My sister-in-law did a decade in review on her blog, so sorry Leann, I stole your idea. :)

She recounted all the big events in her life starting in 2000. Maybe I'm losing my mind, but it totally didn't click with me, until I read her blog, that we had finished the first decade in the new millennium. I'm slow, I know, give me a break. I have an 8 month old. :)

So, here's to the last 10 years of my life. I am looking forward to the next 10 with Matthew & Marin!

2000-I remember exactly where I was when Y2K was ushered in. I was sitting on the couch at my parents house and I was PISSED beyond belief. My college roommate's mother had a friend in NYC that was willing to let us come up and crash at her place to ring in the New Year at Times Square and my parents said I couldn't go! They (like most of America) were worried about all the craziness associated with Y2k. They certainly didn't think the world was going to end. But they said you never know what kind of nut jobs would be out in NYC on the night of all nights to be there. They were sweet to worry, but I was still kind of ticked. They said that I could go to 2001's biggest party on earth, but it just didn't have the same ring as Y2K.

2001- While I can't really remember where I was for New Year's Eve (it definitely wasn't NYC though), this was the year of Matthew's and my first date. November 23, 2001 to be exact. We went out to eat and saw the first Harry Potter movie. Since then we've seen each of the Harry Potter movies in the theater and kept all the tickets from them. Who knew by the end of the Potter series we'd be married and have a baby?! I also graduated college in Dec. of 01.

2002- Matthew and I were engaged in March and married in August. We took a honeymoon to the Bahamas.

2003- Matthew and I managed not to kill each other for our first full year of being married. :) We celebrated by taking a trip to Panama City Beach, FL.

2004- Matthew's work travel went into full swing and we became road warriors together. For the next 5 years we traveled the US, visited quite a few tropical locales, and got some serious stamps in our passports.

2005-We moved to Nashville.


2006- We spent the year traveling and having our house built.

2007- We moved into our house in March.

2008- We did quite a bit of traveling for "fun" this year. We went to The Grand Canyon, St. Maarten/St. Martin, Anguilla, The Bahamas, and Florida just for the heck of it.

2009- The love of our lives, Marin Blake Rorex was born on April 28th.

2010- My goals for this year are to try to just enjoy the time I've been given with Matthew and Marin, to take our annual August pilgrimage to the beach, and not to see any snow. :)

It is amazing when I look back on the "inbetween" years of this decade. Matthew and I spent so much time on the road that I can't really remember what years we went where. But we had one helluva trip. That much I do remember.

So, where have YOU been for the last 10 years? Let me know. I'd love to see your list!

Well, wouldn't you know it that poor Marin would have to go to the doctor for being sick for the first time on New Year's Eve? The little guy has a cold and a minor ear infection and is now on antibiotics. He was so pitiful last night. He threw up his entire jar of squash onto my mom's lap. Way to take one for the team Mimi. :) Then he went back and forth between Matthew, Mom, and I and whined and fussed. Marin is usually so happy and smiling so it made us all sad to see him so miserable. He would stand in my lap and say "Mama, Mama, Mama" over and over while looking at me with this pitiful look on his face. I told the poor guy, "Mama is sorry she can't fix it." We called the doctor last night after his squash incident and were told that if we still felt like we wanted to bring him in before the holiday that we could. I'm glad we did. What we thought was just a nasty cold that they wouldn't give him any medicine for turned out to be the beginnings of an ear infection that we caught quickly. His doctor was out for the holiday, but the doctor we saw told us that we caught it very early so it wasn't bad. So that just shows you should trust your gut and if you think your kid is sick and needs to go to the doctor, take them! His little face is all red and chappy looking and his nose continually runs. We have the humidifier hooked up and he's had one dose of his meds. He does seem to feel a bit better and even kept down some oatmeal and a bottle. He's napping now so I had a few minutes to get this post up. I'll keep you updated on his progress, as I'm sure Matthew will do the same on Marin's blog.

I'm thrilled with the outcome of this case. Sean Goldman's dad has been trying for years to get him home from Brazil, after he was supposed to only be there for a 2 week vacation. It's a messed up story, that finally has a happy ending.

Sean's mother took him to Brazil (with the consent of his father) for a 2 week trip to visit relatives. Well, mama had no plans to come home in the first place. She divorced Sean's father while in Brazil and remarried another man. She basically kidnapped Sean and kept him in Brazil and his father has tried since then to bring him home. That was in 2004. Sean's mother died in childbirth soon afterward (with her new husband's child). Sean's stepfather has held Sean captive in Brazil ever since. He was only 2 years old at the time of his abduction.

