3 Weeks Baby!

I am in SHOCK that Paris is a mere 3 weeks.....21 days away!  I can't tell you how excited I am for this trip, well, I know I have tried many times.  The good news is that my Lucky jeans are getting not-as-tight, I love that!  I think I have just about crossed out almost everything on my To-Do list for Paris, which is good because I tend to be a last minute-er kind of gal.  Vive le France!

Sunday night Kris and I returned from a great (but fast!) weekend with his mom, grandmother, sister and brother in law.  While we didn't go to a live conference session, we spent time with family which was so nice.  I figured, hey, we can DVR conference and watch it at home, but we can't take the fam with us, so we will spend time with them.  I was able to find my Paris dress!  It's different than I imagined, but very pretty and a nice change for my wardrobe.....of course you will all see pictures after the trip.  I also had a chance to go shopping with my fashioista sis in law and it was so nice.  She is so sweet and lets me borrow her clothes every time we go up there, which I LOVE!  She has the best style and always looks cover-ready, and she spends next to NOTHING for her clothes!  THAT is what I am ALL about, so I picked up a few shirts and I will tell you, I have almost forgotten what it's like to have new clothes, isn't that funny? 

Kris's mom...er...the Easter Bunny prepared an Easter morning surprise for us with our own little easter bucket of goodies, such a treat, I felt like a little girl again, thanks Trine!  Marin scored a new pretty Easter dress (SO CUTE) which I have to get pictures of this Sunday.  She was ALL OVER the plastic easter eggs and at this moment is toting them around in her yellow easter bucket.  She had so much fun while we were there and played with the dollies and little kitchen set and stroller....she LOVED playing mommy.  Oh, and since we were there, Kris and I made a quick trip to Ikea and found a tiny table a chair set for 40 bucks!  Ikea is a big thing in Kris's family, since they are all from Norway and some now live in Sweden, it's cool to have a big Swedish store that sells just about everything!  We love going there.

By request, I need to be posting more pictures of Marin...so I will be taking some today!  We are off to the gym soon, then home to clean/play/nap/shower etc.. then have dinner with Kris's dad Duane who is in town.  Have a great one!

It's all about Effeciency

Marin this morning finishing off her bowl of cheerios, well, she was really after the milk. Such a funny girl. You laugh at this, but I didn't get the shot of her licking the milk from her tray, haha!


What a sweet little face, she is such a good girl :)

We had tried in vain for quite some time to get Marin to say "please", and for about a month now, she FINALLY asks nicely, although, it sounds something like: "Eeeease!". When we give her whatever it is she wants, instead of saying "thank you", she will say: "yur wecome!". What a funny bug. She will say "thank you", but she gets all of those little nice-words all mixed up.

In other news...we have the chance to take a short trip to Salt Lake this weekend! It has been a while since we have had this chance, so we are very excited! Kris works a half day this Friday and we head up as soon as he is done, and we come home late Sunday night. Phew, that IS a quick trip! If luck is on our side, Kris and I may get lucky enough to score some tickets for General Conference! That would be a first for me, but nothing is set in stone yet.

I cannot believe Kris is almost done with school! He has three more classes, and they are all online, so the one he is finishing up now is his last campus class! The end is getting near!!!! I finally printed off invitations to his party yesterday, now I just need to tweak them up and send them out! The party is no surprise, I am HORRIBLE at keeping surprises, especially with Kris, he seems to find a way to get the information out of me.....oh well, it will be fun anyway!

And I just have to top off this post with some great counsel I heard when I attended to Young Women's Broadcast Sunday night. Our leaders are inspired and know our struggles:

**"....can one Young Woman make a difference in the world? The answer is a resounding YES!.....NEVER, NEVER, NEVER give up!."**

In response to a Young Woman who had missed a day of reading her scriptures and was so disappointed, the leader turned to her and said, "So? If you forgot to brush your teeth yesterday, would you give up? Of course not. You would brush them everyday. Never, Never, Never give up!".

