Marsden Mania

What...

2010-03-29T10:31:00.003-06:00

I let my kids eat hot dogs for breakfast today...

...What?

Lake's Blessing

2010-03-16T20:52:00.026-06:00

We blessed Lake on March 7th and it was such a special day for us. Elder L. Tom Perry and Jeffery R. Holland from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles were in attendance in our sacrament meeting that day. They were taking care of some stake business and needed a sacrament meeting to go to... so they came to ours. The whole day had such a special spirit about it. Not only because we were blessing Lake, but because we got to sit at the feet of two apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ben and I talked about how neat it would be if they would be able to stand in the circle as he blessed our sweet little one. So right before the meeting was about to start Ben went up to the front, along with another Daddy from our ward who was blessing his daughter that day, and shook both the apostles hands and asked if they would stand in the circle. He said something like, "We are blessing our daughter today and were wondering if you would stand in the circle". He was standing right next to the other Dad and Elder Holland looked at both of them and said teasingly, "You're blessing the same daughter?" They all laughed. Isn't that cute?

It was so cool to have them stand in as we presented our little girl before the Elders of the Church and gave her a name and a blessing. Her name, Lake Lucy, is a very special name to us. Lake-because we love it so much. It is unique and serene. It represents nature and all of it's beauty. Lucy-because we love it so much. After Ben's grandma, Lucille, who is kind and gentle. Celestial in every way. And also after my mom, Grandma Blu (it's actually Grandma Lu, Lu for Luana, but my kids have always thought it was Gram Blu). Grandma Blu who is generous and supportive and loving beyond words.

Of course Lake was a complete angel and looked so beautiful. We gave Skyler (Ben's little brother) Lake's binky to hold just incase she started to fuss during the blessing. He was supposed to give it to her if she needed it so he kept peeking on her to make sure she was still happy. Afterwords he told us that she smiled through the whole blessing and he thought she was going to bust up laughing. What a little squeaker pants.

After the blessing when Ben held her up to show the ward how beautiful she is, it was so funny to hear everyone giggle at her cute hair. It was such a great blessing and we had such a wonderful experience. Lake sure is a special girl and this will be such an awesome story to tell her about when she gets older. We love her so dang much. Wow! What a special day for us. One which we will never forget.

(you can see more pictures of Lake and her dress here)

Dear Lake:

2010-03-10T08:34:00.008-07:00

Starting with Kai, Ben has made it a point to write down some of the details and a few of his thoughts and feelings surrounding the event of each child's birth. He is so good at putting his thoughts into words and I wanted to share what he wrote about Lake's arrival. So sweet...

December 20, 2009

Lake,

Life has been on hold for the last week and a half as your mom and I have awaited your arrival. We were told that you would arrive and December 14th at the latest. When December 14th came and went we spent every second in anticipation and excitement. Finally on Thursday December 17th your mother called me at work and told me that, “baby Lake is coming very soon.” I was able to finish a full day’s work and come home to help the family be fed and bathed. We put your older brother and sister to bed and Mom and I sat down on the couch and talked about her consecutive contractions. By 10:00pm Mom thought it would be a good idea to get in the tub and relax, I was very sleepy and fell asleep. Mom tried to sleep but her contractions were growing more and more painful. At 11:30pm she woke me up and told me that we had better get things loaded in the car because she thinks it’s time to bring Baby Lake into this world. Grandma Lu was very excited to stay at the house with big brother and sister as Mom and Dad left for the hospital. We arrived at the hospital around 1:00am. Your Mother had decided about 4 months ago that she would give birth to you naturally. I supported her decision but was very scared for her. We told the nursing staff of our desire to avoid medication and they were very accommodating and put us in the labor and delivery room. It wasn’t until 7:00am when Dr. Beirer broke mom’s water that the action began. By 8:00am your Mother was in very serious pain. Each contraction brought with it a very tight grasp and almost uncontrollable breathing for your mom. I stood at her bedside attempting to comfort and calm her. Seeing her struggle and shake brought tears to my eyes but I needed to be strong and supportive. It was her that was experiencing a pain that she’s never felt before. I stroked her hair, face, and arm and told her that she was doing great. Finally the birthing crew entered the room and mom and I knew that you were moments away from being in our arms. Mom stayed strong and continued to push and focus. Not once did she lose control or burst out in tears or screams although I could tell that she was very close to doing so. The Doctor came into the room around 8:20am and after 15 minutes of leg grabbing pushing, by mom of course, the most precious sound of your first breathe and scream entered the room along with an overwhelming feeling of peace and happiness. Your mother and I both smiled and cried as you were placed on mommy’s chest to be held and loved. You were perfect, a beautiful little angel who brought a very sweet spirit into our lives on Friday December 18th, 2009 at 8:35am. We spent the first two hours of your mortal life holding you, feeding you, and loving you. Your mother has felt a very special connection with you since the day she found out she was pregnant with you. She has been so excited to meet you and nurture you. I too have enjoyed the thought of you being a part of our family. Life has been less hectic the past 9 months, I’m finally finished with school, our home is built, and it has been very easy to focus on you and your arrival to our home. The first 24 hours of your live have been heavenly for your mother and me. You truly are a blessing to our family. As I hold you, kiss you, and smell you, I can’t help but smile out of joy; you are finally here!

Dad

Simplify

2010-02-28T13:51:00.043-07:00

Well, well, well...look who finally decided to start blogging again. April 15th...April 15th!!! That was the last time I blogged. That was forever ago! I went on blogging boycott for a while, but in all reality, I really miss it. It is just fun to stay caught up in peoples life's and to document my own. I love to look back at old posts and remember what I was thinking or feeling at random times in life. Saving pictures on the computer is great and they are so fun to see, but it's the commentary on life that I love having in the end- and that is where blogging comes in handy. So I have decided to hop back on the bandwagon and see how things go (i know this is like the third time i've done this so i'm not making any promises).

But this time it will be different. Different ya hear? (i'm reiterating to me...just so you know)

By different I mean simplified. No more checking my blog 12 times a day to see if anyone new has commented or to see who has updated. No more over thinking each and every comment to make sure it is funny enough or applicable. No more rereading and rereading every new post before publishing. Get it done and move on.

While it is so fun to blog and spend all day scrap booking memories, I need to be so careful that it doesn't interfere with my current life. No more neglecting the kids or the house or personal hygiene for the sake of the blog. I do love to get comments and therefore I love to leave comments but, I have to make a conscious effort to make it short and sweet. I really don't want to get in over my head with blogging. It is really worth it to have a blog, such a great way to keep a journal and at the same time maintain relationships and interact with grownups, but it can't come at the expense of my family. Then it becomes not worth it. That is where I left off back in April. I think I was putting too much time into the wrong places and I needed to refocus on me and my family.

So, I took some time off, had a baby, redirected my focus, and now I feel ready to re-enter the world of blogging.

Here are just some of the things that have gone on with us since last April...

April 25th-Jude's 1st birthday
May- Ben graduated with his masters degree (MBA). WOOT WOOT! (i love how we are all looking in the same direction)
Also in May- Friends trip to San Diego. 6 adults+ 6 kids +gear+airport security = utter chaos. But what a riot! And this is a really gross picture of me. But Ben was pretty stoked that his girlfriend was able to sneak into the backgroundJune 14th- Kai's 2nd birthday
July- Friends camping trip to Carter Creek (Uintah's)

hike to Lewis Peak (at 5 months prego i might add...go me!)

August-family trip to Uintahs (marsden side)Kai's first day of preschool (i only cried for like 2 hours...literally. Kai did great though. i need help)

September - my 29th birthday. YIKES! (that means that i turn 30 this year-that sounds so weird!)
October-annual Powder Mtn. family tree carving. Time to add the newcomers to our tree's (our baby and heather and pete's baby). Halloween: FYI-we totally homemade the cow costumes...thank you, thank you (i'm bowing)cute little corn maze and huge slippery slide

December- Our sweet little baby Lake arrived December 18th and she is perfect in every way and we simply cannot get enough of her (more to come on this later...hopefully)

oh, i also got a new camera for Christmas...well for christmas, mothers day, birthday, anniversary, and valentines day this year...and next. You can here more about it on my photo blog, or you can just click, here. And you will most likely see more pictures of Lake there too- seeing how she is such a willing subject.

So I think that about covers it. I hope to be updating a little more regularly from now on. And I am also very excited to get caught up with reading all of your blogs and find out what you have been up to the last year or so (remember the whole ocd thing? if i can't update my own blog then i can't blog at all, including reading anyone elses). So it may take me a little while to get back into the loop, but it should be fun and I am looking forward to it.

Hey Jude

2009-04-15T10:37:00.002-06:00

I love this. I love it, love it.

Did I mention how much I love this?
So cute.

