Potty trained... officially!

Lyla is officially potty trained!! WOO HOO!!!! I couldn't be more excited! She just woke up one day and decided that was the day and we have been wearing panties ever since! For over a week now and only a handful of accidents :) I'm so proud of her and how well she is doing! She gets so excited when she goes on the potty and so sad when she has an accident and gets her princess wet.. its so sad but the cutest thing ever because she will tell her princess sorry in the saddest voice and then get so happy and say "maybe try again mom!" Love this girl! She makes being a mommy so easy! :)

My happy little man

Trig is now 7 weeks old and is as happy as can be! The best times are the mornings right after he eats.. he is ALL smiles and i love love love it!! He still has his little bit of fussy time in the later evenings but not as bad as before and all his cute smile make up for it! He is such a fun little guy and we are so blessed he joined our family! He's starting to enjoy his sisters face 2 inches from his a little more now and she is absolutely obsessed with him! Anytime someone holds him she gets so sad cuz "Its Lyla's turn mommy!" :) ..

just a few of my favorites I've caught :)

Lyla Mae Merrill

This is a post just for my princess. I was pretty good at blogging for her whole first year. Writing down her firsts, posting lots of pics, writing down fun things she was doing each month, and then I got lazy! and I missed a whole year of "remembering" my baby girl! I did a quick catch up post but want to do a more thorough one of my baby girl turning 2! I can't believe I'm writing this post and its already 6 months past due.. soon I'll be writing her 3rd birthday post and that just hurts my heart a little bit. I love love love watching her grow and learn and develop, but I just want time to slow down! the song by Kenny Chesney 'Don't Blink' is way more touching to me now. She is the funnest, sweetest, smartest, WEIRDEST little girl I know! She is definitely an original and I wouldn't have it any other way! My most favorite thing to do is put her to bed in the evenings..because she snuggles me! we sing songs and laugh and talk about our day and what we wanna do the next day and its the best. Her favorite song to sing is twinkle twinkle and I love to see the temple! Around the time of her birthday she was obsessed with The Lorax movie (and still Gabba of course!) and we watched it probably WAY too many times for mine and her sakes (I was prego and super sick for the record). So I decided to throw her a little Dr Suess themed party. We just had a few friends and cousins come and had everything themed around dr suess books. Lyla had such a good time and everything turned out so cute! Some things about Lyla...

-knows her abc's

-can count to 10 on her own and 20 with a little assistance

-loves potstickers! everytime I ask her what she wants to eat no matter what time thats her request :)

-loves her blankies..and has to lseep with at least 2 of them at a time 

-loves her cousins

-loves to color

-would watch movies all day if I let her

-went from the lorax to monsters vs aliens to lilo and stitch and now monsters inc

-still an amazing sleeper

-wears size 2T clothes

-still in diapers.... (currently working on it!)

-wears size 6 shoe

-LOVES to swim (but doesn't love the splash pad or sprinkler..weirdo)

-LOVES Jesus and the temple.. and asks to go almost everyday :)

-says maybe for every suggestion she has.. "Maybe get some candy more, k mom?!"

-can shake her booty better than any other 2 year old I know :).. obsessed with music

-Loves her daddy..gets so excited to see him and loves to facetime him when hes at work

-Loves her brother and is the best big sister ever..a little smothersome..but the best!

We love our princess to pieces and can't believe how fast time has gone. I'm so grateful for the sweet spirit she bring into our home and the joy she brings to my life! I'm beyond grateful I get to be her mommy and spend my everydays with her! :) Now for the pic overload.. just some of my favorites over the past 2 years of my baby girl!!!

Life with 2..

