The Birthday Videos....

Here's the much anticipated 1st bite of cake :-) Yum!!

Aunt Molly gave Mark this golf set for his Birthday. You'll have to watch and see what he thought about it....

Mark's 1st Birthday Party- #1

Our little boy is very lucky--- he will have not one, but two Birthday parties to celebrate him turning one! We had the first of these two Birthday parties on his actual Birthday (the 27th of March). We did much celebrating, laughing, and remembering with his Mimi & Papa Harrington , his Aunt Emily & Molly, Uncle Ben & Ross, the Gray family and Miss Tara Just. Here are the pictures to prove it..

Saying "Good-bye" to 11 months

Morning fun with Mimi and Papa

German pancakes for Mark's birthday breakfast - a Harrington tradition

the decor

We all got in the part spirit with these Birthday hats. Remarkably, Mark kept his on for a couple hours!!

Mark's Kitty Cake: Before Mark was born (before we even knew "he" was a boy), the Pfeil kids gave this kitty to their future cousin. This kitty was the first toy to instantly make him smile :-) He loves his Kitty!

Mark's first bites of cake did not disappoint the eater nor the observers!

Mark got some wonderful birthday gifts from everyone. Here he is enjoying some of them...

**We also have some great videos from his Birthday, but they will have to be added separately. I guess this means this post is "to be continued..."**

Happy 1st Birthday, Mark!

Dear Mark,

We cannot even begin to tell you how much joy you have brought to our lives this past year. We have had so much fun cheering on each new milestone: your 1st smile, rolling over, rolling a ball, crawling, walking...this list is endless. But it's the moments in between that we wish we could relive all over again--- the cute "ooo" face you made as an infant, going out to the mall as a family, visiting your room at night to see your knees tucked under you and your little bottom in the air as you slept, waking you up at night just to see if you would sleep on our chest one more time, cuddling with you while we gave you your morning bottle and watched the morning news, going on evening walks with you in the Baby Bjorn, wrestling with you even though you were way to little. We're so grateful for all the memories of this first year and are just as excited see you grow and develop during this next year. We pray that you not only grow developmentally and physically but also in your understanding of God and in your character. Even now you can bless people with your laughs, smiles, hugs and kisses. We pray that this next year you will continue to grow in your kindness and love for others. We love you so much!!! Happy 1st Birthday, Mark (aka little Man, aka buddy, aka our sweet little boy)

Love,

Daddy and Momma :-)

Your 1st year monthly photos

February Highlights- Part 3

Aunt Emily Visits

I'm finally getting to our last February entry (and we're almost at the end of March!!). The last weekend in February Chris's sister, Emily, surprised us with a visit. We shared many laughs and good conversations. We loved watching Aunt Emily dote on her baby nephew. She is magical with the little ones!! She is also gifted in the realm of art. I spent much of the weekend in amazement over her recent artwork. I love it!! She's also quite generous with her talent--- She blessed us with 4 new pieces of artwork!! It is such a gift to have our home filled with beautiful and fun artwork created by family members. Between my talented Aunt Gwen and Mark's talented Aunt Emily our new home is almost completely decorated :-)

Ashley, Brandon & Baby Z Visit

Our dear friends Ashley and Brandon are expecting their first little one at the beginning of May. We were thrilled when they scheduled a visit even during this busy season of their life. As always we all had a great time together. We even splurged on a little Graeter's Ice cream...yum!!

Mark's 1st Bracket Picks

We love March Madness in this house. Here is Mark's introduction to the festivities...

Mia the Puppy

When we visit Curtis and Jess Pennick we always know we're in for a treat. Usually there's a treat for the pallet (authentic calzones, pizza on the grill, homemade general Tso's, etc). And there's always lots of laughter prompted by Curtis & Jess. This time it wasn't the wit of Curtis and Jess bringing on the howls....it was their dog, Mia. We've never seen Mark laugh so hard when he wasn't being tickled!

February Highlights- Part 2: The Wards

February was so filled to the brim with good memories and exciting moments that I need to break it into two posts (maybe even three!).

Visiting the Wards...

Chris has this fabulous friend from college (JB Ward) who married an equally fabulous woman (Bethany) and together they are fabulous Young Life leaders in New Martinsville, WV. It is always so fulfilling to see the homes of our friends and family--- to drive around their town, see their Wal-mart, visit their church. It enables us to imagine their surroundings when we pray for them or think about them. A couple years ago we had the opportunity to see JB's home.. aka "bachelor pad." However, we knew a revisit was a necessity after JB married the sweet, talented, creative, and extremely resourceful Bethany. What once was the epitome of a bachelor pad (you know...the towels for curtains type of thing...) had been "Bethan-ized"...or so JB said :-) We had to see this for ourselves so we scheduled a visit, packed our bags, and headed to the great state of West Virginia for the weekend.

The Ward's know the art of hospitality. We were greeted by not one but 2 welcome signs! The theme of the weekend was "from scratch." Although I sadly do not have any pictures of our morning drink, we began the morning with orange juice "from scratch" (i.e. freshly squeezed, delicious, amazing!). For lunch we feasted on taco salad with a shell made "from scratch." And we ended the day with ravioli "from scratch" (we didn't even use a pasta maker!!!).

Pictures (top row): We may or may not have entertained ourselves by attaching a pillow to Mark's pants.

Pictures (middle rows): We drove to the top of a nearby mountain to enjoy the breath-taking view of the valley of New Martinsville. I could not believe all the beautiful mountains that surround them! Bethany may or may not have chosen to wear her open back shoes therefore needed to be carried through the 8 inches of snow on the ground :-)

Pictures (bottom row): other cute moments

Ravioli from Scratch...

A definite highlight of our visit was making ravioli. It took us about 2 hours of mixing, kneading, rolling, cutting, folding, etc, but good times were had by all throughout the process and the finished product was unbelievably delicious. We were so excited about eating our masterpiece that we forgot to take a picture of it. Oh well. You'll just have to believe me that it was as beautiful as it was good :-) Thank you, Wards, for an unforgettable weekend!