Warning!

OK, so maybe in retrospect it wasn't such a smart thing to do. But now I know & would like to pass along my new pearl of wisdom, lest any of you fall into the same trap that I did.

Eating an entire large bowl of Chex Mix for dinner is not a good idea. It may taste wonderful at the time, but will lead to an extremely unpleasant night.

Can anyone say heartburn?

Lesson Learned

It's Great to be Eight!

The day is finally here! She's 8! 8 years of fun, laughter, kisses, hugs, and princess dresses.
I can't believe it!
We love our little Boo.
Happy Birthday, Emma!

Big Head, Big Head, Big Head!

(1st b-day cake. Yum!) Really, I do love my kiddos, but let's face it. They have big heads.

Take James, for instance. Today at his 1 yr checkup he finally made it onto the growth chart in weight.

He's 18 lbs, 7 ounces- that's in the 3% range. Yay!

Height- 29 inches- 23%

Head- 75%!!!!

It makes them intelligent, right? At least that's what the little Chinese waitress at the restaurant said the other day. And I quote: "These babies with giant heads just crack me up. But if they have big heads then they're extra smart."

(Extra smart, huh? He looks a little goofy to me!)

I was a little flabbergasted, but what am I gonna say? He's cute & that's all that matters. He'll grow into that head. I did!And in other news, we had an earth-shattering event here the other day. Emma has finally reached that special age of accountability. Yep, she'll be 8 next week. And so we embarked on the next phase of childhood for her-

EARRINGS!Mommy was REALLY mad that they wouldn't let us use the real diamond earrings that Uncle Butch gave her when she turned 1. I've been holdin' on to those babies for 7 years now, just waiting for this day. But when the minimum-wage tattooed lady says you can't use them, I guess that's that. Shiny blue would have to do.Watch out world! She's all blinged out & ready to roll!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

We LOVE our Daddy!

He is the best, and the universe conspired to give him some pretty great presents on his birthday yesterday (in addition to the awesome stuff his family picked out at the store.)

We have been waiting for this green egg FOREVER! And Super Blackbeard decided to start laying right smack dab in the middle of Daddy's big day.

Also, the littlest Merriman was being hot stuff, showing us how well he is learning to stand: Awesome, right? So imagine our surprise when he decided to just bypass the wobbly first step & walk 2 feet or so. I was just taking a pic of the standing & instead got this one of his very first steps. See how far he went on his first try? Crazy!This is his 2nd attempt:

(by now he was giggling so much that he kept falling down)

From standing still to walking in 30 seconds. Great, we have another Jack on our hands!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Photo Book

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One Good Thing About the Cold

It was 32 degrees as I drove into my driveway at 7:15 tonight. That's past just cold- that's stinky, filthy, yucky cold.

Now there's lots of bad things about the cold. The car that doesn't want to run, the chickens that have to peck holes through the ice to get a drink of water, & the red-nosed, miserable children come to mind.

But there's one good thing about it- when you forget your groceries in the car for an hour & a half, the frozen ravioli is actually a little harder than when you pulled it out of the freezer at the store! Yay! That's WAY better than forgetting them in July, right?

p.s.- Now before you all go callin' me a wuss, YES, I AM! I am an AZ girl through & through & this weather makes me want to crawl under the covers & hide there 'till February, 'cuz that's when spring comes here!

Happy, Happy Birthday James!

Day 1 Day 365It's true! James is turning the big #1 today!

I can't even express how much I love this little munchkin. He is the center of our family- the one we all go to when we need a smile or a big slobbery kiss.

He's starting to stand on his own, though it's pretty tough to convince him to get up & try to walk.

NOTHING is more fun than cars right now, complete with sound effects (I have to get it on video for you- it's awesome!). Boy, he's all boy!

He's mischevious:Silly:and oh, so adorable:

Happy Birthday, James!
We Love You!

Halloween

Was Halloween really almost a month ago? Maybe it seems like not so long ago because it lasted for like a week! And the older my kids get, the more festivals, fairs & parties there are on the calendar. All super fun, but next year I think I'm going to "forget" the candy buckets all week & just let them play & have fun.

Since Daddy was working so much after our vacation, Mommy got to brave the pumpkin patch with all 4 kiddos. We decided to do Buckelew Farms since I THOUGHT it was closer. Yeah, right. I now understand why there are about 1,000 crosses on the side of that highway. Those folks drive like crazy people!! I'm glad we tried Buckelew, but we won't be going back. Just in case you're trying to decide between Buckelew & Apple Annie's next year, here's the scoop:

#1- They don't give you any pumpkin-plant cutters! Emma's poor hands were raw after wrestling her pumpkin off the vine.

