tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64638114118174263202024-03-13T22:27:10.710-06:00Well Here We AreAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07145998219668557142noreply@blogger.comBlogger166125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6463811411817426320.post-87691355051795420062016-12-24T04:54:00.003-07:002016-12-24T05:37:36.579-07:00Merry Christmas 2016!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Looks like the last post here was from a year ago. Welp, it's been a great year. Merry Christmas!<br />
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And click <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNzhT6fhEL6oH-84bxPwCU3SDnYqquHkX" target="_blank">HERE</a> to see all past videos for your Christmas entertainment ;) !</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07145998219668557142noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6463811411817426320.post-57296088748343977232015-12-09T18:37:00.000-07:002015-12-09T18:37:47.126-07:00Merry Christmas 2015!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Just you know, like 10 takes this year. Thanks to Mariah for distracting from the fact that I missed just a few of my lines hahah. Eden probably has a future in lip-syncing, she nailed her part on the first run through. Here's video number five- Christmas tradition going strong!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07145998219668557142noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6463811411817426320.post-12481070052676910772015-12-07T11:48:00.000-07:002015-12-07T11:51:47.858-07:00All About Eden<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Eden is about 9 and a half months now! Oops. Another few weeks went by since I started writing this. Eden is 10 months now! She has been the biggest blessing to me and brought so much joy to our family. I realized I have not been the best at documenting her milestones, but I want to record some things about her.<br />
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Eden "woke up" when she was just a few days old and never really went back to doing the sleepy all day newborn thing. I'm glad she's generally happy while she's awake. She loves riding in the Ergo and the sling, and she has definitely been a tummy sleeper. She loved her swaddle, but we stopped swaddling her when she was about 6 months old and we moved her into her own room. Eden started sitting up around 5 months (she was never really into the rolling over phase) and I think that age is one of my favorites. It was great being able to set her down and watch her contentedly play with a toy and just observe, and know that she's safe and can't go anywhere! It's a short phase but a great one. She also learned to give kisses on demand around then and that is REALLY my favorite thing. We still get lots of Eden kisses and they are the absolute most slobbery best thing ever. </div>
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We started solids at 6 and a half months, and she eats like a champ. She has loved everything she's tried. Her favorites have been green peas, brown rice pasta, berries, oatmeal, pumpkin, avocado, and puffed millet. </div>
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She started scooting around at about 7 months, and true crawling at about 8.5 months. It is hilarious watching her explore the house. She just does her own thing, crawling around getting in to stuff. She says "mama" and it melts my heart every time! She also says "dada" when Matt gets home from work and gives him big kisses. She also got her first tooth at 8.5 months, and the second one on the bottom came in right after. A week shy of 9 months she started pulling up on furniture, and now she is attempting to cruise around the furniture, and when she's feeling brave she lets go and tries (unsuccessfully) to stand. She's gotten quite a few bonks on the head from falling over. </div>
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Eden loves finger foods and feeds herself at most meals. It's really messy and she's really happy. She takes three hour long naps a day around 9, 1, and 4, sleeps from about 7pm- 7am and still gets up to nurse once a night (sometimes more..:-/) Wearing size 12 month clothes. Seems to usually be around the middle percentiles for height and weight. After another yucky teething week last week she has 2 new teeth on the top (with what looks like two more on the way).<br />
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Learning to wave has been the cutest. She waves hi to herself in the mirror as we walk down the hallway, and she'll wave at anyone around that says hi to her.<br />
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Eden loves Mariah. And I really mean that. She gets excited to see Mariah first thing in the morning, and crawls after her trying to keep up with her. She gives her big kisses and wants to share toys with her. I am so grateful Mariah loves her just as much. They are quite a pair. </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07145998219668557142noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6463811411817426320.post-20623533507397644122015-10-05T14:18:00.002-06:002015-10-05T14:18:53.719-06:00Mariah is Three!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Wait, wasn't it just like not that long ago that I was typing "Mariah is Two!" ??</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #222222;">Mariah was VERY excited about her birthday. She was telling everyone everywhere for the past few months, "Hi my name's Riah. I am 2 and a half and on Otober for-eff (fourth) it is my bert-day and I will be FREE (three) and den my daddy will </span><span class="il" style="color: #222222;">BA</span><span style="color: #222222;">-</span><span class="il" style="color: #222222;">TIZE</span><span style="color: #222222;"> </span><span style="color: #222222;">ME!!" then we have to remind her every time that she will get baptized when she's 8....she's still working out some of the details.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #222222;">(if I had more time right now I'd go through and actually edit these pics...maybe later...)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So, leading up to her birthday, Mariah had a very specific vision for her birthday party. She started talking about it more and more as the big date approached. She wanted to eat oatmeal with her friends (most important thing) and put things in it (also important) and then have birthday cake (peripheral to the oatmeal, but still necessary) and party hats (obviously). Oatmeal with friends, we can do this. So we invited all her buddies over for a birthday breakfast on Saturday morning. We had a huge pot of oatmeal, with little bowls of berries, walnuts, shredded coconut, dried cranberries, spiced pumpkin seeds, and brown sugar and maple syrup to mix in. I also made mini veggie egg muffins, strawberries with honey yogurt, we had a big bowl of bagels from our favorite bagel shop. I was hoping this is what she had been envisioning. We also made a big carrot cake (I've made it for her birthday for the past years also) and she made her very own smaller cake all by herself too and put whatever she wanted in it and we baked it. It was weird but she ate it so whatever.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Mariah's personal special blend cake. You almost can't tell it includes yogurt, oats, strawberries, pineapple, green peas, coconut oil, cinnamon, egg, coconut flour, baking powder, salt, maple syrup, blueberries, carrots, and almond milk.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Still working on getting the three fingers up!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Eden takes 3 naps a day so she was in and out for the party fun, but she liked wearing the hat!</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07145998219668557142noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6463811411817426320.post-29648588467156352642015-10-05T13:38:00.002-06:002015-10-05T13:43:34.852-06:00From Two Year Old Mariah<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Mariah turning three seems like as good as occasion as any to dust off the ol blog!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I've been sort of writing down Mariah's little things as I write Rebecca every week, so I'll compile some of her stories here for now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Got-fer" = Forgot</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Younember when?" = Do you remember when?/aka the start of every other sentence</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Magic finding glass"= Magnifying glass</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sorry it seems like my stories are all about church or the potty. They are both hot topics around here.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"MOMMY! Jesus is coming to our house TONIGHT!!"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"He is?? We better get ready!"