Carving Pumpkins

Our family enjoyed carving pumpkins last night. Maryn didn't really know what to think as this was truly her first experience with carving pumpkins (last year she screamed the entire time we were carving pumpkins and I have the video to prove it). As soon as Josh and Makenna started scooping out the insides, Maryn of course picked up a handful and put it in her mouth which immediately came right back out ;) She would stand there and watch, played with the seeds a little bit, loved clanking the spoons together and liked to stand by the pumpkins and try to make them roll. Makenna on the other hand, really got into digging out the pumpkins this year. We carved a face into one pumpkin and she insisted on coloring the other one.

Makenna scooping out the insides


Makenna and Daddy working on the pumpkins


Maryn checking out Daddy and the pumpkin


Covered in pumpkin seeds and pumpkin gook!


Coming back for some more pumpkin fun!


Maryn's favorite part of the night... playing with the spoons.

How Tall This Fall

The pumpkin patch that we visit every fall has a wooden painted structure that measures how tall kids have grown and says "How Tall This Fall." Just by chance, we happened to get Makenna's picture taken by it the first Halloween we went out there and every year since. Well after we were out there yesterday I got to thinking that it would be fun to look back at all those pictures to see how Makenna has grown over the years. Enjoy! These pictures make it more than obvious how fast this child grows :)

Fall 2005 (15 months)


Fall 2006 (2 years, 3 months)


Fall 2007 (3 years, 3 months)

Pumpkin Patch 2007

We recently made our annual trip to the pumpkin patch! We had so much fun! We always go to the same place... Kroul farm in Mount Vernon. It is a family run farm with lots of fun activities for the kids to enjoy, plus their pumpkins are still reasonably priced (which isn't the case at most pumpkin farms anymore). The girls had a good time and each got a pumpkin. Makenna's favorite part was the maze made out of hay bales... most likely because Daddy let her climb on top and run around :) Truth be told, Daddy wanted to climb on top of the hay bales and run around :)

Daddy and his girls on top of the hay bales


Mommy and her girls at the pumpkin patch


Maryn checking out the pumpkins. She prefers pumpkins with stems just like her mommy :)


Daddy showing Maryn the cows. She only liked the cows from a safe distance. Makenna usually loves all the livestock and animals they have at this farm, but was too focused on getting her pumpkin this year to enjoy the animals.


Which pumpkin should we get? Makenna actually hunted around to find just the right one.


Makenna with her pumpkin!


Attempting to get the girls to stand by the "How Tall This Fall" sign. More to come on this in a future blog.


The people that run this pumpkin farm are genius and have outdoor toys for the little kids to play on. Makenna enjoying one of the cars.


The girls playing bumper cars.


Maryn LOVING her car!


Maryn checking out the hay bales.


Sidenote: As you can see in some of the pictures above, I finally had to get glasses :( I was always so proud of my perfect vision, but knew something was up for the past few months when I would have excruciating headaches after driving and doing computer work. I'm still not sure what I think about the whole thing, but they helped my vision almost immediately. Thank goodness. Hopefully now all my bad headaches will go away.

Itchy MarBear

Poor little MarBear! In the middle of the morning on Saturday I noticed that Maryn had this funny red splotchy rash on her neck, head and side of her face. Upon further inspection she also had it on her entire torso and now it has spread to her forehead as well. I talked to the doctor's office immediately and they are convinced that it is just a result of a virus running it's course (even though she has no other symptoms). She has been extremely uncomfortable, itching a lot and fussing all the time. I feel so bad for her. If she is still uncomfortable and itchy tomorrow I'm taking her in for a second opinion.

Even though she was fussy most of the weekend, there were a few things we could do to make her happy and comfortable... her favorite being going outside. The cool dry air helped take away the itch. Check out Daddy and MarBear hanging out on the deck before bedtime on Saturday night...

