Merry Christmas

I LOVE today. As I look at my beautiful baby, I think of the most humble birth of my Savior. And celebrate the world's greatest gift, Jesus Christ. Merry Christmas friends! We have so much to be merry about! Our year has been one with great blessings. We are grateful for a loving Father in Heaven who has given us these amazing gifts. May we all remain worthy of the gift that was given that first Christmas night!

A Blessed Day

Sunday, Dec 6th, Mark and I were thrilled to bring our sweet baby to church, surround ourselves with family and friends and bless our little man. It was really more than I ever imagined. After church we went to my brother & sister-in-law's home for some tasty food and great fellowship. That's right, I said it- fellowship!

Here's our first family picture since the hospital.

We were making a scene.

Best kisses are right when he's getting hungry.

We love to talk, and you can get a a good look at those little side and back rolls.

Today we called GiGi (short for great-grandma), Mark's Grandma Gentle so she could hear Marky talking. Grandma- these are the faces he was making!

These are all pictures a super good friend took for us. Thanks Lisa B (what up punk) for posting these pictures for us. I have to get my camera from Mark to show you how cute he was in his blessing outfit. It was to-die-for cute!

Party Pooper or Poo-Poo Party?

Well you see...I had to drop my cousin Lisa off at the airport early (for me) Monday morning. Upon returning home I had a serious diaper to change. Mr. Marky had quite the poopy mess. I pulled a good amount off with the diaper, started wiping him up and noticed it was going up his back a little, getting caught by his pocketed waistband (thank you Huggies). I lifted his legs a little higher and guess what happened? Yep, he sprayed poop everywhere! It went all over. I was trying to get the poop moved away from him (since he had no changing pad cover on his changing pad) his legs were still up in the air when he started peeing. And it was going over the changing station down the wall. So I lowered his legs and began to block the pee with my left hand. Once we was done and wet I was back to work cleaning him up when his butt exploded again! Up his legs go so he's not sitting in poop when he starts peeing down the wall again. With pee in my left hand and poop in my right and laughing hysterically, I was unable to get a picture. Not that you would've wanted to see it but it really was a stinky good time. After about 57 wipes and 800 paper towels, every thing went into the washer and every one got in the shower. We got showered and had a much needed nap after that. It was a good day.

On an almost sad note-I packed up most of the 0-3 months clothes last night. The newborns have been gone a while. My little man is growing SO fast. 2.5 weeks ago he weighed in at 14 lbs 3 oz. I'm positive he's more than 15 lbs now. He's got the absolute cutest and cuddliest body ever. I really just want to eat him up. Here are some pictures of his beautiful body during a naked baby run.

Seriously...

...CUTE!

My camera has smile detection. Once I hit the shutter it will recognize and capture 6 smiles at a time. I love all his smiles.

Today I'm in love with my camera! Every day I'm in love with my men!

2 Months

Our little Marky is 2 months old today. He's gotten so big so quick. I can't wait til tomorrow to find out his new stats. Here are some more pictures of his sweetness. They are about 2 weeks old. He was smiling for us.

This one was last night. No baby wears a mustache like my little Marky! :)

This has been the best two months! This new love that I've felt has changed my world and my heart forever. We love our little Marky!!

Unwelcome Guest

Are you kidding me? Since June we've had this CRAZY sound coming from under our house. Evidently an Armadillo has taken residence and we can't seem to get him to leave. We tried to tell him he wore out his welcome. We tried to block him...with a cement block. He has lived through it! He was blocked in for 2 months and lives to tell. I bet he laughs at us. We had to pull out all our bushes (which I hated anyhow) just to get to the hole he dug.

Since we pulled out all the bushes Now, we're getting letters saying we have to do something with our flower beds or get a fine. But we need this guy to leave so we can make it look nice. We Still hear the crazy noises he makes. Right now it sounds like he's vacuuming. Doesn't he have anything better to do on a Saturday night? Maybe my mom sent him. We always cleaned on Saturday nights to the oldies. I should probably put on some oldies music, do some dishes and make my mom proud. I would be VERY thankful for this guy moving out. He's not welcome but I do appreciate him reminding me to do my chores! :)

Today I'm thankful for my sweet hard-working husband. He is so patient with me and loves me in spite of my imperfections. I'm still trying to get the hang of all the time a new baby requires and getting all (or even some) of my housework done. Being here all day sometimes I get stuff accomplished and other days nothing gets done except there is a baby that has been fed, cleaned and loved. This morning he helped me clean up and reminded me again why I married him. And kissed me every time I passed him. Mark, I love you!

Now off to do my dishes.

