Our trip to Vegas

This is what Claire did when I put on her sunglasses and told her we were on our way to Vegas.

She was super happy her big sister was coming as well.

We went with our friends the Laws. Where's Gavin?
(you have to love a sleeping baby.)

Here's the Girls in front of the Bellagio.

Marcella loved looking through the holes to see the water.

Daddy and Claire Bear with Peter and Hallie.

While Marcella kept looking at the water...

Claire was just chillin' in her stroller loaned to us so graciously by Dave and Rose. Seriously this trip wouldn't have been fun without it. Thanks guys.

Marcella loved the pool. Before we left she reminded me that we need to buy her some goggles so she could go under water. Everyone knows you can't go under without them. So here she is strutting her new goggles and loving every minute of it. Claire on the other hand got so cold the first time we took her in and after about 5 minutes, if that, she started screaming. Hopefully she will enjoy it more this summer.

This was after a nice long cry at the pool. We put the girls in the tub and then I got Claire dressed and put her on the bed. After we got everyone else ready for bed, this is what I found. She was so tired. This is one thing I love about Claire she will fall asleep anywhere really. The best is that I can rock her to sleep. Marcella would never just cuddle up to you and go to sleep, she had to be wrapped up and but in a bed. Claire on the other hand has been my snuggle bug and I love it.

Here is Marcella lovin' her BIG bed. It was super cozy. This was Marcella's first time sleeping in a hotel, as far as we can remember. She had so much fun.

This is Marcella's friend Hallie. They sure were enjoying all the food you could get at the morning breakfast buffet. It was so yummy!

This is one of my favorite pictures of Marcella. She was having so much fun running around and looking at all the flowers. Every few seconds I would hear, "Mommy, can I please just pick one flower?" It was pretty cute.

This is one of my favorites of Claire with a bunch of Poppies behind her. When I saw all the poppies I couldn't help but think of Grandma Noni. She had so many growing every spring in the front of her house. Crazy enough it made me miss seeing them.

We are a Happy Family.

I thought this was cute and I couldn't pass up the moment to take a picture. These were animals that you could mix and match the parts to make up different or the original animals. These two had a fun time putting them all together.

This was Saturday night after we got back to the hotel. Claire was being so snuggly. This is when she really started to not feel so great, but she was a trooper and we are glad she came with us.

Last but not least. After two Great days of buffets, we ate at IHOP for Breakfast. By the time we got to the restaurant the kids and the adults for that matter were starving. Let's just say it wasn't the best meal we had the whole trip, but I think this picture was taken before all the kids had a little melt down.

No trip would be complete without a little bit of car trouble. Yep our little car made it all the way to Nephi and then decided to die. At least we were able to get it towed to a place in Orem and it only cost us $30. Thanks Spencer for coming to get us, you are awesome!
All in all we had a lot of fun over the weekend. Hope you all have a great Day!

Updates

Here are a few pictures of what we have been up to the past little while. We have been having so much fun that I have put blogging on hold and I now have a billion pictures I want to put up but I don't want to bore all of you completely. So here we go...

This was on Valentine's Day. Before she could go swimming in the hot tub she had to shovel Grandpa Wallin's drive way. (Man she has the meanest parents in the world!) I seriously can't believe how much it snowed.

For Christmas Jon got one of these and he has been baking a lot of bread. All I can say is Yum!

We took an adults only ski trip to the cabin the end of Feb. Here are the guys

and here are the gals. We had so much fun skiing and eating. Thanks for coming it was a blast!

When we got home from our ski trip Claire had learned a few new tricks. She can sit up for a few minutes now and is doing awesome. I can't believe how fast she is growing!

This is what I heard today...

Marcella: Mom, I think I'm going to get a new Daddy at the store.

Jon: (a few seconds later, after he realized what she said..) WHAT?

Marcella: I am going to get a new Daddy at the store (giggle giggle)

Jon: Oh and how much is that going to cost you?

Marcella: umm 4 or 5 Bucks!

Eventful Day

After a really long day with the girls, Jon asked "What can I do?" I simply replied take Claire from me and I just need 20 minutes of "me" time. As I was handing her off, this is what happened...

The Next Day..

Claire started on solids this morning and she really liked it. Here is my "Big helper" feeding her, it was a lot of fun.

Marcella learned a new "trick." Needless to say that became "Her" juice after this morning. After we had a lot of fun painting fingernails with Hallie and best of all Grandma and Grandpa came to visit. Thanks for coming and watching Claire today, you are the Best!

This is us right before the video they show before you get to board a bus to the Draper Temple open house. Marcella has been so excited to go to the Temple. We had a lot of fun. Mom, Kristin and Andrea came with us. It was so beautiful and Marcella loved walking through. But she loved...

The bus ride most of all. She laughed the whole entire way up to the Temple and then when we were almost there she stopped laughing long enough to inform us that her husband lived in some house by the Temple. It was quite funny.

We were invited over to the Law's for dinner tonight and had a very yummy dinner of Chili and Cornbread. Then Marcella and Hallie proceeded to play while Jon and I enjoyed wonderful company. Thanks guys it was awesome!

They are so stinkin' cute!