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Yeah he's coming at five terty o cwock! When he gets here we will play chasing games! and run around and around! and play with my toys....Oh. wait.................Not Jesus....... Daddy. Daddy is coming home tonight."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I was trying to put Eden down for a nap and Mariah kept coming in and waking her up, so I asked her really seriously to wait outside and stop coming in. She said, "Mom, just choose to be happy! Like this!" (...and mimes wiping a smile across her face)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">She took her "very very most special rock ever" that she'd been carrying around for two weeks, and dragged it in a big circle all the way around the perimeter of Matt's car. Huge scratch all over. NOT COOL. so we were kind of upset. When we got in the car to go we were just driving in silence. Mariah was like, "You guys. Sorry you are fwustwated because I did a big scratch on daddy's car. I can make it better. I just get two bandaids and a bucket and I can fix it....I can hear car now it saying, "I all better! I have a scratch but I starting to feel better!"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Mariah has been really in to loudly saying "pee pee" and "poo poo" everywhere we go (FYI these are terms she adopted from her buddies, not even the terms we initially used.) It is actually embarrassing. At home I generally try to ignore it so I don't draw attention and inadvertently encourage it, but in public I really feel like I need to respond. So we were in Mystic Pizza, and we kept trying to distract her, and I was like, "let's talk about our favorite colors. I think right now mine is turquoise." And she said, "You mean your favorite color is POO POOS??!!" </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Then another day she was playing her princess maze game on the iPad and making up stories like this, "Once upon a time there was a little pee pee and a little poo poo..." And I was like, "You know what, princesses do not use potty words like that." And she said, "Oh, okay I will teach them! And she leaned into the iPad and put her mouth right up to the princess and said, "Just go like this!: pee pee poo poo pee pee poo poo!" </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is a constant, constant battle. Sigh.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We had stake conference, and I was singing in the choir, and when we stood up to sing Mariah was like "GO HALEY!! GOOD JOB HALEY!!!! YAY HALEY!" And from what I heard people were like "Oh how cute is that her mom?" ....nope...just her friend's sister.... hahahah. And she spent the rest of conference making a congratulatory card for Haley. So cute hahah, but what am I, chopped liver? ;)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yoga is basically her excuse for doing anything now like climbing on furniture she's like "I'm just doing yoga!!!! Namaste!!!!!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Likewise, whenever I ask her to quiet down from banging on things with toys or utensils she always says, "I'm just making beautiful music!"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">I got a scrape on my ankle and Mariah said, "oh mom, that is NOT Cute."</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white;">During the sacrament prayer in Church Mariah loudly interjected, "and bless Eden to not pull my hair!!"</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white;">Mariah told me the other day, "I am so good at watching shows and eating things!" Glad I've set reachable goals for her. Good self esteem booster.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white;">She was in the bath for a long time "decorating" with her toys and letters.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white;">Her favorite toys right now are, predictably, all Eden's baby toys. She takes her plastic rings and strings them on the cabinet knobs, and when Matt got home she was like, "Wook! I decorated a party for you!!"</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I should've known it was too quiet, when I walked in the bathroom to find a discolored smelly mass rapidly disintegrating in a pool of water in the baby bath tub in the sink. Mariah said "I just making a treasure hunt for Big Nutbrown Hare..." He would have been so delighted to find a hundred mushy prenatal vitamins. Great. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I said, "Please st<span style="background-color: white;">op hammering the walls, I need you to be obedient." she told me, "I am NOT obedient I. AM. MA-RIAH."</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">In church as the sacrament started, I reminded Mariah to be quiet and reverent, and Mariah said loudly in her nicest sing song voice, "Mommy I am just thinking about JESUS!!" (She confuses nice voice with quiet voice)</span><br /><span style="background-color: white;">"That's great Mariah can you do it quietly?"</span><br /><span style="background-color: white;">"SURE! I WILL GO AND DO!! I WILL GO I WILL DOOOO!!"</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When Eden made a loud baby sound the other day, Mariah said, "Eden, stop, you sound like a boy."</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Was trying to get Mariah down for a nap and she said, "It's not sleep time, it's not nap time, it's not rest time, it's not sit or stand in my crib time, I will stay awake FOREVER!!! For very long YEARS!!!"</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We had breakfast at the farm (amazing) then played with the goats. After standing around them talking for awhile, she said, "Mom they are not understanding me!!"</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">At the first week of Joy School, all the kids learned the rules, which included a song that goes, "We never hit or kick or push our friends at nursery school..."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">When I asked Mariah how Joy School went another day she said, "We never hit or kick or push...unless Lucy pinches and then you push her...."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">When she was drumming with her fork on the table I reminded her that forks are for eating and if she wasn't going to eat I would need to take her fork. She said, "Mom, younember we don't take things from people."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">She is extremely principled. She knows what the rules in the house are and (</span>despite the fact that she seems to willfully/gleefully test the boundaries often) she makes sure we are all in line. all the time.</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">If I do anything that she interprets as being abnormal she asks me questions like, "Mama why you do this with your eyes??" [then does a dramatically long blink] or "Why did you look fast over there? like this?" [and mimics the way that I looked out the car window] or if I hum under my breath, I get, "Why you make a sound like this? DOOO DOO DOOOOO?"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So, that's been Mariah the last few months! Entertaining, exhausting, challenging, but, as always, full of life and teaching me constantly.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07145998219668557142noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6463811411817426320.post-34189517177070703142015-06-29T12:51:00.001-06:002015-06-30T17:24:22.888-06:00Sunshine<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I'll catch up on blogging one day, but in the meantime, there's this. Mom life is good today. </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07145998219668557142noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6463811411817426320.post-12776329815044076142015-05-01T12:58:00.000-06:002015-05-01T12:58:06.075-06:00Eden's Birth Story<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="text-align: left;">Our sweet little Eden Katherine started getting ready to come right on her due date. We didn't do child birthing classes this time, I just re-read the classics (Hypnobirthing: the Mongan Method, Childbirth Without Fear, and Ina May Gaskin's Guide to Childbirth) and listened to the Hypnobirth recordings every night for several months. The last month or so had been pretty uncomfortable, I feel like my chiropractor saved my life after dealing with some super painful <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphysis_pubis_dysfunction" target="_blank">SPD</a>. I was in early labor for most of the day on Feb 4, and by the late afternoon I told Matt not to come home early, but to get ready because I was pretty sure it was baby day. After he got home, he took Mariah out on their weekly Chipotle dinner date to give me a break, then I labored at home for awhile. After Mariah was asleep, I took a bath and went through several hypnobirthing scripts. </span></div>
