Sledding on Christmas

Ten inches (?) of snow and lots of drifts makes for a bit of a difficult time on Maren's new sled from Uncle Andy and Aunt Sara! But she loved it! Especially when we got around to the front of the house where grandpa had moved the snow from in front of the garage. Maren is very excited to see Alena soon and go sledding together!

Merry Christmas!

We made it to Grandma and Grandpa Klein's before the ice storm on Wednesday this week. We've been humkered down pretty much since! Christmas has been very exciting this year as Maren is so much more into unwrapping and seeing new things.

She noticed that Santa had visited immediately upon entering the living room this morning.

Santa thought right when he left this baby. Maren wanted us to open it right away and she fed baby her milk.


Opening gifts was so great too! Maren helped everyone. She really loved this silly talking Cookie Monster from Aunt Sara and Uncle Andy.

Opening her new kitchen from Grandma and Grandpa K.

Another gift hit for this busy girl! Along with the small rocking chair and a baby doll cradle she'll be taking home that were her mom's, Maren's ready for her own place!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Gingerbread House

We went to Aunt Alisa and Uncle Darrin's yesterday afternoon for their gingerbread house party. Maren got to make her very own house! Most of what made it to the house has been licked. She seemed to be eating it faster than Lee or I could get it on the house!

Overall, it was a sticky mess and Maren ate candy for dinner...but look at that masterpiece!

Maren especially likes the tree.

Snow, snow, snow...

I had snow day posts last year and I feel like it really wasn't all that long ago! Three snow days this week...some schools are still canceled for tomorrow! Hah...are we in for it?

This is out our guest bedroom window yesterday morning (Wednesday). It had been snowing for about 18 or so hours, on top of a couple inches from the day before.I think our report for the area was just over 10 inches. Pennies, compared to some areas. Notice the tree height compared to the drift. We'll be watching that drift from here on out.

Here's the same window and the same tree and the same drift about 5 hours later.

So after 3 days of looking at snow, I thought it was time to venture out for a short time. So Maren and I took about 10 minutes to get all our clothes on and practice walking in boots.

We spent 3 minutes outside. This was 2 minutes too long for the dog who I had already let back in. Maren sunk in the snow so she wasn't happy. I plopped her in that snow drift out the window anyway. It's a big drift.

Then Maren just walked around a bit saying "snow" and looking at rocks thinking it was Izzy do and saying "gross." When she clearly needed a kleenex and I was getting cold (3 minutes, remember) we came back in. Brrrrr.

"Froggy wear diaper." - Maren Eliza

Quite the little Mommy whith quite crazy hair today.

Chores...

Maren really wants to help out with the house chores...

She's pretty good at the hard floor vac!

And she likes to do it!

Now, if only she would let me turn the vacuum ON.

Thanks, Kate!

Imagine Maren's surprise when Froggy #1 rose from the dead and arrived in an envelope this past week! Way back when Maren and her friend Kate were still cooking on the inside, their Grandma's had similar ideas and purchased this cute little frog for their new granddaughters. The difference turned out to be that Kate loves monkeys, while Maren can't live without frogs. Upon hearing of "froggy demise" at Maren's house, Kate and her parents decided that their family frog needed a new home. I wanted Maren to pose with new/old froggy as a way to salute and thank Kate's family, but she of course wouldn't oblige...so here's what I got. Maren loves to play with this pitcher and built in mixer. New/old froggy was an instant favorite again and she plays with him non stop. So at this time she decided to use the pitcher to make frog juice.

Pre-juicing.

During juicing.

Checking out her handiwork.

Post juicing.

Both froggies succumbed to the juicer on this day. And Maren thought she would take a sip.

THANK YOU KATE AND PARENTS! YOU HAVE BROUGHT JOY TO THIS LITTLE TODDLER'S LIFE! HOPE TO SEE YOU SOON!

And last, but not least, here's a frozen blueberry face from breakfast. Man, those things are messy! I bought fresh ones again today. I'll gladly pay the price for a little cleanlier snack (believe me, the above is not the worst of it.).

No pictures of Maren, sorry!

