DINO MUSEUM

Parker is obsessed with dinosaurs, as most boys his age are I'm sure. There is a HUGE dinosaur museum at Thanksgivng Point in Utah that we take him to every time we are there. He has such a blast!

Here are some pictures!

Cousin Ryan and Parker watching the scientists get fossils ready.

Daddy and Parker by the leg of a Brontosaurus.

I think this replica may be a little violent for kids . . . . . . . . ha ha.

I have always wanted a skull collection . . . . . . . maybe not one like this though. :)

Parker digging up fossils

It takes a lot to amuse Preslie . . . . apparently the billion year old bones just weren't doing it for her.

There are a few people I would like to butt heads with some days too.

Grammy Kellie, Brandon, Karlie, Papa Denny, and Parker

The dinosaur looks pretty surprised to have Parker crawling on him.

Eric finds this picture amusing because of the sign BEHIND Brandon and Lisa.

Some days you just wanna throw things!!!!!

Mommy and Preslie!

Sean Dennis Marshall - Welcome to the Family!

Over Thanksgiving, we had the GREAT pleasure to see Scott and Lisa's little boy Sean Dennis get blessed.

This was a special treat to me as I haven't seen any of their boys as babies, and we haven't seen their family at all for almost three years as they have been back East while Scott is in dental school.

It was a great experience. Don't mind too much that Eric is not dressed up, it was a surprise to us!

Thanksgiving - Mollie and Preslie

Eric's sister, Katie, has taken on the HUMONGOUS challenge the past couple of years to have the family at her house for Thanksgiving. They built this beautiful house that has enough rooms for everyone to sleep in (unfortunately Mack and Karlie get kicked out of their rooms) but still - there are SO MANY people running around that I am sure the loves having the house back to normal when we leave

We had a blast of a time with Blake and Katie as always. Denny and Kellie came down from Portland. And Eric's brother Scott, and his family, who we haven't seen in three years, were there too. All the boys had fun running around together (Mack, Brandon, Ryan, and Parker) and the girls had fun too (Karlie, Mollie, and Preslie).

Preslie and Mollie became life-long pals while we were there.

Mollie turned 1 in September, so she is around 14 months old. Preslie is 9 months old. Mollie weighs 15lbs and is just barely cutting teeth. Preslie weighs almost 18lbs and just cut her sixth and seventh teeth.

Basically what I'm saying is that Preslie is MAMMOTH next to Mollie. They sat next to each other in their high chairs and ate off of each other's plates, and they played with toys together, and are best buds.

Preslie, Karlie, and Mollie - the three Marshall grandgirls!

Preslie's first Twinkie!

Miss Mollie

Hello bLiZzArD!

I'm sure everyone heard of the ridiculous blizzard that hit Idaho and Utah over Thanksgiving, but I tell you what, it is an experience that our family will NEVER forget cause we lived, and DROVE, through it!

We left our house in Nampa at 6:30am on Tuesday morning and started the usually 5 1/2 hour drive to Salt Lake. We got drove onto the junction I-86 from Idaho to Utah at noon. Yes, it took us five hours just to get there because it was snowing like mad, and the roads were coated. We've always said that it is better to get there late than never to get there at all, so we really didn't get much over 35-40mph.

Right after we got onto the junction the wind picked up like MAD!!!! Eric got behind a semi and just said, "I'm staying behind him 'cause I can't see the road."

It amazed us how many people were still driving SO fast, not being able to see the road, and with how slick it was and the snow and everything, it was crazy how fast everyone was driving.

About five miles past the junction, the semi in front of us stopped so we stopped too. A huge triple trailer semi swung past us into the left hand lane and sped by, but we could see he was trying to stop. Then a red Tacoma flew by and almost hit the semi and swung out into the center median to miss him, followed by a gold minivan. For what seemed like ten minutes Eric and I both thought we were going to end up in an accident. People just weren't watching, and they kept speeding, and all of a sudden a car would appear out of nowhere, and they would have to swerve off into the road to miss. And we were right in the middle of everyone swerving.

Then when people finally stopped flying around, we sat.

And sat.

AND SAT.

We did not move for HOURS. LITERALLY!

The wind was blowing 65mph, and we were watching whole semis blowing over. Our windshield wipers froze to the windshield. We could barely see the semi in front of us between all the snow and wind. It was CRAZY.

We got the kids out of their seats and started letting them play around. We looked through all the food in our car and decided we could easily sleep in it for 24 hours-ish and have enough food for the kids if they got hungry.

