Thought I would take some pictures of the tulips and daffodils. We are suppose to get 4-6 inches of snow tonight. Crazy - it's 60 degrees today. They say the commute tomorrow to work will be pretty bad. We'll see if the weatherman is right! anyway - we have a touch of spring in our yard right now and it's nice to look out and see the flowers. I will have Kanien or Jon take some more pictures the next time they come over - they do a much better job at picture taking! More should be blooming by then out front.

Mom and Dad Dougal were able to come down and visit for a few days while Dann was home. It was fun having them here. Nanette and the boys came with them. This was the only picture that I took and it didn't turn out too well. This was just before they left. Nanette took pictures and Terry/Debbie took pictures also so maybe some pictures will show up on their blogs. Thanks for coming down to see us and visit with Dann it meant a lot to him. Alex and family was able to stop by and visit for a couple hours too on his way to Idaho and then on their way home they brought us 3 fruit trees that we planted Sunday afternoon when they got here. I feel bad for Dad that he has to come down and pick up the trailer! Alex had the back of his truck full and so they had to put the trees on the trailer. Thanks for doing all that you did to help get us the trees.

Here are the elephants that I left out of the other post! The pictures aren't too good but they were fun to watch that day. Dann also took the guys shooting and Jason was the best! Everyone says he was but Dann - Dann says he was good but not better than his dad! There was a couple days that was spent fishing too! The first day Dann, Nathan, David and Amy went fishing - Dann came home all excited - he caught a 21 inch fish later to find out it was a salmon of some type. We took pictures but he is going to post them on his blog. Nathan also caught a smaller fish. Then, on Sat. everyone went fishing but David and Rosalee. David had to work. Terrence also went with us. Amy caught a fish before we got there and then within 10 min. of being there Terrence caught a fish also and that was the last fish caught of the day. I wasn't going to go - hadn't really planned on it but was talked into going by Kanien! I'm glad that she talked me into going. It was a fun day even though it was really muddy! Marcella had fun playing in the mud. She really wanted to get in the water. Kanien took pictures so hopefully soon we see some pictures on her blog. Dann left this morning to go back to Afganistan. It was good to have him home. There were some moments of adjusting to having him back but for the most part it was great to have him back - the time went by way too fast and it was sad to have him leave early this morning.

Our day at the Zoo! While Dann was home we did a few things. One of them was taking Marcella to the Zoo. Rosalee and Jon were not able to come with because they had to work and
Jason had to go to school but the rest of the gang went with. Marcella was fun to be with at the zoo. She enjoys the animals and makes the sounds of most of them. The animals were more active today then I have seen in a long time. The bears were playing. I think they were all enjoying the nice warm weather too!



The Giraffe was looking at us! Marcella missed it! She doesn't look too happy in this picture but she was pretty happy for our walk through the zoo.

This was taken by the elephants and they were actively eating and fighting over the food. I meant to put a picture of the elephants on but it didn't show up on this post so I'll add those later. The elephants can't be seen because of the people standing in front of them! When Marcella saw them eating she put her mouth down on the top of the fence and pretended she was eating. She also enjoyed the ducks that were swimming in the pond that is in with the elephants.

More pictures from the zoo! We went out for lunch afterwards at the Pie pizza. We ordered a 23 inch pizza. It was huge! We went and picked Jon up from work so he could eat lunch with us. The pizza didn't settle well with Dann though so I'm not sure we will ever get him to eat pizza from there again but the rest of us loved it! Jason was able to enjoy leftovers later that night.

Marcella likes to play with the piggy bank. she takes the money out and puts it back in and when she looses interest you know it because she starts putting the money in her mouth and looking at me and laughing because she knows that I don't want her to put it in her mouth. she usually gets one more chance and she will put money in the bank again for a couple seconds then go to put the money in her mouth again so we put the bank up for the day!

While Kanien was gone for a week back to Pennsylvania we had Marcella stay with us some of that time. She loves to be read to and to look at books. During Kanien's absence the book Are you my mother was her favorite book. I don't know if it had anything to do with Kanien being gone or not. She still likes the book but not as much. I read it so much to her that when Rosalee came over I let her have a turn. She gets sad when we get to the page where the bird is all alone on the page and gives me a hug. When we would get to that page I would tell her "oh the bird can't find his mother, poor little thing!" In the other picture David is teasing her by tickling her face with some worry beads. Sometimes she likes to have her face tickled but other times she gets annoyed.

