And the other one said, "Roll Over! Roll Over!"

Today was a fun day! Marin actually rolled over! About 6 weeks ago she had been trying really hard to roll over from her back to her front, and then I think she got frustrated because she couldn't do it, so she stopped trying. Then we tried getting her to roll from her front to her back, but she generally hates tummy time, so it's been challenging. Today, right after she got up from her nap, I put her on the bed in the guest bedroom on her belly, and she rolled to her back 4 times! Hooray! I was getting a little nervous because she hadn't done it yet, but I am SOOO relieved. I think she tired herself out, because she didn't want to do it a fifth time :)

Tomorrow I work, and Kris and I have been absolutely SCRAMBLING to find someone to watch Marin. I had tried calling someone to cover for me or switch days with me at work, no luck, calling the few people I know from church, no luck. Finally I tried our friends we thought were out of town, and score! They are IN town:) Marin will be hanging out with them tomorrow, and maybe a friend from the ward on Friday.

With the new year coming up, I need to start thinking about some New Years Resolutions! One of them spawns from a lesson in Relief Society this past Sunday on temple attendance. Kris and I need to go to the temple more often. Having a baby disrupts SO much of your life, in every aspect, and that includes all the important stuff, including prayer, scipture study, temple attendance, occcasionally going to church. Trust me, unless you have a kid, you just don't know. No matter HOW organized you pride yourself in being. Anyway, the lesson talked about how so many people make HUGE sacrifices to go to the temple, like eating only one meal a day to save enough money to travel to the temple, and selling their belongings to go the temple. You know, all the stories we've heard before. But then the bishops wife commented that her brother, and a certain couple from the ward would go to the temple, and one spouse would sit outside in the parking lot with the kids, while the other would do a session, and sometimes, they would even switch so BOTH could do sessions! My mouth just dropped. It's hard enough to send Kris off to work, but to be without the extra help for another 2 hours is even harder. I know we could use the blessings, so next year (in a whole 2 days!) we will be going to the temple a whole lot more. Besides, I don't want to be held responsible for all those people I could have done work for, but didn't. So, I will post some of our resoutions for next year when we make them :)

Picture Time!

Marin just a chewin' on her fingers!

Such a sweet picture. Her hair is getting longer and I keep going back and forth as to what color it is! Some days it looks super blonde, and then in this picture, it looks brown! But, at least there is hair!

Taken by surprise

Well paint me green and call me a turtle! I have a new calling! That little meeting at church today was slyly disguised as a you're-most-likely-speaking-in-sacrament-meeting-next-week meeting, but it came with a pop question! I was asked to accept a calling as the Mia Maid advisor in Young Womens :) Of course I accepted (I'd better or else Austin will think I didn't hear her lesson last week) and I am super excited. I LOVE the YW. They are soooo fun. And, I think that Mia Maids are my favorite. They are just the right age. Beehives are a little young and don't quite get all my silly and sometimes sarcastic rhetoric, Laurels are a bit too old and are waaay too interested in guys and what they're going to do after high school (as they should be!). Mia Maids are a pleasant mix in the middle, young enough to think I'm super cool, and old enough to get my jokes ;) It does make me wonder though, getting this calling. This is the third time I have been called to YW! In NY, I was the 1st counselor (with my fun little Mia Maids), at our first ward here in LV, I was the YW secretary, and now, an advisor. So, It kinda makes me wonder if there is some lesson I'm supposed to learn by being with the YW, and I'm just totally NOT getting it, OR, I am totally ROCK with the YW. Most likely a combination of both? Maybe? Anyway, wish me luck!

