Blogging is like writing in your journal....(prepare yourself, this is a long one)

For those of you who don't know Tasha's mom was the most recent contributor to this blog. I want to thank her for getting me going on this again and for making our big announcement. We had almost come to the point where we were just going to wait until after she was born, but at the prompting and prodding of many, decided we shouldn't wait that long.

I think I feel safe to say that my blog has replaced my journal and just like my journal, it is updated far to infrequently. See, there have been several times in my life where I have been really good about writing in my journal and it feels so nice and it's fun to look back on, but after it's been so long you kind of feel like you have too much to catch up on, so you don't write. (Don't tell me you haven't felt the same way at some point in your life).

Well, just like I eventually got around to writing in my journal even though it had been a long time (sometimes over a year), I will now update our blog. And just like my journal, there will be many fun details left out, not necessarily because I've forgotten them, but mostly because of time constraints (both yours and mine).

Anyway, there have clearly been some big events in our family. First, Tasha IS pregnant with our second daughter and due in 3 weeks (from yesterday) - September 3rd. Our plan is to have our baby Annie on September 9th though as 09/09/09 could possibly be one of the coolest birthdays ever. We will keep you posted on that, I promise. :) (I would include a picture of my pregnant beauty, but you all know how hard it is to get a pregnant woman to allow you to take her picture.....).

So, on to the next big event, I got a new job. I now work for a start-up company called BizVision (www.bizvision.com). I manage the customer support and also get to wear a few other hats because we are still such a small company. My main responsibilities include editing videos, converting videos to different files, handling calls & emails from our customers, and serving as the company jester. It's been tons of fun! I get to work with a good friend and there is certainly lots to do. There are two parts to our company: online videos for trainings and continuing education. The site I listed above will show you the training video side of our company. Basically we offer on-demand videos to anyone at a low cost instead of requiring people to purchase the rights to show a DVD (very expensive) in a training. It's pretty cool, but our main focus in on the continuing education side of things. Our main client is ACPEN (Accountants Continuing Professional Education Network) and we host webcasts for accountants across the country. We work with almost all of the State accounting societies in providing them with a smooth webcast. It's a great job and I'm very much enjoying it. (I would work on putting up some work pictures, but that probably wouldn't be very entertaining.)

Okay, enough of the boring information stuff.... Here are the fun things, with pictures.

Iin February I won a tent trailer! I put my name in at the RV Expo this spring and sure enough, of the 5,000 or so entries, I was the one picked. It's pretty dang awesome. It retailed at just over $8,500 so all I had to do was cover the taxes and she was mine. I love it (as does Emma!). Below are some pictures (sorry the top portion of this post was few in pictures).




We play games and Emma has her own special bed on one side, while Tasha and I sleep on the other. It's been tons of fun and we're excited for the years of memories we will have with it.

How does Emma really feel about sleeping in the tent trailer?

Emma has become quite the reader and we have some great videos of it (I don't actually know how to upload videos, so Tasha will have to either show me how or put those up, but we'll get them up). Emma is also potty-trained! Very exciting, particularly with the prospect of Annie coming along soon with diapers aplenty. We're both excited Emma is out of diapers now and are glad we won't have 2 babies in diapers.

Below is a picture of one of Emma's classic "silly faces." She usually reverts to this one when we tell her to pull a silly face.


Emma really likes anything she can put on her lips (lip gloss, chaptstick, ice cream, otter pops) but this is one of our favorite little Emma surprises in the last little while. Didn't she do such a good job?

Meet Emma's first crush. His name is Dane. He is a good friend of mine from high school and we saw him at a party a while back and he and Emma had a great time. About 2 months later I said we were going to see some of my friends and Emma piped in, "Are we going to see Dane?" She had only met him once for probably 20 minutes, but really took a liking to him. We've seen him since this time and she shyly said hi and told him to watch her as she slid down the slide into the pool. It's pretty dang funnyto see her around him!