What great counsel!

I will try and update my other FOOD BLOG later today with some yummy new recipes, check it out sometime by clicking here!

Packing It On

Marin at her 12 month checkup weighed in at 20 pounds, on the money. Over the course of the next 6 months, we would weigh her at home, and at her 18 month checkup, she weighed in at.....21 pounds, on the money. My worst nightmare as a mother was that they were going to tell me she needed a G-tube or something (hey, I see worst case scenarios at the hospital!), but the pediatrician assured me that as long as she was eating and proportionate, she was fine (which she was). I just couldn't believe that in a whole 6 months, she had gained a measly 1 stinking pound! She ate her food.....I couldn't understand it! So this morning, one month after her 18 month check-up, I weighed my little girl, and she was 22.6 pounds! That girl packed on 1.6 pounds worth of weight in thirty days! Geez Louise! After her checkup last month she really started to gorge out, and eat second helpings of, well, just about everything and want snacks every hour. So, I must say, even though I knew she was healthy before, I at least like knowing she has put on a little weight!

Vacation Check

Image via Wikipedia

I looked at my ticker, which I moved to the top of the page because our trip is getting SO close, and realized.....our trip is getting SO CLOSE! I know I bring it up in just about every other post, but I can't tell you how excited I am for my first trip to Europe, to Paris with my incredible husband. This has been a dream of mine for YEARS and it is just a few weeks away now! Kissing my soul mate underneath the Eiffel tower, strolling the streets hand in hand watching French culture happen all around us, laying in bed hearing the sounds of one of the most romantic cities in the world. Ahhh, what an experience. I hope I will have many more oportunities to go back to Europe and just drink in the culture. I feel like our experiences are written on our faces, and it gives you a certain aura that you carry with you everywhere. I can't wait to have that experience be a part of me.

Color Wonder

Marin LOVES to color, and every morning after breakfast she will sit at the kitchen table and work her magic. Whether it be on plain notebook paper or in her coloring book, she loves to watch the colors appear on paper when she scribbles. She also likes to watch mama draw things for her....dogs, kitties, fish, butterflies, flowers, ANYTHING! Sadly, paper is not the only thing that receives a splash of color throughout the day. My tablecloth often receives a healthy dose of rainbow love, my walls and windows are also subject to the same....unless mama catches her in time!

Kris has a lovely picture that Marin and mama colored, hanging on the wall above his desk where he does his homework. Who knew life would get to this point! Wow!

Busy as Ever

Oh how I wish I had some fun and exciting things to share with my readers! These last few weeks have consisted of a plain old, hum-drum life I guess, so I find it challenging to find cool stuff for you all to read about. I have been working, Kris has been working and doing homework and going to class, I have been watching kids for my kid swap and doing my dinner club, while trying to prep for Europe (yay!), so it has certainly been busy!

I will say my one accomplishment has been busting past my 5 pound mark (SO HARD!) and now I have 4 pounds to lose! I know I can do this!
This is what I have been doing: *Slim Fast for breakfast. *Salad with protein for lunch. *Regular Dinner. *If it is a hungry day (you ALL know what I mean), I eat some fruit or nuts every hour to keep my mouth busy.

I have found that I just get too blasted hungry in the late afternoon and evening to try and limit myself to a salad or a slim-fast for dinner, so I go backwards. Breakfast is really the only meal I
can kind of fool myself into really skimping on. I do need to force myself to eat a salad for lunch, but it's easier to do one for lunch than dinner.

As far as my prep-work for Europe goes, I have a few things left on my list:
-Check with cell phone company for service and find alternate if not.
-Check to see if there is a guardian pick up pass at the airport for my parents.
-Find a GORGEOUS Paris dress for my birthday!
-Color my hair.
-Get a haircut.
-Finish losing the weight and get into those Lucky jeans!
-Pick up facewash.
-Get a refill on my makeup. (why is it you always run out/run low right before a trip!)
-Book the kennel for the dog.
-Find one of my YW to get our mail, feed the cat, clean etc. while we are away.

