Happy Easter

Guess Who LOVED dying eggs!?

Ok so technically it's Monday evening and I know Easter is past But I just didn't have time to do the weeks post with all my homework last night.

SO Happy Easter!

Our week has been a lot of fun. Both the girls have been full of insane amounts of energy these days so we have been spending as much time as possible outside even when the weather really suggests that it's not ideal to be out there playing.
Eliza has spent much of the begnining of the week obsessing over going out to water the flowers that we planted last week. It's getting a little old and I have seriously wondered at times why I get up in the morning and they are still alive thanks to the excess of water Eliza gives it on top of all the rain!

Alayna has also been very very busy. There are many mornings in this household where I am woken up to the sounds of little giggles in the other room as Alayna figures out a new way to try and get things into her crib with her. One of these days she's going to figure out that she can get out of that crib and then I'm really doomed!! In addition to the happy sounds Alayna appears to be going through another growth spurt. She eats like there is no bottom to that little tummy of hers. She wants breakfast, 10sies, 11sies, Lunch, nap, 3sies, 5sies, dinner, bedtime snak. If she keeps eating like this I'm going to have to get more creative in what to feed her to keep her full a little longer.

Ben has been so busy with work these days. School is going well for him as well! I am so proud of him for everything he does with school and for all the help he gives me with my school work! The girls still think the highlight of the day is when Daddy comes home and plays with them! He knows all the 'fun' games that Mommy wont play with them!

I have been busy with school and everything else that is involved in being a Mom. We do all kinds of things and had a fun busy week with friends and other necessities of the week. The weekend was of course the highlight of the week seeing as how it was Easter!

Funny thing from this week: With all the rain this week Grandma Merritt decided to plan some fun inside activities for the girls... mainly a Fort! We love making forts at home mostly because I love forts so the girls have to enjoy them with me by obligation, right!? Anyway Grandma had not put the fort together when we arrived she just had the blankets set out for it. Eliza then walks in and tells grandma "When my mom makes a fort she puts the blankets on TOP of the chairs!"... Who knew right!?

Saturday we made a trip to Loveland while Ben worked and took Heather and Heidi with us to the Girl Fest (big group of different businesses that cater to women all in one location). That afternoon we had a blast dying Easter Eggs at the Merritt's house. Grandma was VERY skilled at working with the girls and keeping the mess to a minimum. Both Eliza and Alayna LOVED it their faces really said it all in the pictures!

Easter was an interesting challenge for the Easter Bunny this year. There was a complete lack of time to attempt to shop for the festivities and so after three attempts at it Saturday night arrived and it still was not all done. Thankfully two more stores later the Easter Bunny was able to find what he needed so that the girls had a wonderful Easter morning searching for candy filled eggs and filled easter baskets! Ben and I enjoyed watching the girls they really had a lot of fun with it! I hope that everyone else had as wonderful an Easter as we did!!

Allergy Season.

