Happy Father's Day

Boy it's been a week in the Merritt household! Monday started with swimming lessons for Eliza with a new teacher for her and a new friend in class with her. I am still undecided on how much I love that she has one of her favorite friends in class with her now... it seems to apparently interfere with her focus ability in class. Oh well she will have to learn how to deal with that at some point so better now than when she would be making trouble in a classroom! Right after swimming I took the girls to the Mott's house to play while I took Parker to the doctor. Parker's 2 month check up went very well. He is a little trooper with his shots he only cried a little! His stats are still the same as last time, 30% for head (little compared to his sisters!) 50% for weight (11lbs 12oz) and 75% for height! So he is tall and skinny, He looks huge next to most other babies his age! At Parker's appointment I took advantage of the opportunity to get myself an antibiotic for a sinus infection that has been knocking me out. So after his appointment we spent a good 30 min trying to pick up the prescription! After i picked up the girls the Mott kids came over to my house to play for a few hours while Bethany took one of hers to the doctor as well! I sure love having such great friends! By the end of the day all three of my kids were darn near hysteria so we had an early bedtime!

Tuesday was suppose to be a relief society activity at the park in the morning after swimming lessons but due to the thick smoke from the High Park fire. That fire is so huge, As of Tuesday it was the 3rd largest fire Colorado has ever seen and it is only 10% contained and burning like crazy! My heart goes out to all those families who have lost their homes and we just keep praying for some rain to spare any more burning! That afternoon we had the Reedy kids over to play for a few hours. Parker was pretty whiny and needed mommy a lot that day thanks to shots making him so uncomfortable so I spent a lot of time snuggling and carrying him around in the sling. The end of that day hit me like a brick wall I was so beat tired but thrilled that the kids had a good time playing! (Happy Birthday Aunt Mallory!)

Wednesday we had swimming lessons again. The ward has a weekly park date and this week it was at a park within walking distance to my house. We ended up driving over to the Mott's house and took their three girls with us on a bike ride to the park. It was a lot of fun for the kids, I ended up being the only one from the ward that came that day but at least the kids had a great time! We did stay just a little too long based on the whiny nature of the ride back to the Mott's house. All 6 kids were grumpy, hungry and dying of thirst when we got back so next time I will have to remember that we need to go back before we're an hour past lunch time! The afternoon at our house was mostly a lot of grumping. I had been working on getting a sign made for a fathers day gift we were doing for Grandpa Merritt... It didn't go well. I took the kids to the store to buy some window markers (like you use on your car windows), that was not a fun trip the the store. Lots of screaming from the 3 kids. Then we got home got dressed and ready for the picture, Daddy brought home the wake board I was going to write on and I was seeing how to prop Parker up with it and that girls. Nothing was working perfectly but we would make it work. So now I needed to write on the wake board right? Well I tried to open the (brand new) marker but the lid was stuck so I pulled a little harder. I then found out why the lid was stuck... I poured black window paint all over my tan carpet, my hands, my son (who was laying next to me) and then promptly burst into tears. I was the last straw to a difficult day. Ben came down saw the mess and was kind enough to quickly start cleaning the floor as best he could while I put Parker in the sink to scrub him down and cried while I washed. After a good hour of Ben dabbing, and shampooing the carpet, it looks much better but there is still a stain. Ben then went to his activity and I promptly put the girls to bed. This resulted in me cleaning Eliza's infected ears only to realize that the 'healthy' one was now infected as well so we had a lovely screaming fit from her while I cleaned it and put some neosporin on the earring. At which point I had myself a good long hard cry. I basically emotionally dumped on my 4 year old who went from bawling her eyes out to stunned silence in a matter of seconds due to having never seen mommy have such a huge melt down. She then said she was sorry and passed out cold for the night.

Thursday started very sweetly with Eliza coming into my room and sweetly saying she was sorry again and that she loved me very much and that I am a good mom. It made my day a lot easier to face to know that even when I melt down my kids still love me! After swim lessons that day we went out and tried to do that Father's day picture again. It worked that time thankfully. When Ben got home we did our photo as well!

