Brendan, Tatem, Cruz& Beckham!

A Cribs Tour

2011-08-14T19:50:00.001-07:00

So it's about time I posted pics of our new hacienda. We have been so blessed to get this place, because there is no way we deserved it. I'm still in awe that it is ours. Maybe part of that reason is because it was such a LONG, drawn out process. We put an offer on the house in the beginning of February and finally closed on July 29th. Short Sales are by no means short. Every step of the way there were hurdles to jump over. And there were many times we thought we were going to loose the place. But, after every hurdle things actually ended up being in our favor. Heavenly Father was definitely blessing us every step of the way. This was one of those testimony builders on prayers being answered in unexpected ways.

Its not perfect, and there is going to be a lot of sweat equity that is going to be going into this place. But it will all be worth it. These are the pictures from the home inspection. I'll post some "after" shots after we are settled in and the painting is all done.

View from the front yard

View from porch to front yard

Entry Way

Living room which is going to be the boy's playroom

Family Room

Who thought blue/gray foe painted wood grain cabinets would look good?

There are plans to redo and expand the kitchen in the future.

Dining Room

Guest bedroom. Nice mural huh?

office

Beckham's 1st Birthday

2011-07-25T20:07:00.001-07:00

Bad mom of the year award goes to....... me!! Beckham had his 1st birthday on June 18th and I am just barely blogging about it? It amazes me how many less pictures we have of Beckham compared to Cruz. I can't believe that Beckham is already 1. It has gone by so fast.

-He is such a little sweetie.

-He loves to snuggle. He is a blanket whore. If something even resembles the feel of a blanket, he will snuggle with it and suck his thumb. Especially when he is tired.

-He weighs 4lbs less then Cruz.

-He is much more sensitive then Cruz (But that is not a hard thing to beat).

-He is a little smarty pants. He can somehow unlock my phone and turn it on and off. He will find a way to get to something he wants.

-The temper-tantrums have already begun. It makes me laugh when he doesn't get his way (we'll see how long that last for).

For his birthday we spent if with just the four of us. Nothing exciting, but that's us Marchant's. We don't want to make things a big deal now, because then every year has to be better then the next. I made ice cream cone cupcakes. Don't you love my first ever attempt at piping icing? We bought Beckham some tools so he could have some to call his own (Cruz is very possesive of his tools). But that plan backfired on us. Cruz ended up comadeering them.

Beckham kept getting icing up his nose.

Daddy loves to torcher (sp?) the boys

whenever he gets a chance. And notice Cruz taking his chance

to take the screwdriver away from Beckham.

Happy Birthday Beckham!! We love you!

Fun Around House

2011-04-13T20:41:00.001-07:00

Nothing much has happened here this past week. As usual.

I started potty training Cruz last Tuesday and I think we've got it. Well, I still have to remind him to go, so if that counts as potty trained, then we got it. Still haven't worked on the night time pottying. I'm way to tired and lazy to do that yet.

Beckham is Beckham. He plays so well. I don't know if he is just better then Cruz was or we just have more toys to keep him occupied now. He pulls himself up onto everything and army/real crawls all around the house. He looks like he is drunk when he real crawls. It's pretty cute. He has learned to open cupboards. But, HaHa, he will never get our kitchen cabinets open. Who's the fool now?

Here are a few pics I took around the house today (minus the video, that was last week).

"No, he's getting my toys!!!"

I still can't get over how big Beckham's eyes are.

It is an unusual day if somebody doesn't say anything about his ginourmous eyes.

Cruz loves this toy more then Beckham.

But Cruz can also be more of a baby then Beckham

Beckham is trying to "play" with Cruz more and more.

As much as Cruz will let him.

If there was a Construction Worker Hero that would be Cruz

My Little Minion

Fun with the Fam

2011-04-05T13:45:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend we went and visited my brother and his family up in Bellingham, WA. We love being so close and seeing them. Cruz has so much fun with his cousins and Brendan and I have so much fun hanging out with Jeff and Susan.

Saturday we drove up to Vancouver, Canada and went to the Aquarium. Cruz had fun, but he would look at the fish for about 10 seconds and then want to see the next thing. I really need to work on his attention span. That night we go a babysitter, left all of the wild children, and went on a much needed double date.

Playing in the fountain while Aunt Susan waited in line

This dolphin would stay there to let you take pictures

Susan, Baby Gabe, Me, with Grace (12) and Cruz in the background

Josie (5), Emmett (2), & Cruz (3)

Emmett, Jeff, Me, Cruz

The next day we tried watching conference and then went on a hike down to the beach.

Finally

2011-03-31T12:58:00.000-07:00

I know what you are all thinking... Finally! I guess life in the Marchant home just hasn't been that exciting. I'm trying to think of everything that has happened since I last blogged.

-After almost 9 years with Wells Fargo I quit (cue angels)!! It has been so nice to be a full time mommy now. Brendan and I were super worried about the business and money, but we have been super blessed since I quit.

-Brendan, Beckham, and I went to Cancun. While Cruz spent a week with Grandma.

-We are now in our 6th year of business and business is booming (knock on wood).

- We celebrated Cruz's 3rd birthday and boy is he a 3-year-old. The terrible 3's are way worse then the terrible 2's. Who ever came up with the terrible 2's was full of crap.

- Beckham is 9 months old now. Where has the time gone? He's army crawling, eating all the time. I think he's going to be bigger then his brother. At 6 months he weighed more then Cruz did at a year.

- We put an offer on a house. It's a short sale, so who knows when we will ever hear something back from the bank.

The rest is just going to be a bunch of random pictures over the last few months (In no particular order).

At the top of a temple in Ek Balam. We had a mormon tour guide and it was so interesting.

Cruz about ready to go out and feed the cows at Grandma Mary Ann's house in Missouri.

Christmas morning, chillin' with Grandpa.

My flashlight that kills the monsters at night.

Classic Beckham face.

Fatty is scarfing down the Cheerios while skinny keeps giving him more.

"I'm here to suck your milk"

Cruz thinks he's a home inspector like Daddy. He gets out his computer to finish

his reports and walks around the house all day taking notes on his notepad.

He's constantly pointing things out that are wrong with the house.

Cruz's homemade birthday cake. I know its amazing.

This kid never stops eating. He will continue to open

his mouth whenever a spoon is put in front of his face.

Our Life Updated

2010-09-23T09:54:00.000-07:00

Here is our life over the last month. Beckham is now a FAT 3 month old. I can't believe that. I have a feeling he is going to be bigger then Cruz. Cruz loves him so much and gets so excited when Beckham wakes up from his naps. "It's Beckham! Beckham's awake!" And he can say the "m" in Beckham, so we don't have a little girl anymore.

Over Labor Day weekend Brendan's brother, Eric, and sister, Ann Marie drove from Provo to come for Beckham's blessing. It was so much fun having them here. I wish we were closer to them. My Dad came up from Portland as well. And my mom was in Bellingham taking care of my brother's kids, because they just had a baby. So she drove down with his crew for the day as well.

This kid loves riding his bike and he can fly on it.

Beckham is such a sweet baby. He's smiling and laughing now.

I love squeezing him. Cruz honestly cries more then Beckham. (knock on wood)

This is a classic Beckham face. He always has a look of worry on his face.

Probably becasue he has Cruz as a brother.

Us at Alki Beach, across from downtown Seattle. Beckham was sleeping in the car.

Cruz with "Uncle Brian". This is really Uncle Eric and Brendan

didn't help Cruz any by continuing to call him "Uncle Brian".

Uncle Eric and Aunt Ann Marie. Cruz loved all of the attention he got from them.

Sadly, this is our first family picture.

My Stroller!

2010-08-02T13:09:00.000-07:00

This is my new stroller. It cost a pretty penny, but it was well worth that pretty penny. I L-O-V-E it!!! I started running again this past week and this stroller makes a huge difference when pushing two little tots around. I can barley tell that I am even pushing it. If you are a runner, this stroller is well worth the investment.

Air Show

2010-07-20T16:24:00.000-07:00

The Marchant's are still alive and adjusting to a family of four. Crazy!! We are finally settling down after a crazy month of visiting family and having family visit us. Last week was our first full week of just being us. So far I haven't wanted to pull my hair out.

I am blessed with another pretty mellow baby. He rarely cries, but man does he know how to grunt and groan. Try listening to that from 5am on. We call him Goat Boy because he makes the cutest goat noises. I am now trying to get this little boy on a schedule, which has been tough. I have been having to break him of having to be held when he is sleeping. Beckham is a very alert baby and loves to fight his sleep. He lies there with tired, red, wide open eyes (he generally wins at staring contests). But, I do have to count my blessings that he rarely gets cranky. I'm trying to remember how long it took Cruz to get on a schedule. My biggest frustration has been putting Beckham down for naps. I'll put him down and within 45 minutes he is awake and he should be asleep another hour. Any suggestions?

Cruz has been such a great big brother! He loves "Baby Becka" (people are going to think we have a girl). Sometimes he loves him a little too much. Yesterday I caught him trying to ride Beckham like a cowboy. Beckham is not safe on the ground or pretty much anywhere there is not an adult within an arms length. Knock on wood, Cruz hasn't been jealous of Beckham. But, I have been trying really hard to pay a lot of attention to him when Beckham is asleep.

Last weekend we went to an Air Show that the Air Force Base puts on every other year. We went two years ago and it was still just as fun. Cruz had fun, for the most part. The poor boy got really confused by the jets though. He would look for the jets by the sound and by the time the sound came the jet was already gone.

Cruz sitting in an Air Cargo Plane

By this time, Cruz was more interested in treats.
He's his mother's son.

Unfortunately, we have been really bad 2nd time parents. We have taken hardly any pictures of Beckham. I really need to get on top of that. I'm feeling a ton better and need to start posting more again. It was amazing, the moment Beckham popped out of me, I wasn't nauseous and my appetite was back. Even though I'm up at night with Beckham I still have way more energy then I did pregnant.

Three Plus one Equals FOUR!!!!

2010-06-20T13:10:00.001-07:00

Hello Friends and fellow blog stalkers, Yes we are still alive but of course you wouldn't know it by our blog.........

Well here is our last few months in a very short paragraph, and then to the info your looking for. Tatem has spent the past few months "enjoying" her pregnancy. Thank goodness for nausea meds and cereal. I find it a little odd that the first words out of Cruz's mouth every morning is I want cereal and hopefully Tatem will feel up to their morning routine of 2 or 10 bowls and Sesame street.

Cruz is really excited to be able to do things all by himself, and we are learning how to patiently let him. He recently got a trike and next to his lawnmower is his pride and joy. His next big desire is to get a bike hat so that "I be safe in case I fall". If we ever see cyclists with out a helmet he lets us and them know that they are not being safe and that they might fall. My thoughts: he needs a few concussions to slow him down a little.

I (Brendan) recently have started to get into cycling, I found a decent bike off of craigslist got a few "fancy outfits" and now see the world from a new perspective. Our business is doing well, food is on the table and the lights are on. It still consumes my almost every thought and sometimes fears but as joe dirt says it we "keep on keeping on".

HERE IS THE ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!

We WELCOMED our newest addition to the family Beckham Samuel Marchant on June 18th 2010. Here are the stats then the story, 7.6 lbs, 18 inches. Head was 35 cm and according to the doc. its a good looking head. Dark brown hair, 10 fingers and 10 toes etc etc etc.

