They're having a baby...

FLIPPIN SWEET!!!

February 9-12
The Great Marx Mexican Adventure

As you can see, the kids are always monkeying around. Matt and Ashley were not able to go with us, they were denied boarding at the pier due to Ashley's pregnancy. We had no idea these little rules existed - it was really disappointing to find out as we were boarding.

It was just a simple weekend, down to ensenada and back. The boat was very rocky on Sunday, causing everyone to get queasy at some point. There are more pictures on Ron's camera - but I haven't been able to get it from his work truck to add to the computer. I think Bekah has a picture of Ron bartering with a vendor for a few purses. For at least 30 minutes they haggled over the difference in price of ONE DOLLAR. Jenn and Rebekah finally gave into the pleadings of a little girl to braid their hair. I didn't take off for the far away neighborhoods, but if I find myself in Ensenada again - I'd really like to see what the community looks like beyond the main shopping street for the cruise ships.

I think everyone enjoyed their time, and it was fun to get away for the weekend.

We're so sorry, Matt & Ashley
We're so sorry that you didn't get to go
We're so sorry, Matt & Ashley
but the cruise line was empatic, they didn't want a baby in Mexico

New Puppy for David & Rebekah

Welcome, Snuggles

More party pictures...

Scotty's 18th Birthday Party.

This is what happens when I turn over the planning of the party to Scott's friends! Enjoy the pictures, too bad you weren't here in person to enjoy the LOUD music and LIVE band!

Christmas 2006 #2

I guess I will need to call kara and see how you get these to show up in the correct order. Drew has a new friend, a Christmas Moose just his size. I had to twist Ashley's arm to get this picture, this is just the start of the Charlie pictures....and you thought I had a lot of Drew!

And finally our Christmas afternoon movie was The Pursuit of Happyness. Here's Scotty and Drew waiting in line for tickets. And for all of you non-Las Vegas residents who pop in to view, yes, the movie theaters are all in casinos.

Christmas Fun 2006

Enjoy a few photos from Christmas around our house. Everyone was here to go to church as a family and enjoy Christmas Eve together. It was so fun for me to have them all here at the same time.

Congratulations, David Mills. David graduated today from UNLV's College of Fine Arts with a degree in film production, cum laude. What an accomplishment, we are so proud of you.

Jenn drove up from Mesa to be at the graduation. Here's our group at the Thomas & Mack. We were an hour early and had seats on the upper level. This was the largest December graduating class for UNLV with over 1600 students. Every seat available was full by the time the ceremony started and people were lining the tunnels standing up to watch. Quite a crowd. Scott is talking on the phone to Tim Miller who just opened his mission call to Veracruz, Mexico. After the ceremony we had a luncheon at the house. Thanks, David, to a great day with family.

Note to self: We need more pictures of Drew with the great-grandparents. Lucky little guy to have such a great family caring about him.

I loved watching what was going on during this picture. Ashley: "here Drew, let me button your jacket. Drew, just hold still. Drew, I just want to fix your jacket for the picture."

Get used to it, Drew. Finally, all buttoned up, Drew was ready for the picture.

Goodbye, Brian, We'll Miss You

Today was Brian's farewell.
He will be serving in the Columbus, Ohio Mission. These are the four cousins next in line for mission service, Brian, Scott, Tim Miller, Ryan. We'll miss you, Brian, I know you'll do a terrific job with the people in Ohio.

This seemed to be a busy weekend with a lot going on. Late Thursday afternoon Ron and I left to take Jennifer her new furniture plus an old family computer. We didn't get there until 10:30 at night, unloaded everything and by the time the computer was up and running it was after midnight -- just in time for the girls to sign on to the internet and start doing finals. The furniture looked terrific in the condo. I'm sure it's one of the nicest looking "student" places around!

Friday morning we drove down to Tucson to spend the day with Brad and Kara. They gave us a tour of theUniversity of Arizona where Brad has spent so much of his time the last two years. Then a terrific dinner at Guadalajara mexican restaurant. A movie sounded like a great evening activity, but Kara didn't find one she was interested in seeing. I think she was just being kind to me, though, because we came back to their apartment and between the combination of getting up for seminary and driving down to Mesa and getting to bed so late - I fell asleep and slept through the beginning movie times. So Friday evening was just visiting and a few tv shows. We left Saturday after lunch. Kara was off to buy supplies for their evening activity which was going to be building gingerbread houses. I can't wait to see the pictures of that on her blog, I'm sure they were pretty cute. 12 more days and you'll be here for a visit - yippeee.

Duh, finally figured out why the dimples weren't showing up - too much info in the previous blog for it to fit. So I'll throw in a few more pictures on this continuation and hopefully it will flow and make sense!

Here's The Three Little Ones, I know next month they'll be 18 & 20, but they'll always be the Three Little Ones to me.

And for a final picture. I know you've been keeping up with the adventures of The Reorganized Breakfast Club (not headquartered in Ohio) The origianl four had to form a splinter group because so many were interested in calling themselves members and even getting involved in the leadership decisions when they had first period classes - so technically they weren't even members - hence the need for the Reoganized version. Any how- yesterday Ashley brought a guest with her to breakfast. Her crab named Suzie. I only include this because as I took the picture Scott said, "You know you guys are going to end up on the internet now..."

December will bring many more activities. Stay tuned for a report of the snowboarding trip to Salt Lake, another cousin's mission farewell, and Christmas!

November Marx Update

For Thanksgiving dinner we had the grandparents over, David & Rebekah, Jenn came here from Arizona. Why can't we ever take a normal picture? I think our meal was just about what everybody else has. We missed Brad and Kara who stayed in Tucson and ate with friends. Check our their blog - Kara has some great pictures on it of their day. Matt and Ashley headed off for Goodyear so that Drew could entertain the Hunt family.