This week... I'm not even sure how much of a participant I have been in the happenings of this week. Monday I felt yucky. It was like all of the trees and flowers in Longmont must have bloomed and my sinuses took one deep breath and closed for the season. I attempted to use just whatever drugs I had available to keep myself going for the day and that went ok for the most part. I got some things that needed doing done so that is a good sign. I spent half the day sanding about 40 6x6 plaques for the activity on Tuesday with the Relief Society that I have spent the last few weeks planning and working to put together. By the end of my sanding adventure I was not convinced that I would ever get the sawdust out of the jeans I was wearing but I did master the simplest method of sanding such a small and difficult shape in the least amount of time with the least amount of effort. The girls had a fantastic time playing outside the whole time and were very big helpers (at least when mom wasn't yelling at them to "get away from the sander you are not big enough to use it ALONE!") Tuesday the morning was spent on the couch feeling like I was not going to ever be blessed with the ability to breath out of both sides of my face ever again. Not to mention the sinus pressure that was building by the minute. The girls and I bailed on workout class and attempted to get some allergy drugs to help my poor face but sure enough WalMart's computer systems were down and I didn't have time to go to another store before setting up for the activity that night. I was NOT a happy momma to say the least. But I dropped the girls off at Grandma Merritt's house for Alayna's nap and went over the church to set up. Everything turned out wonderful for the activity I eventually got some drugs (thank goodness!) and after spending the whole afternoon baking and disastorizing the kitchen I successfully made 2 dozen cupcakes, and some 40 odd cream puffs. The activity and craft project were a success and I really enjoyed the time to visit with the other wonderful moms in my ward! Wednesday we went to Loveland and I really enjoyed the day to ignore all my pending responsibilities at home... the sink overflowing with dishes and the living room full of toys... the laundry that hasn't been folded and the reality that summer is coming and I really need to think about rotating the girls cloths out from winter to summer. Not to mention that Alayna is getting so big that most of her 12 month stuff is getting way too small and if I'm not careful she'll outgrow the 18 month stuff before she ever gets a chance to wear it!! She is a little eating machine so I assume we are hitting another growth spurt! Thursday I addressed some of the above mentioned responsibilities. I also ran a few errands made some delicious dinner and procrastinated one more day on the homework that I really should have spent the whole week doing. It was a classic Colorado day: about and inch of snow in the morning and balmy 50 degree weather by mid afternoon. Friday I did all the homework that I shouldn't have procrastinated on all week. I regret my decision and will try my best to do better next week. I think I might need to join Procrastinators Anonymous but the meeting keeps getting put off until tomorrow! Saturday was a wonderful day. I was reminded once again how lucky I am to be married to the man of my dreams. I got up first thing in the morning and went out garage saleing. I picked up some Lego's for $1 and a TV stand that will hopefully get converted into the coolest doll house ever for the girls room (it was free!). After that we went as a family to Lowes and picked up some weed-n-feed for the lawn and some garden food so we could plant. Ben surprised me and pickup up some beautiful flowers as well to go around the air conditioner outside! We spent the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon planting! Even the girls got in on the flower planting action (both of them thought that was the best part!) That evening was the adult session of conference and we enjoyed the time there while Aunt Abby was fantastic and got the girls into bed and hung out at our house! Sunday was stake conference for us this week. It was wonderful! Thankfully I went prepared for attempting to get through 2 hours with the girls without a break and they did really well! That has basically been the whole week. We are so lucky and thankful for wonderful church leaders in this area! What a blessing to have such strong people to look up to and learn from!

Week of Great News!

The girls digging in the fresh dirt... We're into that time of year that required daily bathing due to the ammount of dirt!

Alayna 'washed' her baby by covering it in handfuls of dirt and then brushing it off... very cute!

This is the newest addition to the Merritt Family! We LOVE it!

We have had a fantastic week! the most important highlights of the week will be hit up here:

Monday I was all done dealing with trying to find a van. We got a large enough tax return to make this purchanse and with plans to have another baby in about a year we knew this would be a good time to at least look. Not to mention the need to save a little more money on gas than what the truck was sucking down. The girls and I did things around the house and ran errands all morning.

Tuesday I made another atttempt to look for cars and thankfully recieved a phone call from someone I had e-mailed on a Chrysler Town and Country. Long story short we made a trip to Loveland that night and bought the car! It is a 2005 (has high miles but all the maintainance has been done for that) red with a leather interior. And my favorite feature of all is that the seats are all stow-n-go!! We have really loved having it and the convience of automatic doors is something that I don't think I ever want to give up especially with little kids! Eliza loves the buttons to open and shut the doors the most and Alayna is so laid back that she thinks everything is cool as long as she gets to come along!

Wednesday I spent the day cleaning the car out for Ben. I detailed the whole thing and it turned out looking really nice. I even made very good effort and progress on getting the gooey sticky stuff off the dash from the velcro that was on it. It looked very good when I was all done!

Thursday grandma Merritt watched the girls while I went and worked out which was fantastic. Then I got the girls and we went to a playdate at the park which they loved of course! I was reminded how much these two girls adore being outside! Alayna would never come in if she had a choice! After our park date/ picnic we hurried home and cleaned like a madman because I was suppose to have a meeting at my house... turns out that the meeting had been canceled but I didn't get the message until I had already done a speedy clean of everything. The good news was that now the house was clean!

Friday Eliza had playgroup... I accedently mixed up my weeks of where she needed to be so we had done a mad dash shopping trip for a birthday gift and I tried to drop her off at the wrong house. Eliza was bummed that she wasn't going to a birthday party but it ended up being all ok because she got to go to Laura's house to play which is one of her favorites! I had a meeting back at the house so I hurried back for that. We spent the rest of that day picking up here and there and working on homework.

Saturday was fantastic. I got to go to Women's conference at church and really enjoyed the time with my friends being given a wonderful spiritual feeding that I so needed. Ben spent the morning cleaning my house so it looked amazing when I came home! I am so lucky to have someone as amazing as he is for a hubby! After I got home we made a quick trip to Loveland to swipe the rotatiller from my parents house. Ben spend the afternoon tilling and leveling out the garden to prepare for planting this year! I am so excited for this years garden Ben has done a wonderful job!! Eliza and Alayna spent all day cleaning and playing outside with daddy. I did homework. Lots and lots of homework. These two classes that I am in are apparently going to be more difficult than I anticipated if for no other reason than the length of the assignments!

