SICK

We are sick. All of us. Again.

Sick of being sick. Sick of colds. Sick of crankiness. Sick.

One of my New Year's resolutions for 2009 is not to be sick for the holidays next year. (It might help if we don't move right before Christmas this time.)

Here's to a healthy New Year! Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas

Christmas morning was so much fun! First, we sang Christian happy birthday before we even got him out of his crib. He turned two...can you believe it? I can't believe I have a two year old! And then it was on to Christmas...

Christian found a tool bench under the tree that Santa had brought him. He was so excited! He has been constantly getting into and begging for Daddy's tools, so this was the perfect gift. Santa must have known!

He played with his tools for awhile, and then we pulled out the trike from Grammy and Papa. He thought that was great! He's still working on mastering the pedals, but he'll learn in no time. Thanks for the bike, Grammy and Papa!
Christian also received a bowling set from Grandma and Grandpa Gurr, which he loves! He can even set up the pins by himself and roll the ball to knock them over. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!






It was so much fun taking our time and enjoying Christian's enthrallment with each new toy he opened. He got so many fun things, and we still haven't done his birthday presents! We figure we could wait at least six months to open those. :) But don't worry, we won't.

After presents were opened, we had a light cinnamon roll breakfast, took showers and then headed to our friends, the Harrisons for brunch. It was fun to see them and their cute little boy Par Par! We headed back home for Christian to take a nap, while I got some things ready for dinner, and then we headed to our friends' Brian and Tina's for Christmas dinner. It was very fun and delicious! I even managed to make traditional rice pudding or rice cream for dessert that both Jake and my family have at Christmas time, complete with the whole almond to find! It was a wonderful evening. Thanks for having us over, Dances!

We had a really fun Christmas, enjoyed making some of our own traditions, and are so grateful for technology so we could talk to our families so far away! We hope you all had a Merry Christmas as well!

Christmas Eve Treats

Since Daddy had to work until 3:00 Christmas Eve, Christian and I spent the day together and had a really fun time!
First, we dressed in red and green to be festive.

Next, we made Rice Krispy Christmas Trees and put "balls" on them to give to Christian's friends.


After that we made "pretzel towers" and Christian was an excellent helper on these!
He unwrapped each hug very carefully.
And stacked the hugs on the pretzels so perfectly.This was a great treat to make together!

Finally, we had snowman peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch, complete with a carrot nose! Christian devoured two of them! (I think I'll make sandwich shapes more often...)

Merry Christmas Eve!

Jake got home at about 3:30, but Christian didn't wake up from his nap until 5:00, so we decided to just stay home and enjoy the evening together. We had a yummy chili dinner, complete with red and green plates and napkins, red and green apples, and a sparkling red drink. After dinner we watched Joy to the World, a video about the nativity, told the story with Christian's nativity set, and Christian opened up some new jammies and slippers from Grammy. He loves them, especially the froggie slippers! Those frogs can jump high!

Once Christian was all decked out in his new sleepwear, Daddy played Christmas songs on the piano while Christian ran around the room playing golf and Mommy watched.

Eventually it was time for bed, so Christian put his finishing touches on the Christmas tree and then said goodnight! He had no idea what he would awaken to in the morning....

Once Christian was in bed, Jake and I wrapped a few more presents, watched various Christmas shows on TV, and ate peppermint ice cream and hot fudge. Yum! It was a wonderful Christmas Eve!

Atlantic Station Christmas

The week of Christmas we finally had a little time and a little energy to do some festive activities. For family night on Monday Christian and I drove down to Atlantic Station, where Daddy works, to meet up with Daddy and see the "Big, Big Christmas Tree!"
It WAS big!
And it was cold! (We have been very spoiled with 60 and 70 degree weather, but this night it was FREEZING!)
Christian was so excited about the huge balls hanging on the tree. He was lucky enough that part of the fence around the tree was close enough for him to touch the balls.


A little guy and a BIG tree.

