Christmas

We truly consider Christmas to be a season, not just one day. We had such a wonderful Christmas this year. And a white one, too!

Noah got his first pair of Christmas jammies. We continued our skunk theme...

Santa brought Noah his first stuffed animal. A horse that makes trotting noises and whinnies! Noah loved it!

My husband, the prospector...

All I asked for Christmas was a full night's sleep and I nearly got it! Noah has been sleeping through the night for about a week now. We slept in (thank goodness) and headed for yummy breakfast with the Deters family. We spent the morning at Grandma and Grandpa Deters and then came home to open more presents and have lunch with Grandma and Grandpa Merkley. Then we were headed to Park City for more food and presents! We had a delicious ham dinner and spent the evening around the tree. Noah enjoyed this first Christmas, especially the wrapping!

We spent Christmas with family and there is nothing else so important! It was great to receive so many presents, we were overwhelmed by the end of the day! And we get to celebrate the greatest gifts of all... the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ and his Gospel. How lucky and blessed we are to live in this time.

The "Knights" Before Christmas

What fun traditions are! Every year my mom's family gets together for an international Christmas dinner and a book exchange. We had lots of fun with German fare (we found out this year that we are a tad German) and a lively exchange of books. A few favorites that got swapped more than once were a Zane Grey compilation, Famous Speeches, and a Jane Austen complete works. Poor Grandpa ended up with a history in pictures of Princess Di. Watch out! Someone may end up with it in the next couple of years! I thought we did pretty good... Luke has a picture book of New York from the sky and I got 101 Creative Programs for Children. My uncle wrote this book!! It is great for anyone with kids... your own, Young Men and Young Women, Scouts and more!

Enjoy these pics of all the fun...

Next year, we will have Mexican food and another book exhange. Ole!

Santa Claus is comin' to the Merkley House!

You better watch out, you better not cry!

Better not pout I'm telling you why...

Santa Claus is coming to town!!

Noah had his very first visit with Santa Claus!

And since it was Noah's real Santa, there were no tears or fits.

What a good boy he's been this year.

He may even get what he asked for!

This train outfit was Luke's Christmas outfit, 26 years ago. Luke was born in March... 9 months at Christmas time. Noah is 4 1/2 months. Hmmm. What a big boy, we know.

HO! HO! HO! He, he, he!

Santa even put on a little show for us. Definitely worth watching, especially if you have ever met this Santa.

What a handful!

More like two arms full!

Luke and I almost officially know what it would be like to have twins. Although we only spent a couple of hours with Hayden, it was alot of work, but mostly alot of fun! These boys are gonna have so much fun growing up together! We have decided that Hayden will be the instigator and Noah will be the back up for all the trouble they will get in.
Hayden was crying and Noah decided that he didn't want to be left out of all the noise making.

The boys are back in town...

With the additions of Noah and Hayden this summer, my mom now has FIVE grandsons and only ONE granddaughter. We call her "queen bee."

My sister and her sons, the out-of-towners, were here for a whole week. We finally had all the grandsons together! All week long, we tried to get a picture of the grandsons and my mom. It was really difficult with two 3 month olds and an almost two year old. Finally... the night before the big boys left, we snapped a shot. So cute! I had to share.

I thought I would add this picture of our little family, too! I think this actually may be the first (good) picture of all three of us since Noah was born.

Happy Skunkin' Halloween

Happy Halloween! Here is my handsome Rodeo Clown and my little stinky skunk. The costume definitely suits Noah. We had such a good Halloween "trunk" or treating with all of Noah's boy cousins in Park City. Then we were off to Bountiful to visit Grandma and Grandpa Merkley and Great Grandma and Grandpa Deters.

Me and my skunk.

Hayden looks too cute in his Tiger costume!

Luke is such a good sport and the only adult that dressed up. What's great about his Rodeo Clown suit is that everytime he wears it, people ask him if he really is a Rodeo Clown. He always says, "What do you think?" And they reply, "Well... you look like one!" And Luke says, "Then let's just leave it at that."

