Ad's Photo Shoot

Once again, Adi wished to venture into the land of mommy-taking-her-pictures.

I honestly don't know why. I am not the nicest photographer.

Anywho, she also wanted to go back to the same place we took pictures last year.

Because she wanted to hang upside-down on the railing again.

It's her birthday, her pictures.




And doesn't she look oh-so-cute in her birthday outfit?



The problem was that Adi wasn't giving me any of her mischievous-I'm-about-to-do-something-really-naughty smiles that I know and LOVE.

Instead, she kept doing this serious model face (without looking at the camera),



Or doing these really cheesy hand gestures.


Another problem was that it was really cold. For reals.


Every once in a while, I'd get some pretty decent smiles,





And then she'd do something like this:


But, at the end of the day, this little girl is still the cutest 7 year-old I've met. And I realize that I am totally biased on that point.

And I don't care.



Seriously.

So many things to do

for this event that's coming up soon...

And yes, this invite is backwards. That way the girls have to use their super-sluething abilities to crack the code (or they can just hold it up to a mirror).

**Can you believe Miss Adi is going to be 7 soon?**

Don't Mess With These Ladies...

'Cause they're armed and loaded.

And this boy is their back-up.

The Boys

Porter didn't wake up from his nap until 5:30 yesterday.

Which, as you may guess, made for a late night for our little boy.

Luckily, OP and him both enjoy lying on the floor and playing Mom's iTouch.

Until 9:30 pm.

And, luckily, Mom is so generous and allowed them to play with her fav new toy. And she enjoyed taking pics of the two playing together.

My, what a large family you have...

When we were visited Thatcher over Christmas, it was the first time in a long while the whole family was together, so my mother-in-law took advantage of the situation had family pics taken by this lovely lady.

**If you look closely, you'll notice that my sis-in-law's husband Brandon is missing... silly boy took off to the Grand Canyon with his brothers and missed out on all the fun.**

Even though I don't much care for being in front of the camera (rather, behind it), I did enjoy having these taken (even though we spent most of the shoot brushing hay off of each other). And the location was awesome. My fav is this truck down here...

And that is OP's parents and siblings.

And this is Aunt Jessie and all the grankiddos...

And yes, my kids alone almost make up half of them. But that's ok, 'cause I'm sure everyone else is gonna start catching up real soon.

Right?

And here is Miss Hannah with a few of the kids. She did all of the girlie's hair for the pics... not sure why PG is hanging out in the hair pic, but it is still cute.

Yes Hannah, I stole this pic off of your facebook. Thank you very much!

Why I love my blog...

Sometimes I get a little bit tired of blogging. It's true.

Hard to believe, huh?

But then, some days I feel like time is slipping through my fingers. The kiddos are in bed, sleeping peacefully, quietly, and I am left alone with my thoughts *shudder*.

I think about these crazy kiddos a year ago, two years ago. And I become afraid that they are just plain growing too fast. My mind leaps ahead to teenage years, and I just get scared.

Then I hop onto this good ole blog of mine, look up the archives, and find gems like this:

And for a few minutes, I get to relive the past. I remember the smell of the evening grass, the way my arms felt with chunky-monkey Porter snuggled in them, how much Adi hated having her picture taken, and just how very much Pipes loved kissing her baby brother.

And then I am very, very grateful for this little online journal of mine.

Is that Taylor Swift?

Well, no.

No it's not.

Adi took an old pair of High School Musical sunglasses (since she is so over HSM fever), popped out the lenses and declared herself Taylor Swift.

Pretty close, huh?

A side of Batman you've never seen...

That's right people. Batman likes to rock and roll.

Oh yeah.

P.G. got this shiny new guitar for Christmas, and he loves it. He wears it most of the day and does some serious strumming on it.

The coolio thing about this kids instrument is that when you wiggle your fingers where the strings should be, the guitar plays music. When you take your hand off, it stops.

Wow.

And the whammy bar works.

It is every aspiring musician's dream.

And when I turn on a guitar-heavy song (such as the classic Fun, Fun, Fun by the Beach Boys), the kid goes nuts. No joke. He does jumps, he spins, he even tries to sing along.

And then he gives his mother this look for continuously snapping pics of his performance:

It's a Wonderful Vacation: Part 2

After Thatcher, we headed "into town", and finally got to experience an awesome Arizona winter. Do not be fooled by the coat that Whitney is wearing, it. was. WARM.



The kiddos loved it 'cause they finally got in some outside play (which has been severely restricted since October here). I forgot how much we all love parks.

And I think the think most often said at the park this day was, "Pull down your shirt, Adi!"



Here is Whitney showing off her new iPhone (oh yes, I so did post this Whit. That's for rubbing in your new device's awesomeness).



