Christmas!

This year was so much fun. Marcella's expressions and excitement was the best ever. It really made this year so much fun. We spent Christmas Eve at Grandma Wallin's house for her annual Christmas party. It was awesome. We then went to sleepover at my parents house. We all got to open some Christmas Pj's then off to bed. We didn't get up until 7 or so, and after that we had a blast. Especially enjoying the Christmas Delight. YUM! We told my mom she can no longer only make 2 she has to make 3 next year. (This was coming from 4 kids who wouldn't even touch it Christmas morning growing up because we thought it was gross. Thanks for keeping the tradition alive mom, it was delicious.)

Here is Marcella checking out her stocking. She got a lot of stickers and was really excited.

She got a play kitchen and some food from Santa and Grandpa Dougal made her a table and chair. It is really awesome and Marcella uses the table everyday. She loves it and always tells me, "Grandpa made this for ME!" Thanks Dad.

This was pretty funny, Nathan got my dad and himself a pair of I believe they are Beaver skin mittens. He was super excited.

Marcella's next favorite, shoes. as you can see she HAD to put them on. I am just wondering what is up with her eye... EVIL EYE, everyone beware.

That night we went over to Grandpa Wallin and Grandma Katherines house. We had a lot of fun opening presents and then acting out the nativity. We had such a wonderful Christmas and had so much fun being with our Families. Thank you for making it wonderful. We love you and wish you a happy new year!

When it rains, it pours!

I know you've all heard the saying. Let me illustrate how true it's been for us this past week. Saturday morning I got up, did the usual with Marcella, and went to turn our computer on to check my email. For Kanien and I, our computer is the most central technological fixture in our lives. It's probably like the TV was to 1950's and 1960's families...it's almost always on, either for email, blogging, photos, movies, pictures, or games. When it didn't turn on, I started the normal troubleshooting routine I've grown accustomed to in the last 15 years. We've had the machine around 2 years, which seems to be the lifespan for someone who always wants more computing power and better performance. I know some of my family members have had computers for 10+ years and are still running Windows 3.1, but I don't work that way. (To me that'd be like refusing a church calling or rooting for BYU.) When the fix looked to be around $200 dollars, I consulted Kanien and we decided to upgrade instead of replace the bad hardware with its equivalent. So I drove to Salt Lake, bought the components, and started home.

Kanien and I had been debating paying our car off, or getting some things fixed that have needed fixing and continuing making payments for 6 more months. We finally decided to pay it off, reasoning we'd better do it now while we had the money, or we'd end up squandering it on other stuff. She transferred the money on Saturday after I had gone to Salt Lake. She was worried about what she calls "The Dougal Curse," coming into effect, a family condition that regulates any attempts to get ahead by bringing horrid luck down on you and your acquaintances. I had a feeling of foreboding as well, and when I was less than a mile from home, I struck something on the road (not quite sure what it was...just that it was made of hard metal), and punctured a hole in our oil pan.



As I pulled up to our apartment, the oil light came on (along with a bunch of tones and warnings I'd better stop driving...thanks VW). I got out to examine the damage. Oil was pouring onto the pavement. The car wasn't going anywhere. I called Kanien, then the insurance to file a claim. I know an oil pan is less than $200 to replace, but I didn't know what else the mystery object had struck, and I wanted to be covered in case there was other damage. They couldn't really do anything until Monday, anyway. Kanien's parents were nice enough to drive Nathan's surplus auto down to us, and we were saved from complete immobility.

I proceeded to assemble the new components, and ran into some problems, which is pretty much par for the course. When we built the original PC, I had installed a RAID array, which is two hard drives assembles so each file is split and copied 1/2 to each drive. This increases the speed at which your machine operates, but it also decreases the fault tolerance of the disk, as an error on one drive corrupts the entire array. I was able to get the drive back online long enough to rescue all of our pictures, but transferring it to another RAID controller didn't work, and they were corrupted in the process. It only took about 6 hours of my time to figure this out, but it felt like a week, and left me pretty distraught.

That's what I was working through on Monday when the tow truck came to take the car away. Marcella was down for her nap, and I went out to help the guy with the car. I made sure I had keys so I could get back in the house. After Jim had towed the car away, I realized I'd given him the keys to the car, and no longer had a house key. It was then that this nexus of misfortune seemed to culminate, and in a moment driven by both need and frustration, I opted to kick the door in, instead of calling a locksmith. It gave on the first kick, and didn't really do that much damage.

I'm no longer worried about our PC or our car, but have this large feeling of insecurity that has taken its place. Maybe we need better doors!

