Best buds

Landon and Elke all cuddled up watching a movie after supper.

Wedding dress shopping

On Saturday, my Mom, Cathy and the kids and Landon and I headed to Manchester to meet up with my sister at the Bridal store.  We were all anxious to see her in her "princess" dresses!

She tried on a couple and they all looked so beautiful!

It didn't take long for the boys to start acting like boys!

Speaking of boys...How cute is this little guy?!  Every time I see him he changes.  He is seriously the happiest baby I have ever seen.  He just loves to smile, which makes me smile.  Simply adorable!

I think Jodi wants to tackle one more bridal shop before narrowing down her choices.  There are so many unbelievable dresses, I don't know how she will ever decide!

I like to ride my bicycle

Landon's bicycle broke down and left him stranded on the side of the road in the living room. He got out some tools and got straight to work.  He claims he had a flat tire.

Here is a video of how well he does riding his bike.  Oh, and he may pretend it is a motorcycle.

Ultrasound pics

They may not look like much to you, but they mean the world to me!

 

It's a...

Today's ultrasound went great!  The baby wasn't exactly cooperating and was all snuggled up comfy and cozy, sleeping away.  In the end, the tech got the pictures and measurements he needed and said everything looked good!  Such a relief.  I didn't realize I was so nervous until it was all over.  

And the big news is...it's a boy!  Neither Jeremy or I saw any of the boy parts like we did on Landon, but I'm going to go with what the tech said and his 27 years experience.  He said there was no doubt about it.  I am such a baby and cried my eyes out.  I wish I could have froze that 1/2 hour in time as I soaked in every second seeing our little one just curled up sleeping away.

God is so good to us!

Basement updates

I haven't posted any updates on our basement in a while, so here they are.  It seems as though we got the family room livable, and just stopped there for a while.  Or, other things in life just were so crazy, there was no time!  Probably a little of both.  Well, the push may be on a little more now as we begin to prepare for this new baby.  That means Landon moves to his new room downstairs and his room turns back to a nursery. 

In the past few weeks, Jeremy has hung all the doors and has begun staining some of them.  We have 11 doors down stairs, can you believe that?  Now that I count the upstairs, we have 14, so I guess that does seem reasonable.  Ugh, that's a lot of doors though.  Jeremy's Mother has been so gracious to come over the past two Saturday's and help.  She stained all of the trim and window casing last week and put the first coat of varnish on yesterday.  That is a big job.  Thank you so much Deb!

While I was at work yesterday, Jeremy installed the trim around the closets in both bedrooms.  I think the combination of their work is fantastic!

After cleaning the house and getting the laundry going, it's my turn to help today.  I started by sanding and staining the extension jams around the doors and windows.  Ta da...

Up next is touching up some paint, and whatever else Jeremy may need help with.

Not sure what my last update was, but the tile floor is completely grouted and sealed.  My new area rugs have also arrived and I LOVE them!!  I would have taken a picture but they are a little dusty right now and need a good vacuum.  The trim and doors are still a big, big project, but once that's complete, we will have someone come and put the carpet in the bedrooms, finish up the bathroom, install the cabinets in the work area and we are done.  Suddenly, that seems like a lot...

New kicks

Who says boys can't have style?

After I worked today, I got groceries, stopped at my parents (love your new truck Dad), and got home shortly after 5 pm.  Needless to say I was not in the mood for making supper.  Jeremy suggested we go to the White House.  My favorite place in the whole world.  Seriously good food!  

So who says it's not fun to dress up boys.  Landon thoroughly enjoyed sporting his new converse high tops.   

They must have made him eat good, well, either that, or Daddy didn't feed him when I was at work.  Ok, that's not true at all, but I have seriously never seen Landon eat so much.  I guess he loves the White House too!

Exciting news!

Well, I think the word is out, but in case you haven't heard, I'm pregnant!

We are so unbelievably excited, and can't believe how fast the time is going by.  I am due in June, and next week marks the half way point already!  Hard to believe.  On Monday, Jeremy will be traveling with me to the Dr. for the ultrasound, and yes, we will be finding out the sex of the baby! So super excited, to see that little peanut and make sure everything is ok.  We have a hunch what the sex is, but we'll see. Take the poll on the right hand side of the screen.  I can't wait to see what other people think.

Here is the latest picture I took at 16 weeks.

You really do pop out faster with the second child!  Yikes!!

Paint with water

Do you remember paint with water when you were a kid?  I loved it!  I recently found a book and brought it home for Landon. What a great, some what mess free way to be creative.

Of course I was all ready to hang his first master piece on the fridge.  Nope, he wanted to bring it to his beloved Bernicey the next day.  I see where I rank! :-)  And yes, it appears as though Landon is a lefty.

The modern version of paper dolls

Paper dolls - you don't normally think of them as a "boy" toy, but they totally are!  I found these magnetic dolls at work the other day and brought them home.  Landon has had a blast putting together all the different outfits.  (I think they are fun too!)

Landonisms

"I need to put my hook up."  I need to put my hood up

"Do you slell that?"  Do you smell that

"Milky"  Milk and "Snacky" Snack

Landon:  "Mommy can I get a cow?" Mommy: "Like a real one?" Landon: "Yes."  Mommy: "And where would we put it?" Landon: "In the garage."

After telling Landon several times that he needed to hurry up and eat his breakfast, it was time to go to Bernice's, Landon's response was, "Mom, I'm feeling extremely overwhelmed right now."

Please pass the popcorn

What started off as a crappy day - literally, ended on a much better note.

After we all took showers this morning, and I had the second load of laundry in the washing machine, Jeremy came upstairs from the basement and said, "Today's not going to be a great day."  He then told me that the sewer was backing up in the basement.  Oh.my.goodness!

With the help of my Dad and Jon, things were under control by lunch time.  Thankfully, it didn't end up that bad downstairs and the places that were effected were the tile and cement floors.  Everything is all cleaned up, and life is good now!

As for Landon and I - well after cleaning the house, doing laundry, making lunch, supper and meal prep for the week and sneaking a quick nap in, we decided we needed a little cuddle time! 

So, popcorn, pop and a movie it was.  Seriously, there is no other place in the world I would rather be!

It was a special little treat for the afternoon, and a great way to end such a crappy day.

The Dukes of Hazzard

I guess turning three means you have to step up your TV watching game a bit.  Goodbye Scooby Doo, hello Dukes of Hazzard.

Flipping through the channels one night, we stumbled across the Dukes of Hazzard.  Landon fell in love and can not get enough of the "two kids," as he calls them.

I realize it may not be prime viewing material for a three year old, but I think I could find worse.  I'm sure there are some good morals in this show if you really looked long and hard.

Happy New Year!

Better late than never, right?! Wow, did 2010 go by fast or what?  It's hard to believe the holidays are over and we are settling in to the rut of winter.  There is a huge part of me that is sad the holidays are over.  From Thanksgiving to New Year's, it was all about family and counting our blessings.  But, we at the Merrill household are looking forward to 2011.  We've got some pretty big changes that will be happening this next year!  Wink, wink!