FIRST EVER VIDEO! FIRST EVER VIDEO!

I am SOOOO EXCITED! This is the FIRST video I have been able to post!!!! It worked!! This isn't the best of our lauging baby videos, but it was the only one under 100MB that the upload would allow, so here is our little Marin monkey playing with daddy!

I'm off to work tomorrow, and Kris gets to be home with our baby tomorrow. Kris's dad Duane is also coming to town tomorrow and will be staying with us for a few days. I guess he's mostly here on business, so I'm not sure how much we'll see of him, but it will be nice :) Have a good one everyone!

Hey! Stop Copying Me! Well, I guess it's ok. . . .

OK OK! I know! Pictures! Well, there were soooo many pics, I put them into a slideshow on the right hand side of the blog, so just wait for it to load, and you can see all the pics from this past weekend.

Well, miss Marin monkey has quite a few new little updates, but she wants to tll you herself, so here she is:

*Hey everyone! I've been really busy this past week, so I need to let you know about my progress, here is my little list that mommy helped me with:

1) I am really having a hard time with mealtime now. I really would rather eat cereal than fruits or veggies, and I fuss and cry when mommy tries to put them in my mouth. Sometimes she can't get me to open my mouth, so she'll plug my nose (mommy comment: trust me, it's no fun for me either) to get me to open my mouth. I just want my cereal guys!
2) I have now moved onto size 3 shoes. Mommy thinks I have clodhopper feet, whatever that means. She bought me a pair of new white sneakers, and they're really comfotable!
3) I can copy my mommy and daddy now! Well, just a little bit. When they nod their head up and down, I smile (sometimes laugh!) and look at them and do the same thing, they think it's pretty funny and I like to play, so it's pretty fun.
4) Mommy lets me have cheerios now! I think they are really yummy (it IS a cereal, after all!) and I like the feel of it on my gums. I started with 1/4 cheerios and then went to half, and now I can do the whole cheerio all by myself! I like to try and pick them up myself, and it's really hard, but mommy says it's good for my fine motor skills. . . I guess.

*Well, I think that's it guys, I'll let mommy finish up :)

I hope you caught all of that guys! She is on the fasttrack to growing up, I just can't believe how fast it's all happening. I still don't feel old enough to have a kid. I can't get over how observant she is. I look at her as she is watching things, and she is just taking it all in. When she looks at me, I can see that she understands things now, and she doesn't have those innocent, unaware baby eyes anymore. It has been wonderful to watch her grow and even though I do get nostalgic about those days past, I have to think of all there is to look forward to. Every night when I rock her while she eats, and before I lay her down, I think of how blessed I am to have such a wonderful, healthy little girl. She makes me smile everyday, and I can't believe that Heavenly Father trusted Kris and I enough to give us such a beautiful daughter. I know that the responsibility we have is enormous, and each night I pray that we can raise her how she needs to be raised. I think about how easy it was to not have a child. My mistakes were MY mistakes, and they only affected me, but this time, if I mess up, it's Marin on the line and that is one risk I'm not willing to take.

We have also been fostering a little friend since Monday night. Mollie, a (we're guessing) purebred golden retriever 5 month old puppy came into the shelter last month, and they called us Monday after they had checked her out and gave her shots. Having a puppy in the house is. . . like having a second baby ;) She certainly is a puppy and not a full grown dog. VERY high energy, and needing LOTS of attention. She is a beautiful dog, very golden, great structure, I have a feeling she was a very expensive dog and just got lost or ran away. She's had a few acccidents the first day here, but none since then. Kris has just been in puppy heaven, he LOOOVES the dog. He's been getting up at 6am every morning to walk her (so dillgent!). We have until next Monday to decide if we're going to keep her, but I think Kris is pretty set on her, she is a pretty sweet dog.

