Merry Christmas

 MERRY CHRISTMAS

Best Friends

Meet my new best friend..

That's right, this awesome crib mobile and I have become great friends.  I have been able to lay my baby down for naps (while he is still awake) and he will stay asleep for two hours plus!  I am such a happy mom! (Now if I could find some way to get in the good graces of motivation, I might actually have the desire to get something done.)

Family pictures

We had our pictures taken by Jessica Larsen a couple weeks ago and they turned out so cute, if I do say so myself.  If you are looking for a fabulous photographer who is also very affordable I recommend her!

Yellowstone and back to work

Disclaimer...I wrote this a week ago but posted it to the wrong blog and didn't have the energy to re-post it to the correct blog, until today.  So as you read it pretend it is last week!

Today is a sad day.  I woke up at 7:30 and got myself and JP ready for the day, packed everything in the car and drove to my sister's house.  This was not a very pleasant drive however.  I knocked on her door and dropped my baby off so I could go back to work.  Yes, today is my first day back from maternity leave.  I am not one to cry or get emotional, but I wanted to cry on my drive to work.  And now that I am here, every time someone says "welcome back" I want to cry.  It is a cruel thing to make a woman carry her baby for 9 months, then stay at home all day for 6 plus weeks, then say to her "sorry, you have to back to work full time and can only see your baby for a couple hours before it is time to go to bed and start all over".  I know I will manage and I will get over it soon enough, but that doesn't make this transition any easier!

My last hoo-rah before going back to work was spent in Yellowstone.  My entire family was able to go to Island Park for a few days and just enjoy some time away from home.  The best part about going to Island Park is not having to stick to any agenda; one day we may decided to go into the park and an hour later change our minds and go feed the fish instead (or in our case, steal the fishing nets from the kids and have a contest to see who can catch the most minnow's at the river).  All-in-all it was fun and relaxing!

This is what happens when you take the training wheels off a little girl's bike, who is dead set on removing them the day she turns 5 and not an hour earlier (I think there are some tears in this picture but it took a while to work them up)

Chilling in Island Park

Minnow catching contest...go Jason!

Kavic did not catch any minnow's, needless to say he lost the contest!

Chilling with the little man after losing the Minnow catching contest

It's tradition to ride the paddle boats at macks inn

Now this is what I call the stink-eye

First real smile caught on camera

Zack watching old faithful

An attempt to get a picture of all the grand-kids

family photo op! 

Isn't he the cutest baby ever!

3 weeks and growing

Our (I got in trouble for always saying 'my') little man is growing up so fast, it's bitter sweet. I, of course, love watching his personality develop, but I also don't want time to get away too fast. We are soaking up every minute we can with him and learning so much about taking care of a small person.

Jax, or JP as my sister has nick-named him, is getting so big. He had his two week check and weighed in at a whopping 10 lbs and is 22 inches, that puts him in the 75 percentile in both areas. He never lost an ounce from birth which most babies do. He is starting to get the michelin man rolls on his legs and his cheeks are so squeezable.

At 2 weeks and 5 days he rolled from his tummy to his back, at first I thought it was a fluke, but he has done it 4 or 5 more times since. I realize he isn't doing it intentionally but his back muscle are strong enough when he lifts up his head and arches during tummy time he usually ends up rolling over.

He is still alert during most of the day and sleeps great during the night (most of the time). We love this little guy so much and are having so much fun watching him change everyday!

It's hard to see, but JP is sporting a rock-star Mohawk

A prime example of being bundled and his hands by his face out of the bundle

It's hard to see, but this little guy has the prettiest blue eyes!

I saw a picture in my Dr. Office of a baby butt naked on the hood of a jeep. I thought it was the cutest Idea so I wanted to try it on Kavic's bike...needless to say it didn't work out so well. He woke up and it was just too hot this day, but we tried our best and It's still a fun picture to look at.

My amateur attempt to try the pictures with the black back drops, again didn't work out quite like I hoped, but for not having the right equipment I think it will do!

Ahh, how cute!

Introducing...

Jaxton Pershing Merrill

Born May 22 (4 days late) at 5:20 am. He weighed 8lbs 14oz, and was 20 inches long. My doc was surprised at how big he was, she wasn't expecting it, but we were. Everything went smooth and fast. We are both doing great.

I couldn't have been blessed with a better baby. He wakes up only once, occasionally twice, at night to eat. He loves to be awake during the day to check everything out, he only cries when he is being changed or taking a bath, he's a great cuddler but hates to be swaddled, he coo's so much and is overall a good baby! My favorite thing about my baby is being able to see his personality and movements that I experienced while pregnant.

It makes me sad to think that my baby is already a week old. I hate that in 5 weeks I have to go back to work and face the wrath of the summer citizens while someone else is enjoying the time with my JP. I'm going to try my hardest to not wish away time too fast!

This was often the view from my bed, my hubby holding my baby with the pretty mountains in the back (sappy I know, I blame it on the hormones)

I love his slanted eyes in this pic!

I know this is not the best picture of me, but i LOVE his face in this one, so funny!

