Dennis the Menace Park

Stone is in love with trains like 99% of most little boys

Stone's favorite slide, I love it too...gives your bum a nice little massage : )

Another awesome slide, why dont they make more parks this cool?

Even the water fountains are cool. I think they have similar fountains at the Hogle Zoo.

Posing with Dennis

So glad I was able to take my boys here. Hopefully it will not be the last time.

Monterey Bay Aquarium with Jaden

Stone absolutely loves his cousin Jaden. This year was the first year they really could play and talk and understand eachother. We had a sleepover and quite a few playdates with him while we were visiting California. Its such a shame we can't get these two boys together more often. Becky was able to get us all in for free which was an added bonus : ) Yeah for friends with hook-ups. Such a beautiful day in Monterey one of my favorite little beach towns ever.

A lazy dat at Grandma and Grandpa Sowards

Merrick gets more and more unhappy as these pictures progress ha
Stone gets more and more interested in his belly button as the pictures progress.

M almost three months

Seeing old friends and meeting some new ones

I got to meet and hold this adorable bundle Liam and see Christine very briefly. Doesn't he have the best nose, it reminds me of the Who's from Dr. Suess. How can you not love that sweet face.

Christine looks amazing after just having her baby. Wish I could say the same, oh well. Merrick is sporting his high waters ha. He is about two months older but he looks like a giant compared to L

Mrs. Pedrotti my next door neighbor meeting Merrick. I used to walk to her house and visit with her and play with her 5 cats (I used to be an animal person I guess : ) when I was a little kid. She loves kids and always wanted more but she was only able to adopt one back in the day. Such a neat lady. I will miss seeing her familiar face.

Bille was so nice to drive from S.F. and hang out and go on a walk one afternoon. I met her adorable daughter Nico for the first time, and fell in love.

Happy Hollow

Stone went on every ride at Happy Hollow. The only ride that I remember was the dragon ride, so glad it was still there.

Stone loved feeding the goats, even let out a few( with help of another kid) and my dad had to corral them in. lol

Anything car related Stone wants to be a part of it.

Quality time with Grandpa. My mom was so nice to watch Merrick so I could just focus on Stone. Luckily we went when we did with all the rain we had. It was such a fun day.

Family dinner at B.G. and Tiff's, Unfortunately I didn't take too many pics and the ones I did were fuzzy. My cute momma, Brandon and Merrick.

Reef, Beau, and Stone. It was so fun to see how fast took to his cousins even though he doesn't see them all very often. They are all so good with him and they love the baby too of course.

The only snapshot I got with Me and the busy bride. I wish I got a full pic of her dress it was so pretty.

There has been alot of changes since my last post: a move to Round Rock, TX which is about 25 minutes north of downtown Austin, new job for Spence, new ward, new friends, two growing boys and a whole lot more. I will do my best to catch you all up to speed : ) Less than a week after my last post I went out to California to see one of my best friends Heather Howard get married in Soquel, CA. Spence drove out even though he could literally only stay two days but we were ready for a road trip and I knew I could not make a twelve hour drive with an infant and toddler. The drive went surprisingly well and I enjoyed good tunes and great conversations with my husband. We stayed in Hollister with Jason the first two nights because my parents were showing their house. Stone literally threw up all over Spence right before he was going to get dressed for the wedding and he had a crazy high fever. It can be pretty scary when Stone has fevers because his body does not fight them very well with his condition. We stress dosed him and he just wanted to take a nap with Daddy. So Becky was so awesome to be my date for the wedding. Unfortunately I missed the whole ceremony but was there in time for toasts and reception...better late than never. Heather looked gorgeous and it was so great to see her family. Then on Sunday we had a big family dinner with 4/6 kids and it was such a blast to get together and laugh and see how much my nieces and nephews have grown...that is my heaven being with my family. I wish we could all get together more. It rained about 16/23 days I was there so no beach days for us, although the days I went to Monterey and S.F. it was gorgeous. I got to see some good friends, and I kind of was more of a homebody because my parents sold their house in Almaden while I was staying there. I felt very nostalgic the whole time I was there just so many memories so much growth and love in that house. Just knowing it was the last time in my childhood home was so bittersweet but I know my parents are doing what feels right for them just like they tell us we need to do whats right for our family. Anyhow here are some pics from California.

Brothers

I love this little face he just keeps getting cuter and bigger everyday.
At his two month check up he was 11lbs 7 oz and 23.5 inches. He is already grown out of most of his 0-3 month jammies. He is such a happy, pleasant baby and is smiling all the time. He has made the cutest baby noises from day one, he is quite talkative for a little guy, and he can also be very serious. He is a total porker and will sometimes be gnawing on his fist 30 minutes after I have fed him. He has only spit up once or twice which is amazing. Stone spit up all the time and still has a way sensitive gag reflex. Stone will laugh so hard he throws up sometimes. Merrick still wakes up 2-3 times a night but I am feeling a little less of a zombie lately...I am getting used to toting around two boys and just loving having a bigger family now.


Merrick also rolled over from tummy to back at 5 weeks. He does it almost once or twice a day but has learned if he is not wanting to roller over he just lays his head to the side and rests. He never cries during tummy time just a few grunts :) He definitely does not spend as much time o his stomach as Stone, since everytime I put M on the floor Stone thinks it is fun to try to jump over him. Other than almost jumping on Merricks head Stone is an excellent big brother and is actually very gentle with him which is surprising for my little ruffian.



