Family Pictures

We went to Seattle this last weekend to see the Detroit Tigers play against the Seattle Mariners (Mariners won... ken was depressed). While we were there I had my sister-in-law do some family pictures. We went to the Bellevue Botanical Gardens and it was a lot of fun. These were some of my favorites!

Something funny

Marlie loves the movie "Madagascar" and she watches it all the time. Just a few minutes ago, she was sitting next to me drinking a cup of water. She would fill her mouth with a little water and then SPRAY it out of her mouth. She did this a few times and I asked her to stop. then she did it one more time and after she spit the water out she said "yuck! its sea water!" hahaha and then i realized that she picked that up from the movie where they are stranded on the beach, the zebra makes drinks for everyone and they all spit it out because its just sea water haha. i was trying to find a clip of that part of the movie but i cant find one. other funny things she will say is "amember ooo you arrrrre" which is translated to "remember who you are" from the lion king. that one cracks me up every time because she is super serious when she says it. when ken plays a video game and he loses, he will say "OH COME ON!!" and so now when im putting marlies jammies on or im doing something that is taking WAY too long in her mind, she will say "oh COME ON MAMA!"

other news, marlie slept in a toddler bed for the first time last night. there is a lady in the ward that give me all of her hand-me-downs and she gave me a toddler bed. i was SO excited! those things are super spendy... at least i think so because im a major tight wad haha. marlie did awesome for her first night in the big girl bed. i had to go in there a few times to clear off all the toys that she had put on her bed but as soon as she was asleep she slept through the night! so we are really proud of her! thats all i have for now!

I...

my friend did this on her blog and i decided to copy her because i have nothing better to do at the moment...

I am a woman. a photographer. an artist. a mother. a good friend. left-brained... and sometimes no-brained.

I think deeply

I know that my Heavenly Father loves me. i know that He works miracles in our everyday lives. I know a lot, but i know theres tons more to learn about the role the Gospel plays in my life.

I want a house. to teach my kids all i know about life and love and the Lord and i want that to be enough for them to stay strong in the gospel.

I wish i could finish reading the count of monte cristo!!! the unabridged version is so stinking LONG!

I hate dishes, laundry, long road trips, people who say one thing and do another, how corrupt our world has become. it makes me scared for my kids.

I miss my family and friends in idaho. old friendships that i thought would last through the years.

I fear nasty spiders, birds (especially chickens!), heights, taking risks.

I feel cold. its never a comfortable temperature in the freakin' apartment!

I hear the clock, the hum of the computer, and the count of monte cristo on the tv

I smell victoria's secret perfume

I search pinterest and facebook too much!

I wonder when we will get a house. if i will ever own a horse. how many kids i will have. if my family will move back to oregon.

I regret so many things that i cant even think of one.

I love my family. horses. painting. drawing. photography. scripture. reading gospel doctrine books. eating.

I care about those who care about me.

I always take a shower in the mornings.

I am not retarded...but sometimes i act that way.

I believe the golden rule.

I dance like an asian

I sing like one of those people on american idol that say "all of my friends and family told me that i should audition so i did" and you think they might be good and they actually make you want to slit your wrist and do push-ups in salt water... and i sing in the shower

I don't always clean up my mess when i cook... it makes ken really mad

I write left handed and eat left handed... everything else i do with my right hand. is that wierd???

I win pretty much nothing.

I lose most of my battles with inanimate objects. aka: im a klutz (clutz?? cluts?? how the heck do you spell that?)

I never get on a horse from the right side.

I listen to music when i drive marlie always wants me to dance in the car which is awkward for everyone involved.

I'm scared of   the unknown

I read ...currently im reading the help. and the count of monte cristo but i think i will be reading that for the rest of my life...

I am Nikki Marie McLennan

christmas

first off, i just want to say that i'm the worst parent ever.... i didn't take a single picture at christmas!! not ONE!! and i have no idea why! but overall christmas was really good. we opened presents with just our family on christmas eve, and then opened presents at my grandma's house on christmas day. we went to church on christmas morning, which was really nice. it was overall a really quiet holiday. my sister recently found out that she is in the beginning stages of diabetes and she has decided to participate in a study in seattle so this last week she and my mom went up to seattle for her evaluation so ken, marlie, and i all went up there to visit with them. it was good to see them even if it was only for a little while. on our way home to portland, my mom text me and said that my brother dylan was in the hospital because of a gas leak in their apartment. i didnt really know what that meant as far as how he was doing but my mom said she would call me when she landed in salt lake. my mom called me later that night and said that he was ok but that he came really close to dying. dylan got married 2 weeks ago and so his wife came home an hour earlier than normal and she found him face down on the floor. she thought he was playing around and when he didnt respond she flipped him over and he was unconscious and foaming at the mouth. she ran and got the neighbor and called 911 and the paramedics came and rushed him to the hospital. hes home now and feeling better and we are all so glad that his wife came home earlier than normal, we are hoping that the property owner will pay for their medical bills and compensate for the wages lost from not working but we arent sure what will happen. we are just glad he made it out!