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I told Matt to get some rest before we left for the hospital, so he went to sleep a little before 10. I called my midwife around 11pm when contractions were about 5 minutes apart, she said she would call back in an hour and check in. An hour later after pacing around the living room and walking circles around the kitchen island, contractions were 3-4 minutes apart. Looking back, this is one of my favorite memories. Just being alone in the dark living room, preparing to meet my baby, physically feeling everything fall in to place just like I hoped it would. After my midwife called back to check on the progress, we started getting ready to go to the hospital.<br />
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My friend Christina came over to stay the night and be with Mariah when she woke up. (Mariah was REALLY excited about this, we told her when she went to sleep that we were probably going to get baby sister tonight, and she had been talking excitedly for weeks about getting to play with her friends while we go to the hospital). It was starting to freezing rain as we left that night, but we were grateful this was in between major snowstorms. In the weeks before, the storms had been so bad there were travel bans and roads were closed- yikes.<br />
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We got to Hartford Hospital and checked in around 1 am, and I was relieved that my midwife Laura was there waiting for us. I was trying my best to stay calm focused on breathing, but in my mind I was worried I was totally being a wimp because it was feeling really HARD really soon! I was up pacing and walking around for a bit, until I felt like I just wanted to sit in the rocking chair. Matt was being fantastic, dutifully following the list I printed out for him of his jobs during labor (that probably sounds/is really controlling but best thing ever= I got everything I needed, expectations were set, and he didn't have to read my mind or ask me every few minutes what I wanted). Around 3 am after listening to the deep groans that barely sounded like they were coming from me, my water released, and soon after I felt like pushing. My midwife was truly amazing and skilled. She intuitively knew when to grab a cool wash cloth, when to feed me ice chips, when to ask what I needed and when to give me some space. On Feb 5 at 4:16 am, out came our beautiful Eden, fully posterior, face up ready to see the world, just like Mariah. The delivery couldn't have gone more smoothly, especially for a posterior baby.<br />
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Matt and I both went to Eden's first bath, then spent the day resting and getting to know our sleepy little infant. Mariah was happily playing at Christina's house, but I felt like it would be best for Matt to pick her up and take her home so she could spend the night in her own bed. I <span style="text-align: justify;">stayed alone in the hospital with Eden for the night, and I was surprisingly not lonely at all. It felt like the best vacation ever (minus the childbirth recovery part haha) being alone, with food being brought to me, a whole hospital staff to bring me anything I needed, peace and quiet and soaking up the newborn sweetness. This was the reward I had waited so long for! I totally felt the blissed-out smile move across my face every time I looked down at Eden in my arms.</span></div>
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In the morning, Matt came back and brought Mariah with him. I missed her and was so excited to see her meet her new sister. We took a few videos and a lot of pictures. I couldn't stop laughing at how messy her hair was, a leftover disheveled braid from the day before with a couple random hair bows stuck in. I guess she does need a mom ;) When I was nursing Eden, Mariah looked at me curiously, then without saying anything she crawled on the hospital bed and started munching on my bare shoulder. Then she stopped and said, "I eat mommy too." Bahahah. It felt so GOOD to have my whole family all together!<br />
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Even now, almost 3 months later, Eden is just sweet as can be. I feel SO overwhelmingly grateful for her every day. She started smiling when she was like two weeks old, and now we are starting to get little giggles and gurgles out of her. Mariah tells her in a sing-song voice, "Oh widdle Eden we wuv you so so so much! You are so wery cute!"<br />
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My heart is so full. </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07145998219668557142noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6463811411817426320.post-54775646075092366792015-02-17T18:48:00.000-07:002015-02-17T19:06:02.793-07:00Eden Katherine Morris<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Welcome to the world, little Eden Katherine! She joined us on February 5th at 4:16 am, weighing in at 7 lb 3 oz, measuring 20 in. </div>
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She came out a little bruised and scraped from the delivery (which was actually pretty quick and relatively easy). When a nurse commented on it, Matt joked, "Yeah, you should see the other guy!" I was like, "Me....that other guy is me..." </div>
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We were expecting another dark haired baby, so this wispy strawberry blonde hair surprised us! We still can't quite tell her eye color.<br>
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Very tired, very unshowered, but very happy.</div>
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I think it was a balmy 3 degrees when we left the hospital that morning!</div>
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We made it home!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07145998219668557142noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6463811411817426320.post-2922099865133331622015-01-30T11:02:00.000-07:002015-01-30T11:02:16.731-07:00The Things She Says<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
With less than a week to go until the due date, I'm trying to soak in all of Mariah's hilarious toddler goodness while it's just the two of us. (I say "toddler goodness" today because she actually slept through the night and just finished cutting her last set of two year molars. Hoooorrayyyy!")<br />
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Church is always an adventure. She was standing on the pew bobbing her head to one of the hymns, and as the music ended she loudly proclaimed, "Awww, I no can't dance anymore!!"<br />
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There was one Sunday where we had to take her out early because every time there was a pause or silence she would shout, "HAPPY New Year!"<br />
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One of her nursery leaders came and grabbed me near the end of church and said, "You might want to follow Mariah, she just opened the nursery door and bolted out saying "I go potty, and DON'T FOLLOW ME!!"<br />
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She's been saying this weird phrase for the last couple weeks, where out of nowhere she says, "I feel nervous...........(dramatic pause)...........about Jesus." (??????)<br />
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Every, single, night for Mariah's entire life I've sang her "I am a Child of God" as I put her to sleep. Now we usually just do one verse if any at all, but for over a year we sang at least 3 verses, sometimes many many many times while I rocked her to sleep as an infant. So I had to laugh when a couple weeks ago I was holding her, singing, about to lay her down and she perks up and looks at me and says, "Hey Mom!! Nice Child of God song!!"<br />
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She has this thing with privacy that is both frustrating and highly entertaining. She demands privacy while holding up a hand to block her face (from the paparazzi?) at times that are fairly normal like using the toilet (she makes sure we shut the door, but then leave it open a crack to check that we're waiting right outside) and also at times that make no sense at all, like when I'm trying to get her pajamas on and she runs naked into the hallway shouting "prrriiiicyy pleeease!!!"<br />
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A couple times I've gone in to her room in the morning to get her out of her crib and she is standing there with an arm extended and says, "Oh hi Mommy! Nice to meet you!"<br />
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Almost every night since Halloween, right before she goes to sleep she lifts up her head while I'm walking out of her bedroom and says "Guess what."<br />
"What?"<br />
"Happy Halloween."<br />
"Happy Halloween to you too. Go to sleep, goodnight."<br />
"Santa says Ho ho ho!, and Happy New Year!"<br />
I hope this continues through the whole year and she has every holiday in there by the time Halloween rolls around again. It makes me laugh every time, except for at 2 am when she wakes up hollering for me to come in, and all she has to say is "Mom. Happy new year."<br />