Our First Gingerbread House

This year we made our first-ever Merkley family gingerbread house. I am proud to say that I cooked the gingerbread, cut out the pieces and successfully glued it together without any huge mistakes. (Thanks for the tips Mom!) The front door ended up with a "doggie door" in it because I forgot to leave space to cut out the full door, but other than that, all was whole! And the gingerbread tasted delicious! We all enjoyed it, including Christian, and devoured every scrap not used on the house. I especially liked dipping it in milk. Mmmm!

Christian definitely ended up putting more candy in his mouth than on the gingerbread house, but he did a great job helping with the roof.
Christian was very proud of his masterpiece! And here it is....

The Front (the doggie door is hiding behind that orange Gummi Bear)The Back (Christian also put on all the jelly beans around the edge)

O' Christmas Tree!

Because of our crazy December with moving on the 13th and Jake working until 10 pm or later each night, we did not make it out for our Christmas tree hunt until December 18th.

Because of our lateness in getting a tree, the Christmas tree hunt took place at Home Depot's nursery.
But it was still a fun hunt and a quest to find the perfect tree.
We put on some lights that night and then finished decorating the tree the next night after Daddy came home from work. Christian loved putting on the ornaments, especially the balls! Of course, the fragile ones had to go up high, out of reach, or they were sure to be bounced on the hard floor and shattered. Luckily, we had no casualties.

The Merkley Family Christmas tree 2008

A Visit to Golfing Santa

Yesterday Christian and I went to Home Depot to get some necessary items for our Saturday To-Do-List i.e. hooking up the dishwasher and getting new smoke alarms. On our drive back we decided to stop at the PGA Superstore to see if they were having any good deals on golf apparel. First of all that store is HUGE! It consists of 15 video simulators, a putting green, a chipping area, and a tennis court. Well while we were there we were told that Santa was going to be coming in an hour. We went home fast to pick up Mom and have a quick bite to eat before visiting Santa. I asked Christian some questions prior to heading over to see Santa. It went like this.......

D. What does Santa say?
C. Ho Ho Merry Christmas
D. Are you going to sit on Santa's lap?
C. YES!!! Give five too. (It was quite the emphatic YES)

Well when we arrived back to the store Christian was excited to see Santa however when we reached the putting green where Santa was sitting Christian starting shaking his head saying NO, NO, NO, NO. Christian wanted nothing to do with Santa, but he did want to putt the ball into the holes. So we let Christian putt and we took pictures trying to get Santa in the background. Santa actually started putting as well and I convinced Christian to go and get his ball out of the hole. Christian retrieved the ball, but then threw it at Santa instead of giving it to him because he didn't want to get close.

Christian with Santa

Christian putting

As we were leaving the store Santa took off in a golf cart to his personal HELICOPTER. We drove right up to it and watched Santa fly away. I guess he doesn't take the reindeer out prior to Christmas in fear of wearing them out before game day.

Santa's reindeerless flight

Camille interviewing Christian about his 1st Santa experience

Christian LOVES tools!

With all of the moving going on and new projects that await me at the new house I have had the opportunity of having some wonderful help! Christian loves to help me dismantle, put together, or fix things using tools. He really enjoys using a screwdriver or hammer. His favorite thing to do when no one is paying attention is to go find Daddy's tools and pick out something that looks interesting to him. He will then take that tool to where I recently fixed something and he will start to try and fix it. He is so funny! We are excited to give him a tool bench for Christmas because he is going to have his own tools and tool bench.

Daddy and Christian putting the kitchen table together

Putting the screws in...

Then the washers and nuts

Moving Day Again.......

