Goodbye summer

I can't imagine that anyone checks our blog anymore - I mean, when did I last post, January? And even that post was a catch-up of epic proportions. However, tonight I have decided that instead of sleeping or preparing a church lesson I would rather catch up on my one form of journaling. Even though I hate myself in the morning, I find myself prolonging my bedtime night after night for a just another hour of "me" time. No kids, no distractions; this month I don't even have a husband since he's working the night shift. 

Here we go: the top 10 pictures from the last several months. 

Hey, we had a baby! Kathryn Elizabeth Merkley, 8 lbs 8 oz. Gorgeously jaundiced. 

 

Baby Kate is the most mellow and sweet baby we could ask for.

A trip to Lake Powell with the Merkleys led to a beautiful new friendship - "Dude and Little Dude"

       

Morgan's first dance recital. She was brilliant. And so was I, because I skipped the actual recital, and just watched her 10-minute slot during the dress rehearsal. Saved myself 3+ hours of agony.

Happy 4th of July! For some reason, most fireworks are illegal here in AZ...

  

Did I say 10 pictures? I lied. I've never been able to limit photos on this blog.

We had a family wedding in San Diego, so Erik went to work and the kids and I drove to CA.

So excited to see the ocean

Magic and sunburns at SeaWorld

No comment

Lots of extra tantrums, tears, and trauma since Kate was born. In fact, the next picture is a bar graph that Morgan drew illustrating how much we love each of our children. Morgan is the neglected one in the middle.

A trip to Utah in July to taste the raspberries, see the sights, and best of all, visit family.

We blessed Kate at the beginning of August

 

How we've adjusted to having 3 children. Bless Apple and Netflix.

Monsoon season! Almost too hot to enjoy the rain.

  

Starting gymnastics

Our beautiful blue eyed girl

And back to school. THANK GOODNESS.

4 is the new 14

After months of desperate anxiety, Morgan finally turned 4 and promptly asked how soon she would be 4 1/2. This one cannot wait to grow up.  

Daddy contributed the birthday donut and 4 roses

She was so excited for her birthday party, but like every year, Erik and I bet on how many meltdowns she would have before the night was over - I think this year it was 2.  She just can't seem to handle that much attention and excitement.  We didn't anticipate the distraction it would be to her bladder, though, and ended up changing clothes and mopping up the bathroom right as the guests arrived.  Can't wait to share that story with a future boyfriend some day.

The guest of honor: "Uncle" Blake back from his mission! Notice the original birthday outfit...

I don't care if my kids want strawberry cake, princess cake, or anything else for their birthday.  This is what I make every birthday, and probably will for the rest of time.  If I have to make birthday cake multiple times a year, I want to love it.

She's smart, loves to read and learn, a good helper, obstinate, a trifle OCD, and has a sassy mouth.  She's becoming alarmingly like me, which is probably why we butt heads all the time. Since I can't really expect that turning 4 will make her any easier or more mature, I suppose I'll have to step up and be the one to change. Darn it.

Second Choice St. George

This last October, we had the amazing good luck to have a week of vacation scheduled at the same time as the Merkley houseboat time share.  We were so ready for a little relaxation at Lake Powell.  Do ya'll remember that awesome temper tantrum the government threw a while back, shutting down all kinds of national parks?  That ALSO coincided with our planned week at Lake Powell.  We told Morgan to pray for a miracle, but I don't think God has much influence in Washington anymore.  We ended up scrambling to find a vacation that didn't involve federal land, and settled on St. George, that mecca of the west.  We did enjoy ourselves, and decided in the end that Lake Powell might not have been the best choice anyway - I was in the early stages of pregnancy, someone else had vertigo, and there was a recent finger operation that needed to stay dry.  That didn't stop us from deriding politics, politicians, and Washington in general. We did some hiking in nearby state parks, caught "Mary Poppins" at the Tuacahn theatre, and enjoyed food and shopping. Utah reopened their parks on the last day of our trip, so we all hurried to Zions before parting ways with family and friends.

On our drive to Zions, a bunch of warning lights came on in our car - not what we wanted to see the day we needed to head home.  I dropped everyone at the park, then turned around and drove back to St. George to find a car dealership.  Thankfully it was open on Saturday, and thankfully they had time for me, and thankfully they had the part we needed.  And I guess we were thankful that it wasn't enormously expensive and that it happened before we drove home through barren desert.  We were grateful God was watching out for us, but I think we would have preferred just to have the car work in the first place. :) Ah, those blessings we could do without.  

September

Football is upon us once more, and this time Erik has a new way of supporting his teams.  Since he's determined that whichever team he cheers for usually loses, he has started rooting for the opposition.  He has actually had some success so far...

Sam is a willing partner, in fact now he holds up the remote and asks for "fooball"

As a side note, we took Sam's binky away for good recently.  With Morgan we gradually cut up, bribed, or threw away all of her pacifiers and still had several days of trauma when the last one disappeared.  With Sam, I had him throw it away, no prep, no fuss, and he has never cried about it.  We couldn't believe it.

Morgan often passes on the football in order to read about herself.

 We got a hold of some Utah peaches and I bravely stepped into the world of canning by myself (by myself I mean I used my mother and sister-in-law shamelessly and kept the peaches all to myself).  We've been really missing the abundance of fresh produce that we took for granted before.

Another family outing to the zoo when Erik had a day off

Morgan has been so many times that she can actually "read" the map, and tell us where the smaller attractions are that aren't listed.  She's very serious about it.

Sam is finally recognizing and identifying animals, and the zoo is a whole new experience for him.  

I think I'm almost caught up now - until I get behind again, that is.