Christmas Time!

    I absolutely LOVE Christmas time! I love the decorations everywhere, the smells of cinnamon, the hustle and bustle of people, treats all the time, the lights, tons of shopping, music, and just the overall feeling of Christmas. I can't get enough of it. This year was different though. Because of school and finals it felt like we only had a week of Christmassy spirit. I felt so rushed into Christmas that I didn't get to enjoy it to the fullest. But the good news is is that Christmas comes every year. So hopefully next year won't be so hectic and I can try to enjoy it a bit more. Even though we were very busy we had a great time with our families and friends this holiday season. We are truly blessed with everyone in our lives.

   This year I wanted to do something different. Usually I go and get a child off of an angel tree and have my friends donate some money to get presents for them. But since we have done that for the past few years I thought a change would be nice. So I had everyone bring to our friend Christmas party $15.00 worth of groceries and a name of someone or family that was in need. It turned out great! We made yummy pizzas and put together our grocery bags with an anonymous letter. We are lucky to have great friends who are always so willing to do service. It was a blast hanging out with them.

    A couple of nights after our friend party we went to see the lights with Michelle and Rock and Teresa and John. It was very cold but still always fun!

    I took a few pictures of our Christmas decorations just so we can remember our TINY tree and our cute little place. 

 Our tree is about 3 feet tall, maybe 4. Jason used it to answer me to a dance in high school and we've just kept it ever since. When we move we'll get a new regular sized tree but for now it is perfect for us. 

 Our stockings

 I got crafty this year and made my own wreath. I have seen a few like this around so I thought I'd give it a try. I love how it turned out. Hopefully I can get more crafty in the future ;)

    Christmas day at our house was VERY busy. But Wonderful. We woke up early and headed to my parents to go to church with them. Honestly I wasn't sure how I felt about having to go to church on Christmas. Just because it made the times of everything harder. But that was a terrible way of looking at it. After church was over I was SO happy we went. It was the absolute perfect way to start Christmas day. It set the mood perfectly and it started with what truly mattered at Christmas time. I loved every minute of our sacrament meeting and I think we should have church on Christmas every year. After church we had breakfast and opened gifts with my family. Then we went to the Hanks' house to do gifts and lunch with them. After that we headed to The Bowman's home to do more gifts and dinner. Once we were done there we went back to the Hanks' for some Christmas evening games. It was a packed full day. We were exhausted by the end of the day but we have never felt more blessed. We were a bit stressed about how we were going to make it to everything but it all worked out. We are so lucky to have such great families on both sides. Busy=Blessed. Instead of being stressed out all day we quickly realized how lucky we were to have so many fun plans and so many great people to spend time with. 

Max had a hard time getting out of bed so early.

 But it was all worth it because he loved all of his gifts! He got a new chewy bone, a lion, and even and angry bird.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. It was our second Christmas together and we had a blast. Can't wait until next year!

Blessing Day

   This past Sunday was Audrey's blessing day. I can't even begin to tell you how darling she looked. She is such a beautiful little girl and she was stylin' in her dress and shoes. My brother, Corey, blessed her and he did a wonderful job. It was a great day. We had a lot of fun hanging with family and enjoying the new little addition to our family.  (I forgot my camera, so these pictures aren't great)

Cute little Marsh Family

It was a long day for Audrey. She was constantly being passed around which can wear a girl out! She past out in Jason's arms after everyone left our house. 

 cutest little shoes

Thanksgiving Weekend

      This year Jason has decided that Thanksgiving is his new favorite holiday. Here are his reasonings...You wake up and go play football for a few hours then go home and nap, shower, go to eat dinner, watch football, relax, eat some pie, you don't have to buy a ton of presents, and you give thanks for all the great things we are blessed with. After making his argument I think I might have to agree with him, somewhat. As wonderful as Thanksgiving is NOTHING, for me, can top Christmas. I do love that we have a holiday where we eat and give thanks. That is a much needed day. I could use more Thanksgivings in my life to stop and just focus on everything that I am blessed with.
     We had a great Thanksgiving this year. Jason played and watched a ton of football and we ate until we were more than stuffed. We had dinner with my family this year. But on Thanksgiving evening after dinner we drove down to St.George to meet up with the Hanks family. They left on Wednesday to head down there so we met up with them Thursday evening. Right when we arrived I met up with the girls to do some black Friday shopping. I think I'm gonna need a re-do of it next year. They all went to Walmart at 10pm and had a great time. I didn't get there until close to midnight so I met up with them in the line at Khols. Kohls was kind of a let down. Next year I want to do Target! We'll see though ;)
    The weather in St.George was wonderful. A little chilly but much better than here. Our weekend was full of shopping. We shopped til we dropped, and I loved it! It was so fun to spend time with family and enjoy the new house Hanks recently bought.  We can't wait until next Thanksgiving!