Tasha had her 25th birthday and we had a great time. I had to work, but I had breakfast brought over for her and arranged for her friends to take her to a surprise lunch to Cafe Rio. We then ate at a yummy new Italian restaurant in Provo, Gloria's Little Italy. We really liked it and had a lot of fun trying to do our (my) best Italian accent. Last year I got Tasha season tickets to the Pioneer Theater Company (in Salt Lake, highly recommend it, we loved it!), but since we'll be having the baby in September that wasn't going to work, so I got her a deep freeze instead. She's wanted one for a long time, so we finally did it and have enjoyed having room to store otter pops, ice cream, meat, and a few vegetables. Below is her cake that my sister Angie made from scratch and I decorated.

Emma and I are the ones who vacuum most of the time in our house and she loves it. We have a little extension that we hook the vacuum hose up to that she pushes around while I push the vacuum around. It's funny to see the things she likes to do (laundry, vacuuming, baking, sweeping, and she keeps talking about changing diapers).


Emma sneaks more than I do when she bakes with Tasha. It's really fun to see them enjoy doing so many things together. We've loved seeing Emma's relationship grow with Tasha as I've been working more consistent hours and it's cute to see how much fun they have together.


Tasha surprised me for my birthday by picking me up from work and taking me to Wendover (I had won 2 free nights on the radio, I know, big surprise). We had a good time seeing the intricacies of Wendover. They had plastic grass. They had some of the brightest neon lights we've ever seen. It was great! She packed one of my favorite ice creams on ice (didn't actually keep it frozen, so we had chocolate drinks), we ate at Subway, and enjoyed our free night in the Monte Carlo Casino Hotel in Wendover. Below are some of our favorite pictures.



Not sure if this was an April Fools joke or if it was done on accident, but our alarm was set to go off at Midnight. We had just fallen asleep when it went off right at 12:00 AM. I was so mad, I squoze the alarm clock until it stopped its annoying buzzing. Tasha laughed and said, "happy birthday." Of course, I had just fallen asleep again when 10 minutes later it went off again. Apparentely I had only hit the snooze button. I almost through it across the room, but decided I'd just turn it off instead.



This pretty well describes Wendover and the surrounding areas. We thought "Just ahead" might have been a bit of a stretch. We decided against going onto the next town, even though it has an awesome name.


Tasha got me one of my favorite things ever: eternal ice cream. We love this ice cream maker and it's been fun to have ice cream on demand.



Emma and I went on our first date together. She has always said she wants to go on a date with daddy because I always go on dates with mommy. Well, we finally did it and had a great time. We went to Carl's Jr., played on the play place (sort of, she was too little at the time), and got ice cream from Macey's. It was great fun! Here are a couple of pictures from our date.


Can you guess which one is mine and which one is Emma's?


Emma liked it.


Well, much like my journal entries, I have gone on far too long and probably missed out on lots of things, but as it's late at night (also the only time I ever update my journal) I put a lot in here and didn't do anything in chronological order, but more in order of when the thoughts came to me.

Thanks for your patience as I've let dust gather on this once frequently updated blog. I'll do better moving forward. We're excited for the addition of baby Annie to our family and we'll keep you posted on how things go in the coming weeks. Until next time, whenever that might be.....Hopefully I don't get too far behind.

for wondering minds

Just in case you were wondering what happened to the Merrill's I (the grandma) am letting you know that they are alive and well. Mark has a new job. (I will let him tell you about it.) Mark tell the people about your new job. Tasha is very pregnant. She is surviving this hot summer. She does this by staying inside where it is cool. The baby is growing and things are going good in that direction. They have not picked out a name yet. They are open to suggestions. Please leave comments. Emma is growing like a weed. I would show you a picture but I am on their computer and have no idea how to choose a picture. If you want leave a comment and tell the Merrill's that you would like to see a new picture. Hopefully they will grant you that wish. Well I had better go since I didn't have permission to get on their blog. But someone had to update this thing. I know because I have been waiting for a long time myself. Just trying to be helpful. Well here is my signature send off.

Love, love, kiss, kiss

the mom

grandma turpin

Because I know you've missed this face

Having fun in the backyard . . . in the FREEZING cold!

Emma dressed herself this day (the shirt is on inside-out, and her overalls are on backwards), AND we made cookies.  What a great day for a 2-year old.  She was very pleased with herself!

I get this look a lot.

The wink.

I think she's singing "If you're happy and you know it, smile real big."