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Awhile ago I was pulling clothes out of the dryer and Mariah came up and tackled me from behind, strangling my neck, so I told her, "Ouch! Mariah, that hurt, you need to say sorry." And she said, "Sorry... for fun!"<br />
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She thinks "I just kidding" is an acceptable response to getting in trouble for hitting or throwing things. I say, "That's not funny, you hurt me when you hit." And she insists "It IS funny mom! I just kidding!"<br />
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She also assures me right as her finger is entering her nose, "Mom, Riah NOT be gross, Riah be funny!!"<br />
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Also funny to me: she loves her shadow. When she notices it, she says hi to it, talks to it, tickles it, tries to touch it but then gets frustrated saying, "Shadow, hard to reach it you!" She literally chases her shadow around in the early morning and evening, and gets sad and annoyed when it disappears into the light, so she has to find the right places where she can see it on the floor or against the wall. I have overheard her having little conversations with her shadow that go like this "Hi shadow. I play with you. Now stay here with me."<br />
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Mariah is really into having "favorites" and when she really likes something she quickly declares that it is her favorite. Currently, her favorite piece of mail is Consumer Reports, her favorite mode of transportation is the elevator in our apartment building, her favorite book is "Getting Ready for Baby", her favorite letter is W, her favorite color is purple, her favorite food is whatever she is eating, her favorite song is "Rockabye Bear." She updates me on these things every single day. Nobody has ever accused her of having too few opinions.<br />
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She still loves kissing and hugging and has this little routine that she does where she goes up to the object of her affection (the daily recipients are the car, the elevator door, her stuffed animals, daddy, her baby doll, and says, "Kiss (leans in for a kiss), now hug (smooshes her face against it) awww, so nice."<br />
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You know how they say with opinionated toddlers to always give options to let them feel like they're making a choice...Mariah has turned that one around on us too. She knows she's not allowed to bring toys in her crib, so before nap time she hurries and grabs two toys and says "Mom, you pick one for me. Make good choices."<br />
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She loves coming to prenatal appointments with me and trying to impress the midwifes with all of her medical knowledge. She comes in and says stuff like, "Hi midwife. check the belly baby sister. Mommy step on a scale. Now measure." She made my midwife laugh when she walked in and Mariah was laying on the table with her shirt up and she said, "Put the glue on my belly now!" She was referring to the ultrasound gel they squeeze on hahaha.<br />
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Other fun times at midwife visits: the first time I had an internal exam I started undressing, and Mariah (probably recalling the only times she's had to take off her pants in public) looks at me with an understanding, sympathetic face and says, "Oh noooo, mommy, you did pee pees in yours pants? That's toooo bad."<br />
At another exam, she would not accept that my pants had to stay off and as the midwife was coming back in the room, Mariah was carrying on about "Mom, keep yours cwothes ON!! Here take yours pants!" (while she's shoving my pants back in my lap and trying to take off the privacy blanket.<br />
At my most recent visit, as we pulled in to the parking lot, Mariah asked, "Mom, PWEESE no take off yours cwothes at midwife's house." Lucky for her, it was a pants-on day.<br />
When I had to leave a "sample" in the restroom, after watching me pee in the cup and put it on the tray she said "Oh Mom, good job making juice!"<br />
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She talks in double (and sometimes triple) negatives all the time, which I should probably discourage but I think it's kind of cute. She says things like "Hey moon! I no can't reach it you too high in the sky!" and "Oh no! Where's my baby doll I no don't can't find it!"<br />
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She talks about her feelings, which are both abundant and ever-changing, with pretty impressive skill. She identifies to me when she is frustrated, sad, happy, excited, nervous, and mad. She also points out to me what I'm feeling and tries to guess why. "Mommy you feel sad...you miss Daddy? Forgot to give him kiss this morning?" The last few days I've been sick with a cold and she constantly asks, "You feel okay? Still sick? It's ok, Riah's here. I help you feel better." She is really sweet and empathetic to me, and to her friends also. Nothing makes me prouder than seeing her trying to comfort a crying friend by offering words of advice, some jokes, and offering to share toys.<br />
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Mariah is so incredibly excited for baby sister to get here, she talks about her every single day and tells us all sorts of stuff. She says she has black hair and brown eyes. She collects toys for her to play with ("When baby sister gets here, I play this with her, okay??"). When strangers make a comment to her about becoming a big sister soon she goes through this whole spiel: "When baby sister comes, Mommy and Daddy go to hospital. together. Then Riah goes to friends house. Baby sister comes out, then Mommy Daddy come back to get me!! I hold the baby sister!"<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07145998219668557142noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6463811411817426320.post-35078614497963659252015-01-23T19:43:00.001-07:002015-01-23T19:43:33.673-07:00Family Pictures, 38 Weeks<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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As this pregnancy draws to a close it suddenly became super important to me to have family pictures taken. I meant to do it like a month ago before I reached the huge prego stage, but instead here we are, at 38 weeks pregnant. I wanted a record of our family as it is now, before things change. Big thanks to our friends the Giffords for playing along with my family photo shoot plans in their backyard on Martin Luther King, Jr Day. (Also our engagement day anniversary- 5 years!)</div>
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(<span style="text-align: center;">Don't be fooled by the sunshine it was like 20 something degrees outside! We're tough now.</span><span style="text-align: center;"> )</span><br />
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Smooches.</div>
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Wiping off smooches.</div>
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Still my baby.</div>
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Sure love my people. Looking forward to our next pictures as a family of four.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07145998219668557142noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6463811411817426320.post-17156300163940750862015-01-20T12:08:00.001-07:002015-01-20T12:08:54.063-07:00Christmas Dinner<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
After our slow Christmas morning, we all took naps then got ready for dinner at our friends', the Mumford's home. Pretty table display.<br />
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Little Claire and Mariah at the piano. A lovely duet.</div>
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Tammy prepped us all for our chimes performance.</div>
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Matt and Ryan were pretty excited about exercising their musical abilities...<br />
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...while Tammy and her sister put us all to shame and we attempted to keep up with them.<br />
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The kiddos watched Frosty the Snowman while we ate, that lasted a couple minutes.<br />
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I've said it before and I'll say it again- we have such amazing friends here, it makes it easier to be away from family when we get to share the holidays with these folks!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07145998219668557142noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6463811411817426320.post-13301609034583561922015-01-20T11:49:00.000-07:002015-01-20T11:54:22.260-07:00Christmas Morning 2014<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Christmas Morning 2014! We woke Mariah up together, and then videotaped as she walked out to the Christmas tree and saw all the presents underneath. The one thing we left unwrapped was the toy car from Grandma and Grandpa Morris. She immediately ran up to it and said, "My bus!!!" She spent a lot of the morning in there! </div>