As I sit here after getting Lyla to bed, cleaning up dinner and the kitchen, folding a load of laundry, and now watching my new baby sleep..I'm full of a whole bunch of mixed emotions. Life with two kids has really thrown me for a loop. Don't get me wrong..I LOVE my kids, more than anything in the whole world. But its hard. Having one kid was a hard adjustment because everything is so new, but when its your second I kinda thought "hey, I can do this..I've done it before!" wrong. Everything is so much harder because now there are 2 to take care of.. 2 to make sure are fed..2 to make sure have clean diapers.. 2 to make sure got baths before bed.. 2 to keep alive.. and 2 to drive me mad :) Lyla was and is my princess. When Tommy was in paramedic school all last year he was gone A LOT which meant it was always just me and her. She was my little shadow and we were always together. Therefore she got spoiled and always had my attention. I got lucky and feel like she has always been a pretty sweet kid, was very polite, played well with others, and slept amazing! Then came Trig.. Now i'm having to figure out how to split my time and attention to make everyone happy.. Lyla acts out more often..her naps for the most part suck.. and I feel like shes just bored. Then there's Trig who is always eating or wanting to be held or needing to be rocked and put to sleep. I feel like I'm in survival mode. and I hate it. I've turned into the "NO" monster and it breaks my heart. All day I feel like all I say to Lyla is no.. don't do this, don't do that, stop, no, don't, leave, later... no no no.. It just makes me feel like such a horrible mom. Because 2 months ago I gave her all the time and attention in the world..and 2 months ago I wouldn't be yelling at her for what she does now because I had more patience to deal with it and talk to her about it instead of just snapping. I don't know how people do it and look like they have it all together. Especially the ones with 3 and 4 kids.. I applaud you! I feel like for me, adding a third won't be as hard.. although they will now outnumber you.. at least there are 2 that have each other to play with and keep each other company..and now you have already done the add another and hopefully have a better understanding of how to manage your time and sanity. Who knows..maybe we will just be a family of 4 ;) jk mom!  But then there's also the hubs. I miss him! He works all the time and when hes actually home I feel like I still don't see him because one or both of the kids need my attention..(or I locked myself in the bathroom and cried for a little bit.. jk..kinda..) It amazes me that we have made such perfect, beautiful babies, but I also really miss having him all to myself! I am not trying to complain because I am so grateful for my life and for my kids and for the opportunity that heavenly Father has blessed me with to raise such sweet spirits and the opportunity Tommy has given me to stay home with them and raise them..just tell me it gets easier..please?! :)

August 4, 2013.. a name and a blessing

This past Sunday our Trigger boy was blessed! He was blessed by his daddy who did such an amazing job and gave him such a sweet blessing! And luckily, bubba didn't make a peep! It was such a special day full of family! I am so grateful to be a member of our amazing church..to have the knowledge of eternal familes..and to have the spirit in our lives 100% of the time. I love the gospel :) Here are some pics of our cute boy all dressed in white :) and everyone who was able to share in his special day!

Here goes nothing..

Well.. after over a year of not touching this thing..I decided (with much inspiration from my SIL Shawnie) to start blogging again. I'm not a good journal keeper. I wish I was, but I've never been good at keeping up with it. Same goes for my blog but its the closest thing i have to a journal and so much of life has passed me by without writing down some memories from it so here goes nothing! Too much has happened to play catch up so I'll just go over the major points from the last year!...

-We got PREGO! We found out October 17, 2012 (my moms birthday!) I went to the dr right away and got my blood drawn a few times to count my HCG levels and got on progestrone right away. Was super sick again for about 22 weeks..boo! But then we found out we were having a boy! We were completely shocked! and obviously so excited ;)

-Tommy finally finished his year of hell in paramedic school and graduated!! I am so proud of all his accomplishments. He worked SO hard and it has finally paid off. Poor guy was either always at work or always at school.. all I know is he was never home :( It was awful and we couldn't be happier to be done with that crap!

-Baby girl turned 2! :( This is so bittersweet for me. I LOVE how much fun she is, how much she interacts with us now and how much personality she has..but I miss my baby! She was loving The Lorax movie so for her birthday we threw her a cute Dr. Suess themed party with a few friends and cousins :) She loved it!

