Las Begas!

We packed up and headed out with the other 45 members of the Marotz Family for a few days of fun in Las Vegas (or "Begas" if you ask Allie)!

On the AiRpLaNe...how's that for a fake smile!?

A quick shuttle ride to our hotel, the South Point, what cute cousins and best of friends!

BoWliNg, lots of lots of bowling! A favorite new found activity in our house!

Followed by some SwiMMinG...

Friday was "tHe sTrIp" day...

Which included M&m WoRlD...

That provided a 10 minute 3D movie, which I must add was bRiLLiAnT! I wish all kid movies were 10 minutes, it was the perfect length for my girls attention span, loved that!

NaP TiMe...

The Fish Aquarium at the MiRaGE...

My personal favorite, the water show at the BeLLaGiO (it never gets old)...

Some more bowling...

And more SwImmInG (the girls favorite activity!)...

And some stroller action!

And what would a VaCa be without some snuggle time without DaDDy...

I've said it before and I'll say it again, we have GrEaT travelers! They sit in their stroller and just take it all in. A BiG thank you to Jordan's grandparents for another wonderful trip!

GoBBle...gObbLe...

Yesterday was Thanksgiving in our house! As excited as we are to be in Las Vegas  on Thanksgiving we I didn't think a cheap buffet counted as Thanksgiving Dinner. We altered our plans and gave thanks on Sunday! We were lucky enough to have our GrEaT friends Dave, Shay and Levi in town visitng. They helped us celebrate by bringing the dessert and drinks, yumm-O!

We had the works; TuRkEy, MaShEd pOtaToeS & GraVy, SwEEt pOtAtOes, GrEEn beEnS, Grandma Clark's GrEEn JeLLo and RoLLs! Makes my mouth water as I type!

Dave and Shay even put up with our my silly traditions! We went around the table telling 3 Things we are grateful for! We have so much to be grateful for:

London is grateful for:

"Happy, Puppy"

Allie is graetful for:

The Snow

Going to Grandma Mable's Church

Dave and Shay Coming to our house

Annie is grateful for:

An Eternal Family

Having friends to enjoy our day with

Our Health

Jordan is grateful for:

Family

Friends

That we were able to start on the house

HaPPy 60th AnnIvErSarY!

We helped celebrate Jordan's Grandma and Grandpa's 60th Wedding Anniversary on Sunday! Whoa, 60 years, can you imagine!? We have so much to learn from this amazing couple and I feel blessed to be able to be a part of their family! We surprised them by attending their church service and staying for coffee hour which provided a celebratory cake.

a PinK tree in NOVEMBER!?

My cute little girls got this cute little PinK Christmas TrEE for their room. Of course they couldn't wait until after Thanksgiving to put it up (and I totally can't blame them, I was pretty excited to put it up too :)

Jordan thinks we should keep it up all year and change the the ornaments for different times of the year. Now he's thinkin' like his MoTHeR ;) (That's a good thing Susan, we love ya!) But seriously it makes for a pretty cute night light, he may be onto somethin'!

5

5 years of wedded bliss!

Owned 4 different cars!

Remodeled 3 rooms in our house!

We've made 2 perfect children!

Bought 1 House!

HaPPy 5 YeAr aNNiVerSarY BaBe!!!

It's been a wonderful 5 years, can't wait to see what the next 5 (and an eternity more) have to offer!

"ThE WaLL"

Many have asked about the coloring on the wall that is often seen in the background of my pictures. Well folks let me introduce you to..."The Wall." I have a very strong love/hate relationship with "the wall."

I hate how "the wall" completely divides my house in two. I hate how "the wall" doesn't let much heat into my kitchen in the winter. I hate how "the wall" makes it so that when I am in the kitchen (which is always!) I can't see my kids unless they too are in the kitchen.

I love how "the wall" is where Allie first learned her shapes then learned how to write her own name. I love how "the wall" is always a conversation starter when people walk into the house. I love how "the wall" is where we have signatures of all of our recent house guests. It warms my heart when I see various notes and drawings from past house guests!

Well folks Saturday was a little bitter and a lot sweet. "The Wall" came down...oh, how I love it gone! We now have a great room and what a great room it is! My entire house seems so much bigger and more open. The house remodeling is officially under way!

Notes from different guests:

Before:

After:

Tricked ya didn't I!? No after pictures until the entire Family Room Remodel is done. But if want you can come over and see it!

HaLLoWeeN 2009

We had a nice Halloween, kinda low key but the girlie's had fun! We held true to tradition and started the night off at Jordan's Grandma Mable and Grandpa Vic's for yummy soup and rolls! As always the house was full and the visiting was fun! We took the kids out for a little trick-or-treating and were home by 8! (Being home by 8 probably makes us like the most boring parents EVER but whatever! We had a long day, more to come on that later, you should be really excited!)

Allie was "Boo" from Monsters Inc. and London was...surprise, surprise a "PuPPy."

H1N1

After much debate I decided to do this post...

When I picked Allie up from nursery yesterday she was extremely tired, had zero energy and a high fever. I took her down to Community Care thinking it was a bladder infection. They ended up doing an Influenza A test on her and it was PoSiTiVe, seriously, positive!? Could NOT believe the doctor, we are such germ-a-phobs! We hand sanitize, wipe our carts, wash our hands, don't play with public toys, UGH, how did this happen? This is what we have learned thus far with the "probable" swine flu.

* Does she 110% sure have the swine flu? No. You have to be hospitalized to have the actual H1N1 test. Does she "probably" have the swine flu? Yes. The swine flu is a "strand of Influenza A" She does 100% have influenza A. The doctor said that the way they test for H1 N1 is to do an Influenza A test and if it is positive they treat as though, yes, they do have it!

* What is her incubation period? 3-4 days! Oh. My. Gosh. That is a long time! We are so bad at staying home so here's to hoping we don't go crazy!

* Was she vaccinated? Yes, my kids got they H1N1 shots last Tuesday. The doctor said it's debatable as to how long the vaccination takes to work, apparently we now know it's longer than 6 days :)

*How did it start? It literally hit Allie within minutes. She was totally fine and then from what I hear she said she was tired and planted herself on the couch and quickly lost all her energy. When I got to her she had a fever of 100.9 and by the time we got to Community Care (about an hour) it was up to 103. So it hit fast and hard!!!

* As of today she is totally acting fine. She's no longer tired, no coughing, no runny nose, no sneezing, only occasional low grade fevers. No biggie, we can handle that!

*What have I learned from all of this? I have learned that the media is a bunch of CRAP!!! The H1N1 is not as bad as they make it sound, granted I know that we have a mild case in our house and we caught it really quick. More people than you think or know have it. It's eVeRyWhERe. Had I not thought that she had a bladder infection I wouldn't have taken her down to CC, I would have given her some tylenol and put her down for a nap. Then we would have been out and about today, spreading the love, er, I mean germs :)

With all of this crap going around, my advice is even with a small fever or a few sniffles keep 'em home for a good 3-4 days.

The Newest Member...

...of the Marsden family joined us!

Jordan's brother Dustin and his wife Amy welcomed,

Cole James Marsden

(...i think)

October 12, 2009

8:02 pm

7 lbs 6 oz 19"

The girlie's loved him, London wanted to just pack him around like one of her bunny's! And I can't wait to hold him again!

SNOW!?

This is what Jordan and Allie did this morning!

What happened to Fall?

I feel like skipping HaLLoWeeN and breaking out the Christmas decorations!