Pictures of Marissa

My friend Dana wanted to practice her photography and use Marissa as a model for her portfolio. Of course I said yes! Here are some of the pictures she took. I think she did a great job!

Easter 2008

At an Easter egg hunt at Xander's preschool

Xander wandering around looking for more candy and eggs. He wasn't as aggressive as some of the other kids and ran past a lot of stuff at the beginning so he didn't end up with much, but he was still really happy with what he got. What a good attitude!

Decorating eggs...Spongebob style!Easter morning. I couldn't resist the Easter basket for Marissa, the tutu comes off of the basket (my friend did some really cute pictures with her baby and a tutu)! I love her cute little bunny outfit too! The candy is mostly for Xander and mommy since we LOVE candy! Thank goodness daddy is a dentist!

Marissa is one month old!

Marissa turned one month old the day before Easter. Here are a couple of shots of her making different faces and a slide show of random pictures of the last month. It has definitely gone by fast!

Xander turns 5!

Xander turned 5 on St Patrick's Day! He spent the next week telling everyone he saw that he was five now. He definitely thinks he is a big kid now and sometimes has an attitude to prove it. But he can also be very loving and sweet too! He probably tells me he loves me about 20 times a day and he loves to try and make Marissa smile! We sure love him too!

Wearing his birthday crown from preschool

Testing out his new swing set that he got for his birthday
More pictures to come next week when we have his birthday party with his friends!

Nine year anniversary

Ash and I have been married for nine years now! Here is a picture from our wedding. Man, we look young...and different!



So a couple of weeks ago (on our anniversary, I'm just a little late posting!) we stayed at Anniversary Inn here in Boise. Marissa came with us, but Xander spent the night at his friend's house and actually went to bed early (what is up with that? he won't go to bed early for us!)

Baby showers!

I have had several baby showers in the past couple of weeks and got tons of cute clothes and much needed necessities like diapers, formula, etc. Thanks to all of my friends for everything! Here are a few pictures from 2 of the parties, the other I forgot the camera of course!

Xander meeting Marissa for the first time!

Xander holding Marissa for the first time!

Xander comparing hand sizes with Marissa

Xander stayed with my parents in Utah while we went to Ohio to get Marissa (and was spoiled beyond belief!). When he got back all he wanted to do was play XBox so completely ignored her for a day or two. The very first thing he asked when he walked in the door, was "did she mess up my cars?" When I told him no, she is too little, he went and checked them anyway and asked who touched them while he was gone because I guess they were somehow out of order (Xander is a little OCD when it comes to his cars!) We asked him if he wanted to see her, hold her, give her a kiss, anything and he would say "no, I am playing XBox." Finally after getting his "fix," he decided that it was pretty cool that he got a baby sister! My mom even bought him a shirt that says, "I'm the big brother" that he loves. Now he loves to help hold the bottle to feed her and will sing to her when she is in her swing and tells everyone that he has a new baby sister. He says "I just love Marissa, I am glad we got her!" He is very particular about what he will do to help out though-he is in charge of getting clean diapers ONLY! According to him, it is not his job to take the dirty diapers and put them in the trash!

Finally coming home!

Marissa on her first plane ride at 10 days old!

So, I have been home for about two weeks now but am just getting the chance to post about our trip home, which was somewhat a nightmare! First, I had called the adoption agency in Ohio to see if our paperwork was approved to go home on Friday, Feb 29th and apparently nobody in their office works on Fridays because nobody called me back (and come to find out later our paperwork had been approved and sent back from Idaho late on Thursday!). So Stacy and I spent another boring weekend in good ol' Akron, Ohio. When I woke up on Monday morning around 11:30 am (I took the night shift and Stacy took the morning shift...thank goodness!) I called them and they said that they just found out that the paperwork was approved and if we wanted to leave today that we had to be to the agency by 1:15 that afternoon to sign the paperwork. Since Ash had already gone home and they had told us over and over that he HAD to be there IN PERSON to sign the papers, I was devastated that we were going to have to spend another day there! But now all of the sudden, they say that Ash doesn't have to be there-he just has to get a lawyer and sign a power of attourney and fax it over so I can sign for him. HELLO! Could they have not told us that sooner?!? Luckily Ash had the day off and got a lawyer to do it for free and we made it over to sign the papers just in time. Then since Ash wasn't going to be with me to help me with the baby, I wanted to fly out of the Cleveland airport with Stacy (instead of the Akron/Canton airport) so I could have her help, so while Ash was booking our tickets, we were frantically packing bags, checking out of the hotel, changing where we were dropping off the rental car, etc so we could make it in time to Cleveland for our flight leaving at 6:50pm. So we make it there in time and unfortunately I couldn't fly on my favorite Southwest Airlines since their flight to Boise had already left for the day, so I had to fly on Northwest. We were at the gate and everything looked fine, until 6pm rolled around and then suddenly it said the flight was delayed! I ran up to the ticket counter and they said the plane was still in Detroit and I would definitely miss my connection in Minneapolis, so I could either spend the night here or in Minneapolis. I said absolutely NOT! I have a 10 day old baby and I WILL get home tonight so put me on another airline! So they finally found me a seat on a United flight so I rush to that gate only to have the guy yell at me and tell me to go away, that Northwest was over in the other hallway (he obviously didn't listen to a thing I said!). I told him that I was on THIS flight so he ripped the ticket out of my hand and threw it on the counter and said to just wait. So when he called me up, I reamed him out for being such a jerk and told him take some customer service classes and I was going to complain to his supervisor. I was already stressed enough with traveling with a baby alone and didn't need his crap! After that he was suddenly very accomodating, giving me a full row to my self on both legs of the flight and even let Stacy help carry some of my stuff onto the plane for me. Anyway, Marissa was really good on the flight and all the flight attendants oohed and aahed all over her. But when we got to Boise, big surprise, I had no luggage! So, no clean underwear for me and no baby clothes that fit Marissa for two days! But at least we got home!

Almost two weeks old...

Today we went to Kiddie Kandids and got Marissa's picture taken. I wasn't planning on being in the pictures but the photographer convinced me to. I think all the pictures turned out really good.

We also went to the doctor yesterday and she has already gained a pound and grown an inch! She still is so tiny to me (6 lb 13 oz, 19 in which are both 25% percentile) especially since Xander was 8lb 40z when he was born and was always in the 90-95% for height and weight!