Family Pictures and Santa

Merry Christmas to everyone. We did not send out Christmas cards this year, so we are sorry for that. We will be staying here and going to some friends house for dinner Christmas evening. We wish we could be with family, but living here it is tough to get back home. Some friends had a Christmas party at their house and Santa came for the kiddos. It was a lot of fun to hang out with friends.

Our family pictures at the party.

Our friends Erika and Jude.

Here is Santa, we are doing okay as long as mom is here.

Oh, wait I'm not so sure about this guy.

Now I am happy! No Santa and a gift.

The party.

This picture is for Uncle Brian and Aunt Celine. Mari got this awesome hat for her birthday and we have even worn out.

Here are some of our family photos.

Mari is blowing kisses in this picture.

The outside pictures are my favorite.

Mari did okay considering she decided that she only need a 1/2 hour nap that morning. So as you can see in most of her pics she looks very serious.

Her beautiful Christmas dress.

Who says I don't know how to read.

Almost Christmas... Yeah!!!

Well, there is not much to report from this end. Just lots of pictures! We had a very nice Thanksgiving with some friends and lots of yummy food. Mari is feeling better and so far seems to be healthy we hope it lasts, but it's that time if the year with lots of kids around. I guess the biggest thing is that Mari has started to walk more so than crawl.

Christmas is right around the corner and I love this time of year. However, having a small house and a toddler the thought of decorations and a big tree was a bit overwhelming. So here are some pictures of what our tree is this year.

For starters you can see the candy in the background that Mari discovered in about 15 minutes. It is now on the dining room table. She thought it was fun to hand them to me. Until.....

Oh wait these open and I think they have something yummy inside.

Yes, Mari had her first peanut butter cup. She takes after her mom and went nuts.

Here is our beautiful 4' tree. I actually LOVE it. Mari so far hasn't been to into tearing it down. I am just waiting though. Now is the decision to wrap gifts and put them out or wait. I am pretty sure I would have to wrap them a couple times, so I guess we will wait.

Here is one of the adorable outfits Mari got for her birthday. All ready to go to church, looking cuter than ever.

Look what I can do if I take everything out the drawers. It helps me reach the ones a little higher.

Walking, walking, walking.

Out for a walk with the dogs one beautiful day in her new snow suit.

Lately, Mari has 2 favorite things to play. They are feeding her babies and throwing the ball. It is so fun to watch her hold her baby and feed it. Now to try and teach her to be a little more gentle, especcially before the new baby comes. She is going to be such a good BIG SIS.

At Daddy's volleyball game and playing with him.

Mari Is now ONE!!!

We are a little late on this post, but Mari is officially ONE!!! Wow, what a big girl. We celebrated with Grandma Keating and all our friends from around here. Thanks to everyone for coming and celebrating with us.

On a side note Mari has been fighting a cough for about a month now. Up until about 3 days ago her chest was clear and there wasn't much we could do but wait. Well, we ended up at the doctors again yesterday to find out now she has wheezing in her chest. So we ended up having a chest x-ray, thankfully everything was okay, she doesn't have pneumonia. However, she was put on an antibiotic and oxygen. Let me tell you what, it is not easy getting a 1 year old to wear nose tubes. Needless to say we have not succeeded so please pray this all goes away soon, since they want her on oxygen till everything is clear. Thanks to everyone who is praying and thinking of us. We will keep you undated. We love you all and miss you!

Mari wasn't as interested in her cake this time.

We had lots of helpers to open the gifts.

Our friend Ben made her this wonderful tissue paper hat.

We got some great books and many other cute outfits and great toys. We love them all!!

Mari loves her Lovie, it is usually carried around in her mouth so she can still play.

The car Grandma Keating got her. It was the hit of the party and is still the best now.

Grandma Keating did lots of babysiting for us since we had a busy weekend at work. Thanks for everything, it was great to see you.

Celebrating Mari's Birthday in Missouri

I can't believe that our little girl is almost 1 year old. My how fast the time really does go. So we went to Missouri to celebrate for one of her parties. All the Aunts and Uncles came and Grandma and Grandpa Nienhouse came too. It was so much fun to be home and be surrounded by all our family. Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate with us.

We ended up extending our stay due to the weather that Denver and the mountains were getting and it was a nice relaxing time for us.

We had so much fun as always with Liam. It amazes me to watch how well the two of them play together. Check out those hairdos!

Mari and Liam both love to sit in the chair like big kids. Mari thinks it is fun to stand too. We are trying to learn to only sit on our bottom.

So Greg and I decided to have a monkey theme for Mari since she is a little monkey. Here was her adorable cake that I couldn't have done without the help of the baker Grammie Quirk, and the decorators me, Greg, and Auntie Sarah. Unfortunately this baby has not been easy on me so my energy levels dwindle quickly and food looks gross (when I have to cook it). So thank you everyone!!

This was Mari's own personal cake. Thanks Daddy for decorating such a cute cake.

Our Birthday Girl before the party began.

Look at that cute girl and her birthday hat!!

So we discovered that Mari likes her sweets. She went to town on her cake and we paid for it that night because she didn't sleep well at all. Oh well it was fun to watch.

Opening gifts was fun she actually knew what to do. Of course the paper was the most entertaining, but we loved all the great gifts. Thanks everyone for everything. It is fun to watch her play with everything.

Here is Mari the Monkey and Liam the Lion. This is what they were going to be on Halloween, however both of them ended up being sick. So we did nothing and Liam dressed up and passed out candy. Oh well, next year!!

At least we got some cute pictures of the two of them together with the pumpkins.

I was actually shocked that Mari didn't mind having her costume on.

Reading one of her cards in one of her new outfits.

This might have been the cutest and best thing. Being pushed around in a basket. Weeeee.