Happy Halloween!

Here are some pictures of the ward halloween party that I was in charge of.  

I had a lot of helpers and it turned out really fun!

My little Batman and his pink poodle...can you tell that's what she is?

Before we put her ears on we sprayed her hair pink.  At this point I began to wish I had made her a rock star...there's always next year;)

Yes, I know, my face is WAY to green.  But that's what happens when you don't do trial run.  

Remind me NEVER to do this again:)

Georgie wandered around aimlessly during the games because I was sooo busy getting things organized and Joey wasn't there yet.  She stole peoples candy, settled into a corner somewhere and sucked on the packages until sugar began to seep through.  About 10 minutes after this picture was taken, her entire costume was shredded and she no longer appeared to be anything of consequence....That's my girl!

Cute Little Girls!

Here are some of the games we played:

Action Shot...go Batman!

Our cute friend, Savannah, bobbing for apples.

Ring-Around-A-Pumpkin

Fishing Pond

The Mummy Hop

Donuts-on-a-String

Here's Georgie bobbing for apples!  (and cutting in line:)

A smiling face fresh out of the germ bin!  Isaac said his favorite game was bobbing for apples!

We took off for Houston the very next morning at 8am!  Here is my Mom and the kids during one of their many "snuggle and books" sessions!

On the side of the road on a gravel hill after a potty stop...I forgot to rotate all my pictures...sorry!  Happy Halloween everyone!

THANK YOU, JOSH, FOR THE CAMERA!

Once Again

Once again, I've lost my camera. Today I just decided "to heck with it, I'm not going to find it so I'd better just write what we've been up to in words:

Tonight is our ward Halloween party which I am in charge of. Isaac is going as Batman and Georgie as a pink poodle. Isaac says tonight he is going to be Luke Skywalker in Black but on "real Halloween night" he will be Batman. I'm sure glad he has a wild imagination so that he's not making my buy him two costumes. Georgie's costume is just an idea I copied out of Family Fun Magazine. I made it once (it requires no sewing and is made out of pink bath puffs) the way the magazine tells you to and when I did a trial run, she had it all ripped apart in about 10 minutes...That's my Georgie. That's what I get for leaving her alone with it. With her track record I should have known better. So I made it again in a more secure fashion...hopefully this time it will stay put at least for one evening.

Two weekends ago we went to Papa and Gagas house. Bryant was in town for one final farewell before he takes off for Singapore. I had a picture story of the entire weekend on my camera but...as I said, it's lost. We carved pumpkins, made sugar cookies, talked, laughed, ate and played at my parents duck pond. It was really fun. Bryant, Dad, Joey and I stayed up late talking one night and then my Mom stayed up with us the next. We had some good talks. We saw Grandma Nina, Horace and Jamie alot too. We also got a visit from Aunt Reta and Aunt Kathy. Aunt Reta brought Isaac and Georgie quite a few toys. She always does!

The following week Isaac had the week off of school so I tried to spend a lot of time just being with them. We went to the duck pond, went for bike rides, went to the park, had friends over to play, watched movies together, read lots of books etc. The kids are at a great age. Most days I really enjoy them!

I wish could video tape Georgie's every minute. She is just so darn funny...her mannerisms, sassiness, curiosity, mothering nature, and even her complete and total defiance of my every command just make me want to laugh. I wish I could stick her in a jar and preserve her just as she is. And Isaac is just growing up so fast. Sometimes I feel like he's just my friend...not my baby or little boy! He has grown into such a big helper. He shares so well with his friends, LOVES school, has a great imagination and is quite the little artist. He loves riding his Spiderman bike, dancing to the Spiderman song, dressing up in his Batman Costume (he wears it every day...but lets his friends wear it when they come over), making his 5 baskets, Star Wars, reading books etc. Oh and I can't forget how much they LOVE watching movies...much to our dismay! Star Wars and Superheroes are ALL the rage at our house right now. Georgie even plays "lightsavers" with him. I downloaded the Michael Buble version of Spiderman a while ago and Joey must have been displeased because I soon found a Ramones version of Spiderman on the Ipod. I turned on the Michael Buble version and Isaac said..."Mom, that ones for Wussies." Wonder where he heard that?

