The Merrells

Gabe's Blessing

2011-05-09T15:53:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, May 1st our little Gabriel was blessed. Rob did a great job, blessing him to be able to feel the Spirit, to some day marry in the temple, and to have a special love for the people around him. Gabe looked so handsome in his suit (sewn by me!), baby blue tie and all (tie not sewn by me)! I felt so blessed as I looked around the Sacrament room and saw all the family that was there supporting our baby Gabe. Thanks for all that made it out! It was a great day.

Pictures of Gabe

2011-03-04T13:37:00.000-08:00

Me and Gabe ready to go for our first walk. He looks so tiny here!

I'm decorating Gabriel's room in a pirate theme, so I made him this blanket and my Mom crocheted him these cute little pirate booties!

I made him this monkey hat forever ago and it's fun to finally have a baby to put it on!
Sucking on Aunt Missy's chin. Who needs a napkin, eh?
Big sister Ava :)
Big sister, Jocelyn. She looks so grown up here to me!
No little boy has ever been as cute as my Gabe. Check out those luscious lips! Don't you just wanna kiss 'em?
That's all for now, folks. Just wanted to show off my baby :)

Gabe's Birth Story

2011-02-24T12:10:00.000-08:00

Gabriel Glenn was born on February 5th, 2011. He weighed 9 lbs even, and measured 20 1/2 inches long, with a head circumference of 15". Here is his birth story.....

At about 3:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, and at 40 weeks, 4 days gestation, I awoke to my first contraction. It was strong and very obviously the real thing, after having "practice" contractions for several weeks now. I was in bed alone because every Friday night Rob and Jocelyn have a sleepover in the living room. I went back to sleep but kept waking up with each contraction, about every 15 minutes. At about 4:00 I decided to go tell Rob that things were starting, but that I was still in the early stages and that I planned on going back to bed. He was so funny. I nudged him awake and said, "I'm in labor..." His eyes popped wide open and he said in a panicked whisper, "OK...What do we do?!" I just laughed at him and told him, "Nothing. I'm going back to bed, and you should too." I should have known he wouldn't be able to do that though. I went back upstairs and soon heard him clanking around in the kitchen and vacuuming the living room. Cutie. :)
So this is when I called my sister, Missy, who had a three hour drive from Vernal, and then next I called my mom. Mom showed up probably around 5:00 a.m. and we just took it easy in my bedroom until Missy pulled into town at about 7:30 ish. I could tell that I still had a while to go, but the contractions were all very strong and coming on about every 6-8 minutes. This is when we called my midwife, Heather.
Heather and her two assistants got here around 8:00,I think, and we waited for a while before I decided to get checked. When she checked me I was 5 cm dilated.
I got into the tub, which felt great. My mom, who also played the role of doula, helped me stay relaxed and remind me of my Hypnobabies techniques. Now I'm going to come right out and say that this was not my relaxing Hypnobabies birth like Ava's birth was. I don't know if it was because Gabriel was bigger, or if it was because I wasn't able to get in as much practice before labor, but it was definitely harder. Each contraction was very strong and I had to keep saying my cues like, "peace" and "relax" as I had a contraction to remind myself to be limp and not to resist.
The water eventually got cold, so I ended up back out in my bed. My birth team was so awesome. Everyone was involved with counter-pressure, doing the knee press, light touch massage, or whatever I might have demanded at that particular moment. Things were pretty intense at this point.

After a few hours I was back into the tub, just trying anything to be more comfortable. The tub ended up NOT being what I wanted, and within just a few minutes I was climbing back out. My midwife suggested that I try the birth stool, which is basically a toilet seat looking thing that allows you to squat and not have to support your entire body with your legs. At this point my contractions were right on top of each other. As soon as a contraction ended, I stood up from the tub and before I could climb out, another one was right there. I was feeling very grunty and pushy at this point and was full on pushing by the time I sat on the birth stool. With each push I could feel Gabe's head coming down another inch, closer and closer. My mom sat behind me and supported me while I leaned forward into one of the midwives. At this point my water broke and Gabe's head was right behind. Rob was right by me and as Gabe's head came out I heard him excitedly say, "Holy crap! It's a baby, Miggy!" Yes, Rob. I am VERY aware. Hahahaha...

With another push Gabe's shoulders came out and I couldn't push another second. I told the midwives, "Just pull him out now!" Which they did :)

Right off the bat Gabe was SCREAMING! It was very reassuring to hear that, because if he could scream like that he had to be healthy. He was placed right in my arms and he screamed for about 20 minutes non-stop. My midwife actually took him at one point to make sure there wasn't something obvious that could have been hurting him. There wasn't, though, he was just letting us know what he thought of this cold, bright, loud world. :)

We made our way to the bed, nursed, & cut the cord. A while later we measured him and found out that he is quite the big boy! I was so proud. :)
After a few stitches, some Papa Murphy's pizza, and some clean up, the midwives took off and left us with our new little man. The girls came over (they were at Rob's parents) and met their new baby brother, who they loved immediately. We sang him "Happy Birthday" and just nestled in bed for the rest of the day.
Although this wasn't a text-book Hypnobabies birth, it was still wonderful. Intense, yes. Hard, yes. In total it was about a 9 hour labor, similar to Ava's birth, so I feel like that wasn't too bad since Jocelyn's birth was 15 hours of labor in a hospital, hooked up to all sorts of drugs and two hours of nurse-directed pushing. Even though it was hard, it was short lived and nothing went wrong. Most importantly my sweet baby boy is here and I'm obsessed with him in every way.
Every time I have a baby I am so surprised at how much I can love them. I never imagined that boys would be as much fun as girls but I was SO wrong. Welcome, baby Gabe! We are SO happy you're here.

2011-01-25T08:04:00.001-08:00

I know, it's been forever since I've blogged and you're all missing me terribly. So here's what has been going on: I'm extremely pregnant right now. My "due" date is a painfully long seven days away, but I'm sure it will be more like a painfully long ten or eleven days away before our little guy decides to make his debut.....'cause that's just the way I roll. I'm heavier now than I ever got with my other two pregnancies and I'm definitely feeling it. Last Sunday I got to the point where even my Large size shirts are all not large enough to cover my protruding torso. After standing in my closet, throwing clothing here and there, I gave up. I put my pj's back on and dramatically flopped down on my bed and complained to Rob that I had "nothing to wear!" He calmly stroked my hair and told me, "You've got just a few more weeks, babe." To which I replied, "Two weeks is a long time to be in your pajamas!" and then I cried. But just a little bit. He may not have even noticed. But then I got over my moment of frustration and moved on with my day. But just a little bit.

Jocelyn turned 4! I just can't believe it. She started primary also, and she absolutely loves it! Apparently her class is one of "those" classes, you know, with the extra rambunctious children. Her teachers tell me, though, that she never lets it get to her. She sits in her seat with her hands folded, listening to instructions and always willing to give a prayer or answer a question when called upon. That's my girl. :) I'm so proud. For her birthday we had a Rapunzel party and her favorite toy ended up being a unicorn on a stick...the kind with the horse head that you can straddle the stick and ride around on.

Ava is growing too. In just a little more than a month my baby will be two and I will have a new one month old baby by then. I sometimes feel bad for her short-lived baby life, making her a middle child before she even saw it coming. But she is really so grown up. Her vocabulary is quite lengthy and developed and she has no problem keeping up with her big sister. I don't really want to say it out loud (so instead I will just type it), but she is very interested in potty training already. She will always tell me when she has just peed or when she is pooping and often asks to sit on the potty when her sister is going. Last night I placed her on the toilet and she pushed and pushed until a few tiny drops of pee trinkled into the toilet! I couldn't believe it. Then this morning she woke up especially early because she couldn't stand to be in her wet diaper one second longer. I'm not jumping the gun, though. I will continue to do this for her as long as it is fun but I'm going to let her take the lead. Jocelyn didn't potty train until she was 3 and Ava is not quite 2, so this could very well be a fluke. I also realize that as soon as the baby is born she will likely regress a bit and I would MUCH rather change a diaper than clean up poopy panties.

Rob started a new job yesterday! I know, I know. He starts a new job like every year. Well, actually just every time we have a baby. I don't know why it's worked out that way, but it has. The company he was working for was a good 45 minute (one way) drive every day and he was putting gas in the truck every four days, at $40 a pop. The programing team he worked with was also dysfunctional and so he was generally unhappy where he was. So he thought he'd start looking around, and what do you know, the first company he applied for he got! I know I'm biased and whatever, but Rob really is exceptional at what he does. This is really where his talent lies and I'm so glad that people are taking notice. I couldn't be more proud. So now he works just in Provo, about a 15 minute commute. We got a little raise, but besides that he will be saving probably $100/month just on gas, they pay 100% of our health insurance, and they pay for his phone contract. So yeah. Huge blessing. It has been a little over a year since our bout of unemployment and I still don't feel like we have been able to get on top of our finances. It will be such a nice feeling to get on top of debt and build up a good amount of savings.

Other than that things are just pretty chill. We're getting the house ready for the home birth and trying our best to stay healthy throughout the long winter that Utah inevitably brings each year. I'll keep you posted on the big changes that will be happening over the next few months....Peace!

