Christmas Pictures

We had the kids pictures taken with Santa this year. He is so darling and so good with the kids. He really takes time to talk to them and answer all their questions. Sydney told me when we got there that she only wanted to stand by him she didn't want to sit on his lap. I know that day will come when she doesn't want to sit on his lap any more so if it takes a few years to her to be comfortable then I am OK with it! She was however very excited to tell him that she wanted a princess castle for Christmas! We are counting down the days! While we had the kids all dressed up we decided to take a few of our own! We are excited for Connor's first Christmas this year and love having him here! Hope you enjoy a few pictures :)

Simple Pleasures

I have just experienced one of the simple pleasures of life. My little man smiled at me for the first time today! He is such a joy and I couldn't ask anything more! :)

Brother and Sister

We were putting Connor in his car seat the other day and we snapped this picture because I remembered that I had almost the exact one of Sydney. I really think that they look alike and it was fun to see these pictures of them doing the same thing!



SYDNEY



CONNOR

Fun Halloween

This year for halloween Sydney wanted to be Winnie the Pooh until we went to Disneyland and her mind was quickly changed when she saw the princesses.She was excited for trick-or-treating except she cried everytime she saw something scary. We decided to go to my sister-in-laws house and let the cousins play. We had a good time. Connor even got into the action and we decided that he needed to be our little superman!

Connor Ryan Marrelli

We are so excited that Connor has joined our family! He was born on Monday October 27th at 12:19 in the afternoon! He was 6lbs. 7oz. and 19 1/5 inches long. I will postmore pictures later but her is here and Sydney couldn't be more excited to be a big sister! Thanks for all the love and support!

A little catch up

Life has been a little crazy lately and I know it is going to even crazier as the arrival of baby Connor is just a few days away! We are getting very excited. In fact I am taking a little break right now from cleaning my house from top to bottom so everything is ready for Connor to come. Here are a few things we have been up to lately:

-Ryan has been keeping us busy with all of his sports. He finished up a great season of softball by winning the regular season and taking second in the tournament. He has also found another new thing to keep him busy: Flag football. He plays with some friends from high school as well as with the guys from our ward. He is also playing indoor soccer right now. Sydney and I love to support him and go to all of his games.

-Sydney is just growing by the day and keeps us laughing. She has such a funny personality and comes up with some wacky stuff. She loves anything yellow and is very excited to teach baby brother all there is to know in the world. She asks me all the time "Mom, when baby brother gets big can I teach him...pretty much anything from kneeling up to the table to dancing when the music comes on" She is so funny.

-We did take a trip to Disneyland in September and had a great time. Sydney loved it and we pretty much catered to anything she wanted to do.

-I have just been enjoying the nice weather and also getting bigger by the day :) Just kidding but I have decided that baby number two is harder on the body then number one but I know I will look back and miss it when he is finally here. Some of our good friends have had babies in the past few months so we are looking forward to having some play dates in the future.

Sorry to go on so long but I have not written in my journal for a long time so thanks for letting me vent some feelings and memories! Enjoy :)

Fun Tag

8 t.v shows that you love to watch...

Amazing Race
Chuck
Life
Survivor
The Bachelor/Bachelorette
The Hills
Criminal Minds
Law & Order

8 favorite restaurants...

Cafe Rio
Olive Garden
Market Street
Deli at the 5th
El Matador
Lone Star
Mandrin
Cutlers

8 things that happened yesterday...

watched General Conference
played with Sydney
cooked dinner
took a nap
Ryan's parents basement flooded
talked on the phone
That's all I could come up with :)

8 things I am looking forward to...

Connor's birth
Mexico in January
Seeing Sydney in her Halloween costume
Meeting my new little man
watching some good TV tonight
Ryan coming home from work
getting my house in order for the baby to come
the upcoming holidays

8 things on my wish list...

a finished basement
Connor to be born just perfect
a sewing machine
my house to be magically spotless
a good nights sleep ( I know I am kidding myself:)
my pre-baby body
tickets to Wicked
for my family to be happy and healthy

8 people that I tag...

Tiff M
Tiff R
Brooke
Karen
Amanda
Heidi
Amy
Heather
(or whoever wants to :)

Five Years Later

So here we are five years later. Ryan and I celebrated our five year anniversary on September 4th. We were on vacation in California and spent the actual day at the beach and just being together. SO here we are with a 2 1/2 year old and now I am eight months pregnant with number two. We are loving life and look forward to many more wonderful anniversaries in the future! I love my husband so much and and I am grateful each day for the father and husband that he is!