Since I haven't really updated on family happenings the last month or so here goes a list of the few events:

The middle of October, the countdown on Scott's myspace page that he has for when he can turn in his mission papers went below 365 days - so less than a year left to prepare, Scotty.

I'll just attach the smaller size pictures - but you can always click on them to see a big version. Drew has spent the night a few times. Matt swears Drew pictures occupy the most space on my computer - they just might! How can I resist - he looked so cute in his jammies:

And playing with his dinosaurs.

And don't forget about those dimples!!! Drew pretty much gets whatever he wants around here, including convincing grandpa to turn off the tv show he was watching so Drew can watch Cars - again. His vocabulary is pretty sparse, but he managed to say Grandpa, Cars, PLEASE in all of his jabbering. You could definately tell what he wanted.

Well - I keep trying to upload a picture of the dimples, but it isn't showing up on the page. If when I publish this blog there are random pictures of drew's dimples, you'll know why.

Jennifer bought her first furniture purchase while she was here for the weekend. Couches for the condo. Matt and Ashley took a mattress down there for her, which ended her two months on the air mattress! Our family sat around watching a season of NCIS, and a few other movies. And now - winter weather has arrived. If I can just survive till March/April it will warm up again. I should explain that our winter isn't anything like winter in most states since I don't even own a real coat, but the fact that I had to put socks and shoes on and grab a sweatshirt to wear out is more cold than I would like to deal with.

This was the spiritual thought given this morning in the prayer meeting before seminary. It's out of one of those scripture and thought for a day kind of books, but it hit me so strongly with what they were saying - so here it is repeated for all of cyber space to ponder over as well:

"As I stated...that I would write to you from time to time and give you information in relation to many subjects, I now resume the subject of the baptism for the dead, as that subject seems to occupy my mind, and press itself up0n my feelings." D&C 128:1

"The Lord uses a myriad of ways to reveal himself to his children. He who is omnipotent and omniscient is hardly limited in how he speaks or makes known his mind and will. As recorded in D&C 8:2-3, the Spirit can reveal things to our mind (in the form of thoughts) and to our heart (in the form of feelings), and these two can serve as a kind of balance for one another. The revelations of God are almost always what we would call rational. It is impressive to note that someone as seasoned and experienced in the things of the Spirit as the Prophet of the Restoration should identify as revelation that which God had caused to occupy his mind and press upon his feelings. It is a great lesson to those who aspire to perfect communion with the heavens: We will never outgrow the simple and straightforward manifestations of the Holy Ghost."

I can never explain things this well and sucinctly. I would have made an hour lesson out of it, and here it is in one small paragraphed summed up so nicely. I would like to develop that talent....

Why I LOVE Fabulous Freddies

• they greet me Fabulously
• they pump my gas
• for 30 minutes and $30 they make my car look more Fabulous than I could have with 4 hours and $60 worth of products
• when they are done with my car, they ask for Fabulous Kim
• as I leave they tell me to have a Fabulous day
• and last but not least....while detailing my car, they found my Fabulously Favorite Hurley sunglasses that I lost 4 months ago.

Grey's Anatomy - How To Save a Life-The Fray

Music video of 'How to Save a Life' - by The Fray - Includes scenes from season 3! Let's try again.....

The Fray - How to save a life

Wow - I learned a new trick! Hey sometimes it's just fun to take a break and listen! Here are a few life's lessons that Grey's Anatomy illustrates so well: Spend 95% of your life in comfortable clothes, just put on a tie and fancy dress when you have to. Friend are good. Long-term friends. And a true friend understands when to just lie down on the bathroom floor with you because there's nothing they can say to make it any better. When someone dies - food. You need food. Those long term friends and food. Sometimes you do incredibly stupid things and you feel like your underwear is on the board for all to see. The reality is there's only a few people who really know who they belong to so not as many people are watching you as you think. A good drum beat makes the song and life fun. Dance.

Drew Spends the Night

The Drewsters spent a quiet night at Grandma's house. He dumped all his toys out of the baskets and then sat inside and read books. At one point from the corner of the room I heard, "Help, I'm stuck!" So what would any grandma do? I said, "Wait right there a minute, I have to go get the camera..." This was pretty much the highlight of the night. Well - I spared him the embarrassment of another bathtub photo. He did enjoy splashing around with all the rubber ducks left over from Scott's homecoming ask and answer. I think Drew considers them 'his toys' now. He even went in the bathroom to say good morning to them. We sure are enjoying his personality. Ashley has done a fantastic job teaching him sign language, and now that he says a few words to explain to me what he's signing, we can communicate just fine.

Travels in Tucson, Mariah in the Valley of the Sun, Scott Skiding

I should have learned by now that whenever you point a camera in the direction of Brad and Kara, something goofy is going to happen. "Oh, look, let's take a picture of you two in front of that boganvillea." Click:

I had a fun day with these two. We sure are proud of them.

While in Arizona Jenn and her roommate and I checked out the Mariah Carey concert. Wow, all those high notes really come out of her!!! It was a good concert. Jenn has a great group of girls she's living with, more that come roaming through every night on their way to various activities. She seems to have a variety of single wards and institute activites to choose from every night.

This is Jenn, Manda, and Brye:

And finally - Scott's vertical challange. Ron and Scott have been riding dirt bikes every week to train for the Mexican ride this February. Unfortunately - this last practice run found Scott skiding on the ground...

All together now, OUCHHH! He's starting to be able to move around now after 4 days! February and 1,000 miles through Baja will be here before you know it!!!