2011...What a year it has been

It was January 2011 when we learned that our family of three would grow to our blessed family of four in September. Our year was highlighted when Luke became a Big Brother on September 3, 2011 with the arrival of our sweet baby Ben! This has been a year to cherish and one full of wonderful memories. As we kicked off 2011, we settled into our new home and neighborhood. We have loved getting to know our neighbors and watch Luke make such great friends. The Spring and Summer months were spent outside as much as possible, even though it was one of the hottest summers to date, while I was very pregnant. But Luke just couldn't get enough of playing outside with all the neighbor kids. In July we took a family trip to Seattle, Luke's first time flying and he was a champ! It was a trip of a lifetime as we celebrated the wedding of my older brother Nate and his wife Debbie! The Fall was beautiful and we began to enjoy our life with two beautiful boys. Luke adapted very well to us bringing Ben home and he absolutely loves him to pieces. When Ben wakes up from his nap he will run to the stairs and say "hurwy Mama" and he wants to be the first one in the room and will say "Hi Benny!" Watching him love Ben just melts my heart...and that has been the highlight of our 2011. We wish you all a very happy, healthy 2012 and may each day be filled with great joy and lots of excitement!

melts my heart...our two boys
Ben joined our family on September 3, 2011

Luke turned 2 on September 4, 2011. He is one busy boy, full of life, energy, and lots of laughter!

Luke welcoming Benny home!

The highlight of our 2011..the birth of our sweet baby Benjamin David Merrick

Loving my two sweet boys! I just can't get enough of these two:)

Christmas 2011

Our family of 4...so blessed to celebrate this Christmas season with our two beautiful boys!
This sums up our Christmas weekend at my parents...Luke & daddy needed a nap come Monday afternoon! Luke doesn't miss a beat when he is at Bop and Nannie's, especially when the house is filled with all of his aunts and uncles. As for daddy...lots of late nights playing games and enjoying some Christmas cheer! What a perfect way to spend an afternoon!

Our annual "self-timer" family photo! Our family grew by two this year and we are overjoyed to have my sister-in-law Debbie join us this year to celebrate this year, as well as our sweet baby Ben!

Luke with his Godmama "Tate" and Uncle "Brynan" (aka Kate & Bryan)

Bop & Nannie with their two grandsons

The "kids" picture that keeps happily growing!

The "guys" picture...I am so bummed we didn't get our "girls" picture this year, mom was busy cleaning up the kitchen and Ben was getting inpatient so we wanted to get on with opening gifts.

With my three brothers

Luke at the head of the table and he couldn't wait for Prime Rib dinner

Luke hanging with his godmama

Ben with his godparents, Debbie and Mitch

I love this picture of Ben looking up at his Uncle Nate

Luke and Daddy enjoying Christmas morning. We headed up to my parents for Christmas Eve mass and celebrated my dad and Debbie's birthdays. Christmas morning we spent the morning enjoying the boys, Luke and Sean played outside, and we got a wonderful visit from one of my best friends Dana!

Ben enjoyed his first Christmas, even though he was sick with his 2nd ear infection and cold. He was a trooper and loved all the extra love and attention from his aunts, uncles, and grandparents

Our first handmade gift from Luke! He made us an ornament at Ms. A's last week, the best gift!

We had our family Christmas on Christmas eve morning. Sean was surprised with some new camo from the boys.

Luke really enjoyed opening presents this year and was so excited with each one

Little Benny is all smiles on his 1st Christmas celebration

Luke got a Blue tractor from Santa and he was thrilled. Saturday morning Luke woke up around 630, I went up to get him but tried to keep him from noticing the presents under the tree becauase we wanted to wait for Ben to wake up. So we took Luke into our room until Ben woke. Once Ben woke we asked Luke who came to our house last night? He said, ho, ho, ho, so we told him to go check and see if Santa drank all his milk he left him. Luke spotted the gifts on the floor and the first one he grabbed was the tractor. When he opened it, his reaction was priceless, he screamed "Holy Moly"! Luke took his tractor straight to his toy room and played for a good 20 minutes before he decided to come check out the rest of the gifts. We had so much fun with Luke this year as we prepared for Santa to come and then that morning watching his excitement just brought a whole new meaning to opening gifts.

Santa came!!!

Friday night we enjoyed our family Christmas dinner and got ready for Santa to come. Luke set out milk and two pieces of fudge, along with a letter to Santa.

Snuggling with my boys by the fire before bedtime

Luke and daddy enjoying a cozy fire

The boys all ready for Santa to come while they sleep

Luke making silly faces

Friday morning Miss Judi surprised the boys with this wonderful herky the hawkeye bench

Our mantle lined with stockings

The boys visiting with Santa at the mall

Luke talking to Santa about tractors and wagons

We had Miss Judi over for dinner to celebrate Christmas, we are so blessed to have her spend the days at our home with the boys while Sean and I work. She is wonderful and the boys love her so much!