And, after 2 months of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, I am now driving a legally registered vehicle! TADA! No thanks to myself however. Yesterday I drove to the Express DMV, which was, thankfully, much quicker than the other DMV, I got through the line in 10 minutes! Anyway, I was turned away and was, once again, on the verge of tears calling the isurance company and trying to get what I needed, and when I got home, Kris saw how frustrated I was, still, and took action. He called the DMV (went back to work in the meantime) and the insurance company, called me to come pick up some paperwork 20 minutes later and told me everything was fixed, I just needed to go get my stickers. What?! I didn't believe him (after all my bad luck, do you blame me?), so on the way back to the Express DMV, I called them and asked if I could pick up a duplicate registration, and they said yes. I was still a bit hesitant, but got there and walked away with my registration and stickers! UNBELIEVEABLE! I love my husband very much and am very grateful he can work his magic, but why couldn't I do that! I had been doing this for 2 months, and he he takes 20 minutes and gets it done! Ahh well, the fight is over :)

Church will be switching times soon, and I. . . can't. . . wait! 1pm is just too darn late, and 11am still gives us time to sleep in, but still have some daylight left, so it's perfect.

Not really sure what else is new here, work for both of us is the same, have a good one!

My Husband Did What?!

My husband cooked me dinner.....! I still can't get over it! Last night, I came home, and Kris had made me meatloaf! And not only did he make me meatloaf, he made chocolate chip cookies! I was absolutely speechless :) The meatloaf was wonderful, and the chocolate chip cookies were delicious. I was sooooo impressed! Kris has never really made any sort of venture in the kitchen, which has never really bothered me just because I love cooking. We had kind of gotten in the habit of me picking up some food on the way home from work just because I didn't want to cook when I got home (the good stuff though! Like Cafe Rio etc...), so in order to save money, we decided that Kris would help out by making something on friday and saturday nights. I gave him a few cookbooks that called for mostly pantry ingredients, and he did great! Good Job Baby!

This past weekend I actually ended up working on Sunday too. All three days in a row. . . blah. They had scheduled me to work next Wednesday (which I can't do), and I had tried getting someone to switch with me, with no luck. So while I was working on Saturday, they asked me if I could work on Sunday, and I told them I would if they gave me Wednesday off. Snap. Done! I didn't marry a guy that could sell Time Share for nothing (I HAVE picked up a few tricks). Even though it was a good weekend, 3, 12 hour days in a row is a LONG time. I missed my little girl so much! I happily hopped out of bed at 4am to feed her this morning so I could snuggle her fuzzy little head :) Of course I missed my hunny too. I always love coming through the door into his arms after work, he always smells so good.

My friend Stormy is coming over today! Hooray! I haven't seen her in sooo long. We used to spend so many nights up talking about life and guys and food and gospel stuff and all the things girls talk about. Lots of memories :) I really miss living close to Stormy. Not much on the menu for today, we need to go get a few fresh groceries and then I have my eye appt at 3:45, which is good, because my contact ripped yesterday at work and I spent the whole day feeling like I had an eyelash in my eye (Kris was so nice and Jimmy-rigged my glasses last night for me).

I DO have lots of pictures to post, but I will post them in a little bit, I need to go get ready, Stormy will be here in an hour or so. Love to all the lads and lasses!

Kitty Caticus Vomitus

What a day! I am sooo glad it is over, almost. Last night was Relief Society Temple night, it was a small group, but nice to chat about . . . things! And, this morning, Marin was up at 6am, bright and early, and I hadn't gotten to bed until 1. We also took Sadie to the vet today. Usually it's a pretty easy task taking a cat to the vet, but any task that rquires you to haul around even one child, becomes an event. We took her in because she's been throwing up, quite a bit. Every morning I'll come downstairs, and she has puked her undigested food (like the visual?) in the most inconvenient places. Ugh, I HATE cleaning up cat puke. So, she was due for some shots anyway, so I packaged her in the laundry basket/cat carrier-when-you-put-a-lid-on-and-bungee-cord-it and had the vet give her a once over. It turns out Sadie is sadly sicker than we thought. They found that she had a pretty significant heart murmur (meaning her heart isn't pumping as effeciently as it could), which they wanted to do additional testing for. I had already dropped a lot of money to get her undigesting belly checked out, so Kris and I talked it over, and determined we couldn't afford anything further. I haven't really notice any change in her activity level, or any trouble breathing with her over the last year, so I think maybe she has had it for longer than the vet is thinking. I'll keep an eye on her though ;) We ended up coming home with some special cat food, some pepcid, and an antibiotic, so we'll see.