Police came and walked to every car and told us to move as far the the right of the road as possible so they could get a snow plow through. This was difficult as the drifts that had built up next to our car were almost three feet tall.

At 4:00pm, we finally started moving. They had us drive a few miles up to the next overpass and then swung as back around and sent us back to Burley. Denny, Kellie, Grammy Rita, and our family checked into a hotel in Burley and then went to dinner.

We got up Wednesday morning, ate some breakfast - ran into the Geddes's, a family from our ward that was also heading to Salt Lake - and hit the road at 9:30am. We FINALLY got to Eric's sister Katie's house in Pleasant Grove, UT at 3:30 Wednesday afternoon. So in reality, we spent 33 hours driving to Salt Lake, a drive that usually takes 5 1/2. It was crazy!

The weather was calm most of the time we were in Utah, and the OF COURSE on Sunday when we were driving back home to Nampa, we woke up to a foot of snow in Utah. Our drive home was about as long. We drove up through Pocatello to come home. Left at 9:30am and drove into our driveway at 7:30 that night.

All in all, the kids were pretty great. They did well in the car, and we have a LIFETIME of memories of that trip.

Needless to say, I doubt we will drive in the snow, on highways that end up getting closed, for Thanksgiving anymore . . . . even for Katie!

NOTE: You can't see out the windows of our car very well.

FUNNY BOY

Parker has become quite the talker. When he was younger we always said, "I can't wait 'til he learns how to talk" and everyone was like, "Don't say that, you won't want it when he does."

I disagree, I LOVE that Parker knows how to talk, I love that he knows how to communicate, and that he understands us, and he can tell us what he wants, and that we don't have to play the guessing game every time he's upset. However, Parker is our little IT guru . . . . as in INCESSANT TALKING!

He talks ALL the time. I mean he's good at all the IT, technology stuff too, but I already feel bad for his future teachers because the kid seriously talks all the time, even in his sleep. We'll say "Parker! Be quiet!" and instead of not talking, he just whispers. . . . . which I guess is a more literal translation.

Parker also loves gum. I love it when he tells me he is done and spits a wad of it, plus several ounces of saliva, in to my hand to throw away.

The other day we were in the car and he asked for a piece of gum. Eric gave him some, and Parker was obsessed with the fact that the gum was green - to the point that he wouldn't eat it, he just held it in his hand and looked at it.

A few minutes later we hear this SHRIEK from the back seat, turn around and Parker is freaking out.

"WHERE'S MY GUM!!!!!?!?!?!?!?!"

"Parker what did you do with it?"

Eric is trying to manuever the car in the snow, I can barely reach Parker to do any sort of consoling, much less find the gum, and Parker just continues to shriek.

In the middle of one of his teenage girl hysterical wails he stops abruptly, puts his hand into his mouth and says:

"Oh, it's in Karke'rs mouth."

After which point he stops crying and stares at the window, "Look, Mom, stars!"

I love how ADD kids are.

Then in Utah we bought him a cheap dollar store bow and arrow set, which he also loved. He was playing with it on our ridiculously long journey back home. I looked back at him at one point and realized that the foot long arrow he had been playing with, was now only six inches long.

"Parker, why did you break that?"

"It was too big, now it's little."

Well I guess that makes sense too.

Family Pictures!!!!

It has been FOREVER since we had family pictures done . . . . . as in Parker's first christmas, so a LONG time. Other than that, we have pictures of Preslie and I from when she was born in dresses my mom sewed, but other than that, NOTHING.

So we finally just got some taken. My sister's sister-in-law (sounds funny, but she's not related to me, ha ha) came to my parent's house and took some for us. It was EXTREMELY cold, so our kids weren't exactly happy (as you will see from Preslie's amazing pictures) but they still turned out well, and let's be honest, anything is better than nothing! :)

Our little "four"some

Princess Preslie - she has a set of lungs, and was NOT happy to be taking pictures.

Our handsome little Parker boy!

My BOYS!!

The whole Lewis family

My siblings - Bryson 16, Me 23, Brittany 25, Jordan 17

Down to the originals!

Growing up

It's weird that I am so young, and yet feel so old . . . . . or maybe it's weird that I am old, and yet feel so young . . . .

It seems strange to me to experience life altering events, or have friends experiencing life-altering events. I just keep thinking "We are all too young for this. These things happen to old people, to ADULTS."

I guess I am finally an adult.

My heart breaks for my two friends who have lost babies. I can't imagine what they are going through but reading stories about their lives literally puts me to tears. Twenty-two year olds are not supposed to lose babies. Only adults have to struggle through that trial. These are good people, they aren't supposed to be faced with these trials.

