October Around Our House!

Well, it's been a while since I posted so, I'm just gonna "highlight" some activities with some pics! Dunno how short this is gonna be! (or how long!)

One morning my cousin Bryan called us up to invite us to his parents house for a breakfast! We had good food and good company.

I always cut Josh's hair...except when he gets it cut on a lunch break...which..come to think of it is happening more often now. hmmm... Well... that's beside the point! Anyways...I would cut Holden's but he cries 'cause he hates the electric clippers, so I decided this time to take him to a "professional". hehe Anyways, he cried the whole time there too.. and now I've decided I can do just as horrible of a job by myself! :)) Lesson learned.

I got a snap shot of Holden's favorite past time. Seriously. Not Kidding. When Holden is bored, he will drag me to the closet where I keep the vacuum. He thinks it is a game...and his favorite game at that! Usually in the morning I will humor him and pull it out..and we do our daily vacuuming. But as the day goes on, we have a lot of tears as I try to explain to him that we've already vacuumed that day. He doesn't get it and is heart broken. lol The thing I can't believe is that he can not only lift the big vacuum by himself, but that he can push it all around and actually vacuum! Man, this kid thing isn't so bad..expecially when he does MY chores! :))

Holden figuring out hiding places!

Here's Gabriel's "I'm telling on Holden" face. lol He is a very patient kid with a big brother who loves to play with him!

A fun event to go to is the witches display at Gardner Village. I went last year with my sisters, so I took Josh this year. This is Josh having a good time! :))

Holden had fun running around. He loved the witches that moved the very best! He especially loved the witch that was hiding a cat under her skirt! heheGabriel on the other hand just chilled in the stroller.

And don't ask me how he did it, but somehow Josh found a shark in one of the shops. Seriously...he can go anywhere and find a shark! hehe I find cute nice things for Holden...he finds sharks...I guess it's a dad's job!

We met for our big family FHE at Tim and Tiff's house. We had our annual Haunted Gingerbread House Event! :) Tiff made the most yummy soup and we all went to town with the thousands of pounds of candy! :)

Holden actually had so much fun. Except he was more into eating his house than building it. I built the house but he did all of the decorating! I was so proud of him!

Gabriel just chilled with the other babies! Maybe next year he'll get his own house!

We also had a beautiful day for Holden's blessing. Our next door neighbors and good friends Jim and Bethany Smith offered to host our family's big day. They were so welcoming and wonderful to complete strangers! Thank you again! It was a blessing to have most of my family there (we missed you Amy, Marshall and fam, and Johnny 5) and Josh's mom, dad, aunt's and uncles.( We missed you Joey, Maribel and Jeana!) But Josh gave a beautiful blessing and the lunch after was so nice. Thank you sooo much to everyone for the wonderful food you brought. I know (especially in certain cases) that your sacrifices of time were great to prepare the food you brought. We definitely have some amazing cooks in our family. But the part is oc course our sweet Gabriel. We are so blessed to have him in our family. He is so darling and is getting his cute personality, laughing and babbling all of the time now. I can't believe how fast time flies. I can't imagine our family without him!

Now for the actual Halloween festivities!

A couple of nights before Halloween, I got these cute pumpkin bread bowls. I forgot to get the soup to put in them, so Josh had the great idea to toast them and put spaghetti in them. It was soooo yummy!

I made our costumes this year. Holden was a spider (the costume I made him last year), Gabriel was a sushi roll, and Josh and I were Egyptian...well...hmm...Egyption people. hehe Some would say King Tut, or Cleopatra...whatever suits your fancy! They turned out soooo awesome it was fun to wear them. Only downside, I was sewing 'til 4:00 amd the night before and up until we went trick or treating with the kids! hehe Oh well....so much for procrastination!

We also went trick or treating down Center Street in Provo- good times!


At night while trick or treating, we went to visit some old friends in the RR 1st Ward. The handsome man pictured with me and Josh is Bro. Heinz. He and is wife are two amazing people who have been such an awesome example to me and Josh. Great people! We're glad to have him assigned to our ward as a high councilman.

We've had a busy month, and I feel like I'm already behind for November, but we're happy and healthy and adjusting to life with a second child and loving it!

Getting Back Into the Swing of Things

Well, life has been moving pretty quickly since Gabriel joined our family! I haven't been the best at keeping my blog updated. We have had so much fun getting to know little Gabriel and watching Holden make the transition from only sibling to a big brother! He is doing well and getting so big! He is a sweet little guy that is mellow and so easy going! Also, can I just say...We love his hair!

To recap in a seriously quick way... :)

Holden loves his little brother and loves to be around him. When he wakes up in the morning, Holden will run into our room and go right to the cradle to give Gabriel a kiss. Whenever he hears him crying in another room, he'll go there to make sure that all is well.

Holden will always lie down right next to Gabriel so he can be as close as possible...sometimes he gets a little too close- if ya know what I mean. However, Gabriel is a VERY patient little guy! :)) heheThis is Holden getting his "Pacifier Fix"! We have started to "wean" him from this so when he finds them- he goes absolutely crazy! He actually had 3 in his mouth at one time but by the time I took the pic, one dropped out of his mouth! :) Crazy kid!
They had their first bathtime together and to make it sweeter, we got a new shower head. Reasons: 1. For our convenience when we wash him and 2. To let him have a little fun while he bathes...it's a win-win situation!As you can see...Gabriel is as happy about his bathtime!
But in the end, they were both happy AND clean!

