Potato, potato...

Did you know, the second wedding anniversary is called "The Potato Anniversary"? Yeah, I had no idea! Haha, TJ was joking around saying "Well, I guess we can have potatoes for dinner on our anniversary", and all along it really is the potato anniversary! So it was customary to have potatoes that day ;)

Okay enough with the pointless information, I decided this Anniversary was NOT going to be a typical one for us. We had a wedding to attend the day before, then our anniversary, THEN we had Father's Day! I knew for sure it would be one we would not forget, and yet we would be so tired before it even got here!

So, with it still being the beginning of the month and I just put up an update I thought I could put a middle-month update because it sure has been a busy one!

Lets start with little Miss Marley, who is at the moment cutting FOUR teeth! YES, call it a nightmare if you will...haha okay it was bad at first but she is still a happy little one :) We took her to the doctor because she fell on concrete and was pulling on her ears. That's when we found out our soon-to-be-one-year-old was in MISERABLE pain, cutting her front two teeth AND her incisors!

Now, with us...we have been dealing with Dora our Explorer. She has been around for 14 years and it only seems possible that now she has problems, haha! We have had a huge adventure with her and its not been all dandy. I don't think we could have made it out without the help of our family. Basically our car was none drivable for at least a week and we are still working on getting it all the way fixed. My AMAZING brother, who is a genius with cars, was willing to sacrifice his free time from work to help us with our car. He is so wonderful, I felt so overjoyed because after hours upon hours, working until almost 11 at night under a car, he thanked ME! (I did thank him as well) But, he texted me and told me how grateful he was he could crash on the couch (since he stayed so late to help us with his car and had work the next day) and that he had this great opportunity to work on our car. He is so amazing and I am truly grateful for the sacrifices he continues to make to help us out :)

Well, on to the anniversary part ;)

For the past few weeks I had been working on this video. Back in February I wanted to make something super special for TJ and with Marley being a super squiggle worm it didn't work to well. So I secretly put this video together and added my special touch by adding our song to it. While TJ and I were skyping during our long distance stretch, he would always tell me when we were hanging up, "Goodnight, moon" And I have always thought that was a nice little touch. He then introduced me to this amazing song and I have loved it ever since. I feel it is us, that I fall more in love with him each time I hear this song because of the power behind it. No, the story isn't exactly how things went but it does follow a line to an extent point.

I really hope this video plays, if not, PLEASE click on the link and watch it, it is so special to me and I hope you enjoy it as well.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7HSY93yhHc

So, what did you think? ;)

If you haven't found out by now then you really missed out on that video, but... Marley is a BIG SISTER!!!!!!

This has been a long road since we found out, both so anxious to announce it but wanted to wait awhile. For obvious reasons, its the norm to announce after the first trimester is complete due to higher risks of miscarriages. And for the second, we just had a baby! Haha! I feel like I just went through all this not too long ago, oh that's right...I had! ;)

My in-laws were being so silly, and basically every time I talked with my mom-in-law she would ask me if I was pregnant. (At the time we were talking at least once a day because I was making a trip out there in April) While I was there they all dropped a few hints asking if I was, and I kept smiling it off. No, I was not pregnant. We weren't even considering it until at least July! Towards the end of my trip I started noticing some off things (really only one thing, but I watch way too much 19 Kids and Counting).

When I got back to Utah, it was the day before my birthday. So we celebrated by eating out the night before at Olive Garden. They have the best soup, and I have always loved it, except when I was pregnant with Marley, it tasted really yucky to me. So that night I decided to try something new but I got my favorite soup. And it was off, it just didn't taste right to me.

The next morning I got up early enough to not cause suspicion why I was in the bathroom for a few minutes making noise. (I found that at 6 am, I could start a blender and only wake up Marley so I wasn't too worried ;) )

It came up positive! Holy cow the thoughts running through my head. Of course I was excited and wanted to tell TJ immediately but I decided to give a few more a shot before I announced it to him. seven tests later- 6 positive, one negative- I was sure I was pregnant. So I called up my partner in these crimes to come up with a plan.

