A Spontaneous "I LOVE YOU"

You know those moments when you're face to face with your child, talking with them or tickling them and you are just overcome with the NEED to tell them that you love them.  There's that pause, that look in your eye and then you say it.  Well this happened tonight.  But Georgie was the one making the confession.  She about melted me...turned my heart into a defenseless little puddle.  We were cooking together, she turned and looked at the side of my face staring into the pot and paused.   I could feel a moment coming on so I turned to look at her.  I expected anything to come out of her mouth.  From "what are those spots on your face" to "you're ugly" but instead, with a smile she grabbed my upper arm, squeezed and said, "Mommy, I love you."   I might as well just give her a box with my heart in it...its gone and completely at her mercy.  THanks for that G!  I love you!

Georgie...with Fever

We're disease infested at our house.  A five year old with 103 fever and migraines makes a mother want to cry, right?  And for five days too.  Poor little guy.  So last night when Georgie fell asleep on the couch at 5pm we began to worry.  Sure enough she woke up around 7 with a fever and asking us to turn off the lights because her head hurt.  We drugged her with some Motrin, put her in a pull up (darn her bed wetting regression) and put her back to sleep in my bed.  After a second dose of Motrin 6 hours later her fever finally seemed to go down a bit...100 or 101'.  With 10 hours of sleep already under her belt at 1am and, despite her ongoing fever, she began chatting with me in her princess voice.   "Mommy, could you get me some water please."  "No, Mommy, you shouldn't leave me to go to the bathroom, I'm too sick...lets just snuggle for a wittle bit."  "Mommy, did you know that drinking water stops the throw up from coming up?"  I wish I could capture her inflections and tone that so define this child.  She tries so hard to be 40 even though she's not quite 4.  After a bit of this I rolled over and asked her to please go to sleep.  A few seconds later I hear this, "No, Pinky, don't run away, your mother will miss you so.  Stay with the princess.  Pinky is so sad.  She misses her kitty cat. And she's so sick."  She's playing make believe with her fingers.

For journaling purposes I've been trying to get some video of Georgie talking and playing to herself.    I've concluded that  her make-believe world is camera shy.  This child talks to herself incessantly, "reads" books to herself making up completely senseless stories as she goes along and is ALWAYS wearing tights and some sort of fru-fru fashion.  And she has also become quite the giggle box.  The slightest bit of humor sets her off into laughter and she is constantly flashing us this, "I-know-you'll-give-me-anything-I-want/I'm-so-cute-and-you-just-adore-me" grin.  She scares me.  And I just want to eat her up all at the same time!  Am I creating a monster?  Out of insecurity I asked her preschool teacher the other day how she behaved at school.  The teacher had never said anything and I was wandering if she was holding out on me.  "No," her teacher said, "she's always good...never even been to time out."   She's good at home too but I sense an inner OLIVIA boiling inside of her.  Soon she will emerge in full force, full of fish stories, sassiness and a "dare to boss me" attitude.  She is the prissiest little Tomboy I've ever witnessed.  And the dream world she lives in now, I fear, will shatter her when real life hits her at 25.  I've decided to start telling her the REAL Grimms fairy tales to slowly acclimate her to disappointment.  But I wouldn't change her for the world.  But for the world, I would stuff her into a bottle to keep her exactly as is, 3 forever,...full of dreams, prissiness and the softest, smoothest, cuddliest little body that God ever conjured up!

Growing Baby #3

Thank you all so much for your congratulations and well wishes!  It's fun to have all my far away, blogging friends in on our little secret!  I've gotten a few emails with some questions so I thought I'd answer those here.

For starters our due date is July 29th.  We are not finding out what we are having because we thought it would be fun to try that out once.  We're really excited about doing it that way although I think a little cheat will be calling my name throughout the entire ultrasound appointment!  I'm going to have to use all my will power not to look for the tiny little bum.  Joey's not even going to come with me.  He thinks he'll spot the boy part if it appears and he doesn't want to ruin it for us.  If you that have done it this way and have some tips for us, let me know.

As far as names go, Joey gets the final say on this baby since I named Isaac and Georgie.  Be prepared for something like Lance Armstrong Merback or Charles Darwin Merback if its a boy....okay I'm totally kidding!  Once again, this is going to be really hard for me to relinquish my final say that I've always been kind of a brat about.  I do have veto rights though.  YOu'd better believe that I would NEVER give that up!

