Making a Trip of It

So, there's a little more to the story of getting the minivan that I would like to share.

We actually starting researching minivans months ago, but after awhile of not seeing anything we kinda put it on the backburner. Well, after finding out we were pregnant and knowing we have an upcoming roadtrip to Trail West with Franny this July that we needed it for, we needed to get this thing done. Don't ask me why, but when searching Luke did not narrow it down by distance, so we became pretty set on a minivan that was in St. George, UT. Surprisingly, it was cheaper to fly there (thanks to Southwest's Wanna Get Away Tickets) and drive it back than to have it shipped. At first it was just going to be Luke flying up and driving back, but after a very generous offer from Kyle and Ali to keep the kids, we all of a sudden had 2.5 days to visit Zion National Park, the Grand Canyon, and then make the 18 hour drive home. Just a side note that if you know Kyle and Ali, then you probably know that Ali was 37.5 weeks pregnant and last Thursday was Kyle's birthday and they still offered to let us go. Franny was also a huge help with the kids and the Fosheas kept our third child, Blue. We are very thankful for such good family and friends!!! So here are a few pictures from our little adventure.

Arrival in Las Vegas.

I lost that dollar with 3 pushes of a button and quicker than 30 seconds. I also accidently took someone's machine, which is a big deal in Vegas even at the airport. The lady who I took it from had gotten up to take a phone call, but clearly let me and the person she was talking to know that someone took her machine and she was going to watch and see how much money I was losing her.

A ground level view of what we were going to be climbing later.

One of the many beautiful waterfalls thanks to it raining while we were there. Pictures just don't do this place justice- it was AMAZING, but we were also very, very thankful to Kyle and Ali for not only watching our kids, but sending us with their camera.

Hiking

Me on my belly looking over a 1,500 ft sheer drop off.

Angel's Landing.

Jokingly, we think this particular hike was Kyle's secret plan of getting Luke and I fired up about big hiking trips in the nearer, rather than later future, which worked.

Luke on top of the highest point.

Leaving Zion and headed to the Grand Canyon.

Grand Canyon.

I wished we had more time there, but it was just as grand as I wanted it to be and wasn't disappointed.

The sleeping quarters, thanks to the minivan, as we drove 18 hours straight through the night to get back home.

DOUBLE RAINBOW!!! ALL THE WAY!!! WHAT DOES IT MEAN???

After this video a couple of years ago I just can't see a double rainbow without laughing. Follow the link if you haven't seen it.

Mini Van Mama

This past weekend I join a VERY EXCLUSIVE club that I have ALWAYS wanted to be in and became a Mini Van Mama. Can you just read my excitement??? Really, it's not that bad and I will probably learn to love it, but I have learned my lesson to never say never. So without further ado, here's the black beauty....

Look for me cruisin' in style the next time you see me!

Why We Are Looking Forward to Thanksgiving

If you know me, then you might be wondering if I meant to write Halloween, but no I did mean to write Thanksgiving. Why Thanksgiving? Well you will just have to read to see. Here are the reasons:

1. Getting to really think about and reflect on what we are thankful for
2. Watching some Aggie football
3. Eating the turkey feast (Shout out to Robby & Luke on the deep fried turkey!)
4. Taking a nap after the food gluttony has settled in
5. Spending time with family
6. Watching the Macy's parade
7. Taking family photos
8. Enjoying the cooler fall weather that has finally come to Texas
9. Shopping the Black Friday Sales

but what your probably waiting for me to write and the whole reason for this post is something I saw today:

10. (Luke and Melissa's) Baby Mezger #3 is set to be born then!!!

In case you don't want to do the math I am 12.5 weeks (3 months) pregnant.

My Bailey Boo

I thought I would do a little spotlight on Bailey since it's also been a while, but where to start...

Bailey is my crazy curly haired, blue eyed, ACTIVE, observant, imaginative little 3 year old.

The first thing people usually say when they see her is something about her curly hair or her blue eyes. Her hair has definately gotten fuller, but the longer it gets, the tighter it curls so it has basically stayed at the same length since this time last year. And I must say that she really does have some beautiful big, blue eyes (but I am definately partial.)

She continues to be active or high energy, however you would prefer to say it, so we still do lots of bike rides, walks, swinging, climbing, sand box playing, and park hopping to help get out all of that 3 year oldness. Franny even started her swimming in April.

