A Visit from Santa's Elves

We have a fun tradition in our family of the Elves coming sometime before Christmas and leaving presents on the door step. My parents did this for us when we were kids too...I never realized how hard it is to get that present out there and ring the door bell without the child noticing that something is going on!! We pulled it off though, it did take alot of planning and code words between Travis and I and creating distractions so Marlee wouldn't notice things. But what fun it was when she heard the door bell and we all ran to the door and there were presents. Kids just bring such Magic into Christmas!!! I love it!!!

The present outside the door

Opening it

It's a Melissa and Doug cake toy. I love Melissa and Doug toys...they are our favorite!

Decorating the cake

She made a cake for mommy!

Mazy needs a stocking

Although the whole house is decorated it did take me a little while to get the stockings hung. When we got them out Marlee noticed right away that Mazy (the cat) didn't have one. We had an old one that wasn't being used so I let Marlee decorate it for the cat. Now EVERYONE in the family has a stocking hung!

Thanksgiving

We had a very wonderful Thanksgiving this year with lots of family and food and fun! I don’t know why but I didn’t pick up my camera and take pictures. Well I did get 2 from the whole weekend…but that’s all! Here are my two pics.



One of Marlee and Travis riding



And a blurry one of Marlee and Jenna

Starting Christmas Early

This year I decided that we needed to be able to celebrate Christmas for more than a month. So before Thanksgiving even got here we got out all our decorations and transformed our home into Christmas Village!! Marlee is SO FUN this year, she understands much more this year than she did last. I think I will always decorate in the middle of November from now on, I'm loving this!!!

Showing Mar my favorite Christmas decoration. This is a snow globe that my mom had when I was little and she gave it to me.

Mar checking out all the goodies

The little tree in Marlee's room

She's starting to decorate.

I'm getting the branches "puffed" out

Now we decorate the big tree in the living room.

All done

Marlee and daddy

Mar and mommy. Marlee being silly as usual :)

Halloween

Sleeping Beauty

Here she is again.

First time I've used a curling iron on her hair. She was pretty scared of it!

Mommy and Marlee

Mar picked this mask for daddy.

Getting ready for our party. Daddy and Marlee making witches brew

bread stick bones

carved oranges stuffed with grapes. Thanks to travis for carving all these for me!


witches brew
Someone got a worm in their drink

Mandy looks so pretty

Ty, as creative as they come. He's a ceiling fan. As in a person cheering on the ceiling. Fun play on words.

Marlee is getting tired after alot of walking

The kids checking out their loot

Officially 30

Well, I'm officially 30 years old now. I had a wonderful day!!!

First, Marlee made me a surprise party! She set her little table up with ALL of her play food and we ate it all. She's so sweet!

I had many different kinds of decorations for cakes: flowers, pumpkins, dora. I let Marlee pick what to use, since she is the one making my cake for my party. She picked DORA!!

Here is my cake completed. Marlee put most of the candles in herself. Not too bad a job for her first cake!

All of us together

My two cuties! She can hardly stand it, she wants to eat it so bad

They are getting ready to sing "Happy Birthday" to me.

Travis is going to cut the cake with a cleaver. He didn't really use that.

Yum!

Here we are together after a nap, Marlee loves to crawl in bed with me when she wakes up. I love it too!!

After our nice nap, we took Marlee to Mandy and Ty's house and they watched her while Travis took me out to Outback for some yummy steak! We had a wonderful time eating a quiet dinner! Thank you so much to Mandy and Ty for taking care of Marlee for a few hours!!!

The last day in my 20s

Well, here I am, almost 30 years old...DANG IT...I wanted to stay in my 20s forever. Maybe I'll be one of those people that lie for the rest of their birthdays and even try to pull off being 29 at age 49.

To be honest, I'm not happy about being 30. I don't know why I even care, it's just a number. But maybe it's the fact that I'm half way to 60. Or maybe it's the way I see myself aging more. Or the way that it doesn't seem like I have done much in my 30 years. Whatever my reason is for not feeling happy about it, it's time to let go and embrace this thing called "THIRTY YEARS OLD."

Here are some random pictures, just can't post something without pics :)

I have NO IDEA why I'm making that face. Ok, who am I kidding, I was making a motorcycle noise and pretending to be a hot biker chick!

One of the first times Marlee got all dressed up in play clothes. I loved it!

When Mar was 8 months old. She had the cutest bald head.