Playing Catch Up

2010-11-03T07:52:00.000-07:00

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Since my last post was back in July, I thought it was time for a new update. Fall has come and is nearly gone already! We went up the canyon to enjoy some of the pretty leaves before they were all dry and brown. It's been really nice to finally have some cooler weather. That being said, I don't know how ready I am for winter to come. Do y'all realize it's November already and mr. baby is going to grace us with his presence in only 3 short months?! Oh yeah...and I don't know if I posted about that either. We are having a boy! Baby brother is on his way and the girls are getting excited! We're going to name him Gabriel and when we talk about him, we call him Gabe. Jocelyn calls him "Gave", though, and although I've corrected her plenty of times, she is persistent and insistent that it is Gave, not Gabe, and that Gabe would be just a silly thing to call a baby brother. So, as Rob's sister Lindsey pointed out to me, Jocelyn called baby Ava, baby "Aba", and is now calling baby Gabe, "Gave". I'm not sure what went wrong there. Things straightened out for Ava though, so hopefully baby brother will get to be called by his real name some day too.
We are doing great these days. Rob got a really great and unexpected bonus at work, just because he is so awesome. His game, Plasma Cannon (Available exclusively to Palm Pre owners), has done great. He is almost up to 1000 sales and he won a $1000 Palm/HP credit in a contest for how well his game has done! We are really excited for him. Jocelyn is in desperate need of some socialization, and so come January I think we're going to try to put her in a preschool (when the new semester starts--who knew preschool had semesters?!) Ava is a little stinker and its lucky that one year olds are the cutest because that's the only thing that's saving her from a good bum paddling. She has started nursery at church, and because Jocelyn is still in there until January I thought the transition would be easy for her. I spoke too soon apparently because I am in there for the full two hours to avoid a tantrum that the nursery leaders have made it very clear, they do not want to handle. I'm sure she would do fine if she could just cry it out for a few minutes, but they are not up to it and I guess I can't blame them. So, as you can imagine, church is very fulfilling for me. After fighting with the kids for an hour in Sacrament meeting to sit down and convince them that they do not need to go out for yet another drink of water, I get to go play with the little ones in nursery. Woot. But really, it's not so bad. I'm just a little crusty sometimes. ;)
I am doing well, just cooking this baby brother and trying to get enough sleep at night. We're preparing for another home birth and so I've casually started to pick up my Hypnobabies practices here and there, and I am remembering how much I love hypnosis! It is so relaxing and makes me feel so much more positive about everything. I have a great midwife this time who is actually going to let me follow her as a doula to a birth or two in December so I can finish up my certification before the baby is born. I feel really comfortable with her as she is very knowledgeable and confident in the process of birth, and besides that is just a really awesome lady.
I have a bunch more pictures to post about my St. George trip, Halloween, and my new little hat business I'm starting, so stay tuned. Other than that, we're all healthy and happy!

Stupid Perfect Cat

2010-07-30T08:00:00.000-07:00

I have blogged about Eddie before. About how Jocelyn will tackle him to the floor and read him stories and dress him up. You'd think he'd mind, but the dumb thing just purrs and purrs, so all I can figure is that he must actually love her back. Well, since those days began, Ava was born and lately she has decided to carry on the tradition.

It actually looks like he might be trying to escape here, but the expression on Ava's face is telling me he doesn't have a chance. "Don't even try, kitty" she thinks.

"Good boy", she says to herself.

Now, I wouldn't want you to think that just because Ava has picked up the habit of squashing the cats to death, that Jocelyn would ever dream of quitting. Here is a "puppy backpack", as Jocelyn calls it. But its actually a leash, disguised as something cute, so we can strap it to her back and she can't run away from us in crowded places. She has strapped it to poor Eddie and is saying, "Come on, Eddie! Lets go for a walk!"
"No, no! Eddie, you're not supposed to lay down! Come on! Get up!"

He gives up and thinks to himself, "This is so humiliating." (purr, purrr, purrrrrr)

Baby #3!

2010-07-20T15:31:00.000-07:00

It's true. Baby #3 was in a hurry to get here and decided to surprise us all with a sooner-than-expected pregnancy. Although it surprised us, we have gotten over the shock and are excited for another bouncing bundle around the first part of February! I'm 12 weeks right now, and according to babycenter.com, our little one is about the size of lime, measuring about two inches from crown to rump. I'm getting fat faster than ever (yes I am!) and feeling all sorts of pukey.....so we're thinking this is another good, strong pregnancy in full swing! Fun, fun, fun :)

I don't think we have a preference of gender, Rob says he wouldn't mind having just girls, but it'd be fun to have a boy too. Jocelyn, on the other hand, says that (and I quote:) "boys are lame sauce" and is hoping for another sister. Now, she's not particularly chummy with the sister she's got now, so I don't know if she's just thinking she's going to get another shot at getting the kind of sister she expected or what. Ava is oblivious to my pregnancy, being only a babe herself (okay, 16 months is technically "toddler". But whatever. She's still my baby.) And I, like Rob, will love whatever comes our way.

The amazing thing about the whole situation is that I literally got a one week break from being either nursing or pregnant and that one week just happened to be the week I was in Maui without the kids. Did I say amazing? Because really, if I only get one week, Maui is definitely the way to do it! And when I say one week, I literally mean 7 days (okay, maybe 9). I nursed Ava for the last time on the night before I left on my trip, and two days after I got home I got pregnant. I think Heavenly Father knew that if I HAD to be pregnant again so soon, I needed a break from everything before I started in on the next kiddo. Merciful, merciful. Next time I go to Maui, being neither nursing or pregnant, maybe I should just STAY IN MAUI!!!

Just kidding, lime-sized baby. Just kidding. I definitely want you here.
For reals, though. I do.

My Sweet Jocelyn

2010-06-10T11:08:00.000-07:00

Today I experienced both the worst and best feelings a parent can ever feel. We went to McDonald's for lunch and were in the play place, Jocelyn playing on one side of the room, and Ava on the other. We had been there for a while and it was time to go, so I told Jocelyn to get her shoes on because it was time. I walked around the other side of the room to get Ava. When I turned around Jocelyn was gone. At first I thought maybe she was hiding from me because she didn't want to go home yet. I called her name and got no reply. I looked around the corner into the other room where you order your food. No Jocelyn. I kept calling and realized that by now she would have come out to me if she had been hiding. I asked the only other family in the play place if they had seen her leave, and they hadn't. My mind was scrambling and I kept thinking that any second I would find her and that everything would be alright. But with each passing second I started to wonder more and more if something had happened. Had she left without me? Was she out by the car? I ran outside and couldn't see her. I ran back in and called her name some more. I started praying frantically in my mind that she would show up. Had someone taken her? Did she run to the bathroom? The bathroom door was locked, so I knocked on it and called her name, only to find an annoyed McDonald's employee open the door and give me a dirty look. Worry was overcoming me, and with Ava on my hip I lost all consideration for other people and started yelling her name out and looking under tables. I decided I'd better go check the car again. I couldn't see her, but as I circled around the car, I found her on the other side of it, waiting for me all along.

Holy crap.

The feeling that overcame me then was indescribable. I started crying and pulled her toward me. She looked at me funny and wondered what was wrong with her mom. I told her that she scared me and that I thought she was lost. She told me she thought I was lost! After calming down and driving home, I explained to her that if she loses me, she needs to stay where she is and I will find her.
I have always felt for the parents out there who lose their children, but this gave me a completely new perspective. For a split second I was sure I had lost my sweet Jocelyn, and my life went with her. What a blessing it is to be home now, safe and sound with my two beautiful daughters.

Now I think I'll just go lock the deadbolts and never leave the house again.

Maui-Part 4

2010-05-17T19:20:00.000-07:00

Old Lahaina Luau! This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. Delicious food and fun entertainment! We all wore our pretty dresses and enjoyed a wonderful evening right off the ocean.
Before the show started we walked around the luau grounds where little craftsmen had their handmade things for sale.

This is our server, Tim, who accidentally gave my older sister an alcoholic beverage. She noticed within the first sip and quickly corrected the error, but gave him crap for trying to intoxicate her nursing baby ;)
Here's a nasty picture of the pig after they unburried it. Looked gross but tasted DELICIOUS! The wonderful aroma filled the entire luau grounds. Mmmmmmmm...

And of course, some hula dancing!
And a side note: Jocelyn is on my side as I blog this and she just looked at this picture and asked, "why do they have glasses on their boobs?" Um....yeah.

Maui-Part 3

2010-05-17T19:08:00.001-07:00

On the third day of our trip Savannah and I decided to take some surfing lessons. Can I just tell you, it was SO worth my $60. I couldn't believe how much of a workout my arms got, but the actual surfing part isn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be. The company we went through for our lessons said they "guarantee you'll ride a wave in you first 2-hour lesson." I figured, if I totally suck at it, at least I'll get my money back. But I didn't suck! Savannah and I had a blast and here are some of the shots that my mom got from the beach.

Me and Savannah all suited up!
Heading toward the beach
Our surf instructor, JB
JB giving us some instruction

And here I go!
This one is Savannah
Wet and EXHAUSTED! :)

Maui-Part 2

2010-05-17T15:25:00.000-07:00

It is now day 2 and time to veg! We headed for the pool and enjoyed our day getting sunburns and drinking delicious drinks by the pool. Heaven.

Here is Savannah texting a certain person who's name starts with a B and ends with and EN. Ooops! Did I just say that? You can't prove it. ;)

Mom, Missy, and Natalie. Soaking up some rays.
The view from my angle. Sandy feet, palm trees, ocean. Have I mentioned I'm in heaven?