Well we finally have internet in our new home after being here a week. I can't believe how fast time flies and how complacent you can get in living out of boxes. Well the move happened last Saturday and thanks to a ton of help from wonderful and dear friends we were able to move in 4 hrs. We would have been able to finish about 45 minutes faster if it wasn't for the fridge. Camille had found a fairly new side-by-side fridge on craigslist that she wanted. The gentlemen was nice enough to deliver it to our house and we were expecting it to be a smooth move into the house. We measured the spot for the fridge and we knew that it was going to fit, however we didn't measure the garage or front doors to see if it could fit. Well upon arrival it was evident that the fridge was not going to fit through the garage door or the front door without dismantling the door. So we decided to take it around to the back of the house and up a flight of stairs so we could go through the sliding glass door. We had plently of strong able bodies to attempt this task so we took to heart the words of Elder Utchdorf's latest talk in General Conference "Lift Where You Stand." We were successful in moving it into the house without losing the fridge off the side...barely. Everybody was exhausted after moving that, but it is a story that all will remember.

Up the stairs we go

Manuevering the Fridge

Lift Where You Stand

Pushing thru the Sliding Door

Thanks everyone for the help in moving and cleaning! We feel so fortunate to have such wonderful friends here!

Side notes from Camille:
1. Yes, we moved in December again! Can you believe it? It's becoming a Merkley family Christmas tradition. Hopefully the tradition will end this year.
2. You should have seen them lift that fridge! There was a point at the top of the stairs where my heart stopped and I thought, "That fridge is going right over that railing. Then we'll still have to buy it and have no fridge!" Fortunately the men were victorious and the fridge is now in our kitchen, taking up a large p[art of it, might I add. :)
3. THANK YOU, thank you to all the help we had!! I could not have survived this past month without so much help from my wonderful friends. They helped me clean the new house, brought me boxes to pack up the apartment, watched Christian for me, and cleaned the apartment. The morning of the move, one friend took Christian all day, and two others showed up with their husbands and cleaned the apartment while I finished odds and ends. Thank you for the cleaning, the babysitting and the moral support! We are so blessed!

A Crazy Week

We are alive...dirty faced, but alive.
This is the face of a child whose mother has been frantically packing at one house and frantically cleaning at the other all week and whose father just happens to have a HUGE deadline at work the week of our big move and therefore has been putting in 80+ hour work weeks and missing this dirty face terribly. This dirty face also misses his Daddy terribly.

This is the face of a happy little boy, regardless of the crazy week we've had. This is the face of a little boy who has played with his toys, "helped" mommy clean and pack, and been a good sport through it all. This is the face that makes it all worth it at the end of a very exhausting day. This is the face of a little boy that without it, my life would be incomplete. This is the face of a little boy who has high hopes that eventually this week will be over and we will get a Christmas tree and have Christmas lights.

Yes, Christian, we've almost made it. Thank you for being such a trooper. I love you!

Announcement!

It is official...we are homeowners! I still don't think it's real, but we just bought our first home here in Georgia. Crazy! But now we will have lots of space, so any and all visitors are welcome. Please come visit us! :) It needs some work, but we are so excited to finally have our own place!

Money

This morning Christian and I bundled up in our hats and gloves and walked down to the office to pay our very last month's rent!! (We will soon be leaving this place...) Christian has recently learned what money is, although he only associates money with coins. So when I told him we needed to go give our money to the office, he insisted on carrying it himself. I gave him a penny rather than the rent check.

He carried that penny (inside his mittens most of the time) the whole way down to the office. It's a long walk for those little legs of his! As I opened the door, Christian walked straight to the closest desk and handed the woman his penny. He was doing just as I said--giving them our money! She thought he was so cute and traded him for a package of mini Ritz crackers. He was thrilled with his crackers and I'd say it was a pretty good trade for a penny.

I guess this was his first lesson about money. I'm not sure what he learned....that you give someone a penny, and you get crackers? Oh well.

Happy December!

