First Steps

More news is that Christian took his first two steps yesterday! He is still a little unsure about it, but is getting more and more daring, and more sure of standing alone. Maybe he will be walking by his birthday!

Christian's First Haircut

After one too many comments about "what a cute little girl" Christian was, we decided it was time to cut his hair! So this morning we buckled Christian in his booster seat in the bathroom, Jake played with him, and I tried to cut his hair. It is far from perfect, but for a first time, I would say it turned out pretty good. Now we think Christian looks like such a handsome little BOY!

Yes, Christian had a shag...do you like it?

Or maybe it was more of a mullet?

Ahh, a fresh, new hair cut. What a handsome little boy!

The Gorilla Crawl

Here is Christian using his new gorilla crawl. We think it looks so funny, especially from behind! He especially loves to use this crawl when he needs to get somewhere fast!

Mischief!

This week Christian has been getting into all kinds of mischief while I've been trying to pack up our house to move. It's amazing how fast he can make a mess when I turn my back! And I have a feeling the fun is only beginning...

Christian figured out how to open the doors on our entertainment center and was having a ball opening up all the card boxes with lids. He still loves lids and is quite an expert at them now! Needless to say, I had multiple decks of Rook and Canasta to sort out that morning.

Christian was in the bathroom with me while I was getting ready, when I turned to look in the mirror to put on my mascara, and the next thing I knew he had unrolled the entire roll of toilet paper! He was quite entertained and at least it was keeping his hands out of the toilet! (This reminds me of the cover of that book I Love You Forever.)

Even though I get to clean up lots of messes, I just love watching Christian discover new things. He is so proud of himself when he figures out a new trick, learns a new word, or makes a big mess. Christian keeps me laughing all day long. I can't help but love him to pieces!

Christmas Treats!

Tonight we had our first taste of Christmas treats with homemade hot fudge over peppermint ice cream...yum!! Oh how I love that! I also splurged and bought peppermint Hugs, which we have been enjoying! Since we aren't decorating for Christmas and won't be getting a tree, we are trying to make it feel like Christmas with treats and Christmas music. So far, it's working!

It's Crunch Time!

Well, we are now down to less than two weeks until we plan to move to Atlanta on the 15th and it is definitely crunch time. (We still don't have a place to live yet, but we're working on it.) This is Jake's last week of class and he has two big group projects due, and then has his first final on Saturday. He worked all day yesterday on one project and still has more to go. Meanwhile, I have been trying to do some Christmas shopping and check off my to-do list, anything to avoid packing. However I did pack my first box (towels and linens...easy stuff) and now I've really got to get moving! These next two weeks will be very hectic and then it's graduation on the 20th and off to Utah on the 22nd. We will definitely be ready to relax when we get there!

It was nice to be back in our ward today after being gone for two Sundays on our cruise, and we felt very loved. We also had our ward Christmas party last night, with a Bethlehem theme, and it reminded me of what great friends we have made here and how much we will miss it. We have been so blessed to live in this area and meet so many wonderful people. Although it is hard to leave, I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ which is the same no matter where we go. We will always have the gospel and that is the greatest blessing to our family.

Uh-Oh

Christian's new word this week is "uh-oh!" He loves to say it, but I think he especially loves to first throw his sippy cup (or anything else) off his tray and then say "uh-oh!" It's very cute and he's been practicing a lot! (Therefore, we have been picking up LOTS of things off the ground.)

Christian has also started saying "on" and "off" (which sound exactly the same) in his own little way, without the n or f sound. Yesterday he couldn't stop saying this all day. If we are holding him anywhere near a light switch, he will start saying "on" so that he can turn them on and off. Jake was quite surprised last night at how good Christian is at this!

Christian's vocabulary consists of these words:
Uh-oh
On and Off
Banana (which he says, "Nana")
Dada
Mama

We like to think he is very smart!

What a Ship!

We just couldn't get over the enormity and grandeur of the Caribbean Princess. How does something that big float...and where do they build it?

Priceless Pictures

Christian was a happy boy in the dining room once he was sitting on someone's lap reading his Barn Door book.

Christian and his Great-Grandpa Merkley.


Christian and his favorite uncle Connor.

Cruisin' the Caribbean

For Thanksgiving this year we decided to spend our holiday on the beaches of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands! Jake's grandparents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary with the whole family on a Caribbean cruise and, although it was exhausting, we had a great time! Here is a little recap of our trip:

Saturday, November 17th we drove to Charlotte, NC where we caught a flight down to Ft. Lauderdale, FL. It was a great start to our trip because the colors were still breathtaking as we drove up through South and North Carolina. What an incredible fall we have here! The flight wasn't as smooth as we had hoped, with Christian crawling all over me, Jake and the nice woman sitting next to us for two hours, but we survived and made it to FL safely. We spent the night in a hotel with Jake's family and Christian's favorite part was the rickety crib...he discovered he could shake the crib six inches in either direction and thought that was so fun! Of course I was just waiting for the whole thing to collapse, but it didn't and we all survived the night. (Even Taylor and Kaitlin survived, who got a little taste of what it's like being up with a fussy baby in the middle of the night...sorry!)