I have never understood why it has taken this long to bring that boy home. Government red tape and the clout of the "family" in Brazil is the long and short of it. That just makes me sick.

Even though it has taken 6 years, I'm sure his father and the rest of the family is thrilled to have him home at Christmas. Miracles do happen after all. Just ask the Goldman family.

Hi! I'm back as promised, to fill you in on our date night! First off, a big THANK YOU to Tara, Phillip, and baby Brooks for hosting Marin on Wed. night. I'm sure he had a great time and I'm sure the three of you were worn out from his visit. He's cute, but a handful. :) Thanks guys.

Matthew and I had a great dinner downtown at The Old Spaghetti Factory. We love it there. It was low key and quiet, as there isn't much going on downtown on a random Wed. night. We ate way too much and had a good time just sitting around and talking and taking our time. We're always so rushed during dinner these days, either because we always have somewhere to be or we need to tend to Marin's needs. So it was nice to have all the time in the world to eat a meal. Ah, the old days. ha.ha.

Next, we did the one thing that Matthew said he would not do until after the new year. We went to the mall. ha.ha. Opry Mills is a HUGE retail complex, built on the site of the old Opryland amusement park. We went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to spend a gift card that I'd gotten for my birthday from my aunt and uncle. We got a bunch of Yankee Candle stuff. So, our house smells good now. You hardly notice the lingering scent of diaper. :)

Next Matthew hit the Starbucks, and we made a quick stop into Carters & Osh Gosh but didn't buy anything. Nothing spells date night like shopping for baby clothes. ha.ha. Marin is in desperate need of some new pajamas but we (and he) are so picky that they are hard to find. We really like the snap up ones with feet (the one piece sleeper style). We really don't like the ones that zip up and the two piece pant and shirt combos always ride up. Plus, Marin's feet get cold and it is a pain to have to dig out pajama top, bottoms, and socks. We just like the easy sleeper route. Unfortunately, it looks like most of the baby brands stop making the snap up ones at 9 months sizes and go to the zipper style. He's bursting out of the 9 months size pajamas. He has a few weeks left at best and that is pushing it. So, I'm a mom on a mission.

Speaking of Mom, Marin said it for the first time today! Actually, he said Mama, but that is what I refer to myself as in front of him. I think everyone usually goes with Mama and Dada since they are easy for a baby to say. Matthew has been all smiles because Marin has been saying Dada for a few months now. I was thrilled to finally get my turn today. :) I've since figured out that Marin will only say Mama when he's really tired and sleepy and wants me to cuddle him. This makes no sense because it is usually Matthew that puts him to bed. He just needs a little love from mom, then he goes to Matthew for his last call bottle, then he's out like a light. Hey, whatever works for the little guy.

We've been working hard to get Marin back on a decent schedule. We were letting him sleep in till noon if he wanted to and for a while that was working out fine. Then we started noticing that he wanted to take late evening naps and then some nights he would be up till nearly 2 am. Yeah, I can't handle that business. So, I've started being mean and dragging him out of bed every morning by 10:30 am. Ha. Yeah, I know, he's got a rough life. :) Marin seems to have a 12 on/12 off kind of internal clock. He can party all day, but he likes his 12 hours of beauty sleep. He seems to be weaning himself off of long naps, much to my dismay. He'll sleep an hour tops during the day. Just a quick power nap is all he needs. Luckily, he will sleep anywhere for his nap (in his car seat, in his stroller, in his play yard) he isn't picky. So, we don't have to be at home for naps. He sleeps in his crib, in his room at night though. I'm glad we got him out of our room at 4 months like his pediatrician recommended. He cautioned that babies at that age start getting set in their ways and if there are any routines you'd like to start or habits you'd like to break, that is a good age. He didn't seem to notice when we moved him, even though I missed him for a night or two until I learned that he was only a baby monitor squawk away. I think we all slept better after that. Marin is a noisy sleeper and kept us up half the night with his antics. We also felt like we had to tip-toe around or risk waking him up and then being up the rest of the night if we disturbed him.

