Catch-Up Photo's

I've been trying really hard to make sure I spend more time focusing on my children instead of getting carried away with blogging.  It can take up a lot of time this blogger site, let me tell you!  Hence the large space in between posts.  So, here are a few of our photo high-lights from the week:

Say "HAPPYYYYYY!"

 This is what happens when Marin finds the cat.

 Here's our big fella!  At 9 weeks he weighs 13 pounds 3oz. and is 23" long.  75 percentile for weight and 50th percentile for height.

 And, should I be concerned that he's fitting into size 6month clothing?  This romper is size 6 months and while it's just a touch on the large side, it fits him very well in the shoulders.  Someone's going to be a brute!

 Mmmm, the jungle gym, It's wonderful when they are entertained by this lovely thing!

 Owens view from underneath.

 Is it mean for a mother to post her crying 2 year old?  I couldn't help it, look at that face.  This right here is total tantrum face.

 Ok, feeling better now :)

 Someone fell asleep in the rocking chair, so cute.

 Sleepy boy.

 Owen and big sis, I just love them, they are sweet kids.

Boy Talk?

Owen is SUCH a talker, and it is just adorable.  He sleeps in a little Moses basket on my nightstand (it's pretty big) and in the morning, I wake up to coo's, gurgle's, squeek's, and squeel's.  It makes my heart happy :)  So, here is our happy little Owen giving you all a lesson on ...well, being happy of course!

Easter Smiles

Marin's Easter morning was filled with lots of fun things, thanks to the Easter Bunny and some generous family members.  She was a little unsure about the fact that she was supposed to be excited about her new Easter dress, but once she saw the candy and toys, she was sold.

Marin on her Easter egg hunt.  We used the plastic eggs and put little pieces of candy inside (as we try and meld our traditions together to make our own) and Marin would shake each egg after she found it to make sure it was a 'good' egg.  Daddy thought it would be funny to stuff a couple of the eggs with plastic grass, but Marin was no fool.  She shook the egg and said, "That's not a good one", and put it right back where she found it...for it clearly did not belong in her precious basket with the 'good' eggs.

Look at that cute little dress!  Bestemor sent this dress for Marin and it is just LOVELY!  We had a hard time getting pictures of her IN it, as you will see later.

More hunting!

I just LOVE this shot, totally Marin, bright eyed and waiting expectantly with wonder and awe.  So cute!

Kris had to be fast with the camera, Marin was on a mission!  This one shows you how fast she was moving, it's kind of a neat shot.

 And our little guy on Easter.  He is much too young of course for candy, but he certainly looked dashing in his Sunday outfit.  And can you see that hairline?!  Phew!  His hair is really coming in!  What a difference between my children!  Marin went completely bald at 4 months before her's started to come in at 5 months, and Owens started growing in about 2 weeks ago.  It's really filling in!

 Marin in her Easter dress!

 Seriously, the only full body shot that wasn't completely blurry, she just wouldn't hold still!

 Like I said.... ;)

 We thank our wonderful family for all the Easter gifts, we truly wish we lived closer to everyone to share in the joy of the holidays.  I am so grateful for this wonderful technology that allows me to share our family moments with you all.  Having a blog has been a fantastic way to keep in touch with you all, and some great friends!

Lost and Found, or rather, Foolish and Humbled

We had lost Marin's glasses.  Super.  Sometime on Saturday between Wal-Mart and home, they had disappeared, and Kristoffer and I were feeling sick to our stomachs, and we hadn't even had any Easter candy yet.  What a fantastic way to start out our Easter morning, somber and grievously frustrated.  In order to have a new pair covered by insurance, we at least needed to find them, however smashed and broken they may be.  Insurance and warranty's don't cover 'loss'.  "Just incredible.", I thought to myself as I sat on the coffee table.  "First, a $200 car repair to kick off the weekend and now this....Lord, please help us find these glasses."  I silently prayed.  Kris and I kept talking over where they might be and we concluded that since they weren't in the car or her car seat, she must have dropped them in the Wal-Mart parking lot.  We hoped more than expected that to be the case, in our house, it's always the worst case scenario.  Through all of this self pity and frustration, I kept thinking that perhaps they had fallen into the Carl's Jr. bag I had thrown out the night before.  Marin, in her tantrum-meltdown from no-nap said she was hungry, so since we were far from home, we concluded a single small hamburger from Carl's Jr. wouldn't kill her.  I had picked the onions off and set the bag on the floor underneath her carseat.  She then promptly fell asleep.  "No," I thought, "...there's no way her glasses would be in that bag.  She fell asleep with her glasses ON.".  And again I thought, "Maybe I should have Kris go out and check the garbage can to see if they're in that bag.....no, they are most certainly NOT in that bag.".  Kristoffer decided to drive to Wal-Mart in hopes of finding the glasses, so he left, and 5 minutes later, came into the house, glasses in hand.  Relief swept over my entire body.  "Where did you find them?!"  I asked incredulously.  His reply?  "In the Carl's Jr. bag in the garbage.".  My eyes widened, "How did you think to look there?" I asked.  "I sat in my car," he said "...and smelled those onions from yesterday, and I knew they must have fallen into that bag, so I checked the garbage.".