A few new things

So Ryan and I have been without a computer for a while now. Our laptop crashed and we have been debating what to do and so finally we have ordered a new one but it will still be a few weeks till it will be here but at least there is an end in sight! We have been having a great summer. I am loving just being a mom and playing with Sydney everyday! We have played in the backyard in Sydney's little pool, we have gone to the park and played alot with cousins and Grandmas and Grandpas (probably Sydney's favorite thing to do :) Sydney is now potty trained! It is the greatest thing in the world. My goal was to have it done before the baby comes so I guess I have accomplished my goal. She loves to sing and talk on the phone. She has learned to sing "Called to Serve" and it has got to be the cutest thing ever! There are days that she tests my patience but for the most part we have so much fun. We are getting very excited for baby brother to be born. Only about 10 weeks to go. I can't believe he will be part of our family so soon but I know that Sydney is very excited. She talks to him all the time and sings him songs. Since I have no computer I don't have access to any of my pictures but I do have some new ones to post so soon enough hopefully I will have some fun things to add here but for now that is what our family has been up to :)

Happy (Late) Birthday

I know it is a few days late but I have to wish a happy birthday to my wonderful husband. I love him so much and he is so wonderful to provide for our family and is the best dad anyone could ask for! On Ryan's actual birthday he took the day off work and we went and saw the new Batman movie. It was really good. Next Ryan got to do his favorite thing.. play a round of golf- then we met up with his family and had some great Chinese food at the Mandrin and to our house for some cake and ice cream. Ryan got a Wii for his birthday so we are looking forward to many fun times with the Wii. The birthday celebrations continued Saturday when my parents took us out to one of our favorite restaurants... Market Street! Thanks everyone for making it a good one for the most important man in my life! I love you babe- and look forward to 28 more wonderful years with you :)

Fun Holiday Week

We had a fun week for the forth of July. We spent the week in Park City with Ryan's family. We did lots of fun things while we were there and it was fun to just get away from home for a few days. Sydney went on her first Alpine Slide ride, we celebrated my birthday and I was lucky enough to have my parents come up and spend some time with us and we had a great time. Sydney always loves to play with her cousins and they did lots of crafts and activities together! Thanks Ron and Linda for the great trip! Here are some pictures of all the madness!

Sydney's New Favorite thing

On Saturday we had the funnest time at Sadie's birthday party! Sydney got to ride a horse for the first time and she was in heaven. She was a little nervous with his head at first but she hopped on and Brad led her around and she had such a good time! So thank you Tiff and Andy and Sadie for the great party :)

A few new things

We have had a few firsts in our home lately! Sydney is just growing so fast and becoming a big girl! She slept in curlers for the first time which is definatly a big girl thing. We decided to take Sydney's crib down and she now has a new bed. She was so excited while daddy "built" it for her and she has done great sleeping there. I put on a before and after picture of the bed experience and she is more than happy to turn her crib over to her baby brother when he comes.

A Few Crafts

I was talking to some of the girls in my family about some crafts that I made at a craft day and I just thought I would post a few pictures about what I was talking about!

Great Memorial Day

We had the opportunity to go to Bear Lake over the weekend with some friends and we had a great time. It was very relaxing and we playing lots of games and laughed together alot! We had great weather and really had a blast. The guys go to golf which I know made them happy and we played at the park and just realxed! Here are some pictures from our great trip :)

Mothers Day

I know that I am a day late but Mother's Day was great! Ryan fixed me breakfast while Sydney slept in till 9:30 and we had a good day together as a family and at church and then off to see our moms! I love being a mom more than anything! My life pretty much revloves around Sydney right now and I would not have it any other way!
I could not do this post with out recognizing my own mother and mother-in-law. My mom is truly my best friend and I could not ask for a better mom! I love you mom and thanks for all you do! Ryan's mom is also the best! I am so lucky to have such a great mother-in-law! Thanks Linda for your love and support! I hope that all you mothers out there had a great day!

Spring is Finally Here!

