I guess i should update this thing...

I really suck at updating my blog... if you havent already noticed. Over the last few months we have experienced:

• potty training marlie
• marlie un-potty training herself
• nikki turning into some kind of demon as a result of said "reverse potty training"
• re-potty training marlie
• general conference
• halloween
• nikki being ca-RAZY sick with a super bad sinus infection AND an ear infection
• ken getting sick after nikki gets better
• my mom and dad came to visit!

so, for a while there marlie was doing SOOOOO good with potty training. She wore underwear all the time and told me when she needed to go potty. she did awesome at church and out in public. i would put her to bed with underwear on and she would wake up dry. i. was. excited. the only thing we had to do was work on #2 which i expected to be absolutely horrible... which it was... and not because i had to deal with poop... but because out of the blue, marlie thought that it was just easier to go potty in her undies... so she started wetting her pants and stopped telling me that she had to go potty. so i put her back in diapers and continued to try and potty train her. she still did well going pee... but put was and still is a WAAAAAAAAAYYYYY different story. I know exactly when she needs to go poop. she has a specific face she makes, and certain spot she goes to hide (either behind the couch or in her room) so when she makes that face or i catch her hiding, i put her on the potty, and i swear i could make her sit on the toilet for DAYS and she will NOT go to the bathroom... but as soon as i stick a diaper back on her, she poops. long story short.... im still going insane....

general conference was at the beginning of october. it was awesome! i love hearing our prophets speak. it makes me feel like im talking to a really old friend that does nothing but give you good advice.

back in september i started getting sick. it started with a crazy weird spell of horrible vertigo. if you have never had vertigo, just get in a swivel chair and spin around for at least 15 minutes straight, then stand up and try to function like a normal human being.... not.fun. then a sore throat moved in. then that went away and the congestion hit me really bad. then cough and congestion, cough and congestion, cough and congestion, then my top teeth started to hurt. not one in particular - all of them. when i ate, they were just sore. which was super weird but apparently thats a sign of a sinus infection. THEN (yes theres more) my ears started to hurt. all of this was on TOP of the vertigo. so i went to the doctor gave me a ton of meds and then i got better!! haha. worst. sickness. ever. and i still have the vertigo....

my parents came to visit at the end of october and it was so fun to hang out with them. we went to the pumpkin patch, and ate yummy food and just had a good time hanging out.

other than that our lives are pretty ordinary. i have been riding horses a lot, i hope to go to a show in the spring. ken has been working out and he put some of his old pants on the other day he said that he fits in them again. so hes happy that he is able to accomplish his goal. marlie is talking more and more every day. and i am working really hard to communicate better with her. i feel like i get frustrated too easily so i have been working really hard to be more sensitive and calm when she makes mistakes and its amazing how much of a difference it makes. its interesting because thats how i work with my horse. if i ride him when im in a bad mood, i usually get bad results from him and i get even more mad. when i ride in a good mood i have a happy horse who is much more willing to work for me. i never thought that would carry over into parenting until i had marlie. funny how that works. anyways, thats all i have for right now. the holidays are coming up and we are going to michigan for christmas so there will be lots of pictures of that!

Idaho Vacation

There was a crazy storm blowing in towards Rexburg so I HAD to take some pictures!

Me and Marlie in front of the Salt Lake temple

Marlie LOVES her grampa

The only photo I got of Marlie and Jesus was one of her running away from Him... not sure what to think of that :)

This is one of my favorites. Grampa was showing Marlie the "owies" Jesus has on His hands and feet.

we had TONS of fun at lagoon... and i found out that my 3 year old is braver than i am....

marlie loves her gramma too!!

we were on our way to martins cove and we got a flat tire.... so i thought i would snap a picture. such a pretty view

another awesome storm on the way to martins cove

my dad likes to live life on the edge... of a cliff....

handcart replicas

marlie got to pull the little kids handcart with her little friend.

she had so much fun!

the pioneers were allowed 17lbs per person on the handcarts.

these monuments were a beautiful reminder of how much the saints loved and trusted the Lord. you could definitely feel the spirit of the young men who carried people across the frozen sweet water river here.

view of martins cove from the sweet water river

I will post more picture soon. We had so much fun going all over the place with my parents. It was nice that they got some time off so we can do all the things we did. there was a lot of driving involved but it was well worth it. If you havent been to martins cove i would HIGHLY recommend it. it was a real eye opener to actually BE there where people had struggled to survive in freezing weather with no warm clothes, no food, and small children and elderly people to care for. i am grateful for their sacrifices - im not sure i would be so willing. it really was a neat experience, especially since we went right before pioneer day. i loved it! more stories and pictures to come!

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!