Watching Alex

So I started watching my nephew Alex last week. Let me tell you getting up at 6am every morning is not fun, but he is a joy to watch. Hope had a LITTLE adjustment, getting use to Alex getting Mama's attention. They are so cute together. She watches his every move, she has to always see him. And for her naps...she waits till she exhausts herself from watching his every move before she falls asleep! Isaiah has been a great big help too! It's actually been a lot easier than I thought, however I am sure that will change when Alex becomes mobile! I took them out last week because I had a DR appt and then to meet my dad...let me tell you how people looked at me and the things they said to me. Their jaws dropped when I said "their 9 1/2 mos apart". Then I would wait a minute and then tell them that he's not mine. All around it is a "fun and yes challenging-at-times experience." Here is a little picture of how difficult Alex is to take care of!

Saturday August 16th

So this weekend Ryan's brother Kenny and his family were in town. We went to see Nana and Papa's new house and visit with Kenny and the fam. The new house is absolutely beautiful. So much room for the kids to run around and a beautiful backyard for Isaiah to exhaust himself in. It is just magnificent! We had a delicious meal of steak, baked potatoe, rolls, salad, and the most delicious sauteed mushrooms (and I don't like mushrooms). Nana and Julie always outdo themselves cooking. It's always delicious. I really should come over earlier, so they can teach me their secrets! (I was too busy sleeping from working the night before...really who needs sleep) Ryan's mom found the boys' old Heman and thundercat toys, so Isaiah and Nana had fun washing them off in the backyard and then we ALL played with them. Brings back so many memories! To think Isaiah is playing with Ryan's old action figures!!!! Oh and they also found the boys' old baseball cards, so Isaiah will get those later too. I think their was a little controversy on where exactly some of them went. We are convinced that Nana and Papa sold them to buy the new house......Just Kidding! Jackson and Hope loved talking to each other....of course that was after Hope stopped screaming....she really needs to learn how to make a better impression! J/K And of course we ended the night watching Michael Phelps swim for his eighth Gold Medal....It was so awesome. I think all of us were on the edge of our seats! All around we had an awesome time. Of course, that's how it is at The Merkel Fam! But we did miss Ted and Cassie :( I think we may need to go on a road trip to visit OKC, OK!

Ryan holding his handsome nephew/godson Jackson
My beautiful girl, Hope, crawling all over the floor! She took four steps for the first time Sat. !!!
Julie holding Jackson who is chewing on an Old School BatMan toy!
Isaiah (in Kenny's old Nebraska Huskers sweater) cleaning off the toys with Nana
Papa and "the boys" playing with the old action figures. BTW...Check out Jackson's slippers...Love em'
Can't wait to see Kenny, Julie and Jackson again. Miss you already!

Happy Birthday Mama!

So today is my mama's birthday. She is an absolutely wonderful mama, grammy, and friend. She has a nack for always making the tough times turn to fun times and for always making me laugh. I love my mama so much! She is our little angel, she can always "save the day" when we need her. She is beautiful, strong, smart, fun, lovable, and just AWESOME! Happy Birthday Mom! YOU ROCK! Here is to a gezillion, bajillion, catrillion more years with my Mama and my friend. I love you Mom!
We went to dinner at Trombino's to celebrate! Here are a few pics:
Isaiah always seems to "help" open EVERYONE's bday gifts!

My mom, meme, grandpa, and silly faced Isaiah! "He's shy" Yeah right
The whole clan (starting with Nicole on the left and going around) Nicole, mom, meme, grandpa, Mark (hiding...he loves pictures), Uncle Larry, Aunt Lena holding Alex, Bob, Carol, and Isaiah
Proud Grammy holding Hope (who by the way let the whole restaurant know she was there)
Mom holding up Our (Mark , Nicole, me and Ryan) gift. We are going to get a family picture and pay for her to get some prints
After Dinner everyone was feeling a little goofy, Meme, grandpa showin a little chest, and Isaiah with his Mr. Potatoe head glasses

Happy 1st Birthday Hope!

Today is Hope's 1st Birthday! I can't believe how fast the year has gone. Last year at this time I was checking into the hospital to have a C-Section because my blood pressure was way too high and then at 10:14am Hope Marie Merkel was born. She was 7lbs 1oz and now she is 19 1/2lbs. She spent one week in the NICU (which seemed like a month) and now she is a healthy little girl roaming around the house and getting into everything. She isn't walking yet, but that is prefectly fine with me! She is a little cuddler. She loves to be loved and she is definetly a princess. She knows how to get your attention too, She screams and then when you look at her she just smiles and puts her little hand next to her cheek, and then you can't help but smile at her. We are so very blessed!

Yesterday we had a little party for her. My stepmom made an absolutely beautiful doll cake. Milk and egg free of course! Although nervous mom here had the Epi-Pen in her hand just in case. Hope loved the cake. Of course, she didn't know what to do with it at first, but once we gave her a lick she wanted more. Here is a little slide show of the party. By the way- Isaiah liked "present time" way more than Hope. She did however like the wrapping paper.

