A Reading Nook... kind of!

Two blog posts in one day! What! This never happens!
But man oh man, I am just too excited to wait! And honestly, what's the point of waiting? Something you wanna share, just go ahead and share it friends!

Okay, so I am not handy. I have always wanted to be but I'm not. I took wood shop in high school for one semester and I successfully built a stool. That's it. One stool in a semester. I understand all of it really well and the concepts were grasped but the execution was a little allusive (name that movie! A favorite game for the Merrill's to play- not sure why though, Jordan always wins haha) But it didn't matter because I figured I would just marry a guy that was handy, like my dad or my brothers. Well my friends, while Jake is a great guy and a lot of things, handy is not exactly one of them. He has this "close enough" attitude, that at least for me being raised by Mike Merrill, is just not acceptable when it comes to building or fixing things.
But I find all these projects on facebook that I desperately want to try and I recently started a Done It board on pinterest and I am pretty sure that it's the greatest thing ever to actually pin something that I have completed to that board. Plus it makes it significantly more acceptable to waste time on pinterest knowing that there is a slightly higher chance that I'll do it just so I can repin it. Silly I know, but I've never claimed not to be.
Before my dad came when little Natalie was born, Jake and I made a to do list that he could help Jake do. Well, I should've known that he would just do it all while we were in the hospital. There was only one thing left of the list and we ran out of time. Well! Today I finished it! Finally! No joke, Jake and I started this ridiculous project about 5 months ago. It shoulda just been a hang up the spice-rack-repurposed-as-kid-bookshelf and move the books. Quick and easy. 15 minutes tops. Yeah we were wrong.
But it doesn't matter anymore! The way it turned out is way cuter than it would've originally, had it been a quick and easy project.
(please ignore the terrible picture quality. There is something unfortunate going on with my camera- hopefully I can fix it)

Awesome right! I have a pillow, two puffs (if you don't know what I mean I posted about it previously... here is the link- it's at the very end of the post), and a bean bag chair ready for our new reading nook and I am planning on making one or two more puffs!

I am very proud. Oh and don't worry, I straightened that one crooked shelf after I took the picture haha.

Thanks for reading!

The Little Logans

So I realized the other day that I mentioned Natalie's appointment with the surgeon and then I just left you, all of my loyal followers, hanging. My bad. And since I am talking about the little one, I might as well talk about all of 'em!

Natalie

We met with the surgeon and he told us basically exactly what we expected. The hernia isn't bad enough to warrant a surgery so we just have to wait it out. In a few months.. well more like several months, if it gets bigger we can opt to get the surgery for cosmetic reasons but we aren't planning on that. He also said that it probably got worse because she is such a fussy baby. Awesome. One more reason she should just be happy.

She is doing better though. Today she just chilled in her chair for like an hour and a half. Excellent.

Adam

He is still great. Still just so happy all the time. And eats everything. It's not uncommon to hear me or Jake say, Adam what are you eating? Unfortunately he is really fast so we don't always find out what he ate before he swallows. Parent award. 

So here is the story of the picture. Today I found him sitting on the floor eating one of those gold chocolate coins. But he can't open them so he just sucked the chocolate out. When he was finished, I kid you not, the foil wrapper was just about completely clean. That is amazing. And disgusting. haha

Mikey

Mikey is pretty much over the camera for right now. It's getting harder and harder to get him to look at the camera.

Well he is doing great. Growing, running, playing, doing all that jazz that 2 year old boys do. But the best part of all of it is how much better his speech is getting. He puts sentences together and honestly, to most people it probably just sounds like jibberish but to Jake and I, he is clear as an adult.. most of the time. And he is so funny. Sometimes I can't even punish him for being rotten because he is just hilarious. Like yesterday Adam was standing on the elliptical and I saw Mikey push him off and before I had a chance to talk to him about it, we have this conversation

Mikey: Oh no Mama, Adam fell down.

Me: Are you sure? Did you help him fall down?

Mikey: No Mama, he just fell. Silly Baby Adam

That kid, he kills me.

Here are a few other funny stories about the kids.

The boys were wrestling and Mikey was on top and Adam was crying so I said they had to start over. Mikey was trying to get up and Adam just rolled over and took him out at the knees. And then laughed hysterically.

Today Adam and Natalie were on the bed together and I was talking to Mikey about not biting- yeah awesome, our kid is a biter. Anyways, so I look up right as Adam is belly flopping onto Natalie. No joke, my first thought was Oh no, he killed her. Good news- no death, she didn't even cry for that long so that's good.

I was doing laundry and I told Mikey that he couldn't climb into the dryer. He was pretty upset about it but he can't open it so I don't have to worry about it. However, Adam can open the dryer. Little man just throws his weight behind it and the dryer has no choice but to open. Well about 5 minutes after I told Mikey to not play with the dryer, I see him pulling Adam to the laundry room and whispering to him. So I followed them and I saw Mikey show Adam that he needed to open the dryer for him so he could climb in. Awesome. Don't worry- I intervened.

The other day Mikey asked for apple juice and I said oh sorry bud but we are all out. Normally he starts to cry, or at the very least pouts but he just said "oh it's okay mama. Daddy will buy some after work." He was right by the way- Jake came home with apple juice, which is impressive because we weren't out when he left so I'm not sure how he knew to buy more.

Thanks for reading!!

