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!

Megan' s Blue Ribbons

This last weekend was the all school reunion in conjunction with the San Pedro Valley Fair. Megan's 2nd grade class entered their best art and writing displays and also entered in the scarecrow contest. Megan came away with ALL BLUE RIBBONS, and the class won the rosette blue ribbon for the scarecrow contest. She was sooooo proud!!! A few things to notice is #1 Megan's Tiger Spirit, #2 Look at how many blue ribbons were given out, #3 Her excitement! Melanie and I helped with the scarecrow in Megan's class with cute Sara and Mylie Weitz. Hey Ben does that flannel jacket look familar?

Sisters Sharing their Bedroom

My poor poor children have to share a room...Megan especially has already at the ripe age of 7 expressed her desire for her OWN ROOM. Melanie wants to sleep with the light ON and Megan wants to sleep with the light OFF! So I thought I was brilliant when I bought Megan a cute little sleeping mask to block out some of the effects of sleeping with the light. It worked for a day or two til Melanie decided she too wanted a cute sparkley sleeping mask. So I buy another mask...hoping it would encourage Melanie to learn to sleep with the light off. NOPE instead they both can't sleep with out their masks and yet we still have to leave the light on for Melanie. It makes no sense, and talk about high maintance already!

When Dad is in CHaRGe...

I ran to the store last Saturday afternoon and left Pete in charge of the girls... Pete was outside working in the yard and the girls wanted to go swimming. So Pete said SURE...but don't forget to put on SUNSCREEN! So when I came home this is how I found my little Melanie. Look how concerned she is about those UVB and UVA rays!

1st Day of School (a few weeks ago)

Megan started 2nd grade on Aug. 7th and is enjoying being a "Super Second Grader". She enjoys school so much expecially PE and Recess! This week she got 100% on her spelling pretest and if you called her she would probably tell you all about it...still! She is kinda competive in everything (wonder where she got that?) we really work hard to tone that aspect down A LOT!

Melanie started Pre-school this week and goes twice a week...which I am realizing isn't enough! She begs as soon as she gets home to have a friend over...all day, everyday...she is missing Megan.

I too started school this week, hopefully my last semester at Cochise! Yay! I am tackling College Algebra, Anatomy & Physiology II, and AZ/US Constitution. Wish me LUCK!

This Fall I am also helping coach the middle school girls volleyball team. I am enjoying working with the girls, a lot of them ran for me last spring in track. The season is really short only 5 weeks long so that is a plus for me! It will be a busy Fall for sure!

Way To Go Cheryl!

Last Week Cheryl completed her third round of chemo and edured through 6 long days in the hospital. Ben is working nights and Cheryls family was gone for the week attending a family wedding. So my mom, my sister and I went up to Phoenix to stay and help. I can not express how humbling it was to watch Cheryl go through that. The hospital can be such a lonely and depressing place to be, not to mention the physical strain of the treatments. Cheryl would try hard to keep her thoughts on postive and good things. We got caught up on all our magazine reading, and enjoyed the Olympics of course. Brianna and Cheryl made hair bows on a good day while other times Cheryl enjoyed often visits from her kids. The kids were always so sweet with her and every one of them never wanted to leave their mom in the hospital, I think if there were 3 little beds in her room they would have stayed the night. Cheryl and I had deep talks that we each expressed our own trials the Lord has given us. Our conclusion was the same the Lord loves us and knows us and we are grateful for the faith and strength He gives us.
Cheryl you are so beautiful and amazing to me. Keep your spirits up and know how much we love you!

CONGRATULATIONS Officer Jeremiah!!!

We were able to see Jeremiah graduate from the academy earlier this month! We also celebrated with Heidi and Jerimiah's friends and family on that Saturday for a BBQ. Heidi and Jeremiah now live in Surprise and we were able to see their new house which Heidi has decorated SOOOO CUTE!

The cousins are always excited for an excuse to play with each other! It was a fast weekend but we did manage a few pics and even worked hard to get all the Merrill cousins on the couch for a picture! The last pic is of Melanie and Quinn holding hands going to Heidi's house they were excited to see eachother!

Last minute SUMMER FUN!

Summer is coming to an end and we ended it with a last minute camping and boating trip at Apache Lake. We spent 2 nights and 3 days camping and having lots of boating fun! My sister Brianna and her husband Tyler and thier little girl Hailey came with us last Thursday, then my parents joined up with us Friday and Saturday. We enjoyed living on the lake for a few days and we played hard while we were there. The three little girls where in separable! They even made thier own make-believe fire pit since it was too hot for a real blazing camp fire. One of our favorite things after playing hard on the lake was pulling up to one of the little sandy beaches and enjoying the sand on our feet, and dad teaching the girls how to fish. Megan is a pretty good little fisher. Pete is getting pretty good at skiing and as for myself I am suffering through my rookie year of wakeboarding. It really is a lot of fun, yet as soon as I get too confident I CRASH and BURN!!! OUCH!!! I was sore all weekend! Anyone have any great tips out there!?

Sunday Family Time

Sunday was nice to relax and visit with family. My cousin Steve and his cute family from Colorado were visiting this last weekend...what a great time to visit! Brianna and Tyler were down as well with little Hailey girl and we were able to have a big family dinner. Pete came home from being in Colorado for the past 5 days with his dad on a "Jeeping Trip" with his dad. (They were in Silverton driving fun Jeep trails, he had a great time with his dad)

It was fun to just hang out and visit, after dinner with visited while the kids played with left over sparklers from the 4th. The first picture is of Melanie helping me make dinner...she always has to be in the middle of what I am doing...I love it!

Pioneer Games and Yummy BBQ

After the parade the kids get to play games out side for a few hours ...this was our wards responsibilty this year. So we ran a couple of the games luckly they were water games and we stayed cool. Megan and Melanie had a blast thier favorite was the greased pig chase, and pie eating contest. I only got pictures of the greased pig chase all the kids lined up waiting then ...the chase! If you caught the pig you got to keep it, luckly enough Megan and Melanie did catch it!

After the Games we had some yummy open pit BBQ, ( yes I know how small town all this sounds) The last pictures is of the girls and I after all the events tired and ready for some rest! Aren't they cute little pioneer girls!

24th of July Celebrations!

I have recently realized that I blog about my family and happenings in our life but manage to leave out a really big part of out lives! Our church! As most of you know we belong to the church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints and we are very active and very involved in our church. Both Pete and I have callings/assignments in the church which we do voluntary and are not paid for. Pete is in the Stake Young Mens Presidency and recently finished putting on a scout camp for the boys, lots of work and also lots of fun! I have been working with the little kids 18 months -11 years old in the Primary Presidency in our ward. I have had this calling for a year now and have decided it is the best! I love teaching the children the gospel they are so much fun and so sweet. Megan and Melanie love having me in primary and asking if anything I make if it is for primary!

Anyways last week I was busy getting ready for the 24th of July Celebrations! (The 24th is where we celebrate our pioneer heritage and ancestors who treked across the plains and finally reached Salt Lake City!) Primary was asked to do a float and that became my assignment. Our theme was "Pioneers building Temples since 1836" we had some children dressed as pioneers with bonnets and dresses and then we had modern pioners with contruction gear! The kids loved it and had a great time! Now after my first float attempt I think I could calmly do this again!