His first bath, can you tell he hates it!

This is often how we find Jax...Awake and Aware. I love this little man!

Congratulations!

Congrats to Gentry for guessing the song!!! It is from one of Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen's movie's. I have never seen the movie or even heard the full song, but it is something that we used to sing (or make fun of) a lot in vistauns.

Gentry; let me know what color of eyeshadow you want, you can see the colors at marykay.com, email me your address (sbmerri@gmail.com) and I will get you your free eyeshadow!!! CONGRATS!!!

Baby news: No, we do not have a baby yet (we are still playing the waiting game). I have my last Dr. Appointment today, hopefully this time will do the trick to get this little guy here (although he is probably not so little anymore). If it doesn't work, which is what I'm expecting, I am then scheduled to be started on the 25th. THE 25th! That is a whole week past my due date, in pregnancy time that is like a whole extra month. Oh well, I suppose there isn't much else I can do about it, and trust me I have tried EVERYTHING to get him here (except jumping on a trampoline).

Wish us luck! Hopefully the next time I post it will finally include pictures of our complete family, but mostly of our new addition!

Waiting, Wait, Waiting

(Be the first person to name the singer from the title and I will give you a free Mary Kay eye shadow)

For anyone who is curious we are still here with no child. I am one week from my due date and not much is going on. I won't be to specific, almost everything seems to be ready except that I am not having contractions, unless I walk around in Wal-Mart. Yes, Wal-Mart, I don't have contractions unless I am in the South Logan Wal-Mart, explain that to me!!!

I have been given lots of advice on how to start contractions and get things moving and I am willing to try just about anything no matter how absurd it sounds, I am ready for this baby to get here!

I have an appointment on Thursday and hopefully the doctor can do her magic to get things going. Until then I am getting really big, imagine sticking a basketball under your shirt (that is what everyone says I look like).

In other news I had a fabulous Mothers Day when Kavic was with me and not at work. He got me some fun baby stuff and of course Kit-Kats. You can't go wrong if you buy me a Kit-Kat.

And in more news we traded in our Dodge for a Mercedes-Benz. We were able to trade straight across and get a few hundred taken off our loan because the dodge was worth a lot more than we paid for it. We got an awesome deal on the the Dodge and were lucky to get a great deal on the Mercedes as well...now if we can do something about our Jetta.

Keep your fingers crossed to get this baby here for us this week! Hopefully the next post will be about our handsome little dude!

16 Things I didn't know

Pregnancy, while the ending result is great, it is not all that it's made out to be. I have devised a list of things I didn't know about pregnancy that I wish I had. (Maybe i should have known some of these things, but I didn't!)

1-Being kicked from the inside is no more fun than being kicked on the outside

2-Baby Hiccups-About as enjoyable as an annoying eye twitch

3-One thing more painful than being kicked in the ribs…Being kicked in the hip bone

4- The waddle is not due to the large stomach, it is caused by the pain of bones and ligaments and everything else softening and stretching.

5- Physically preparing for Labor is painful (i.e. the pain caused by bones and ligaments and everything else softening and stretching)

6- Once in your third trimester you are no longer allowed to sleep on your back (I am not one to normally sleep on my back, but sleeping on my side with an oversized belly hurts, with or without pillows)

7- A bare pregnant belly is about as attractive as a naked white trash beer belly

8-Not everyone bonds with their baby while pregnant

9-After getting out of a chair or the sofa you may need to sit down again just to catch your breath

10-A recliner should be purchased at the beginning of the pregnancy for the mom to sleep in, not when the baby arrives to rock him to sleep.

11-Not only do you get unwanted repetitive advice (yes I did know this prior to being pregnant) you will also receive unwanted stories from strangers (such as the clerk at Kohl’s who told me, unsolicited, that she had to carry extra panties in her purse for when she peed a little)

12- Your dreams go from semi-normal to out of control bizarre (I could write a horror, fantasy, romantic chick flick, and action movie based on my dreams)

13- Not every baby sleeps (at least that is what I have come to believe about my baby, I get maybe 10 minutes of him not moving, unless of course someone has their hand on my tummy and wants to feel him move, sorry Kavic)

14- When they say you may have to empty your bladder at night, what they really mean to say is you will be in the bathroom more than you’re in bed at night.

15- I am always thirsty, even when I am drinking water; it is never enough to quench my thirst

16- My gums get swollen and sore and bleed every time I brush my teeth

I am sure that as I near the end of my pregnancy and get to experience labor I will be able to add many things to this list…Don’t worry I will not post anything else on this subject. You will never see a pregnant picture of me on this blog nor will you ever have to read about my labor story (not to say I don’t enjoy seeing others pregnant pictures and reading their stories, but I’m not one to share that sort of information). On a positive note, I am 3 weeks from my due date and praying that he comes early (although, according to my doc I will be going all the way to my due date). We are prepared for this little one to come, the nursery is decorated (in sports of course), we have all the major items needed to raise a baby, we are still buying diapers and other necessary things just to stock up, we are trying to stay busy to make the time go faster!