Lots of Updates

We've been busier than usual and, consequently, the blog has fallen to the wayside. My apologies!

We celebrated Zack's 29th birthday on October 4th and Mara helped me make the funfetti cake:

She was very focused on her stirring:

And, like a good chef, made sure to sample her creation by telling me "Lick! Lick!"

She then helped draw some some birthday pictures so when Daddy returned from his work golf league, he would be surprised. We didn't expect this, though. I drew some happy faces and we talked about "ears" and she placed the two red marks on the side of the face. I then asked for hair, to which she changed her stroke and drew the hair. I said maybe she should give him a nose and she dotted in the middle of the face. We were awestruck.

Golf has been on the family's mind and agenda a lot recently. I found this incredibly adorable and we HAD to purchase it. Ignore the strange pants - she originally had a jean dress to go with her jean bloomers... but SOMEONE has developed quite the little attitude about what she wears and she came home from daycare in this. I tried to put pants on her. I was unsuccessful.

 We bought her a right handed putter, but still have not been able to determine her dominant hand. She will color, throw, and pick objects up with either hand.

 Here's an attitude shot. Future LPGA champion? Let's focus on getting some pants, first.

Two weekends ago we made the journey north for Susie and Mike's wedding festivities. We saw lots of family from Thursday on and Mara took a great liking to Mirka, our exchange student from years ago, a sister, and a bridesmaid!

Here's a shot of me, helping Mara do what she does best.

Mara fell in love with this tiny plastic chair and drug it all over the house. She'd get it set up where she wanted, in front of the TV for instance, and would climb on in and relax.

Mara loved sampling all the food and was so social with everyone!

Mara was the flower girl for the wedding, and here's a shot of the basket I put together for her. Everything was glued in since we couldn't allow her to throw petals.

And here is the adorable dress she wore:

She was such a cutie.

Here are the girls at the rehearsal:

And our little family!

I'm waiting on pictures from the wedding since I didn't take any - was too busy!

But this is the one shot I do have:

This past weekend, we hit up a pumpkin farm and the Asheboro ZOO! Check back later this week for pictures - still have to pull them from my camera and resize. I hope you enjoyed this post, as overdue as it was.

Happy Tuesday!

Mara Videos

This was Mara at the park a little bit ago. She amazes me every day with things she notices or hears. She is getting so BIG and accomplishes a lot on her own. I watched her working on getting her shoe strap through the buckle the other day. If I tell her she's putting the shoe on the wrong foot, she switches them.

Here she is, enjoying that strawberry popsicle at the beach!

 And she is starting to sing some songs with us, so I tried to capture that in these bathtub videos:

I owe you one...

I know, I know.

I really did try to post last week and blogger locked up on me.

Your favorite photo subject has been keeping us plenty busy. Just keeping her CLEAN is a chore!

We do encourage her creativity, but sometimes it gets out of hand. :) 

We had a great Labor Day weekend at the beach with Cherry and Grahampa (who was called Pop-pop). Mara STILL asks about them, pretty much daily. She recognized Cherry's voice on the phone today when Zack called her and she yelled CHERRY from the back seat.

 Her hair blows in the wind!

Even though Mara had over a 104 fever, she still was able to enjoy herself.

 

 Here I am getting kisses.

 My two loves.

 At first she refused to put her feet in the water and did this instead:

 She did better later, though.

Mara enjoyed eating strawberry popsicles and getting tons of love from her grandparents.

Mara invited her little friend, Max, over to play 2 weekends ago and boooooy did he enjoy spending time with her. He got a little FRESH if we do say so!

But it's okay. He's so cute, you have to forgive him. FOR NOW. When you get older, Max... you'd better be careful!

Later in the week, we went shopping with Aunt Derica... and poor Aunt Derica had to deal with her name being screamed from all corners of Target if she dared to duck out of sight of Mara.

I got these cute overalls from H&M. Aren't they adorable?

Mara's 21 month pics didn't turn out so great... but better than last month's which I completely didn't take b/c she was sick (ugh).

But I did get some other cute shots of Daddy-Mara time.

 And since it's gotten a little cooler, we can stand to be outside without being eaten by mosquitos!

Someone is preparing for the STATE FAIR in a few weeks! Already bought our tickets so I'm definitely dragging the fam there.

Alright, that's all the pics for now. I'll upload a couple videos I wanted to share, and then call it a night. Whew!

It's your lucky week - another post

Mara had *another* picture day at daycare... and since I actually remembered, and we just purchased some fancy schmancy shoes for upcoming weddings, here's what you get!

She likes the shiny shoes, but I snapped these before school this morning... hence the "I'm hungry, why did you pull out the camera, what are you making me do this early in the morning" face. I actually did get her to laugh, and this was the tail end of it, believe it or not.

Here she is, sitting at her "new" table I bought from my work classifieds. She usually sits in it correctly, and has me sit in the other seat. I've eaten several meals scrunched at this table.

And here's a close up of my cutie patootie.

Getting so big

Mara's just getting so big and can repeat so many words. She had some visitors 2 Sundays ago and they came bearing gifts! She was still recovering from being sick, but she managed to give us a few smiles.

Mara is loving playing with Playmobil and frequently requests the "horseys!" She'll spend time setting them up and will trot them around saying "NEIGH!" I need to take some pictures so you can see.

The pink car is still a hit, even over the new (used) tricycle I picked up. I think the fact the car has buckles (her favorite accessory) gives it the edge.

I'm excited that Mara FINALLY fits into this 18 month skirt that Matt/Jess gave her on her year birthday. Woo hoo! The shirt is courtesy of Great Aunt Ann. It actually has a matching poofy purple skirt too, but Mara selected this ensemble and we're going with it. I was the requested chauffeur so here I am:

And here is my favorite pic from the quick session before another thunderstorm:

I like how the belly bear is stretched across the whole belly. Reminds me of my preggo-jack-o-lantern photo. (Which Zack hates). Too bad! Mara pulls it off much better, I admit. It's not... well... creepy.