October + Halloween

October was a whirlwind. We were in Vegas for a work conference for Matt, then I was in California with Mariah, and then Matt was in Denver taking his final exam for his CCIM (Certified Commercial Investment Member...real estate designation thing). He passed! Super super proud of him, he's been working on it for a few years and he's finally done. Yay! Being home all together again has felt like a vacation in its own way.

So, here is a short list of things I don't like: blood, scary movies, scary things, vampires, ghosts, people scaring people, masks, chainsaws, eyeball-themed food.
Short list of things I do like: babies in costumes, pumpkins. So even though Halloween isn't my favorite holiday, dressing Mariah up like a pig and watching her eat pumpkin guts totally outweighed every other bad thing and I genuinely enjoyed Halloween this year.

Pumpkin carving was a team effort. Matt cut out the tops, Mariah got all the seeds and guts out, tasted them, and spread them all over the kitchen and herself, and I did the carving.

Pumpkin guts are good for you, right?

Our cute little neighbor next door invited Mariah to go trick-or-treating with her. I didn't want to turn her down, so since Mariah can't ask for candy or eat it, I mostly just took her around to say hi to all the neighbors. She did earn her very first dollar though.

 

 So patient with the paparazzi.

Matt and I dressed up as pig farmers for our ward party, but we didn't even get a good picture of the three of us! So you'll just have to trust me when I say we three looked pretty snazzy.

First Birthday Cake

And here are one thousand pictures of Mariah eating cake. I let her have a couple bites of the cake I made for normal sized humans on her birthday, but we waited until the next morning to do her special baby cake pow-wow and pictures.

Scared slash transfixed by fire.

Didn't take her long to realize that throwing it on the floor and watching me pick it up is almost as much fun as eating it.

Mariah is ONE!

Mariah turned ONE on October 4. Unbelievable. A couple days before her birthday we decided to have a last minute little shindig to celebrate. We had just a few of Mariah's little baby friends (we let their parents come too ;) over for some food and good times.

Our big gift to her was a play kitchen! I was so excited to get it for her. I've had it picked out for months. We assembled it a few days before her birthday and threw a quilt over it in the living room to hide it. Surprisingly she didn't ever mess with it or try to look under the blanket. This is probably the only year we can get away with that. When Matt got home from work we unveiled it for her and showed her how to play with it. It's been a success so far. She plays with it more and more every day, mostly just putting bowls and plates inside all the doors and then taking them out again.

To be honest, our real gift to her (not pictured) was a bag of cotton balls because she loves them and chews on them like bubblegum. We let her go to town on her very own bag for a few days before cleaning them up and hiding them.  Ten days later and I'm still finding cotton balls in the weirdest places.

 Baybeeeez!

 Only picture I got of cake and singing time. Fantastically blurry. I almost dropped the camera when I lunged to stop her from grabbing that candle.

 She partied hard and stayed up past her bedtime. Sure love her.

October 1

A year ago today I was waddling around on my due date feeling huge, emotional, uncomfortable, and trying every trick in the book to make that baby come out.  I tried to picture how she would look, and what she would be like, and I prayed so hard that she would just be healthy. I looked at this dress hanging in her closet and imagined what kind of baby would fit into it in a year. Now, a year later, I realize I couldn't possibly have imagined how perfect she would be. As cliche as it is, I cannot picture my life without her; she feels like another appendage of mine. I'm so glad she is who she is. She is the brightest joy in our family (and also the loudest). Happy almost birthday...

 (We pick our battles...I guess pine cones are on the approved list)

When Mariah was born, I remember looking ahead to her first birthday, and Stephanie said, "Oh she'll be so fun! She'll be standing...and clapping...!" And I was like, "uhhh....9 months of pregnancy and a year of life and that's all she'll be able to do? Wow...boring....." BUT standing and clapping is the BEST! Every little thing she does is amazing to me.