It ended up being perfect and TJ was VERY surprised, but was happy. Just in shock ;) (he wont let me share the video because he say's he is embarrassed about it ;) )

But that is the exciting news we have been holding in for quiet some time now, so yes, my birthday was GREAT!!! Haha!

He loved the video I made him and we enjoyed our special day KID FREE (well half-way ;) )
Telling his family was fun, I made a cute board for grandkid pictures and it was fun to visit my crafty side!

Well, until next time, I hope you enjoyed this special message from us and had a great Fathers day as well!

June is so close to July

So here we are, another month down and another month closer to Marley being one! Seriously, this needs to slow down a bit.

So a lot has happened this month and we have so much to tell about! Marley is such an amazing little star! I have so many milestones and such I hope I can get them all down because she really is so much fun!

Last week, Ely and Sebasthian brought down Benji and had a weekend getaway. This was fun for Marley to meet Benji for the second time but actually get to interact with each other with no spit up involved. ;) Benji is such a happy giggly soul that I kinda was jealous Marley doesn't really laugh a lot. If I get her to laugh its a HUGE accomplishment and I have to keep trying but it bores her and its no longer laughable. WELL, she has really come out of her shell lately and laughs when she is being tickled or having super amounts of fun (like thrown into the air) so we are sure enjoying these moments! (I think Benji coaxed her into thinking laughing as cool ;) )

She is also a super star at walking now. At first, it was a little difficult and she would take a few steps and eventually was walking all over the house in circles! She is mastering the turning while walking and even being able to stand back up in the middle of the floor after falling! This is HUGE! I really thinks she likes to show off because she does all these mind blowing things during the middle of church and takes off with it! Today, she was a little wound up so TJ had her walk all the way around the church and when she saw me she tried RUNNING to me. Yes, running. Calm down there buddy, lets get this walking thing under control first. ;)

Have I ever mentioned I was a dancer? Well, she sure has inherited some of my skills and that is: Dancing, and kissing....but...haha, anyways. She is such a cute dancer, she likes the intro song of House and will shake her little booty back and forth. She has even gone above and beyond and can dance now without holding on to couches or tables! She thinks she is funny and when people notice and giggle with us, Marley will clap her hands. She is so proud of herself! We were singing a hymn today and she was standing there dancing...it was pretty cute and hard to follow with the rest of the song; she is going to go places with her dance moves (hopefully off to ballet like her momma!)

And on to the kissing; when Marley first learned kisses she did not give them out for free. In fact she gave them out like maybe once or twice and you had to REALLY get her attention and maybe even a cheerio. ;) But as of lately she will give everyone kisses! She sure is not shy of that so we just have to be careful of all those boys she chases at the park! ;) Its really cute because she will be heading to bed and I just ask for a kiss and she will walk over and plant a big slobbery loving kiss on you...maybe even a few extras! She then proceeds to wave and smile as she is ushered off to bed. Cute kid.

She has been excellent at sleep time and loves her naps, I think she sleeps better now and takes better naps now than when she was a newborn! She always has to have her Bobo and her Fluffy with her so if we ever loose those we are going to be hunting for look-a-likes! Haha!

Marley isn't much of a talker but she is getting more out there and trying really hard; she has said "rah" (short for Hooray and then throws her hands in the air--its pretty cute and a trick Granny M showed her). And most recently she learned how to get daddy to work, by saying "Go" and he takes off running with her. I'm sure he will not enjoy that as much sooner than later, haha!

This month we have a few events coming up like our second anniversary! I'm sure I will be blogging about events soon for that and then of course Fathers day!

But honestly, where has the time gone. This 11 month old is such a joy and so adventurous, I just cant believe my eyes on what a beauty she is. So full of love and fun its just the package TJ and I needed to complete or family. I am sure whenever another baby decides to join us Marley will stun us all and be an amazing helper, and show off to the little victim. ;) She is so amazing, I really just cant get over that fact of what a blessing she has been in our family and marriage. She has only been around less than a year but I feel like I have been with her for so much longer! (Though I would appreciate it if she stopped referring to food as 'mama' haha)

I guess this is it for now, here are some photo's of some adventures we have had (I'm sorry I am awful at using my camera, I forget about it because she isn't a fan...too much paparazzi when she couldn't move; now that she can she hits the road!)

