Dec. 26th

The day after Christmas we went and did Morris family pictures on the beach, then we changed clothes and stayed to play awhile. Seriously- the weather was ridiculous. It almost felt like summer. Luckily we got to drop off Mariah napping at my parents house so it felt like a real vacation being able to sit down and talk with my sisters in law and watch my cute nieces and nephews play.

Christmas Day 2013

As per usual, our Christmas day was split- Morning with Lonas fam and evening with Morris fam. We feel so lucky that we get to go between our two great families with nieces, nephews, grandparents, siblings, and parents on both sides. The only hard part is saving room for double the Christmas goodies.

Mariah spent a while sitting in her cardboard boat with her new baby doll.

 One of my favorite Christmassy things is the big pile of wrapping paper that collects on the floor.

 Chase vs. Snow White on the basketball court. It is SO GOOD having him home.

Baby Hal in all his cuteness! 

 Grandma and Grandpa Lonas

And then we went over to the Morris Christmas where I was even worse about taking pictures.

 Kids watching Elf

Getting ready for the annual Morris Family White Elephant Gift Exchange. 

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.