Blowing bubbles

I've wanted to get this on video for a long time.  I'm glad I finally did before she got too old to do this.  Does every kid work this hard to blow bubbles?

Emma vacuuming

Even though it's really short, I like this video for a few reasons.  First, it shows what a great help Mark is around the house.  His older brothers and sisters used to tell him he was the best vacuumer in the house, and I agree.  Also, it shows how much Emma loves to help.  She helps do dishes, make dinner, even vacuum.  I also love this video because it shows Emma's belly.  Maybe it's only a belly a mother could love, but I love love love it!

New Years '09 at the Cabin

To continue into my second phase of updating the blog, I will now post on New Years 2009!

We spent our New Years up at the cabin in Island Park, ID again and loved it! We are trying to establish a tradition of going there with Tasha's friends from High School. It's been lots of fun and we have now done it 2 years in a row.

This year, the Perkins' brought their mom with them and she was so fun to be around. She also brought her now beloved cotton candy machine. It was awesome! I am pretty sure we had more cotton candy in those few days than I have up to this point in my entire life! We snowmobiled, pulled a tube around the island on a four-wheeler, went sledding, played games, slept in, and enjoyed the serenity of winter in Island Park. Truly there is nothing like it. We also watched the numerous college football bowl games (to Doug's great pleasure we saw the Utes beat down 'Bama). And we had a Lord of the Rings Marathon! It was awesome! (Well, it wasn't a true marathon.... we watched the movies on continuous nights, not all in one night). But, you've never seen LOTR until you've seen it with the Perkins'! It inspired me to read the books (which I am proud to say, I've just finished the first one). Here are some pictures of the trip.

This picture is of Randy (Tasha's uncle) holding a tube at the top of the hill, Jenn, and Emma all bundled up.


Here is Emma with "Papa" getting ready to tube down the hill. "Papa" forgot his hat at the cabin, so he made one out of sweatshirt. This is one of my favorite sledding pictures!


This is Kira, Tasha's youngest sister. If you don't know Kira, you're missing out. This picture is classic Kira!


I'm reminded of "A Christmas Story" where Ralphie "can't put my arms down!!!!" Doesn't she look so cute all bundled up?


This is Tasha making Emma pull her up the hill. Emma was such a trooper! She got her all the way to the top.


Tasha and Jenn getting ready to be flung down the hill by Randy.


The traditional New Years toast with Martinelli's Sparkling Cider (I can drink like 1/2 oz of that stuff... it's so carbonated it hurts my throat!). Left to Right: Sister Perkins, McKay (notice the beard), Jenn, Doug, Catherine, Adam , Kira, Mark (notice the lack of beard, but not for lack of trying), Tasha, Kindra, Mom, Dad.


Missing from the picture are: Perkins' twins (actually one of them is in Catherine's arms, but I can't tell which one), Avalyn


and Emma


Emma was not in the picture this year because this was how she responded last New Year's when she woke up for the dropping of the ball and New Year's Toast...


New Years '08

Needless to say, we learned not to wake Emma.

For those of you who couldn't make it this year, you now officially know what you missed out on! It was a blast! Thanks to all who took the time out of their schedules to come up and enjoy the week with us. We are so grateful for such good friends!

Well......

So, I know it's been a long time since I've blogged and several people have gotten after me about it. I am apparently the designated blogger for now because Tasha has been anti-blogging.

We've sure had a fun few months with lots of ups and downs (mostly ups). There have been plenty of changes though and we're trying to take them one at a time, even though it is sometimes a test of patience.

First, Christmas was great! We loved it! Emma had lots of fun and we had lots of fun seeing her enjoy it so much!

And her 2nd birthday....



I have a lot more to post, but it looks like we're going to have to do these in phases. I'll post more later.

Tortilla Snowflakes -by Mark

Tasha had a brilliant plan this past December to do something Christmasy every day. So, among the many fun activities we did, I actually found the idea (in the Friend) to do Tortilla Snowflakes. It was way easy and tons of fun! I hope you enjoy the process as much as we did.

You start by sprinkling just a little bit of water on the tortilla, then put it in the microwave for just a few seconds (like 10 or 15) to make it warm so it's easier to fold. Then once you've folded it, you cut the shapes you'd like (just like paper snowflakes).


