8-Months Old

Mari was 8-months old yesterday!!! She is now trying to impress us with wanting to pull herself up on things, however her favorite spot to try and pull herself up is in her little plastic bathtub! She still is not crawling, but can find ways to get to certain things if she wants them bad enough. She also still LUVS her johnny-jump-up, or just jumping if you are holding her. However if you are holding her...don't expect her to do any work. She basically just picks her legs up, and then you are responsible for ALL the work after that.

She has also been blessing us (sarcasm) with a more stubborn side and some mini trantrums. Oh Lordy, I hope this is not a glimpse into our future. She has the whole 'straight as a board, fling head back' thing down.

Our biggest news! She started sleeping through the night! Oh it felt great sleeping an entire night through. But then she must have heard us rejoicing, so she has now decided that three nights of sleeping through the night was enough, and we are back to the once a night feedings. I know she should be able to sleep through the night, but even though I would love sleep, I won't take any of those minutes for granted. So we usually grumble with a smile on our face.

Oh, was I suppose to leave this paper up?

She has also been enjoying the beautiful weather outside and I think she would have no problem literally spending all day outside. She enjoys the stroller a lot, which is good, because between daycare and home we go on a lot of walks!

Long Overdue 7-Month Pics

We are WAY overdue on getting Mari's 7-month pictures on the blog! I attribute that to a) losing the memory card with the pictures for a good week; b) a long week of Mari being sick with double ear infection and pink eye; and c) I just didn't want to blog...I was way more content just holding my baby girl in the evenings.

But here are the pictures. Everytime I look at them I laugh because it's fun to see her personality shine through more and more each month! But her growing personality also makes it more difficult to get some pictures taken. But we are not complaining, as we are SOOO happy she is finally feeling better so we can once again see her smiles and hear her giggles!

I will give you a look into what a 'typical photo session' is for us.

 "Ok mom, I will smile"

 " You already got your picture...now I'm bored"

 " Oh wait, there is some paper behind me I can grab"

 "If I give my mom a smile, maybe she won't notice that I'm playing with this paper"

"No mom, I swear it wasn't me who crinkled the paper behind me"

Mari you make your mommy and daddy laugh on a daily basis. You are finding your voice more and more and you like to go from a high pitch to a low growl. You  are trying so hard to move around more on your own, but you still know that after a few wimpers we will usually help you out. You love your cuddle time with mommy and daddy...and we love it too.

6-Months Old

Once again, here we are wondering where the last month has gone. Last Friday Mari was officially 6-months old and we have loved every moment with her. Mari continues to love playing with her toes, giving us big slobbery kisses and many smiles each and every day. She also loves to squeal and giggle!!!

On Saturday we met up with my aunt, who happens to also be a public health nurse. She did an 'informal' 6-month assessment on Mari and said she passed everything. That was no suprise to us though because we think she is pretty much pure genius. We would love to know what her little mind is thinking sometimes!!!

Baby Girl you light up everyday with your smiles and your giggles. The best part of my day is when I get to pick you up from day care and you smile your big smile and bury your head into my shoulder. It's so easy to get nothing else done other than just holding you and playing with you. We love you baby girl - more than you could ever imagine.

Happy (late) Valentine's Day

Mari wanted to wish  everyone a Happy Valentine's Day...even if we are a few days late.

5 Months

I can not believe that another month has flown by and our baby girl is 5 months old. As you can see, she is starting to sit up more and more on her own. She has rolled over...but really has no desire to continue. She will reach for her toys, and then if she can't reach them, she will just play with her toes.

She is so content...as long as she is being held or as long as you are devoting 100% attention to her while she is playing. She doesn't care what a person is doing, as long as you are holding her and bringing her with wherever you go, she is perfectly fine. She even helped me vacuum our living room last weekend.

That's right....we are starting to sit on our own! Such a big girl!!!

We are no longer content laying on the floor playing with our toys...time to SIT.

