A little something to get you in the spirit...

My last post was kind of clashing with the current background so I thought I would post these super cute pictures...



Happy Early Saint Patrick's Day!

Valentine's Day.

We had a pretty low key Valentine's this year. I got Nick a boring present, according to my brother not my husband, of a new white shirt and tie. I dressed up the silly baby in her heart onesie and fancy headband that my friend Robin made for her. I've been so excited for her to actually wear it. She doesn't look as excited as I was about the whole thing, does she?


Nick picked up this baby on the way home from work....


After dinner we had our friends, the Ricks, come over for chocolate fondue. Kathryn and I took the girls that afternoon to get all sorts of yummy things for dipping and it was delicious. After dessert we took some pictures of the occasion and watched the movie When in Rome. Seriously, the restaurant scene kills me.


I love that Jocelyn looks so much bigger than Sienna. They are about two and half weeks apart with Sienna being the older of the two. We love our friends and are glad that they came to celebrate with us this year.

We went to the zoo!

While D was here I wanted to do something beside sit inside all day. With a relatively new baby sometimes that gets a little tricky. I decided to take the girls to the Sacramento Zoo and we also invited Kathryn and baby Jocelyn to come with us. The Sacramento Zoo is not the best zoo in the world but we had a great time and the animals were all out to see.

Sienna screamed the whole way there and then slept almost the whole time at the zoo. She woke up just in time for us to leave. She such a silly girl. I can't wait until she's big enough to actually appreciate it or at least stay awake for it. As a bonus for you my silly baby dressed as a pink polar bear...

Wow...that red is really showing in these pictures huh?!

Sienna's Blessing

Last Sunday, February 6th we blessed our crazy baby girl. It was a big weekend with the blessing, my friend D visiting and of course the Super Bowl. Our friends Kathryn and Dave also blessed their baby girl Jocelyn that Sunday. Jocelyn and Sienna about two and a half weeks apart and our apartments are right across from each other so they are bound to be best friends one day. It was very cool to share this special day with them.


We were also excited to have Nick's family there with us. It was so great of them to come and support our little family.

After the blessing we headed over to the Langstraats house for some treats and to oh and ah over Sienna. Thanks to the Langstraats for having us and being so accomodating. I was amazed by all the love and support that we felt that day by our family and friends.

This is my favorite picture from the blessing. Of course, Erin took it. She has a knack for capturing my baby looking at the camera. She also made Sienna's headband... she's so talented.


Thanks to my mom for keeping the dress that she was christened in and we were all blessed in so beautiful so that Sienna could wear it. Thanks to Aunt Katie for letting us borrow Jill's special blessing day blanket and thanks again for all of those who came and made that day so special.

A Letter

Dear Idaho,

For a long time you and I have had a love/hate relationship. When we first met you froze me to death and made me work at Arbys. You also made me sleepy and I'm pretty sure gave me a case of seasonal depression. However, you also gave me some treasured memories and an awesome friend. To be honest I held no ill will toward you but lately you're killing me. First, you took the Nelson family. I forgave you for that hoping that you would leave everyone else alone. BUT you didn't. You went and snatched up my little sister. Sure, it's for a good cause and temporary but I was really looking forward to working with her and having her fall in love with my baby...rude.

Then you went and got cocky and surprised me by stealing my second set of parents...before they had the chance to meet Sienna. I was going to ask Dave to be in her blessing circle, you big jerk. Just when I think that you've taken all that you can...you go in for one more time and take them:

SERIOUSLY?! Yeah, I know it will be great for them and they are excited for their new adventure but haven't you taken enough people from me? Who is going to take Sienna shoe shopping now? You are making it hard to keep my distance from you. The very least that you could do for me is take care of them and not make them too cold. Oh, and by the way if you talk to your friend Utah anytime soon tell him he made my list for taking my favorite visiting teacher away...

You guys have some nerve....

~Marianne

Two Months

My baby girl is getting so big...very fast. Last week we went to her two month check up and she did really well. She was a little bit mad about having to get her shots but was more than happy to snuggle with mom for the rest of the day. At her appointment she was 9 pounds 12 ounces and almost 22 inches long. Perfectly resting in the 25th percentile for both height and weight. We had an appointment today to get one more vaccination and she is now 10 pounds 2 ounces...she's finally as big as the biggest grandchild was at birth!

Evidence of her growth:

The first picture is of her first bath and the second picture is earlier this week.
She's big time now.

End of December

We had a great Christmas this year. It was a lot of fun having an extra little person with us to celebrate. Sienna had a great time hanging out with her girl cousins on Christmas Eve and Christmas. Luckily, Braelynn and Jill both seem to like having her around...at least for now.

We sent Christmas Eve with Nick's family and Christmas day with mine. Sienna got the chance to meet her the rest of Nick's family and was very spoiled. We had Christmas breakfast at my parents house and the cousins exchanged gifts. We then spent the day relaxing until we headed over to Aunt Katie's house for a delicious dinner. We are so grateful for our families and how much they took care of us this year. My favorite part of Christmas though was Christmas morning with just our little family. Santa came and even filled up Sienna's stocking. She was very excited about her new movie!

This is one of my favorite pictures from Christmas Eve. As you can see all the love was a liitle overwhelming :) She actually really liked the mirror on the snail after mom fed her.

On New Year's Eve the family went over to Mom and dad's house to say good bye to Aunt Sam who left a couple of days ago for BYU-Idaho. We miss her already and are so excited for her to start this new adventure.