The catch up before Christmas

I ended our last post saying that Mark was itching to go hiking...so we went hiking. It was fun. We saw a very large moose and Mark with Marin strapped on his back went to get a closer look getting closer he saw the mama moose and we were done. Mark could have kept going but I was done. Funny how once you have kids the thought of having to out run a moose doesn't seem so exciting. Who am I kidding I would NEVER have thought out running a moose would be fun.

The view from our hike. It was pretty and a perfect day for a hike. Mark and Marin on the trail, this picture makes me laugh every time I see it. Interestingly enough our conversation was about the old spice ads about smelling like a man after I took this picture. Mark smells like a man....I love this picture. Paxton was such a champ on this hike. I don't know what I'm going to do this summer when I have to pack one of the kids.... I think Mark can handle both don't you? I have been watching two of the little kids from upstairs in the mornings and the little girl Kate is 6 months older than Marin, they play well together it takes them about 10 minutes to get over the mine mine mine stage and then they are great. They like to cook and feed it to Paxton.

Halloween! It of course was awesome weather all day and then around 4 the clouds rolled in the temperatures dropped and it rained like crazy. Not being one to go out in the rain my Mom suggested we head over to the old folks home...river meadows.....old folks home. Indoors and lots of Grandpa's and Grandma's that were thrilled to have little kids running. Marin I think said 4 words the whole time. Painfully shy. ANYWAY she was Belle and she had a blast she wore this dress for I think 2 months straight.

Mark and Dennis went fishing....somewhere far away. They spent the night in Wyoming and had a blast catching fish. They both needed a vacation I think. Dennis is showing off their catch. They were all longer than a foot the longest I think were around 22 inches or something like that. Anyway they were huge! And yummy!
While Mark was off fishing sickness hit our household. Marin was sick for 2 weeks. I think this is the most she has EVER cuddled with me in her life. So in that way it was fun. However I decided that having 2 kids and one of them being sick the game of keep away isn't easy (Yes I realise Paxton is sleeping NEXT to the sick kid, but it was a cute pictuer) Paxton luckily is a pretty mellow baby and doesn't have to be held. So this is what sickness looks like I take advantage of Marin cuddling Mark takes advantage of the added sleep.
Let the joys of dress up begin! Marin has found that she can use Paxton as a doll! Her thing at the moment is sunglasses. Again he is such a good sport.

I had to document this. Marin and I were cleaning up her Legos and the container was only half full. Odd. So I walked around and looked to see if she had built a tower or something in her room nothing. Then I recalled her hanging out by the speaker. See the hole in the bottom? 42 legos shoved in there. I have skinny hands thank goodness or that would have been a chore. With everyone I pulled out I had to laugh. She has since been told to not put things in there, every once in a while I still check.
Marin loves loves loves to wear dresses. She wanted me to put her dress on and I told her no for whatever reason we were probably about to eat, she came out of her room crying. That's what happens when you try to put your dress on, Mama takes a picture.
Thanksgiving. It was a nice day, food was great, my Uncle Ray and Aunt Lorri were in town so that was awesome to get to visit with them. My cute kids showing off their Thanksgiving shirts that I made. On the way to dinner I started naming off things I was thankful for. You know it's true if ever you are down all you should do is start listing all the things you are grateful for I could have gone on all day and not repeated a thing. I truly am blessed.

Marin loves fish so we went to the aquarium today and went and checked out the Utah wildlife part of it...you know trout, frogs, brine flies. EXCITING STUFF!
Mark and Paxton showing off their awesome boat driving skills...
Checking out the shark tank, there was a sea turtle in there and it reminded me of heading to the beach to watch them come up and lay eggs and going back to watch those tiny turtles head to the beach when I was younger. She liked looking at the sharks they kept swimming by the window so that was fun.

The canoe was the hit for the day I think. Well maybe not the hit but it was up there. When my Mom called tonight Marin was talking to her telling her how they saw fish and rode the boat. Too cute. We have been so blessed this year with our health, a new baby who is growing faster than I want, a supportive family, good friends, and the gospel. Things couldn't get much better....well they could but for right now they are perfect! Hope everyone had a great Halloween, Thanksgiving, and fall. The snow has arrived in Utah and Christmas is right around the corner! Happy Holidays Everyone!

