Date Night

Several weeks ago a little girl at our preschool came to school very excited about the fact that she was getting to go on a special date with her mom that afternoon. Her mom is expecting a new baby and so they decided to take each of their children on a special date to spend some quality time together before the baby was born.

I thought that was such a great idea and have been thinking about doing it with Merrick ever since. As excited as I am to have our new baby girl join our family, it makes me sad to think about how much less time I will have with Merrick. When Jeremy told me last week that he had a meeting for school this past Friday night, I decided it was the perfect time for a special mommy/Merrick date.

My idea was to go to PDX Playdate, a huge indoor play place, to play and have dinner, but since this was Merrick's date I thought he should get to choose the night's activities. It turns out that what he really wanted to do was go get a new "Cars" toy. He still had money from Christmas and he was adamant that this was how he wanted to spend his date night.

With a new "Cars" toy as the end game, our date consisted of first a trip to Target and then a trip to TJ Maxx when we left Target empty handed. TJ Maxx was a success with a "Cars" book complete with action figure cars and play mat of Radiator Springs. By the time we were finished shopping it was getting late and we had just enough time for a quick dinner stop. Again Merrick got to choose and we ended up at Wendy's.

I will be the first to admit that it was not a glamorous night, but Merrick was happy and we were able to spend some quality time together. In the end I guess that is all that really matters.

Baby Bump

So this week our computer crashed. This is bad news for a number of reasons. The first is that Jeremy NEEDS his computer for school and the second is that I have been working on our 2012 blog book and this puts both that and my traditional blogging on hold. This post, for example is being written on our iPad and while it is great, I can't access the photos on my camera. With that in mind, I have decided to use this post to respond to a request from some out of state family.

I am now 26 weeks along with this little baby girl and have yet to post any pictures of myself with my baby bump. My reasons for not have been two-fold, I did not think anyone really cared and until recently there was not much to show. I have now been officially asked to post pictures and my belly has "popped" as of late so I guess my reasons don't really hold water anymore.

Without further ado, here is my baby bump in all of its glory...

I guess the next big baby reveal is the name. We do have a name that we are considering, but have gotten some mixed reviews from family so I guess for right now at least I will keep that to myself. You know what they say about too many cooks in the kitchen.

Looking Forward

This is my first official 2013 blog post and so far 2013 has been pretty uneventful. The primary focus for this past week was just getting back into the routine of work and regular life. Jeremy and I have been talking about our goals for the new year, I know we are a little late, but this has caused me to think forward on the year to come and what it will bring. I am sure it is no surprise that what I am probably the most anxious for is welcoming our new baby girl. We can't help but wonder what she will be like and who she will look like. Last night Jeremy said he hopes she looks like me. Let's just hope she does not look like this...

Year in Review 2012

It is that time of year again where I repent for the fact that I did not send out a Christmas letter by recapping the year on the blog before moving on to 2013. So here is 2012 in a nutshell:

On a family level there were a few key events this year. This summer we took our first real family vacation in years. We met Jeremy's family (minus Garret) in southern California. We recharged our batteries at the beach and took Merrick for his first trip to Disneyland. While we were there we discovered the most significant thing to happen to our family this year, we found out that we were going to be having another baby. We have since found out that it is a baby girl and we are anxiously awaiting her arrival in 2013.

Jeremy reached a significant achievement this year as he reached his half way point in law school. He continues to work so hard to reach this goal he has set for himself. He also had his first legal job this summer. He worked as a legal clerk for a local attorney. It was a trial by fire kind of job, but he learned a lot and gained some invaluable experience.

Sarah lost her job early in 2012 and decided it was just the push she needed to start her own business. With the help of her mom, she started her own preschool. It is going really well and allows her to earn some income while being with Merrick.

Merrick is loving preschool. He is learning so much and constantly impresses us with the things he knows. He loves cars from the "Cars" movie and is always looking for someone with an electronic device that he can play with.

Lola's big event this year was her discovery that some slats were out from a section of the back fence and she could come and go as she pleased. This ultimately led to several manhunts to track her down. At this point we think we have the problem resolved and hopefully her days of roaming the neighborhood are behind us.

All in all 2012 was a pretty good year for our family. We look forward to 2013 and the promise that it brings.