Resolutions

So I know you all are just dying for some fun Christmas Pictures etc. (Because we did have one awesome Christmas. I loved it!) But I wanted to get this out of the way first. So a few of us were talking over the holiday and we decided we wanted to start a "Biggest Loser"game of our own. So I just wanted to let all of you out there know, that if you are interested in joining with us you can read the rules here. (If you are a little hesitant to join because you are a blog hopper like me and don't really know me, just join in anyways, it will make it more fun.) We are still open for any suggestions on how to make this work, so if you have any ideas, just let me know. I think it will make it a lot more fun if we can get more people involved. As of right now we have 4 of us. If it makes everyone feel more comfortable in the group I will make the blog a closed blog, so those only who are invited can go and look at it. Take a look at it and see if you might be interested then just leave a comment. Bring on the new year! This year I am going to make my weight goal!

Tagged

The Rules:
1. The player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves - try to find 6 you haven't already posted about!
2. At the end of the post, the player tags 6 people and posts their names, and then goes to their blog and leaves them a comment, letting them know they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog for the rules.

Ok guys here goes:

1. Something that I only think my family knows about is how obsessed I am with how to wash dishes. It doesn't bother me how anyone else does them, as long as they get done and are clean I am happy. The problem lies when I have to do the dishes, they have to be completely organized. All the plates stacked nicely, the silverware in a pile closest to the sink, cups all together, bowl staked etc. all the way down to the pots and pans, being last. I don't know why, but I seriously can't stand to have anything else in the sink while I am washing, I know it is a crazy habit, but I just can't break it, believe me I have tried.

2. I absolutely love candy. As a matter of fact I went and got a couple pieces to eat while I am typing. Most people can vouch for this. I don't think there has ever been a time in my married life that I haven't had candy somewhere in our house. It is a bad thing to love, and I am going to try to give it up after our New Years Cabin trip. I will let you know if I will have the will power, I am pretty sure I do, but it is hard to give up something you love.

3. I love giving presents. I think it goes along with shopping. If I am buying something for someone else, I don't feel guilty about it, so it not only makes me happy to give something to someone else, it also cures my "need" to consume. I like to give presents that are unexpected. Believe me I love Christmas, and trying to keep everything a secret etc, but I love the everyday presents I can give. There is just something about it, I think I got it from my mom. Every once in a while she would do something nice for us, like make our bed or clean our room and then leave us a little note with our favorite candy. I loved walking into my room and finding it all clean and having a treat to go along with it. It has been fun to be on the giving end and doing the things my mom used to do for me. It sure is fun to surprise someone.

4. I hate to admit this, but this is the next thing I thought of. I am not a big baby lover. Don't get me wrong, I seriously can't wait until Jon and I can have another one, but growing up when other girls wanted to hold all the babies, I wanted to go outside and play Hockey or do something more fun. They still make me a little nervous when they aren't my own, but I will admit they are the sweetest and most wonderful things ever to be placed on this earth. I think part of me is still worried I will break them.

5. I love the laughter of little kids. I think it is so funny to be in a room and then hear Marcella start laughing. I love it when babies start finding their voice as well. It is so much fun to see the excitement in their eyes. Amie's little girl Camrie was here the other night and she was talking like crazy, just trying to get in on the conversation. She was so happy it was adorable. What can I say little kids laughter makes me melt.

6. Here is my final tell all... I have a secret desire to go back to school and get a Masters, maybe even a PHD. I would love to study the role Fathers play in the lives of their children. I am hoping that when Jon gets a teaching position at a University a few years down the road, I might be able to pursue this dream. Hey I might one day be teaching right beside you honey!


7. I just thought of one more to add when I saw this picture. If you don't know who this is, you must not have hung out with me in the past year or so. This is Amie. I met Amie when I worked at America First. She is one of the sweetest people I have ever met. i always tell Jon I am way lucky to have a friend like her. You can't find a lot of friends these days who you call up and say hey come over and they just come over. You don't have to have an agenda, they just come. So I guess my 7th confession is I miss living by Amie. For almost two years I saw her almost everyday. And I loved having them stay for dinner 4 out of 7 times a week. We had so much fun. Now that we live further than up the street from each other it is hard to just "come over", but thanks for still coming Amie. You are awesome. I love hanging out with you!

I now tag Amie, Jacci, Debbie, Nan, Grandma Dougal, Whitney

Poor Sick Girl!

As some of you know we were suppose to be going to the cabin this week for a fun filled "Adults only" trip with some of Jon's High School Friends. Well it ended up being a "Guys only trip." I will admit I was so so so BUMMED! Marcella got her first ever case of the throw up bug and as much as I wanted to just leave her with my mom I knew I couldn't do it. So here is Marcella..

