He's Here!

On March 17, 2011 Patrick Timothy O'Leary Marshall was born . . . somewhere in Ireland or Boston. But in Sandy, Utah at 2:03 in the afternoon we welcomed Barrett Cannon Marshall into the world. I cannot lie. He is an angel. He weighed in at 7 lbs. 5 ounces and was 20 inches long. We can't believe how little he is. Just a lean machine. It won't last long. I know how to make the rolls and dimples, but for a few days he is tiny.

Baby Boy Barrett . . . the first few minutes

Our sweet Barrett is here.  From the very start this guy has been an absolute sweet pea. We have been trying to post some video of his first moments, but we give up! Somehow it is beyond our capability to get it into the right format. It's too hard, and we're not trying anymore. And this evening I had an epiphany . . . we can just post photos! So, no more excuses or blabbing. Here he is.

Here are the big kids waiting for baby brother to arrive. They were so excited and amazed by the whole thing.

Special Messages to Grandma in South Africa

Grandma's birthday has inspired some special videos from the kids. Happy Birthday Mom! We love you and miss you.

It's All Greek To Us

Last night we had the second gathering of our dinner group. We had a great time. Great food and great friends. How could we miss? We each made various greek dishes (last time we did Thai-most impressive). We ate delicious, barely pronouncable and certainly not spellable(sure it's a word,)food from Greece. Now, one would think that we would have taken pictures of the participants enjoying the festivities. But not us. That's right; we have a great picture of the baklava. Priorities.

For fun and for memory sake I have also included a picture of the dessert I made for Valentine's Day. The kids were very impressed.

Addition to Our Story

Well, just as we were about to close the baby chapter of our story, we decided to extend our tale just a bit. So, entering our family this Spring of 2011 will be baby boy Marshall. We anticipate he will arrive sometime around Grandpa's birthday on March 20th, but there is one lady here who is voting for an earilier arrival, say March 5th. Yes, March 5th would be perfect.

In the meantime we need an update on the rest of the crew. Let's start with Eden. This year Eden has added two important elements to her life. First, she got into the A.L.L. program at her school. In order to sound as snobbish and arrogant as possible we will devulge that A.L.L. is the name for the gifted and talented program in Alpine School District. She had to take a four hour test to make it into the program, but little did she know that would be the easy part. The first few weeks this fall were a little hairy, and she was begging for an early exit, but she managed and is now excelling. Most recently she did well enough on her science fair project to be an alternate for the district level competion. No surprise that dogs were involved. She did her project on dog handedness (whether they were more often left-pawed or right-pawed.)

The second thing Eden added this year was gymnastics. This fall she graduated from level 2 to 3, and she now goes for an hour and a half two times a week. She is working on a back hand spring.

Hawkins turned eight and got baptized since our last post. Grandpa Bert and Grandma Karen spoke at his baptism, and they were the two best talks we've ever heard at a baptism. (Zero bias here. They were phenomonal. ) We love them for making it a special day for him and making their talks age appropriate.

Hawkins played soccer this fall and indoor soccer this winter. Indoor was by far and away everybody's favorite. Fun, fast-paced and we were in and out of there in 45 minutes.

We have also had the extreme pleasure of watching this sweet boy bear his testimony several times in the last few months. It has been so pleasing to watch both him and Eden stand and testify of the truthfulness of the gospel. Very proud parents.

Livvy continues to be our resident sweetheart. That is unless you ask her to do something that she doesn't want to do. And then watch out. My favorite is to hear her crying, "Mom, you don't do anything. You keep making us your slaves." But thankfully we see the Livvy we know and love 95% of the time. She adores her big sister and brother and has been known to try to settle their disagreements. Everyone adores her because she is just so stinking nice to be around. Last week, the night before Valentine's Day she showed me a jewelry box containing a fake diamond ring she was given when her great-grandma Alyce passed away and asked if I thought she should give it to Mrs. Beck (her kindergarten teacher) for Valentine's Day. That's just the kind of kid she is.