Enjoy! Until next time! (I'm sure there will be a post for our Anniversary/Fathers day since those are special days too ;) )

We got Marley some new kicks and I just had to get a jogging outfit she can wear with me.

Here she is showing off being super happy!

 Just enjoying some fun at the park! She LOVED this part and it wore her out so fast (win-win!)

 She isn't a fan of swinging on her own but loves it when she is with her daddy. Needless to say they had so much fun!

 She loved this 'area' she would play with it, turn around to climb up the step, turn back around and play more. She loves making the wheel go everywhere. Hopefully we can help her realize it doesn't go all over all the time before she is driving age. ;)

We were really impressed she could climb up these huge steps. As you can tell it's as tall as her almost! But she wanted to play with daddy and the little boy on the slides. Chasing boys already, we are so in trouble!

 Here is her 11 month shot!

Happy June!

10 months!

This sure has been an adventurous month for our little family; traveling, Easter, zoo trips, birthday, and more!

So lets start off with the beginning of the month, we were lucky to get a decent tax refund and with that we decided to look up flights for Nebraska. We have an eventful year on the Carney side and were wanting to spend time with them. The original plan was to spend Christmas with them but at the time we were unsure of how we would get there (Dora-our Explorer- is getting old and we don't want to take her on such long travels). We found an amazing deal for a round trip for under $200! We had to book it, unfortunately it was for only one person, and since Marley got to fly free we decided we would send me out since TJ also had a lot of work to do. We really wished we both could have gone but I was so excited that I could go and spend some quality time with everyone.

We decided to have TJ google them and tell them we had a surprise for them. They immediately said "You're having another baby" Ha! Silly kids, nice try; but the looks on their faces when we walked up behind them was pure shock and joy. It was super fun to surprise them this way and super special they were so excited to see us!
We happened to book the flight the day before Kimbers' (sister-in-law) sweet sixteen party; and the next day just so happened to be prom! This was especially fun because not only did that allow us to have some time together, it allowed me to do what I love most; doing hair. Marley was uneasy the first few days and with the first three of them I was busy with Kim that I was unable to attend to Marley's comforting needs.

It did get better and she ended up loving each member of the family, she had special time with each person and I am glad that they also got that time with Marley to create special memories. It was such a good trip and Easter was fantastic, it was a little sad on my end since I was away from TJ for such a long time and on such a special holiday. Two years ago we celebrated Easter with his family and that was the time he proposed to me. I thought it would be cute to recreate that special memory in the same exact spot by taking a picture with our beautiful daughter in place of him, since she is apart of him. It was kind of an emotional day but a very happy one.
Marley was a hoot and a half that morning, she was super fast at finding the eggs and learning that if you shake them hard enough they will explode and out come candy! I was trying to monitor her intake by quickly taking the candy after an egg explosion but she learned that the Easter baskets also had lots of OPEN candy in them. We had to quickly take care of everything so she wouldn't go all crazy, haha!

That night we also had a birthday celebration for me since I was turning 22 and my birthday was two days away. It was so much fun and I cannot wait to go spend my gift and spoil myself. (they did a good job on getting something that I could only use--Any kind of gift money we always go get Marley something instead of ourselves-- "You sneaky mom!" haha!

We were both so sad to leave but eager to get home to our loving TJ, he spoiled me rotten by taking me to Olive Garden for an early birthday celebration, then the next night my parents took us out to Red Lobster for my birthday dinner. Yummy!

Now that the month is almost over and things are winding down, I am slowly catching up with my house work. I had such a busy week the week I came home and now am getting around to blogging and cleaning!

