I take a lot of pictures :D

Okay. Are you ready? I put up a lot of pictures. 41 to be exact. (unless the uploader is wrong, then I don't know how many, but a lot still)

Here is my update. Through pictures. Read it. Glance through. Whatever, just love it. :D

Okay, when this little sweetheart isn't crying, she has got to be the cutest little girl I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. Plus, she does some pretty good smiles now. But she makes ya work for it unfortunately. Unlike Adam- he gives him like pretzels. :D

 These next few are from the aquarium! It was so fun. We really only went because we wanted to get bounce back passes haha. But we went, were there for like half an hour and it was great. Mikey and Adam loved all the animals and Natalie didn't cry so she obviously enjoyed it too.

Adam is like the worlds biggest parrot. He sure loves sit up on his dad's shoulder. That would probably break my shoulder but Jake seems to do great with it.

This terrified me but the boys loved it. I was so proud of Mikey, going through it. You couldn't pay me to do that. Seriously. I'm a chicken. Also, note his adorable hat, which we lost in Georgia. It's sad.

Sometimes with three kids, our house feels really small. So we go sit on the back porch and you know what, it's great. They mostly just attack Jake but every so often I get some mama love which is perfect.

Natalie is starting to appreciate stuffed animals.. or bugs, whatever. So fun for me because I L-O-V-E love them!

We bought these avengers blow up toys at the Dollar Store. Best two bucks I ever spent. One is a shield and one is a hammer and they love them. Sadly, the shield has been punctured but still. Good buy.

Once Adam realizes I have the camera, it's all about mom. But how cute is he? Really.

Adam has learned how to open doors. But he is a little too short. So here, he took some laundry off the table, made a little pile and opened the door and proceeded to eat almost an entire box of crackers. He was happy, nothing was broken, a few clothes were dirty again but that woulda happened anyways so I was happy. Sometimes, I just don't rock the boat.

 On May 4th we blessed our little girl! (this is a religious ceremony we do in our church! To learn more, go to this website- you won't regret it.) Seriously, I am pretty sure that Jake gives the most beautiful blessings. I bawled like a baby during Natalie's- seriously, tearing up right now just thinking about it. And Natalie looked so beautiful. Here is the deal with the dress. Before my mom passed away, one of her very best friends Karen Merrill, brought a bunch of little suits and dresses that babies could be blessed in and my mom picked a little white tuxedo and a little white dress for all of her future grandbabies to be blessed in. And I love it. It is so special to me for them so have this tie with their Grandma Jill. And man, did she pick well. The tux is to die for and the dress is gorgeous. It is long and flowing and the tux, don't worry- it has tails. Natalie looked like a little angel and I cried. (apparently, I am a little emotional- weird)

Jake, Natalie, and Grandma McKinlay

The Logans. Check out Lina working it for the camera. Wait to go. (Sadly, Adam was sleeping so he missed the picture... well not so much sad as bittersweet. We are never sad for a sleeping baby)

My Family! Evidently, pants are optional. Adam is seriously rocking the whole risky business situation. 

Aunty Shelly. Okay for reals, she is probably so buff after spending three weeks with us. Adam is obsessed with her and every time he sees her, no matter what he is doing, he needs to go get picked up and get a hug. It's adorable. I love all my kids so much but there is just something about Adam's smile that makes the whole world a little brighter (this is obviously not a good example of said smile)

The Proud Parents.

Shelly graduated from USU and we did some graduation pictures at our house the next day... or the day after rather.
Anyways- this picture is truth. Jake just hanging out with a baby in the crook of his arm. Mikey telling me a story, Adam screaming for Shelly, Arianne wiping Hayden up, James being helpful with the babies and Dad just hanging out in the middle. This is a good depiction of my whole life, when I am lucky enough to have extra people around to help out.

 Now for the big picture section! We went to Georgia for the Mike Merrill Family Reunion! We rented a lake house which was huge and gorgeous (and yet kinda old and dirty- it was confusing) and all 24 of us played for 4/5 days. Why Georgia you ask? Because my brother Jeff graduated from Mercer to be a pharmacist. Yeah, way to go big bro.
Here are some pictures from the grand event- and grand it was.

This was not planned. But adorable.

Shelly and James just hanging out at the lake. It had a nice little wall to sit on and kick your feet.

So the house was right on the lake and we spent the whole time in swimsuits (which makes me uncomfortable) and the kids ran around in life jackets all the time (apparently Adam fell in twice. Awesome. Good thing someone was there to fish him out and he was wearing a life jacket) Honestly, I was terrified that the trip was going to be utter chaos and we were all gonna be grumpy the whole time but while it was chaos, the kids loved playing together and running around all crazy and the adults had a great time catching up. It was so great and I can hardly wait for the next one, which will on be crazier because us Merrill's can't seem to stop popping out those babies (yeah there were 11 under 6 and my brother and sister in law announced they were expecting) Go us. And also, go Dad. He is kicking butt in grandkid competitions haha

The triplets! Scarlett (Jordan's third), Alicia (Malcolm's first), and Mikey. (my first) They were together so much, it was adorable.

