Mack Attack

Marley's little buddy, Mack, came by one day during an evening walk. As you can see they hit it right off and are going to be best of friends :)

Children's Museum

I missed going to the Children's Museum with the playgroup and I really wanted to go. So I managed to con Mandi into coming up to SLC to go with me. I really liked it because there were a lot of things that Marley could do, even though she's still so little!!

Mandi looks so cute...I love her short 'do!


Marley loved the little plastic balls! I love the picture of Sadie in the Life Flight Helicopter...she's not afraid to show us how she feels!

I thought this was the best because we asked Sadie to push Marley in the little stroller. Which she did and proceeded to park Marley in the corner and continued to play!

It was so cute to see Marley give the baby doll a hug.

There were all sorts of fun things to play with and we spent most of the day there!

Mt Olympus

Yesterday we looked out our window and noticed Mt. Olympus looking more unusual than we had ever noticed since we've moved here. It's been so unseasonable rainy here that I think that's why there was so much low cloud coverage on the mountain. I was really impressed by how beautiful it looked! The pictures don't do it justice!

To Run or Not to Run?

I have always liked to jog. Even if was tough while I was running, I love how good I felt afterward! I am usually pretty consistent at it, but, as with sometimes happens with exercising, I must admit, I fall off the bandwagon! I have never really considered running any sort of race. My mom has run in 5ks (which really surprised me!) and she has tried to get me to go with her, but for one reason or another, it just never worked out. For whatever reason, however, I will get these odd goals in my mind that I am determined to accomplish...one of which, lately, is running a half marathon. I was talking to my neighbors (one of which who has run half and full marathons and the other is setting goals to do so) and they inspired me to start training for a half marathon. My neighbor, who's had some marathon experience, said that she just listens to her body and if she has to talk a small break and walk (or use the bathroom...she's not one of those super dedicated runners who go to the bathroom in their pants because they won't stop running & I'd have to say, I'm not one for making a mess in my pants either!) she does. A run that's over 26 miles seems too daunting for me, but half of that? Seems like it might be possible...



There are two half marathons coming up in August. One of which is in Park City and the other starts in Clearfield. Looking at the websites they both have their pros and cons. The Park City race will definitely be a beautiful run with lots of nice scenery, HOWEVER, the first 3 miles are up a hill (YIKES), but thereafter, it's downhill. The one in Clearfield would require running near the Great Salt Lake which wouldn't be as beautiful but the entire race is almost on flat ground. I'm not sure which one I should do and I don't know if I have it in me to run two half marathons so close together....I suppose I will think about it and time will tell!!!
See how pretty the view would be running in Park City?

Cabin with the Coopers

We went to Flaming Gorge (again!) but with some friends from Phoenix! They have a daughter who is only about two months older than Marley. It was interesting to see them "play" together...they did interact somewhat, but, because of their age, they spend most of their time in their own little worlds! It was really cute to see them together!!!!

Kevin and Karl went fly fishing while Chantae and I hung out with the kids. Fortunately, the first couple of days produced really nice weather...however, it rained the last two days! Ack! We can never go to the cabin without some sort of bad weather!

It was so good to see the Coopers and we wished we had more time with them!


Do you like our ghetto treadmill baby gate? There wasn't a baby gate long enough!


While outside one windy day, Marley started furiously rubbing her left eye. It became watery, red, and she had a hard time opening it in the light. This continued into the next day, so we had to drive about one hour to Vernal in order to go to the ER. I knew she had a corneal abrasion, but we had to get prescription eye drops. The ER visit was short and sweet (thank Heavens) but the pharmacy took FOREVER to fill our medicines due to the amount of elderly people ahead of us!

The playroom has all sorts of toys, but Charlie seemed to just love these plastic eggs.

I tried so hard to get a good picture of both them sitting in these mini recliners...but failed miserably!

Marley likes to show us her toes through the stair railing and Charlie likes to show us her belly button!

Two little monkeys playing on the bed!

The girls LOVED the golf cart even though we couldn't get it to run. All was well until Charlie decided she wanted Marley's cup of milk! They are sooo darn adorable!

Budding Picasso?

Marley loves to "draw". If she finds a pen and paper (paper meaning anything made of paper, including books) she starts to "draw". I have found several of my books with pens marks in them. The other day she grabbed a pad of paper and a pen from the coffee table and sat down on her little rocking chair and attempted to draw. I ended up having to scoot her chair to the coffee table because she was struggling to draw without a hard surface. I was surprised by how long "drawing" held her attention. I actually had ample time to snap these pictures. Hopefully this doesn't lead to pen marks anywhere else besides paper...ie furniture or walls!
Below is a sample of her artwork....

Cactus & Botanicals

We had Marley's one year pictures taken by a photographer named Laurie (per my wonderful mother-in-law) and she really like the tutu Marley was wearing (thanks, Mandi). She said that if I made her a couple of tutus, she would trade me free pictures. So, of course, I was all over it!
Pictured above are the tutus I made...they were supposed to have a fairy-type feel. I thought they turned out pretty cute, especially the blue one with the little butterfly (again, thanks, Mandi). So I guess this post is a thank you to Mandi, the Tutu Guru, for showing me all there is to making tutus!

Laurie was taking pictures of little kids dressed as fairies at this really awesome greenhouse, Cactus & Botanicals. Marley was a little apprehensive about standing in the middle of the flowers, but we managed to ease her into them by slowly arranging the flowers around her while she was standing. Ack! What you end up doing to get a decent picture! But it worked out perfect for Mother's Day gifts!


