The Moo Tow Times

Family date night

2010-03-15T00:04:00.000-07:00

I love taking Marlee out to eat, she can finally sit at the table in her own chair! She usually just gets salad bar fruits and veggies and if she is lucky they will have pasta and jello! I have about 10 pictures of Marlee stuffing her face, but once again they will not upload.

Diana got us hired on with her at Shelf Reliance. She was our supervisor for a while until she was moved to graveyards. We used to have movie night/sleep over nights at our house when we all worked the same shift. Not so much anymore. Tiffany is our adopted daughter. She works with us as well and is just the funnest person to be around!

We cant go out without taking one of these famous goofy pictures. One day we will have a video montage of them all.

Hillary came as well! None of her photos from dinner would upload so she is just being introduced into the night here! We went bowling after dinner. It was an hour wait so everyone else played pool while we waited. Marlee was amazed by all the noises and little kids running around. Im happy she is so adventurous and social. She will crawl up to any kid and want to play, when she gets there she usually doesnt know what to do, but at least she is making friends!

There were a lot of fun pictures not included, check out facebook. It takes all my pictures and shows them to the world. Pretty sure I won, but Im not 100%, but I think I did. All I know is David didnt! HA! Can you tell we are competitive?

Marlee's room gets a make over!

2010-03-14T23:41:00.000-07:00

We finally have a room to decorate for our baby! Now that she is a year old. I have been trying to upload the pictures for 3 days now and this is the only one that will show up. This is why I dont blog!
My mom came over and helped me because I am not as crafty as she is. She bought some little white shelves that are above Marlee's crib with stuffed animals and baby blocks. I went to Ross and bought some wall decorations for super cheap! I think I spent 8 dollars on Moo's room and it turned out really cute! Maybe my computer did this on purpose, so now you HAVE to come to my house to see the rest of it, good thinking crappy computer!!

Since we last posted.....

2010-03-08T11:28:00.000-08:00

It has been a LOOOONG time since I have posted anything. Our camera broke and I just couldnt bring myself to post without any pictures. SO to catch up on things, Christmas was small, but amazing! Since we didnt think we were going to be able to afford anything at all! We were surprised with some money to spend on Marlee. She got her blocks and penguin, some cute outfits and her Christmas Dress.
The rest has gone by so fast I can hardly remember it all! For a few weeks we stayed at Aunt Teresas house while David and I worked temp jobs. Marlee had a lot of fun with her cousins, Teresa may have some pics of that.
We moved to Orem! David and I are both working at a food storage company called Shelf Reliance. We get family discounts ;)
Taxes were done and with the extra money after bills I got a new camera!! Time to start blogging!

Mar updates:

She now has 4 teeth on top and 3 on bottom
She will stand up with out leaning or holding onto things
She is a speed racer crawler
She sleeps in her crib in her OWN ROOM every night all the way thru
She would rather eat real food than her baby food
Sippy cups are finally being used

Oh and she is almost 1 YEAR OLD!!!

Photo Shoot with Maren

2009-11-22T22:14:00.000-08:00

This is the BEST picture of Marlee I will ever get!

Braxton Marlee and Jaiden

Braxton looks adorable!

Jaiden is the cutest!

I love her clueless face!

Thank you Maren! You have seriously got some talent! I am so in love with these pictures!! I just want more!

Drop Dead Julio

2009-11-18T23:01:00.000-08:00

Daddy danced with her

Maybe she thought she would crowd surf?

She is their smallest fan!

While we stayed with Teresa, Darin has a friend who is in a band, and was playing that night. Tickets were only 6 dollars so we decided to go with. Darin ended up not feeling well so he stayed home. It was an adventure in itself just to find the place! In the middle of down town I swear we could have been mugged...and it was freezing. We finally found the place thanks to Teresa and her loudness and being able to ask random people where to go.
It was a cute little garage band type of place. There was a fire pit outside, a little ticket booth and the "garage" where the band performed. That is pretty much what it was. The size of maybe a 2 car garage with a window and a stage.
David danced around with Marlee for a few songs, she even got a shout out from the lead singer and he threw her a t-shirt. Mine now. Then I started to worry about it being too loud for her. So I bundled her up and we went outside. We could watch the band from the window and Marlee fell asleep while the concert ended. We just HAD to get pictures of her with them...it was her first concert!
When Whitnee and Anna were her with us in the summer, Darin took Anna to one of the shows and she had a crush on the drummer. I made sure Teresa got a picture of him to show her :)

Weekend at Teresas

2009-11-18T22:53:00.000-08:00

Marlee can now pull herself to standing, while Rocky was in his bouncer she decided he needed something to eat

and she thought it was pretty funny.

We spent last weekend up at Teresas house. 2 nights away from my big comfy bed was too much! We are used to staying overnight when we go since it is such a journey to get there we have to make it worth it! It was really nice to just be able to sit at their HOUSE and just hang out. We didnt have any plans so we were able to just talk and enjoy the company.
Daylon was "bored" the whole time and that got annoying real quick...but what can ya do? We played a game of Monopoly, we all thought Rain would be the one to be slow and bug us during the game....nope it was Daylon the bored one. Eventually we all quit but David claims he would have won.
We played a lot of cards too. Teresa made fajitas for dinner one of the nights and dang they were gooood!! The kids didnt like them luckily so we all got a ton. David and I bought pie for dessert but since the kids wouldnt eat the dinner we decided they didnt deserve dessert. Mom gave in and gave them all a tiny slice before bed. Not one of them finished it tho because David gets this nasty rasellberry something or another, its gross!
Fun weekend, but we can wait to do it again. I like coming home to my bed :)

Sniffles the Bear

2009-11-18T22:30:00.000-08:00

We decided it was time for Marlee to make her very first Build-a-Bear! We got a gift certificate from the Navajo rug show to the Cheesecake Factory. While we waited for the huge line to be seated we walked around the mall.

David looks more excited than Marlee does. We picked out a little voice box that says "I love you"

Usually the kids will step on the paddle to stuff the bear, so we just sat her little bum on the paddle, she didnt like it after this.

She got to pick a heart and kiss it (well slobber on it) and stuff it in the bear. It was cute, she actually let it go like she knew what she was doing.

Bath time for the pair! I dont really know what the point of the tub in here is, maybe just for fun for the kids? Mar didnt like it too much.

We are ready to adopt!

She just found her new best friend!

It was cute when she went to bed that night I put Sniffles in the crib with her and when I came back to check on her she was cuddled up to him. We chose the name because it seems that since birth she has had a stuffy or runny nose. We just are not that creative either!

Marlee & Updates

2009-11-09T00:42:00.001-08:00

More Marlee photos that dont belong in any specific post....so they are on here just to be here so I dont have to risk losing them.
If you dont already know, my computer crashed recently taking with it all my pics of Marlee's entire existance. Steve is still working on getting them back, but just in case I am going to be blogging every week so I dont have to worry about losing pics again.
These are as far back as the photos go that are on my memory card right now, after this....nothing.

These are Marlee's first smiles

My acne is better now thank goodness!

nothing is more precious than baby feet!

I miss her wicked awesome hair!

first baby foods, thankfully she is not that messy anymore!

she loves kissing her daddy!

More updates:

*Marlee is 7 months old
*She is sitting up
*She has 2 bottom teeth
*She weighs almost 15 lbs
*She crawls on her knees now
*She pulls herself up to standing
*She will take steps when you hold her hands
*She had tubes put in her ears a few weeks ago, and I think she has yet another ear infection right now.
*She had another hair cut, this time leaving her to look like a boy

Other events not photographed

Jazz game with Teresa and Daylons Jr Jazz team.
Weekly trips to Marens house
The Goodman family and ours went to the Myan to eat, and to see Toy Story 1 and 2 in 3D
Lots of boutiques where Marlee got new headbands
A girls trip to Idaho with Maren, Linda and I (and babies)
Rains dance recital

I have decided recently to become more active in the church. I will be getting my Patriarchal blessing within the next few weeks, and moving on slowly to eventually get to the temple.

I cant think of any more at the moment...it is 2 in the am and I am ready for bed, so goodnight.

Mar and Lani growing up

2009-11-09T00:27:00.000-08:00

I have a whole bunch of pictures of these two together that I cant fit into any other post...so here they are!

Marlee looks like a monster next to her!

She liked to beat up on her poor little cousin

Stealing her mittens

naughty baby!

Lani is finally free of all air and machines!! Look at her grow!

Im pretty sure she was smiling at this stage of life

Lani now weighs almost 11 or 12 lbs i dont remember, she has her ears pierced. She laughs! They are starting her on baby foods and letting her spend time on the floor to build up her neck muscles and let her find her hands! She is getting so big and smart!

Park City

2009-11-09T00:06:00.000-08:00

Austin had a field trip up to Park City for a Navajo rug show. We came up with Maren and the kids late of course, that is our style. We missed the cerimony....so we only got to walk around the boutique style show. They were all selling hand woven rugs, blankets, baskets, jewelry pretty much everything native. Austin and my mom had to leave pretty soon because we got there late. Austin got a feather necklace and had to run to the bus. Him and David learned how to play the flute. I have videos of it so you can hear it, but it had been trying to download for about half an hour already and made no progress so I cancelled it. It sounds really pretty and they were doing good, for first timers. This little plain flute Austin is playing is around 70 bucks. When we went up to the Dance festival thing in Bountiful earlier this summer we saw some going up to 5000 or more. I would still love to have one some day.
We bought some hair clippies for my hair, Marlee got a bracelet which ended up being too big so it is an anklette till it fits. We could have spent hours looking at the turquoise jewelry, if anyone ever buys me jewelry that is what I want!
Jaiden was getting sick so he was crying most of the time, and Braxton was hungry so he wasnt too happy either. We left and went to get some food. We went to this really good pizza place and watched CNN lol. From there we headed to the outlets to get David and Maren some shoes.
After a few shoe stores and no luck I decided to look in the Gap....great find! Pants for 7 bucks, shirts for 2, hoodies for 11...ok those were the 3 articles of clothing I got after looking for over an hour. Maren spent around 95 but got a ton of clothes! It was the best sale I had ever seen in my life.
Then David got some shoes and both of them got Crocs. Yeah I got jipped on the shopping spree but I have already let off my steam for it. I am still mad about it tho!

