Honesty or Ignorance?

A conversation with Howie last night after I tucked him in:
Howie: Mom, how did your bum get so fat?
Me: Howie, that's not very nice.
Howie: Sorry, how did your bottom get so fat? I mean look at how big it is.

The big girl bed

I want to think it is safe to post this, but I don't want to jinx myself, or Nina. My parents and brother came to visit last week, partly to see the NCAA games and partly to see kids and grand kids. My mom came a little early and split the time between the 5 kids she has out here. While she was with me, she helped me to get our house a bit more ordered. We got rid of some toys and hugely organized the basement. Then we worked on Nina's room, which she will soon be sharing when the baby comes. I've been putting of "the big girl bed" for awhile since I knew Nina would never choose to stay put when she has the option of escaping. However, I am shocked to report that it has been over a week and the transition has gone beautifully! She had one night where she got out about 3 times, and that's it. Today she even climbed in her bed on her own and took a nap. I know that as soon as I post this, everything will change and she will never sleep in her bed again. But at least we have had one good week right?

I had this idea of making Nina her bedding, but my wise mother talked me out of it and we found this whole set at Target on clearance. It's the perfect match for Nina, she loves polka dots.

I tend to worry a little too much about the kids staying warm at night. I usually double their pajamas during the winter because I don't want them to freeze. As you can see, I really don't have anything to worry about! Nina was totally sweating when I went in to check on her. She wasn't even doubled up either.

Hunting for eggs

Still in catch up mode. These are the pictures from the Easter egg hunt we had on Saturday. The bunny, who had a strong resemblance to "uncle Mikey", hid over 150 eggs and 16 baskets all around Jen and Ben's yard. I wish I had a picture of us trying to keep the kids inside until all the parents were ready with their cameras. They were crazy! But a cute thing the older kids kept saying was that they needed to save the easy eggs for the babies and only look for the hard ones. I'm not sure how much self-control they were able to show when they were actually faced with all those "easy eggs" though! At least it was a nice thought.

Clearly Donovan did not observe the 12 egg per child limit.





In our family, the Easter bunny hides the baskets along with the eggs.

NCAA First Round

Matt and I got to go to our first NCAA tournament games last weekend. My dad, Michael, Chris, Adam, Jill, Matt and I watched 6 games over 2 days down at the Pepsi Center. We didn't have any of those upsets that make March Madness so fun, but we saw some great teams play. For my own journaling purposes, we saw Notre Dame beat George Mason (they easily had the best band and band director, he was pretty funny); Washington State beat Winthrop; Michigan State beat Temple; Pittsburgh beat Oral Roberts; Washington State beat Notre Dame and Michigan State beat Pitt.

Matt needed a break after a little bit. I'm trying my hardest to hide my double chin, even if it means making weird faces.

Day 2, still having fun. We played a few trivia games about colleges and mascots and Matt and my brothers know way too many college mascots and obscure college names. Some of the categories included mascots that don't end in "s", mascot names that aren't animals, colleges with names that don't include geographical information and colleges named after a city.

Easter Outfits

Here is our lame excuse for Easter outfits. We pretty much just picked them out from their closets Sunday morning.

Coloring eggs

I have some catching up to do with our blog! I'm starting with the eggs we colored a week ago for Family Home Evening. Thank you to Grandma Marshall for sending us the stuff to color eggs, I don't know if we would have had the energy to go out and get some! Donovan and Nina finished their eggs pretty quickly. Howie, on the other hand, took forever. He would think long and hard about which color to use, then he wanted us to do half/half colors, then try putting the egg in multiple colors until finally he dipped his last one in all 5 colors.

Tagged again

Thanks for the tag Jacque! Right off the bat I'm tagging Angie, Megan, Honey and Katie (the perfect opportunity to start your blog!). Anyway, here is much more than anyone would care to know about Matt and me...

1. His full name : Matthew Cheyne Marshall
2. How long have you been together? Our 8th anniversary will be in April
3. How long did you date? 8 months (4 dating/4 engaged)
4. How old is he? 33

5. Who eats more? Matt does "easily" (as he puts it)
6. Who said "I love you" first? That memorable event turned out to be not-so-memorable for us. Matt guesses that he would probably have said it first though.
7. Who is taller? Matt
8. Who sings better? We both sing okay. Matt would be a lot better at karaoke though, just because he is more shameless.

9. Who is smarter? I think we are different kinds of smart.
10. Who does the laundry? I do, but if I ever leave a clean load on the bed, Matt will always help fold
11. Who pays the bills? Matt makes the money, I do the spending/bill paying
12. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? We both do. Matt, when we're sleeping on our backs, me when we're sleeping on our stomachs. Except when we visit Matt's family, for some reason we switch, weird.

