A very sick little girl!

Sadie started getting sick on Thursday with a bad cough, and she was a little tired. Then she woke up on Friday with a high fever (103.7 degrees), and she basically slept all day. Today I noticed she was taking really small breaths and seemed lethargic, plus she threw up a couple of times. We took her to the insta-care here in WA and after taking some chest x-rays we found out she has pneumonia. She's been really good about it all, poor girl she must feel like crap. But she's on her way back to our happy, perky, talkitive little Sadie we've missed the last few days.

Oh how I Love Christmas!

We have had a great Christmas this year. We flew into Seattle on Christmas Eve morning, spent all day wrapping presents and making cookies for Santa, and then put 2 very tired kids to bed. Christmas day was so fun! My favorite gift this year was from my Dad, he put all of our VHS home videos on DVD, 11 of them to be exact. I am so excited to have those memories to have forever. We've watched a few this week, and laughed our heads off.

Here are my 2 sisters' kids and mine frosting cookies, actually rice crispy treats (we were lazy) for Santa. They each got to eat 1, cause Santa didn't really want too many cookies.
It was so fun being with my parents for Christmas, they loved watching the kids open their stockings and gifts. Carson was especially fun this year because he got so excited about every little thing he got.
Here is why I was so excited about Christmas, the Wii I worked SO hard to get. Well, my Mom worked hard too, she finally found one at a Fred Meyer and left work immediately to grab it. We have been having so much fun with the Wii that I gave Nate for Christmas. My 2nd favorite gift that I gave was a Thomas the Train set for Carson, it's kept him happy and busy 6 hours a day since he's gotten it, love you Thomas!
My other favorite gift I gave was this "I love Crappy Burritos" t-shirt I gave my younger brother Kyle (who by the way got engaged Christmas Eve, congrats Kyle!). He has a thing for burritos that have been sitting under the heat lamp at convenient stores for hours and hours, calls them "crappy burritos." So I made him this shirt, it was pretty funny. Oh, the guns are air-soft pistols, not real ones. And I don't really have ears on top of my head.

We made it!

So, I know it's been a few days, but here are a couple of pictures to prove that we survived a plane flight with 5 kids under the age of 7. It actually went pretty smooth. Honestly the worst part was having to constantly get looks from people when we walked through the airport with 5 young children. The flight attendants actually came up and asked "What's the deal, are these all your kids?" And then Nate said he left his other wife in Utah. :)

Leaving on a jet plane...

So, tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m. we are flying to Washington to visit my family for Christmas, which will be so fun.... once we get there. I am not all that excited about waking the kids up at 4:00 and getting to the airport at 4:30 only to wait for the plane, try to entertain the tired kids for a 2 hour plane ride.... and not only our 2 kids, we will have my sister's 3 kids for the plane ride too! But, I am so excited to go home to see my family. And I am excited for Christmas this year... I'll tell you why in 2 days. (Just in case anyone involved just happens to read this). Merry Christmas, and wish me luck tomorrow morning!

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow!

Well, I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures from the last couple of snow storms we have had. This year has been so fun because the kids LOVE playing in the snow. We went over to my friend T.'s house and the kids all played outside for a while, making snow angels and going down the slide into the snow. BRRRR! Nothing a little hot cocoa can't fix!

Nate and the kids had a blast making a snowman outside, actually a snowwoman. She had hair. I forgot to take a picture of the final product. We named her "Frostina." I love snow when it first comes down, after a few days of sitting and getting nasty, I can't wait for it to melt. But it's pretty at first.

7 Random things about Marcie

So, I was tagged by Kirsten, about... a week ago. It's been a crazy week. My parents came into town for Thanksgiving, and I found out Tuesday night that I was actually making an entire Thanksgiving dinner for my parents and neices and nephews. (It's a long story why I had my sister's kids at my house for Thanksgiving). But, after 2 days of grocery shopping and preparing a dinner, life slowed down long enough to shop shop shop (starting at 5 am on Friday)! We had so much fun with my parents here this weekend!
So, this morning while reading Kirsten's blog, I read her cute "7 random things about me" post, and at the end realized I was tagged too! So, let's see if I can think of 7 things about me that won't put you to sleep.

1. I have 2 guilty pleasures (or at least 2 that I can think of right now). First, I am totally addicted to Diet Coke, yep I admit it. I drink at least 2 a day, depending on the stress of the day. Second, I love watching Grey's Anatomy. It's pretty much a prime time soap opera, but I'm totally into it! Nate teases me about it, but I love it! I mean the drama of Merideth and "McDreamy"s relationship is enough to get me through a whole week. The doctors are hot, and the humor is great..... now watching Grey's Anatomy while drinking a Diet Coke, that's heaven.

2. I am very scared of dogs. I am getting better, maybe, but any dog I don't know sends my body into instant "scaredy cat mode." The worst is when I am running and get chased by a dog, I have actually cried from that. When I run into a dog, even in a fence, while running, I try to change my route the next time I run, attempting to avoid all dogs.

3. I want to run a marathon, someday. Okay, so it probably won't happen until I am finished having kids because of training time and all, but someday I will do it. I love running, love it. Actually, what I do is more like jogging, kind of slow and steady, but I do love it.

4. I LOVE getting mail! I know most people do, but my love is pretty strong. I shop online just so that I get packages, the UPS guy knows me pretty well. And, one of the main reasons that I like selling Shade Clothing is because I get tons of mail and packages. Most of it's not for me, but I still get mail!

