I don't know if I can do it....

Say goodbye to this blog that is....  it's harder than I thought.

So INSTEAD - in light of our upcoming, my most very favorite, thankful holiday I would like to just list a couple things I am very thankful for.

01.  Mine and Ben's jobs.  We are so lucky to be working for stable companies where we can use our brains and get paid for it.

02.  My sweet husband who reminds me a hundred times a day how much he loves me.  It's probably annoying that I always say I am so lucky, but I am.  He is a good good man.

03. Tuna fish.  I would probably die without it.  It's my main source of nutrition. I am so obsessive, give me 2 weeks and I will move on to something else.

04. Family.  How boring would we be without our families?  I don't even want to find out.  I love family and the little adventures that come along with each.

05. Friends.  It's amazing how you can meet people who it seems you were "meant" to be friends with.  I have so many of those amazing friends that I don't think I could live without.

06.  Anthropologie.  I know, it is silly, but you knew I would go there... I love Anthro.  I can't explain it.  I walk in that store and a little bit of my soul is healed.  It's weird, but I can't get enough.  I wish I owned that little piece of that special heaven.

07.  Jesus Christ.  What if you were in his position, could you have been the Savior of the world?  Could you give it all up so your brothers and sisters could live?  I hope I could,  I am glad he did.

08.  My mother.  I have to give her her own.  She knows me so well it's almost strange.  She never gets worked up, she works so hard, she lives for others, and when I think I am acting completely in left field she reminds me that my little girl personality was the same as my grown up personality - so at least I am consistent.  It's nice to have a sweet mother with that history. :-)

I am thankful for so many wonderful people, blessings and things in my life.  I love this time of year.  As we move into this happy holiday season I pray we keep a thankful attitude and remember what it is that we really celebrate.

What goes up...

... must come down.

It may or may not be time to take my Christmas decorations down.  But it probably is.

My Christmas tree went up on November 7, 2009 - the day I got back to Oregon from a 40 day trip to Utah.  I knew I would spend the majority of the holidays back in Utah, so I thought there was plenty of reason to put the tree up pre-Thanksgiving.  But today, January 14, 2010 - 67 days later - it still stands with no good reason except that I love to look at it, it has basically become a part of me, and I am fearing the time it will take to put all the ornaments away.  But alas, all good things must come to an end and the time has come to make room for Valentines day so I will say goodbye, until next year....

I will miss you Christmas tree!

Dear 2010,

Let's start this year, also this decade, off right by telling 2010 exactly what I expect out of it.  I mean you can't be disappointed if you haven't set expectations, right?

2010, here is what I need from you -

1. I would like to ask that you use special care when it comes to my feelings.  Heaven knows I am an emotional shopper and since I have decided not to shop this year, I need you to take it easy.
2. I plan on running a marathon in May.  I should stop saying planning on it and just say, I am running a marathon in May since I already paid too much to the man to map out a 26- mile run of death.  2010, I am not sure how you can help with this, but figure it out cause I need help.
3. I need to schedule a really awesome vacation.  That is an expectation that is non negotiable so let's get on that.
4. I would like to make a quilt this year.  If that one turns out well, maybe I will make another.  Yes, that sounds fun.
5. I need to organize my shoes. I have been thinking about this for a year and a half now.  Let's just do it already!!
6. Shannon is going to have a baby... so I would like to put in a request to you, 2010, to take it easy on her as well.

I think that's all I have right now, so there it is... expectations have been set.  Happy New Year!

At Christmas Time

Right now it's snowing my favorite snow.  The perfect Utah dry snow that sparkles in the sun as it falls through the sky then lands on the ground snowflake still intact.  It crunches under your feet as you walk, but don't walk through it!!  It ruins the smooth almost magical palate.  As a little girl I used to go crazy when people would walk through our front yard and ruin the beautiful snow dusted landscape.  I would insist that we play in the back yard or a friend's yard as if the snow was a piece of art created just for me (see my craziness started young). Growing up in Utah I remember very few Christmas's without snow, a few with so much snow we couldn't even leave the house and many perfect Christmas days with the sun shining and the snow sparkling.

2009... hasn't it been quite the year? Good and bad; we have seen, felt and lived through it.  As we find ourselves only hours before the Christmas holiday, as we prepare for friends and family and the celebration of the season I hope we remember the true meaning of the holiday.  I hope we remember the gift of Christmas isn't wrapped up in presents. The gift of Christmas is Jesus Christ.  Oh how grateful I am for Jesus Christ, his life, his service, his example.  

Wishing you a safe a very happy Christmas! (...whether you have snow or not).