Well a lot has changed since the last time that I posted! Spring is finally here and we are loving the warm weather! Ryan and I have been working in the yard a lot lately and Sydney's favorite thing to do is go to the park! I love this time of year. We also went to the Tulip festival at Thanksgiving Point. I was a little disappointed because I have seen it a lot more spectacular but it was still fun to be there and Sydney had such a good time with her cousins. We celebrated Sydney's second birthday on April 17th! My baby is growing so fast but she is such a joy. She was way to spoiled but we had a good time.

I have gone back to work a few days a week and I am enjoying it so much. It is just a temporary thing and my time is almost up but I am so glad that I had the opportunity to do it for a while! Sydney had a great time with grandma while I worked and will sure miss the days when she can spend all day playing with grandma! Probably the biggest thing that has happened in a while is that we are having another baby! We are so excited and the doctor is 95% sure that we are having a boy. My two best friends are also having babies and I am so excited to finally have friends that have kids the same age as my kids! Sydney kind of understands what is going on but she sometimes says that we need to get baby brother from the store! She knows that she gets to play and have a sucker when we go to the doctor but the further along I get I think she will catch on! Well this post has been long enough but that is a quick update about our family!

Guess What!

Sydney

ABC's

Sydney loves to sing the ABC's. She sings the whole thing almost perfect and actually understandable. She always asks me to sing with her and so I say "OK I'm ready" so today this is how our conversation went
Sydney: "Are you ready mommy?"
Mom: "Yes Sydney I'm ready."
Sydney: "Dora Ready? (pause) Boots ready? OK here we go."
And then she proceeded to sing the whole song and at the end this is what she said: "Now I know my ABC's next time won't you sing with Sydney."
She was so proud of herself and so was I :)

Long Overdue!

I know a new post has been long over due but we have been busy trying to get Sydney feeling better! After coming home from Memphis and her being sick, after about a week and a half she was not getting any better with a high fever and not sleeping well at night so I decided it was time to see the doctor! We took her in and she had a double ear infection and was one miserable girl. But through it all we have had some fun in the last couple of weeks! Here are a few highlights to go along with the pictures! :
1-Sydney has found her new sense of sytl in dressing her self.
2-She has a new battle wound that she got at Grandma's house
3-Her little rocking horse is her new best friend
She loves her doll house and likes to put everyone in their proper place. If you look closly you can see Dora and Boots in the bed and that is where they go each time we play doll house!
4-Her favorite thing to do any given day is take a bath and we have taken plenty these past few weeks with her not feeling well.

Another thing that I have been so happy about it is my house is finally getting decorated. My mom came over the other day and kicked me in the butt a little and gave me some inspiration and helped me hang some things on the walls and get some new curtains! My house is finally coming together the way I want it! Thanks mom! (Pictures will come later :)

A Fun Week

This is kind of a long post.... Sorry :)

I have not posted for a while but I really did have a good reason. This past week Sydney, my mom and dad and I went to Memphis Tennessee to see my brother and his family. They just had a new baby! Baby Brooklyn as Sydney calls her. After a long day traveling, my mom and I arrived in Memphis and just in time for Sydney and Cameron to see each other and play before it was bed time! Adam took me down to his school to look around and it was pretty cool! We loved watching the kids play together and Sydney especially liked being a little mom to the baby. We relaxed a little and I had my first taste of southern BBQ! It was so good. Sydney even loved it. The next day my dad arrived and Cameron was feeling a little under the weather so we just stayed close and played in the back yard. We went downtown on Thursday and the guys went to the Gibson Guitar museum and we took the kids to see the ducks at the Peabody hotel. We ate dinner at BB Kings and had the best ribs ever! After that Tiff got sick and it seemed like we were just passing it around. We took the kids to the mall and they have a merry go round and play place that they enjoyed! We celebrated my mom birthday on Wednesday! Happy Birthday mom- I love you! Anyway while we were all there we also decided to have a little b-day party for Cameron. his really birthday is the 14Th but a two year old doesn't know the difference so on Saturday we went to the zoo. It is such a nice zoo! We asked the kids what they wanted to see and Sydney said "pigs" and I think Cameron said "sheep" we were a little worried but they had a farm section and so all our needs were met! On Sunday Brooklyn was blessed and it was wonderful! We flew home Monday but now I have a very sick little girl on my hands. She was so miserable on the flight home but she did pretty well considering the circumstances! I have never seen her as sick as she is right now. She can barely talk and just lays on me. I selfishly love it but hope that we can get her feeling better soon! We sure missed Ryan while we were gone but were grateful to go and see them! Thanks for having us guys! We love you- Thanks every one for reading this long post- it was mostly for me to remember what we did while we were there! I need to get the pictures off my mom's camera and I will post some pictures!