My first Mother's Day!

This was when Marlee was 1 week old. I just have always loved this one.

Pumpkin carving

We had a good time tonight carving a pumpkin. Actually, Marlee was pretty grossed out by the inside of the thing then only a few minutes into it she started asking for an ice cream cone. But once it was done she was excited! Here are a few pics.

Why we LOVE October in AZ....

Could I be any happier? No, I don't think so. AZ is perfect this time of year!!!! I try to stay outside as much as I can. We go to the park, have picnics, take walks, ride bikes...pretty much all the things we haven't been able to do since April!

Today we had a little picnic in our back yard, we ate our lunch then blew bubbles then played bouncy ball then read books on the blanket in the sun. What a perfect day!!

Here are a few pics from a picnic we went on earlier in the month:

A few horses walking by, Marlee loves horses!

This is her favorite face to give me...usually she will also stick her tongue out as well.

sliding

climbing

We also love October because of Halloween! She's really into it this year. Here is a pumpkin with mrs. potato head parts in it. I got this kit after halloween last year and only paid $3 for it...and look how cute it is!

coloring a pumpkin with markers.

She's part of the family

You know those crazy people that treat their animals as if they are part of the family? Well...we ARE those people!!! Thankfully we have a kitty that plays right along.


Mazy giving herself a bath while I blog


Watching TV and then trying to "catch" what ever was moving around


Marlee was feeling sick, had a fever, Mazy just stayed with her right there for a long time.

Laying in the sink while Marlee takes a bath. She stays here every night waiting for us to leave the bathroom.


She also loves to drink from the sink, so much better than a cat bowl!


Sometimes Mazy has to pretand to be a baby doll. In this picture she is a baby in a playpin. This is not one of the kitty's favorite games, but it's one of Marlee's!

My hair model

One thing I love about little girls is doing their hair cute. Marlee is usually pretty good while I do her hair...until something I'm doing turns out bad and I have to take it all out and start over! She has fun with picking out the colors of rubber bands and the flowers I'm going to put it. She's a girly girl at heart!!

daddy and daughter

There is something SO SWEET about seeing my little daughter with her daddy. I was in my room getting ready and looked down stairs and they were sleeping like this on the couch. I love it!!!

A girl and her makeup

Marlee got her first little makeup kit!

Just starting out in the process

Still looks pretty good

Getting a little more makeup, but still not too much

I stepped away for just a minute and come back to this!! I love the huge glob abover her eyebrow

And my favorite picture of all!!!! Everytime I look at this I laugh SO HARD!!!

Tractor ride

When I was a little girl I spent ALL of my time outside. I don't remember spending much time watching TV or playing inside with dolls or toys. I loved more than anything to take a tractor ride with my grandpa. I thought I was so special when he'd let me take the wheel. It was really special to me when I got to see Marlee riding with my grandpa on the tractor. I was taken back all those years, to when I was a little girl myself. There is something so amazing and heart warming about seeing Marlee living her life that was also part of my life so long ago and meant the world to me.

Day with the Lopez Family

A few weeks ago Marlee and I took a little trip to Kearny to see some of my favorite people in the world!! We had a WONDERFUL time! I think I could spend everyday with this little family and love it lots and lots.

This is Lexie. She is the most amazing little girl! She was so kind to Marlee and took great care of her. Marlee talks about Lexie everyday and how she showed her how to use the computer and she knows how to play the violin. I love to see Marlee looking up to such a wonderful kid. I wish I would have taken another pic of her, she was being silly in this one and I caught her off guard.

Mathew and Nathan. Sweet little boys! I just love this picture of their funny faces!

Now they are done with the funny faces and back to playing Wii! These little boys are so sweet and beautiful too. I am so impressed with Matt, he's the oldest little boy and the man of the house while daddy is away fighting for freedom. At family prayer time he calls on a person to say prayer, I was so impressed with that, what a strong little boy!

Now, Bry, don't get mad...I promised I would not post this picture...but I AM ANYWAY! haha! I love this picture, you have the most beautiful smile and look at all that yummy fruit and veggies on the counter! I have the most amazing and inspiring times with you...you truly are a precious treasure in my life and I adore you. We stayed up until 3 a.m. and never ran out of things to say, matter of fact we had to make ourselves go to bed!

Here is the youngest, little William. Talk about a SWEET little boy! At one point I saw him come up to Marlee and rub her arm so sweetly, then say, "you are so beautiful, I really love you". Awww, he just melts my heart! And look at those eyes, and that pretty smile, I just want to kiss him all over his face!