And there you have it.  My Easter morning lesson on listening to the promptings of the Spirit.  Who am I to ignore what the Spirit is trying to tell me?!  The only word that describes how I felt is Foolish.  I felt decidedly Foolish.  Here the Lord was....trying to tell me where my daughters glasses were and save us the grief, frustration and cash, as I sit there and say "No, Lord, clearly you're wrong!".  Foolish indeed, and humbled.  It's a good thing He didn't give up on me and decided to go and prompt someone else who might listen, my husband! I work so hard to save money in our family, and this was the biggest test of all and I failed!  I have learned my lesson and have been adequately humbled by this experience.  Next time around I listen more closely.....and we check the ANYTHING that goes in the garbage!

Tulip Love

Saturday we took the kids to a Tulip Festival in a town about an hour from where we live.  Initially, we were  little afraid of how much the whole affair would cost, since they slaughtered us with a 10 dollar parking fee (!!!!  I know!), but we trudged through the mud and saw some absolutely lovely tulip fields.  Note to self: buy boots for next season.  They did have some tents set up with different vendors and their goods, and we were able to hold some rather large parrots, check out some old-school farm equipment, and they had a wagon ride through the fields.  We opted out of this since we were hauling a stroller.  Marin stayed in the backpack most of the time until we got to the kids section and she saw the bouncy houses/slides.  While she didn't go in the bouncy house, she had fun playing with some of the other free kids activities they had there:  A rubber duck race with hand water pumps, playground, corn-box (like a sand box) and badminton.   All in all, we really had a great time, but the boots are a must for next season!

Here is Marin in the backpack and sitting in the trunk, ready to go!

 Those glasses just KILL me, she is so darned cute!

 The picture simply does NOT do justice to how lovely the fields of tulips were, so pretty!

 I must say, I really think tulips are my favorite flower.  They are in season on my birthday (which, is coming up by the way...), there are so many gorgeous varieties and they are so classy and unpretentious, if you can define a flower as such?

 Just beautiful!

 Here's a happy little man, he was so good for the whole trip!  Just keep him fed and he'll throw smiles at you all day ;)

 Kristoffer with the parrot.

 Marin and me, and, if you're wondering about the look on her face, see the next picture.

 She was a little nervous! 

Kristoffer was telling me that he when he was in Europe before we were married, he took a train that went by some tulip fields in the Netherlands and they were just amazing!  He said he dreamed that someday he would have the chance to do that with his wife someday.  This was said to me as we trudged through an overgrown, muddy field hauling a stroller behind us and carrying 30 pounds of Marin and backpack in the brisk, wet breeze as Marin clamors she needs to go potty...tulips aplenty in the rolling fields to our right. Who say's dreams don't come true? ;)  Nah, we just laughed and packed the memory with us for future years!

Miss Magoo

"Well Samantha," said the optometrist, "...it appears as though you have a Miss Magoo on your hands!". 

Monday was a big day for Marin, she had her very first visit to the Optometrist!  We have been concerned about her vision for a few months now, and when we finally had people from nursery ask if she needed glasses, we knew it was time for a visit.  She was a very big girl and let the Doctor look at her eyes with her special instruments, which took about 20 minutes!

And, the conclusion?  Our poor little Marin is extremely near sighted!  Here are some of the questions the Doctor made to me:

*Does she feel her way around the house?

*Does she trip or walk into things a lot?

*Was she a preemie? (I was asked this twice)

*Any problems during gestation or delivery?

*Any trauma to her eyes at any point?

*Do you or your husband have nearsightedness?

*How old is your son?  Have you noticed any vision issues with him?

And a few of her comments to explain Marin's vision:

*Her eye itself is healthy it's just the vision that needs attention.

