Happy Birthday Papa!!

Saturday, September 24th was Titus' grandpa Mike's birthday. We call grandpa Mike (Matt's dad), Papa. Titus' cousin, Ryder, started the nick name Papa. Titus loves his Papa! We are getting to together with the Marasco family this weekend to celebrate Papa Mike's Birthday. I will definitely post those pictures next week. For now I will post some pictures of Titus with his Papa. 

 top pic: papa holding Titus in the hospital when he was first born

middle left pic: papa with his two grandson's; Titus & Ryder, at his house in Wichita

middle right pic: papa holding Titus when he was around 6 months

bottom pic: papa with Titus and Ryder in their KU gear to support Uncle Jake

A week in the life...4+

I forgot to add a few pictures from Titus' week this past week! I was in a hurry to post it before he woke up from his nap. Here are a few more highlights of Titus' week. (Sept 18th-25th)

I know this is kind of weird, but really it's hilarious!! It's a horrible picture. But it makes me laugh to see Titus' hair standing straight up! He hardly has any hair, until he goes down the slide at the zoo!!! Wild man! He LOVES the SLIDE! (For you photographers out there...I'm sorry I posted such a horrible photo!)

I wonder where Titus learned to lick his plate clean...daddy???

We had a friend of Matt's from high school over for dinner Friday night. These two sweet faces were our Co-Hosts! They did an awesome job!

Doesn't that face just look like trouble?

We spent Thursday afternoon with our friend Lucas. Lucas was a great helper with Titus.

A week in the life...4

A week in the life of Titus!
Sept 19th-25th

Just a shot of T at snack time. Look at that face...I just love it!

This is Titus' face watching the polar bear!

It was a pretty typical week in the Marasco house. Everyone was healthy and we got back to our normal routines. Titus went on a lot of walks, went to the park a few times, had a couple playdates, and went to the Zoo. Above are some pictures of our week!

A week in the life...3

A week in the life of Titus

September 12th-18th

This was a long and hard week for the Marasco family. We found out on Monday that Titus was sick with a virus. He screamed on Sunday night from 1am-5am, it felt like having a new born again! We thought he was just teething or maybe he had an ear infection. I  took him to the doctor on Monday afternoon and it's turns out that he had the hand, foot, and mouth virus! I know sounds creepy, huh?? Sunday and Monday he was miserable! I could see a big difference on Tuesday and by Thursday he was back to his wild self! :) Basically, with this sickness he had normal virus type symptoms (fever, sleeping trouble, etc), plus he had blisters on his hands, feet, and mouth (hints the name). Now, my son is drool-er. He drools through 10,000 shirts a day, or maybe like 5, but still he drools a lot! This week it was even worse! Poor little guy, because of the sores in his mouth he really was drooling through 10,000 shirts in one day. It was heart breaking to see the little guy in pain. Now for those of you who are wondering why he was back in the nursery today...he is hand, foot, and mouth virus free and has been since at least Friday. :) 


We also walked through another hard thing this week. We had a miscarriage this week. For some of you it might be poor etiquette to talk about this on the internet, but for us it's healing to be able to be open and be honest about it. We want to be able to be real about our struggles and hardships. We want our friends and family to see that Jesus is our only hope all the time; good, bad, pain, trial, joy etc. Knowing and believing and trying to live within that truth doesn't change the fact that the miscarriage was hard. We had been watching my pregnancy levels for a few weeks and they weren't looking good. However, we were prayerful and hopeful that my levels would go up and we would have a new baby in May of next year. This wasn't our lot. I think it was God's kindness that we knew the baby didn't have a great shot at making it. It doesn't take away the hardness of losing a baby, a hope for the future. But I'm thankful we weren't blindsided by it. We wrestled to have hope and believe God could keep this baby developing in my stomach. For reasons we don't know, it wasn't the case for this baby to come in May. That's hard to understand, but God is still good. I'm sharing all this in Titus' A week in the life section because these two events drastically changed our week. We still had a good week with our son. We were more thankful for him this week than ever, but there was a lot resting, crying, praying, reading, and talking. There wasn't a lot of fun activities or play dates. I'm thankful for our week though. I think it brought us closer as a family and pushed us to run to our rock, Christ.