Faces of an Angel

Oh the many faces of my little Marky. He's also starting to smile and boy do we love that. My camera is acting crazy (ever since a certain cousin played with it) so I'm still trying to get it to take a good picture. Please bear with me!

Here he is after his pants were changed. He loves a clean hiney.

And then I caught this face too

More random pictures with my camera acting a fool but you can see his smile

Yay, this one is more clear

More gang signs (representin' for Roman numeral 3)

I kept asking if he wanted to get in the shower with me...this is his shower seat.

He's thinking about showering...

...of course he said yes to being clean!

I love him in a towel and that face makes me want to bite him.

Ok, so maybe I was a little close in this one because his eyes are crossed...but possibly one of my favorite pictures!

Who doesn't love a naked baby? I didn't position the towel, it just happened to cover his package, thankfully!

His faces are all so wonderful to me. Keep those smiles coming Little Marky. I have my very own angel in my home now. And that's something to be thankful for.

Camera Cord Found...

...Finally!! I've uploaded a couple hundred pictures (no exaggeration) so let's pick up where we left off...

You saw his first bath, this is Little Mark's first shower! He tolerated this way better.

We started getting fogged up from these hot men of mine.

Halloween outfit since I didn't want to bake him in a Halloween costume. Do you love his shoes? Thanks Aunt Cassie for the hat and shoes! Funny story, I bought these shoes from Craigslist and my sister bought them at the Van's outlet. We're so good we bought different sizes! :) He also has a pair of shoes to match this hat.

This night he slept 7 hours!!! I woke up a bunch making sure he was still breathing.

We love bath time!

Little Marky fell asleep nursing and I had to jump up to let Cami out. I thought he looked so cute. Kim, can you see what is behind my boppy?

He's throwing up gang signs already. He knows he's Mark, III.

Do you hear that, Mommy is taking pictures of me!!

Something about his face when he yawns...just so cute.

I'm thankful for this little man in my life. He certainly makes me so happy. I'm also thankful he's healthy. Two Mondays ago at his 1 month check up he was 11 lbs 3 oz and 23 inches long. That puts him in the 95th percentile for height and 90th for weight. While we were there, he rolled over for the first time. I just couldn't believe it. So I took him to my parents' house the next day and he rolled over again. He's growing so fast. I have no choice in the matter, he's going to grow up and I'd better be on board and enjoy the ride.

More pictures to follow

Name Them One by One

I'd like to take this month to count my blessings and share what I have to be thankful for, especially the small stuff.

Today I'm thankful we made it to church! We haven't been since having the little guy. We were super late (even with the extra hour on our side) but I convinced myself regardless of time, we'd be there. So at 10:45, we left the house and rolled into church just in time for Priesthood and Relief Society. The lesson was certainly one I needed to hear.

Our RS Pres gave us 7 minutes to find someone we haven't talked during the last week and see if there was a need or how we can be of service to them. I saw someone I wanted to talk to that I never see but got distracted by someone I talk to each Sunday. After talking to her a few minutes, I was headed over to the other lady. When I realized she was already talking to someone else, I started talking to our RS president. She was watching each of us but no one was talking to her. I guess we don't think about the fact that they may have a need too. I realized I need help my RS Pres take care of our ward. She seems to be doing most of it herself and I don't think that's part of His plan! So each week, I want to try my best to do some good in the world, help someone in need and get joy beyond measure!

We showed up for the first time in 6 weeks and got ourselves a new calling. We are both thankful for the new opportunity we have to serve. I'll be able to share that with you at a later date.

Now, I'd like to be thankful for a nap!

Happy Halloween

We're carving pumpkins and baking up our Mummy dogs. No Halloween is complete without those two things. Last night was our annual family pumpkin carving party. I will have to post those pictures later. For now, I wanted to share our Little Man's newborn pictures.

Here he is in his little Halloween outfit. All the costumes seem to be made for babies trick or treating during a blizzard. Someone needs to make newborn size costumes for babies in tropical weather.

So small in his Daddy's hands

He looked up at me when I kissed him

My Marks- II and III

Mommy and her little sideburns man

We love this picture...he's just so cute and his arms have so much definition

I think he looks great in blue, I could really just eat him up

Still wanting to eat him and his little feet and cheeks and...well...I'm his Mommy, what can I say?

Can you tell we're in love?

My little Marky is 5.5 weeks old now. I can't believe how fast this month has been. I've got more pictures to post but need Mark to locate the camera cord to do so. I hope you have a very safe and tasty Halloween. Speaking of tasty holidays, we are looking forward to sharing just how thankful we are with Thanksgiving on the way.