Trend Setter

I sometimes read a blog that I learned about through one of my best pals. One day when I was reading it I saw some really cute shirts on this blogger's kids. I went to their website and found lots of cute, personalized clothes for kids. *You can click on the picture to see their website*
When I stumbled upon this website I had to get this hilarious shirt for Tirzah:The little bow in the skull's hair (hair? haha) just made up my mind. Her brother already has a few articles of clothing that go along with the skull trend that you can't miss if you go to a mall.
I blame their father for their taste in clothes ;)...

Sharing 101

I'm not sure who was learning to share here...I think this started out as my popsicle. :) But Merrick did a pretty good job of sharing it for me:

Announcing...

I love getting things in the mail...especially boxes of things you've ordered. It's kind of like Christmas in the middle of the year. I'd been waiting to get Tirzah's birth announcements in the mail, and they came today. :) *Birth announcements aren't one of the cheapest things you can buy, so unfortunately I can't send one to everyone I'd like to.* So I decided to post a picture of them on our blog so everyone can see them. Here they are!...

This Time Last Year...

So I stumbled upon several of my friend's blogs who have started participating in something called: I LOVE photography, so I thought I'd see what it was all about. They have weekly contests, so it sounds pretty interesting. This week's contest is At the Beach. This time last year we were at the beach for the first time with our Wildman:
We're headed there again next week. We can't wait! We are definitely ready for a vacation this year. *We're just hoping our two hooligans let us get a bit of rest ;) I guess that's what the aunties/grandma is for ;)

Buckle Up

Merrick's latest hobby, when he's not doing stunts, is buckling everything in the house. If you've ever spent any time around babies/small children...you know there are many items that buckle: Car seats, strollers, bouncers, highchairs, swings, slings, etc. The only problem is he can't always unbuckle what he's buckled. :) So he follows me around the house asking me to unbuckle things so he can re-buckle them later. Here is some example of his hard work making sure all our buckles are buckled:

Twitterpated

I know Tirzah doesn't Tweet, but her mom does. (This picture is of one of Tizzy's bibs) In a rare moment of quiet in the car, Billy and I were saying its interesting to wonder what will be the latest craze when our little hooligans are my age. My parents I'm sure never imagined things like Facebook or Twitter *even though everyone and their mom is on Facebook*, and they told me it was creepy to tell people what I'm doing all the time on Twitter. :) I remember trying to teach my mom to use her email, and also watching my 10 year old sister Ali explain to mom how to use her cell phone. I just hope that when i'm old and not cool anymore, Merrick and Tirzah will be patient with me and teach my how to use their new-fangled gadgets. ;)

Sheesh Sheesh

This past Friday-Saturday we took the kids to the National Aquarium. It was mostly for Merrick, who really likes fish *or any kind of animal for that matter*. He still can't say fish exactly right, so he calls them "sheesh sheesh". We all had a great time! We went to Hard Rock Cafe, also, and after dinner we went to Cold Stone Creamery where Merrick had the treat of getting his own ice cream. *For some reason, he called it "cake" all night :)* We stayed at a really nice hotel, our first time in a hotel with the kids, and got stuck in a monstrous traffic jam on the way home. It was a lot of fun, and of course I took lots of pictures. :) Here are some photos from our trip!

Flipping Out

Last night we stayed in hotel *with BOTH kids* for the first time. *We had gone out of town to take the kiddos to the aquarium...so much fun!* By the end of the night, well more like the beginning, both of them were in the bed with us. Merrick sleeps like something out of the wild *Think sleeping with someone kicking you in the head all night*, and Tirzah, well Tirzah doesn't sleep at this point anyway. :) It was fun to stay away from home though. We hadn't done that in awhile. *other than various hospital stays, that is, and that's not so much fun.* As you can see from this video, Merrick had a great time doing stunts on the bed:

And while we were unloading our stuff, he had a great time wasting our toilet paper and towels: Later on I'll post pictures of the sharks and small children. *Not together, of course, although Merrick did try to climb into the stingray tank ;)*

Highchair Houdini

Merrick is enjoying my new busy-ness with a newborn in the house. It leaves him opportunity to get into a bit more trouble adventure. This morning I put him in his highchair, where he was quietly eating his waffle:

I went down the hall, thinking I was safe because he was contained...not so. When I got back *literally less than 1 minute later* he was here:

As always, he is the master at keeping me on my toes. At least life with the hooligans isn't boring. ;)

Queen of the Boppy

I took Tirzah to the Dr for her 2 week check-up on Wednesday. I was stuck in the bed for her first Dr's appointment last Wednesday, but Mr. Mom took her for me. :) *While I was bedridden her dad had been dressing her in onesies, which is fine, but I'm definitely having fun dressing someone in something besides camo. :)* She did not, and never does, appreciate being unwrapped long enough for me to take pictures of her in her dress. Nor did she appreciate her Dr's appointment. She howled like a champ, just like her brother always does. The Dr said everything looked "perfect". I mentioned to him that she's been spitting up projectile vomiting her food up occasionally. :( It's so sad, and then she's hungry all over again. He said it may be acid reflux, and suggested a few things to try before they put her on Prevacid to stop the throwing up. *Which she only does every few days at most* He told us to keep her propped up at all times, and to add 1/2 tsp of Maalox to her bottle. *Ironic sidenote...the 1/2 tsp is the one that I successfully destroyed in our toaster earlier this week:* So the Boppy is her new home for the time being. She just needs a "do not disturb" sign and she'll be all set:

The Boy Who Cried Wolf Poo

We were advised by many people NOT to attempt to potty train Merrick before Tirzah was born. We had hoped to not be using twice the diapers when she made her appearance, *it seems we spend more money on diapers than food :)* but decided to wait a bit. He didnt really seem to be quite ready for it anyway. He was happily going through diapers right and left. :) Lately though he's been starting to tell us when he needs to be changed. He'll come up to one of us and point to his diaper and say "poo". We were thinking we were on the road to potty training. There is one little problem with this: We were so proud of him and praised him for letting us know, so now he lets us know that he has "poo" even when there's definitely NO poo. So I think we'll keep up the double diaper duty for a bit longer, and wait until Merrick stops crying wolf poo and is tired of those diapers. :)

Beautiful Feet

As different as they were, the births of our two kids have been similar in that they were not at all what we expected, and pretty difficult physically/emotionally, especially on me.

Merrick was an emergency c-section followed by an extended hospital stay due to his very high bilirubin levels...

Tirzah's delivery was fast and easy...but the recovery was pretty rough.

But looking back on it, both times we were surrounded by tons of prayer and support from our friends. We just wanted to say thanks so much to everyone who has been/still is praying for us. It is much appreciated, and we feel so blessed. :) God has taught us a lot through both of these hard times, and brought us closer to Him and each other...and given us two awesome blessings to show for it. I read these verses today and thought they applied. Thanks again for all the continued prayers...it means so much to all 4 of us! :)

Psalm 66:8-10 (NIV)
Praise our God, O peoples,
let the sound of His praise be heard;
He has preserved our lives
and kept our feet from slipping.
For you, O God, tested us;
You refined us like silver.

Partners in Crime

If you think Wal-Mart isn't the equivalent of a thrill ride, or maybe swimming with sharks, you never been to Wal-Mart with Wildman. Its nonstop action from the time we set a toe outside the house to when we get home. He makes shopping a full-contact sport, doing everything he can to keep me on my toes: Snatching things off the shelves if I happen to get too close, or out of the cart if I stack stuff too high, making crazy noises and yelling greetings at other innocent shoppers, asking to eat everything I put in the cart, etc. He's even been known to escape out of the child seat when I definitely strapped him in. Today we decided to brave wal-mart with both our kiddos. In this picture they look innocent enough, even holding hands.

At first I thought *how cute*, but as soon as we pulled out of the driveway the fun begins. Merrick snatching things from Tirzah and making her fuss, and throwing blankies and paci's on her. So don't be fooled, if you happen to run into us in wal-mart...you should probably duck. :) But we do love every minute with these two...don't be fooled about that either. :)

I Love to Laugh

No one makes me laugh quite like Wildman. :) I took this picture of him "using the computer". He was just clicking the mouse, but did manage to browse around Billy's Facebook page.
This is a video of his "up to no good" laugh:

Spoiled

No, not my kids. *They're just a bit energetic ;)* I'm the one who is spoiled around here. I had found this website for birthstone jewelry while I was pregnant with Tirzah. I really wanted one of their necklaces with my kids' birthstones on it, but was thinking it might be some time before we could afford one. I was pleasantly surprised when UPS delivered a little box earlier today. My hubby had ordered the necklace for me right after Tirzah was born. I can't wait till I get out of the house, and my hubby's giant baggy t-shirts, and get to wear it! :)

Mr. Mom

Since Tirzah's arrival, I've kinda been out of the picture when it comes to the normal daily routine around here. For a week now, Billy has been doing an awesome job of being Mr. Mom, to Merrick and Tirzah. We have never done "housework" in the same manner as each other. I fuss and worry over well-balanced meals and making sure the house is clutter free. Billy is of the mindset to just eat what's in the fridge, and let Merrick ransack the house and clean it all up at once, instead of constantly cleaning through the day. We both get the job done, but it's a learning experience for me to sit back and let him take care of the house. :)

I am so thankful for a husband who is willing to help out around the house, and with the kids. He's already changed more of Tirzah's diapers than I have. He takes good care of me, too. I would have been lost without him this last week four years. Here is an example of a meal by Mr. Mom. Cheez-its with mashed potato dip:
Sounds gross to me, but Merrick seemed to love it. :) Seeing as I did this while fixing Merrick's breakfast, maybe it's a good thing he is in charge of the housework for a bit: I didn't realize that a measuring spoon had fallen into our toaster when I made Merrick a waffle for breakfast. It stunk up the whole kitchen, and killed our toaster. Oops. I think I'll just blame it on hormones for now. ;) I'm so blessed to have this guy.

Fear Factor

That mouse *some claim its an opossum* seems harmless enough, right? It was a gift that my dad brought to Tirzah while we were still in the hospital. If you set it down hard enough it shakes and laughs. Everyone thinks it's pretty cute, except for Merrick. He is TERRIFIED of this thing. But only when it's laughing. He was playing in his room a few minutes ago when we heard him start crying and he came flying into our bedroom. We realized it was because he had knocked the mouse off the bed, and it started laughing and scared him. We tried not to laugh, I know it's seriously terrifying to him. :)

He is still being a good big brother to Tirzah...we took the 2 of them outside for a little bit this afternoon:
She was laughing in her sleep, and we just happened to catch it:
Things are moving along, slowly as it seems, with recovery. Keep praying for us. I am up and about more today, and praying the headache has seen it's last days. :) Hope everyone is having a great week.