Merry Christmas

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas from our family to each of yours. Our year has been greatly blessed by the great gift of our sweet Ben and ever so growing boy Luke. These two boys light up our lives and make each day one worth smiling about. We cherish this Christmas season as we share it with our two beautiful, healthy boys, and our growing family. We look forward to gathering with family to share and celebrate the reason for the season, the birth of our Savior. While Luke is learning pretty quick that if he is good, Santa will come to our house and bring him toys, we also have enjoyed sharing with him the Christmas Story and the birth of baby Jesus. We want to make sure he understands what Christmas is truly about. Both of our boys are a little under the weather now, so we are hoping that a quick recovery is in store for them to enjoy the weekend with our family. Luke is overjoyed to see all of his Einck aunts & uncles, he has been talking about each one all week! We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy, healthy New Year!

Santa Claus is coming to town

Luke & Ben met Santa last night! Ben was content and Luke was as social as we would expect! We prepped him quite a bit, walking by Santa and waving for the past several weeks and then finally getting to sit on his lap was a total treat for Luke! It helped that Santa new he wanted trains and tractors!

Merrick Family Christmas 2011

We kicked off our Christmas 2011 festivities this past weekend. We had a work party Friday night and spent Sunday in Pekin celebrating with Sean's family. Luke had a lot of fun playing with his cousin Connor and Ben loved that he was held mostly all day! He spent a lot of time hanging with daddy watching football. The weather was gorgeous, almost 50 degrees so Sean, his dad, uncle, and cousin took the boys outside for an afternoon game of football.
It feels like Christmas around our house, minus the snow on the ground. I am not a huge fan of snow, but I certainly love having a white Christmas. It doesn't look like its in the forecast. I love getting the mail everyday and seeing all the beautiful Christmas cards from family and friends! I have them all hanging in our dining room! We are looking forward to doing a progressive Christmas dinner with friends tonight, and celebrating this weekend with my family in Waukon.

Ben and Daddy hanging out watching football
Luke & Connor sitting still for just a few seconds for a picture

Luke opening his presents

Roller

We have a roller....both ways! Ben started rolling from his tummy to his back several weeks ago, and this morning the little guy went from back to tummy three times! He is one strong little boy! He loves to spend time on his tummy and I have a feeling when he can sleep on his tummy he will be one happy little boy. Ben's fist is permanently in his mouth...wondering if he will soon discover his thumb or if he just likes the whole thing! I am also happy to share that Mr. B is back to his normal sleep habits....Thank you Lord! I am wondering if it was a growth spurt or just a little extended weekend party session!
Pretty quick post today but just wanted to highlight our little roller for our blog book!

Around the clock

"Yes mom, I do like to hang out just the two of us, at all hours of the night"

Growing up way too fast

The boys are keeping us going all around the clock, literally! Luke is a sponge, busy as ever, vocabulary expanding by the minute, and has the funniest personality. He is into making us laugh and then he will continue doing whatever it is and he has the most obnoxious fake laugh to accompany his funny behavior. He has really picked up on "Thank you mommy, Thank you daddy, No thank you". So much in fact, when it is time to change his diaper he will politely say, "No thank you mommy"! Lately when he really wants something he will say "Please please please please" he thinks the more he says "Please" the more likely he will get what he is asking for. We are working on keeping him in bed until 6:30 a.m, that is when his 'alarm clock' turns green. So each night when I lay him in bed I remind him wake up happy and when your light turns green you can call for me nicely. So each morning when he gets up, if his clock is not green, we will sit with him until it turns green before he can leave his room. He is getting better about waiting for it to turn green. The past several days he has been sleeping in until 6:45!!!! Wow, did I just say, sleeping in until 6:45 and I even got excited about it:)

Ben is growing leaps and bounds, I swear the little guy stretched out overnight, he is barely fitting into his 3 month onesie PJ's because he is getting so long. He is a very happy, talkative little boy, that likes to party all night long! The past few nights, I am not sure what has been going on, but he has been waking around midnight or so and doesn't want to go back to sleep, he wants to hang out with mama! Last night around 3 a.m, I asked him what it was that he wanted and he just smiled at me and babbeled. As frusterated as I was, I couldn't help but laugh, seriously Ben, you want to have a conversation with me at 3 in the morning!!!! ahhhhh! He finally went back to bed at 330, in his swing:( I was desperate. I am hoping this is a minor phase because just a couple of weeks ago he started sleeping through the night! His early evening nap is critical and has been boycotting that a bit because there is just too much action going on in our crazy house and he doesn't want to miss a beat! He is going to have fun keeping up with his big brother. For now, I am trying to remind myself this is just a phase and before I know it I won't get to rock with him, literally, in the wee hours of the night. As much as I want and need sleep, I will keep reminding myself of this. Until then, we just keep moving around the clock to the beat of our boys and their energy gets us through!