A week in the life...9

December 4th-Deember 10th

This week in Titus' life we did our normal routines; play dates, errands, and the Ymca. On Wednesday we met the play group that Titus has been a part of since he was a little man for a Christmas celebration. In honor of the desperate attempt to keep Christmas about Christ and to help instill in our little ones the value of giving, we made Christmas cards. That's right about 10-15 little ones gathered to decorate Christmas cards that we are going to deliver to a nursing home next week. It was pretty adorable. I don't think the good people in the nursing will be too impressed with the decor of the cards, but the adorable little faces that will be delivering them will be priceless!

We had a little Christmas book exchange too! Above are a few shots of some of the kids at play group trying to read the same book. All the boys wanted to sit in Nicole's lap! Don't you love the spirit of Christmas! Sharing!

On Friday we had a family play date at our favorite place...Chic-fil-a! We went at 10:30 before the mom's who really need to get out
in this cold weather get there! That place gets wild with stay at home mom's and rowdy kids! Can you blame them! :)

One last picture of T being T.

A week in the life...8

Forgive me for missing a few weeks of Titus' "a week in the life". I feel like I had a good excuse with us moving and then going out of town for 8 days! Well here we are back at it! 

This week was full of organizing closets and trying to stay busy because of the crazy cold weather! We are also currently trying to drop Titus' morning nap...STILL! He loves that nap and to be honest I love it too! I do think he is ready though because his afternoon nap is getting really short. Titus and I are on the MOVE all morning to keep him up! Here are few pictures from our week...

Hiding from Mommy in his favorite spot...Daddy's closet! I wanted to go outside for a walk and I think he knew it was freezing and crazy to go outside!

On Wednesday morning we met some friends from play group at Sylvester Powell. Titus loved it! As soon as we got there he ran off. Every once in a while he would look for me, then wave, and then run off. I was pretty proud of my independent and brave man. A gym full of toys and kids was exactly what we needed on a cold morning!

Thank Goodness November is over. Titus can finally shave!

It's usually a special occasion when you find the Marasco family eating out, but not this past Friday night. We decided to splurge a little and go out for a nice family dinner for no reason at all. We went to.............CiCi's Pizza! All joking aside, Matt really loves CiCi's and I really don't love CiCi's. I don't think Matt loves CiCi's pizza because of the quality of the food itself. I think he loves it because of the quantity of food for the low price of $6! Either way in my opinion the splurge was worth it to see the joy on these two guys faces...

Happy Thanksgiving, Y'all!

We did Thanksgiving Texas style this year.
1) Lots of Food
2) Lots of Family
3) and we all had BIG HAIR!

Just kidding on the big hair but the rest is true. We traveled to my parents house in Frisco, Texas this year to celebrate being thankful. For the first time since (who knows) maybe 1994, we had the entire Tom and Charlotte Lair family together...2 grandparents, 4 sons (plus spouses), 8 grand kids (plus spouses), and 1 GREAT grandson (Titus). It was really special to have everyone together. I know it meant the world to my sweet mawmaw and pawpaw. Don't be fooled by the sap in my language though, it was great and wonderful, but it was loud and crazy as well! Games of salad bowl and mafia until hours of the night I haven't seen in a long time, intense tennis matches, and good talks around the fire. My camera got broken on the first night there so I only have a few pictures that I'll post below. Happy Thanksgiving.

A little post mafia snack break!

Titus' cousins Shannon and Derek

How do I...

How do I...Entertain a 16 month old on a COLD COLD day in Kansas City...

Cut a hole in a box and call it a fort!

This was a desperate attempt to keep everyone in our home happy until daddy got home from work! It worked...for awhile. When he got bored with the the idea of fort he flipped the box over. Titus really liked the box flipped over because he could stand on it! This made him really happy for about ten seconds and then got really mad! He was upset because he wanted the box to be a slide! I'm not kidding he tried sliding off the box over and over. He was pretty mad that the box didn't work like the playground slide! (At least I'm assuming that is what he wanted the box to do!) Thank goodness no one was hurt!!

fall family photos revisted...

This week has been pretty busy because we are about to...MOVE! That's right, we are moving to a different house about 1.5 miles from our current home. The thought of leaving are current home is a little heart breaking because we LOVE our neighbors and our neighborhood. The thought of our "new" house (which was built in 1905), is really exciting though. In the hustle and bustle of packing I haven't had a chance to do a week in the life Titus, so I thought I would post a few of our new family pictures on this page. My friend, Audrey, took the pictures and she rocks. Thanks, Audrey! (I tried to post some different pictures on here then the ones on the blog post below, so if you want to see more check out the post below). And if you need family pictures...hire Audrey! :)

Fall Family Photos

My friend Audrey took some family pictures for us this past weekend. Check out her work at this link...


http://twiceoverproductions.blogspot.com/2011/11/morasco-family.html

What, huh, yeah???

This past week Titus finally started calling me mama! It was the highlight of my day, week, life. Titus is 15 months, prior to this week he could say; dog, ball, outside, doughnut, all done, da da, ah ah (for his great grandpa), and bat. He could not say mama. I mean what kid says doughnut and outside before saying mama...Titus. (I guess we know what he loves by his words!!)  Well this week he finally started calling me mama! I must have made such a big deal about it that he thought he should say mama over and over all day! That's why the title of this post is What, Huh, Yeah. I've responded to his mama's about a thousand times this week with those phrases and other similar ones. So if you walk into our house anytime soon you will probably hear a sweet little voice yelling mama, mama, mama over and over.
It makes me smile.