Nothing exciting just a bunch of pictures.

I have been meaning to put something up here for a while and I have just never gotten around to it. We haven't done much but we have done a few fun things here and there. Kids are growing up fast...Dang it. Happens though. They are both doing well and having fun and learning new things.


One of my favorite things Marin says when she wants to take a picture of something is "I cheese Paxton" "I cheese Darla" I cheese...whatever she thinks is in need of a photo op. Pretty talented I must say. The other day Marin brought me the camera and said "I cheese Marin" Yes you did. I laughed when I saw this picture. She does have some impressive eye color that is for sure.
We blessed Paxton over conference weekend. (October 3, 2010) A friend of mine also blessed her baby that day so we went to Logan's baby blessing and then we raced to my Mom's to help get things set up for Paxton's blessing....my helpful brothers, at least Robbie is holding the baby right? In all honesty though they were a big help.

Mark and Paxton (in their matching ties)

Letting his Mama know just how he feels about having his picture taken....again.

Marin and Paxton giving the exact same look to who ever at this point was trying to get a smile out of them. I remind you that all of the pictures were taken after the blessing and dinner...they were tired. I'm kicking myself for not getting pictures of everyone that was there and family pictures and all the combos I could come up with. Mark's brother Matt even flew down from Washington to be here, it meant a lot to Mark to have him come down. Thanks Matt!!


Finally a family picture....I think this was probably the 15th attempt. Marin was beyond grumpy as you can tell from the picture above even Oreo's didn't dissolve her sour mood...it happens right?!?!

My sweet niece turned 2 this month. Crazy to think she is already 2! I don't have any pictures of Aurora on her birthday (horrible I know!) We did however HAVE to bust the camera out for this....Marin for whatever reason didn't see the need to use her hands to eat the cupcakes Frieda made for the guests (Aurora's cake is in the front) She ate the whole thing by licking the frosting and then eating the cupcake, without touching the cupcake. Marie and I had a good laugh at her.

I can't believe it! My baby is already 2 months old. Growing like a weed. Paxton's doctor said after going over his stats, "I guess the story of the Ludwig babies is long and lean." Amen!! I'm okay with that as long as they keep it up! Paxton is 12 pounds 7 ounces and 24 3/4 inches long. Puts him in the 75% for weight and 97% for height. Yep long and lean. He is doing awesome! Marin screamed bloody murder when she got her first set of shots so I had prepared myself for another screaming baby that wouldn't calm down. Paxton cried a bit no screaming as soon as I picked him up he was done. Not another peep. He is a tough one for sure.

Marin....oh Marin. This face cracks me up. Her pig tails when they aren't all the way pulled through she calls them "her shrek ears" we do them regularly. Mostly because I like to hear her say shrek ears.

We went to a .........Marin will tell you.




Yep a pumpkin patch, she has been looking forward to it ALL week long. It was a beautiful day, hotter than we were expecting which is better than it being too cold. We had a blast.
Got our picture taken with animal bodies, and on huge pumpkins!!

Walked around and looked at animals, Mark and Marin petted them. Paxton is covered that is what is sticking out from me. I was just fine not touching petting zoo animals...the smell alone will kill you.

Walked around some corn....I decided corn stalks kind of creep me out. When the wind blows and if ANYTHING moves they make this crunching sound....children of the corn anyone? Yep creeps me out.
Rode tire horses. They had real horses but......she was just as happy with the tire.
Found the perfect pumpkin that Mark assures us will turn orange....

Showing off her pumpkin that she found.
Walking with the pumpkins. Notice how the pumpkins around us are orange, but ours are all green? That's because our green pumpkins had the best shape! Color or shape you know what is more important in this household!
So far fall has been good to us. Mark is dropping some MAJOR hints that he wants to go hiking so we are going to have to give into that in the next few days when he has some time off....wish us luck! I'm all for the hike in our back yard, nope Mark wants an adventure. Here is hoping there isn't a ton of adventure, just pretty leaves. Until next time!