Delicious nachos to share. Can you believe this is an appetizer?
All of us at sunset

Maui-Part 1

2010-05-17T14:49:00.000-07:00

That's right, people. Maui. I, Miranda Merrell, went to Maui. It's pretty much a miracle. And to make the experience even better, I left the kids and husband home and spent the week with my sisters and mom. It's pretty much the best thing that has ever happened to me.....except for, you know, things like my wedding day and giving birth to my two amazing daughters. But really, it was amazing. So amazing, in fact, that I'm going to have to post about my trip on more than one post. So bear with me (and try not to be jealous), as I blog about my incredible week on the lovely island of Maui, Hawaii. :)

The view from the airplane. I have to tell you, I haven't flown on a plane since I was probably 6 years old and I have no memory of the experience. Airports are so stressful! I always wondered why people said they don't like to fly. Now I know. Going through security just about gave me a heart attack, and once on the plane I was gripping the seat in front of me during take-off, feeling as if I was on a roller coaster and wondering if I was going to die. Once I realized that I was not, in fact, going to die, I was okay. I can now say that I'm a little more at ease with the situation and had no problems with the rest of the flights or layovers. What an experience, though!
After some ridiculous amount of hours spent traveling, we finally arrived to our hotel! It was amazing! It was essentially made up of three buildings, in the shape of a U, and the center of the U was open to the outdoors. Beautifully landscaped and right on the ocean! I mean, RIGHT on the ocean. It went like this: Hotel, swimming pool, ocean. Couldn't have stayed at a nicer place.
This is a shot of the gigantic fish they had in various ponds around the hotel

They had little pineapples growing in the lobby! Coolness!
Straight away we headed down to the beach, so here is me being cheesy and looking very tired from traveling all day.
This is the kiddie pool. There was a big water slide hidden in the rocks to the right that emptied into 9 feet of water, but the kid places are nice and shallow and safe. Then the "Grotto" bar was underneath that waterfall over there. You just swim right under there and ask for some delicious non-alcoholic beverage and it's amazing. Just like that. If you keep swimming past another waterfall on the other side of the Grotto, you end up on the deeper parts of the swimming pool.
The view from the lobby.

Mom and Savannah at the beach.
Me, Missy, and Natalie at the restaurant by the pool.

This aint nothin' yet, so stay tuned. Maui-Part 2 is underway!

Easter Weekend in St. George

2010-04-09T09:43:00.000-07:00

Ok, so St. George is the perfect place to spend Easter. It's official. The weather was a sunny 70 degrees, and back home it was snowing. SNOWING. In April. I guess that's what I get for living in Utah. Missy and Dale's family, the parents, and my little family all went in on a vacation home for the weekend and it was awesome! All the little families had our own bedrooms and a huge kitchen/living room area to hang out. Our backyard was awesome too, with a big red mountain forming a wall right off the grassy area. I'm pretty sure my nephews spent the whole time climbing it and exploring.
We spent a day hiking and biking Snows Canyon with my Dad and sister, Marina, which was fun. Then before we headed back home, we visited the farm that my Dad works at and then had a nice Easter BBQ in Grandma and Grandpa Naron's backyard. It was so nice to get out for a few days and enjoy some sunshine....before we drove back home to 6 inches of snow. :p The good thing about April snow is that it melts within a day or so.
In 3 weeks Ava and I will be leaving Rob and Jocelyn and will be headed to Maui with my mom and sisters for a week. Can't wait! Maybe those will be the next pictures I post... :)

Me, Ava, and a horse
I feel for you, momma goat
My family
Dad

After the hunt
Checking out her basket. She's OBSESSED with The Land Before Time right now
Cute little Ava
All the kids before the egg hunt

Ava's Birthday!

2010-03-30T09:25:00.000-07:00

The poor thing wasn't feeling her best on her birthday, but she was a good sport anyway. We had the family over and even Aunt Missy and Baby Natalie surprised us with a visit! Ava got tons of clothes for our upcoming Maui trip (4 weeks, baby!). All day I kept wondering where the last year has gone, remembering the day she was born like it was yesterday. Having her at home was the single most incredible experience of my life and I'd do it a hundred times again. Ava is such a sweetie and, though she has her moments, is truly my daily dose of sunshine. Don't get me wrong, I love my Jocelyn just as much, but they are very different girls. Jocelyn is my "firecracker", if you will. Curious, strong willed, independent. Ava is my snuggler, giving kisses and is happy to have me hold her at all times (whether I like it or not!) And now my baby is a whole year old! How in the world did that happen? I'm having mixed emotions because the first year of her life, though rewarding, was also probably the hardest year in my life and so in some ways, seemed like a very long, hard year. Dealing with two kids was a WAY bigger adjustment for me than just having one child. Add that on top of a nice heaping dose of postpartum depression, and you get the gist of it. But now the girls are sleeping through the night (mostly), I'm feeling a little more rested and things are seeming a little easier. So, though it was a long, rough year, it's already over! We made it through and we're all healthy and happy.

Happy Birthday, Baby! We love you!

The Many Faces of Jocelyn

2010-03-30T09:20:00.000-07:00

"Sad" Come on! Look at that lip!
"Silly"
"Happy" The girl has some serious chompers
"Mad" I love that crinkly nose!

Unicorn Poop

2010-02-05T21:38:00.001-08:00

February has officially begun and winter depression is in full swing. Honestly, though, this year hasn't been as bad as previous years for me. Probably my hippy happy pills. But still, something about day after day of gray skies, bitterly cold weather, and being couped up inside a messy house full of screaming children can get to me. Call me crazy. So on the rare occasion that the sun manages to break its way through the warning hazard inversion, we bundle up and go for a walk.

Some of our funniest memories happen when we are on these walks. Like the story of the unicorn poop. Over New Years, the whole extended fam came over and we decided to take a family picture. We all headed over to the red barn in our neighborhood, dressed all nice for pictures, to find the ground at the barn covered in poop. For some reason Jocelyn has decided it was unicorn poop. Turns out, it wasn't poop at all though. As I looked closer during a few of our winter walks, I realized it was owl pellets. Watching one of Jocelyn's favorite kids shows, Zaboomafoo, made me remember a certain episode. So this is how it goes....the owl eats a mouse, digests the meat, and barfs up a gross lump of fur and bones. Pretty disgusting, but pretty cool.

Anyway, everytime we pass our red barn, Jocelyn tells me about the unicorn poop and how it would be really gross to eat it, and how it's much better to just eat brefast and lunch and dinner and treats. Here are a few pictures, not of the unicorn poop (would you have taken a picture?), but of our park and other cute things. Enjoy :)

Another Year Ends

2009-12-29T11:59:00.000-08:00

Mouthful of chocolate.
Not really sure what she's supposed to be doing here...
This picture deserved to be posted, merely because of the demon cat in the background.
The girls opening a present together.
I just wanted to show everyone Rob's mad wrapping skills. He wrapped my present on one side, and left the edges open. Needless to say, I knew exactly what I was getting :)

Pictures of our living room after Santa came...

2009 definitely gave us a run for our money (or lack thereof). We went through two employers, a period of self employment/unemployment, had a baby, postpartum depression, sick kids and no health insurance. But boy have we learned a lot. There's nothing quite like trials to teach us to be humble, faithful, and trusting. Here we are, almost January, and things are looking extremely well for us now. Rob has a great job, we're all healthy, in love, we have a wonderful home, and plenty to eat.
The latest thing to celebrate would definitely be Rob's new job. We had been unemployed for about four months, and had enough money to make one more mortgage payment until we would be living in a cardboard box. Rob got this job and his first paycheck, just in time for Christmas on December 23rd. So yes, we were those crazy people at the mall on Christmas Eve picking up a few gifts for our girls. So although it has been scary at times throughout this past year, we have been extremely blessed and we hope that 2010 will bring more stability and less stress.

Cheese, Boogery Noses, and such...

2009-12-29T08:43:00.000-08:00

This girl couldn't be more of a joy. Little Ava is always smiling, and although some people may think she doesn't like them, it's just because she is so shy and truly a sweet spirit....but not the ugly girl kind. She's really cute too.
Jocelyn is a mini-photographer these days. We have a lot of carpet and ceiling pictures, but I thought about making her a scrapbook anyway, to hold her artistic photographs in. I think she'd like that later on.

Ava eating cheese.

the goin' ons of what's goin' on

2009-11-24T19:37:00.000-08:00

This post will probably be the most random of my posts as of yet. And that's sayin' something. It's been a while, though, so I thought I'd post a bunch of pictures and just update y'all on the various things that have filled our lives since the last time I posted. This first picture is of Ava being a humming bird.
Jocelyn may hate me for posting this later, but for now she's pretty proud of herself. She's officially potty trained on #1. We're still working on #2. But that only means I have to change usually one pull up a day from her. I'm so stinking proud of her. And when I say stinking, I do mean stinking. Because like I said...we're still working on #2.
Teeth! These pictures were taken a while ago, so she now has two more teeth than what show in this picture. And let me tell ya. Teething has not been kind on us. Whiny baby galore. The funny thing is, is that before getting the top front teeth, her fangs on both sides on the top have grown in. Vampire baby!

We have grass! And it only took a year and 1/2 for them to put it in. Now that the weather is cold, we can sit inside and watch the snow kill it until next spring. Thanks a lot HOA. You're awesome.
This picture is taken by my dear Jocelyn. Every time she has the camera in hand, we're always ducking our heads to try to include them in the picture. Needless to say, we have a lot of crotch pictures. Kinda hilarious, but I decided to post one of her better ones. So this is me and Ava enjoying one of the last warmish days out on the back deck.
Rob has decided to take up cooking. He's made us various things, usually involving some sort of potato, but in this case, he made some delicious burritos. Yum. He puts way more effort into his meals than I do mine, since I usually wait until 4:45 to even think about what to cook. In most cases, the meat is still in the freezer, so I pull out the bisquick and we have pancakes for dinner. Who doesn't love breakfast for every meal? Anyhow, Rob's cooking is quite delicious. If I do say so myself :)

Jocelyn reading the funnies with Dad. She likes Garfield. If you look really close, I think the newspaper she is holding is upside down. :)
Ava is trying so hard to crawl these days! Maybe it's her gargantuan (spelling?) thighs that prevent her from actually taking off, but she is ever so close. Ready or not, Mom. Ready or not. I suppose that will be all for now. I have a billion more pictures from halloween and going to a corn maze, but who's to say if those pictures will ever make their way to the blog. I promise nothing. :)

Halloween!