But when we are content laying on the floor, the toes are usually in the mouth more than the toys!
She LOVES those toes

 We have also started introducing some cereal just to start getting her used to different textures. I can say that she is certainly not a fan right away...but usually puts up with us trying to shove a few mouthfuls in her mouth. She's so funny because every time she see's the spoon she is super excited to get it in her mouth...then she realizes that there is actually food on there and she is not so impressed.

Not so sure about this cereal yet.

Baby girl, Your smiles, baby giggles, and slobbery kisses sure know how to mend our hearts. I'm hoping that life will start to slow down and you stop growing so fast!

4 (1/2) Month Checkup

Mari had her 4 month check up last Monday. It was really 4 1/2 months by the time we got in to the doctor!!! She continues to grow (no question there) and weighed in at 15 lbs. 10 oz. and 24.8 inches. Again she had shots - but thankfully it doesn't really seem to bother her. She was still kicking her legs like nothing happened during her bath time that night.

At four months old - she is in LUV with her toes. She loves sitting in her exersaucer and playing, and is trying to roll over. She has rolled over a few times, but is usually just content getting on her side. She talks a TON and seemed to have found her tongue back again as she is sucking on her tongue or it is constantly popping out when she is talking. Needless to say, she gives us lots of laughs every day with her little mannerisms. She still enjoys playing under her playmat as long as you are in the room with her - can't get too far away without her getting upset. But this mommy and daddy usually have no problem picking her up!!!

In other exciting news: We FINALLY have a changing table!!! Daddy has been 'working' on it since July, but obviously there have been a few things come up in the meantime and it always got put on the back burner.

Daddy forgot the last tote in the shop...

I think she likes it!!!

Also, this weekend we drove down to the casino as some of our friends were spending the night. We packed up Mari and found a tiny little swimsuit for her first 'pool' experience. She of course just loved it because she got to get naked.

All ready to head to the pool.

Not quite sure about things yet - definitely not as warm as a bath.

We lasted for about 5 seconds - I thought the water was cold - so we quickly took her out and wrapped her in a towel.

one quick family pic.

Strong Enough

I’ve wanted to write a post as a tribute to my brother and my father-in-law. I just never knew what to say, how to say it, or even how to start it. I have all these thoughts running through my head, but when I start to put them in writing it’s a big old mess!

It’s hard to believe that Duane had been fighting his cancer battle for nearly three years. My brother fought for 14 months. I never in a million years dreamed that we would lose them within three days of each other. Never dreamed that it would be the week of Christmas. Never really wanted to dream that it would ever happen in the first place I guess.

I think it was easier to pretend that cancer was not ravaging their bodies on the inside. It was hard watching these two big strong men lose their muscle, lose their body strength, and have to rely on others for help.  I think Cory and I were convincing ourselves that, “It’s our dad…or… it’s our brother…they are strong enough to fight this.”

I kept praying that they would make it through Christmas.  But the Lord had other plans – he wanted them in Heaven for Christmas. It’s easy to be angry and ask God why he would take them away during such a holiday, a time to be with family, a time to rejoice in his son’s birth! But then someone pointed out what better time to go Home.  Jesus was born into the world to bring light! If there was no ‘reason for the season’ we would not have faith that we would see them again.

After they had passed away, I received a message from  friend of ours that we met in Haiti. She told me how she had been praying for Duane and Justin and when she found out that they had both passed away, she also questioned why God would take them both away from us in such a short amount of time. God’s answer to her was: “Because they were strong enough”

I stood stunned – and then it hit me.

There are not enough words to describe their love of life, their love of family, their commitment to others. I could go on and on about the acts of kindness, their generosity, how honorable they were, how hard they worked, etc.

But what really matters is: They were strong enough for God to choose THEM.

Now you have to realize, our friend has obviously never met Justin and Duane. She is going solely on what she heard from the Lord. And she couldn’t have nailed it on the head more.

You see, throughout their battles and especially at the end of their days, their faith radiated. They were both ready to go to Heaven. They worried about us family members left here on Earth, but they were not afraid. They were not bitter. They were at peace. They talked about Heaven, what they would do there, how they would send signs to us here on Earth so we knew that things were ok.

They were strong enough.

My hope is that I will be as strong as them when my time comes.