We're getting geared up for Christmas. The shopping is DONE. We're just planning to sit around and relax and spend time with family and friends. Matthew is off all this coming week and we are glad to get some time off to just chill out. Sleeping in and eating way too much are on the tops of our priority lists. Speaking of eating, Marin is good at that too. He is LOVING solid foods. His current favorite dish is Pear/Apple Oatmeal. The label on the back says that raisins and dates are mixed in too just to give it that extra kick. :) He loves the stuff and when I pull the jar out of the cabinet and say in a very dramatic fashion, "It's Oatmeal Time!" he kicks and squeals and gets this ear to ear grin. That's my boy. He loves his food. ha.ha. His new food of the week is Sweet Potato/Apricot which he seems to be enjoying. Next week brings Spinach/Potato. We'll see how that goes. ha.ha. Last night he tore the heck out of some Peas & Brown Rice. He hated peas when he first tried them, but apparently when they are mixed with brown rice that makes all the difference. Who knew?

Well, I guess I'll talk to you all later. It is 2:53 am and I really should be in bed. That's what sleeping in will do to you!

Hi everybody! I'm soooo excited! Tonight, our fantastic friends Tara & Phillip (and we can't leave out baby Brooks) have graciously offered to watch Marin for us for a few hours! Matthew and I are beside ourselves with trying to come up with just the right thing(s) to do during our date night. If you know us, it will mostly revolve around eating inordinate amounts of cheese at some restaurant. We've been trying to think of somewhere to go that is more trouble to go when we have Marin (like somewhere downtown). Downtown usually involves a bit of walking and with it being so cold out, Marin doesn't really appreciate the stroll. But Matthew and I could surely use a bit of exercise and getting all bundled up in our winter gear sounds like fun! I'll let you know what we did tomorrow.

If you've been keeping up with Marin's blog, you've seen Matthew's newest obsession, oops, I mean hobby. ha.ha. He's been taking some kick-ass pictures of Marin. Marin is an adorable subject anyway (if I do say so myself) but Matthew's photography skills have really kicked it up a notch.

What have I been up to? Well, more of the same since last post. Christmas shopping, trying to clean up the house a bit, still reading The Charlemagne Pursuit, and thinking about what desserts I'm going to make to take up my mom's house on Christmas. See, I told you things mostly revolve around food around here. ha.ha. The bite sized brownies Matthew and I made on Thanksgiving have already been requested. My brother bit into one and started going on and on about how good they were. When I told him we made them, he stopped mid-chew and got a funny look on his face. He was relieved to find out they were not made from scratch. :)

I actually made Marin get up early today, yep, at about 10:30 am. ha.ha. I have no doubt in my mind that he would have slept till noon. But, I wanted him up and at it so he'd actually take an afternoon nap and not be a bear for Tara & Phillip. Guess what he's doing right now? Yeah, he's napping. Success! He could hardly get through his Pear/Apple oatmeal with raisins & dates without a crying fit. I knew he was sleepy, so a couple minutes of cuddles in mommy's arms and he was OUT. Ok, enough of the mushy crap. I've got to go get the clothes out of the dryer.

p.s. even though this post says it was made by Matthew (up top in the header) it wasn't. I was just too lazy to sign him out and sign myself in. At least I'm honest. :)

Today started out as a lazy Saturday, sleeping in WAY too late. I won't even admit to what time we all got out of bed today. Marin was dressed in one of his festive outfits and off we went to join the hoards of other Christmas shoppers. It was super crowded out, so we didn't end up doing much shopping. We did go to Wal-Mart and I looked around The Dollar Tree (my all time favorite store) while Matthew and Marin went to Lowes. Matthew has grand plans for building a photo studio in our bonus room upstairs. We shall see how that goes. :) Nah, Matthew is good at his projects, so I'm sure it will turn out great. At least the building of the photo studio will make us clean up up there. We plan on getting the carpet replaced and repainting where the room was previously trashed by its last inhabitant (a certain canine that will remain unnamed). ha.ha.

We ate lunch at Olive Garden, which was nice. There was only a 5 minute wait. It could have been because we ate lunch at 3 pm. :)

I forgot about Marin and my trip to Joann Fabric to get some supplies for a special project we're working on for our pal Brooks. I won't say any more, in case his mommy reads my blog. It is his Christmas surprise. :) Matthew went to hang out at Wolf Camera during our Joann trip. Thankfully, he came out empty handed. ha.ha.

Tonights activities revolved around watching the Predators/Red Wings game. Unfortunately, we lost in over time 3-2. It was still a good game. It was made all the better by the inordinately large amounts of Pepsi we consumed. I won't even mention the bacon & cheese pizza we had for dinner. I know, we're bad. To balance things out, we did eat cupcakes for dessert. No wonder I'm so dang fat! People think its baby weight. ha.ha. Nah, it is just eating too much weight. ha.ha.ha.

