First Dentist Trip

Well Merik finally has a full mouth of teeth so I decided it was time to start the dentist routine. I found a fantastic dentist just for kids called "My Kids Dentist" and scheduled him an appointment. Trying to avoid a complete meltdown we practiced and played dentist and he had a great time so I was optimistic--too optimistic. It was meltdown city-hence only the 1 picture from when he'd just sat down and didn't know what was going on. He actually did ok considering the thought of going to the dentist still makes me queasy! They Doctor was amazing and actually got him to calm down and even laugh a few times during the cleaning, asking him if the tooth paste tasted like hot dogs. It was cute. They loaded him up with tons of fun goodies and he admitted it didn't even hurt so hopefully the next time will be better.

Children's Museum

Pat was gone for 8 days straight. He had work on each end of a special trip he took to California to be with my cousin Jaren as he went through the temple for his first time in preparation of him leaving on his mission. So in the midst of the insanity that is our life I decided it would be fun to take the kids for a special day at the Children's Museum! (Really it's a special day where mom doesn't have to do the entertaining for a few hours!) We had a blast! We were there for 41/2 hours and I had to finally drag Merik out because Karma was so tired she couldn't take it anymore! Here's a few pictures of the day!


Merik as a Veternarian! He was so serious about his job!

Merik has alot of career choices ahead of him!

They were so cute together in this boat! Karma is getting to the age that she adores Merik and everything he does and she was so interested in him catching the fish!
Merik was chasing Karma through the tunnel and they were both laughing so hard! It was adorable!
Fancy Socks!

Wedding Season!

Pat's sister Nichole got married this summer and it was a BLAST! We had a luau for the rehearsal dinner and had so much fun talking to family that had come in from out of town and hoola-hooping (which is a surprising work-out!)

The food was great!!!



Aunt Kathy and little Karma

The whole family and the beautiful bride!





We had so much fun at the reception!!!! I felt like I was in high school again dancing, except for the fact that my 2 1/2 year old was totally showing me up! He was the center of every circle he could find and was a way better dancer than most of us adults! He definitely likes attention! Nichole was gorgeous and the wedding was wonderful! Congratulations Curt and Nichole!

Back in touch with the world!

We’ve had a few crazy weeks, hence my absence from the online world. But don’t worry I’m hopefully getting my act together again and will post pictures of the exciting events that have kept me from blogging…I know I know you’ve heard that before! First new post…House! Finally I’ve gotten enough done to post some pictures, not that you necessarily care, but posting them gives me a sense of finality. I had a ton of fun and we are so blessed. We can’t wait for all of you to visit!

Our bedroom, and yes it's striped. Crazy...I know but my motto is: You can ALWAYS paint over it!

Little Karma's room! Pat says it's so girly she's bound to be a tom boy but I love it!

Mr. Merik's room!

Our family room. My beloved office!



Pat would be furious if I didn't include his santcuary...The GYM!
Our dinning room, with the lantern that everyone but me hates! It was Pat's grandma's and no one wanted it and I was so excited that I got it!
Our living room with the piano pat re-did for me a couple christmas' ago.

Surprise Susie!

Before










Pat's mom, Susie, has hated her kitchen for years so for a Mother's Day/her birthday surprise us kids re-did it! Susie and Bill went to Gunnison for a long weekend and we got to work! We painted her walls, back splash, and cabinets. It turned out really good-but I'm biased. Her reaction was hilarious and so fun! She is such an incredibly deserving person! Besides always cooking us fantastic meals and just being a good mom she is so devoted to helping everyone around her and is such an example of Christ-like service. We love her dearly and had a lot of fun .

Utah Fun!

So its been a little while since I've blogged but things got CRAZY here! My sister called a few weeks ago and told me I should fly to Utah to see her. That was Monday, we left Tuesday! It was so fun, I found tickets dirt cheap (tickets plural because I have to buy one for merik, painful!) so the kids and I hopped on a plane and left for Utah! Merik LOVED flying and karma did great....until we started to land. I picked her up to put something in my bag and realized I was soaking wet with....poop. It was everywhere! The poor little girl was literally covered head to toe! It was disgusting and because we were landing I couldn't go to the bathroom, plus I had a two year old who needed to pop his ears sitting next to me. So I got her cleaned up while on my lap and it all turned out ok-barely! Thankfully it was all women sitting around me and they were all incredibly understanding! Think of me if you're ever on a plane with a screaming baby-maybe the poor mom is covered in poop.
Utah was a blast! Joslin's house is darling-surprise, surprise and it was just so fun to hang out with my sister. Dusty was an incredible surrogate daddy for the week and definitely made a new best friend with Merik! I loved that he had someone to play with but didn't quite appreciate him teaching Merik the word "dookie!" We got to meet the newest member of the fam...baby Bridget, who is adorable! My whole family was there randomly for Meredith's clogging competition at Lagoon so we had a fun barbecue and Joslin's and got darling pictures of three great-grandchildren.
Lagoon was the highlight though! Merik was hilarious and still talks about it. The bumper cars were so funny I thought I was going to pee my pants. He did a good job steering if there was someone around him but he got stuck in the corner and couldn't get out. He was so cute, he was trying so hard to get out but was just spinning in circles screaming "mommy help me!" It was so sad and so funny all at the same time!
We also got to visit a long time friend from high school that I haven't seen since my wedding. Emily Tripp (now Culpepper) for any of you who remember her. We had a great time meeting her darling little family!
Our final activity was taking Merik (and Karma but she doesn't care) to see the Temple! He was so excited and it was so sweet! He's so little but already understands so much and has such a testimony. The whole drive there he kept informing me that Jesus would be at the temple! I was so sweet and he was so excited to see the Christis. But he went crazy when he saw the statue of Nephi. He LOVES Nephi, so that was darling. He had to go to the bathroom while we were there so I took him but while he was in there he disobeyed me and threw the paper towel away in the toilet instead of the garbage. I told him that wasn't ok and that he needs to obey and that Heavenly Father wants him to obey also. We were running out of the bathroom and he all of the sudden dropped from my hand and I looked down and he was kneeling in the middle of the floor praying to say sorry. I almost started to cry! Its just so amazing to see the innocence and faith that a child has. Its no wonder why Chirst visited them first. They must have been so excited.

Utah was great and we can't wait to go back!