Anyway, the day required 2 trips to the vet, amidst Marin's naps, feedings, lunch and etc. So when I came home I called my favorite place, the DMV, to try and sort out this registration issue that for some reason, I can't get resolved. And they gave me another run around and told me that my NEW registration was suspended for lapse of insurance, which really turns out to NOT be the case, they just have my maiden name, which they shouldn't have, and I don't know how they have that or why they have that, seeing as how my last registration, NY drivers license were in my married name. But, I can't get that resolved until the insurance company calls them or they can contact them, which, they couldn't do today. Ahhh, I can't get all frustrated again. After that, I called to schedule my eye exam, Kris came home, I fed baby, Kris left for his meeting, I munched a quick bowl of cheerios, baby had a bath and snack and bed, and now a quick blog before I get ready for work tomorrow, and Saturday. Busy weekend!

One nice thing coming up however! I am so excited! My friend Stormy, from my YSA days is coming to visit me on Monday! She was nice enough to drop me a note on Facebook last week to let me know she was coming to town, so she'll be here Monday late morning (she's been in town for a week) and I'll drive her to the airport Tuesday morning. She was one of my best friends in college, and I really miss her!

And one more milestone for miss Marin. The other day, She was sitting up on the bed by herself (Oh yeah, check! That one's mastered!) playing, and Kris walked into the room, she looked up at Kris, and said "Dadadadadada". It might be incidental, but she said it. Kris is just pleased as punch of course. Already daddy's girl, what am I to do?

I hope everyone has a good weekend!

Picture time!

Marin is going after the garbage can here. She reeeeally wants that bag lining.


Silly Girl!

Garbage Picker

Yes indeed. Marin has learned a new trick. And this has greatly pleased her mother! Marin has found the garbage can! She LOOOVES the garbage can for some reason, and can't keep her chubby little fingers off of it! Since she has now become the master of maneuvering skills in her walker, she will back up and move forward and charge the garbage can, tipping it over, or she'll push it with her walker all around the kitchen. She also enjoys grabbing at the bag lining that is folded on the outside of the garbage can, ripping off small portions for her mother to quickly snatch away before she stuffs them in her mouth. The kitchen does seem to be a favorite place for Marin, because I'm usually in it, she'll follow me all around the island, or she'll nudge my achilles wih her walker and pin me against the cupboards, that's always nice :) I don't mean to sound negative, it makes me laugh because she is really so cute, and it's funny to watch her tiny little body go running across the kitchen! She has also really enjoyed my kitchen utensils; the ice cream scooper, measuring cup and spoon, whisk, the coasters, anything really. I hope it's a sign of what's to come!

Would you believe I have had 6 people sign up for my policy review committee? Man! Now that means I have to hold a first meeting, which I'm nervous about, and I have to take minutes! I don't know how to do that! But I know who does. . . . Mom! If anyone has taken minutes to equal a mans lifetime, it's my mom. I think she has been taking them everyday, twice on Sunday for eons! So, I need to get some advice to taking minutes :)

Kris has really been itching to get a dog, and since he's had his new job, it's almost like a "job well done" for this accomplishment. So, he's been looking online at a website that rescues golden retrievers in the Las Vegas area. Normally, I would say no to a rescue dog, but, most of the dogs they have coming in are goldens that have been given up by families in the valley that have lost their homes d/t foreclosure. So, knowing that they have been family dogs before, and have been taken care of, I feel ok about that. There are a lot of goldens in need here that have been given up by their families, and it makes me so sad! So, we had an inspector-for-possible-dog-owners come last night and we told her our requirements for the dog, she told us that their first consideration for any dog referral would be Marin. If we do get a referral, we can trial run the dog for a week, and see how well of a fit it is for us, and if it's no good, then we just say no, give the dog back and keep waiting. It may quite some time before a dog becomes available, but, that's ok :)

I guess our church meeting time will be changing again! We have a new building we will be moving into in a few weeks, and we will be meeting at 11am instead of the 1pm we have now. That is JUST fine with me! 1pm is just waaaay too late for me. I have always had church at 10am, so when I had to go at 1, it was so late! We would get home at 4:30 and the day was done!
So 11am will be wonderful!

