Saturday, November 28, 2009

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.





Saturday, November 21, 2009

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.


Saturday, November 14, 2009

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!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

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!