Friends

"Merit is my baby friend." -Chapter

I have been totally surprised at how Chapter and Merit are already friends.  I thought it wouldn't happen for years! I know my elation could be a little premature since I've heard that the relationship gets a little more volatile once the smaller one gets mobile, but it's cute.  I'm amazed at how much he loves her and how he wants to take care of her (that's not to say their relationship is perfect, today I caught him trying to "crack her foot".)  She loves him too.  She is fascinated by everything he does and he can make her laugh really hard, and none of the rest of us can do that yet.  I hope they will always love each other and look out for each other.   Having two kids has been hard, but it's little things like this that make it worth it. 

24th of July

I just realized I never got the pictures off the camera for the 24th.  We went to Monroe again this year, and it was fun as always:)

Same routine: Parade, park, family, fireworks.  The kids were great, and here are a couple pictures.

 The first picture with all of us in it. Merit was only 4 months old at this point haha.

 Supporting South Sevier FFA by riding on the train.  Gotta represent:)

Chilling at grandma's house...literally.  We are thin blooded folks from the south and we always freeze at her house, even in July!

Family Vacation

This year we took a family vacation to SLC since Logan used up his week long paid vacation rafting this year.  We jam packed as much adventure as possible into 3 days in northern Utah.

 Logan's bosses own a sweet hotel in downtown SLC that we were able to get a killer deal on.  We are so grateful for their generosity.

 Chapter was so excited to see that "Cranky" was just outside our hotel window.  He was even "cranking" on Saturday for us to see:)

 First we hit up Temple Square

 Chapter is obsessed with temples.  He thinks everything he sees looks like a temple.  He was pretty excited.

 Then we rode the Heber Valley Railroad.  We missed our train, but were able to catch it at Soldier Hollow, everything worked out except the only seats left were in the super ghetto 3rd car that was rusted out and hotter than blazes:) Still fun.  And before you call DCFS, the train was not moving when Chap had his head out the window haha.  We rode on a diesel engine that Chapter thought was Mavis the Diesel:)

On Sunday we went up to Logan to visit my good friend Moe.  She has bought her grandma's adorable house and seems so happy up there (even though she's way too far away for my tastes, haha).  It was so good to see her and her family.  Chap and Rory really hit it off, he keeps asking for her and if she'll come to his birthday party.  Sorry buddy, 6ish hours is a little far to travel for a party:)

On Monday we went to the zoo (for our 8th wedding anniversary lol).  I hadn't been there for probably close to 20 years and it is so much nicer now!  We saw the lion training, the elephant training, the bird show and the sea otters.  They even have animated dinosaurs that look really real that Chapter liked mostly (he was scared of some of them).  Busy busy days, but it was so fun to get away with the family and make some memories!

Laurel Onesies

When I had Merit, the adorable Laurel class made these awesome onesies for her, and guess what--she finally fits in them!

These are some adorable and creative girls/ladies!

Merit 4 Months

Merit is just a little sweetie.  She has been night and day different than Chapter was, and he was an awesome kid, but this one is just so delightful. She's really calm, sleeps well, and just generally isn't any trouble unless she gets over tired, then she has to be bounced until she goes to sleep.  We took her to the doctor yesterday for her check up and shots and she is following her 31% growth curve perfectly.  She smiles a lot and even started laughing a little bit about a week ago.  She's nursing like a champ and loves to grab toys.  She's recently discovered her feet and it's so cute!  We love out little Meri-Berry!

Swimming Lessons

We went to swimming lessons today, for Chapter's first swimming lesson I think it went well...

We decided to sign him up at the college since I haven't heard anything good about the SHAC lessons and my friend Alli used to teach them at Dixie and said they were great.  We signed Chap up for level 1 and I couldn't be more impressed with the teachers.  His class had 6 kids (he's the only boy) and 2 very nice college girls for the instructors.  He didn't like getting his head wet, but hey, it's the first day.