DAY 1: Sunday we woke up to go to church, which everyone attended except Christian and me because Christian had come down with a yucky cold Friday and I kept him at the hotel to have a nap. After church and naptime we gathered all our luggage, called a taxi, and headed to the ship for embarking. We made it with plenty of time to get through security, check in and even have some time to eat lunch before sailing away. As the ship left the dock people waved to us from the beach and off we went! For dinner that evening we ate in the dining room for the first time and were blown away by the incredible food and the elaborate presentation of it. The food was definitely a highlight of the trip!

DAY 2: Monday we were on the ship all day and spent our time napping and swimming at the pool. Christian was even lucky enough to get two naps that day. Yay! Monday evening was the first formal night at dinner and so we all got dressed up in dresses and suits to go to the dining room. It was fun to be fancy!

DAY 3: Tuesday was Grandma and Grandpa Merkley's 60th wedding anniversary! We were at sea again all day and did more swimming, napping and exploring the ship. Christian swam in the kiddie pool and had a great time with his cousin JJ, but that didn't last too long because the water was ice cold! In the afternoon we met up with the whole extended family and took pictures and played games. One game we played was like the dating game to see which couple knew each other the best. Jake and I almost won, but were beat by the newlyweds. It was really fun to hear all the answers from Jake's aunts and uncles and grandparents. We also played Boggle with some very avid Boggle players, and I am proud to say, I won! (Thanks to all those years of playing Boggle at Grandma Froerer's and with Sally!) Each night we put Christian to bed between seven and eight and Mark and Abby put their kids, JJ and Zoe, to bed at the same time, so we brought our baby monitors and used a third room that no one slept in as our hang-out room to watch TV and play games. A couple of nights Jake's parents or Mark's parents sat down in the third room to listen for the babies so we could all go upstairs and play games. Thank you to all those who helped out! This night we played a crazy game of spoons and had a blast! We asked a waiter for some spoons and he brought them to us on a platter...and then he thought we were crazy!

DAY 4: Wednesday was our first stop to the island of St. Maarten, which is owned partly by the Dutch and partly by the French. We had an excellent tour guide who drove us around the island and told us different facts about their way of life. To me it seemed like the island life is very relaxed and quite chaotic. There wasn't much order to the island; it was quite different from here in the states. One of the highlights of the tour was driving by the airport where the road is right next the fence that surrounds the runways. We parked right behind a 747 as it took off and the van shook and the sand on the beach was everywhere. There were DANGER signs all over, warning of the risk of bodily harm and even death caused by standing where we were. It was pretty cool to be that close! (No worries, no one was hurt.) In the afternoon our tour guide dropped us off at a ferry to head to a beach on the French side that was supposed to be really nice. We were meeting the whole extended family there. Well, as our little boat pulled up to the beach, right before our eyes were standing four women in the shallow water without tops on! To our surprise (and horror) we had accidentally chosen to spend the afternoon at a nude beach! (Although, might I add that it was only some women that chose that attire.) Yikes! After a while of debating what to do, we found a spot further down where we were mostly alone and enjoyed a couple hours on the beach and in the water with the whole family. Christian enjoyed the beach and ocean until he rubbed his eyes and got sand and salt in them, then the fun was over. This was also the first time Jake and I had the chance to go snorkeling and it was a lot of fun! The coolest thing we saw were little swordfish that were swimming right past our faces. It was awesome! Grandma and Papa were nice to watch Christian for us, even though he was not his happiest self. Thank you! After the beach we headed back to the ship, but the girls stopped to walk around all the shops, which were mostly jewelers. Diamonds are supposed to be the hot item because they are much cheaper, but they were still way above our budget! Jake took Christian back to the ship, for he had a very exhausting day!

DAY 5: Happy Thanksgiving! We spent our holiday on another island, this time it was St. Thomas, a U.S. Virgin Island. There was much more resemblance of home, like K-Mart, Home Depot, and even a U.S. post office, and the best thing was that we had cell phone service! I was able to call my family to tell them happy Thanksgiving, a definite highlight of the day. We spent most of the day riding around on benches in the back of pick-up trucks that had been fancied up for tours, but also had a chance to sit on a beach for a couple hours. The guys really enjoyed this beach because there were waves to play in and they even got to have their annual turkey bowl football game. Christian was having a great time in the sand until a wave came up high on the beach a knocked him under for a brief second. (Don't worry, Daddy saved him...those are mine and Jake's legs in the picture, rushing to save our baby!) That was the end of his fun and so I spent the whole time with him and never even changed into my swim suit. Christian was very much a mama's boy on this trip. But it was still relaxing to sit on the beach and watch the waves crash against the reef. It was a gorgeous day! (And I had to keep reminding myself it was Thanksgiving as I was sitting on a beach in the Caribbean!) For our Thanksgiving dinner that evening we were back on the ship in the dining room and I was excited to have a turkey dinner. I odered the turkey entree, but was sorely disappointed at the lack of "Thanksgivingness" about it. It was fancy and elegant, but nothing compared to a home cooked Thanksgiving feast. I'm looking forward to having one at Christmas time...thanks Mom!