Marlee's first Halloween

2009-11-08T23:26:00.000-08:00

There was a lot of debate on going up to Susans for her birthday/Halloween. Then she was going to come here, then not. SO after a lot of consideration and cancellations everyone stayed put. Maren found this super cute costume for Marlee that fit perfectly with our family. David loves everything peace, and is slowly dragging me into the trend. We spent the night before at Teresas so we were up there for the morning. We slept in while her and Rachel played with Marlee..then when we had to get up it was already around 11 I think. So kids were starting to get ready. We wanted to be at Dicks Marketplace to trunk or treat at 3. When we got there the line was super long and there was only 1 row of cars....not worth it! So we left and went trick or treating down Main street instead.

Rocky was a Chili pepper

Nana had too much candy!

David had Teresa decorate this sign for her trunk or treating

this bag of mnms was sucked thru until the chocolate started coming out, then she sucked the chocolate until I found it all over her face, hands and costume.

Teresa and her family with Forest and Olga trick or treating. Daylon is a Disco dancer, Rain is a vampire I think....Star is tinkerbell

My dad and his wife Ana came along for the tail end of it

When we were done it was around 5 and Rachel needed a ride home to see her kids trick or treating. We stopped at home to get some tie dye shirts on for our "costumes" during the 2 seconds we were home Zack called us to see if we were going to my moms dinner. Good thing he called right then or we would have left and not known about it! She makes a big dinner every year. It started when we were kids so we would get full on a big dinner before going out trick or treating and eating candy all night. We headed straight over there and had lasagne and garlic bread and hot wassail (David hates it, but Rachel loved it so it just proves he is crazy!) donuts and my mom had little treat bags for all of us. My uncle David even showed up, but 2 of my brothers didnt so it upset my mom. She likes to take it out on me, but its ok I would have been mad too.
We left there to meet up with Maren at Johns parents house to do trunk or treating with their ward. By the time we got there it was over, and they were off to a party at some rich persons house. I was frustrated our plans hadnt been working out, so we didnt go with. Instead we started off to show family Marlee in her costume like I had wanted.

Jaiden as a bag of bones

Braxton too busy to show off his costume

My mom painted my face since I was supposed to be a hippie

Our first stop was my uncle Larry. The 2 younger kids were home already, but the 2 older were out with aunt Margaret trick or treating still. We decided to take Marlee around until we found them. Best idea of the night! My uncle lives in richer neighborhood and they were all giving out the good candy! We ran into one of them moms from Austins football team, we talked to her for a while. The entire time we felt like we were stealing because there was no way Marlee was going to eat any of the candy, but most people ended up giving us more "for the parents" so we pretty much got double!
We found the cousins and they wanted to head over to the retirement community close to their house, so we told them we would take them. Most of the houses were dark, so we only got a few houses....but a lot of them just had bowls sitting out with candy in them...still the good stuff! One of them even had their bowl full of almond rocca (spelling?) and the other good chocolate I cant think of...Its regularly like 3 bucks a bar. Anyway we were SOOO tempted to just take handfulls, but we were with younger kids so we had to set the good example. Dang kids! lol jk.
So after a successful night of trick or treating we headed to my grandpas house, he was handing out full sized Snickers. We got a bunch of them, he didnt really have much to say. I think he was pretty tired, or disappointed he didnt get very many trick or treaters. Next stop was grama in the Rehab facility.

She was so "tickled" as she would say, to see Moo. She cant get enough of this little girl. She tells everyone she sees how beautiful and perfect and worth the wait and you name it she is! She brags about her so much my uncle always gets jealous and says yeah next week she is going to speak chinese.
Maren and John wanted us to come back over, but when we drove by all the lights were off. They ended up being awake, but we didnt want to take the risk. Instead we went to Ryans and watched a movie before heading home.

The next day I was getting ready to go meet with my bishop when I came into the room to find Marlee 2 elbows deep into her candy bowl. She was double fisting the candy throwing it after a few good bites on the wrappers and going to the next one. She thought it was pretty fun.

Overall it was the best Halloween ever!

Just to throw this story in even tho David will kill me for it.....Halloween was a pretty big event in our relationship history. My friend Lacie was dating his room mate Tim. Lie or not I will never know, but David supposedly told Lacie to have me come hang out with him on Halloween and that he "really wanted me to be there" they were going to some party. So I came with Lacie and my future maid of honor Carissa. Of course we were all skanked out, we were young, skinny, single and it was Halloween! David was already too drunk to realize what was going on by the time we got there (his costume was a missionary) Long story short he made out with my then best friend future maid of honor "friend" Carissa. I was devastated and left crying. My true best friend Lacie left with me. After that night I dont know why but I got attention from David FINALLY!

So after a few bad events on Halloween, I finally have had a good one!

Marlee's first teeth

2009-11-08T23:16:00.000-08:00

She cut 2 teeth at the same time, she wasnt overly grouchy like everyone says....she did drool a ton! And who knows if they brought on ear infections because she always has them!
Her cheeks and chin went bright red for about a day so we just had to take some fun pictures to show them off

Oh and this is when she started sitting up by herself!

She fell over :0

State Fair

2009-11-08T22:51:00.000-08:00

The day started off with us meeting at Zack and Viena's house. They were to follow us there and then we would spend the night with them. Well on the way to find parking, we lost them! We do not have a cell phone so our first mission was to find a phone to call them because the place is just way too big to expect to find them. Well since everyone but us has cell phone now days, pay phones no longer exist. We found a worker who told us we could use the office phone...but when we got there it only let us call Salt Lake numbers. No help to us. Next David suggested if we walk around long enough we would just run into someone we knew...after about 5 min we ran into one of my best friends and her date! The cute couple above. Sara and Shawn, they saved the night! They got to see Marlee and I used her phone to call them. Apparently they had seen us when we were talking to the person who told us to go to the office building...but they just couldnt run to us lol. So we found them buying 2 dollar tacos :) Our next mission was to find a booth selling shoes. I decided to try to be cute and wear shoes instead of my normal flip flops. BAD idea! the shoes were too small, I guess my feet grew while I was preggo....so I already had blisters and we had been there for about 20 min. Davids positive attitude paid off! We found a really cool place selling just about anything. Shoes, purses, belts, swords, toy airplanes, sunglasses....EVERYTHING! So thanks to David and his magical suggestions all our problems were solved and we could enjoy the night.

While we were walking toward the taco stand we saw this nifty little robot man. I didnt get a close look so I dont know exactly what he does, but David wanted to follow him.

There were lots of these pay 2 dollars to see things. The worlds smallest horse, the worlds smallest woman...stuff like that. We were curious...but not enough to pay to see.

David cant stay away from the games...at least this time he didnt lose all his money in 5 min!

Marlee loved the entire night! she got a lot of cute bows this weekend! Along the way there were about 50 picture booths, ones that put your picture on a key chain in about 5 min, ones where you dress up in themes and get it printed off. We got Marlee on a key chain and we all dressed up like gangster Mexicans in somberros. I will have to find a way to scan it onto the computer.
While we waited for the key chain to be done Boys to Men were playing their concert right behind the little photo booth...so we got to listen to maybe 3 or 4 songs. On the program they hand you when you walk in, it said free Boys to Men concert tonight. We even asked the info stand where it was and they said we needed tickets. Well right behind the booth there was a giant sign that said FREE SEATING FOR CONCERT we could have seen them for free!!! Ugh no one ever listens to me!

While we were waiting for our Mexican pictures to print off we were right next to this. You know you are always curious when you walk by these to know if you would be able to do it. And to make it worse the carny would prance up to the top in about 30 seconds to show you just how easy it is. We watched some really athletic girl try for about 15 min and we all thought we had figured out how to do it.....

ooohhh too bad

I was determined!

nope

Zack was just lucky to get on the dang rope! lol

Then we came to the ducky ball toss. Looked simple enough and it was only 1 dollar for 3 balls!

Yet another game we cant win! I guess we werent meant to take home any prizes!

We saw the group of police officers and thought it would be funny with our past to get a picture with them....turns out the lady loved babies and it wasnt as funny as we thought it would be

We happened to walk past the food stands on the way out, with no money left. David saw a stand for deep fried just about anything. Twinkies, Oreos, candy bars, cheesecake you name it. He has been really into the food channel lately and according to them, a deep fried candy bar will be the best tasting dessert you will ever taste. Too bad David didnt have the money to taste it. I personally think of big fat women in double wide trailers spitting tobacco when I hear the word deep fried.

On our way out we go stuck walking thru the sales tent part...good thing we left all our money in the car. They had the best looking fudge and carameled apples! Oh and some guy selling the magnetic jewelry was trying to sell us some, and just HAD to mention that the magnets would help with acne. JERK! I hate it when ppl think I am constantly looking for the cure for my face! Im over it I know I will never have a clear face, it is insulting to have strangers tell me they can help my face. UGH
Anyway we moved on to look at the sheep on our way out. They are sad looking animals and they dont like us very much. Well they were all curious about Marlee but then David would come over and then would turn away. After the great fun of the fair we went back to Zack and Viena's and watched a movie before heading home. Fun night!

Noelani Carole Cardon Baby Blessing

2009-11-08T22:28:00.000-08:00

The proud parents

Grama and little Lani

The 2 cousins

Grama the great and Lani

Marlee throwing a fit she isnt the star of the party.

Lani was blessed at the Samoa ward, we thought it was in English, but it wasnt. There were headphones that translated for those who wanted it...we showed up late so we didnt get any headphones. We werent aware until we got there that it was a double blessing. Lani has a cousin on her moms side of the family that was born in the summer sometime, so she was blessed the same day. Afterward we had a lunch in the park with both families. Again I dont remember much of what happened...I am turning into my husband! I do remember I was really annoyed that my dad wasnt there. He had just gotten back from a 4 week vacation to El Salvador and was gone again to Myrtle Beach North Carolina. He wasnt there to bless the baby like the parents had wanted, so the other grandpa blessed her in Samoan. Zack and the rest of our family didnt even get to understand what was said :( Oh well I guess....I hope he makes it for the baptism!

Kangaroo Zoo

2009-11-08T22:17:00.000-08:00

For Rains birthday we went to Kangaroo Zoo in North Salt Lake. She had some friends, and a lot of the family came. I dont remember too much about this since it was so long ago....we did mini golf as well, but didnt take any pictures of that....it was glow in the dark golf and it looked pretty cool. I would go back for the golfing....but the slides werent too much fun for adults. The kids had a lot of fun tho.