Picture Time!

My little chef! With her measuring cup, you can't see the measuring spoon in the other hand. :)

Here is Marin looking for the cat, once she see's her, the chase is ON!

Marin getting tickled by daddy! She gives us some big squeels!

Here she is looking at daddy as he came down the stairs.

Some more playtime with daddy. He LOVES his little girl :)

What daddy doing?

Have a good one guys, I'm off to the temple tonight!

Fever Kisses

Ahhh, Saturday night. I am so relieved to be home. It's been a long few days! Thursday night Kris and I went to bed and Marin started making some noises, so Kris took the baby monitor into the guest room to sleep. Around 1130, he brought Marin in and she was burning up! Poor little monkey, she was 103.0! I gave her some Tylenol and fed her, she was not feeling well at all. The day before, I had noticed she was a little warm, but I hadn't really checked it because I passed it off as teething. That night was a long night. Kris was pretty upset, so we brought the pack and play into our room and she was up, on and off. Just waking up crying. I called in sick to work on Friday to take care of her (of course I couldn't send her to play with Maddy either!). She didn't really want to eat any food on Friday, just wanted to nurse all day. I took her to the doctors that afternoon, and he mentioned it was most likely just a virus (as I suspected) and sent us home. Kris was with her today, and she was still having some low grade temps, but better than yesterday, so I think she's on the mend :)

I worked today, and can I just say, I am so grateful I have a wonderful husband who is a great father. There are so many crap-o dads out there, and I am so lucky I have a husband who gets worried sick when his baby girl has a fever. I admitted a 2 month old baby boy to the unit tonight because he needed a blood transufsion. His mom and grandma brought him up from the ER, and mom was young, but pretty capable. When the dad showed up an hour later (also very young), he went straight to the corner of the room, sat down, set up his laptop, and started playing a Star Wars online card tournament. And 3 hours later, he hadn't gotten up at all. I don't think he looked at his son, let alone touched him, and here is his little boy, who is pretty sick. I couldn't imagine! Ack! I was so frustrated being in the room, I wanted to throw his laptop across the hall and yell at him like the little boy he was! Who ever gave permission for some people to have babies?! But, I am so glad I got a wonderful man who loves his baby girl, that just makes me love him so much more :)

Not much on the menu for tomorrow, church at 1 and then. . . . family time! A few pictures to see:

Kitty cat really has to vie for attention nowadays. She likes to curl up on Kris's bum ;)
The rest of these were taken on Friday when she was sick, but it was right after she had taken a nice looong nap, so she was pretty happy for about 20 minutes.

Big smiles for her mama.

I love the look on her face, so curious and cynical, such a ham.

BIIIIG blue eyes! Showing some love to the camera.

This is my favorite picture. She has such a sweet little face, and pose. I don;t know how we ended up with such a cute baby.

:)

Sleepy Ladies

Not sure what it is, but I have been sooo tired lately! Man! This morning when I put Marin down for a nap, I took one too, for almost 2 hours! And I could have slept more too! I am feeling a bit more awake now, but I hope I don't have mono or something. I had that once, and that was miserable.

