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.

Christmas 2012

Luckily for us all the world did not end last week as the Mayans predicted and we were able to celebrate Christmas and the birth of our Savior this week.

Our Christmas was fairly simple, but special. On Christmas Eve all my family, minus Emily's family who was sorely missed, got together for dinner, to exchange cousin and sibling gifts and to reenact the story of Christ's birth. The entire night was wonderful with a strong spirit of love and family, but the acting out of the true Christmas story brought a strong spirit into our home that will not soon be forgotten.

Christmas morning Merrick woke up early, but Jeremy and I kept him upstairs until about 8am. It was just Merrick, Jeremy, my parents, and I so we mostly just let Merrick open all his presents first. He was a very spoiled little boy, but the big highlights for him were all the new cars from the "Cars" movie and a present that was too big to fit under the tree. Santa had left a note saying that he left one present up in daddy's study room because it was too big for under the tree so once all the other presents were open we all took a trip upstairs to find Merrick's new big boy bed. On a side note, I am the world's luckiest parent because although he has been capable for years, Merrick only started trying to climb out of his crib over the past few months. We decided that since we had really maxed out the crib, it was time to upgrade.

After breakfast we were also able to talk to Jeremy's brother Garret on his mission in Washington. Through the use of ipads and iphones Jeremy's parents, Jensen, Bryce, Garret, and us were all able to talk to and see each other at the same time despite being in four different states. It was truly a great experience.

The rest of the day we spent rearranging furniture, exploring our new gifts, spending time together, and resting (because I got pretty sick that afternoon). It was not an over the top Christmas by any means, but it was memorable and most importantly had a strong emphasis on our Savior and his miraculous birth.

First Snow

For me the highlight of this week was the season's first snow. On Monday evening a few snow flakes started to fall, but were melting immediately. I assumed that it would not be much different over night, but happily mother nature had other plans.

In the morning we woke up to a blanket of white. While it did not last long, it stuck around long enough for us to go out and play for a few minutes. We made tracks in the snow and had a quick snow ball fight. Probably my favorite part was when Jeremy tried to knock the snow off the newspaper and ended up creating a blob on the garage door that he turned into "Wilson".

As quickly as it came, the snow was gone and Merrick was sad that there was not quite enough to make a snowman, but the season is still young. Technically winter just began on Friday so there is still plenty of time to enjoy a bit of the white stuff.

It's A Girl

Friday was an important day for our family. I had my anatomy ultrasound for the baby. For me this is always such an exciting and scary time. I anxiously look forward to finding out whether the baby is a boy or a girl, but finding out the baby's gender is such a small part of the what happens at that visit. With Merrick I remember them checking all his major body parts, his heart, brain, spine, stomach, etc, but I don't remember it being nearly this in depth.

The ultrasound took a full hour. Right away baby showed us very clearly that she was a little girl. Jeremy and I had both felt that she was a girl and we both (along with several other family members and friends)had dreams about a little girl joining our family so it was very exciting to see it confirmed on the ultrasound screen. This was just the beginning of the appointment, however.

Over the next 50 minutes or so the ultrasound technician checked and measured every body part imaginable. She checked the baby's heart, lungs, brain, spine,stomach, kidneys, bladder (both full and empty), umbilical cord connection, arms, legs, fingers and toes (including counting all 10) and used heat sensing technology to watch the blood vessels around each organ. For the most part our sweet baby girl was very cooperative with all the poking and prodding, but towards the end she fell asleep and did not want to show her head and brain very clearly. The tech was very patient though and with a lot of prodding, tipping me upside down on the table a few times, and walking around, she finally moved and let us finish up.

My doctors appointment afterwards was fairly uneventful and mainly just a confirmation that everything looked normal and healthy with the baby.

After that came the fun part, spreading the word. We called Jeremy's parents and my sister in Arizona right away, but made all the local people wait until Saturday morning when we could all get together for a fun reveal.

We decided to reveal the baby's gender with a piñata full of pink candy and confetti. The kids all had a great time taking turns swinging for the fences and once everyone had a turn we let Merrick finish it off. A few pieces snuck out and all the the adults rushed up to see what color they were so Jeremy helped finish the piñata off. I thought it was the perfect reveal. All the kids were so excited to get the candy and the adults were all excited to find out it was a girl.

We have a few more months to wait before this little girly joins our family, but she is already so loved. We are anxiously awaiting her arrival.

Her profile and thumb and the reveal