#2- Everything costs money except the diseased-looking 4H petting zoo. There were jumping castles- $3 per kid, giant bikes to ride- $3 per kid, & a bucking bronco- $5 per kid. They did have Eegee's, though. A definite plus.

#3- It was 96 degrees there!!! Yes, I know AZ is hot, but if I can avoid 4-5 of those degrees by driving to Willcox, I'm drivin' east!

Well anyways, we survived & we'll do it different next year. I'm glad I tried it, though. I always would've wondered.

For Halloween this year we had a cheerleader from the infant section (size 4t? Really? She's almost 8!)a soldier that Frank helped Mommy sew, a Batman that was Jack's attire for 2 weeks straight,and a skeleton that got finished just about 30 minutes before we had to leave to go trick-or-treating with our super cool friends the Dyers. Isn't Jacob the cutest Ewok you ever saw? His Mommy made his costume & I think it's awesome.For our ward's trunk-or-treat our family had a photo op hanging from the back of our car. And yes, it was Andy's idea. You're shocked, I know.I can't believe the holidays are here already!

More Trip Stuff- Day ?

I have been SO sad lately. For lots of reasons. One of them (a small one) is that Blogger seems to have gone ka-put on me. I can't upload pictures at all, so I can't post, right?
Somehow my menial life doesn't seem interesting or even bearable without pictures of my adorable kiddos to go along with my musings. But lo! Today my blog seems to want to lift my gray mood by providing you all with photographic documentation of the last part of our trip. Joyous day!

I really don't have any idea where we left off in the narrative of our adventure, but these are the next pictures I'm finding so this is where we'll pick it up.

In addition to the best basement ever, the Dixons also own a pretty sweet "pond" that they have surrounded with cabins for their family, complete with a giant slide & cool boat to cruise around on.One of those cabins is on my Christmas list. Do you think Santa will give me one? Anyways....yet another pic of the fall beauty (or 2). I can't help myself, I really can't. The kids thought that this place was every bit as enchanting as Hershey's ChocolateWorld. Arizona kids find it VERY entertaining to simply stand in one spot & throw rocks in the water. Who knew? By the way, they're also very enchanted with grass. Sigh, if only Mommy didn't want to cry at the thought of the winters there....
This was on Tuesday! I remember now because these next pics are from Wednesday, the only day that we actually got rained on consistently. I guess a whole week of avoiding the stormy skies was too much to ask for. But we made the best of it by visiting a bunch of Amish shops, the most AMAZING Amish grocery store (Mommy wanted to move into the deli section) and collecting some souvenirs for the folks back home. A nice relaxing way to finish out the vay-cay. And someday we'll get to order that Amish dining set that we've been dreaming of since we got engaged there 11 years ago. Someday!

Thursday was the day I'd been dreading. It was to be the plane ride home. With 4 exhausted kids & 2 almost comotose parents. Deep breath, we can do this!

On our way out of New Philadelphia we drove by the church & found these exquisite trees. Photo op!Since our plane didn't leave from Pittsburg until 7:30 pm we mosied around the city & visited the original Primanti Brothers. Holy pastrami! Andy thinks we need to fly back just for another sandwich.Frank liked all of the yellow bridges over the river & Mommy & Daddy liked the giant tunnel that goes through a mountain...& then explodes into downtown. One of our most unforgettable moments on this trip was coming out of that tunnel into the night skyline of Pittsburgh. Totally shocking & completely amazing. (You probably had to be there, I guess!)One thing I would definitely change if we did this again is to remember that when your flight info says that you'll get home at 10:45 at night, that's REALLY 1:45 am Ohio time. And I would also remember that my kids won't sleep unless they're in their own environment.

So no sleeping quietly on the plane or curling up on the seats in the Denver airport. Instead, envision a SCREAMING baby & 3 annoyed & exhausted kids who are each wanting to snuggle on Mommy or Daddy's lap. Envision a flight crew who FORGOT to issue us tickets or to ANNOUNCE our flight & then shoved us onto an elevator to find our plane out on the tarmac preparing to take off. Envision 10 other people chasing us because they also were about to miss their plane. Envision a flight attendant that is REALLY annoyed that the flight crew seated each of my 5 family members on a different row. Envision a poor Emma that had to share a row with a teenager that looked like he thought our family would eat him alive. Classic travel horror story- classic!But we made it. With the help of strangers & best friends who rescued us from the airport at 11 pm, we made it. It literally took us 4 days of sleeping in and taking naps to recover, but we can look back & know that we had the trip of a lifetime & that if we wanted to do it again, we could survive it. 1 bad day out of 8? Start searching for tickets, Daddy!

