The Merrill Family: 2009

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Fall Break

To start the week we got to have Keeley come and stay a few days with us. It was so fun to have her. We went to the zoo on Monday and had a Lemonade stand on Tuesday. They made $5.64. Quite a success. Each of the kids got a dollar, plus the change for tax to buy a something at the dollar spot at Target.

Lincoln got his Arrow of Light at Pack Meeting on Tuesday night. It is the last thing to be done before he moves on to Boy Scouts. I can't believe he is out of Cubs. I was called to be in Wolves before he was even in Cub Scouts.

I was released from Cub Scouts this Sunday. Like I said, I had been for quite a few years. I am ready to move on to bigger and better things. I was called to be the "Enrichment" leader. I think that is funny because it is not even called Home, Family, and Personal Enrichment anymore. I guess they will come up with an official title soon enough. I am excited to begin this new journey. I will no longer be able to just come up with something last minute like I have done with scouts in the past. I really hope I will be able to do a good job and enrich the lives of the sisters in our ward. We have been lacking in this department for the past year or so.

I took the kids down to Saint David for a few days. It was very fun to just hang around with family. I had a great time visiting with Trevor's mom and sister, Erin. We have not had an opportunity to visit like that in sometime. We took all the kids to Apple Annie's Orchard in Wilcox and picked apples. We came home and bottled up 16 quarts of apple pie filling and several pints of apple and pear sauce. The sauces were actually a bit of a waste of time, it would be cheaper and easier to just buy it in the store, but the process was fun and I am glad we did it.

We went to leave and my van overheated just outside of St David and my father in law came and picked us up. He filled it with coolant and made sure it was road worthy again. It was late so we decided to spend one more night and leave early in the morning. Everything went well after that. We even got to caravan with Aunt Silva to make sure we got home save.

The kids had their Primary Program today. This is probably my favorite Sunday for many reasons. I love to hear the children singing. The song about families this year really choked me up. It was beautiful. They did such a good job. Lincoln, Carter and McKinley all did great in their speaking parts too. It is a bonus that I only have to take care of one kid and Trevor gets to sit with me. It was a wonderful meeting.

That is a week in a nutshell. Here are a few photos from the Apple Annie's trip.

Carter walking with Grandma

me and the kiddos on the steps

the coveted chore, pulling the wagon full of apples

me and the kids picking apples

Lincoln and his praying mantis

(he tried to keep it as a pet, but it died in the container)

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Hello... Is anyone still out there?

So how do you begin to actively participate in your blog again after five months. Do you try and recap the last 5 months really quick, or just start new like nothing ever happened...I dont know. As you can imagine plenty of "nothing particularly special" happened over the past 5 months. I wanted to post some pictures of some of that Nothing Special, but I can't get my photos to download. I guess that is really the reason I have not blogged for so long, SOMETHING always gets in the way. I don't have time, can't get my pictures to download, on Facebook.... the list goes on. I am really going to try to keep this up, if anyone is still reading this.

Friday, May 1, 2009

What? Two Posts in One Day.

I guess I am just trying to make up for lost time. Yesterday, I had a completely crazy day. It is my own fault too because I had mentioned on Facebook that morning that it was going to be a pretty easy day, I didnt have a lot going on...

First of all, I wanted to go visit my sister, Kyle in the hospital with her new baby, Lucy. I dropped my kids off with Amy Goodman and went over. As I left I told her I wouldnt be too long since I had to be home to get Carter off the bus at 315. I was sitting there with this soo cute baby and look up at the clock that says 315 I hurry and called Amy and told her to load ALL the kids in the car and rush over and get Carter off the bus. She did, she is such a great friend. She was in the middle of making dinner and had to load 4 kids in the car in about 1 minute. She came and got Lincoln and Carter and took them back to her house.

