Mari is 2!

After months of telling people she is two, she finally is!

Mari loves to help in the kitchen. Wherever I am, she will pull up a kitchen chair to stand on and say, "Help?" as in "Can I help?" So on her birthday, I gave her the special assignment of tossing the salad.

Am I outdoing it for a two-year-old's birthday party?

Mari loves butter, so she sat on Grandma Clift's lap and ate the butter off a spreader.

Mari got tons of presents. One of her favorites was this pair of princess pajamas from Grandpa Hogge.

We had practiced blowing out candles (she was very good at it), but it was her party, and she refused to blow out the candles. Daddy helped instead.

Hallowe'en

Mari participated in the pumpkin carving this year.

Mari was Boo from Monsters Inc. again for Halloween this year. I promise she won't be it again next year!Mari love the trick-or-treating. We came to our house last, and she walked right in.
We hosted a family party that night. Mari loves Hilary's boyfriend, Ryan, so Mari takes any chance she can to get in between them.
We watched the new "Journey to the Center of the Earth" that night. Mari wanted to watch it, but some parts were too scary for her, so she had to cover her eyes.

Agree to Disagree

I congratulate President-Elect Barack Obama on his historic win tonight. I am disappointed that the candidate I voted for didn’t win. However, I choose not to be bitter. I consider myself a true American, and as such, I will support my leaders. I do not agree with many of Barack Obama’s positions, but I can see some potential benefits of having him as our next president. I am proud to live in a society that (overall) does not believe that a particular race is superior to another. I hope that affirmative action will decline as a result of having a president of black descent. I hope that Obama will be a positive image for all minorities to look up to. I hope that the way he projects himself by the way he dresses and speaks will influence for good the people who do not project themselves as well. In the past few years, the office of president of this country has been given a lot of disrespect. I hope that with Obama’s popularity, the citizens of this country will give the office of president the respect it deserves. I hope Obama uses this office for the good of the country. I sincerely hope that he will be a good president.

In Obama’s acceptance speech tonight, he said, “To those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too.” Some people are outraged that Obama has won. I felt sad that Obama had to give his speech behind bulletproof glass and that John McCain had to calm people who booed at his mention of Obama. Christ said, “If a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand,” (Mark 3:25). Our country is greatest when we are unified. The only time I have seen our country totally unified was after the tragedy of September 11, 2001. I hope it doesn’t take us another tragedy for us to come together. We are made up of people with different opinions, but we can agree to disagree and still hold hands.