For this pregnancy we from the beginning wanted to have this birth scheduled. Tatem's doctor was ok with it, so for the past 2 months we have planned for Beckham to join us on the 18th. Tatem said that it was actually much harder knowing than not. For me it was so much better having a date and a time to plan around. I am a bit of a slave to the business (which I hope my Real Estate agents and clients appreciate) so we were able to have a full week of inspections and not the fear of being hours away or missing much business.

THE PLAY by PLAY:

Tatem's mom was able to come up on Thursday night so that we would be ready to be at the hospital at 6:00 am Friday morning. Thursday nights sleep was less than great, Tatem was really nervous and restless knowing what was in store for her in the morning. At 4:30 she decided that she had enough and was ready to get going. At 6:15 we got to the hospital and by 8:00 Tate was all hooked up and on the petocin drip. The doc told us to expect the birth sometime in the afternoon, but by 10:30, she was already at a 6 and 90 percent effaced. After a quick call to Wendy (who was at Costco with a full cart of food that some costco employee got to put away :) ) and dropping Cruz off to Julianna. She made it to the hospital with 20 min to spare. Beckham graced us with his presence at 11:31 and now the fun of 2 boys has begun.

I am sure that there will be many updates to this post... as Tatem reads it and corrects my typos, gramer and adds her thoughts so check back often.....

What's Up?

2010-02-17T15:21:00.000-08:00

What's up with the Marchant's? Oh, nothing much. I never blog because I never really feel like we have any exciting news. Ok, I guess we have one piece of exciting news. We're are having another boy!! Brendan and I are pretty excited about it (mostly because we don't have to buy anything now, j/k, but not really).

I'm now 22 weeks along and I am still sick. There are more good days than bad now, so I guess that is good. But, even my good days have a little tinge of nausea. And I'm still tired all of the time. What's up with that? Whoever said you get your energy back the 2nd trimester is full of crap!

Cruz is definitely 2 now. I have finally gotten him to say 2 instead of 3 when asked how old he is. I think he is an artist in the works. He holds pens and crayons correctly and will concentrate on a small area and stays in the lines (well, as good as a two year old can). He practically colors and watches Blues Clues all day long. He is turning into a little talker. Still only two maybe three words at a time, but I can understand him a lot better. That little boy really keeps everyday interesting.

Small Update

2009-12-02T13:13:00.000-08:00

So as you can tell I have been a complete slacker the last few months with my blogging. I have good reason though for at least the last two months. I haven't been keeping it a secret, but it has been hard to drag myself off the couch to get anything done. Brendan and I are expecting baby #2, June 22nd!!! Yah!!! We are very excited to bring another baby to our family. But, I have NOT been excited about being constantly nauseous the last two months. I am 11 weeks along so I pray I only have like two more weeks until I'm done throwing up.

Just Lounging Around

2009-08-15T21:25:00.000-07:00

Cruz discovered his old infant bath tub
and has decided it his new recliner.
I have found him reading in it,
snuggling with his lamb,
and driving his car,
next he'll be watching football games
and telling me, "Mom, get me another cold one!"

Tacoma Narrows Half Marathon

2009-08-01T12:46:00.001-07:00

I just finished my first half marathon this morning.
Go me!!! Wow, was it a killer.
I'm not exactly sure what my time is yet,
I was just so happy to make it to the finish line
that I didn't even pay attention to my time.
But, I think it was about 2 hours 10ish minutes.
Right now I really don't know if I will ever run one again.
But, I sure feel accomplished.
I can add this to the list of events
to brag about.
I ran with three of my friends.
It was so fun training with them.

I think I was about ready to die

The Blue Trotters-Danika, Me, Gina, Christine

Me and Cruz

Right after the race, Cruz comes up to hug my legs.
He touched me and
immediately pulled back because I was so sweaty.

Precious

2009-07-16T14:00:00.000-07:00

It is on very rare occasions that when I go to wake up Cruz,

I can actually watch him sleep for a few moments.
I love watching him sleep.
Its so peaceful.

FYI, Cruz went to nursery
for his first time and he loved it.
This little guy isn't a baby anymore.
Kind of sad.

My Weekend Project

2009-06-04T13:16:00.000-07:00

This was my weekend project.
I'm so mad I forgot to take a
before shot, oh well.
But, just imagine the top of the tree
twice as full and
that fullness covering
was all the way to the ground.
It was a tree-bush and I was afraid that
it would eat my house if
I didn't do something about it soon.

It was so much fun chopping
all of the branches off.
The neighbors were making fun of me,
because I would saw a branch off,
step back and saw another
branch off.
Hey, some people paint,
I prune.

16 Months

2009-05-28T21:36:00.000-07:00

I can't believe Cruz has only
been with us 16 months.
I feel like he has
been here forever.
I am so blessed to have such a sweet boy
who is always smiling and never
lets anything get to him.

We just had his 15 month check-up
and this boy keeps getting
smaller and smaller,
but growing a the same time.

Height- 28.5 inch - 5%
Weight- 21lbs 2.6oz - 5%

When he was a newborn
he was in the 85%.
I swear I feed him,
maybe to much.
Because this boy poos
like there is no tomorrow.

Mothers day!!

2009-05-10T08:29:00.000-07:00

Happy Mothers day to all of the Mom's in our lives!!!

Isn't she such a hot mom!! I am so grateful for all that you do. Cruz is such a good kid thanks to you. I love you.

To celebrate mothers day we thought we would post a few pictures and videos of Cruz, so my mom can enjoy a little Grandmothers day via the web, (doesn't your world revolve around Cruz? ours does).

Here is Cruz hanging out with his 2nd best friend the rock, Unfortunately his first best friend the remote was not allowed to go out side. He carries them every where.

We're Still Alive, Don't Worry!

2009-04-27T19:08:00.000-07:00

Hey, don't worry, the Marchant's are still alive. I have to admit I haven't been blogging becuase of pure laziness. It is hard to find the motivation, when I do have a few minutes of free time, to write about my boring day. What have we been up to the last month?

We took a quick trip up to Bellingham, with my mom and dad, to visit my brother and his fam.

Brendan had conferences the last two weekends in Portland, so we all went down and spent the past two weekends with my family.

Brendan and I went to the Tea Party at the Olympia State Capital. That was actually a lot of fun and very motivational.

I celebrated my 26th birthday.

Cruz is officially walking and can get up all by himself.

Cruz now has temper-tantrums.

Cruz will answer any question you ask him by shaking his head yes.

Cousin Jack thought it would be fun to pile bark dust on Cruz's head

Party Time!!

2009-03-19T22:02:00.000-07:00

According to Cruz his afternoon nap is a time to party. This is how we have been finding Cruz the past few days. Notice he has also thrown his lamb and bear out of his crib. He will sit in his room for over an hour, sometimes, yell, scream, and have a ball. Sadly to say I think it is time to put Cruz on one nap a day. What am I going to do to entertain him all morning now?

Church Can Be So Exciting!

2009-03-08T20:57:00.000-07:00

Who knew church could be so exciting? I bet you didn't.

Brendan and I were sitting enjoying another wonderful, spiritual sacrament meeting and Cruz was crawling and walking along the chairs in our row, when Cruz, trying to pull himself up , fell and hit his eye on the chair. He let out a little cry and then went on with his busy little self. A few minutes later I finally looked at his eye and he had a huge egg growing above his eye. Brendan, being the great dad that he is went to get some ice for his little eye and I began feeding Cruz his lunch. I had fed Cruz almost the whole half of his sandwich and a piece of cheese when Brendan finally came back in holding an empty plastic cup. I was thinking, "how in the world is an empty cup going to help Cruz's eye!!!!" Still starring at the cup Brendan tells me, "I just fainted". I didn't believe him at first and then I looked at his face and he was white as a ghost.

Brendan had apparently walked into the kitchen, opened the freezer, while thinking, "I'm kind of tired" and then he was lying on the ground. One of the primary boys was walking by the kitchen right as Brendan fainted and when Brendan woke up he asked him how hard he hit his head. The kid just said pretty hard and then walked off. Brendan then walked out to the foyer and told the family sitting out there that he had just fainted and he thought he might puke. Needless to say they rushed and got a garbage can. All while this was happening I was thinking what was taking so long and I had a feeling that I needed to go check on him.

After Brendan came back in and told me I went and grabbed a doctor in the ward. He sat with Brendan for a little while and took his heart rate. Apparently he thought Brendan was ok, because he got up and sat with his family with out saying anything. I was a little shaken about the whole situation. Stupid, but it really scared me.

Don't worry, Brendan is ok. He is still breathing and alive. We went home after sacrament meeting and he took a nap, but I made sure to wake him up to make sure he was still alive. As for Cruz, he just has a little black eye, but nothing huge.

I Took the Plunge

2009-02-27T11:18:00.000-08:00

I took the plunge and bought a new car seat for Cruz. After A LOT of research (Brendan would say I was obsessed and a little bit annoying) and A LOT of convincing of Brendan I decided to get the Recaro Como Convertible Car Seat. It is compared to the Britax Boulevard and from the reviews that I read the people who have had both Britax and Recaro have loved their Recaro more. What is even better is I found it on sale for over $100 less then the Britax Marathon. If you are a guy you probably recognize Recaro as a race car seat brand and it is the same. They are one of the top race car seat manufactures around and they use the same concept with the child car seats as their racing seats. Now I just can't wait for it to get here.

Car Seat Dilemma

2009-02-24T20:53:00.000-08:00

So I have a car seat dilemma. It is about due time for Cruz to graduate to a convertible car seat. I know what your thinking, "Why in the world is he still in his infant seat?" His infant seat is built for babies up to 35lbs and I think 30 inches. Cruz is almost to the point where he can't stretch his little chubby legs out. I have been looking at a few car seats and the ones that I would love are over the budget (that would be my tight wad husband, Brendan's, budget). He would love not to spend over $100 on a car seat. Maybe I'm a name brand snob, but to me the car seats under $100 don't do it for me. One they're aren't as cute and two, it seams like I should be spending a little more money on my sons safety. Any advice on what car seat to buy would be wonderful. Especially if it convinces Brendan to up the budget a little (like to be able to by a Britax), but if you have found more affordable car seats that are cute and safe that would be great to. Come on us girls have got to stick together?

Las Vegas Baby!!

2009-02-12T19:54:00.000-08:00

Last weekend Brendan, Cruz, and I had the opportunity to visit our great friends Ryan, Stephanie, and Conner Heaton in Las Vegas. Brendan had a Pillar To Post convention their, so we decided to mix business with pleasure.

We got there Thursday night and went to In 'N' Out and had Animal Burgers, I should have gotten the Animal Fries as well. Oh, there will always be next time. Friday morning we all went disc golfing. Cruz got to go down his first slide as well, he thought that was pretty fun. Brendan got to go on an inspection with Ryan and see how easy it is to do inspections in Las Vegas (no crawl spaces, Brendan would love not to have to get in a crawl space)!! Friday afternoon Steph and I sat around while the babies took a four hour nap, hallelujah! The boys had their award banquet that night and Steph and I shopped H&M. This was my first H&M experience and it was a pretty cool, cheap store.

Saturay the boys left at 7:00am and Steph and I lazed about. We went to Cafe Rio for lunch and let me tell you what, it was as good as I remembered. Let me just say Cafe Rio is HEAVEN! Then we went back to house and lazed some more. Saturday night we met the boys, my dad, and brother Jeff on the Strip. We had enough time to walk thru the Bellagio, see two water shows, and have some Las Vegas Prime Rib Special Dinner (it was surprisingly good), before it started raining.
Sunday the boys left once again at 7:00am and Steph and I went to church. We lazed around all day and it was great. Cruz was in heaven all weekend with Conner's toys. I don't think I had to entertain him once.

