Thankful for my Best Friend

I am so thankful for husband, eternal companion, and best friend! Pete and I will be celebrating our 9th anniversary this December 30th! It has been such an exciting ride through the highs and lows! We have spent these past nine years as students, juggling school, many different jobs, and a large variety of church callings! Pete is such a hard worker getting through school with a family. I appreciate him more than ever and I realize the sacrifices he has made to always make his family a #1 priority. He still makes my heart skip a beat and is my heart throb! He is a wonderful husband, father and my best friend!

Thankful for Meg & Mel

I love these kids so much, I am so thankful that they are apart of our family!

Megan is growing up so much and surprisies me all the time! She lately has been such a big helper ...she willing asks if I need help with dinner, cleaning the house, or laundry! She is so tender hearted and thoughtful and I so thankful for her sweet spirit! Melanie keeps us laughing everyday with her creative ideas. Melanie loves to be with her mom and she is my little buddy during the day. I am thankful for her sweet companionship! I never thought I could be so attached to these little girls!

So Thankful for FAMILY!

A few weekends ago we were in the Pheonix/Mesa/Queen Creek area for a jam packed family fun. We were able to attend the temple with my family and do some sealings, it was so special to have most of my family together in the temple. Saturday afternnoon we met up at Ben and Cheryl's for Brayden's Baptism and a family luncheon. Sunday we were with Pete's family for the blessing of John and Jill's sweet miracle baby Paisley. Afterwards we enjoyed the afternoon visiting with family with a yummy lunch.
I can't express how full my heart was that weekend, to have it so full of sealings, blessings, baptism, and family. The church is such a big part of my life and my families lives! It is such a peaceful feeling to know we are all striving to progress in the same direction to become an eternal family!

Happy Halloween!

We enjoyed the warm Az weather for Halloween...after living in Iowa and Wyoming I am always thankful when I don't have to worry about bundling up my kids on Halloween. Megan begged for "Princess Belle" last year and the costumes were sold out so this year we bought our costumes back in early September! She was thrilled and loved the wig! AS for little Melanie was Tinkerbelle and loved having wings for a night! She kept sprinkling pixie dust on us as well as "Koda" our beloved dog. We had cousin Hailey down and we were able to all go to the Trunk-N-Treat at the school on the football field. I love how safe I feel there with my kids. There were many trunks with games as well as treats and it was a lot of fun for the kids! Pete and I enjoyed visiting with friends and friendly faces we don't see often enough even though we all live in the same town. Neeless to say October came and went way to fast this year ... on with November!

Fall Family Vacation 2008

Lego Land

We enjoyed a break from the craziness of life in SUNNY San Deigo earlier in October. Pete had a podiatry conference scheduled there and so we planned to make it a family get away about 9 months ago. We were able to stay in my Aunts beach house in Coronado and enjoy a 4 day weekend get away! The weather was sunny, warm and perfect! We enjoyed a day at Lego Land with Pete and then the girls and I enjoyed a day at the beach and a day at Sea World! It was fun vacationing in October... all the parks were decorated and had different events for Halloween for the kids. We were also able to see Mark Holly and thier cute boys (friends from DMU), and family, the Goldbergs. The Vacation was well worth the wait, thanks Pete your the best!

Lego Land was so fun and perfect for the girls and their ages. All of the figures were build from original legos...amazing! We went on a weekday and there were no lines and beautiful weather!Thanks Jill for the recomendation, good job!

SPOOKTOBER at Sea World

The girls and I spent a day at Sea World while poor Pete had to be in workshops and lectures all day! We really felt bad yet at the same time it was so much fun! We were there on the kick - off of the October festivities for Sea World which they called Spooktober. The girls were able to go trick or treating at different locations around the park, and the whole place was decorated and ready to go for Halloween. It was so much fun...our favorite was the Sea Lion show...they had a special show where the sea lion's trick or treated and even did thier own version of Micheal Jackson's "THRILLER". It was so entertaining we watched it twice! The girls were so grown-up and good for me. It was wierd to be walking around with my two big girls...NO STROLLER! Thanks Megan and Melanie for a fun day!

