March... Apparently in like a lamb and out like a lion.

"May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind always be at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, and rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand."

My heritage is best described as western European with a dash of Native American. Dutch's is best described as western European as well. However, included in that mix is a little Irish for me. I am not too sure about Dutch. One of my dad's favorite past times is geneology so I know much more about my history that Dutch's. I am hoping to work on that though. In honor of our little Irish heritage and St. Patrick's Day (which I know was several weeks ago) I have included my absolute favorite Irish blessing. We have been so busy this March that blogging has completely slipped up on me. Now it is the end of the month and here we are.

Sarah Beth has visited two of my friends living in the Macon area and played with their children. Lauren Fresh has a little boy that is 9 months older than Sarah Beth. (For those of you doing the math, we found out we were pregnant the week little James was born.)They had fun, but unfortunately the trip was shorter than I would have liked it to be. Sarah Beth started off a little shy, but ended up having a ball being pushed with James in twin buggies at Target. Lauren and I have been friends since we moved to Tifton when I was in Kindergarten. Our parents met enrolling our younger siblings in nursery school. Since then, we have gone of family trips, gotten in numerous girl fights, lived together in Athens and grown up. We joke that James is Sarah Beth's boyfriend and I am hoping our next trip to Lake Blackshear will involve the Fresh's so we have more time together.

Sarah Beth also visited the Miller's just yesterday. Katie Miller was a college roomate and sorority sister. She now has a 20 month old and a 2 month old (doing the math...she found out she was prego shortly before I went in to have Sarah Beth, babies everywhere!!!) It is amazing how much can change in 6 years! Sarah Beth had a lot of fun with Pearce (20 month old) and could have cared less about newborn Anna Eliese. She slept the whole way home and slept in this morning...

Speaking of sleeping in, I feel as though it has rained for two weeks up here. Actually, it has! We have been so busy we have not been able to enjoy rainy mornings cuddled in our pajamas. But given the rainy weather again today, I have declared today Pajama day for Sarah Beth. Once again, we are stuck inside and she crawls/climbs best in pjs. Pj pictures will come with the next blog. We are also trying to introduce her to some solids (not purees - she loves those), but she is not interested in the consistency at all. Not even mashed up potatoes... She has decided she LOVES the grocery store. She gets so loud and dances in her seat to the music while sqealing loudly at everyone she meets, so that means we now go in the morning when she can't meet as many people to yell at. I swear her squeals are so loud you can hear them in the entire store. She has even made friends with most of the checkout people and baggers. They know her by name. It is pretty funny but an ordeal none the less.

In our adult lives we have MANY weddings coming up in May which is exciting but also stressful. Our first night away from Sarah Beth will be memorial weekend for a wedding in Atlanta. She will be staying with her grandaddy and Nana (Guest grandparents) so I am not worried about her...but I just am nervous. Dutch is in two weddings and one of those is near Waycross so we get to spend the weekend with Mema (greatgrandmother Lee) and all the aunts and uncles down there. Aside from weddings, we are in need of a vacation soon I think! We had a shower a couple weeks ago for one of the weddings and Dutch's mom (Grandy) stayed with Sarah Beth. It was so nice to get out and be adults for a little bit.

I have decided to start gardening this spring. Dutch bought me some hanging flower plants for the front door. He has already had to resusitate them! I thought they were getting rain from all the weather, but Dutch informed me hanging plants stay under the overhang and don't get rain. So he watered them last night when I freaked out thinking I already killed them. We are buying tomatoes this weekend. I will keep you posted on my green thumb. Hopefully I inherited my dad's green thumb (he was a county extension agent) and not my mom's. It is not looking hopeful though.

That pretty much sums up the past month. I know it is alot and I only have a couple pictures. All of these pictures are of Sarah Beth, hopefully the next blog I will have some of all 3 of us.


Sarah Beth and James Fresh with their dueling buggies!