After a few weeks of settling in with a new baby, I decided my play time was over...okay..not really, but I figured I needed to be more in touch with my domestic side! So, I got together with my friend Bethany, and we took on the great task of canning some peaches and pears. With some tips from my mom, after hours on peeling, cutting etc...the peaches turned out to be amazing!

We also decided to take a family vacation of some sort since we hadn't gone anywhere this whole year! hehe Since we could only be gone a weekend, Labor Day looked great for a little getaway time! We headed up to Park City to go to Swiss Days and then to spend the rest of the weekend there doing some fun activities. WELL- we got the car all packed and as we were driving out of our street, we noticed we had a flat tire. We had to unpack everything, find the spare, drive to Walmart and wait only to find that the tire was too damaged to be repaired. We ended up getting to Park City late, so Swiss Days never became a reality. Then the next day we headed up to the Olympic Park to check it out. Our friends the Smiths came up to joing us. It was actually really cool. I was on my mission when the Olympics were in SLC so it was really neat to see the museum. We also watched as skiers jumped the ramps into a swimming pool. Cool stuff. We hadn't been there too long when a major storm hit. They made us stay inside because of lightning. So, as you can guess, we nixed the outdoor activities that they had there. But it was still a fun weekend! Holden and I did the bobsled while Josh went skiing! Nice face huh!?As we moved into September, we celebrated Josh's 28th birthday! What a grown-up! Isn't he cute!? Now, funny story! See that pie? It's apple. I got it for him cause I was sure his mom made him one every year for his birthday growing up- so I thought I'd be sentimental and get him an apple pie. Well, his friend Jim Smith had taken him out for sushi that day for lunch and we was still so full that he told me he was "too full" and didn't want any pie right then. I didn't mind, but I then told him I didn't really like apple pie so I bought myself some angel food cake. Well, when he heard that I didn't like apple pie, he thought he'd better come clean. He told me he didn't like apple pie either.... WHAT?????? He then informed me that it was PUMPKIN PIE that his mom made him!!!! BOY--FAILBOAT!!! I am such a dummy. I thought I knew my hubby....guess not! lol Oh well...can you imagine if he'd held that in? He figured he would not tell me and just let me eat the pie over the next week! That I wouldn't notice that I was the only one eating it! hehe He would have gotten apple pies on his birthday for the rest of his life! LESSON-- be honest with your spouse, even if it does embarrass or make them feel dumb for a minute! A minute is better than a lifetime of birthdays spent suffering! hehe For his birthday, he bought himself parts to build a computer sice all 3 of ours were going out at the same time! He did a lot of research and got a great deal on the parts and I was so proud of him that he built this thing all by himself! What a smarty pants!
We also went to my parents house for a birthday celebration! He is here with my dad and Gabriel. Notice the dang nice kitchen! My mom and dad have spent almost 1 year remodeling it. Isn't it sooo beatiful? Good job mom and dad!
I thought I'd just add this pic. These are our friends Cameron (Josh and I know him from our dance team at BYU) and his girlfriend Jen. They have been so cool to come and hang out with us. We have had so many fun weekend nights playing new games and eating treats! Settlers is the big one right now! Good times!

Gabriel Alex

Gabriel Alex MercerWe are excited to announce the birth of our second son! Gabriel Alex was born on August 7th at about 6:35 am. He weighed in at 7 lbs. 9 oz. and was 19 inches long. For being over 3 weeks early...he was a pretty good size. Everything went smoothly considering I went to the hospital thinking I was just having really bad gas pains. hehe Josh was the one who convinced me that we needed to go. They informed me after checking me, that I was indeed in labor and at a six, almost a 7 in dialation. So...I guess it's a good thing we went when we did! After getting to the hospital, I was in labor for 4 hours and then the baby came with a little coaxing! He had a lot of dark brown-black hair. It was a lot darker than Holden's was. Holden has turned quite light now, so it will be interesting to see if Gabriel sill stay this dark. As for his eyes, we are still waiting for him to give us a good glimpse! The kid is pretty tired all of the time still.

It was quite a surprise and something we were not expecting when we sat down to watch a movie that night! We called our landlords to take the monitor and to get Holden in the morning. Thank goodness for wonderful friends and neighbors! It was so wonderful to have friends and family come to visit us in the hospital. We have been the recipients of so many wonderful people giving amazing service. Thanks again to everyone for your love and support! We are so thrilled for Holden to have a baby brother.Holden was so excited about the baby, he just kept wanting to give him kisses! The two get along so well and Holden has only had a few little behavior changes! :)) But he is such a good brother and whenever the baby is in his bed crying, Holden will come to get me to rescue the baby! lol Getting home, Josh had decorated with the cutest decorations; signs, balloons, streamers and other stuff! Josh's mom and sister also made the long trip from Boise, Idaho to come and see Gabriel and Holden. They stayed with us for a few days to help me out around the house and to help with the new lifestyle of 2 kids....lol oooooh...hehe They spoiled the kids so much- Holden loved having them around to play with!

It's an adjustment, but it's going pretty well! We feel so blessed to have this little miracle in our home. He brings such a wonderful spirit with him.