Family Pictures

I decided that since it had been a year since we got our family pictures, we should go take some.  It wasn't until we got home and realized that my camera sucks at taking pictures.  Here are the results.  We had fun, though.  We went to Customer Appreciation Days at Snowbird Ski Resort and got to ride the tram for free.  The kids and Ammon LOVED it.  I nearly had a heart attack every time we went over a bump (FYI: I am deathly afraid of heights).

The view at the top of the tram ride.  Yes, that is as close to the edge as I wanted to get.

Alauna and I waiting for the boys to get done with their little "hike".

Here the 2 kids are acting like they love each other.

My favorite of Alauna.

My favorite of Josh.

It's looking more like a house every day!

A look into the basement before they put the floor on.

A look at the front.

A look at the back.  It's so big I couldn't fit it all in my camera's view finder.  That's a good thing.

What the front will look like with the rock retaining wall.  And the sun is shining so brightly!

New Home Construction Part 2

Yay!  The tractor is finally here!

Here is most of the hole.  It took 3 days to dig because of the weather.

After the hole was dug, they poured the footings.

We are getting pretty excited!

The foundation is totally finished.  Now we get to wait for it to cure.

Our New House

We bought a house!  Well, it hasn't been built yet, but we picked out everything!  It was actually quite hard (I know, poor me).  Anywhoo.....I am going to (hopefully) take a picture every week from start to finish and (maybe) post it on my blog.  Yes, I know, it's a bit cliche, and everyone does it.  BUT I AM SO EXCITED!  (I just can't hide it). 

A picture of the lot where our house will be built.  This is from the North West corner.

This is a picture of the front of the lot.  Some of the fence will be taken down.  This is the North West corner where I took the top picture, but I took it from inside the corner of the fence.

Summer 2012

Josh and Alauna walking in the LONG Magna Parade with our Stake.

Alauna cheesing it while driving in the neighborhood Independence Day parade.

Josh and Alauna showing off their face paintings.

Went to Ammon's Family Reunion.  We had a blast.  We went boating and swimming, stayed in a cabin, and didn't have to cook any meals.  Now that's what I call camping.

Ammon's siblings and parents having fun!

Because Alauna wanted me to add a picture of her Zebra "Stripes".

We gave Josh a fishing pole for his 7th birthday and took it out last weekend.

Josh and Alauna were able to both catch one fish.  They were delicious!

We added a new family member.  Her name is "Patches".  She is so fun to have around.  She is more social than any other cat I have known.  We sure do love her.  Best of all, Koda and her get along.  Hopefully they will be best friends one day.

Rainy Day

Josh and Alauna building a dam on a rainy summer day.

Loving how nicely they are working together.  That's heaven.

This is Alauna showing me how dirty she is getting.  I think she needs to stop being such a princess and DIG IN!

That's my boy!  Dirrrrrttyyyyyyy!

Utah Weather

We finally got some GREAT snow in which to build a snowman and go sledding. Alauna and I built a Snow Kitty, but the little stinker knocked it down before I could take a picture of it. Oh, well. As long as she had fun. This picture is of her pulling her "Small Kitty" on a sled. She takes this cat along with her everywhere she goes. It was mine when I was in High School, but she kind of adopted it as hers.




This is a picture I took of Josh. I didn't realize he was trying to throw a snow ball at me, because I was focusing more on getting the pretty clouds in the background. What a cutie!



















This is one of my favorites! Alauna had fun making a snow angel, so of course "Small Kitty" had to make a Snow Kitty. Love her!








HOWEVER, 9 days later (yes, 9) we were invited to my brother Jayson's house to eat dinner and roast S'mores. The weather was SO nice (upper 60's). That is Utah weather for you. I got out all the kids' spring/summer clothes and started making room for them, getting really excited for Spring to come. And wouldn't you know it, 9 days after that (today) it snowed, AGAIN! I wish Mother Nature would make up her mind. I don't like being teased about the good weather.Ok. Enough ranting. At my brother's house again. They let Alauna drive their 4-wheeler. She had a blast.


This last one is Josh playing in the dirt/sand pile with his cousin, Caiden. We really had a great time visiting and enjoying the beautiful weather.

What's coming next for the Marshall's? Lots of fun things. We got a mini greenhouse to put in our kitchen so we can plant seeds for our garden. I set it up and it looks great. Now just to plant the seeds. So far, on our list of things to plant: corn, potatoes, tomatoes, raspberries, chives, parsley, cilantro, and the kids planted 2 pumpkins (to carve for Halloween). I am really excited. Especially since we are actually starting on time this year, so we may actually get a good harvest. Pictures to come!

Soooo busy!

I got on my blog just to see what everyone else has been up to and noticed it had been almost 4 months since I updated my own. Time flies when you are busy. And that's all I can say the last 4 months have been. B-U-S-Y!

So here's a small sample of what we have been up to:

We went to Ammon's parent's house in Caldwell, ID for Christmas. It was quite an adventure getting all the presents there, but it was SO worth it. This picture is of Ammon reading "The Night Before Christmas" to the kids before bedtime. Then in the morning, Great Grandma Marshall, and some cousins and an Uncle came over to unwrap presents. It was a glorious commotion. We stayed at their house for 5 wonderful days. It was a lot of fun just visiting and seeing Idaho through Ammon's eyes (since he grew up there).

I turned 30 in January. Period.



Here is a shot of Alauna blowing out her candles for her 3rd Birthday Party. We had Ammon's sister and her 3 girls over. We had cake and ice cream and played Just Dance 3. Loved it!









I watched my nephew while his mom and dad went to Texas for a week. It was quite the adventure. All remnants of what "Baby Hungry" ideas I had were washed away. He was a great kid, but I was SO busy - all the time. He was sick the whole time, so we didn't get outside much. So he was able to have the time to find everything I didn't have baby-proofed in my house. He and Alauna didn't get a long very well, but when they did, it was so precious. Not even a minute after he left, she said, "I miss Paxton."

I love being able to Home School Josh. He hates it, of course, but I do my best to make it fun. I am learning quite a bit as well. My favorite part this last week was being able to stick my own little blurb about Jesus Christ and beginning of Christianity as we were learning about the Ancient Romans. Bet they don't teach that in public school! Although I have very little time for anything else while teaching Josh, I sure enjoy being able to spend so much time with him. I love knowing how well he is doing and being able to take care of any problems that arise without having to hope a teacher is giving him enough individual attention. We go on outings with his "school" and Alauna is able to come with.


Last week, we were able to go tour the Utah State Capitol building. It was really cool inside, and we got ALOT of exercise.

Yesterday, we went to Don Quixote at the Ballet West Capitol Theatre. It was such a delight to watch Alauna "oohing" and "ahhing" at all the dancers. She clapped so wildly and loudly after each dance that I thought her hands were going to fall off. Josh mostly like it. I told my husband that he got bored after a while and wanted to go home, so Ammon said, "That's my boy." Like father, like son. On Wednesdays, I watch a girl named Angela from our ward. She just turned 5, and gets along really well with both Josh and Alauna. She is polite and quiet. I am able to take her along when we go on school Field Trips, so that's definitely a plus.

So, that's us in a nutshell. Busy, busy, and more busy. Hopefully when the weather warms up, we will be able to more busy, but outside!