A week in the life...7

October 23-October 30
Titus "helped" me in the kitchen this week for the first time. And by "helped" I mean he stood on a chair next to me and played with a bowl. It didn't last long, but I tried to document it with my camera phone. You can see the progression from the pictures.

At first Titus loved stirring in his bowl and I chatted with him while I chopped a butternut squash (for a delicious muffin recipe..you should try it!)

Then stirring in the bowl got a little boring for him

so he starting banging on the counter with an over-sized spoon, while eying what I was doing

And this how our time ended because he couldn't help me cut the squash. Oh well..it was fun while it lasted! I look forward to many more mommy son dates in the kitchen

This week it got a little chilly in Kansas City so we put Titus in his winter jammies! He looked pretty darn handsome.

 

We all put on our purple to watch the K-State v. KU game with the Williams family and then yesterday we put on our purple again to watch the game with the Wittmer family. Praise God for our friends who are K-Staters and who are willing to let cable-less people watch the game with them!!!

BP in the front yard, very important part of our week! :)

Here's to Pop

Titus' great grandpa, who we all called Pop, was a brick layer. He was a great man. I miss his hugs and smiles. These pictures are in honor of pop. We might have another brick layer in the family.

South Bound 35

As I mentioned before, Titus and I made the south bound 35 trip to Frisco, Texas last week. This wasn't your ordinary road trip...because it involved a 1 year old and my grandparents. It was so sweet of them to drive T and I down to Texas, but it did make for an interesting 9 1/2 hour drive (no, that's not how long it normally takes). We had great conversations but we made a lot of stops! :) After the LONG journey south, we spent the weekend with my family. I'll let the pictures tell the story.

Titus chowing down on a Braum's hamburger. He said,
"Hi" to everyone who walked by! 

My little sister was up for Frisco High Homecoming Queen

And...SHE WON!! Congrats, Sara!

Titus was very well entertained by grandma Chili while we were there! Sometimes it got a little rowdy.

 Sara had her homecoming dance on Saturday night. I got to be the big sister and go take pictures of her with her friends. She looked so beautiful. It's weird to think she will be in college next year. My first day of high school was her first day of kindergarten...I'm old. The rest of our time there was spent eating good food and hanging out with family. Titus got to see his grandmother Charlotte & Pawpaw and his great Uncle Phil while we were there as well. Thanks for a great weekend.

A week in the life...6

Oct 9th-Oct 16th
 Titus had a full week for a 15 month old this week! Yes, he turned 15 months on Sunday the 9th! My baby boy is growing up. Here is a shot of my baby on his 15 month birthday! My parents took us to dinner on the plaza before they flew back to KC.

 Titus and I left for Texas on Wednesday so most of Monday & Tuesday were filled with cleaning and packing.

Titus tried to keep himself busy while mommy packed! I preferred him entertaining himself by throwing his hangers around his room opposed to his other favorite activity this week...splashing toilet water all over the bathroom! 

We did get to the park and enjoy the beautiful weather a couple times before we headed south.

At the end of the week we headed south...TEXAS! I'll post more pictures of our time in Texas soon. Here is a sneak preview...

Happy Fall

We're pretty big fans of fall in the Marasco family and fall is beautiful in Kansas City. But honestly, who doesn't love fall...perfect weather, beautiful leaves, and of course football season! (By the way, K-State is 5-0 for those of you who didn't know!) Well here are some pictures of Titus and I playing in the leaves today. Welcome fall!!!

A praying life

Last year in our small group we read a book called, A Praying Life, by Paul Miller. Outside of God's word I think God has used this book to stretch me, grow me, and remind me of my need for him more than any other book thus far in my life. I mean every time I pick this book up and reread sections or chapters, the spirit smacks me again with huge truths about God and my need for him. I think everyone should read this book so go to amazon and buy it! :) With that being said I want to share an excerpt that is stirring my soul this morning.

"We don't need a praying life because that is our duty. That would wear thin quickly. We need time to be with our Father everyday because every day our hearts and the hearts of those around us are overgrown with weeds. We need to reflect on our lives and engage God with the condition of our souls and the souls he has entrusted to our care or put in our paths. In a fallen world, these things do not come automatically. "

Those words blow me away. It blows me away to think about how important it is to be in prayer, not out of duty, but out of necessity in this fallen world. It reminds me that first, I need to recognize my NEED for prayer so that I'm not spending time in prayer out of "duty". Then it reminds me that I need a plan or a structure for how I'm going to get time to pray. I love the last line, that's why I made it bold! I really need to remember that prayer doesn't come automatically. I need to plan for it. Just like I schedule other things that are important to me into my day. The reality is we as humans make time for what we value (you might disagree as you read that, but think about it...friends, family, shopping, internet, working out, church, TV etc.) We don't make time for prayer because we don't value it. God help me, help us! 

KU Baseball Weekend

First, let me make it very clear that I'm a not a KU fan nor do I support the wearing of KU attire in our household (I allow it but don't support it), outside of attending my brother in law's games. He plays baseball for KU and when we are at those games...It's hard to admit....but we are KU fans, when we are there, by default. We are actually just fans of Jake, but we do want his team to win. I know most of my family will consider disowning me for admitting that but that's okay. :) Here are some pictures of our weekend.

Titus and his cousin, Ryder, watching Uncle Jake play 1st base

       The boys playing with cars while they wait for Uncle Jake after the game.

 Ryder and Titus had fun playing in Titus' pack-n-play on Saturday before we headed home. We had a great weekend with family.