WOW, I have not posted since January...that's almost a whole year! Well..let's just say 2010 has been a Fabulous year and we've been having lots of fun.

Merry Christmas!!

SnOw sNoW SnoW

In December we got tons and tons of SNOW! And I can't complain, November was pretty nice with no Snow so it was actually fun to have the beautiful snow fall...that is until I couldn't find my scraper for my car. But not to fear, all is well, Jorden found it in storage and now we're prepared. This winter I have decided to change my attitude towards the snow; which is that I hate it and I hate being cold. Not this year. This year we will play, play, play in the snow and enjoy sledding down the hills behind our apartment! Wish me luck:)

Celiese and Maren love sledding down a hill by our apartment. Our neighbors/friends let them use their sleds and yesterday we bought some of our own...afterall, this is only the beginning of winter and loads of snow.

Of course...the best part of snow is eating it.
(sigh) Yesterday morning we just returned from Arizona which was 72 degrees when we left Phoenix. Oh well...atleast the Spring, Summer and Fall will be nice here, right?

LUKE

I forgot my camera in Arizona where we spent the holidays and decided to post some old pictures...considering I haven't blogged in almost 2 months. The first picture is Luke's first day of Nursery taken in September. He loves going to Nursery...but we'll see what happens when Celiese isn't there because she is now a Sunbeam! Maren was really excited to have Celiese with her in Primary today. It was fun to be with both of them and see them smile at me.

Last month Luke started folding his arms for prayers! It is so cute and I just had to post these pictures.

Ring Around the Rosies

and Toddlers Galore

Several weeks ago Neil and Michelle and their twins (Jackson and Haley) were at are house and it was so fun to see Luke interacting with them! The twins will be 2 in Janurary and Luke in March and their other cousin Braden (who live in AZ) in March as well!

Bruce and Braden

(I took this in August when we visited family in AZ....i love this pic!)

Luke also has two girl cousins his age on the Marble side, Julia who will be 2 in December and Hannah 2 in February.

We made a visit to Az in August and here are some cute pictures of Luke and Hannah.



Julia and Luke (this pic was taken in March)

It's fun to make cousin memories; I love it.

First You Take a Pumpkin...

Nana and Papa came to visit this weekend and Nana made her famous--"dinner in a pumpkin." While her and Celiese were cleaning out the pumpkin Celiese started singing this song she learned in "Joyschool" (we are in a group with 4 other moms in our ward) I love her ability to light up a room with her beautiful voice!

I have so so many cute pictures to post from this summers vacations to Safford and San Diego. My excuse is that I'm trying to balance my new calling with family life and well....learning to use my time more wisely:) I'm sure I have plenty of time to blog....I just haven't discovered it yet. Here's to time management!!

Happy Birthday Celiese!

3 Years Old

Wow! I know I always say this on birthdays...but Celiese is 3 already! She has grown up so much this past year and thankfully is still my little spunky, fun loving girl. Grandma Bryce was in town on her birthday and all the family that lives in Utah, Grandma, and us celebrated her birthday together. We went swimming, which Celiese loves....she is so fun to watch in the water...so in her element. Afterwards we ate pizza, opened presents, ate cake, and played on the playground. I was so glad...I got to spend time swimming with just Celiese and it was so fun to have some quality time with her...a rare occasion you know if you have more than one kid...she is soo smart and funny and we love her very much!

This picure will be a classic!

Cake, glasses, swimming, the park.....this is the life!

Leah, Celiese, and Maren
Celiese having a great birthday!
My mom came to visit and I really wanted to make a Cup Cake-Cake(a cake made out of cupcakes) I got the idea from my cousin Michayle who got it from her sister in law Bryndee. I wanted to make a princess crown and it actually turned out really cute!

"Blowing" out her candles....unfortunatley the wind blew them out but Celiese was a good sport.
Celiese, Hannah, and Maren
Opening Presents. She's looking at a Dora book from her Bryce Grandparents and she also loved the ponies from her Marble Grandparents. I don't have a picture..but we gave her a "Fancy Nancy" doll that is sooo cute! Maren gave her some sunglasses (pictured earlier)
Jorden, Jeff, Grandma,Bryan, Neil
Luke and Jackson started to play with eachother! They are so funny together...two little teases.

All the girls checking out the loot. Celiese was very kind to share her toys.

Leah, Celiese, Haley, Maren, Hannah

Cute Story: So the other day Vance told me Celiese and Hannah were fighting over a plastic spoon and Vance said, "Celiese.." to which Celiese said, "(sigh) I'll give it back, she had it first" and she did!

So Sleepy...but...oh..so Hungry...

Dissclaimer: This is not child abuse because I, his mother, did try to take the food away to take him to bed and he was very upset...he wanted to continue eating while falling asleep :)

YARD SALE AND MINI VACATION

A couple weeks ago we had a Yard Sale, our first. Wymount has community yard sales on the first Saturday of every month. I actually had a lot of fun doing it..Jorden watched the kids while I did the sale and I got to meet and talk with lots of people. Also, we earned a little over $100 and went to the ZOO with some of our earnings.
Katy came to visit for a friend's wedding and stayed at our house Thursday night. We played settlers and Katy read some books to Maren and Celiese. It was fun to see her eventhough it was only a short while

Hogle Zoo
Salt Lake City, Utah
After we dropped Katy off at the airport made our way to the Zoo! Jorden and I were feeling quite brave considering that the kids had gone to bed a couple of hours later than usual...there were a few times we thought we'd leave, but we were able to overcome cranky obstacles and had a great time afterall.

