Tank

That's what we call this busy, busy boy.

Mostly because he is a bit round, tough, and nothing can stop him.

He was the perfect little baby.  Never crying, not demanding.  Just so sweet and so very doll-like.

Notice how I said WAS?  Mr. Wyatt is now a toddler with his own stubborn little mind (that comes from his dad *cough*) and unbelievably quick moves.

He has also turned into a little bit of a cryer.  Ok, ok, if I was being honest I would tell you that he probably spends a majority of his awake-time crying.  And screaming.  And throwing himself down onto the floor, red-faced, and angry.  With snot running out of his nose.

But hey, that's life with a one-year-old.  At least around here.

Clarky-Boy is the happiest when he's outside.

Lucky for him he has a few awesome siblings who are usually not always  happy to watch him run around in the backyard.

He does a lot of running into stuff, falling off of stuff, and just plain tripping over his own feet.

But he doesn't cry too long over it.  What usually starts the waterworks is if someone walks outside without him or if someone won't hand him their iPod, or if Porter comes close to him.

Yeah, those two have a complicated relationship.

Wyatt has discovered his love of cheese.  His favorite thing in the world is when Mom cuts up tiny squares of cheese for him to shove into his mouth.

Kinda reminds me of this fella:

He loves the theme song to Mighty Machines




And he thinks that it is hilarious when someone sneezes.

He still loves his pacifier, and I am honestly not in any hurry to take it away from him.  The other day Adi stuck it in his mouth when he was crying and said, "It's like an off switch, isn't it?"

Yes, Adi.  Yes it is.

Wyatt loves the vacuum, playing in the toilet water (something we try to discourage), eating hot dogs, playing with Porter's big trucks, breaking the remote control, a sippy cup of apple juice, dancing to Dynamite, getting his feet rubbed with baby lotion, baths, Daddy's dirt bike, and pounding on the computer keyboard.

He now says "Mom", "Dadda", and "Uh-uh-oh".  Yep.  That's it.   But that's ok since I can tell he is merely trying to perfect the art of non-verbal communication before he moves onto the English language.

I know I complain about this little dude to my friends.  I think that it isn't so much that he cries an abnormal amount, but more because I've forgotten what it's like to have a toddler running around the house.  But when I pick him up out of bed in the morning, I fall in love with him all over again as he wraps his chubby little arms around my neck, squeezes, and says "Momma".  My oh my, I fall hard.

I honestly cannot remember how my life worked before this mini-Merrill was in it.

Love you, my baby boy.

***I almost forgot to give credit to my dear sis-in-law Stephanie for taking the pictures!***

Grateful Hearts

For the past few years I've noticed a bunch of the blogs that I stalk look at have been choosing a family theme for the new year.  They do a big fancy dinner with decorations and talk all about it.

So I wanted to hop on that band wagon and do one for us.  Last year.  It didn't happen.

This year, I decided, is the year.  2012.  What a spectacular year to start this fun tradition.  So I had a bunch of stuff printed up to do on January 2nd (not the first since that is Mr. Wyatt's birthday).  I was going to cook a fancy-schmancy dinner with an awesome dessert for it.  And then I didn't do it.  I told myself that on OP's next day off we would.

And we didn't.

Adi had noticed the photo envelope and had tried to peek into it several times and I would tell her that it was something special that we were going to do soon.  Luckily she kept bugging me about it or else it probably never would have gotten done.

We didn't have anything fancy to eat- just plain old tinfoil dinners.  And for dessert?  Some wafer cookies that have been in the pantry for about six months now.  I figured that if I didn't just do it with what was going on that day, it probably wouldn't have gotten done.

OP and I had talked about trying to focus on gratitude.  Mostly because we watched this Jimmy Kimmel video before Christmas and were pretty much horrified at how the kids reacted to their parents giving them horrible gifts.  I mean, to be honest, I did laugh a heck of a lot watching it.  It made us start wondering how our kiddos would react to the same prank.  We thought that everyone in this little family of ours could use a bit more gratitude in our hearts.  So the Merrill Family Theme 2012 was chosen (it looks so official when I capitalize all of the words, doesn't it?).

Based off of this discourse by President Monson.


I scrambled around trying to make everything look pretty and like I had put a lot of time and effort into this thing.  I did hurry and throw together a banner ('cause it's my new favorite thing to do, that's why).

Then I made everyone their own awesome little quote about gratitude to share with everyone and then they can keep it.  All I did was do a search on Pinterest of "gratitude" and I found these lovely things (they're all pinned here with links back to the original designers).

I then taped them to toothpicks and stuck them in some clementines.  Why oranges?  Because that was the first thing I saw when I was making them.

Wyatt's plate was the one with cheese on it.  That kid loves him some cheese.