 He really liked all the water toys they had!

Every time they would dunk him he'd come up and shout "Momma!" It was pretty funny but I wonder if he'd do better if I wasn't there.

Fire Truck Parade

Last week I saw something on Facebook about a firetruck parade that would be that night.  Logan thought I was insane and I don't think he even really thought there would be a parade, but I talked him into going and it was so much fun! I didn't get a ton of pictures (it was probably only 15 minutes long) but Chapter loved it.  He didn't get very much candy since he was too busy plugging his ears!

June So Far

 We've spent a lot of time outside.  Especially since Logan built us a pergola in the back yard and fixed my mom's old swamp cooler and put it back there.  It's like our own little oasis in the desert.  Now if we could only keep Chapter from picking green tomatoes our outside experience would be perfect.

 This little cutie keeps getting bigger and cuter.  She smiles all the time now, I just haven't caught her doing it with the camera yet.

 And this one just cracks me up.  Chapter has been spoiled rotten with me always holding him and singing him to sleep (even for naps) until baby sister came along.  I think we've got our routine figured out but some days naps still happen in weird places and weird times.  Haha.

Merit's Blessing Day

Merit's blessing day was special.  Lots of family were able to make it and we made Gable House brownies for the refreshments.  Now I'll share a little about Merit's dress and name.

Her dress was made by my paternal grandmother Ilean Holm in the early 1990s.  When she started getting great grandchildren she realized that she wouldn't be alive or at least still sewing like a crazy person when they all were born.  So she made each of us a blessing dress to use when we blessed the daughters we may someday have in the future.  My grandma died when I was 16, but I've had it with me and carried it from move to move waiting for the day when my someday daughter would be able to wear it.  She was super duper slippery in it but she didn't fall and it was very special for me to be able to use this dress.

Merit's name: We were laying in bed one night before we even knew she was a girl, making fun of a name that rhymes with Merit (I'm not disclosing that name to protect the guilty:) when Logan came up with the name Merit.  After that night, she never had any other name.  There was never another name discussion from that point on.  Interesting fact: If she had been a boy she would have been named Tushar after the mountain range I grew up near.  Eliza is a name we love that happens to be in the ancestry of both sides of the family (just like Chapter's middle name of Frederick) so that worked out nicely.  On my side of the family it was my Great Great Grandmother Eliza Ann Watts Gardiner who was an early convert to the church in England.  On Logan's side it was after Rosena Eliza Blickenstorfer Gubler Blake, Logan's Great Grandmother.  She was a very interesting lady who was born to Santa Clara Swiss pioneers.

I love that our children have unusual first names that are all their own and a middle name with the rich legacy of their pioneer ancestors.

With Great Grandpa

His mother is one of the Eliza's she was named after,

Merit's First Bath

Merit's first bath took forever for us to finally get to because her belly button didn't fall off forever, and then it oozed forever, and then we were lazy.

Birth Announcement

First Sunday at Church

My sister Kristy sent Merit this adorable church dress, and it was a happy accident that it matched Chapter's church shirt perfectly.  This picture cracks me up, and it pretty much sums up our life right now.  She doesn't cry a lot, but Chapter really loves her and likes to love on her until she cries:)  I'm so glad he likes her though, and when she gets big enough to play I think they'll have a really good time.

Easter 2015

Easter was a little different than we anticipated this year, but it was still great!  Logan took Chapter to the Easter Egg Hunt at the park (I was going to, but Merit had to eat at the last minute).  We made Peep houses, colored eggs, and had the Easter bunny come leave us baskets and eggs in the backyard.  Good thing the Easter bunny knew Merit was born and brought her some goodies too:)

Welcome Merit!

I woke up Sunday, March 29  not feeling well.  I had worn myself out the day before playing all day in the sun and planting the garden.  I didn't really think much of it.  I was still 1 1/2 weeks from my due date and I was planning on nothing short of 2 weeks until baby.  In fact, I had been procrastinating a lot of things that I needed to get done before the baby was born.