We finally got Alayna to figure out how to use the slide we have in the back yard and she LOVES it! She also is into doing all kinds of tricks. She can now be a 'strong man' a 'ballarina' a 'butterfly' and she can 'stick it!'. I'm going to try to get it all on tape because it is just too funny! Alayna is using a lot more of her signs to talk to us and it has been very helpful. I have my moments of wishing that should would make some form of verbalization that isn't screaming when she wants something because I'll catch her signing for things before she hits the screaming point but if I don't catch her fast enough she starts screaming at me over everything! She is one smart kid I love watching both of them learn so many new things!

Sunday I learned something awesome... I had submitted a series of photographs and a story to a friend of ours who is doing "52 weeks of free art". I wanted this painting for my mom but when I hadn't heard back from the artist I assumed that she had decided that it was too difficult of a request (which I totally understood!) Anyway when I checked facebook that afternoon I saw it. It was the painting of the one of the pictures I had sent. I was thrilled! I was about ready to cry I was so excited about it! I was planning on using it as my mother's day gift to my mom so she got it early when she saw it! Here is a link for it you should definently look at it and read about what the story behind it is. It is a good story! (ok so I'm not smart enough to figure out the link) here is the address to copy and paste: http://www.52weeksoffreeart.com/

And the other fantastic news of the day is: I'm going to be an Aunt again!! Rachel is expecting baby #2 in December! She made a very cute shirt for Hailey that said "Big Sister Dec 2011" so we're pretty excited for them!

Conference Weekend!

We enjoyed my final week of freedom before going back into classes. With a bit of relief I know that the last three classes are going to be a ton of work but I am just about 12 weeks away from graduation and that is what matters the most! This week has had some seriously odd weather. It makes me think of all those bad "You know your from Colorado if" jokes. * You know your from Colorado when you are wearing anywhere form 3-6 layers of clothing to be added to or removed at any given moment in the day. * You know you are in Colorado if you change the chanel and get an entirely different weather report. *You know you are in Colorado when "April Showers" actually means "April Snowstorms" * You know you are from Colorado when the humidity gets above 25%, it's Muggy! And those are just weather jokes! Ben and I have continued in our search for the perfect van at the perfect price for our family. I am again reminded how much I HATE big decisions like this. In fact Ben is also being reminded that these experiences in life are not fun for me, or him, or anyone who surrounds me for that matter! So I am now praying that we can hurry up and find what we need so this whole process can stop stressing me out! The girls and I had a normal week. Monday was full of fun day to day stuff. We cleaned house a little (not nearly enough) before making an adventures trip to get my eyebrow/bushes waxed and Eliza's frizzy little curls trimed by Aunt Abby. Eliza loves doing that! Tuesday I don't remember. If I recall correctly we spent a good portion of that day running errands and such. Wednesday was spent playing in Loveland. taking advantage of a chance to say hello to my old coworkers at Dr. Ebert's office. I was very grateful for the chance to tell Darla (one of the coworkers) goodbye as she will be leaving soon to return to Mississippi to be closer to her family. She is a wonderful woman and I wish her the very best! Eliza and Alayna enjoyed the time outside and with the Aunts, Uncle and Grandpa! My mom and I made these really cute little snap purses... I liked mine a lot inspite of it's inperfections but it turns out the girls liked it even more because it has since become their purse. Thursday I enjoyed a morning at the dentist office and then some time on my own while grandma Merritt had the girls. I got a ton done at home including attacking the 8+ loads of laundry! The girls and I spent the afternoon playing make believe and building forts and such. Friday we went to the pool! Alayna had had a difficult night the night before so I knew I needed to do a better job of wearing her out. Eliza spent the entire time runing up and down the slide at the pool! Alayna warmed up to the water very quickly and did her own swimming for a while too! Saturday was General Conference for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Saturday was my favorite sessions. Not because of what was taught but: Fort Collins, CO will be getting a temple in the next few years! I am SOO excited. Then in the afternoon session I was able to see my beautiful cousin Cami Bigler singing in the BYU Idaho Choir. It has been a huge blessing to listen to our prophets teaching us in the past two days. I have felt a much needed spiritual pick-me-up. The continual reminders that they have to offer us in our efforts to continue to improve ourselves and become the kind of people that our Heavenly Father would have us be has been wonderful all the way around.