Friday was spent in Loveland. We spent the entire day baking cookies for my mom's ward for their Father's Day gift to all the dads. It totaled somewhere near 300 cookies but I am sure that everyone appreciated them. That evening Ben was my salvation, he cooked dinner and cleaned the house. He has been the most amazing husband and dad ever these past few weeks I really owe him a lot! We had Mallory, Abby and Zach over to have a birthday dinner for Mallory. It was nice to sit and chat for a while. That night wasn't so great. I didn't sleep well. Alayna coughed all night long. Once I finally fell asleep Parker woke up hungry. Then Alayna came in at about 4:30 needing help to find her pacifier. Much to my dismay when I walked in her room it stunk of vomit. Sure enough Alayna had thrown up all over  her bed and then slept in it. Poor kid, we need to work on getting her to tell us and not sleep in it! so I put both of us in the shower at 5:00 and admitted that sleep wasn't needed that night.

Saturday was a very busy day. Ben started by going to his parents house to get it all set for his Mom to come home on Monday! Then we went to Loveland and Ben fixed (mostly) my parents grill while the girls and I played. As soon as we were done there we went home and had the missionaries over for dinner that night. They were a little late coming so we kind of had to rush them out the door as soon as dinner was done because Ben needed to leave for a sleep study. Ben went to his sleep study and I took care of the kids at home. I didn't sleep well, neither did Parker but at least there was no coughing and no puking for Alayna.

Sleeping in Daddy's lap

Sunday Happy Father's Day to the BEST husband and daddy in the world! I do not have words enough to tell you how lucky I am to have you in my life and how much your kids love you! AND Happy Father's Day to my dad and father-in-law! They are two of the best men I know and I am proud to be part of their families! Thanks! Church was good, Eliza did a great job singing with the primary. After church the girls gave daddy their gifts (race cars that they picked out) and Parker and mommy gave him the new Sherlock Holmes movie. Steaks and potatoes for dinner and then we called it a night. It was a long day and we were all happy to be back together and sleeping in our own beds!

Swimming and Tea Parties!

Ok so Ben decided that he needs a quick 10 minute power nap... SO I am going to attempt to get the blog post written in those 10 minutes. Who thinks I can accomplish this feat!?... ok no one, because obviously I talk way too much to actually accomplish that!
Monday was a good day it started with swim lessons for Miss Eliza who has shown incredible improvement in her swimming abilities! I actually credit that in part to her incredibly patient teacher who has been willing to work with her even when she seemed so timid at first! He (the swim teacher) even came up to me on a number of occasions and told me that she really can do her front and back floats but lacks the confidence in herself so as soon as she realizes that he has let her go she promptly folds in half. Silly girl. Right after swim lessons I made my first attempt at returning the evil microwave that did not work. The lady working that day was not the same one I worked with when I bought it so when I went to return it she was going to give me store credit, for the first time (probably ever) I stood my ground and demanded that they refund my money because that is what I was told would be done when I bought the microwave. Sadly that was not possible at the moment. The manager was not available to come in that day and they just got a new credit card swipe machine so neither one of them knew how to return my money. A bit to my dismay I agreed to come back the next day and do the return then. That afternoon was spent with a friend at the park before heading home for the night.

Tuesday after swim lessons we went back to Fort Collins to finish the return. Thankfully this time I had my mom to drag along with me to help manage the kids. They had a great time playing in the toys and the return went very smoothly at that point (thanks to a detailed instruction manual for the credit card machine) We spent the rest of the day playing at the Waite house and letting the girls run around which they were much happier about than running errands. That evening we went to Costco with daddy to do the food buying for youth conference. We were lucky enough to run into Aunt Mallory and Uncle Evan while we were there and the girls took full advantage of their apparent ability to manipulate Uncle Evan into doing everything for them! He must just be a great big push over for cute girls because I am pretty sure he does everything for his adorable pregnant wife too!!

