Thanksgiving 2011-Part I

This week Ben and Becca were out of town so Merrick and I got to spend a whole week home together. It was a busy week with Thanksgiving and just catching up with all the things that fall through the cracks when I spend around 50 hours a week away from home. We did, however, manage to squeeze in some fun.

For me, one of the most enjoyable parts of the week was getting to spend some time with Brendon and Rachel's family. The kids were off school all week so they spent more time than usual over here and Merrick was able to enjoy lots of cousin time. They played puzzles and discovered all sorts of treasures in the playroom. It was also fun for me to spend some time with Rachel and my mom, Rachel, and I even "enjoyed" a guilty pleasure and went to see the new "Twilight" movie.



Prior to Thanksgiving, my mom, Merrick, and I were also able to spend a day at the Portland Children's Museum. I know I have posted about the children's museum in the past, but it is such a fun place I just have to recap our visit.

Merrick built a "light Lego" house with Nana


We played with clay


We played in Legoland


We played in the water



We played alligator dentist


And what trip to the children's museum would be complete without a trip to the grocery store?


It was a great week even before we got to Thanksgiving. Hopefully I will get around to posting about the rest of the week before too long. Check back soon.

PB&J

A few weeks ago I referenced the fact that Merrick likes to sing "It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time". I know that my weekly blog is late this week and things have been crazy getting ready for Thanksgiving so for now I will give you some pictures of our version of "Peanut Butter Jelly Time".

Quirky Turkey

One of my favorite things about being a mom is watching Merrick's personality develop. He is so funny and cracks me up everyday. That being said as of late he has developed a few quirks to his personality that have left us scratching our heads.

The first of these quirks is licking. Normally licking would totally gross me out, but he does not lick like a normal person would. Instead he licks you like a dog would lap up water. It catches me off guard every time and I cannot help but laugh.

The second thing is that he has decided that he needs to eat Frosted Mini Wheats for breakfast every morning. Even yesterday when we were running late for church and had to take something with us to eat in the car/at church, he insisted that he get his Mini Wheats in a bag to-go.

Merrick has also decided that many people in his life have assigned roles that they are obliged to perform. Papa is responsible for playing Angry Birds and watching Special Agent Oso. Nana is responsible for reading books, and Aunt Becca is responsible for "Sticker Time".

The last quirky habit that Merrick has developed lately is climbing into anything and everything. It started with a large pot that my mom has in the kitchen and moved on from there. Here are a couple of recent pictures (please don't call CPS)



I just love him and the new silly little things he does each day!

A Blog About Nothing

I started this blog about two years ago as a way to preserve memories and to keep out of state family up to date with the goings on in our life. Now, it is both a joy and a burden to keep it up, but my reasons for starting it are still valid so we just plug along.

In the wake of Halloween, however, this shaped up to be a uneventful week. I spent the week wrangling more children than I can count, Jeremy spent it studying, and Merrick spent it being his usual cute self (telling jokes and singing "Peanut Butter Jelly Time"). In the end, I don't really have much to say so I will just leave you with a picture of my two favorite boys.

Halloween 2011

I am sure you don't remember this, but last year I teased that I already had Merrick's Halloween costume for this year but that you would have to wait. Well, this Halloween is now over I guess I can let you in on the secret.

This year Merrick was a cowboy complete with the catch phrases "yee haw" and "Howdy Partner". Words cannot express how cute he looked and sounded (his "Howdy Partner" sounded oddly like Jackie Chan from "Shanghai Nights"). Since words are failing in this situation I will just show you.





On Halloween night all the cousins (minus Kai who we really missed) came to Nana and Papa's and we all hit the streets together. Quincy had the idea for their whole family to be glow men, but at the last minute decided he wanted to be Spiderman instead. Lauren was Paul Stanley from KISS, Julien was an angry bird, and Maude was Elvis.



Merrick was such a trooper, he kept up with his cousins all night and even wanted to keep going when everyone else was ready to go home. I will leave you with a few of my favorite moments from the night...

1) At our first house when the lady said Colvin could pick what he wanted, he responded with "I am allergic to dairy, corn, and eggs"

2) The lady who thought Merrick was so cute that he should have two full-sized candy bars

3) Lauren being the little mommy at every house, making sure the little ones took only what they were offered and always reminding Merrick to say his catch phrases

4) Quincy routinely asking if he could have two at every house

Roller Coaster

All I can say about this week was that it was a roller coaster of emotions. Monday night we got a call that my grandpa was extremely jaundiced and that his doctor had discovered a mass in this pancreas and that he would be going to the hospital. By Thursday the doctors had the jaundice under control and we learned that our healthy as a horse Grandpa has pancreatic cancer. It was such a blow to all of us and lots of tears were shed.

That night we all tried to put our sadness to the side and focus on my sweet niece Maude who was celebrating her seventh birthday. She is so young and happy and the last thing anyone wanted was a dark cloud over her party. I think we were able to put our sadness aside and focus on Maude's special day.

By the time Jeremy came home from school, however, I was a mess. After putting on a happy face for Maude I was really heartbroken and the last thing I wanted was to celebrate my birthday the next day. He was his usual awesome self and assured me that everything would be okay and that while it was a hard time, my birthday would still be great.

In the end my birthday was just that, great. I still had to work and my grandpa was still sick, but I really felt loved. Jeremy and I were able to go out for a special lunch date, my parents and Merrick took me to dinner, and I got so many sweet calls, texts, and facebook messages from family and friends.

At the end of this crazy week I am grateful for family, friends, love, and most importantly my knowledge that families can be together forever.

Fall Leaves Fall

It is turning into Fall in beautiful Portland, Oregon. This is the first time in my life that I have lived somewhere with a true Fall season and I have to say that I love it. The leaves on the tree are turning yellow and red and starting to fall and everywhere you turn there are Fall decorations.

In the spirit of Fall we took a family trip to a local pumpkin patch. As with other fall festivities, pumpkin patches are a big deal in this part of the country. There are hundreds within a short driving distance, but we went to Bauman Farms which was rated the best pumpkin patch in the Willamette Valley.

The pros of our time at the pumpkin patch were as follows:

The petting zoo- Merrick particularly loved the goats. They had these ramps for the goats to climb and it was really crazy to see these goats walking around 20 feet in the air. They also had some new baby goats that Merrick really enjoyed petting.




The food- I have to say that the food was plentiful and amazing. We had apple cider doughnuts and an apple cider slushy, both of which were fabulous.


The children's play area- To be honest this was a bit of a pro and a con. Merrick really enjoyed the slide, see-saw, trucks and tractor, but they had a track around the edge with bikes for the children to ride and while Merrick really wanted to ride them, he could not quite reach the pedals which really frustrated him.



The weather- In a place known for being cold and raining in the Fall and Winter, the weather could not have been more beautiful. It was sunny and relatively warm.


The cons of our time at the pumpkin patch were as follows:

The boots- This was far and away the biggest con of the day. While it was sunny that day, it had been raining in the days leading up to our outing and was muddy enough that Merrick needed rain boots. He had outgrown the rain boots we had for him and had to borrow the cousins' old rain boots. Unfortunately they just a little too big and if he lifted his feet too far off the ground, they fell off. I can't even count the number of times we had to put those stupid boots back on.

Merrick's age- While there were lots of fun activities like an apple cannon, zip line, and corn maze, Merrick was just to young and small to do many of the activities.

In spite of the cons of the day, I think that the day was a success. In the end, Merrick had a great time and we all enjoyed our time as a family and I think that means it was a great day.