Since I Ran Out of Christmas Cards...

Halloween Activities

Halloween is so much fun now that Mark is a bit older. The weekend before Halloween we headed up to Baugher's, a pick-your-own farm not far from us, to pick pumpkins. Mark found one that was perfect for him---that he could barely carry.

There was a huge stack of hay bails on the farm that Mark loved. He found a little hole just his size and HAD to climb down in it. He could have stayed there all day.

The wagon ride was fun too. I think Mark just enjoyed riding in a moving vehicle without being strapped down by a 5-point harness.

Some of our friends out here are quite the pumpkin carvers. I'd like to say that we are too, but we barely got our one big one carved on Halloween night. At least it was still Halloween. Mark thought it was kind of cool.

And, for all of you waiting to find out what Mark was for Halloween: none else but Harry Potter in his Quidditch robes! We don't think he really understood what he was wearing, but he did look pretty cute, right?!?

"My scar; it keeps burning!" (For those of you that don't watch Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone at least once a day, that's a quote from the movie.)

Mark's friend, Reese, hosted a little Halloween party. Mark had a blast with all of his little buddies. They took pictures, gathered leaves to throw, hunted for paper skeleton parts, and of course, had snacks. Thanks Lori. It was a great party. Notice the ball in his left hand? Of course. He also got to take home a little ghost sucker that Sheryl had made. I decided to let him try it that night when he was a little cranky and Bryce wasn't back from school yet. When I handed it to him he said "Wow!". Then he tasted it and said "Wow! Wow!". And, when he bit off the last chunk, one final "Wow!" Had I only known he was that easy to please...

The Maryland Zoo holds ZooBoo every year around Halloween. Mark's friend Mallory (and Rebecca and baby Landon) invited us to tag along. Mallory loves giving hugs. They're looking down at the elephants. We had lots of people pointing and saying "Look! It's Harry Potter!" I'm just glad the costume was recognizable, or maybe it was just the scar. On a sad note, Mark lost his ball somewhere in the Zoo. Needless to say, I have no idea where he lost it or where it rolled off too. Thankfully, Bryce was home so I called him and had him run to Target to get us a pack of a dozen identical balls that I had seen there. And surprise! When we got home, Daddy had his ball. No harm, no foul, although he is much less attached to it lately. Maybe subconsciously he knows it's not the same.

As an excuse to wear his costume for the third day in a row, we also went to the Trunk or Treat at the church. Bryce took Mark around while I passed out candy. Mark quickly caught on that he was supposed to grab candy from people and stick it in his cauldron. He browses his candy daily.

Picking candy.

Regular Occurences Sept-Oct 2010

We never have a dull moment with Mark on the loose. He's a bundle of energy and his laugh is infectious. Here's a few things from the past months that I want to remember about him.



Mark found one of his church ties and a pair of sunglasses in his drawer. He HAD to wear them. I love the model face.

For some unknown reason every once in a while Mark decides he doesn't need a nap. This of course, is not true and he's cranky for the rest of the day. Sometimes though, for a brief moment, he'll stop and cuddle and watch a bit of TV. I think he knows that's the way to help calm us amidst his whining.

Thankfully he does sleep most days. We're growing his hair out for his Halloween costume (stay tuned), so he's been getting some pretty awesome bedhead lately.

When Mark knows something is wrong he says "No, No, No", and then does it anyway. A couple of days ago I heard a faint knocking from his bathroom. He had shut himself in there in the dark. When I opened the door and turned on the light I found him with the entire roll of toilet paper unwound. His response? "No, no, no". Yes, that's right. NO!!

We try to go for a walk almost everyday, especially now that it's much cooler. There's a sidewalk near the trees as you go down the hill from our apartment and Mark always stops to pick up one, two, three, more if we'd let him, acorns, aka "Ball!!". He knows to look in every crack and generally finds one that hasn't been opened yet by the squirrels.

So proud of himself. You might notice the ball in his left hand that you can barely see? He discovered it in his Easter basket (he found it when we moved) and it's become his constant companion for about three weeks running. When I say constant I mean constant: it goes to the store, on walks, around the house, in the bath, and yes, he even sleeps with it. We trick him to get it before we go to church (can you imagine the fights in Nursery?). Last week he cried all the way there. Anyone know if that's a sign of a psychological problem? Now he's toting the Sam's Club card too. It's not quite as severe (doesn't bathe with it), but he is sleeping with it right now.