Tomorrow is Kris's first day at his new job! I am SO excited! I know he's excited too, but a little nervous, as everyone is for their first day. This week we have a bit of a shuffle to do. This is my last week I work on random days, and I work wednesday and friday, so I need to find someone to watch the munchkin, or else call in "sick", which I really don't want to do. After this week, I'll be working fridays and saturdays, which will meaan Kris can watch Marin on saturdays and our friends from our old ward will watch her on Fridays. In exchange, I'll watch their little girl on Wednesdays. Their schedule is even more hectic than ours. He goes to school full time, and works, and she works mon-thurs, so they have to drive their daughter to her mom's house 45" away, in ONE direction! I like to think we're helping them save on gas money by watching their baby while they do us a favor too :)

And, after having battled this nasty UTI, I think I have finally found redemption! I initially started taking cranberry supplements, which helped for a bit, but I don't think I took them long enough, because then my low back started hurting. ANY nurse with her wits about her knows what THAT means. . .unhappy kidneys. Yuck. I thought maybe I could tough it out until the beginning of January, you know, when we have insurance, that magical little life/bank account saving word. But they really started aching, and all I could picture were my poor little nephrons being strangled by gross, ruthless, snarling bacteria. So, I went to work with high hopes of batting my eyelashes for a script for antibiotics. Which I got :) One of the nurse practioners was super nice and wrote me a script. One more perk to be a nurse! I'm feeling better already.

Ok, Picture time!

Here is Marin getting some tunny time this morning. Austin taught me that babies do better and stay on their bellies longer if you prop them up on their boppy, so they can kind of see and play a little. It's worked great!

My cute young'un sticking out her tongue and mama.

Me and Monkey

It makes me laugh every time. Marin's little walker is pimped OUT! There is no shortage of things to look at here!

Marin getting a kiss from daddy.

Yeah, check out THIS hunk-a-burnin' love! I got Kris a nice black jacket for Christmas, and he wore it to church today. I think I was blushing ALL day, he looked soooo good ;)

Marin just loves her daddy, he always gets big smiles from her.

Withdrawls! I'm going through withdrawls!

Oh, just really quick, a few pics of Christmas Dinner:) Simple, but yummy!

Our spiral sliced honey ham, it was super yummy:)
Butter steamed garlic red potatoes

Brown sugar green beans with toasted walnuts, Kris likes green beans this way.

Laugh at me if you think I'm silly, but today was my second day in a row at work and I am STARVING for some snuggles with my little girl! I've been scheduled before to work 2 days in a row, but it's never panned out. I've either been put on standby or have called in sick etc. So as I write this blog, I haven't been able to pick up my baby since I put her to bed on Thursday night! over 48 hours! Needless to say, I'm actually excited for her to wake up tonight to eat so I can snuggle and get some kisses in:)

Work today was. . .good, but slightly frustrating. 10 year olds are NOT good medicine takers, let me tell you. She had surgery and needed to take some oral pain medication. . . . and it was a NIGHTMARE! Ugh! Unfortunately, 10 year olds are too big to hold down and force medicine down their throats (oh, and beeee-leeive me, I have done my fair share of that!), but they aren't big enough to suck it up! I mean, reason their way through the bad taste. The little drama queen needed way too much attention than I could manage, or handle. But, the day is done. I got a few smooches from my honey, and sniffed my baby girls intoxicating bald head, and sleep is but a few moments away.

Tomorrow Kris and I need to be at church 15 minutes early, I have a feeling we'll be speaking next Sunday :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Oh good grief! We're back! Last night we flew back from Atlanta, after a week of visiting family out there. The flight out was. . . ok. Marin was fussy on the descent into Atlanta, even though I tried nursing her, her ears were still hurting her. Poor babe. Atlant was sooo muggy when we first got there, and warm too! We had to turn the fan on the first few nights. Jonathan worked the evening shift, but we all hung out after he got home and stayed up late. I made dinner a few times ( I can't help myself! I just like to cook!) and we went and hung out with Tabitha and Ben, and played Rock Band! That was fun! Marin got to see her cousins for the first time, and Kris and I got to see family we haven't seen since our wedding almost 2 1/2 years ago! My parents came On Sunday, and we spent a bunch of time together as a family. You'll be able to see more of what we did if you look at the pictures :) So much went on, it's almost a blur! We were sooooo busy all the time! I seriously can hardly remember the things we did, but I sure do know we had LOADS of fun being with everyone. Jonathan and Austin were kind enough to let us stay with them, and it was so nice to have late night conversations about random stuff. One night we all played poker, with buttons for chips. Kris taught me how to play, and I think it was beginners luck, because I absolutely raked in the buttons!