That about sums up our experience visiting Jolly Ole Saint Nick at the mall today. It sucked. Big time. I was alright about waiting in line for an hour, even though there were only half a dozen people in front of us. That meant that they were going to take their time with everyone (including us), right? Nope. Not to be. They tried to rush us through and get us to choose one of their crap pictures once it was finally our turn. I told them they all sucked and that I didn't care if they had to clear out their "system" that could only hold 3 pictures and try again. It was their fault Marin was crying anyway. He was doing just fine and actually interacting with Santa and playing with his beard and smiling at him. Then one of Santa's helpers showed him this Elmo doll and Marin started balling like nobody's business. It scared the crap out of him for some reason. Or maybe her he didn't like. Who knows? Now I know a lot of kids are scared of Santa and we'd already decided we'd take the photo crying or not crying if that was the case. But he wasn't scared of Santa. He was scared of the stupid lady waving toys in his face trying to make him smile. He'll smile if you just smile at him first. We tried telling her that, but she was so busy trying to push us through that she didn't listen. Since we'd waited patiently for everyone else, I refused to let her rush us.

I felt bad for the people behind us in line, but then again, we'd stood there patiently while every other parent tried to get their little munchkin to smile. Plus, we were paying an arm and a leg too. I couldn't believe that it was 30 bucks to get one 5x7 and then have the picture put on cd. What a rip off! I thought the price included the raw picture in a high resolution so that we could do with it what we wanted once we got home. Yeah right. Fat chance on that one. It was just their crappy, cropped picture on the cd. Just one lousy picture.

When we got home, we found out that we could have had his picture taken for free at another local mall. That one really stung. We figured they'd have the best people working at Green Hills, since it is the nicest mall around here. Nope. Just a grouchy old Santa and his even grouchier elves.

Marin still looks cute in his picture because he's well, Marin. But we had to do all kinds of cropping and editing to get the shot half way decent. They had a fancy camera, lights, and all set up and that was the best they could do? For 30 bucks?Yeah, I about fainted too when I found out the price. Plus, you'd think they'd have nicer people taking children's photos. I know we shouldn't have expected an hour long photo shoot and we didn't. But spending 10 minutes with him and getting 30 bucks out of it should have been a good deal for them! I thought for sure it would be $5 max to get a picture made with Santa, but these folks must be able to buy a new sleigh every year and some high quality reindeer chow for what they charge. Now 10 minutes does seem like a long time to spend with the mall Santa, but that was about the pace that the folks in front of us were doing. Maybe they bought the $50 package and that granted you some extra lap time? Who knows.

They put a coupon in his photo envelope for $2 off a visit with their Easter Bunny this spring. I won't even repeat what I said when I saw that in there.

Today was fairly uneventful. I tried in vain to get all the laundry done up so I wouldn't have to do any over the weekend. Marin is a spit up machine these days. He's been eating sweet potatoes and cinnamon as his new food this week and I'm not sure if its that or his inch-worming around on the rug that has him spitting up so much. Tomorrow, we start corn as his new food and give the cinnamon sweeties a rest, so we will see if that helps. He puked on my Preds sweatshirt and I was not pleased. He just grinned at me when I told him that he can puke on his own crap all he wants but that I have only 1 Preds sweatshirt and I don't want him to ruin it! I don't think I own one shirt that hasn't been thrown up on and that junk stains! If he's been eating any orange colored solids that day, you can forget salvaging any clothes that get thrown up on.

Other than laundry, I basically just played with Marin and got started on a new book. I'm reading The Charlemange Pursuit by Steve Berry. It is one in a series of books about former government agent Cotton Malone and all the adventures/trouble he gets into. I'm only 10 chapters in, but its a pretty good read so far. I wouldn't start with this book though, if you are new to Steve Berry. Read the others first, since Cotton is introduced in his earlier works.

Big plans for the weekend include watching the Preds kick some Red Wing butt on Saturday (hopefully we'll get tickets) or at the very least watch it on tv. I'm sure we'll run some baby-related shopping errands and do a little Christmas shopping. We only have 3 more people to buy for and my goal is to have all of our shopping done by the 15th. Hopefully, we can get in a visit to Santa Clause for Marin too.

