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!