Weeks 38, 39, 40, 41 of 52

Wow....don't think I've ever been a whole month behind. I've been saving pix, just haven't been taking the time to blog. There are so many posts I want to do....one about just us, one about the beautiful wedding we were in, one about our awesome vacation at the beach..... So, I'm going to try to keep up with the pix better so I can get back to regular blogging. This has been an interesting experiment doing this pic of the day.....I feel like there are a lot of little day-to-day stuff that I'd probably never have taken the time to write about. On the other hand, just the effort to keep up with the project has impacted my regular blogging for the worse. True, there have been more posts than normal but a lot less posts with any substance. Anywho.....

Week 38 of 52

2010: 09/17

Mari has discovered my old CD player. She is totally enthralled by it.

2010: 09/18

Mari has been asking for awhile to go on a boat ride with Uncle Todd - we were finally able to make this happen on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. Mari LOVED it!

2010: 09/19

Mastered the 5-strand braid! Love the way it looks and it's actually easier than a 4-strand braid. I think I'm at my dexterity-limit, though. And I've seen tutorials all the way up to 7 strands. I'm happy mastering up to 5!

2010: 09/20

I made a sweet little dress for Mari. I took home ec in eighth grade and I think I've made one thing since then. My mom used to make all my dresses (and all my doll's dresses) when I was a kid and I wanted to give it a try. I was very proud of myself!!

2010: 09/21

Sweet dreamer.

2010: 09/22

I find it amazing that Mari couldn't draw a smiley face just 2 months ago....she has come a long way. (And those are knee caps, BTW, just in case anyone needed to know)

2010: 09/23

This one is "Mari on a boat with Mr. Sun"

Week 39 of 52

2010: 09/24

Mari is "officially" 3.5 years old. She marked the milestone by being promoted to the Advanced Class at school....this is the class she'll be in until K (which is still 2 years away). She is so super smart, she blows me away - sometimes I forget she is only 3 and expect too much from her (but she reminds me quickly in her very much 3-year-old way!). I promised her SpiderMan stickers as her prize for moving up and she earned a tattoo from the machine at Wal-Mart for being a good shopper. Glad to finally find a bribe an incentive that only costs 25-50 cents.

2010: 09/25

"Mari and Mommy the Pirates" (hence the patches on our eyes)

2010: 09/26

Mari was putting on a puppet show with her animals. In this story (which I have on video), Mr. Moo eats Macaroni Penguin and then is reunited with his long-lost father, Goat.

2010: 09/27

Mari's first day in her new class. She was super excited....it was a huge adjustment. Major structure, major focus on education - but she did great.

2010: 09/28

I'm finding sewing to be very therapeutic and rewarding. I struggle with it because I'm not very visually adept, so piecing things together tends to lead to a lot of frustrations. I have to rip lots of seams out, restitch lots of things....but I still find it extremely enjoyable.

2010: 09/29
The castle that Mari built and wanted me to take a picture of....she was so proud of it, I let her leave it up all night instead of putting it away. It fell in the middle of the night and scared the holy smokes out of me!

2010: 09/30

Never good when your cats stand at full-alert for over 24 hours. Yes, we have mice. Yes, I'm completely grossily freaked out.

Week 40 of 52

2010: 10/01

Been having some gorgeous weather - Mari decided to give roller-skating another try.

2010: 10/02

We went to a local Oktoberfest celebration. Mari got to ride a little pony - she LOVED riding it, but freaked when they suggested she pet it on the head.

2010: 10/03

Trying out a new hairstyle....a veil pattern in a circular shape. Very cute and held up well.

2010: 10/04

I was trying to take a picture of this shirt (I was trying to describe the neckline to someone and thought a picture would explain it better) and Mari was being her silly self.

2010: 10/05

Happy Referral-versary!!!

2010: 10/06

Mis-Match Day at school. I think we did pretty good (please ignore the messy house in the background).

2010 2009: 10/07

Yup, had to go back in the archives, didn't have a picture this day (ooops!). This is Mari trying on some hand-me-down costumes last year....she refused to wear a costume. This year she is SUPER excited about wearing one.

Week 41 of 52

2010: 10/08

Our dear friend, Heather, got married this weekend and Mari and I were both honored to be in her wedding. This is Mari hanging out waiting on the rehearsal to get started. She got to pull the ring bearer down the aisle in a wagon, so she was thrilled with her flower girl job!!

2010: 10/09

Heather and Charles got married on a gorgeous autumn day in an absolutely beautiful wedding. I'll do a post with more pix later but here's one of me and my stunning flower girl daughter.

2010: 10/10

Mari's unbelieveable curls, 24 hours after twisting them in. LOVE THEM!

2010: 10/11

Mari hair.....well, it's big. Time for a LONG overdue trim. She got one. I always trim it myself cause I don't trust anyone else. It looks so much healthier now.

2010 2008: 10/12

Flashback a couple years. What a little cutie!!

2010: 10/13
When I put Mari to bed, there were only 2 stuffed animals in bed with her. Hmmmm....