After I picked up my kids, we came home and started working on Lincoln's science fair project. I was totally flustered anyway. While doing this Jack is in Lincolns room and he suddenly starts screaming bloody murder. He runs out with his hand all black. LIncoln thought he had gotten a sharpie, but I could tell it was burned. I ran in Lincoln's room and found the problem. Lincoln's DS charger was plugged into the outlet. Jackson got a penny and put it behind the plug on top of the prongs of the plug. It started sparking and smoking really bad. I was not exactly sure what I was supposed to do. I grabbed the other end of the plug and just pulled it out of the outlet. I was a little afraid it would start the carpet on fire, but it didnt. It was quite an ordeal. His hand is still sore today and he is afraid of the outlet now, but he is on the mend. I hope this teaches him a lesson. He is always trying to mess with the outlets.

This is the plug with the penny melted to it. There is also a chunk missing from the top of the penny. I dont know where that went.

This is kinda hard to see, but it has a burned mark

Here is his poor little thumb. It is very sore, but he is very lucky it wasnt worse. He could have been burn more severely, burned our house down or even electricuted himself. I am thankful for guardian angels.

Life is Busy

My life seems to have gotten away from me a little bit. We celebrated McKinley's 5th

birthday. She is such a big girl. She said it was the best day of her life. We went to the airplane park and had Happy Meals and cupcakes and played pin the tail on the donkey. It was pretty funny.

We went to IHOP for dinner because that is McKinleys favorite place. She loves pancakes. She put every kind of syrup on her pancakes.

She is such a wonderful little girl. We are so lucky to have her in our family. Amy keeps telling me to take a picture of her everyday because she has such a "great" sense of fashion. I have not done it yet, but I am going to try and get some shots of her this year, she will want to remember this time in her life. She got some make up from some friends and us, she is so excited to be a big girl. She keeps it in her purse and totes it around with her. I love my girl so much.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

What a differnce a year makes

On this day last year Carter was going in for his 2nd open heart surgery. It was such a stressful time, but I am so grateful for the lessons that I learned and the opportunity to grow. Here is just a look back (a little graphic)

Getting drowsy before the surgery

Just out of surgery

Therapy Dog came to visit on day 2

Taking his first walk and not very happy about it

Day 3 and feeling much better

Day 5 home from the hospital and feeling much better

Monday, March 16, 2009

Ummm Buttery.

Today, I bottled 12 lbs of butter. It made just 12 and a half pints. It really was easy, it just took a long time. The preparing of the butter probably took an hour and a half and then I had to shake the bottles for another 2 to 2 and a half hours. Here are the instructions. I have changed them a little from the directions I got off the internet.

1.Use any butter that is on sale. Lesser quality butter requires more shaking (see #5 below), but the results are the same as with the expensive brands.
2. Heat pint jars in a 250 degree oven for 20 minutes, without rings or seals. One pound of butter slightly more than fills one pint jar, so if you melt 11 pounds of butter, heat 12 pint jars. A roasting pan works well for holding the pint jars while in the oven.
3. While the jars are heating, melt butter slowly until it comes to a slow boil. Using a large spatula, stir the bottom of the pot often to keep the butter from scorching. Reduce heat and simmer for 8 minutes at least: a good simmer time will lessen the amount of shaking required (see #5 below). Place the lids in a small pot and bring to a boil, leaving the lids in simmering water until needed.
4. Stir the melted butter from the bottom to the top with a soup ladle or small pot with a handle; pour the melted butter carefully into heated jars through a canning jar funnel. Leave ½” of head space in the jar, which allows room for the shaking process.
5. Carefully wipe off the top of the jars, then get a hot lid from the simmering water, add the lid and ring and tighten securely. Lids will seal as they cool. Once a few lids “ping” shake while the jars are still warm, but cool enough to handle easily, because the butter will separate and become foamy on top and white on the bottom. In a few minutes, shake again, and repeat until the butter retains the same consistency throughout the jar.
6. At this point, while still slightly warm, put the jars into a refrigerator. While cooling and hardening, shake again, and the melted butter will then look like butter and become firm. This final shaking is very important! Check every 10 minutes and give the jars a little shake until they are hardened in the jar! Leave in the refrigerator for an hour.
7. Canned butter should store 3-5 years or longer on a cool, dark shelf. It does last a long time. Canner butter does not “melt” again when opened, so it does not need to be refrigerated upon opening, provided it is used within a reasonable length of time.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Well, after about a year of having the things to decorate the wall in my entry way, I finally put it up. I was nervous about putting up the vinyl lettering because the were supposed to overlap a little. It says "ALL BECAUSE TWO PEOPLE FELL IN LOVE." I bought the letters at Michael's. They arent even real wood. I am pleased with the way it turned out and just thought I would share.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

