December so far....

I think I'm just going to let the pictures do the talking on this post... Hope everyone is ready for Christmas and that you have a joyous and Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving I realised didn't make the last post so here are Marin and Valerie "helping" me make the rolls over at Jimmy and Lori's place. They turned out pretty good. This is the picture of the table we got and I realised it is all the ladies. Mark is taking the picture, Jimmy is getting food with D. Jay and Dennis was working... Anyway it was a good dinner and fun! Oh sad.... Rachel moved to Germany to be a nanny. We went to the airport to say good bye. Thank goodness for e-mail and facebook. From what we hear she is having a lot of fun. She is missed but we are excited for her! So it FINALLY snowed. I've been waiting for this and I'm glad that it is here. Marin just stood there for the most part, no surprise there, however she loved watching Darla play in the snow.

I like this picture, I'm sure most dogs do this but Darla runs outside ands jumps in the snow and throws her head in the snow to get the snow up in the air and then bites at it on the way down. If that isn't normal for most dogs then oh well, we love our special dog. So we didn't take any pictures on my birthday but here is one that Steven took. That is Robbie with his fist in the camera if you couldn't tell. I had a really nice birthday, thank you to everyone that was apart of it.
Marin took her first Trax ride to go see the lights at Temple Square Mark and I haven't been there in 4 years, it was about time we went back don't you think? It was fun and not as cold as we thought it was going to be. Anyway we had to stand on the way up there we didn't get a seat, but Marin liked standing up can't you tell from the look on her face? Here is our family picture... there were a lot of people but everyone looked busy so we just snapped our own picture, turned out pretty good eh?

They had a few Christmas trees made out of just lights and you could stand fairly close to those and Marin loved them. When we are in the car at night and drive through neighborhoods every house she sees with lights she says Pretty! (Well pitty) Needless to say that was the word of the night by far!

The girls

I really liked this picture, it is what Christmas is all about. They had Joseph, Mary and the baby Jesus on the reflecting pond in front of the Temple. It might be new this year, or it might not, but like I said we haven't been in 4 years so it was new to us. Merry Christmas!!

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November

I know I said I would only post once a month, but I am sick of folding socks so this is a nice little break. Not much has changed around here, even the weather.... I am so ready for snow and I know a lot of people don't agree with me but I am waiting for it! Enjoy the pictures.

Oh the attitude.....

So this picture was about this time last year. Marin and Mark watching football, she was so happy to sit and watch football with Mark....

She still is happy as can be to sit and watch football with Mark. I don't think he has ever been so happy (I'm sure he has but he loves the fact that she will sit and watch football)

Not only watch football, oh no she likes to play football on the xbox with Mark, she just holds the remote and pushes buttons but she sure does love her football.

So sickness hit the Ludwig house this week, I couldn't help but take a picture of her cruel I know. I asked her to smile and this is what I got. She was miserable, I felt so bad for her. She has made a full recovery and we are back to normal, it only took us a week!

Mark was having a rough few days at work so we made him a sign that said I love Dad and Marin colored it, she had so much fun working on it. It is still hanging up in our house, it has been like 3 weeks....

This makes me laugh. I asked Mark to clean off the couch from going to the football game we had blankets and jackets galore after I was done putting Marin to bed this is what I found... He cleared the couch alright, a spot just big enough for him to go to sleep.

Marin after the football game, about to go get ready for bed.

We had graduated the pig tail stage we have moved onto the braid and the.....

PONY TAIL! Oh it makes me sad, maybe because I didn't have this much hair until I was like 3 and she is only 19 months old. Lucky kid. She got a kick out of driving Popa Dennis' truck.

Marin's kisses. Robbie tells her to do her lips and this is what you get. Marin got her Dad's lips for sure! Funny girl.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

The month of October

So I think I am just going to have to post once a month and share everything fun and exciting that happened that month, it seems easier that way! The month October didn't bring a lot of "picture worthy" moments but it was a nice month and I love fall and the holidays so I'm getting really excited.

This month the owner of the house got all of his stuff out of our apartment so Marin has the whole closet to herself (and other things) but she spends most of her time in there playing with blocks, puzzles, and her Ms. Potato Head. She has a look of busted on her face because I surprised her.

Oh how I love this outfit! She is watching Michael in the Sir Knight Pageant. She LOVES that video, it is funny. Her little expression here cracks me up.

Shopping Marin found these glasses and thought they were the coolest thing ever. I like that her little finger is sticking up like she is trying to make a point. Cute Girl.

Steven and Kim on his birthday, I just think this picture is cute.

We got our family pictures done in October... finally! I will put them up when we get them (on Friday!!!! I'm so excited) This is what we wore, consider this a preview.

Halloween! We went to our ward party as Thing 1, 2, and 3. We won the costume contest. It was a lot of fun but I tell you what it was a nightmare getting all the back combing and blue out of my hair. Mark and Marin had no problems lucky short blond hair people!

