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!

I've had three kids for a week... and I am still alive, and so are they. Mom points.

Natalie Paige Kapilialoha Logan

January 21, 2014

3:05p

7lbs 14oz

20 inches

First here are picture of all three of my little sweethearts right after they were born. When Mikey was born, Jake took a picture of him on the scale and I loved it. It is potentially one of my favorite newborn pictures of him. So when I was pregnant with Adam I constantly told Jake how important it was to me to get one of Adam on the scale and voila, we have started a tradition. Apparently, I talk about it so much that even my doctor mentioned it to Jake haha. They had taken Natalie off the scale and Dr Sells was like Oh wait, Jake did you get your picture? Isn't that nice of her? And potentially embarrassing for me?

Mikey!

Adam!

Natalie!

You can't really tell but Natalie's hair is black- both of the boys had dark hair right when they were born, cause it's all nasty and dirty but even after her bath, Natalie's stayed black. Like Jake's. I am pretty excited about it because I have always wanted black hair and brown eyes- I can live vicariously through my daughter!

Well how about a quick telling of the day? I got called on Monday saying that my induction was scheduled for 6:15a. I was excited but 6:15 is so early, especially when it takes 40 minutes to get to the hospital but oh well! We got there late... at about 6:30, 6:45 ish and after we got all checked in, they started me on that terrible medicine pitocin at 7:45 ish. I was so scared that it wasn't going to work that I didn't let Jake tell anyone the date. Last time when I had to come home from the hospital still pregnant I was absolutely devastated- I know that sounds stupid but it was so hard for me and I hated having to tell people that it didn't work and I was not going to do that again. So my dad and stepmom knew but only because they were staying at our house watching our boys. Otherwise, I wouldn't have told them. I did try to distract myself from that possibility and we guessed when she would be born. Jake said 8:30 but I don't know if he meant morning or night and he thought she would be 8lbs. I guessed 3p and didn't even attempt a weight guess. So I got the time and Jake was seriously close to the weight.

Anyways, I was a few cm along and like 40% effaced which is crappy but it was okay. My doc said it was going to work. So, by 11:30 when I was still only 2 cm and 50% effaced (but the nurse said she was being generous) I cried. It wasn't working again. They called Dr Sells and she came and broke my water, which I am not going to lie, was not a pleasant experience but it meant we were getting our baby! That was at noon and we texted our families to let them know what was going on. I got my epidural after some debate on whether or not I should, and honestly, so glad I did. Our insurance doesn't cover it but Jake told me that I shouldn't be worrying about the money which I was able to do a lot better once the pain medicine started. I got the same guy that did the epidural with Adam, only this time he gave me the booster shot way earlier so I got to take a nap! Wahoo! I woke up around 2:15 because something felt weird. I laid there for 30 minutes before I had Jake call the nurse. She came in, checked me and I was ready to go.

Dr Sells, Dr Clark, and Melanie (my nurse) all got there and had me start pushing at 2:59p (to be exact haha) Dr Clark explained to me that she was at zero position so I would probably have to push longer than I would like. I pushed once and she was like oh never mind. And 6 minutes later, she was born! I was pretty excited because they let me cut the cord. They asked Jake and he was like absolutely not so they let me!

So far, we have had a great recovery. A little sore and some serious nursing contractions but all in all, it's been pretty easy. We are all pretty tired but baby girl seems to be thriving and her older brothers are thrilled to have her here, and her mom is also thrilled to not be pregnant, and if I had to guess, I'd say her dad is pretty excited to not be married to a pregnant woman haha

Enjoy some pictures that I took. Some are probably repeats from facebook but babies are so fun and cute, no one cares about repeats, right?

Natalie with Grandpa! I think that she is the only grandkid Dad has got to meet in the hospital.

Grandpa showing her off to the boys. With Mikey it was like love at first sight, Adam didn't so much care but he is starting to develop a little curiosity.

Mikey kissing her. He insisted on holding her whenever he could and he still does actually.

Family Picture! I look a lot more tired here than I remember feeling.

The next day, Dad and Michele brought the boys back to the hospital and when he took her Mikey got pretty upset. Apparently, if I am not holding her, Mikey is supposed to be.

Jake has baby magic. He had it with the boys too but seriously, it's getting stronger. I'll be holding her and she will be freaking out, Jake takes her, even when he is half asleep and she just calms right down in a matter of seconds. Amazing. In case you didn't know, I married a seriously awesome guy and he is fantastic dad to our three little cuties.

Natalie sleeping! Our tender mercy: we can wrap her up, lay her down and she will fall asleep on her own. The boys would have never done that I am beyond grateful. I don't know how I could take care of all the babies if I had to hold her all the time. I do love holding her though. She is all cute and cuddly. (not as cuddly as Adam but still it's nice)

Okay here is the last thing I wanted to show. A few months ago, a woman in my ward (whose name I can't remember, my bad) told our RS president that she had a baby rocking chair that they didn't need anymore and Shellbi gave it to us! I was pretty excited because we had given away our old baby chair because our boys really didn't care for it and I didn't want it taking up space. So she dropped off the chair and I'm not going to lie, I didn't like it. I could see why it would be cute to some people but it just wasn't my cup of tea. So I redid it! And here are before and after pictures. I am proud of it.