*Her vision isn't able to develop normally because her vision is so poor (I know it sounds strange).

*It's really great that you caught this so early, she really needs glasses!

*You are going to think I'm crazy when you see how thick her glasses will need to be (Que lump in throat), but you can opt for the special polymer blend which is much thinner (Que sigh of relief!). 

*I won't give her glasses that will be the full strength that she needs, just so I can see if there is any improvement in 6 weeks.

I make it sound as though we had a terribly insensitive Doctor, she was really wonderful and very nice, but she was so shocked that Marin's eyesight was so poor, she almost couldn't believe it!  So, today was the big day...the glasses were ready for pickup today!  

Here she is!

The optician recommended that when we get home I turn on a movie for her and have her sit on the couch, or further away than she usually stands to the TV so she could get a feel for what it was like to see and get used to the feeling on her face.  Even just walking out of the office was an adventure for her, she literally had to hold my hand as she looked at the ground because everything was so in focus and new, she thought she was going to trip!  I hope we won't have issues with her not wanting to wear them, but I think because her vision is so poor, she will be happy to wear them so she can see!

Marin on Ducks

Marin is a chatterbox.  My-oh-my what a talkative girl she is!  The other day as we sat at the table and she picked at her lunch and jabbered to me, here is what she had to say:

*Mommy, there's a couple ducks down there (by the water near our house), look mommy, see the ducks?  They go under the water mommy, *pause*....mommy, they being baptized mommy!

I laughed and didn't really know what to say!  Such an astute little girl, she amazes me :)

You know, if you asked me... (Part 4)

....I would say yes.

Kristoffer and I talked about marriage before he proposed (as all couples SHOULD!), and with any young girl, one thing came to mind when thinking about a marriage proposal....the RING!  I am not a buy-me-jewelry-because-I'm-a-girl...kind of girl, trust me, but I knew that the ring he chose was the ring I was going to be stuck with for the rest of my life.  So instead of letting him choose a ring and then telling him "I don't like it, let's exchange it while I hurt your feelings even more by pinching your ear".  I made things easy for him.  I went online and found 5 or 6 pictures of ring styles that I really liked, and told him "Hey babe, I found some pretty rings....".  Enough said.  This a picture of my ring.

And how did my uber-romantical husband propose?  He took me to the top of the mountain at Snow Bird ski resort in Utah on a beautiful, sunny day in May.  And at 13,500 feet as he knelt in the melting slush and we both slowly slid down the side of the mountain, he told me I was the most amazing and beautiful woman he had met and asked if I would be his wife.  I truly wish I had pictures of that day!  Now, although being the intuitive lady that I am, I knew what was going on before-hand, but that didn't change the fact that I was on cloud 9 the entire ride down the tram and car trip home!  I really was in another world!

Jello for the lady, if you please...

Marin has a sweet tooth.  Not surprising, considering her mother has one also.  So, she is always clamoring for dessert.  The other day after lunch she wanted dessert and I remembered Kris had made some Jello the night before, so I cut it up into cubes for her and let her play.  She had a blast playing with her Jello, it was pretty cute.

 So she would squish it:

 And drop it to watch it bounce:

 And stand it up nice and tall:

 And of course, try to stack it:

We are totally making more Jello soon!

Bumbo Boy

A friend of mine lent me her Bumbo, and today we put Owen in it for the first time and had a little photo-shoot.  If you're not sure what exactly a Bumbo is, it's a special, bottom heavy infant seat with high sides that's designed to help your infant sit up by themselves.  We had some good laughs with it this afternoon.

So, we start at the beginning:

Owen is not particularly happy at first, look at that sad little face, poor buddy!

 Grrrrr, mom, why am I in here?  Haven't I been a good boy?

 A little hand sucking to self soothe.

 Alright, it may not be THAT bad....

 Awwww, THERE'S my happy little man, what a sweet smile!

 And a smile for daddy too!

 Yaaaawn.....

 Look, just LOOK at my handsome face!  Don't I look like an Owens baby?

I'm almost tempted to buy a Bumbo now, but we'll have this one for a few months until he starts sitting up on his own.  Oh, I almost forgot...Our cute little man weighed in at 12 pounds on the money the other day at 7 weeks!  He is just getting so BIG!  I almost think he would weigh more if he wasn't such a spitter.  Blech, I am NOT a fan of the spit-up's.  But Owen is such a good baby, if that's all I have to worry about, I'm a happy mama.