Overall it wasn't what someone would think as a fun filled Las Vegas weekend. But I sure did. Brendan and Ryan learned a ton and Brendan got revamped and motivated. We unfortunately ended up bringing the rain with us from Washington. Cruz and Conner had a lot of fun together. Cruz always loves having other kids around to play with. This was the most relaxing weekend I have had in a very long time and, if you can believe it, Cruz was around the whole time. Thanks Ryan and Stephanie for such a great weekend.

The Bad Mom Syndrome

2009-01-30T10:54:00.000-08:00

Do you ever feel like a bad mom when you read other peoples blogs? I know I do! Don't get me wrong, I love seeing what everyone is up to, but then I start comparing myself to every person alive out there. I start wondering if I'm a lazy mom and should my child be able to do this or that as well. I look at Cruz and think that he is pretty darn smart and then I see what everyone else's child is doing already. His not walking, the doctor asks if he is saying any words and I wonder is that a bad thing that he can't, he knows where his head is and that's about it, the boy gained less then half a pound in three months..... and the list goes on and on. I tell myself that I shouldn't compare and Cruz will develop at his on pace, but then the thought sneaks back in my head, "Am I trying hard enough, am I just lazy?" You can ask Brendan and he would agree that I am the worlds best worrier. Maybe I just need to learn how to turn this stress into a dessert.

Happy Birthday Brendan!

2009-01-19T19:52:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Brendan’s 29^th Birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY YOU HUNK OF BURNING LOVE!! And here are 10 reasons why I have the best husband in the universe. Yep, that’s right, the universe:

He puts up with my crap on a daily basis.
He puts up with Cruz’s crap (literally) on a daily basis.
He knows who’s the boss (Cruz, duh).
He sacrifices the needs of himself to make sure the needs of his family are met first.
He gets mad at me when I read books, only because he wants me to pay attention to him.
He helps with cleaning the house.
He has the best combination of dark hair and bright blue eyes.
He is very financially savvy.
He teases me because he loves me.
He loves being able to stay home with Cruz every Monday.

Here are a few fun facts about Brendan as well:

He was born in Salt Lake City, UT.
He served his mission in Salt Lake City, UT.
He is the oldest of 8 kids (5 boys, 3 girls).
His family moved to Missouri when he was 8 because his dad liked the dirt.
He owned a 1988 white, 4-door, Volkswagen Jetta whom everyone referred to as “Greta the Jetta, the grocery getta’ ”. All of his friends would always ask how Greta was doing, as if she was another member of the family, and for about two years after we left Rexburg we still got reports of sightings of Greta.
When Brendan was 8 he had two pet lambs, he named Maisy and Daisy. He would ride them like a horse and then he sold them at the fair (you can only imagine what happened to them after that).
I think Brendan has only called in sick one day of his life and only because I made him.
Brendan’s due date was January 13^th, but was born on the 18^th and Cruz’s due date was January 18^th, but was born on the 13^th.
Brendan’s dad claims that Brendan was so fat as a baby he couldn’t crawl because he would high center.
Brendan hates anything pumpkin, sweet potato, or squash flavored. You can thank his mom for making a pumpkin soup when Brendan was a teenager and he is now scarred for life.

Happy Birthday Brendan. I love you more then anything in the world (well, maybe Cruz)!!

Cruz's 1st Birthday!

2009-01-14T13:33:00.000-08:00

I can not believe that we just celebrated Cruz's 1st birthday yesterday. I made him a carrot cake, with the hope that maybe I could sneak in some veggies, but that kid is smart, you can't sneak anything by him.
Where has this year gone? It feels like yesterday that Brendan and I were driving home from the hospital wondering, "What in the world do we do now?". Now we have this little guy who never stops moving and is into everything. And I'm sure it is only going to get worse. But in the mean time lets reminisce about the last year we have had with Cruz.

Brand Spankin' New

1 Month

2 Months
3 Months
4 Months

5 Months

6 Months

7 Months

8 Months

9 Months

10 Months

11 Months

1 Year!

Our Christmas Vacation

2009-01-03T11:23:00.001-08:00

Wow, what a busy two and a half weeks we had. I was going to write this whole blog in Missourin', but it is way easier to speak it then to write it. I guess all it is is really bad grammer.

This is the normal attire for Missouri

We flew to Missouri on the 17th and it was a surprisingly good flight with Cruz. We gave him some children's benodryl hoping to knock him out, but Cruz is one of the few exceptions where it makes him very hyper. That little boy was the loudest I have ever heard him, just yakking and yelling away. Good thing he was happy loud and not crying loud. The second flight the benodryl finally worked out of his system and he actually fell asleep and if you know Cruz, he does not fall asleep unless he is in a crib.

We were able to recoup from our flight for a day and then Friday it was off to Nauvoo (a 3 hour car ride) for Brendan's little sister Shelly's wedding. The wedding was beautiful and the weather cooperated, considering two days before there was a huge ice storm. After the wedding we drove right back to Moberly for the reception.

I feel like this is a "Where's Waldo?" picture. Can you find us?

Brendan and his siblings. What a cute miniature family.

This was our first time meeting Shelly's husband Jershon and Brendan and I are very excited to have him join the Marchant clan.

Things were able to calm down after the wedding (as much as things can calm down at the Marchant home) and were able to just hang out. Cruz had more attention then he knew what to do with. He would get put down and then someone else would come and swoop him away. His Aunts and Uncles taught him how to click his tongue, stick his tongue out (and now it is constantly hanging out), and they helped him master shaking his head no and nodding yes, along with raising his arms up when we would say, "Sooo BIG". I know what you are all thinking, we must have the smartest baby in the whole world. If he was the smartest baby in the world he would really know what NO meant. Oh, and the army crawl is no more. Cruz is a big boy crawler now.

Cruz's first Christmas was fun and memorable. It was simple, because money is a little tight right now, but like he really knows if he got any presents at all. All Cruz really wanted for Christmas were his two front teeth and Santa granted him that wish. To bad he still can't wish us Merry Christmas.

Cruz's Christmas present from Santa aka Grandma

After Christmas it was off to St. Louis for Brendan's brother, Gary's, wedding. We drove over a day early and got a hotel. We were able to have a mini celebration of our fourth year anniversary. Well, as much as you can with a 11 month old in the room. Thanks to Shelly and Jershon (the newly weds from the week before) for watching Cruz while we went and got food. I know we're cruel to make a couple babysit on their haneymoon. But, hey, you have to take every oppurtunity you can get to have a free babysitter. We considered it a great form of birth control.

The wedding went well. I felt bad though, because there was a huge rain storm right as they got out of the temple and Gary and Carla weren't able to get pictures in front of the temple. How sad.

Then it was time to drive the two and a half hours back to Columbia for a wedding reception from 7-10pm (what newly weds really want to hang out until 10pm on their wedding day?). The wedding was fun, I got to dance with Brendan for maybe the 3rd time in our whole history of knowing eachother. We also got to see our good friends, Jake, Sariah, and Jay, whom Brendan grew up with.

Waiting for the ring ceremony to start. I think Brendan needs some help.

Cruz got to be the ring bearer.

Brendan and his good friend Jake.

We also got to have a mini birthday party for Cruz at Grandma and Grandpa Marchant's house. Grandma made Cruz a chocolate cupcake and their was no hesitation from that little boy. He devoured it in about 5.2 seconds.

We flew home Tuesday the 30th and got to enjoy and few days at my parents house. Cruz was able to have his Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa as well.

Now were home and still trying to unwind from two and a half weeks of vacation. We are still living out of our suitcases. My argument is that I'm a busy mom and wife, but what it really is is pure laziness. I hope everyone had an awesome Christmas as well!

Blogspot is being retarded so more pics to come.

Leaving On a Jet Plane

2008-12-08T21:27:00.000-08:00

Next Wednesday we are flying to Missouri for two whole weeks. We are going for Christmas, but also Brendan's brother and sister are getting married (not to eachother, even though they are from Missouri, JK). We are both very excited to hang out with family.

This is going to be our first plane experience with Cruz so I am of course a little nervous about the how things are going to go. I need some traveling tips. Such as, if you gate check your stroller, does it count as a carry on? If you check your car seat does it count as one of your bags? Can you carry baby food through security? Any other pieces of advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for ThanksGiving.

2008-12-02T13:35:00.000-08:00

Do you think it is un-christmasy (i am sure that this is not a word) to not want to celebrate any Christmas activities until after thanksgiving? It almost makes me sick to hear a Christmas song pre-thanksgiving. And because of this I have recently been labeled the holiday grinch...... (more than just Christmas, I am not a big fan of carving pumpkins and this year I didn't dress up hence the label...) Did you know that one of the reasons Thanksgiving was moved to the last Thursday of November is so that the shopping season could be extended? I look forward to your comments....

We had a great Thanksgiving. Nice and long, we left on Tuesday after I finished a inspection and drove to Portland. Wednesday we watched Twilight, I have not read the books so it was ok and it very very very very slightly gave me the desire to read them. But it was fun to go out with the Bros and Sister-in-laws while Tatems parents watched all of the Grand kids, all 10 and no fights. It was fun to see how Cruz likes to have other little people around.

Thursday- was the normal Thanksgiving stuff, food, football and wii.

Friday- Tom and Monique were able to come spend a few hours with us. It would have been great to see them more. But anytime is always fun. We need to make our next trip to San Diego to visit next.

Saturday- was great. Tatem went and did the annual Sister-in-law and children Gingerbread houses. I went shooting!! it was great and I have the shoulder bruises to prove it. We shot targets, clay pigeons, apples, bells, trees, well just about any thing we could find to shoot, now I want a Gun.

Sunday was church and then back to real life.

Up and over

2008-11-17T13:25:00.000-08:00

Time passes so quickly, Life in the Marchant house gets crazier every day!!! I thought I would post a quick video for everyone to see. Since so many of our friends are making post with their children doing baby tricks I thought we would jump on the bloging bandwagon and show ours as well. But....... Cruz does not do tricks on command. He is such a independent little guy and every time he starts and the camera is out he stops.

So I decided to post a video of him crawling to his favorite item in the house, my guitar. Usually he dances when ever he see's it, but of course he is not willing to share his sweet dance moves on the web.

Happy Halloween!!!

2008-11-05T20:07:00.000-08:00

Halloween was so much fun this year! We drove down to Portland and went trick-or-treating with my brothers, a tradition they have been doing for years, but I have always been unable to go. It was a quick trip, drove down Friday afternoon and came back Saturday morning. Cruz was so cute in his little gator costume and I went as the Evil Queen from Snow White. Brendan of course did not dress up because he is a big fat party pooper!!!!

Aren't I scary? Cruz sure thinks so.

Cruz is thinking, "Uh guys, what's going on?"
My cute little gator or dragon or dinosaur, whatever you think he is.
Cruz with the cousins plus a few additional cousins from my sister-in-law's side.

Destination Blogging.

2008-10-15T17:20:00.000-07:00

Do you ever feel like some of your adventures are just so you can have a fun blog post??? Well Tatem and I have discovered that we are destination blogger's. Our fall has been great, and it feels like we have had less rain this year than previous ones and hopefully it stays like that.

We have been so busy, a few weeks ago we had a great time at Lattin farm's, it is a local pumpkin/apple farm that has great apple cider. Cruz's favorite part was the weeds growing next to the pumpkins. I guess we have a easily entertained boy.

Cruz is growing so fast, and has discovered that he is not limited to crawling on the floor, he now pulls himself up on everything. No matter how high we put things he somehow finds away to get to them. We went to visit Tatem's brother in Bellingham yesterday to visit and see their new baby, now Cruz doesnt look so little any more.