But Organic Mamas is teaming with Moms Peace at Etsy.com to give away a super cute, hand made, travel doll house! Any one who has been at our house lately knows how much Maren loves to play house right now. Here's my favorite:



Visit organicmamas.blogspot.com for more info!

Tree Hunting, 2009

Maren went tree hunting last year at about 7 mos old. If you look back to November of last year, you'll find a picture of her bundled up in a front carrier. Look at her now! The terrain was a little tough, but she didn't seem to mind. Grandpa helped her along the way. Maren loves to be outside, so this was the perfect afternoon!

Grandma even helped her walk Izzy (who also enjoyed this trip a great deal!).

Here is our wonderful tree! It's a white pine with really soft needles. When Maren got up from her nap, she saw it and promptly gave it a "wow!" And while the tree farm really didn't seem to fit our needs as we had hoped, the afternoon was a success and we are excited to start this holiday season!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Maren's favorite part of Thanksgiving was the pie and whip cream! Grandpa was very happy to share.

Maren even helped Grandpa eat a bite or two!


We have so much to be thankful for this year, and a growing baby girl is just one thing! Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family! We hope your day was as blessed as ours.

19 mos and Froggy, III

After two emergency surgeries following brutal dog attacks, Froggy, II was unable to be saved a third time last night. That brutal dog did him in (and then spent an hour outside by herself thinking about what she had done).

One might think "oh, well. Maren will find something else to snuggle." But those of you thinking that did NOT hear her desparate cries for "bwoggie" when I told her he was napping and couldn't come back. So I got Froggy, II out and explained that Izzy bit him a lot and that she couldn't play with him anymore. She seemed to understand and told me "Izzy, bite." So I redirected her to find baby, George, or puppy. It seemed to work and after dinner we made a family trip to the mall because this 19-mo-old's feet keep growing and she needed new shoes. And, wow, who would have thought a mall would be SO worthless in housing size 5 shoe options. After looking and looking we finally scored an "ok" pair of shoes from Sears, but were losing hope on finding a new Froggy. Then we spotted a gaggle of stuffed animals (ok, they were "webkins" and supposed to be played with by doing something online.) in a little girls store. We found 2 frogs and got both, hiding one for now. Enter.....Froggy, III.

Maren seems to have grieved and moved on quickly and adores Froggy, III. There seems to be no lasting scars from the brutal dog attack on Froggy, II.

In other news, Maren is 19 mos old today! She has surpassed the first part of her second year with speed, curiosity, and of course cuteness. Her hair keeps getting longer (and is still blond!). She tackles many more large motor skills like carrying large items around, dancing, running, and balancing. She seems to have a word for everything now and continues to learn more. She puts 2 and three words together often and even talks about people that aren't around - like Papa and Grandma and all the kids at daycare. The poor thing is still teething- now working on her "canines." If I could sum her up in one word, I would choose - busy.

The start of the season...

After much thought, Lee and I decided to try and take Maren's pictures for our holiday card ourselves...

hmmmmmm....stay tuned to see if she gave us a break and showed the camera some love!

Little Monkey

Maren was happy she had such a warm costume to wear last night! The wind died down, so there was just a chill in the air. She hit 7 or 8 houses and was very excited people kept giving her things! We had practiced "trick or treat" and saying "thank you" and "bye" but she decided to stay quite silent the whole night. Unless, of course, you tried to take away her bucket to get her strapped in her carseat! All in all, her first trick or treating session was a success!

So what do I do with this?

Maren has shown an interested in "dipping" her food lately. Honey mustard, ranch, cottage cheese... So I gave her some sour cream with her quesadilla the other night. She seemed to like it. But then I think she made a connection between the cream we use often on her diaper area and lotion after bedtime, and assumed this cream should too go ON her body, not in it.

Things just got worse when she decided to rub it in her eye...ouch.

The finished product - a real life art project! Who promptly got a bath after dinner.

Pumpkin Carving

Pumpkin carving was a success! Maren and I chose to carve "glamour kitty" and Daddy chose frankenstein. Maren wasn't too keen on the cool "guts" but she did have a great time playing in the seeds!