Just the Five of Us

Sunday, February 8, 2009

The Camden Aquarium

We took a trip to the Camden Aquarium January 20th. We had a great time! It was a Tuesday, so no one was there. The kids got the whole place almost to themselves! We had a great time walking though the huge tunnel that goes through the biggest tank. Sharks were swimming all around us, literally! It was so cool! Below, you'll see Jake giving a high five to one of the divers that was cleaning the tank and feeding the sharks. They actually throw the fish into the shark's mouth! Pretty cool.

Jon giving Lizzie a kiss as we check out "Dory"

The three of them checking out the turtles

The boys LOVED sticking their hands into several different tanks to touch sharks, rays, jellyfish, sea cucumbers, starfish, and an array of other sea creatures (Okay, I'll admit, I thought it was pretty cool, too!)

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Engagements!!!!

Lizzie's first MESSY picture. She really enjoyed the lasagna until it got in her eyes. Poor thing! Straight to the bathtub!

So, it's a big year for the Merkle family! We had Lizzie, Kristen and Chris got engaged, Scott and Laura found out they're expecting their first baby, and on New Year's Eve, Mr. Don proposed to Kimmy! Wow! Talk about your big years! (not to mention a ton of other milestones along the way) Our family is expanding and we couldn't be happier about the new additions and additions-to-be!

Here is Chris and Kristen:

And Mr. Don and Kimmy

"Mr. Bean" (Chris Nelson) and Kristen are engaged to be married Aug 22nd. They were visiting from Nashville, so lots of wedding plans were going on over the visit, including a bridal fair at the University of Delaware, dress shopping, photographer meetings, etc. Kimmy and Don are planning a possible March 2010 wedding, so they're just starting the planning process. It was great to spend the weekend with all of them!
We got them each a little engagement gift: wine glasses and a bottle of "Two Brothers" wine. Andy wrote a cute little note inside the card (well, Kimmy and Don's anyway :-), Kristen's just said, "see Kimmy's" )anyway, he wrote about the two brothers (Toe and Andy) who will be there standing up for their sisters, so you better be good to them and also that he was excited to have two new brothers join the family. It was typical Andy...witty and "tough guy-ish", yet sweet and sincere.
Thanks for a fun weekend, guys and congratulations to you all. We couldn't be happier for you. Oh, upon hearing the news that Kimmy and Mr. Don were engaged, the boys cheered and said, "Yeah, now we can call him Uncle Don and he can finally be part of our family!" I thought that was cute...and apparently, Don did, too. He keeps having Kimmy tell the story over and over to all their friends :-)

Cute picture of Jake reading to Lizzie.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

The Rest of December

Okay, I got lazy...or busy...or something...and never got around to posting the rest of these pictures from Christmas and the latter part of December, so without any more discussion, here are the pictures. I know that's what you really want to see anyway instead of my ramblings :-)

Darnel in his Phillies gear

Gab got the American Girl Mia (and a book)

Nat got an American Girl doll, too (not sure her name)

My sister, Jenn

Lizzie trying to give Daddy her pacifier

Swiper no swiping! Good thing Poppop's glasses are those "unbreakable" kind

Kimmy, Liz, Jake and Mr. Don

Mr. Don with the boys

It was great to get to visit with Gram and Pop while we were up in Jersey

Lizzie checking out her new hat

Jake trying out his new rollerblades. He caught on pretty quickly! I was amazed!

While I taught Jake how to rollerblade, Jon tried out his new razor scooter. With each of the boys having his own scooter now, we can take walks around the block and let them scooter as I push Liz in the stroller. They're too fast on their bikes :-)

Once Jake got the hang of the rollerblades, I went in and got Jon's for him to try. He did great, too! They both seem to have pretty good balance. Neither one really glides yet, but at least they don't fall down all the time! Since they both caught on so quickly and Lizzie was still napping, I even put my rollerblades on! It was fun!

Jake showing off his gingerbread house he made at school (he had me take pictures from every angle, but I'll spare you the rest :-) )

My best friend from home, Michelle, and I took the kids to Longwood Gardens for the day. It was gorgeous there! The kids had a great time and it was so nice hanging out with Michelle all day. Michelle's daughter, Tara is a hoot and is in Kindergarten this year, too, like Jake. They were busy snapping pictures all day!

