11 Months!

I can't believe how fast the time has gone!  My little boy will be one year in a a month!  CRAZY!  He is still growing fast and learning lots.  This month has been fun because, although he is still not walking, he listens and watches you while you try to get him to say words.  He really only says "ma" and "da" now, but makes LOTS of noises and talks to himself a lot.  Lately he LOVES stuffed animals, especially monkeys.  He will squeal when you give him one, and talk to it in a high pitched voice.  It's really funny!  Accomplishments this past month:

*Daddy taught him how to click his tongue
*One day he just started flipping his tongue over (can't get a picture though)
*He got the concept of "playing the drums"
*Loves to clap
*we went to the air museum, and he LOVED the HUGE fans!  He has always liked looking at fans/lights but the ones there, he looked at the whole time!
*He got some fun toys for Christmas and loves playing with them
*Went to the zoo, his favorite is still the aquarium.
*For months now he will pull the kitchen chairs around the room, but this month he started  crawling under them and then pushing them.
*Lately he will look at books and talk to himself while he reads them

Things on our side of the river... Work is about the same for Will, I work most saturdays for 3-4hrs.  We are going to come visit in Feb. to put our Mesa house up for sale.  No this does not mean we are not moving back, it means 1. our home here is larger then that one so if/when we move back it will be to a larger home. 2.the market is up 3. it's hard to find renters when we are states away.

surprisingly, we aren't frozen to the ground here.  We haven't accomplished much on the house because most of the stuff involves working in the freezing garage to make things, or yard work, and we don't feel like freezing our buns off!  Maybe in the spring... if that will ever come :)

at the zoo looking at the fish

He likes to steal daddys hat

best picture I could get of him playing the drums

New favorite past time

New Christmas toys!  Yay!

Merry Christmas!

At the Air museum

same

he had to play with these for 10min before he would let us take him away

Pictures a month old

He loves to go to his room and pull ALL the books down

comes up and walks with my two legs, it's nice for
when I have to make dinner, he just comes with me.

two bottom teeth!

10 Months!

Brady just keeps on going.  He doesn't walk on his own yet, but just started taking shaky steps holding on with only one hand.  He loves to pull himself up between my legs and walk just holding on to my legs.  He has gotten pretty good with it so I can manage to make dinner entertaining him that way without having to hold him.  We went to go visit Santa with a free photo at BassPro Shop, he didn't cry, but didn't smile either.  We went to the mall to play in the kids play place with a friend and he LOVED it!  I forgot my camera :(  His favorite thing was climbing inside a log.  He would just chat/yell to himself and crawl around in it.  The bigger kids would start to go in then see him, talk to him and wave, then leave.  He was the king of that log for a good 15min.  Brady still loves to smile at everyone when we go anywhere, but if he is tired he will smile, but if you act like you are going to take him from me he freaks out!  Only when he is tired though... we are still working on his sleeping.  Oh, he also started to read books.  Before he would just pull them all off the bookshelf then crawl away.  Now, he will go in there and I hear him just talking, and he is looking through a book.  Sometimes he has a hard time opening them so he starts yelling at it to open up... but it doesn't work.  We love our little boy!

Things are going good on the Merrill side.  Will says work is still work, and he hasn't frozen yet from him 10min walk each morning in below freezing temps so he can get free parking.  It's snowed a couple of times, so we got the joy of shoveling our driveway once... It's flurrying now, which is my favorite!  Other then being cold, we are enjoying life!

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!  Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays!  This year, Will was kind enough to let me invite the family, plus 2 other families over for Thanksgiving (sorry, I didn't take any pictures!) 

We started off the morning preparing our yummy turkey, then Will was a sport to watch Brady while I ran a 10K in the FREEZING Cold.... Yes, our toes were numbed and burning BEFORE the race even started!  We were lucky enough to park pretty close to the start line, so we just sat in the car waiting for the last ten min.  I ran it with a friend from church, she was AMAZING!  Since it being so cold here... I have been terrible with running and training for the 10K.. excusses such as, It's too cold to run with Brady outside (hasn't gotten above 40 for like 2 weeks), after he goes to bed, it's too cold (like under 32)... totally legit reasons from an Arizona girl right?  Needless to say, I defiantly felt the affects of not training well during the whole race and even today some... but yesterday NOT ABLE to MOVE WITHOUT PAIN!!  HURT SO BAD!   But thanks to Lily, we finished it with running most of the way. 