Marin and I went for a nice long walk today, it was so refreshing. The breeze and sun, and the exercise. It always makes me feel better to go out and be with my little one, she likes going for walks with mama too :)

So last night Kris and I went out on a mission! For a month or so, we have noticed that the Sam's club out here has stop stocking some of the things we use a lot, and I didn't really like that very much! So, last night we tip toed (toe-d?) over to Costco to check out the competition. We did a walk through first to see if there was anything that snagged our attention. I must say, there is quite a bit more of a selection at Costco! I found some good looking frozen fish and seafood, chicken, and a really nice selection of cheeses :) There is more produce to choose from, and, what I was hoping for, lots of frozen veggies. For some reason, Sam's does not have frozen veggies! And, the icing on the cake, they carry the BEST pita chips EVER! Stacy's Pita Chips. They are sooooo good. And, I make my own hummus, so it is just delicious for a snack. There are a few things that Costco doesn't have that Sam's Club does, so I need to deliberate whether or not keeping the Sam's membership is worth it.

Well, not much other news around here. I need to figure out what to make for dinner, actually, I have stuff to make Kris's favorite meatless pasta dish. It has zucchini, yellow summer squash, tomatoes, fresh basil, fresh mozzarella, so I think I'll make that.

One pic of miss Marin today:



Here she is gnoshing on a carrot. It was cold, so I'm sure it felt good on her gums. This was right beofre mama boiled it and ground it up into baby food for her :)
Have a good one!

Somebody's Teething. . . .

. . . . and it's not Marin. That's right. Marin has yet to cut a tooth, but her mama on the other hand, is sprouting a new calcium rich solid mass in her gums. Ugh! Yes indeed, I have a happy little wisdom tooth on it's way. Congratulations to me I guess. The other day I was rubbing my gum with my tongue (rhyming unintended) and I thought I felt a little bump, and I just passed it off as a scratch from a hard piece of toast or something. Then I was out on a walk with Marin and all of the sudden I thought "Wait! It could be a tooth!", and I promptly shoved my finger back to near-gag-land and poked around until I found that sharp little poke-y new piece of flair in my mouth. So far it hasn't been hurting, so that's good news, however, when I shared this recent news with a charge nurse at work, and my husband, they quickly proceeded to tell me horror stories. Oh yes! Horror stories of how wisdom teeth are such big teeth, sometimes the dentist has to chip away chunks of the tooth and then get gi-normous pliers and pull these teeth from their roots which are deeply imbedded in YOUR BRAIN! AACK! I don't want to hear this! So what am I going to do? Not sure. I wish this could have happened 8 years ago in high school so I could have been cool like everyone else getting out THEIR wisdom teeth. But, I suppose I should make a trip to the dentist. . . :(

Ahh well, what else is new at the Lyman house? Kris is doing great at his new job, so far, he has totaled 8 starts (people starting classes) for March, and that is really good. Th only other person that had that many starts was some other girl who had been doing this for like, 4 years. I am soooo proud of him! And the month is just beginning! This means his review is going to go over really well, and that means Kris is going to want to get a dog. :) Yes. A dog. Trust me, I want a dog just as much as he does, and he has been so patient, because it never seems to be the right time or the right amount in our bank account I guess. But, we'll see. One day at a time!

And, I have started recruiting members for my policy review committee. I get a little more nervous every day it gets closer. People are a little scared to do extra-curricular activities for work, so I had to start bribing people with food! I told them I would make treats and fresh bread, so that got me 2 recruits. Only 2 more to go!

And for the always fun part of the blog, news about Miss Marin Monkey! I can't get over what a good baby she is, every day I think that. In fact, there are some days she just doesn't cry at all. What a sweet girl! Marin is just a hungry hungry girl. She loves her food and complain if you don't get it into her mouth fast enough. A few weeks ago she had her 6 month check up and weighed in at 16 pounds 4 ounces and 27 inches long. She is getting soooo big! 50th percentile for weight and 90th percentile for height. Of course her head is still super big, but she is right on track!