Ode to the Mother

Thank you for

...teaching me to tie my shoes. That has proved useful throughout my life.
...being disappointed in me when I quit my high school job (to go to a basketball game with my friends). You taught me responsibility.
...having a vegetable garden every summer to make fresh salsa.
...buying me drawing books, crayons and pencils and allowing me to be creative.
...taking in my friends and giving them another place to call home.
...teaching me how to nicely load a dishwasher.
...leaving a couple days late for our annual Labor Day camping trip so I could get my drivers licence the exact day I turned 16. This was a really big deal to me.
...being proud of me. Even if it does mean having the most awful picture of me and Nate on your debit card.

Happy Mother's Day to my Mom and all my dear friends who are Mothers! You really are appreciated for all you do.

Celebrating Christ

I love the Easter season. I love the symbolism as the weather turns to Spring and the trees and flowers begin to blossom we are reminded that Jesus lives. This morning as I was reading through scriptures and past words spoken about Easter I was touched by the reality of the Resurrection and overwhelmed with gratitude for the Savior.

My oldest niece, Ashley, passed away 2 years ago in July. Yesterday would have been her 22nd birthday. All day my thoughts were about Ashley and as with many people who have someone close to them pass away, I wondered what the proper way to celebrate her was. I like to think the best way to celebrate someone is with happy memories of them and so I remembered. But as I was reading this Easter morning I came across these words that President Hinkley spoke in 1996,

"There is nothing more universal than death, and nothing brighter with hope and faith than the assurance of immortality. The abject sorrow that comes with death, the bereavement that follows the passing of a loved one are mitigated only by the certainty of the Resurrection of the Son of God that first Easter morning."

I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for me, for Ashley, for everyone, so that we too will live again. There have been many, and will be plenty more, times in my life where this knowledge has been the only thing that I am sure of - even so, it's always been enough. Ashley is such an incredible addition to our family and what special time of year for her to have her birthday.

Happy Easter!

Wishing You A Very...

Here's a toast from the fancy cups that I HAD to drink out of on New Year's Eve! Wishing everyone a year full of health and happiness. Here's to big dreams and the commitment to making them come true. Cheers to family and friends because loving you makes life worth living. Happy New Year!

Sunny St. George!

After Christmas the Marlor's always go to St. George. It was so nice this year to spend a few days in St. George where the weather was 60 degrees and there was no snow in sight!
Cobe got baptised while we were down there so all of his cousins could be there to see. It was such a fun experience to see his grandpa baptize him. Bryce gave a talk on the Holy Ghost and Burton (Brandon's son who is almost 3) must have been paying special attention. The rest of the night Burton would ask with a very terrified look on his face where the Holy Ghost was. He was concerned the Ghost was going to sneak up on him! Too cute!

Along with the St. George trip comes the white elephant gift exchange. For the gift exchange everyone is supposed to bring a one-dollar goofy gift to be exchanged. Saturday afternoon Bryce and I made a trip to the dollar store to pick out our gifts. As we were walking up and down the isles making laughing at all the funny things we were finding Bryce stopped dead in his tracks with a hilarious idea. He decided he wanted to buy a frame and sign a picture of himself to put inside. We laughed and laughed for a few minutes and decided it was a plan. We walked out of the store and found this awesome bench - perfect for taking a picture of yourself to sign. I couldn't stop laughing while I was taking the picture, everyone was starring at us and he was posing so funny! We took about 6 pictures, but decided that this was the one.
We quickly ran to Walmart to get the picture printed. We ended up getting two 5x7 pictures and 3 wallets and let me tell you it was a good thing we did because this certainly was a hot item!

Here are some highlights of the fun presents! Doesn't Bryce make a great knight!

I think these underwear are as big as Camden is!

I think McKelle ended up with Bryce's hilarious picture, so Tami will now proudly display it at her house. Keep the signed picture Tam, I am sure it will be worth something one of these days!

Pat got these wonderful gloves - which I am totally coveting! Bryce signed a wallet sized picture for her, she was so proud!
While in St. George Bryce and I found a new passion - SCRABBLE! If you know anything and Bryce and I you know that we are both VERY competitive. Typically we try not to play games together unless we are on the same team. This is because the one who loses the game (which is usually me) ends up angry because the other (which is usually Bryce) is rubbing the loss in their face. We ended up however, being able to play very nicely with each other and discovered that we really LOVE scrabble! We stayed up one night until 2am with Brad, Tami, Mandy and Ty playing team Scrabble. Bryce and I took home the win - we play respectively well when we play as a team. Bryce and I still have a championship going on that we didn't get a chance to complete. Currently we are 2-2 against each other.

We had such a fun time in St. George! Thanks Lynn and Pat for the trip!

Christmas Love 2008

Christmas is such a fun season. I remember the days when Nate and I used to wake up at 3 or 4am and beg our parents to let us go out and see what Santa had brought. Our parents always spent the month reminding us of the true reason for the season while giving us opportunities to see and help others in need. As we have gotten older the only thing changing is the time that Nate and I make it out to the front room as each year we sleep longer.