We went to church at 1:00. Honestly, I probably wouldn't have gone if it wasn't my turn to teach combined Young Women and if I hadn't put 2-3 hours of prep into my lesson.  During Sacrament Meeting I noticed small contractions about 7ish minutes apart.  At the end of Sacrament Meeting I told Logan that I thought I was having a baby, but I wasn't really serious.  We dropped Chap off at nursery and then headed to Sunday School.  The Sunday School room was HOT.  Unbearably hot.  My contractions were getting slightly stronger at that point but I was still in denial.  At end of Sunday School I went to the bathroom because it was so hot that I thought I was going to die.  I was planning on telling Sherry that I couldn't teach but as I left the bathroom I ran into her in the hall and when she asked if I was ready for my lesson I smiled and said yes.

I must have been blessed for teaching my lesson, because I swear I only had maybe 4 contractions the whole time I was teaching and although they were getting pretty painful, I was able to manage it without anyone knowing I was in labor.  And to be honest, I was still pretty deeply in denial.

After church I had convinced myself that it was false labor, after all, I had only had 4 contractions in one hour.  But almost immediately after getting home I was hit by a steamroller of almost constant contractions that were immensely painful.  At probably 4:30-4:45 Logan called Anisa to come get Chapter.  She was riding her bike to her mother-in-laws house and had to go back to get her car.  I felt really bad not saying goodbye to Chapter, but I was having a hard time coping with the pain and I really thought I'd be sent home within an hour.  But we packed him a bag and handed him off.

Before we left Logan gave me a blessing, he blessed me with peace and strength and that really should have been a clue of what was to come. Logan drove us to the hospital and it was very reminiscent of going to the hospital with Chapter.

We walked into reception and apparently I looked pretty bad because they didn't even take me to triage, they just took me to a room.  When they told me I was at a 7 I panicked.  I started demanding pain medication and the grumpy nurse I had wasn't very nice or understanding.  They started pulling the baby stuff out of the closet and I told them to stop.  That nothing was going to happen until I had had my epidural.  But of course you can't have one until you have had a bag of IV fluids.  I was not happy.  Logan later told me that I was mean to the nurses.  Then shift change happened and an adorable sweet nurse that looked just like a grown up Legacy came in.  She told me that the new anesthesiologist was just coming on duty and that she had people waiting at the door for him and that he wouldn't even change into scrubs, he would come straight to me.

He did, but it seemed to take forever for him to get the epidural in, and I was having a really hard time holding still while he did it.  Things started to feel really funny and I was legitimately freaking out at this point.  Basically right after the epidural was in, my water broke all over someone's shoes.  There were people everywhere, but all I really remember was the doctor, Logan and the nurse who looked like Legacy.  And an old lady nurse who wanted me to push before the drugs kicked in.  Which I pretty much ended up doing because my body started pushing and there was nothing I could do to stop it.  I think the drugs may have been working slightly at that point, but I was still freaking out and my Legacy nurse was AWESOME.  Literally one push and our sweet Merit was born at 6:33. weighing 6 pounds and 12 ounces, much smaller than Chap was.

It was at this point that we realized the camera was still in the car, so no cute scale picture of Merit. Logan was amazing the entire time, he was so calm, weirdly calm and him rubbing my head was so comforting and helped so much.  I would never choose to have a baby under such circumstances, but I have to admit that recovery was much better not having been hooked up to drugs for 8 hours.  I could walk almost immediately and I felt so much better than I did after having Chapter.

 MMM...Turkey sandwich and Oreo shake!

 Meeting big Brother Chap.

So tiny in the carseat.

UPDATE: Here is proof that I taught while in labor. The cute YW secretary took this photo to take roll, but it turns out to be the only labor picture we got with Merit:) Haha.