I'm feeling pretty good now.  At 17 weeks most of the nausea is FINALLY going away but it still lingers there on empty stomachs and wierd smells.  This pregnancy has been by far my worst as far as sickness, tastes, smells, moodiness and all that goes.  My New Years Resolution was to live by the phrase, "Live In The Now" and I've done a pretty poor job of it the last few weeks!  But I'm repenting!  Over the last few days I've consigned myself to getting fatter, not liking the taste of chocolate (because of my wierd taste buds...(oh how I miss its pre-pregnancy deliciousness) and requiring an 8:30 bedtime and I think I'm ready to sit back and enjoy!  Most likely this is my last time to do this so, by golly, I'm going appreciate the miracle of it all!

Joey and the kids are excited.  I told Isaac pretty soon after we found out, reminding him that it was a secret.  Oh boy did he take that seriously.  He was so good at keeping the secret, whispering to me in public places and not even talking about it in front of Joey or Georgie.  I think he thought he was the only one that knew about it;)  When Georgie encounters a pair of tights that are too small or a dress for her doll that she really likes she brings them to me and tells me to save them for the baby.  She's positive it's going to be a girl.  Isaac originally professed a desire to have a boy but when I told him that we weren't sure and that it could be a girl he changed his tune and says he doesn't care.  The other day he said he wanted it to be a girl because he wanted to name her Seraphina!  I'll turn his suggestion over to his Dad...we'll see what he does with it!

Thanks again for all of your congratulations!

xoxo
Ash

Happy Valentines Day!

On Sunday afternoon Joey asked Isaac who is Valentine was.  He said, "Mommy".  To which I replied, Yay for me!  Joey responded with a splendid idea.  "How bout Georgie be my Valentine and I'll be hers and we'll all make Valentines for eachother." (I didn't get jealous because Joey and I had celebrated the night before while the kids slept over at there Altus Grandmother, Ruth's house;)  The fact that Joey came up with this idea made my heart melt.  That alone was the perfect Valentines day gift for me!  I was so excited!  He and Isaac went into the front room, armed with paper, stamps, markers and a computer and went to work.  Georgie and I scrounged up our own supplies and began mapping out our own Valentine ideas for our handsome men.  After about 20 minutes of creating and several warnings from Isaac to "not peek" or "don't come in yet" we joined up together to swap Valentines.  Joey gave Georgie a kitty kat card that said "Be Mine" and you can see fairly clearly the one she made for Joey, complete with the spelling of "ValentiMes" since that is how she pronounces it.  Inside she wrote 5 things she loves about daddy and sealed it with a lipstick kiss.  Her 5 things were:

1. I love him

2.  He hugs me

3.  He kisses me

4.  He plays guitar for me

5.  He reads me stories

Isaac colored a picture of a dragon for my card.  It was breathing out yellow fire that said, "Be My Valentine."  He chose a fantastic color scheme and he was so proud of it!  I folded him a paper airplane and decorated it with some stamps and equations like, Isaac + Mom = Love etc.  I tell you that only because he got such a kick out of it.  It was such a fun little activity and it only took about half an hour.  I think we'll be making it a Valentine tradition until someone becomes too cool for it;)  HOpefully that NEVER happens!  I love doing fun family things like this ESPECIALLY when someone else comes up with the idea.  It seems to go over so much better when I'm not the one pushing it.  I don't know if it's because the pressure is not there for me or if things run better when they're done on a whim or what but I do love it!   Happy Valentines Day everyone!

XOXOXO

The Merbacks

p.s.  If you're wondering why my face is so chubby in that picture (and I'm sure you are because you are so completely aware of my pound gainage;)  and you don't already know why...I'll tell you...drum roll please...We're having baby #3 at the end of July!  Yippee!!  Woo Hoo!  And yes, we are very excited! 

The Mother of All Storms

We just survived the Mother of All Ice Storms.  (I stress the word "ICE" so as not to invoke supreme amounts of anger in Katrina and other Massive hurricane survivors...but we were without power for 8 days!  That's pretty huge!) And some Altus folks are STILL without power!  The scenery was truly surreal here.  There were fallen power lines and branches EVERYWHERE!

Don't you want to lay back and take a siesta in this summery hammock.

Our poor little frozen Christmas tree!

Here Isaac is loving the crunch of ice encrusted branches beneath his feet.  Please note Georgie's tutu, tights and pink boots even in this weather.  She never misses a beat!  And I swear to you, I do not dress this child!  This is ALL of her own doing!

Needless to say, we did a lot of lounging in sweats for eight days.  We sat around the fire, colored, played games, snuggled, had friends over, went to friends houses, stayed up late etc.  So much of it was FUN!  There was a tinge of sadness when the power began to come back.  It meant our life of friends, Joey home from work and leisure were over.  Of course this is easy for me to say because we had a generator, a gas fireplace and a gas stove.  We weren't exactly suffering. 