The Preds won in a shoot out victory over Columbus tonight. It was a really close, exciting game. We are doing pretty good this year, after a slow start at the beginning of the season. Who knows? We might make it to the playoffs this year! Maybe Marin can spend his first birthday at a game. :)

Speaking of games, my alma matter Middle TN State University, is going to a bowl game in New Orleans. Our friends Tara & Phillip are going to go to the game. They tail gate at all the Blue Raider football games. I'm happy to hear they are going to get to go, since they are such Big Blue fans!

It is 2 am and I can't believe that Matthew and I are still up! We are both on our respective lap tops. He's looking up ideas for backgrounds for photo shoots (for Marin) and I'm just talking to you guys. :) At least Matthew doesn't have to work tomorrow. He's taking a vacation day. What about Marin getting up early, you might ask? Yeah right! We will have to drag his butt out of bed in the morning. The little goober might stay up till after midnight sometimes, but he would sleep till noon every day if you left him to his own devices. I know most of you are probably shocked that we let him stay up so late. But I say, who the heck cares?! One of the perks of being a stay at home mom is that I don't have to drag my little sweetie out at 5 am in the cold so I can be at work. So, if he wants to run on the schedule of a college frat guy, I say, who cares? He's happy, healthy, eats like a champ, and will sleep 10-12 hours once he goes down. Everyone that meets him says, "Is he always this happy?" or remarks "What a happy baby you have!" Maybe the secret to baby happiness is to "dance all night, sleep all day" as a line in one of Marin's favorite songs goes!

Alright, that does it. For the past few posts, I've been writing about all the lovey-dovey things to do with Marin. And to be honest with you, that just isn't much fun! As my friend Kim says, your blog is like therapy. And you don't go to your therapist to talk about how wonderful things are in your life.

Is my life wonderful? You bet your butt it is! I have an awesome husband, a cute & hilarious little boy, and we live a good life in a good neighborhood and our friends and family have our back. I couldn't ask for more! But the good stuff is the stuff that I like to keep to myself. I don't want to write about every snuggle I have with Marin or about me having to put ointment on his little cheeks because I kissed them one too many times in a day. :) True, but not much fun to write about. :)

I figure, it's my blog, and if I want to be grouchy and talk about how much it sucks to not have a minute to myself, I'll do it. If I want to complain about not getting to go to bed till 2 a.m. this morning because Marin was hyped out of his mind, I'll do it! If I want to fuss because I still have at least 2 more loads of laundry to do and I can't even put Marin down long enough to sort the clothes because he is spoiled and won't stop crying, I'll do it! If I want to cry because it is 4:43 pm and I still haven't had time to take a shower today, I will by goodness!

So, the point is, if you want to come read my semi-frequent rants, please do! But, don't expect rays of sunshine all the time. We try to post the cutesy stuff on Marin's blog, but this ain't Marin's blog. This is mine. All mine. How selfish. How fun. :)

It's 1:25 a.m. and what I should be doing is sleeping. But, I'm taking advantage of a few moments of quiet to just sit and think. I decided to type in Marin's name in Google to see what came up. I stumbled upon his first ever video there. I watched it a couple times in a row and was absolutely amazed at how much he's changed in the past 7 months. I can remember seeing him the day he was born and wondering what he would look like as he grew up. Now, looking back on his "baby pictures" it is sort of strange. I wonder if every parent goes through that. You can look at someone you know that is a grown up and then if they show you a baby picture, you can say, "Yeah, I can tell that is you." But, you can't look at a brand new baby and then know what they'll look like in a few months, much less when they are a grown up. I will say that when I look at Marin now, he looks less and less like a baby every day. He seems more like a little kid to me, which is actually pretty cool. I look forward to his new developments and he always surprises us with some new sound or action. Today, he has been making the "b" sound as in boy. He can now make several sounds, but the only "word" we've heard so far is da-da. :) Dang it Matthew. :)

Marin cracks us up on a daily basis too. With his new found vocabulary, you can ask him a question or say, "Marin, say __________." Of course he can't repeat what you ask him to say, but he will let loose with a string of sounds like he really wants to talk to you. He has also started to mimic us which is hysterical. If you cough, he'll cough back. If you make a funny sound, he'll copy it back at you.

The other day he was sitting in his high chair while we were eating sandwiches with potato chips at the kitchen table. He had already eaten, so he was simply observing. Matthew and I were just talking about whatever was going on that day and not really watching him per say. Then out of the corner of my eye, I spot him watching us intently. Every time Matthew or I would pick up a potato chip and eat it, he'd bring his little hand to his mouth and act like he was putting something in it. We burst into fits of laugther which really got him going. He loves to show out and he cracks himself up as much as he cracks us up!