Half Off at the Zoo

To continue with our deal excursions, every Tuesday of August was half off at the Zoo. Since Mark is still free, that meant just paying $7 for me, and we got a free 'frozen treat' (aka popsicle.) And, since friends always make the trip more fun, Amy and Caleb, and Lori and Reese came too.


The cheetah was putting on a nice little show for us. He'd do loops right up next to the glass. I did a paper (?can you call it that in 5th grade?) on cheetahs once back in the day and have always loved them. Probably because I like cats too, except for the hair issue.


We had to stop by to see the elephants for Caleb. Mark thought they were okay too, but wasn't quite as into them and didn't feel the need to get out of his stroller.

This monkey was great. She was right up at the window and made faces at the kids. From left to right, Caleb, Mark, Reese (held by Lori). Mark is more and more interested in animals every day. We're going back to the Zoo this Friday and it'll be fun to see what else he's picked up.

Port Discovery

On the third Friday of every month the Balitmore Port Discovery Children's Museum has $2 admission after 4pm. Bryce was at a Teacher's Quorum campout (this was back in August) so we decided to go with our friends the Spires and Blooms. A lot of the exhibits are a little advanced for Mark, but he still found things to play with.


He loved this ballpit that was in the little kids area. He probably would have stayed there all night had it not been for me being concerned that he would be hurt by some kids that were too old for the area who were jumping into the pit.


Not surprisingly the water room as also a hit. As you can see, me being the responsible parent, I neglected to put an apron on him and he got thoroughly soaked. He didn't care one bit.


Mark and Caleb liked hanging out in the camper of the Bob the Builder exhibit. They would look at each other and smile and then take turns climbing out and back in. There was another ball activity in that area. Of course, Mark found one to carry around as long as he possibly could. More on the ball fetish to come.

See What We Mean?!?

This happens without fail, everytime a Harry Potter movie comes to a Quidditch scene. It's been almost two months now since he discovered Harry, and if anything, his enthusiam to watch it EVERY day has grown stronger. Let's just say we're glad he didn't fall in love with Barney (sorry, Lori).

Our Little Harry Potter Fanatic

Life with Mark is never dull. A few weeks ago Bryce and I were watching the first Harry Potter movie (we’ve been reading the books together) when Mark got up from his nap. He saw the screen and immediately sat down on the couch to watch the rest of it with us. We keep our DVDs at the bottom of our TV stand and the first movies he pulls out are all Harry Potter. Seriously, he’ll hold them up for us to see and point at either the TV or remote. Sometimes he’ll even turn the TV on for us and sign ‘please’. It’s hilarious. His favorite scenes are always Quidditch. He puts his arms in the air and cheers “Go, go go!” whenever he sees them flying around. Then he claps when they show the crowd clapping. It’s so cute. We were driving to NC and had A Bug’s Life on for him to watch. He wasn’t super involved and was even fussing some so I switched it to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. I kid you not, he was practically silent for the entire movie, then took a nap, and watched the 2nd one. He couldn’t have been happier. See? And, then, the second one is just cute. “Give me the camera, Mom.”

As a disclaimer, we aren’t letting him watch all the Harry Potters since they get scarier in the later books and he is only 18 months old. And, he won’t sit through the whole movie, but gets up and plays with his toys and then checks back in every once in a while.

P.S. I wrote this post on Sunday. On Monday he was watching a little bit of the first movie before bed and it came to the scene where Oliver Wood is showing Harry the Quidditch balls. When Wood gave Harry the snitch, Mark started pointing at the screen and whining followed by his motion for ‘I want’ and ‘please’. Yes, he wanted the ball from the movie. Obviously that wasn’t going to happen, but we let him hold a Lindor truffle since they are packaged in a bright and shiny foil. It worked well, but took a fair amount of coaxing to get him to let go of it when it was time to go to bed.