This is Phoebe the kitty, named after Phoebe on Friends. Marlee tried so hard to make this kitty love her. I'm not sure the poor kitty ever loved her as much as Marlee thought she did...but at least the kitty tolerated it pretty well.

Here is Marlee and Will together, they became such good little friends!

Our little Performer

Marlee has a new favorite thing to do...put on performances! We do this at least 10 times a day! In these pictures she really put on a great show for some of her baby dolls and toys. She pulled all the chairs together and lined them up nice and straight then put the "audience" on the chairs. Once the audience was ready she got dressed in her "Most Beautiful Dress" (that's exactly what she calls this play dress). Then the show began! She starts the show by introducing herself: "Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to me being Bolt". Bolt is that movie with the super hero dog, she loves that movie.

Here are the pictures

The one up above is my favorite!

Before I could get a picture of the "audience", she look of her dress and jumped on the chairs. So excuse my little girl and her panty picture!

Loyalty's Web by Joyce DiPastena

I'm writing this blog entry to enter a contest to win this book, not only to win, but also to share with others what a wonderful person this author is. If you'd like to enter the contest here is a link:

http://queenoftheclan.blogspot.com/2009/07/summer-time-give-away-autographed-copy.html

Here is a link her to website also: http://www.joyce-dipastena.com

The author, Joyce DiPastena, has been a person I've known all my life. From the stories I've heard my mom and Joyce were best friends when they were young and growing up together in Kearny. My first memories of Joyce start when I was in Primary, I would see her each and every week and she'd play the piano in Primary. She was one of those people that made you feel happy just being around her. As a child I looked up to her so much, I thought she was the most beautiful lady and she had long hair that I always wished I had and she could play the piano and I wished I knew how to do that!

Now as an adult, although I haven't seen Joyce in years, she's still an example to me in a different way. My memories of her have matured, I realize now that all that beauty I saw is because she is not only beautiful outside but one of the most beautiful inside! She was faithful and righteous, being at church each week and making all us kids feel happy to sing. She also has a gift for making people feel special, loved and happy! I'm thankful for her in my life as a child! I always pray for people just like her to be in Marlee's life, to teach her and love her!

Congrats Joyce on becoming a published author, I'm so happy for you!!!!

Marlee's First movie

Yesterday Marlee and I went to her first movie. At AMC they have these $1 movies on Wednesdays all summer long. Mar was so excited all morning about going and I was excited too. I'll leave out all the details of what happened about half way through the movie...things went from good to bad to badder to even more badder (haha). We ended up leaving early and coming home for a good nap!!! But I'll still try to remember the day as an exciting fun one.

Mommy and Marlee

Marlee dressed herself...she never really does that. I tried to get these ugly shoes off her feet but she would NOT let me. These shoes are cute with jeans, but not so cute with her outfit she has on. But just look how proud she is with them on. That's pretty sweet.

Making faces before leaving. This is her scary face.

This is her "chubby" face. She does this one and says that little thing kids say, "HI, my name is chubby, my whole family is chubby..." I'm sure some of you remember saying that when you were a kid. We can thank her daddy for teaching her that!!! :)

A happy girl with her soda, popcorn and candy

bug hunting

Grandma Jan sent Marlee a bug catching kit. We have been having such a good time with this!! Marlee loves it. She loves to go outside and look for bugs then put them in the container thing and look at them. Believe it or not, I think it's kinda fun too haha!

daddy got a mosquito.



Marlee takes an up close look at him.

If you look closely you can see the mosquito.

So all in all, you can see from this post, it doesn't take a whole lot to entertain us here!!

More birthday pictures

Well, as you can see I'm rather behind...I said I'd put these pictures up the night of her birthday...and here I am into July and just getting around to it.

Birthday kisses from daddy. He's on his way to work.



more kisses

Marlee's cousins came over for a swim party. Here is Marlee.

Melia

Taylor

Jenna

Devin

Adam

Eden

Opening presents

more presents

Marlee reading a new book to Eden. Such sweet cousins!

Me with some silly girls!!

Marlee with her cousins and Aunts

After work daddy comes home for another birthday party! We get to have cake all over AGAIN!

Blowing out candles

Marlee gets to open her big present from mommy and daddy. An art Easel.



This is her first drawing she made on the easel.