Caroling

Marlee can sing this song really good, but of course she wouldn't sing it while the camera was on. Colten does a great job and has been singing Christmas songs nonstop for the last few weeks. He just went into hysterics seeing himself sing when I showed this to him...too cute!!

Holiday Flurries

It has been the usual busy weeks before Christmas at the Straub house. I've been meaning to put some of these pictures on here for a few weeks, but haven't made the time. Here are a few of the flurry of activities we have done the last few weeks: visiting Santa at The Bass Pro Shop (which Colten now calls the mall with the live animals), seeing the lights at the Temple with our friends the Sanchez family, dipping chocolates to give to some neighbors, making gingerbread houses with Mana, Shannon, and Rylee, a luncheon with the girls from work at the Cheesecake factory, and of course lots of shoppping and wrapping presents. It has been hectic and crazy, but it is still a great time of year to celebrate with friends and family. Here are a few pictures of the Holiday activities!!

Miracle Marlee Turns Two

In addition to being a great Thanksgiving Holiday with family and friends, our little Marlee turned 2 on Friday. She got to celebrate twice; once on Thanksgiving with my family and then on Friday with Stacy's family. She loved every minute of it, especially getting cupcakes twice. We are so grateful for her and her special spirit. She really is a miracle for just surviving her first few months of life. She saw her Cardiologist this month and is still doing fantastic. We are grateful to our Heavenly Father and all of our family and friends for your faith, love, prayers, and support in her behalf.

Since this is serving as my scrapbook, this is a slideshow of all my favorite pictures of Marlee, from birth to this weekend. Sorry if it's too long!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Is it too early to put out the Christmas decorations and lights? I hope not, because we did. Stacy put up all the lights outside (with a little help from Jarrod) and we put out all the decorations inside except the tree this weekend. It really is a great time of the year with the excitement of the Holidays, it seems to make people in a better mood. There's nothing like walking around the neighborhood in your shorts and T-shirts to look at the lights. Enjoy our little family elf dance!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

In other fantastic news, I LOVE TWILIGHT!! My loving and manly husband took me to see the movie this weekend, and I was not at all disappointed. It is really hard to see movies when you have read the books they are based on because they usually change things, leave things out, and it is never quite as good as you can imagine it yourself, but this was really good. Despite the fact that there were way too many teenage girls that couldn't sit still or quit giggling, we really enjoyed it. Stacy even said he wanted to see it again, which I think I could handle. Thanks Babe! Maybe I can convince you to read the book someday too.

Halloween Pictures (finally!)

I'm finally getting around to posting these Halloween pictures. Stacy finally had Halloween off this year after working the last 3 years. The kids had a fun time trick-or-treating with Rylee in the neighborhood. There were some really fun houses and a TON of people out in the neighborhood. They got plenty of candy and have eaten most of it the last few weeks. Colten really like one house in particular where a woman was sitting in a chair with an ugly pig mask on and was scaring all the kids that were coming to take candy out of the bowl. Rylee and Marlee both cried and ran, but Colten wanted to keep going back!! All in all, it was a great Halloween!

Fall Fun

So, my work paid for us all to go to Schnepf Farms this Saturday. The kids had a lot of fun, but it was still way too hot outside! It feels like the summer never ends here. They got their faces painted, fed the animals in the petting zoo, rode a few rides, got really crabby, and then Marlee had a meltdown at the end. It was fun,a little expensive, but hey we didn't pay for it!! We didn't last to see the fireworks, but Colten got to go back with Shannon, Jarrod, Rylee, and Uncle Mike to see them later. He was totally exhausted when he got home.

Camping 2008

We went camping with Grammie, Papa, Mel, Scott, and baby Remi a few weekends ago. The kids had so much fun just being in nature and running around. It was beautiful, but a little chilly where we went. Maybe October in the mountains is a little colder than we thought!! Maybe I'm only saying that because I have been living in the Valley of the Sun for way too long now. What wimps we've become! We planned to stay the whole weekend, but when it started raining it got even colder and we decided to pack it up and head in Saturday evening. Now Colten's favorite make-believe game is to pack and go camping. We can't wait to do it again!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

This was our first family vacation, and it was blast!! Colten went for 12 to 14 hours a day, from ride to ride. Marlee was a trooper, but didn't like very many rides, and cried when any character came near her. It was so much fun, and Colten can't wait to go back!

Its Official...I'm finally a "blogger"

OK...so I finally decided to join the blogging world. I love to visit my friends blogs and see how their families are doing and the things they are doing with their lives. I am very uncreative, I am a terrible journal writer, and I absolutely loathe scrapbooking...so I decided to give blogging a try to see if I can try to keep an unofficial log of our lives. I guarantee no serious creativity, and I don't even know how to load the pictures up yet...but you have to start somewhere. So tune in (not sure when), but I will try to keep adding more posts so that you can all check out the Straub family (although Stacy has forbidden me from putting personal information about him on here).