It's Dollar Time Again!

Since it's FINALLY feeling a little like fall around here my friends & I are teaming up once again to host our $1 sale!! 

This time we'll be featuring girls clothes ranging from newborn to 7/8 as well as boy's clothing from newborn to 5-6T. Last time we had toys and baby items also. Not sure what we'll have this time around, but it's worth coming over and taking look.  There will also be some women's clothes & shoes. 

Come on down- everything is only a buck!

Julie Kartchner's house

Wednesday, Nov 9

9 am

(no early birds, please)

DAY 6- I Think I Want To Be Amish

OK- I've been trying to get this post completed for the last 5 days & I absolutely can't figure out what's going on!! I can't upload pics anymore for some reason & it's driving me crazy. So I'll just post what I've got & try to finish the rest later. Here's what I've got:

I still can't believe how beautiful trees can be. Why can't this tree live in my backyard? Oh yeah, trees don't get like this unless they have water & I live in the desert. Boo. Anyways, after almost a week of doing huge, important, life-changing activities every day we decided to cool it for a while in Amish country. This area is just west of New Philadelphia, OH where we were visiting a family that Andrew became close with while he served there for 6 months of his mission. Mom & Pop Dixon are so fun & let us take over their whole basement for a few days of rest & relaxation. It was so wonderful to get to visit & catch up after all this time. Andrew & I haven't been to visit since I was preggo with Emma!

Our first stop was at Yoder's Amish Farm, where we found some fun animals that "needed" to come home with us.We also checked out a "coupe" buggy & tried to figure out how that basin could possibly be a sink!After a really great tour of the house where they tortured us with smells of fresh-baked bread & the biggest cookies known to man, we experienced our first real Amish buggy ride. Luckily we took out the "sedan" so that we all could fit.Other high points: playing in the garden & feeding the extremely friendly goats. Emma decided that she would NOT like to go to school with the Amish kids because even though they only have to attend through 8th grade, that just can't make up for the fact that they have to use outhouses every day!Here I thought we were takin' a super cute picture & James is busy eating the greenery! I like to think of this as another "blissfully unaware" experience.

While we were enjoying ourselves in the simplicity of Amish life, less than 40 miles away authorities were hunting lions, tigers, & bears, oh my! My poor friend Andrea just about gave herself an ulcer worrying about us. But never fear, we were protected! Yay for not getting eaten by a tiger while on vacation!

DAY 5- Kirtland, OH!!!

Today was the day. The day! We were going to take the kids back to the place where WE became US. I was so excited!!!

But I'm getting ahead of myself. First, in yet another effort to be educational, we took a quick trip out to see Lake Erie. Emma has been learning about the Great Lakes, so we scored some points there!It was really windy.No, SERIOUSLY windy! Anyhoo.......You know how legends are made up of places that seem magical, like they might not really exist? We have a place like that in our family. It's called "The Bench."

The Bench is the place where Daddy asked Mommy to marry him. The Bench is the place where she said yes. The Bench is where our family began.Our tour guide of the Kirtland Temple thought that we were a little cuckoo because as soon as we left the visitor's center Emma started running around asking "Is this it? Is that it? Where's The Bench?!?!"It may not be the same simple wooden bench that I remember from so long ago, but it's still a pretty magical place for our family.

So much wealth from one little bench. Sigh....I'm all teary now.

Moving on....In case you were wondering why this place is so special to my hubby, he served his mission in the Ohio Cleveland Mission, which includes Kirtland. He used to have Christmas conferences & special firesides in the temple. The LDS church no longer owns the building or grounds, but the RLDS church (now the Community of Christ) was kind enough to let the missionaries use the building on occasion. They even got special "behind-the-scenes" tours from the RLDS restoration specialists. I was excited to see the new visitor's center & museum. They were educational & SO interesting. It was nice to see the effort they're going to to keep the history alive & restore the building.

So after reminiscing all over the place, we finished up our tour of Kirtland at the LDS sites. Emma really liked the Newel K. Whitney store because she's seen it in movies!

2 future missionaries in the School of the Prophets.Hey, I'm going to be a missionary too, Mom!

Checkin' out the sawmill & ashery.
So. Much.Fun.

After Kirtland we high-tailed it down to the John Johnson farm, but it was closed! Bummer. Andrew spent a lot of time there while on his mission & wanted to show the kids, but it wasn't meant to be. But that meant that we were ready to get on down the road to finally see the Dixons! After a stop a White Castle, that is, just so Kris could say she'd been. She's been, & she will not be going back, just in case you were wondering.

Tomorrow- It's Amish time!