What we are up to

marlie was very adamant about pulling her own wagon when we went to pick out pumkins!

ok so not the BEST picture ive ever taken but i was trying to be fast. here is marlie with ken in her costume!

we havent really been up to much lately. ken has just been working, and i have been hanging out with marlie at home. we went trick or treating on halloween though! we hit up the rich people up at persimmon golf course cuz whenever i went trick or treating there as a kid, they gave out whole candy bars! and they didnt disappoint this year either. marlie was a cow but she didnt like the part of her costume that goes on her head because it kept falling into her eyes so everyone thought she was a puppy haha. so we had a good time with that. ken has been working on getting his internship finished, and hes done everything he needs to do hes just waiting to hear back from the school. i havent been up to much. i have done a few photography jobs but its starting to slow down now that the peak wedding season is over. so i go riding on the days ken is home which is fun. we just got a new horse out at the barn and hes going to be my new project. so i will be working and training this horse with a friend and it should be really fun! other than that we arent up to much. we are hopefully going to california after thanksgiving to visit my dads side of the family. so that will be lots of fun since ken hasnt met hardly any of my dads side of the family. we are going to my grandmas house for thanksgiving and we will probably stay here for christmas too. marlie is learning a lot these days, she knows all of her letters and can count to 10 by herself. she LOVES the moon... yes, i said the moon.... everytime we go outside and its dark she wants to find the moon and then she wont stop talking about it until we get back inside... i have no idea where she learned what the moon even is but she freakin' LOVES it. anyways, thats what we have been up to lately. enjoy the photos!

Time for an update

So as you may have already noticed.... i am REALLY bad at blogging now. So i will update you on whats been going on around here. July was pretty uneventful. We watched fireworks from Crown Point which sounded like it would be an awesome location but it really wasnt that cool. August we didnt do much either till the end of the month and me and marlie went to idaho to visit my parents. i photographed a wedding the day before we left and then while i was in idaho i did 4 photo shoots so i have been really busy editing photos this week. i dont know if i have mentioned this in earlier posts but i found a lady back in march/april who lets me clean stalls 2 days a week in exchange for riding privileges. so i have FINALLY gotten back into riding horses which is absolutely divine! this lady's name is amy and she just graduated med school and now she is a naturopathic doctor and when she starts up her practice she said she is going to hire me (shes not sure what she will have me do yet but i will have a job nonetheless) but in the mean time she is letting me work with one of her younger horses who has just been started under saddle (or "broke" for all you non horse people haha) so its been fun to be getting back into what i love to do. marlie is growing up like crazy. she really likes to play with her daddy and i love hearing her giggle when she plays with him. she is very active and we are going to start potty training here soon (ugh). its been really hot here in portland the past week so we really havent done anything that requires us to go outside cuz its just to darn hot....of course i will go ride horses in the heat but nothing else. ken is doing well. we were able to use the job he is doing now as his internship so he can FINALLY get his diploma!!! YA!!!! we are excited for him! he has been working out a lot trying to get back in shape. overall we are all doing well. just not a whole lot of anything super exciting. i would write a little more but theres a little girl saying "mama omeer" (mama come here) cuz she wants to take a bath. :)

Busy Busy Busy!!

Holy cow we have had a busy summer so far!! In a nutshell, we have been able to see most of mine and kens immediate family in the last 2 months without having to leave oregon. Kens sister Joy and her 2 boys came at the end of May to visit Ken's OTHER sister who lives in Seattle who had just had a baby at the beginning of May. So to give Ruth and the baby a rest from 2 rowdy boys, we had Joy and the boys come down here to Portland to hang out with us for a week. They were able to play and get to know Marlie, we went to the zoo, rode horses, saw some waterfalls, ate lots of food and just had a really good time. A couple weeks later, my brother Dan and my sister Anna drove out here for a visit, Dan only stayed for a few days but Anna stayed for a few weeks. We just hung out and had a good time. About a week after Anna got here, Kens parents and 2 brothers came out for a visit. They were here for about 4 days and we were able to take Ken's brother to Burnside Skate Park (its world famous... but its perfectly normal if you didn't know that haha.), Ken worked on the car (which he LOVED doing....just kidding), we went to the oregon coast aquarium, the tillamook cheese factory, and devils punch bowl, then we took them to the columbia river gorge to see the waterfalls which was fun. They left on a thursday to head to Seattle to spend time with Ruth, Shem, and the new baby and then we met them up there for Asher's baby blessing. We had a couple weeks till my parents finally came out but they were able to hang out with us for a whole week which was so much fun. Marlie got to spend lots of time playing with grandma and grandpa. Me, Ken, Anna, and my dad did a lot of hiking while they were here. We went to Astoria, and Canon Beach and we actually enjoyed some nice weather while we were there. Thats about all we did but it was fun to just relax and hang out. Anna went back to Idaho with my mom and dad so now we are getting used to our apartment being so quiet again! Tomorrow my room mate from college will be here with her husband but they are only going to be here for one night. But you can bet it will be a fun one!! i will add pictures later. the computer isnt wanting to cooperate :)