Alexandra

David looking like the devil?

David thought it was so much fun to take Marlee down the slides. Him and Austin got her up there and scared me to death everytime they did....I wish my camera would have been able to take a picture of her scared face going down the slides!

Jaiden had a lot of fun crawling around the blow up jungle gym...I dont remember if he was walking very well then.

Marlee had fun when David pretended the monster was eating us.

After the Kangaroo Zoo we went back to Teresas to open presents. Rain was really mad we didnt get to open them at the place...but they wanted to charge an extra amount of money so it wasnt worth it to stay....I think there was cake too?? We had to leave for something I dont even remember so we didnt get to see her open all the presents. I will have to start posting as soon as things happen :(

2 dollar Tuesdays at Thanksgiving Point

2009-11-06T14:18:00.000-08:00

Zack and Ena

Baby Lani

Braxton and Jaiden

Maren, Marlee, Whitnee and me too! We all went to Thanksgiving Point almost every Tuesday in August because it was only 2 dollars a person to each event. This was our first choice The Gardens! It really is hyped up a lot more than it is....the childrens garden I thought needed some attention. The waterfall in one area was all moldy and things were broken. Its not as nice as everything else at Thanksgiving Point.

This was a giant ark typa thing with water for kids to play in. Marlee loved splashing her feet.

Her and a little fake duck

There were fish in this little pond thing....the water was really gross tho.

Braxton got to play on this giant grasshopper slide.

Marlee picked the flowers

This is the giant man made waterfall....its really big!

This was behind the waterfall, we all took turns splashing each other with the water...it felt nice to cool off!

Marlee fell asleep as we walked around the rest of the gardens...it was a LOOONG walk!

Braxton, Maren and Whitnee raced to the bottom of the hill....

The other events were the Farm/petting zoo and the Dinosaur Museum. I have no pictures of either...we actually didnt go to the Farm. Maren went one day when John got off work early, I think I was still in pain from the kidney stone...August was not a fun month! The gift shop had 1lb of fudge on sale for 2 dollars also, I bought some for us...and forgot about it and it melted!
The museum was really fun...Hyrum and Tiana were in town so we all went together. It was REALLY crowded, but the kids had a lot of fun.

Date night with Eric and Hillary

2009-11-06T14:03:00.000-08:00

We all went to Boondocks!!

Whitnee stayed with us for a little while in the summer and one of the nights we decided to go to Boondocks with Eric and Hillary. I had my kidney stone at the time...I had been home, sick for a week or longer and needed to get out. Even tho I was in pain and on pain killers. Half the time here I was loopy....and the other half I was hurting....but it was still fun!

Eric and Hillary putting in the creepy cave.

This was a little spinny thing...it changed the rules or had you golf a funny way. Everyone decided not to play that way after about 4 holes.

Marlee started to get hungry half way thru so she was a grouch

Yes everyone in this family is obsessed with butt shots. I will one day make a video montage of everyones butts

Whitnee (black from cali) putting

Eventually everyone took turns holding Marlee so she wouldnt cry so loud

They love her

Finally Marlee gets to eat and everyone took bathroom breaks lol

SO cute! Pre marriage Picture

We played arcade games and won stuff with tickets

They all went on go karts but the pictures were too blurry...I decided not to ride because A I was all doped up on pain killers and B I had a rock in my back that didnt feel too good

So we stayed on the side and watched them and took silly pictures.

We also played laser tag somewhere in there. Fun night!

Jaidens 1st Birthday!

2009-11-06T13:42:00.000-08:00

This is Marlee's dress her aunt Viena bought her at Flag days (another event with lost pictures)

Us as close to our hippie family pic as we will get

I just love Marens face in this one!

Jaiden opening presents

Birthday boy!!

(dont ask me why I dont have pictures of him eating his cake?? I dont know)

Off to the rec center to swim!

Marlee is just too cool for school

Teresa being the dork she is

Marens boobs and Jaiden

Braxton is a stud

Elisabeth and Alexandra

The babies got to swing on these really cool swings (we had a video of mar spinning in circles now lost)

ooh ooh someones cute butt!

daddy and baby Mar

Goodman family...thought it was a good one..way to go John! and Braxton lol

Our family

Teresa missing a few kids

For Jaidens birthday we all met up in Lehi at Wines Park to have brunch. Johns mom made some yummy quiche...and there was fruit and daylight donuts yum! anyway Jaiden opened presents and ate his first birthday cake....then we headed to the Legacy Center to swim. Swimming was a blast! We all got sick unfortunately....we still havnt decided if it was from the pool itself or the Little Ceasars Pizza we all ate. Everyone but Johns brother Ryan and his family, and Elisabeth and Alexandra got sick. Miserably sick!! Maren swears it was Swine flu, but who knows?

Marlees first hair cut!

2009-09-16T13:16:00.000-07:00

waiting to get her hair cut!

baldy in the back

The finished product!

I love all the faces she made during this little adventure! While we were there (at my aunts house) I started to get light headed and dizzy and then I got hot flashes...I hadnt eaten all day! So I made myself some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches so I didnt pass out...while I was doing that I put mar on the floor...it was the first time she rolled over more than once in a row! She rolled clear across the room to come over to me....now she can just crawl, but this was a little while ago!

Marlees first oatmeal!

2009-09-16T13:06:00.000-07:00

She took it right in, and ate the whole bowl of rice cereal! When I first started feeding her she would eat the entire thing, and hardly make a mess. Now after about a month of eating she wont eat unless I force it in her mouth, and after a while its a 50/50 chance of her giving in and eating or throwing a fit and spitting it everywhere. She is much more interested in eating anything I eat. This morning I gave her little pieces of peaches and she loved it! Maren has given her bread and other things....I guess now that her tooth is here I can start letting her practice chewing.

yum!

ok she looks like she doesnt like it....but she does! ok!

Marlees Blessing

2009-09-16T12:52:00.000-07:00

I know this was a long time ago....but I JUST got these pics from my mom.

LOVE this pic!!!

She was blessed May 5 (a mix of my birthday and her blessing party)

We had a luncheon at the park

Teresa didnt come!

Even Tammy and gramie and grampy came!

My grama and her sister bought matching outfits for this...but it was so cold we didnt get to see

She looks like an angel....she is one now

Austey still had his long hair :(

Bath time!

2009-09-16T12:45:00.000-07:00

I just love all the faces she makes! This was no special event, just a bath and some cute pics

The Rodeo

2009-09-16T11:57:00.000-07:00

I found some Rodeo pics on my moms camera....we went the same night with Eric and Hillary, we just didnt sit with my family. The day before was the parade Marlee and I were in. I didnt have batteries for my camera so I was scrounging for anyone to take pics of us, a bunch of people said they would and then didnt show up! I was sooo upset that day! Elisabeth and her family came and saw us before the parade started, they sat on the busiest part of the parade with a hundred kids fighting over candy! And they were on the opposite side of us. My mom, dad, brothers and gram came...but they werent even paying attention when we drove by....Im sure it wont be the last time Marlee wins the cutest baby contest :)
The next day is Rodeo day!! This was the day of the post before where we went to the museum. Right before the rodeo we had a bbq at my grams house. It was supposed to be a small meet the family thing for my brothers new in laws. They are proper and fancy, and I was soooo embarassed by what we saw when we got there! Traditional bbqs at my grams house are nice and quiet and maybe have some fireworks. The food is amazing and we just talk.....not this time! My moms boyfriend was in town and he decided to take over the event. He and the bums (if you dont know my family very well then you dont know that all my grampas life he was taking in strays...he had a few campers he would let them live in rent free as long as they helped out around the farm. Lauren was the last one he took in before he died, so Lauren is here to stay to kind of look after my gram and do the yard work) so the bums decided they would play honkey tonk music as loud as they could, put a cooler of beer out and chew tabacco. Not only that, but they invited the neighbors (family, but more rednecks to add to the picture) all the dogs, and undercooked hamburgers. I thought Lizzies family was going to die! Im sure I embarassed Jimmy by announcing my burger was still pink all the way thru and I wasnt going to eat it. Im sorry but I was hungry and had enough of the party before I even got there!
We finally got to leave and meet up with Eric and Hillary, thank goodness I didnt have to witness anymore of the redneckness of my mothers boyfriend! We got to introduce our new date night friends to the BEST hamburgers I have ever tasted! My grampa used to work in the snack stand and would sneak us hamburgers and pepsi. When I was younger he would buy me and my brothers cowboy boots and hats to wear to the rodeo. Zack got red ones and would never take them off! The year he died none of us could go because the memory of him made us burst into tears and being there would have been too difficult....while I was there I thought of him the entire time, but it was easy to smile about the memories.

These are the signs in front of the Rodeo.

See how dark the clouds are? That is why no one (but Elisabeth) came to the parade

Rodeo Royalty

Frog prince float

These two ladies are the two I was sitting next to....see that blue bow on the right? Thats in Marlees hair.....thanks mom!

Grama Nick and Lizzie watching the parade

Time for the Hillbilly Hoedown!

The bums

Jimmy and Lauren

Lizzies family

Gram looking disappointed

Rodeo time!!

I went to school with 2 of the 3 here

The clown is the best part of the Rodeo! They are doing the dirt dance

The meet and dance after the rodeo...we didnt stay for this.

Lehi Round up days

2009-07-29T15:34:00.000-07:00

Marlee was in the parade Friday night. Elisabeth was the only one to come, and she was on the opposite side of us, so we got NO pictures!! I was so upset! She was so good on the trailer all the way thru and as soon as we got off she was hungry. This is Saturday mornings parade, we literally rolled out of bed, threw some clothes on and came upstairs just in time to see the beginning. Which by the way I think is retarded!! We dont like cops, so why do they stick them and their annoying loud sirens at the beginning of all parades?? hmm?? I HATE that. All it does is make the babies cry and everyone cover their ears. DUMB! anyway this is Mar watching the parade, her favorite parts are the bands or anything with music.

David still cant take a normal picture.

One of the cute floats, we werent too big on taking pics of the floats this year.