It was so hard to leave, but coming home has it advantages too. Poor Marin had almost every one of hr naps out in Atlanta, disturbed, just because we were always going somehwere! Today, our first day back, she has taken 3 naps, her last one was 2 1/2 hours! Tomorrow is off to work for me, and then Monday, Kris starts his new job! Hooray! I am so excited, but I can tell he's a little nervous. He'll be great though, he always does a great job no matter what it is.

Here is the link for the pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/Ahtnamas33/AtlantaHoliday#

Reflective Testimony

We just got back from Atlanta tonight, but I wanted to write some reflections I have been having, brought about perhaps by this amazing time of year?

I have to express how insanely grateful I am for my family. I have never been so blessed in my life! My parents and siblings are such amazing people and I have great, loving memories of a warm home and family home evenings and homecooked meals and family prayers, all of the things so many kids go without today. I know I was so blessed to have the family I have today.
And the blessings continued and multiplied when I met my amazing husband. He is the most incredible man in my life, and I cannot express in words the profound, deep love I have for him. The experiences he has had in life have made him a strong, strong man, and I see that strength in him every day. I used to pray every night when I was growing up for Heavenly Father to bless my future husband, that he would stay strong and worthy, and He has blessed Kris. I love my marriage, and have never met a kinder more loving man, and am so lucky that he chose me. I tell my husband as often as possible that I still choose him :)
Since I can remember, I have always wanted to be a mama. The day I gave birth to my daughter was the most amazing and surreal day I have ever had. I remember the moment they placed Marin on my chest, I wasn't really sure she was actually mine! The feeling of being a mother certainly is not instantaneous, but over these past 4 months I have embraced every moment, and know now what it is to have a Motherheart. I love my little girl SO much, and know I have been given an amazing gift and responsibility. The fact that I was able to have a healthy baby is such a blessing.
Last of all, I need to bear my testimony. Having a baby certainly has messed with my ability to pay attention in church and read my scriptures (and do dishes and laundry and clean, etc...) but I have experienced firsthand the rewards of living the gospel. There is no replacement for the feeling I have, knowing that I will be together forever with my family, the most valuable thing in my life. I know that my Heavenly Father lives and loves me SO much. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and Thomas S. Monson is our current prophet, who leads us with love. I know that families can be together forever through the sealing powers of the temple, and THAT, makes me delirious with happiness.
I encourage everyone to reflect a little during this time of year, of all things you have that bless your life. And remember to whom we have to be grateful. The good things in our lives are all blessings from our Father in Heaven :)
I'll post some pics from our Atlanta trip soon. Merry Christmas everyone!

Don't break the soap!

Kris and I have this wierd game that we play in the shower. It's called don't break the soap. We see who the first one is to accidentally break the little sliver of soap that's leftover after you go through the rest of the bar. You would be surprised how difficult it is! There are some soaps that are bendy and conform to your contours, but there are other soaps that just crumble. And for it to be a valid break, it has break in half. Kris is really good at not breaking the soap. He wins a lot.

Anyway! We are here in Atlanta! Hooray! It has been so nice to just hang with family. My parents roll into town late late late Saturday night, so then we'll all be together. I am SOOOO glad Kris was able to fly out on the same flight with me. I was a little nervous to fly solo with monkey, and she was fussy on the descent into Atlanta, so it was nice to have some backup :) AND, can you believe?! 2 hours after our flight took off, they shut down the Las Vegas airport because of SNOW! AMAZING! Good thing I picked the super early bird flight that left at 7 AM I guess. The sky did look pretty cloudy and ready to snow right before we took off. The flight itself was pretty good. A direct flight and 3 hours and 10 minutes. Not bad!

Marin has been a litle sick lately. Monday I noticed she had a little dry cough, and I didn't see that she had a fever, but I gave her some Tylenol anyway and a nice warm bath and put the humidifer in her room that night. She woke up Tuesday and it had loosened up a little bit, but she was due for some shots at the doctors office that day, so I gave her some tylenol anyway. That night she was a little fussy. I put her to bed early right at 6 and kept the humidifer on. She woke up quite a few times that night, much to mama's dismay (because we had to be up at 3am to get ready) but I realized how thirsty I get when I'm sick, so, I think she was just needing some fluids. Her cough has loosened up quite a bit more, and i can hear her coughing up gunk, so I'm glad for that. She's still a bit more sleepy than usual.