-Tommy got hired on with Rural Metro as a reserve Firefighter! Finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.. but then not too long after he got picked up FULL TIME! My babes, a FIREFIGHTER! He has worked so so hard for this and I can't imagine a more deserving person for the job :)

Now for the latest and probably biggest :)... Trigger Boy joined our family! June 27, 2013
and heres how the story goes...
I was scheduled to be innduced on Wednesday June 26th at 5am. The hospital called me at 4am and said they were too busy for me and just to stand by until they call and say they have a bed ready for me. So finally at 10:30pm we decided to just go to bed... And of course they call us at 12:30am :) I had laid Lyla down for bed at Kim's house so we were able to just get up, get dressed, and head down.

We got admitted and into a room at about 2:00 and got started on Pitocin at 2:30 and was dilated to a 3. Tommy passed out on the couch while I tossed and turned and watched The Hunger Games and every once in awhile was able to doze off. My dr. came in at about 7:20 and checked me..STILL at a 3.. WHAT! I was completely expecting it to be another all day event of laying in bed doing nothing like it was with Lyla. Well he broke my water and seriously that next contraction was AWFUL!! and they only got stronger and stronger! My nurse came back in at about 8:30 and said I was at a 5 and if I wanted an epidural to tell her now. YEP! Got my epidural at about 8:45 and she had me lay with the big yellow peanut ball in between my legs. They kept losing his heart rate cuz the monitors kept slipping (dumbest things ever) so she had me roll over to the other side. A few minutes later I felt this weird dropping sensation and had no idea what it was! With Lyla I had so many doses of my epidural that I was completely dead weight.. I felt no pain, no pressure.. no nothing! So this was new to me.. it happened again..and then again and thats when I finally decided I needed to tell my nurse. She came in, asked what was wrong and when I told her she said "Maybe your complete!" I laughed,.. She checked me an hour ago and I was at a 5..no way was I ready. wrong. I was at a 10! She called my doc and asked if I wanted to do a practice push to remember how.. I started to push and she cut me off immediately! Said he was too ready and we needed to wait for the dr. Dr. Layton walked in my room at 9:45..had just enough time to get dressed and told me to push when I felt pressure cuz my contractions weren't showing up well on the monitor. So I said ok im gonna push!.. pushed once, started to push again when the nurse said look down..as I did I saw him pull out my perfect baby boy! One push and he was out! Trig Thomas Merrill.. born 6/27/2013 and 9:55am  He was perfect..with lots of strawberry blonde hair..still not sure where that one came from :) We are smitten and totally in love! Lyla loves her brother ..maybe too much :) Our little family feels complete with him here!!

Today he is 6 weeks old..already :( Seriously time goes by way too fast and it breaks my heart. I read some poem the other day and it said something about never getting today back. That tomorrow they will be a little older and a little bigger and to cherish today. I bawled of course. Im trying to be a better mom. I'm trying to be more active and involved with Ly. A little less phone and tv and movies and a little more quality attention time with my babies because tomorrow they will be a little older and a little bigger.
At one month Trig is:
-10 lb 9 oz!
-wearing size 1 diapers
-still can fit in some newborn clothes but mostly wears 0-3 now
-starting to smile intentially at us!
-starting to coo just a little :)
-usually goes to bed anytime between 8-10 (around bedtime seems to be his fussy time so whenever I can get him to sleep it happens!) and then I feed him between 10 and 11. Then he wakes up around 3-4 then again around 7!
-nurses like a champ

We love this little man so much! My friend Marci took the CUTEST hospital pics and My cousin Christie took the CUTEST newborn pictures of him and our family! So get ready for a picture overload :)

Yesterday was Tommy's 27th birthday! We spent the day getting free food to share :) then my sweet mom babysat both kiddos for us so we could enjoy a nice dinner at The Keg (delish!) with my cousin and his wife Wade and Christie. It was so nice to have some one on one time with my sweet hubby. I've missed him! Happy Birthday babes!

Well..I think that about covers the basics up until now. until next time...