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About a month later, it is still usually called her bus, but it is sometimes her trolley or her race car too. She uses it to run all her important errands around the house.</div>
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Mariah was a big help with the unwrapping. Before almost every gift she would say, "I so excited....!"<br />
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Thanks Mom and Dad for this amazing emergency preparedness kit!</div>
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Mariah got her own yoga mat ("woga nap") and she is becoming quite the little yogi these days. She tells her friends "namaste" and never misses a chance to remind me to "take deeeep breffs"</div>
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She also opened up this broom which she interpreted as a wall washer hahah. Thanks Aunt Stephanie!</div>
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When Mariah opened up this new baby doll from Nana and Grandpa Lonas she looked at it and was like, "Ah my baby sister's in the box!!" I wish it was that easy ha!<br />
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Love.</div>
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Mariah hates washing her hands so we got her this faucet extender to try to make it more fun. Success!<br />
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Shout out to my awesome husband for going unaccompanied into Sephora to buy makeup for me. That takes a brave man.<br />
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We ended up saving the stockings for last, Mariah got a kick out of "presents in socks." One of her favorite things was this kazoo I threw in at the last minute.<br />
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We had a great, relaxing morning with just the three of us, jamming to Raffi's Christmas tunes, making breakfast tacos, openings gifts, and talking to family on the phone and FaceTime.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07145998219668557142noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6463811411817426320.post-25970373276081635382014-12-24T12:27:00.000-07:002014-12-24T12:27:44.419-07:00Merry Christmas!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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After a one year hiatus, the Morris Family Christmas Lip Syncers are at it again. This year featuring a two year old (who was strongly <strike>bribed </strike> encouraged to smile- note her initial enthusiasm) and her doggy purse who *needed* to be in the video. And...take ten, from the top! Merry Christmas everyone!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07145998219668557142noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6463811411817426320.post-49162077916461359492014-12-23T13:33:00.000-07:002014-12-23T13:41:09.541-07:00The Cutting of the Christmas Tree<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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We got our very first Christmas tree! We'd never had one before since we've always been in California with our families enjoying their trees and decorations. We're doing the holidays by ourselves this year so we have to make up some new traditions.</div>
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A couple days after Thanksgiving we went out to a farm just across the Massachusetts border and got ourselves the best tree we could find. </div>
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It was freezing cold and we accidentally walked around the back way, through all the baby trees, so by the time we got to the full grown ones we were like yup sure that one looks good. </div>
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"Here daddy, some snow. Try it, it's good!"<br />
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(Also we can talk about how none of my winter coats can button or zip around the baby belly. Thank goodness for the extra layer of fat to keep me warm through the winter)</div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">We were expecting the sawing process to take awhile. I had this vision of us sawing away into the night, having to take turns sawing then warming our hands until we could finally yell "Tiiiimmmmbeeerrr!" I mean cutting down a tree with a handsaw sounds hard, right? It took about 30 seconds; by the time I caught up with Mariah, Matt already had the tree on the ground.</span></div>
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Mighty fine lumberjack.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07145998219668557142noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6463811411817426320.post-64685256982642074672014-12-20T17:27:00.000-07:002014-12-20T17:27:13.924-07:00Thanksgiving 2014 + Matt's Birthday<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Matt's birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year. We celebrated his birthday Turkey Day Style, which meant he got to go play football in the morning and came home with a battle wound injury to the hand. It's been almost a month and I think he's finally recovered now.</div>
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Since we were spending Thanksgiving with a group of friends, everything was divvied up and we were in charge of cranberry sauce, a dessert, and loaded mashed potatoes. I did two ways- 1) caramelized onions and roasted garlic with parmesan, and 2) bacon and white cheddar. For our dessert I chose a cranberry orange upside down cake, and Matt requested Oreo truffles for his birthday treat. I spent most of the day in the kitchen. </div>
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I cried buckets of tears chopping up these bad boys. Sweat and tears went into food prep, thankfully no blood this time.</div>
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Kids table!</div>
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Adult table</div>
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<span style="text-align: center;">Turkey man Nathan made a beautiful bird. He did one roasted and one smoked turkey.</span></div>
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SO much fooooood. </div>
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Everyone shared leftovers, and I think we might have actually come home with just as much food as we brought. We had thanksgiving feasts for the next three days.<br />
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Happy 32 to Matt!</div>
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I really did miss sharing the day with family. We've been without our immediate family on several Thanksgivings, but it was our first time being away from extended family too. Everyone was invited to share their own family traditions with the group to make it feel more like home. Our contribution was reading <a href="http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/thanks.htm" target="_blank">Lincoln's 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation</a>. It was fun sharing in our friends' traditions too; we're lucky we got to spend the day with a great group of people.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07145998219668557142noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6463811411817426320.post-77610171691422828532014-12-09T17:43:00.001-07:002014-12-09T18:13:49.168-07:00First Snow of the Season<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The day before Thanksgiving we had our first snow storm of the season, complete with a short power outage and everything. As soon as the snow started falling, Mariah was asking to "go make a noman outside wif daddy!" Matt was working from home due to the weather, so when there was enough snow on the ground that was exactly what they did.<br />
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The cutest vague representation of a snowman. Mariah was so proud and talked about it for days.<span style="text-align: left;"> </span></div>
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Teaching her how to make snow angels. My heart melted.</div>
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Bonus: I got to watch from the warmth and comfort of our apartment while I made paleo pumpkin cookies (actually I used acorn squash). I am of the mindset that the best kind of winter activities are the kind that don't involve really touching any snow.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07145998219668557142noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6463811411817426320.post-80351013093545507562014-11-28T12:33:00.000-07:002014-11-28T12:33:37.234-07:00Keene Pumpkin Festival<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In mid-October we drove up to Keene, New Hampshire to see the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keene_Pumpkin_Fest" target="_blank">Pumpkin Festival</a>. I can't explain to you how excited I was about this. I just get really amped about a LOT of something all in one place. In 2013, the festival broke the Guinness World Record with over 30,000 lit jack-o-lanterns, and they were hoping for a repeat this year.<br />