 She still very much loves her lion and other interests are cars, toy story, dinosaurs, and sometimes princesses. She really enjoys using her imagination to play for really long periods of time. A couple of months ago we had to take away most of her movies because they didn't have kind hand and kind words. Bailey in her innocence was just acting out what she was seeing on tv, which was not always appropriate. So, new favorite shows include Diego, Bob the Builder, Dinosaur Train, and Veggie Tales. We are still going to take her to Cars 2 movie out this summer, but her behavior has been better since taking away her movies so much so that we are going to stick our current plan with an exception every once in awhile. The hardest person for her to show kind hands with and have kind words is her brother. She can be very sweet and sharing at times, but they each need their space sometimes too- Bailey when she is playing and Blake when he is getting wrestled. I have seen progress in them actually playing together more and Bailey helping Blake with the McQueen car when he gets stuck.

Her newest thing lately is that she needs to know what's happening next, although the concept of tomorrow and tonight have been hard. First thing she will ask in the mornings is where are we going, then where are we going after that, and after that, until I can't tell her anymore at which point she usually informs me that maybe we are going to Abby or Emmy or Owen or Elijah's house. She also has my iphone totally figured out as far as music and games go, which is great in a bind, but we had to have a talk about how we don't get to use it all the time. And just a few days ago she figured out how to take pictures, although she still needs to learn how to put the item in the screen if she wants a picture of it like the picture below when she was trying to get a picture of Buzz.

Lately daddy has been working alot more, so we have been doing our rounds going to Mezger Homes sites when we know he's around. I don't think Luke anticipated this, but Owen and Bailey are definately in the Mezger Homes Junior Builder's club. She is also Luke's little assistant when it comes to the garden. She likes to report in to him if something is ready to be picked, needs watering, or if the birds/squirrels have gotten into the strawberries again.

On a sad note, she continues to fear monkeys and that they are going to get her at night. About a month ago she was waking up a couple nights a week afraid of mean monkeys getting her. I remember one specific night when she came in our room and ask us if we were sure we had locked every door and shut windows so they won't get us. She even started praying to God to protect her from the monkies and help her not be scared. She also took to sleeping at the very edge of her room. Thankfully she is back to sleeping in her bed and is not waking up in the middle of the night.

On a proud parent note, we have seen her growing in her knowledge of the Bible and God. Her favorite Bible stories are Noah and the ark, David killing Goliath, The Good Samaritan, and the stories of Jesus's birth and resurrection. Every once in awhile, we kinda prep Bailey by reminding her to obey her teachers and to have kind words, kind hands, and a sharing heart. She has started telling us to make sure we obey God today. It's really cute and let's us know she is really listening.

And she just wouldn't be a kid if there wasn't atleast one weird thing about her. Her weird thing of the week last week was that she wanted to eat peas porridge hot every morning for breakfast, you know like from the nursery ryhme (Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in a pot 9 days old...). Don't ask me why, but she had learned it at school and wanted to eat it. This is what I came up with in our pantry/freezer- blueberry oatmeal with a side of peas. She ask me if this was really peas porridge hot and I said of course. : )

14 Months

It's been a month or so since I did an update on Blake and since this has turned into my baby book of sorts here's the stuff I want to remember about him at this point.

I would describe him as just your average 14 month old. As far as communication goes, he is saying momma, dah-dah, sissa and is signing all done and milk. Currently we are working on uh-oh and signing food. He can also communicate that he wants something by waving one hand and saying mamma until he thinks I get it. Around his first birthday Bailey taught him to "roar" like a dinosaur, which is a really deep growl. He also likes to play where's the body part game. We have only gotten to ear, nose, and sometimes eye, which it's fun except for the fact that he pokes at your ear and eye and pinches your nose. 

Blake is totally a little boy when it comes to his interests. He loves to ride/push trucks, airplanes and our little McQueen car. Also if it has wheels and makes a noise then you really have him hooked. When we were at my parents he could have ridden in my dad's tractor and gator for hours. One really sweet thing he has taken to doing is sitting at our front window waving bye, bye to daddy when he leaves for work. He will then usually stay there watching the cars go by and driving cars on the window ledge. At the park, he loves to explore and scare me a bit kinda like his older sister, but more cautious. He love, love, loves slides. He will go as long as I would let him I think. In our house he loves to jump and crash on our couch or the beds, something that entertains him for long periods of time, but something that needs constant supervision.

He is still napping twice a day, but I predict when Bailey is out of school and they can nap together at an earlier time that he will go down to one nap. He continues to loves his giraffe pillow for sleeping. He will either hug it, sleep on it like a pillow, or just chew on the ears

The tv remotes, trashcans, toilets, the dishwasher and the garage continue to be irrestistable temptations. He is still a totally stinker when it comes to changing his diaper. He hates diaper changes and is something we try to get over with as quickly as possible.