Week in North Carolina

We had to go down and see everyone in NC for a week before school started so we headed down there the first week of August. Mark loved going to the pool with his cousins and also the Marbles Children’s museum. He thinks the water exhibits are great, but especially liked driving cars in the vehicles section. He did NOT learn to drive like this from me.

Mark loved hanging out with his cousins, Lonna and Bryce, especially while they played Super Mario Bros on the Wii. He would grab a remote not being used and sit on the couch with them pretending to play as well. Grandma also has the pictures of that. We were glad to be there to celebrate Bryce’s dad’s birthday and see Kim, Jason, and family for a bit before they left on vacation.

Utah-Idaho-Utah Vacation

I’m very behind on posting, so I’m attempting to catch up this week before Bryce starts school again next Monday. Time will tell if I succeed.

After Bryce took Step 1 of his medical licensing boards in June, he had two months before his MPH classes started so we decided to take a few vacations. During the end of June/beginning of July we took a two week vacation to Utah to see friends and family. Here’s a recap of our travels:

June 25-26: Spent with Grammy and Grandpa Ted for Grammy’s 80th party. My whole family was there (and really nearly all of my extended family). Here’s a quick picture of Grammy and Grandpa Ted with Mark. He’s around their 25th great-grandchild. Ted turned 90 this past March. Although we didn’t get to this time around, we love playing cards with them. We’ll see them at Christmas in Colorado and I’m looking forward to a few good rounds. My sister, Susan, her husband, Brian, and their two girls, Grace and Kate, were there too. Grace and Mark had lots of fun at the kids museum, the Treehouse, in Ogden, and just playing at Grammy’s.


June 27: Bryce’s little sister, Ashley and her husband, Greg, had their first baby on June 16th. Despite being only 11 days old, they couldn’t pass up the chance of having their parents, us and his sister, Kim, and her family from N.C., as well as Bryce’s two other sisters that live in Utah at the baby blessing. Needless to say between all of the Harbertsons and Greg’s side of the family, little Aurora had a very large circle of priesthood holders blessing her. But, the real riot was trying to keep 10 cousins ages 0-6 semi-quiet on two parallel benches in sacrament meeting. We all ate lunch together afterward and got to enjoy what was as close to a family reunion as we’re probably going to get for a few years. Grandma took all of the pictures so I don't have any to post, but they do exist.

June 28-29: Spent with my parents, sister, Joy, and Grandma Joanne and Holly down in Utah Valley. We hung out, ate, and toured the Thanksgiving Point gardens while my dad and Holly went golfing with Bryce’s dad and uncle. The gardens were really pretty and we got some cute pictures of us and Mark.

Mark feeding Koi fish at Thanksgiving Point

Mark LOVES water.

Omi had bubbles for him to play with in the Secret Garden.

Best we could do with a family picture.

June 30: Catching up with Tiff, Kyle, Kallista, and Dave as well as Tiff and Kyle’s kids. Tiff and Kallista are some of my roommates from college. We’re really glad we got to get together since both Kyle and Dave are starting MBA school in different states. Thanks also to Aunt Debbie for letting us crash at her place despite having her oldest son, daughter-in-law, and their 6 kids already there.

July 1: Spent some time with my sister, Joy, and then dinner with some of my old colleagues at BYU Graduate Studies. I worked there for 5 semesters +2 summers while at BYU and LOVED it. I wish I could have seen more of the staff, but was glad to at least get to go to dinner with Claire, Janice, Breann, and Maria.

July 2-4: The day we got married was a bit snowy so Bryce’s uncle, Glade, couldn’t make it down from Idaho for the wedding. I hadn’t ever met him, which means Bryce hadn’t seen him in 4 years or so. So, we decided to go up to Island Park, ID for the weekend to see him and his family as well as spend a day at Yellowstone. The weather was nice and cool and the park was awesome. Mark did surprisingly well in the many hours in the car thanks to Cars, Emperor’s New Groove, and Ratatouille. That DVD player was really a lifesaver.

Awesome waterfall at Yellowstone.

See the bison causing the traffic jam? He was just crossing the road.

Walking the trail around the Mud Volcano.

And, of course, we had to wait for Old Faithful to go off.