We had such a fun Christmas Day this year, but the days leading up to Christmas were equally as fun. My mom doesn't love to shop so I love the days during Christmas that I get to spend shopping with her. Luckily she hadn't finished all her shopping before I made it to Utah so we got to spend a few days braving the crowds together!

On Christmas morning we woke up as usual and opened presents.
My dad was so excited to get a windshield and top for his razor. He is making it his new hobby to make the razor street legal so he can drive it down to the local grocery store!
Nate was so proud of Santa for picking out such hip clothes for him! Santa is so insightful!
Mom was really excited for her new wine cabinet, even if it did take us 2 hours to put together! Mom and Dad also got a new camera and this fancy tile!
There is a little background on the blank tile... I had intended on making my parents a tile with a vinyl quote on it that could be displayed. Brad and Tami cut vinyl and while Bryce and Lynn were in Vegas I asked them to bring the vinyl up for me. In transit somehow the vinyl got stuck to the seat and didn't make it to the tile. They mailed another one up, but it didn't make it before I had to wrap presents. I wrapped up the tile without any writing. When my Mom opened it she starred at it for a few seconds and then said, "oohhh, thanks!" She had no idea what was going on! I told her the story and we all had a good laugh. A Christmas miracle came true that day and Bryce brought down the newly arrived vinyl that we were able to add to the tile and display it in the house. The tile now says, "Our feet my leave, but our hearts will always be at home."

Santa brought me a new piano! He brought the piano straight to Oregon, so I wasn't able to play it while I was in Utah. I am sure there will be many more posts to come involving the new piano as I learn to play! I can't wait!!

Nate's new little dog, Valcor, loved playing with all the wrappings from the presents! He loves Christmas!
I was so glad that Bryce was able to brave the inches and inches of snow and spend Christmas day with us. He brought down about 14 billion presents - suprisingly - I didn't get one picture of us opening presents together!
All the neices and nephews made Christmas complete. Everytime I see Alex I am amazed at how much she grows. She is in 8th grade and offically taller than me and looks older by the day!
I love Christmas. What a fun season and day we had. Thank you to everyone and Merry Christmas to all!

Lights, Camera, CHRISTMAS

I love Christmas lights, I LOVE the zoo... now imagine combining the two of them and you have Christmas ZOO LIGHTS fun!

Myself, Dan, Shannon, Shelby, Jon, Christen, Jason and the kids braved the crowds and the freezing temperatures to bask in the wonderfulness of the Oregon Zoo. They had really fun lights AND I got to see tigers! Seriously, I wish I could have gotten a picture of them (it was too dark) because they are so huge! I could see their breath in the air though (cause it was cold) and I felt like we were so close that they could have jumped out and eaten me!! I loved it! Other than that, most of the animals were sleeping so I think I definitely need to go back. The zoo + lights was a very fun way to start off the Christmas season.

Howl-O-Ween

A Senorita, Cat Woman and Minnie Mouse took on downtown Portland Halloween night... along with about 14 billion other people. The day before Halloween Shannon, Deneal and I were at the mall trying to decide what I would dress up as. We found a great bumble bee costume that I decided was 'the one'. For some reason on Halloween night I just couldn't get the bee costume to work right, so I made a last minute Minnie Mouse change. We'll try the bumble bee next year!

No matter what costume I chose, one thing was for sure... The fake eyelashes were going with anything!




Happy Halloween everyone!

Um, hello Gumby

Is that Gumby? Yes, yes it is! And who is dressed in that Gumby suit you ask... that would be Bryce. All his life (or at least the last 2 years) he has wanted to buy a Gumby suit for Halloween. Well last year he regretfully didn't do it, so this was the year! Isn't it funny, I seriously love it! I said to him, "That will be a fun costume... you can wear it every Halloween!" He said, "Costume? Halloween? I am wearing this thing 3 times a week!" Too funny!

In other news, I elected today as the day I would finally start getting my house ready for Halloween. It really doesn't take much, I don't have a ton of holiday decorations yet. But to my wondering eyes should appear today... of course a package from Pat enclosed with Halloween decorations! Whoo hoo! Here is a picture of the cute pumpkin pillow (that she made) and new dishcloths that she sent. Thanks, Pat!

Have I mentioned I love this time of year?!

Let the festivities end... or begin?

Yes, another Halloween is over... I am sorry to break the news for those of you mark Halloween as your favorite holiday. I agree, its a bummer - especially cause this year was so fun! Don't feel bad though, it will back next year and even on a Friday - that's good news. Even better is that we are in such a wonderful time of year that the festivities don't have to end... they're only beginning! Take some time to notice all the fall leaves before the snow moves in, don't skip Thanksgiving and put up your Christmas decorations until we've all paid our thanks this month and enjoy everything the seasons and up coming holidays have to offer. Happy Holidays - I can start saying that now, right?