Flu Shots

This morning we made our annual trip to the doctor's office for our flu shots. The reason this merits a post on my blog is because Makenna LOVES going to the doctor and getting shots. Yes, you read that right. She LOVES getting shots. When I told her last night that we were going to get our flu shots in the morning she was jumping all around the kitchen and told me "I'm going to be brave mommy! I won't cry! I'm a big girl!" And I had no doubt in my mind that this would be the case since last year she didn't even flinch, no tears, nothing. As a matter of fact, she was only upset that they gave me my flu shot first instead of her. Well today she lived up to my expectations... she marched right in there this morning all ready to be the model patient. She excitedly pulled her pants down (to give them her leg), hopped up on the table, and then declared "That didn't hurt at all. I'm so brave!" Yes, yes she is! Every nurse that has ever given her a shot is just amazed. By far, she is not a typical kid when it comes to this.

And poor little MarBear... she did cry and a LOT. To add insult to injury, she is also teething today and in a lot of pain from that already. I have a feeling we're in for a long day filled with lots of tears.

Playtime At Our House

I captured some priceless pictures of Makenna the other day as we were playing in the playroom. She hasn't been much into dress-up play until just recently and it is quite amusing. Cinderella is her favorite character. Maryn of course is always just along for the ride and smiley as usual. And yes, Makenna put on this entire get-up by herself.

Princess Chair

We have the ugliest, smelliest princess chair around and our girls absolutely LOVE this thing. This chair somehow took on a very weird industrial smell and I can't seem to get rid of it. On top of that the zipper on the bottom is broken and thus leaves a flap of material hanging there and exposing the gross inside of the chair. I bought it for Makenna when she was just about MarBear's age to help with the transition from our old house to the condo we lived in for a few months. Well this not-so-wise investment became a nuisance very fast, so when we moved into our new house I was able to hide it away in the basement and luckily she forgot about it. Much to my dismay, one of the many times we were hanging out in our basement due to a tornado warning this past summer, Makenna found the chair and of course had to have it up in the living room. Maryn has come to love the chair as well and now the two of them fight over who gets to sit in it. I'm plotting my next move to get rid of this eyesore from my living room (keep in mind that I'm typically not very picky given the fact that 85% of our house is covered in toys). Since another move is definitely not an option, I'm open to any and all ideas :)

Maryn enjoying the princess chair all by herself one morning before Makenna was out of bed!


How can something so ugly and smelly bring such joy to a child's face?!

Little Ballerinas

10 little ballerinas dancing in a row! Today parents were allowed to watch ballet class (and I now understand why we aren't allowed to watch all the other weeks). Josh and I are in agreement that it was one of the most hilarious things we've seen in awhile. Some of the parents that had their camcorders in there should send it in to Funniest Home Videos for some money. It was complete disorganized chaos with a constant high-pitched squeal. I felt so bad for the teacher because none of the little girls were paying attention or minding because they were showing off for their parents. Makenna did a great job (minus her shoe continuously coming untied and having to go to the bathroom in the middle of it all). I was shocked at how many ballet moves she actually learned in just a few weeks! Enjoy the pictures!

Stretching


She actually looks like a ballerina!!


Seriously, does this picture even need a caption?!


Look how well she is following her teacher! I'm so proud!


More of trying to follow the teacher...


This was towards the end of class and Makenna was more interested in her skirt than anything else :) Notice that everyone is doing their own thing in the background.


Learning to point our toes. The funny thing is that every week when she would get home from ballet class we would ask her what she learned and every week she would point her toe and say that's all she learned. Well come to find out she really learned at least a dozen different dance moves! Stinker had me fooled :)

M-A-K-E-N-N-A

Makenna has recently learned how to spell both her first and last name. She is extremely proud of herself and now she spells everything she sees. Including last night at small group she told Sean that she could spell Duckie's name and she said "S-T-U-B." Sean said, "Oh is Duckie's new name Stub?" and she was like "No I spelled Duckie!" At least she's trying :)

Last week Makenna was on my lap and we were sitting at the table working on her printing. We were having a good time and she loves printing (especially the letters of her name). Slowly but surely through the monitor we could hear Maryn making small little noises and waking up from her nap. Makenna looks up at me and in all seriousness says "Mommy, how 'bout let's not get MarBear." I think someone was really enjoying her one-on-one time with Mommy :)

Maryn is becoming more of a communicator and seems to be understanding more and more around her. Last night Josh was driving with her in the car and he looked back and said "Hi MarBear" to which she clearly responded "Hi Daadee." A few minutes later he looked back again and said "You doing okay?" and she responded "Ok." I have been having these "conversations" with her for a few weeks now, but I don't think anyone believed me. It's easier to hear what Maryn's saying when you don't have a three year old to compete with ;) And as for understanding day-to-day events, the other night at dinner Josh said to everybody "Time to pray" and like it was second nature Maryn folded her little hands together. What a sweet memory!

