OW OW

I think Marin's favorite animal is a cat!  I hate to break it to her but I'm allergic and Mark is not a fan of cats at all.  When there's not much to do I like to take her up to the pet store to look around and when we pull in the parking lot she begins saying "Ow Ow", which is her version of meow.  My mom's cat Jazzy is so good to put up with Marin too.  Unfortunately for Jazzy, Marin learned that the more she pulled her tail or tugged her fur the more noise Jazzy made.  So she was a little rough with her and even tried picking her up.  Marin likes to lay down on her belly and "talk" to Jazzy real close.  Here are some pictures at my sister, Susie's, farm.  This is her cat, Jack, who also put up with a lot from Marin.  She "brushed" him not so gently.  I thought she would be so excited about the horses, but she mostly wanted to play with Jack!

Christmas at Bass Pro Shop

Christmas time with Marin has been so much fun!  There are so many special things to do with little ones at Christmas that  we would not normally do if we didn't have her.  She has really made this Christmas feel so special.  We have been to several Christmas parades, the neighborhood tree lighting, driving around looking at Christmas lights, story time at the resort, and last weekend we went to Bass Pro Shop to take a picture with Santa.  Well we couldn't even get close to Santa.  The line was forever long, but Marin had so much fun exploring the store.  Thank goodness there were a lot of things to do there other than Santa.

 Marin loves ALL snowmen.  She gets so excited when she sees one somewhere.  

"MOMAN MOMAN" she says!

 This is the closest we got to a Santa!

MaMAA. DaDAA

Mommy Did It!

I ran in the Ruben Studdard Half Marathon here in Birmingham, and was pretty proud of myself for finishing!  I finished in 2 hours and 2 minutes, which is only a minute slower than my other half marathon time.  I think I could have beaten my time if it had not been for those hills at the end of the race.  I placed 16th for my age group, but after the race was over I noticed the times for the 5K and I would have actually won that one PLUS I wouldn't have gotten the world's largest blister on my foot.  I't was a fun time though, and the weather was great!  We really lucked out on that part, since it was late November.  Mark played with Marin the whole time I ran, and I'm pretty sure he was more worn out than I was.  They met me at mile 7, which was the railroad park.  It was the CUTEST thing ever... she was clapping and smiling for all the runners.  She looked so tiny and pink on the side of the road watching everyone.  Mark tried to take a picture there of me running by and high fiving her, but he forgot to take the lens off the camera!  It looks like they had a lot of fun together though.  I can't wait until my next race!

 At the start

 She's wondering if it's OK that Daddy's in charge.

 I love these two!  I'm so glad they were there to cheer me on!

 Playing at the fountain

 Playing at Railroad Park and hopefully not eating those berries

 I'm so excited it's almost over!

 A congratulations hug

Halloween

Marin LOVED everything about Halloween.  She loved the weeks leading to up it when we'd go for a walk and she'd get all excited over Halloween decorations.  Robb and Megean hosted a family Halloween party a few nights early and she enjoyed playing with her cousins.  My mom came down a couple days later.  We took her to the train park and played outside.  She drove Marin around at night to see all the decorations.  On Halloween night Marin had so much running around seeing all the neighbors dressed up.  We stayed out past her bedtime and she didn't complain for a second. She was sure to say "moo" to everyone too.  It was just fun having everyone out visiting in the neighborhood.  At the end of the night, we stopped by Sabrina and Joe's house to let her visit with Asher.  He was very into his suckers and I think she liked seeing him dressed up!  I'm sure next year will be even more fun!

She liked Spiderman!