Photo Dump

I always feel bad posting pics only, but there is just not more time in my life right now. It posted them backwards so they start with Peter's birthday this past week (and yes, he did request the Twilight cake...), then Nauvoo last week where we met up with my cousins the Davises, Ethan's 1st birthday, Glee concert (we got relocated to the 8th row!), kids hanging out with the Scotts one last time, Josh Groban concert with Peter's parents, Mother's Day, Easter, and just fun pictures with grandparents and cousins all the way back to the month of April. So enjoy! It may be another 3 or 4 months before I get more posted. :)

Pictures

I am so behind on everything, but here are some pictures from the past few months - Colin's 3rd birthday, Megan's 5th birthday, and a few other cutes ones thrown in!

Blizzard

Yes, don't faint. I am actually posting on our blog. Crazier things have happened but not many! Hopefully I can get some cute pics of the kids up this week since it has been over 6 months, but for now, enjoy these crazy pics of the blizzard we had last week!

One month old

Hard to believe a month has already gone by since this little guy joined the family.


And these two crazy kids have been enjoying the pool almost daily since we are suffering through high temperatures and high humidity.

Ethan

In the few days before Ethan arrived, I had some regular contractions but they weren't very painful and they would always stop after an hour or so.

Thursday afternoon and evening I didn't really have any contractions, but that night shortly before 9pm, I started having really sharp pains. I thought they were probably gas pains since they seemed to come out of nowhere, but Peter suggested we time them just to make sure they weren't contractions. By the time we got to the second one, I was doubled over on the floor. We didn't bother timing anymore but called Peter's brother to come over, grabbed the hospital bag, and paged the doctor. Ten minutes later we were on the freeway and I told Peter he needed to speed...now. I was in so much pain I could barely sit on the seat. Of course when we arrived at the ER there were no parking spots except a handicapped one. I figured if being in labor didn't qualify me to park in that spot, then it was worth $350 anyway. I had a huge contraction in the parking lot and a security guard ran a wheelchair out. By the time we got in to the lobby, I was making enough noise that they just took us strait up to the OB triage and didn't bother making us check in.

They kept me at the triage just long enough to get a gown on me and tell me I was dilated to an 8 and that my water was about to break. Somewhere around this point I think the screaming began. I had epidurals with my two other deliveries and the contractions had never been even close to this bad.

They wheeled me into the delivery room and my water broke on the next contraction (a nurse told me after that it shot out across the room). Even though I could hear the nurses telling me to slow down and breathe until the doctor could get here (they paged the attending OB since there was no chance my OB was going to make it), I managed to say that I had to push on the next contraction. I will forever love the OB resident who looked at me and said "You just do what you gotta do."

Well, I pushed and out came Ethan's head. One more push and Ethan was born at 10:13pm - just 13 minutes after we arrived at the hospital, and just over an hour after the contractions started. I am really hoping we never have to cut it that close again!

Extra Special Father's Day

Ethan Randall Merrell arrived just in time for Father's Day. He was born on Thursday night (June 17th) and we came home from the hospital yesterday. He is perfect and healthy weighing 6 lb. 10 oz. and was 18 inches long! Happy Father's Day, Peter! We love you!

(This post was written a week ago but I didn't get it up until today. More pictures coming soon...)

Anniversary

Six years ago today I married my sweetheart, and even after all these years together, he can still make me laugh like no one else can. I love him more with each passing day and consider myself one lucky woman! Happy Anniversary, Peter!

An announcement...finally

I realized this week that we haven't shared some exciting news with very many people yet. I think I have just been too busy this time around. But, better late than never, right?

We are expecting Baby Merrell #3!! He (yes, we already know what we're having) is due on June 25th, about 10 1/2 weeks away. I can't complain much about my pregnancy - it has been the easiest one so far - but I will be excited when baby arrives and I don't have such a hard time bending over or picking up the kids or all the toys left around the house. :)

We haven't decided on a name yet - I have a really hard time with boys names - so any suggestions you may have would be appreciated!!

Birthdays

Both Megan and Colin celebrated birthdays this past month. Hard to believe that our little man is already 2 years old! He loves Buzz Lightyear (one of the favorite presents he received) and the star cake was as close as I could come to a Buzz cake. :)

Megan turned 4 the week after Colin's birthday. She wanted an ocean birthday cake (I spent forever searching for ocean themed candy!) and I even managed to find ocean hats and plates. She was so excited to get something princess (her latest obsession is Princess Aurora) and you can see her wearing some of her new Tinkerbell dress-up in the last picture.

And this, my friends, is why I don't blog more often

This is for all the other parents out there who feel like they can't keep up. Our house starts out every (well, most) mornings pretty decently clean. (At least as far as clutter goes - don't think I dust or vacuum every day...or even every week). And by the end of the day, despite my best efforts, it looks like this. And these pictures don't even do it justice. These are just small sections of a few rooms. My pride stopped short of letting me post pictures of the entire kitchen or living room...or the bedrooms for that matter.

If you live in a constant state of mess, spills, and crayon and pen etched on every imaginable service, to you I say, you are not alone!

Despite our seemingly constant craziness, we are enjoying the Christmas season. The kids love the Christmas tree and we go downstairs (yes, I admit that I put it downstairs so I wouldn't have to save the tree from the kids every 5 minutes) and sing Christmas carols. They love to shake bells or maracas or dance around while we sing. So cute. This week I taught them to say "Ho, ho, ho" and they will say it to random people at church or in the store.

The ward Christmas party was amazing - we seriously have the best activities committee in the Church. Neither Megan or Colin would sit on Santa's lap but that was not surprising. At least they were smiling at him instead of crying which is actually what I expected.