Where did the time go?

HOLY MOLY! It's been forever since I posted here.  In some ways I wonder if anyone will really read this so I guess this can be my little experiment. :D  I'm excited to update everyone on what's been going on in my life as well as some of my new ventures such as: life with 4 (yes 1,2,3,4 kids), training for a marathon (I know I'm crazy), and general life adventures of living in South Phoenix.  Stay tuned folks!

Do you think it's time for an update?

Sunday night at 10:00 and I don't have anywhere to surf the web.  Hmmm I think I'll look at my so-called-blog.  It has been awhile since I've posted anything.  Holy crap!  The last time I posted something was in November of last year.  What's happened since then?  I've had a baby (who's now almost 5 months old) and we moved into a new house.  I have some serious updating to do.  Where do I begin?

I guess blogging will always be a work in progress for me.  I really can't find the time to keep up but I will commit to posting at least one thing a week (we'll see if this really happens, but hey it's worth a shot).  So I've decided to come up with a list of things to blog about.  They are in no particular order of importance.

1.  Darin James Greer- born 11/26/09
2.  Marleys 3rd Birthday
3.  Michaels potty training
4.  Big move from Buckeye and our new house
5.  Christmas
6.  Easter
7.  Mike's promotion
8.  Mike's Birthday
9.  I think I'm going to stop right here

OK, all you blog stalkers I will be posting more about us and all the big events that have happened, so keep checking back.

I'm Cheating

Since blogging takes way too much time- I decided to cheat and post a slide show to bring everyone up to date on all the wonderful things happening with us. Enjoy!

Reasons Why I Suck at Blogging

Can I just say I hate blogging. I love bragging (uh... explaining) all of the fun things that we are doing but on the other hand I just cant keep up. I think I'll just randomly explain all of the reasons why I suck at blogging...

1. I'm pregnant.

2. I'm a mom.

3. I'm going to school.

4. I have a calling.

5. We have crappy slow Internet.

6. I'd rather spend time with my wonderful hubby.

7. Did I mention I was pregnant?

So now that that's all set maybe I'll address those reasons one by one, but then that would be more to my list. OMGoodness it's never ending!

P.S. I promise my next post will not have so much whining. :)

Tagged

I know- you're probably thinking, I'm too lazy to update my blog but I'll do a stinking tag. And yea, you're right. What is your current obsession? Reading, if you have any good suggestions- I'll take them. What do you hate the most that everybody else seems to love? TV What are you wearing today? Jammies, but today I wore black capris and a button up shirt to show off my beautiful belly. What's for dinner? Dinner was 5 hours ago but we had chicken. What would you eat for your last meal? A bowl of Cheerios- gotta love them. What's the last thing you bought? This is a hard one. Probably a maternity dress that I plan on turning into a shirt from Goodwill. Budgets are great :) What are you listening to right now? Marley's favorite is the Childrens Songbook CD4- its the only one that's not scratched. We listen to this probably 4 times a day, but I don't mind. What do you think of the person that tagged you? Laci is such a sweetheart. I keep blogstalking her to see when she's going to post pictures of her new baby. If you could have a house, fully paid for, and totally furnished anywhere in the world, where would it be? Alaska, I would love to live an adventerous life in the middle of nowhere. What is one of your hobbies? Organizing- I know it sounds silly but I purposely look for things to organize. What are 3 things that annoy you most? 1. Runny noses- I really want to create a contraption (other than kleenex) that would make it possible for me to never wipe another runny nose. 2. Drama. 3. People who talk on the phone while driving. What is your favorite color? Magenta What is your favorite piece of clothing in your wardrobe? Right now- my bella band. Describe your personal style. I would consider myself frugal. If its cute and cheap I'll wear it. What are you going to do after this? Go to bed. What inspires you? My kids- they make me want to be so much better. Who was the last person you kissed? My kids before they went to bed. What are you currently reading? Shopaholic and Baby- Sophie Kinsella What delighted you most today? Marley and I read a book about friends. I asked her who her best friend is and she told me Michael. It made my heart melt. For dessert would you prefer chocolate or fruit? What kind of question is this- CHOCOLATE If you could pick a talent, what would it be? I would be musically talented- enough to play an insturment. I tag anyone who feels like it.

