Pickles and Ranch

Sometimes Mara has wild cravings...

You would think that she was the pregnant one.

Even adorable babies bleed

She may seem un-naturally cute, but she still bleeds red.

Yesterday, she got REALLY excited to play with our neighbors soccer ball...until our uneven walkway reached up, tripped her, and bit her nose.

And this was Mara's first bandaid, ever. She earned it on a walk on Valentine's Day where she was having SO much fun, I don't even know when it happened.

The funniest part was that she was more concerned about that terrifying bandaid than the scraped knee that it was covering.

"Mooooom, get it off!!!"

In case you were wondering...

She's still makes me laugh.

She's still super cute.

She still loves her daddy.

She loves to play in the window sill.

She doesn't like it if you try to take "her" hat.

She's decided that the camera deserves a BIG smile...even if it hurts.

That, my friends, is dedication.

A snowman story

Mara has a favorite song: Once There Was a Snowman. When we ask her what song she wants to sing at the end of the day she instantly raises her hands in preparation. It's really cute when she does the actions for it, so we thought we would share.

Holiday Fun

We've been really busy these last few weeks, finishing up a semester at school and starting another one, enjoying the holidays, and trying to spend as much time together as we can. So we haven't posted... oops. Anyway, we just wanted to say that our holidays were fantastic, spending time with each other and with family has been refreshing. It made heading back to school less exciting for everyone in the family. But for everyone outside of Provo, we thought we would share a few pictures from the past few weeks.

Mara has recently managed to master climbing.

New pajamas for Christmas from Grandma.

Christen's brother Daniel and his wife came down to visit and Mara loved their suitcase (and them).

Daddy's textbook, "Robots and Manufacturing Automation" is also sooo exciting.

Hope everyone else had a great holiday, and that this New Year is as promising to everyone else as it is for us.

Eat like a Pilgrim!!

Before it fades into the past, pushed by Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday sales, and putting up the Christmas Tree, I figured I should post about the "Eat Like A Pilgrim" dinner that we went to last weekend!

It was a dinner at Thanksgiving Point celebrating the first Thanksgiving Day, complete with "hosts" dressed in colonial garb and speaking with cool accents and phrases. As usual, Mara was afraid of the "strange man"- the master of our military matters had her looking to her daddy for help.

We had oil and vinegar to put on our salad greens instead of fully mixed salad dressing, and no forks to eat our salad greens. Luckily, we had enormous napkins to keep us clean. The menu also consisted of corn pudding, pumpkin, pork, turkey, mixed berry cobbler, and apple cider. (We had the option of trying some raw oysters, but we voted no...)

There was a guy there writing people's names with a quill pen, traditional games to play, and even a tiny goat and a calf inside for petting.

It was super fun, and Mara thoroughly enjoyed the animals.

No, really...

Maybe because it was her size,

but that goat was her favorite thing!

Mostly she just enjoyed being a pilgrim for a night- with tons of stimulating sights to see, room to run, and of course, modern cooking, indoor heating, and a fancy restaurant-style high chair. Being a pilgrim is fun!

Halloween Pictures

As promised, here are the pictures from halloween.

We had a cute little sheep outfit for Mara, but it was too small, so she only wore it for story time at the library.

On Saturday we went to a halloween party at our friends house. (Ian was a mechanic, and I was a tree.) We borrowed a cute little bug outfit for the party, and unfortunately, this is the only picture we took. Mara woke up from a nap right before the party so she looks a bit out of it, and she wouldn't even wear the hat that went with it. Sad day. Oh well, there is always next year.

Mara was terrified of everyone in costume, but the party was really fun. And I even got a prize for being the most creative costume :) woohoo for halloween!