Another day last week Makenna and I were playing Care Bears during Maryn's nap. Out of the blue Makenna says to me "Thank you for staying here with us Mommy." I couldn't help but hug her. I'm so thankful to have an appreciative toddler :)

And to end with a funny story - Makenna has decided for some odd reason that Duckie is going to be Spiderman for Halloween and she is so serious about it! We have no clue where this came from because she has never read about Spiderman or seen him on TV (at least that we know about). We were checking out at K-Mart the other day and the guy behind us was buying his son a Spiderman costume. Makenna walks right up to him and starts telling him all about how Duckie is going to be Spiderman for Halloween too and then wanted me to go buy Duckie the exact same costume the man had. I convinced her to let Daddy make the Spiderman costume instead :)

We Have A Walker!

I think I can now say with some confidence that Maryn is walking! For well over a week now she has been taking up to 8 - 10 steps in a row when prompted, but just in the last day or so she has a new level of steadiness and seems to walk more and more :) We filmed her walking all the way across the dining room floor last night! She is so proud of herself! It's been a long process (since her actual first steps were at 11 months), but she is there and it's hard for us to believe that our baby is walking! She looks so cute wobbling around :)

Proof!

Great Email

The following is a great email forward I received recently. I'm not very big on forwards but this is one that I encourage everyone to take a few minutes to read.

Science vs. God

"Let me explain the problem science has with Jesus Christ." The atheist professor of philosophy pauses before his class and then asks one of his new students to stand.

"You're a Christian, aren't you, son?"

"Yes sir," the student says.

"So you believe in God?"

"Absolutely."

"Is God good?"

"Sure! God's good."

"Is God all-powerful? Can God do anything?"

"Yes."

"Are you good or evil?"

"The Bible says I'm evil."

The professor grins knowingly. "Aha! The Bible!" He considers for a moment. "Here's one for you. Let's say there's a sick person over here and you can cure him. You can do it. Would you help him? Would you try?"

"Yes sir, I would."

"So you're good...!"

“I wouldn't say that."

"But why not say that? You'd help a sick and maimed person if you could. Most of us would if we could. But God doesn't."

The student does not answer, so the professor continues. "He doesn't, does he? My brother was a Christian who died of cancer, even though he prayed to Jesus to heal him. How is this Jesus good? Hmmm? Can you answer that one?"

The student remains silent.

"No, you can't, can you?" the professor says. He takes a sip of water from a glass on his desk to give the student time to relax. "Let's start again, young fella. Is God good?"

"Er...yes," the student says.

"Is Satan good?"

The student doesn't hesitate on this one. "No."

"Then where does Satan come from?"

The student : "From...God..."

"That's right. God made Satan, didn't he? Tell me, son. Is there evil in this world?"

"Yes, sir."

”Evil's everywhere, isn't it? And God did make everything, correct?"

"Yes."

"So who created evil?" The professor continued, "If God created everything, then God created evil, since evil exists, and according to the principle that our works define who we are, then God is evil."

Without allowing the student to answer, the professor continues: "Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things, do they exist in this world?"

The student: "Yes."

"So who created them?"

The student does not answer again, so the professor repeats his question. "Who created them? There is still no answer. Suddenly the lecturer breaks away to pace in front of the classroom. The class is mesmerized.

"Tell me," he continues onto another student. "Do you believe in Jesus Christ, son?"

The student's voice is confident: "Yes, professor, I do."

The old man stops pacing. "Science says you have five senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Have you ever seen Jesus?"