Flash Back

Last night Sydney was in the bedroom watching Finding Nemo and was being pretty quiet which is not very normal. I was working on some paper work and Ryan was playing Playstation and from the other room we hear " Nemo get back here!" It was the part in the movie that Nemo has just been taken and his dad is trying to keep up with the boat. I just got the biggest grin on my face and it reminded me of a time when I was little. As a little girl my favorite show was Wizard of Oz. My mom tells me that I used to stand on the couch and yell "Run Toto Run" during the movie so when I heard Sydney yelling at Nemo it just made me smile :)

Sydney being Sydney

Sydney just entertains us each and every day! She loves to watch Dora all the time and she always says "I'm a map, I'm a map" and those of you with kids know exactly what I am talking about! She also found another hiding place under her crib. She takes all of her toys under there and just loves her little hideout. In the picture below with her little dolly she carries it around with her all the time and she calls her "pooky" it is so cute! Today I told her that we were going to go to the store and as she was walking away and I just kind of said to myself "so you can get your wiggles out" Thinking nothing of it I cleaned up breakfast and went to get her dressed. I said "Sydney we need to get dressed so we can go to the store" and she looked at me and said "so I can get my wiggles out mommy?" I laughed so hard and then she kept doing it because it got a reaction out of me. We were changing her diaper and I said " Oh Sydney you crack me up" and she laughed and said "Yeah I crack you up!" So that is just a glimpse into a day in the life of Sydney and mommy!

I GOT TAGGED. I THINK YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS.

Two Names You Go By: Mommy and Holly

Things You Are Wearing Right Now: Button up sweater and jeans

Two things you Want (or have) in a Relationship: Honesty and humor :)

Two of Your Favorite Things to do: Going out to dinner and watching my
husband play sports

Two things you did last night: Fixed dinner and watched Deal or no Deal!

Two people you Last Talked To: Sydney and my mom

Two Things You're doing tomorrow: Take a load to the DI and prepare my primary lesson

Two Longest Car Rides: We took a family road trip to Oregon to visit my cousin and see the sights so we took the long way home- When we were in Scotland we saw the while country so that was a lot of driving but well worth it

Two Favorite Holidays: Probably Christmas and forth of July

Two Favorite Drinks: Diet Coke and water

Two Things About Me you may not have known: I got engaged on the night of my high school graduation and I am a licensed optician

Two jobs I have had in my life: The Delta Center (that is what is was called back then :) and Master Opticians

Two Movies I would watch over and over: Save the last dance and Pure Country

Two of my favorite foods: Chocolate and well pretty much anything :)

Two places I'd rather be right now: On vacation pretty much any where it doesn't really matter or taking a nap in my warm bed!

I think most people have been tagged but one I can think of off the top of my head is Brittney!

Beautiful Day

I just could not take it anymore and Sydney and I bundled up and went for a walk this afternoon. It was so refreshing to be outside and the snow is so pretty! I am so grateful to live in a place that we get to experience each and every season! Sydney was so funny- she loved looking at the birds and she saw a bus and she was so excited. We live in a wonderful place and it is a great time to be alive :)

Wonderful Man

President Gordon B. Hinckley 1910-2008

I can't begin to explain how blessed I feel to have see and heard forom our wonderful prophet. I know he is probably having a wonderful reunion with his darling wife and his family. His example while here on this earth was just amazing in everything that he did. He will be missed so much but I am lucky to say that he was the prophet when I was growing up and he is someone that will never be forgotten in my thoughts. Thank you President Hinckley for the wonderful man that you were. We love you and miss you-till we meet again!

Great Store

My mom and I went to the greatest store today. If you have kids and like educational toys this is the place to go. It is called Lakeshore Learning. My aunt and my cousin told us about it and this is the first time I have been. It is amazing and they have toys and things for all ages. I am not a teacher but if you are- you must check it out! Anyway that is my latest greatest find!

Sydney's "Fork"

On Saturday- I got out of the shower and I coun't find Ryan and Sydney until I discovered the "fork" That is what Sydney calls it. She loaded all her stuffed animals in and we had a great time playing in there! Thanks Daddy for the fun fort!
That is Buddy her stuffed dog named in honor of her cousin Cameron!