Mark's 5

What a handsome boy

(His Lego collection with the new additions) Not to be overshadowed by the birth of his baby brother, Mark had an amazing birthday. We celebrated a little on the actual day with his favorite dinner and a trip to the store to spend his birthday money. He picked Lego's of course. The Saturday after his big day he had a party with friends. He had so much fun and was so excited to get more Lego's and some games. The celbration wasn't over yet- a few weeks later we went to St. George with the Parrish family and some friends from Mesquite. We played arcade games and rode race cars and boats. This is one lucky kid.

Baby Ben

I know everyone is curious about what he looks like. Sorry I didn't get this done sooner. Ben has been a pretty wonderful baby- good sleeper, pretty calm and fairly patient with all the kids lovin.

New Addition

I'm sure Emily will do a much better job at explaining all that has happened the past few days but I thought I would get a few pictures posted and give the vitals. Benjamin Michael Parrish was born at 7:18 am on Friday, February 11th. He was 9 lb 1 oz and he was 20 1/2 inches long. Both he and Emily are doing fine and returned home this evening.

Christmas

We had a great Christmas. Two days before Mike treated us to a traditional Italian five course meal. We were beyond stuffed. It was so good. On Christmas eve we had another good meal and then did our traditional program of reading Luke 2, decorating a birthday cake and watching a movie.
Santa really came through for us this year. Mark got the Toy Story Lego train that he had been insisting would come. It has already got a lot of lovin. Megan got a bed for her babies and a high chair. Mom as mentioned before got her wood floor and Daddy scored big with a new TV finally.

We also made sure that everyone had some "mad pants" as they are called in our family. Mike has had these PJ pants for a while that have comic characters on it that all look mad- so all colorful PJ pants have become "Mad Pants". Mark and Megan picked out their own fabric- Mark's are Lightening McQueen and Megan's are of course pink Princess.

Here is Megan dressed in one of our gifts- a snowman kit- but we didn't have any snow handy so she'll have to do.

After our own little morning we headed up to Mesquite and did round two. We made it to the Brey house a few days later. We are so blessed to have so many people who love us and are so generous. The kids had the time of their lives and are counting down to next year.

December

Like everyone else we had a really fun and busy holiday season. We had an awesome ward party. Mark was able to be a shepherd and at the last minute Megan was the littlest angel. They both did an excellent job. We had the normal preschool, birthday parties and other monthly stuff. We ended up having a pretty relaxed week right before Christmas. Mark and Megan for one of their presents to grandpa shopped for some other little kids. It was serious stuff deciding what to get them. Mark was all tired out afterwords. Shopping is not his thing apparently.

Here are the kids just goofing off with the camera. Our video camera was on the splits so I was trying to fix it- still haven't yet- and the kids had lots of fun while I was working on it.

Just before Christmas we drove up the mountain with some friends and got a quick taste of snow. Mark loved sledding once he got the idea. He is not a fan of the saucers- they are too bumpy.

Megan was content to watch. She is usually the brave one so this was new for her. After just a few runs down the hill the park rangers showed up and informed us we were trespassing on restricted land. So we packed up and went home without finishing our snowman. Mom and Dad need to work on reading the signs better. It turned out to be the perfect legnth outing.

November

So I am having technical difficulites with this post and the pictures staying by what is written about them. You'll just have to muddle through.

We reandomly made a rocket ship cake that Mark had seen a picture of in a magazine. This kids don't really eat cake, but they had fun watching me do most the work while snacking on the m&ms. We have had another awesome month and this time I have a few pictures thanks to Uncle Bryson. For Christmas this year we got wood flooring and Santa delivered it a little early. Our awesome neighbor Milas and the "Monkey Uncles" helped out with the install. The kids had a blast with the whole project and we even finished up early enough to make it to the Air Force show. It was there that we witnessed the coolest jet ever- but no pictures of that sorry.

Thanksgiving was fun and entirely too short. We spent the day at Grandpa and Grandma P's. I just have to say that fried turkey is so easy and ridiculously yummy. Friday we came home and Grandpa and Grandma B and the monkey uncles again came for the weekend. We took a trip out to the new Big Bridge by the Hoover Dam. We weren't the only ones with the idea either. Megan had no fear and kept trying to lean over to see. Mark likes to keep his feet on the ground.

October

October was another awesome month and I am again totally without cool pictures. To start off we had a visit from Papa and Mimi. We had so much fun spending time with them. They treated the whole family to a visit to Tuacahn to see Crazy for You. The kids watched the whole thing- we were so impressed. We spent most of our time just relaxing and visiting.

The weekend after they left was the primary program. Both grandparents came to watch Mark. He loves singing and was one of the youngest kids to know most of the words to the songs.

We had a family home evening about the armor of God. Our little warriors- Mark above and Megan below have their helmet, shield, sward, breastplate, loin cloth and shoes on. They each got to take turns having the whole armor on while the "fiery darts of the adversary" aka marshmallows were being thrown at them.
Of course we ended the month with Halloween. Megan was a purple fairy princess and Mark was a fireman. He really wanted an ax and a hose but we never got around to making them. They loaded up on candy at the trunk or treat and on Sunday we went and decorated cookies with some neighbors.
Oh and I keep forgetting to post that we found out we are having a baby boy. Its funny this pregnancy is exactly the same as my pregnancy with Mark- down to the due date and everything. I wonder if they'll look the same too?