A cute little bee guy

HA so the theme for the floats was If I could I would......and this one was go sky diving at age 92 or something like that and they have this cute little old lady :)

A mascot guy, David was jealous he didnt come shake his hand

Right after the parade we headed to the museum. Its free the whole week of Rodeo days. This is what we saw......

David being a dinosaur

David being a deer

David breaking into a safe

An uncut page of dollar bills

The first cash register used in the Lehi Co Op

Native American symbols

Arrow heads

Bow and Arrows, oh and the small thing in the bottom right corner is a brush. weird huh?

They had tons of these cases of guns

When we first walked in neither of us noticed this little guy, he scared the poop out of us when we did see him.

David and Marlee locked up

Marlee in shackles

Us in the teepee

I put this on facebook and said were home! but my little brother wrote back and said Navajos dont live in teepees they live in wigwhams so I cant say that now.

After this we went home and had breakfast, there was a small kid carnival at the park but we had no money so we didnt go. We took naps, then headed to my grandmas for a BBQ. My moms boyfriend threw the party, it was supposed to be a meet the new family (my older brothers in laws) but it turned into a hoe down redneck drinkin beer n spittin seeds typa party. They had old country blasted on the radio and a bucket of beer. SO not my family but Jimmy was throwing the party so he really showed what he is all about I guess. If you cant tell I dont get a long with him too well. The food wasnt cooked all the way so I guess I embarassed him by announcing the hamburgers were still pink. Oh well, I was hungry!
Then we dropped Marlee off at my aunts house to go to the Rodeo!! We went with Eric and his new girlfriend Hillary. She is awesome! We love going out with those two. I love going to the Rodeo!! When I was little my grandpa would work in the stands and sneak us hamburgers and pepsi. Hillary has all the pics of the Rodeo so when I get them from her I will post them.

Goodbye Gramma Cardon

2009-07-29T14:45:00.000-07:00

My grandmother on my dads side passed away June 22. She had heart surgery the week before and just struggled to recover. The last time I saw her as herself was on Saturday at Vienas baby shower. She seemed to be at peace with what was to come, like she knew. I knew too. I tried to spend as much time with her as I could, I told her everything I needed to. I thought her death would have been easier to bear that way, I was wrong. I saw her after her surgery all plugged up to those machines breathing for her. She was so swollen I couldnt even recognize her. I saw her a few times in that week at the hospital, but didnt want to remember her that way so I didnt stay too long. My dad called me each morning to update me on her status, and when the day finally came I thought I was prepared for it. I almost didnt go to the hospital. Zack and Viena wanted to go so we all got in the car and headed down. We were 20 min late, she was already gone by the time we got there. The entire family was in the room, tears on everyones faces. I couldnt even look at her, just hugged my aunt Anita, then my grampa and made my way thru the room. After about 3 min my grampa said I gotta get out of here and left, that made my heart sink. It almost wasnt real.
The funeral was that Friday. There was a viewing Thrs night (which was also Daylons bday party) I actually made it on time to family prayer this time. I didnt with my grampas. I almost made it thru the funeral without bawling like a baby until my cousin sang a song called Grandmother, it goes like this

You give me a kiss. You give me a hug. You smile when you see me too. I wish every child in the whole wide world could have a grandmother like you.
You read me a book. You sing me a song. You whisper you love me too. I wish every child in the whold wide world could have a grandmother like you.
Ill try to be good. Ill do as I should. Ill whisper I love you too. I wish every child in the whole wide world could have a grandmother just like you.

I will miss her everyday, but I know she is where she wants to be. I know she is happy, and that is all I need to know.

Putting the flower on her grave.

My aunt Anita

First place baby is related to us

Her cascett

My brothers

My brothers and cousins carrying her.

Tag from Madalyn

2009-07-07T22:50:00.000-07:00

got tagged by a friend of mine to do this so here goes nothing :) (and if I tag you then you better do it..... or else..... jk lol)

8 Things I am passionate about:
1- Cuddle time with my hubby
2- Snuggle time with my baby
3- Marlees health
4- Constantly strengthening my marriage
5- Visiting family weekly
6- Leaving my house on weekends
7- Keeping in touch with old friends
8-Strengthening relationships with my brothers

8 words/phrases I often say
1- oh my gosh
2- Marlee moo tow (thanks star!!)
3- haha (i have to give david courtesy laughs a lot!)
4- freakin idiot!!
5- stupid
6- i love you a bushel and a peck
7- nu uh
8- Im hungry :)

8 Things I want to do before I die-
1- Go to the temple
2- Go back to school
3- Get my drivers licence back lol
4- Move into a house!
5- Learn about my heritage
6- Charity work in an orphanage
7- Get my parents (all of them including in laws) thru Great Life
8- I want to feel ready to go when it's my time to die. (too good not to steal from you)

8 Things I currently want or need
1- My drivers license!!!!!!
2- To get our car fixed
3- To fill my prescriptions
4- A new couch
5- A bigger apartment
6- A swing for Marlee
7- New contacts
8- A maid would be nice :)

8 People I tag
1-Maren since its time you blog again!
2-Teresa
3-Tiana
4-Christina
5- Haylee
6- Kristy
7-Whitnee
8-um.....you!

FILL IT OUT! Learn 49 things about your friends, and let them learn 49 things about you!

1. Do you like blue cheese? absolutely not!
2. Your Favorite Shoes? flip flops
3. Do you own a gun? nope
4. Your favorite song? it changes weekly. right now its falling slowly by the frames or lucky by jason maraz
5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? depends on what I am there for
6. What do you think of hot dogs? nasty!!! but very rarely I will crave one
7. Favorite Christmas song? Christmas shoes
8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Water
9. Can you do push ups? prob not even half
10. Are you afraid of flying? just taking off and landing
11. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? My wedding ring or the jewelry I just got that was my grammas
12. Favorite hobby? blogging? I dont really have a hobby
13. Animals: love them or hate them? LOVE them! but the small rodents and reptiles creep me out
14. Do you have ADD? no the complete opposite.
15. What do you hate about yourself? My acne and the extra baby fat
16. What is your middle name? Elizabeth
17. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment: M neck really hurts, Marlee REALLY needs a bath, I want that ice cream in the freezer
18. What's your favorite number? 24
19. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? water, dr pepper, crystal light
20. Current worry right now? how are we going to get the car fixed?
21. Current hate right now? umm....nothing?
22. Favorite place to be? My grammas house
23. How did you bring in the New Year? I dont remember....oh yeah we walked to Arctic Circle for dinner, I got my first contraction and then Ryan came over and we played Apples to Apples all night and stayed up till 6 to get Mcdonalds breakfast
24. where would you like to go? Hawaii
25. Name three people who will complete this? Um...no one any time soon lol
26. Do you own slippers? 2 pairs
27. What shirt are you wearing? a tank top from Old Navy and a red Aeropostale hoodie
28. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? never have
29. Can you whistle? not really
30. Favorite color? Green and orange
31. Would you be a pirate? no
32. What songs do you sing in the shower? I don't sing in the shower, everything echoes too much
33. Favorite girl's name? Marlee,,,,duh
34. Favorite boy's name? I dont like any of them...for a baby I always wanted a Dakotah
35. What's in your pocket right now? dont have any right now
36. Last thing that made you laugh? Marlee glaring at David
37 . Best bed sheets as a child? all of us fought over the crayola crayon ones, they had every color and little swirls and the crayons had smiley faces on them and arms :) but I always got stuck with beauty and the beast ones :(
38. Worst injury you've ever had? either having Marlee or my lawn mower incident
39. How many TVs do you have in your house? 2
40. Who is your loudest friend? David? most of my friends are real quiet
41. How many dogs do you have? none :(
42. Does someone have a crush on you? I hope so
43. Favorite Book? I cant keep interested in books anymore
44. Partying hard or Laying low? Laying low!!
45. What is your favorite candy? Snickers
46. Favorite Sports team? The Jazz??
47.What were you doing 12 AM last night? driving home
48. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? which time? first time i guess was wow david is already home, next time was go back to sleep mar and final time was holy cow its already 1!?
49. If you are married, where did you meet your WIFE/HUSBAND? At a dance, I have told this story a bagillion times!!!

Marlee wins 3rd in cutest baby contest!

2009-06-24T23:33:00.001-07:00

Aunt Viena and Marlee after the awards were handed out

Yay 3rd prize!

It is Lehi Round Up week this week so we entered Marlee in the cutest baby contest. The Lehi police department sponsored the contest, so they were the judges. I think she is coming down with a cold or something because she had been grouchy all night and had almost no sleep before the contest, so she didnt smile or anything. It didnt help that the cops just stared at her and didnt talk to her or anything either. It was very akward and I thought for sure she wouldnt place at all, which I would have been completely okay with because I didnt want to ride a float with her during the parade. BUT she did place third, so now I do ride on a trailer with her in the parade on Friday night.
her prize was a ribbon and a 15 dollar gift card to Smiths. Lame considering it took 20 to enter her! We didnt have enough for it so my little brother paid for it. He expected her to take first. All my brothers were upset she didnt take first. Actually the first place baby is pretty ugly, she must have had a cute personality with the judges. I will try to get a picture of her at the parade to compare. Anyway I have an award winning baby!

Carnival with the Goodmans

2009-06-24T22:56:00.000-07:00

Marlee making her HUH!? face

Still not sure what is going on

My bright pink toes

Braxton riding the big trucks with a girl not too impressed

Yummy hands

More cars

Daylon and Whitnee on the ferris wheel

More Braxton

David taking Braxton down the slide, enlarge to see Braxtons face!

He thought it was scary

And she is out

Maren and chunk

Sexay David

Being goofy

Throwing darts

Being confused......

So on one of our weekly Thursday visits, or maybe it was a Friday? Not sure....anyway Maren and John talked us into going to the carnival with them. I really didnt want to, I was tired and had been planning a wedding (another post to come) but went anyway. They had tried to go the night before but were rained out, so they all had tickets already. We didnt really have money for any so we watched Braxton ride the rides and Whitnee and Daylon went off by themselves most of the night.
I did ride 1 ride with Whitnee the Orbiter or something like that. Pretty much it spins while it spins?? Why?? I used to live for those rides and I thought I was seriously going to throw up! Everyone always told me after having a baby my stomach would be like that, but I didnt believe them! Psht Lagoon will not be that fun this year! I used to take pride in my riding abilities. A sprite made my tummy settle down a bit but I was really just tired and ready for sleep.
David wouldnt leave without playing some games, so he went for the darts because they were the "easiest" the guy told him he could have the first one free, then some more free, and after about 5 min he had tricked him out of 15 bucks! All his fast talking and Davids slow brain and he won me a 15 dollar white teddy bear. He was still stunned by what happened about 3 hours later.
Marlee loved all the lights and the sounds for about an hour and after that she went right to sleep. She sleeps better when it is noisy. After the carnival we went back to Marens for dinner and ice cream and watched about half a movie before getting too tired and going home. I really need to write about these when they happen or else I forget everything and cant tell any good stories about the day.

