Lilia's Birthday

January 24th

My cousin Stephanie's little girl, Lilia, turned one in January.

We were invited to her birthday party at the park.
Mike was his usual sweet self...


Where as Abbey was quite sassy!

That is until she saw the cupcakes...

She was more than happy to give a smile to the camera for one of those!

Watermelon

We are loving watermelon over at our house!

Sweet...

Cool...

Pink...

and Refreshing!

Whats not to love about Watermelon!

Put on Your Thinking Cap

Tim is going back to school!! Actually, I really don't think going "back" is the right term. With the exception of the credits from going through the Academy, It seems he doesn't really have any credits from his so called semesters up at EA and in Utah! He has been very excited to get back and decided to go through University of Phoenix online. So I know I will be seeing this a lot...
And true to his Merrill genes... he already is ahead in his assignments (such an overachiever!). In fact he has been told by a counselor that he has been his best student with how much he has been on top of everything. Yeah... his classes just started this Monday!

June's Live In's...

June is already flying by! Time seems to have gone by quicker due to how much fun that has been had at the Merrill's house. What have we been doing you wonder? We have been housing my sister Carrie and her new husband Dan (pictures of their wedding coming soon).
They temporarily moved in June 1st to have a place to wait for the house they are buying to close. As of last night, they are officially home owners and slept their first night in their own room on a real mattress (instead of an air mattress on the floor of Mike's room)!

We have had fun these last two weeks. We made sure to have great dinners (since I actually had someone to cook for at night) and ice cream desserts. I think I gained at least 10 pounds! There was plenty video game playing... Lego Star Wars and Lego Indiana Jones.

Lots of time with the kids running around and playing.
(Abbey loved all of Aunt Carrie's makeup!)
(Aunt Carrie let Abbey put makeup on her, and Abbey got treated to makeup by Aunt Carrie)

(Mike loved Aunt Carrie's scarf and sunglasses. He also loves to high five and growl thanks to Uncle Dan!)

And of course a lot of late nights, whether it was watching Star Wars the movies or babies waking up... always followed by early mornings. I'm sure Carrie and Dan are so happy to be in their own house were it is very quiet! But they will be missed. Abigail and Mike love Aunt Carrie and Uncle Dan, and I loved having someone to entertain and keep me company. Now only one more thing to be moved out of our house... Harry the cat. He will be joining Carrie and Dan (since he is, after all, Carrie's cat).

Prince and Princess

January 20th

We went to see new baby Delaine at Heidi and Jeremiah's. She was so cute and fun to hold. I can't believe how much she has already grown.
Besides loving holding a little baby, the highlight for Abbey was dancing with her prince (aka Bode).

Bode and Abbey occasionally have sweet and tender moments with one another. They like to hold hands... thanks to Bode's love for Wall-E and Eve holding hands. They also like to dance like a prince and princess... thanks to Abbey's love of Sleeping Beauty. They have even kissed! When was that? I think it was during Laine's baby blessing?

"On Sunday's"

Last Wednesday at the grocery store with Abigail... Tim: "Abbey, some day we need to figure out how to get your shoes on the right feet"

Abigail(very forceful and determined): "No dad! I'll do it on Sunday!!"

Yes, she dressed herself and yes, she went to the store with Tim looking like that

Color Me Mine

-January 19th-

We bought Abbey her easel for either her 2nd Birthday or that following Christmas... I can't remember. But we are still get a return from it. It's a great gift idea. Recently she has taken to water color painting with it. It has also been great for cousin fun. Here is Wyatt and Luke painting with Abbey.

Luke wanted to be a part of the painting party so bad. He would squeeze in every once in awhile.

This was the same day... the super hero capes were added to the mix

Abbey has been good about not making a big mess, Mike... not so much

He knows that it is suppose to go on the paper, but I guess the pretty blue color on a smooth brush is just too tempting

There's nothing like milk to chase down blue paint

Lazy Sunday

-January 18th-

We have nine-o-clock church. We will always have nine-o-clock church due to being the only ward that meets in our building (weird huh!). I like nine, but it is hard on poor babies. It is right during morning naps! Mike has a hard time getting in a good nap on Sunday. This Sunday his nap took place during lunch...

Abbey was relaxing too... nope, she can't fool me... this picture was just mid blink

And here is a shot of Mikes curls by his ears... so I can always remember how much I loved them. They are like wings on the sides of his head, so cute.

Sick Boy

-January 14th-

Mike got sick... almost scary sick. I have learned my lesson about taking your baby into the pediatrician when they are showing cold symptoms. You get the great "mom" talk. You know the one... "Your baby is going to catch many colds in the first few years of his life. His immune system is building up" blah blah blah! So when Mike has a runny nose and small cough, I don't take him in. But this time it was different. He was having trouble breathing and wheezing. This was the outcome of our trip to the doctor.
Turns out he had a form of RSV, called bronchiolitis. It wasn't very serious. The breathing treatments were just to help break up the mucus so he could get it up. He was really good about taking the treatments. He stayed still and stuck his tongue out the whole time, kind of funny.

"Tincess" Bike

-January 8th-

What do you do when you get a cool "tincess" bike from Santa? Learn to ride it all by yourself of course! Abbey was so excited to get her princess bike for Christmas. Learning to peddle herself... not so much. She required a lot of back breaking bending from mom and dad to learn how to peddle. One day she just caught on. I think it was the fact that she was tired of mom not wanting to push her for very long and not letting her go all the cool places she wanted to!
I will spare you the pictures Tim took of me helping Abbey. Tim got some great butt shots of me that will not be shared!

Tim decided to show her by doing it himself... too funny, look at her concentrating on his feet!

And off she goes by herself!


And I can't forget Mike... he watched from the doorway (I can't believe how much he has grown since then!!)

Its Official... I'm a Blooser

As in the words of one of my cousins... I am a Blooser: a blog loser, one who updates his or her blog once every few months (thanks Julie for the great term)

Don't think I'm unaware that my last post was in February. I'm well aware, and have been fighting that feeling that you had as a kid. When you knew you should be working on an assignment that you had months to complete, but you waited until two weeks before! Or maybe that was just me as a kid.

Anyways, here's to breaking my blogging silence once again... Below you will find an old post that I never posted. I will be adding more regularly, or at least that is the plan!