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.

Tree Time

I know this is really late but I'm catching up. This Thanksgiving we went to Nogales to spend time with my parents. But before we could go we had one thing to do.....

Decorate the Christmas Tree.

This was a lot of fun especially with Marley since she's getting older and is into Christmas a little more. She had a blast helping decorate the tree while listening to Christmas music. Michael did a great job supervising and hanging out, without managing to eat anything. We're really looking forward to Christmas this year!!

Potty Training!!!

This totally deserves it's own post. So this last week Marley and Michael both had this cold that's been going around- you know the one if your in our ward. So I thought this would be a great time since we would most likely be home the entire week to begin potty training with Marley.

Monday was a somewhat difficult day, but on Tuesday Marley really started catching on and we went accident free. Wednesday was a hard day but I take blame for part of it, because I wasn't able to give her my full attention. Since Wednesday, we haven't had an accident!!!!! Isn't it amazing what a little bit of bribery can do? Can I just say, Hallelujah?

Friday morning I had to run to Walmart, I was super hesitant because I didn't quite prepare myself for potty training. When I say that, I mean I read tons of material online and even a book but I had nothing other than panties and a potty. That means no pull ups or portable potty chair. I wasn't quite sure if Marley could make it, but when I tried to put her in a diaper she flat out refused. I took her to Walmart and probably looked like a freak. Imagine me, wearing Michael in a baby carrier and pushing Marley in a cart with a huge diaper bag because I have her potty seat stuffed inside, running through the store trying to make it out as fast as possible. While I'm repeatedly asking Marley "Do you need to go potty?" Thankfully we got in and out without any damage other than some impulsive purchases.

Marley picked out her panties and we bought some pull ups for nap and night time. She's done so awesome. I really didn't think she'd do so great, so fast. So there you have it. No more diapers. It's soooo nice not having to change two sets of diapers. This is a huge milestone and I've come to accept the fact that Marley's not a little baby anymore. I'm so proud of my big girl!

Other random things....

So as you can tell by the date of my last post I'm doing some serious catch up. I thought since I'd hate to do a post about everything we've done for the last two weeks I just put it all together in one.... so here it goes.

We went to another Suns game. This one was the Suns vs. Trailblazers. It was a great game (the Suns won) and we were able to stay for the entire game.

Waiting for daddy to get pizza.

Just hanging out.

We also planted a garden. I know it seems really late, but hey, better late than never. We did a simple garden with romaine lettuce and tomatoes- things that we normally eat. So far I haven't killed anything either!! I'll post more detailed pictures of my garden when it actually starts looking more like veggies and less like new transplants.

Our simple garden.

Helping daddy in the garden.

Beaming with excitement over our yummy vegetables to come.

My sister and I got together to go to lunch. This is a huge treat considering that Becca's the busiest person I know and I never eat out. Marley especially loved spending time with Aniston, she absolutely adores her cousin. Later on that afternoon we went to go see my sister's newly laid headstone. Unfortunately we happened to go on the day that the cemetery irrigates. The picture isn't the greatest but it's nice to see that she has a place and that it's marked.

Halloween

Halloween has to be one of my favorite holidays. I grew up in a home where my mom made our costumes each year and I love this idea. I plan on making it a tradition in our family (hopefully, as long as I can). So this year I searched the Internet for cute costumes, and eventually decided that my kids were going to be chickens. I used some onesies, babylegs, a feather boa and my awesome sewing skills and ta-da, here's my little chickens. The kids wore their costumes to the ward party as well. Mike and I also dressed up as crossing guards.

Halloween night we got together with some friends from the ward for some yummy chili and goodies. Afterward we took the kids trick-or-treating. This was Marley's first official year trick-or-treating and she had a blast.

Our little chickens

Who are you calling chicken?

Pooped!

Go Suns

Our family went to the first Suns pre-season game. We have season tickets so we were so excited to finally have basketball season start. The game was great and the kids did really well. Marley had a blast, she was clapping and cheering with Mike. Michael wasn't too sure about all the commotion. He wore earphones to protect his ears, but all the noise still bothered him. Considering everything he did really well.

Marley was so excited when we told her we were going to go to the game. Here she is in her Suns outfit and holding the tickets.

Our family at the game.

Sweetest Dreams

I finally decided that I had enough of Michael sleeping in our bed/room. Don't get me wrong, I love cuddling with my little guy and having him close for all of those late night feedings but I'm so ready to get my space back. So last weekend we bought Marley a big girl bed and this weekend we switched the kids rooms around. I was completely excited but yet a little apprehensive since all this moving meant that we were going to have to give up our office space. So in turn our two computers and our filing cabinet were going to somehow fit in our room. Yay!

After all of our hard work we finally got everything settled. Michael slept in his own room on Saturday night and last night was Marley's first night in her big girl bed. They did great. Marley didn't get out of bed once. Even this morning I think she thought she was stuck in her bed. Normally in her crib she would ask "Up please", this morning she was asking to get up. It was pretty cute. She's even napping as I type, and she's still in bed!! If I would have know that this would have been so easy I would have done it a long time ago.

Michael in his bed.

Last night at bedtime. She's excited.Napping.

Photography Give-A-Way

So my friend Brandi recently took pictures of the kiddos and me, and they came out awesome. She's doing a Photography Give-A-Way, here's info and a link to her photography blog. Good Luck! http://www.brandijophotography.blogspot.com/

Twilight Trailer Spoof

Most of you are probably like me and dying for the Twilight movie to come out. I sometimes search Youtube.com for Twilight extras. Well I stumbled across this and thought it was hilarious. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dompotjTeIA

Michael & Marley Update

First of all Michael is growing so fast. He's almost four months old and the time has flown by. Michael is also a big boy, he's not really fat he's just really long- I plan on posting his stats after his 4mo check-up. He has also become so interactive. He loves to smile and started smiling at an earlier age than Marley. He is so easy to smile and laugh as well. His giggle cracks me up. Check it out. Here's some video of Michael laughing that my sister in law posted on her blog.

http://greerfamilyfun.blogspot.com/2008/09/my-cute-little-nephew.html

He's such a goofy boy already, and I'm looking forward to seeing his sense of humor develop. He's such a joy to have in our family. Here are some of my more recent favorite pictures of him.

Chillin' by the pool.

Bath time. Look at that face.

Sleeping with his puppy.

Marley is getting to be such a big girl. We're potty training, it's challenging but we are making some progress. Marley's vocabulary is incredible. She is talking so much now, sometimes I want to tell her to be quiet. Marley is such a big helper especially with her brother. She's always very concerned about him, she brings him toys when he's crying. She's such a great big sister. I 'm so excited to see her grow. Here's some recent pictures of Marley.

Marley fell asleep on the way home from swimming at the gym. She was in the middle of eating a banana, part of it is on her face. I thing she's so angelic when she's sleeping.This girl is all about shoes and they don't even have to match.I'm constantly picking up shoes all the time.