Titus spent time reading in his new chair this week. Thanks for the chair Aunt Hollie! (don't let this picture deceive you, by reading I mean looking at books for 2 seconds throwing them and then climbing and jumping off the chair)

Grandma Chili came up to check on us and gave Titus his bed time bath

Our one outing this week other than the park was to the library. We had a crazy Friday night at the library! Titus loved throwing the books off the shelves and running wild through the "art room".

This is not the clearest picture, but Titus looked so handsome this morning for church I had to get a picture. We were running late so this is the best I could get with my phone!

Mom V. TiTus

This week Titus gave me this face...

Which I interpreted as, "mom, I dare you to come wrestle me and kiss me a billion times!" I can't back down on his dare so I did!

Daddy documented some of the showdown. I think Titus Won, but I did kiss him about a billion times. honest. 

Date Day OUT!

Thanks to our good friends Andy and Mallory, Matt and I got to get away from home for a day, and spend the day together at Arrowhead! My grandparents came up to KC at the last minute and watched T for us so that we could go to the Chiefs v. Bills game! It wasn't the best start to the season for the Kansas City Chiefs, but Matt and I had a great time. Titus did pretty well with grma and gpa while we were at the game. He protested his nap and was awake ALL day! Other than coming home to a REALLY tired boy, it was an awesome date day!

                     (Matt and I)                                        (Matt & I with Andy & Mallory)

A week in the Life...2

Here are the highlights of Titus' week from Sept 5th-11th!

We celebrated Labor Day (see previous post for those highlights!)

 Titus and Matt brushed their teeth together Tuesday morning. Titus is really into brushing his teeth right now. By brushing I mean...sucking all the water and baby toothpaste off the brush and then wanting more water and tooth paste.

 We put Titus in his first "fall clothes" of the season. He looked pretty darn handsome.

Mommy and T spent Tuesday afternoon at the park.

 One day this week...I have no idea which day, but one day we got a little crazy with the hummus over lunch. Why eat hummus with a fork or a spoon. It's so much more fun with your hands!

On Wednesday we spent the morning with Josephine and Lucy. Our time included a walk around the plaza and stopping to play at the plaza fountains. This is not the best shot but at least you can see Titus and the fountain. Titus wouldn't be still long enough for me to get a good shot. It was really tricky to get him to "stay still" for a picture and not fall in the fountain. 

 One more shot of the boys brushing their teeth! So sweet!
We had a busy and fun week!

Labor Day

Praise God for Labor Day! We had Daddy home ALL day Monday! I don't who was more excited mommy or Titus. Here are the highlights...

THE ZOO

 We put Titus in his first FALL clothes of the season and headed to the Zoo. The weather was beautiful.For those of you who are curious that is a monkey hanging on the glass above Matt and T.

We are BIG BIG fans of the zoo, but I don't recommended going on Labor day. Unless of course you want to meet every person who lives in the KC metro because I guarantee they will be there. That place was crazy!

Even though the zoo was crazy with still had a great time with our good friends, the Key's. Titus is obsessed with his friend Olivia. Her dad Brian, keeps a close eye on Titus to make sure he isn't flirting! :)

We finished up a great day off with a BBQ at our friends the Wittmer's house. We attempted to get Titus to sit down and watch a movie with his friends Hunter and Hudson, but that didn't really work out! :) Titus had more fun playing outside with the lawn mower. We had a great day off.

For You, O Lord, are good

Over the past year and half our family has walked through some tough things. We have also walked with close friends through hard situations. Walking through these things has brought me to a place of needing to remember the character of God. You can't even begin to process the hard questions about life in a healthy way without starting with WHO God is. I have failed miserably with clinging to and proclaiming WHO God is during grief, struggle, and pain. I'm so thankful for God's grace and that he is opening my eyes to my need to remember that he is who he says he is. Now many of you are probably saying well that's great, but who does he say that he is. For the good of my own soul I'd love to proclaim on this blog the character of God according to his word.
 I think we have to start at what Jesus did for us on the cross. We call this the gospel. It the good news that Jesus lived the life we should of lived and died the death we should of died so that we can have hope. We have hope in the fact that our sins our forgiven and we can cling to Jesus to be enough for us in this life and in the life to come. The gospel tell us SOOOO much about God's character. Read this passage below from Isaiah that is prophesying to what Christ will do for us, and then we can wrestle through how this passage and the gospel is great starting point for understanding of who God is.
"Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, everyone, his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 53: 4-6