And Porter finally got to use his new "skate" (as he calls it).



New Years Eve, my bro Zach and his family came over for ham and fun. Once Katelynn got there, the girls ran up into the loft and we didn't see them the rest of the night (although we did hear them).



And I finally got to get in some serious snuggle time with Mr. Leland.



Porter thought "baby" was pretty cool. Until he hit him. Then Porter started saying, "No hit, baby."



And here is Miss Whit rubbing in their winning streak in round one of Shout Out About Movies. But that's ok... who whooped on round two again?



Miss Katelynn was the only kiddo to make it all night...



We were having an epic photo shoot at the park. Or at least trying to. The kids weren't cooperating too well.



Don't you love the look on his face? This kid seriously loves swings.



Right before I was kicked in the face...



Miss Pipes in all her glory.



Adi playing shy...



Right after this, OP called and said we had to leave.

Stink.

There were so many fun things and family we hung out with that I didn't get pictures of, but I will do better in April when we come down again...

You know, right before it starts getting HOT.

It's a Wonderful Vacation: Part 1

This first few days of our lil' adventure was spent in Thatcher.

But first, we decided to leave after dinner on the 25th, that way the kiddos would just sleep the entire way.

Porter, however, had a different plan. He doesn't enjoy anything outside of his usual routine, so he was having a difficult time adjusting to sleeping in the car. This pic was taken at about 2 am:



Yup. He was watching a show on the iPod. Spoiled, huh? But at least he was quiet.

When we got to Thatcher, we were a bit shocked to discover that it wasn't much warmer there than in Utah. Rats!

But we got through the chilly weather, and the kiddos had an awesome time.

Porter pretty much made Heber his slave (thanks again Hebes).



And the girlies just adored Emma (who played with them the entire time. I do mean the ENTIRE time).



I came outside and saw that all of the grandkids were hanging off the porch swing. I ran inside to get my camera, and by the time I got back out there, the had already started to disperse.



And about 20 seconds after this photo was taken, the swing flipped over and spilled little Merrill kids all over. Luckily, no one got hurt or I would have felt really bad about the giant laugh I couldn't contain.

Here is Jessie, caught mid-laugh (love this photo):



And Hyrum showing off his bubble gum:



Adi and her cousin Rylee, hanging out, watching the grown-ups while they played sime epic games of dodgeball.



OP and I celebrated our 8 year wedding anniversary while there. Here is our attempt at a self-portrait:



And Miss Adi fell up the wooden stairs at Grandma's house and tore her inside-cheek. Which then became infected.

And then led us to the doctor's to get a prescription.



Poor swollen Adi.

Fun, fun, FUN! It was especially great, since the entire family was there for this trip, so we all got to hang out and play together.

Oh, and I wish to leave you with the chicken dance:

Rockin' Christmas

So, where have all my we and all of our wonderful Christmas posts been?

On vacation back in AZ, that's where.

It. Was. Wonderful.

But we are home now (we all brought back colds), and I am ready to share our fun with you.

First up, Christmas. On Christmas Eve, the girls arranged a plate of goodies for Santa:



The carrots were for the reindeer. I'm pretty sure that even Santa couldn't eat all of those treats. Notice the "thanks you" note from Piper and the wrapped gift from Adi. Those two are so sweet!

Christmas Morning.

Porter was a bit on the overwhelmed side. He first only wanted to eat the candy trail that Santa had sprinkled outside his room, leading to the family room. Then when he saw his tools, all he wanted to do was play with them. He wouldn't even attempt to open his pile of gifts. So I did have to put down the camera and coax him to do so.



Little Miss Adi got her Addison doll. Which she has played with all of twice since here.

Pip finally got her Teenage Dora Doll. It is pretty cool, I must say. Even I have enjoyed playing with her!

Santa also brought the girls an Easy Bake Oven, and I made the girls these aprons and chef hats (you might remember them from an earlier post). I also had some fun with the Cricut and some vinyl and decorated some plastic mixing bowls...



Unfortunately, Santa forgot to read the Oven box, and didn't see that you had to get your own 100 watt bulb. So the girls got all dressed up, had their mixes picked out, and then- disappointment.

And here is photo proof that the pickiest eater alive LOVES fried mush.



That will mostly only mean something to the Buckways who are reading this.

I didn't take my usual enormous amount of photos this year, mostly because I am trying to get my face out from behind the camera and actually enjoy what the family is doing! We'll see how long that lasts.

We left on the 12 hour drive Christmas night, so that day was spent with the kiddos playing with their new toys and watching their new movies, me packing and cleaning, and OP sleeping.

We rock, don't we?