funny faces...

Mary has become quite expressive these days.  She gets really excited about things, anything really, and makes some funny faces.  You'll notice a few trends in these pictures: her right eye squints closed and she bites her bottom lip a lot. 

And, we'll end with a sweet face... just so you don't think she's always goofy.  

winter...

Winter is long here in New England which means we're in the house a lot!  I'm ready for some temperatures above 25 but for now we're keeping ourselves entertained inside... though, I will say, Mary and I still go for runs.  Don't worry Mom, she's very bundled.  :)  

While I'm tutoring in the morning Danny has begun teaching Mary some basic Bible knowledge, she is really enjoying Fee and Stuart's book these days.  

Danny and I have had many conversations about what sports we want our children to play.  We agree basketball is an option, so we're starting her early... hoping that she learns to play strong and sloppy, like her uncle Paul Pierce of the Boston Celtics.  And, yes, that is our TV out of the closet for the special game, with bunny ears on top!

Mary's hair is starting to grow, which means she has bed head almost everytime she wakes up.  We like it and it seems like she does too.

Last weekend we wanted to have some friends over for dinner, which can be quite the challenge since most of our friends have babies.  So, we had an idea... and it turned out to be brilliant.  You can't see everyone at the table, but we're all sitting without babies on our laps peacefully enjoying our adult meal.  Where are the babies, you might ask... look very closely in the background and there are our children.  We put them each in some kind of seat to keep them restrained, put the computer on the coffee table and put in the "Praise Baby" DVD.  Take a look at the close up... they sat there in love with the music, kids, animals, and nature.  It was awesome.  If you have babies you really should look into it!   

Mary, Jude and Lily loving Praise Baby!

She's growing up on us...

It has been awhile since we've given an update on Mary. So, this will be a review of her new tricks since Christmas. She started kind of crawling then and is all over the place now... which is fun around our not-so-childproof house. She likes to follow me from room to room and gets excited each time she sees me in a new one. It's cute.

Mary also started pulling up on everything and standing last week. She will move her hands on and off of her support (whether that is me, the couch or the table), keeping her big, concentrated grin featured below. She likes to see how long she can stand alone and gets very proud of herself everytime.



She also got two teeth this month. That was fun for everyone in the family. :) Here she is giving a sneak peak of her pearly whites. You have to look VERY closely, they're still pretty tiny.



Mary also loves to play. It is so fun to watch her learn new "games." Danny will dangle one of her toys on his ear or put it on his head and call her name... she starts breathing really hard and goes after the toy like she's conquering Mt. Everest. Good times. She's also getting very ticklish... and here we are having fun with that. **I had just finished a run and Danny so lovingly featured my spandex at the end of the clip... ignore that!

For Grandma JB

Mary's First Christmas, Parts 2 & 3

Okay, so we're wicked late on this. Sorry about that.

Mary was only supposed to have a 2-part Christmas, one in Florida and one here. However, snow intervened for the second part, and my mom had to make a separate trip from CT for Mary's first Christmas, part 3. Anyway, on with a few pictures.

We spent some time at Granny's house, where Mary received a few goodies. Here you see her doing what she does with pretty much every toy...


One of the major highlights for Mary at these family functions is getting to hang out with Granny and Cousin Ryan. As you can imagine, it's quite a feat to get Ryan and Mary to sit still and look in the general direction of the camera (not to mention Granny...).


A couple days later, Mary's Grandma Pierce came up. Again, we see Mary enjoying a toy, this time tasting it before she puts it in her mouth.


Here's Mary with Grandma Pierce. And yes, her fly is down (Mary's, not my mom's).


We'll be better about updating the blog, especially now that so much has changed over the last month. Mary's crawling like a champ, pulling up, self-feeding (sort of), has 2 teeth... she's like a whole new baby.

26.2

Last Sunday was a big day for me... I ran the Disney Marathon! It wasn't exactly what I hoped for when my dad and I signed up for the race, but we finished it.

A few highlights from the race:

-arriving at disney at 4:30am to start the race at 5:40am

-wearing a one-piece tearaway white jumpsuit

-running for 2 hours in the dark

-starting a marathon at 28 degrees and finishing it at about 35 degrees

-the icey waterstations-- cups and pavement included

-carrying a camera the entire 26.2 miles on accident... I finally decide to take a picture since I had it with me and the battery was dead. awesome.

So, the only thing I have to show for the race is the before picture of my dad and me freezing! And, the awesome bling that I got!

All in all, I'm so glad that I did it and I plan on doing another one, but maybe not until after baby #2... which is coming no time soon!

A special thanks to my superdad/husband Danny! Marathon training takes a LOT of time and he was so supportive and kept Mary for many, many hours while I ran. He was always encouraging, so proud of me and self sacrificing to allow me to fulfill this goal.

And, here is a picture of Mary just because she's cute. This is probably one of the mornings I was out running and Danny got to choose her outfit. :)

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!

We hope that you all had a fun and safe New Years celebration! We got back into Boston a few days ago and spent the evening with some good friends. Mary had a good time too!

and then she got tired!

Luckily, we thought about Mary and the problems that could come with her staying up until midnight before the big night... so, we had a sleep over! It's true! Danny, Mary and I all spent the night at our friends house so that we could put Mary down at a normal time and stay for the festivities. She had a great night and would like to say a special thanks to Ellie and Gracie for sharing their room! :) Then, we had a big breakfast in the morning... with lots of bacon for Danny, which is enough to make the New Year celebration wonderful for him!

Happy New Years!