She has aso been making some. . .forward progress in her walker. For the longest time she has been been going backwards, and lately she's learned to lean forward and go after what she wants. Usually it's mommy or daddy, and sometimes kitty :) She has been doing great sitting up on her own. She's actually been doing it for a while, but now she can do it for longer periods of time without tipping over to one side. Good job my little one! At her checkup, we got an ok (actually, the idea), to give her a sippy cup to play with. I was hoping that maybe by the time she turned a year old, she would have figured out the concept, and use that instead of a bottle. I don't want her to be the kid that hauls a bottle around with her until she's 3 or something. Anyway, it's only been about a week since Kris picked up some little sippy cups, and she has got it down! CRAZY! Initially she would just play around with it in her mouth, and I would occasionally tip it up and squeeze some water in her mouth so she could learn, and she's got it. Kris first noticed it yesterday, andI watched her suck on it today. Now, the water does dribble all over her chin and clothes, but it's pretty cute.

Picture time!



Ok, dad! Don't have a heart attack. Just relax! Marin LOVES to be tossed into the air. She is a thrill seeker, just like mommy and daddy. You can see a BIG smile on her face in this picture.
Here she is playing with daddy! The butterfly you see, she just LOVES. It flaps it's wings and rolls around and plays music. Marin will grab it and just about lay on top of it. The poor little butterfly, you can hear it's rotors clicking as it tries to move and flap it's wings :(

Hello everyone! Look at my hair!

Big smile for all her fans out there. What a sweetie, she is such a flirt! Don't know where she got that from. . .

Here she is with her sippy cup. I love these sippy cups because they have removable handles which really help her grab on.

I LOVE THIS PICTURE! What sweet girl. This picture really shows you what she is like everyday. An absolute joy.

Marin found daddy's shoes the other day. I had to take them away because she stuck a shoelace in her mouth and made a really gross face (I know that can't be good). And she scoots to wherever she wants. This little girl is soooo close to crawling!

Here is Marin playing with her friend Madelyn on Tuesday. I sat them both up on the couch ans Maddy was squeezing Marin's cheeks, it wa really cute.

Holding hands!

This picture makes Marin look like a total chub-a-lub! Score one for breastmilk!

Little sweetie waiting for her lunch. She looked like Strawberry Shortcake in this outfit, sooo cute!

Have a good one!

Ahh, the pictures have arrived!

So here they are! Man! Can I just say how spoiled we are with fast internet? Because, when it doesn't work. . . I get sooo mad! Tonight I was finally able to load them. Good thing too, I think I almost might have had a riot on my hands if I didn't load some pics pretty quick. Who knew that baby Marin withdrawls could be so bad? Oh, I guess I knew. I feel it every weekend I work!

This is the Pinewood Derby car Kris made for the competition at church. He did a great job :)

Hey, there's my little girl! Such big smiles for her mama (and her fans of course!).

Standing on her own. . . almost! Such a cute pic. The other day, Kris had her standing on our bed, peeking over the headboard looking out the window, it was really cute.

I can almost reach it guys! Almost!

Haha! Hey everyone! See how my eyes match my pretty dress?

The time had finally come. We moved our coffee table into that nook in the back left corner. This way, Marin would have more room to play. And now we have a really bright new coffee table :)

Hello everyone :)

Sometimes monkey gets stuck when she tries to roll, she'll bump up against the little loops. This used to frustrate her, but now she just rolls right on over it.

This is by far my most favorite picture. She has the sweetest face, and you can see her blonde hair!

Happy baby! Bestemor got her some bibs, and the package had some foam sticker hearts, so monkey let me put them on her sweet face.

Ok mama, can I take these off my face now?

Marin heled me bring in the mail tonight, and she was playing with the junk mail on the floor. I didn't realize until after I put her to bed, but she had gnawed off a corner of an envelope! Gross! Ahh well, a little more fiber can't hurt right? Besides, it's not like she ate a fly or anything . . .!

Not much on the schedule for this week. Some people from work are getting together at a resturant for some food and laughs on Wednesday. It's been a rough couple of weeks for everyone at work, so Marin and I will go for a little bit (Kris works the late shift :( ) and just have some fun.