Michael Turns 1!

My little man turned one. We had a great day celebrating. Michael especially loved the cake and ice cream- if you couldn't tell from the pictures. I can't believe it I officially have a 1 and 2 year old. Wow, I feel really old.

Major Updating......

I know, I know, I'm just not very good at this whole blogging thing. I was really excited at first to let everyone know all of the fun and exciting things we were doing. Then I finally realized that we don't do a lot of fun and exciting things. Sorry to all of you who check here regularly to find that there's nothing new, so here's to you -random blogstalkers. Some things that we did in March: We celebrated Mike's birthday! My wonderful hubby is now 26! Happy Birthday Mike!

We got a new backyard, thanks to Corey Newbern.

This was the old one. I will be posting pictures soon including pictures of my garden. Can you handle the suspense? Dun, dun, dunnn. Mike realized the joys of babywearing. In April: Someone got a basketball hoop. Thank goodness for friends that are willing to help (Matt Thompson) or else this could have been pretty ugly. This was Mike's first shot. We found that baby #3 is on it's way! Coming in December! Michael found new and interesting ways to add fiber to his diet. In May: Marley and Michael enjoyed swimming. In 100 degree weather, what kid wouldn't want to swim? I found out that I have a climber. He's such a sneaky little guy. Well I hope you enjoyed all of the fun and exciting things we have going on in our family. I guess I can be lame and post nothing for the next three months, again. :)

Michael's First Haircut

Michael is now 9 months old. He recently had his first haircut by moi. I had to practically tie this kid to a booster chair in the bathtub with candy nonetheless to get him to sit still for about 5 minutes. Marley took full advantage of mom not paying attention and used this time to smear hand soap all over the bathroom. Lovely! It wasn't anything drastic, but just a little trimming around the ears and neck. He now looks a little bit older to me too. He's also loves to ham it up for the camera. Every time I try to take a picture of him he squints his eyes and makes this silly face. What is wrong with my kid?

Being a tough guy.

Big smile:)

Utah Trip

In January we went to Utah. Mike's little bother was returning home from his mission in Texas. Welcome home Justin! This was quite the adventure since we decided to drive to Utah in the middle of January with two kids.

We were lucky enough to break up our trip, so we stayed in at the MGM Grand in Vegas. Before going to the hotel we visited the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay. This was so much fun- since there aren't too many kid friendly attractions in Vegas. Thanks to Zippy for telling us all about it. We also got a sweet room-Celebrity Suite- with a huge tub. Mike and the kids took a bubble bath and the kids loved it.

Along the way to Utah we also stopped at historic Cove Fort, which was pretty cool and we got our own personal tour. Out tour guide was this cute old lady that absolutely loved Marley.

After arriving in at the airport and meeting up with all of Mike's family we found out that his brother's plane was delayed due to fog. We sat around waiting for a couple of hours, eventually we left without seeing him get home- the rest of Mike's family did too. The next day we finally got to see Justin.

On our trip Mike had the chance to play basketball with all of his brothers-which hadn't happened since Justin left for his mission. Mike beat all of his brothers except for Jared- but we don't really consider him competition. We also went sledding while we were in Utah. Marley loved it, on the other hand she didn't care for being bundled up. We also played games with all of Mike's family, ate a lot of food, hung out with our two new nieces, and just had fun.

Thanks again to all of our family for such a great trip!

Christmas 2008

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Marley started asking for Christmas songs the day after Halloween. To make things exciting for her we decided to make a paper chain to count down the days till Christmas. We had such a blast making our paper chain, we ate candy canes and drank hot chocolate. It was so beautiful I forgot to take a picture- go figure.

Christmas Eve we made and decorated cookies for Santa. Santa ate them all, but not without leaving a nice note.