Miss Lizzie "helping" Mommy with the dishes

Such a cutie.

Well, that gets me through December! Yahoo! Small victories, right? Today we had SNOW!!! Double yahoo! The kids and I had a blast playing outside. I'll try to post those pictures before February comes :-)

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Of Course he did!

Jon tearing into his first gift from Santa

Jake showing his fleecy T-Rex pjs

"ooh, looks like lots of good stuff up here (all Jake's gifts)!!!"

"Ahh, here's one with my name on it!"

A toothbrush!

Jon with a new Wii Cars game (his 2nd favorite gift...after the monster truck Jake picked out for him at his school's Christmas shop. He also got Lizzie some rubber duckies for the bathtub because they're big enough for her to chew on. ...isn't that sweet?)

Jake having just as much fun with the wrapping paper throwing as with the new gifts! Jake's favorite gift was the travel etch-a-sketch that Jon picked out for him when we were in line at Walmart! I love Christmas! (Notice Lizzie in the background chewing on her toothbrush!!!)

Jon opening a Trick Track set

They boys opening the game Sorry. Notice all the Hotwheels Trick Tracks...our basement is now Trick Track City!!! ha ha!!! And there's Lizzie again with that toothbrush!

BEST GIFT EVER!

Did Santa Come?

On Christmas morning, all the Merkle kids waited at the top of the steps until they were all ready and told they could come downstairs to see if Santa came. As we waited, Andy and I kept saying, we're not sure if Santa came since it was so windy Christmas Eve. We weren't sure if the reindeer could fly in such weather and if Santa was a good enough pilot (like Daddy) to land on the roof like he's supposed to. So, they were getting worried. Then, they weren't sure if they were good boys...well, good enough...to meet Santa's approval and be put on his "good boy and girl" list.

They came downstairs and checked the table first, where they had left the cookies. They were gone or half-eaten...a good sign...

Then they ran out to the tree, but no gifts! Well, no new gifts. Jon was obviously disappointed. But then they thought about Santa coming down the chimney and that he might have been too tired to bring the gifts all they way into the living room. Maybe they were by the fireplace (how they didn't see them when they were checking the cookies, I have no idea!!! ha ha!!)

"YES!!!!! Santa DID come!!! YIPEE!!!" Three happy kids, eager to open their gifts. "Come on mom, no more pictures!!!! Can we open our gifts, PLEASE?????"

Christmas Eve

Andy's Grandmom Dickson made this little sweater and hat. I put Lizzie in it to take her to the grocery store the day before Christmas Eve just to pick up a couple items. It took me FOREVER to make it through the store because so many people kept stopping me saying how adorable she was!!! I'm really not complaining. It was sweet and everyone was full of "Aww" when I told them that her Great Grandmother made it for her. Thanks, Mommom and nice work!

Andy's mom came down and picked up the boys the day before Christmas Eve and took them up to Woodstown for the night. They had a blast, of course and it gave Andy and I a chance to get the last minute Christmas stuff done.
We changed things up a bit this year and drove up to Woodstown, had dinner with Merkles and then went to the Christmas Eve service at the church Andy and I got married in, First Baptist Church in Woodstown. We went with Andy's family and then we all drove back to our house right from church. It was a lot of driving, but really nice.

At our house, we munched on some pepperoni cheese ball and crackers (thanks, Jamie Coldsnow, that's a fan favorite!!) and Christmas cookies. Then, we read about Jesus' birth from the Bible. Next, we read Twas the Night Before Christmas and Popsy Claus made his annual debut. Jon wanted no part of Popsy Claus, but Jake and Liz sure did. Lizzie kept staring at him the whole time. It was cute.

The boys picked out some cookies for Santa and sprinkled their reindeer food in the grass. Then we gathered around the piano and the boys played Away in the Manger (I labeled the keys with painters tape and wrote the notes in the book so they could learn...lessons in a couple years probably). Then Andy gave a pretty good performance himself. But we were all wowed with Poppop Dickson's jazzy number! Who knew he could play like that????? Awesome!

Here's Great Poppop and Great Mommom Dickson...aka: Wonderful Ed and GG (or GGM...for Great Grandmom. The boys gave her that nickname when they spent the day before Christmas Eve with them)