"Post it note"

2009-04-09T11:39:00.006-06:00

Just to remind you, I am currently spending most of my blogging time on my new blog site: thejourneyintophotography.blogspot.com . Thanks so much to all of you who have looked and especially to those of you who added your comments. It is very encouraging and much appreciated. If you haven't added my new site to your blog list (and you want to that is) then you might be missing out on my updates. I've only done 3 posts, but I know some of you are a little forgetful (I am definitely NOT referring to you mom!) so I thought I would set out this little reminder "post it" so you can be sure to see my latest and so far greatest photos. ( I know they are not great great, but they are most definitely an improvement to their predecessors). After this post, I'll assume that all who are interested will know how and where to find the photo blog and I'll resume posting my family updates here and I'll keep the photo blog to itself and it's interested followers. Happy Blogging all!!!

If any one cares...

2009-04-02T21:03:00.006-06:00

I started a new photography blog if any one cares to check it out. Please don't misunderstand, I am not a photographer. I repeat, I am not a photographer. Aspiring, a student of, an amateur, very amateur, but I am no professional. This is just a way for me to experiment with photography and learn more about something that I love. Most of the pictures will be of my kids and Ben. Maybe if I ever get a new camera I can twist my neighbors arms into letting me use their kids as models someday. But no time soon. I better get a yard in before I spend money on a new camera. Sometimes I may neglect this blog to focus on the new one and sometimes I might neglect the photo blog to focus on this one. But check it out if you want to, add it to your blog list if you'd like to watch my progress, or my regression (it could go either way really). Let me know what you think, good or bad, I'd love to get some feed back. Especially if you have helpful hints or any resources you'd be willing to share.
Here's the link : www.thejourneyintophotography.blogspot.com

Ski Day with Kai

2009-03-31T10:37:00.022-06:00

We finally took Kai skiing up to Snow Basin a few weeks ago and we all had such a blast. She has been begging us to take her ever since she got her "pink ski's" for Christmas this year. We really wanted her to have a great first experience so we were waiting for some good weather to make it that much more enjoyable for her. She did so much better than Ben and I anticipated... well, eventually.

The first run was a bit sketchy and we were thinking we were in for it. About one minute after getting off the lift she kept saying "I'm done skiing now Mom" and she would lay down on the back of her ski's and wouldn't stand up. Ben had to hold her up almost the whole first run and it took us quite a while to make it down. His back was aching by the time we made it down and we thought about cutting our losses then before she totally wrote off skiing forever.

Luckily we had taken the advice of one of Ben's co-workers (thanks Steve:)) and brought lots of bribes up with us and we decided it was time to break them out all ready. I'm kinda weird about giving my kids sugar so Kai rarely gets treats (sugar treats that is... she gets crackers and fruit and stuff) and we used fruit snacks to bribe her onto the lift again. She thought that was something else! I guess it's just a matter of changing the status quo. After she knew that I was packing, she was feeling much more enthusiastic about skiing. I would ski up a head of her about 10 feet or so and tell her that she could have another fruit snack if she could make it to me.

The next 3 runs or so went really well and she really enjoyed it. She eventually got to the point were she would stand up on her own for most of the run and Ben would just steer her with the leash. She liked to try and catch me or win me in a race and she really liked the "bumps"(a series of little hills all in a row) that they had on the side of the hill. Ben usually had to hold her up over them, but she was loving it.

After about 4 runs or so we decided to take the gondola up to the lodge and eat some lunch. She really thought the gondola was great and she was a little disappointed when the ride was over. After we ate, Ben skied down and Kai and I rode the gondola back. He tried to stay right under us as much as he could and she got a big kick out of sticking her arm out the window and waving to Dada. She kept calling out to him (even though he couldn't hear her) "Wow, good job Dada, you're a really good skier. You're going so fast Dad!" I was laughing, it was really cute.

We decided to try one last run even though we knew she was super tired, having missed her nap and well, all that skiing can really tucker little legs right out. That last go was a bit like the first, so we decided the day had been successful enough and we threw in the towel. 5 runs, 6 hours, and 3 packs of fruit snacks later. All in all it turned out to be a super fun time and Kai really did so well. She never cried or threw any fits and she was really enjoyable the whole day. I can't wait to take her again and she can't wait to go.

Now I hope you are prepared for a lot of pictures. She was just so cute and we were having so much fun and I documented most of it. Ready, set, go...

Getting ready in the parking lot (it was a wee bit bright)...Good thing we brought her shades...She loved the lifts (this is the first ride up)..."Make a piece of pizza"..."I'm doing it mom!"...

So warm we had to take our coats off...In the gondola with momma...In the lodge after lunch just being cute...This is one of my favorite pictures of these two together...This was how the first run went. the whole...way...down...

This is the second run, she's starting to get it now...

Here she is not so "getting it" and giving Daddy's back a run for it's money...

Now that she's gone pro she hasn't even got the time to say "hi" to the little people...

Last but not least, the "bumps"...

What a fun time to spend together and we can't wait till next year when Jude can come up with us. Thanks Grammy Gay for spending the day with him so we could go skiing!

Ben's Bday!!!

2009-03-10T12:57:00.013-06:00

Ben's birthday was on the 26th of Feb. and we had a great little celebration for him when he got home from work. We had decorations, homemade cards, a yummy dinner, and party hats!

Too bad I look like butt in this cute family pic...
Jude was more interested in eating his hat than wearing it...Kai in her princess birthday crown...
Ben enjoying his birthday dinner in his birthday boy crown...
I made him a very yummy lemon cheesecake with strawberry frosting and white chocolate drops...It was SO good...
He also got two new backpacks for hiking with the kids. Ok, maybe it was more of a family gift, but he was happy anyways. We took them out for a test hike and the kids did great. They were in them for about an hour or so and they both loved every second of it. Thanks to my good pal Amber, we got a sweet deal on these Kelty packs and they are AWESOME! We love, love, love them and we can't wait for warmer weather so we can use them more.

Kai and her Dada...Jude and Momma ( i just love his little smile!)...
It was a very fun and low key celebration and we hope Ben felt how much we love him and hope he felt special on his big day!

We also went to the park the other day and were a little surprised at how much snow was still on the ground. We were so sick of being stuck inside and thought that all the snow was gone. Guess we were wrong! It was freezing cold but we loved being outside and the kids had a great time.

Kai loves a good slide...So does Jude...Swinging in the snow...Look how cold they look, cute, but cold...
Please hurry Spring.

Valentines Day

2009-02-24T11:06:00.018-07:00

Ben and I normally don't go all out for Valentines Day, it is just a little too commercial for us and seems a little hokey to spend too much money on each other. Sure we love each other and love the chance to let one another know it, but we usually don't use Valentines Day as an excuse to show it. Usually a simple card and a romantic dinner suffice. But this year was a little different for some reason. Maybe it had something to do with our conversation a few weeks earlier about rekindling the magic and not letting our relationship get put on the back burner, I'm not really sure, but we had a really fun time spoiling each other and spending some well needed mommy and daddy time together. It started out on Friday night with an evening of Sushi... and climbing...Two of our most favorite things to do together, and then on Saturday a day of skiing and just relaxing at home afterward and exchanging our heartfelt gifts.

It was super fun skiing together which came as a little bit of a surprise to us. This is only the third time I have ever skied and the first time since high school. Snowboarding is my winter sport of choice, but even that is a bit of a gamble for me. On a good day I could maybe pass as novice, but not on ski's, skiing is a much different story. For those of you who know Ben, you know he was born with ski's on and he loves it loves it loves it. It's kinda a requirement if you want to be born a Marsden. We've tried skiing together before and it just ends up in frustration for both parties. It's always the same thing, he's frustrated with me because I can't get my gloves on and I wont ski until they're on, me frustrated with him that he wont help me get the snow out of my gloves and wait for me to catch up. This time we just stayed on the Little Cat, which I'm sure was thrilling for him, but I loved it. Ben was totally patient and such a good teacher. And I might add... I totally owned that bunny hill by the end of the day. Oh ya, I have some pretty sick ski skills.

Warming up in the gondola...

After skiing we went home and relaxed and exchanged our gifts. Ben surprised me with this lamp post that I have been coveting ever since we built our house... It matches the sconces that we have outside and it is SO gorgeous. I love it so much. We will hopefully install it sometime this summer as we are planning on beginning to landscape then. He also got me a super cute shirt from Victoria's Secret. I got him some classy new brown shoes to wear to work and a new wedding ring. He lost his original ring down in Zions as he was going through Mystery Canyon without me. Serves him right for leaving me behind on that trip. The new one is just a sterling silver band, and cost but a fraction of what his original one was. Good thing neither of us are terribly sentimental. I know he loves me with or without his original wedding band. After we did our traditional gift exchange, Ben told me he had one more surprise for me. He sat me down at the computer and pulled up our blog and showed me his post. I was so touched at his thoughtfulness and his poem was so beautiful, it just brought me to tears to think of how much I love him and of how much I felt he loves me. The poem means even more to me as I read it over and over and realize all of the hidden meaning that was behind it all. It is full of symbolism's and memories of our life together. He is so incredible and I love him so much more now than I ever did. So that was our special Valentines Day this year and as always, I now leave you with some random funny pictures of our kids...