On Christmas morning, Marley had so much fun opening presents. She finally got the hang of how to unwrap presents and even helped Michael unwrap most of his presents.

Michael happily opening presents.

We opened presents in a rush because later that day we had a Suns game to go to!

This was the true highlight of Mike's Christmas.

I'm so LAME!!!!

I think I should start calling myself the worlds worst blogger. Have you seen this? It's now February and the last thing I posted was in the beginning of December. Where did Christmas and January go? Hmmmm.... I dunno. Well I'm going to try to redeem myself and update my blog again so here it goes.

Temple Lights

When I was a kid I have fond memories of going to the Mesa Temple to see Christmas lights. This year our family went with Mike's brother and his wife. Thankfully it wasn't too cold. I remember freezing when I was a kid. Afterwards we went to their house to have some coco and watch the Suns game.

The Gang

Marley & Daddy

The Nativity Happy Michael

Michael watching the game with uncle Jared.

Ward Christmas Party

So again, I'm catching up.

Here are some pictures from our ward Christmas party. This was also Marley's first time seeing Santa, and she was sooooo excited. It was the cutest thing all she could say was "Santa Clause" then she'd throw in an "I love you Santa Clause". Now when we go to church she thinks that Santa will be there.

Marley's Birthday!!!

On Tuesday we celebrated Marley's birthday, and I can't believe that my baby is already two (wiping tears). Where did the time go?

Well since this birthday is one that she may have fond memories of in the future, I wanted to make it extra special. We started off the big day with breakfast in bed. This is a tradition from Mike's family that I absolutely love. He always does this for me even if he still has to go to work. On my birthday this year I ate breakfast in bed at 3am then went back to sleep after Mike left for work. So I made Marley french toast with bacon and OJ- her favorite. It was so cute I came in singing-mind you this is at 6am, which is normally the time she wakes up- but this particular morning she was still sound asleep. I sang happy birthday twice before she really knew what was happening. The look on her face was priceless. She was excited, yet still groggy.

Don' mind her hand me down jammies. I'm way behind on laundry. :-(

After the rest of us ate breakfast we got ready to go to lunch with Mike. We decided to take Marley to McDonald's for lunch. I know this sounds very basic but this was Marley's first time getting a happy meal and playing at McDonald's. We want this sort of thing to be special for her, instead of something that she does once a week. So we went to McDonald's by Mike's work in the ghetto. The nice thing was there weren't any kids there, but the crappy thing is that the play place was disgusting. When we got there, Marley was so excited and kept asking to go play. After she finished eating we let her loose and she became scared. I think the play area was overwhelming since it was so big. So she didn't really end up playing much in it.

After lunch we went to the US Airways center- one of Marley's favorite places. Since Marley is a huge Suns fan we decided to take her to the team store to get her a gift. We found her a shirt and some hairbows to wear to the games. Later that night we got together with Grandma and Grandpa for some yummy cake and bubble gum ice cream and so Marley could opened her presents.

The yummy cake, made by moi.

Marley after blowing out the candles. She's finally learned to smile for the camera. She's also holding up her fingers to tell us she's two. We're still working on that.

MMmmm Cake!

Grandma & Grandpa's present.

Suns hair bows.

Yay, a new Suns shirt!!

Scared to tear wrapping paper. What's wrong with my child?

A Little People Princess Carriage with blocks. Pretty cool!

Reading a card from Great Grandma.

All in all, we think Marley had a great birthday. I'm so happy to be the mother of such a wonderful child. We love you Marley!

Thanksgiving

So we decided this year to go to Nogales to visit my parents for Thanksgiving. We loaded the car and headed down on Wednesday after Mike got out of work. We arrived that evening and couldn't have been more excited to just relax and enjoy our time with family.

Watching football.

Grandma sneaking Marley food before dinner.

The yummy food.

Anxious to eat... Maybe next year.

Stuffed.

Thanks again Mom and Dad for inviting us to come and visit. We had a great time.