This is about the only time she smiled in 3 days. She was so happy because the cat came to say hi to her.

It only lasted a few seconds though, I was glad to get it on camera.

The second day of really being sick, Grandpa gave in a gave her some chips. She would say, "mommy, they make me feel better!" At least she kept those down.

Here she is on Thursday. She was all better, of course because that was the day everyone was coming home from the cabin. We had a lot of fun though, we finished our Gingerbread house, and enjoyed eating a ton of candy! Yum!

Well, Jon made it home last night and then had to leave again to go to BYU this morning. So Marcella decided she needed to throw up one more time just for ol' times sake. It just happened to be all over me. The joys of Motherhood. It is crazy how you thought you would never be able to handle that part when you were younger and now when you do get thrown up on you just take care of it and it isn't that big of deal. Well all in all I had a great time hanging out with my family this week, thanks guys! Thanks for the fun Birthday too, you guys are the best! I love you!

Skiing

Dad and I are looking at pictures....Cross country skiing is one of my favorite childhood memories. So make sure all you parents go and buy some skis and get your kids out there. Dad recounted a funny story of the first time Russ Riddle went CX skiing with him. They had gone above Bountiful on some pretty easy terrain. Every once in a while there'd be a bump or rise in the trail, and Russ would fall. Laurissa finally got fed up with it and said, "Excuse me...I have to get by now."

New (sort of) Dress

Marcella got this dress at a baby shower. This is the first time she's worn it. A lady in our old ward made it. It's a nice dress.

ok, I admit!

Today I have been a little neglectful. Well I guess not completely, because I did know what Marcella was doing, I just didn't stop the process and just let her have fun. I guess you could say it started this morning. When we decided to start our day out with movies. Yes not one but two. It was perfect because I got to get my Christmas Cards addressed and Marcella had fun watching her movies and eating Corn puffs and 3 glasses of OJ for Breakfast. Around 10:30 I decided at least one of us should be dressed so into the tub went Marcella. (between you and me, I didn't put her in the tub because I thought she should be out of her pj's, but because it gave me a good half hour to work on the Christmas card insert.) Out of the tub she got and I dressed her "oh so cute", according to her words. Then we did her hair with a bow and everything. She looked ready to hit the town. Then I worked more on the Christmas stuff, while this little one played so quietly in her room. The best hour or two ever. She played and I wasted my time at the computer. Then out came the glamor queen saying "Mama, do I wook cute?" Well, what do you think?

she then says "Do you wike my clothes?"

I must admit, I said yes, you look so pretty, then had a little chuckle. She is now still in them and having a pancake for lunch. Sometimes we need these kind of days right?

My Little Sister

I was looking through pictures and found this one of my little sister Caroline...thought I'd share it. Some might argue that while she's younger than I am, she's my big sister because she's been married longer, has more children, and makes more money than I do. Well...to those people I say, "Look at that picture. Of course she's my little sister. If she was bigger than me she'd have been able to carry about 10x that much wood."

Let it Snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

I love snow. (well I at least say that every first snowfall we get.) It finally snowed in good ol' Orem. We were really excited, so excited that we got all our stuff on and just went and played in it. Marcella loved it! She had so much fun. The snow is slowly leaving. I hope to get more before it goes, but I thought you would enjoy some pictures of us and our snowman.


This is Marcella exactly 10 months ago.

This is Marcella on Saturday!

Doesn't she look so excited to be in the snow. She was having so much fun. I must admit, this is about all she did to help with the snowman. The whole time we were out there she just spent it eating snow. We had a blast!

What a handsome snowman. I love the tootsie pop suckers for the face. It just cracks me up!

Where did my little Baby go?

I just don't know when Marcella grew up. It really seems like yesterday that we took her home from the hospital, a couple times.. Now she is TWO. Lately she has been saying a whole lot of funny things and I thought I should start posting them so I will always remember, and I thought you might get a kick out of some of them as well.

A few days ago, I decided I'd better take some pictures of her since she looked so cute in this outfit. After a few thousand pictures she turned sideways in her chair and said, "wook mama, I rivin a boat." What a little sweet heart. She has gotten into this thing where everything is "cute." She will say "Mama, dat relwy pretty?" or, "Dat is so cute." Then (my favorite) after I do her hair she says, "mama oo I wook pretty?". I think We are going to have our hands full when she is older.