"No sir. I've never seen Him"

"Then tell us if you've ever heard your Jesus?"

"No, sir, I have not."

"Have you ever actually felt your Jesus, tasted your Jesus or smelt your Jesus? Have you ever had any sensory perception of Jesus Christ, or God for that matter?"

"No, sir, I'm afraid I haven't."

"Yet you still believe in him?"

"Yes."

"According to the rules of empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your God doesn't exist. What do you say to that, son?"

"Nothing," the student replies. "I only have my faith."

"Yes, faith," the professor repeats. "And that is the problem science has with God. There is no evidence, only faith."

The student stands quietly for a moment, before asking a question of his own. "Professor, is there such thing as heat?"

"Yes," the professor replies. "There's heat."

"And is there such a thing as cold?"

"Yes, son, there's cold too."

"No sir, there isn't."

The professor turns to face the student, obviously interested. The room suddenly becomes very quiet.

The student begins to explain. "You can have lots of heat, even more heat, super-heat, mega-heat, unlimited heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat, but we don't have anything called 'cold'. We can hit up to 458 degrees below zero, which is no heat, but we can't go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold; otherwise we would be able to go colder than the lowest -458 degrees. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-458 F) is the total absence of heat. You see, sir, cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat we can measure in thermal units because heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it."

Silence across the room. A pen drops somewhere in the classroom, sounding like a hammer.

"What about darkness, professor. Is there such a thing as darkness?"

"Yes," the professor replies without hesitation. "What is night if it isn't darkness?"

"You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is not something; it is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light, but if you have no light constantly you have nothing and it's called darkness, isn't it? That's the meaning we use to define the word. In reality, darkness isn't. If it were, you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn't you?"

The professor begins to smile at the student in front of him. This will be a good semester. "So what point are you making, young man?"

"Yes, professor. My point is, your philosophical premise is flawed to start with, and so your conclusion must also be flawed."

The professor's face cannot hide his surprise this time. "Flawed? Can you explain how?"

"You are working on the premise of duality," the student explains. "You argue that there is life and then there's death; a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can't even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life, just the absence of it."

"Now tell me, professor. Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?"

"If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, young man, yes, of course I do"

"Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?"

The professor begins to shake his head, still smiling, as he realizes where the argument is going. A very good semester, indeed.

"Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavour, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you now not a scientist, but a preacher?"

The class is in uproar. The student remains silent until the commotion has subsided.

"To continue the point you were making earlier to the other student, let me give you an example of what I mean." The student looks around the room. "Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the professor's brain?" The class breaks out into laughter.

"Is there anyone here who has ever heard the professor's brain, felt the professor's brain, touched or smelled the professor's brain? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain, with all due respect, sir. So if science says you have no brain, how can we trust your lectures, sir?"

Now the room is silent. The professor just stares at the student, his face unreadable.

Finally, after what seems an eternity, the old man answers. "I guess you'll have to take them on faith."

"Now, you accept that there is faith, and, in fact, faith exists with life," the student continues. "Now, sir, is there such a thing as evil?"

Now uncertain, the professor responds, "Of course, there is. We see it everyday. It is in the daily example of man's inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil."

To this the student replied, "Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light."

The professor sat down.

Source: Unknown

Roasting Marshmallows

Things have been pretty par for the course around here lately, but we were able to have some fun this weekend. Friday night Josh broke out his new fire pit and we had a campfire with Makenna after Maryn went to bed. It was a perfect fall night outside and Makenna absolutely loved it! We roasted marshmallows and of course had to make smores! It was so cute to see her enjoying herself so much :) We hope to have many more fun family nights around that fire pit.

Saturday we went to Jakson's 2nd birthday party (our nephew/cousin). Makenna LOVES playing with her cousins so she had a wonderful time :) And Maryn is getting to an age where she can play and interact more and she enjoyed herself as well.

Other than that, I don't have much to report. Have a good week!

In The Spirit...

In the spirit of the season, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at the girls' past Halloween costumes and pumpkin pictures :) I don't have anything from Makenna's first Halloween when she was 3 months old (we didn't have a digital camera yet), but we have two fun years worth of pictures to share!

