Girl or Boy?

Zach and I are so excited to welcome a brand new Baby Marx into the world! The estimated date of arrival for our sweet little munchkin is March 26, 2015.  The highlight of the week is that we discovered the gender.  It is tradition in my family that my mom finds out the gender first and then throws a gender revealing party!  Unfortunately, we are far away from home, so instead we had the ultrasound tech place the gender in an envelope, and had a friend text the gender to our moms.  They sent us presents with a gender revealing outfit inside.  When the packages arrived we had a skype party and opened the package.  Any guesses?

The anticipation was almost to much to handle.

 Zach is excited for another Dodgers fan!

 I am excited to have a new little buddy!

 We just love all the cute clothes!

...and we couldn't be happier!!! Welcome Baby Marx!!!

Just a Few More Wedding Pictures

June 20th 2014 The BEST day of my life

I was so blessed 3 months ago to get married for time and all eternity to Zachary Marx.  I only have positive wonderful memories of all that happened on that sweet day.  My family is wonderful and spent the several months prior to helping prepare for the event.  Everything was beautiful and I felt so special because of all of their service.  I also realized how lucky I am to have such a supportive extended family.  So many came from out of town.  I felt so loved with all my family members and close friends at my special event.  The best part of course was going to the temple with my sweetheart.  As we sat in the celestial room before our sealing ceremony, I felt the stress and worry fade away as I pondered eternity with my best friend.

Just a few more to come...

Accomplishing Hard Things

One of Life's Simple Pleasures is knowing that we can all accomplish hard things.  Last Saturday I ran a marathon!  As my race date got closer and closer I started to think I had been crazy when I signed up to run a marathon a week before my wedding. It was hard to make myself train everyday in all of the wedding stress and health issues I had been experiencing.  But, the feeling of accomplishment and the wonderful family support I felt made it all completely worth it.
This is an excerpt from the e-mail I sent my missionary sister about it:  I especially missed you on Saturday because...guess what... I RAN A MARATHON!!!!!  Oh my goodnight!! That is a long ways to run!  Okay, spiritual lesson from a marathon race. At the beginning of the race I felt great! My blood was pumped full of energy my legs felt strong and loose and I was running at a 6:10 mile pace.  That is like the times in life when we are feeling on top of the world because we have everything together.  It is easy to get a little prideful and go out a little fast.  I kept that up for 9 miles before my stomach began aching horribly.  Finally, at mile 11, I ran into a porta-pottie (yes, I was so low I used one of those nasties) and had diarrhea and blood.  I still kept going but was feeling a little thrown off.  Sometimes life throws us unpleasant surprises.  Pretty soon after that I was certain I was done because my tummy hurt so bad. I could either give up and run a poor race or I could keep moving (step step step...). Two things that kept me stepping: our sweet family cheering me on, and the aid stations.  Heavenly Father never intended us to have to go through this life alone, although it often felt that way between cheering sections and aid stations. We were given people, especially our families, to bless and strengthen us in hard times.  Even better than that He gives us the holy ghost.  We just have to listen to the happy voice in our head and not the grumpy one.  Lastly, I cannot explain to you how much I looked forward to the aid stations to give me poweraid and water (energy boosters).  This can be like taking the sacrament, going to temple or having a spiritual experience.  They sometimes don't happen as often as we like, but we can know that we will have them as often as we need to give us spiritual boosters and turn our hearts to the true source of strength, Jesus Christ our Savior.  It's such a blessing to know we are not alone even in times of extreme hardship.  

 My Sweet family even made me signs!! Bubby spent so much time on those! That meant a lot to me!

I have the best parents anyone could ask for!

 Such a good sister! She even brought her two-year-old 

Bubby made me some stellar signs!

 Kenney Girls: We build them strong!

I have such a wonderful fiance! I was so glad he came!

I Love Christmas!!!!!

The holidays are always my favorite, simply because of all the time my family spends together.  This year was a little different because this was the first Christmas where 2 of the 4 girls could not be with the family.  Karissa is still loving life as a missionary in Chile and Melanie spent Christmas with her in-laws.  Even though we missed them we still had fun visiting Grandpa and his wife Bardella in Washington.  I was lucky enough to get to visit Zach's family in Oregon after Christmas.  The time spent with family this Christmas break has really helped me to recognize just how blessed and lucky I am to have such amazing people surrounding me. 

 Christmas take one

 Billy boy loved his present from Papa and Mama Sue

 Sisters!

 Got to have one of these every year! (; 

 We loved visiting with Grandpa and cousins

"Zachie baby"

 More Family at my Cousins delicious restaurant 

 Fun with Daddy on New Years Eve

I love it when Zach takes me running! Look! We are matching!