I guess the lesson of the day is, you'd better watch what you say and do in front of a child. Even at 7 months, we're being tracked by Marin as closely as something stalking its prey. ha.ha. I feel like I'm in a Geico commercial and that stack of money with the googly eyes is looking at me. :)
I also enjoy Marin's company more every day. So, I guess that's a good thing. And I'm sure as the years go by, he'll enjoy my company less. ha.ha.

Matthew and I began shopping for Christmas presents for Marin a few days ago. For a 7 month old who is fascinated by even the simplest of every day objects, this is pretty easy. We have decided not to go overboard this year (or any other year) in order to keep him from thinking that Christmas is all about getting hoards of expensive gifts. Too many toys overwhelm a kid at Christmas anyway, so we're sticking with the simple. Nope, not telling/showing what we got yet. Marin reads this blog after all. :)

I will say that he still enjoys reading as much as he does playing with toys. He has a great attention span when it comes to books. When it comes to remembering that Mommy has already told him no 14 times for playing with the TV stand, well, that's another matter.

We started really reading to Marin when he was about 6 weeks old. By the time he was 3 months old, he would actively engage with the book (pointing at things and looking up at you when you made a funny sound that went along with the story). I really, really hope that he keeps his love of books since his Dad and I are such avid readers. Do you wonder what is on the reading list of a busy 7 month old? I have noticed that most of his favorite books, with the exception of 2, feature real life images in them. He seems to really like books with actual pictures or photos of every day objects and real people in them, as opposed to drawings or paintings .

Here are his current favorites:

First we'll start with his two exceptions. These books have cartoony-type drawings in them, but he LOVES both of them. He has lots of other cartoony-type books, but shows no interest in them yet.

1. Maisy's Favorite Instruments by Lucy Cousins. He adores Maisy and grins his little face off when he sees her. If you aren't familiar with the series, Maisy is a mouse. He loves the word maracas and just cracks up when you say it.

2. Five Little Ladybugs by Melanie Gerth. This is a clever little book, featuring the one by one disappearance of 5 ladybugs. I won't spoil the story and tell you where they've gone, but the book seems "mean" until you get to the end. It's really funny, but my dad and Matthew both said, "Aww, that's mean!" after they read the first couple pages. By the end of the book, you find out the punch line and its really cute.

The rest of his current faves feature real life photography. He sits still as can be when you read them to him.

3. Animals by Priddy Books/Bright Baby. This book has pictures of every animal you can think of. Marin's favorites to see are the goose, goat, and bee. He loves to make the "g" sound. It is his current favorite "word".

4. Zoo Crew by Tom Arma. This one features real babies dressed up as zoo animals.

5. Water Babies by Tom Arma. Real babies dressed as aquatic creatures.

6. Jingle Babies by Tom Arma. Cute little babies dressed up as Christmas themed things, from reindeer to presents. We just pulled this one off of Marin's book shelf to go with the current season, but we already knew he'd like it since he is such a big fan of Arma's other books. There is an entire list of Arma books, but these are the only 3 he currently owns.

Well I guess that's it. I'm off to catch Marin who is fiddling with guess what? Yep, the TV stand.

Hi there everybody. I'm sorry I've been so delinquent in blogging as of late. It has been pretty busy around here. I hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving. We had a nice time celebrating with family in east TN. Marin slept for the entire 2.5 hour drive and traffic was much lighter than expected. So, that in itself was something to be thankful for! We got to hang out with extended family that we don't see very much these days. Marin got to see his cousin Dalton again (who is 2.5 years old) and those two were hamming it up for everyone. Marin also got to meet his Great Uncle Danny & Great Aunt Jay (my dad's brother and his wife) for the first time. Pop-paw (my dad), Mimi (my mom), and Uncle Nathan rounded out the crew. We ate way too much and did a lot of laughing at the kids. All in all, a good day.

Matthew has put up the Christmas lights. We spent all day the Saturday after Thanksgiving doing it, along with the majority of the rest of the neighborhood. It was such a nice, warm day, everyone got into the Christmas spirit. We have barely put a dent into our Christmas shopping. I guess we should get on that since this is December already!

We're looking forward to Marin's first Christmas and having some time off just to hang out together. Be sure to keep checking into Marin's blog for pictures. The little guy has about 25 Christmas outfits and of course we plan on visiting the Big Guy in Red really soon!