13. Who mows the lawn? Usually Matt does
14. Who cooks dinner? Mostly I do, except when grilling is involved
15. Who drives? Matt does, unless he is tired
16. Who kissed who first? We were coerced into our first kiss by a DJ at a dance club. I don't think either of us gets credit



17. Who is more stubborn? We both think Matt, but I can have my moments
18. Who asked who out first? I asked Matt out many times before he gave in
19. Who proposed? Matt
20. Who has more friends? I think Matt knows more people than I do, but I do more with my friends
21. Who is more sensitive? we think we are equally sensitive
22. Who has more siblings? I do (6 to 3)
23. Who wears the pants? my answer is that Matt smiles and nods alot, his is that neither of us do
And there we are, the happy couple.

and Donovan

Sorry for the flood of posts! But here is Donovan accessorizing:

This is Donovan's bath towel wrapped snugly around him. He walked around the house all wrapped up for about 10 minutes before he decided to take a rest.

I came in the living room to find Donovan writing up plays on Matt's coaching whiteboard. That is normal, he does it all the time. But what was not normal was finding his baby blanket on his head with a lacrosse helmet over the top of it.

Howie crashes again

We usually have the kids in bed by 8:00 and Sunday night was no exception. We did stories, prayers, songs - the whole routine. So when we heard Donovan getting back into his bed at 10:45 that night, we thought that was a little strange. Especially since we never heard him get out of bed. When I went into their room to see what Donovan was doing, I noticed that Howie wasn't in his bed. Donovan told me he was still downstairs, and when I went down there, this is what I found...

one crazy week

So I don't know where this week went, but I remember feeling busy every moment I was awake. Our ward had an enrichment activity this week and I spent a lot of time getting ready for that. But anyway, here are a few pictures of Nina helping me with a little project. I made a 6x6 album to auction off at our service auction.

I managed to save a bunch of my eyelets and brads from Nina, but she dumped out all the rest. So much for organization.


It all happened so quickly! While I was picking up brads and eyelets from the floor, she rearranged the organized piles of my project. Love ya Nina!

My kids got tagged

So our three kids have been tagged and I guess that means I get to tell you 8 things you might not know about each of them.

Nina Marie Marshall - 2 years old
1. She has her own concept of time. She's told me she will hold the baby "in 6 minutes", she doesn't want to put on her pajamas until "next Tuesday", and according to Nina, Matt will always be home "in 3 hours".
2. She is the tallest of our kids scoring in the 57th percentile. Her brothers have never risen above the 15th in height.
3. For each and every item of clothing we put on Nina, she has to know who gave it to her. She never believes me when it's something I have given her.
4. She didn't learn to walk until she was 17 months old.
5. If you ever ask Nina where something is and she's not sure, she won't say "I don't know," instead, she'll say, "it's over in the corner."
6. During Family Home Evening, she always climbs up on the little bench in our living room and does a song and dance for everyone.
7. You will most likely find Nina carrying a baby wrapped in a blanket, or one of her many purses filled with chapstick and plastic rings.
8. Nina is an avid wrestler and her favorite competitors are Matt, Donovan and Howie.

Donovan Cheyne Marshall - 6 years old
1. Donovan was born with a heart disease called WPW. He can't serve in the military, drive a school bus or get a scuba diving license.
2. He has an amazing memory. He will ask about something we did 2 and 3 years ago, and he never lets you forget that you promised to let him do something.
3. He has started spelling words instead of saying them. Like when I told him it was bedtime he responded, "That is not f-a-i-r".
4. Donovan is interested in all racing events including NASCAR, Indy, motorcross, snowmobiles, and horse racing.
5. He should be losing his 2nd baby tooth any week now. He lost his first one right before school started in August.
6. His favorite toys are legos, lite brite, race cars and his John Deer diggers.
7. Some of his favorite foods include spaghetti, skittles and nachos.
8. Donovan's favorite day of the week is Friday because we let him stay up. This means that we don't turn the light off before we close the door. He usually stays in bed and falls asleep like any normal day, but there's something about "staying up" that he loves.

Howard Robert Marshall - 4 years old
1. We discovered that Howie prefers doubling up on underwear, 2 pairs is a lot better than just one!
2. He is a hugely picky eater. If he had his way, he would only be served oatmeal, scrambled eggs, macaroni and cheese and cheetohs.
3. When we tuck Howie in at night, we have to put his baby blanket directly on top of him, then we can pull his sheets and comforter up over him. Any other way just won't work for him.
4. Howie loves to play tricks on people. Mostly he likes you to close your eyes while he removes an object or makes it reappear. But he is getting a little more clever.
5. Every morning that Howie wakes up and Matt is still here, he greets Matt by saying "Hello there young sire."
6. Howie really likes to help people, but he likes to do it secretly. You sometimes have to pretend you don't see him at work or it upsets him greatly.
7. Howie was our smallest baby weighing in at a whopping 5 pounds 8 ounces and measuring 17 1/2 inches long.
8. Some of his current interests include Pokemon, ponies and Power Rangers.


And I am tagging Jill, Lindsey, and Kristin's kids. Love ya guys!

Love Ya Mikey!

A little over a week ago someone rang the doorbell at about 9:00 am. When I opened the door, a box was on the front porch. Inside the box was this gorgeous bouquet of tulips. It turns out my handsomely hot little brother Michael (affectionately known as uncle mikey mike by my kids) wanted to brighten my day, just because. Having fresh flowers in the house really does brighten the days. Thanks Mikey - Love ya!