I wish I would have gotten the next one on video, or at least a picture. We were getting out all the Christmas decorations and I have some big flowers that I put out. She took one of them and said "mama, I get married," then carried it around for the rest of the night. I asked her who she was going to marry and she said "no" (This is always her initial response when you ask her a quesion. She says no, and then answers you. It gets a little confusing when you ask her yes or no questions.) and I said, "Maybe Trenton?" and she said "YA!" It was quite funny.

For the past few days Marcella has been wanting treats...lots of them! She always wants one right before dinner. Wf course the reply to her begging is, "You have to wait until after dinner." Tonight was the best. Jon and I were cooking some pasta sauce and decided to go to the store while it was simmering. We were in the kitchen making up a list of things to get. We always ask Marcella what she wants to get, and while she was watching her mom and dad debate over if it was ok to get treats tonight, she raised her hand and said "NO MORE TREATS TIL AFFER DINNER!!" It was soo funny.

She has started to sing songs. It has been so much fun to hear her sing. I am always amazed when she just starts singing a primary song or any song that we have always sung to her, but she has never sung along...It's like she just one day decides to sing it to us. Some of her favorites to sing are "I Am a Child of God" and "Jingle Bells." The funny thing about when she sings I am a Child of God, she has to pretend like she is playing the piano. I am not sure where she got this from, but whenever she gets by a piano she will start singing that song. If we aren't near a piano and I ask her to sing it she will either start leading it while she sings or pretend to play the piano.

Ever since she was little I have kept a kids CD in the car. Apparently, that's not very smart because now every time we get in the car she says, "I want Marcella's songs!" over and over until we give in. (Yes, she does know how to push our buttons!) As of late I have been telling her she has to take turns and let Mommy and Daddy listen to their music (I listen to country and Jon listens to Public Radio). So I feel like I am back in High School driving around with my brother and sharing the radio..."It is my turn, I hate your music" etc etc. She has almost gotten the concept. She will say "mama, are dese Daddy's songs? Or mommy's songs?" Then after a minute or two she will say "I want Marcella songs!" If we happen to not give in she will start singing her songs to herself.

The best for last. This is a picture of Marcella saying "i wuv YOU!" How can you not love this sweet face! (Sorry mom I will post some pictures of the Christmas decorations another night, you will have to wait in suspense.)

Sneaky Snake

I don't know how, but Marcella has turned into a complete Sneaky Snake, at least where shopping is concerned. We did the grocery shopping tonight. It takes about an hour or so, because Kanien liked to buy food for two weeks...that way we can eat really well for one week, then make a bunch of little trips to the store the second week. Anyway...It's tough for Marcella to stay in the cart that long, so inevitably, before we get to the register, she's down on the ground darting in and out of shopper traffic and driving me nuts. That's usually when I start a series of pilgrimages to the water fountain in order to preserve some measure of sanity. When we make it to the cashier, Marcella's true genius comes out in full bloom. She, in her toddler wisdom, understands the law of averages....the more you attempt something, the more likely you will succeed at it. So while Kanien and I are unloading the cart, swiping our debit card, reviewing the tally, etc., Marcella is waging a battle all her own. It consists of placing as many treats onto the conveyor belt as possible, hoping we won't notice one or two of them. What ensues is this: Kanien takes over as grocery QC (you know, making sure we get the advertised price on avocados and stuff), and I start removing the candy, explaining to Marcella that she gets enough treats already, and any more would violate the Laws of Childhood Deprivation so painstakingly instilled upon me by my parents. (These are for real....my Mom is famous for saying things like, "OK, you've had too much fun this weekend. Get out there and weed those raspberries!" I'm not making this up!) Inevitably, after arriving home and unpacking the groceries, we find some contraband (always fully paid-for...she hasn't yet mastered the art of thievery) that managed to make it in the bags. Today it was...

a bag of Candy Corn.
A few weeks ago..some Life Savers. She's also done it with air-heads and other candy.

4 Things I am Thankful for

#1. This might just look like just an ordinary Brush, but Oh no, it is one of my favorite things that I own. I believe it is suppose to be used while giving yourself a pedicure, to scrub your nails or something. I have found a better use for it. It scrubs out all of the spots Marcella gets on her clothes. I have been using it for 2 years now and it work wonders. It is the perfect brisilness, I haven't found a better one. I am sure you can find them at Bath and Body Works. I think I have seen them for a couple bucks, so not bad for a wonder tool.