While we ate, we took turns reading our quote and then explaining or figuring out what it meant.

I kind of cheated on mine, since it wasn't exactly right on the subject of "attitude of gratitude", but I fell in love with it when I saw it.

I haven't been able to find the artist for this one, but I would love to because I want a big ole poster size of this print hanging up in my room.

Anywho, after we ate the kids ran off to bathe while I did a quick search of YouTube, trying to find just the right MormonMessage to help the kiddos understand gratitude.

Score!

Have I mentioned that the Xbox now has a YouTube channel?  So we got to site our behinds on our comfortable couch and watch it.  Sweet!

The kiddos were getting sick of the picture taking and started acting like goofs.

And Wyatt ran around and refused to stop for a picture.

After the video we talked to the kiddos about being grateful for this abundant life that we live.  How so many people in the world have so very little and we have so many blessings that we can't even count them all.  We told them how we need to be sure to thank Heavenly Father every time we pray for at least some of our blessings so that He'll know how much we appreciate them.

Adi then made my Momma-heart nearly burst when she exclaimed, "It's like the 10 lepers that Jesus healed and only one came back to thank Christ!"  YES!  I am not failing!

We then sat around the table, eating our somewhat-stale cookies,

writing something that we are thankful for on a Popsicle stick,

Shared what we wrote,

"Christmas Presents"

And then put them in a jar (with plans to do so daily so we can see just how abundantly blessed we are).

Piper caught herself wishing that she could have more cookies, but then quickly realized that she already forgot to be grateful for what she had already eaten.

Everyone got their own little "Attitude of Gratitude" sign to hang somewhere in their room where they will see it all the time.

Look at the look of deep concentration on my face.  I was trying to not get myself in the picture.  Fail!

I know that I need to work on gratitude for what I have.  There are so many times that I catch myself thinking, "If I had my own home I could totally do this", or "I wish we had a bigger house!".  Or, if you look at the above picture, you'll see the awesome gold shower stall thingy in my bathroom.  *Shudder*  Hate that stuff.  But I am thankful for the awesome water pressure that comes from the shower head, so hey, there are worse things to live with :)

A Wedding

Remember how I mentioned that I had made some invites for a wedding?

Ain't those two cute?  *sigh* Young love.

Well, we just got back from the party and since I usually choose to hide behind a camera instead of exposing my social awkwardness, I have a few pics.

We went to the Gila Valley Temple for the sealing.

 

Here's the newlyweds now.

Isn't her bouquet so stinking cute?  Love.  It.

The day was perfectly, beautifully overcast.  So, awesome for pictures, but very cold for everyone standing around waiting for pictures.

Which we did a lot of.

Here's Grandma Beus trying to keep Sharon warm.

While we shuffled about like sheep, I kept interrupting everyone with my picture snapping.

Hello to all of the other happy couples!

And to the MaGill family.

The nieces were all matchy-matchy

The nephews didn't really match.  We were pretty much lucky their outfits survived playing outside for an hour while Hannah and Kade were sealed.

Apparently the boys were hungry so Porter decided to munch on his own hand and Madden tasted the railing.

We waited some more.

Oh, hey there Beus family!

Here's Sharon and Grandpa Beus discussing the mix-up with the marriage license (which took awhile to fix).

Jessie and Chad entertained the mini masses.

As did Emma.

And then we hung out some more.

I think poor Hannah was thinking, "Is this over with yet?"

But the couple kept on posing.

Our turn for pictures?  Sweet.

Hannah and her nieces and nephews.  Yep , that's what Wyatt was doing the whole time.  No exaggeration, people.

And now the whole Merrill group (which, of course I didn't get a shot of since I was, after all, in the pic).

Siblings.

Yup.  That's a big family.

That's it?  Sweet, let's go thaw out in the car.

I didn't get very many pics at the reception since my camera pretty much sucks in low light, but I did get one of the cousins enjoying the desserts.

And here's the Merrill dudes not posing for a picture.

Here's me and Wyatt hanging out away from the party since every time anyone looked at him he burst into tears.

A few of us troublemakers sneaked off to do a little fun decorating.

Hahaha.  You should have seen the inside of the truck!  They'll be cleaning confetti up for weeks.  *ahem* I don't think Kade will ever give us his keys willingly again.  

We did it out of love.

OP, the kiddos and I ended up leaving early because Wyatt would. not. stop.  doing this.

So we missed the expressions on Hannah and Kade's faces when they opened the doors to their get-a-way vehicle.  I bet they were awesome though.

Incidentally, we also missed out on the clean up.  Shucks.  But we had a 2 1/2 hour drive home with a screaming Wyatt.  That was lots of fun.

Can't wait for the next Merrill wedding.

Hahahaha- I'm looking at you Emma.