Halloween This Year

It's not secret to anyone who knows me well that I love Halloween. To me (and I have always lived in Texas) it symbolizes the start of Fall, and the beginning of cooler weather that usually stays cool. It means that I get to decorate my house with one of my favorite colors orange and that we get to take a family trip to the pumpkin patch for pictures/the picking out of the perfect pumpkin. Below is our very first Mezger Family pumpkin and yes I made our dog Boss pose with it.

I also really like to dress up in costume. Every year in college my mom made me a costume to wear. In order I was a pig, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, a 50's girl with poodle skirt, and Larry Boy from Veggie Tales. So it should come as no surprise that when we found out we were pregnant with Bailey I was so excited that her birthday was in September because that meant we got to dress her up her first year. That first year we were pirates. Bailey was going to a parrot, but the day before Halloween the costume we were going to borrow fell through.

Last year as you might remember a group of our friends got together and did the Wizard of Oz.

So after a year of thinking about the perfect costume (yes, Katie Foshea I know you are laughing) we have decided to go as Sesame Street characters. Bailey as Elmo, Luke as Oscar the Grouch, and myself as Cookie Monster. We bought Bailey and Luke's costumes, but my extremely talented mom is again making my costume. Pictures to come.

Something fun that we have decided to start this year is trick-or-treating for can goods. This is something I did every year in college with my church, and I really like the idea of having something to take the focus off of candy. While Bailey is young we plan on trick-or-treating for can goods the week of Halloween, and still get candy the night of. It will also give Bailey a chance to wear her Halloween costume more than once. Basically, Luke and I have the desire to make feeding the hungry a focus for our family while teaching empathy and service to others. As defined by Wikipedia empathy is the ability to share and understand another's emotions and feelings, and it is often characterized as the ability to "put oneself into another's shoes". Since unless something changes drastically for us Bailey will never know what it feels like to go hungry. We thought that collecting can goods for the local food bank combined with serving food in a shelter will atleast create an awareness of the hungry. For the future, we are also looking for a family mission trip with the focus of helping the hungry to get a view of what this looks like globally. My friend Chelsie liked the idea and is going to do it with us, so we will let you know how it goes!

Lastly, I thought I would share a poem that was found in my MOPS newsletter last year that I really liked. It's something that we plan on incorporating while carving our pumpkin in the years to come.

The Pumpkin Gospel

My big round pumpkin shows me God gives us a clean heart.

He will forgive our mess-ups. He offers a new start.

The slime that fills the pumpkin, all stringy slippery goo,

reminds me of my insides before God makes me new.

When He says "I forgive," I smile a great big grin.

Come look into my pumpkin: he is all clean inside.

And outside he is wearing a smile that's big and wide.

God's love is like a candle that shines from inside out.

It's beaming deep within me, and so I now can shout.

To glow like my big pumpkin and have a nice clean heart,

ask God to please forgive you. You'll have a brand new start.

By Mary Manz Simon

http://www.marymanzsimon.com/

Bailey's Birthday Continued

We already had the family tradition of a special meal for the birthday person on their actual birthday, and this year we extended that to include Bailey. Since Bailey can't tell us yet where she would want to go, we decided to take her to our favorite place to eat out (when we lived in Central Austin)- Phil's Ice House. After some great food, and burning lots of energy on the playscape it was time to head home to open her present from us. Check it out- it's not actually a bike because it doesn't have pedals, but she can learn balance, and how to turn the handle bars to let her go the directions she wants to. There are a couple of different names I have seen it called- Strider, Glider. To her it's her bike. Right now she just walks with it, but eventually she will learn to kick her feet to make it glide and go faster.

Lastly, I just wanted to share these pictures- look at the difference a year makes. The first one was taken just before her 1st birthday, and the second one just after her second birthday.

Thank You For Calling HEB Pharmacy, This is Melissa, How Can I Help You?