Slideshow of Hope's Birthday Party

Allegic Reactions

So My beautiful baby girl had her second allergic reaction this week. Everyone keeps asking me "what does it look like, what do we look for?", So I took a picture of it with my phone. Poor girl, she didn't even see it coming. Isaiah had been eating a sandwich which he was dipping in ranch dressing, well I guess he didn't clean his hands well enough. He walked up to her and rubbed her cheek and told her, "Hope you are soooo cute!" Poor guy he was just trying to be nice. I wish kids were born knowing what food had eggs and milk in it. We are still on a teaching process. I am just thankful that the EpiPen didn't have to be used. However, She was zonked out the rest of the day from Benadryl! I just pray everyday that she grow out of this. I can't imagine what would have happened had she actually ingested it! AHHHH! Oh and she is also allergic to mango.....along with Milk, Eggs, and Kiwi. The list just keeps growing!
See those horrible red spots with hives (growing by the second) inside them. And her poor cheek just swelled up!
So one afternoon things in the house got real quiet....this is how I found Hope. Isaiah said, "Mom, I just wanted her to play with me, so I got her and put her on my bed and gave her toys....I think she likes it....She's fine Mom!" I just don't know how she didn't scream when he picked her up, she always screams!!!!
Isaiah put all his animals downstairs and sat in the middle of them and said, "Mom, this is my family...would you like to meet them." So cute! I just love the things he says.

Swimming

The kids went swimming in the little wading pool today! They absolutely had a blast. Here are a few pictures!

I don't know how to rotate the picture, so you'll just have to tilt your head to the side! So sorry!
She's much happier in the pool than on the water playmat!
Isaiah is so excited because Hope is starting to play with him now!
Can you tell she is teething!!! Everything goes in the mouth!
Summer is flying by and the kids are getting so big! I just thought I would post these pictures before I forgot! Isaiah is being extra lovey this week. He has been walking around the house giving everyone hugs and kissing Hope's owies! Hope is walking around when we hold just one of her hands now. She'll be off and running before we know it. Also we found out she is allergic to Kiwi. So now we have an egg allergic, milk allergic, raspberry allergic, and kiwi allergic daughter! Any advice???

Summer Fun

I bought the kids a water playmat for the backyard and we took it out this weekend for the first time. Isaiah absolutely loved it. Hope not so much...she put one foot in and screamed. I think the whole block heard her. Aparently she likes the toasty bathwater much better! Isaiah probably would have played in there all night except we started to flood Grammy's lawn, so I thought we should probably turn it off. So much for us obeying the watering guidelines (Yes, we have watering guidelines here in the desert...drought land.) I don't think mom will have to water her lawn for the next month or at least till we bust out the playmat again.

Ryan held her up in the air and she put her hands way up and smiled, but that was ya know the milisecond before the flash went off! They never do the cute stuff again once you bring out the camera.
Here is my mom and Isaiah watching the fireworks. My brother was kind enough to save some fireworks since I didn't get to see them on the 4th. Although it was his birthday, so I don't think he saved them just for me, but it's nice to think that. They were all legal of course..hehehehe!
Yesterday, Isaiah hit his chin on the coffee table. I just couldn't resist taking a picture of his little face. But it's all better now...after Lightening Mcqueen ice pack and SpiderMan bandaids of course! What happen to just needing "mama kisses." He is growing up too fast.

The 4th of July

We had an absolutely fantastic fourth of July. We took the kids to my Aunt's house. I worked the night before, so I woke up early and we went to the BBQ for a few hours and then I went back to work. I missed out on the fireworks, but thanks to my awesome photographer (aka Husband) he captured the moment for me. Isaiah was so excited to swim. Uncle Mark took him into the pool since Daddy still can't swim yet till he gets his stitches out and mommy didn't swim because she had to work. Isaiah was extremely proud of himself because he had his little floaty on and he could "swim by myself."

Love those chubby cheeks!
"Life is so much better with SpiderMan mom!"
There go his hands...He flaps them like a little bird when he gets excited! We love it! I think he liked the fireworks just a little!
I love the expressions on his face....wish I could have been there to see them!
The kids had so much fun! Isaiah couldn't stop talking about all the colors the fireworks turned. Oh and by the way....never seen so many babies born on the Fourth! They were making fireworks themselves. I am convinced that those abstinence billboards were created by L&D nurses!!!! J/K

Busy, Busy

The Merkel house has been very busy this week! Ryan had knee surgery on Friday. He had a BIG piece of cartiledge removed that had broken off his knee when we had our car accident in April. Did I mention it was BIG???? But the doctor said that it was a miracle because where the piece had come off, it was already healing itself. He said he had never seen anything like it before. Yes it was Miraculous...an answer to our prayers. Because if they had to repair that, he would have been out of work for weeks...Unpaid! God is so awesome! Here is Ryan two days after surgery, livin it up because everyone is waiting on him...and by everyone I mean Nurse Cari! What can I say, I kinda love the guy!


I was trying to get Hope to look at the camera, but she got so excited that she started laughing and looked away. Look at those super long eye lashes. She is now saying, "saiah." So she calls him all the time. She also said, "Meme" (my grandma), and "Mami" (for Grammy, my mom). She also stood up by herself last week, but hasn't done it again since, what a tease!

"What Mom, I am not touching anything!!!"

Isaiah feed his cousin Alex at Sunday dinner. He was so excited. All week he has been talking about it. He even said, "Mom, it's ok to have little babies in the house!" Soon enough he will find out how much he really likes it because I will be taking care of this little man when Mom goes back to work. I am so excited! I just love being an Aunt!