Kai likes to bury Jude with pillows...

Jude thinks it is hilarious...Ben and Kai snuggling out on the deck to watch the sunset...

Kai and Jude playing in their "hut"...

Perfect Beauty

2009-02-13T21:39:00.006-07:00

This is Ben (I’m not nearly as witty and well-versed as my sweet wife), I’ve yet to post anything on the blog, it has been Ashley’s deal that she has very much enjoyed and done an awesome job with. I wanted to post a short love poem I wrote to Ash and tell her how much I love and appreciate her this Valentines day. Plus I think it’ll help “rekindle the magic.” ;-) It seems that the longer we are married the stronger our love grows for each other, yet the simple things that say I love you don’t happen as frequently as they should.

Perfect Beauty

The stars formed a rose the night we met
Just thinking of you made my palms sweat
A love was born that seemed to always be
I could have died that night and gone happily

Perfect beauty, I think describes it well
The way you look, is one reason why for you I fell
Your eyes like crystals, your smile so bright
You walk with confidence and talk so light
Such a perfect face and body too
These are some of the reasons why I love you

But love is more than just the way you look
Love is more than some words in a book
Love is the way I feel as I walk by your side
It’s a permanent smile as I hold you, my bride

Love is life’s journey we travel together
Love spans way beyond for worse or for better
Love is holding you as we cry
Love is kissing you as we say good-bye
Love is seeing you every day of my life
And waking up next to you, my beautiful wife

Love is forever and without end
It cannot be broken and does not pretend
My love for you will always be
Forever and ever throughout eternity

Ash, I love you! Happy Valentines Day.

Self Portrait Day

2009-02-11T16:59:00.018-07:00

I haven't been able to come up with any good self portraits lately, but Ben and I got braces the other day and I thought these would be some funny pictures to post. Both of us had braces when we were younger, so this is go around #2. Not much hope for our kids is there? Ben's retainer for his bottom teeth broke on his mission and it just wasn't feasible in the Dominican Republic to get a replacement. My two side teeth (the two on either side of the two big middle ones) just wont stay in place despite all my faithful retainer wearing. It's a pretty subtle difference, most people probably can't even notice, but it drives me crazy. I feel like a bucktooth beaver sometimes. Here are some before and after shots (well, not 'after' as in 'straight teeth after' but 'after' as in 'after the braces went on'...'after')...

This was a failed attempt at before shot/ self portrait in the mirror...In the car on the way to the ortho. This really isn't my best side...This shot is even more flattering than the above one. Take note of the side teeth that are slightly behind the two front teeth (they're not supposed to be behind them, they're supposed to be right by them, sorta like a relationship. Ya know, don't walk behind me, walk beside me, or somethin' like that)...Here are Ben's bottoms (teeth that is)...I didn't get any shots of Ben's chompers with his braces on, but here are mine...The best part of the whole deal is that I got my braces on for the first time when I was a senior in high school. I just found out that my ten year reunion is this summer. Sweet. I left high school in braces and now I get to return to high school in braces. That is so awesome. Oh well, you know what they say, "Once a nerd, always a nerd". Actually, there is a good chance they'll be off by then. Ben's on the other hand will take a little more time. But I'm pretty sure I'll still be a nerd even if I don't have braces at my reunion. It's a good thing I married such a stud and we happened to graduate the same year from the same school! Feeww, I guess I'll still have a little chance at redemption if I show up on Ben's arm!

And at least I have cute kids.

Jude thinks the saying is "Eat it AND wear it"...
The little cuddle bug after tub time...
Grampa P got in big trouble for showing Kai this new hiding place...It was too cute not to photograph though...The end.

The things they say...

2009-02-02T09:18:00.005-07:00

One thing my mom is always saying is, "I wish I would have written down all the funny things you kids used to say, you were just so funny". I see a lot of you doing this on your blogs and the more funny things Kai say's, the more I wish I did it too. I'm beginning to forget some of the funny things she has been saying. I always mentally note to write it down somewhere, sometime, but never do. So I am going to learn from my mothers regrets and from those of you who do this and start writing down the things I don't want to forget from these precious years of little children in the home. One day I hope that my kids will get a kick out of reading over posts like this and I'm sure it will become a priceless keepsake to have.

Scene: Kai's room at bedtime. Mommy and Daddy kneeling down by Kai's bed and Kai trying to kneel and sit still for 30 seconds...
Dada says, "Kai, do you want to say the prayer tonight?"
Kai: "Sure Dada."
Dada: "Do you want me to help you?"
Kai: "No, I'm gonna do it all-by-my-self."
Kai: "Heavenly Father; thank Thee for this day, thank Thee for root beer, bless us, name, of Jesus Christ, Amen."

Scene: After tub time trying to dry Kai as she sits in her sink. I put a towel over Kai's head and held it closed under her chin. Kai looks in the mirror and gasps...
Kai: "Mom, Mom!!! I'm Jesus!!!"
Me (laughing): "You do kinda look like Jesus."
Kai: "No mom, I'm not Jesus, I'm Married." (she meant Marry, like the mother of Jesus, Marry. She thinks her name is Married.)

Scene: Bed time. All the lights are out. Kai gets out of her bed for the 3rd or 4th time and sits in the hall way and sings...
Me: "Kai, what are you doing out of bed?"
Kai: "I don't know, Mom."
I put her back in her bed for the one millionth time.
Me: "Kai, if you don't stay in your bed this time, I'm going to spank your bum."
Kai: "Spank-your-bum?! Don't spank-your-bum Mom!!!"
Me: Trying not to laugh.
Pretty sure she doesn't know what "spank your bum" means.
A few days later Gramma Gay came over to watch the kids and as she is putting Kai to bed Kai tells her,
"Gramma, my mom is going to spank-your-bum if I get out of bed"
We had to explain that one to Gramma when we got home.

Scene: Just another day. Folding clothes in my room. Kai comes in and watches me for a second...
Kai definitively: "Momma, you are trouble!"
Me: "What? I'm trouble?"
Kai: "You are IN trouble Mom, get in the corner. Right now."
Me laughing: "What did I do to get in trouble?"
Kai: "Just put your nose in the corner Mom. You are in trouble!!!"

Scene: Sacrament meeting. Just trying to maintain a shred of reverence and dignity. Kai is driving me crazy...
Me: I lightly bonk Kai on top of the head with my fist. (That sounds a lot harsher than it was. It was more in a funny, why are we at church, what else can I do at this point to get through to you sort of way)
Kai loudly as she scuzzes me: "DON'T HAMMER ME!!!"

Kai certainly keeps us laughing around here. I'm sure Jude will too one day. We just have to teach him to talk first. Anyways, these are just a few of the things she has said lately that I can remember. Hopefully I'll stay up to date with her "Funnies" from now on so I don't forget any more of them.

Kai and Jude

2009-01-20T20:15:00.024-07:00

KAI AND JUDE UPDATES:

As if I don't blog about them enough, here are what my babies (i know Kai isn't a baby anymore, but she will always be my baby) have been up to:

Jude: Jude is the most laid back, sweet, adorable little baby cake. He is so funny and I love him more and more each day. He started crawling several days after Thanksgiving and has been unstoppable ever since. He loves to crawl as fast as humanly possible and it is hilarious. His little tooshie waddles back and forth like a little puppy wags his tail. You can hear him tear out and cruise around from miles away. He will pull himself up on anything and everything and sometimes forgets he can't walk. He'll let go of his balancing post and act like he is going to walk right over to you and he eats it every time. His two bottom teeth came in at about 6months and his top two fang teeth came in about a month ago (he is 9 months now). It is so cute when he smiles cause he looks like a little vampire. His middle ones are starting to break so he won't look like Dracula for too much longer. I've tried getting a picture of it but the little wormy just wont sit still long enough. He thinks Kai is the funniest person on the planet and he loves to squint his eyes and snort his nose at her. He is happy just playing by himself or following Kai around. What a little doll he is. He adds so much to our little family and we love him so much. Here are a few of my favorite shots of him...

Kai: Kai is everything a typical 2 1/2 year old princess/fairy/kitten/butterfly/puppy/drama queen/everything pink and fluffy should be. She is so bright and is constantly proving to me that she is so much smarter than I think she is. She loves to read and to sing and to twirl. She loves to bully Jude around and comfort him when he is sad. She loves Ariel and Cinderella and anything princess. Lately she loves Barbie and the Diamond Castle and sings "Connected" all the time. Kai's biggest news is about her thumbs. About 8 months ago I noticed that her thumbs were quite stiff and bent downward. I was rather worried at this discovery so we had the Doctor check them out. He said she had something called Congenial Trigger Thumb. He gave it 6 months to clear up on it's own and if it didn't he recommended surgery. Well, it didn't clear up so we consulted a hand specialist and he also recommended the surgery to prevent any long term disfiguring and any other serious conditions that could result. So here are some photos of that ordeal...