I just thought I would give a quick update that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my new job as a pharmacy tech. To give a little background- I worked in my dad's pharmacy while I was in high school and really enjoyed it, but did not wanted to be a pharmacist. So, I never thought I would work in a pharmacy again after getting my degree in education. However, being a stay-at-home mom was a difficult transition for me from teaching which I also loved, but I didn't love the hours I had to work. This summer I decided to do something about it and became a part-time pharmacy tech. For me it gets me out of the house, challenges me intellectually, and gets me around people with no chance of mom talk. I have my wonderful husband to thank for this opportunity because he watches Bailey for me one night from 4-9, and Saturdays.

Yes!!!

Just a quick little tidbit that I thought I would share. Luke has been very frustrated lately that Bailey won't answer a question with yes or no, but repeats a major word in the question.

Examples:

Luke: "Bailey, do you want to go outside?"
Bailey: "outside"

Luke: "Bailey, do you want to watch Elmo?"
Bailey: "Elmo"

Luke: "Bailey, do you want to go bye, bye?"
Bailey: "bye, bye car"

However, today for the first time she answered a question with yes and all it took was some ice cream. Luke went between asking Bailey and I if we wanted ice cream and I kept getting some because I would answer the question with yes, instead of Bailey's ice cream. Let's just say that it didn't take her long.

Bailey's Birthday Party

So this past Saturday was Bailey's 2nd birthday party. She shared her party with her good friend Abby who was born on the same day. Her mom, Chelsie and I, had a blast planning this party. The theme was Sesame Street and here is a look at the festivities:

Fun balloons.

More decorations- The sign says "This party is brought to you by the letters A & B and by the number 2".

The cupcakes. I tried to take a picture where you could see Elmo (red), Big Bird (yellow), Cookie Monster (blue), and Oscar (green). Chelsie and I have to thank Emily, Allie, Chelsie's mom Kelley, and Ben's mom Cindy for helping with these. Got the idea from here.

We originally were planning on having a park party, but we got rained out and ended up having it at my house. This was one of the last minute activities we thought up to help keep the kids entertained- it was an Oscar the Grouch Trash Toss.

The kids collecting trash for Oscar.

 

Mommy and the birthday girl.

Singing Happy Birthday to the birthday girls. We decided to give each kid a candle because they always want to help blow them out anyways. Also, to get the desired color on the cupcakes, we had to use alot of dye. None of the parents wanted to do any extra laundry or ruin any clothes so shirts just came off.

Did I mention there was alot of dye in the cupcakes?

Bailey with Grandpa Mark about to open presents.

Opening presents. I really don't have any great pictures of Bailey and Abby together, but hopefully you can see that they did have matching outfits. Thank you Kelley!

Reading a new book with Gigi.

I think everyone had fun. I heard from a couple of people that their kiddo took longer than normal naptimes after the party, including Bailey. Thank you to everyone who was able to come.

13 1/2 Weeks and Counting!!!

Yes we're pregnant and Bailey is set to be a big sister March 9th. This is probably the biggest reason the last couple of months have been so hard- I have been one sick mamma. Luckily 2 weeks ago I could tell a huge difference in how I feel. Check out Bailey's new shirt (it's actually borrowed from a friend, but new to us).

Yesterday at MOPS I grabbed a blue rubber duckie from our very trustworthy sonogram bag of pink and blue rubber ducks (as seen in the video). I know it's early to be talking about this, but we have decided to be surprised about the gender of the baby so your guess is going to be as good as mine. Although I will note that the MOPS sonogram bag was 100% right with my group last year- either way we're happy!!!

Luke's Theory About Monsters

Luke thinks that if you teach kids early on that monsters are friendly then they won't be scared of them. Basically he wants Bailey to introduce herself to any monsters she meets. We are currently in the education phase of his theory, which involved exposure to nice monsters like those on Sesame Street, and Monsters Inc. We will update you on how things are going in this area as they happen.


So last night was Family Movie Night at the Mezgers. Bailey did enjoy Monsters Inc, but she was so distracted by the air mattress and snacks to watch the whole time. Here we are about to start the movie.

Fourth of July at the Ranch

 

Luke is thrilled to have his brother in Austin (they just moved here)!

 

And a trip out to the Ranch and the Slab were a perfect way to celebrate the Fourth of July.

 

 

The slab wasn't really that cold compared to how hot of a summer we have been having. Here are just a few pictures of us enjoying our almost 2 year olds eating watermelon & blowing bubbles in the water.