2009-11-09T16:16:00.000-08:00

h

We all dressed up this year (at my insistence!) and we all looked so freaking cool. Jocelyn was tinker bell, so naturally Rob dressed as Captain Hook to go along with her theme. And Ava was a spider, so I thought dressing up as a good ol' fashioned halloween witch would go along with her theme. We spent the evening taking Jocelyn around the neighborhood and visiting the grandparents. At some yummy chili and cornbread, and WAY too many sweets. A good time all around :)

Jocelyn's First Day of Preschool!!

2009-10-05T17:27:00.000-07:00

We have a great neighbor who runs a small preschool with her son and a few other kids on the block, and she invited Jocelyn to join! It's very low-key, and if they're having more fun playing then the teacher doesn't force the lessons, but so far Jocelyn has loved it! They practiced the letter "J" for Jocelyn's first day. The teacher is very impressed with her, and though Jocelyn is the youngest in the class, she keeps up just fine with the other kids. The teacher said to me, "She's so smart! I was just amazed!.....but you probably already knew that." Yes. Yes I did. :) But at least now I know it's not a biased opinion!

St. George!

2009-09-22T09:43:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we had a little three day vacation to St. George. It was SOOOOOOoooo nice! We were able to spend some time with the fam down there and it was really good to see everyone. We hiked around Snow Canyon a bit and found a baby tortoise! (which I will post a picture of later on). It was nice and hot, too, so we spent plenty of time by the pool at our hotel. The girls did great and we all had a lot of fun. We will definitely be doing this again....and hopefully sooner than later.

Family pictures

2009-08-21T12:54:00.000-07:00

These pictures were long overdue, and after over a year of living in our home, we finally have pictures on the walls. :)

What else is new? Hmm....Well, Rob and I started a workout/nutrition program called P90X. It is 90 days of intense diet and an hour of workout everyday. We took our "before" pictures and all our measurements, so when we're done with the program (in....85 days), we'll post our before and after pictures. We're excited!!!

4 Years

2009-08-05T13:51:00.000-07:00

...and still goin' strong.

I promise this post isn't going to be as depressing as the last one....

2009-07-29T15:17:00.000-07:00

Things are looking up. My life is still definitely crazy, but at the moment I feel like things are under control. Jocelyn is napping, Ava is cooing sweetly, and my house is not a complete wreck...just a little wreck. :) AND!!! We're planning on going camping this weekend, just up the canyon for an overnighter, with my parents. So that's something to look forward to. Joc and I went swimming the other day and had a lot of fun. Rob has had a bit of a slow down at work, so he has been able to at least spend his evenings with us, which has been amazing. Last weekend was the first weekend in forever that he's had off of work and it was a really good weekend. So yes, things are much better...or at least I just seem to be handling it better. Which is the most important thing after all, right?

mommy syndrome

2009-07-15T22:01:00.000-07:00

Lately Rob has had to work a lot of crazy hours. Like, he starts working at 8:00, stops for dinner at 5:00, and then starts back up around 7:00 and works until 2:00 a.m. It has been super hard on all of us because not only does Rob have to pull crazy hours, but I do too, and that means the girls get a crabby mom, which only encourages the two year old to misbehave and the baby to want to be held every second of her life or else she will make that really annoying fake crying noise. Today I think that my hormones had had enough. My house was a wreck, and I was just not being a good mom. I think the girls needed a break from me as much as I needed one from them. I cried and then I realized it was stupid to cry, when I have family who would be more than willing to help out. I am amazingly good at not asking for help, but today I did it (be proud). My mother in law was a major sanity saver today. I had three hours between Ava's feedings to do whatever the crap I wanted. So what did I do? Well, I thought about doing some laundry, maybe some dishes, vacuum a floor or two. You know, the things I probably should have done, but at the same time I do not regret the decision I made to ignore those things completely. I called up my Grandma, who let me have her backyard swimming pool all to myself. That's right. I laid in the sun and spent some time to myself. The best part was going under the water and listening to nothing. Not a bird chirping, a car driving by, or even a tantruming toddler. It was amazing.
Later on Rob's mom told me that I need to start calling on her more often. I think I might just do that. I'm going to try really hard to not let things get so bad that I break down and cry, just like my kids do when they don't get their way. This is my new goal. I'm going to start asking for help when I need it. Because I do need help with my kids, I do need help with my laundry, and I do need help so that I can just spend some time doing nothing. So watch out, world. 'Cause Miggy's getting her way.

And...don't call me Miggy. :)

Happy 4th!

2009-07-07T14:12:00.001-07:00

The fourth of July was a lot of fun this year. My mom, little sister, my girls, and I went to Vernal
to visit my older sister at her house. Here are a billion pictures from the trip, including our BBQ in the backyard, fireworks, the parade, and more fireworks. We also went to see the movie "Up" (and loved it!) All in all a great weekend. And to top it all off, my wonderful husband had the house all clean for me and dinner on the table when I got home. What a stud. :)

Pictures for school

2009-06-24T15:16:00.000-07:00

I've decided to get back into my schooling. It's been hard to motivate myself and be disciplined since this is a school that I do from home, in my own time but it's been good to get back into things a little bit. Here are a few shots for my first project.

Ava's blessing

2009-06-11T13:32:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday was Ava's baby blessing. It was a busy day, but it was a lot of fun. Both sides of the family gathered at the church where she was blessed by Rob. I even spent the last billion weeks crocheting Ava's baby blessing dress and bonnet and it turned out pretty cute. She's such a chunk. Aunt Missy lovingly nicknamed her "butter"...because she looks like a butter ball. After church we all met at Aunt Julie's clubhouse for sloppy joes and visiting. I think it's pretty cool that so many people showed up for my baby. I think she's pretty awesome, and I guess they do too! :)

A girls best friend

2009-06-10T13:01:00.000-07:00

Jocelyn loves this cat so much that it hurts, and quite literally sometimes. She pulls on his hair and hauls him around in weird positions, but for some reason, he seems to love her too. This is her best friend, Eddie. Eddie has a brother named Jakey who is black and white but he has wised up a bit and keeps a further distance from her. Jocelyn is not trying to be mean when she grabs a handful of Eddie's hair to bring him a little closer to her, she just wants to whisper secrets in his ear, read him books, sing him songs, and sometimes lay on top of him with her entire body weight smashing his little cat body. I used to spend a lot of my energy scolding her for not being softer. But the stupid cat just purrs despite all of the abuse. I guess he loves her too. :)

help!

2009-05-29T11:50:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I'm just always stressed out these days. I guess adjusting to life with a second child has been a bit of a challenge for me. Because I'm always stressed out, I seem to keep getting sick and as soon as I start feeling better, I push my limits again and get sick before I'm fully recovered from the last thing. Any tips for a haggard new mom????

Life goes on

2009-04-28T10:25:00.000-07:00

It is almost May and boy am I glad. The sun shines and makes me oh so happy. The girls are getting bigger and everyone is happy and healthy, so life is good. Honestly, it has been a bit tough here and there with two kids though. You don't really understand how hard it is to be in this position until you are already there and it's too late. Not that I'd take it back, it's all worth it, but definitely hard. Ava is pretty colicky at night which is rough, but during the day she is smiley and happy and makes the evenings all worth it. Jocelyn is into her tantrums these days but we get through them. Her favorite thing right now is The Lion King and we often catch her singing "poon tada!," which is Hakuna Matada. Its pretty dang cute.
Rob's work is still going well, it's awesome having him at home. Oh, and I got a haircut. And I'm still feeling pretty fat these days. Rob and I went clothes shopping last night and after trying on a billion shirts I only came home with one. Depressing. But I've decided to start training for a 5K which will be good for me. Wish me luck. Hopefully I'll be all sorts of skinny and hot in a few months. Gol, this blog post is really scattered and random. Ah, such is life.

snow, snow, go away, come again another day

2009-04-17T09:14:00.000-07:00

These pictures were taken forever ago, like probably two months ago when we went to see the chickens near our house. Jocelyn was wearing short sleeves. Why is this weather playing games with my heart? A few weeks ago I took the girls to the park and got a sunburn. Now it's all stupid and snowy again. What the? I think that is what Jocelyn is saying in this picture, so I found it appropriate to post. :)

Adjusting

2009-03-24T18:36:00.000-07:00

We all seem to be adjusting pretty dang well to the new family addition. My recovery has been amazingly fast, Ava has been a healthy and happy baby so far, and Jocelyn seems to think her little sister is pretty cool. I am so glad that we decided to do this birth at home and drug free, it has made the transition go very smoothly.
We have some other great news, too, other than the new baby! Rob got a great new telecommuting job on Monday and he's already started. We've been so blessed lately and it seems like every time we go through a rough period, financially or otherwise, it has been a precursor to some huge blessing. Not only is this job sufficient for pay, but it came to us at exactly the right time and the best part of all, Rob gets to stay home with me during the day! It is going to be a bit of an adjustment knowing that he is home and he still has to work, but I'm sure we'll get into the routine of things.
Jocelyn is doing well, I think she's getting a little bit restless in the house, being couped up all day, but as some of these pictures show, Rob has been taking her out front to ride her bike and she is doing great! I think we're going to have to keep a close eye on her this summer with those bike skills of hers.
Anyway, that's all that's going on around here these days...just taking it one day at a time. :)

Ava Corinne!