Me, Whitney (Jeff's wife), Molly (Jordan's wife) and Ivy(Jordan's fourth). Ivy was so cute but not very social. I don't think I got to hold her which is actually okay. Notice ^^ I am not holding a child- this is not normal.

Grandpa Don! Grandma and Don crashed the party and it was fun to have them there too!

Faith (Jordan's first) is a little sassy pants and I like it. The end.

Jordan comes into the house and is like Emmy, the girls are going to sun bathe on the dock with Shelly, go get a picture. So I did. That was my job- photographer- I happily accept. (the order from top to bottom is Shelly, Scarlett, Michelle, Celeste (so shy and so cute- Jordan's second), and then Faith.

I'm not sure why or how this happened but it's funny. Also, my kids are rarely completely clothed. Jake says clothes are unnecessary, my dad says it's their Polynesian blood but I think it's because I am too lazy to fight their way into clothes when it's warm enough to not. Any or all of those could be correct.

The Twins! Levi (Malcolm's second) and Ivy

 Shelly and I decided to make tshirts for everyone for the reunion as a little momento thing and before we gave them to everyone I said "This is a big deal and it took us a lot of time so if you are not adequately enthusiastic about them, I will make you open them again until I get the response I want." Good news. We didn't have to do that. As for the colors- when we were growing up my parents color coded all of our stuff. Our cups, towels, tv tickets, sometimes clothes. So obviously when Shelly and I were figuring out the shirts stuff color coding by family was easy to do. Obviously Jeff is green, Jord is blue, Mal is red, Shelly is yellow, I am orange, and James is purple. And Dad and Michele's shirts are brown because my dad says brown is his color (haha he's a goof) and Grandma and Don are black because if you know Grandma at all you know she loves her black clothes. Anyways, the shirts are really cool. We bought fabric vinyl on ebay and borrowed my sister in law's cricut and we bought a really fun cricut cartridge and made each shirt different but with in each family there was a theme. Grandma and Dons were swimming, Dad's said relax Michele's said party, Jeff's was ocean animals, Jord was sun, Mal's was beach, our's was Hawaii, and James' was ships and Shelly's was a seriously cute light house. And on the left sleeve they said 2014 with a little M by it and the back said their name and number. The numbers were the order they joined the family. So whether they were born or married in. So Dad was 1, Mom was 2 (but we didn't make a shirt for her, just included her in the counting), Jeff was 3, and so on. It was cool. I didn't get a picture of all the backs which is too bad but maybe one day.

The Whole Gang.
Levi, Malcolm, Val, Alicia, James, Arianne, Hayden, Don, Grandma Jan, Dad, Michele, Shelly, Jeff, Mason, Whitney, Jake, Mikey, Adam, me, and Natalie, with Celesta, Jordan, Scarlett, Molly, Ivy and Faith in the front.

I just love this picture.

 Dad wanted a picture of him and all his grandkids so he could show people at work because whenever he would talk about his 11 grandkids people were just amazed so here are two of them. I took a bunch but these are my favorites.

Mikey kept running away so Jeff would try to get him back in place, Ivy wanted her parents, and I don't know what Adam is doing here but I love it. It was honestly so much fun.

This is not the best one we got but it's so funny. Alicia is trying to lift her shirt up and Mikey won't let her. Mason is being perfect, Adam is running to Shelly, I have no idea what Faith and Celeste are doing but truly- this is an excellent picture.

We're awesome.

Dad and Malcolm are twinners. In so many ways, but here we are especially noting the dress.

These kids kill me. They are too cute.

 Also, while we there I took family pictures for everyone. Luckily Jake brought his laptop that has photoshop so I did a little editing and got everyone their pictures before we flew out. Which is awesome because it would've sucked to have to mail them all over.

Malcolm, Val, Alicia, and Levi

Jordan and his girls! All 5 of them. Wow way to go. Celeste and Scarlett on Jord's lap, Ivy with Molly and Faith standing in the back.

These girls. So fun. So crazy. I love them all. 

Here is an example of the back of the shirts. Cute right? And Ivy looking at the camera. Oh man, frame this one guys, it's too cute.

James, Arianne, and Hayden.

Jeff, Whitney, Mason, and Baby Boy Merrill 2. (which I think should be named Dixon. Get it? Mason and Dixon and you live in Tennessee. Just corny enough to be awesome I think)

Georgia was wonderful and I am so glad that we got to go and spend all that time with my family. It's pretty rare for us to all get together so this was very special.

 Now just some pictures from my life.

I just love his hair.

This is so cute. For Mother's Day Jake got me Sherlock, Mikey got me a Batman shirt, Adam got me a teddy bear and Natalie got me headbands. On the "card" he said they were sharing their favorite things with me. So cite and adorable.
Also for breakfast we had a delightful fruit plate of apples, strawberries, mango, and pineapple which is in the picture too!

I turn around for two seconds and Mikey's pants are off and they spill m&m's everywhere.

Mikey checking the chicken. He loves to help cook.

Well that's that. Hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Thanks for reading!