Tatem is really excited for Halloween, I think it is just so she can steal all of Cruz's candy!!!! (She has been staying away from the sweets so it is a great excuse to indulge)

She ran her first 10k in Portland last weekend. She had a blast and was able to run it much faster than she expected. (Just barley over an hour) She ran it with her brother and Sister-in-law and now is looking for the next race to run in. Her goal is to run the Seattle 1/2 marathon next November.

I have been working hard getting helping to secure our future in our business, I spent last weekend enjoying a great Pillar To Post meeting, we also got the Scion wrapped, I think it looks great and hopefully will help with our marketing efforts. The real estate market has definitely been a fun ride, but hopefully after the election things will calm down. The media certainly loves to mess with us. They are so biased it gets me frustrated!!

Growing Up Baby!

2008-09-17T14:19:00.000-07:00

Cruz is the big 8 months old now!! I can't believe it, where has the time gone? Everyday I tell him he is not allowed to grow up, but he just won't listen to me. This little guy has won me over and he has me (and his dad) tied around his little finger. These are just a few pics that I took in the back yard.

He is a busy little bee, army crawling every where we will let him go. It is so cute watching him crawl around and make airplane noises. He is starting to get up on all fours and rock back and fourth, but he quickly plops back down onto his stomach. A second tooth as made an arrival and luckily there wasn't hardly any fussing involved with this one. There will be pay back for his high pain tolerance though. This kid is not going to know when to stop, because nothing hurts him. We're going to have to keep a close eye on him the more mobile he gets. He has discovered dogs and loves them!! He occasionally gets to see "Nona" the chihuahua on Tuesday's and chases that that little puppy around the house. There is also a golden retriever across the street and once Cruz saw her he started cracking up. I could go on and on about how cute this little guy is, but I'm sure no else thinks he is as cute as I do, so I won't bore you.

And, Ann Marie I'm still trying to get a good video of him crawling. Every time I turn on the camera he stops and stares at it.

Eagle Crest.

2008-09-09T17:09:00.000-07:00

We are back...... From another weekend adventure.

This Labor day weekend was great. Tatem, Cruz and I had a great weekend in Portland and Bend. We left Thursday afternoon and stayed the night at the Livingston hacienda, and then off to Bend friday afternoon. A few of our previous Bend trips have only been Tatem and I so we thought that it would be fun to invite more of the family to come. Well it ended up being a full house with all of the nieces and nephews except for one as well as Tatem's mom and brother. Somehow Tatem's other brothers and sister-in-laws had other things to do, but their children's schedules were wide open so... we got the great privilege of enjoying the little kids with out their parents (vacation conspiracy I think so!!) It actually wasn't to bad and they all love to go to Eagle Crest.

Cruz didn't have a very good weekend though, he has been trying to push a tooth for the past few weeks. It has finally made its appearance a few days ago and the good news is we now have a much happier baby. Hopefully the rest will come in much easier.

We went on a few Hikes while we were there it was great to get out and enjoy nature. We also discovered Smith Rock and now that we have seen it I really wish we had discovered it sooner. Smith Rock is a world famous climbing area. It is so crazy to see what some people will do for a rush. Along with the rock formations there are miles of trails to hike, So next time we go we will defiantly be spending more time there.

We Have been invaded by the Army Crawl

2008-08-24T16:28:00.001-07:00

We are no longer free to put Cruz on the floor and expect him to stay in one place. He has become very mobile!!!!! Not only is he mobile but he has really found his voice and the volume control has been stuck on loud for the past few weeks. I am sure that he is only going to get louder. I have found it really interesting to see how much he changes from day to day, it seems that he learns or does somthing new everyday, for the past few weeks his favorite thing to do is to stick out his toungue at everything and everyone. Well enough about Cruz

Tatem and I have had some fun adventures these past few weekends. Last Saturday we went and watched a pro-wake boarding competition. It was great, we met our friend Scott at the lake and enjoyed the really warm weather. We watched the competition on a really long dock and every time the boat would pass, the wake would come up and cool our feet off. Our summers here in the great NW are so mild that when ever it gets above 85 degrees we seem to melt away.

Our latest adventure happened this weekend. Our original plan was to go and see deception pass but none of our friends were able to go, and since we want to experience this with others we decided to explore Bainbridge Island. We needed to go to Issaquah and check our mail box and thought we would make a day out of the drive up to Seattle. Bainbridge is a short 30 min ferry ride away from down town Seattle. You can enjoy long walks around the town square, shopping, tons of food choices and a relaxing stroll down the waterfront trail. (wow I should write brochures) It is a fun little town, we had pizza at a little shop and spent the afternoon walking around the city. It is very touristy with little shops and lots of small cafe style restraunts. The water front is really cool, the small harbor was full of boats, and made for really great pictures.

We drove back to Olympia along the Olympic Pensulia and were able to see some more of our new Inspection Territory. This territory is huge I am constantly overwhelmed, somtimes to the point that I am not as effective as I could be. Otherwise life in the insepction world is good. We have had a very productive month and hopefully it continues.

Another week has come and and another post is gone........

Interesting Title

2008-08-10T20:15:00.000-07:00

(Cruz and his Poop face)

So nothing very new and exciting has been going on at the Marchant home over the past few weeks. We were officially inducted to our ward today. We got to speak, yaaa!! It went well, but it is always a better feeling after it is over with. Brendan drives me crazy though, he maybe spent two hours on his talk and he did amazing. Me, I have been working on mine the past week every time Cruz has been asleep and I still didn't feel like I did the greatest job. Oh well, at least I know that all people will remember from our talk is that we spoke a few Sundays ago.

Brendan and I have discovered the drive-in theater. Last night we went and saw Wall-E and The Dark Knight (both great movies by-the-way). It worked out perfect with Cruz. We just packed him up in his car seat and he slept the whole time. We haven't been to a movie since Cruz was born, because we were so afraid of being those parents that bring a crying baby to the movies. $6 a person wasn't a bad price either for two movies too.

Cruz is growing like a weed and everyday it is so fun to see what a personality he is getting.
-He is now an ambidextrous roller.
-He is slowly getting better at getting to the things he wants. He talks more and more and loves saying, "bah, bah, bah," and 'da, da, da". I sometimes wonder if he is talking to someone with how much he talks.
-He now thinks peek-a-boo is funny.
-Is getting more ticklish everyday.
-He has a very high thresh hold for pain. I was changing his diaper the other day and his bum was a little raw. I started wiping his bum off and I thought he was having an allergic reaction and couldn't breath. Being the mean mom that I am I continued to wipe his bum and he breathed in again like his throat was almost swollen shut. "I don't want to cry mom, but HOLY COW that hurts!!!!!!!"
-Cruz has decided that he doesn't need to sleep as much as he used to. Up until about two weeks ago I could count on Cruz taking two naps a day that lasted over two hours. Now he is down to two naps that are about a hour-and-a-half. I know I shouldn't be complaining that he is only sleeping an hour and a half, but I have really enjoyed those hours to myself. At least I'm not so house bound now. He is staying up longer between his naps and I can run a few more errands without running into his nap time. I definitely don't get as much done around the house now though.

I am a little hesitant to put his out in the open with the fear of me not sticking to it (which happens a lot). But, I have been inspired to run a 10K (6.2 miles for those of you not from Canada). For some 6.2 miles probably is nothing, but I have never been a strong runner. I needed some motivation to get back into shape and I have been wanting to run a race, so I decided this would be the perfect opportunity. The race is October 19th in Portland and I have enlisted my brother and my sister-in-law to run it with me. I think more to have someone there to call 911 when I collapse. This definitely will not be a competitive race for me. I just want to say that I did it.

Marchant's Envasion

2008-07-20T17:17:00.000-07:00

WARNING!!! SUPER LONG BLOG AHEAD!!!

So the last couple of weeks have been a blast. The Saturday after fourth of July all seven out of nine Marchant family members came to visit us from the great state of Missouri. It was a full house at the Marchant's. Cruz never got put down the whole week they were here. I had to threaten a few times to set a timer so every one could have an equal amount of time with Cruz. And I'm not talking about just threatening the siblings, I had to threaten the Grandparents as well. It wasn't until the night before they all left that they finally let Cruz roll around and show them how mobile he is. They were all so astonished. "Did you know he could do that!", ya and you could have too if you had put him down earlier. Oh well, Cruz loved all of the attention and it was nice having a break for a week. All I had to do was feed Cruz and every one else did the work.

We went to the beach on Tuesday. This was the first time a lot of the siblings had been to the ocean. I tried warning them that the Washington Coast was nothing like California. Needless to say they did not come prepared. Half of them didn't bring jackets. Brendan, his brother's Scott and Brian, and I rented mopeds and road them on the beach. That was a blast. While the rest of them huddled in the van sheltering themselves from the cold (they still had fun).

Wednesday and Thursday we went up to Seattle and did all of the fun tourist stuff up there. Lunch of course is always at Ivars, followed by Pike's Place. After that we went to the Ballard locks. We got to see a tugboat go through. Wow, those are a lot bigger then I thought!! I guess the big Cruise ships just dwarf them. We celebrated Brendan's brother's 18th birthday at Aqua Verde (great mexican restuarant by-the-way). Wednesday we went to the Seattle Aquarium and then the City Center to see the Space needle.

After all of that fun the fam left early Friday morning.

Last Sunday we celebrated Cruz's 6-month birthday (not really celebrated). I can not believe that the little guy is six months old. It feels like he has been with us forever. He is getting funner to interact with everyday. He has really found his voice and is super loud now. He loves to talk and sing. Brendan likes to sit in bed with him and says,"ba-ba-ba" and occasionally you can hear Cruz really put an effort in to copy him. He rolls over from his stomach to his back now, but only to the left. He'll roll until he runs into the couch or the wall and then he is stuck. It is really funny to watch, I am sure that he will figure out the rest really soon.

Cruz also wend to the Doctor this past week for his 6 month check up. Here are his Stats:
Weight: 17 lbs 1oz -- 45th%
Length: 27"-- 75th%
Head Circumference: 42 cm -- 10-25th% (He's got a tiny noggin, but it sure is a cute noggin)

We were concerned that he was getting a flat head, but the doc said that it is looking good and that he would not need a helmet.

He is healthy and happy and life is good.

We also have a new addition to our family. Last week we found out that our truck was in desperate need of a new transmission. We knew that it was starting to wear, but thought we could get another 10-15k miles on it before we needed to make any changes. So a few weeks ago we started casually looking for a new vehicle but really had no intentions of getting anything soon. We were interested in replacing it with something that would get better gas mileage but also be a functional work vehicle. The 2 vehicles we settled on were the Honda Element or the Scion XB both had enough room for the ladder to fit as well as all of the other inspection equipment. The Element has more storage room and seemed to be built a little tougher but gets worse milage from the xb and a 06 was the same price as a new Scion xb, Well if you cant tell we chose the xb, it is really fun to drive and is much more sports car than the truck. Plus we got a brand new car that we can hopefully enjoy for many years to come with out any concerns. Brendan misses his truck but is enjoying the new vehicle.

We are Officially Olympians

2008-06-29T15:38:00.000-07:00

Brendan, Cruz, and I are officially living in Olympia now. We had our doubts if it was really going to happen (as many of you know last year we were suppose to move to Maple Valley, and things fell apart the day we were suppose to move. I guess it wasn't suppose to happen). There is so much to recap on.