Jason had some girlfriends over on Friday night and Marcella wanted to put on my shoes so one of the girls is helping her do this. I actually took more pictures of her walking in them - which was rather funny and she did a pretty good job of walking in them but my batteries I guess were dead and this is the only picture that worked. By the time I got more batteries she wasn't interested in the shoes anymore. I've started taking the batteries out of my camera when not in use but they still don't last very long. One or two times of using my camera is all the use I get out of the batteries - it's pretty frustrating. The other picture is of my new dishes and silverware! I have a 12 piece setting of dishes that match. Can you believe it! It was a great suprise although I was told that it is for My anniversary, Mothers day, my birthday and Christmas. That is okay they are really nice and appreciated. I wont publically say who gave them to me because they don't want it broadcast all over but you know who you are and I thank you.

Just another quick note- see her hair in those pictures. It stays that way for 10 minutes at the most. She won't leave anything in her hair. She thinks it's a game to take it out of her hair and see my response. It's pretty funny.

Jason came upstairs on Monday night with this water bottle and she carried it around the rest of the night and wanted to take it to bed with her and since then she has been taking it with her. I think I have filled it up 4 times from Monday night to Wed. afternoon.




When you ask Marcella what the kitty says she meows and then slides her hand down the side of her cheek like this picture with her holding the I spy book. It's rather cute. My girls in Young Women's really get a kick out of her and all the animal sounds she can make but they like the kitty one the best - it's so soft and quiet.

She loves cell phones and play phones and house phones as long as no one is on the other end. As soon as I try to get her to talk on the phone to someone she shakes her head no and usually runs away. Every once in awhile she will say hi or an animal sound. When I tell her to say bye she waves.

Here she is coloring on the Valentine's card. She likes to color but it doesn't hold her attention for long. I didn't get any pictures of what we did most of the day though. She loves to read books and will get a book and sit on my lap so we can read them together. When we are done with one she gets another one and then usually goes back to the one that we had read earlier. If she doesn't like a book she let's me know. She closes the book and tries to take it from me and give me one that she does like.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!! I have been having fun with Marcella. She came over to my house on Monday night and stayed until Wed. around 3:00. Kanien is off playing with Jon's Sister Caroline and will be gone for 10 days. For Valentine's day since she can't have chocolate I gave her a card with 3 dum dum suckers. She immediately wanted the wrapper off of the sucker and sucked on the sucker for about 3 min. maximum. She then put it down on the floor and looked at the card. She seemed to enjoy the card more than the candy which is good.




In the picture where she is holding the sucker out, she is trying to give Carson a taste of the sucker but he didn't want anything to do with it.

Marcella had fun unwrapping presents - she would tear off a little bit at a time. she enjoyed her new baby doll. She carried it around in the little carrier - she would put it on her arm and walk - it was cute. don't know how to turn the picture but you get the idea!

We used Dann's stocking for Marcella since the one I was making didn't turn out nor get finished - I think I will have to start over. She enjoyed pulling things out of her stocking. Unwrapping a present!


It was heavy for her but she carried it over to mom so mom could open it for her.

David and Rosalee opening the presents that Kanien and Jon gave to them. Jon drew David's name and Kanien had Rosalee. Rosalee and David had Kanien and Jon! Nathan and Jason had each other.
Jon I believe is opening the gift card that he received to Barnes and Noble from David and Rosalee.
Marcella slept while we opened presents so when she woke up she had her stocking and presents to open and look at. The first present was the rocking chair. We moved the chair closer to mom and she looked at her stocking and what was in it. She had some nerds, a frog, potatoe head, coloring book and some other candy and things. Can't remember!

David and Rose came over around noon. They opened a few presents and looked in their Christmas stockings. Rose received the game scene it and David was happy with his ninja turtle that he had actually asked for! Jon and Kanien came over around 1:20 and they first went through their Christmas stockings to see what Santa had brought for them. all the guys got dart guns to have a dart gun fight with. Everyone received a gift card to the movies in their socks.

We spent the night at Kanien and Jon's home to watch Marcella when she woke up. It was fun to watch her. After that we came home. Jason and Nathan didn't want to wait so I let them look in their Christmas sock and open a few presents. Jason got the growing pains first season and Nathan got the original movie of the Ninja Turtles.
Both received (or all of them did) Hickory farms. Jason wasn't too thrilled but it was to Jason and Mom from Santa!
Nathan had me open the present he bought for me. It's a back massager and it sure feels good but i think I used it too much the first day because the next day my back was sore from where it was massaged.

Dave and Rose looking at their Christmas socks.