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Normally Keene is a really small little town (population around 20k), so having about 4 times that many people crammed in their little town square is a site to behold in itself.<br />
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The highlight of the day for Mariah was riding in a school bus from the parking lot to the festival. My highlight was seeing all the pumpkin headgear and costumes.<br />
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The giant jack-o-lantern tower!</div>
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There were so many thousands and thousands of pumpkins lining the streets it's hard to really capture it, but there were some really fun carvings, like Botticelli's Venus in pumpkin form.<br />
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We went there with the Giffords; here we are escaping the crowds for dinner on a side street.<br />
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Around dusk, people starting lighting their pumpkins. It took a few hours just to get everything lit. There were official counters going around, marking X's on the pumpkins as they were counted.<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ttg1IvC5FGo/VHjHVHf0joI/AAAAAAAAD9w/3XAH4Y_6k4U/s1600/IMG_8198.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ttg1IvC5FGo/VHjHVHf0joI/AAAAAAAAD9w/3XAH4Y_6k4U/s1600/IMG_8198.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a><br />
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When the time came, they made everybody stay really really still and quiet so as not to disturb any jack-o-lantern flames while they did the final count. This was serious business.</div>
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There were live bands playing in the pavillion and everyone was really into it. It actually made me kind of love Halloween for a day. The whole thing totally reminded me of Punxsutawny in the movie Groundhog Day.<br />
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When we got home, we saw on the news that there were actually violent <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2014/10/20/keene-pumpkin-festival-rioters-threw-full-liquor-bottles-and-billiard-balls-police-officials-say/G6NDdSrRBrInzJuzfkaqCN/story.html" target="_blank">riots at the festival</a>- we had no idea. We had seen a bunch of police cars but we thought it was just regular crowd control. We were really lucky and came right after the riots had broken out, and left the festival before things got crazy I guess. We never noticed anything.</div>
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The next day, we heard that the world record had been broken, but then several days after that we found out that too many pumpkins were disqualified for being unlit at the official count time. So, better luck next year Keene!</div>
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(And, in case you were worried about pumpkin waste, they actually have a team contest right after the festival for cleaning up the jack-o-lanterns and then they're all donated to farmers to use as pig food.) </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07145998219668557142noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6463811411817426320.post-36107330977222253742014-11-18T21:05:00.000-07:002014-11-18T21:05:36.964-07:00On being pregnant again.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(I know, I know you all already saw this picture on Instagram but it's all I've got!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">*Skip to last paragraph if you're not in the mood to read the emotional ramblings of a pregnant lady.*</span></div>
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Surprisingly, after everything in the last year, it feels like this great inevitability that we would be expecting baby number two right now, and we are really really happy, hopeful, and immeasurably grateful. Of <i>course </i>this is how the timing would work out. But, it does feel <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/meredith-hale/pregnancy-after-a-miscarriage-is-different_b_5974856.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000037" target="_blank">different</a>. Like, I don't even like using the phrase "expecting a baby" because that's not how it felt for the first 6 months. It feels like I'm pregnant and things are going well and I hope the baby makes it here safely and in good health. Also, I always hesitate in my head when I say "baby number two" because deep down it feels like baby number two came and went and I don't know what number this is. But, of course, this really is baby number two. That probably sounds silly but I can't explain it. I never thought I would have this really weird complex sadness and anxiety attached to pregnancy and everything related to it. I really do feel happy and peaceful. It just felt like I was waiting to feel EXCITED about this pregnancy, like how we felt with Mariah, and with the pregnancy after her. I told myself, I'll feel excited when we see the heartbeat for the first time. I'll feel excited if we STILL see a heartbeat the next time. I'll be excited if everything is still okay at the next appointment. I'll feel excited when I can feel the baby kicking. When each of those little milestones passed instead of feeling excited I felt relieved, and also scared of losing what I already love so much. This pregnancy has been really relatively easy, my only difficulty has been being really tired, and that's just not the worst thing in the world. Also, chasing around a toddler doesn't leave me a lot of time to sit and think about how I'm feeling and how the baby is doing. Actually, when I have a quiet moment my thoughts often drift not to the baby to be, but to the babies that were. June and August were both hard. I tried not to think about it but having due dates pass with nothing to show for it feels really crappy.<br />
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So, I didn't really feel like making a public pregnancy announcement. Not because it's a secret, I really didn't care who knows, and most people I've talked to over the last several months already knew if the subject came up. It just felt weird making any sort of public declaration about something that is only a part of a private struggle we've been going through over the last year. Besides that, I wasn't even totally convinced we had anything to announce until like a month ago. But I actually do feel excited now!! I feel like I should be taking pictures and writing down all the details of how things are going because it's fun to look back on. I just don't want to, and it's not because I don't care, it's the opposite. But hey, maybe I'll get on top of things and take some pictures and write some things down these final few months! So, that is the long version of this:<br />
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We're due on February 4 with Baby #2- another girl! 29 weeks down and feeling pretty good. Mariah talks about the "girl baby" in my tummy all the time and tries to put raisins and other little goodies in my belly button to help feed her. She knew it was a girl baby a couple months before we did, and she seemed pretty confident about it. When Mariah wants morning cuddles, she sits on my lap and says, "Good mooorning baby siiiister!" and gives me big pats on the belly. She sometimes asks to sit on my lap, facing me, and says she wants to "see baby". She'll lift the bottom of my shirt and lay her head on my stomach and give the "baby" kisses, hugs, cuddles, and squeezes. If that's not the sweetest thing I don't know what is. Mariah also thinks she has a baby sister in her own belly and every once in awhile she stops and gasps, pointing to her tummy and says, "See that baby sister moving in there?!" More recently Mariah has been grabbing at my belly saying, "Hard to reach it baby sister! Come out, play with me!" I love my two little ones with more than words can say. I already have a very special place in my heart for this little girl, the second child with an older sister.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07145998219668557142noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6463811411817426320.post-26189378997871171972014-10-24T13:56:00.002-06:002014-10-24T14:00:04.144-06:00Watch Hill, RI<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="text-align: left;">We took advantage of the last nice beach day, the weekend after Labor Day, and drove a couple hours out to lovely Watch Hill, Rhode Island. The weather forecast had a chance of rain but we forged ahead and it ended up being a pretty perfect day. We went with our friends the Giffords, which is always a good time since Mariah and Tyson love each other.</span></div>
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That lighthouse in the background there is a popular spot for marriage proposals, and it was fun to see this plan fly by. Nicely planned, Derek.<br />
