Happy Thanksgiving/Happy Birthday

We want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! We have so much to be thankful for with the addition of Mari into our family. She is such a little blessing!

My aunt gave Mari the cutest little Thanksgiving outfit and it has a Turkey on the butt - so we had to get a picture of it!

Plus we want to with Cory a Happy 29th Birthday! He has been amazing husband and now he is an amazing father and it's so fun to celebrate as a family! Although I got off pretty easy this year I think. I didn't even have to make a birthday cake  because he will be getting pumkpin pie for dinner at his parents! :-)  Plus who needs a birthday cake when you have this adorable little cupcake! Oh how we love her!

AND - Mari is three months old today! I tried to grab some pictures this morning because she was all smiles, until I took the camera out. Then I get the "huh" face.

We hope everyone enjoys a fabulous day surrounded by family and friends.

The nap picture doesn't usually happen until AFTER a large meal has been consumed - but in this household it happens at 10am.

2-Month Check up

Mari had her two-month check up today, which means she got three shots. :-(

Mari impressed the doctor with how well she holds her head up, how much she likes to stand, and especially how much she smiles and 'coos'. Apparently she had a LOT to say to the doctor today and she tried to hamm it up in hopes of not getting shots!!!

But poor baby girl still had to get them. She was even smiling as the nurses came in and was showing the nurses how she likes to kick her legs. She is definitely going to be a TALKER and a MOVER I have a feeling!!!

She of course cried during the shots, but even had some smiles by the time we left, so that made this mommy feel a lot better. We then quickly stopped up to see Justin at the hospital and Mari and Justin both took little cat-naps while Heidi and I chatted.

Tonight she has been cuddling with daddy, which doesn't seem to be bothering either of them!

For her stats: Mari weighed 12 pounds 15 ounces and was 23 inches long.

And everyone LOVES her squeezable cheeks!

Happy Halloween

We hope everyone had a Happy Halloween.

Mari got to dress up two nights in a row to be able to hit all the grandparents! We also wanted to make sure we could meet up with my nieces and nephews to get a picture of all the kids!

2 Months Old!

I can't believe our little Mari is already two months old! I swear she is growing and changing every day!!! Here are some pictures to prove it :-)

We had to take the picture after bath time because it was just 'one of those days' where it didn't happen any earlier. Now I am scrambling all over the house getting stuff ready as I head back to work tomorrow. I'm NOT looking forward to it at all!!! But I know she will be in good hands while I'm at work!!

For this past month (since I'm very bad at blogging), here are a few things we have been up to...

Mari was baptized on October 9th. It was a beautiful day and we are thankful we got to spend it with family!

I met up with a friend of mine one evening so Cory was on daddy-duty. I come home around 11:30 to find them both sleeping on the couch. Apparently it was too much work getting a blanket for her, so he just wrapped her up in his sweatshirt. Even when I went to get her when she woke up in the middle of the night she was wrapped in his sweatshirt. Apparently she liked it though because it was the longest period she had ever slept!!!

On a different morning, I went into her crib to find her half-naked! I called Cory in to see what she did. She was in one of the sleeper dresses and apparently had her feet perfect in it and much have stretched and stretched till the top was pulled halfway down her tummy! It was hilarious and a great start to that morning.

Last night we celebrated with my dad for his 58th birthday. We had to get a picture with him and his grandbabies! We love him dearly and I'm so proud to call him my dad.

And finally, Mari has found her hand and it is the new greatest toy ever invented it. When she finds it she can just stare at it for minutes and when it moves she gets all excited and her eyes get real wide! She is also no longer a thumb/finger sucker. She would much rather just have the whole fist which usually involves getting drool from on ear to the other!

6 Weeks In Our Arms

I can't believe Mari has been in our arms for 6 weeks. Some days, it feels like this has how life has been forever, other days it feels like we have only been home for about a week! I had to finally sit down and figure out when I'm going back to work which was SOOO hard. I never wanted to figure it out before, but now I guess it's time to face reality once again.

Oh sweet Mari, we love you sooo much. We feel so blessed to have you in our family. You are a wonderful little girl. You are starting to smile at people and everytime you smile at Mommy, you make my heart melt. You are also starting to 'coo' which is so fun. You usually always fill dad in on what we did for the day when he gets home.

You are finally in your own crib! With everything being so busy and hectic lately, Daddy just never had time to set the crib up. The first night you slept in your crib you did amazing - and you still are. You don't necessarily like going down right away, but after a few minutes (or an hour) of going in your room every 10-15 minutes you FINALLY fall asleep. No worries though, because we just laugh at you and your somewhat stubborn side.

You are also FINALY letting us put you down for a while and being content. I think we spoiled you right away in New York because you liked to be held. Even if you were being held and were in a deep sleep, you would wake up about 10 minutes after being put down because you knew that no one was holding you.

I love every minute with you baby girl. I even love getting up in the middle of the night with you. Although I am exhausted, having you look at me makes every moment worth it. I can't believe you have been in our arms for 6 weeks already and we can't believe how much you have grown!!!

What we've been up to...

Life has certainly been very hectic since coming home.

Some things on those list include:

* We have MOVED!!! A whole three miles away from town. Thanks to the help of many friends and family it went very smooth! It was also very nice to have about 10 babysitters for Mari :-)

Mari enjoying her new home!

We have enjoyed many family get-together's.

 My cousin Jayme holding Mari. We are very excited for Jayme as she will be having a baby within a month!!! We are excited to see if Mari will have a boy cousin or a girl cousin to play with! It's so exciting that Jayme and I will have kids so close in age as we were always close growing up and have many memories.

Uncle Jeff holding Mari in her shirt that says "Uncle Jeff digs Mari".

* This past weekend our family and friends put on a shower in honor of Mari. There are certainly many people that LOVE her!!!

* Mari was so exhausted just getting ready that she had to take a cat nap even before the shower started.

After the shower. Her bib is so fitting (which is why she wore it that day) because it reads "Mommy's dream come true". We love you baby girl. We prayed a long time for you and love absolutely every minute.

Which is why, whenever we have a spare moment, the best thing in the world right now is cuddle time. We soak it up any moment we get (even if sometimes it is 3am).

* Smiles for daddy. Mari has him so wrapped around her little finger. I think he has already designed over four play-houses for her - and we already have one!!!

So those are a few things we have been up to lately!

We are HOME!!!

We are HOME and loving it. We actually got to fly in on Thursday and were able to surprise our parents(after much amazement! We thought the soonest we would look at coming home was Friday).

Our final picture in New York - next stop MINNESOTA!!

Mari was a trooper on the plane and slept the entire time!

The last few days have been spent holding Mari and enjoying lot of visits from family and friends!!