right now i'm am totally doing the shifty eye look...

i don't have a better title for this post.  because you all hate me.  admit it.  even brent does because i suck at posting.  and nothing i can say will excuse the lack of posts.
as a consolation though, here's a quick lil' something.  not a full blown catch up post, wherein i shower you with an overabundance of mary pictures.  no, this is just so you know we are all alive in the midwest.
let's start by sharing the good news that i am pregnant once again.  most of you who follow this will know because of either brent's or my facebook.  but did you know we discovered we're having a girl?  mary totally called it, insisting she was going to have a baby sister.  i was convinced it was going to be a boy.  maybe it was just wishful thinking.  but we're happy to have either, as long as the baby is healthy.  which so far, good news, she is!  we thought we had a name picked out and everything.  until brent had to ruin it by sharing, did you know so-and-so has a daughter named that?  well, thanks for ruining it, dear husband of mine.  now i will be brainstorming for further ideas.
in other news, it snowed last night/this morning!  and mary is overjoyed.  because she's been dying for snow.  which in her mind is the equivalent to CHRISTMAS!  which, you may or may not have been able to guess, she's ecstatic for.

we also made christmas cookies today.  with more of the actual cookies and icing ending up in mary's mouth than on a plate.  but it was fun nonetheless.  

anyway, that's it for now.  hopefully you can expect a lengthier post, with past pictures.  i have loads to catch up on: summer, mary's birthday, halloween, etc etc.  oops!