She and her cousin Ty are virtually inseparable. They meet at the bus stop in the morning, go to kindergarten together, and then play after school. They are having a blast together. Although she still talks about moving back to Gridley so we can be there when Grandma and Grandpa get home.

Spring 2010

Ben and I celebrated the beginning of spring by heading down to St. George for a few days. We had a fabulous time with our new friends Beth and Gheen Hillman and old friends Emilee and Jeremy Knight. We hiked to Observation Point in Zion's (amazing!), played tennis, golfed (several of us think we're going pro), ran, mountain biked, and ate. Oh, and we ate a bunch more, too. By mid-trip we were sore and exhausted, but still loving every minute of it. Well, maybe not the mountain biking so much for me. I didn't think it was quite challenging enough to ride down the hill on both tires. I thought it would be way more interesting to fly over my handle bars and ride down on my back. Super fun! I love mountain biking.

Oh, and by the way if anyone was wondering, couple trips are the way to vacation. I know it's fun to have constant screaming, fighting and complaining in the back, but there is something to be said for a couple of blissful, fun filled days with a couple of friends. I highly recommend it.

OK, Olivia and Hawkins wanted to say a few things about themselves.

Hawkins: I like to go fishing. I love sports. I just started gymnastics. I can do front handsprings. I love my family. I know the scriptures are true. I know how to spell cacophony.

Olivia: I miss Greyson. Greyson is my best friend, but we moved. Today we got back from staying the weekend with my cousins, Ashley, Ellie and Avery. I ate gummy snacks with them.

Good stuff.

Drum roll please . . .

After the long awaited (by two people, thanks for your support Libby and Kacey) entrance into the blogging community, I am pleased to announce the Marshall Diaries, which will chronicle the young lives of three adorable and clever children . . . Edith, Harley and Olive. Just kidding, I mean Eden, Hawkins and Olivia Marshall, of course! We we may also have a rare appearance by their, much less interesting and certainly less appealing to look at, parents Ben and Cara.

This may be an appropirate time for my disclaimer. I have been assured that this will take care of all my scrapbooking/journaling needs, thus relieving me of the large amounts of guilt building since I gave the practice up all together before Olivia was born. However, I still refuse to spend copious amounts of time editing myself or even spell checking. So, this will be the place to visit when you are feeling bad about your own grammar or inability to articulate.

And now to introduce the stars of this hoopla . . .

Its's Eden Noelani Marshall. Just the sweetest, most sensitive ten year old you ever will meet. Recently, Eden had the best day of school ever because her teacher said her oral book report should be looked at as an example for the rest of her class to follow, and she was one of only two kids who got 100% on a super hard quiz. "It was the best!" she said. She's working really hard to get ready for her first piano recital in Utah. It is not to be missed. We love this girl.

And strolling up the red carpet now is our very own Hawkins James Marshall. This kid is hot (and not just his temper . . . we're working on it.) This kid was born a fisherman. If he had his way he would be down at the pond all day every day. Even in the chilly Utah winter weather he begs to go to the pond. He's had to learn the hard way how bad it hurts when you refuse to wear gloves to the pond when there is snow everywhere. Natural consequences are such a bite. (Those parenting books pay off every now and again.)

We love him. He is following in his big sisters academic footsteps by getting straight O's last quarter. (OK, I know I lost a few of you. O= Outstanding) He is working hard on his reading and loves chapter books. He recently won a date night with mom by reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

And last, but not least it's Miss Olivia Makai Marshall. We hardly recognize her here all dressed up in here red carpet regalia . . .

because this is how we see her the most lately. It's really hard to know when she's upset because she is not very expressive.

Livvy is hilarious. The things she comes up with are constantly cracking us all up. Some how video games have inundated the Marshall home, and she is killer at Lego Star Wars. (Not my proudest parental moment, but I do love hearing her alternating comments "Sweet!" and "Crap".)

She is super excited to start kindergarten in August. She has started sounding out letters and words, so we feel great that this little starlet is well on her way.

It's still a shock that our little sweet Livers is such a big kid.

Tune in for more from these adorable kids, plus occasional cameos by Bruno, the dog . . .or rat. We're just not sure.