Wednesday we got haircuts that were much needed! Thanks Abby mine feels much better and Eliza's is much easier to fix now as well! After hair cuts we splurged and went and had lunch with daddy at work. The girls get a big kick out of that and it kept us out of the house for a little bit too! After lunch we had a park date with the Reedy clan and sadly we apparently stayed there just a bit longer than we should have because all 4 girls were whinny and grumpy by the time we left. whoops.

Thursday was swim lessons and then it was the only day of the week that we didn't go and do anything else all day long! What a treat... even the girls didn't seem to mind a day at home.

Friday was an entirely different story. We left the house at 8AM and did not return until almost 4 PM. It was totally worth it! Right after swim lessons Bethany Mott and I had a 'thrifting' date planned. She had some coupons for $10 off a $30 purchase at ARC so we loaded up all 7 kids and caravan our way through two different ARC's and a McDonald's lunch break. I got some great finds! 3 skirts for myself some cloths for Parker including a stunning little pair of tux pants and vest for him to be blessed in. I also scored some new shorts for Eliza since the 2 pair she owns are just not enough to get us through a week of 90+ temperatures! I was dead beat tired by the time we were done but I sure hope that she invites me again some time because it was that much fun! even with 7 kids in tow!

Saturday was great! Have I ever mentioned how awesome it is to have Ben home on the weekends?? well it is. and I wouldn't trade it for anything especially with how rarely it seems to happen anymore! I started the day off with a few garage sales where I found some cloths for me, costumes for the girls, a sling and new blue bumbo for Parker. So basically Ben was the only one who didn't get anything and for everything I got I spent less than $7!!! After that we loaded the kids up and went to Lowes to buy some wasp spray to deal with the half dozen wasps nests in the backyard! After that Ben fixed Abby's car door that wouldn't shut and then we enjoyed a nice and quiet evening at home!

Sunday was nice as well. I used the new sling during church with Parker, he sure likes it more than the moby wrap I have because he doesn't have to be a tight wrapped up inside it. I am thankful for that! Dinner at the Waite house was nice, Lindsay and Mike were there as well so it was nice to have some good adult conversation! it made for a late night for the girls but it was a good end to the week!

Now just for fun: The girls had a tea party the other day... They made sure to include Parker in the fun... He even got to have his own cup and spoon. I would like to pretend that the wet spots on his outfit are water, but that would be a lie. It's spit up, he managed to get most of it on me so I put him down to change myself hence him still being in wet dirty cloths!

 love those eyes!

 doesn't that smile just melt your heart!

 Getting serious about his tea party business.

awesome costumes $0.50 for both of them!! Yay for garage sales!

Swim Fishy Swim

Just because he is so CUTE!

Happy Memorial Day! I have to start with a huge thank you to all those men, women, and families who sacrifice everything (even their lives) in order to serve this country. To protect my rights and freedoms and provide me with the peace that comes from living in such a beautiful and safe place. I am proud to say that my Grandfather was one of those, as was my uncle and many many others who are strong brave and wonderful people!
So with Monday being a holiday we took full advantage of having Ben home with us. I absolutely love the extra time with him especially considering the week of work that he was walking into. We spent the morning cleaning the house and then set Ben off to the store for some last minute things we needed for a traditional Merritt Family BBQ. We sure missed Grandma, Grandpa and the Mcmillan clan but it was still a lot of good fun with family. I think the girls may have rough housed and abused the uncles long enough to make them second guess their next visit. The girls sure loved it though! We invited Lindsay and Mike as well after Mike ran the Boulder Boulder (he ran a very impressive time!) but Lindsay bailed out once she was confined in the car with her sweaty and stinky husband :-)