DAY 6: Friday we were grateful to be at sea all day because that gave Christian a chance to have naps and we were able to relax. Christian and I took naps, we went swimming, sat up on the deck and watched movies, and Jake and I got to go watch an ice carving demonstration. There were two sculptors from the Philippines and they carved a fish and a parrot in fifteen minutes. It was quite amazing! Friday evening was the second formal night so we got all dressed up again and headed to the dining room for yet another amazing meal. Every night we had bread, appetizers, entrees, and desserts and you could order as many of each as "your heart desired"--that's what it said on the menu. We were definitely spoiled by so much good food! Although Jake couldn't wait to come home and have a home cooked meal--what a sweet husband! All that gourmet food and he still wants my home cookin'!

















DAY 7: Saturday was our last stop at Princess Cays Island in the Bahamas, an island owned by the Princess cruise line we were on. We had to get on boats to tender into the island which was a 2 mile long, white sand beach. It was gorgeous! Here Jake and I got to go snorkeling again and this time it was even better. The water was so clear and there were lots of beautiful fish that were quite large. Christian also enjoyed this beach much better because we kept him from getting dunked and he loved crawling through all the sand using his newly discovered gorilla crawl. I don't think he wanted leave! We all wish we could have spent a few days on this beautiful beach! They also fed us a BBQ lunch on the island, which was really nice after never eating on any of the other islands. Jake's uncle Chris even had the chance to bring out his grand American flag, a trademark he is known for. It was a great day in the Bahamas!

















DAY 8: Sunday morning we woke up early, got everything ready to go and headed up for breakfast before disembarking. We had to be out of our stateroom by eight and were supposed to get off the ship at nine. It all went very smoothly, especially when they saw we had a stroller and directed us to the front of every line. That's the way to do it! Jake's family had to head straight to the airport to catch a flight, but we didn't fly out until Monday morning, so we spent the day with Chris and Kathy and family. Mark and Abby had some car troubles so we spent most of the day in the car getting all that figured out, but it was good for Christian because he got a nap. We were also able to catch a Creole sacrament meeting at 1:30, and although we couldn't understand anything, it was a neat experience. My favorite part was singing the hymns in English as they sang in Creole. Music can be so powerful! We finally made it to the hotel, which the room felt like a mansion compared to our little stateroom we'd been in all week, got something to eat, and went to bed early.

Monday morning we woke up at 4:30 to leave by 5:00 and got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. Christian fell asleep as we were taking off and slept the entire plane ride home--he was exhausted! Then he slept the two hour drive back to Clemson as well. What a week!

In case you haven't seen enough pictures yet, click HERE for the complete album.

We're Off!

Christian has been such a good helper packing this week, but for some reason all he thinks that he needs to pack is his push-popper vacuum and his toothbrush. It also is apparent that he rather ride inside the luggage than sit on our lap on the plane. We are excited to go on the cruise and we will be sharing our photos when we get back. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Other news is that I passed my defense yesterday! It feels great to have that burden off my shoulders. There are a couple formatting things that need to be changed, but nothing too extensive. Thank you to everybody for your support!

Big Helper

Christian has discovered the joy of unloading and reloading the dryer. He is becoming such a big helper! Although most of the time the wet clothes don't make it back into the dryer, and the dry clothes don't make it into the basket, it keeps him entertained.

Watching Cars

Christian and I walked up to the street to take some pictures and Christian loved watching the cars zoom past! He was so happy to be standing there all by himself holding on to the fence. What a big boy!

Fall Colors Continued

Ahh...these colors just take my breath away. I just can't seem to get enough of the fall colors here, and so Christian is lucky enough to be in all the pictures! He is a good sport.

We have been spoiled by an extra long fall this year and are still enjoying the bright colors. This is our apartment complex...isn't it beautiful? This red tree is my favorite. We are definitely going to miss it here!

So big!

We just can't believe how fast Christian is growing. Within the last couple days he has discovered that he can reach on top of things, like the table, the bookcase, the computer desk, places which I thought were safe from him. I guess it's time to do some more baby proofing!

Jake and I also are amazed at Christian's ability to understand us. He can follow our commands and is starting to communicate back to us with words like "nana" for banana (he loves them!), "bye-bye" with a waving hand when he wants to go outside, "mama" and "dada." Our little baby is growing up so fast!

Thesis is DONE! (mostly)

Late last night Jake and I finished his thesis in order for him to submit it to his professors before he defends on Friday. It's hard to imagine that he's really done, but that's probably because he will still have some revisions (minor, hopefully) to make by the final due date. But nonetheless, he's done!! He has worked so hard this week to get it done...way to go, Daddy! Good luck on Friday!

A Little Clemson Tiger

Christian wore his orange overalls (seen on many students at football games, no joke) to support the Clemson Tigers yesterday. The keychain in his hand has become one of his favorite toys this past week. When we push the button, which sets off the "Tiger Rag," Christian waves his hand and smiles until the song is over. After which, of course, he holds it out until you push it again. Jake is training him young! (This is also a great distraction while changing his diaper. Holding still during that time is something he just cannot seem to accept.)