April and May

Okay prepare yourself! This is a beastly blog entry. I have been putting it off for a while because it seemed more of a daunting task than a fun one. So the more I put it off the longer and less likely I am to do it. So here we go.

We haven't done anything super exciting but we have had fun doing....well everyday things. Marin loves to play out on my parents deck even when no one will go outside with her, she loves to be outside.

As soon as the weather turned nice for those of you who know Mark know that he was itching to go hiking. Not so fun with my darling expanding pregnant frame, but not one to be left out of the "fun" I treked the trails with my darling family. Exhausted at the top I certainly didn't take a picture up there so you get a picture from where we started...the neighborhood.

My baby turned 2!! I was prepared to make her waffles or pancakes in the shape of the number 2, nope she wanted cereal and chocolate milk in her fun cup. So was the start of her birthday!

Then we went out and ran errands....fun for her.

After running our errands we went and picked up Mark from work and headed over to California Pizza Kitchen to go see Robbie and eat! It was a nice dinner but I must say their chocolate banana cake or whatever it is called is DIVINE! I still dream about it. Wouldn't guess I was pregnant would you? So ended Marin's actual birthday but the party was yet to come!

Marin has many little quirks, doing hair is one of them. She loves to do girls hair (as D.Jay's friend Ashley is modeling) We were hanging out with Bev and co and Bev started to play with Ashley's hair that was all the cue Marin needed. She was even pretending to pin things in her hair.

So the day of Marin's birthday party came around. With us being the supportive children we are we ran a 5K for the local assisted living center my parents are involved in. First we will brag about how everyone did. Steven took first place overall and in his age group. Mark took first place in his age group, and 3rd overall. My Mom took first for her age group. Now what is really impressive is that I actually finished this sucker. Such a good husband I have finished the race and then came back and walked the rest with me and Marin and Charlie. Who is Charlie? Charlie is a resident at the assisted living who is mostly blind and drives a motorized scooter. I was glad for the company however when he could see the finish line I told him to go ahead and beat the pregnant lady. He responded with "Well there isn't much dignity in that...." As he drove off leaving dead last for me :) It was fun overall and I was glad we went and help raise some money for Parkinson's. Not sure I'll do that again...actually I will next year have to redeem myself!

Then we had Marin's party in the park. It was fun we had family and friends come out. Here is Marin opening her presents with her best little friend Adie.

It was a nice day and we had a lot of fun. I didn't get a lot of pictures from her party because it is mostly on video tape, but she LOVED everything she got (imagine that!)

What is a party without a bit of cake? She had chocolate chocolate cake. She loves cake, she asks for it daily, no joke. Good thing I don't have it in my house or Marin and I would both be needing to go on a diet for sure!


Then we went fishing with her new fishing pole from her Daddy. (It was a LONG day, 5K, party, bridal shower, fishing....LONG DAY!)

Oh I just realised how cute my little girl is in pink and my man is in blue. CUTE. ANYWAY they are getting ready to cast out, I like this picture and I think the reflection on the lake is pretty awesome too.


15 minutes later...it was Mark fishing.....


And the girls in the car eating left over rolls :)



With nice weather comes the awesome task of yard work. I just love this picture mostly because of Marin's beautiful uni brow!

Marin enjoys getting in our bed and watching Sesame Street and then she is ready to take on the world!

Poor Darla. Yes she is still alive, but Marin loves her just a little too much if you know what I mean. Marin tries to ride her like a horse, lays on her when she is on the ground and 9 times out of 10 if she is watching a movie she is sitting on Darla or has her head on her. Glad we have a patient dog.

Our bedroom flooded. The only damage was my body pillow. I found the water quick enough that we were able to get everything of value off the floor and out the door in a matter of minutes, amazing how quickly you can move when you fear for your high heels, jackets, and pictures that you haven't hung on the wall. Mark's priority was more for the Wii (which survived) glad he was there cause I was NOT thinking electronics. Anyway everything is done and over with there and I was glad to have neighbors that were willing to jump in and donate the use of their wet/dry vacs and fans. Saved us for sure.

Ask anyone I am not a wonder when it comes to cookies...I struggle who knows why I can cook but baking is not my thing. However who am I to deprive my daughter of good ol cookie dough and the smell of burning cookies? (Okay not really they actually survived for the most part)

So expressive! I asked her where are the cookies? To which she said I don't know?


We planted our garden! I'm pretty excited of course the snow a few days ago might have just killed my plants...here is hoping not. Mark built planter boxes for us and the family upstairs so we should have PLENTY of veggies this summer, which is good since we love garden veggies.


Marin helping get the dirt nice and "unclumpy" for lack of a better word, she had so much fun playing in the dirt.