July 5: Hung out back down at Grammy’s in Ogden to recoup a bit (it’s 4 hours from there to Island Park) before driving nearly 6 hours to St. George to see Bryce’s sister, Erin. Erin and Chris had graciously let us use Chris’s car for our trip so we figured the least we could do was return it to them and spend a few days there.

July 6-8: Down with the Gappmayers in St. George. Mark had fun playing with his cousins, Max and Sydney and their two dogs, Murphy and Thatch. Bryce and Chris watched the kids so Erin and I could go see Eclipse, which, surprisingly, they weren’t too excited to see. We also hit up a splash park so the kids could play for a while. Then, after a fun, but exhausting two weeks, we flew back to Baltimore from Vegas. Thanks to Pres. Obama for deciding to fly into the airport as we were trying to leave, delaying our plane by almost 2 hours and not getting us home until nearly 2am after a 5 hour flight with a 16 month old.

All in all, we had a really great time, which is why we didn't take many pictures. Thanks to everyone who let us use their beds, eat their food, and borrow cars and everything else while we were there. Hopefully we'll make it back out in another few years.

We Do Exist

Despite all indications to the contrary, we are alive and well, although I can't say the same about my sister who hasn't blogged once since her baby was born...in September!!! I'm about to make a threat to not post again until she finally puts something on her blog, but we'll see if I have to take such drastic measures.


So the last time I blogged about the family was for Mark's birthday. As a gift from our friends Brandon and Cari, Cari took some more wonderful pictures of little Mark. As you can see, he wasn't really in the mood to smile or look at the camera, but that might have been because we had just taken him all over the country and he was a bit worn out. Anyway, you can see more pictures of this shoot here.

In March my grandpa, Ted, turned 90! I got to go out to Utah for his big birthday celebration, which was awesome. He's doing great and I hope he makes it to at least 100. While I was there, I couldn't pass up the chance to see some old college friends, Tiff and Kallista. The three kids are all Tiff's, despite what it might look like.

After Utah, we swung over to Colorado for a few days to see my dad who was busy with tax season. He really only got to see Mark for a few minutes at his office, but I saw him some at night. I'm very proud of him. His accounting firm that he started a few years after we moved to Colorado Springs was voted the gold medal in the Best of the Springs awards that the local newspaper puts out. They all deserve it.

A big motivation for my trip to Utah was to avoid another pre-test week with Bryce. He just has to spend a lot of time studying, so it's less fun. Mark still wished him goodluck though. We flew baack the night after he took his test and then headed down for a week in North Carolina with some of Bryce's family. I didn't take any pictures, but we had a good time.

Here's a picture of Mark at the airport in Denver. He was making friends with all sorts of people.

For Easter my friend, Amy, organized a giant Easter egg hunt at our apartment's playground. There were at least 30 kids with 8 eggs each so you can imagine the chaos. Here's Mark waiting at the top of the stairs to head down to find his eggs.

He got bored after only an egg or two and sat down to explore his treasure. I couldn't resist the baseball Easter basket.

We all ate lunch afterwards. Here are a few of his friends. We love having so many little kids to play with.

Mark sometimes thinks he has a pet mouse, although he prefers the wireless one. His new favorite thing is to sit in our laps with his wireless mouse while we play on pbskids.org with the corded one.

On Easter morning Mark was thrilled to find out that his eggs had something in them. He stopped and ate his puffs without finding any more eggs.

Sorry this is so small, but hopefully you get the picture of his attempts at running. This was over a month ago at the Cherry Blossom festival in D.C. He's much more stable now. He was so happy to be out of his stroller. He also loved the pigeons.

We went to D.C. with the Murdocks and the Jacksons. Cari, of course, brought along her camera and took more cute pictures of Mark and Mallory. Here's the post on her photography blog.

More recently, Mark loves to play on the deck. His friend, Caleb, has a box that he likes to sit in so we made him one out of his diaper box. He loves it, despite how this picture may look.

Bryce has finished all of his med school classes and is now just studying for Step 1 of his medical licensing boards. He takes those on June 23rd and then we are off to Utah/Idaho to see family and friends for a few weeks. Things are pretty normal for me: Mark, work, quiet book.