Catch UP!!

It's time to play catch-up!!  Let the games begin...

In February, for Ga Ga's birthday, the kids and I met up with the my Mom and Dad in Dallas.  We stayed in a hotel, ate a birthday dinner at Macaroni's, went to the Aquarium as well as heritage park, where you see us here on the front porch of a 100 + year old restored home.  We had a great time just being together.

You should know that this is mostly what we've been up to lately...adding a room onto our house.  But this is a topic for a whole other day.  But I won't mention it here without giving infinite amounts of thanks to Pop Pop (Joey's Dad) for all his hard work on our behalf.  We're LOVING the extra space!

My great friend Zeffy came for a visit over Spring Break in March.  It was so great to see her.  The kids got along marvelously after almost 2 years of being a part.

We had a GREAT time!  Here's Isaac with Olivia!

After Zeffy left us we drove down to Dallas to meet up with our friend Abby, her little sister Olivia and her parents Mary and Ben.  It was, once again, great to catch up with old friends.  Becky and Trevor Hunt and kids joined us too.  But I'm horrible with a camera so I don't have very many shots.  

We went to Six Flags for one whole day, stayed up way too late at night talking and visited the Stock Yards in Fort Worth.  Mary and I squeezed in some shopping as well...you better bet we didn't skip out on that opportunity!

At Six Flags, the guys karaokied {sp??} your body is a wonderland for us ladies.  We were in stitches watching them make total fools of themselves.  They got really into it and it was hilarious!!

Isaac rode his first BIG roller coaster.  He climbed aboard bravely with Daddy to "test drive" it before Georgie and I went on together.  When the end came he had a grin on his face but advised Georgie of it's begin too scary!!  He didn't recommend it!  But he was a good sport and proud of himself for trying it.  

I had to include the photo of naked jumping on the hotel bed!  woo-hoo!!

Happy Easter!  Here Isaac is with his friend Ben Foster at the base Easter egg hunt.

Georgie and her boys!

Georgie can pump herself in a swing now!!  And she's very proud!

Our favorite Easter gift ever??  Klutz' face painting book.  I would highly recommend it!

Georgie was hilarious with her snow queen persona.  She kept fanning her arms out and gently flicking her wrists in slow motion as she pranced about the house.  She felt so absolutely beautiful!

For Joey's birthday we invited over some friends for a simple taco salad and key lime cheesecake.  Here are a few of our smaller guests, who, by the way, LOVE Joey;)

I'm not sure if this was the end of one of our sleepovers but here I am reading the Bahr kids a story, right before they have to go home one afternoon.  We've had quite a few sleepovers this spring and it has been so much fun!!

Isaac has been scaling up on his chores lately!!  Here he is with the vacuum, wearing a smile!  What a great attitude!

A bad picture because only our zoom lens works right now, this is the twin size bed that I finally finished for the kids.  I'm really happy with how it turned out!  With strict adherence to the "no jumping on the bed" rule, I hope it will last long enough to be an heirloom!  

Okay...now I can begin life as a regular blogger again!  Gee, I've missed it!

Daddy plays the guitar....

One of my favorite things about Joey's fathering are his guitar skills.  Every night, he plays one requested song for each kiddo and they sing along. (more if he's in a real rock-a-billy mood!)  Joey feels self conscious if I'm in there so I get to listen from outside of the room, usually working on the computer or doing dishes.  I imagine him nodding his head to the beat, face squenched and contorted in true rocker fashion....something he wouldn't do if he knew I were watching.  Every night he gets to feel like a star.  And Georgie and Isaac get a homegrown star performance.   Its a glorious combination!  In fact, in the background at this very moment he sings..."I'm a creep/I'm a winner/What the 'heck' am I doing here?/I don't belong here..." (these aren't primary songs people;)

My point in recording all of this is simply to record a few of Isaac's favorite songs of the moment.

Friday I'm in Love by The Cure....he knows all the words
Won't Back Down by Tom Petty
Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash (this one has lasted a while)
She Loves You by The Beatles
and
Waltzing Matilda, an Australian Folk Song

This guitar singing tradition was handed down by Uncle Bob.  Joey loved his visits to 1 Leeward Glen with Rocky, Cary, Amy and Shaun.  He remembers Uncle Bob strumming Puff the Magic Dragon for them before bedtime.  It was an easy step to begin doing something like this for Isaac from almost the moment that he was weened.  The tradition continues.  Thanks Uncle Bob.

Georgie Thoughts

After a shower this evening Georgie and I were hanging out in the bathroom, she singing a song, and both of our heads wrapped in a towel.  Randomly, Georgie asked,

G:  "Mom how did they do it?"
Me:  "Who, honey?"
G:  "Heavenly Father and Jegus...how did they make us like this?"
Me:  think, think, think..."I don't know babe....but its marvelous isn't it."
G:  "Yea"
Me:  After a few seconds, "How do you think they did it?"
G:  "I think they should make us without hair."
Me:  "Really, but hair makes us pretty...you're blonde hair is so beautiful!!  How would you be without that beautiful blonde hair!  How do you think they did that?"
G:  "Well, they got the milk man and they told him to make it.  And the milkman said, 'I make your hair blonde and and he made you're hair brown because thats what yours is."
Me:  inner giggles;)  Ahhhh, the mind of a child!

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!