Diversión de familia en México!

The second week of December we flew to Cabo with some Marquis family members. We had mild weather, a relaxing agenda and children who didn't like to sleep. 

Some of the highlights:
quick, easy flight
homemade guacamole everyday
spa/gym
playing in the water with our children (Elle's first time in the pool and she loved it!)
celebrating 8 yr anniversary with Adam
golf cart rides to the beach
Having Adam as our own personal translator 
Chris waking up early one morning to find Merrick on the kitchen counter (next to the knives) eating the homemade tortilla chips

Where do I begin?

Wow, I've taken a long break from blogging. I'm overwhelmed by everything that's happened in the last five months that I know I can't document it all with pictures but here is my attempt with a catch-up.

I guess the biggest news would be our newest (5 months ago) addition, Elle Marquis. I always love to hear about everyone's birth story but I would need a whole separate post for that. 
In summary: Started feeling inconsistent contractions July 5th. Went out to dinner, put Merrick in bed and finished packing my bag, hopped in the shower anticipating what was to come. By 1:30am I was on all fours timing my contractions. 3:30am I woke up Adam and said it was time. He was still a little skeptical so I humored him with a couple more contractions and then told him that we really need to get this show on the road. By the time his dad came over to stay with Merrick it was 4:30am. We were at the hospital by 4:45 and Elle arrived at 6:11am. 

I really don't know why I'm posting this, I guess I have no shame! This was me in full labor, annoyed that Adam even asked me to smile for the camera.

8 lb Elle and sweaty mama

All clean and cozy

Merrick's had a little adjusting to do, he and Elle seem to have a love/hate relationship. Merrick's nursery leader asked him if he had a new baby sister and his reply was "yes, trucks".  I guess a new baby meant new trucks for him. 

Our first day home from the hospital

Merrick was already testing the limits

The rest of July we had my mom and my mother in-law visiting. My mom stayed for 10 days and I needed her every second of those days.  
Adam left for Hawaii for a week when Elle was less than 2 weeks old so my sister in-law Courtney drove up and stayed for a couple days to help out.


August:
The first week of August my dad, Lorie and sister Katie came to visit, so we blessed Elle the Sunday they were here as well. 

A couple days after my family flew home, I left Adam with Merrick and me and Elle went with the Marquis girls over to Ojai Valley Inn and Spa for a girls weekend. Bringing Elle along was fine but next girls trip I plan to NOT have a baby in tow and truly enjoy a nice weekend without children.

Elle laying out poolside - 6 wks old

September:
My sister Laura came to visit over Labor Day weekend
My dearest friend Lauren flew out the day after Laura left. Then Adam went out of town so I really appreciated all of Lauren's help, as well as our chance to catch up on each others lives.

The day after Lauren left, I drove down to Orange County with the kids and then my sister in-law Courtney and I took our children to Palm Springs for a few days. Merrick and Caden had fun running around together all day, wearing each other out. I realized how spoiled I've become with the cooler temperatures along the coast. 

 

October:
Celebrated Adam's birthday with friends over Conference weekend
Drove down to OC again one weekend but this time to see a concert with family. My sister Adrienne flew out to babysit (call me crazy but I wasn't quite ready to leave both kids with a teenager that wasn't family)
My mom flew out to see the kids over her fall break from school. I just realized I have no pictures from either of my mom's visits...hopefully there are pictures on her camera. 

Halloween!!
Merrick fully understood Halloween this year. So much so that when people would open the door Merrick would walk right into their home to get the candy. 

Vampires and a bat

November:

Walk for Autism to support our nephew Marcus

Merrick's cousins snapping a photo while he's dead asleep. Yes, he had his leg up like that and fell asleep.

Thanksgiving:
We drove down to Orange County for the holiday weekend. The actual day of Thanksgiving started off with the Dana Point Turkey Trot followed by a fabulous feast. The rest of the weekend was spent with family, shopping, and enjoying the beautiful weather. 

The week after Thanksgiving my sister Adrienne and my sister Allison and her two sons came to visit. I was excited to show them around Santa Barbara but Merrick was not so excited about sharing his toys or the iPad. We still had some fun the best we could with 4 children. I know Elle liked the attention from the boys!

Sadly, this was our best attempt at a photo of all 4 kids. Even sadder, this was the best picture of Merrick.