5. I like to pick at things..... I mean food. I pick out the chunks in ice cream, or clusters out of the cereals. This drives Nate crazy, so I usually get two seperate ice creams, or cereals, so I can pick out what I want. I don't know what it is, like digging for treasures or something.

6. I love a good party. I love planning parties, making invitations, food, decorations, I love it all! I've already started planning Sadie's birthday party, and I'm so excited to get started (it's in April.)

7. I'm pregnant...........just kidding. But, that would have been a really great last one, huh. I'm not pregnant, and honestly I have no idea when I will be. That is my #7, that I am having a hard time deciding when to have #3. Carson is going to be 2 in 3 months, which means if I want them close together the clock is ticking. But, I am loving the way things are right now with 2 kids. They are pretty independent, and so fun. We'll see what happens, cause honestly I go back and forth between a 2.5 year gap and a 4 year gap daily.
So, there's my 7. And I am tagging Ciara.

A new brother for Nate!

Meet Ruslan, a 14 year old orphan from Ukraine that Nate's parents are adopting! He is such a fun kid and we are excited to welcome him into the family. Isn't he so cute? He and Carson got along so great, I think it's because they're kind of in the same situation. They understand more than they can speak, and when they do speak it's in one or two word phrases. Nate's parents will be going to pick him up from Ukraine in February or March, we are so excited! You've got to meet this kid, he is so fun!

Trick or TREAT!

We had so much fun trick or treating this year. The weather was warm, and both of our kids could finally get the "Trick or Treat" thing. Carson was so fun, he would knock on the door, say "Treat" and then "Thank you" every time. Okay, so every mom has those "my kid looks so cute moments" right? Look at that monkey costume, he was so cute! And Sadie dressed up like a poodle, and had a blast Trick or Treating too. By the time we were done we had to carry the kids buckets because they were too heavy for them.

By the way, Nate and I were Care Bears (homemade costumes of course). I love that Nate will dress up in my cheesy costumes, it was fun because all of the little kids knew who we were. Also in the picture with the kids is Anthony's son Benny (yes it's a boy, in a chick costume). So cute, they all had fun waddling around the neighborhood getting candy.

Better late than never...

Here are some pictures I just got from Tiff from our trip to San Diego a month ago. We had so much fun surfing, although I had a hard time keeping my board up for pictures!

"Pun-kin!"

Last night we went to Gardner Village to see all of the witches and "pun-kins," as Carson calls them. Our kids had a blast running around and finding all of the witches around the village. We had to convince Sadie that the witches were not real so she would sit on my lap for a picture by one. We are getting excited for Halloween, but Sadie wants to skip right to Christmas. Yesterday she wrote Santa a letter. I guess she wants to make sure Santa gets it early so she gets everything she wants, pretty smart!

Back to normal life

We have had such a fun summer. In July we went to Bear Lake for a week with the Wilson family. This was, by far, the funnest vacation we've had as a family so far. Our kids had a BLAST playing on the beach all day with their cousins (picture above: Sadie and Jayna), eating raspberry milkshakes, riding on the boat with Grandpa Wilson, and getting dirty all week long! After a week of it, Nate and I were surprised how sad we were to leave.
Nate & I went to California the first weekend in Sept. to visit his aunt & uncle, the Ek's, and go to the BYU game. Despite the outcome of the game, we had so much fun with the Ek family, surfing on the beach (pictures to come), and just relaxing in beautiful Southern California.
So, now it's back to real life. Sadie started preschool, which is so stinking cute I can't even tell you. Carson is starting to say a lot of fun words, like "belly button" "Love you" and "dance" , I love this stage!

After 5 years of marriage...

Tomorrow Nate and I are celebrating our 5 year anniversary, can you believe it? Even though life has changed a ton for us since 5 years ago, we are still madly in love with eachother. I don't think I could ever be more lucky than to have married Nate. He truly is the kindest, most patient, and fun guy I have ever known. He is my best friend, the best Dad in the world, a great provider, and a great example to me in all that he does. I know that spending eternity with him will be a joy. I love you Nate!

Grandpa's in town!

We had such a fun time with my Dad while he was in town. Sadie and Carson love to wrestle with him, of course Sadie always wins. It's great hearing Sadie talk about Grandpa Wilson for weeks after he leaves. Everyone around here knows Grandpa Wilson has a boat, Grandpa Wilson bought her a Dora tent, and of course Grandpa Wilson likes to wrestle. Fun times!

Carson 1 year

The Joys of Motherhood

I am so grateful to be a Mom. It's easy to get caught up in the stress and craziness, but it's the little things that are really wonderful when you're a Mom.

Like how cute it is when your 3 year old says, "That's ridiculous!"

Or, when your baby gives you their first real kiss, even if it is open mouthed and snotty.

The way they look at you right after you catch them doing something naughty, how can you get mad at that.

The first time your baby makes a "kitty cat" sound, in a high pitched little meow.

Just the little things every day, easy to overlook, but priceless when you stop to notice.

Our kids..

So, we're working on more recent pictures, but for now.....

Okay, we're joining the blogging club!
We thought it would be a great way to let all of our friends and family out there know what we are all up to. Plus, it's always fun letting you all see our kids' pictures.
So, here it is!