Last but not least I was able to end my day with a little bit of singing action, which I hope I don't in trouble for posting... I hope you all enjoy. (Especially because it is taking forever to upload!!)

Dentist

Over the past few years of my young life I have come to the conclusion that no matter what I did, I would eventually have a filling in every single tooth of my poor mouth. Then things started getting worse, after Marcella and Claire I have had to have root canals (yes that is plural, I think I am up to FOUR now). So as I was contemplating the rest of my life I realized it was more likely that I would have all fake teeth when I get older and you know it might be kind of nice. Then yesterday I had the "opportunity" to have a gum graft on my bottom 2 front teeth. No big deal right, well I also learned that sometime in my life I will most likely have to have all 6 of my front teeth grafted. So I said well would it be more beneficial to have them all done at once? Let's get it all over with right? Then they calmly tell me, well it is $700 a tooth. Are you kidding me? oh ya I just have $4600 (including the sedation fee) just lying around. So this time we opted to only have the two that are really bad done. I am trying to have a positive outlook and here is what I have come up with: well since I basically can't eat anything for 2 weeks I might be able to lose the baby weight I have wanted to. Bring on more liquids. This is the best time to get out of doing anything I don't want to do. At least for 2 whole weeks. umm I know that I will eventually come up with more things that might make this experience more enjoyable, but for now I hope you enjoy these pictures that have made me smile.

This is Marcella before Church on Sunday. She gave her first talk in Primary. She did such a great job!

This is one of the perks of having Claire eat out of a bottle. Every once in a while Marcella likes to help feed her.

This is Marcella's new friend Hallie. They have so much fun together. They dressed up for the ball and then danced around our living room for a while, it was pretty cute.

Claire Bear is getting so big. She now can sit up for about a second or two by herself. She has been laughing and smiling a lot lately and we are having soo much fun with her.

This is how much fun Owen and I were having at Mim's wedding. Ha j/k it was so much fun Mim we loved it!

Sweetie Pie

This is Marcella making Macaroons. They were the easiest recipe to make. Marcella basically made it all by herself and they were delicious. I am sad I didn't get a picture of the finished product. I will have to post a picture after we make then again. If you love coconut, you will love these, Yum!

This is me and Marcella right before we got our haircut the other day. We were having fun taking our pictures.

I think this is one of the prettiest picture we took at the wedding. Grace is so beautiful.

Nathan came over to trade us cars and it had been snowing a ton, so him and Marcella made a big fort for her to play in. The next day when it had melted Marcella said, "oh who ruined my fort?" She was super sad it was all gone.

What an Angel

Last but not least here I am in all my glory, swollen face and all. I hope that you are having a better day than me. Love you!

Summer!

I've been longing for summer lately. This was taken before Spencer and Miriam left on their missions. We were all at the Farmington Pool. Check out the mini versions of Lizzy and Kristin.

 

Marcella and Uncle Nathan

I was looking at a bunch of pictures on my computer today and I came across this one. I couldn't help but think how cute it is. Wow, how time flies. Marcella really has a special place in her heart for all of our family members, but since I ran across this picture I thought I would tell you all how much she loves her uncle. She likes to run, play, tackle, tickle, get Chester and watch movies with Uncle Nathan. Thanks for being such a great uncle we sure love ya Nate!

Yep October 12, 2008 to be exact

Here is Marcella on the morning of her cousin William's baby blessing. As you can see it was our first snow fall of the season, and it was almost all gone by the time she was able to play in it. All in all, she had a lot of fun throwing it at me and Uncle Nathan.

Here is our cute fam, in all our glory! Love you guys!!

I have no Idea who this girl is

Where'd my little baby go?

Bowling (yep I am still in October!)

When Jon and Marcella went on their date, they drove past Fat Cats in Provo and every since Marcella saw the sign she wanted us to go there. So we went and had the time of our lives. Here is Jon helping Marcella go.

As you can see the ball was perfectly alligned and yes she did get a strike,

and this is her laughing so much that she is and did beat me. I could not believe it, but she did. She almost beat Jon as well, but he ended up winning in the end. All in all we had a great time and we invite anyone to come and challenge the amazing Marcella.

Marcella's Birthday

Can you believe this girl is 3? I seriously can't believe it. Time has gone by so fast it is amazing. She really is 3 going on 17. I can't believe how old she acts sometimes. Well for her birthday we made doughnuts (if you want the recipe it is here.)

She thought they were so yummy, and we had a lot of fun making them. Jon had to teach today, so after we ate, we went to Jon's class to say hi. A bunch of Jon's students went and bought Marcella some candy to give her since it was her Birthday. I am just sad we didn't get any pictures of the event. We had a lot of fun going in.

After that we had a big family party. If/when we get a house, I am going to make sure there will be enough room for everyone to sit down, plus some. It was a little crowded, but we all had a great time. Marcella received a bunch of fun toys, that she loves to play with. Thanks you everyone for coming and celebrating with us. We had so much fun.

M's 2nd cake had to be Strawberry Shortcake. It turned out pretty good and was super yummy.

Here is Claire enjoying one of Marcella's presents. crazy that she almost doesn't fit in here any more.