Silly David

2009-06-24T22:42:00.000-07:00

They kicked me out of bed and Marlee took my spot!

We were picking up pizza for everyone after swimming at Teresas last week I think, David just being a goof

I had these two random pics of David that didnt really fit into any post so here is a post just for him!
I feel like the luckiest girl in the world finally having a wonderful peaceful marriage. David is the perfect daddy to Marlee, the best husband to me, and a great brother to his sisters. He works so hard for his little family, and is working even harder to get the raise he deserves.
My favorite is when I am actually funny enough to make him laugh, because he makes me laugh all day. I love snuggling up and watching movies on lazy days, and just watching him love his daughter.
We may not own our own house, or any expensive things. We cant afford to go on any fancy vacations, but we are perfectly happy as we are. Dreaming of the future and what we can create in the future is something we are still planning and working on. Living in the moment is more important to us tho. I believe we can do both and enjoy every moment of life together.
So David I am sorry I cant put my feelings on paper (or computer) very well, but I dont need to write it to tell you how much I love you. I think you kinda already know :)
I love you! Happy late Fathers Day

Rocky is catching up!

2009-06-24T22:37:00.000-07:00

Star reading to Marlee and Rocky

Marlee is listening so well

Rocky is just plumping up so fast! At the 2 month check up Marlee was almost 11 lbs and Rocky was just over 11! I cant believe he was so much smaller than her and is already out weighing her. I wasnt able to catch it on camera, but when they lay next to each other they just smile. Its SO cute. Its like they just know what they are each thinking, they dont even have to talk.

Dinner with the new addition

2009-06-24T22:08:00.000-07:00

Megan and Marlee

My dad and Lizzie's dad talking about who knows what

My older brother Nick is getting married in August. There was a dinner for her family to meet ours, but we were sick so didnt end up going. They went out with my dad and his wife, so I invited myself to go along.
The new addition to the family is Lizzie, she fits in perfectly with us. Her mom has the same name as me, Megan wanted to meet Marlee and ended up holding her the entire dinner. My baby kind of does that to people :)
We went up a canyon in Salt Lake to a place called Ruth's Diner, it was really nice and there was live music playing. We kind of separated us 3 kids talked to whole time and the adults talked the whole time. Only a few times we all combined the conversation. So it was nice to get to sit with my older brother and his future wife and get to know them better, but most of all it was fun to just goof off like we used to before the high school attitudes hit.
Ever since that dinner we have been doing things more often and I love it!

Speaking of siblings getting along.....David and Maren are getting closer and closer and we now have a weekly game night. Thursdays as soon as I get up and get ready we go over and just hang out. Watch a movie or play games. When John gets home we make dinner and usually dont leave till around midnight. Its great getting to know the kids and Maren better, but we realized we have been leaving Teresa out so now we may have to switch off weeks.....or she can just come down on Thursdays too :)

Marlee Daddy time

2009-05-19T23:33:00.000-07:00

this is what david and marlee do for fun

Lani's fist bath video

2009-05-19T23:30:00.000-07:00

She is getting so big!

Lani's first week here

2009-05-19T23:25:00.000-07:00

She has come from this to..........

Lani's first bath (with me there)

2009-05-19T22:59:00.001-07:00

Her momma Viena getting her all nakie for the bath

They wrap her up in a blanket so she doesnt get the chills

She first gets used to the water

Cleaning her belly

She is squirming and moving too fast for the camera

Getting her bum :)

I love this one because its her mommas hands with her in the pic

Here is daddys hands and you cant tell but she is looking at him

Layin back loving being clean

Big yawns

her daddy is my hero onsie

Now everyone gets to play with Marlee, she was left out because no one under 16 is allowed in the room

Me trying to get her to smile

Pokin out her belly

Vienas brother Tai and his wife and her GIANT ring! I kept getting distracted by it! Enlarge the picture and look at how massive it is!

So baby Neolani is doing great! She is up to just over 3 lbs, only has a c-pap now for breathing. She has no more IVs! They do still have to do blood work every few days so she gets her heels pricked. Mom, Dad and the Grandparents can hold her. But not me :( The parents can change her diaper and give her baths when ever they can make it down to the hospital. Viena was pumping for her, but she was having trouble keeping her milk in so she had to give it up. Now she is on formula most of the time but sometimes she gets donated milk. I was thinking about doing that since I have such a huge supply of it, I will look into more when I get a chance.
She is our strong little niece and we cant wait for her to finally come home!!!

Living Traditions

2009-05-19T22:46:00.001-07:00

David with a living statue in front of the park

We found this at the Dutch booth....there are 7 picture frames. coincidence?

Something a blacksmith guy made

The blacksmith guy making something

My dads wife Ana is from El Salvador, and part of the latin community here in Salt Lake so she had a booth at the Living Traditions. Its pretty much a big culture fest where you can watch dances from different countries, and there are arts and craft booths where you can watch people making things and you can even buy some of the stuff. The booth Ana was in was part of the food. They have people making authentic food from different countries. She was making a whole bunch of stuff I never even heard of but it was pretty good. They had an Indian booth where they were making fry bread SOOOOO good!! but it was the longest line they had there so we didnt get any.
In the Arts and crafts section we found a family making Navajo weaved baskets, for a set of 5 baskets it was 3000 dollars!!!! I should be learning how to make these things so I can make that kind of money!!!
We bought a little hand made bracelet that says Marley. Its spelled wrong but its cute and we liked it. We stayed there for a few hours and watched the Salvadorian dancers. They were really entertaining. My dad played with Marlee while he was with us but most of the time she was carried around in the snuggie thing we borrowed from Teresa. I loved it! We are going to look for one now. And we finally found the missing pieces to our stroller so I can actually use it now! YAAY!
We are not too good at taking pictures when we go out to these things. Mostly because we dont want to carry the camera around. We would rather have fun than worry about taking pictures. Well okay David would rather not worry about taking pictures and Im sick of not being in any so were on a picture strike lol.
My little brother Zack and Viena were there for part of the day and before this we visited with my other brother Nick and his fiance Lizzie. All my brothers are so funny to watch with Marlee. Austin is finally starting to talk to her, but everyone else doesnt know what to do so they just look at her and shake her arms a little. They will learn eventually!

St George/Las Vegas

2009-05-19T17:18:00.001-07:00

YAY!!! our first EVER vacation together!

We found a room at Circus Circus for 30 bucks! but it wasnt even in the hotel part, it was a cheap motel thing behind it lol. Oh well! We got out of Utah!

We could see this from our hotel, and that was about it lol.

On the way down to Vegas

David being a goof while driving

This is the best pic I could get of Marlee while she was in her car seat. She slept most of the time unless she was hungry. We had to stop once to feed her.

Caesars Palace is the only big fancy hotel we went to.

We sort of got lost because all the statues look the same.

David chased fish around the giant fish tank

Especially this one

Back home, notice all the smashed bugs on the windshield??

So I have a few buddies from great life that live down in St George. I was talking to one of them who wanted me and the baby to come visit for a few days. I was about to talk to David about it when he came home with a giant unexpected check! It was the week of my bday and the weekend before mothers day so we decided why not? Lets go to Vegas! My friends agreed to watch Marlee over night and then we spent the next night in St George with them. Im sad we didnt get ANY pictures of St George, but we will be back before the summer is over!
David worked Wed night, I stayed up all night cleaning and doing laundry so we could just hurry and pack and leave in the morning. Around 4 I got tired and decided to sleep with Marlee. SO we didnt end up packing till around 930 and at 10 I had to go to Walmart to get some shorts and Capris, then we were on our way!
We got stuck in traffic for about an hour, so it took us about 4 hours to get to St George. When we got there David got out of the car and spent about 5 min walking around telling me how hot it was. My friend met us and we followed her to her house. I cried when we left Marlee so we had to do it quick. Then we were on our way to Vegas!
Remember David has had NO sleep yet. We got stuck in more traffic once we got into Las Vegas for another hour, so we finally checked into the hotel around 6. We had to walk really far to get to our room, because it was in the back Motel section of the hotel. They were really cheap rooms. Our first one stunk really bad because the toilet was clogged with someone elses feces!! So we complained and got another room.
In this room everything was unplugged. All the lamps, the tv EVERYTHING. I had to keep pumping to make sure my milk didnt dry up so every 4 hours I was pumping. While I pumped David went and explored our hotel, for about an hour! I didnt know the tv was unplugged so after about 20 min of pumping I just got to sit there and wait for him to come back.
It was even hotter there so we decided we werent going to walk around in the hot, we stayed in our hotel. We played the slots for a while. I was so afraid even tho I am finally 21, I still feel like I am going to get in trouble. We found a Mcdonalds for dinner and watched a free trapeeze show whie we ate.
It doesnt smell as bad as Vegas usually does because of a new clean air act. People can only smoke while they play games now, so unless David was smoking I couldnt even smell it. I actually left without smelling like an ashtray! We went to bed around 10 because we were so tired. David had been awake for almost 2 days and it was amazing! a full 9 hours of sleep uninterrupted!! What is that!? I should let people take her over night more often! I couldnt handle that, but it was nice to sleep.
We planned on walking the strip after we ate breakfast at the buffet, but we decided to be lazy. We drove to Caesars Palace and parked there, walked around the shops and headed outside. Didnt see anything we really wanted to walk to so we went back to the car and drove down the strip to see the rest, and headed back to St George. It was time to see our baby!
When we got there My other friend had her so we headed to her house. She had her 4 kids with her and had so much fun with Marlee. She is a hair stylist so of course she did Marlees hair all cute. When her hair is wet it is curly so she put gel in it and made it stay curly. She painted her toe nails and gave her a bath. David was in heaven because they had a pool table, a fooseball table, a wii with every game ever made for it, a ping pong table and a giant 72 inch tv!
We got pizza and our other friend and her 4 kids came over. The kids played in the pool, but it was windy so they got cold fast. Around 10 we headed back over to the house we were staying at and went to sleep. When we woke up in the morning we headed back up home. We did get Jack in the box first to eat. AMAZING! We loved the food!
It was a fun vacation, I didnt love wasting our money on stupid slot machines. At one point David doubled 10 dollars, and I turned 1 dollar into 8.75 or something like that. It was a paper voucher and we forgot to cash it in. So we now have an 8 dollar paper souveneer. We didnt have enough to buy my brother anything and i promised him something so we went to one of those stretch a penny machines and made him one that said my lucky penny on it.
Cant wait for our next vacation this summer. There are a few planned!