I will have TONS of pictures when we get home, maybe I can down;oad some earlier if I can figure it out, but, we are off for the day!

Baby, It's COLD Outside!

Just a quick little post tonight, I'll try and post some pics tomorrow night. But, BRRRRRRRR! It is SOOOO chilly outside! I took a gander at the 7 day forecast for Northwest Las Vegas and there is a weeklong chill-fest here in supposedly sunny Las Vegas. Tomorrow there is actually a 30% chance of snow! The rest of the week has temperatures in the 30's and low 40's if you can ba-lieve it.

We are getting ready to head out to Atlanta! I have to work tomorrow, and we have Monkey's well baby visit Tuesday, and then it's plane hopping time! I LOVE getting on planes. I love going to the airport and having that rush of anticipation of being able to go somewhere. That has to be one of my favorite things.

On another note. . . I was home sick from work today with a UTI. Yuck. If you've never had one, well, you're darn lucky. Last night was awful. I stood in a super hot shower and then tucked my feverish little self into bed for a long night of sleep. Oh, and I found some cranberry supplements to get rid of those nasty little bacteria, so I felt quite a bit better this morning, but still. . uncomfortable. I should be back to 100% soon enough :)

I got a few little giggles out of monkey this afternoon, it was so cute! She just loves to played with, and there are certain things on different days that really make her giggle. It doesn't happen all the time, but when it does, I just want to eat her up! Her hair is really growing in now, it makes me so happy :) She has such a fuzzy little head, and I'm still trying to determine wht color it's going to be. I'm just happy she's not going to be bald-ish anymore, the comb-over look is getting old.

OH! And! I only have 10 more pounds to my goal weight! Hooray! I have to be so proud of myself, it's been a long haul over these last 4 months. If I didn't mention, I gained 53 pounds when I was a-cookin' the munchkin, shameful, I know. That was even with exercise! Anyway, I have been losing the weight, but it wasn't until this morning that I held my breath and peeked at myself in the mirror. I was pleasantly surprised! This was the FIRST time I haven't been completely horrified, and I felt like I was back to my usual shape (although, just a little proportionally bigger:) ).

I Miss My Little Girl!

Oh, what a long day. I worked today, and even though I'm used to 12 hour shifts and, essentially a workday that starts at 5 when I get up, and ends (I think) at 8 pm when I leave the floor. It is still a long day, and today just seemed especially long. Some days go by really quick, but not today. I came home and sterilized my hands and went into Marin's nursery and just smelled her. She smelled so good! Like my sweet little baby. I looked at her chubby cheeks and rubbed her fuzzy head and realized, once more, that life just does not get any better! I loved being a nurse, and it was wonderful when I first became a nurse, and then I got married, and that was even better, and now I'm a mama, and it just makes life so wonderful, except when I have to go to work :( I miss her SOOOO much when I'm there, it makes my heart hurt, especially when I have to give other little ones (necessary) ouchies. But now I'm home, and I just have to wait until she wakes up so I can cuddle with her and feed her.

Yesterday evening, we all went to get a Christmas tree! At Lowes! That's right! We were going to buy a cute, small, LIVE tree, until they told us it was 12$ PER FOOT! Yeah right! 12$ MY foot, whatver! I was totally not going to pay that much! So, we decided that as we were going to be gone for a week, and didn't want a live tree to suffer the excruciating pains of thirst, and kitty cat attacks. So we bought a 10 dollar, 18 inch fake tree. And I put just about all our lights and ornaments on it, so you can't really see the tree. It's just this big glowing orb in the corner of our living room. It's pretty though, and it makes it look Christmas-y. :)

Today was payday, so tomorrow we'll be buying a couple of gifts, and some groceries, and getting ready and excited to go to Atlanta.

Picture time!


