No longer my little taquito...

Marissa! What in the world has happened to my little taquito!? You are too big to be swaddled. You are passed the stage of sleeping all day long. You are becoming so strong, and aware. And you are soooo chunky :) You are 3 days shy of being 3 months old. Where has the time gone!? Sadie and I have so much fun with you. She sure loves being your older sister. We love all of your sweet smiles and how vocal you are. So far, my personal favorites are how you snort when you are upset or hungry. And the high pitched squeal you make if the crying doesn't get you enough food, or attention. Haha! We may have a little drama queen on our hands. My sweet little girl... Your daddy will love getting to know you.

Life Without You

Sam,
We miss you so very much! I know it's only 4 months, and i am so grateful for that, but us 3 girls have a very hard time surviving without our strong man. Marissa will be so different when you get home! She is getting chubbier by the minute. :) Her cheeks are so soft. Sadie and I are constantly kissing them, and we wish you could join us.
Sadie pretends like she is talking to you on the phone. Whenever she sees a picture of you, she will kiss it about 5 times, and say, "hi dad!", or, "I wub woo". The other night she saw a picture of us, and said, "daddy all gone". It was a little sad, and i was surprised that she could grasp the concept of you being gone. She is so big now, and will be chattering away by the time you are home.
I miss my best friend. I miss you comforting me on a hard day, with a warm hug and a sweet kiss. I miss laughing our heads off every night lying in bed, because we have so much fun together. You sure know how to make me laugh. I miss being spoiled. Remember when i would go straight to the passengers seat in the car when we were headed places, and you were the one doing all of the work carrying Sadie and strapping her in? Well, now when we want to leave places, i am in the cold of Utah, with a huge diaper bag on my shoulder, Sadie on my hip, and Marissa on my opposite arm. Oh to have my buff man here to do it for me...I have no idea how those woman survive with their husbands gone for 7-18 months! 4 months is far more than enough! Although, this time has probably been good for me to grow up a little. I love you! WE love you! And can't wait to see you in 3 months!
Love,
your 3 girlies

Marissa Laurel Nelson

On Dec. 18, 2009, the perfect addition to our family was born. Luckily Sam was able to be there. What a marvelous thing it is to have your heart open up, and fall in love with your second baby just as you did with your first. She was perfectly healthy, and weighed 6 lbs. even. Marissa has been such a blessing. She is a wonderful baby. My two girls make me so happy!

Black Friday Fun

We decided to skip the Christmas shopping the day after Thanksgiving, and get a tree. We drove to Dixon to a Christmas tree farm and picked out the tree we thought was perfect. Sam got to saw it down. It was so fun! They had santa sleigh rides, apple cider, popcorn, and a cute little boutique. Sadie was in heaven! Then we went home, turned on christmas music, and decorated our cute tree.

Thanksgiving

It was so fun getting to cook half of our Thanksgiving dinner. Sadie was very helpful with rolling out the dough and staying by my side as i slaved over the stove for hours :) We sang and danced to Christmas music while Sam went and played football with the boys in our ward.
Even though we were sad to be without family for Thanksgiving, we had such a great time with our friends, The Linn's, getting dinner ready, eating, playing games, and just enjoying each others company.
I am so thankful for Sam! I wasn't complete without him in my life. He is so fun to be around. I am thankful that we are sealed, and that he is mine forever! Oh how I love him! Our Sadie never fails to make my day better. She cracks us up when she is amazed by something, (like in the above picture) and slaps her hand over her mouth. And we love that she has an obsession with smelling things. ALL things. I am so thankful for her. She makes me want to be such a better person and mother. I am so thankful that we are blessed to have another little girl on the way! I cannot wait to get to know her, hold her, and have her as one of my best little friends.

Deployment

We have come to find out that nothing is for sure in the military. After we were so relieved to have Sam here, and not deployed, we were informed that he is leaving in the beginning of January. So we are trying to look on the bright side of things. And we are crossing our fingers that our sweet little baby girl will be born before he leaves. I just might die if she comes past her due date, and i have to have her without Sam! When he leaves we will be moving back to Utah to be with our fun, supportive family.

Our Fairy Princess

There were too many fun things to do this Halloween now that Sadie is old enough to enjoy it. This year she was a fairy princess, (and the cutest one ever at that!). First we went to a cute little pumpkin patch with Katie, Braden, Preston, and Rachel Brett and Marie. The kids Loved picking out their own little pumpkins. Rachel had a dress up play group that was a blast. Downtown Vacaville had trick or treating at all of the shops. Sadie learned that Halloween is so fun because all she had to do was smile, say hi, stick out her pumpkin bucket and then she got candy. Halloween morning we watched The Nightmare Before Christmas and carved our pumpkin. It was the first time Sam and i had done it in years and we loved it. Then Halloween night we spent with The Linns. We ate dinner and had fun taking the little ones out trick or treating for more candy. Oh how i love the holidays!