Right now

I am loving:

• My Nick
• Biking
• My mom's emerald ring
• icanhascheezburger.com
• Yoga
• Modern Family
• Our vacation in March
• Yathzee
• Sweaters
• Exclamation points
• And my kitties

Just to name a few.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Nick and I had a gingerbread making contest where we won...of course. Everyone else would beg to differ, but I don't. Nick recreated the "Holy War" and I constructed a helicopter.

Eating and building our gingerbread houses. Me and Nick with the winning results.

We celebrated Christmas at my dad's house with my favorite kitty Tigg, short for Tigger. I know, very original, but I was like 12 years old when I named him. Nick and I got lots of stuff in our stockings and had a wonderful time celebrating with my family and Nick's.


Me and Nick with all our Christmas loot.

I know this is way late, but we hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

Picture time!

Nick and I had our family pictures taken with the Barker's by the wonderful Jeana Bird @ jeanabirdphotography-blog.com. Although this post is titled "Picture time" I do only have one picture to post. Ha! More to come soon.

The lovely couple! Ahwww

Pumpkin carving + costume party = A Happy Halloween!

Finally some new faces! I swear (and even commented on this last Halloween) that for three years running I had carved the same face. This year I came up with a classic scary face and a kitty. Yes… I carved both pumpkins and would have done two more, but considered that a little selfish. Nick painted his pumpkin (BORING) the day after I carved mine because he was way to busy doing homework and by homework he really meant watching the Jazz game. His pumpkin actually turned out way cuter than mine and mine was a kitty. Hard to beat I know.

Nick and I threw a Halloween Costume Party! Fondue + Friends = Freakishly Good Times! We made cheese and chocolate fondue and stuffed ourselves with yummy healthy food covered in very unhealthy cheese... Couldn’t ask for anything better! Nick dressed up as a soccer player and I dressed up and a princess who just drastically lost a lot of weight. I basically wore a huge hideous pink dress with netting and massive sleeves that I used to play dress-ups in. How it fit me when I was 10 is beyond me. Later that night I suggested we play Taboo. Why I suggested it I’m not quite sure as I secretly have a love/hate relationship with this game. I ended up hating the game because I'm awful at it and I’m blaming the game for that. Ha!

Back row: Leif, Nikki, Nick, me (Mariah), Lora, Jessica, Sam, Jennifer
Front row: Josh, Cohen, Brooke, Taren, Hailey, Josh, Tim, Parker, Kara

Adding this for your viewing enjoyment! I love cat humor!

The boys are in town

Me and baby Caleb

My sister Sue had twins yesterday at 35 weeks. It was very unexpected as she wasn’t due till November 25th and for the fact that I saw her 8 hours before the babies came. I could have sworn I told her NOT to have the babies, but I guess I was talking to myself. We had been eating pizza, telling Mike to practice his umbilical cord cutting skills and researching how to turn the babies. At the time they were feet first and Sue wanted them to turn around. Instead she had a c-section where Mike, the new father, and a nurse fainted. Welcome to Parenthood!

Little baby Owen and Caleb were born around 9AM and are super cute and make the cutest little baby noises. I’m still totally terrified to hold them and it looks like I’m going to have to overcome my fear of babies sooner than later. Owen is 5lb 11oz and 19 inches long and Caleb is 4lb 10oz and 18 inches long. They are super cute and I can’t wait for Sue and Mike to hold them so I can view them from a distance. Ha! Just kidding!


Little baby Caleb


Little baby Owen

Canning was a disaster

My sister Sue and I should have known better, but we attempted to bottle peaches the other day and it didn’t end well. I will admit that I was all gung-ho and innocent and Sue tried to warn me, but I just wouldn’t listen. So instead of just enjoying the peaches in desserts and ice cream we blanched them and peeled them and cut them and made a huge sticky mess of Sue’s kitchen. The result…sixteen unsealed bottles of peaches, which means Nick and I have a lot of peaches to eat within the next week. This will be the last time I will ever attempt to bottle peaches.

Here we are looking all innocent and excited.

Little did we know we still had four hours of canning left.

P.S. We turned the peaches upside down and salvaged all sixteen bottles. Now Nick and I won’t have to make ourselves sick off of peaches!

Proud to be...

I am proud to be the son of a fireman! Today being 9/11 I have memories of that dreadful and crazy day. One thing I remember about that day is being proud to see such amazing people(namely fireman) help in a despereate time. I thought of my Dad and how he has done the same as a fireman. He had done some crazy things and been the one to help those in desperate times. He has done amazing things to help people he doesn't even know. He has put his life on hold and helped others, he has put is life on the line. So since its yet again the anniversary of that terrible day....today I would like to tell my dad thanks, thanks for always being that Hero to me that I have always been proud of. I have always loved telling everyone about you and how your a fireman and so tuff and brave. You have been a great dad, and fireman....and even more hero to me. I know you might not be a fireman anymore, but you will always be a fireman to me, the greatest fireman of all! I thank you again for being that awesome hero that you are.