Almost 1 year!

Merrilee turns 1 on FRIDAY! Can you believe it? This year has gone by so fast. Here are some pictures showing how Merilee has grown this past year. 

Feb.4, 2010, Merrilee Anne Brewer, 6 lbs 13 oz. 18 in. long.

As you can probably tell from the pictures, Merrilee truly lives up to her name...She is a constant joy and is almost always smiling and happy. We are so blessed to have her in our lives. Look forward to a 1 Year Birthday post coming soon...

Catch up

So It has been pretty crazy the last month as we have been transitioning from DC back to Orem.

A quick look at how it went down:

-Dec. 13  Sold our car

-Dec.12-14 packed all of our belongings into 5 huge boxes

-Dec. 15 Flight to Chicago then to SLC...Stayed at G&G Brewer's because our apartment was still occupied.

-Dec. 16 Errands around town and Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert that night. (Awesome by the way!)

-Dec. 17 Flight to PDX

-Dec 17-28 Family time with Brewers and Dunns and Christmas festivities

-Dec. 28 Fly to SLC in the evening...come home to empty apartment

-Dec. 29-Present Still trying to unpack and get things in order.

     -Dec. 31-Jan. 1 Loni and Jordan spent the night with their 2 little ones and we had a Fabulous time bringing in the New Year

     -Jan. 4 Ben started semester at BYU taking 18 credits. (and Merrilee turned 11 months! And baby #2 turned 20 weeks brewing in the oven.)

     -Jan. 17 Ben turned 25...Dinner and games with friends. (Oh, and MLK Jr. Day so no school for Ben!)

     -Jan 20 Ben interviews for another PR internship in Provo...this time its paid! Thank Goodness.

-Jan 24 Ben receives offer for PR internship with Novell in Provo. YAY!


All in all, we are settling in and it is nice to be back in Orem, although we do really miss being with Mike and Song.  And in case you didn't catch it in the above chronology of our last month...I'M PREGNANT!!! I'm already 23 weeks along.  We haven't found out the gender yet, but are planning on it soon. Merrilee and the new baby will be 15, almost 16 months apart. We are really excited to have TWO little ones! As Ben put it the other night..."Right now we have a cute little family, but when the new baby comes, we will have a REAL BONA-FIDE family!" Haha.


Below are some pictures to catch you up to how cute Merrilee is!

Daddy, Daughter time at G & G Brewer's house.

Opening presents on her 1st Christmas! (Please don't pay attention to my leopard print PJs)

Ready for Church!

Thanks Nana Dunn for the CUTE dress! :)

Enjoying a banana in her Bumbo.

Merrilee talks all day long to whoever will listen (her toys, parents, bookshelf, etc.) and cracks herself up.  She is a fast little scooter and sometimes gets into trouble because we haven't completed baby-proofing yet as we are still unloading boxes, organizing etc. She still doesn't have a high-chair, so we stick her in the bumbo on the kitchen table to feed her. This isn't working out too well because now she knows how to crawl out of the bumbo! I guess we are just going to have to bite the bullet and fork over the $ for a high chair. 

We have been really bad about taking pictures lately...Merrilee changes everyday it seems like. Hopefully we can be better so we can keep you all updated more frequently.  

More fun adventures in Washington DC!

 Hello Everyone! We still can't believe that another month has come and gone. We had lots of fun adventures with the Brewer clan this month. Here is a synopsis of our travels:

Cute Merrilee just being cute.

  


The Mike Brewer family enjoying a fall walk

 

Merrilee was a cute Ballerina for the ward halloween party.

This is the Sunday dress Merrilee wore on Halloween Sunday.

Cute Ballerina!

 

We went to Mt. Vernon for Carmen's 6th Birthday. Merrilee really enjoyed this little garden.



We went to help Mike and Song pick out a Christmas Tree. It was so windy and cold! The kids were good though and we got a fabulous tree! Here Ethan is being a stud!



Mike cutting down the tree.

Trying to stay warm

The whole gang

Yay for Christmas!

Some other noteworthy experiences:
* In early November, we took a weekend trip up to New Jersey to visit Maura's Uncle Rick and Aunt Silvia and their kids.  All in all it was an enjoyable visit, despite Merrilee running a fever and not being able to keep any food down the whole weekend. Poor baby.

* Ben got to sing for the Romanian Ambassador at a special Thanksgiving dinner that the LDS International Affairs office hosted for the Ambassador.  Maura joined him at the dinner and accompanied his singing of the Josh Groban song "Thankful". It was a very fancy, formal affair and a great experience for all.

*Thanksgiving was nice with the Brewers and 2 other families from the ward.  We had a late dinner so that Mike could join us...he had to work at the hospital that day. Everyone brought/made their best stuff so it was VERY yummy.

* The last big event of the year for Ben's office was Festival of Lights this past week. Maura got to go on night 1 and help out. It was a nice ceremony where the Christmas lights at the temple/visitor's center were turned on. There was music, ambassadors from other countries, prominent LDS members, nativities and decorated trees. It was a great way to kick off December.

*Merrilee is 10 months old now and is starting to scoot around and is very close to crawling!

* We are trying to sell our car within the next week because we end our journey here in DC next week! We can't believe how fast the time has gone.  We will miss Mike and Song and some things about the area, but Ben definitely will not miss the commute and traffic everyday! We are looking forward to spending Christmas in the "true" Washington (state) where both of our families are. Merry Christmas everyone!

Baby is growing up so fast!

So, since last post, we've done a lot of things.  We've been to downtown DC quite a few times to enjoy more sites and all the while, Merilee is growing up so fast right before our eyes! In the last post there were pictures of Merrilee with one little tooth.  Now she has 2 teeth with 3 more cutting in! She has learned how to sit up, roll all around the room, make more sophisticated baby babble, feed herself a baby biscuit, and she still just smiles at everything and everyone! We think she is learning that she is supposed to smile for the camera because almost everytime we point it at her, a big grin comes across her face! Here are a few pics as evidence...

sitting up

Us at the Jefferson Memorial.  If you look closely, you can see Merrilee's two bottom teeth poking out.

More Jefferson Memorial.  Nice hair baby.

Family Photo at Jefferson Memorial...with Mike trying to be superman in the background.

Baby needs her rest when we go on these outings.



At the FDR memorial.  If you zoom in on this one you can see her little teeth again! :)



On Conference Weekend, we went to the DC Temple visitor's center on both days. On Saturday we just walked around the temple grounds and the visitor's center before conference started and came home to watch it with Mike and Song on their computer.  On Sunday, we went back and watched one of the sessions at the visitor's center and then came home for the other.  It was a good way to spend conference weekend!

Merrilee enjoying the Temple grounds

It was a BEAUTIFUL day!



Still enjoying Temple grounds in her cute outfit!



Some other things we have done recently include visiting a few of the Smithsonian Museums, the Lincoln Memorial, WWII memorial, Vietnam War memorial, Korean War memorial, and probably other stuff I'm forgetting.  We got asked to sing in church this past sunday...Ben and I sang "Be Still My Soul".  It was nice to sing together and practice for it...it gave us music in our lives!

Speaking of Music...I figured out how to get Ben's Impossible Dream video on here! Enjoy! :)