The Wednesday before the move I went out to dessert with a few of my friends. It was so fun having a last get together before I left. I already miss you guys. I pray that I can find as fun of a group of girls in my new ward.
My mom was nice enough to come up, from Portland, the day before the big move and helped me finish cleaning and packing. I don't know what I would have done without her there. Cruz was a sweetheart with all of the chaos going on at our home. He just slept and played all day.

We had finished packing everything up at about three and the ward wasn't coming to help us move until six. So we decided to get a jump start on packing up the truck. We should have waited and gotten all of the big stuff in first. We got about half of the boxes and the couch in and the truck was still very empty. When a few guys from the ward came we told them that we really didn't need to pack up that high and so we didn't. Lets just say we barely fit everything in the truck (and we had a 22 footer) and we had to stuff Brendan's truck to the rim. But, we still had to leave a couple of things behind. My mom didn't have a very comfortable ride down to Olympia, we had to pack around her.

Brendan, Cruz, and I said good-bye to our home of 2 1/2 years and we were off to Olympia.
Being the procrastinators that we are, we weren't able to get any help from the ward to move us in on the Olympia side. On the way down my mom called my older brother Jeff, knowing that he was driving down from Bellingham to go to Portland, to see where he was. Thank goodness for family!! He just happened to be seven miles ahead of us and at 9pm, he, his pregnant wife, and two kids stopped to help us move in. My sister-in-law is awesome, she is an example of who I need to be more like. Jeff wanted to keep driving so he could get his girls to bed (of course an excuse so he wouldn't have to help, I would do the same thing), but Susan said, "No, they're family and they need our help!" It only took a little over an hour, but we were so thankful for their help.

This past week has been an awesome week for work. It is sad to admit it but I think this is the first week in 2+ years that Brendan has spent the full week working away from our home office. It was awesome and we are really excited to see how well we will do here in our new Pillar To Post Territory.

Cruz is now eating big boy food. Yaaa!!! I really wanted to wait until he was six months, but the boy has decided that he doesn't want to take a bottle and since I still work two days a week, we needed to figure out a substitute for one meal a day. The other meal I will just have to come home to feed him during my lunch. He caught on really quickly. I was feeding him tonight and all of a sudden he figured out to open his mouth when the spoon was in front of him. After that he was actually swallowing most of his food. Such a smart boy.

An even bigger ya is that Cruz is sleeping through the night! Before Cruz was consistently waking up at about 1am and 3am to feed, so I knew he wasn't hungry, his little clock was just stuck. We gave him a few nights to adjust to his new room and four nights ago I let him cry it out. It took one night of crying and the past three nights I have only heard him once for just a few minutes. Knock on wood that it continues. It is so refreshing to get a full nights sleep. I have almost forgotten what it felt like.

Well as you can see this is only a small sample of our past few weeks..... but we are happy and life is good..... Sorry there aren't more Cruz pictures.

Life Can Change in an Instant

2008-05-31T08:33:00.000-07:00

It is amazing how quickly life can change. There has been so much that has happened in three weeks it almost feels like it should be an eternity. Last week Cruz learned to roll over. Brendan and I have been waiting for this day for about a month now, because Cruz has been struggling so hard to roll over. Then like that he did it. After he made it over once, it was like he had been doing it since he was born. I think my payment for having such a good baby is that he is going to be a little mover that will never stop. You can already tell he is trying to work those little legs so he can crawl.

This is one of Cruz's first attempts to roll over:

Not to successful.

Here is an actual success, to bad it is a week after he learned to do it:

Now he is a rolling over fool!! Once I lie him down, he is already on his stomach.

The biggest change that has happened over the past three weeks is that the Marchant's are moving!! In past three weeks we have sold our business and have bought a new Pillar To Post franchise in the great area of Olympia, WA. Well, actually an old business, we bought an existing franchise that has been running in Olympia area for the past eight years. Along with the county Olympia is located in, we were able to purchase three other counties.

If you had asked us four weeks ago about buying this we would have said, "HECK NO!!!". We were so happy with where we are currently at and didn't want to have to start all over again. What made us change our minds? A number or reasons, but I believe we were really guided to make this move. As we negotiated and looked farther into things, everything just made sense of why we should be doing this. What is amazing is that I feel so good about this change, even excited. Usually the thought of change stresses and scares me to death. I hate change!!

As sad as we are to be leaving Issaquah and all of our friends, we are so excited to start this new adventure in our lives. Short term it is going to be tough to really get this up and running again, (the guy we bought it from hasn't been working his territory for the past year), but the long term benefits far out way the hard work we are going to have to put in. Our projected move date is about June 20th and we still haven't found a place to live. Ahhh, we have so much to do!!!

4 Month Check-Up Results

2008-05-19T09:33:00.000-07:00

Cruz had his 4 month check up this past week and his a growing, healthy boy. All except for he is getting a flat spot on the left side of his head, so we have to work on that so it doesn't get any worse.

Weight: 15 Lbs (50-75%)
Height: 25 inches (50%)
Head Circumference: 41 cm (25%)

Fun in Portland

2008-05-10T10:25:00.000-07:00

I am such a procrastinator!!! Its taken me a week to post this. Last weekend Brendan, Cruz and I drove down to Portland to go see the family. It was a lot of fun. Brendan went out on an inspection with one of my brother's on Friday so me and my mom got to hang out a good part of the day doing girl stuff. These t-shirts are the result of me and my mom hanging out alone. They are so cute. The turtle wraps around the back as well.

Caden, Cruz, & Jack (these three are going to be trouble makers)

Saturday morning we went and watched my six-year-old neice, Gillian's softball game. She is going to be an amazing softball player. It was so cute watching them run around. They were still trying to figure out the game, so there wasn't a whole lot of rhyme or reason to what happened. But, it was still fun.

That afternoon the fam got together for dinner. We had fun talking and laughing.

Thats me rushing to Cruz's rescue, because if little Caden can get his hands on you he pinches and will not let go.

We also had our first unofficial family photo shoot after church.

Brendan always has to go check out the waterfall and fishes.

Cruz has become such a good traveler. He slept the whole entire car ride home. What a sweetie.

Here are a couple of extra pics for the Marchant clan.

My New Favorite Website

2008-04-24T19:09:00.000-07:00

Has anyone heard of Etsy.com? Well, I am now obsessed with it. It is kind of a spin off of Ebay, but almost everything sold on it is handmade, and there is no bidding. Anyone can get on it and sell what they wish. I love scrolling from page to page looking at baby/kid stuff. There are a lot of really cute ideas out there that you can easily make yourself. It has really gotten me in touch with my crafty side. I recently made a appliqué onesie. When you think of appliqué I always thought of my grandmas quilts, but you can do so many cute things on onesies or t-shirts using the same process. This was my first attempt at appliqué, so it it is still a work in progress. Etsy has so many cute ideas that I want to steal, now I just have decide where I want to begin.

So Cruz likes to get into fights with himself. The two scratches on his nose look way better now, but the scratch on his temple is huge. He had blood on his sheet, he scratched himself so good. No he didn't punch himself in the eye, it is red because he is tired.

I am a big believer in swaddling so Cruz has never had a chance to scratch himself when he slept. But, now he is getting a lot more coordinated with his arms, so I decided I would start wrapping him with one arm out and see how he did. Also because recently he has been a little Houdini and brakes free every night around four in the morning. For the most part he has done really well at having an arm free while he sleeps, and hasn't been waking himself up, even when he gouges his face. After he gets used to the one arm being free at night, I'll let the other one loose too.

I Thought it is Suppose to be Spring?

2008-04-19T08:39:00.000-07:00

What a week. We went from last Saturday being 80 degrees, to today there being an inch of snow on the ground (and still snowing as I write this). What is up with that? I think Al Gore is full of crap with all of this global warming stuff. Because it certainly isn't warming up around here. I want it to be sunny out. Cruz and I need to get out of the house. At least last Saturday we took full advantage of the sun. Brendan, Cruz, and I went and walked around the Arboretum by University of Washington. It was the perfect time to do it as well because all of the trees were blossoming. Cruz got to enjoy his first real bits of sunshine as well. The Arboretum is definitely somewhere we are going to go again.

Cruz loves his stroller

This story might be a little embarrassing for Brendan, but it is to funny not to tell. As many of you know Cruz's crib is right next to our bed. Well, the other night I had just put him down for the night (and he was already sound asleep) and Brendan and I were just finishing our prayer's when Brendan farts. Cruz starts laughing in his sleep, so Brendan farts again and Cruz laughs even more and then Brendan farted again and Cruz laughs again. Brendan was all out of farts so he tried to make a fart nose with his mouth and that just wouldn't cut it for Cruz, he didn't think it was as funny as the real thing. Brendan and I were trying so hard to muffle our laughter, I had tears running down my cheeks. All I can say is Cruz is all boy. What am I going to do? I'm out numbered two to one.

Here is a little video for anyone who might be interested (mostly the grandparents, aunts and uncles) of Cruz laughing. We have been trying so hard to get this little guy to laugh and this is one of the first times we have been truly successful (or let me say I was truly successful. Brendan has always been able to get Cruz to smile and talk more then me). I guess he only thinks farting is funny. Please excuse our pile of diapers in the background and don't laugh at how much of a dork I am. P.S. he only really laughs till about 50 seconds, after that its just me making a fool of myself.

April Showers.........When will it end?

2008-04-04T09:43:00.000-07:00

Well another week has come and gone. Wow time sure flies fast. This is going to be a quick post with some more pictures of Cruz. (Really is there anything else we can blog about?) We had 3 full days of sun this week, it was so nice to get some vitamin D in our systems. The rain doesnt really bother us much any more but it has been a long winter and we are ready for warm weather and Sun.

Cruz is growing so fast. He is smiling more and occasionally we will get a little laugh out of him. He must have had a really funny dream the other night because at 2 in the morning he started laughing, and laughing.

Quick plug for a great photographer. Our friend Angie Penrose took Cruz's newborn pictures. (along time a go but we finally ordered the pictures, we are great procrastinators) She did a great job. So if anyone is looking for an excellent photographer look her up...angiepenrose.blogspot.com

Tatem's birthday was on Thursday (Last week). I made dinner and it was really good. It was my first time to make baby back ribs, I thought they would be harder, but all I did was throw them in the crock pot with seasoning rub, and then bbq sauce the last hour. We also had to have the traditional Costco Chocolate cake. It has become a Tatem birthday tradition. We always seem to be eating it for the next 3 weeks or so because it is so big. Other than that her birthday was really low key... Well Happy Birthday Tatem, I Love you..

2 Month Check-Up Results

2008-03-19T12:37:00.000-07:00

Weight- 12lbs 5oz (75%)
Length- 22 3/4inches (50%)
Head Circumference- 39cm (25-50%)

We are getting a fat baby on our hands. But, at least he is in the 90% for his weight or else I think we would have an obese baby. Cruz also got his DTap, HIB, IPV, & PCV immunizations today. Boy did he let out a wail!! I think it was more because he was asleep, when they gave them, then from actual pain, because he did not have his sad cry, he gave his angry cry.

Cruz's Blessing

2008-03-18T11:32:00.000-07:00

(Cruz in his blessing outfit)

We had a very full house this weekend. Cruz was blessed on Sunday and Brendan's parents came from Missouri on thursday afternoon and three of his siblings drove up from BYU very early saturday morning (Brendan's brother and sisters didn't get here till 4:30am on Saturday morning (let me say they are slow drivers)). My Parents came into town on Friday and two of my brothers were here on sunday. WOW we had a lot of people visit in just one weekend.

It was a ton of fun to have the fam here. Brendan's dad and siblings hadn't met Cruz yet, so they were especially excited to be here.