My very own blue eyed Indian

2009-05-19T16:52:00.000-07:00

This is her Easter dress, and her big blues!

We finally ate at the new burger place in Lehi, it was expensive and not very good at all!! but Marlee had fun playing with us while we ate it.

She LOVES to be naked, she thinks she gets to have a shower.

This is her hair right out of the shower, her hair is curly when its wet.

Zack and Viena spoil her a lot!! She really loves when the come to visit!

My momma with her grandbaby

She very rarely will sleep in her crib, and when she does its only for 45 min tops, but it is a cute crib and cute crib sheets!

Marlee and Me

She likes to give the peace sign. She was eating so this is how I covered up to take the pic :)

These are all the random cute pics I have of Marlee. There is no story really to any of them so they get their own post. Some of the new things I love that she does......we can have conversations. She will make a coo or a little noise and I copy it, and then she will make another one. We have gone on for a few min doing this, but usually its only a few times back and forth.
She watches David or me around the room, she almost always has her eyes on one of us.
She LOVES when daddy comes home from work. As long as she is awake he will come in and play with her and that is when she smiles the most. He doesnt even have to say anything....as soon as she can see him she will start smiling.
She HATES blankets, and being wrapped in them. I prob spend most of my time covering her back up just to watch her kick them off again.
She really is the best baby I have ever seen (star used to have that title until recently) she almost never cries, most of the time when she is hungry it is just a little fuss. I honestly dont think she has ever cried because of a dirty diaper, and she doesnt like her car seat. Other than that she is always happy just to lay there and look around. When she is ready to go to bed she just wants her binkie and will fall asleep.
I never knew how much love a mother could have for her daughter. I cant imagine having another baby and being able to love it as much. I will for ever and always remember Marlee as my little baby.

Easter dinners

2009-04-13T01:41:00.001-07:00

Uncle Nick, afraid to hold her. This was his first time ever!

Lizzie, his fiance loves her

Grampa Cardon

Aunt Maggie playing with Marlee

We always have 2 family dinners to go to on holidays. My moms started at 2, we showed up late. It was just lunch with all my brothers and their girl friends if they have one. My mom bought Marlee a little Easter dress, well it was a little big on her, but it still looked really cute.
Next was dinner at Aunt Maggies house with my dads family. It was the first time meeting Marlee for most of them there so she was passed around the whole time. David was undefeated in the fooseball tournament they had all day. It was a nice relaxed Easter.

Day with Grama

2009-04-13T01:32:00.001-07:00

Thrursday David went out with Ryan so Marlee and me went to my moms for the day. We brought my pack and play to stay there for when Marlee comes, we dont have room for it anywhere in our apt so it can stay there. We went to a book store and to visit a friend. When we got home grama watched Marlee while I caught up on much needed sleep.
I couldnt figure out how to finish putting together the extras on the pack n play so Austin finished it when he got home from school. Him and Branden were on pacifier duty for a while. Any time she would make any noise they would run over to her with it.
Grama days are nice and relaxing for me. I think we will have more of them!

Rocky and Marlee

2009-04-13T01:18:00.001-07:00

Best buds already

They are holding hands

She popped his binkie out

All of us sleepin in Marens big comfy bed

Over Easter weekend we all got together at Marens house for Easter fun. Teresa her kids David and I all slept there Friday night. Saturday morning while Teresa was taking the older kids to Easter egg hunts David and I stayed home with the babies and tried to sleep some more. I had been up ALL night with Marlee hurting from her ear infection and still didnt sleep any more because the babies were playing.
They are going to be the next Star and Braxton pair!

Marlee Moo

2009-04-08T01:16:00.000-07:00

Just laying with daddy

This is how much she loves our bed, she really has room to stretch out lol.

She loves falling asleep like this on me

Full tummy

She loves to sit with us and look around. Her eyes are still blue, but are getting darker. A darker shade of blue for now.

We are kind of slacking on the picture taking thing. Teresa has more pictures of Marlee than we do! So here are the few that we do have. Now that I am not a walking zombie (most days) I will take more.

Other updates...we had a WIC appointment last week where they measured her. She has already gained all her weight back plus 2 oz. We have her 2 week check up appointment Friday so we will see how much more she has gained. She is a chunker!
She has been giving me breastfeeding problems. I have one good boob, the other nipple is about to fall off so I am pumping that side for now. If it wasnt so offensive I would take a picture and post it so you can all see how bad it hurts. It actually hurts worse than looking at it. (when feeding) the pump isnt too bad. Still painful, but tolerable.
I have been getting worse with with postpartum depression so I finally called my Dr, his nurse told me I could just come up and pick up some samples of Lexapro to try. I picked them up but have way too many questions to just start taking them. I am not a fan of pills of any sort. Before, and during my pregnancy I didnt even take Tylenol for headaches. I just find other ways to handle pain or whatever. It takes a few days of a cold before I will go buy medicine and usually its just cough drops. SO this is a huge step for me to take these pills and I know nothing about them. I dont know if it is safe for me to be breastfeeding while I take them, when I want to quit taking them are they going to give me side affects? What side affects am I going to have while taking them?? Anyone have any clue??!!
I had a few rants that I dont think I blogged about so I am going to write them just so I can look back and remember what upset me so much in the first week. Most of you have already heard these tho.
First day I got home from the hospital David had to go back to work, so my first night I was alone. I dont think I slept at all I was up worrying about EVERYTHING! Trying to count how many diapers she was going thru. Counting hours in between feedings to make sure she was eating enough. Worrying that my milk hadnt come in yet so she wasnt getting enough milk. Then repeating that the next day while David slept. I didnt wake him up to ask for help, I just handled everything on my own which was the worst thing I could have done! He over slept while I didnt at all that whole first weekend, then he went back to work and I was home alone again. My postpartum blues turned into huge anxiety attacks, which turned into huge sob fests. After a few more days of being alone I now am deathly afraid of being alone with the baby. Not in fear of hurting her because of this depression, but worrying that I am not doing anything right, or that something is going to go wrong. So when David wants to leave it has been starting HUGE fights. His friend Ryan is leaving out of town for 4 months this weekend so they have been wanting to go do things before he is gone. I have huge issues with this and talking about when he is going to leave, or right before he leaves, or when he comes back are the biggest depression moments I have. This Thrs he is supposed to be gone all day, well I already know it is going to be horrible so I am not looking forward to Thrs at all!
So things that added to the depression were the pediatrician we HAD to go to the day after we came home. She needed a jaundice check so at the hospital we had to make an appointment before we could leave. Well we got there and the Dr couldnt even do the check at the clinic, he wanted to send us to another hospital the next day. That is not what we asked for and our hospital wanted it done that day. Then he said she was losing to much weight (8.5%) so I needed to start her on formula. I was taking Hydrocodone and Ibuprofen for pain and swelling, well according to him moms only take pain medication for 1 day and then quit so they can breastfeed. That was another reason I wasnt good enough to bf. So I quit taking all medication besides my antibiotic for 2 days because this stupid Dr told me it was bad for my baby. We ended up going to our hospitals lab to get her jaundice test, it came back ok or negative. She didnt have jaundice! But all these things were just weighing me down, plus the no sleeping. I was maybe getting 4 or 5 hours of sleep a day, and I had NO appetite what so ever. Unless I remembered I hadnt eaten yet for the day I wouldnt. I just was not hungry, and because I wasnt eating I was shaking all the time. By the time the cracked nipple happend I was ready to give up on everything. Every feeding I would cry the whole time, not just little tears. They were huge crocodile tears with sobbing and pain sounds. I was awake now because I was afraid for the next time she was going to be hungry because I had to feed her. I wasnt talking to David because every time I did we would end up fighting and it would bring on another anxiety attack/cry fest. All this in a week and a half!
Then the weekend came. Susan was in town. I got out of the house for the first time and went to Teresas to visit. I was in pain still but it was worth it to have people to talk to. We ended up out of the house every day that weekend with the family. I was doing tons better and even somehow got thru to David about how I was feeling. But now its back to being alone at night and having more anxiety attacks. This week I have been able to catch up on some sleep. I still dont think I have been able to get 8 hours of sleep in one night/day, but I feel like I am doing better.
Now back to the thought of introducing the pills. I am stuck and am not sure what I am going to do, but I know I can not continue with anxiety like this every time David goes to work. Or somewhere else where I am left alone.

That is my life right now, I will have to post more often because they turn into novels like this when I wait too long.
Marlee is doing great, no matter how much I worry every thing is perfect with her. My grandpa picked me a fool proof baby. She only cries when she is hungry or has gas, and lately when she wants to cuddle. She smiles a lot in her sleep, and when she is awake she is perfectly happy just sitting with anyone and looking around. She goes crossed eyed lots but still looks cute. She loves the shower. She hates the bath tub. She has a very strong neck. She will hold her head up to get a good look at you, or to make you look her in the eyes when her head is on your shoulder. And she scoots her head into your neck to snuggle better. We love her and love spending time with her!

Baby Tag!

2009-03-30T01:55:00.000-07:00

1. WAS YOUR PREGNANCY PLANNED?
YES AND NO. WE SAID FOR ABOUT 2 WEEKS WE WANTED ONE AND THEN REALIZED WE NEEDED TO WAIT, BUT IT WAS TOO LATE.

2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME?
YES FOR 8 MONTHS

3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS?
I KNEW BEFORE I ACTUALLY FOUND OUT, BUT WHEN I HELD THE LITTLE STICK IN MY HAD, OKAY THE 3 STICKS I GOT BUTTERFLIES, AND THEN THREW UP.