Our festive cat Sadie. I tied a pretty ribbon around her neck. She thoroughly enjoyed that.

Here she is admiring our Christmas "orb"

Marin in her "Jenny-jump-up". I didn't realize they were gender specific, until I saw it was not a Johnny-jump-up, but a Jenny-jump-up. She still dosn't really know what to do yet, so she chews on the side (I have Kris to thank for that little chewing habit). She'll learn soon!

See my cute dress Bestamor got for me!

Losing My Hair?

So, I was scheduled to work today, but, I'm just hanging out. Hospital is still a little slow :) We got back from our trip last night, and put a veeery sleepy little girl into bed. She ate at 8:00 pm and Kris got up with her at 4 am! She slept 8 hours! HOORAY! That is SUCH a good thing. I know it may not happen every night, but progress is progress, right?

And, I am losing my pregnancy hair! I've always had thick hair, but it grew in even thicker while I was growing little Marin monkey, and now it's coming out by the handful. I would be scared or freaked out that my hands look like a wookie after I run them through my hair in the shower, but it's still pretty shiney and voluminous :)

Ok, lots of pictures for you all!

This one is pretty cute, it's the little kitten at Duane and Sallies with the bum leg, she wa playing with Marin's jungle gym, it was sooooo cute!
Here's the kitty snuggling with Sallie!

Tada! Isn't she a cutie? Such pretty blue eyes :)

The "eyes" picture. Kitty was hanging out with me.

A minimal makeup mug.

My hunny found his saxaphone at dads. He kept telling me he played the saxaphone, and how good he was, and I had neven seen the sax, or heard him play one, so I told him I thought he was just full of it. But, he found it and played for me, and whaddo ya know! He really CAN play! It sounded great, but scared monkey, she got a big frown on her face and was ready to complain!

If you've never seen a sleepy baby face, get a good look! Here she is right before her nap.

Monkey getting a shoulder ride from daddy.

Here is that cute little dog Dizzy. Doesn't he have a face that just say's PLAY WITH ME!

Marin getting a snuggle from her grand-dad Duane.

Our very independent little girl. She loves nothing more than to stand and be right in the middle of it all.

One of Marin's favorite things is when you stick out your tongue while saying "blah", like you're puking. She thinks it is soooo funny and it always gets BIG smiles. Daddy is helping her make the face.

Daddy would flip her upsidown, and she'd open her mouth waaaay wide and stick her tongue out, it was really funny.

Have a good one everybody!

Warning! Diaper Overload! Warning!

Ok, so, I will have some pics for you next post! Promise! I do have a lot, but not loaded on this computer.

We are up past Salt Lake near Brigham City right now with Duane and Sallie, Kris's dad and step mom. We came up Sunday night, and I have a few days off from work, so we thought we'd say hi. It's been so nice to have some little fluffy creatures to play with. They have the cutest dog named Dizzy, he's just soooo fun, with a little face that says "Pleeeeease play with me!!". Sallie rescued (from the needle, :( sad) a little long haired kitten with a busted front paw. She's been wrapping up it's paw, and it is the cutest little kitty. So playful and fun! I almost forgot that OUR kitty used to be that fun. Now she just sleeps all day, thats no bueno. This morning the kitten was playing with Marin's jungle gym, pouncing and jumping at all the toys :)

This morning we awoke to quite the. . . ahem. . . surprise? Marin was cooing and squeeling away in her pack and play, so I got up and picked her up, and then the smell hit. Blah! The little stinky girl! (Must be that hot sauce I had on my burrito!. . . (just for you dad by the way)). Nothing in the world can quite compare to the smell of evolving baby poop. And. . . bonus. . . it was smeared all over her lower half! How does this happen?! I signaled to Kris to grab something to lay her on, and when I layed her down, her butt must have been angled about 30 degrees above her head, her diaper was THAT BIG! I was a little nervous to delve right in and find my daughter in that mess, but in I went. Her pants? Yellow. Her onesie? Yellow. Her smile? As big as I'd ever seen. She sure was happy, or proud of her accomplishment!. I pulled her clothes off and just stared at this monster of a diaper. Now, let me reminisce about those first post birth weeks. At night, I would dutifully drag my tired half funtioning self out of bed to change my new and precious little girl every time she ate. After a few times of dry or barely spritzed diapers, I just said, "To heck with that! Let those diapers show me how much their worth!" And baby stayed in her diaper until the morning, unless she was stinky. That said, I have seen my fair share of enormous diapers. This diaper took the cake. Not only was it full to bursting point, I think those poor little super full, uber-absorbant granules had spewed their recently absorbed contents all over the diaper before they took a crash landing in the sea of full diapers. When I took it off, I couldn't even fold it in half to throw it away! Amazing! I think she lost at least 2 pounds with that sucker.