2009-03-19T13:58:00.000-07:00

So here is the story:

Tuesday morning at about 4:00 a.m. I woke up with a crampy feeling. I got up, peed, and went back to bed. At about 6:00 the same thing happened and I thought..."hmmm..maybe!?" I felt the cramps off and on until about 8:00 a.m. when I decided to get up and go tell Rob.
Based on what it felt like, they were happening about every 10-15 minutes and lasting about 30 seconds. We got up and went for a walk around our neighborhood, the contractions still feeling very manageable. When we got home I decided I should probably do some last minute preparations on the house, so I cleaned the bathrooms and threw in a load of laundry. The pressure was getting a little more intense so I decided to call my doula (aka: mom) and have her come over at around noon. She stopped by the store to pick up a few "birthing snacks" and was over shortly thereafter.
We decided to sit down and start to really time these things to see what we were really looking at. They were lasting about 1 1/2-2 mintues and were about 8-10 minutes apart. Until all of the sudden we had a short break. We went about 16 minutes in between a few, but they were lasting longer at 2 minutes each and seemed a bit stronger. Out of nowhere, at about a quarter to 3:00 in the afternoon they switched from that time to being only two or three minutes apart. At first I thought it was a fluke so decided to just play it out for a few minutes to see if this really was a pattern we were developing. After several of really fast ones like that I decided I'd better call my midwife, Brigitte, this was about 3:00 in the afternoon.
Now that they were coming on fast and strong I decided to go up and start a tub to see if that would help to keep me focused in my hypnosis cues I had been practicing. On the way up the stairs I lost my focus, though and had a moment where I felt almost frantic. I had to stop half way up the stairs to work through a contraction while Rob rubbed on my lower back, which helped a ton! We got upstairs finally and the tub was almost done filling up for me. Once I got into the tub, Rob put on a hypnosis CD for me while my mom supported my head and whispered cues into my ear. It was intense at this point. I new that I had to focus or else this wasn't going to be the experience I had hoped for and would be very painful. So I focused. Rob took pictures and I look like I was asleep! My midwife got here at about 3:45 and things moved very fast from there. She did an internal exam and said that I was fully dilated and that whatever I was doing was perfect becuase I was moving right along. The next few contractions pretty much just took over my body. I felt my body pushing, without the actual conscious effort of doing it. I was so into my hypnosis that I couldn't even waver from it long enough to form a sentence to anyone or I knew I would lose focus , so I would instead communicate by saying as little as possible and just say things like "pushy!" when I felt my body pushing, or "talk" when I needed my mom to give me cues. Finally, during a nice strong push I felt a pop and my water broke! I pushed maybe four or five times, for a total of 12 minutes and Ava was born! Counting from the time my contractions picked up steadily at about 8:00 a.m., my labor lasted a total of 9 hours, 50 minutes.

She weighed in at 8 lbs. 4 oz, measuring 21 inches long. She is so beautiful and healthy and has picked up on nursing like a little pro. At first Jocelyn was a little apprehensive and acted shy around Ava, but she warmed up quick and always says things like "Baby Aba coot!"
I've been recovering great, and almost feel like I'm back to normal already. We're trying to get
some sleep during the nights but we've had plenty of help with Rob being home and my mom taking a few days off of work to help out.

I don't wanna talk about it.

2009-03-16T08:44:00.000-07:00

But I guess that is what I came to blog about, so I will. Yes, I'm still pregnant and yes, I am "past due" BOTH of my given dates. I'm really over this pregnancy thing. Send baby birthing vibes my way, because apparently my babies like to stay inside forever.

I'll post some pictures later

2009-02-24T10:05:00.000-08:00

Well my midwife sent me home with our birth kit and told me that anytime I go into labor now is safe and fine with her! I'm 38 weeks tomorrow (Tuesday), so technically I still have a few weeks to go, but I'll take what I can get. In fact, I kind of wish she hadn't told me that because now I'm getting really anxious, whereas before I had been fine to just be patient and let it happen when it happens. Anyway, now we wait....

Jocelyn has a been a little sick these days and I'm afraid she's given it both to Rob and I. She is just a little less active than usual, has a runny nose, and a freaking annoying cough. She coughs all night long and it keeps us all up. She has been crappy at sleeping these days, too, which really sucks because I sleep on the couch now (more comfortable for the giant pregnant woman) and making a billion trips up and down the stairs gets me all out of breath. Rob is really good about getting up with her, but sometimes she just wants her mom. We'll get through it all though, hopefully before the baby comes............so I guess I do want Ava to take her time. The less stress surrounding the birth, the better.

Speaking of our home birth, we are so excited! We've completed our Hypnobabies classes and even had our "practice birth" a few weeks ago. I feel like we're all set, other than a few household chores that need to be done. We're going to have yummy food and I will have my mom as my doula, my midwife, and of course my sweet Robbie to support me. We're going to film the birthing process (except for my privates!), so hopefully it will be as smooth and calm as we've planned on.

Okay, so I've just typed a novel and most of it was about Ava...sorry if you don't give a crap. Can you tell what's been on my mind lately??? Wish us luck! I'll be sure to keep the blog updated on any baby news!

A few changes...

2009-02-03T13:50:00.000-08:00

The first change: my hair. I decided I was long overdue for something different so instead of being ashy-poopy colored, I am now a brunette/redhead. I was a little worried that if I went red I might just look like some teenager who got knocked up instead of a stable housewife/mother. But I quite like it.
Next: My belly is growing. That is the first thing people notice when they see me and the last thing they talk about when they leave. So yes, my belly is growing and I promise you I'm more aware of it than any of y'all. And I quite like that, too. Pregnancy is a much happier experience this time around, due mainly to my attitude I think. We're now 35 weeks along(ish), not much further to go!
Everything else is the same.

Jocelyn's 2nd Birthday

2009-01-20T10:19:00.000-08:00

It's true, she is two. I don't know that we've officially experienced the "terrible twos" quite yet, so I'm crossing my fingers that we can get through this year without too much trouble. We had a great day for her yesterday. Rob surprised both Jocelyn and I by coming home early from work to help us clean and decorate the house for

the cake and ice cream party later that evening. We went to McDonalds...or in Jocelyn's words, "Ol' McDonos, moo moo here!" for dinner for a happy meal. Afterwhich Rob's family and my Mom and Savannah came over for cake and ice cream. I swear she got more gifts than Christmas and boy did she love it! Her favorite, by FAR, was the gift that Aunt Lindsey and Uncle Matt gave her, a realistic baby with a carseat and diaper bag and all the gadgets that go in it! I also made her a quilt and pillow to fit her toddler bed with Dora the Explorer on it, which she thinks is pretty cool.
We still have the balloons and streamers all over our house and I think for the sake of Jocelyn's excitement, they might just stay up for a while longer. :)

a bunch of pictures: part 4

2009-01-09T10:26:00.000-08:00

Just a lazy morning with mom.
She shared her cereal snack with her baby.

a bunch of pictures: part 3

2009-01-09T10:23:00.000-08:00

Here are a few of me being pregnant, taken about a week ago. Beware of the great white belly! Aaaaah!
Last time my belly button just went flat and I thought I was special or something for not having an "outie". Not this time....its waaaaay out there!
My view looking down to Jocelyn.

a bunch of pictures: part 2

2009-01-09T10:18:00.000-08:00

These two pictures are of Jocelyn not really getting the whole "time out" thing. The first time we did it, she cried and I thought, "good, maybe she'll behave now". But now for some reason when you tell her she's being naughty and ask her if she wants to go stand in the corner, she smiles and says, "yes!" So then I say, "Too bad, stop being naughty!" Good crap.
Here's our Christmas tree with Jocelyn's main present, the bike. Her other favorite presents were her cradle that Grandpa Merrell made her for her baby, and her spring horse from Grandma and Grandpa McNitt. We hear it singing "Clipity Clop!" at 5:00 a.m. on occasion.
And this is Rob being cutsie. :) Love you, babe.

a bunch of pictures: part 1

2009-01-09T10:10:00.000-08:00

This is Jocelyn's first sledding experience and although she looks happy in these pictures, let me just tell you that we didn't stay out for more than 20 minutes. She didn't exactly love it. Maybe it's the clunky clothes or the brightness of the snow on that sunny day, but even though she was with her favorite person, Savannah, she complained the whole time. Oh well....maybe next year. :)

Christmas

2009-01-04T20:02:00.000-08:00

I'll post some pictures from the actual day in a bit, but for now here's one of Jocelyn in her Christmas dress and hat. It was a great day for us all! Jocelyn got way too many toys, so much so that we had to rearrange her bedroom and take out her crib to fit in all of her new stuff. She's officially in the toddler bed and for now the crib is moved into our bedroom for Ava to use. It took a few days for Jocelyn to get use to her bed, she would hop out of bed and peek her little head out of the door to see if Rob or I were watching. When we'd say "Jocey, get back in bed", she would run back in her room laughing and squealing like this was the most fun she'd ever had. In fact, one day she was enjoying her freedom and slept all crunched up in her doll-sized play pen. Her head kept bobbing up and down and she woke up in the worst mood! She hasn't done that since. :)
The belly is still good. If we go by our farthest due date (March 15th) we have 10 more weeks left. If we go by our closest due date we only have 9...so we'll see. I'm betting on the late one so I won't be disappointed when I'm STILL pregnant past my due date, as was the case last time.
Rob has started up on the South Beach Diet again. The first time was about a year ago and he lost about 20 pounds really fast, but we both lost momentum. When he was sick of dieting I was sick of making the meals for him, but we've both re-dedicated and he's gonna make it all the way through this time! I know, I know....New Years resolution. But for realsies, I know he can do it.
Other than that, life is still about the same around here.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-19T09:35:00.000-08:00

So I didn't get around to doing an official Christmas card this year. Is it just me or has this season just flown by? Sheesh. And I still have to get some Christmas shopping done this weekend before the big day. Although things are busy, life is still good. Jocelyn has her second birthday coming up in less than a month (her SECOND!!) and pretty soon after that is the birth of baby Ava. We've decided to do an alternative method to birthing this time around and we're WAY excited. I'll be taking a Hypnobabies class to help prepare myself (which is basically involving hypnosis to allow me to get through a less painful labor not involving any drugs), and we've switched to a midwife who will deliver our baby in the comfort of our own home. I think a lot of people gasp at the thought of a home birth, expecting it to be dangerous...but trust me. I've done my research and it is surprising how many more accidents, infections, and unnecessary surgical interventions happen because of the hospital mindview and setting.