Marley was supposed to wear a crown of flowers...as you can see, it didn't quite work out that way! She was fine, until I attempted to place it on her head, and that's when the tears started. Even when she noticed me moving the crown of flowers out of the way, she started to cry because she thought I was putting them back on her head!


Marley played with the wand for about 10 seconds before trying to give it back. I was really surprised because Sadie has a princess wand that she really liked.



I really like the ones where she is touching her little chin!

The Nightmare we call Swimming Lessons!

It started as a normal Saturday. Things were calm and nice...she even smiled after she donned her swim suit....


As we entered the water Marley started to turn...she pretty much cried through out the 45 minute lesson! It was kind of embarrassing because all the other parent's children were model swimmers: no crying and willing to playing in the water! The instructor asked me if she was tired and I'm like, 'no, she hates the water!' The instructor suggested I just hold her and get her used to the water and not do all the activities. So we powered through it (I mean we have 5 more lessons left and I want her to get comfortable with the water!) even though I got the evil eye from some of the parents. I'm sure they thought I should just give up!



During the back float (which was the last 5 minutes of the class) she actually calmed down and stopped fussing! Maybe next Saturday will be better!

Cross Stitch

So lately I have been doing cross stitching (and some of you are the recipients of these cross stitch projects, which you may or may not have liked). Forever ago I got this really cute pattern for a helicopter from the Early Bird Special Blog. I have a friend who recently had a baby boy and so I used this pattern for her. Cross stitch is something I really like doing...but sometimes they don't turn out as cute as I imagine them to be! Anyway, I'm going to keep at it and hopefully get better!!

Nap Time

While at Grandma Ruth's, Marley had a great time playing around and spending time with her grandma...then she decided it was nap time! She stopped playing, came over to her grandma and just feel asleep in her lap!! I thought it was so cute!

Flaming Gorge with J&M

Since we love going to the cabin in Flaming Gorge, there will probably be a lot of posts regarding our trips up there. This time we had the lucky opportunity to go with our good friends Justin & Mandi, and their two cute little girls, Sadie and Kinley. Even though the weather was supposed to be warmer with "light showers", it turned out to be cold and snowy! But we managed to have a great time anyway. Kevin and I now can call ourselves the Phase 10 & LRC ChAmPiOnS as we dominated Justin & Mandi in both games! YE-AH! (he he he!) It was so fun and we are going to have to plan to go up again sometime soon when the weather is actually, nice (if it's possible; it seems every time we go, the weather is uncooperative)!

Sadie just loved the go-carts...it's too bad it wasn't warmer
because we didn't stay outside for long!


Here come Mandi and Sadie!

Sadie brought her little princess scooter up, and Marley

was absolutely enthralled with that scooter. She would

stand and hold on to it just perfectly and let you push

her around. She tried to scoot herself around, but she's

just a bit too small to do it herself. It looks like we are

going to make a trip to Target some time soon so Marley

can have a scooter of her own!

I love these pictures of Sadie and Marley with the scooter.

Sadie was such a sweetheart share her most precious

toy with Marley!

When going through the pictures, I realized I had very

few of Miss Kinley! But the one on the top left is a good

picture of her! Can I just say she's a wonder baby? Her

crying must be a myth because I never heard it and she

is ALWAYS giggling, smiling, and in a good mood! What

a gem! I also love the picture of Marley and Sadie standing

at the foot of the stairs! Too cute!

There's rocking moose that I just couldn't resist getting

a picture of Sadie and Marley on!

These little recliners are awesome. Sadie's just kicked back

and lounging...Marley, however, had a case of the wiggles.

sAn DiEgO

We took a fabulous little trip to beautiful San Diego (so fabulous, in fact, that I posted A LOT of pictures!) I hadn't been there since I was in high school, so it was really nice to go back for a visit. We rented a bay house and stayed with our good friends, Karl & Chantae, and their adorable daughter, Charlie. We went to Sea Port Village, Old Town San Diego, Balboa Park, a Padres Game, surfing/boogie boarding, and the San Diego Wildlife Preserve. We had a wonderful week and wished it was longer!!


The view from the bay house was beautiful and it was such
a cute little town home!

More great views...if you look at the bottom right, you can
see the San Diego temple.

This is Marley's first time wearing sunglasses and she'd
smile every time we put them on! Charlie was already
a sunglasses-wearing pro!

I love the picture of Charlie on the top right where she
is trying to touch the bubbles.

This is Marley's first Easter! We managed to pack their
Easter baskets without crushing them or have the candy
melt!

We took in a Padres game...

We stopped at a hat store...

I really love these photos of Charlie and Marley eating

powdered donuts!! They look so adorable!

Charlie and Marley got along really well. I really like

the picture of them giving each other a kiss and the ones

where Charlie is feeding Marley Kix.

The San Diego Wild Animal Preserve was actually really

great for the kids because they really liked all the animals

and we didn't have to wait in line (that extra $20 was worth

skipping the hour-long line at the safari ride!). The loriket

encounter was awesome! We fed then nectar which made

the birds flock to us like mad!

These are some pictures we took while on the safari ride.

This is Marley's first time on the carousel, which she

absolutely loved. Charlie, on the other hand, thought

differently. She couldn't wait to get off!

This is in a covered wagon at Old Town San Diego. The

girls had so much fun running around screaming their

lungs out!

Can I just say that the San Diego Temple has to be one

of the most gorgeous temples? It is absolutely stunning!!

It would have been nice to have enough time and someone

to watch the kids so we could do a session.