This is what I have done already:
-Copy of house key.
-Copy of photo ID, Kris and myself.
-Medical release form for Marin.
-Copy insurance cards.
-Print off itinerary.
-Schedule doctors appt.
-Pick up accessories/shoes for trip.

You know, I thought I had made quite a bit of progress until I typed it all up just now....my "to do" list is longer than my "already done" list! What the....! Ahhh well, one thing at a time I suppose.

I will try and post some pics soon enough, Kris has had a ton of homework lately, so my chance on the computer is limited!

Yo Yo, Molly-oh!

So, the other night, Marin was upstairs looking down at the dog, and all of the sudden she say's (in her high pitched little girl voice), "Yo! Molly!". It was SO funny, Kris and I must have laughed for five minutes. It amazes me how big she is and how much of a little girl she is (as opposed to a baby). Everyday she learns a new word and it just tickles me to hear her say things.

She is the ULTRA- helper and if she hears you banging dishes together, she comes running, saying "Help?, help?", she wants to help you put the dishes away. Kris lets her do the silverware, so she pushes the chair over to the drawer and daddy helps her match up where to put the silverware. She is so funny!

Marin has been "shopping" in my pantry lately. I will find soup cans and salsa jars all over the downstairs. She thinks it is something fun to load up her little shopping cart just like mama does at the grocery store. Sadly, she has learned to NOT drop them on her feet, ouch!

The other week when Marin was sick, she was getting breathing treatments and I would wash out the equipment and put them on the towel to dry. Marin found the plastic epuipment (with the help of her trusty move-able kitchen chair), and spent half and hour putting things together and taking them apart. What a mechanical girl, here are a couple of pictures from that:

I couldn't leave this part out! I was at TJ Maxx (one of my favorites) on a very rare visit, and saw a tablecloth I just COULDN'T pass up. It is a beautiful black and white large flower print and it SCREAMS Paris. The only problem, was that the only rectangular size they had, was twice as long as my kitchen table! I bought it anyway (at 20 bucks!), and immediately brought it home and spread it on the table. It really was waaay too long, and I tried to fold it every which way to make it fit and look good, it it just wasn't working.....and I was getting frustrated. Then I saw some pale lime green fabric ribbon I had saved from a kitchen towel set....and I had a thought! I unfolded the tablecloth and pulled the extra fabric to drape over the ends, and gathered it all together and tied it with the green ribbon. It looks so CUTE! I LOVE the tablecloth because it hides spills prety well, and now my kitchen has a little touch of Paris, check it out!

Marin and I are off to the gym and home for a day full of laundry and dinner clube prep for tonight, have a great one!

Weigh In.....

Image by Digital Wallpapers via Flickr

So CLOSE! I am a mere 5 pounds from my goal weight, and I have 7 weeks to lose it. I have been stuck at my pre-pregnancy weight for quite some time, and I'm not sure what pushed me over the edge, but all of the sudden, the weight started to come off. Another 5 pounds to go to get myself back to my "comfortable" weight. I was about 10 pounds over this "comfortable" weight when I became pregnant with Marin, so my goal is to get back to where I was when I got married. ALMOST THERE! And let me tell you, it feels sooooo good to fit into your old jeans again, NOTHING beats that feeling ;)

So if YOU have weight loss goals, stick to it and don't give up! You CAN win! Write down your goal and put it on the bathroom mirror, it will help you subconsciously remember what you really want out of life.

Don't forget to look at the Food Storage Goal for the month! March is SOUP month, so stock up! Whether it's regular noodle-y soups, cream of something soups, Lipton dry soup packets, Mrs. Grass Chicken Noodle Soup boxes, whatever. Every time you head to the store, grab a few cans or boxes and watch your FOOD STORAGE grow!