Brendan and I played tour guide all weekend.
On Friday night we took Brendan's parents and mine to experience The Crab Pot. If you have never experienced eating at the Crab Pot it is an experience all in it's self. Your food comes in a big bowl that is dumped in the middle of the table it is fun to dig into your food and get your fingers dirty. The best part of the whole meal is that I didn't spill anything on me or Cruz (he was sitting in my lap the entire time and no spills YEAH GO ME!!!!) After dinner we went over to Alki Beach in West Seattle. It is probably the very best and most scenic view of the city we also were quite lucky because the clouds were broken up and we had a great view.
Saturday we all went to the Museum of Flight. It was fun walking around looking at all of the old planes. We even got to go on Air Force One!! (Air Force One was so disappointing it was nothing like what we had expected and kind of smelled like throw up.....).

Afterwards we of course had to go to Ivar's for lunch. A Seattle trip is not complete without going to the pier and feeding the seagulls your left over food.

(Brendan, Cruz and his little brother Eric feeding the seagulls)

Brendan did such a good job on Cruz's blessing. It was short sweet and to the point. It was so wonderful to have him be able to do it. In the circle there was Brendan, my dad, Brendan's dad, Brendan's brother Eric, my two brothers Jeff and Steven, our friend Scotty, and the bishopric. It was a little funny having a two month old being blessed, but that is the only time Brendan's dad was able to make it out here. It was well worth the wait to be able to have everyone make it.
Afterwards all of us came back to our house and enjoyed a delicious dinner. It was a very full house. There were 17 people in our little in our little townhouse, but surprisingly it didn't feel like it. I want to thank everyone for going out of their way to be able to make it to spent time with us.

Now it is Tuesday and our lives are semi back to normal, Cruz has his 2 month update tomorrow and we are really excited to see how much he has grown.

Dont forget we love to read all of your comments so please leave us some

(My niece Josie holding Cruz doesnt he look like he is enjoying his cousin)

(My niece Kylee holding Cruz)

What a Week!!!

2008-03-05T15:54:00.001-08:00

We have had a very long but fun week.....

Brendan spent the week in Las Vegas for a Pillar To Post Conference. It was great for him to get some more training and get ramped up for another year. He now is a Certified Home Energy Auditor which hopefully will be a great addition to the other services we offer. Because the conference was in Las Vegas he was able to stay with our friends Ryan and Stephanie Heaton they also own a Pillar To Post franchise and live in Vegas, They were great hosts and had a ton of fun Frisby golfing, Eating at in-and-out, hanging out on the strip, as well as the great Pillar To Post Classes.

As most of you probably know most of the Livingston's are involved with the Company, so Brendan also had quality bonding time with my Brothers, Dad, and Uncle.

I spent the week in Portland living the good life with my mom. We spent our days watching Jane Austin, Hanging out with Cruz and staying in her PJ's until the afternoon. I discovered that Cruz is a great travel buddy. He slept the whole way there and back with the exception of the last 10 minutes of both trips. (what a great traveler). My mom and some of our friends in the ward also had a baby shower for us and we got overloaded with great gifts. Cruz really needed some toys and now has a big bag full.

Cruz is gaining weight and is starting to smile more. He was able to spent quality time with his cousins, it is going to be fun to see how they all interact with each other. He most of all is excited to be home in his own bed. Now if we could just get him to take longer than 1 hour naps.

1 Month Check-Up Results

2008-02-19T12:52:00.000-08:00

1 Month Check-Up Results
Weight: 10lbs 11oz (75%)
Height: 22 inches (50-75%)
Head Circumfrance: 37 1/4 inches (25-50%)

Here is the link for the final results from Cruz's photo shoot last week. Angie is so good!!! I'm so happy with what came out of him crying the whole time.
http://angiepenrose-marchant.blogspot.com/

So for about the past three months I have been obsessing (and obsessing is a very mild way of putting it!!!) over what kind of stroller I wanted. When ever Cruz was asleep I was on the internet researching strollers. I would find one and say this is it, then three days later I would change my mind and start all over again. You have to consider so many things. Do I want to spend more money on an umbrella stroller or a jogging stroller (or for me, more of a walking stroller). We needed something light weight and compact because I have a small car.

So last week I thought my search had come to an end. I found a Baby Jogger that has an amazing one handed fold, is on the lighter side and pretty compact for a jogging stroller. My only draw back is that on the box it says it has a maximum weight capcity of 50 lbs. You would think that would mean child weight, but if you dig deeper into the manual it says 50 lbs total combined with storage and baby. I read a couple of places that it was 38 lbs weight capacity for a child and 12lbs for the under storage. I think I am pretty set on this stroller but my question is a 38lb weight capcity going to be enough? And how long would a 38lb child really want to stay in a stroller? I think Brendan is started to get annoyed at how obsessed I am being. But, if I am going to fork out a couple hundred dollars on a stroller I want to make sure that it is what I really want.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

2008-02-14T15:20:00.000-08:00

10 Reasons Why I Love My Husband!!!

1. He loves his son. Brendan is such a good dad. He is always willing to help out with Cruz.
2. He puts up with me. I always have something stupid that I worry or freak out about and Brendan always is there to help reassure me that the world is not coming to an end and everything will be ok.
3. He always puts me first and wants to make sure that I am happy (probably because he knows if mommas not happy, no one's happy, j/k).
4. When he doesn't have an inspection in the morning and Cruz has been up all night, he will take him for a couple of hours and let me sleep a little longer.
5. After what felt like an eternity of chasing Brendan he picked me. I know every one always says that men are the ones that marry up, but I really feel like I am the one that married up.
6. When I was pregnant, ya it was so long ago :) , and the thought of cooking made me vomit, Brendan was the one making dinner.
7. He is a worthy Priesthood holder. I know I will always have him here to give our family (kind of weird saying "our family" and not "me") a blessing if we stand in need of one.
8. He loves spending time with me, even if it means going to the grocery store.
9. I love how easy going he is, I don't think I have every seen Brendan mad or even worked up.
and finally,
10. Brendan really isn't all that sentimental and gushy with days like today, but he still does cute things, because he knows I love it.

Sneak Peak of Cruz's Glamour Shots

2008-02-12T14:25:00.000-08:00

You can go to http://www.angiepenrose.blogspot.com/ to get a sneak peak of a few of Cruz's pictures from yesterday. I personally think they are adorable (but I am a little prejudiced). I can't wait to see the rest.

Out By Myself!!! Ahhhh!!!

2008-02-11T20:33:00.000-08:00

I took Cruz to get his first pictures today and of course he had to be Mr. Fussy Pants. Knock on wood, but Cruz isn't a fussy baby and generally doesn't mind being shuffled around. Not today though. It was try and get a few good pictures in without him crying and then rock him for five minutes to calm him down and then the process would start again. Its a good thing a friend was doing it or else I would have been a little more frustrated myself. I hope we able to get a few good pictures out of it. We shall soon see. I'm way excited to see the end result, because Angie always does such a good job.
This was the longest outing by myself. My biggest fear was driving 45 minutes to Enumclaw with a screaming baby in the back. But, he slept the whole way there and back. I just dealt with a fussy for the pictures. I think he was just tired and wanted to be wrapped up and left alone.
I am slowly working my way out of the house now all by my lonesome. It is hard running all of those errands now. Everything has to be planned. I think my next big step is to go grocery shopping with him.
Here are some more pictures of the little guy. Grandma Marchant hasn't seen him in a week and is dying to see some updated pictures.

Cruz loves the exercise ball, its one of the ways we get him to calm done.

How did our son get such great colored skin with whities as parents?

The mommies are gone and now life begins.

2008-01-30T13:28:00.001-08:00

The past two weeks Brendan and I have had our moms here helping us out. My mom was here for the first week and Brendan's came for the second. Well, we just dropped Brendan's mom at the airport and now we get to experience what life is really like with a child. It was really nice having our moms here to help cook and clean. Every morning we would take Cruz down to Brendan's mom around 7ish and then we would sleep for another couple of hours. What are we going to do without a babysitter now?

Cruz is getting bigger by the day. We put him in his car seat yesterday and you can really tell how much he has grown since he came home from the hospital. When he first came home the car seat buckles were practically in his face because he wasn't tall enough, now there is plenty of room. His eyes are getting bluer too.

So my sister-in-law was kind enough to lend us her baby monitor while we get one for ourselves. I really didn't think we would need one because, all though we do have two stories, our place really isn't that big. But, I was wrong, it has been very helpful, especially when we are down stairs watching TV and he sound asleep in his little crib. Now that we have gotten more used to the little guy we decided it might be a good idea to get a two way monitor. Do any of you have one and what would you suggest?

1 week later.....

2008-01-22T09:26:00.001-08:00

I finally am starting to feel well enough that I decided I should write about my version of the labor experience. Overall it was a good experience, I'm not saying the best ever, but it was one that I will remember for the rest of my life. I have to admit that it was better then I expected, but maybe its the mommy amnesia kicking in now and I don't remember all of the pain little Cruz put me through.
At 3am when I started having contractions I couldn't tell if they were the real deal, because they felt nothing like the braxton hicks contractions that I had earlier in my pregnancy (maybe they weren't braxton hicks then). To me they felt like the worst menstrual cramps that I had ever had. Did anyone else feel that way, because when I told my mom she sounded surprised at how I described them. Finally at about 4:30ish they were bad enough that Brendan and I decided that it was time to go.
When we got to the hospital I was already 4-5cm dilated, but I had also been 3cm dilated for the past two weeks. I told them that I was ready for my epidural and my nurse then tells me that they had three back-to-back emergency c-sections and it could be a few hours until I could have one. I thought I was going to die. Luckily the doctor came in a few minutes later and told me that an extra anastialogist had come in, whew!!!!! By that time I was already 7cm dilated and boy was I ready for some pain relief. The epidural felt like a warm blanket. It was really nice too, because I got to control how much pain relief I wanted. They gave me a button that I could push ever 15 minutes to give me an extra shot of relief. My labor was moving along really quickly, but after I had the epidural it slowed down, so I was finally given some drug to move my contractions along. I pushed for about an hour, but it went by so quickly. My mom was able to be in the room with me and Brendan did great. I was really expecting for him to get grossed out, but nothing really bugged him.
When Cruz came out I couldn't believe that I had carried him for 9 months and given birth to something that large. How is it possible? When they handed him to me it was all worth the pain that I went through.

Cruz on his way home from the hospital

Wow what a difference a week makes. We are trying really hard to get used to this parent thing. All of our friends have told us that we should really enjoy our pre-baby sleep, and we should have listened better. Cruz is not a bad sleeper he is just a confused little boy. He sleeps great from about 3 am to 7 pm. But the other hours of the day he feels is a great time to be awake, and for some reason he feels that he is really hungry that whole time. If he is not eating he will grunt and grunt and grunt........ and keep me awake wondering, is there something wrong, do I need to pick him up? But I think he just likes grunting.

Cruz Evan Marchant has made his arrival!!!!!!

2008-01-13T09:13:00.000-08:00

Well the day has finally come. Brendan and Tatem are now parents. (well not yet at least, Tatem is asleep and is all drugged up with her eppidural and I am wide awake so I thought I would start this new blog post)

This morning around 2:30 or 3:00 am Tatem woke up with some contractions, around 4:30 we called the hospital to find out when or if they wanted us, and they said that we could come in if we wanted to be checked but they couldn't tell us over the phone if it was real or false. Tatem didn't feel that the pain was very bad and was afraid that they would send her home so we decided that we would try and wait for an hour or so. It seemed like as soon as she hung up the phone, her contractions got allot more intense. The contractions were getting so close together that she was having a hard time brushing her teeth etc. So we decided that it probably was a good time to go.

