Uncle Dan

Uncle Dan is my Mom's closest brother by age.



He spent a week with them in Belize.

We had brunch when with him when we drove thru Las Vegas this summer.

The last time he came to visit was about 10 years ago.

He came just before Christmas for a fun little visit.

He doesn't take to babies... when Maria would approach him with a doll he would tell her "No... I don't do babies"... but he liked her just enough to play horsie. Which was so great... she loved it.

Christmas in Idaho

My parents, Maria, & I headed over to Idaho to visit my brother and his family for Christmas. Maria rocked the headphones/movie for a while... it wasn't exactly a lifesaver, but it did keep her entertained at times.



It was so nice to see them all again. Hayden & Kayla were GREAT with Maria. Hayden got a book & blanket out one day and cuddled up to Maria and started reading to her... it was so great!



Maria had so much fun playing with them. Here they are playing with Hayden's toy soldiers.



Here are the three kids having some dipped pretzels for breakfast... yum!



Christmas Eve we got out Stephanie's Nativity and each picked a character and described what role they played in the birth of Christ.



Then we read a story and opened up pj's!! Kayla & Maria got matching pj's.



We got snow a few times while we were there... it didn't add up to a whole lot, but it sure was pretty. I love the snow in Idaho so much more than the snow in Washington. In Washington it falls in clumps, but in Idaho it falls in nice little pieces where you can tell that there are actually little individual snowflakes... I never knew that snowflakes actually looked like snowflakes until I lived there.



We had LOTS of yummy food.... swung by Florence's for some chocolates. We make our own, but we can't resist swinging by when we're in Rexburg.



Christmas afternoon my mom and I busted out the Costco Gingerbread House Kit and put it together.... and honestly, I think this is the way we'll go from now on.... its easier, and cheaper!!



We had a ton of fun even though Maria did get sick... I'm still not sure if it was an actual bug or if it's just from teething. It was great seeing TJ & his family again.... I'm hoping that we'll be able to go back this summer and visit. Maybe jump on the trampoline that Santa brought Hayden & Kayla!!

an early visit from Santa!!

Santa made a special trip to our house this year.



With Marco leaving Santa wanted to make sure that Maria's daddy was there when she opened up some of her presents.

Maria was a little afraid of him and wanted to stay with her Daddy.



But she warmed up just enough for Santa to read her part of a book...





Dear Santa-

Thanks for celebrating with us a little early this year.

We all appreciate it.... especially Maria's Daddy... He's going to miss her bad.

Thanks!

Decorating for Christmas

This year I wasn't sure whether or not we would be decorating for Christmas. We decorated for the ward Christmas party, and are spending the holiday in Idaho at my brother's house....

but last Tuesday morning we decided that we would have an early Christmas before Marco left for North Carolina the next day....



So we busied ourselves and set up a tree with lights and some ornaments.



We had a bag of balls that we had used for the Christmas Party... Maria LOVED playing in them.





She really enjoyed the lights and all the balls.





and here's our tree...

Home again...

Marco and I took of Wednesday morning.

We drove to Seattle and flew to Raleigh via Atlanta.

We had breakfast, drove by our old house (it still looks the same), swung by my old office (which is a LOT different), picked up some snacks for on the plane, said hello to dear sweet friends and their yummy little baby, and then headed to the airport.

Marco is safe. He'll be busy with work. Maria & I will miss him dearly.

I've only cried about 25 times... which is really good considering the fact that I'm really ridiculously emotional when I'm not pregnant... I'm working on being strong and brave... it's not going so well.


Total time in Raleigh: 16 hours
Total distance traveled: 6,487 miles
Total time traveling: 17 hours

Days 'til Marco is home: 104

Ward Christmas Party

We had a great time at the party this hear. My parents did a great job organizing everything. KP was in charge of a DELICIOUS dinner (it seems as if anything she touches turns to gold!!) My parents organized a little program. There was the nativity area that LS was in charge of, and then me with my AWESOME team for the decorations. And we can't forget the invites of a box of chocolates (remember that marathon of chocolate making we did over thanksgiving weekend....)

Here are a few pictures...

Here's the view from the stage looking towards the overflow:



Here's from the overflow looking towards the stage:



Here's the little sitting area we had off to the side:



And here's where the nativities were displayed...



(my Mom made the star!!)

One of my most favorite things were all the lights. I'm not a fan of the gym lights and I love the false ceiling that the lights provided.

Everything came together so well, and everyone helped out so much. People donated trees, lights and ornaments, center pieces, nativities, and so much more... It was such a fun event, and couldn't have happened without everyone that was involved.... thanks!!

Life.... in a nutshell.

A lot has been going on since Thanksgiving and I haven't had the time, energy, or desire to blog.

*We had the Ward Christmas Party on Saturday. It was wonderful, but it was a lot of work.... I'll post another blog with pictures and info on that.