After heading home and taking a boiling water shower to warm up, Thanksgiving preparations were almost done!  Will and I cooked our FIRST turkey!  Not only that, but it was the secret Merrill Goosock turkey, which turned out AMAZING!!!  We managed to fit 17people over for dinner.  All the food was AMAZING!  Brady loved my sisters rolls.  In fact, while eating leftovers today for lunch, he managed to pull the table cloth, tip over a full cup of milk all over just to reach a roll... I should have taken more from my sister :)  After eating, the kids had fun playing in our partially finished basement and we played games and chatted.  It was VERY noisy, but lots of fun! We went to bed VERY early last night.

I am so thankful for Wills job where is is able to support us so I can stay at home, only needing to work occasionally.  I am gratful that we were sent to Omaha, where I do some some family and friends instead of another state where we knew no one.  I am especially grateful for all the new friends I have met, and of course for Brady and Will.

Brady is now 9months.  No walking yet... which could be good and bad :)  He has managed to have his two bottom teeth break through the gums.  He still crawls everywhere.  We are continuolusly working on his naps... he either doesn't want to take one, or plays for over an hour before falling asleep for 30min... needless to say, this means he has gotten more grumpy and needing a lot more attention :(  It is something we have been working on for months.   Maybe by the time we have another child we will figure it out :)

Kitchen- lots of pictures

Yay!  Our kitchen is mostly finished!  Well, the cabinets are finished.  We still have some trim to paint, curtains up, some baseboards left, and decorating, so don't judge me :)

Before:

North

East

South

West

During:
The overall process was simple, it just took A LOT OF TIME.  Do I like it?  about 90%.  I love the clear hard coat on the outside, and the degrees er to save lots of sanding.  The bond coat (middle coat) says you only need to do two, and then they (Rustoleum) has an option glaze.  We didn't want to do the glaze, and since we didn't we needed a 3rd bondcoat.  To save paint we only did it on the outside.  On some of the cabinets, after putting on the final clear coat, some yellowish stuff came through... but since it did that in random spots on about 1/3 cabinets, we felt it was ok, and didn't re-do it all over.

After:  Please excuse the messy counter tops.

North

East

South

West

Chicken!

Last week I received my 80lb order of chicken from Zaycon foods.  With the help of a friend, who watched Brady for a couple of hours because he wasn't feeling well, this is what I accomplished from 10am - 7:30 pm.  There was lots of preparation for the freezer meals and bottled chicken.

23 freezer meals

about 15 1/2 quart bags of extra chicken for other meals.

32 pints of bottled chicken.

8 months!

Brady is 8months!  I can't believe how fast it has flown.  I LOVE every minute of it!  Sorry, but there aren't any pictures :(  I already posted the ones I have of him from 7months... and he has had a cold the past week, so he looks really sad, tired, and hungry (cuz he doesn't want to drink his bottles :(  )

What Brady has accomplished during his 7month phase:
* He crawls anywhere and every where... fast!  When he crawls on wood, you can here him coming from a mile away.
* He plays by himself in his bed room for about 10-15min, then makes his way down the hallway...long living room... to find mommy in the kitchen
* He likes to try to attack the dishwasher no matter how many times I tell him no
* His stand alone record time is 3sec. 
* He loves walking with people helping him
* He will crawl up to anyone and everyone and use them to pull himself up.  I mean ANYONE!  We have been to multiple 1st birthday parties and he will just crawl on up and start climbing on people.
* He blows bubbles, whatever you call them ALL. DAY. LONG.
* He likes to talk to dogs
* He still loves putting EVERYTHING in his mouth... including bugs... even though he gags/chokes every time.  I am still waiting for this phase to end.

Three days a week I watch my 2 1/2 yr old nephew, and 3mo old neice.  He LOVES having people to play with him.  His favorite thing is to crawl around the house following his cousin.   He also likes to try to attack his little cousin, but we are working on that.  That's pretty much what he has been up to.  Next post... our kitchen!