It now is 10:00 am her water has broken and is really close to delivery.

News FLASH.......

1:35 Cruz has entered the world.

7 pounds 11 oz

19 inches

he was rated a 10 on some scale

We are really excited and now have a better reason to add more posts...

New Camera.

2008-01-09T13:55:00.000-08:00

We have been wanting a nice camera for a long time. So we bit the bullet and got one from Costco.... (We are the king and queen of costco, It seems like we go every other day)

It was cold, rainy, and dark on Monday night by the time Tatem got home from Wells, and since we are trying to coax the little one out, we decided to walk the Costco Halls. After drooling over the big T.V's, we started looking at the cameras. We decided on the Panasonic DMC-FZ18 which I have really enjoyed getting to know. It can do everything........ point and shoot, adjustment of the shutter, apature, as well as a 100 page book of stuff I don't have a clue how to do.

Realistically it is not D-SLR quality (it is fun to use new words, and sound like I have even the slightest clue) But it did get great reviews and will work great for my skill level. Here are a few samples of my one day of photography.

The wait is on.....

2008-01-07T17:30:00.000-08:00

We had a great Christmas and New Years.

Christmas eve we went to Portland to spend Christmas with Tatems family. It was fun to get everyone together and hang out with the fam. Tatem and I got Guitar Hero 3 and it was a huge hit. When I first saw the game I thought it looked really dumb, but I was wrong. I now have an guitar hero addiction. It was really funny to see her Parents "rock out" on the game.

On the 28th Tate and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary. It is really exciting to see how fast time has gone, where we have been, and what we have done in these few years. We spent a few days in Bend OR. shopping,eating and just relaxing.

Well the most exciting news is that the baby should be making his arrival any day..... Tatem had a check up on Friday and her doctor was telling us that it is very common for 1st born's to come late. (she is due on the 18th). Then she did her check and as of Friday Tatem is 3cm dilated and 90% effaced. So I guess this little guy wants out. Even if he takes his time it will be ok.

We spent Friday and Saturday getting everything ready. Even with all of the great hand-me-downs we have gotten there still is a ton to get. It is amazing how much a little person needs.

The news is out......

2007-12-13T13:18:00.001-08:00

Well I have been outed...............

Step 1 admission: I Brendan am the main Blogger in our family (wow now a ton of weight has been lifted off of my chest)

Step 2 even though I do blog, do not make it look like you do: because of this I tend to write some of our posts like it is Tatem writing. (Tatem does make contributions from time to time so you will never really know who it is) It gives me just a little bit of man hood back. Now that I am also the stay at home Dad. (Not really but our business is traditionally slow in the winter). I have a few extra minutes to let the world into our lives.

Now that that is out in the open, Here is what has happened in our world.....

We went to Portland this weekend to go on a triple date with Scott, Jeremy, and Brook. It was a lot of fun. We ate dinner at a restaurant that is right on the river in Portland, we watched the boat light parade, and went to Tatem's parents house and played games. (Jeremy and Brook, we need to hang out more often.)It was a quick trip we went down on Saturday and came back Sunday. But it was nice to get out of town for a few days. Now we are back to normal life.

I really have been noticing how I can't stay up late anymore. Saturday night we were up until 12:00. I really wanted to check out at 10:30 but I forced myself to stay up late. (Sad, I know.) Tatem hates that I am turning more and more into a old person that goes to bed super early and then wakes up at 6:00. What is even worse is when I am awake I get board, so I decide to wake her up.

Tatem has had the past few days off of work. (she had some paid time off that had to be used). So we have gotten a ton done. The baby's corner of the house is much more put together, we have organized our bedroom and are hoping to be ready for his arrival.

The baby is right on schedule. Tatem had another doctors appointment today and is measuring well. After Christmas she starts the weekly visits and next thing we know he will arrive.

Another week has come an gone..and we are still the same.

Rain, Wind, Snow..... Whats Next

2007-12-03T08:43:00.001-08:00

We have had a very crazy past few days. Saturday it started snowing, for those of you that are not familiar with Seattle we very rarely get snow and when it comes the whole world comes to a stop. Granted we do have some quite extreme hills that can cause problems, it is really funny to see people park their cars on the side of the freeway and walk after an inch of snow is on the ground.

Sunday it started to rain and become really windy (50-60 mph gusts) we live right on the edge of green space (0nce again if you dont know Seattle we LOVE our trees) we have 60 foot trees that sway and act like they are going to fall on us at any time. We had one fall on our patio last year but that is a different story for a different time. Any way back to the rain. In the last 12 hours we have gotten 3 inches of rain. For a city that is very used to the rain it is a ton. I (Brendan) am not looking forward to my inspection this afternoon. I guess it adds a little excitement to my otherwise typical Monday.

Tatem and I had a great Thanksgiving. We went to Portland and spent it with the Livingston side. It was great!! The weather was perfect, nice and sunny and in the mid 50's. Sam, Jeff and I went golfing. I played horrible but it was still nice to have father-in-law/brother-in-law bonding time. Tatem registered for baby stuff at baby's R us, with the sister-in-laws, We ate and ate and ate played games and just had a jolly old time....

The only exception from my Thanksgiving being a storybook ending is there was no Miracle whip for the traditional day after thanksgiving turkey sandwich. Nothing in the world tastes better to me than leftover turkey, white bread with an ample helping of Miracle whip with a pinch of salt and pepper on the side. I would even go as far as to say that I prefer the sandwich over the whole dinner. So this leads me to a little debate..... What is better Miracle whip or traditional sloppy, gooey, Mayonnaise??? (yes I am a little biased). Miracle whip with its delectable sweet tangy taste. A flash of flavor to the tongue.

I needed the Miracle whip so bad (do I sound like a drug addict) that i went and bought a supply to keep in their fridge and now I am assured that at the next family function, I will be able to have my hit of the tangy zip.

BABY NOTE:
Well life on the baby front is just great. I Brendan can still see my toes and am able to tie my own shoes. Best of all I don't get tired when I walk up our stairs. The story is not the same for Tatem she is starting to get into the uncomfortable stage. Every task seems to be a huge challenge. Just getting off of the couch takes precise planning and sometimes an extra lift. She still is working and probably will stay there until the baby comes. She has not decided if she will go back after. Insurance benefits are a huge draw and she would only need to work 2 days a week for us to have full benefits. But no decisions have been made yet. Our little guy should be making his entrance in the next few weeks (4 or 5 I cant remember). No we still have not decided on a name and are still open to any suggestions.

In closing this post, I do ask that all Miracle whip supporters unite with me in the cause, to help extend a hand to Tatem to join the right side of this very important debate. One Cause one Fight.

I have been Tagged!!!

2007-11-17T17:18:00.000-08:00

The Rules: Each player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves. At the end of the post the player then tags six people and posts their names then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Have fun!

I have been tagged by my great friend Carrie!!! Ya!!

1. I have been married three years on December 28th to the best guy in the world, who I have to admit I chased for almost a year before he got his act together. I wouldn't trade these last three years for anything!

2. I am going to be a mommy in two months. I am super excited, but also super scared at the same time.

3. I bite the inside of my cheek when I'm bored. It's a nasty habit that I can't seem to break.

4. My favorite vacation spot in the world is Maine. I know what your thinking, "Maine? Who goes to Maine?", but it is so relaxing and it is a place where I can get away from the world.

5. I am probably the most indecisive person in the world. I hate making decisions, because what if someone is unhappy with it. Brendan is trying very hard to break me of it. But shouldn't decisions in marriage be joint anyways? :)

6. I am not creative. I wish I was more creative and I try really hard but sometimes it just doesn't come. As you can tell from my very creative habits/facts about myself. I'm trying to take up scrap booking and sewing, but don't ask me to come up with any ideas on my own, I need a pattern to follow exactly. It is really odd because half of my family is super creative. My dad is an incredible artist and woodworker. You'd think that I could have gotten some of his genes, but noooo I got jipped!!!!

I'm tagging six people now:
Monique, Stephanie Heaton, Stacey, Stephanie Cundick, Ashley, Maria

Sunny Days....

2007-10-30T15:30:00.000-07:00

This fall has been incredible! It has been much more sunny than I remember last year being. Well the lives of Brendan and Tatem get more an more exciting each day as this new kid approaches.

Quick poll. Did any of you take a trip before your children were born? Like a last "freedom" trip? We want to do something special but don't know what to do.

Well we have finally bitten the bullet and started to get some stuff for the baby. We got our crib. It is really nice and much better than we anticipated. Because, we are probably going to be here in our townhouse for at least a few months after the baby comes we got a mini crib. It is about the same size as a portable crib but much nicer and it fits really well in our bedroom.

We have also started to research strollers, car seats, etc...... (any good tips or brands would be great). Time is really flying only 2 and 1/2 months and we will be parents.

The business is doing well and we are continuing to become better bloggers. As you can see we haven't done the best.

Fall Colors, Winter Rains........

2007-10-17T08:38:00.000-07:00

It is amazing how fast time go's. Well our summer is gone and the fall/winter rains are returning. As crazy as this sounds I am kind of looking forward to some gray skys. Next month though I am sure I will be over it and will go into my winter depression, Just kidding (that was only my first winter here). Although the winter blues are a real thing here. The local news always has a story around this time giving advice for how to be happy during the winter. For everyones information. The cure for the winter blues is at least 20 min of daily exercise, as well as getting outside (even in cloudy weather) for a 1/2 hour.

Well I am now a Real Estate blogger. My first post was published last week on a national real estate blogging site. It didn't get as much attention as I was hoping for and it only stayed on the site for a few days. Ido feel good that I made it to the "big stage" and hope for other opportunities. Overall the business of Pillar To Post SE King County is doing well. I am really looking forward to the market rebounding. We have been really blessed to be in the #1 market in the country and have been blessed to stay busy. I would love to do more, so now I market, market, market!!!

Baby News.....................we (Brendan and the currently unnamed child) have a morning ritual where I tap on Tate's tummy and he kicks me back. Who knows if he really feels the tapping or if the noise just makes him mad. At least we are getting some quality bonding time. Tatem is also entering her 7th month. Only a few more to go. For the most part she is feeling really good. I cant tell you how nice it's been. We have decided that we are going to stay in our town house probably for another 6 months or so. It is going to be to much to look for and move into a new home, also winter is traditionally a slow time for us, so we need to leave our savings where it is for now.

Seattle is full of fun.

2007-10-01T13:19:00.000-07:00

Well we have had a lot of fun this past weekend. On Friday Tatem and I spent the day attempting to play tour guide for Brian and Ashley VanCamp. They went on a cruise that returned to Seattle so they had most of Friday to spend site seeing before their plane left. We went to the Locks, saw the fish ladder, had lunch at the crab pot. While we were eating Tatem and Ashley turned into star struck fans when Ty Pennington happened to come into the restaurant . (They are filming an extreme home makeover house in Kirkland). They say that he is better looking in person than on T.V. We then went to Pikes place and walked and walked and walked around checking out the vendors and watching the monk fish (if you have been to Pikes place you know what I am talking about. If you haven't, well come visit us and we will take you there)

On Saturday we went to the Red Bull SoapBox Races. It was so much fun and there were a ton of people there. (the announcer was saying somthing like 50,000) The weather wasn't great it rained but what should we expect we live in Seattle........ Tatem saw her dream guy, Sir Mix Alot (he was one of the judges) so now her live is becoming more fulfilled and we took a picture by a tree.

