LOVE

Marley is almost 7 months but we finally got her pictures taken. She is such a sweet baby and we love her. She is growing too fast, and is immitating us now with the "ba, ba, ba," and Icky is the center of her universe they are so sweet together. I am very blessed to have been given such sweet wonderful kids. They are definately two of our best decisions

A PRESENT FOR UNCLE JOSH

So today was my day off and unlike usual the kids and I mostly stayed home. (First I love to not be home, nor do I want to be at work so we do random errands, which exhaust me with two kids, but still I don't want to be home so. . . Second with the air quality and Garrick's asthma we've tried to stick home more even though for some reason I don't want to, perhaps the cleaning and nagging projects that I never get done.) Anyway Garrick was napping and my sweet Marleykins had had her milk and eaten her wonderful carrots, these two things almost always lead to the inevitable explosion. I got the poop tool box ready, wipes, pad, extra diaper, butt cream,etc. I quickly open the diaper to survey the damage. Now before you think I am nuts and need to be committed, NO I don't usually search the Marley poop for foreign objects, I usually close the sucker up so quick it doesn't know what hit it. Today I was slow on the uptake and a little face in the poop caught my eye. I looked as closely as I could, but the foreigner was being difficult and I needed a new tool, something I haven't ever used in examining feces, A Q-TIP. I pushed the face around, with the q-tip, and looked and found that it was folded. There was not just a face, but an entire boy holding a bear. As I examined it closer I discovered that it was not just any random piece of paper, it was a gift tag from the Gatherum Family Christmas Chaos party. The tag said, "TO: JOSH." The from was indecipherable but I knew Annita had Josh's name this year. SO Merry Christmas Josh, again but this gift is a little less desirable than the doggie prep stuff you really got. New mystery, has the tag been in little Marley's stomach from Christmas or did she find it at Grandma's on Wednesday while she was there! The life of a mom, examining poop, I am considering a job change to a CSI or something.

Finally Christmas

We had a great holiday and I know that I am the last person on the planet to blog about it but here it is. We started out by heading down to Carl's parents on the 22nd. Garrick, Marley and I rode the Frontrunner down, Garrick kept asking if we were going to the north pole. Needless to say he threw a fit when we got off the train. On Christmas Eve we went to Carl's sister Andrea's house for some cousin presents and a story.
Afterwards Icky decided he was going to have a sleepover on an air matress with his cousins, Abby and Erin, they both went to sleep and he kept asking about Santa. It was cute that he was so excited.

He woke up at about 7:00 and once he saw his Hogwarts Express he didn't want anything to do with the other things we got for him. It took me an hour, literally to get him to unwrap even one gift. Meanwhile Marley was unwrapping and eating paper to her hearts content. She LOVED the paper. Christmas was great and Santa really scored with the Hogwarts Express. (Oh, and the ball and little teathing blanket I made. I'm very proud of my handi work.)
We headed back up for the Gatherum family Christmas party, which is always fun but a little chaotic. Uncle Kev is always playing with one of the little ones. Icky always loves when Uncle Josh is in town because they wrestle, but this time they made Marley cry, she thought Josh was hurting the little Ick.
Then back down to Fairview for sledding and New Years Eve, which was really fun but uneventful.

We had a great holiday, and now have learned that it will be wiser to save up for the wonderful day. Thanks fam, especially the kids, for making the holiday so fun.