Marley Milestones: Marley is a stubborn little gal and has no motivation to walk yet. We are working on it and she will walk if we hold onto her hands and will even walk one handed but she walks sideways when we do that. ;)
     Since we were in Nebraska she said a few new words: Bo-bo and papa. Bo-bo is Beau D, the great Dane. She loved crawling all over him and playing with his tail. I heard a rumor he was very sad the day we left because Marley wasn't there to bother him ;) And of course Papa is what she called her Grandpa Carney. So it stuck and she decided to say "Papa"
      She will still say 'Da-da' but very rarely says 'mum' as in....never. We have been working on her saying other words and she says but nothing is concrete yet. We are still giving it plenty of time and working on some sign language with her. She thinks its silly and smiles when we do it :)
            Marley is SUPER active and with that activity  means she eats A LOT! When we took her to the doctor for her 9-month check up she was barley almost 19 lbs. how is that possible with her eating all the time?!!? Oh yeah, she likes to go crazy, haha! Just a few nights ago she was squealing on the floor and crawling really fast back and forth in the living room, for at least twenty minutes! She also loves pushing things now, she pushes her walker, but only when she crawls, she will grab her books and push them across the floor. Its very fun to watch her push the book with one hand and crawl while pushing.
     Marley has started taking up interest in books, she will grab one and flip through the pages. We have to be careful and give her none-paper books because she still has this thing with tearing and eating paper. Weirdo.
    Over all Marley is doing wonderful! She is still in the 98% in everything except for her weight, so she is going to be tall and skinny, and I am sure she will be so outdoorsy since she already is now! She is such a joy and loves to do new things and learn. I am so glad she is our little girl and we take such pride in our little offspring!

Until next time, enjoy all our pictures from our month!

Two Years ago TJ proposed to me in this spot. I brought Marley to recreate the moment.

She is such a sweet little girl, it helped that she gave me tons of kisses with her daddy absent :)

 She really LOVED her Bo-bo, she even thought his Easter toy was fun too. He on the other hand was sad but he is such a good dog he let her play with it while he pouted. Poor dog.

On the wonderful hunt for Easter Eggs. She thought Easter was great!

I cannot tell you how much I loved these moments. I think Sean was super happy we came and enjoyed spoiling Marley with love!

Marley liked the zoo, she got a new fluffy! Papa sure spoiled her and now she gets really happy when we give it to her :)

 Marley was struggling a bit with no daddy and in a new place to her. It was a huge thing and she was doing pretty good. But nothing comforts her like her like momma's love. I am so glad that I get this chance and she loves me so much in return. :)

 She also liked the quality time with her Nana. Broken arm and all. :)

 And then there is the big teddy bear of a Papa that she had a hard time going to at first but it was super cute before we were leaving she would reach out her arms to him EVERY time he passed, and on Sunday we were in the Mothers room and she heard him laugh. Yes, laugh. And she got all excited she decided it was time to leave to go get her Papa!

 So intrigued with the amazing peep shakes. Got another one hooked on 'em! I guess this will always be a tradition that can only be completed by this guy!

She really liked this part of the zoo, its my favorite part too!

A fun filled day is always bound for a nap!

 We went to Kimber's concert that day as well, (such a long day!) and as good as she was she was pretty not interested towards the end and was getting antsy. She did do good for a long long time. As you can tell, Jace was not very thrilled with all the baby love ;)

Score! We are done and I got some cookies!

Not sure if this shows AT ALL, she likes Beau D

Sure it took a lot of warming up to, I mean he is like a giant horse compared to her, but she loved being able to climb all over him and play with him.

She often would crawl over to his mat to play with him for a second and run off :)

 Such a good dog he is. Now, we will have to find a dog like her 'bo-bo' We heard he was very sad the night we left, Marley was quick to replace bo-bo with a puppy puppet, though when she sees pictures of him she gets excited and screams "Bo-Bo!"

I just love how excited she is, such a precious gem :)

Just a few Easter shots and we couldn't get her to stop with the Easter Grass. Gosh, its the simple things

Lastly, you can really see her big eyes, dimples, and her two little teefers! 

Ten months old, pure joy. An amazing journey and blessing to be her mommy :)

April showers brings...9 months of Marley!

This has been an...intense month for us Carney folk over here. Marley is NINE months old!

If I haven't my age for being in my twenties, having a nine month old that is teething sure has! Yup, you heard me right- Marley is getting her bottom teeth in. They started coming in on the first day of spring; how appropriate right? (Her teeth sprung on the first day of spring). Its not been too bad, so I cant complain much...well until she bites me while she is nursing. That's not too fun. But Marley has been really 'mommy-clingy' where even daddy cannot hold her. This has been a little exhausting for all of us, but we love our little Mars-rover so much its all so worth it!