#2. Rubber Gloves! I don't think anyone can argue with how wonderful these are. I can't even imagine what people did before these. Let's just say they are lifesavers! You can even get two pair at Walmart for $2 what a steal! If you don't have any, you must not have Kids.
#3. Clorox Wipes. I think this is one that I am almost most grateful for today. It just really helps do the Job. I am so thankful to those wonderful people in advertising who helped me feel like I really needed to buy these or my life wouldn't be complete. Well I am here to tell you I really did need them today and I am glad I had fallen to an advertising trap and bought them, plus they did what they said... My life is now better because of this purchase.



#4. Why M&M's, Well because after you finish reading this you will know that any chocolate in your house helps keep your sanity and today these did just the trick. As a matter of fact I am eating them right now. Man they sure are amazing. They have that calming, enjoyable effect that always reduces my stress levels.

Why am I grateful for these today well I will tell you. First I would like to start by a bit of back logging. Marcella received the potty training lesson about a week and a half ago. She has had her good days and her bad days, but all in all she has done really well. Especially these past few days. She has only had one accident and that was because we went to a bazillion stores and forgot she might need to go potty. Other than that she hasn't had an accident in three days. AMAZING! At least that is what I have been telling myself. I love that she is potty trained. She loves getting a sticker every time she goes potty, so it works out very well.

So Today being the 4th day she has done an awesome job, she managed to go poopoo in the toilet. "Awesome!" I exclaimed being all excited for her and still giving a bunch of praise so she will continue the good behavior. Well after that she went back to playing and I went back to working on pictures. After about 20 minutes I started to smell an awful smell so I decided I better go and check on Quiet Marcella. Well this is what I found.

I should at least be grateful she was on the potty right? (notice there is no more toilet paper on the holder? ya, it had to be our last roll) Well I told myself, at least you now know why you felt like staying in bed today. To say the least I was VERY Grateful I had everything I needed to clean up. The M&M's helped me calm down and enjoy this moment that I new would come sometime in my life, I am just hoping that it doesn't come again.

Moving!

I am finally getting around to our move. Here is our truck at my mom's house on September 01, the day we left.

Welcome to our place. I really need to take newer pictures because it looks a lot different.
This is our living room

You can see how the kitchen connects.... kinda

So I have to admit that I was really proud of myself and Jon. We moved in on Saturday and we had everything unpacked by Monday. Granted I am still rearranging and trying to figure out how I like things, but I was so glad that we did it fast and got it over with. I had boxed up all of Marcella's stuffed animals in April, (besides a few) and when we unpacked this box (four months later), she was in heaven. She had to have a diaper for each one and she started to play "mommy". It was pretty funny. I didn't think she would enjoy it as much as she did, but she was having a ball.

Here is our bedroom. I haven't really decorated it yet or done anything, so it basically still looks like this (only I did hang some drapes up).

Here is the living room without all the boxes. Pretty small and cozy. I am really enjoying our small place. It has been a lot of fun so far. I will post some new pictures later. A funny thing is we hung up our big mirror on the wall behind the couch, but the wall bows, so the image on one side is warped like a Fun House mirror! So ya, it makes you look distorted in some places. It makes me laugh.

So I just took a couple pictures to add, here you go

Jon took this one standing at the front door, so it's the view as you enter.

Here is the kitchen. Sorry these ones are a little dark, Jon took them at night.

Christmas

Just thought I would let all the family know I set up a link to the Christmas lists, it is in my links column. Love ya bunches!

Happy Halloween!

It took us a long time to convince Marcella to carve her pumpkin. She was terrified of it. I finally just said we are going to do it, and after a few tears shed by Marcella she gave in and had some fun.

After we got it all done and I put the candle in it, she started singing "Happy Birthday" and the proceeded to get me to sing to the pumpkin as well. After blowing out the candle we got a good laugh. What a sweetheart.

Here is our cute little Fairy. This year has been a lot of fun, because we have been able to get dressed up 3 times.

Here she was turning me into a frog.

We decided to go up to visit grandmas and grandpas this year. At first we weren't going to give in and go up but in the end we decided it would be more fun. Which it was. Marcella had fun seeing Sister Cloward, Sister Smith, Sister Perkins and of course her Grandparents.

My mom and I went to our trunker treating activity at the church on Saturday while Jon was at work. It was pretty fun. Thanks for coming with us grandma!

So besides the fact that our costumes weren't that good, I was Wendy and Jon was S'me from Peter pan, I vowed next year to have better costumes. I think Halloween is so much fun if you have a fun costume to wear. This was at Grandma Wallin's annual halloween Party. We had a great time this year. Marcella wasn't so sure about the pinata, but has been enjoying the candy. We also played bingo and got lots of fun prizes. Thanks Nana! We had marvelous time!