Well, I need to go begin the costuming process for tonight. I've got a few more things I need to get together at the church before hand as well!

Renewed Determination

This weekend was general conference.  I still have the Saturday morning session to catch up on but we are thoroughly enjoying renewed determination to be a little better in all that we do.   I fasted last week in preparation for this conference, putting that age old wisdom to the test:  Come prepared to conference with a question having fasted and prayed and you will find peace.  I did that.  I'll go ahead and reveal that I've been struggling with feeling the spirit lately and have spent a lot of time wondering just where God was in his love for me individually.  I wanted to know what I could do to better meet God half-way so that I could feel Him.  

I did get some peace and did feel there were things that I could be doing better to allow my Heavenly Father to reveal Himself to me.  I love Elder Bednars talk about prayer and expressing gratitude for what we are blessed with, in my case, when he does reveal himself to me though it may seem very small.  I have spent the last three nights giving prayers of only gratitude and I do feel that has been a blessing to me already.  I also am trying to give more meaningful morning prayer, sighting a specific goal for the day.

Tonight in Family Home Evening I was assigned the lesson and this was our theme.  I showed the kids a picture of Elder Bednar and explained a little bit about his talk.  Everyone chose something to work on and we promised to pray for guidance in this each morning and report to our Father in Heaven each night.  The kids colored a picture of them doing this goal.  Here are our goals:

Daddy:  Speak with more patience and a kinder tone to the kids.  And to come home from work in a good mood.  

Mommy:  Speak in a more patient and kind tone, being slower to anger.  Savor the moments of having my young children, showing more love to them always. 

Isaac:  Be nice to everyone, always.  (his exact words)  Make 5 basketball goals each day.

Georgie:  Be nice to everyone, always.  (she idolized her big brother!)

I love conference!  Who doesn't need an occasional weekend of self-help skills spoken from the pulpit by extremely wise men!!  I dare say...no one;)

Hi, My Name is Georgie

Hi, my name is Georgie Rose Merback and I am 2 years and 5 months old.  It is Friday and my Mom decided to follow me around with the camera for one day so that you could get to know me a little better.  I thought that was a great idea, for the most part!  I am nearly perfect at saying cheese and smiling for the camera!

Here I am with a dirty face and messy hair, my usual appearance because I LOVE to play in my backyard!  I wish I had a picture to show you the great big hug my big brother gave me this morning when we dropped him off at school.  That made me feel really special!  And all his friends said goodbye to me too!  I'm so big!

This morning my friend Landon and his little brother Ashton came over to play.  We had so much fun.  We chased each other around and up and over the back of the sofa and laughed and giggled while saying "Let's go again, okay Landon?" in my best mommy voice.

Here I am running!  See how fast I run with my hair blowing behind me!  I like to call myself SUPER Tasha! (from Backyardigans)

And here I am trying to be a little mommy to Ashton and steal his pacifier.  

My big Mommy doesn't like it when I do that to the little kids, but I just want to 

try it for myself just one little time!

Then Landon and I fought over my kitty, Dutchess, that Gaga gave me but I DO NOT share my kitty!  But Mommy made me share it:(  Darn that mommy!

Then I went to Music Makers. I love Music Makers.  I go every friday at 11am and we sing, dance, play with friends and read stories!  These are my friends Sam and Amelia.  Mommy says I play really well with them.

At Music Makers we even get a chance to sing a solo.  Here I am singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little star for all my friends.  I wasn't scared one bit.  I sing really sweet and quiet.

I just had to wear my "Wendy" shoes today.  I LOVE shoes more than almost anything else.  Mommy told me these were like Wendy's shoes from Peter Pan and I've loved them ever since.  Actually they used to be my big cousin Reese's which makes them even more special!  

