All right, this is the last post tonight!

Mara being a big girl tonight, playing with her cat and butterflies for the first time while sitting up.

Mara and Trav playing with her Leapfrog game from Grandma Nonn.

Random nights...

Here are some pics from evenings at home and videos, too.


Mara hard at work eating her rattle. We are waiting for that first tooth.


Mara in her first winter coat. I refuse to buy a pram, so I am trying to get her to fit in a 12 month coat. No luck. Obviously. This one goes back to Target in favor of a smaller one from Old Navy.

Here, I caught Trav giving Mara a bath and singing his favorite tune. Absolutely adorable. I love my family!

Pumpkin Carving pictures

Here are our carving pics:


My pumpkin that looks like Mike from Monster's Inc.



Mara and I in front of our creations.


Mara tasting pumpkin for the first time.

Mara watching Daddy hard at work on his masterpiece.

Mara having fun in her jumparoo.

Mara studying her jumparoo pals.

Halloween is coming

And I can't wait to post pictures of Mara in her homemade costume! That is all I have to say today...=)

Holy Porker!

Mara had her 6 month check-up. She shot up to 75% on weight, 16.3, up to 50% in height (25 something) and stayed at 25% in head circumference. She has quite the cute little belly. She is getting over her cold finally and had a great weekend. She really likes hockey games, as we were in Madison for the Badger game against the hated Gophers, but we still left early because she was very tired and sleeping in a car seat is preferred than in our arms in plastic seats in a cramped arena!

We will hopefully post some pics and a couple of cute videos of Trav and Mara from this weekend. Please be patient!!

Fall Fun

Here are some random pictures from the weekend.

Great group pic after lunch with college friends. L-R: Derek, Julie, Danny, Trav, Samara and I.

Trav decided it would be fun to put some pomade in Mara's hair and style it. Nice job!

Mara before going down for a nap on Sunday. She had a fever of 102.3 so we used cool compresses to help her. Needless to say we couldn't contain our laughter at how she looked!

She may be sick, but she is still a happy baby!

A praying mantis on our garage window.

Mara exploring the mantis (or jus staring at the grass).

Halloween

I don't normally like Halloween at all. But I thought that I would MAKE (yes, that's right) a costume for Samara. That was quite the adventure! At first she looked like a filled donut, but with some modifications, she is looking pretty cute in it. Granted, there really is no point in Trick-or-Treating, since everyone would know that she can't eat the candy and only mom and dad can, but we figure we can show her off to our neighbors Ken and Cathy and give them a good laugh and have her answer the door for the other multitude of kids that come to our house.

PS: Since when do towns/cities schedule when Trick or treating is? Our city says kids can only go out from 5-8pm on Friday? What the heck is this junk? Maybe it is a Wisconsin thing...

HA HA HA

I have Christmas cards done already! I had to brag, cause this has never happened. I am lucky if I actually send them out! But since we have such a cute little blessing, why not send out pics of her?

Anyway, our weekend was full on Saturday and boring on Sunday. Our great friends from MI (still Badger fans) Derek, Julie and their adorable son Danny were in town on their way to Mad-town, so we had lunch. Great time! Danny is such a stitch, I can't wait till Mara can talk! Anyway, then we headed to a wedding reception where Mara was very popular, even when she screamed and refused to sleep! But Sunday her ear infection fever came back and we stayed in all day, even from church, even though it was nice outside. Daddy worked on finishing Mara's room while I caught up on odds and ends projects that desparately needed completion and Mara slept most of the day. But we also took our Christmas pictures! Can't wait for everyone to see them in December! SUPER CUTE!

Sorry, no peaking!!

New talents

Oh, she is sitting so well now. I caved in yesterday when we were at Kohl's buying a Christmas outfit, and bought her the stacking cups toy. Super cool. Anyway, she loves it and sits forever just throwing it around and banging it on her legs or my head. Fun times had by all! Too bad she gets tired at 5:45pm and has to take a nap...=( We love playing with her.

Update: she is getting over her cold but has her first ear infection. Amoxicillin stains and that sucks. We'll take some sweet pics this weekend, even though it is going to be crazy busy!

More pictures

Here are some random pics that I forgot to post. The last one is Mara's first school picture. I have no idea how they got her to sit so still and smile, but hey, Well Done!



Fall colors on our way down Hwy 61 to I-90.


Mara and her leaves.


More leaves.



School picture

We're back

We've been pretty busy. Here are some updates:

Mara is talking like crazy and her first word was: 'Da da.' Last Saturday she was playing with her aunt when Trav walked into the room. She took one look at him and proceeded to yell, 'Dada!' We are so proud of our lady!

We went back to MN for a wedding and took the opportunity to teach Mara some musical skills with Grandma, play with leaves, and have fun.

Before we left home, we went to the nearby pumpkin farm for our first pumpkins. We haven't carved them yet, but watch out for some messy pics once we do!

Mara officially loves bananas, rice cereal, and carrots. Messy, messy, messy...


Trav reading Brown Bear to Mara.


The pumpkin farm.


Mara likes to sing and play.


Playing with leaves.


Preparing for Christmas photos.


Our Mozart!

This is for you, Trav!

We miss Daddy so much, but we can still have lots of laughs at home!! Lord willing, Trav will be home Monday.

New outfit=photo shoot!

Our wonderful friend Jess made this amazing sweater for Mara. Now she can fit into it, so we had to have a fashion shoot. But I am not going to include the best pictures...those may get sent out in cards, you never know...=)


Mara playing in her crib.



Happy Camper!


NOT a Happy Camper (in said sweater).


Mara again in her crib.


Mara trying to fly during our shoot.