She has recently decided to start screaming at the top of her lungs as well. *That's* a little intense for us and hopefully it ends super soon.

Our good friends just bought their first home and we have loved helping them move into it, so much that Rachel rewarded Marley for being so cute and good with her very own cupcake! IT was so cute to watch but TJ was not impressed with the mess or the fact she had a cupcake before bed ;)

http://youtu.be/ARtuku5SeZs

I think it was something magical in the house but Marley has NEVER climbed stairs before, we have cement stairs right out front on our apartment and she has never braved them before. I was busy away with helping clean and I looked over and saw my little toots climbing away like a pro. I was such in shock I wouldn't have been surprised if she started walking that day either!

http://youtu.be/w9WpZbTRJHI

With Spring *supposedly* here (I say that because its been raining/snowing this past week) we have taken the opportunity to be outside as much as possible. With our tax return we went and got ourselves some bikes so we can spend more time together. We have all enjoyed it so much! When the weather is good we love going on our bike rides. There is a really nice trail in our neighborhood that leads to all parts of Ogden. On Saturday we went on an 8 1/2 mile bike ride. We stopped for a minute because we seemed to have lost the trail and we looked up and saw our beautiful Ogden temple! We stopped on our way back home to eat our healthy snack and our precious little Marley was SO happy! She really loves bike rides and every time we start talking about biking she gets so excited and cannot sit still until she is in her seat and helmet on. Even then we cant get her to hold still!

Marley Milestones: Marley has graduated to a big girl car seat, and she is loving it! She really hated the infant seat and was happy to put it in storage until our next baby comes along. She had her nine month check up and is growing right along! She is at 29 inches long and 18 lbs 14 oz (approximately, she wouldn't stop moving so the scale was going crazy!) Marley is super active and she is fascinated with everything! She has started saying 'mom' and it is darling. She gives the sweetest kisses (she just learned how to and even though its an open-mouthed 'lick' its so precious!) We really love this happy child of ours so much! We have hit the stage of her sleeping all throughout the night again, YAY! (I have been enjoying this lots) She is a BIG eater, just like her daddy (He says its a Carney thing) I always worry I have been over-feeding her but her doc says she is pretty okay (60% on her weight) to gain a few pounds if it happens. TJ is so funny, he will shake his head at me if she eats chocolate from my mom or Rachel but I caught him feeding her peeps and chocolate chip cookies; its safe to say he doesn't shake his head and smirk at me anymore! But since then we have a sweet tooth of a baby, haha this could end badly for us (and her teeth :/ ) But any who, she is really a wonderful little girl. She learned to master the stairs going up and down in seriously two days of a time. The first day going up and the second coming down. Now I have to keep my front door shut because she will crawl out and go up the stairs and play in our front yard (don't panic, I am always within five ft). I am so excited it is spring again! We are excited for Marley's first Easter and to see what else this month brings!

 Until next time!

                                     
I'm loving the first family photo because they both have the same face. Enough of the camera already! Haha!










We were getting ready to head out on a bike ride. Family photo and Cyclopes Marley! Oops, I feel bad for using this photo but I love it so much! 

 We told Marley we were going to get ready and go on a bike ride. She is so excited! She knows what this means and it makes us all so happy that she is such a fun active girl!


And FINALLY I have been able to capture her darling smile on camera! This has been such a difficult task for me because I pull out the camera and she gets so interested in what I am holding or maybe she is just camera shy. Who knows but I guess all I have to do is mention bike ride and I can get some gorgeous smiles out of her! She really is a happy happy baby it just is hard to capture it sometimes ;)

Love her face and her dimples. Sweet as a tootsie pop!

Marley wearing her daddy's work shirt and playing with the keyboard and mouse. Little darling. You can even see her little two teeth!

 She took my phone and took a selfie. 

 

Good thing we love you lots, Rachel!

 Haha! Her face is just too cute. 

 Haha, I know I am a creep but she totally looks like she is dead, the way she is laying. I'm such a weirdo.