St Patrick's Day

When I was growing up, I hated holidays. Each and every one of them. Birthdays, Christmas, Easter, even long weekends. It was like every single one of them suffered from New Year's Eve Syndrome. Each holiday was going to be the best ever and then, nine times out of ten, it was just a regular tuesday where everyone wore green, or a wednesday that started with presents but the rest of the day paled in comparison to the dreams. So even once I was in college and I no longer had the big expectations for these "special" days, I still didn't like them. Too many years of disappointment I guess

(I just want to note that my mom always tried hard to make birthdays really special. My problem with holidays is solely my own and I don't hold it against mom, dad, or Michele that my holidays where just days)

So when Mikey was born, I decided that while I am not a super intense holiday observer, I wanted to change my attitude about them and try to make them at least slightly special for my kiddos.  So Jake and I decided that at the very least, we would have a holiday breakfast every holiday and if I am so inclined, we'll do more. Well this year St Patty's was on monday so I just made the activity FHE. And it was wonderful. We had our friends from down the street over for a barbecue- we had been trying to get them over for a while, they actually cancelled on us twice I think, good thing we aren't offended easily :)

After the bbq I set up a little scavenger hunt for the kids. If I had been thinking, I would've taken a picture of the treasure at the end of the scavenger hunt but I forgot, so you can see it from afar later down the page.

Enjoy the pictures!

Okay, so Mikey had pants. I am not sure where they went. But that is just the way it is now- as I noted in a previous post

I don't think Adam understood that there was candy at the end of the clues or else he probably would've been way more into it.

Grant was so excited to look at the clues. It was cute. It was really nice to have at least one kid really into it.

Ta-Da! At the end of the "rainbow." Inside the bowl there were rice krispie treats, chocolate gold coins, and green and yellow m&m's and skittles

Adam was more excited about trying to eat the clues than the candy. Oh well.

A few things I've learned in the last 6 weeks.

1. There is always one kid that's naked. Normally they have a diaper on but that is no longer a given.
2. Someone is always crying- and it's not necessarily a child.
3. Going to the bathroom is a privilege, and one that I only get about once a day.
4. I always sleep with someone- but it's rarely Jake.
5. It's no longer a given that wet spots on pillows are drool.
6. The utility closet is actually a sanctuary.
7. Most things can be one handed. And it turns out the things that can't aren't that necessary.
8. Brushing your hair and teeth are actually high class spa treatments, I just didn't know it before.
9. You can actually be so tired that you can be nursing a child, holding another on your lap while the third is climbing on your back and you can still be confused about where all your kids are.
10. Having a kids face covered in food just means that's one less snack you need to prepare later.

one covered in food, one crying, one naked. case and point.

The difference a year makes.

Sometimes you just have to let them eat doritos right from the bag.

Surgeons and Fajitas

For the past few weeks I have been wanting to blog because it helps me relax but everytime I sit down to write something, it's stupid. I'm not kidding- I have written 4 completely idiotic blog posts. So I haven't posted them and it turns out that mindless babbling doesn't really cleanse the mind so much.

But this time I am powering through! I will post this regardless of how insane I sound.

Update!

Natalie

-hardest baby ever. well probably not ever, but man oh man. She cries pretty much all the time, unless I am holding her which at first sounds like a pretty good ego stroke but in reality is just hard. But she still is adorable, even while she's screaming.

- she has a seriously bad umbilical hernia- it's about 5 cm or 2 inches- and I have wondered if maybe that is why she is so fussy so at her one month appointment I asked the doctor and it is so bad that we have to go meet with a pediatric surgeon. My doctor said that they probably won't have to operate but it's a better safe than sorry situation. Apparently, it'll be a laproscopic (I don't know how to spell that) procedure and it won't even leave a scar if she needs it. But we are hoping it won't even matter and that the surgeon will be able to give us tips on how to make her more comfortable sans surgery.

Shout out to my SIL Molly- this blanket makes me think of you- not sure why but every time we use it I talk to her about you.

 Adam

- still huge. and adorable

- he has started nursery and does really well (we are really lucky that the nursery leaders, bishop, and primary president don't mind that he is way too young to be in there)

- his legs are still pretty bowed and he has a meeting with a pediatric orthopedic surgeon (we haven't set the date yet) and we might get braces for his legs but we don't know yet. We thought that they would've corrected more by now but in reality they are getting worse. It's probably because he's huge so his legs just can't withstand the pressure haha.

Mikey

- obsessed with Power Rangers. We bought him a foam sword which now resides on the top shelf of our closet because he kept hitting everyone that he decided was a 'bad guy'. Awesome

- We are learning all kinds of new tricks with him, the most recent being unloading the dishwasher (well the utensils and plastic plates anyways) and sorting his laundry by colors- very exciting haha

Oh the next exciting thing about Mikey is that tonight he made dinner! Well kinda. We had fajitas and he cut the mushrooms and stirred the chicken and vegetables and seasoned them. We didn't have fajita seasoning so he picked how much of the random seasonings I thought sounded good went in and they were a little heavy on the cayenne pepper but that's cool. Then he heated up the tortillas on the stove top and helped Jake set the table. Granted all of these things were pretty dependent on me being right there making sure nothing got cut or burnt but we are still very proud. Here are some pictures.

Mikey mostly just ate the chicken with a few bites of red peppers and cheese.

Adam liked them so much he couldn't even keep his eyes open

Natalie was not that excited about the food but that's what happens when I'm not holding her. She screams. But what good lookin' people my husband and daughter are! 

Ta-Da! Mikey's dinner! Yay for Mikey!

Well and last but not least, me and Jake, doing great. Well as great as we can be with sleep deprivation, tired arms, and hurtin' ear drums but over all, life is grand. Well better go get Natalie- she's been crying pretty good this whole time.

Thanks for reading!