2010: 10/14

Somewhere in here is a rocking Super Hero dress for Halloween. Hope I can find it!

Hope you enjoyed that LONG post!! Real posts coming soon.

The Day Time Stood Still

Three years ago today, I received the most incredible phone call of my life. I waited for eternity 1/2 hour for an email to arrive. I remember clicking on the attached picture and turning away (I still had dial-up, *gasp*), waiting for the whole picture to pop on the screen, wanting to look at the whole picture all at once.

Then time stood still.......I gazed into those eyes forever.

October 5, 2007

I still gaze into those eyes, only now it's in person.

October 5, 2008

Those eyes are the most incredibly expressive eyes on the earth (helped out by a pair of amazingly expressive eyebrows)....so much emotion behind those chocolate gems.

October 5, 2009

I wish time stood still now....as you can see, it hasn't. As much as I'd love to just stop time again, I do love seeing this beautiful angel blossom and grow.

October 5, 2010

3 years. Wow!

Week 37 of 52

We absolutely loved our beach vacation and I'll do a separate post (sometime) all about it with more pix and details. Something just so relaxing about the beach. Loved it! And loved that my mom was able to come along...it definitely takes some of the edge off to have an extra set of eyes and hands.

2010: 09/10

There is a really great story to this picture and I only wish I had it on video. Grandma decided she wanted to fill our 5 gallon bucket with water....having just assisted Mari with filling her little one, I knew that catching a wave caused a sudden, swift filling of a heavy bucket. I guess Grandma didn't realize this. When she bent down to catch the wave and fill the bucket, it pulled her over and into the water. Killed the cell phone in her pocket, soaked her, and provided me with a whole lot of laughter and ammo for teasing.

2010: 09/11

Happy New Year - Melkam Addis Amet

I wish that we could spend every Ethiopian New Year at the beach but I guess school will interfere with that in a couple of years. We had such a great time and Mari was so well-behaved. It helps to basically have no agenda and nowhere you need to be.

2010: 09/12

We really didn't want to leave the beach. So I guess it was only fitting to wake up to gray, rainy skies as we prepared to leave.
2010: 09/13
Mari LOVES the Nickelodeon Mega Music Fest special that was on recently...I DVRed it and we have watched it so much that she can recite the dialogue in between the songs (she is SO cute saying "hosted by Jon Leguizamo"). This is her face watching it....it never get old or dull for her!

2010: 09/14

Mari's newest obsession - the LiteBrite her grandparents got her for her birthday 6 months ago. She does amazingly well with putting the right colored pegs in the right places (R=red, Y=yellow, etc) but she has a little trouble with the actual dexterity of it. We are in the bathroom cause it's the only room dark enough to light it up (sorry! we don't do the picture in the bathroom, just take it in there to look at it!)

2010: 09/15

Mari had a really rough evening this night and pretty much cried herself to sleep. I went to check on her when I heard her settle down and found she had grabbed her baby picture off the bookshelf....she tends to cling to "baby" stuff when she's feeling out of sorts.

2010: 09/16
Mari's drawing of a bird on a nest of eggs....

Considering about 2 months ago I couldn't get her to draw a smiley face, I think she's doing pretty awesome!

Week 36 of 52

I'm way far behind on blogging....oh well. Get over it! We've had some trials, we've had a vacation, we've had some transitions....just didn't make blogging a priority. Sorry. I'm going to try to play catchup.

2010: 09/03

Ahhh....lovely crusty cough.

2010: 09/04

Mickey decided he wanted to play with Mari's toys.
2010: 09/05
Such a cutie pie.

2010: 09/06

What a clown!

2010: 09/07

It took us a long time to get down to just one more day until BEACH!!

2010: 09/08

Mari counting her good behavior coins and cashing them in for beach money. 1 coin=25 cents. She had $10 to take to the beach!

2010: 09/09

No caption necessary.

BEACH

Week 35 of 52

Can't believe we are into September and I'm still doing this. Wow! Ugh! It was another exciting week in our house (hahaha!). So, here ya go!

2010: 08/27

One leg out to cool off...those legs are getting so much longer lately.

2010: 08/28

Made a bunch of cookie dough logs to freeze.

And no, I did not take one out of the freezer and eat some of it raw...I would never do that. Ha!

2010: 08/29
Little Miss Abigail's second birthday party!!
Adorable in her ponytails!

2010: 08/30
Mari and Madi both got picked up by Grandma in the evening.
Here, they try to contain their excitement!
(They really were excited - they are just zoned out on TV in this picture)

2010: 08/31
Waiting on ice cream to become ice cream....yum!

2010: 09/01

Mr. Potato Head Party. Sorry if you weren't invited.

2010: 09/02

Elmo got evicted from Mari's bed for being too noisy (his push bottom in his hand is way too sensitive and he would talk everytime Mari moved at night).

So Mari decided Zoe needed to keep Elmo company.

And then she decided they both would be more "company" (comfy) with Raffey.

So sweet!

That's another week done! Hope your's was a good one!