We were trying to get stuff done and Marley was being so clingy so, how did I distract her?

With chocolate chips, haha! Her daddy wasn't too pleased though she only had a few ;)

March Madness!

This has been a pretty good month, we had some blowouts but nothing we couldn't dominate. So here is what's new!

Our old, yet long surviving, dryer took a turn of events and decided to quit producing the wonderful heat that actually dries the clothes. Its funny how you dont appreciate things until they are broken, haha. So this took a hit on my cleaning routine for a few days. Though, I did not mind, it gave me more quality time with my toots. :) So we looked on KSL for a new dryer and we actually got a really nice one that works great and is super quiet (our old one was SO loud!), so now we can enjoy drying the clothes and doing other fun things!

The sickies have come and gone and hopefully gone for good! I am so glad, too. I always get so miserable when I am sick and become such a little baby, but now that I have Marley and she got sick, it really just broke my heart. TJ was a trooper and survived all three of us being down and managed to still get work done. Wow, what an amazing guy, right?

TJ got a calling in church (finally!) he is a ward missionary. So he gets to go out and meet the investigators and get to know the members better. I really think this was such an appropriate calling as well because TJ is such a good missionary and has such a wonderful spirit!

Helping me draw, or rather destroy the board we made ;)

Marley is now eight months old. Yes, that was spelt right, I checked twice. EIGHT! She is so much fun and really is turning into a beautiful little lady. She is not walking yet (I give or take a couple weeks until she is actually running on her own) but she has mastered the whole crawling thing and is really fast. We have to pick her up and move her away to turn around two seconds later across the room! Unfortunately baby gates won't be suitable in our apartment because our door frames are too wide; so we stick with the good ol' fashion way of chasing her everywhere!

Her favorite thing lately is to chase TJ or I around the kitchen and living room and surprise her on the other side. (I hope that made sense) She has loved playing peek-a-boo and when we toss a blanket over her she likes to throw it off and giggle when she finally pulls it off.

No new words, really; except everything is da-da. Yeah, I try so hard to get her to say mama but she just smiles at me and continues to say... "da-da". We have gotten her to say 'mama' every so often. Its normally when she is really tired and upset. Ironic isn't it? But I have to brag about this, she is such a mama's girl! I should say she loves her mom and dad equally, but tell that to the girl who wants some milk ;) It makes my day when she wants only me and we really do enjoy our quality time together!

With the weather looking and feeling so awesome we have spent a few hours each day outside soaking up the much needed vitamin D for our pale skin. She has loved crawling and exploring the grass and picking up old crunchy leaves and trying to eat them, which I quickly take out of her mouth. She just seems to giggle about it (wont be the last time for that either)

It was SUPER nice out and she loved sitting and watching the cars go by!
Eating the dry icky leaves

 Trying out the grass, she kept escaping the blanket and heading for the weird stuff ;)

Of course she has her shades on. Gotta protect those precious blue eyes! ;)

She was a little distraught that I took her leaf away

So she took out her frustration by throwing her glasses off

Marley has found a new found love for baths, by herself. We tried doing a routine schedule with giving her a bath at night and, oh my, I have never seen a baby so excited! When she hears the water turn on she crawls as fast as she can (which is fast by the way) to the bathroom and watches her bath fill up. Super cute, right?

watching her bath fill up

Having so much fun splashing around (and all over me)

Whats even cuter? Have you ever drawn faces on your baby? Total mood changer, seriously, if you are in a bad or sour mood just draw little faces on your baby and it will improve your mood by 1000%! Its great, I mean for real, just look at this face!

Oh geez, she cracks me up!! I know I am a mean mom to do this 'torture' but I needed a good laugh!

That is pretty much it for the mean time, just living the life and growing closer together as a family. Until next time!

TJ being the tough guy he is and taking care of business (the dryer). Such a hard worker!

A very soft coat Auntie Tana got Marley for Christmas and it finally fits! She kept rubbing her face with it!

She sure loves eating, but this face is guilty of eating chocolate. Little stinker.

Its hard to see but that my friends is a little ponytail on her head. Its getting long!

This was the collection of 7 month shots. It is getting harder and harder to take them now!