The Orton's

Kiddo's

These 3 beautiful kiddo's make me happy.

I love their bright blue eyes, happy faces, individual personalities, and everything else about them. The next best thing to being a mom is being an aunt - It is going to be so much fun for Marshall and Jake while they are growing up - I have a feeling there are going to many times that Ashlyn will have them dressed up like dancing girls, all of them piled in the farm truck with grandpa Russell, and grandma Carolyn trying to survive making cookies and cakes with all of them. Jason and Sarah are always to good to play with them and make them feel special. It's good thing there is such a gap between Ashlyn and the boys to break everybody in because I have a feeling these boys are going to be hell on wheels when they get mobile!

I just love this little innocent face - but do you see that little glimmer of mischief in his eyes?

Ash practicing her "diving" skills.

We love bath time because it means that bed time is fast approaching....

January 2011

January involved Gary and Ashlyn doing a little bit of this:

Ashlyn playing a lot of this:

And Marshall reaching the 6 month mark which brought on a lot of this:

I love how he sucks his bottom lip in - it makes him look like an old grandpa without his dentures in - cracks me up! For the longest time he has only had one tooth on the bottom so his favorite Uncle Glen dubbed him "one-tooth" I guess Glen will have to come up with a new nickname since Marshall just cut his 2nd tooth.

Don't you just want to squish those little chubby cheeks?

Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas from the Orton household! I hope everybody had a magical Christmas season. We sure did! Christmas started out with decorating - not always my favorite part - but this year it was different. Last summer Gary's good friend David Lake passed away. Gary and David we avid hunting buddies and loved spending time together. After David passed away, his wife Karen, wanted Gary to have something of David's. Little did I know that this is what she had in mind:

Isn't it lovely? Let's just say we got a lot of weird looks from our neighbors. David used to put this lovely lawn decoration in his front yard and send a picture of it to us as a Christmas card - we were the only people that Karen would allow him to send the picture to. So this year, in honor of David, we displayed this in our yard and sent a picture of it to Karen in California. I hope she enjoyed it! Whether or not this display will be used again next year is still up for debate.

Christmas morning was awesome - all of us got spoiled - enough that I lost my camera in all of the wrapping paper and therefore was not able to take as many pictures as I wanted.

Checkin out Santa's loot.

Ashlyn admiring her new jewelry box from Grandpa Dwaine and Grandma Linda

We really did have a wonderful Christmas this year full of family and friends.

Turning Over a New Leaf

Today, December 28, 2010, I have started the Herbalife program. My goal is to lose 30 lbs (more would be nice) before Summer. Gary started Herbalife and lost 18 lbs in 8 weeks. I understand that men are usually able to lose weight a lost faster than women, so I will try my hardest not to compare myself to him and his success. I am writing this as a promise to myself that I will lose this baby weight - not just what I gained with Marshall but what I had left over from Ashlyn - and be healthier. So here's to a new beginning for 2011! 2010 was great to my little family and I can't wait to see what is in store for 2011!

P.S. We had a great Christmas....I will post pictures later!

Thought for December

My new favorite quote for this month:

"If we look for what is wrong with the Christmas season, we can surely find it. Nevertheless, if we look for the good, we can see this time of year with new eyes—perhaps even with the eyes of a child." -PRESIDENT DIETER F. UCHTDORF

Merry Christmas Everybody!

NFR 2010

Last week we had the awesome opportunity to meet up with our good friends, Geneya and Josh, and go to the NFR. It was so hard to leave the kids (but not too hard). Gary and I haven't had time away together for so long so it was nice just to be a couple again. It has definitely been something that we have been neglecting so to have time away from home together was just what we needed! I am horrible at remembering to take pictures so I stole some from Geneya's blog - Thank goodness she remembered to take a couple of pictures!