INSTALLING A HUSBAND

INSTALLING A HUSBAND
Dear Tech Support,
Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, and then installed undesirable programs such as NBA 5.0, NFL 3.0 and Golf Clubs 4.1.

Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system. Please note that I have tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail. What can I do?

Signed,

Desperate.

DEAR DESPERATE,

First, keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an operating system.

Please enter command: ithoughtyoulovedme.html, try to download Tears6.2, and do not forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update. If those applications work as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.

However, remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0, or Beer 6.1.Please note that Beer 6.1 is a very bad program that will download the Farting and Snoring Loudly Beta.

Whatever you do, DO NOT under any circumstances install Mother-In-Law1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.)

In addition, please do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend5.0-program. This is an unsupported application and will crash Husband1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend Cooking 3.0 and Hot Lingerie 7.7.

Good Luck!

Tech Support

Monday, March 9, 2009

Happy Birthday, Dear Jackson, Happy Birthday to you

Two years ago

Today

Today my baby turns 2. It seems like he was just born. I know people always say that, but it feels true. He was such a sweet baby to me. He was born in no time and I literally had no pain, I guess I should credit the wonderful epidural I got. I knew before I had him that he would be my last and I have really enjoyed him. We have had fun this year together while the other kids are in school. He loves to see airplanes and helicopters in the sky. I thought he didn't like to watch T.V. up until last week. It turns out, he only likes sports on T.V., not cartoons and kid shows like I have been trying to push on him for the last year. When you ask him how old he is, he says two and holds up three fingers. He loves to play ball, duck duck goose and tickle time. He is a little man at nearly 25 pounds. He still takes a good 3 hour nap everyday. His true LOVE is candy. He could eat it all day long if I let him. He loves his daddy and asks for him everytime he wakes up. Unfortunately, most of the time his daddy is not there when he wakes up and mom has to do. He loves his big brothers and sisters and has so much fun playing with them in the backyard. I love you sweet baby, I am so glad that I get to be your mommy.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Sleeping Beauties

On Friday, McKinley was so exhausted after dance that she feel asleep on the couch at about 7:00. We even got her up and changed her clothes and she still slept until 7:00 the next morning.

Then last night we got home from the Adult Session of Stake Conference and then dessert with the Perkins and this is what we found. I swear the boy does have a bed and pillow. We don't make him sleep on the hallway floor on a crayon box.

Please exuse my carpet. He picked a very high traffic area to fall asleep. Sorry!

Saturday, March 7, 2009

How to get out of debt.

I dont know how to get this to play here, but it is worth going here to watch it. It is brilliant information on how to get out of and stay out of debt. If only I had thought of this before;).

http://danwho.net/mp/index.php?id=snl_dontbuystuff

Sunday, March 1, 2009

We had a new family move into our neighborhood yesterday. They moved in next to the Goodmans and decided that it would be as good a time as any to have a little get together. We had such a good time. I even had my camera, but never got it out. We got pizza and had some salads and rootbeer floats. What a fun night. They have a little boy, Austin, who is the same age as Lincoln. On the way home, Lincoln said Mom, he is like my best friend. It was pretty cute, they had such a good time. But the best part was they have a little boy, Ethan, Carter's age. In the classroom that he moved here from there was a little boy with Down Syndrome, CJ, and he was his buddy. He just took to Carter. They were adorable. I have never really seen Carter play with a friend before. I have been afraid to have friends over for him because he tends to play by himself and I dont want to get another boy here and Carter wont play with him. We can't wait to have our new friends over. They also have a 12 and an 8 year old girl. They were so good with McKinley and Jackson. Jack had been such a beast at the beginning of the night. Trevor was trying to help them with a little plumbing problem they had and Jack just wanted his attention and was throwing a fit. I had tried to distract him along with several other people that were there, but he would not cheer up until, Hailey, started playing with him. It was soo cute. We are so glad to have new neighbors.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

What do you think?