Tuesday was the beginning of swim lessons for Miss Eliza. I was seriously considering which level class to put her in and so when I finally settled on a level it was one that I knew she was going to have to work hard at. Day one proved to be a bit unnerving for her and she proved just how much of my daughter she is. If you make her uncomfortable and if she doesn't trust you then good luck getting her to do anything for you. She held back almost the entire class it took her more than half of the class to finally get her head all wet (which normally takes about 30 seconds) so I was a bit worried about her ability to keep up with the class. Right after swim lessons we went over to Loveland to help get things ready for Alan's graduation party. It was a ton of work and I was exhausted by the end of it. But I think the party was a big hit. The girls had a great time playing all day and I made sure to keep Parker fed happy and asleep for most of the day which helped with productivity significantly! We had individual 'build you own' fruit pizza's as the dessert at the party and it was fantastic! Everyone thought those were the best idea and loved them. Plus it wasn't too difficult to pull off and limited the fruit budget better! All the cookie baking was a lot of work though so I give extra props to my Mom who did all the baking!

Wednesday Eliza had swimming lessons again and she warmed up to the class faster that day but still left me concerned that she wasn't ever going to allow those poor teachers to do their jobs! In fact I even whined to my mom about it but she reassured me that Eliza is just acting just like I did every time I tried to learn something new. She's a bit of a perfectionist and if she doesn't think she can do it perfect she doesn't hardly want to try. After that we came home and just relaxed for a while. I have felt like I have been running on empty for the last few weeks so it was nice to just take a day and admit that I wasn't going to get everything done and it was ok!

Thursday's swimming lessons were much better. Eliza was actually excited to go back to class unlike the day before and we talked about the things she was doing and how she was doing such a great job and that I like to watch her try everything and do what her teacher tells her to. That seems to have turned the switch for her. After swim lessons we ran errands and took care of some little things around the house. I had a meeting that evening for my calling in church and that went well plans are moving forward smoothly for the carnival this fall already so that is exciting news!

Friday landed us back in Loveland. I went to go help mom get a blanket prepped for crocheting for a friend of hers and then I made  a couple of stops at thrift stores in an attempt to find a microwave. The microwaves in this house hate us. I mean they really really hate us. In 3 weeks time we blew up one microwave, another one quit heating food for reasons we cannot explain and the one we blew up actually sent sparks everywhere when Ben tried to fix it.  SO after 2 weeks of no microwave I just couldn't take it anymore so I found one at a thrift store in Ft Collins for $70. It's an above range microwave so it was going to take some work to get it in but Ben was willing just so we could have some more counter space! Well I got that home and found out that it doesn't work. What a irritating bummer. The good news is that I can get my money back so that will be going back to the store first thing Monday. The other score of the day on Friday was that my mom and I stopped at a garage sale and I found a bunch of cloths for Parker! I was thrilled!! for a total of $10.25 I got 4sleepers, 2 button up onesies, 5 rompers, 2 t-shirts, jeans, and 2 full outfits (pants, onesies, socks). I walked away feeling like I got a steal of a deal on cloths that were worn by only one other kid! YES!!

Saturday Ben spent the morning trying to fix the microwave I bought the day before. After a very irritating day of working at it and dealing with an appliance repair place that knew less than Ben did we gave up. Ben reassembled the microwave and said to return it. I cried just a little and then we went shopping for a new one. We went to Appliance Factory Outlet and found the exact same one that I bought broken for $189 but I knew I just couldn't make that work in the budget right now so we left and I submitted to just keep looking and deal without one until I could find one cheap enough. Ben was so sweet and took me to two other stores before taking us home. One of them was Habitat where we were lucky enough to find the SAME microwave  (again) only it was fully functional and it was Only $45!! So in the end I got exactly what I wanted for half the price and just a lot of hassle for my poor patient husband! I am so thankful for him... he even stayed up and installed the new one that night! He IS that awesome!

Sunday today has been good. Church was interesting... I don't have much more to elaborate on that but I have enjoyed the quiet evening home with just my family and the time to actually do my blog post before the next week is half over! Yay