*Marco is going to North Carolina for a few months. Work has been really slow here and probably won't pick up for a while so Marco made a few phone calls to some contacts that he has in NC and he'll be heading out there until just before the baby is born. I'm really torn about the whole situation. Money has been tight, so it will be nice to have him working full time again, but I'm really going to miss him. I'm a total blubbering idiot. But after weighing our options this is the best one. So Marco and I are going to fly out to Raleigh Wednesday evening, and I'm flying back to Seattle Thursday afternoon. I would absolutely LOVE to take the time to visit everyone out there (I miss you all SO much!!) but seeing as I'm going to be in the city approximately 12 hours, and that I'm going to be leaving my husband there, I'm going to have to pass... Hopefully next time I'll be in the city for a while longer and be able to plan for more than just breakfast!!

*We had our 20 week ultrasound and we're going to have a BOY!! We're really excited to meet this little fellow. Now we're at 23 weeks... only 17 more to go! (He's currently the size of a large mango, he can hear sounds, and feels movement)

*Maria's been one sick little baby. It started about a week ago, general crabbiness... and it turned into a cough, and sore throat, runny nose, and fitful sleeping, and it's pretty much still the same... except she's not as crabby. She's passed it onto Marco and I too, and with the weather being below freezing, and windy, and the air super dry it's taking forever for us to all get back to normal.

*Uncle Dan came to visit. I saw him this past summer when we were driving thru Las Vegas, but the last time he came up to visit was about 10 years ago. It was nice seeing him again. It was fun seeing him interact with Maria. He's not so much into babies, but I think she had enough personality to distract him from the fact that she can't talk yet. He even let her "ride" his foot like a horse!

*I am an idiot. I'm one of those people who take on a project, and then take on another one, and another one, and another one until I go crazy... Not only was I in charge of the decorations for the Christmas Party (I had a wonderful committee backing me which was absolutely marvelous!!), and I've had a sick baby, and my husband is going to be leaving for a few months, but I'm also doing the Christmas Program for our Sacrament meeting this Sunday. I'm the Ward Music Chair, so I'm in charge of the music for Sacrament Meetings every Sunday. And since the Christmas Sunday Program is generally a mostly musical program I happily volunteered to set up something for a program.

*We're going to Idaho for Christmas. I'm really excited about this. I haven't seen my brother, his wife, or their two munchkins since this summer. I'm really excited for Maria to play with her cousins!! I'm trying to focus on the good things.... and hopefully that will distract me from the fact that husband won't be there.

Thanksgiving Weekend

So far my weekend has been really nice. Relaxing.

I've gotten to spend some quality time with my wonderful family.

We had some good eats.... LOTS of turkey... for some reason we bought a 27 lb turkey for the 5 of us... but that's ok... so far we've had a delicious turkey pot pie and turkey tetrazzini with the leftovers.

We've watched some football and plenty of Manny the Mammoth.



We looked through the black friday ads and did a little shopping...



I got a few new outfits for Maria and she is such a girl... wanting to try everything on and keep it on. She got these adorable boots, but it's really hard for her to get up after she falls... I can't help but laugh!!

Speaking of Maria dressing up.... she really likes my shoes... today she got me to put her feet into these ones (she couldn't do it by herself) and then she just trotted around as happy as ever...



We had a chocolate making marathon. We probably dipped over 1000 chocolates! I've tried the truffle, vanilla pecan, mint, neapolitan, and coconut.... but there's still raspberry, orange chocolate truffle, maple walnut, and strawberry.

It's been wonderful so far... I'm so thankful for my wonderful husband that makes me smile so much, for my amazing daughter that keeps the laughs coming, for my parents who've put up with us for almost 2 years, and for the rest of my family for loving me. I'm thankful for my friends (even if we don't talk much). I'm thankful for the gospel in my life and the perspective that it gives me. I'm so thankful for the millions of blessings, big and small, that I've had this past year.

swings & storms

We went to the park today between hailstorms...

This little stinker could have enjoyed herself on the swings for hours!

Marco's Salad

sliced cabbage
diced tomato

Yup, that's it. Put some cabbage on your plate and top it with some tomato.

The standard dressing is a Mustard-Mayo Dressing:

1/2 cup Mayo
1-2 Tbsp Mustard
Water

Combine mustard and mayo. Thin a little with water.

Nana, we let the chickens out...

but don't worry they all made it back in safetly.

Dear Nana-

We hope you're having fun in Belize. We're excited for you (both) to come back home, we miss you, and your chickens miss you too.

Maria and I went outside to see the chickens this afternoon to check up on them. We gave them some chicken scratch and checked to make sure they had enough food.... I didn't check the water, but it's been raining enough that they probably have sufficient.

Well... I checked the food from outside the pen, and it didn't look like there was much left.... so I went inside the house and put on your shoes.