Helping Mark water the newly planted tomato plants. Thanks Grandma Bev for the watering can she uses it each time we water.


Baseball. We went to BYU's last home game. What is a little baseball without.....


Good food. (Marin ate all but a bite of this hot dog) .......

Family (not my favorite picture but how can I not put this picture up with Marin making that face?!?!).........

And unpredictable weather? All in all we got everything you expect from a baseball game except a win. It was fun and we plan to go to more games next year when Daniel is back playing again (who by the way comes home in less than 50 days!!!!) Okay that is enough pictures and words to last a while I think. Hope everyone is having an awesome spring and ready for the summer!

April

Okay so April! Yes I know it is only the 4th but a lot has happened. This first Easter egg hunt was actually in March but since Easter is in April it makes it onto my April post. Now since we haven't had a child to take to other Easter egg hunts we didn't know what we were in for. I assumed that people were nice and respectful and what not. NOPE! This Easter egg hunt was at the assisted living my Mom helps out at and they had 1500 eggs and we were 10 minutes late than the start time and the 20 something kids that went had taken ALL the eggs. They were gone, kids were walking by with bags, baskets, shirt pockets full of Easter eggs and my little girl sat there with nothing. I kept having these urges to just smack those selfish parents for not saying here have a few of our kids eggs since you don't have any. ONE mother finally did and we just rehid the same 5 eggs for Marin over and over and she loved it!Wait! There is candy in these things?!?! That was the end of just picking them up and putting them in her basket.

Showing off her Easter egg!
And the candy.....

Painting Easter eggs, last year we attempted to do this and it was just lost on her, however she got it this year. Probably a little faster than I was planning. I decided patience is having an almost 2 year old dying Easter eggs. Sticking her hands in every color trying to and succeeding in DRINKING the colors (which if you are wondering they are made from fruit and besides being nasty they are just fine to drink...although not recommended)
Coloring with the "magic" crayon. This picture is very deceptive. It looks as though she is going to gently place the egg in the cup and use her spoon. NOT what happens but she is a good egg coloring faker!FINALLY got to purpose of the spoon! Didn't last. I made Mark a Steeler's Easter Egg and I made him take a picture with it, he looks happy.....

Seriously!!! Woke up to snow on Easter morning. SNOW!!!!

The Easter bunny also dropped off a special visitor, UNCLE D. JAY! D. Jay and Mark went to priesthood conference Saturday night and then they stayed up playing video games and what not. Marin loved having someone else to show off her goodies to.
Marin found her basket and then quickly went about finding her Easter eggs, man she is getting to be such a fun age!

Just like looking for Easter eggs outside, she has to hold someones hand like she is saying "come with me I want you to see all the fun things I'm finding"

Oh the Easter dress. I love Easter dresses mostly because it gives me an excuse to buy a frilly, pretty, fun, dress for Marin. However this year it was ALL Mark, Mark found this dress and it didn't take much to tell him that we NEEDED this dress (after all he picked it out.) We got her 2 year pictures done in this dress so I have cuter ones coming....I hope. She wasn't a "sport" at pictures.Last but certainly not least. Baby #2 is a BOY! Mark and I are so excited to be having a little boy. He is healthy and right on track. Which is what every parent wants to hear. However this baby boy of ours was folded I swear in half during the ultrasound which caused the doctor to practically dig his elbow in my hip to try and get the baby to stretch out. I'm EXTREMELY ticklish (ask anyone who has gone to get a pedicure with me!) I was practically in tears trying so hard not to laugh or hit the doctor and say "STOP!!" Oh well we didn't really get any good ultrasound pictures but that just means it will be more of a surprise when he finally gets here. My Aunt Lorri said "I bet Mark is over the moon about having a little boy" You have no idea! He doesn't want to act super excited but you know he is pumped! Can't blame him! Oh the following picture is 21 weeks, doubt you see another "profile" picture from here on out so enjoy!
Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! We certainly did listening to conference and the talks about the Savior certainly helped keep the focus in the right place, even if we did get "detoured" with the candy and things. We will keep you posted, because there is a lot more coming up in April. My baby turns 2!!! Our Anniversary, My Mom's BIG birthday, and all the other things we enjoy that come with spring!

March

So I have put this off long enough! I thought I would put a few pictures up from March and then April so far (yep that much has happened!) We have had a fun time this last month or so...imagine that us having fun! We went 4 wheeling although it looks cold we stayed pretty warm, except Mark's poor fingers if only there was something to help keep them warm hmmm.....

Here is a picture near the top!

Marin about 30-45 minutes into the ride and she stayed this way for more than an hour....goes to show you don't mess with nap time in this household (that applies to all ages :) )

Big shoes to fill! Mark doesn't like Marin to wear his work shoes (can't imagine why) however this is just too cute for us to get mad.
After the boots came off it was onto the coat. She wanted it zipped up and everything. Cute girl.

