Saints this year and to get excited about the team. After our close win against the Vickings, it was only natural to host a superbowl party. We invited our sweet friends in our supper club, along with Uncle B and had a great time. Since it was the Saints, I figured we needed some Louisiana cuisine.....Jambalaya and King Cake. The crowd said it was great (with Brian being my biggest critic...) and for an easy, somewhat healthy King Cake check out Holly Clegg's King Cake recipe (thanks Virginia for the recommendation and counsel). So with our Fleur de Lis flag flying outside, our great who dat gear (compliments of Matthew's mom), and a great menu, we were sure to win right? As I was in the nursery putting Mary Stewart to sleep we heard a very loud commotion, we looked at each other and new the Saints had done something good! I later found out it was the play where we intercepted the ball to make the touchdown.

It was a fantastic night with dear friends and one I know it's one we won't quickly forget!!

Did I mention what a cutie Drew Brees little boy is???? I think Mary Stewart may have a chance!

Oh when the Saints go marching in, oh when the Saints go marching in, oh how I want to be in that number, oh......

can we say cereal?

Today was a first for Mary Stewart.....her first solid food. Semi solid really. Rice cereal! I had to taste it and it was really quite bland. Mary Stewart didn't seem to mind. To be honest I was nervous about her "first feeding". Like any first with Mary Stewart, I do my research. A good friend of mine gave the book Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron and I highly recommend it to all of you mom's or mom's to be. It's a very comprehensive guide to feeding your baby, making your own food, and my favorite a chart broken down by months and which foods to feed when. Anyways, I was glad Matthew was home to get our meal on tape. In general Mary Stewart is a very content child with a sweet calm personality. So like anything else, she took her rice cereal in stride. She didn't force the spoon out, just seemed more curious about it than anything. Tomorrow we will have some more rice cereal and hope that it will be as pleasant an experience.

Oh and for those of you interested, I used the brand Earths Best Rice Cereal (it's organic) and for those of you who are sentimental such as myself, I fed her with my baby spoon!

What our life looks like now.....

I thought I may catch some of you up to speed on where we (the donald's) are.....

So Matthew and I have been married for 4 1/2 years!!! Matthew works for Terracon as a business development specialist in the solid waste services (aka marketing the solid waste industry). I have the great joy of staying home with Mary Stewart. I have a feeling you all will get to know what our days look like! Mary Stewart was born September 30, 2009. She is such a precious blessing. This spring we have a house guest! Brian (Matt's younger brother) aka Uncle B, is with us. He is doing a sports marketing internship here in Atlanta. We are excited about his engagement to Rachel. They will be married in August. Our hope is that Brian will get a great job here in Atlanta and they will be our neighbors! I think Matt enjoys having the male companionship (right now he is out numbered with Mary Stewart and I and Annie & Maggie (the 2 female labs who live in the basement)).

As I look back over the past year (really my whole life) I am so amazed at how kind the Lord has been to us and how he continually blesses us.

I can't believe I'm blogging

I can't believe I am blogging. I have always enjoyed reading blogs, never really imagined myself as a blogger. Lately it has been fun to catch up with friends from college through blogs. Now that I have the great opportunity to be a stay at home mom with sweet Mary Stewart, it seems fitting that I enter in (the blogging world that is). I hope that this gives people a chance to see what the Donald's are up too!