The past month

Well it has been about a month since I wrote last and thought I would put a few pictures up real quick and give the low down on what is going on in our household. We have been invaded by flies! So when Mark comes home from work Marin and Mark go on fly hunts. I think we have maybe over done it...whenever she sees a bug she screams 'KILL IT!! KILL IT!! KILL IT!!" Oh well....needless to say nothing survives long in our house if it is a bug. No complaints here!

Oh my how they grow... Marin still loves Paxton and it seems like all she says now a days is "I take him". They are going to be a dangerous pair when he is on the move.

So for Paxton's one month birthday what did we do? We submitted our son to his first football game. Can you see him? He is the few spots under Mark's coat. The boys were overly warm and Marin and I had hot chocolate...We had a great time it was fun. It was Lehi's homecoming game and Marie joined us. They had some good laughs at the "alumni" don't we all?

Marin relaxing in her car seat.

On our way up to Logan we stopped to see our friends and their beautiful baby boy Logan (rocking the Run DMC onesie) They are a day apart. So cute!

Marin has a new infatuation. She loves books without pictures. She likes to pretend she is reading them. So she found the Bible, a chair, and busted it out! When I asked her if it was a good book she said "No Pictures in here." True.
For those of you that remember last years marathon. Mark finished and I said how are you doing? to which his response was "I could really use a Doctor Pepper right now" So I made sure I had one for him! He finished. 20 minutes faster than last year and not nearly in as much pain. Now he didn't train for this marathon and he is thinking he will do it again next year and actually train...we shall see

Paxton's expression is how all 4 of us felt. I got about an hour of sleep that night (thanks to Marin, Paxton slept great!) Marin didn't get much sleep either. Mark had just run a marathon, Paxton isn't very old so they are always sleeping right?

Speaking of always sleeping..... Perfect timing, he is up from his nap. Until next time.

He is here!!

Well Paxton Mark made it! Finally! He was born at 12:11AM on August 10, 2010. Weighing 8 pounds 10 ounces and 21.5 inches long. All that girth fit in that massive belly pictured below. They say labor is different with each pregnancy...they aren't kidding! This time I felt like we did a lot of unproductive sitting around. We got to the hospital around 8pm and we sat around. The gal in the room behind me was complaining and needed her epidural first if I said okay...who am I to rob the poor girl of some relief? So I said sure...sat around some more....waited for the doctor to break my water.....sat around some more.....Hey look at that a 10 without any drugs. So pushing time comes around and my contractions are 3 minutes apart. Push and then do what? Sit around and wait for another contraction......ANYWAY. After a lot of sitting around he made his appearance!

I know you can't see his little face in this picture, but I still think it is cute. I might regret putting this picture up in like 5 minutes, but for right now I think it is cute. He is only minutes old in this picture.

Marin came by the hospital and was a little unsure about the whole new baby. However by the time they left it was my baby this and my baby that. They came back that night and apparently she was pretty pumped to be going to see her baby. She really is good with him, thank goodness! We will see if it lasts....

So in this picture....my darling little Marin is telling me I'm wrong when I was trying to help her feed Paxton. Oh my....She is pretty funny. Her 2 new favorite things to say are "I take him" and "My Turn". She likes Paxton to be apart of WHATEVER she is doing. She likes him next to her at all times. I think they are going to friends...if he wants to be or not : )

A friend of mine put it perfectly...he isn't a tiny newborn is he? NOPE. He is small for sure just not tiny. Some ladies in our ward have had babies recently and they are all like 6 something. Nope he isn't tiny : ) We are adjusting well with a newborn and a toddler in the house and I can't say how happy I am that Marin loves the baby instead of hating on him or being jealous. She does get a little jealous when someone other than Mark or myself are holding him but she will get over that I'm sure...at least I'm hoping.

Needless to say there is a lot of this going on in our house.....

And this.....

Oh and this.....

Notice the Mama isn't getting any sleep?!?! HA! Not true, I'm getting plenty of sleep Mark is just smart enough to not take a picture of me sleeping : ) Thanks Mark! Until next break I get....