Modeling a vintage dress circa 1983. Courtesy of my parent's attic.


Still modeling. These photos were taken after church this past Sunday. The shoes and bow were removed as soon as we got in the car unfortunately!

Much Love, Mary Beth

Mack The Knife

So, I imagine you are wondering about the title. Mack the Knife? Well, that is my grandmother Joycie's favorite song and since this post is mainly about her 90th birthday, I figured why not. Last week was spent relaxing and staying at home preparing for this weekend. As I posted last week, Sarah Beth began crawling, pulling up and has been getting into EVERYTHING. I spent all week researching ways to keep children out of things and eventually bought a large fence "play yard" for our living room after asking several friends. It came in the mail yesterday and is our project tonight. Will keep you posted on assembly. Sarah Beth also has a second tooth. They are both her front two bottom teeth. They are getting big enough you can see them when she smiles now. Sometimes Dutch and I cannot believe how big she is getting!

This weekend felt like it was spent on the road. We left Friday for Lake Blackshear and spent Saturday in Bainbridge with dinner in Tallahasee. Joycie LOVED spending time with Sarah Beth and told everyone in Bainbridge that Sarah Beth was teething. Joycie was worried Sarah Beth would be late with her teeth since my Uncle Alec was late. She also bragged to everyone that Sarah Beth can crawl and pull up. I have never seen her prouder than when she is with Sarah Beth. Joycie loves to talk to Sarah Beth so she can recognize Joycie's voice. I am just excited that they know eachother! 90 years is such an accomplishment and she still is able to live in her home and go to Tallahassee for dinner (the Alec Poitevint's of course drove her)! She was even able to still order her favorite cocktail. It was a wonderful celebration! It is nice to be able to get together for such a momentous occasion. Dinner really made me realize how fortunate I am to have such a blessed family. To listen to her talk about my grandfather was beautiful...and hilarious. They truly were eachother's match. For those of you who have not met Joycie, she is all spunk. I almost died laughing while as she talked about catching Grandaddy playing pool (she hates pool) and about having my cousin Meg look up her old boyfriends on faceboook. "They had gotten so big!"

After Bainbridge we left for Tallahasee to see Melissa's apartment and eat at the Governor's Club. Melissa's apartment was very cute and dinner was amazing. As I mentioned before, I was worried about Sarah Beth's behavior in a nice restaurant. She did not dissapoint! She had a meltdown! After 30 minutes of me trying to calm her down, I figured it out. She wanted to be at the table with us! She calmed down the minute I took her to the table and she played and talked the whole rest of the night. Naturally she passed out in the car before we got out of downtown Tallahasee! Sarah Beth hates missing anything and always wants the be right in the middle of any party.

This week we are looking to recovering from traveling and relaxing. I have decided to give up sweets for Lent so we will see how that goes... and next week, Sarah Beth and I are heading for Warner Robbins for her to play with her boyfriend, James Fresh. More to come from that as well!

Much Love, Mary Beth



The granddaughters. Yes, Dutch is the only boy in this family too!



Joycie with her cake and champagne.

Buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks...

We have been very busy since last week. Busy doing what? Enjoying the weather of course! Sarah Beth, Dutch and I have spent many afternoons and the past weekend playing outside (with Sarah Beth's new sunglasses) and strolling. We even took in a baseball game on Sunday! Sarah Beth will be 8 months next week! I cannot believe it! So what has she been up to this past week?

It feels as though she is growing in leaps and bounds. We babyproofed the house 2 weeks ago and dropped her bed for the first time. She has never really played in her bed and generally goes straight to sleep and has been good when she wakes up. She stays laying down, so the bed has never been an issue. Not any more! 2 days after we dropped the bed, I watch her crawl backwards (more on that later) pull herself up on her knees and then pull her self up on her feet. Once she got up she just smiled at me so proud of herself. I was proud too, but in my head I thought... Oh Crap! Poor Dutch had to drop the bed again. That is not exactly easy to do. Now all she wants to do is pull herself up in her bed and starts to scream once she gets up and realizes she is in the room by herself. She LOVES standing up anywhere now and that is all she wants to do is climb like a spidermonkey whereever she is until she gets herself up.

