Happy Holidays

We had a very Merry Christmas and hope you all did too. Our holidays were fairly low key, but that is fine with me. We got lots of snow the couple of days before Christmas, so it was white. Then the wind blew for several days and it was cold! So we kept to the indoors and close to home. It was fun watching the kids open their presents. We let them all go first, then set them up to play with all the new treasures, then the adults got to find out what awaited them under all the wrappings. We sure appreciate all the love and generosity of our family. I think the kids got just about everything that was on their lists! Here are a few pictures from our event. The kids "attacking" presents.

Alice mostly didn't know what was going on. But we had fun decorating her.

Eli got his own digital camera. He has been having lots of fun with it.

Simon got a pony! He was pretty excited. And it neighs, whinnies, makes gallopping noises, and its nose wiggles and its tail moves. Pretty fun. They all got a kick out of it. I will try to post a video of it soon. And some more pictures too.

Our New Year consisted of ham dinner, adults playing Scrabble while kids watched Alvin and the Chipmunks (the were completely enthralled), then a movie for the grown-ups after we put the kids to bed. And I actually stayed awake til midnight, no we didn't let the kids stay up. Don't think they really cared anyway.

I don't really have any resolutions for the new year, but there are some new things for me. I was released from my Young Womens calling a couple of weeks ago. I was in that organization for 4 years! So it will be different, and guess what my new calling is? Primary Chorister! I know, I was sure they had the wrong person. I am sure most of you know how I am not really a musical person, so this will certainly be new and different for me. Our bishop thinks callings should "stretch" us. This most definitely qualifies. We shall see how it goes. This Sunday I have to start teaching a new song. A song I don't know myself. I have been trying to learn it. Please pray for me!

So here's wishing all you the best for a new, productive, prosperous, pleasant year!

...And a partridge in a pear tree...

Happy beginning of the 12 days of Christmas! That's right, there are only 12 days left til Christmas. It seemed like it was so far away, and now it is right around the corner. A week from tomorrow, our holiday guests will start arriving. Good thing the shopping is 98% done, I am sure there are few things left to get.


In the meantime, in the last couple of weeks, I got a new camera! Yeah I finally have a good one for myself. I ordered it with money I earned taking surveys online. It is a Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS Digital Elph. So here are some pictures from it.
Our nephew Jayson got baptized last weekend, here he is with his family. Yeah Jayson!

Here is our Christmas tree. I bought it after Christmas last year on clearance, so I didn't know what it would look like. It is kind of small, but fuller and better looking than the old hand-me-down one we had. The kids helped decorate it. And have been helping "undecorate" it ever since.

Yesterday it finally warmed up around here. Wednesday morning it was -13 when I woke up and the highs didn't get above freezing til yesterday. We had snow and it packed on the ground, but today lots of it melted. Here is our Alice all bundled up for the cold! What a cute snow bunny!

Holiday Time

Could time just slow down please?! The days are just flying by. We had a nice quiet Thanksgiving at our house. Just Joe and me and the kids. We kept it simple, but it was good and we have been enjoying leftovers! Then Sunday my grandma and grandpa came for a visit. It was lots of fun to see them, wish it could have been for longer!

The weekend before Thanksgiving, my sister and I decided to go get our Christmas shopping done. It seemed like the best time, and now our work has been really busy so we are glad we got it done. We had fun, though it was a long trip. When we arrived at Toys R Us, this is what greeted us:

What a hoot! There was also Bobba Fett and the sand people things. (Sorry if I am offending any Star Wars Fanatics out there with my ignorace).

We managed to pretty much get everything we needed. We also do the shopping for my Nana, and buy what the kids want and she sends us the money. So getting it all coordinated took some brain power, but we were successful. Can't show you anything I bought now, but there will be pictures after Christmas. Oh, and I bought myself a little something, a new desk chair. I was wanting one, with all the work I have been doing, I have been needing something more comfortable. So I saw this at Staples, for 1/2 price. Leather and everything. The kids helped me put it together the next day. They love to go up and down in it.

Today, Alice is 3 months old. She is growing and changing! It doesn't feel like it has been a whole 3 months that she has been around! She is really a good girl, and smiles lots. She loves to be talked to and played with. And she is doing very well with sleeping. She has slept through the night several time, and only wakes up once if she does. We sure love her!

A Special Weekend

A couple of weekends ago, we had two special events. First, on Saturday the 7th, Ayden was baptized. It was very nice watching his dad baptize him and then watching his dad, uncles, grandpa, and great uncle confirm him and give him the Holy Ghost. We are proud of Ayden for his decision.

On Sunday, the 8th, Alice was blessed during Sacrament meeting. She was a good girl and stayed happy. Grandma bought her this beautiful blessing dress, and her great-aunt made the headwrap with the flower. She was darling!

