Happy Birthday, mother dear

For my mom's birthday, we decided to surprise her and take her to the "red neck water slide" in Logan. It was SO much fun. We all loved it. It's just one huge slide, but it never got old! Bay couldn't get enough, she kept saying "all buya seff" so she went all by herself!

It was muddy, but so fun!

The babies were so good, they just talked to each other in their car seats!

If you ever get a chance, GO! Happy birthday mom, we love you!

Sundance!

A couple weeks ago, we went up to Sundance to see The Sound of Music with the whole fam. We started out with a stop at the Brick Oven to celebrate Gary's birthday... Happy Birthday Dad! It was a great dinner, an awesome play and just an overall GREAT night! Parks LOVES to be outdoors!

It got SO cold up there at night! Isn't he as cute and snug as a bug in a rug? I really can't get enough of this little man...

Yes, those are socks on his hands:) I love him!

Parker's Blessing Day

Yesterday we blessed our little Parker. Brad gave a beautiful blessing and we had such a wonderful day! Surrounded by family, friends and FOOD... We had so much food, so thank you to everyone who helped. We are truly, truly blessed to have the best family and especially this little boy in our lives. Parks, you're the sweetest little thing and we love you so so much! You bring us more joy and happiness than you will ever know! Matching ties!
This picture just melts my heart...
Grandparents...Greats!

My water broke!

Okay, so it broke 2 months ago and I'm HORRIBLE at documenting things! I was telling this story to a friend today and she asked why I haven't blogged about it yet, so thanks Alyssa! Most of you have probably heard how my water broke, but for those poor unfortunate souls who haven't, you're in for a laugh:)

On Thursday, May 26th, 2011, I was sitting at my desk big and pregnant. I had a week to go until my due date and a week until school was out, so it was perfect! Well, my class was sitting at their desks, waiting for the bell to ring and all of sudden... I felt a little trickle of water in my pants. Am I peeing? No. Did my water break? No, it couldn't be. So I stood up to hand back some papers, and... YEP! I definitely was my water! It was the biggest gush as soon as I stood up, it looked like a water balloon popped in my pants! "Uh... you guys, my water just broke!" This was to a class of high school juniors. Three of the boys immediately stood up and said "what should we do!?!" before I could answer, they were running down the hall to the office. So I ran after them (with way wet pants) and by the time I got there the administrators were headed toward me, walky talky's in hand. They asked if I was okay and we all went back into to office. With about 12 people just starring at me, I just had to laugh and ask "Can I drive to the hospital?" They said I shouldn't drive, so I went into the prinicipal's office and called Brad (I didn't even have time to grab my phone or my purse). He was so excited and shocked and just said, okay, I'll meet you at the hospital! So my principal went down to my classroom to get my phone and my purse and the secretary went to get her car. I called my mom, my 2 sisters, my dad and my brother to let them all know and headed to the hospital. Brad was already there when I got there and met me at the door. We both just had giant smiles on our faces and had no idea what we were getting into:) It has been the biggest life changing experience and Brad and I are SO SO happy! we love being parents and feel SO blessed to have this beautiful little man in our lives. Love you buddy!

Like I said, I'm terrible at documenting, so I'm just gonna do the best I can:) Some things about Parker in the last two months are:

He held his head up, pretty much from day one.
He used to pee every time we took his diaper off.

Brad changed ALL of his diapers in the hospital.

He curled up in your arms like a potato bug after he ate.

He used to eat with one eye open.

We could calm him down and get him to eat by turning on a faucet and standing by it (or sitting by it, I nursed him in the bathroom sitting on the toilet for the first few days).

He's smiling and cooing like crazy now!

He sleeps pretty well at night (til about 4am).

His mommy and daddy love him SO much!

Nursery, New Nieces, and Inducing Labor!! (Just kidding)

We are ready! Our nursery is FINALLY done and our hospital bag is packed... with chick flicks.

NURSERY:

Before: During:
After:

NEW NIECES:

We got two new nieces in the last 3 weeks!

Makelle Jene Goalen (she's so tiny)...

... and Kennedy Ann Jackson.

She is so adorable and her little brother and sister couldn't agree more!

INDUCING LABOR!

Yesterday, we went to dinner at Brad's parent's house to celebrate his mom's birthday. It was SO good (and yes, she cooked on her own birthday, but she makes the best roast EVER!!!) So thank you and HAPPY BIRTHDAY... We love you mom!

This is the inducing labor part:) Trying to, anyway... We just can't WAIT to meet this little man and bring a tiny new spirit into our home! Nothin' yet, but we'll keep everyone updated!

Our last prenatal class...