I got a flyer from Carter's teacher that said 3 for Free.
On the first Sunday of every month through Sept 2009 Mesa Museums will be offering admission to the public from noon to 5. This includes Mesa Contemporary Arts at Mesa Art Center, Arizona Museum of Natural History and Arizona Museum for Youth. My question is, Is this a Sunday Activity? Is it still keeping the Sabbath day? I sorta feel like it is, but was wondering what others thought. Let me know what you think.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Crying Over Spilled Milk

Carter is starting to gain some independence. So far it is not really working for me. A few days ago he spilled nearly an entire gallon of milk all over the floor. Today, he spill an entire bottle of apple juice on the floor. He gets home from school and wants a drink. Instead of asking me to get him one, he just helps himself. The thing is, I usually dont even buy juice for my kids. Juice doesnt really agree with their stomachs if they have too much, so I usually just avoid it. Well, it was on sale and so I bought a bottle. I gave Jack and McKinley a small glass each and Carter came home from school and poured the rest of the bottle on the floor. I was not in the mood to take a picture today.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

I have recommitted to my blog

I have decided to recommit to my blog. I know that funny/notable things happen in my life everyday and I am not keeping a good record of it.

My super cute friend Hillary put curlers in her daughter's hair and McKinley and I thought it was so cute that we would give it a try. This is the outcome. We put them in on Friday night and took them out Saturday Morning.

This is the outcome. She was a little unsure at first. She didnt recognize herself. She thought her hair was really this short. She wanted that huge flower in her hair so she wouldnt look like a boy. Pretend that her face doesnt have breakfast all over it.

Monday, February 9, 2009

One of Trevor's Finest Moments

A few weeks ago we had a game night with some friends from the ward. We decided that it would need to be a new tradition. We had such a great time. We went out to dinner with Brian and Hilary Goodman and Clint and Amy Goodman and then headed back over the Clint and Amy's for some games. We just played regular games like card games and kids boardgames, but if you won or lost, depending on the game, you had to do random stunts. Luckily, when I lost I had to down a quart of water. It was pretty easy for me, but Hilary had a little more difficulty being like 9 months pregnant, but she was a good sport. Trevor lost and had to perform this stunt. We each got to tape up his face and then we drove him to Circle K were he had to ask for and buy a role of masking tape with change. It was super funny, we just sat in the car and laughed. When Brian lost we made a mask to put over his head with a sheet that said "FEED ME" and he had to go to buy a Sonic hamburger and eat it through a hole in the sheet. We also put this ridiculous looking mullet wig to hold the sheet on his head. It was soo funny. He also had to pay in change, but he was 3 cents short.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Changes... or not really

We got a call Friday evening to ask us to come and meet with the stake presidency on Saturday. (Trevor has been serving as a counselor in the bishopric). We really just figured he would be getting released. I did say to Trevor, "It seems weird to be released because it doesn't feel done." He felt the same way. I guess we just werent burned out yet. Anyway, he was released and then promptly recalled to the same calling. They called a new bishop, Bret Baird and he asked to have Trevor as a counselor. He also asked for Dave Osborne. It should be a fun group for him to work with. Not to mention that I adore their sweet wives. Tricia Baird and Darlene Osborne have been my visiting teachers for the past year or so. They are amazing women and I love them so much. I have been busy and not keeping up with my blog, but I intend to get back on it. I do have a few things that have gone on in the past little while that I could post about. I guess I don't have to be worried about getting so far behind and just do it. I wish I would have thought to take a picture of them today, but I forgot to even bring a camera.

The Merrill Family