Something that is totally the influence of having an older sister is that he is starting to use a fork at meals. He is not super efficient yet, but tries really hard and if he can't get it with the fork then he just uses his hands. Blake still surprises me with how much he eats. Oh, and he has 9 teeth so far. A back molar popped through about a month ago, which was really hard on him. I suspected he was teething about a month before I actually saw that he was and was beginning to get worried- fussy ALOT, waking up in the night, loose stools, didn't want to eat as much.

I realized that I haven't done a great job of taking pictures lately, but here are a few, which are all taken by my iphone so aren't great quality.

One day recently I was picking up the house while Blake was getting a snack. I returned 10 minutes later and he had fallen asleep in his chair.

Easter Weekend

I really couldn't have asked for a better Easter celebrating the resurrection of the King of Kings. I love that Bailey really got into the resurrection eggs this year and understood atleast that Easter was not about a bunny and eggs, but about Jesus. I love that we still travel a bit for holidays and were surrounded my family for the yearly small town Easter Cantata, family photo shoot (thanks to Robby), feast, and egg hunt. I love that I found the very last egg hours after everyone was done hunting, which my dad and I worked atleast 5 minutes retrieving. And as always the time flew by and we were leaving just as it seemed we had arrived. I think I have decided to travel as long as I can for Easter because I have some big shoes to fill when I decided to host Easter at my house. 

Mezger Family Photo

The Tackett Siblings and Nana

Gigi with Bailey and Blake

The Kids Table

Blake who didn't even make it to the kids table and was sat on the floor. He had fun though because he was right next to Ellie the dog and feed her some snacks and growled with/at her.

All the eggs that got hidden. We still have alot of "kids" who still hunt.

The starting line!

Blake hunting

Bailey hunting.

More egg hunting.

Robby and Luke.

This is what Bailey was hunting- little Toy Story 3 characters. Thanks GIGI!

Oh, and congratulations to Tori and Rachel. 1st and 2nd place in the egg hunt!

Reunions

Reunions have been one of the themes of the last couple of weeks.

Reunion #1 was with the Johnsons- Nate and Rebekah. They lead our small group for a couple of years before Nate finished his doctorate and they moved to Minnesota. We had a little playdate in the park and tried for a group shot of the kids....



Just need to add in Levi

I don't know if you can see, but Bailey is holding onto Elijah on the left and Kate on the right.

But there goes Blake.

We tried to have Blake sit in Bailey's lap, but then Elijah and Kate took off.

And we're done.



Reunion #2 was with Patrick and Rose Hanks. They were also in the same small group as above, but also moved away : (. They are expecting a little one in July and we hosted a baby shower for her on their recent visit.

Reunion #3 was Brandon and Laura's wedding. Luke and Brandon (and all the other guys in the pictures below) met during their freshman year in the dorms at Texas A&M. We took Bailey with us on this weekend trip to meet everyone since they haven't seen her since she was 8 weeks old when we all met up in Chicago. It was a big trip for us- first time on an airplane for Bailey and first time we left Blake for more than a day. Both went well!!! In my memory this will definately be the trip of whys. Why are we up so early? Why do we have to walk through those machines? Why do we have to take off our shoes? Why do I have to put lion in the basket? Why can't we get on the plane right now? Why do we put our stuff up there? Why do we have to turn your phone off? Why do I have to leave the tray up? Why can I not stand up? Why can't I go potty right now? Why can't we drive in your car, mommy? Why do we have to sleep here? Oh, I think I could go on forever with the whys. I just need to keep reminding myself that it's just a stage. Anyways, here are some favorites from the trip.

Getting a ride because her legs got tired.

Daddy and B looking at the airplanes, while I tried to nap during a layover.

The rehersal dinner. We ate while watching a Duke baseball game.

Luke and the groom.

Walt, Luke, Brandon, Sean, and Mike.

We took a trip to the mall to do some top secret room decorating for the bride and groom. We were trying to keep Bailey occupied while we went into Spencers (which ain't what it used to be). Didn't need her asking questions in that store!

Fun times at the wedding. They had a costumes table for taking pictures and wearing.

Group Dress Up.

Bailey with Princess Laura. Bailey really had to show self-control to not follow her around and touch her.

I think the best part about these reunions is that although we don't get to see these people as often as we would like, as soon as we see them again we pick up right where we left off.