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....

Before the baby gets here....

Okay I was sitting here thinking it has been a while since I put anything on our blog and with "D Day" rapidly approaching I should probably get my bum in gear and put a few pictures up from the past weeks. So pretty much the month of July. The most exciting thing was that Daniel came home!!! What a lame family we have this is the first time we have all been together since March of 2007 and we haven't had any pictures taken with all of us....oh the Welches! Oh well I'm sure by my next post I will have some.

Mark went fishing and caught himself a nice size....fish. Trout? He has gone a few times but hasn't bothered to bring anything home.

Marin up the canyon playing with rocks and water. Toddlers and throwing rocks in the water.

Mark and Marin cooking hot dogs. Marin LOVES hot dogs. Loves them.

We have spent many a day at the pool which if someone had told me I would be in a swimming suit at 9 and half month pregnant I would have laughed in your face for hours. HOWEVER I went swimming yesterday and must say if you ignore all the cute skinny tan girls it isn't so bad : )
I'm putting this picture up becasue I love this man.

Marin and I made Jell-O the other day and she enjoyed putting Jello on her face as much as she did eating it. As soon as she left the table she was ready to be clean. Funny girl.

Well I guess we are as ready as we are going to be for this little boy of ours to get here. Mark and I were talking the other night and I sure do hate the waiting game. Not so fun. So the next post we will not longer be a 3 some. We are going to be rocking the 4's. Fair game too, 2 on 2. Wish us luck!!!

Summer is finally here!

Well like usual we have nothing new and exciting going on. I thought I would put a few pictures up from the past few weeks. Marin loves Shrek 2. The 2nd one because that is the only Shrek we own, for my sanity sake we are going to have to buy her at least one more. Anyway when Prince Charming shows up in the start of this movie Marin informs me that "That's my Daddy." Very cute. Here they are dancing together at the end. She likes to dance like Fiona and this time Dad was there so Mama didn't have to.

Mark and Marin went out for a Daddy Daughter camping trip with Mark's brother Jimmy and his little girl Valerie, and a high school friend of Jimmy's and his 2 girls. They had fun. I didn't sleep much that night I missed my little family and was worried about them. They survived!

They slept in the back of the truck and apparently Marin loved that. I know this picture is in a post a few down but hey I only got a few pictures out of Mark so this one made it.

Marin also got a big girl bed. She looks super excited to be in there...she isn't so much anymore. She still gets really excited when she gets out on her own and shows up next to you like "WOW! FREEDOM!" This did get rid of one her little quirks. She no longer cries when I get her in the morning, she still asks for Daddy but she isn't horribly depressed when I'm the one that walks through the door, or the only one home when she gets up.

Mark had his FIRST In N Out Burger. I like them and all but wasn't pounding down the doors to get one. He had a double double animal style. He is in love :)

Marin and her BFF Adie watching a movie with us over at the White's. They sure do have fun together. Of course this is the night I had a mini heart attack. I had Mark go check on Marin to a second later I hear she's not here. Ha ha ha what do you mean she's not here?!?!?! She had unlocked the front door and was on her way to the car...actually she was at the car. Child of Mine.

I love love love this type of swimsuit. The more coverage the better and the less sunscreen I have to worry about. However they are not ideal when it comes to going down slides at 7 peaks. She has another swimsuit for that. I still love this swimsuit though and she will wear it when we aren't going to 7 peaks it is for other water adventures.

It's the end of the day and I was tired! I plopped on the floor cause Marin wanted to do my hair. She has a brush in her other hand. Such a good hairstylist I have.

So Marin rocks the pig tails now, it makes her look more grown up. She sure does look cute in them. It effectively keeps the hair out of her eyes which is so nice for her, it does however cause a problem when she tries to brush her hair.

Summer should be good this year. We have lots of trips planned to 7 peaks and a baby due in August....phew. Sounds packed enough for me. I would take pictures of us at 7 peaks but for 2 reasons I won't. 1. I'm in a swimsuit at 32 weeks pregnant...not gonna happen to catch that on film. 2. I don't want to take my camera to a water park where some little or big kid is going to steal it. Maybe we will get an underwater one! ha ha maybe....until next time.

Ode to my Dad

Now I don't have any pictures of just my Dad and I on my computer...sad I know. However I thought I would put up this darling picture of my Dad and Marin and tell you why I love my Dad. There are many reasons why I love my Dad however a story comes to mind when I think of an example of how awesome my Dad is.

Our jeep wasn't registered and our car was in the shop so we didn't have a choice we had to drive the jeep....we got pulled over at 5 in the morning taking Mark to meet up with his coworkers to go to the academy. The police officer told us he was going to impound our car and blah blah blah. He let us drive it to the meeting point so Mark could go. I was left with the cop and a 3 month old baby in a parking lot. I called my house and told my Dad what was going on and he came and picked us up. I was secretly hoping that my Mom would come cause I knew what my Dad would say....nope it was my Dad. He showed up got out of the car helped move Marin over to his car and get anything of value out of the jeep. On the way back to his house he started teasing me about it and laughing at me to which I started to cry and said "It's not...." he said "It's not what?" I waited for a minute and said "well I was going to say funny, but it kind of is" My Dad starting laughing and said Yes it is pretty funny.

My Dad has the ability to laugh at situations even when most people, I'm going to say most people cause it makes me feel better, would just want to cry. I haven't heard him complain about having to come to his kids "rescue". He is a wonderful husband and Dad and I am lucky enough to be his only little girl.....well until Marin came along and then when my brothers get married.... Nope I'll still be his favorite.

Why I love Mark as a Dad

Now the reasons I love Mark are long and many. I thought I would just focus on reasons why Marin and I love him as a Dad, seeing as how it is Father's Day and all. I love that he shows Marin new and exciting things even if it is watching a ball roll around behind the couch. He makes things exciting and fun for her.

He is willing to look like a dork just to make her smile. He truly is a goof ball when it comes to Marin...well he is willing to be a dork to make anyone smile.

He took Marin camping this last weekend and had a blast sleeping in the back of the truck watching the moon. Doesn't she look happy as can be watching the moon and laying next to her Daddy, or maybe that is the look of pure overjoyedness (yep it is word today)?

He really would do anything to make her happy.

I just love this picture, I was washing dishes after breakfast and they are watching Shrek...imagine that?

Thank you Mark for being one awesome Dad! I'm sure our little boy will love and admire him as much as Marin and I do!