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Toddlers with their dads.</div>
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Mariah doing what she does best- collecting heavy rocks.</div>
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So Taylor Swift has this beautiful white house in Watch Hill, right there overlooking us on the beach. She had a handful of security guards on the property, and one of them kindly let us know that Taylor was not home to come play on the beach.<br />
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After beach time, we went and walked around town and grabbed lunch. The kids sat and watched this carousel forever! It is the oldest operating carousel in the country (built in 1867), and made from rocking horses that are even older. It was originally pulled by a horse until electricity took over in 1914. Just some fun facts for you.</div>
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They hug each other so much it is so adorable, They are the cutest little friends. We didn't actually let them ride the carousel since the straps weren't too secure and we didn't trust them to not jump off. Maybe next year.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07145998219668557142noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6463811411817426320.post-61246736654859140452014-10-21T14:06:00.001-06:002014-10-21T14:06:51.406-06:00Peaches<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Still catching up on summer pics! If you haven't been able to tell, fruit picking has been our jam since moving here (pun totally intended). We love going to visit different farms and orchards and taking home as much as we can carry. I'm learning about canning and freezing and trying to preserve some of the goodness to enjoy in the winter. This time we went to Dondero Orchards and we had Rebecca with us to help with the pickins. </div>
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Mariah loved running away from me and finding rotten peaches on the ground to munch on.</div>
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She mostly cried a lot until it was time to go and she got to play in this play car at the farm house while I paid for the fruit. Then she decided this was the best orchard ever.<br />
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We waited a few days for the peaches to ripen, then we blanched and skinned them and LOOK HOW PRETTY THEY ARE, like little balls of sunset.<br />
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Then we made a peach galette, peach jam, peach syrup, and froze lots and lots and lots of slices to bag and use later.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07145998219668557142noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6463811411817426320.post-28661990403993669412014-10-10T12:30:00.000-06:002014-10-10T12:30:14.191-06:00This is Two<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This little baby turned two! In typical two year old fashion, Mariah keeps insisting that she is "fwee" (three). Because she knows everything. </div>
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I just really love her.</div>
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This is how the conversation went.</div>
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Me: "Mariah, let's go take some pictures! On the bed!"</div>
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M: "Yay! bed! running! fun! excited! pictures!"</div>
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Me: Yay fun! Okay but stay still for a second.<br />
M: No. no no no no. (but she still did)<br />
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M: "Hiding. number two. hiding."</div>
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M: "Yaya tired. so tired."<br />
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M: "Amils! (animals) Amils! Look number two! So cute!"</div>
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M: "Doggy kiss it."</div>
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Me: "Can you smile? Smile for me!"<br />
M: "Tongue. ehhhhhh"<br />
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Me: "Smile with your teeth, like this!"<br />
M: "Teeth. Teeth Yaya mouf."<br />
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Me: "Here hold this paper star"</div>
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M: "oooo yewwow star."</div>
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M: "uh-oh. broke it. fix it mommy."<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07145998219668557142noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6463811411817426320.post-71572961496052204862014-10-01T12:09:00.001-06:002014-10-01T12:09:42.218-06:00Utah- Chase + Joelyn Wedding<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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My brother got married this summer! What?! Yeah, it happened. It's been a few months so I've wrapped my head around it now. It's been fun getting to know our new sis Joelyn and seeing how happy she makes Chase.</div>
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The morning of the wedding we had a combined family breakfast while we tried to help Joelyn's family with reception preparations.</div>
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A few hours before tying the knot for time and all eternity. They don't even look nervous.</div>
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Mariah and Matt enjoying some breakfast pastries amid reception prep.</div>
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Breakfast courtesy of Kneaders. I miss a handful of things about Utah, and Kneaders is right up there near the top.</div>
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Joelyn's family is super talented. They put together the reception and did the flowers, decor, and catering and everything themselves.</div>
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Getting ready for the wedding in matching dresses:<br />
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Waiting outside the temple<br />
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Congrats Chase and Joelyn!<br />
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I love this. When kids are done they are DONE. Mariah layed down in the middle of the floor, too tired to even turn around as the bride and groomed walked by to make their exit.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07145998219668557142noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6463811411817426320.post-27027639366326413442014-09-26T12:32:00.000-06:002014-09-26T12:46:09.810-06:00Utah- Fam Reunion<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
We knew when we moved away from Utah that we would be coming back for the family reunion just a few months later! What we didn't know was that my brother's wedding would be at that same time! The timing worked out pretty well though, we got to take a long trip at the end of June into July and fit in both things. It didn't feel like we had been gone from Utah for that long but it was great to come back and see everyone, especially those that came from out of state that we hadn't seen in years.<br />
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Plane ride there:<br />
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Another great thing about Mariah getting older is she'll actually sit and watch a show now! She chose Elmo on the way there, and even though she only watched for like 15 minute intervals it is the biggest lifesaver ever. Never again will I ever judge anybody for giving their kids shows and snacks for an entire flight. Airplane + toddler = survival mode. We still have some rough times but, thank heavens for the iPad. We were so lucky there was an extra seat on the plane so she didn't have to be in our lap either.<br />
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Once the shows get old we get out the stickers and coloring books and have a party.<br />
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Then we got to Utah and Stephanie's family came and we all got to hang out at the Beus's beautiful home for a few days before Chase's wedding! We <span style="text-align: left;">loved getting to spend extra time with everyone there.</span></div>
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Cute cousins.</div>
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I love and hate how grown up she looks here!<br />
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Mariah and her second cousin Cody loved driving around this John Deere haha!</div>
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She found a walkman in the basement and carried it around for a couple days. Bringin it back.</div>
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Sweet moments with her Great Grandma Williams. Mariah loves her GG and all week she would ask "Where are you GG?!"<br />
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Look at this view....<br />