This is as straight as either thumb would get...

Here is a shot of her doing "Cool Dude" (this one is for uncle Thys)... This is her waiting at the surgical center in her hospital gown. It was so cute on her. They gave her a surgery bear that had cute little scrubs and a little face mask. This was before they ripped out my heart (and Kai's) and sat on it. The anesthesiologist, who just happened to be a very handsome yet older 10 ft. giant stranger, came in and said, "It's time", and then ripped her out of my arms and proceeded to walk out with her. It took about a second and a half for her and me to realize what was happening. She totally freaked and started screaming "Mama, Mama" and struggled and struggled to get away from the giant scary strange man that was taking her away from Mama as I just watched and did nothing. It was horrible. Of coarse I started bawling and had to just walk away. Luckily they claim it is only a matter of seconds before they drift off into la-la land, even fewer seconds if they are screaming cause they breath in so deep, but it was gut wrenching none the less. Check out her cute little bunny slippers too...Here she is after the surgery. She was pretty disoriented and all she wanted to do was lay in my arms and have me sing to her. She didn't want to open her eyes and she kept asking me to take out her IV. After I would finish a song she would mumble "Sing another one Mama."
By the time we got home she was feeling much better. Very tired, but much better. Say "Cheeto cheese in my teeth"...
Close up of her "bandaides"...
By 7:00 that night she was back to her cute little princess self...
We were instructed to keep her thumbs dry for 2 weeks. Ya, good luck with that one. But we did the best we could...
These next ones are a little graphic so look away if you tend to get wheezy. They're really not that bad though. She had about 5 or 6 "itches"(stitches) in each thumb...
She was pretty hesitant to go in for her follow up appointment so I kept telling her the Doctor had to check her thumbs to tell us if we could get them wet so we could go swimming. She did great at the appointment and we made another appointment for a month away. When the receptionist handed Ben the reminder card for the appointment he gave it to Kai to hold and he asked her if she knew what it was. She said "Ya Dada, it's my swimming pass!" Of coarse we took her swimming the next day and she loved getting her thumbs wet. She still wont let me touch them, but they are looking better and better. The Doctor says we won't even be able to see the scars as they are right along her natural hand creases. She was so brave and did so great throughout the whole thing. Two thumbs up baby, straight up!!! Cool Dude!!!

Happy Haircut:
Kai's other big news is about her mullet head. We finally took the plunge and gave her a real hair cut. She's had somewhat of a mullet for the past little while so I decided to chop it. It looked so cute and I was very proud of my work. I've been a big fan of her cute little bangs, they just kept her looking like my little girl, so I've kept them trimmed since she's had them. But I finally decided to grow them out and they were getting pretty long. They were almost to the point where I could tuck them behind her ears, but they drove her crazy. Especially if we didn't do her hair that day and they would just hang in her eyes. So I thought to myself, "Maybe I'll just trim them a little to get them out of her eyes". It wasn't really that good of an idea. An inexperienced unofficial hair cutter + a wiggly little 2 year old= some pretty funky bang action. She still looks adorable cause lets face it, she is adorable, but it was a much cuter haircut with the long bangs. All well, can't turn back now. I'm sure it's not the last time I'll maime one of my children's haircuts. I only cut off about 1/2 inch of bangs so it won't be but a couple of months before they are back to where they were. But, from here on out, I vow not to touch Kai's bangs with the scissors ever again...so help me.

Here is her first (and only, for a while) braid. I won't be able to do this again until it grows out, but it was cute while it lasted...
I love this picture of her. She just looks so grown up...Before...After...Cute bangs...

Not so cute bangs (but seriously, she is too cute to look too ridiculous)...
So that's Kai and Jude in a nut shell. Kudos...again, if you are still reading this. I love my kids.

Christmas

2009-01-18T10:53:00.010-07:00

Christmas this year was crazy busy and full of parties and family and food galore. It was so fun and I wouldn't have it any other way. We are trying to create a tradition of going to the lights in Ogden on Christmas Eve with our kids. It's only the 3rd year in a row but we love it and hopefully as the kids get older they will look forward to it more and more. I know everyone thinks Ogden is pretty ghetto and well it is a little, but it's close and the Christmas village is so fun for the little ones. It only takes like a half hour to see all the little displays and it keeps the kids interest the whole time.

Jude wasn't real thrilled to be wearing his hat. He warmed up to it after he realized how cold it was with out it.

Kai cheesin it up...
Our attempt to get the lights and me and the kids all in one shot...
Kai and her best bud , Dada... Christmas morning before the kids got up...Jude showing off his new Christmas jammies and froggy slippers...This is the only shot I got of Kai trying out her new "pink ski's", the rest of it I got on film. It was pretty hilarious though and she did pretty good. She was done after about 5 min. or so. Not bad for her first time, huh?
Having kids definitely adds a special magic to the whole Christmas season. It was so fun to see their eyes light up as they experienced all the new sights and sounds and feelings of Christmas.

One of the highlights this year for me was when we went down to Temple Square for the Mo Tabs," Music and the Spoken Word". It was their Christmas special and they had invited a guest singer named Brian Stokes Mitchell to preform with them. It was a spectacular performance and the choir and orchestra were simply flawless. Brian Stokes Mitchell however, was completely enthralling to me. His voice was so magnificent and enchanting. I have never heard anyone manipulate their voice the way he could. After the Music and Spoken Word segment was over, Mitchell and the choir put on a mini concert for the audience. It was so awesome. Mitchell sang a song that I have never heard before by a man named Maury Yeston. The song was called "New Words" and it is so sweet. It is about a father teaching his very young son new words about the world we live in and life around us. I have looked everywhere on the internet to find him singing it, but it is nowhere. I did find another singer singing it, but it is just not the same. When Mitchell sang it, he was so animated and transformed from parent to child and you could just see him standing up on the stage experiencing life as a father and so tenderly teaching his child how to say "moon". This guy has a good voice and all, but he's not nearly the performer or vocal power that Brian Stokes Mitchell is. So maybe just close your eyes and visualize the scene in your head instead of watch this singer, but at least you'll get the melody this way.

Halloween and Thanksgiving

2009-01-16T09:41:00.017-07:00

Halloween:
We caught this itsy bitsy spider this year at Halloween and we rescued this cute little butterfly from his web of slobber...

Our neighborhood doesn't do trick- or- treating (lame, I know) but, the trunk- or- treat is massive and it was pretty fun. Butterfly's and spiders don't like to trunk- or- treat for longer than 10 minuets though. They would rather play in a trunk than get candy from one.

We carve pumpkins every year at Gramma Gay's and Grampa Noodle's. I was sick so I couldn't go :( but here is Kai and Ben getting down and dirty...
The finished product with Ben and Skyler(bens little bro) showing off their pumpkin pride...

We had a Halloween party at our house the next day with our friends. It was a little chaotic with all the kids we all seem to be accumulating, but it was still fun. Ben and I were Thing One and Thing Two. I didn't get many pictures of the party, but it was just as well. I burned one of the soups I was making not once, but twice. Nice. I was really happy that happened. Burning soup twice didn't leave me much time to shower and get ready so I was rather discombobulated the whole night. Greasy hair, no makeup, and burned soup, thanks for nothin hostess. Here are a few shots of our gracious party goer's who pretended not to notice the distinct taste of charred soup. This was the best shot of Ben in his costume...
We have great friends and always have fun when we get together. We even got to see some old friends from High School that we rarely get to see. Thanks for coming and eating my gross soup guys! Maybe next year we should order pizza:)

Thanksgiving:
I didn't get any shots of Thanksgiving cause my mom and sister took so many and I just figured I could get copies from them. I haven't gotten any yet so I'll just write about it and hopefully get some in the mean time and post them later. This is more for the sake of journaling, so it's ok if you get bored and don't want to read it. It's mostly for me so I can remember what a fun time we had. And we did have SO MUCH FUN this year. My sis Darby and hubby Eric rented a house in Bear Lake for their workers who are doing a big project there and we were able to use it over the Holiday. We stayed for three nights and played and played and ate glorious food by chef Darby and just enjoyed being together. This is the first time as adults that my family has done anything like this. My Dad brought my Grandma Kern's who we rarely get to see. I've maybe only seen her a total of 10 times or so my whole life which is pretty sad seeing how she only lives in Grantsville, not but an hours drive or so away. It was so fun having her with us and getting to know her better. She is so sweet and the kids just loved her. It was just Darby (my sis) and her family, me and Ben and kids, Mom, Dad and Grandma, and Thys (little bro) came up Thanksgiving day. We sure missed Ann(oldest sis) and fam, Chad (oldest bro), and Justin (other older bro). Darby is an exquisite cook and totally pampered us the whole time with her fabulous creations. We played pool and ping pong and the men shot skeet (i'm not really sure how to spell that word) while the women cooked (like it would really be the other way around) and we played games till midnight. Mom and Dad even stayed up late to play with us and competed in the pool tournaments. It was so fun to bond with my family like that and we hope that we can do more stuff like that in the future. I sure do love my family and I'm so grateful for them. They are so important to me and I feel so blessed to have them for eternity. Thanks to Darby and Eric for being such gracious hosts and putting it all together.