4. WAS AN ABORTION AN OPTION FOR YOU?
NOT EVEN A THOUGHT!

5. HOW OLD WERE YOU?
20

6. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT?
I THINK I WAS SICK FOR ABOUT A WEEK BEFORE WE ACTUALLY WENT AND BOUGHT ANY TESTS.

7. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST?
WELL I WAS TEXTING DAVID BUT I THINK MY MOM WAS THE FIRST PERSON I TOLD AND I WAS SCAAAARED!!!

8. DID YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE SEX?
YES I EVEN FOUND OUT EARLY BECAUSE I COULDNT WAIT

9. DUE DATE?
ORIGINALLY IT WAS FEB 16 BUT I WASNT AS FAR ALONG AS WE THOUGHT I WAS SO IT CHANGED TO MARCH 16 AND THEN SOMEHOW IT CHANGED TO MARCH 20 AND THEY JUST NEVER TOLD ME

10. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS?
FOR 4 1/2 MONTHS. I LOST 20 LBS

11. WHAT DID YOU CRAVE?
ORANGE JUICE, FRUIT, KRISPE KEME AT THE END

12. WHAT IRRITATED YOU?
MY BACK ALWAYS HURTING, MY FACE BREAKING OUT, DAVID LEAVING ME TO GO OUT WITH RYAN. THE LAST WEEK EVERYTHING IRRITATED ME.

13. WHAT WAS THE SEX?
LITTLE GIRL!

14. DID YOU WISH IT WERE THE OPPOSITE?
NO, I WAS AFRAID SHE WAS GOING TO COME OUT A BOY AND I HAD SPENT ALL THAT TIME GETTING TO KNOW A LITTLE GIRL IN MY BELLY SO I WAS GOING TO FEEL LIKE I DIDNT EVEN KNOW THAT BABY IF IT WERE A BOY.

15. HOW MUCH WEIGHT DID YOU GAIN?

UM I THINK 30 LBS

16. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER?
I HAD 2 SHOWERS

17. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY?
NONE AT ALL, THE DR KEPT SAYING MY BODY WAS ON AUTOPILOT, EXCEPT MY IRON WAS LOW BUT IT NORMALLY WAS BEFORE I GOT PREGNANT.

18. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH?
ALTA VIEW HOSPITAL

19. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR?
I GUESS IF LABOR STARTED WHEN I GOT THAT MEDICINE THEN IT WAS 16 HOURS?

20. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL?
DAVID

21. WHO WAS IN THE ROOM WHEN YOU GAVE BIRTH?
BESIDES THE DR AND NURSES, DAVID MY MOM AND TERESA

22. WAS IT NATURAL OR A C-SECTION?
NATURAL WITH EPIDURAL

23. DID YOU TAKE MEDICATION TO EASE THE PAIN?
THE EPIDURAL, SOMETHING BEFORE THAT AND SHOTS AFTER

24. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH?
8 LBS 11 OZ

25. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN?
MARCH 23, 2009 4:12 PM

26. WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM/HER?
MARLEE ELIZABETH JOHNSON

Marlee is here!

2009-03-30T00:54:00.000-07:00

This is me sleeping with my epidural

Still waiting to be fully dilated...

Finally time to start pushing..

First time I actually remember holding my baby

I was too out of it to know what was going on

Our awesome nurse giving Marlee her first bath.

She really doesnt like it

All clean and happy, this is a small smile

Daddy loving on his baby girl

She got all prettied up the next day

This is her on the first day after her bath

Me and my baby

Okay so story time....as hard as I tried to get her to come out with tips from everyone on how to get her out. She just didnt want to come till she was good and ready. We were walking every where and going out visiting family all week. I was cleaning and even moving some furniture around until I decided it was pointless to put myself thru the pain of contractions when she wasnt budging!
So we took the last few days easy, went out on our last date alone for a long time, spent time together at home trying to calm our nerves. All day Sunday we didnt know what to do to waste the time! We still hadnt packed a hospital bag so that was on the to do list. The base for the car seat still needed to be put in the car and we wanted to go see baby Neolani in the hospital before we went in. Well being the procrastinators that we are, we ended up doing all this last minute. My mom was on her way to meet us to go see the baby while I was packing the bag and David was trying to figure out how to install the base. The instructions were only in spanish so he couldnt figure it out and was getting frusterated. We ended up leaving the base at home thinking we wouldnt need it, we were wrong. We got down and saw the baby for a little bit and headed up to my dads house in Bountiful so I could get a blessing before we went to the hospital.
We got to the hospital at 8:45 just as it started snowing! Snow just seems to come on all our important days (our wedding day it snowed) We got to our room, I got in my lovely buttless gown and the nurse came in to start the night. She was the only nurse we didnt like thru our entire stay at the hospital. She didnt like to talk very much and she was really grouchy. She gave me the medicine that goes next to your cervix (not sure what its called) and started my iv around 10. My mom came to drop off my little brothers cell phone charger so we could call or text every one when things started happening, she was there for maybe 5 min and the nurse came in and kicked her out.
Around 3am my water broke on its own. I was about to get up to go to the bathroom so I thought I had just peed myself but when it didnt stop coming out I woke up David because I couldnt reach the button to call the nurse. He thought I was making it up because the Dr was supposed to pop my water in the morning. When it started dripping on the floor he realized I wasnt lying.
The contractions started getting bigger and worse so around 445 I got my epidural.
The anesthesiologist was really nice, and another nurse came in to help with it. She was awesome too. It hurt, but not as bad as getting the iv did. I got the shakes really bad but was burning up the whole time. I HATE the feeling of being numb. I didnt know what to expect after getting an epidural but not being able to move wasnt even in my mind!! I kind of freaked out when I woke up and couldnt push myself up. I did sleep a lot better tho.
I dont really remember too much during the day, just being really hungry and nauseous and sleeping. I did get to drink water and sprite and I could eat popcycles. David didnt sleep much after my water broke, but tried to get little naps in here and there. We played family fued on the internet to keep us busy but I fell asleep a lot.
Our nurses that came in at 8 were awesome! We had the one nurse, but she had a student following her all day. We originally said we didnt want any trainees or students, but she was so awesome and the other nurse only let her do certain things and watched closely while she did.
We started calling people to come to the hospital around 1ish because every one showed up right as the Dr announced I was fully dilated and needed to start pushing. I was in shock! The last time they checked me about an hour before I was only at a 7. I was really scared and didnt know what was about to happen, but pushing wasnt bad for the first hour and a half. I think it was about the last half hour of real pushing that it started to hurt.
My epidural was wearing off a bit and by the time I hit the button again it was too late. Her head coming out wasnt so bad but her shoulder and everything else about killed me. I didnt even know it but I let out screams of pain when that happend. I was really seeing every thing in a blur I hurt so much. The Dr ended up needing to make a small cut, and I tore a little more.
As soon as she was out they put her on my chest right next to my face. I remember grabbing whatever I could in front of me and I could feel her little hand grabbing my face, but my eyes were either closed or I was hurting too much to see anything. The Dr was getting my placenta during that and then went straight for the stitches...no breaks in between. I dont even know when or who took the baby off my chest. I could feel the needle from the stitches so they had to give me shots to numb me more, those hurt real good too.
After that I dont really know what went on. My mom was holding my hand, David was running back and forth from me and the baby getting checked out. I saw blood and just decided it was time for me to close my eyes. I could have fallen asleep right then and slept all night if I didnt have such a beautiful baby to look at.
Some time after she was all done getting checked and weighed and what ever was going on over in the corner David brought her over to me and I really got to see her for the first time with goo in her eyes.
Maren and Linda came in to see the baby but I was too tired for anyone. Every one got kicked out of the room while we got cleaned up, I got some food, Marlee got her first bath and we gathered our things to move to the next room.
By the time we were in the next room my dad had come, my litte brother and my uncle and I some how got a small spurt of energy back. The rest of the time in the hospital was really nice. I was pampered, Marlee was loved in the nursery by any one who got to see her. They kept me on pain pills so I never even felt any pain in the stitches till I got home.
I did get a UTI but I am not surprised, I get them very often and very easily. We came home Wed afternoon and for some reason I wasnt too tired. I think I slept off and on every now and then but really I was too awake waiting for the baby to wake up ready to eat again.
I only got 2 lessons of breast feeding in the hospital before I left and was feeling really unsure about it when I got home so that started a big cry session. I really underestimated the power of postpardom blues. They are hitting hard and at very random times over really dumb things. My mom has a friend who is a lactation person so she came over to save me. I may need her to come again because I still dont feel confident in what I am doing. I keep worrying that everything I am doing is wrong, that some thing is wrong with the baby, or me. I just dont know as much as I thought I did about caring for a newborn and its scary. I guess it is just some thing that will come with time.

Baby Shower!

2009-03-16T15:52:00.000-07:00

My second baby shower was planned by my mom. We were rushing to finish setting every thing up by the time people started showing up. It was a little too long ago for me to remember too much about it. The food was good, I ate a lot haha. Chicken salad sandwiches and fruit and cake. My moms friends all helped with set up, food and games. I got TONS of clothes and diapers. That was pretty much the party....Teresa was there with Star and lots of people from work. David stayed the whole time even tho he said he wasnt going to. My older brother is getting married in August and his fiance came. He picked out the present they gave us. A Baby Jordan outfit. Other than that here are the pics I look half decent in. My face is breaking out horribly so I cant wait to get this little sucker out of me so my body can start going back to normal!

