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!

AND SALUTE

once upon a time i did a good job of actually blogging on a regular basis.  now...i'm not so sure what my blogging life has become.  i'm gonna go ahead and blame it on my parents and in laws for being right around the corner and making it so easy to forget about this thing. 
i know.  it's a horrible excuse.  and you are all sick of me and my lack of updates.
however, i come bearing mary pictures! in her costume! no video yet because i need to upload it...i do have to say that i didn't get as many pics as i had hoped for.  you see, they didn't allow any kind of flash photography/filming during the actual recital.  so all the pics/video of her on stage actually come form the dress rehearsal beforehand.  and yeah...it's a bit disappointing.  especially considering the video was just taken with a flip camcorder and the quality isn't so great.  you miss out on the entire mary experience if you ask me.  it's something you just have to be there for.  thought i guess you can still enjoy the cuteness.

brent wasn't so sure about actually bringing flowers to the recital for mary.  i'm pretty sure he said, "she's 3.  will she even care?  and who's going to bring flowers, anyway?"
well, to answer the last question...everyone.  EVERYONE brought flowers for their kids, whether 3 or 17 years of age (don't worry, i insisted on flowers).  as for the first question, mary cared a whole heck of a lot. 
the recital was actually two separate performances.  one at noon and one at 5 pm.  brent couldn't attend the first show because of work.  i went with the in laws and both gma koz and i had flowers for mary.  she was ECSTATIC.  the 5pm show was me, brent, and gpas lub.  when i went onstage after the performance to collect mary, she saw me empty handed and almost cried.  "NO FLOWERS?"  oh dear.  gpas lub had some though, and even though they couldn't stay due to my mom being sick, we passed on the flowers for them.  and mary was happy once again.
overall, i learned from this entire experience to make sure and volunteer for one of the showings.  because let me tell you.  despite it being a fun/entertaining show with lots of cute and impressive...sitting through 2 1/2 hours of the same routine TWICE gets old. 
in other news, brent got a promotion recently.  meat supervisor. wooohooo.  we are very happy with the raise that brings and the opportunity to buy a house even sooner.  it's gonna be awesome. 
that's all for now! 

EPIC PHOTO DUMP IN HONOR OF MOTHER'S DAY

i have little to no excuse for the lack of posting.  honestly.  i'm sorry.  and what better way to apologize than to heap upon you massive amounts of adorable mary pictures on this, the day in which we thank our mothers (or in other words, the two women who care most about this blog).

so happy mother's day to the two most influential women in our lives.  and to those out there that read this that are long time pros, new and inexperienced, or as yet to be gifted with the joys of motherhood.  we love you all.

NOW ON TO MARY.

there's not much for me to say here, other than we've been busy with life in general.  mary's dance recital is fast approaching.  that means lots of photo opps.  she's already gotten all spruced up for her class' official "photo shoot."  we almost had a melt down that day with her not wanting to go in and take pics.  luckily she's so dang cute and photogenic it didn't take much to convince her it was worthwile to stop and pose.

i'll spare you the boredom of my words (we'll see how well that pans out) and get right on with the show.

 i don't think i posted these pictures yet (sorry if i did) but a friend of mine sent me this mask as a gift for mary and she loves it so.  she calls herself super mask girl and goes around saving mankind with her imaginary boyfriend tuxedo mask

 i recently learned how to do a fishtail braid and it's about the only thing i can do with mar's hair that stays in.  i personally think she looks too adorable for words.  especially when she's playing my her guitar. she seriously sits there, strums and makes up words to songs.  she's a little creative genius, our daughter. 

 brent's cousin morgan stayed with us for awhile as she looked for her own place.  mary absolutely adores morgan and her vibrant red lipstick...which morgan is gracious enough to indulge mary in wearing.  sometimes i think mary is growing up too fast, already wanting to wear heels and makeup and kiss boys! ah!

 mary is totally a hipster.  deal with it.

 we recently went shopping for mar's summer clothes and her favorite piece so far is this new jacket.  she modeled for us as soon as she saw it. 

 grandpa koz came home with this surprise, SNOW WHITE PRINCESS DRESS!  naturally mary loves it.

 easter this year was a more quiet affair than it has in the past.  due in large parts to the lack of kozlowski cousins running around searching for eggs hid by richard and co.  but mary still had a blast coloring (and luckily not trying to drink the dye) the eggs.

 we found this easter basket at walmart with these dress up items and knew mary would love them.  i also loved that on first glance i thought of blind melon's no rain.  of course mary is way cuter than that little girl as a bumble bee.

 mary discovered football helmets! please, no comments on her head size and being able to fit in that thing (i'm looking at you, uncle ty-ty).

 this picture is so precious i can hardly stand it.

 basically for the entire month of april, it's been cold and rainy and gross out.  on the rare sunny days, we have taken to the outdoors to soak up the rays and shake away the gloomy blues.  walks to the park by the lake brent grew up with have been a blast.  and mary sure enjoys the swings.  even if she doesn't do any of the work ("push me faster, mom!").

 for mary's dance picture day, we went out to get her hair done (mine as well, but we all know who you really come to look at at this blog).  she got glitter and daisies and everything. 

 and here's that mary sass, all pouty and indifferent to the request of her mother to take a few simple pictures.  all the women in the crowd were going gaga over her hair and how well it went with her outfit.  that's our mary, crowd pleaser. 

you can bet that at the end of may/beginning of june, you'll see loads of pictures/videos of miss mary and her stunning performance.  stay tuned!

SNOWPOCALYPSE

i'm sure you're all aware by now of the storm of doom that persisted over much of the country.  the news forecasts were not lying.  starting tuesday, things got a bit dicey with the weather.  all the wind blowing and flurries starting...so that by tuesday night, there were already several inches on the ground.  the wind really didn't help matters, blowing the snow around and creating drifts that by today were several feet high. 

brent was determined to go into work today (as of last night) thinking he HAD to. the rest of us, the sane ones, were all LOLNO i don't think so.  and of course once he woke up this morning and saw how awful outside was (not to mention that lake county had closed off all its roads...) brent came to his senses.  so we're all enjoying a fabulous snow day.

in case you can't tell...there is a car buried under all that snow...

of course, we haven't been just sitting on our butts.  oh no.  we all went out to brave the weather and clear off the mountains of snow from everywhere.  mary was quite the helper, trying to shovel and clear off the cars.  she also really wanted to make snow angels and throw snow at me.  no big deal...

hope this finds everyone warm and safe inside.  we heard about close to 1000 cars that were trapped overnight on the roads.  egads.  if you don't have to go out, DON'T. i know i'm not. 
and now i'm gonna go burrow under the covers and pretend i'm a bear and hibernate for the next couple days!