Something I will always remember about this experience was how people came together.  Everyone was calling to check up on everyone else, offering a warm place to sleep, hot food, babysitting, a visit, the sacrament and the list goes on.  The community really came together here.  It was a great experience of serving and being served.    

Seven days without power will always be a great story to tell!  

It was really nice just being together (except for that one day when all we did was fight with each other;) And now its back to life as normal....bring it on...along with a little sunshine, please!

Christmas in Park City

Our REALLY white Christmas in Park City!

 Two ski buddies, Isaac and cousin Max.  These two guys tore it up on that mountain and LOVED every minute of it.  Isaac has become pretty much independent out there, which is great but I'm most excited about the fact that he really LOVES it!  When they got home the second day after being gone from open until close I told him how impressed I was that he stayed all day.  "That's because I LOVE it Mom, I really LOVE it!"  Ooooh that is music to my ears!

Some sledding going on on our hill...Isaac and Reese.

And this picture just makes me want to get Georgie a puppy!  She is such an animal lover and I am just mean for not helping her develop that!  Look at her little face just LOVING and connecting with that dog.

I like this one;)

And I really like this picture because there we are...that's all of us!  The whole family.  We dont' get many of these.  And the best part about this picture is what was going on while we were taking them.  My Dad started out the session by yelling out funny things for us to say to keep the kids attentive and smiling for the camera.  He would say...Chuck E Cheese or snow Skiing or something silly.  These comments sort of snow balled into random words that had caused tention between us throughout the week and before long I was yelling "Communism", Adam..."Socialized Medicine", "Obama", "Religion", "Mini-vans", "Google Scam" and we were all just cracking up.  It was good for my politically polar and opinionated family to laugh at ourselves.  The perfect way to wrap up the week!  Merry Christmas to all!  And more importantly, now, A Happy New Year...2010!

Christmas in OK

Christmas in Oklahoma

This year we got to enjoy two Christmas', one here in Oklahoma and the second at the cabin in Park City.   Here are a few blips of our first Christmas week right here at home.

Christmas Eve could not have been better.  It began with a virtual blizzard and 6-8 inches of snow.  Our Elf on The Shelf, Sparkle, had to head back to the North Pole to help Santa Prepare for his big night.  But before his departure he dropped off a note for the kids and a huge book filled with stories and pictures by our favorite author, Jan Brett.  We began our snowy morning by reading the entire thing, in our pajamas, covered with blankets!  I think that's my idea of a perfect morning...staying in bed for an extra two hours.  Gee, I'm such a go getter!

We spent the rest of the day cooking, watching movies, rescuing a neighbor from being stuck in the snow and then, finally, after much begging, building a snowman.  Georgie managed to sneak out the door in only tights and a dress...and she never once complained about being cold.  She should have been born into one of Jan Bretts stories about reindeer, mittens and snow loving trolls!  That evening the kids acted out the scripture story of Christs birth for all the adults.  They even sang us some Christmas songs. This was my first Christmas doing this (the manger scene) and I am hooked!

Kennedy and baby Easton

Isaac with his fellow shepherds, eager to herald in the baby Jesus!

According to the online tracker, Santa was already in Brazil when we left the Bahr's house.  We had some serious  sleep to get into if we wanted him make it down our chimney!  And I guess we made it because we awoke to this the next morning!

Joey put the bug in the kids ear that they were not to awake us (unbeknownst to me....I would have let them get up at 5 am probably!)  And they were so obedient.  We woke up to the sound of the playing pleasantly in their rooms.  After a good teeth brushing and some quick breakfast prep, we knocked on their door.  Which led to this:

Woo HOo!

Here Isaac is holding the snow globe that G made him.  It was a homemade Christmas.  Copying my blog idle, designmom, I decided to start her tradition in our own family...kids making each other Christmas presents.  It was a big hit.  The kids really got into it.  Especially Isaac.

Nice hair, right!

Isaacs gift to G was two little bags meant to hold her dance shoes that he decorated with fabric marker and stencils.  

Riding her pony, recently named Vanilla Lightning, with her pink guitar.  What a cowgirl!

Another tradition we began last year was that they each get a game.  Isaac was pretty excited about battleship!  G walked away with Operation.  After a glorious morning of unwrapping we settled down for some Apple Souffle and then played graciously with toys for the rest of the afternoon.  

It was an epic Christmas of utter spoiling.  Yea, we spoiled them this year...and it was so fun!