Noelani Cardon

2009-03-16T15:25:00.001-07:00

My little brother who lives in Wyoming came down with his girl friend on Tuesday for her brothers wedding. She was 23 weeks pregnant and when they got here she was in some pain and was bleeding so they took her to American Fork hospital. The dr checked her and said it was normal and sent her home. (another reason to add to my list to never go to that hospital) The next morning it got worse so they went back. When she was checked this time the dr could feel the top of the baby's head and had them rushed to Utah Valley hospital.
She gave birth to her 1 lb baby girl, she didnt even get to see the baby. They rushed the baby into the NICU and wouldnt let the mom see her for 5 hours.
The cause was an infection in her cervix, the mom is doing fine and they are planning on moving back to Utah. The baby is also doing fine for now, she is proving herself to be quite the little fighter. She is not supposed to be breathing on her own, most babies at 23 weeks use the machine for a while, but she is breathing on her own about 80% of the time and has the machine just for a back up. She is being fed her moms milk thru a feeding tube and taking it very well. So for now we just get to watch her grow and if things come up its all up to the baby and how she will respond to what the drs can do.
She sleeps on a little water bed attached to a machine that wiggles her to make her feel like she is still in the womb. The pictures are her diaper compared to a newborn diaper, and compared to a face card. Her head is always covered so she cant open her eyes. If she were to open her eyes she could go blind. So her head is wrapped in a little hat and covered with a blanket. She is on her tummy in all the pics because she was starting to get a scare of jaundice so they flipped her to get her back and bum some light.
The NICU has soooo many babies there! Every baby is assigned their own nurse so when we walk in there are dozens of nurses that all sit together unless they are checking on their baby. I always see at least 3 or 4 drs in there at a time too. It kind of feels like I am walking into an egg hatchery because they all have their own little boxes with lights above them.
No one is allowed to hold or touch her, her skin is still not developed. The tubes down her throat are covering her vocal cords, she cries but makes no sound. You just have to watch her facial expressions to see if it looks like she might be crying. The most The mom has been able to do so far is change a diaper.
I definately teared up the first time I saw her, I have been back to see her about 4 times now and hopefully get to go again soon. I cant believe how attached I am getting to my little niece that I wont get to officially meet for at least 5 more months. The biggest tear jerker moment I had so far was the first night we were there the nurse turned off the lights to take the stuff off her face so we could see her, while she was undoing the wrap little Noelani reached her tiny little hand up to grab the nurses thumb, she wrapped her fingers around as far as she could but only got about half of her thumb. It just felt like she knew someone was there and she wants to interact with them, but cant.
This is my first niece, little bugger snuck in and took the first grandbaby spot from Marlee.

In my baby news so I dont have to do another post....My dr didnt even check my dilation last time because he is determined that Marlee is going to be induced on the 23rd. His plan is to have us come to the hospital Sunday night the 22nd, get started, get the epidural. Sleep all night and then have her sometime Monday. He guessed she will weigh between 8 and 8 1/2 lbs. If she doesnt come on her own then she will be here Monday and this Friday will be my last Dr appointment. FINALLY!

Leading up to Marlee...

2009-03-16T02:17:00.000-07:00

My Husband...
What is your husband's name?: William David Johnson
How old is he?: 21
When we first met...
Where did you meet?: We met at a castle dance in Provo.
How old were you when you met him?: 18
What was the first thing you noticed about him?: He was the first guy I ever danced with so I felt really dumb because I had no idea what I was doing.
How long was it before he noticed you?: A really long time, he was interested in my friend first.
What was your first conversation about?: I had a boyfriend at the time and David was trying to talk me into staying at his house (so he could have more time with my friend)
Did you like him right away?: Sort of
Did you have mutual friends at the time?: Just Carissa, I didnt know his friends yet.
Do you think he was attracted to you that first day?: For a while I thought so, but no he wasnt.
Were you dressed to impress that day?: Dressed to be a skank haha, we were at a dance!
Was he?: He still has the clothes he was wearing but its an average day outfit, nothing special.
Getting to Know Each Other...
How did you start hanging out?: After that day we met we didnt hang out for a long time, one of my other friends started dating one of his room mates so I would go with her to their house all the time.
Where was your most frequent hang out spot?: His house, the apt me and my friend lived in was smaller and their house was just fun.
Who did you guys usually hang out with?: All the guys that lived there plus me and my friend.
What sorts of things did you talk about, to learn about each other?: I was really shy at first so we didnt really have any good conversations for a while, but after I came out of my shell we talked about everything.
Did he become more attractive as you got to know him?: Yes, but he also started showering more after I got to know him better.
Getting Closer...
Do you remember the first time you touched?: Well we were touching when we danced that first night.
What was it like the first time you hugged each other?: I dont remember. We were movie cuddlers before we were anything else.
Describe your "first kiss" scenario?: I was watching a movie and he was drinking, but came and sat by me and it was really awkward and he ended up leaving because I wasnt letting him do anything more with me haha.
What were your first terms/phrases of endearment?: Um just cheesy stuff, I think the most used one was "I kinda like you"
When did you first realize that you truly loved him?: It was really soon for me, but he wouldnt say it back for a long time. Prob after a couple months of dating.
When did he first say that he loved you?: I really dont remember.
When was the first time you really snuggled?: One of the first times I came over with my friend to watch movies, they had giant love sacs in the front room with a big tv so it was perfect for movies.
Describe, using adjectives, the feeling of being in his arms?: Safe and loved.
"The M Word"...
Who was the first to bring up marriage?: Our parents haha.
How long had you been together when it got brought up?: I dont know about THE very first time, but it was really being pushed after about maybe 8 months.
How was it first talked about?:Well between just the two of us he kept saying he wasnt going to get married just because our families wanted us to.
Were either of you afraid of committment at first?: We both were.
Did your parents know you were talking about marriage?: They were the ones who brought up the subject.
Did they approve?: They were pretty much saying either get married or break up.
What did your parents think of him at this point?: My dad had his own concerns about our future, but for the most part he liked David. My mom just thought he was another guy that I was dating, she got along with him pretty well.
What did his parents think of you at this point?: I was always really shy so I dont think they hated me, but just didnt know me.
Engagement...
When did you get engaged?: Dont remember exact day, but it was in late August 2007
How long had you been together?: 10 monthsish
Who proposed to who?:David proposed.
How was the question popped?: We went back to the castle where we met and walked around for a while, we found a cute little pond area with a bridge and trees and he was so nervous he couldnt even make small talk. So he finally started his little speech when we got to a tree and got down on one knee and pulled out the ring.
What was the response?: A fake "oh baby" (I knew he was going to so it was hard to act suprised) but then I really did get suprised because I didnt know he had a ring.
Who did you tell first?: I think we went straight to a family party so my dad was the first to know at the party, but then my cousin announced it to everyone very loud.
What did your friends think?: They were excited and wanted to be in the wedding line.
Describe the ring?: A modern version of my moms ring, we even used her diamond.
Was the proposal suspected?: Not till that morning. We were living with Maren and I was asleep but the door was open and the first thing I heard when I woke up was Maren yelling at David "You have to do it today she has a wedding to plan!"
Was the proposal public or private?: Private.
How did he tell his parents?: They knew already, his whole family did. They were all there to get the ring.
How did you tell your parents?: I just showed my dad the ring I didnt know what to say, my mom was grouchy when I went to tell her so I dont even remember what I said I just know I was scared out of my mind.
What were their responses?: My dad tends to over exaggerate facial exprecions because he doesnt say things very well, so his mouth shot open and his eyes got real big....I can still see his face now haha. My mom was doing dishes and just asked how long we had to plan the wedding.
The Wedding...
When did you get married?: October 20, 2007
Where did you get married?: Mellor Hidden Meadows
Who performed the ceremony?: I think he is my Uncle, or some relative.
Who was the best man?: Jason, the best friend David has ever had!
Who was the maid of honor?: It changed every other day, but ended up being Carissa
How many guests were there?: Mostly family and a few friends.
What were the wedding colors?: Green, Cream and White.
Did it feel like you had to pose for a thousand pictures?: A thousand of the same people. My family kinda just left and came back thru the whole thing so we didnt get any of my moms side of the family.
Did you get through your vows without crying?: I dont think we said vows, just I do. I was too nervous to cry.
Did he get through his vows without crying?: No vows, but during the cerimony he did tear up a bit.
Did both of you really mean those vows?: NO VOWS!
The Honeymoon...
Where did you go for your honeymoon?: Oregon lol. We just stayed at Anniversary Inn on our wedding night.
Did you splurge a lot?: The room was a lot of money, for us.
What was the most romantic part of the honeymoon?: If Anniversary Inn counts as our honeymoon I guess the most romantic part was the giant tub, but it took us about 45 min to get it working. It was broken.
What was the funniest part of the honeymoon?: That nothing worked in our room so we were constantly calling the front desk the whole night.
Was the honeymoon long enough?: I would have liked another night, or at least been able to sleep in the next morning.
Home...
Where did you first live?: We moved to Oregon that next morning, but stayed with family for a few days till we moved into our apt.
How much was rent?: I think it was 450?
Did you have any pets?: No pets right when we got there, but we did get our dog Frankie not too long after.
How many cars did you have?: 1
Did you have bookshelves made out of cinderblocks and plywood?: No but we did use plastic storage bins haha.
Did you know how to cook yet?: I could only cook a few meals, Im not too creative when it comes to coming up with meals.
Did he know how to fix things yet?: He tried.
How long did it take before it began to feel like a real home?: Oregon never felt like home to me, which is part of the reason why we moved home so quick. Then we didnt have our own place for a few months when we got here. I dont think it felt like home until just recently.
What was your first major purchase together?: We havnt really made any big purchases. Maybe school?
What was your first fight as a married couple about?: Oh man, there were SO many those first few months. I think the first argument was about the way he spent his bachelor party.
What is the most romantic thing you've done together since getting married?: Either for our first anniversary we went to Armstrong Mansion for a couple nights, or there were a few nights in great life that were pretty intimate.
Do you ever wish you weren't married?: Some days, when things are not going my way...but I HATE thinking of life without David.
A Quality Man...
Is your husband understanding?: Most of the time.
Is he patient?: The most patient!!! He has to be with me and its not fair to him.
Is he hard working?: He can be, but he has to put his mind to it first.
Is he financially wise?: Neither of us are.
Can he make you laugh?: All day long
Does he make you feel safe?: Yes, but usually he has to calm me down first
Does he know how to communicate?: Not so well.
Does he occasionally help with the dishes? Occasionally
Can you trust him completely?: With most things
Does he still romance you?: Were not really a romancing couple, for what he calls romance, yes he still does.
Is he careful with your feelings?: NO! but its not his fault, my emotions and feelings are all over the place right now.
Does he appreciate you?: Some times.
Does he make time for you?: Some times.
After All This Time...
Is he as handsome as the day you met?: More, he is cleaner and cuts his hair :)
Is he as wonderful as ever?: Most days.
Do you think the marriage will truly last "till death do us part" ?: Yes but one of us is going to cause the death lol.