Anyway. Enough about that. I am very excited about our trip to Atlanta. Even more so because, due to an act of "pay-it-forward" kindness, Kris is now able to come with us! HOORAY! And, even more good news. . . Kris got the job with University of Phoenix! HOORAY! We have really been hoping this job would go through, and it has. He is really excited, and I am too. It means we need to find someone to watch the kiddo, but, we can work things out.

I'll post some pics soon, I have some reeeeally cute ones :)

The Lyman Chronologues (I don't care if that's not a real word, I like the sound of it!)

Welcome to Saturday everyone! And now for:
The Lyman Chronologues

*2005*
-June: Kristoffer and Samantha are matched on E-Harmony.com (thanks to her dad, by the way!)
-August: Kristoffer breaks up with his present girlfriend in Utah
-November: Samantha breaks up with her present boyfriend in New York
-December: We each spend our last Christmas as young, single bums.

*2006*
-February: Kristoffer flies to New York to meet Samantha on the 17th (after he sent her a HUGE bouquet of flowers for Valentines Day at the hospital that earned her the stink eye from some jealously unhappy co-worker wives)
-March: Samantha flies to Salt Lake for Spring Break and shows off her spectacular skiing skills to Kristoffer. This little escapade resulted in a fashionable bright red windburn to the face, complete with the snow white raccoon eyes from the goggles for Samantha.
-April: Kristoffer moves to New York. A trip completed in an eye widening 2 days. Love crazy fool!
-May: Kristoffer and Samantha fly to Salt Lake (it was an expensive year, can you tell?) for his graduation from U of U. A nervous Kristoffer also takes a suspecting Samantha to the top of the highest peak at Snowbird, to offer her a sparkly piece of frosting, and a lifetime of love :)
-August: Kristoffer and Samantha are married in Cortland on the 17th (6 months to the day we met in person for the first time!), and depart on a super awesome honeymoon on a cruise to the Bahamas!
-September: Samantha starts her last (ridiculous) year of RN school.

*2007*
-March: Kris and I go to Las Vegas for Spring Break! THAT was an experience, we ended up staying at a friends house, and witnessed the final days leading up to their divorce! Yuck! Then we moved all her stuff out of the house! Wow!
-May: Kris moves out to Las Vegas to start his new job, leaving his new wife all alone for 6 whole weeks! AHH! And, Samantha moves into her parents house, and packs up their apartment.
-July: We pack up the truck and haul one claustrophobic wife, an antsy kitty cat, and our entire life to Sin City. Wait, that sounds bad. We move to a wonderful adventure filled city. :)
-August: Kristoffer and Samantha are sealed in the Las Vegas Temple, forever.
-December: Samantha smells something fishy. . . and it makes her puke. Two absorbent sticks later tells us we're going to be parents! And the puking continues.

*2008*
-February: After a meltdown in the shower, Samantha confesses she feels like she's been trapped in a cage, and wants to move! Kristoffer, being wonderful, makes it happen, and we move to the outskirts of the northside, into a HOUSE!
-April: Here come's belly! Aaaand. . . they tell us it's going to be a girl!
-May: A fun trip to New York. I got all the rain I missed living here in Las Vegas, and we showed my family a 3D ultrasound of their very active little granddaughter.
-August: Marin Elise Lyman joins our family, at 7#4 oz and 20 inches long, she is the most beautiful disproportionate screaming pooping bundle of joy either of us could ever love.
December: Samantha and baby Marin are going to take a trip to Georgia to see family!