Problog(get it?...prolog. Bawhawhaw)

2009-01-14T17:51:00.012-07:00

Well, I must say... I have missed you. All of you. My life just hasn't been the same without blogging. I have spent the last few days catching up on each of your blogs and it has been so fun to see what everyone has been up to. I know I said I was back once before... and that was a lie. But this time it's for really really real.
I should take this opportunity to let you know I suffer from a severe case of undiagnosed annal retentiveness. Some people call it perfectionism, some may say it's OCD, others may just classify it as a brain disorder. Whatever you call it, you all know you suffer from it too in one area or another. It develops at different times and in different cases throughout the coarse of ones life. This particular episode for me has effected my ability to blog.
Blogging has been such a fun outlet for me and has given me purpose (as if my husband and kids don't:)) and connection to the outside world. I love to read other blogs and their comments and I love to journal and scrapbook my own life since I don't do that stuff traditionally. I love to connect with friends and family I don't get to see as often as I'd like. I love the whole package deal that is related to blogging. The highlight for me is definitely the commenting business. I love to comment and receive comments. It is all about connecting and feeling like I am socializing that gives me happy tingly feelings.
This is where my disorder takes over. If I read a post and don't comment, I feel incomplete. If I'm not reading and commenting on others, then there is no reason to post my own stuff. If I were to make a post and not receive any response, I would feel bad. So if I can't do one thing, I can't do anything. Do ya feel me?
Anyways, I'm not quite sure what has happened to me in life since I made my last post, but metaphorically speaking I've been running on a treadmill. Putting out all this effort and energy and just not getting anywhere. I've just been stuck. I haven't felt like I have had the time to do... anything really. Especially nothing extra curricular, such as blogging.
So since October I haven't read any blogs, because I didn't feel like I would have the time to comment, and I haven't been posting because I haven't been commenting and well, you see the pattern. It's an illness. This is really rather destructive behavior on so many different levels. I stopped taking pictures( well not totally, but significantly less). I stopped emailing. Pretty much no contact with the outside world and no memories for me I guess.
I would really love to comment on all of the posts I've missed cause each one makes me smile and I have sincere and genuine comments for every post I've just caught up on. But lets face it, that would take one million years. I'm just going to jump right in and start from this point on. I want you all to know though that I read just about every post you all made over the last 3 1/2 months and I feel like I was part of every one's Holiday season. It was awesome! Thanks for sharing your lives with me. I love it!
I also would like to catch up on all the tags I missed but I lost track of all the times I got invited to play. So sorry I bummed out on that and thanks to all of you who thought to tag me. Also, I want send a special shout out to Ben's cousin Kelly who gave me some blog love on her blog way back in last century and I never even acknowledged her for that. So thanks Kelly for loving my blog before I abandoned it.
I've missed a lot of new blog stuff too like that whole Followers list and all kinds of fun give aways and such. It might take a while for me to update everyone who has gone private and beg for invites since I didn't send my email to anyone.
So I know I have a lot of work to do figuring out how to make a following and add all the new blogs and private blogs and update my own. So be patient with me, I'll get there. Oh, and there are no guarantees that this sort of thing will never happen again either. I'd like to hope it won't. I'm really the only one who suffers here. I hate thinking about all the fun stuff we've done and all the great pictures I could have taken to solidify those fun memories over the holidays. I guess I'll just have to rely on the people around us this year who took pictures and hopefully they'll send us all their pictures that have us in the background. (Like you Mom, and Darby too. hint, hint:))
Anyways, it is good to be back and I'm very excited to get caught up with everything and everyone. Just to stay organized, I'm going to make a list of some of the things I'd like to back post about. So stay tuned for a recap of:
*Halloween
*Thanksgiving
*Christmas
*Kai and Jude updates
*Funny stuff Kai says (this may become a permanent segment)
I also have some other fun permanent segments for you to watch for that I'd like to add to my blog. Like SPD's and movie reviews:
*SPD's: My darling friend Aarin does Self Portrait Tuesdays (SPT's) on her blog and she is so adorable and I look forward to Tuesdays because of her. I think this is a fabulous idea so I'm going to implement her wonderful idea into my blog. Except I think I'll just do self portrait day. I can't commit to a specific day of the week, there is no telling what the condition of my appearance will be from day to day. But the whole idea is to document what I look like throughout the years too, not just my kids and hubby. As a mommy I have taken on the roll of picture taker and it is very rare to actually be in a picture. It is always fun to look back at pictures of yourself whether it be in a time of beauty or otherwise. ( I have a feeling most of my spd's will be in a time of otherwise). But, if anyone else wants to join in on SPD, please do. It'll be fun!
*Asha's Movie Review: One of my favorite conversation topics is movies. I'm not even that big of a movie buff, but it is always interesting to hear what movies people liked and disliked and why. It is very rare that Ben and I actually go to the movie theatre, but we are avid Red Boxers. So my reviews may be a little behind the current features since I have to wait for them to come out for rent. I'll do my best not to spoil any story lines, since that is so very annoying, even though most of you will probably have seen the movie in review all ready. But I think this will be fun and will spark a lot of comments. I'd love to hear what you think of the movies too so leave a comment or add this idea to your blog too!
So lots of up and coming events to be happening here soon. Props to you if you are still reading this. Thanks for being my friends and family. LOL to everyone. Happy Blogging!

Blogging Blues

2008-11-10T14:56:00.002-07:00

Hi friends. We are alive... just incase you have been wondering. I've just had the blogging blues lately. I wish we would have been doing lots of fun stuff like we did last time I took a blog break, but we haven't. So I just thought I'd let you all know we are still here and I am excited to get all caught up on everybody's happenings. It might take a while for me to catch up reading all your posts, so be patient with me cause I want to leave comments for everyone.

Retraction!!!

2008-10-15T20:31:00.002-06:00

I've decided to post a semi-retraction to my disclaimer note at the bottom of my last post. I'm getting the feeling I came across as a little neurotic and some what scary. Plus, Ben read it and told me I was a physco and that he would never leave me a comment on a post like that. So I am apologizing to my readers and commenter's for being harsh and thank them all for leaving comments despite my raging antics. I have found all of the comments to be very helpful and very appropriate. I may have been writing in pre-defence based off of the 3 or 4 different forums I read prior to making my plea for help. Each mommy in distress got ripped apart for not being scheduled or for having routines. All of them got advice from others talking about how well their much younger babies slept and how they achieved that. Which isn't really that helpful seeing how the distressed mommies baby was sleeping just fine at the advice giving mommies babies age. (did that make sense?) Anyways, I was rather put off by the forums I read and thought I would seek advice from people who actually know what they are talking about. Which you all do, I might add. I feel so much better having read all of your wise advice. But I did want to make sure this didn't turn into one of those lame-o blame-o forums, thus the disclaimer. I think I was hoping it would come across a little more humorously honest than anything. But don't worry, Ben reassured me that it didn't! So there is my official retraction. I do hope no one was terribly offended and I hope that new readers will still leave any advice they have for me. Thanks again to all of the brave commenter's who left such wonderful and appropriate advice!

Grrr!

2008-10-14T16:35:00.005-06:00

So I'm looking for a bit of advice again from you wiser more experienced mothers. My darling little Kai is causing me some serious heartburn lately.

Kai is a great sleeper, she always has been. This is something I pride myself in...greatly. (toot, toot!-i'm tooting my own horn here:)) Now, I DO mean to brag when I tell you this. She has slept through the night, 12 hours a night, in her own bed, with no bottle or sippy cup as a prop, falling asleep on her own, since she was 6 weeks old. She has always been a great napper too. Extending her naps to the maximum length at each stage of napping(3 a days, two a days, down to one a day). I've always been able to count on her 3hour nap everyday since she dropped to one a days. This brings us to my current predicament.

The last week or so she has been getting continually harder and harder to put down. Enter... heartburn. I'm not ready for her to be giving up her naps yet. I need them just as much as I think she needs them. I feel like she is just too young not to be napping. She is only 2 and 5months. Isn't this early to be done napping? Now, she doesn't fight me on the subject at all either, she goes willingly into bed. She even stays in her room. She just rips out every article of clothing from her dresser, everything out of her closet, and every last book from her bookshelf. She stays quiet the whole time and sings to her little plush Grover.