Crawling backwards?? Yes, Sarah Beth crawls backwards. Or did... She is terrified to move her hands, which is why she has not even attempted walking yet and is happy just standing, but it also led to a funny crawl. I think she might have taken a couple of faceplants trying to move her hands while up on her knees and is now scared to move them. This leads to her getting up on her knees, sliding her hands back and then dropping her knees. In a sense, pushing herself backwards. She knows this is the only way to travel so she can get anywhere backwards. If there is something she wants in front of her, she just turns herself around so it is behind her and then crawls back to it. It is the funniest thing to watch. However, she crawled forward for her Grandy yesterday while she was babysitting and crawled forward for me this morning. So now she is mobile and fast! Gone are the days of the crabwalk and backwards crawl.

We took her to her first sporting event last Sunday - the UGA baseball game. The game was not so good and we lost bad, but Sarah Beth enjoyed it! UGA changed pitchers ALOT. It felt like all we watched was pitchers warm up and made for a LONG game, but Sarah Beth stayed up the ENTIRE game. 1 - 4 in the afternoon. We were all so impressed! She also got to hang out with Grandaddy, Nana and Aunt Amanda which she always loves. Dutch and I didn't get her once the entire game, which was kind of nice. We got to enjoy it together without Sarah Beth letting us know what she thought. By the end of the game she figured out clapping and would try to clap when everyone else did. She had a hard time getting her hands to hit each other but she loved trying. We brought a tired baby home who was determined to still play so we let her bounce it out in her jumparoo (my godsend). A picture will follow showing how that turned out.

Hmmm... other things, Sarah Beth has always been on a strict feeding schedule but naps have been as needed. She likes several short naps so it has been difficult. We finally got on a napping schedule and now I think she wants to cut out her morning nap so now we are back to square one.

That has been our last week. Very busy I know, but a lot of fun. This weekend we are heading to Tifton for my grandmother's 90th birthday! I am excited but nervous. We are eating at a very nice restaurant in Tallahassee and Sarah Beth REALLY likes to hear her voice so it should make for a funny story. I have slacked on the crockpot recipes, but am still cutting them out of the paper. So as I try them, I will post them. I have a new one once again from the Athens-Banner Herald:

Crock-rockin Chicken Alfredo.

6 skinless, boneless chicken breast
1/2 C water
1/2 C White Wine
1 packet Good Seasons Italian Dressing Mix
1 Jar Alfredo Sauce
Fettucine Noodles

Place Chicken in crockpot.
Mix water, wine and seasoning and pour over chicken.
Cook on low 6-8 hours or high 3-4 hours.
Warm up alfredo and cook noodles.
Place chicken over noodles and cover with sauce.
Serve with bread and salad.

The chicken falls apart and is AMAZING! I cooked on high for 3-4 hours and it was perfect! According to Dutch this is a cook again recipe.

That should be all until next week!

Much Love, Mary Beth


Sarah Beth's new favorite way to sleep. on all fours with her head straight down. I try to roll her over but she just goes right back. So the bed is now completely clear of anything.


Sarah Beth reading her activity book outside.


Dutch found her so proud of herself for standing up!


Being fratastic with the shades!


Playing outside. The bow by the way is made by a college friend of mind, Courtney. This is one of MANY (yes Sarah Beth is a bowhead). If you are interested in getting one made as a gift or anything let me know. She has some premade or can make to order.


Chllin before a stroll with daddy.


And last... this is the damage that a 3 hour baseball game and an hour in the jumparoo did to her. Dutch and I had the biggest laugh. Then of course we picked her up and put her in the bed!