Our day at the beach in San Diego

I was a little nervous about the weather, I was really hoping it would be warm enough for the girls to swim.... and well it was perfect beach weather 82 degrees, no wind and beautiful waves! The girls and I sat on the beach all day no complaints from anyone. I have been begging Pete to take me to the beach to relax since the end of track last season, and it was well worth the wait!

Happy 4th Birthday Melanie!

Melanie turned 4 this last Saturday! She was the QUEEN of the day! She was so excited to get a new "Big GIrl" bike! She also enjoyed her newest collection of Disney Princess dolls, and of course her Tinkerbell costume which she will be wearing for Halloween this year! She was able to play all day with her new toys and enjoy cake and ice cream with her Great Grandpa Gibson and extended Aunts and Uncles that happened to be in town. It was a fun easy going kinda day!

Things on my mind...

September has been a really busy month...and when things get busy blogging becomes 99th on my list of to do's. I realize I am not the best blogger, I just wish I had more time to keep caught up on everybody. So I hope you know I still love you all! Here is a list of things that have happened and things that have been on my mind this last month.
1. Pete's sister Jill had her percious little baby girl "Paisley Papa", she was born with a heart defect and had to under go a very serous open heart surgery. Jill and John have been so amazing through all of this and now a few weeks later they are all home and Paisley is a miricle and a answer to many prayers.
2. Cheryl finished up her final round of chemo, and came a way really weak with her white blood cell counts really low. She had a blood transfusion, and is trying to recover slowly but surely. The crazy girl is also tackling two accounting classes...take it easy Cheryl!
3. The Endocrine system ... can you say hormones? Big exam last week.
4. The Quadratic equation... math is easy for some people ...I'm not one of them...Big exam last week!
5. PRIMARY PROGRAM a little stressfull writing it and then watching the kids practice... our big day is this next Sunday wish us good luck!
6. Jr High Volleyball only 2 weeks left! I love it, it is my release...I served to the girls for over an hour straight and I felt it...feeling old?
7. Megan's soccer schedule and treats...
8. Melanie's B-day coming up...
9. PTO wrangled me up to help rally candy for the trunk-n-treat so I guess I am the CANDY LADY?
10. I'm in so much trouble I'm suppose to be studying...I'm TiReD!

Megan's First Soccer Game

Now announcing #3 Megan Merrill playing for the amazing BLUE THUNDER! We were entertained by our first youth soccer league game. Megan's team had only practiced once before the big game, and managed to pull out a Win 3-0. Megan defended the goal for half of the game (which was kinda easy) no one even came close. Megan's little game was an hour long! That is a long time for little 7 year olds to be running around on the field! Megan did get tired and confessed that she likes being the goalie. In the end she enjoyed playing with some of her classmates. When we came home we asked her" who won the game?" .... she didn't even know they won! Oh to be carefree!

Snow White and her Daddy

Melanie was happy to have her daddy home early this last friday afternoon. She played hard and then snuggled up for a little rest. Later that evening I caught a cute snapshot of Melanie enjoying a bed time story from her dad. Precious, and Priceless.

Who's Cat?

"Who's cat left paw prints all over the back of my car!" This was just one of the thoughts running through my head last week when I was getting out of my car to go to class. I slowly realized that the paw prints were from my almost 4 year old!!! I had to laugh, as I was admiring her cat like pattern, while also wondering WHY? I guess we should be encouraging her cat like reflexes.

2nd grade Constitution Program

The second grade classes put on a cute program to teach us about the constitution. Megan had a little memorized part and some kids interviewed their dad's as famous US Presidents like Abraham Lincoln. It was cute, we invited grandma and great grandma and grandpa asking them if they were feeling patriotic! Afterward we enjoyed biscuits and honeybutter for refreshments.

Fair, Carnival, and Fireworks!!!

We had such a fun weekend just hanging out in SD and enjoying the festivities. It was fun visiting with old and new friends while enjoying the fair, carnival and fireworks! The all school reunion is every five years and it was fun for us and the kids...next year Megan will be asking where the fireworks are at the San Pedro Valley Fair!!! We really enjoy the small town stuff! Pictures are of the carnival, Melanie's new love for Great Dane's, SD's biggest watermelon at the fair (which Meg is still talking about), and riding the pedal car at the fireworks!