Ok, picture time!

We bought a bunch of fun soft toys at DI, and put some on her walker thing. It makes it SOOOO much more colorful :)

Say Hi to the camera!

Just a little smile for everyone :)

This is a little random, but it was the rainbowful display of a CD reflection on the wall.

I put some new PJ's on Marin the other night. Super cute! And they are long sleeved, which is good, because she likes to sleep with her arms stretche waaayy out.

Here is Sadie playing with her catnip mouse last night.

Have a good weekend!

Deck the halls with. . . 3 decorations?

Well, now that it's after Thanksgiving, we can break out the Christmas decorations, all 3 of them! We really haven't had much of a chance to stockpile decorations, so we have a sparkly few fronds of leaves, a little tree of cranberries, and a wreath. We haven't bought a tree yet, so tonight I suggested we put up or decorations, and it took a whopping 5 minutes! So sad I know. Before I know it, I'm sure I'll have boxes of homemade ornaments from my little Marin monkey :) I think everyone's Christmas this year is going to be a little more sparse than years before, but I'm really lucky to be getting a HUGE gift! I am sooo excited to fly to Atlanta to see my family :) It's been a while too!

The other day Kris and I went to the gym, and I hopped on the treadmill like a good needing-to-lose-weight mamma. This time I only went for about 2 miles, and I had to stop. My lungs felt a little tight, I've been slightly sick lately, but I'm almost to where I used to be though! Speaking of sick, I think Marin caught something (fish? no icky cold germs, silly!), and gave it to me. She's had a runny nose for about a week, I've had a scratchy throat and runny nose for 5 days, and then I felt better last night, just in time for Kris to start feeling sick, and make me feel sick again today. Now I know what it's like to be given the "run around" in a sense.

Work has been going a little bit better, I think. Being a mom certainly has changed my perspective working with all the kidlets, and dealing with their parents too! Usually dealing with parents is the most challening part of working on a pediatrics floor. I have soooo much more sympathy for these parents, I think about Marin if she were in that same situation, and it makes me TOTALLY feel their pain! The other night I took a 5 month old babe from the O.R. who had some pre-existing conditions anyway, and just being in the room hooking up his monitors and leads and checking all his tubes and etc., I asked his mom how in the world she was staying so calm, and she said you just take it one moment at a time. There was a point when the little guy woke up and realized he was hurting, and was just screaming, and I almost wanted to cry because I wanted to put him in his mama's arms so he could cuddle! I am definately a big softie/crybaby now!

Ok, picture time!

One of our 3 decorations, our wreath on the front door!


Oh! Hey! Remember how I told you Kris and I made vision boards? You put pictures and phrases of or about things you love or want to achieve. Well, here is Kris's.

And this is MY vision board!

Ahh, or cute Abominable Snow Baby! She LOOOVES this sweater. More specifically, she likes to lick the fuzzy collar. It's all gross and matted where her tongue can reach it, ewww.

This one is funny. I didn't take the flash off, and it's just a big blur of white confusion and some big blue eyes in the middle :)

Daddy took Marin for a walk around the coplex tonight to look at the Christmas lights, she really likes the flashing ones!

Here she is sitting in her walker thingy. It looks like she has hair in this picture (nay, don't be decieved, she's still losing it!)

Not sure if you can see, but in the next two pics, you might be able to catch a glimpse of a little bit of fuzz forming a new hairline. When she was born, it was a straight hariline, like Kris's, but it' growing into more of a widow's peak, like mine. And the hair that IS growing in, is blonde blonde blonde!

Yesterday she had a bow on her head, and she was playing in the walker, and pulled it over her face, silly girl!

That's all for now!

"Rose, that is a lovely name, Happy Thanksgiving." (name the movie!)

