Trampoline Shenanigans

The kids are still in love with their trampoline.  And I'm still amazed at how well they play together on there, and how much they still enjoy it.

Camping

We went with Ron and Shirley and Anisa and her family camping down near Logandale in the middle of March.  It was so warm! It was fun to go and play in the sand and ride 4-wheeler, climb rocks, and even sleep under the stars.  Merit is getting more spunky all the time.  She thinks she can do everything Chap can do, and she mostly does.

Ducky Pond

It has been really warm, and I've been trying to be fun.  So one day after preschool we went for a picnic at the ducky pond.  Chap still likes to feed ducks, and Merit is pretty much mesmerized by them.  They were really good kids and actually ate their lunch before we fed the ducks.

Merit's Quilt

I finally got Merit's twin size quilt finished.  I intended to get it finished before she was born, but hey, better late than never.

Not really sure when I'll get around to making a quilt for this baby.  I've been looking for gender neutral fabrics, and it's kind of a joke.  I may end up just waiting.

Dentist

I took the kids to the dentist and it was a big difference since last time.  Chap cooperated pretty well and I didn't have to hold him while he got examined.  This time Merit get a check up too.  She even got x-rays!  She did a lot better with those than Chap did:) 

The hygienists couldn't believe what a good girl she was.  They even cleaned her teeth with the typical cleaning tools instead of a toothbrush.  It was funny because when they sat her up in the chair she just kind of stood up because her feet were at the bend.  The dentist said everything looked good, to keep doing what I'm doing.  I said, "So keep brushing him while he screams?" and the Dentist said, "Yeah, I should probably get a sign that says that!"  

How we trampoline:)

Logan is a genius.  The kids want to jump when it's cold outside, but that's not all that fun for me since I'm pregnant and "not supposed" to jump on a trampoline, so I would get cold. Logan masterminded a plan to take the electric blanket outside.  Genius!

New Carseat

Merit graduated to a new carseat after Christmas.  I've been agonizing about it for a while, I want one just like Chapter's but they don't sell that model anymore.  I ended up going with the new version, because I do love Chap's so much, but honestly, all the things they did to improve it just annoy me.  I guess I'm getting old and stuck in my ways:)

She likes it though, and it's a really pretty and girly seat!

Christmas

As per tradition, we went out to eat with Logan's family on Christmas Eve (to George's Corner again) and then drove to look at Christmas lights.

Our kids are young, they aren't old enough to be so excited to wake up super early on Christmas and drive us crazy.  Christmas morning started bright and early with Grandpa knocking on the door.   I was not very happy, but what do you do?  We decided to ignore him, but eventually the knocking woke Merit up and we had to get up and let him and Shirley in and go wake up Chapter.

The kids got what they asked Santa for.
Chap: a Camelbak backpack just like the one he saw at REI and a dog pillow.
Mer: a Little People doll house and a cat pillow.

They got spoiled as usual, and even got a trampoline this year!  That was a Black Friday adventure:)

But overall, a good time was had by all and we even made it to church!

Snowman

Merit made her first snowman at my mom's the weekend before Christmas.  It was a pretty good time, Chap liked eating snow, which freaked me out, but oh well, he hasn't died yet:)

My Birthday

As usual, I am bad at taking pictures of my own life events, but I turned 29 on Dec. 9 this year.  It was fun because it was on a Friday, and Logan gets off early on Friday's, but it was also the ward party and he had to cook :( Chapter also guilted Kristy into ordering me a birthday cake since I didn't have one.  And that, is the only picture I have...

Raking Leaves

The leaves finally came down on Dec. 5, it took forever this year!  As usual, we raked them up into Logan's truck and fed them to Grandpa's cows.

Christmas Tree

We went to Sevier County for Thanksgiving, and while we were there we went to cut a Christmas tree with Justin and his fiance's family.  I was negligent and didn't pack snow clothes for the kids and it was pretty cold, but luckily Logan found a great "corner" tree pretty quickly and it was a memorable time.

7 Magic Mountains

We went to Vegas with Anisa's family to take their family pictures and have a little fun.  She wanted them taken at a place called 7 Magic Mountains just outside of Vegas near Jean, Nevada.  We stayed at the Goldstrike in Jean and it was super sketch.  Bad.  Ugh.  Just thinking about it makes me shudder. But catching happy hour at Hash House a Go-Go was fun.  You can get a bucket of chicken tenders and fries for only $5!  And the 7 Magic Mountains were pretty cool.

Halloween 2016

I learned a couple things this Halloween.

#1: You don't do the face painting at the ward carnival.  They got paint on Merit's costume and I ended up staying up the night before Halloween and redoing 1/3 of her candy corn, and of course, it was the hard 1/3.

#2: You absolutely take pictures in the morning instead of right before trick or treating.  With little kids, they are all worn out by the time 5:30 rolls around, and you are wasting precious daylight with the pictures.

This year Chap wanted to trick or treat at Daddy's office, so Logan took candy and passed it out before we came and the kids loved it!  Anisa also invited us to trick or treat at her school and it was AWESOME! The kids got so much candy and had so much fun.  The best thing about this was the kids were dressed up in the morning and I took their pictures.  They turned out priceless!  So much better than in years past.

The theme this year was "Classic Halloween" and I was a total slacker and Logan and I didn't have costumes...I was supposed to be a Jack-o-lantern (I even bought LED lights to "glow" with), and Logan wanted to be a ghost.  Nope.  I ran out of time and energy.  Oh well.

Chap was a bat.  He just had black clothing and I made him wings and ears.  Simple, and he loved it, even if no one knew what he was unless they could see his wings.

Logan was the mastermind behind Merit's costume.  I will admit, I didn't catch the vision at first, but she was the cutest little candy corn anyone has ever seen.  I used a summer dress that fits her to make a pattern for her candy corn dress and she wore a long sleeved white shirt underneath.  I made her hat out of felt, a party hat pattern, stuffing and a headband.  She was so proud of her hat and wore it almost the whole time.

Things to remember from this Halloween? Probably the fact that Merit wouldn't ride in the stroller and insisted on walking and carrying her basket by herself.  She didn't even want to hold hands and a couple times she even ran away and yelled "Catch!". Little stinker.  I'm sure her independence will come in handy someday, but right now it is so frustrating.  Good thing she's cute:)

Pumpkin Patch

We drove up over Chapter's fall break from preschool to go to the pumpkin patch in my hometown.  Unfortunately, Daddy didn't come with us, but we had a good time anyway.