And then I see how they are handling their loses - with strength and dignity, and a growth in love for our Heavenly Father and his plan for us, and I am blown away again and think, no twenty-two year old can think like that.

I have found myself drawn to one of them in particular - I haven't asked her if I can share her name, or her story, or even a link to her blog, so I won't - but I read it all the time. She and I have had so many of the same experiences and we have bonded over them. And it's funny that even though we meant under the most random and strange circumstances (think polygamy date with my future husband :) I truly love her, and pray for her always. She has been such a strength to me, and her grace under the face of her trials, is awe inspiring. There has not been a time since reading her story where when I go to yell at my kids because I am so frustrated with them that I don't stop and think "At least I have them, I need to remember what it would be like to lose them."

Another of my friends was reunited with her husband this week after he was gone for a year serving our country in Iraq - he returned to a baby boy that he had never met. I can't imagine not having your husband be there for the birth of your son, and I can't imagine what it would be like to be unable to be present at the birth of your son either. The pictures of their reunion are amazing and beautiful and you can truly see their joy at finally being together again as a family!

And amidst all this happiness, his father was taken from them in an accident on Wednesday before the father and son got to see each other again.

Once again, I cannot imagine what this would be like.

It scares me. I can't help but sit there and think that it seems like every family is dealing with distress, and it worries me that some tragedy is waiting to happen in ours. Because of that fear, I am slowly finding strength to live better, and be a better person. To judge a little less, smile a little more, and always tell people that I care about them. I guess you truly never know when they will be gone.

It makes me happy to know that we will all be together again. And yet, I still can't help but think that we are all too young to be dealing with these tragedies. I guess it's true, I really am growing up.

Christmas Time at the Marshalls!

Yes, yes, yes . . . . I have heard it all before! It is not even Thanksgiving yet and we have the Christmas tree up. Christmas gets earlier every year. Yes I know it is only the second week of November, and we are probably the only people in the world with our Christmas tree up already (except for the hicks down the street who have snow globes in their yard and Christmas lights hung all over their house to rival the Griswold's) but I can't help it! I LOVE CHRISTMAS! Especially now that we have kids. I love seeing the Christmas tree up with presents underneath it, and I love seeing Parker excited for the presents.

Their are ulterior motives too I guess. We tend to work for MONTHS at getting Christmas presents together. It's usually like we are walking around a store somewhere and see somethig we want to get Parker and there's a timeline - if it's after his birthday in August, we justify buying it by saying it's for Christmas. And then it gets set in our closet and soon the closet gets full and makes it hard to fit all other items in it, so to regain the space I wrap the presents.

And then after wrapping the presents I realize I really don't have any more space in the closet than I did before. So I start placing random Christmas decorations around the house, until Eric is brainwashed into thinking it is time to put up the tree. The I say something like "I think you should clean out the closet under the stairs" and when Eric takes out the tree box, I grab it and run off with it. Then the tree is up, with lights on it (which is fairly easy seeing as how the tree is pre-lit) with trimmings, ornaments, and star on top, before Eric even knows what hit him.

Usually Parker has become enamored with the tree by this point (and this year Preslie has liked it too) that Parker gets hysterical when Eric says "It's too early to have that up, take it down" and I say, "But your son will be so sad" and then it stays.

Ulterior motive number two: it keeps us in line for how many presents we buy. Purchasing presents two to three months beforehand, and not having them out on a counter somewhere to show us that indeed we do already have forty-five presents for Preslie, we really don't need that My Little Pony for Preslie, no matter how cute it is - it would become very easy to OVER BUY for Christmas.

So here we are, November 13th, and we have the stockings hung, Christmas tree up, and all the presents are organized under the tree. We still have a few last minute gifts to buy for family, but it's almost completely done, which makes me extremely happy. I like making caramel hot chocolate and sitting on the couch with Eric with the tree lights on - it is AWESOME!

Our Christmas tree!

See how upset Eric is about the tree being up, he won't even smile!

Preslie has started crawling! Usualy it is an army crawl or a bear crawl where she tries to move around with her feet and hands on the ground, stabilized by her head. Sometimes she even chews on her clothes, it's like she doesn't know we already have a family dog to chew things for us!

Princess Preslie! 8 1/2 Months Old!

We've had requests for updated pictures of little miss Preslie - so I grabbed a bunch off the camera and downloaded them. Nothing too special, just some fun pictures - amazingly Parker took most of them, he LOVES playing with the camera.


Preslie is a total girl, she loves shoes and cell phones.



Not quite sure why this picture is here, don't look at the rest of the house I guess.

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