What do you think I should do? Should I just be happy that she stays in her room and quietly plays, or does she still need to nap? She usually doesn't have melt downs the days she just refuses to sleep, she does get a little sensitive and extra whiny though. I've tried a mirage of techniques the last week to try to get her to sleep, non of which seem to be terribly effective.

I've laid down by her a few times until she fell asleep (which is a brand new experience for us), but I'm not too keen on her being dependent on me to fall asleep. Plus, with 2 rug rats who has time to do that for 15min. everyday? I've gently taken away books, Grover, and her favorite blankie all in hopes of blackmailing her to sleep. That approach failed. I've tried making a game out of it where her bed is the boat and the carpet is the shark infested water. She like sharks. That technique failed too.

So I am looking for some help. When do most kids give up naps and is there anything I can do to get Kai NOT to give up hers yet? Is this just a quirky phase? Am I being too selfish wanting her to nap and just give up the thought of my 3 hour break each day and just count my lucky stars that she was such a good sleeper for 2 1/2 years? Please help me.

*NOTE: I researched this topic on google and came across several forums with similar problems as my own. I found the advice given rather irritating and unhelpful in most cases. The mommy seeking advice was usually a mother of a 2 1/2 year old or older. Most of the advice was along the lines of "My 20 month old is a great sleeper and this is what I do", or "Maybe you should try a routine or a schedule". Please keep in mind as you leave comments (and please don't let this disclaimer discourage you from leaving one, I truly need your advice) that my child is NOT a 20 month old, or 18, or 12 months. She is 28 months and up until 27 months she slept perfectly. So if your advice is coming from your experience from your child younger than 27months, I'm NOT interested.(that doesn't mean if your child/ren is under 27 months, your comment is unwelcome. it just better be something good you read in a book or heard from a friend or talk radio or something). Also, I am a sudo schedualist. I am organized and routine oriented. So I don't want to hear how I need to get her on a schedule or routine so she knows what to expect or so her internal sleeping clock aligns with her nap time. I am the queen of schedules and routine and predictability. If anyone has read Babywise, I am a Babywise mommy and I am familiar with it's methods. So if you are likewise a Babywise mommy or daddy, I understand those methods fully. So don't be afraid to remind me of something I'm possibly missing in it's concepts. If you are not Babywise oriented, I still need and value your thoughts and opinions. OK... I'm done. Sorry I'm so wordy. I leave you with a picture of the good old days...

Picture and Crazy 8 Tag!

2008-10-11T10:45:00.006-06:00

Picture Tag:
I was tagged by Spackman...

Rule: 4th photo file on your computer, 4th picture in that file.Family ski day at Basin...
These are my bro in law's: Skyler and Micah ( i think). Bud is on the left and Micah (if that is in fact Micah, it could be Newell, or maybe Ben, or maybe it's Lott, oh ...I can't tell) is on the right.

I tag: YOU. If you are reading this tag, then you are it. If you don't play, you will be in BIG BIG trouble. I'm serious.

Crazy Eights!
I was tagged by Sid...

8 TV Shows I Love To Watch:
(i don't actually watch tv hardly ever, so this one was hard. most of these are pretty old and i don't think they make most of em any more)
1. scrubs
2. king of queen's
3. friends
4. that 70's show
5. cosby show
6.seinfeld
7. who's line is it anyway
8. America's funniest videos

8 Things that happened Yesterday:
1. i finally put up my halloween decorations
2. i got a migraine
3. went to Iggi's for dinner
4. kai threw up on me:(
5. i took a shower twice (no thanks to kai)
6. i made blt's for lunch
7. watched iron man
8. ran into my sister at Iggi's

8 Favorite Places To Eat:
1. tepanyaki
2. chuck-o-rama
3. old grist mill
4. ruth's chris
5. lions den
6. chick-fill-a
7. applebees
8. big jim's (he has good blt's)

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To:
1. ben graduating with his MBA
2. being DONE having kids
3. climbing again (when our kids move out)
4. thanksgiving in Bear Lake
5. making a real snowman with Kai
6. ski season (me and Kai will be learning how this year)
7. buying furniture and decorations one day
8. having my hair all one length

8 Things On My Wish List:
1. new couch
2. new bed spread
3. decorations for my house
4. nikon D90
5. piano
6. yard
7. trampoline
8. bar stools

8 People I Tag:
1. every
2. one
3. who
4. reads
5. this
6. HAS
7. to
8. play
or else...(duhn, duhn, duhn)

Powder Mtn.

2008-10-06T10:03:00.016-06:00

For the last one million years, my in-laws go up to Powder Mountain (where they were pretty much all born and raised) each fall to re-visit the site of the famous Marsden Family Tree. This tree has each family member's name carved into it and the year they were born. It started with Newell and Gay (my father and mother in law) when they got married and they added each child's name to it as they joined the family. Ben and I started our own tree when we got married in 2003, and have continued on in the tradition as we visit it each year and add our kids to it as they join the family. Our first tree didn't actually withstand the winds of time and fell over the 2nd year we went to visit it. It is still up there resting in peace as it proudly displays our names...Here we are all bundled up before heading up... Here is the Ben and Ash Tree (2nd version) with the addition of Kai and Jude... Family photo...

Kai was really excited to make a snowman. There wasn't a whole lot of snow to facilitate this request, but we did the best we could...I love this tradition, it's so reflective of the Marsden way. Mountains and nature, outdoors and skiing, family and unity. It was so beautiful up there and we had a great time!

These are just more funny random pictures of us...

Kai was making 'snowmen' with cotton balls and hot dogs. She is very creative (and obsessed with snowmen I guess)...

Do you think these two look alike?

Kai doing "Hi...my name is Chubby" (it's hilarious, I'll have to get it on video and post it sometime)...

Jude loves wearing my hat (the little drooley face)...

Kai wanted to take my picture, so here are some shots of me. I think she has a real talent for this photography stuff...
My favorite one is "Ode to my Mommy the Pillow". Silly silly:)

Jude

2008-10-02T17:24:00.003-06:00

It doesn't get any cuter than this...
(maybe turn off the sound on my playlist at the bottom of the screen so you can hear Jude's sweet little giggle)

So there I was...

2008-09-25T13:04:00.006-06:00

So this year for my birthday (it was on the 19th of Sept. for all those of you who forgot...thanks alot ya weenies...j/k, I nearly forgot it myself. At this age I feel lucky if I remember to brush my teeth...speaking of which...I'll be right back... ) anyhow, I got a very special gift from my wonderful hubby. It's really a cute story...ready? So there I was...

Home alone on a Thursday night, feeling rather lonely and deserted, I had just sat down to unwind from a monotonous day of breast feeding, potty training, cleaning, cooking, coloring, chasing a screaming 2 year old around, force feeding rice cereal down an uncooperative 5month old's esophagus, and getting ready to eat an entire bowl of popcorn by myself. I was just wondering why I hadn't heard from my hubby yet, when suddenly... the phone rang.

"Finally, jeez its 9:00 at night, what took him so long to call?" I wondered to myself. Ben had spent the last two nights in DC, one of my most favorite places on earth, at some work conference. Poor thing got stuck there for two days of classes, and in the evenings when he got off, eating at Ruth's Chris on perdium and going to the movies with all his buddies.

Anyways, it was Ben on the line, calling to tell me all about his grueling day of class and the tasty steak dinner he enjoyed and the awesome movie he got to go see. Feeling rather sorry for myself for being stuck at home while he got to go out and play, I told him about my day (which never is much different from every other day) while I was peeking out the peek hole in our front door. I was watching some weird utility truck that had parked just outside or house with some dizzying flashing orange light on top. I was keeping a close watch out on the worker guy who had gotten out of the truck and was standing nearly in our front yard holding up some crazy alien beaconing device. I was making sure he didn't lunge towards our solid oak front door and break it in with one swift karate chop to the dead bolt to try and rape and pillage me and kidnap my kids and burgle and vandalize us. (he didn't by the way... pillage us...whatever that means)

The truck drove off and I breathed a sigh of relief and headed to the couch to eat my gargantuan sized bowl of popcorn and continue chatting with my hubby. He started asking me what we had been doing all day and what I wanted for my birthday the next day. I told him all I really wanted was for him to come home and be with me. I missed him so much. He said he missed us and he wished he could be home with us too. Then he started telling me what metro stops he was getting off and on and how he was now walking towards his hotel. Having spent six weeks there last year, I knew well all the in's and outs of DC. I was remembering all the metro stops, and the street names, and all the wonderful sights and smells of the District. I was picturing in my mind exactly where he was and what he was probably seeing when suddenly, I heard a knock at the door. My heart skipped a beat and I felt my guts turn into jello.

"Yikes!" I thought to myself, "The utility worker is back to rape and pillage me!"