We had lots of fun having so much family all gathered together. It was great. The rest of November sure has been flying by, Thanksgiving will be here shortly, and then Christmas will be upon us. Santa's workshop is already underway....

Happy Halloween

Here is a picture chronology of the last several years of Halloween, from '03 (Eli's first Halloween) to this year.

2003 - Here is Eli as a caterpillar. Thanks to Martha Stewart for the costume pattern. 2004 - Eli as a leopard, or whatever it is. This costume has been recycled several times, keep scrolling.

2005 - Eli was a cow, but wouldn't wear the hat. Carissa and I were a "paradise" (pair-of-dice, get it?) Rylan is wearing the leopard costume.

2006 - Simon's first Halloween, he was 2 days old. We went as Care Bears, except for Ayden. And yes, I went trick-or-treating 2 days after having a baby; I was crazy, or at least still high on the endorphins from natural birthing or something!

2007 - I made us all into M&Ms.

2008 - Somehow I got hardly any pictures this year. But I have video of it. Eli was a polar bear, Simon was the leopard. And we went trick-or-treating with some friends. 2009 - Alice as the caterpillar, Simon the Cowboy, and Eli, knight in shining armor.

A note about Simon: He loves being a cowboy and especially his boots. He put them on Friday to go to our town's Main Street trick-or-treat, then slept in them, and pretty much hasn't taken them off since!

Happy Birthday Simon!

Yesterday, the 29th, was Simon's birthday. So we had a snow day to celebrate! Happy Birthday Simon. He and Eli played in the snow, even though it was still coming down and windy and cold. Somehow children are impervious to the cold when they are having fun playing in the snow. We also got to have the cousins over for cake since no one went to school. He blew out all the candles, once we got him close enough.He is now 3, but we all seem to feel like he has been around longer than that. He sure makes us laugh, and is a lot of fun. He got some fun I Spy computer games, the Curious George movie, and a stick horse, that makes galloping and neighing sounds. He loves it all! And we love Simon.

Halloween pictures coming next....

Cupcakes and dresses and bows, Oh My!

Our very kind neighbor brought over these fantastic, beautiful cupcakes the other day. Wow! She is quite talented. It is a little hard to see, but they are little babies in bassinets and the detail is incredible. It is all edible and she made them! Can you believe that? I want to learn how!
And I couldn't resist taking pictures of Alice dressed up for church in this adorable purple dress (Joe called it a "monstrosity", boys just don't get it!). And since Joe took the pictures, we actually got some of her smiling! She did great. I guess it must be time to take her to a professional and get some studio shots to send out with Christmas cards!

Sweet Smiles

Alice has learned to smile! Unfortunately, I have not learned to work the camera well enough to capture it decently. I will get it though. She smiles more and more each day. In the mean time, you can enjoy these somewhat blurry shots of her cute smile. (The pictures look better small!)

Photo shoot?

I tried to take pictures of my boys the other day for a project I am working on. We ended up with quite a few like this:

Eli doesn't seem to know how to just smile without being cheesy. And Simon thinks he is looking at the camera, but mostly is too busy with something else. We got a couple of cute pictures though.

Then we thought it would be fun to do a family photo. We hooked the camera to the TV so we could see our pose and used the camera timer. It was fun, but did not yield any great photos. Lots of fun, goofy ones, but I guess that is what we are.

Alice was the only one who cooperated and sat still....and I actually managed to capture a smile. She is doing more of that everyday, still not a lot, but more. One of these days soon we'll get some really good smiles.

Playing dress up

I thought I would post this picture of Alice all dressed up for church. My mom said it was so cute, so I figured I would share it with all of you. Girls really are more fun to dress up. I wasn't sure that would be true, but there is something about little girl clothes that just can't be captured with little boys. Maybe it is just because I am a girl too. We went to the doctor for a check up last week, she weighed 8lbs 4oz, which is doing really well. However I find it funny that at 5 weeks, she still weighs less than all my sister's babies when they were born! Of course they are boys, but still....it is amazing how much difference there can be in the weight of newborns. Rylan weighed almost 3lbs more than Alice at birth, he was over 9lbs!

We have been battling sickness at our house. I think everyone is finally on the tail end of it all. Eli started it the Friday before last. Then Simon got it, and then Joe came down with it this past Friday. Alice and I have been spared thus far, thankfully! We have been trying to be very careful about washing our hands and using hand sanitizer and Lysol. We kept Alice upstairs and the sick people downstairs. I am glad we have that option, but it has been exhausting. The doctor said it was probably rhinovirus, but we are thinking maybe it was flu - the H1N1 variety. That is what Rylan was diagnosed as having. Well, he tested positive for flu, and since it is too early for seasonal flu, that is what they are saying. Thankfully no one has any severe cases of it. Hopefully we are all over that now, and immune. But I am still planning to get the shots for all us, except Alice of course, who is too little. Hope everyone out there is doing well and staying healthy!