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The family reunion was at Bear Lake, which was settled by our ancestors several generations ago! So we drove a few hours up there and met up with the rest of the extended family. I think Matt can finally say he's met all of my cousins now. I didn't get a chance to take lots of pics, but here are a few from my phone to document...<br />
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Our new sis Joelyn!<br />
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<span style="text-align: left;">Mariah got pretty sick our last few days there and it ended up being hand, foot, mouth. Poor thing. She had a mild case and it cleared up in a few days, but I don't think she smiled once at the reunion :( !</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07145998219668557142noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6463811411817426320.post-70198549821141924942014-09-21T19:59:00.001-06:002014-09-21T19:59:48.264-06:00Mariah at almost 2<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
There are so many things I just want to bottle up and preserve and keep forever the way they are now, at 23 and a half months. Watching Mariah learn to talk is one of those things. Still one year old. I'm afraid I'll forget the way that she says and does things.<br />
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(Totally unrelated pictures are from last Friday afternoon in New Haven at Lighthouse Point Park. Also wish I could preserve this day.)</div>
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My favorite is that she loves "fuffins" (muffins) and "wooshies" (smoothies).<br />
She is very concerned about "pyme out" (time out) and often has her stuffed animals act out things she's not supposed to do and then explains to them, "No, no monkey, no climb table. pyme out."<br />
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Ev.er.y.thing. is "Yaya self!" and "Me mine!"<br />
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The latest additions to her vocabulary have been: "not yet", "too", and "togeder" (together) as in "Mariah, do you need a new diaper?" "Not yet...!" and she hears me talking to Matt in the morning saying, "What do you want for breakfast?" and she chimes in "Wait! Yaya breakfast toooooo!" and in the evening she wants us all to "Pay (play) Yaya's room togeder"<br />
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She wakes up at the crack of dawn every day so while I'm still prying my eyes open at quarter to six she's running around the living room balancing her sippy cup in one hand going, "Watcha meee!" (watch me!) "Ta daaaaa!" and spinning in circles getting "wizzy" (dizzy) and laughing hysterically until she falls over.<br />
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She thinks "onetwofweee!" (one, two, three) is a synonym for "Watch out I'm about to jump off of this!" so we get about a half second warning before she launches herself off the couch or a rock or whatever high thing is nearby.<br />
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Her favorite game right now is doctor. She comes over and kind of pushes you over until she can press against your shoulder to get you lying down on the ground, then she tells you, "Just ONE shot." and gives you a "shot" (sound effects included) in your arm or face. She also says while patting you down, "Check head. check heart. check feet. check mouf. okay. Heffy! (healthy!)"<br />
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The only song on the radio she likes is Taylor Swift's new Shake it Off song. She calls it "dance off" and runs around shaking and dancing and trying to sing the chorus. It is hilariously cute. Other than that we usually have to sing her favorites in the car which is almost always "Happy Birthday." We sing it to her, to her stuffed animals, friends, relatives, water, buckles, trees, and whatever else she requests. We also sing a lot of "Do you know the fuffin man?" and "Popcorn Popping."<br />
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Daniel Tiger is still her favorite show, but Blue's Clues is starting to creep up in the rankings. She calls it "Couscous" which I love. Veggie Tales ("Wedgie Tales") is also becoming a contender.<br />
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She loves leading us by the hand, telling us "Mere!" and "Mon!" (Come here! and Come on!)<br />
She still puts everything in her mouth. This morning she picked up a piece of...something...off the floor, put it in her mouth and said, "Mmm, spicy!"<br />
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I laugh when we're walking and she very seriously picks up a rock and says, "Oh! My favwit (favorite)!!"<br />
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She recently discovered that she can pull the small chair away from her table, and drag it all over the apartment to do what she needs to do. She pulls up the chair to "help" with dishes- aka splash water and throw stuffed animals in the sink for a bath, and she pulls her chair up to the bathroom counter to help me get ready. She asks to borrow "gake up" (make up) and this morning she picked up tweezers and reached for my face saying "mommy eyebrows." Every time she gets in the bath or shower with me I notice her carefully lift each leg on to the side of the bath one at a time and rub bubbles on it to practice shaving her little legs. It is cute and makes me sad at the same time. For better or for worse, she is fiercely independent. She loves correcting me (even when she's wrong.) I point out an airplane in the sky and she says, "No. hehcocter." I say, "Nope, That's not a helicopter it's an airplane." And she insists: "NO! HEHCOCTER!"<br />
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Her learning to talk is fun, but the not fun things are the constant tantrums, the fact that she didn't sleep all last week, the molars that are trying to break through (WILL TEETHING EVER BE OVER??), and the constant battle that is every single thing she tries to do on her own but is physically incapable of (e.g. cooking at the stove, putting on her boots, cutting her food, and filling up her own sippy cup).<br />
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Hard to believe it was almost a year ago that we were driving home from a weekend in Vegas, Mariah was screaming, no shrieking, for hours on end in the car, and I was literally crying to Matt asking, "Does this get easier? Will this get better?" In the last year the answer is: No and yes. It doesn't get easier. But it's all worth it. There are some good days and good weeks and there are really hard days and hard weeks. Mariah is chatty and charming and bright and full of life, funny and feisty and stubborn, sweet and sensitive and emotionally charged. With a little prompting, she reminds us often that she is "Trong and Fart!" (strong and smart. We're still working on that pronunciation hahah) She is almost two in every way and if I could change a thing, I probably wouldn't*.<br />
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*(except sleep. please more sleep.)</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07145998219668557142noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6463811411817426320.post-52653706808839807332014-09-04T10:55:00.000-06:002014-09-04T10:55:02.775-06:00Blueberry Picking<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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We loved having Jenna visit us last month! On our way to drop her off at the airport, we brought her with us to pick blueberries at Kuras Berry Farm.</div>
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Too bad Jenna couldn't bring all her blueberries with her, but I think she still got a bag full on the plane.</div>
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We also met up with some of Mariah's BFFs.</div>
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(Adrienne, this picture of Mariah totally reminds me of Megan.) </div>
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Christina and Alarie showed up in matching outfits- I love when that happens. Smart people thought ahead and wore black to hide berry stains. Noted for next time.</div>
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Mariah was so concerned that Tyson wasn't actually collecting any berries (he was too busy eating them) so she kept taking handfuls out of her bucket to give to him.<br />
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We came home with about 10 pounds of blueberries. That's a lot of blueberries. A LOT of them were gobbled up in the first few days. After making blueberry muffins and blueberry pancakes, with the leftovers I froze a bunch, then was inspired to make jam. I made it with just blueberries, a little lemon juice, some pure maple syrup and honey. Then I canned for the first time ever! To paraphrase my sister Rebecca, I was feeling more Mormon by the minute ;)<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07145998219668557142noreply@blogger.com1