While cutting the snowflake, put a little bit of oil in a pan to heat up so the tortilla will fry in the pan.


When the tortilla has fried enough (to your liking), turn it over until the other side is done as well.


The all important next step is where Emma probably had the most fun. The sugar! We mixed cinnamon and sugar together to sprinkle on top of the fried tortilla. Emma mostly enjoyed taking spoonfuls of sugar and putting them in her mouth fast enough so Mom didn't see. I did see it and thought it was cute enough to take a picture (I only let her do it once for the picture.... maybe twice....).


Sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar over the tortilla. We also sprinkled Christmas sprinkles to make it more festive. We also had some red and green baking sugar that added to the Christmas feel of the snowflakes.


Emma's next favorite part was eating the tortillas and having sugar caked on her face. She licked all within reach of her tongue.


I very much enjoyed this tasty, festive treat!


You'll notice this is the only picture of Tasha on this post. She threatened me with a look that only a loving wife can give that I was not to post any of the other pictures. :) It was fun to see Emma and Tasha get into this family activity together.


With all of this sugar around, there had to be at least a few funny faces pulled. It was too perfect to resist. Contrary to what you are thinking, this picture was posed. I stuffed my face in the sugar that fell off of the tortillas.


This was one of many fun family events we did in December. We'll post on more, but this is all I have time for right now.

P.S. Those of you who have been calling for more recent pictures of Emma (cause let's be honest, when you tell us to post again, you just want to see her), I hope this tides you over until we post about her Christmas, her 2nd birthday, and New Years.

A new trick

OK, this is Emma's latest trick, and I promise you she came up with it all on her own. But we think it's hilarious.

If you can't tell, at one point in the video she's saying, "Jumping jumping jumping jump!" And every time she pauses, it's because she's looking at herself in the mirror. And, even though it sounds bad, she didn't hit her head very hard on that last one. That's why I was laughing. She was more surprised than hurt. And it hasn't stopped her from doing that trick.



I know it's two videos in one post, and it's even of the same thing (mostly), but I just couldn't resist.

The Merrill's Day at the Zoo

What a great time we had at the zoo today. It was so fun to see my girls have such a great time together. Several times during the day I stood back, not just to take a picture of them, but to see how blessed I am to have such a great family. Tasha and Emma mean everything to me and I am truly grateful for all that they add to my life. Here are two of my favorite pictures from the day.It was fun to see Emma and her energetic personality. I think I saw this more than anything else all day.....
Here is a fun picture of my girls that they unknowingly posed for (I'm talking about Tasha and Emma, not the zebras)....
Emma looks so understanding of what Tasha is saying.... I love it!Here are a few cool animal pictures from the day:

Pretty sure this tiger was looking right at me....
This Cougar just looks so confident.... Like it's a big week for Cougars or something....I loved the lighting and the color contrast of the fur...
The eagle has always been one of my favorite animals, such a pretty bird...Loved the colors of this one and the way the light hit the feathers....I loved the sky blue background with the deep colors of this bird...Emma has had this weird fear of slides lately. She has no problem climbing up them and will sit on the edge for a while, but she hasn't been going down on her own.... I think she conquered this fear today because by the end of the day it was all we could do to get her to stop sliding down the big green snake slide head first.... It was awesome! But, this picture was of her on the steps leading up to the slide...
and her on the slide.... not sure how she feels about this one....
Tasha has been called every name under the sun (Pasa, Pasha, Sasha, etc...), and when I saw this shack, I knew I had to get a picture of her next to it. Isn't Tasha's face great?!?!?This was a fun drinking fountain that didn't work, but Emma insisted on trying every one, several times....She acts like I took 304 pictures at the zoo....I don't have many pictures with Emma as I am generally the one who is camera-happy, but this definitely goes down as one of my all-time favorites with her. I love my Emma Lou!After today, we had our FHE lesson on God's creations and how they are all a witness to His love for us. Today was a witness to me of how blessed I am. No matter the stresses of life, the struggles with work, frustrations with car problems, or any other thing that comes into my life, I know that I have the greatest thing a man could wish for: a beautiful family.

What a great day today was!