Happy Belated Thanksgiving to all! And if you can name the movie the above title is from, you win. . . .ummmm. . . .a nice wet kiss from our little girl? Ok, so the title isn't ver batum, but it's a short conversation, and it's funny :) This Thanksgiving, we took an impromptu trip to Salt Lake. I was a little hesitant to go because I had to work the day before and 2 days after, and I hate not having enough time with family. But, we drove up after I got out of work (at 7pm) and little girl was in bedtime zone so she slept pretty much the whole way. We went to Aunt Siri's house for dinner, and my contribution? A very super yummy authentic and rather out-of-the-ordinary-because-most-people-don't-think-to-make-it pecan pie. It was beautiful! I made it at Trine's before dinner, and the only thing I forgot to put in was the brown sugar! Yeah I know, I had JUST popped the pie in the oven, and Kris looked at the unopened bag of brown sugar and asked, "did you not need the brown sugar?". Oops! I whisked the pie out and decided to just sprinkle the sugar on top. And yes, it was super yummy and delicious.

And, this week was my first week back at work. Am I alive and sane? Yeah, can you believe it?! Not me! Leaving Marin for 14 hours with her (capable) dad just seemed an insurmountable task for a new mommy who is loving her new calling. I prepared my big bag that I usually take to work, but this time I had to stuff a bunch more toys in there. My breastpump with all the trimmings, the little lunchbag thing for the milk with the cold pack, a lunch to feed an army (I get hungry!) 2 liters of water (I can't tell you HOW gross the water is here in Las Vegas. I swear it has arsenic in it, it's gross! So, I bring my own filtered stuff), all my gear for work, (stethescope, scissors, pens, hemostats, chapstick, tape, random stuff), and a sweet note from my hunny. That bag weighed like, 40 pounds, I kid you not! It was soooooo heavy! I needed wheels to haul that sucker around! But, I should just start parking on the top level of the parking garage so I can do the stairs with my back breaking bag o' fun, that'll get my bum back into shape :)

Speaking of back into shape. . . I have been lamenting and whining to Kris for about 2 weeks that I have been in a slump and I hadn't been losing any more weight because I had stayed the same weight, even with all my exercise! So, I started to eat more salads, at least one a day (I've pretty much been on an everything-with-little-reservations-diet since Marin's been born. I lost my appetite BIG time nursing her, so anything was better than nothing). I think that's helped bunch. I stepped on the scale this morning, and had lost 3 pounds! Yay! I now have 12 pounds to my goal weight. It's been a lot harder to cook healthy food having a time consuming baby (any mom can attest to that). So while I LOVE to make healthy food and veggies, it just takes longer! Working on it!

Oh, and in FUN news. . . . guess who's coming to Atlanta! Marin and I (unfortunately sans Kris) will be making the trek before Christmas! We'll be heading back on Christmas eve though. We'll be together as a little family for Marin's first Christmas, plus, I work the day after Christmas, so I need to be home for both. I am excited to see my family and show off my little Marin monkey :)

And this is just funny. I'm laughing at my husband because he is looking through his sophomore year book, and seeing all these girls who signed it, and left their phone numbers, with a perplexing resounding message of "call me". He must not have understood what that meant, because he never called any of them! Silly boy! Number of girls looking for a date?:8. Number of dates?: ZERO! Number of lessons learned?: One freakin HUGE one. :)

Picture time!




Here's Marin this afternoon.
A little finger sucking time. She LOVES her fingers!

I am so sad! This is one more little outfit she is too big for! She wore it for the last time to church today. :(

This is adorable. She got some sunglasses at my baby shower, and I put them on her the other night, she looked like she was ready to try out for the air force! Cute girl!

Ready for action!

Ah! The remants of my pecan pie. Keep in mind there were 4 other pies and 3 other desserts there, so I was surprised this much was gone.

Oh, and our little niece has her own princess playroom down in the finished basement, it is soooo cool, I totally want one.

Kris is always the one the kids want to wrestle, he's just that much fun. They kept begging him to come wrestle during dinner, and this is our nephew Mattias getting what he asked for, a good tickle!

Marins' aunt Melodie!

A little smirk from our bald cutie.

This is Kris's bestamor (grandma in Norwegian) and she is Marins oldamor (great-grandmother), she's serving a mission in SLC.

Snuggle time with daddy! She loves her papa so much, it's wonderful to see your husband be a dad.

That's it for now!