" What the heck?" I said to Ben. "Somebody just knocked on the door."

"This late?" Ben asked.

"What should I do?" I whispered to Ben over the phone.

"Go look out the peek hole and see who it is," he said.

I crept over to the door, super sleuth style, so as not to be detected by my attacker. I peeked out the peek hole and could see only the outline of the creepo burglar waiting patiently for me to invite him in and kindly show him where all our valuables were hidden. (Not that we actually have any valuables... besides our kids of coarse. That is the truth too, just in case you are a creepo burglar reading this...don't waste your time burgling us, it would be to no avail.)

"I can't see who it is, it's too dark," I whispered into the phone. "Should I turn the light on?"

"Ya, turn in on so you can see who it is," Ben encouraged.

"But then he'll know somebody is home," I said questioning his resolve to protect his wife and children.

"Just turn in on," he said in a tone that reassured me that I was being a little ridiculous.

"O.k.," I hesitated. Then I decided it would be better to see the villain's face first, in case I survived the attack , so as to make it easier to identify him in the line up down at the station after all was said and done. I flipped on the light and to my delightful surprise, it was no attacker at all! If you haven't already guessed the ending... it was in fact Ben! Yaaay! Home one night early, here to help celebrate my birthday and fight off my attackers. Just what I wanted, spot on!

He is such a great husband, I love him so much. He is my very best friend and I love him more and more everyday. I hate every minute we're apart and I count down the seconds each day he's at work until he gets home. I never get sick of hanging out with him and I feel so lucky he is mine. Needless to say, we made the most out of the rest of the evening with some well needed lover and lover time ;);)(wink, wink) treats, and a movie. It was a great early birthday present and I couldn't have been more surprised.

Carter Creek

2008-09-11T12:10:00.015-06:00

As part of our party month last month, we took a super fun camping trip to the Uintah's to a sweet camp ground, Carter Creek. We get to use it through Ben's work. It has 6 or 7 little cabins and a few trailers that you can rent. It has a little playground, volleyball net, horseshoes and lots of fun little streams and beaver dams. We went up with some friends and stayed for a few nights. I'm going to post most of our pictures from this trip cause a lot of Ben's co-workers wanted to check out the camp ground for future reference.

THE PLAY GROUND

HORSESHOES AND BADMINTON HIKING AROUND THE BEAVER DAMS THE FIRE PIT

CABIN PICT'S

The back room

The big room

The kitchen The outside of the cabins

Kai playing in a bucket

We really enjoy camping and this is the first time we have ever cabin camped. It is most definitely a different story in a cabin vs a tent. We learned there is a lot to say about 'convenience' especially when it comes to bringing children along. I have a feeling this won't be the last time we cabin camp!

The party's over...Booo:(

2008-09-11T09:27:00.023-06:00

August was a big party month for us. Ben was out of school for the whole month, so we had every spare minute we could find planned out. No time for blogs or emails or anything extra. We took weekend trips and day hikes and short days off of work to go and play. We spent some time priming our garage and working on some other projects too. It was so fun. We always have the best time together with our little family. We have lots of pictures... so be prepared. We'll be short and sweet with the captions so you don't have to spend five hours reading our blog. Here it goes...

PARK CITY

After Park City Fun in the tub

Family Hike

PINEVIEW

THANKSGIVING POINT

JUNGLE JIMS

5 YEAR ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

HIKE

Consumation Rock (the name speaks for itself:))

These guys forgot their skins

Ben added the third band to my ring

KAI'S BIG GIRL BED

Before

After

TOY BOX

Before

After

GARAGE

Before

After

SO GROSS

Black widows

We had 3 on the front porch in one night

We've killed 4 others since (well Ben, not me)

RANDOM FUNNY PICTS OF THE KIDS

Just because they're cute!

Holding hands in the car

We had lots and lots of fun and we are bummed out school started again. Soon enough though, Ben will be done and then we can spend all our time playing together. We can't wait.

How do you get to Sesame Street?

2008-08-07T11:43:00.009-06:00

This last weekend we got to go to a free little production of Sesame Street. Kai has only seen Sesame Street maybe 5 times in her life- seeing how I don't let her watch TV. (she's not completely deprived though, she does get to watch 2 Baby Einsteins a day) But lately I have loosened my stance a bit and I have let her watch Barney a few times and if she is lucky, she gets a late nap so she can watch Sesame Street. She loves it, loves it! She has Sesame Street books so she's familiar with the characters and a plush Grover that she won't go to bed with out. So you can only imagine her excitement as we sat in the auditorium and awaited Grover and Elmo and Cookie...

Jude was likewise just as ecstatic...

I was pretty ecstatic myself...

Kai wanted to show the 'big Grover' her 'little Grover' and held him up almost the entire show...
Cookie and Grover...

Cute video clips...

We had so much fun and Kai had a smile on her face from the moment we walked in, to the moment it was over, and then some. Too bad her mommy and daddy are sticklers and she doesn't ever get to watch it on TV:( All well, maybe it will just give her a greater appreciation for the few times she actually does get to watch it!

EFL: Especially for Lott (and Tiffy)

2008-07-31T13:30:00.021-06:00

This is our 2nd annual 24th of July celebration, held each year at the Kipster's house. Kip and Michelene were so gracious to let us come swim and make a mess out of their great backyard. We were missing our good friends Lott and Tiffy, who are usually in attendance of this fine holiday celebration, so we decided to make a special post so they wouldn't feel like they missed out on all the action.
Here is some footage of the very raw and intense tank wars...

As you can tell, the husbands get very enthusiastic when it comes to tank wars. The wives... not so much. But we humor them because we love them;)

The survivors...

Aside from all the tank war fun, we also got to swim, eat Nate and Shelley's famous baked beans, and light off a few sparklers.

Here is Kai and Ben going down the slide...

Sparkler fun...

Just relaxing... sort of...

More sparkling fun...

All tuckered out and ready for bed...

Jude was pretty tired too...

We had a great time, thanks to the Kippens for their hospitality. Can't wait till next year, hopefully Lott and Tiff and their little peanut (tiffy's expecting!) will be there next year to join in all the fun.

Summer 'summerized'

2008-07-23T15:03:00.004-06:00

Ok, if you want to look at these in chronological order, start at the bottom and work your way up.

A mini Subway Canyon in our back yard

Well, not really in our backyard, but close
Kai scaling the slots in our newly discovered canyon
Jude is ready to go camping
5 minuets after arriving in the Uintah's
Sleeping quarters
Only 35 bites on her face!
Kai doesn't love fireworks

This is her 'not scared' face right before the firework show

Jude doesn't much care for fireworks either
Fish farm fun
She actually caught one by herself!
Cute cousins

This is just a brief summary of some of the things we have been doing lately. It's been a little challenging trying to get out with a newborn and with Ben being in a masters program and working full time, but we do the best we can. Maybe one day we'll get back to our adventurous life, but for now it's fish farms and short day hikes for us!

Memory Game...

2008-07-16T23:59:00.002-06:00

Thanks everyone for the potty training and night light pointers. If you are just tuning in, check my last post, I'm still open for any potty suggsestions. But I'm excited for this new game, it's super fun. Here are the instructions:

MEMORY GAME...
Leave me a comment on my blog of a memory that you and I have had together. It doesn't matter if you've known me for a short time or a long time, anything that you remember! Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It is pretty funny to read the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you are playing and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. On your mark... get set... blog those memories!

Local Mommy Seeking Advice:

2008-07-15T11:48:00.007-06:00

So I’m looking for advice on potty training. I started Kai at 18 months on the potty and she did really great. We got really busy with building our house and took a break for a while until we moved in. Shortly after moving in we started up again and she was doing really well until we had Jude. We took another break to adjust to having the new baby and we have been on and off ever since. I hope I haven’t confused the heck out of her with all the on again off again business. She is accustomed to sitting on the pot and is definitely not scared of the potty. She pee pees in the potty quite frequently but not consistently, and we still have yet to go poo poo on the potty. So if anyone has any pointers, tips, advice, or words of wisdom to share, I’d love to hear it.
Next, I’m wondering about night lights. I’m not sure how I feel about them. Good or bad- you tell me. I’m not quite ready to move Kai into her big girl bed yet, I love her crib. She is safe and contained in there. The big girl bed scares me. I can just in vision her wandering around the house in the middle of the night sticking her fingers in light sockets (even though they are all covered) and wreaking all kinds of havoc all over the house. Anyways, I think I’m afraid of when I do finally get her in her big girl bed that she’ll fall out of bed and be too disoriented to get back in cause she won’t be able to see anything. But a nightlight in her room seems like it will be too bright for her to sleep. We are like bats here, we like it nice and dark for sleeping. Her windows have always been covered at night and for naps ever since she came home from the hospital. So, nightlights- are they good, or are they bad? Jude just wanted to send a shout out to all his homies. Yo, yo, yo, wuz uppp...