I opened up the gate and let the chickens loose. Maria was thrilled...



I wasn't so thrilled, because as soon as I opened the door one of the little buggers ran over my foot and got it all gross.



Well I filled up the food container while Maria chased the chickens around.



The big ones were brave and ventured out to the front.



The "babies" stayed near the house.



Maria enjoyed her chasing.



At one point she was helping me out by shutting the gate... what a thoughtful girl! (she also helped me wipe down her chair and the couch today... and then she continued on to clean the carpet)



Dad, I don't know what this goes to but she sure does enjoy walking back and forth on it.



I didn't notice that she had a pen in her hand until we went back inside... crazy little girl, I have no idea what she wanted a pen for. (ps. She might have made a pretty drawing for you in "Bears on Wheels".... I'm sorry. She is getting better at not eating the books, still not perfect, but better.)



.... and mom... I don't know if there is anything you can do, but your chicken coop is a little disgusting... and smelly... and mushy...



but since you have knee surgery 2 hours after you get back from Belize, maybe I'll de-stenchify it for you...



*I noticed how the majority of the pictures I'm getting of Maria now are of the back of her head... she's not too into smiling for the camera.

Holvander Park

This morning we woke up to sun... It's been such a long time since we've seen the sun that I got really excited and wanted to go outside and play. We got ready for the day and headed out to Holvander Park in Ferndale.

It was great. Maria LOVED the animals...



She kept pointing at them and yelling at us!



She also mimicked their sounds



These guys were a little freaky... they puffed up their feathers and then walked the edge of their pen like they were guards.



and then my battery died. We had fun though, we saw the geese and chickens, lots of birds, rabbits and goats. They didn't have any cows or pigs this time...

We'll have to go again on the next sunny day... with battery fully charged!!

Sunday

I nabbed a couple of pictures of my lil' stinker before church this morning....



crooked smile and everything.
Today we debuted the pigtails...



After church we were watching a little TV and the commercial for the Amazon Kindle (electronic reading device) came on, I was in the kitchen getting Maria an orange, she had followed me in, and as soon as she heard the music she ran back out to where she could see the TV and started dancing.... ah. I love my little doll!

Here's the commercial for those of you who don't know it:



Also, we were watching Ice Age this evening and you know the part where the baby starts crying because it's hungry, and then sid the slot changes the diaper.... well when the baby was crying, Maria started crying.... she's so sensitive!!

Cutie Pie.

Maria is seriously the cutest thing ever... I love hanging out with her every day.

Today we went to Fred Meyers and after checking out Maria said bye and did her princess wave to everyone the whole way out.

She has also started something totally adorable... she'll say something, I haven't quite caught it yet, but whatever she says means "hug" and then she gives you hugs. I LOVE it!!

I've got a little time on my hands...

I've been working on sending off emails of pictures I took during the Halloween party, and it takes FOREVER for them to load, so I've been perusing the internet.

I came across this article "Rob & Kristen's Newlywed Game" which I think is pretty hilarious! I thought this little excerpt was great:

Who's more competitive?
Kristen: "Rob. In a very childish way, in every aspect of his life. He'll literally start talking in a different voice if he's won something. He sounds like a five-year-old."
Rob: "I'd say it was even. She said me? Really? When I really win things, it's just like..." [Kristen is correct: He makes a noise like a five-year-old.]

I also like the "who's more athletic?" question... actually, i think most of them are pretty funny.

Notes Left Behind

Notes Left Behind.... it's the title of a book.

Check THIS out.


A little girl that died of brain cancer in 2007 left notes behind for her family.
She hid them all over the house for her family to find after she died...

They're publishing the book to help raise funds for cancer research.

I totally cried....not that I'm overly emotional or anything.

Ward Halloween Party

My parents have been called to be ward activities peeps. That means that we get to help them out with stuff.... which is pretty fun. Last night they put on our ward's Halloween party. We spent most of the day decorating for it.

My Dad was Fred Flintstones (it was the first time he'd ever dressed up in his life!!) and my mom was Wilma.





Here's my Dad just after we did his hair... Maria could have been pebbles with her little pony.



and if she were Pebbles, here would be the whole Flintstone family:



I took pictures of anyone who wanted theirs taken... Justine and Maria were my models to get the lighting right.





Maria found her friend, Gideon.... at first they just looked at each other...



Then came the hug....



All the girls:



The first half was games, and then they had some dancing and then trunk-or-treat.
They only did 3 dances which was great.... They started off with the chicken dance.



Maria LOVED the dancing... she totally rocked out in Justine's arms.



and then they did the hokey pokey, and ended with the Monster Mash... halfway thru the Monster Mash Marco and my dad let down the 800 balloons that we blew up earlier during the day (with air compressors) for a balloon stomp.





And they got them all...



we had a great time.... thanks for throwing such a good party mom & dad!!