We took a 4 week prenatal class, but the last one was definitely the best... We watched some movies of some birth's, which made me a little nervous, but knowing that Brad will be right by my side the whole time, I know everything will be fine. He always knows how to make me laugh (as pictured below) and will be the most amazing dad!!! We feel SO blessed to be brining this sweet little baby boy into the world and can't WAIT for him to get here!Side profile...
Four more weeks and counting!

Welcome Spring!

Yay for Spring! Brad and I finally got out and did some yard work yesterday! Well, Brad did most of it by weeding all of our flower beds (I don't weed because it gets my hands dirty). I put up this cute little chickadee I made for my Easter craft on my post... then I decided to mow the lawn. It was so fun to be outside just enjoying the Spring weather and making our house look beautimous:)

The big 2-7!

I'm a little late posting (as usual), but Brad's birthday was on February 20th. He's an old man now:) We slept in, made breakfast, went shopping in Park City, and went to dinner and a movie. It was such a great day! Then, on Sunday, we had my parents over for breakfast and went to his parent's house for dinner and a birthday dessert. I'm so grateful I got to celebrate his birthday with him... love you Bradley! Here are some pictures...

I think he was counting to three before he blew out the candle so I knew when to take the picture? My parent's gave him a mail box... He's pretty excited about it, and if you've ever seen our mailbox, you know why:)

One of his favorite breakfast's are breakfast jacks (from Jack in the Box) so we have to make them at home since we don't have one here, so I got him to one egg wonder to make it easier! I left it wrapped on the bed, so you can see his excitement in the next picture...
I'm not very good at remembering to take pictures, so here we are walking back to our car after our fun-filled birthday date.

...One year older, and wiser too... Happy birthday, TO YOU!

I did it!

Last Saturday, I graduated with my Masters in Business Administration! It was a fun little celebration with my amazing husband, his parents and my parents. Any time we can get together with family is always a good time! It was a pretty good ceremony, but the best part happened after when we went to California Pizza Kitchen for some mac and cheese:) Thanks for all of your support and I'm SO glad to have it out of the way, just in time for the baby. Love you all!

Happy Valentines Day!

It really is such a great day, being able to spend it with your loved ones! I'm so grateful to have the best valentine in the whole world! I love you babe. I surprised Brad with a special little dinner on Valentines, and even though we just stayed in, it was fun:)

A post well over due!

Bear with me, (and yes, that is the correct kind of bear, I googled it:) I haven't updated our blog since August of 2010... Considering it is now 2011 I thought it might be appropriate to recap the last few months of last year! SO many fun and new things happening with the Merrill's; and I have a lot of fun pictures, so enjoy!

Last September, we bought our first house!Brad (and Rico, who is Mandy's dog and loves Brad!) moving our lawn for the first time... ...and of course, Brad's must have for our back patio:)

This is the BEST PART! The morning after we moved in, we found out we're adding a new member to our family (I'm clearly pregnant, because I'm tearing up as I type this... I'm so emotional!) due June 2nd, 2011. Hurry little guy, we can't wait to meet you!
(it's a boy)

I'm 19 weeks, almost half way!
That same day (when we found out I was pregnant) our family crashed Brooke and Trav's family vacation and all went to California. It was SO fun and I wanna go back!Who wouldn't wann go to Disneyland with these two little kids!?!

Grandma and Grandpa

On October 18th, 2010, we celebrated our 3rd anniversary. Time goes by so fast! Brad is the best husband and we truly couldn't be happier. I had to be in Park City with my students for a competition that night, so Brad came up and stayed with me and my student's brought me this giant cookie from Mrs. Field's. They're so sweet!

In November, we went up to Logan to celebrate Brookie Sue's birthday (the 5th) and these two just can't get enough of each other!

We were at Merrill's for Christmas this year, and it was SO fun! (Especially because I got a Snuggie!)and Brad got a ping pong table! This is after we got it all set up in our basement and we love it! Everyone is always invited for a game of ping pong:)

5 days after Christmas, I got the best Christmas present of all... My Master's degree!!!

This is just a really cute picture...

Our new car!!! ;) Just kidding, but they have 4 door all wheel drive mini's now! Maybe our NEXT car!

This is the lastest and GREATEST home project (It didn't require too much remodeling and with Brad and my parent's, we got it done in about a day and a half). We still need to paint, but now instead of having to haul our laundry from our closet down to our laundry room, we can just open this little door...

...drop the clothes through this hole......and they'll land IN our laundry basket in our laundry room! Like I said, we still need a few finishing touches and some paint, but at least we have a laundry chute now!!!

phew... What a year! We love living in Woods Cross and both of Brad's sister's also live out here, about a mile away. We love getting together with family! I'm in my second year of teaching and love it, but can't WAIT for this summer! I get to spend the whole summer with our new little angel (who is yet to be named)!