Marin loved Halloween! She and Mark were out dancing she got a kick out of having everyone dressed up and coming over to talk to her.

Okay so this is the first part of November but it is close enough to October to make my October post. We went hiking up Dry Creek in Alpine. It was fun not as pretty as it would of been a few weeks ago but it was still nice. The weather has been perfect and I know how much Mark likes to hike so we went hiking!

Darla posing.... Marin loved when we would whistle because Darla got too far ahead of us and Darla would come running back. Marin would yell Darla "Dala" after we whistled and then laugh when Darla would come running around the corner.

Our family snap shot of our hike. Like our Banana Bandz?

When all is said and done October was fun, a little tiring but fun. I can't wait for all the fun we are going to have in November. Hope this finds everyone well! Have a great November!

The month of September

So I didn't put up any pictures from September we had a good time last month. We got a new nephew Jace! It was pretty exciting, oddly enough I don't have any pictures of him yet, I just couldn't be bothered getting my camera out. Anyway Valerie stayed with us while Jace and Lori recovered it was so much fun to have her with us. My Dad turned 50! My parents darling beagle Murphy died which was really sad, I don't have any pictures of her to put up on here or I would have. Mark ran a marathon and we went and saw Farm Animals. It was a good month for the most part! Enjoy the pictures and hope this finds everyone well

Valerie and Marin liked play time in the bath, they were usually like 45 minutes long at least it wasn't a 45 minute shower.

Valerie wanted to wear one of Marin's bows to church as you can tell church is during Marin's nap time and she is more ready for bed than for church.

Getting ready for the day.

Marin taught Valerie where all the cool kids play at our house.... the dog pen. They had fun locking the dog out of her pen. They just laughed and laughed. Funny little girls they are.

We went to the Mayan while Valerie was with us and here we are eating our okay tasting dinner that we paid too much for to watch the divers and entertainment, but I will say this the comment I got out of my niece was worth the price of dinner and then some.
Watching the divers. Now the comment I was talking about earlier. I knew my niece liked MacGyver however on this night I found out that she LOVES MacGyver. I pointed up in the air and said look Valerie there is a diver. She turned to me all excited and her eyes as big as plates and said "MACGYVER IS HERE!?!?!?!?!" She about fell out of her booster seat trying to find him. I didn't have the heart to tell her that he was a diver not MacGyver. So this little girl had one of her dreams come true, she saw MacGyver. She was so happy.

MacGyver the diver.

Mark ran a marathon the whole 26.2 miles, he did awesome! Here is Mark and Marin at the 5 am wake up drive to drop Mark off, she is so happy can you tell? She was a champ for sure!

Here comes Mark about to cross the finish line, I about missed his big finish but I made it just in time. It isn't the best picture but if you blow it up it is just..... beautiful. Distance is good.

Mark with his finishers medal. He was even able to muster up a smile. Once we met up I said how are you doing? What do you want, need to lie down? Want me to get you some water? His response? I could really use a Dr. Pepper right now. HA! Apparently going off caffeine was okay, but he sure missed his Dr. Pepper. I love the Fat Boy ice cream trailer located at the finish line.

Getting Mark some much needed lunch. Marin is behind Mark, that is her back pack and box of diapers in the back she is there though.

My Dad turned 50 this year and we snuck into his office and decorated the door and the inside of the office. Thanks to my Mom who was tricky enough to get his office keys away from him and get us the code so that we didn't set off the alarm. Here is his office door.
After we blew up balloons Marin wanted to help so she would put her mouth around the tied part and blow. It was pretty cute.

What is a 50th birthday cake without 50 candles he was able to blow all of them out but I like the picture of them all lite. What is Michael helping..... No wonder he blew them all out. (Michael didn't help he was trying to get into Dad's head)

When went to Thanksgiving point farm animals or whatever they call it. We had a lot of fun cause this girl was leaving and had a free pass for a family to get in and gave it to us! It made it more enjoyable for sure.


Okay so I am dry heaving while taking this picture telling Mark to not let her get her mouth any where near the railings, apparently Mark doesn't think it is as gross as I do but we did manage to keep her mouth off of the railings, just not her chin, chest, stomach, arms, hands or head.

It cracked us up to watch Marin look at animals she liked to squat.



Or get on her tip toes and look over the railing at the animals which in this case are massive compared to her.
This picture makes me laugh. This horse was huge!





Okay so a hidden talent of Mark he can make realistic turkey calls. I told him I wouldn't put the video up but here is the story. The ugly turkey closest to Mark is a female and every time he would do this call thing she was perk up and walk closer to him. The black and white turkey is a male and oh how he disagreed with one of his ladies checking out another turkey caller. The male turkey would ruffle his feathers, stick out his chest and stand up really tall and stare down Mark. So Mark not a man to take anything lying down would stand up straight and spread his arms and stick out his chest and make a louder turkey sound, I about peed my pants it was pretty funny.




My little prisoners. I stopped recording just as she started to laugh, of course!