Happy St. Patrick's day....Enough said about this darling pose she is showing off here!

I'm not entirely sure what they are looking for here but it was sure cute to come into the family room and see this. Cute bums in our family.

Marin likes to stand in her toy box and play with the phone her Aunt Marie gave her. For some reason playing with the phone on the ground isn't as much fun.

Steven and Kim played in the school talent show! They did an awesome job. Marin loved watching all the other acts that were there. She was especially excited when Steven and Kim came out! Way to go you guys!

One LARGE post

So it has been a really long time since I have posted anything so I am jamming a bunch of pictures and information into one big post. We went to Bear Lake with Jimmy, Lori, Valerie, and Jace. We had a lot of fun and with much practice Marin was able to say Jace. She says it Sace, J's are not her strong point. Sesus is my favorite. Oh and Suice, I could go on for a while. Anyway. Here Marin is giving Jace kisses. They sure had fun together. While we were up at Bear Lake Rachel was in Paris France and we just wanted to be that cool so we took a drive to Paris Idaho. Let me tell you the sights were wonderful. They had Jack's Paris Cafe...which was out of business can't imagine why a Jack's didn't do well in Paris. Or maybe it was like EVERYTHING else up there it is only open seasonally.

This is those little storage rooms that you often find under the stairs in the condo that we stayed at. Valerie is covered in the pillows, the girls would play under there all day if we let them, they played well together which made the trip that much nicer.
On the way home we stopped off at subway and Marin kept asking for more, more, and more. So I just gave her half of my sandwich. You can tell from her eyes that she is smiling from ear to ear. I snapped the picture, cut the sandwich in half and she ate the whole thing. At least it is healthy right?

We let Marin play with the camera on the way home, she likes to take pictures along with multiple pictures up her nose she got this picture, I thought it was cute.

The super bowl! I was glad the Saints won not sure why but I was happy for them. Marin loves football so Mark found her this shirt and she spent the day running around so it was hard to get a picture of her holding still and posing with her I love Football shirt....this is as good as it gets. We thought she looked pretty cute. My friend Joni moved to Vegas *tear*. Oh so sad. However it is a good thing for her family so hard to be sad when she is happy. Here is her little girl Madi with Marin. If you can't tell they are pretty good friends.
We have been working on saying Cheese for the camera.... it is paying off! I am getting more and pictures with this expression which is nice, since we usually get a blank stare. See she can smile!

Of course sometimes you get this look..... which is not so cute, but funny.

Mark and Marin cooking breakfast, Marin likes to wear aprons if someone she likes is wearing an apron. She is still in her PJ's and probably not all the way awake here but it is a nice picture of Mark and Marin.

Helping pouring flour I think into the mix. If there is anything near her she will dump it in the bowl so she usually has her own bowl that she can pour whatever and however much of things she wants into.
Robbie's birthday was this past Sunday and my parents were in Texas for my cousins wedding so we had dinner without them. Robbie cooked steaks they turned out really good. Here is a picture of the people that got to enjoy dinner with us.

After dinner Marin was kind of fussy so I took her downstairs to go to bed but she decided it was more fun to plop down in between Kim and Steven and watch what? The little mermaid.... Oh Steven.
Robbie opening one of his presents on his birthday.


Steven and Kim got into a frosting fight, I couldn't help but put this picture up. Funny kids.

Marin didn't get into a frosting fight she just ate spoonfuls of frosting. (again working on the "cheese" here)
Mark's birthday! We went to the Bean Museum. So when I turned the corner and saw this bear I may or may not have jumped a little. So I made Mark stand in front of it so you could see how big it was. This thing was huge! Mark's face is washed out but you get the point.

Marin standing in front of one of the Lion's .
Had to get a picture of Mark and Marin in front of Mark's favorite animals.
This picture is for Robbie, he calls Marin a baboon and she called them boons. She was pretty excited when we showed it to her. So here she is sitting in front of her baboon.

Marin was pretty good for the most part. She would sit and listen as long as you had something to show her and lucky for us there was A LOT to look at.

After we went to Tucanos for a late lunch we had fun, Mark doesn't like to take pictures in restaurants so I have no pictures from that. It was fun though. Then we stopped off and got a few movies and came home and watched movies. It was a nice night...oh yeah and presents, Mark got to open his presents but I left it in the back of my Dad's car and just wrapped it in a towel and he didn't want to wait for me to wrap it for him so again I have no pictures of that either. While watching movies Marin decided she wanted her fingernails painted. It was a fun day. Man that was a long post and now my day is flying past. Gotta get to work!