Megan's Christmas

Megan asked Santa for a Barbie house... and was excited to see a Princess castle! She said it was better than what she had even asked for! She also enjoyed other princess stuff including her favorite the walkie talkies!

Santa Clause is coming to town!!!

Christmas Eve Santa came right on time despite the assembly of the Enchanted Castle! Santa is also thoughtful he always remembers Koda (our dog) the girls love seeing what Santa brings Koda it is a fun silly thing!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve we had our traditional family dinner at grandma Thomas's. After dinner we shared the nativity and testimonies, which some how also included the kids (all of us) singing Christmas songs. I guess you could say it was a traditional Christmas program around here!

My Christmas Angels

Here's Megan and Melanie in their Christmas Dresses, I love my girls they are my little angels.

Christmas Cousin Fun!

The Gibson cousins all met the Fri and Sat before Christmas and we had a rockin' time! Grandma and Grandpa were the coolest and rented a jumping castle for the day and inbetween we built gingerbread houses, and painted aprons for the grandmas. We ended the day with a yummy Mexican dinner and desert was outside roasting marshmellows near the fire pit while sharing our favorite Christmas memories!

Christmas Fun with Family...

This last weekend we met Pete's whole family and we bundled up and went to the temple to see the christmas lights. We stayed with Tim and Connie (Thanks you guys) and all the adult kids stayed up playing a board game "Settlers". It gets a little competitive, which keeps things fun and interesting!

Saturday we loaded up and spent a fun day shopping, then we caught a movie "Alvin and the Chipmunks"! It was a fun day for our little family it was nice haning out with no schedules!!!

A few snap shots...

Here are just a few little snap shots of our little family. I have given up on family pictures before Christmas so we are hoping we will be able to squeeze them in Jan. Melanie is full of wiggles lately and picture taking has been a real chore!

Christmas!

Megan was helping decorate and decided she could be a christmas tree for halloween next year... since then she has told me she is going to be Mrs. Clause, and even maybe Rudolph!

I understand I am not the only one in the world that has cute kids, who love Christmas, yet everyday thay make me feel like I am! They are so excited this year!

November and Thanksgiving...BUSY!

I will give you the cliff notes version about November...
Pete started his surgical rotation and is loving being able to do surgery 24/7 for 4 months!

The hours are much better and he is not on call anymore YEAH!

I was busy with school and finishing up the semester, which consisted of

3 research papers, 4 finals, and 32 hours of classroom observations.

Melanie enjoyed going to many playdates as I was trying to fulfill my observations! Thank you to all my SD friends who helped out and especially my mom!

Melanie has such a funny personality and is picking up big attitude words from Aunt Brooke like "WHATEVER!". Let's just say the "W" word is a forbidden word in the Merrill home!

Megan is loving first grade and her class put on a Thanksgiving Program which she volunteered to be an ear of corn. Maybe she was reverting to her Iowa roots! She looked so cute!

Megan and I shared a few lunches together at school as I was doing my observations and she loved having mom at the lunch table with her friends (interesting converstations)!

We went up to Pinetop for Turkey and enjoyed our long weekend up there visiting with family and going to the movies!

Catching up...

State VB was a fun and crazy weekend ...our little family was driving all over Mesa and Phoenix trying to follow two different tournaments. We were even changing our shirts in the car so we could be the ultimate fans! So we were cheering for the SD tigers for my sister and her team, and then we were sporting purple for Pete's sister Lee and her team the Blue Ridge yellow jackets. Neither team made it to the finals, but it was still fun to watch them play! Can't believe Brooke and Lee are Seniors! Brooke damaged her knee pretty good the last month of the VB season, so currently she is in physical therapy and sitting out the Basketball season. We are hoping she will be ready for track in a few short months!
As for Lee she signed with a Junior College in Mesa (I can't remember which one) and so we look forward to continue watching her play volleyball next year!

TRICK OR TREAT!

In St. David you have to work for your candy the houses aren't really next to each other ... but the girls had fun! Nothing to exciting except Mel decided Princess Auroa needed wings. Oh and did I mention the weather was AWESOME!

Happy Birthday Cousin Abbey!

Saturday we attended cousin Abbey's Halloween Birthday Party. Abbey was born on Halloween ...what a lucky girl to always have a party on her birthday! Aunt Connie and Uncle Tim sure knew how to throw a party ...lots of yummy food! Pizza, wings, carmel apples, and homemade rootbeer! It was a beautiful day in Mesa with the sunny 85 degree weather, at the park. The girls enjoyed spending time with the Merrill cousins and of course any excuse to wear their costumes! We went as the royal family ...King, Queen, Princess Ariel, and Princess Auroa.

Lady Tigers Regional Champions!!!

After cousin Abbey's birthday party we were able to watch my little sister's volleyball team play in the regional tournament. They won the tournament which leaves them undefeated so far! This weekend we will be spending it in Mesa watching the state tournament! Pete's sister Lee is a senior also and we are excited to watch her team play as well! Meg and Mel are good sports about watching so much VB, although I included a picture about the mess they make in the stands. We have quite the set up barbies, ponies, coloring books...you name it!!! I guess you could say we are BIG FANS!!!

Saftey Day

Last Saturday was the Community Saftey Day...it was so fun for the kids! They had a little saftey bike course set up with real little stop signs, speed limit signs crosswalks and even had little cars and ambulances! The kids got a free bike helmet which was fitted correctly and had their bikes checked out, then they got to do the course with one of the Sherriff Deputies. He explained what to look out for and what to do when riding your bike on the road. It was so Cool! Megan loved it and even when she finished she volunteered to be one of the little cars on the course!

Melanie's 3rd Birthday

Disney Princesses on Ice was a BIG HIT! The girls had so much fun, we let Melanie go dressed as Princess Auroa aka (Sleeping Beauty) because that was her favorite princess. We thought we were being original because it was Mel's birthday but we showed up and there were hundreds of little princesses dressed for the event! Melanie loved the show and especially Sleeping Beauty and the HUGE fire breathing DRAGON... no really!!! Melanie is still talking about the ice skating Princess show and when we can go again??!!

We celebrated officially the next night with family and some small gifts and of course cake and ice cream! What a royal birthday huh?

Happy Birthday MELANIE!

Today is Melanie's 3rd birthday! Can you believe my baby is 3 years old already! Just look how grown up she is! Well we have big plans today, we are meeting Pete after work in Tucson and surprising the girls with tickets to "Disney Princesses On Ice"! I can't wait to see Mel's little face, she loves her Princesses!

Homecoming Queen...Brooke Gibson!

What a fun surprise! My little sister Homecoming Queen the same night as my class 10yr reunion! Megan and Melanie thought it was cool that Aunt Brooke was a Queen for a night! Anyways... It ended up being a really fun weekend! It was fun to see old friends and enjoy the festivities of a small school Homecoming. Check out the pictures from the weekend on my link "class of 1998"!

SDHS Booster VB Tournament

A recently new tradition in SD the Saturday after Homecoming is the Booster Volleyball Tournament. Basically a chance for a bunch of "has beens" to play competitive volleyball.

It was so much fun and I especially enjoyed playing side by side with my sister Brianna. We played non-stop from 9am-2pm! Let's just say the "has beens" are really sore! It is over and I already can't wait to play again next year!