Before

After! I used some really cute fabric that I fell in love with when we visited my dad and stepmom last May and so she gave it to me (as well as making Natalie a baby blanket with the left over she didn't give me) and I spray painted it white with some special baby safe spray paint! (who knew there was such a thing) I think it looks so much better! (which may be conceited haha)

Thanks for reading! 

I never know what to title my posts...

Well folks, it's January 13. My due date is January 27. Wanna know something strange? I am terrified. Not for labor. At the risk of sounding obnoxious, I am pretty good at that part. (as long as nothing goes wrong) But truly, I am so scared to have three kids. The majority of people I talk to say that three is the breaking point. (obviously not truly breaking because people have more kids but still) I don't want to break. I'm not going to lie. I am pretty lucky though because even though my family doesn't live near, Jake has some siblings that are willing to help out, my dad and stepmom are coming to visit soon and Jake's mom is coming probably next month so we'll do all right. But still scary. Words of encouragement and "three is great" would be appreciated.

So instead of focusing on that silly scary stuff I am going to do an update.

Jake- this week there is an Angular Conference in SLC that he gets to go to because work bought him tickets. When he first mentioned it, I said "maybe we could buy you tickets if work won't do it" He was pretty excited, looked it up- and yeah, they were like upwards of $800. That was not going to happen. I love when he tells people that he is going to an Angular Conference because everyone goes, Oh what's that and he says it's a Web front end frame work. (it's possible those words aren't in the right order.. stuff happens) And the confused looks keep on coming, so he says It'll help build websites. I don't understand why he doesn't just start with that. Silly dude. He is really hoping the baby doesn't come before the conference because he has been looking forward to this for three months or so. I am hoping it doesn't too, but just for him. For me, she could come right now.

Me- Just slowly checking things off my list before Baby Girl is born and trying desperately to keep up with my two little kiddos. I just got called as Visiting Teaching supervisor so wish me luck. I am not terribly social and I hate using the phone-- when I know where it is-- so here is to stretching and getting out of my comfort zone. My knee is still causing me problems but I am hoping that after the baby comes and with the medicine they put me on, it'll start to feel better. At church people keep asking me what's wrong and I didn't realize my limp was that bad. Jake says I look like a pirate with a peg leg. I married a good man haha.

Mikey- He is doing great. Growing and such. 27 pounds and 36 inches tall. I am not sure where he keeps it all but that is what the scale reads. Lately, he is obsessed with meat and will eat everything on his plate as long as every other bite consists of meat. He is funny with that because two or three weeks ago, it was pasta and before that it was potatoes. If the cycle continues like it has in the past, in the next week or so he'll be all about fruit.  He is also obsessed with Power Rangers Samurai which is awful. I loved Power Rangers when I was a kid (no shame) and this new PR, which is about 20 years newer probably has worse special effects and acting then Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Sad. But he loves it. He mimics a lot of stuff though so we might have to stop with the fighting because if he kicks my belly one more time, so help me. ;) Also, we hear that he is just the cutest during singing time in nursery- he doesn't attempt to sing but he does the actions. We are proud.

Adam- Adam is still a tank. 25 or 26 pounds and about 29 inches tall. And he walks everywhere. But honestly, he looks too big to walk. It's pretty entertaining. He won't wear socks much to my dismay because his feet are always cold, but I think they get in the way of his walking. Even the ones with grips. Silly. He has started to say a few little things like no, Mama, Dada, and... I think that is it. Dada is always nice and sweet and Mama sounds awful. Like the end of the world hit and the only one who can save it is me, but only with ample encouragement from a screaming one year old.

Baby Girl- coming soon! Excited but scared. You know. Are you ready for the big name reveal? Jake reserves the right to change his mind but honestly, I can't imagine he will. This baby has been so hard for us to pick a name for. It turns out we don't love girl's names. We have gone through about 4 names but they never seemed quite right so a few weeks ago, we found a list online and wrote down every name that neither of us hated. We ended up with 5- Natalie, Paige, Rylee, Skylee, and Isabell. And we could not narrow it down anymore for the next three or four days. My favorite is Paige, Jake's favorite is Natalie. I didn't want Natalie and Jake didn't want Paige. But then our great friend, Michelle Petersen, suggested Natalie Paige. And ta-da! We named our baby. Natalie Paige Kapilialoha Logan. I am surprised Jake agreed to two middle names because he doesn't like that but we both agreed that we like the way it sounds and we like it better than Paige Kapilialoha or Natalie Kapilialoha so we all win! (we also know that more than 4 names just isn't right for us so this will probably be the longest name we have because at the end of the day, neither of us really wanted 4 anyways) But this name seems right.

Well this is a long post and to end it off I have some pictures. On New Years we spent an hour or so on the internet trying to find something fun to do with the boys because it was Jake's last day off work. We found the Tracy Aviary in SLC. We had never heard of it but it was One Dollar Winter Wednesdays so Jake, Shelly, the boys and I bundled up (well Jake doesn't bundle) and we went and walked around for an hour or so.  It was awesome. We saw some eagles, owls, a few tropical birds and best of all Mikey and Adam loved it. We will definitely be going back, when it is warm.

Jake was a big fan of the Bald Eagle.

So was Mikey. He didn't want to look away.

When we took this picture, we thinking of our Grandmas. Shout out to Grandma Jan and especially Grandma Jude because she loves birds. I know there aren't cardinals but still.

Probably our last family picture of 4!

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it!