A few things Christian LOVES:

1. Standing on his stool so he can reach things (I often ask myself if it really was a good idea to get this stool...sometimes I think it definitely wasn't)
2. Turning on and off the lights, while standing on his stool
3. Wearing hats
4. Picking up Daddy from the train station (this had been a common occurrence the last couple weeks and this picture shows his attire for the event, since it was right at bedtime)
5. His paci (but he has to have two of them)
6. The moon
7. Reading books, particularly Mouse Cookies (If You Give a Mouse a Cookie) and Duck in a Truck as of late
8. Jumping
9. Doing Spot puzzles
10. Throwing water out of the tub, especially if it gets me wet (this is making me crazy)

(This list is in no particular order, nor is it all-inclusive.)
HAPPY DECEMBER EVERYONE!

Thanksgiving 2008

Last year we spent our Thanksgiving on the beaches of St. Thomas and then dined on gourmet food (far from being Thanksgiving-ish) cooked by the chefs on our cruise ship. This year was a little different and much more traditional....

We finally made the trip back up to Clemson, SC after being gone almost a year, to spend the holiday with our good friends the Nielsons, who were so kind to invite us to be part of their family. The food was delicious and it was so nice to have a traditional Thanksgiving again! Thank you Nielsons for the good food and good company!

After living in Clemson for two Thanksgivings and never actually being there for the holiday, we finally had the chance to attend a ward member's annual Pie Party, which is held the morning of Thanksgiving. Yes, that's right, we went and filled up on all kinds of yummy pie, and then had Thanksgiving dinner a few hours later, and then had pie again for dessert! What a feast! It was great to see old friends from our ward up there.

We were also lucky enough to catch some other friends who were in town. It was so much fun to see my friend Julie and her cute kids! Thank you Julie for letting us stop by! I can't wait to see you again! We also got to see Jake's friend from school, Hussein, who adores Christian. Unfortunately Christian didn't quite remember him from a year ago, but warmed up quickly when the football was brought out. :)

This is the only picture we took all weekend.

We are so grateful for wonderful family and friends and the many blessings that we have been given. At this time we are especially thankful for Jake's good job, our little family here in Georgia, and the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is so much to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Church Songs

Christian loves to play the piano and sing his favorite songs. Here is a little glimpse of his everyday piano practice. Enjoy!

Don't Drink the Bath Water...

Jake has been working late every night for the past couple weeks, so to make the last hour of the day go by a little more quickly without Daddy, Christian has been enjoying lots of baths. I let him take a curly straw in with him the other night and showed him how to blow bubbles in the tub. A very fun game! I expected what was soon to come, however, and it didn't take long until he figured out the fun of sucking up the straw and not just blowing through it. So I quickly told him, "Don't drink the bath water or Mommy will take it away." It has since become a game: he blows bubbles for the majority of the time, but every now and then he decides to drink some, after which he immediately repeats, "Don't drink the bath water...mommy will take it away!" He thinks he is so funny! It's way too cute to even be worried about the bath water going into his tummy. :)



This one is just cute, and to give you another glimpse of how much fun Christian is:

Berry Picking

One of Christian's new favorite things is the red berries on the tree right outside our front door (and all over the rest of this city as well). He always wants me to pick berries for him, in which I pull off a tiny branch with a few berries on it for him to carry around. While Daddy was gone on Saturday morning doing church stuff, I thought I had come up with a brilliant idea to give Christian a bowl for him to pick berries into. This would keep him entertained for a while!

And it did...

And he couldn't get enough...


And I thought it was so cute.

But then he decided it would be fun to take them into the kitchen while Mommy wasn't looking and dump them all over the floor, which inevitably resulted in stepping on them and smashing them and getting berry gunk all over the kitchen floor. After conquering the task of cleaning up the mess while keeping Christian from stepping on anymore and tracking it all over the carpet in the mean time, I decided berries are NOT allowed in the house, so we headed back outside.

He must have gotten bored of picking berries and putting them into his bowl, because he decided it would be more fun to dump them all over the porch, which had the same effect as in the kitchen--berry gunk all over the porch and Christian's shoes. After sweeping off the porch and wiping off the our shoes, I decided I'd had enough berries for one day.

Much to Christian's dismay, we're taking a break from berry picking for awhile.