Simon has gone Maori

We were watching conference on Saturday and the boys were downstairs, coloring with Color Wonder markers, the ones that only work on certain paper. Well imagine my surprise when Simon emerged looking like this:

Apparently, he found a dry erase marker that I guess fell out of Joe's pocket. Why he feels the need to color on himself is beyond me, but he does almost every time he gets ahold of a marker. It mostly washed off. Guess it is a good thing we aren't actually going to church tomorrow.

Here are pictures we took of Alice this weekend. She certainly is growing and changing. I can't wait until she can really smile!

I feel nice

Like sugar and spice. Actually not so much like those, but almost refreshed since Alice slept from 10:30pm until just after 4am. She was up for an hour, but then went back to sleep until almost 9! So I got some good chunks of sleep. Of course that always just makes me want more. And I am not under any illusion that it will go like that tonight, but I can always hope, right? The hardest thing so far I think has been the inconsistency. She doesn't wake up at the same time every night. We have somewhat of a structured routine during the day, with eating, being awake, then sleeping. But it all happens at different times and intervals each day, so it all keeps changing. We will get there though. Happy 1 month to Alice today!

More Pictures

Here are some more pictures of Alice. This first one I used for the birth announcements I made and sent out, it's kind of hard to see very well, but that is what is under the picture. So cute with a little smile!

Here she is a couple of days ago. I can't believe she is already 3 weeks old!

Here is Alice having her first bath in the baby tub. She quite liked the warm water, but hated it when we took her out and into the cold air!

And maybe someone out there can help me out. For those of you that have girls, what have you used to stick bows on their heads. I have tried a few things but nothing seems to work very well. Any hints or tips would be appreciated!

The Kids

Here's what the kids have been doing:

Eli has been making up jokes. Here are a couple:

"What is the longest break for a TV show or cartoon?"
"When it's over!"

"What did the mustard say to the impatient person?"
"Please don't squeeze me!" (Said in a very amusing squeezed voice).

Oh the humor of a 6 year old.

And what has the 2 year old been up to? Being a cowboy. Anything that he can twirl around like a rope he does, including of course string, ribbons, but also pillowcases and small blankets. The other day he found cookie cutters in the shapes of a cowboy hat and a cowboy boot and took to carrying them around like he was wearing them. And then he found a little toy horse, I mean little, as in 3 inches, possibly less, and put it between his legs and rode it around the house. When he sets out to be something, he does it whole-heartedly. I wonder what he wants to be for Halloween.....

And Alice is doing well. Getting better at sleeping at night, not too much of being awake for extended periods of time in the wee hours of morning. She is definitely growing and filling out. The tabs on the newborn diapers don't overlap anymore! However most of the 0-3 month clothes is still rather big. I will put some pictures up next post, I didn't get them downloaded from the camera yet.

A Timely Arrival

I am sure you can all guess what this post is about. The baby did come, and I didn't even have to wait past my due date, she decided to be punctual, arriving just an hour into September 1st. So here is Alice Leikili Marler, born at 1:11am on September 1st. She weighed in at 6 lbs, 8 oz, 18 inches long. And of course we think she is beautiful!

The labor was not too long, once it really got going. Of course I was having contractions most of Sunday and all night til Monday morning when they stopped. They were never very intense or close together so I wasn't sure when she would decide to come. The contractions started again around dinner time, and progressively got closer together and harder. So at 10:30pm we headed over to the hospital. I was at a 5 when we got there. Joe and I hung out for a bit, watched some TV. I tried some Fentinol (or however you spell that), which made me really dizzy. Then decided maybe I really did want an Epidural. The nurse came in and checked me and said I was at an 8, but then I would have to get through my bag of IV fluids before they could do an epidural. So I wasn't sure if there was time, but she said we could try. So the contractions got more intense, then really intense just as the fluids finished. Joe got the nurses and they came in and started getting everything ready. The nurse laid me down and as she did, my water broke. So the contractions were then very painful and right on top of each other. The doctor wasn't there yet. The nurses kept telling me to breathe deep and I was trying to. Then all of the sudden I had to push and the baby came out on to the bed! So the doctor missed it, the nurses didn't even actually catch her. Good thing the bed was still all put together! So it was pretty intense, but quick. The doctor arrive a few minutes later and was somewhat discombobulated because she had missed it. Of course she still had to finish things up with me, but the nurses had wiped off the baby and cut the cord and were taking care of her. So I did it again, no epidural, but quick! Phew!

Her big brothers love her lots and like to hold her. She likes to sleep a lot, and seems to think the best time to be awake is between 12:30-2:30 am so far. We are working on changing that!

She has no idea how spoiled of a little girl she will be! First girl on the Mecham side (7 total), 4th on the Marler (out of 13)! I am sure it will be an adventure for all of us who are so used to boys. But it will be so much fun too. We are so excited you are here, Alice. We love you!