Mornings with Merrilee

Merrilee is such a good little girl.  Every morning we take her out of her crib and let her kind of roam around to play and do whatever.  Without fail, every morning we see a scene like this...

Merrilee will sit and read books for an hour at a time! She is usually very gentle with her books and we've only had one or two book casualties from moments of despair.  She'll turn the pages and "read" to herself.  She even does cute little voice inflections like she's reading in her own baby language. Lately her favorite book is Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. She'll read it by herself, but she will also bring it to either me or Ben several times a day for us to read it to her. We are proud parents of our little reader! :)

Baby Stats

Last Friday I took both the girls to their Pediatrician for their respective 2mo. and 18mo. checkups. It was quite an experience taking two babies to the doctor in one visit...but the stats are in...

Alice is still itty-bitty newborn size to some people, but to us she is getting huge! ( I guess your perspective changes when you have a little 5 lb baby!)

Weight:  8lbs 15 oz. --> 2nd  %tile

Height: 21.88 in. --> 26.7 %tile

Head: 14.1 in. --> 0.78 %tile

Aren't baby proportions so funny?

Merrilee has slowed way down in her growth, but is still healthy and strong! I've never seen her more upset than at this doctor's visit. She liked the doctor ok, but she had some serious issues with the nurse who took all of these stats...she didn't like it either when the nurse was taking Alice's stats. Cute Merrilee, looking out for her little sister.  

Weight: 22.2 lbs --> 22%tile

Height: 31 in. --> 35 %tile

Head: 18.3 in --> 51 %tile

We love our girls!

Alice

Alice is growing like a champ.  She officially turned 2 months on Monday.  I don't know how much she weighs as we don't own a scale, but I take her in on Friday for her 2 mo. checkup, so we'll get the stats soon. Lately she loves looking at and smiling at her Mom, Dad, and sister. it is so adorable to see a teeny, tiny person have such grown up facial expressions sometimes. :) Alice is a very wiggly baby. It seems like she's always moving, but she is also pretty mellow in temperament. Although, she definitely lets me know when she's hungry! We love our little Alice and don't know how we ever lived without her in our family!

Our little wiggle worm

4th of July!

I know this is a little late, but we had a great 4th of July Weekend! My parents came down from WA and spent the weekend with us. One of the benefits of living in UT is people are so patriotic here! I love going through the neighborhood and seeing a flag in every yard and red, white, and blue painted all over the town! We had a fun time with my parents experiencing all of the festivities around here. At the park across the street from our house, there was a "Colonial Fest" where the park turned into a colonial village including a schoolhouse, broom maker, bakery, militia camp, lace maker, blacksmith, etc.  It was a lot of fun to walk across the street and feel like we warped back in time!

We also went down to Provo for the Freedom Festival.  Provo knows how to celebrate the 4th! We got in the patriotic spirit enjoying the hot summer day with vendors, music, historical sites/re-enactments, and wearing our red white and blue!

Exploring with the wheel of the Mayflower

Having fun with some prizes from some booths.

Burping the baby.  Just wanted to show how tiny Alice is...all of the pictures we have are up close so it is hard to tell how dainty this tiny girl actually is! :)

Cute. :)

We stopped and watched some of the "entertainment".  It happened to be a clogging dance group.  Merrilee LOVED it! She was dancing and running up to the stage and laughing the whole time! 

Captivated by the dancers.

Saturday night, after the kids were asleep, my parents stayed with the girls while Ben and I went and watched the Stadium of Fire Fireworks display. It was nice to get out with just Ben for the first time in a LONG time...even if it was only 45 mins. :)

On Sunday, July 3, Ben sang with the Orem Chorale in a patriotic service at the Scera Shell, (same park the colonial fest was at) featuring some of the founding fathers.  Unfortunately we forgot our camera so this phone pic is the only documentation we have of it.  This is the choir warming up...

Monday, the 4th, morning Adam and Ben woke up at unheard of hours and went down to Provo to stake out a spot for the parade. People around here are so crazy when it comes to the July 4th parade! People were camping overnight and the streets were already full at those wee hours in the morning! They managed to get a pretty good spot though and we all enjoyed the parade.

Enjoying muffins!

Merrilee loves her uncle Adam.

Loving the horses and making her "animal" sound...a mix between a "quack" and a "woof"

Awesome Star Wars flag display...

And the Star Wars Float (for some reason this was the only float we got a picture of!)

Isn't July the best!? Looking forward to this weekend to celebrate Pioneer Day! :)

Lately

We've been having fun this summer so far. We've been pretty bad at taking pictures to document things but here's some happenings...

Orem summerfest...A celebration of the city we live in with food, booths, rides, entertainment, fireworks, etc. We walked around the festivities, found a nice spot in the park and ate lunch, and watched the fireworks later that night from our house.  Here's a few shots from our picnic. Notice our new double stroller! We LOVE it! The part that holds the car seat can later convert into another chair like the front.  This stroller is perfect for having two babies so close together! :)

Merrilee can now WALK!!! FINALLY! She's been taking steps for the past 2 weeks. She is getting better and more controlled at it and it is so cute to see her toddle around! 

Alice is growing and getting bigger too. It may not seem like it to some people because she is still so tiny, but she really is putting on the chub and she is growing longer too! It has been hard to get any good pictures of her, especially when she is awake, but here are some decent ones of her sleeping. 

next to Daddy's foot!

putting on the cute baby chub!