But, here I am in someone else's shoes.  If there's ever a time where you can't find me (it happens about 10X  day) it's a safe bet that I am in a corner somewhere trying on someone else's shoes.  It doesn't matter how big or small, I'll try 'em!  And I'll want to keep them too!    

Here I am crawling around on the floor and meowing like a kitty during dance time at Music Makers.  Isaac and I play kitty cats a lot lately. 

Here I am playing in my sand table that Mimi gave me with kitty and 

my big brother/best friend, Isaac.   I just woke up from my nap.  Notice here that I have on my Mommy's shoes!

Then we went for a walk and I collected trash and sticks in my wagon.  It has been a great day!  But I better hurry home because Daddy will be there soon!  And, my friends Savannah and Katie are coming over.  I've been waiting for that ALL week long!

Bye!

The Fruits of Our Labor

Atleast 4 FULL Saturdays have gone into this project and we're still not done.  But mostly!  Enough to go ahead and put up a post!  This was HARD work...blisters, sore muscles, cuts and hundreds of mosquito bites all came as a by-product but we enjoyed it.   
Can you see my little shadow on the front door!
Here's our new fig tree and, behind that, a little bed for our new Blackberry bushes that I planted today.  I can't wait to eat those in the spring!

I looked out the window...

and what did I see..

Jordie and Leia, our two friendly Great Dane neighbors!

I constantly have drool all over my front and back door windows from these two, AWESOME, horse-sized dogs.  The kids love them.  They call them "the girls".  And the neighbor calls himself my hairy, house-wife friend!  He stays at home and does medical transcription so we hang out quite often.  He even keeps a stash of super-hero popsicles in the freezer for the kids.  His name is Josh.  He also takes Isaac with him sometimes when he takes "the girls" for a walk around the neighborhood.  He came back laughing one time when Isaac kept telling him his tummy hurt and then began saying how hot he was and then went on to say, "I think a popsicle would make me feel better."  I had to explain to Isaac that from now on he is to simply ask Josh for a popsicle instead of going on and on with little white lies to try to manipulate one out of him!  He's been putting that advice to good use ever since!

Isaac and Georgie were playing naked in the backyard while I was finishing up the paint job (I had no idea they were naked...the little exhibitionists:).  They knocked over a storm window that Joey had left propped against the porch.   They then proceeded to add a water hose to the mix...glass, water, naked...sounds like the ironing bit from Brian Regan!  Isaac, of course, slipped and broke the glass with his bum and managed to somehow get a deep slice on his upper back.  The story is pretty long but basically we heard him screaming bloody murder from outside.   Like the good parents we are, we ignored him for about 10 seconds because he so frequently cries "wolf" that we figured it was nothing big.  He then began to scream, "I'm bleeding" and that got my attention!  Blood dripping down his back and body, I instantly felt guilty for rolling my eyes at his previous blood curdles.  But he was such a brave boy and didn't cry at all when Joey put a stitch in his back without any anasthetic (how do you spell that:). We just keep thinking how much worse it could be.  But, thankfully he's all better now and has given us a great story to tell about our neglectful parenting skills!  And if that's what you're thinking, keep your comments to yourself;)

Our karate boy in the natural stance.

And here Karate Kid is teaching Georgie his tricks!  I just have to add that the best part of seeing Isaac in Karate is watching him bow at the door...hilarious!  I didn't know they did that but it is soooo funny! 

Before and After

I PAINTED MY

NAUGHTY, NAUGHTY {knotty} PINE:)

Before.....

AFTER...

Here's Joey jammin' on the guitar with Elder Urich whom we LOVE by the way!  He comes over quite often and loves playing JOey's guitars.  Here they are planning a musical number for sacrament meeting...Come Thou Fount!
This is the new Elder, Elder Young but this gives you another good look of the other wall.  I"m still not sure about the color but I think when I get some pictures up it will come together for me.  Mom, where are you?!

You can see more before pictures in my August post but you get the idea here.  The next big project will be left for Kerry to do.  Tile and a new sliding door!  Most people would just jump in and figure it out for themselves, but why when we have Pop-pop to do the job! (I'm sure we'd ruin it anyway)