Anyway, I'll have to post a picture here pretty soon of my growing belly. We only have 11 more weeks to go (or so) and we're getting excited!

Maternity Clothes

2008-12-11T12:39:00.000-08:00

Thought this was pretty dang funny, but really not funny all at the same time. Some lady wrote a few kind words to designers regarding maternity clothes issues.

Found at:
http://toddleddredge.com/the-usual-blather/maternity-fashion-if-toddled-dredge-wrote-fashion-friday

Like many of you, I read Big Mama’s regular blog feature Fashion Friday. She writes about everyday fashion in a way that is entertaining and not pompous. I read even though I am not even remotely fashionable. Fashion left me behind about ten years ago when everything switched to stretchy, drapy super-snaggable polyblends and 1970s patterns. I am hoping that eighteen months from now, when my body has settled into whatever it decides is post-baby normal and I need to finally replace my wardrobe, clothing will once again be tailored, monochrome and 100% cotton.

Fingers crossed.

For now, I am still in the purgatory of maternity clothes. And I have a few words to say on the subject.

Designers, listen. I know we’re not friends. You don’t like me and I don’t like you. I don’t spend nearly enough on clothes to be your target market, and you make clothes apparently only to pain and insult me. Your maternity clothes seem designed around skinny women wearing artificial belly bumps rather than real women with real pregnancies. I am going to charitably assume that you design the clothes you do out of well-meaning ignorance rather than sadistic scorn for heterosexual procreators, so I’m going to help you out with a little advice.

1. I am pregnant. Let me wear a @#$%^& normal bra. Those square necks and peasant shirts and wide-strapped tanks and spaghetti straps and whatever other absurdity is currently fashionable for the seventeen-year-old figure? It does not work on a woman whose body is preparing to feed a small hungry human. You do not want to see the face of my rage when I finally find a shirt long enough to cover my belly, only to find that the sleeves are so precariously balanced at the outermost edges of my shoulders that normal underclothing is impossible.

2. Stop sticking elastic in my shirts. Seriously, don’t make me hurt you. And DO NOT call the elastic anything remotely related to the word “comfortable.” It is not comfortable. It is itchy and it digs. Even if it doesn’t dig when I buy the shirt, it will in a month or two. PUT DOWN THE ELASTIC.

3. A pregnant woman’s stomach extends more than two inches below her belly button. I realize that in your youthful days you may have found a little breeze down there kinda sexy. I do not find breezes sexy. I find them drafty. And I would like to be able to walk down the stairs without everyone below me staring fixedly at the two inches of exposed stretch marks that are feeling a chill because you can’t make a shirt that meets my pants. And this is not a size issue. Lane Bryant’s maternity clothes do the same stupid thing.

4. I do not actually want to share my cleavage with the world. They will get enough of an eyeful once I’m nursing. Until then, kindly give me a neckline that allows me to bend over and pick up my current children without flashing the old man sitting next to me.

5. Clingy is not sexy. I know, I know. You think sexy is all about clingy. Maybe in the artificial belly bump modeling crowd it is. But until the last month or so before delivery, my pregnant belly jiggles. Santa has nothing on me. I would prefer not to be mesmerized by my own hypnotically rippling reflection in store windows as I walk past. The decorum of a little space between me and the fabric greatly improves my quality of life.

6. Bold patterns on a pregnant woman are the visual equivalent of an air horn. It says “Back up! Coming through!” While there are times I might be grateful if the crowd would part enough for my wide load to squeeze through, I can take care of that myself. I can always shout “My water broke!” Please make me something that could not be seen on the cast of Sex and the City or the upholstery of a 1970s couch.

7. Pre-shrink your fabrics. I cannot count the number of times I have bought an empire-waisted maternity shirt that fit perfectly in the store, only to have it shrink up in the wash, even after following its laundry instructions. Trying to dress in a rush only to discover that the shirt that fit yesterday now has a seam that runs horizontally mid-nipple makes me call down curses upon your heads. Seriously - the way you know Oprah’s whole “law of attraction” nonsense really is nonsense is by the fact that no maternity designers have yet spontaneously combusted from the powerful thoughts of destruction directed towards them by pregnant women.

I am seriously considering spending the last month of this pregnancy wearing only sweatpants and my husband’s XL v-neck undershirts. Funny thing - his shirts cover my belly, do not itch, do not shrink, do not cling, let me wear normal bras and do not have plunging necklines.

Perhaps someday our gifted designers for women can master the fashion achievements of Hanesand Fruit of the Loom.

a close to fall

2008-12-03T12:48:00.000-08:00

Here are just a few recent pictures of Jocelyn having fun on Grandma's backyard swing. Fall is about ending around here, and it's been such a nice one this year. I can't believe it's the 3rd of December and we've really had no snow to speak of yet. We had one little spiff a few days after Halloween and it melted within a day or so. Anyway---I'm done talking about the weather.

Life is good. Pregnancy is pretty good, with exception of a few aches and pains and uncomfortableness, all is well. The belly is growing to be nice and round and I've officially banned stupid maternity pants from my wardrobe. I swear. It's more comfortable to just wear fat people pants than those stupid things. We've chosen a name for the baby and here it is:

Ava Nicole. Cute huh? I think so too. :) Jocelyn talks about her baby "Aba" and likes to point to her own belly when we ask her where her sister is. Ah well...she'll get it.

Rob is working on his business, Candelight, and should be making us money here by the time the babe is born. I'm so lucky to have a hunk of a husband who supports his family and is cool and nerdy at the same time. What would I do without you, Robdor?

That's life around here!

Up for debate

2008-11-10T11:19:00.001-08:00

We've thought and thought and still haven't decided on another girl name for our next baby.
Soooo....any suggestions? It has to be something unique but not weird. And don't start with the Mc-names. You know, Mckayla, Mckensie, blah blah. Out of the question. So far we are kind of thinking something along the lines of Juliet, because it's pretty and not very many people have it. And because there is an Aunt Julie in the family. But we're having a hard time with a middle name for that one. No, just because we have a Jocelyn and we're thinking Juliet and our imaginary boy baby is named Jonah, does not mean that it has to start with J. That is all coincidence. So really, throw some suggestions out there. We're all ears.

p.s. Here's a random picture of the J. Isn't she cute? Messy face and all.

Halloween

2008-11-01T21:02:00.000-07:00

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We all dressed up this year, which is a first since Rob usually doesn't care to participate. But since I spent a whole hour and a half making his rubix cube costume, he was willing to join in the fun. Obviously, I was a pumpkin, and even though it may seem SO obvious I still got a lot of questions from little trick-or-treaters, "what are you supposed to be?" Then I'd say something like "Um...a fairy princess". They'd give me a really weird look, take their candy and run. Jocelyn was the cutest bumble bee out there. I was worried that she wouldn't wear her costume that I sewed for her, because before the actual day of Halloween and the bribery of candy, she hadn't even tried it on. Every time I would ask her if she wanted to wear her bee suit, she would scream and throw a tantrum. Sheesh. What a sweetheart we've got. But I have proof now, with the pictures, that she actually DID try on her bee costume and it fit perfectly.
We spent the evening eating chili at my parent's and way too many sweets. Aunt Savannah took Jocelyn around the neighborhood to trick or treat and I think she had fun. Afterwards we went on over to the Merrell's for a "special" treat from Grandma and Grandpa. They kindly helped me to scrub off all of the "washable" orange makeup that so kindly did not want to wash off my face. But my face is back to normal and we can call Halloween of 2008 a success!

Oh--and the big mess spilled down my boobs was water that Rob threw at my face out of his glass to "help" me get the orange makeup off my face. Thanks babe. I look fabulous now. :)

Mother's intuition Nuthin'!

2008-10-23T12:10:00.000-07:00

This whole time I've been thinking it was a boy. In fact, the day after I delivered Jocelyn I was sitting in the hospital thinking and being so certain that our next one was a boy. I swear I could just feel it. Boy was I wrong! Or should I say, GIRL was a wrong! As I was in the room with the ultrasound tech yesterday I kept making comments like, "oh look at his arm", "oh look at his spine", blah blah blah. I should have noticed sooner that ultrasound tech had a smug little look on her face. When we got to the part where she was going to tell us the gender, I said "now you're going to prove me wrong and tell me it's a girl". She smiled and said, "it actually IS a girl". Wow, that totally took me by surprise. We are so excited though and can't wait to meet our next little pumpkin. The only trouble is....we had a boy name all picked out and we can't seem to agree on a girl name. Here we go again......

A few more vacation pictures

2008-10-07T10:12:00.000-07:00

Vacation!

2008-10-07T10:04:00.000-07:00

I guess I should have put some of my pictures together as one image, because this thing is only going to let me load a few of them. So I'll just have to make another whole post with only pictures after this.
Anyway----we went on a vacation! And it's about freaking time. We stayed at an awesome cabin in Jackson Hole and visited Yellowstone and all the weird little shops around Jackson. We could not have picked a better weekend to go. The weather was so beautiful, all the trees were golden and orange and red, and the temperature was perfect. I had never been to Yellowstone, so it was a lot of fun. Jocelyn did awesome in the car (surprisingly) so it made the experience all the more better.
We didn't see much wildlife, though. We saw some elk, some buffalo, a dead moose on the side of the road, and tons of geese. The geese must have all been flying south and stopping in Jackson for a break during the weekend of our visit. They were everywhere! We would wake up to the sound of them honking and Jocelyn had a lot of fun chasing them around our cabin area.
We spent three days, and although it doesn't sound like long it was nice to get back in our own beds and onto a more regular schedule.