A Little Clarification

2008-07-11T12:31:00.001-06:00

I must clarify a little here. My last post was a game of tag and the last question it asked was to name 3 things that might be surprising about me. One thing I listed was my love for adrenalin and Ben has been teasing me about that ever since. Rightly so, seeing how he has witnessed several panic attacks on my part at the head of various adrenalin producing activities. So let me explain myself. Ever since I was young I have loved to push myself (or be pushed- wink, wink Ben;)) to the limit. I love to overcome my fears (which are many) and turn them into strengths. I love to surround myself with people and events that push the limits of my comfort zone and make me be stronger than I am. I have the desire to be extreme in sports and adventure; I just have to overcome the fear of them first. Which , I am proud to say, I have conquered a few of them. Like my fear of heights. Ben and I got into rock climbing shortly after getting married and I am happy to say that now I wouldn’t think twice about climbing a 100ft. rock face. I dream about the day however, that I am uninhibited by my fears so I can do that 2nd pitch of the climb, or bike Slick Rock, or conquer the rope swing at the Gorge with no fear and no tears and no panicking. That is truly who I am at heart. Extreme and uninhibited. Adrenalin- it’s my middle name:)

I'm It!

2008-07-10T17:18:00.003-06:00

Tag: I'm it...
How to play this game. Post these rules on your blog: List 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 random surprising facts about yourself. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names....

3 JOYS

sleeping children
being outside
my husband

3 FEARS

losing ben
losing kai
losing jude

3 GOALS

get one year supply of food
write a book
be a really good swimmer

3 OBSESSIONS/COLLECTIONS

blogging
food storage
sudo scheduling

3 RANDOM SURPRISING FACTS ABOUT ME

i'm an adrenalin junkie (it's a love /hate relationship)
i did a triatholon last summer (which i definatley did NOT come in last at. i beat the 10 people that dropped out):)
i have a hard time sharing feelings and getting close to people (except for with ben of coarse!)

Ok: Lacey, Aarin, Tiffy, Bri, and Spackman; YOUR IT!

Happy Birthday, Happy Fathers Day!

2008-06-17T22:30:00.052-06:00

Happy Birthday Kai! Kai's Birthday was on Saturday and we had a great time celebrating with our family. Kai has learned some very tricky tricks over the last two years and would like to share them with you all.

She is the worlds fastest stopper and semicircle tricyclist...

She can sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star upside down...

And she is an excellent backward sideways summersaultist ...

We went swimming to celebrate the big day...

Kai and Dada pretented to be BIIIIG fish...

While Moma and Jude watched from the side lines...

Kai helped Mommy bake her 'potomus' cake...

And she even helped sing her own 'Happy Birthday to Kai' song...

But the best part was when she got to eat the fruits of her labors...

We missed her blowing out the candles, but here she is extinguishing the fire...

All in all it was a great birthday and we are so proud of our sometimes sweet sometimes sassy little princess. We love her so much and think she is so perfect and we couldn't imagine our lives without her! Happy birthday baby! Thanks to all our family for the great gifts and for coming to support us on this special day:)

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We also hit a mile stone with our little 'mr. manns' (as Kai calls him), here he is with his first smiles in all his sunshining glory...

Oh so cute!

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As for Father's Day, we had a great time visiting with our fathers and we love and appreciate both of them for all they do and hope they know how much we love them. Ben was surprized with a life sized card from Kai and Jude where they both left handwritten messages, and he also got a super cool new bike tire pump. Since we borrowed the batteries out of the camera for Kai's birthday toys, we unfortunatley didn't get any picts of fathers day. Luckliy for you we have an assortment of 'Ben... Super Dad in Action' photo's that we have collected over the years for your viewing pleasure...

Proud and beeming holding his brand new baby girl for the first time...

Taking Kai hiking for the first time...

Can't get enough of her...

Say cheese!...

Peek-a-boo!...

Merry Christmas...

Swimming, swimming, swimming...

The National Zoo in D.C...

Riding a camel at a park in Eagle Idaho...

So fun to go camping...

Boating in Flaming Gorge "GO GORGE OR GO HOME!"

What a great pair...

Like father like daughter...

Happy Halloween...

Who wants to play in the snow??...

Merry Christmas (again:))...

He plays tea party too!...

He couldn't be prouder of his baby boy...

What a couple of sleepy sleepy heads...

Hey, we're not sleeping, it was a trick all along!..

Well, hope you enjoyed that tribute to Ben. We sure do love him a lot and he truly is the best dad in the whole wide world. and ps. we really do love Jude just as much as Kai, it's just that he is so young, we havn't had the chance to take as many pictures of him yet! But stay tuned, there are many pictures of him soon to come, you can be sure of that:)

Weekend fun

2008-06-03T09:08:00.033-06:00

This is a beautiful canyon that is close to our house. It's fun to have all of this unexplored territory around. As you can see there are two good sized waterfalls in this canyon. We decided we wanted to hike up to them so we paved our own trail through the thicket until we got high enough to see the real trail. Kai had a great time doing it "by self mama, by self dada."

Kai and Dada had a great time throwing rocks in the river at the head of the trail when we came back down. We didn't quite make it all the way up to the falls this time. Maybe it had something to do with the canyoneering we did before we found the trail:). But now that we know where to start, we're sure we can get there. We are going to try again this weekend so we'll let you know how it goes.

Kai was such a good helper this weekend. She helped moma give brother a bath and make donuts and cinnamon rolls for the blessing on Sunday.

Dada and Jude played peekaboo while Kai and Mommy worked.

After all that work we decided to give Kai a break and let her play in a bucket of freezing cold water. She is so lucky. Afterwords she and Dada warmed up in the tuby.

Brother just watched from mommy and daddy's bed.
We love the weekends!

Jude's blessing

2008-06-02T20:47:00.016-06:00

We blessed Jude at church on Sunday, June 1st. It was a very special day for us. We had our families over before hand for breakfast and then we all went to church together. Ben gave a very special blessing to Jude and Jude was a perfect little angel through out the whole meeting.

Grandpa P with little mans

Handsom little one isn't he?

Couldn't ya just eat him up?

Kai just being so cute and so funny

Thanks to all our family and friends for the love and support. We felt very blest to have you all be a part of our very special day! We love you all so much. (Even the family and friends who couldn't be there, we felt of your love too!)

Bragging rights

2008-05-27T13:05:00.014-06:00

This is our beautiful Kai. She is so smart and so beautiful and so funny. She loves to read books and sing. She knows all the words to Lead Kindly Light, In This Very Room, Teach Me to Walk, and about 20 other primary songs and fun kid songs. She also knows about 40 or more sign language signs even though she doesn't use them because she can say just about any word you through at her.

She has been such a good big sister and she loves her Dada more than life itself. (Except if any grandmas or grandpas are near, neither mom or dad exist in that case!) She has her 2nd birthday coming up on June 14th and we are hoping to have her potty trained by then. She is definitely smart enough to have it down by then, if we could just get mom and dad to commit to the training program she'd probably have it down by now.

This is our devilishly handsome Jude who joined the mix on April 25th. He is such a good baby, very mellow and very sweet. He does resemble Kai a little bit but he definitely has his own look. Mom suspects he will look like Dada the older he gets. She is hoping he gets that gorgeous red hair and his spots will develop later, just like Dada's did. Dada is a little less sure and hopes he gets mommas skin and hair. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

We are going to be blessing Jude in church on the 1st of June which will be a very special day for him. We will post pictures of him in his blessing outfit so you can all see how handsome he'll look.

This is a picture of our house that we took after the exterior was completed. We moved in at the end March and it has been so great to be in. We were still a little stressed out for some time after we moved in because we still had a lot of projects to do before we felt it was 100% done. Things are getting done and we are feeling a lot happier to be here, especially when we think of all the teeny tiny apartments we used live in!

Baby brother commin' soon!

2008-05-26T14:38:00.015-06:00

Jude William
April 25th

7lbs 8oz 19.25in

Meet Jude, our brand new little munchkin. Jude was in a bit of a rush to get here as we checked into the hospital at 11:30 p.m on April 24th. Ash was dilated to a 5 and getting quite uncomfortable so we were rushed to the delivery room and Ash received her epidural minuets before the nurse checked her and said she was at a 10 and 100%! Ready to deliver! A few pushes and several minutes later he squirt right out and was in our arms at exactly 12:30 a.m on April the 25th, 2008. His big sister was very excited to meet him and he was very anxious to come home and get into the swing of things as life as a Marsden. We have had a good time trying to figure out how to get out of the house with two kids now. We have had a few small adventures here and there and it only takes us 3 hours to get out of the house! We've been to the Ogden Nature Center and went on a bird hunt, we went to the Hogle Zoo, the Tree House museum, and the pond by our house and fished for "cuckie's"(pretty much just moss).