I need to figure out how to better organize my precious little cubes of frozen, pureed, baby food delicacies. I've been just putting them in little plastic baggies, but the freezer is so disorganized! I think that making peas is the most time consuming of all the veggies I've pureed so far. You wouldn't think so, but the outer waxy shell doesn't puree, it just gets cut into chunks, which, even get caught in MY throat. So, in order to get them out, I have to mash them through a strainer, which takes a while. Ahh the joys of motherhood. It's worth the trouble though, for my baby :)

Have a good one guys!

For the First Time, In a Long Time. . .

For some reason, this week has had quite a few "first's" for me, well, maybe not "first's", but certainly things that haven't happened in a long time. So, here's my little list:

1) I guess I'll start with the sad one. This past week we lost a kid in the PICU. The last one we lost about a year and a half ago. It was really sad, as you can imagine. A little 18 month old girl with a sad history blew out her pupils during the night (essentially, it means she went brain dead), and all day long, it was an emotional roller coaster for the family, and staff. I wasn't taking care of this little girl, but I was in the back all day, and emotions were running etremely high. Finally, after a full shift of determining the certainty of her brain death and waiting for more family members to arrive, they turned the ventilator off at 6:30 that night. I guessI didn't realize how much it had impacted me until I called Kris on the way home that night and just started crying. All in all, I know she is most certainly in a better place.

2) Moving on! I actually had the most amazing night sleep this past week! The first good night sleep where I woke up in the morning and felt great! Refreshed! Wonderfully invigorated! I'm not really sure what it was, what I ate or what made me sleep so well, but it was soooo nice! It hasn't happened since, but I'll take the hope that it may happen again sometime!

3) I was able to go the temple, by myself. It was really wonderful. I didn't realize how much I missed going there until I was driving there. I was hurrying to get there, but not just because I didn't want to be late, but because I was really, honestly excited. The session was nice (I do however, always get pretty drowsy during the. . . drowsy part). I love the temple. The Celestial room gave me the perfect opportunity to reconnect and fill my canteen. I think as mommies we tend to keep giving and giving and giving, and the temple was a place where I could partake and be happy again. Any mom can attest to feeling drained and needing some time for themselves, and we don't really think of the temple as the first place to go. We think of going to a movie, or going out to eat or something like that. I admit, the temple wasn't my first choice, however, the feeling I had coming out of the temple was wonerful. It's so nice to have that feeling. I've told myself that instead of using my child as an excuse to not go to the temple, I need to use her as a reason TO go to the temple. She is always watching, and needs a good example. :)

4) I did something I thought I would never do. I made a job chart. When I was a kid, we all had to grudgingly participate in jobs that were written on index cards and tucked into this paisley green and white job chart on the back-room door. Ugh. I hated that thing with a passion and vowed secretly to never inflict that silly concept on my kids. Huh, funny thing that Marin isn't old enough to do chores! I was sick of getting overwhelmed with all the stuff running a house has to offer, so, I organized certain tasks to be done on certain days. Dishes and general picking up downstairs need to be done everyday, 30 minutes for dishes, and 15 minutes for picking up. Once the timer is up, you're done! Drop it and walk away. I like that idea :) So, everyday has a cool task, and things don't pile up!

Ok, I think that's it for my list of First's. So, Kris participated in a pinewood derby at church this past Fridays night. . . and he won second place! I was so proud of my eagle scout hubby! He beat out the other cheater face contestants that used CO2 cartidges. The only guy he didn't beat was a guy that had some sort of propeller on his car. But hey! Second place is pretty dang good! I can't wait for Kris to help our future boys with their pinewood derby cars.

Work has been good for Kris. Although he had 2 students that cancelled their applications, the numbers are looking good for March! I am so proud of my hubby. He has worked so hard, and I love seeing him come home from work with a smile on his face. Plus, his 3 month trial run will be coming to a close here soon, so he'll be up for permanant hire, which means a salary increase, better benefits, and a chance I might get to be home more often with my little girl.

Ok, now, before anyone riots, I have tried loading pictures, with no luck. I'll load them tomorrow, promise!