Christmas Spirit

Christmas is just around the corner and we're finally starting to get the Christmas Spirit. It's been hard for me to find that excitement this year because we're so busy all the time. Thank goodness we were able to get a Christmas tree, put up decorations and play Christmas music... Now the spirit is here! Kenzie helped us put up the first few decorations on our tree and then Nic and I finished it a couple days later. I LOVE our first official Christmas tree! Nic & Abe did such a terrific job picking it out. It's absolutely perfect.

Another annual tradition is for Nic's mom, sister and I to go to the annual Christmas Tea at the Vineyard church. They have a breakfast, games, devotional and gift raffle. It's so much fun. This year Aunt Lara got to join us as well which was a blast.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

October at the Marsh Home

October is always a very busy month in the Marsh household and this year was no exception.

Nic was one of the people in charge of the annual Haunted Woods that the Eagle Volunteers Fire Fighters host which kept him busy every weekend for the entire month. He was also busy going to the elementary schools teaching the kids about fire prevention. The ff'ers would often stay to play with the kids and so Nic (my very in-shape fire fighter husband) would come home exhausted and complaining about how much energy kids have and how they'd beaten up on him. Lol. Who knew recess was dangerous for your health?! :-)

I've been very busy with work (as always), family and friends. I hosted a Halloween Birthday party for my sister-in-law Heather's 30th b-day. It was so fun to get everyone together. Fiona headed to a costume party from my house that night so we got to help her dress up. Kenzie helped Nana with her costumer earlier that day as well. What a fun time of year! Jake's birthday is that same time so we got to celebrate with him as well. Mom made a wonderful family dinner and little Brayden impressed everyone by walking around (trying to run) everywhere since he started walking a week before. I can't believe how quickly kids grow!

Mom and I flew to Texas last week to spend Halloween with Ben and Whitney. It was so much fun to see them and my friend Anela! We went to the Natural Science Museum (parts of it that we wanted to see were closed) and then headed to the Dallas World Aquarium - arguably the coolest Aquarium/Zoo in the world. The next day we went to the Botanical Gardens to enjoy the beauty there. It was breathtaking. Halloween was a blast - we all dressed up and passed out candy to kids (sometimes with W & B's pet rat in the bowl to scare the kids) and watched movies. All in all, a wonderful time to hang out with family and just be together.

I love this time of year. We're heading in to all of the holidays, Christmas cheer is around the corner and fluffy sweatshirts and fuzzy socks are coming out. :-)

New House & Softball

Nic and I love our house so much! It's been fun this spring and summer to see what plants and flowers were already planted and blooming. I've got roses & irises! We've enjoyed decorating, planning, mowing, etc. Our neighborhood is terrific, filled with kids and very friendly neighbors. We have 1 kid in particular who loves to come over and hang out with us. I took him with me to the fire station one day to see Nic and I think Jacob thought he'd died and gone to heaven. :-) He now wants to be a fire fighter. Lol.

Nic and I have also been playing on a softball team through the fire dept this spring. It's been a lot of fun, altho I could do without the 9 pm games that we sometimes have. I started off playing right field but the past several games have started playing catcher. I really enjoy that a lot (except the burning of my thigh muscles for the next 4 days after). Nic hasn't been able to play the past couple games due to his surgery or work. :-( I got to play against two of my best friends a few weeks ago which was a lot of fun. I think they creamed us. :-)

Nic's Surgery

Nic had surgery a week and a half ago for a hernia in his lower abdomen. He was in QUITE a bit of pain before the surgery. He's doing much better now and is happy to be fairly pain free. He's on light duty until the 6th of July but can now start running and being active, just no lifting over 30 lbs. We're so grateful to the Lord for watching over him and helping everything to happen smoothly!

Rhyll, this video is just for you. :-) (Sorry you have to look sideways to view it.)

A New Year

2008 sure disappeared quickly! The end of 2008 saw us leaving our apartment of 2 years, not to move in to a house we were buying as we originally thought, but moving in with Nic's mom and step-dad instead. We were happy and carefree in our apartment, just casually looking around the housing market to see what was out there. We unexpectedly found a house we fell in love with and put an offer on it. The offer was accepted that day and plans moved forward. Just before closing we found out the seller was having some issues with his bank which ended up causing everything to fall thru and not happen. Since we'd already put in our notice at our apt we suddenly found ourselves with no where to live. Nic's parents were good enough to let us come stay with them while we hunted around for a new house. It was fun spending the holidays with them and getting to know them better. As good as it is tho I'm definitely looking forward to our new home. I miss having all my things around me and having my own kitchen. Nic's parents have been great about letting us treat this house as our own tho which we've really appreciated. We did finally find a house even closer to town that we love (bigger too since interest rates have dropped) and have set a date for closing. I confess I'm not attached yet: I'm not going to believe it'll happen until we're there in the office signing the papers. :-) When it does go through we'll send out a mass email with our new mailing address.

The holidays were great this year as always. I love the fact that we have so much family around us even tho it makes the holidays rather stressful. This year managed to be quite relaxing tho which I was very thankful for. We got to see my family (my sister Rhyll was able to make it up this year) and spend time with them, hang out with Nic's mom's side of the family as well as relax with his dad's side of the family. Christmas ended up being about a week long for us which was just fine.

The highlight of this week for me (besides Nic coming home from a long overdue trip to FL & GA) was getting my 4 month old nephew to laugh out loud for a continued amount of time. I love this age when kids are finally starting to realize what's going on around them, recognize family, and start laughing. Life seems so simple when I'm around my nieces and nephews. Thank goodness for kids! They are definitely Heavenly Father's most cherished possessions.