This year Makenna wants to be a cowgirl... we already bought her the cowboy boots (which I think is really her motivation behind all of this) and we still need to find an outfit. We have a bunny costume that fits Maryn and is adorable, but I was thinking it would be awfully cute to dress Maryn up as Makenna's horse :)

Enjoy!

Fall 2005 - Makenna, 15 months old

Makenna and Daddy picking out pumpkins


Makenna enjoying the corn maze at the pumpkin patch


Our little chicken!


She even waddled like a chicken :)


Fall 2006 - Makenna 2 years, Maryn 7 weeks

Mommy and her girls at the pumpkin patch!


Daddy and his girls at the pumpkin patch (and yes Maryn did sleep through the whole thing!)


Carving pumpkins! Lots of messy fun!


Our big M & M!


Our little M & M!


Aren't they adorable?! Maryn hated that costume and was only in it for pictures ;) We thought the whole M & M idea (actually my dad's idea) was pretty clever because we now had two little girls whose names began with "M".

Our Guardian Angel

Our family deeply believes in guardian angels and yesterday one of our angels was hard at work. Maryn was in her crib supposedly taking her afternoon nap when I noticed that the monitor had gone dead. I didn't think much of it at the time (in hindsight I know I should have) and she was being quiet so I didn't check on her for about 20 minutes. When I walked in her room I was shocked to find her body tightly wrapped up in her monitor cord and her chewing on the cord. She had somehow managed to slip her hand down under her crib, pull the monitor out of the socket and pull it up into her bed. When I saw her laying there my heart just sank into my stomach and tears immediately filled my eyes. I knew how close she was to being in extreme danger. I just stood there and repeatedly THANKED GOD that my baby was okay. She is perfectly fine and was oblivious to the fact that she was in any danger. We are so blessed to have our guardian angels watching over our family.

Maryn's Favorite Things

Maryn has a long list of favorite things, many of which I have written about on this blog before (ie. the toilet/toilet paper, pup pup, daddy). But there is one favorite thing that I have failed to mention and I think it deserves a little attention since it is probably in her top 10 favorite things .... the pantry. Maryn is obsessed with our pantry and its contents. This child has some type of radar system in her body that tells her exactly when someone has accidentally left the pantry door open even just an inch, and she will make a beeline for it. Most of the time she is not allowed to play in there as the recycling bins are on the bottom levels and I'm afraid she could hurt herself on something. But on the rare occasion that she is begging to get into the pantry on garbage day or the day after (when the recycling bins are empty), I occasionally let her indulge. Well tonight was one of those nights. See the chaos that ensued...


She managed to pull down all the cereal boxes and seemed to be having harmless fun shaking the goldfish crackers bag...


You can't imagine the shear delight in this child's eyes when she saw goldfish crackers surrounding her. She started grabbing at them with both fists and trying to shove as many as possible into her mouth. She was very disappointed when Daddy and I decided that pantry time was over ;)


I tried to get a picture of her standing up in the pantry and going through everything (which is just an adorable sight), but lost my shot the second the goldfish landed on the floor. She was like a little scavenger on the lookout for crunchy orange crackers and lost all interest in the other food in the pantry :)

I'm A Stinker Too!

We're seeing it more and more with each and every day... Maryn's mischievous ways are starting to creep out :) She was such a laidback, easy baby for so long, that now I think she has something to prove! She has now developed a "I want my way now" scream that is quite unpleasant. On top of getting into everything and wanting her way (which I guess could be considered pretty typical of this age), she has also decided that she doesn't like to eat much of anything. My "I'll eat anything you put in front of me" child now only wants grilled cheese, carrots, peas and pancakes. Okay that's an exaggeration, but it feels like that some days. Ahhhh! You have no idea how frustrating this is to a person whose pet peeve is picky eaters! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is all due to her teething and that it's not here to stay for long :)


Caught in the act...


Feeling quite proud of her climbing abilities... (Don't worry I was right there ready to catch her if she fell)


"Really Mommy, I'm not full of it!"


"Yes MarBear, this is the correct way to sit in the chair"