My big boy I can't believe he will be 3 in less than a month. He is talking up a storm, and has quite the attitude these days. Fun, fun, fun. If I ask him to do something he will say, "I'm busy mom." or "Just a minute." He says the word Stupid way too many times a day and trust me we have tried everything...He even likes the taste of hot sauce. This boy is as fun-loving, and cuddly as it gets but he is sooo stubborn. I can tell already he is a tricky one to discipline. He cracks me up everyday and there is never a quiet or dull moment with him around. I love this boy and hope him and Merrick are best friends someday.

Merrick working and Stone relaxing

Merrick's Blessing-February 20, 2011

This handsome little guy is already for church. Stone wore the same outfit for his blessing when he was 3.5 weeks old, and Merrick was 2 months at his blessing. I was so worried that Merrick would not fit in the outfit especially the shoes but it all worked out, phew.


Don't you love his spooked look? He makes this face all the time it cracks me up. I just had to try the matching hat/bonnet on him just for fun. He didn't wear it during the blessing and he kicked off one of his shoes right when I handed Spence the baby to bless him, so he was chilling up there with one shoe off and one shoe on, ha , oh well..so not important to what was really going on at the time.

We tried to get a few snapshots of the fam at the luncheon, but obviously it was not very successful. Stone was ticked we made him stop playing with his cousins for a minute to take a few pics. I can never seem to keep my eyes open and this was about the only time all day that Merrick was actually awake. I wish we had taken more pictures throughout the whole day and more pics of all our family there but we didn't. Okay lets be honest I was too busy eating and relaxing :) I really need to get better at documenting these important events.

The best one we got!!!

Jaden and Stone really took to eachother on this visit. Jaden is about 15 month older than Stone and now that Stone speaks very well they seriously were having the best time together it was so cute. One minute they were playing guns and the next minute I see them like this holding hands, adorable. Stone is such my shorty I love it... I also love their cheesy grins and animated eyebrows. Yeah for cousins! The food was great we just did four different homemade soups, two salads, my dad's rolls, and Texas sheet cake and banana bars for dessert. So simple and so delicious on a snowy Sabbath day. Oh I won the airhead of the year award...So I sent out invites to mostly family and a few friends and I accidentally switched two of the numbers for the address to the church. So some of our friends who don't go to church busted their butt to get their by 9 a.m. and totally missed the blessing...and two of his cousins who were going to help bless Merrick did not make it in time from Provo area also. I cannot tell you how awful I felt and apologized to them and Spence about a million times. The good thing was that everyone who was able to come eventually showed up. There was a snowstorm that morning so we did not have as many people come as expected but maybe it was a good thing with my address mistake. The funy thing was that the address I gave had almost thesame coordinates to another church building, ha. Only in Utah!!

A little of this and that

Merrick at 2 months (taken with mycamera phone)


Zach, Aunt Tam and Merrick getting cozy after Merrick's blessing

I love sleeping babies

My Dad loves babies, especially his grandbabies. He held Merrick for hours at a time and of course Merrick was loving that. I hardly used his swing when my parents were here ; )

Cute one of Grandpa and Stone the night before Merricks blessing. Stone LOVED that Grandpa would play swords with him and that he got to beat Grandpa almost everytime. (I don't let him win all the time)

Valentine's Day and a few snap shots

So for Valentine's Day I got Spence a picture frame that says "The Boys" but I realized I didn't have any decent picture of the boys to put in the frame. Of course I waited until the day off V-Day to take a few pics and they were both not feeling it...plus my memory card was almost full on my phone so for only taking about 10 shots and for my average camera they turned out okay. This top one was the winner with Merricks spastic arm and all, ha. Spence is so sweet and sent red roses, chocolates and lavender bubble bath from 1-800 flowers I think. He is so good to me, even though he knows I think Valentine's Day is way too commercialized.Spence's parents took us all out to Texas Roadhouse for dinner and they watched Stone while we went to a movie. Merrick slept through the whole movie, it was great.


Stone kept screaming too big, he's too big. He did not want to hold or have his brother leaning against him...and poor Merricks head was bobbling everywhere.

Merrick just about to cry. You can really see how different there eye colors are in this pic and their coloring in general. Stone is our mexican and Merrick is our white boy. It is crazy to see how much Merrick looks like Spence when he was a baby. If I had a scanner I would show everyone. We still can't tell if his eyes will be blue or green but Stone already had super dark eyes at M's age.

He totally has Spences mouth it is soo cute.

I took this one with my phone...I just think he looks so cute here. He is about 6-7 weeks in this pic.

Stone and Merrick

Stone is loving being a big brother. He has been really good with him and very protective. H always says "hold it, hold it" when Merrick makes the tiniest peep. He gets mad sometimes when anyone besides Mom or Dad holds the baby...like full on meltdown.

Merrick at just over two weeks

New Years Eve

We look so tired! My chapstick looks like a milk mustache ha!
My Aunt and Uncle stopped by for a visit earlier in the day and brought Merrick some gifts. It was so nice to see them. That evening we watched a few movies including the new Nanny McPhee which Stone loved and we thought was pretty cute also.


Merrick snoozin, he had a little eye infection so his eyes are all glossy.

Stone had to wear these pajama bottoms that are way to small with the shirt he was wearing that day. My mom is on the couch. She is a trooper and slept on that couch for almost 3 weeks. We made a bed by putting the two couches together but I am sure she missed her bed at home.

Spencer's mom got the men in the family a balloon animal kit. Spence rocked at it. He started with a dog or "easy" animals and he made me these two lovebirds by the end of the night. See I told you we had a wild New Years!

I just had to throw in a picture of my Mom since we didn't take a whole lot of pictures in general when she was here. I love her so much and I can never thank her enough for all the help she gave us at this time.