Sunflower days

2008-10-07T10:02:00.000-07:00

Okay, so these pictures were taken about a month ago...which means that the sunflower days are now gone. But oh how I love them. Can I just say that I live in the most beautiful place in the world? Seriously. We are so lucky to be in such a awesome place.

Becky's bridals

2008-09-17T11:08:00.000-07:00

This Saturday is the big day for Rob's cousin, Becky and her fiance' Jeremy. Becky is a beautiful bride and it's awesome how she's up for anything! The wedding is going to be held up the canyon at a beautiful pavilion and the weather is supposed to be great, so I'm getting excited.

On another note....things around here are truckin' on. It's that time of year for the peaches to be in season so I've been all sorts of domestic and been bottling peaches until I can't possibly stand at the sink and peel one more. My peaches are beautiful, though. It's worth posting a picture of my bottles, they're so perrrty. Other than that, life goes on and I'm sure sooner or later something exciting ought to happen and then everyone will be so amazed at my blog. Wooohoo.

House

2008-09-08T10:39:00.000-07:00

I kept meaning to get my house together so that it looks really clean and organized. Then I would have taken some beautiful pictures and posted them to try to impress all of my friends and family. But then I realized that if I posted clean pictures of my house, if you ever came to visit, you probably wouldn't recognize it as the same house. So screw it. This is even my tidy. The reality is that I have a toddler and she just doesn't like anything to be where it should be. No pillows on the couches or chairs, no books on the coffee table. No thank you. She walks by and politely tosses them on the floor, just as I've picked them all up again to vacuum. So here are a few shots of the house with our furniture in it. We really do love it.

Sister to Bee....

2008-09-02T10:51:00.000-07:00

It's true. Jocelyn is going to be a big sister, and though I'd like to say that the excitement on her face in this picture was due to that fact, I'd be lying. She was actually laughing because I was drawing on my face with chalk at that moment.....anything for a picture :) Mama is 13 weeks along, so just over 3 months. We had the first doctors appointment last week and we have a good strong heartbeat! Besides the usual wanting to throw up whenever I have to change a poopy diaper, and constant fatigue, everything is going really smoothly so far. The baby is due on March 8th and we're so excited to have a spring chicken on the way!

Okay, so besides that, this is what else is going on in our lives: We moved into our house (finally!) and have been here for about a month but I've just been way too lazy to update the family blog. The house is beautiful and we're still slowly but surely putting things in their places. It's nice to finally have enough space for all of our crap....which is a lot actually. It surprises me how much crap we've gathered up in the last 3 years of marriage. (Oh yeah, and we had our 3rd wedding anniversary on August 5th) But we love it here and we finally feel like we're settling in to a real home. Somewhere we won't have to pack up and move out of in the next year. We can stay here as long as we dang well want to!

In addition to the new addition we'll be expecting in March, we also got two kittens to join the family. They are cute as buttons and I need to upload a picture of them. They're two little brothers, one black and white and the other orange, and their names are Jacob and Edward. Yes, yes. I know you may think I'm lame. Bite me. I love Stephenie Meyer's books so you can just roll your eyes all you want. Jakey and Ed. Those are my boys. :)

Well, that pretty much sums up our two month absence...or however long its been since the last time I updated our blog. We're preggo, home owners, and Stephenie Meyer fans. Hopefully life will start to get back to normal and I'll be able to update more often. So stay tuned.....

Family Portraits

2008-07-16T09:19:00.000-07:00

Lauren, here are some examples of family portraits I've done. I'm excited to work with you guys! --Miranda

A-Z

2008-07-03T21:51:00.001-07:00

Ok, Julie. I'm going to copy-cat you and do your A-Z things about you....

A-Attached or Single?--Attached!
B-Best friend?--Robbie, hands down.
C-Cake or Pie?--Pie...unless there's no pie. Then cake!
D-Day of choice?--Mondays. I have Monday's off of work and we usually do
something fun for family night
E-Essential Item?--Diapers. Not for me....but you know, for the kid.
F-Favorite Color?--Purple, sometimes green. But not all greens. Just sage-ish greens.
G-Gummy bears or worms?--probably neither, honestly. Once when I was a kid my step dad had a big bag of gummy worms in his car and they all melted together. He ate them anyway and it just looked like a really disgusting colorful blob of boogers. I think that turned me off of them for life.
H-Hometown?--Springville!
I-Indulgences?--Those Betty Crocker individual brownies and cakes covered in gooey yummy
crap that you put in the microwave for like three minutes.
J-Jan. or Jul.?--July. Fo' Sho'!
K-Kids?--My little girl, Jocelyn. Who just happens to be all over this blog, so that's no big surprise.
L-Life is incomplete without?--My little family. I don't really want to think about what I
would do with myself without them.
M-Marriage Date?--August 5th, 2005.
N-Number of siblings?--One brother and three sisters, counting my little sister in St. George.
O-Oranges or Apples?--It depends. What is in season?
P-Phobias?--Spiders, freaky rapist men.
Q-Quotes?--"I really like salad now" -Rob Merrell. You honestly have no idea how much
that stupid sentence meant coming from him.
R-Reasons to smile?--My family, of course. Good movies, daily comforts such as warm house, food, etc....Also, Julie's seagle poop story was pretty good. :)
S-Season?--I'm a summer chick. Spring and Autumn rule too, though. Winter can die as far as
I'm concerned.
T-Tag another person?--Missy
U-Unknown fact?--I was a vegetarian for two years in middle school. I guess I was "finding myself".....and it ends up that even though I eat meat now, I'm not really
that crazy about it.
V-Very favorite store?--Right now I really like Rod Works, but that may be because I'm
trying to decorate a house. Otherwise, I'd say it's absolutely NOT Walmart.
W-Worst habit?--Biting my nails, maybe? I'm sure Rob could find something worse. ;)
X-x-ray or ultrasound?--Um. That's a weird thing to have an opinion about. But I'll just
say ultrasound 'cause I've had one before and it was pretty cool.
Y-Your favorite food?--Pineapple, donuts, pies, and the list goes on.....
Z-Zodiac?--Taurus.

hangin' in there

2008-07-03T11:30:00.000-07:00

Still working on the house....it just seems like time is not moving by quickly enough. *patience* patience* patience*

Other than that, not much has been going on. We're in the packing transition right now, and since we sold our old nasty dresser at our yardsale a few weeks ago, all of our clothes have been in boxes on the floor. It's not a very efficient way of storing clothes, seeing as you have to dig through the whole box just to find a stupid pair of pants and then clothes are all over the floor. Ugh. *patience*patience*patience. I guess I'm not very good at that.

Anyway, this is a totally boring post but it has been a while since the last update, so here you go. :)

Eew. I look old in this picture.

Only 15 ish more days!

2008-06-25T11:32:00.000-07:00

We have had to extend on our interest rate one more time in order to get our house finished. It seems like the last couple of weeks they haven't gotten a whole lot of work done, which is totally lame since our original close date was the 1st of June. Then the 15th. Then the end of June. And now it had better be done by the 13th of July or we will have to take the stupid higher interest rate. I have been bugging the crap out of the builders and the property manager and just about everyone at Harvest Park and now I think we're finally at an understanding. The last two days they have made a LOT of progress! We now have a garage, a deck, cupboards, a front porch, and there are boxes throughout the house that have lighting fixtures in them. I promised my sister, Missy, that I would get some pictures up so here they are. I realize they are really terrible pictures but last night we ended up going to see the house after dark. We were walking around the house with our cell phone lights trying to see what is going on, so these pictures are really the best I could get considering the circumstances. Get excited for us! We're getting close!

Sprinkler Fun

2008-06-19T17:02:00.000-07:00

Summer is officially here as of tomorrow at like 5 something o'clock. We finally decided we'd better not let our grass turn completely yellow for the new renters who move in, so we pulled out the sprinkler and let little J join in the fun. This is one thing I will miss about this crappy ol' place. We are giving up our yard for a much nicer home, so we will have to go to a park or to one of the Grandma's houses from now on if we want to run in the sprinkler. We will miss the yard, the neighbors (Rob's Grandma), the wonderful ward. But great things are to come and we will LOVE having our own place. I guess it doesn't matter how much you complain about a house you live in...it's always a home. Rob and I were so excited to get out of our little dumpy apartment to get into this house (a whole house to ourselves!). This is Jocelyn's first home and even though she won't remember it, hopefully these pictures will help her know that it was a wonderful place to start her little life. And we are so blessed to have lived here....crumbly walls and all.

My daddy's a better programmer than your daddy

2008-06-17T11:00:00.000-07:00

For Father's Day Jocelyn sported the shirt in this photo..."My daddy's a better programmer than your daddy", and Rob loved it. Jocelyn got him a Linux penguin hat, just to prove her shirt right to everyone. We had a great dinner over at Rob's parent's house that night and then had our own little celebration for family night yesterday. We made one of Rob's favorite dinners, lasagna with apple crisp for dessert and all was delicious. Rob really is the greatest dad and I couldn't have asked for a better husband to father my little Jocelyn. :)
Love you, Robbie!

