Here are some recent pictures of the boys.







Lewis is already 5 months old and rolling around. We just started feeding him rice cereal and he loves it. Merrill loves to hug him and tickle him and pat his head. He just forgets that he's bigger than Lewis and could potentially squish him. But it is all well meaning and Lewis takes it in stride. Merrill is getting good at drawing/scribbling. He likes to draw hats on everyone. Specifically "party hats". That will make sense to all you Go Dog Go fans out there.

Luke is busy trying to plan out 4th year of Med school and nail down exactly what type of residency program he wants to apply to. Right now family medicine is in the lead, but we're still open to possibilities. I finally got a calling in the ward. Beehive adviser! It will be a fun calling. I am currently fighting off a sinus infection. I've had it for a week now and it just won't go away! I haven't been able to smell or taste anything, not to mention breath. Bummer. Other than that, everything is going well!

Breezy Hills

This weekend we went to a farm outside of town called Breezy Hills. It had a lot of fun things for Merrill to play with including a petting zoo, corn maze, a corn box (if you are confused about this one see pictures below) and other fun things. We all had a blast. We also got a few pumpkins from their pumpkin patch.






On October 9th Luke blessed Lewis. Luke gave a wonderful blessing and they didn't drop the baby. Our friend and neighbor who we invited to be in the circle told us that it happened during his nephews blessing. (I've always wondered if that's ever happened). Ever since then he always keeps his eyes open during any blessing he participates in. In his words he's "never letting another baby go down!", so he had Lewis's back. His nephew was fine by the way.
Ben, Lauralee and Juliann came down from Indiana for the blessing. It was so fun to hang out with them that weekend and Merrill had fun with his cousin.

Please take note of my new haircut. I love it. I feel like a new woman.



Man I love these boys! We are so blessed to have them in our home. You should be jealous, because they are seriously the best!

Baby Blanket

The boys had a wonderful time in Utah and made it home safely. Haley's wedding was a great and happy occasion. During my alone time I decided to make a baby blanket for Lewis. Melinda sent me a tutorial for a cute chenelle baby blanket so I thought I'd give it a try. I literally spent three solid days on this thing. While sewing I watched all three versions of Pride and Prejudice that I have ( That's about 9 hours worth) plus two or three other chick flicks. It kept me occupied to say the least. When Luke and Merrill walked through the door around 9:00 Sunday night I was sewing the last stitches to secure the binding. Perfect timing!
Here are some pictures of the masterpiece. I'm happy with how it turned out.

Solitary

Luke and Merrill took off for Utah today. Haley is getting married and since I'm 35 weeks pregnant now we decided that I'd better stay behind. Not an easy decision, but I just felt the traveling wouldn't be good for me or the baby. Seeing my boys leave without me was hard. I cried. Now that I'm all alone with nothing to do, I thought I'd try to revamp the blog. As you can see from the off center and not fit-to-scale picture it's not going too well. That will have to wait until Luke gets home on Sunday.
We have been in Illinois for almost two months now. We really like it. Luke is learning a lot in school and having great experiences. Merrill has a lot of little friends on the street his age. They're all girls so it's a good thing he's going to have a little brother. He is talking so much now and it is the cutest thing in the world to hear him say his little brothers name. (We've decided on Lewis). He says 'night night Lewis' and 'c'mon Lewis!' and sometimes he pats my belly, gives it a kiss and says 'little baby Lewis'. He'll be a good big brother.
I'm loving our new apartment. They are brand new never been lived in. It's nice to have windows and doors that keep the cool air inside and the bugs outside. I'm feeling as good as can be expected for 35 weeks. I am grateful for this weekend to just take it easy. I don't know if it's anxiety from the boys leaving or if I've been doing too much or both, but any little thing I do today sets off a contraction. I'm sure it's nothing to worry about, but like I said, I'll be taking it easy this weekend. Make a baby blanket, do some online shopping, hulu. I'd rather be at a wedding, but I'll make the best of it.

April

April has been a fun month. We've had some really nice spring weather and Merrill has loved playing outside. We've also had some spring rain, but Merrill also loves throwing rocks in puddles and splashing in puddles.

Luke is doing well in school as always. Only 2 1/2 more weeks of classes! I can't believe it. It has slowly gone by fast. That doesn't make any sense, but thats how I feel about it. Next it's a month of furious study for Level 1 boards exam and then we are off to Illinois for the next two years.

I am officially half way through this pregnancy. Woo-hoo! This second pregnancy has gone by SO much faster that my first. When all my time is taken up by Merrill, I hardly have time to even think about it. I had a little bout with some severe nausea about a month back, but that's all taken care of and I'm doing great!

Here are a few pictures of the fun we've had this month:

First taste of guacamole. He loved it.

Here he is with his best friends. His dogs.

Finger painting with Dad.

Easter egg hunt!

4 Months in Review

November

Merrill discovered the toilet paper roll and wanted to test out just how far he could run with it. He made it all the way to his room. Amazingly it all stayed in tact, to we just rolled it back up.

We enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving visit from Aunt Monica. Merrill loves Aunt Monica.

December

Christmas visit to Utah. Quality time playing in the best snow on Earth with Dad and learning how to construct and throw the perfect snowball.

January

Another visit to Utah. He had a blast at the Tree House in Ogden with Haley and Grandma Peterson. Here he is being a cowboy.

And here he is being a Firefighter.

And an Indian.

February

Near the end of our Utah visit Merrill got his first semi-serious owie. Sliced his finger on an air vent. It bled quite a bit and he was very upset about it. He also rolled a little ways down the stairs, but that was no biggie. He got over it real quick. This owie, however, is a different story. He's still trying to milk it with us even though it's been completely healed for weeks.

Here he is having the time of his life with his friend Jamie.

Merrill loves Grandpa Merrill. He always got excited when Grandpa got home from work.

Home again and lovin' his blocks. Luke built him this bridge that he could walk under. Merrill thought it was awesome.

Doesn't he look so grown up?

The Costume

For Halloween I had been planning on making Merrill a little lamb costume. But then when I bought the pattern for it, the tiger costume that came in the same packet looked a lot cuter, so I was going to make that. Then I opened the packet, started looking at the pattern, and realized I have not idea how to read patterns. This was way over my head. So the default costume (Luke's brilliant idea by the way) was JEDI KNIGHT.

It was much simpler to make, but I think it turned out pretty awesome. He was a big hit at all the trunk-or-treats! And he was lovin' his light saber.