On a baby note.... he is getting bigger and starting to kick. We still don't have a clue what to name him but that time is going to be here faster than we know it.

2007-09-21T09:58:00.000-07:00

So here is my first attempt at putting together a movie, It is not the best and when I uploaded it the quality of the picture is horrible, I will try to save it differently but, I wanted to show off all of the fun times we had in Maine. So here it is......

-Brendan

Where has the summer gone??

2007-09-11T09:15:00.000-07:00

Well a new month and now no more summer. It seemed like we were finally starting to see some warm sunny weather here in the great North West and soon we will be in our winter gray. I can feel the depression coming back already. (Just kidding)

We have had a full week, learning about the boy, trying to figure out names. Which with Tatem is not a fun task. She doesnt like any of the name's I suggest. Like Pedro, Nike, I Love Lamp, (are you just saying anything that you see?) Well if you have not seen anchor man than this will seem pretty stupid. Sorry I digressed I am just trying to keep our options open to something that is not usual. We have considered Evan and Tate. But only time will tell.

We went to a Mariners game last night with our good friend Scott. It was alot of fun and the seats were great but the Mariners are in a really bad slump.... So the play was horrible. They got spanked by the A's, a team that should have been and easy Victory!!! So of course we left early.

I have discovered a very interesting fact....... When ever we go out to eat what ever I choose is what Tatem wants. For example last night at the ball game I decide that the Grande nachos looked like a great choice. And as we can see from the picture above I did not end up with them. But what would be an even better picture would be to see all of the nacho stains on Tatem's shorts from her reaching across and stealing them while I was eating. It was pretty funny to see that every chip she snagged, the toppings ended up on either her shorts or sandals.

And the Baby's Gender is a.................

2007-09-06T10:41:00.000-07:00

Well, it was an exciting morning for Brendan and I. After 21 weeks of waiting we finally found out what this little Marchant is going to be. Of all the picture's that were taken Brendan was only able to make out one distinct feature......... the face. Maybe he was sitting to far away from the monitor to really get a good look at what the tech was showing us. To get a good ultrasound your suppose to come with a full bladder. By the end of the ultrasound, which took about an hour, I thought that I was going to burst.

We had taken an online test when I was about 12 weeks along that said I had a 50% chance of it being a boy. The test results were right!!! Can you believe that? We had a girl name all picked out and have no boy names. This was the only picture we got today, I was a little bummed they didn't give a picture of the "boy parts". But it sure is a cute picture of the little guy.

Both of our parents are really excited. Especially Brendan's, this will be their first grandchild. His mom probably has already boughten plane tickets for when the baby is born. My mom called me to find out if I knew before I even had the ultrasound. Maybe she thought I could predict the future.

It will be fun because this little guy will have two boy cousins his age to cause terror with. What's even better is I will most likely get all of these cousins clothes. It's nice having older brothers to give me their hand me downs.

Life comes at you fast....

2007-08-30T14:14:00.001-07:00

Well it has been a long time since we have posted anything.

To help get everyone caught up on Brendan and Tatem here is what we have been up to. Well we didn't close on our new house and boy was it an emotional roller coaster.
We knew that because we are self employed it was going to be more difficult to get a loan but our mortgage broker continued to say everything is fine........until the day of closing, when he called to say "we have a problem" well to make a long story short, we hit the mortgage market at the wrong time. I am sure that everyone has heard that the sub prime mortgage market has gone down the tube and now the finance companies are setting very strict guidelines. One of of the big ones is that a self employed person needed to have owned a business for 2 years. Right now we have owned our business for 19 months. So we are going to wait until December to resume our search.

(Casey, Ashton, Tatem, & Brendan at Fort Knox)

On a brighter note we just got home from a week in Maine on Tuesday. It was such an awesome time, Tatem's family is blessed to have a "Camp" (a few cabins) to go and stay at each year on a Lake Onawa in the geographical center of Maine. Some generation or another has been going there each year since the civil war. So it is full of history. It was really interesting to see all that has been collected and saved over the years.

(My family-Mom, Dad, Casey, Caden, Angela, Ashton, Brendan, & Tatem, walking the train
tresell at "Camp")

(View of one the cabins "Lazy Beaver" from the lake)

Brendan was finally officially inducted into the Livingston family after going to Maine. It is lucky he liked it so much or else we might have had to split. My family holds Maine as a sacred place. My family has gone on vacation there every summer since before I was born. My dad went up there since he was a baby and his mom and her dad, ect.

We went to Fort Knox (seen above) in Bangor, Maine and then spent the rest of the day in Bar Harbor. It was really cool seeing the architectural differences on the East coast versus the West.

I am super sore from all of the activities, we spent alot of time on the boat, tubing, skiing, and surfing (yes i said surfing). Scott and I decided to pull the wind surf board behind the boat it was great fun. We learned a new language "AYUH" (which is like "Eh" in Canada) and ate Maine lobster. Tatem spent a lot of time reading and being a general woos. (She only got in the water an hour the whole week.) But, in my defense I am pregnant and really couldn't join in all the water activities with Brendan and Scott.

If anyone has a chance to go the the Vacation Land (Maine) you sure should. It was great.

Well here is the Baby update. Tatem is now 20 weeks along so we will be finding out any day what it is. I am still thinking girl but I guess I will just have to wait and see. She finally is feeling good and I can't explain how great it is. She actually will come into our kitchen again without gagging. It's funny, one day she wasn't showing and the next day she had the baby bump. This picture was taken three days ago and it has already gotten bigger.

(The Baby Bump)

Our goal is to become better at writing on this but as before we will see.........

The New House

2007-07-09T08:33:00.000-07:00

Well I thought I would update our blog, Time sure does fly. We are closing on our new home in only 4 days, Life has gotten so exciting.

Tate is still feeling sick but has newly discovered the joys of sea sick bands. They look like wrist sweat bands but they push on a pressure point on the wrist and they really have seemed to help her to feel better. She is also reaching the magical end to her 1st trimester and is really hoping that the morning/noon/afternoon/evening/night sickness will be gone. She has recently discovered that tomato sandwiches are a new addition to her expanding diet of yogurt, and cheese sticks.

We have been slowly starting to pack our house up and get everything ready to move. I really cant believe how much stuff we have. It is amazing how much is collected in just a little time.

We plan on moving this Saturday so if anyone wants to get some service time in, you are more than welcome....... Hopefully I we will get better at our blogging consistency.

Wow where has June gone????

2007-06-22T09:37:00.000-07:00

All of a sudden June is almost gone!! Well the house search goes on and on and on. I wish it was easier. We are really able to see the Real Estate transaction from another side.

Tatem had her 2nd doctors appointment last week, it is relly incredible to see how much changes in just a months time. The baby what ever he or she is, gave us a little show and moved around during the ultra sound. Tatem is really excited to have these next few weeks go by so that she can feel better and get over being sick.

Well I started writing this blog last week but never finished it, and in a weeks time we are really close to becoming home owners. We found a really nice little home in Maple Valley, WA. (it is about 25 minutes from where we are currently). It is so crazy to think that one week ago we were not really looking very hard and now we close on our home on the 20th of July. Now the real fun has begun. Hopefully Tatem will start feeling better so she can enjoy packing, moving, and decorating the new house.We will post more pictures in future posts.

Here we go again!!!

2007-06-12T08:47:00.000-07:00

Once again a whole week has gone by, and life is still good. Well a little update on our house search, we heard back on our offer and we didn't like their counter. So to make a long story short we decided that we will continue our search for our next home. We will most likely be leaving our current neighborhood which we love because the home prices here are way more than we can afford. (Townhouses start at 400+) So for now the joy is in the search.....

Tatem's Brother Jeff and his family were here this past weekend. We had a ton of fun, doing all of the Seattle tourist stuff, We went down town to Pioneer square and Pikes place market ate at Ivars Seafood Bar etc. etc. etc. But the highlight of the trip was the underground city tour..... There is something like 30 blocks of city underground it was a tiny bit creepy but we all survived and didn't even see any ghosts. (there are many rumors that some of the underground city is haunted).

We made our summer vacation plans yesterday and found really cheap tickets to Maine. So we will be spending a week at the end of August there, with Tatem's parents and at least one of her brothers. It should be really fun and relaxing. It is going to be hard though to leave the business for that long. Hopefully it will be a slow week anyway and we wont miss out on much business.

Well for now this is all. Hope all is great, B&T

Life is a bit Nerve Racking......

2007-06-04T09:24:00.000-07:00

We put an offer on a house on Saturday.......... and now Tatem and I are nervous as can be. It has been a real eye opener to be on this side of the real estate transaction, The emotions are completely different, exciting, scared, nervous and the list goes on and on and on and on. We are now waiting to hear from all parties involved to know what our next step should be.

As our business continues to grow we should be able to avoid any of the fears of not being able to pay for everything. But even that is a fear, we are really in the great unknown..... we can book 10 inspections in one day or we can book 0 in a week, all part of the joy of owning our own business.

To move on... we have had another good week full of fun and excitement........well not really. Our life seems to be pretty boring.

Well put an end to any suspense that is left out there, we are expecting......that we will be expecting a new addition to our family, some time in January 2008. Actually the future addition is due Jan 18 (Brendan's birthday). Crazy times ahead. Now all we have to do is get past all of the morning sickness. I really don't understand why it is considered morning sickness any way because Tatem is sicker (if that is a real word) in the evening than she is in the morning. She also has some crazy eating habits. I call it her 2 am feeding. And pregnancy brain is a real thing.

Dont forget we would love to hear your coments

Wow how time flies.

2007-05-29T08:47:00.000-07:00

Well another week has already gone, and we have had a great one. I really cant believe that June is almost here, where does the time go? This week was a little slow for the business because of memorial day, ( it is so crazy how holidays change the course of the real estate industry) So I (brendan) had a lot of time to get office work done. It also gives me a chance to write this blog.

Tatem and I drove to Portland this weekend but didn't leave until late Saturday afternoon. (good news about leaving so late is traffic was awesome and we made really good time) We had a great weekend with Tatem's family. This trip was a little more exciting that most, because we told the fam about the new addition..............????? I hope this peaks some interest....... I will get back to this announcement in a bit. We went golfing and had a family bbq and just enjoyed our time.

We met with a real estate agent yesterday to start looking for a home, The Seattle area is such an expensive area to live, who would have thought that you would have a really hard time finding a home in the 350,000 price range. Prices are insane and you really don't get a ton of home for it either. Oh well I guess that it is just part of life and we choose it, so now we get to enjoy all of it. We have been looking at some new construction homes and are almost ready to make an offer. But are not really in a rush because we don't want to close until December.

So much more has happened this week, but I have to run so we will probably make and addendum to this message latter.

We hope all is well and would love to hear any comments......so leave us some......

Another Sunny day in Seattle

2007-05-21T10:30:00.000-07:00

Well we have decided that we are going to try this blog thing.

Just to get all of you up to speed on our lives. Here is a quick recap. Tatem and I left Rexburg in December of 2005 and moved to Issaquah WA, (it is about 25 min east of Seattle) and opened our Home Inspection business. It has been really exciting, stressful, and not quite as easy as we hoped. Most of all it has been an awesome experience and we are really seeing the benefits of our hard work starting to pay off.

Tatem is still a wonderful Wells Fargo employee, and luckily only works about 10 min away from our house. She cant wait until the day she can quit, but they have awesome insurance coverage so it is hard to say good bye.

Well we hope to make this a weekly update, and will see if we can. We would love to hear from any and all of our friends.

-Brendan and Tatem