They had an incredible bird show and at the end the kids were allowed to hand a donation to a bird. Celiese dropped it the first time because she was startled and Maren held the money right out to the bird. Celiese kept holding her arm out hoping a bird would stand on it! It was really cute.

One of the animal statues at the zoo..a rhino

The favorite of the day seemed to be the Giraffes Luke tried to put his leg over the fence and his shoe fell off! Luckily a brave little boy found a stick and retrieved it for us!Yeah

After the zoo we drove to Brigham City, Utah to visit my cousin Michayle and her family. She had a birthday party for her daughter Ginny (Virginia) who turned 1 year. My Aunt Liz, who lives in Arizona, was also visiting and it was fun to see her as well. Michayle had a hotel stay for free voucher that she kindly gave to us and we stayed in a hotel nearby. We went swimming Friday night, had a free breakfast Saturday morning and went swimming again! It was a really nice, enjoyable mini vacation

This is Ginny; she is such a sweet little girl!

I helped make a toss game for the kids out of cardboard and wrapping paper...turned out to be a cute picture as well as fun game! Can you find the Marble girls?

Scripture Power

Maren came home from church today, sat down and started "reading" Jorden's scriptures. When a page was accidently torn we decided to give Maren her first Book of Mormon and she wrote her name in it (Just had to add that in for grandparents--she can write her own name now!) Here she is quoting her first memorized scripture she gave several months ago in primary (from the bible). As I blog she is in the living room conducting her own Primary with a song, prayer, talk, and scripture. She is asking Celiese to "come sit down please" and telling "now it's your turn." Sometime I will post Celiese singing "I Love to See the Temple"-which seems to be her favorite song right now. What a joy as a parent to see my children growing in the gospel.

For those of you who don't know...there is a song in the Primary called "Scripture Power" and sometimes we sing it when we have scriptures at night...I don't know all the words...hmm...maybe that's why Maren doesn't either :)

Happy Birthday Maren!

Maren turned 4 years old on May 26th! This year she really wanted a bike...a big two-wheeler and she was so excited to wake up on her birthday to find one in the living room! She learned to ride with training wheels on a neighbor's bike and she enjoys it so much. Maren is such a blessing in our life; a great helper, contagious laugh, and always quick to think of others. I was watching her 2 year old birthday video and she was handing out her birthday presents to others! She is still the same Maren and we love her so much.

I had debated on having a friend party because here at Wymount the parties consist of "meet at the park for cake and ice cream, no presents please" and it's really fun...but Ididn't want to have one until she turned 5. We decided to let her invite one friend, Naomi, one of Maren and Celiese's favorite friends, to play outside with us. They love her imagination and always look for her at church. Sadly, she moved to Salt Lake yesterday and we will miss her.
....I really didn't need to send out invitations or plan a party because most of the Wymount kids were out playing anyway...I think Maren thought it was her party! The kids played with sidewalk chalk...although it's not aloud here (shhhhhh, don't tell!)
Oh the joys of riding a bike- Fresh air and songs to sing as she rides along.

I don't have any pictures of her with her Pony Cake because I dropped my camera for the hundereth time and broke it for good....But, luckily my sister- in -law Jenn gave me her old one! Yeah! I feel so blessed, Thanks Jenn!

Gone Fishin'

Memorial Day weekend we went fishing with Jeff's family at Spring Lake in Payson, Utah. We haven't been fishing in years and it was our kids first time. Celiese loved it and wanted to hold the fish. Luke was interested but kept his distance. And Maren...she dropped her poll when she felt the first tug of a fish on her line (which was a monster fish by the way) and didn't fish the rest of the day. Jorden really had fun helping the kids and catching a big fish. As for me, I love being outdoors and I love the feel of a fish tugging on my pole....but honestly, the worms and the fish out of the water remind me that I'm mostly a girly girl (they make me jump and squeek)even if I try so hard not to be:)

Celiese caught the first fish of the day! After that..she was hooked! (hahaha)

Look at that monster fish! Jeff caught two of these.

Afterwards we went to Jeff's house and cooked 'em up on the grill. I'm not really a trout fan, but they tasted really good and not fishy. Gotta love summer time!!

We celebrated our 5th Anniversary on May 15th! Wow how time flies...but then again, looking back, a lot has happened since then, not to mention we have three beautiful children now! My brother Jeff, his wife Jenn, and my brother Bryan watched our kids over night while we headed out to Salt Lake to stay in a Bed and Breakfast, The Parish Place, compliments of Jeff. We have never stayed in a B&B before, it was actually really cool. We also got to go to a session in the Salt Lake Temple for my first time and had a great experience.



Originally named the Cannon Mansion, this beautiful structure
was built in 1890 by George M. Cannon and Marion A. Morris.
It is listed in the National Historic Register.

Our room had its own private entrance and was at one time the maid's quarters.

This is a mural on the wall in the bathroom that was painted

by the previous owners.