Family Night

2008-06-10T12:05:00.000-07:00

We had a great family night last night! We took Jocelyn to feed the ducks for the first time in her cute little life and she loved it. We took both popcorn and bread and they ate both, but I don't think they were really very hungry. They only seemed moderately interested....probably because everybody feeds the ducks during this season. Jocelyn just ended up eating the extra, though, so none went to waste :)
Well, I've decided we're doing our yardsale this Friday and Saturday to give me an extra day to get rid of my crap. Please come and buy something. Even if you just chuck whatever you buy in the garbage. All the money goes to a good cause---housing the Merrells in our beautiful new Mapleton home!

Rained out

2008-06-08T15:27:00.000-07:00

It stupid rained on the stupid day I was supposed to have my stupid yard sale! So I canceled it. Maybe next week, maybe not. I'm trying to decide whether or not it would be a good idea to have it on the Art City Days weekend.....hmmm.

We had a good weekend, nonetheless, though. My sister was here visiting so we did a little shopping and had a fire for roasting marshmallows in my mom's backyard. It's Sunday now and we're just taking it easy.

Our house has tile now so I'm going to try to get some pictures up this week sometime. It looks great so stay tuned.....

Sometimes I just have to slurp her up

2008-06-03T22:21:00.000-07:00

Life is still good among us Merrell's. We're about to get really busy here, though with the move and all that. We are having a yard sale this Saturday so that we don't have to take all of our crappy crap over to our new house....where we will only allow moderate crap to be ;) So if you're yard sale goers come on over. And if you're not---come on over. I'll be sitting on my lawn eating something delicious like scones with honey butter or something. I haven't decided yet. When I was just a kid, me and my cousin used to have a yard sale every summer and we'd sell scones. I'm not selling them, though. I don't even know if I'll get the energy to make them...so don't get excited. But do know that I'll be on my lawn at the butt-crack of dawn....waiting for yard-salers like yourself to come and pay me to get rid of my crap :)

The House

2008-05-29T16:52:00.000-07:00

Kitchen and Dining area
Kitchen entryway from the Living Room
Jocey's Room
Master Bedroom

So here are some recent pictures of the house. We have paint on the walls, doors, and mesh on the kitchen and bathroom floors in preparation for the tile. Give us another week and I'll upload some pictures of my tile floors!

Ok, so I suck....

2008-05-27T14:31:00.000-07:00

I've been really bad about taking pictures lately. I don't know what it is. I must have a case of writers block...but for photographers. Anyway, here's a really old picture of Jocelyn from a couple of months ago. We'll be heading over to our new house tonight to see if the tile guy bothered to show up today....since he didn't show up last Friday when he said he would...and then of course it was a long weekend, so we're rooting for today.

AaaaaCHOOOO!!!
Oh yeah--and I have allergies :p

Tea Party

2008-05-22T10:34:00.000-07:00

Jocelyn is really a girly-girl. But not this day. She would absolutely NOT have any of this stupid tea party. I swear, the potential for amazingly cute pictures was definitely there....but she wasn't in the mood I guess. Oh well.

The house is still coming along--
We have paint on our walls now and I keep meaning to post some pictures of it. I will make that my project for this week. But everything is beautiful and I imagine we'll be packing up and moving in a month or so (if not sooner). AAAAAH! We're about to start a mortgage! Exciting, yet very scary times. Send some relax-dust our way :)

ooooh! yucky kisses!

2008-05-15T15:53:00.001-07:00

I didn't think she was old enough to be embarrassed of her daddy's kisses yet....
guess I was wrong. :p

cousins

2008-05-15T14:53:00.001-07:00

Just a quick shot of Joc and her cute cousin, Alyssa. They were the flower girls for the wedding a couple weekends ago.

Back to normal...

2008-05-13T10:44:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it past the gas leak and past the wedding, so we are officially back to normal. Our house is coming along really well, although I wish it would come along even faster. We now have stairs...real stairs, not those scary boards that we risked our lives on every time we wanted to go up or downstairs. Our doors are up and they're working on the baseboards...so as soon as that is finished, they paint! Wahoo! We haven't heard anything further on updating our closing date, so we're still rooting for the beginning-middle of next month. I have suspicions they're going to take longer, though because we have yet to choose some things such as carpet, appliances, etc. So we'll see.
Anyway, this is a shot of Jocelyn from a week or so ago. She loves that little stroller and pushes her stuffed elephant, mini mouse, care bear, chalk, water bottle, pretty much anything she finds, all day long in that thing. She turns 16 months old here in a few days. 16! I swear I just gave birth to her. Ah, such is life. :)

A Success!

2008-05-08T14:22:00.000-07:00

The wedding went well and we were all pooped when the weekend was over and in much need of another weekend. After the party was over, we were looking forward to relaxing and getting back into the groove of things, when we had a gas leak on our water heater! Ugh, what a pain! We called Questar and they tested everything, only to find that we had carbon monoxide all over the place! Scary! But we got it all cleared out and spent a night at the in-laws just until we got things fixed and safe again. I cannot even tell you how excited we are to get into our new place--where everything will be new and nothing will be broken or almost broken. It's Thursday now and it seems that we're finally back into normal life. We are looking forward to popping some popcorn and sitting down to watch The Office tonight. And as far as our plans for this weekend goes....well, we're not planning a dang thing. And happy to do so. :)

wedding this weekend

2008-05-01T09:27:00.000-07:00

Rob's little sister, Lindsey is getting married to her fiance, Matt this weekend in the Bountiful Temple. These are samples of the bridals and the engagements and I've got a big weekend ahead of me...lots of pictures to take...lots of people to please. We're going to be having the reception at the "white church" in Mapleton the night before and it should turn out pretty nice. Anyway....this will pretty much fill up our weekend, so if anybody tries to get in contact with us Merrell's and just can't seem to...that is why.

Lets Go Fly a Kite!

2008-04-28T10:55:00.000-07:00

We got Jocelyn her first kite ($1.00 at walmart :) ) and so we had to try it out. We got it in the air for a few minutes at a time, but the wind was inconsistent so it kept falling. That was okay by her, though. She mostly just wanted to pull it down and stomp all over it anyway. That's her new thing these days...stomping on everything and laughing about it. Little stinker. But anyway, these pictures were taken by Rob and he did a great job! This was a fun evening in our backyard.

Here it is with walls

2008-04-24T11:45:00.000-07:00

Walls!

2008-04-23T14:05:00.001-07:00

Our house has walls now! Rob and I are going to see it tonight and I'll snap a few pictures then. Also--we've just been informed that the front door is going to be painted black...just thought I'd add that since Missy suggested that color just a few weeks ago! yayayayayaya :)

Our New House!!!!!

2008-04-21T11:26:00.001-07:00

So, here's the run down on the home we're building in Mapleton...

It's located at the new Harvest Park development and is a 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bathroom town home (with a full unfinished basement that has room for another bedroom, a second family room, and another full bathroom)...so total 4 bed, 3 1/2 bath. We are so excited! Here are just a few pictures of what is up so far. They should be putting up the sheet rock this week some time and we have already chosen our colors, flooring, cabinets, backyard deck, etc.....so they expect it to be finished by the beginning-mid June. So all of this includes the clubhouse (which has an outdoor pool, tennis courts, volleyball courts, reception center, fitness area), new soccer fields, 7 playgrounds throughout the Harvest Park grounds, over 2 miles of walking paths, a new church to be finished by August of this year, and more! Wahooooooooooooo! :) This is such a blessing for us! I've added some notes in the pictures to give you a better idea of what is what--so make sure you click on the picture to view it larger.

Merrell Look-alike Meter

2008-04-13T23:13:00.000-07:00

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

2008-04-13T22:37:00.001-07:00

Spring is here!

2008-04-12T22:59:00.000-07:00

We decided to take advantage of the BEAutiful weather that went on today so we headed to the park for a picnic! May I just say that even as a photographer, taking pictures with me actually in them is not the simplest of tasks. I had this really cute picture in my head of us all sitting and eating our picnic. So I put the self-timer on and pushed the shutter, hoping the camera was focussed on something remotely close to what I wanted it to be on.....when I saw the results, I didn't get anywhere near what I had imagined. But I still like them, because it was a good day, with good memories, with my freaking amazing family. Jocelyn had a ton of fun on the playground and Rob and I had a great time watching her.

2008-04-11T12:33:00.001-07:00

2008-04-11T12:29:00.000-07:00

Well, hello!

2008-04-11T12:09:00.000-07:00

So my dear friends, Tricia and Kadan, started up a blog and I got all sorts of jealous that I didn't have one. So here we are, just a happy little family of three...and now we're officially cool because we have our very own family blog :) Just to update those of you who may not have heard from us in a while, here's what's been going on:
Our sweet little Jocelyn Sage has turned one and has almost made the half mark to her next birthday already! She is 15 months old and cuter than ever. She's curious about everything and loves to wear mom out while dad is at work during the day. Good thing dad loves to take over when he gets home :) so mom can have a break. Rob is working for a great company here in Springville and just recently got a raise (woohoo!!!). He is almost finished with programming his own business project, Trackera, and hopes to make us into Kabillionairs. He's also pretty hot.
As for me (Mig) I am a happy little stay-at-home mom and wife to the coolest family ever. I've been slowly building my photography portfolio and hope to someday fill my time doing the thing I love best....taking pictures. For now, though, I'm working part-time at home as a medical transcriptionist.
We're all living in Rob's Grandma's rental house here in Springville, but hope to be moving this summer to a new home that we are building in Mapleton! Anyway, that pretty much sums life up for us at the moment. I'll try to be super good at posting things, but if you come to our blog more often than we update it, you can always visit my flickr page to see whatever photos I have been taking recently. However, if you're not already a member and marked as "friend" or "family" on flickr, you won't be able to view my photos...SO, let me know if you want an invite and I'll send you one. If you DO have an account, my page is as easy as this: www.flickr.com/photos/mirandamerrell

Thanks for visiting our blog!