So, from this passage we can obviously tell that we suck! We denied, rejected, and turned away from our God. Whether that's in our actions, thoughts, words, or beliefs EVERYONE has turned away from God. God showed great mercy on us and poured his wrath on HIS own son so that we could be made right! So that we can know him and be in relationship with him! From that alone, we can see that God is merciful, gracious, loving, forgiving, and just. God is good. It might sound cheesy to some of you, but it's true. The definition of good according to dictionary.com is morally excellent; virtuous; righteous; pious: a good man. I'd say that defines the God that we see in the gospel. 
So why is this important when life gets hard...because if we don't cling to the character of God and promises of God when life sucks we can turn now dangerous path. For example, My husband lost his mom tragically about a year and half ago. It was and still is heartbreaking to walk through life without her here. It's hard not to question God and to wonder why he took her so early. It's hard to feel like it was a mistake and something slipped through God's hands. But over this past year and half Matt and I have had to cling to the fact that we live in a fallen world and living on this earth is hard. But we know that God is good and wants good for us. And that we will receive our ultimate good in heaven when we are with our savior. Remembering this hope doesn't take away the pain of losing someone you love or whatever your going through, but it allows you to turn your grief to a loving, kind, and gracious God. It gives you hope. Your hope isn't in having the perfect life on earth, it's in Christ. When your fighting and trying to put your hope in Christ it frees you to wrestle through the hard questions of life without forgetting that you have a Good God who loved you enough to die for you. When you lose someone you love, when you are fighting sin that seems to engulf you, when you have a miscarriage, when you feel overwhelmed, when work is hard, when you lose your job, when you are fighting depression, when you feel betrayed by friends, whatever life brings...you can remember that your foundation is Christ. And Christ is Good.

Story Time

My sweet little boy is on the move! He rarely settles down long enough to do anything. That's how he got the nick name Titus Tornado. At least that's what Matt and I call him. He's our little tornado! BUT a few nights ago, he actually sat our laps through 2 stories from the Jesus Story Book Bible. (You should buy it on amazon if you don't already have it! It's awesome!) Almost every night we follow the same routine; play, dinner, bath, wrestle with Titus while trying to read him a story from his Jesus Storybook Bible, and then bed. One night this week was different; play, dinner, bath, Titus sat on our lap and let us read to him, and then bed. A miracle?! Yes! Below is the proof.

Melts my heart

Lair Family Reunion

This past July we traveled down to the great state of Texas to see family. This trip ended up becoming a Lair Family Reunion! We had a blast spending time with Uncles & Aunts, Cousins, Molly (my grandparents dog), and of course time with maw maw and paw paw. Here are some pictures of our trip!

 Praise God for 5 guys burgers and fries!

 Matt and I with maw maw on her birthday! We threw maw maw a party at Uncle Matt and Aunt Lisa's house. It was perfect. The best part was watching maw maw cry over how much she loved the string quartet that Aunt Lisa had come play for her. We love you maw maw.

 We also celebrated paw paw's birthday while we were in Texas. We all wore matching shirts. Yes, we were that family! And we loved it! The shirt was a picture of paw paw when he was little and he said, "Paw paw, leader of the Lair". (Lair is my maiden name for those of you who are wondering).

There is Matt and I about to enjoy some good Tex Mex!

Titus post 5 guys cheeseburger, with his grand daddy Jeff and great uncle Phil.

A week in the life...1

A week in the life of Titus- Week 1

Here are a few highlights of Titus' week!

 Eating cantaloupe, like a big boy!

 Playing at Burger King with daddy! We had just went to the farmer's market and it was HOT! We needed to play inside somewhere in order to cool off! I don't know who had more fun daddy or Titus!

Someone was pretty proud of himself for attempting to use a fork! The teacher in me was also very proud! He had great control for his first attempt! I mean look at the stab...I think my OT and PT friends would agree that it looks pretty good! :)

I