Elle was the princess of the week for sure

The famous astro-turf hill at the zoo

I'm finally caught up! We head to Cabo this week and then it's off to Utah for Christmas. I guess I'll have another update in 5 more months so until then....enjoy this one.

Our Latest Happenings

I was going through my phone looking at all the pictures of Merrick and realized I should probably upload them before he deletes them, which he has a tendency to do. Since I don't have anything specific to blog, here are some photos of the last few months with Merrick!

I had just bought a bag of dried blueberries and gave the bag to Merrick to snack on while I ran some errands...he pretty much ate the whole bag in one sitting!

 

There's a classic bbq restaurant here in SB called Woody's that we go to and it's obvious that Merrick loves ribs!

We have a season pass to Disneyland but the summer is pretty much all blacked out, plus there is a baby on the way, so Merrick and I did one last Disney trip in May. This is the only picture I took that day/evening, Merrick wanted to ride that carousel at California Adventure all night long, we rode it at least 5 times in a row. Merrick and I also rode the big Ferris Wheel for the first time, he loved it and I had one hand on him and the other gripping the cage - the older I get the more afraid of heights I've become.

It's that time for baby showers! I had two baby showers the beginning of June. One with friends and family and one with my ward. Here I am at the church baby shower being spoiled with wonderful "girlie" gifts. Anytime I'm given a baby gift Merrick starts to open it and says "truck in there". I probably should feel bad that it's never a truck but he has so many I don't think he needs anymore!

My wonderful sister in-law Ann helped so much in throwing both my baby showers. It's so nice having family around that are always so willing to help out and make me feel extra special!

Merrick and I visit the Santa Barbara zoo on a regular basis - it's the best zoo! It's not too big but still has some great animals to see, a train to ride and an awesome play area for kids. For some reason Merrick took a liking to this tortoise which means sitting on it and giving it a hug every time we're at the zoo.

Playing in the egg shell at the zoo.

Another great resource we have here is the Nature and Science Museum. Right now they have a great butterfly exhibit that I went to with a friend and her boys. You walked into the mesh/tented area and were surrounded by all different kinds of butterflies. There were beautiful flowers and water features every where and the butterflies would just land on your shirt or shoes, even some people's heads. 

I definitely had to give Merrick a little lecture before hand about not touching the butterflies and he did a great job at listening to me. Of course the photo is of the least colorful butterfly there.

I was down in Orange County this past weekend and we headed to Salt Creek beach on Saturday. Merrick was not interested in looking at the camera, this is the best I could do. He had a great time playing in the sand, looking for sand crabs, running from the waves and getting pushed over by them!

I actually let my sister in-law snap a photo of me in all my glory at 37 weeks (the next day I actually turned 38 weeks). This is my only photo so far of my belly so I figured I should at least have one to document. Yes, that is Merrick starting his meltdown as we were leaving the beach...no nap + sun = tantrum! Nothing like Uncle Chris' swimming pool to make him feel better. After the pool we drove home and he was asleep instantly and stayed asleep through LA's traffic (sometimes I miss LA, then I sit in traffic and change my mind quickly).

My nephew Caden covered head to toe in sand and loved every minute at the beach...he is completely fearless! Too bad his mommy never gets a chance to actually sit and relax.

Easter

Coloring Easter eggs with Daddy and "Uncle Nick"

Surprisingly Merrick's eggs turned out the best!

Running away from Grandpa after lunch at the Country Club

Getting captured!

I just had to post these two pictures! This is how I found Merrick one morning and had to laugh...the new generation of children. Merrick's #1 use of my phone is to watch videos of himself.

We had a nice, relaxing Easter weekend. Friday Adam and I had a date night, Saturday we colored some eggs, went to the beach and stopped off at our pool for a little jacuzzi time. Sunday, we have 9 o'clock church so the hunting for eggs and presenting of the basket was done after church and took up a total of maybe 5 min. I distracted Merrick while Adam hid some eggs outside then while Merrick hunted for eggs I put together his basket. We're so on the ball and plan ahead!

Then it was off to the club to meet Adam's dad for brunch...definitely happy I didn't have to cook! Later that night we went over to a friend's house to watch the Laker's play (and probably loose, I can't remember).