REMEMBER WHEN I USED TO RUN A BLOG?!

/capslock

yeah, neither do i.  you'll have to excuse my poor excuses for not updating.  seems living within easy driving distance of BOTH parents makes me lazy in regards to this blog.  because they can see mary any ol' time, you see, i'm less inclined to remember that there are others out there that miss mary us.  so i'm just gonna sit here and word vomit and photo vomit all over this post.  it will mostly be pictures tho.  because i don't think you really care to read what i have to say.  and a picture is worth a thousand words anyway. so this is a better way of condensing it all in one fell swoop. maybe.
let's go back in time, shall we? to october of 2010.  when brent first decided it would be awesome to put in for a position in illinois.  and we all laughed thinking it wasn't going to happen.  so of course it did.  much packing and cleaning and running around like chickens with our heads cut off ensued.  because they wanted brent out there like OH HEY CAN YOU COME IN A WEEK OR SOMETHING? uhhh.  we even pushed back his start date.  and that still wasn't enough time.  we managed it though.  thanks in part to understanding and helpful friends/family, lack of sleep, and little sanity.
on the road we went, with lots of toys for mary, lots of tranqs for tiggy, and surprisingly few potty stops. 

i took pity on tiggy's poor freaked out soul and let him out.  mary really liked him sitting on her lap.  that was surprising since he's a whopping 21 lbs and one solid mass.  mary helped pass the time by being cute and sassy, basically her  normal self.

i swear to all that is holy, brent and i are in trouble.  look at how dang cute she is.  it's only gonna get worse, folks.  i just know it. 
we arrived with little fanfare.  though a lot of stress.  because googlemaps or whatever brent used, decided to be tricksy and lead us on a roundabout trip through who even knows where.  and we got lost.  soooooo.   yeah.  but the weather was gorgeous (haha utah, it was like 70 degrees or something equally unreasonable for late oct/early nov).
brent started work right away.  i had a few days to decompress and unpack and get to know the area again (okay i've been in utah for a solid 8 years and a lot had changed in il while i was away.  so foreign).  we made a stop by long grove village for apple cider donuts and whatnot.  i saw this bench and it was a total photo opp for miss mary who just so happened to be wearing her belle dress (courtesy of gpas Koz for her 3rd birthday).  i cannot get over how beautiful our daughter has become.  no longer a baby but truly a little girl growing older and more sassy mature by the second.

then it was halloween time.  and mommy mary decided it would be TOTALLY AWESOME AND LIKE THE COOLEST BECAUSE IT WAS SO CLOSE TO THE RELEASE DATE OF THE FIRST HALF OF THE SEVENTH MOVIE to dress like harry potter characters.  brent was supposed to be something, and yeah that didn't happen.  but i was dutiful to my geekiness over pottermania.  so i went as hermione (kinda sorta) and mary was assuredly NOT hermione, thank you very much.  she was ginny.  hello? red hair anyone?  i cannot express how frustrating it was to hear people comment, "aw what a sweet hermione."  after about the tenth person ranting about it, i decided to let it drop (much to brent's relief)

then all of a sudden, mother nature was all hey remember that gorgeous weather you just had? haha well jk guys.  BOOM.  cold.  and snow.  galore.  brrrrrr.  how could i have forgotten how frigid it gets in the midwest?  egads.  mary has been loving it though.  clearly, she's insane.  but we already knew that (this is why we call her crazy old maurice....that's a beauty and the beast reference in case you were wondering).

she made her first ever snowman.  and i was very impressed.  never mind that it kind of looks like jabba the hut. 

and now won't you please enjoy these videos?

(this last video is admittedly not my best.  but trying to record while also helping built a snowman is tough stuff)
mary is in a new dance class.  more advanced because it ranges from 3 to 5 year olds.  and solely focusing on ballet.  she's definitely the youngest, having turned three after the class already started.  and also the smallest.  but she's keeping up well, if i do say so myself.  unfortunately i don't have any videos to back these claims up.  because whoever designed the studio sucks.  the "viewing room" or whatever the technical name is, is oriented on just one side of the studio, rather than the front or back.  and because life is life and totally unfair, mary was placed at the far end of the studio.  ie the furthest point from where i stand to watch.  yippee.  that means there are roughly 10 or so other little hyper girls standing in the way of my desires to be a big fangirling momma over my future prima ballerina. 
such is life.

christmas came and went in a whirlwind, with mary's new found knowledge of santa.  it was most likely our fault, what with the "you better be nice or santa won't bring you toys" spiel.  but i can't even count how many times mary would start doing something (oh, like, let's say waking up after midnight and trying to watch barney) only to say "santa told me i could."  oh liar, liar, pants on fire.  she is much to clever for our own good. 

i don't know who this child is.  what with the love of her bum and always trying to put it on display for the camera.  she literally cried when i told her i wouldn't take a picture of her bum.  that's how that particular picture came to be.  again, we are in TROUBLE. 
here's a random cute picture to throw at you

tiggy makes quite the pillow for mary, apparently.  he doesn't look like he minds.  or that he even feels her.  the tubby.

now it's 2011 and all i have to say is,
I MUSTACHE YOU A QUESTION.

BUT I'LL SHAVE IT FOR LATER

oh, and that i'll be better about posting.  i promise. 
and it seems i can't keep from being wordy.  so sorry.  eek.