Babies,weddings and that kind of stuff

Marnie's was picked up early the other Saturday by her friend and taken to have her hair and nails done (she had no idea why at that stage). After that I picked her up and took her down to the church where her friends had organised a baby shower for her. The had gone to heaps of trouble contacting people from the states so that they could send gifts and cards, and even arranged a live skype hook up with a couple.

In other news, we celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary on Wednesday! One of these years we'll be able to celebrate it without Marnie being heavily pregnant, but despite that we had a really cool day...spent the whole day together just hanging out...it was really fun. I love my wife...she's beautiful and smart and loves God and is a great mother. I am amazingly blessed to be with her - love you babe!!

Some more cool kiddie shots from the last month or 2...

The waterfront at Kaikoura

Marnie came out one day to find Laila with her toy lamb stuffed down her top. She asked her 'what's that in your tummy?' and Laila replied 'sister'. How do they pick this stuff up?

Out cruzin' with the boys

Who do you think she takes after as far as hair colour goes?

Further updates from the past

So I know we're miles behind the times...I suspect facebook is to blame as most of the photos and updates seem to go on there nowadays, but I (Mark) prefer blog...I'm an anti facebookionist so I'll try to put up a few updates from over the last couple of months.
I've been training to do a half marathon in the new year...a few weeks back I decided to stretch my training and enter a local fun run...a 17km (10 1/2 miles)run over a local mountain range (the Rimutaka range). For the most part it was ok...the down hill on the otherside was fast but by the last km or 2 I was struggling. Marnie took this video at the end as I powered past her energetically, and on to the finishline...somewhat reminicest of a mortally wounded buffalo.

bumble bee and Belly

Halloween isn't a huge holidy here in New Zealand. It's important to me though to make some of those things from home a part of our family culture here so on a beautiful spring day we dressed Laila up and went around to visit a few friends. They were gracious enough to dig some goodies out of their cupboards for her, a new word in her ever expanding vocabulary "Lolly" (Candy for us Americans out there). I only wish we could find some of those big orange American pumpkins....maybe someday.

On a different note, we have hit the 25 week mark in our pregnancy. I don't even know if we've made an announcement, certainly not like we did with Laila. I guess you lose track of time when you have a toddler to run after. We are expecting another little girl and she's due in Feb, right on Laila's due date actually. Baby seems to be doing well and Laila is anticipating finding out what all the fuss is about. Right now she seems pretty happy to hold the phone up to my belly and say 'hi' to her little siste, it's pretty cute.

Catchin up, holidays abroad

Just doing a bit of a catch up on the last few months. We had an Australia holiday a couple of months back to see one of my favorite friends and former teammate, Sara and her husband Ramon. We had such a great time. I sure do miss my special friends. Here were some of the highlights

walks on the beach

Introducing my little girl to some of my favorite people

cuteness

Beautiful scenery

getting to use the passports once again

a couple of videos

I think one of my favorite times of the day is about 6:30: dinner is done, Mark is doing Laila's bath and I get to jump into "America-land" and watch Friends. It's not a show I'd really encourage Laila to watch but as soon as the theme song comes on, she runs from wherever she is in the house to dance....different day, same song, same dance. It is pretty darn cute.

We also just had a fantastic three day weekend. We got our veges and flowers in for summer, tons of work done around the house and Laila finished the day with a run through the hose. I love how kids don't seem to mind their clothes getting all wet and muddy. This is a huge step for our little girly girl as well, she usually gets quite upset if her hands or clothes get dirty, didn't seem to mind so much while getting hosed down by Daddy though.

helping out!

Ever had one of those days where the clothes don't fit quite right (well, due to an expanding belly they hardly fit at all) so you have to put the pj bottoms back on after the shower? When it begins that way you should probably just call it a miss of a day and resign yourself to the fact that nothing will get done like you wanted and you might as well give in to the chaos. Earlier this morning I realized that Laila had gotten very quiet. I went to check on her and was shocked to find her in her room with all her clothes pulled out of every drawer, every book pulled off the shelf and toilet paper scattered around the room. When I asked Laila what she was doing she simply told me "helping". I didn't even know she knew that word but I'm not too sure she understands exactly what it means. Here is where we now stand 2 hours later....permanent pen on the arms and face, lunch all over the clothes, flour everywhere in the kitchen (she helped me make cookies too), cookie dough on the windows, sandwich smeared in the curtains and the drying laundry scattered all over the living room....when I finish my cup of tea and go out into that mess I'm sure I'll find more. What can you say, when it all starts with not being able to button your pants you might as well give in. I've given up and we'll start again tomorrow to get things done, for now I'm quite happy to kiss my messy little girl and tell her what a good little helper she is.