Sleeping soundly

Alice turns 6 weeks old this Wednesday! Wow how time flies!

Alice is still sleeping 5-6.5 hours in the night. She has started going to sleep earlier too! She'll fall asleep for the night around 8:30 or 9 instead of 11or Midnight as she was doing before. It seems like things are on the right track in the sleeping department! Another awesome thing about Alice is that she now smiles at us! And I'm not talking "gas bubble" smiles, she has now started REALLY smiling.  It is so cute. She is becoming more active and is awake for a lot longer during the day now. It has been fun to get to know her. It is amazing how different each child is. If you look at pictures of Merrilee at the same age as Alice, there are some MAJOR similarities, but Alice is such a different little spirit than Merrilee. I love having 2 sweet little babies in our home. I've never been happier! :)

Other fun things...Ben ran in the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay last weekend. Him and a team of 11 other people ran from Logan to Park City...about 192 miles. Crazies. His team asked him to fill in for someone who dropped out about a week and a half in advance. Ben obviously didn't have much time to train, but he had fun. He had 3 legs to run for a total of 20 miles. 5am, 3pm, and 3am were the approximate times of his runs. Sounds crazy hard, but crazy fun too!  I drove up to Park City with the 2 babies to meet Ben at the finish line. I must say I was quite proud of myself hauling 2 little babies through the canyon for an hour drive by myself (Merrilee threw up on the way there...I think it might have been the elevation change or something) and then carrying both of them onto a shuttle that went to the finish line. It was fun and worth it and now I think I can do anything with the 2 babies by myself. :)  I'm hoping next year to participate in this run with Ben. 

This past weekend, Ben and I took the girls to Bridal Veil Falls in the Provo Canyon. It was a beautiful day and perfect conditions for a nice walk. It was crazy crowded there and we didn't get many pictures of the beautiful falls. Oh well. The Provo river was ROARING though! I've never seen it so high and fast! Kind of scary! There have been quite a few drownings in rivers and reservoirs around here lately. Because of the warm weather coming late and more precipitation than usual during the winter/spring, the rivers are overflowing! Here's some pics of the day...

Next to the Provo river

This is what Alice thought of it all. Just kidding. She actually LOVES the outdoors and is the most calm and peaceful when we are outside. 

Mommy-daughter moments

Ben started his last Semester of classes last week! He graduates in August! How exciting! He has been looking for Public Relations jobs. Hopefully he can find something before he graduates! 

Well, that's some of what we've been up to lately. We're looking forward to the 4th of July weekend! 

3 Weeks old!

Wow! How time flies! I can't believe its already been 3 weeks since Alice was born! The last 3 weeks have been great! I love having a little newborn around.  Her soft tiny head resting on my shoulder, her tiny hands and feet flailing around, and her teeny tiny bum are just so irresistibly cute! Her sweet little spirit adds so much to this home...how did we ever live without Alice?

I forgot some things about newborns....
-how much they poop
-how much they spit up
-how often they eat
-how much laundry there is!
-how much all of this is worth it! :)

ALICE
At Alice's 2 week checkup last week, she weighed in at a whopping 6lbs 4oz and 19 in. long.  She's growing like a champ! She has taken to breastfeeding a lot faster and easier than Merrilee did, which is so nice.  She's already starting to sleep longer at night. 2 nights ago she went about 5 hours straight and last night she slept for 6 hours straight! Alice is very mellow and calm and rarely cries. Hopefully all of these good trends stay good! :)

MERRILEE
Merrilee is warming up to Alice. At first Merrilee just wanted to know what Alice was..."Was dat?" (She says that about EVERYTHING throughout the day.)  Now she understands that Alice is here to stay and is another human being. She has been a lot more clingy to me lately and wanting more love and attention, which is to be expected, but no tantrums or meltdowns yet. Merrilee is also starting to be a great helper. She'll hand me a burp cloth, diapers, wipes, etc. anytime of day, not just when I need them! She will come over and pat Alice on the head gently and then go off playing with something else.  Other big news for Merrilee... This past weekend, she STOOD UP in the middle of the yard all by herself without holding on to anyone or anything! YAY! She loves to show off her new trick now and flashes a big cheesy grin while clapping for herself every time she stands up now.  So cute. She is that much closer to WALKING!

Merrilee standing up and showing off!

This was taken just a few days before Alice was born. It was just too cute not to post!

We made a little play area for the girls! Merrilee loves it!

MAURA
Recovery has been fantastic this go around. Way easier recovery than with Merrilee. I was really sick when I had Merrilee and then she got admitted to the hospital when she was just 8 days old so the stress didn't help either. This time, everyone is healthy, Alice was smaller (which helps a lot with recovery!), and its springtime (not winter) which means its sunny and warm outside so I can actually go outside with the baby and not be cooped up in our little basement all the time! My energy is coming back and I'm feeling great! I can't wait to start running with Ben again to shed the extra 5-10lbs of baby weight I still have.

BEN
Ben has been fabulous helping around the house with household duties and baby duties.  He has been very busy with work and school, but when he's home, he is so helpful. What a man! It is so fun to see him come home and play with Merrilee and then come get Alice and play with her too! He's a natural daddy. :)

We love having two little girls in our family! There is such a sweet spirit in our home with these little ones!

Merrilee giving loves to Alice.

"Was dat?"