Unfortunately, I did not take a picture of Audrey when she was awake. Obviously she is very tired here after a long Thanksgiving. She came in the cutest outfit, I had to take a picture. Her Grandma Diaz stitched her the cutest booties to go with her outfit. She looked darling!

One night we went to Tuachan to look at the lights, see Santa, and watch a nativity play. It was a blast!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Welcome to the World.

    I'm late on this post but oh well. We've had a really busy month. While Jason and I were in England My brother, Corey's, daughter was born. The timing of this was horrible but what can ya do. I'm so sad that I missed the big moment of this little girl coming into the world. I know everyone is probably biased with their own kids or nieces and nephews. Everyone says theirs are the cutest and ours really are. Haha. Jason and I have darling nieces and nephews. We love them all to pieces and Audrey was such a great addition. She is the first grandchild on the Marsh side so we're all pretty smitten with her. But she really is so wonderful. She never makes a peep and is so pleasant to have around. I could just hold her all day and look at her. I love her so much already. I'm so happy to be her aunt and I can't wait to watch her grow up. It's so fun to see Corey and Dayna become parents. They are so great with her and I'm so happy for them. I love my family.

Audrey Mayumi Marsh, born October 10th, 2011 at 1:09 am. 6 lbs. 11oz. and 18 inches.

Welcome to the world little one!

Halloween

   I love Halloween time. I think it's so much fun. People get clever and dress up as crazy things, there is candy everywhere, and baked goods are always pumpkin flavor. I just love it. I'm obsessed with Fall. When Jason and I wanted to get married there was no doubt about it that it was going to be during the fall season. There's nothing better than driving through the canyon looking at all of the red, orange, and yellow leaves, it's beautiful. It could be fall all year long and I would be happy. Unfortunately, this can't be and we have to shovel snow for the next 6 months of our lives :( Well anyways, think we made our fall great for the little time that we had it around. I'm a fan of haunted houses and corn mazes but Jason and most of my friends are not..so we compromised and did a non-haunted corn maze with the Featherstones and had a blast. I was just glad to be out doing something festive. For the next weekend we had a party with all of our friends to celebrate Halloween. It was so fun to see everyone's costumes and to spend some time together. Then on the sunday before Halloween we were at my parents house for dinner and we carved pumpkins. This has become a fun tradition that I always look forward to. The next day was Halloween and we had school and work all day long so at night we decided to dress up poor Max in his costume and go visit our families.

 For some reason we were really struggling to get a good picture at the corn maze. Yup Jason and I look pretty creepy in this one. 

We went as Hippies this year ;)

 The Girls

 Here are our pumpkins...Yup Corey's takes the cake on the carving. He did his free hand. Drew it on the pumpkin then cut it out. Every year we all have our patterns and try to make ours look cool then he tops it...every year. I'm jealous. Corey's is from V for Vendetta.

 Max was turtle this year. It came with a head piece with cute turtle eyes but he refused to wear it after a while and of course I didn't get a picture with him in it. He didn't seem to mind the turtle shell though. 

Max trick-or-treating. (We have no children so poor Max gets tortured. Give us a break ;)

 Refusing the head piece.

 The is my pumpkin...A Kitty-Bat

 Jason's pumpkin is on the right and my mom's is on the left.

This is baby Audrey. I love her. She is the sweetest baby and I just can't get enough of her. She is like this all the time, never cries or gets upset and occasionally opens her eyes. I could hold her forever.

Happy Halloween!

Year One...Check.

   Well it looks like Jason and I have made it to our one year mark of Marriage. Go us! This post is a little late because we were in England on our actual anniversary. For good luck it is a tradition to save the top tier of your wedding cake and eat it on your one year anniversary. So tonight we got out our cake and ate a slice while watching our wedding video. It's so crazy to think that it was a whole year ago that we were married. Some days it seems just like yesterday, others seem like it was so long ago. It was so fun to watch our video and relive such a wonderful day. The one day that started everything for us. We became our own family. So many things have happened in just a year. We have so much ahead of us. Our new life together has just begun and there are so many wonderful things to look forward to. I could not have chosen a better partner to help me through the journey. We've had ups and downs in our first year but we are stronger than we've ever been. I love Jason with all my heart and I'm so blessed that he chose to marry me. One year down, and to many more to come! I can't wait!

Things that happened in our first year....

1. Bought a condo

2. Jason started his job

3. Traded my car :(

4. Bought Jason a car

5. Had a new nephew Ryder

6. Went to Dominican Republic

7. Jason was called as 2nd Counselor in YM's

8. I was called as the sunbeams teacher

9. Left The Children's Center

10. Started a new job

11. Adopted Maximus

12. Went to Mexico

13. Cruised the Carribean

14. Ran my first 5k

15. Had a new nephew Zachary

16. Went to England 

17. Went to France

18. Had a new niece Audrey

19. Attempted to cook more

and...20. Celebrated our one year Anniversary!!

"They asked me what I love most about life, and I smiled and said you."