Next time you go to a rodeo, you best be looking for Cowboy Luke Merkley, Rodeo Clown!

It's so fun to have Dylan and Tucker, Noah's cousins from Phoenix, here this week. Noah is mad again. I promise he's a good baby! Dylan was an awesome Park Ranger and Tucker was happy to be an "army guy." I kept teasing him that I couldn't see him because he was all in camo. He would take off his hat and and say, "Here I am!"

Pumpkin Patchin'

I finally have our pumpkin patch pictures!

It was fun to spend the morning with family... Michelle and her kids and Julia and Hayden and my mom all went to pick out pumpkins together!

Noah and Hayden make good ghosts!

Noah wasn't as happy to be there as I was!

All of us... almost!

What a blessing!

Luke blessed Noah on Sunday October 14, 2007. It was such a beautiful blessing and I am so grateful to have a husband that honors his Priesthood and was able to give this special gift to our son. Noah was really good during the blessing and didn't even make a peep! We had lunch afterwards at Grandma and Grandpa Merkley's. Thank you to all who came and shared the day with us!

By Request

I keep hearing that everyone wants to see more pictures. So here you go!

This picture was taken the first day Noah wore shoes. He is growing so fast and Luke has started calling him No No Fatums. I prefer Fatty McFaterson. Poor kid. I think he looks like a thug in his baby beanies but he's still cute!

You can probably see why we felt it was about time to give Noah a haircut.

I trimmed it with scissors first so we could keep a lock or two. He was such a brave boy when daddy took the clippers to his shaggy head!

Two months already!

My, oh my... how time flies. I can't believe it has already been two months since Noah came into this world. He is already smiling and almost laughing! And he has just about doubled his birth weight in his first eight weeks of life. We went to the doctor last Friday and he is healthy and strong. What a blessing it is! He is going to be a big kid one day!

Noah got his first hair cut the other day. He was born with about two inches of long scraggly hair around the crown of his head. He is now sporting a buzz cut! Maybe one day it will grow in curly and we will just be a little curly headed family. We'll see...

I returned to work this week and it has been a little hard. It is amazing how easily you can transition into motherhood and how easily everything fits together. I have loved the two months I have been able to stay home and bond with my little guy. Unfortunately, work is a necessary evil. I am so grateful for a good family that is helping me take care of our son. I am not sure I could do it without them!

State Fair

We went to the State Fair with Grandma and Grandpa Merkley. Luke has been dying to go and since it has been so long since I've been there, I agreed to go with him! Let me just say, the animals are the most exciting thing there. Not much else to see. But we did enjoy the animals and the amateur artists exhibit. Maybe when Noah is older and will enjoy it, we'll go back. For now, I think Luke has his fix.

I was fascinated with this cow. It was so huge and so pretty!

I also like goats. They are so interesting. I think I will own some, someday!

The first few weeks

We are quickly adjusting to life with a baby! It has been so much fun to have our little Noah here. We've definetly had a couple of sleepless nights but every moment is worth it. Noah is so special, I can already tell. I am overwhelmed by the love that comes automatically with being a mom. And Luke is such a great daddy! He is still waiting for reality to set in. He says it probably won't happen until this little guy is running around and calling him "Daddy."

Noah's first camo pants. There will be many more to come, I'm sure!

Big yawn!

And baby makes three

Luke and I have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of our baby boy. On August 3rd, our dreams came true. We went to my doctor's appointment on that Friday morning and even though my due date was still 11 days away, I was ready to have the baby! The doctor sent us to the hospital to check in.

We checked in about 11:30 and I was put on Pitocin at about 1:00 p.m. Nothing had changed by 3:00, so they broke my water to start labor. After what seemed a short two and a half hours of labor, our baby boy was born at 5:27!

Our baby weighed 8 lbs. 6 oz. and was 20.5 inches. He was a big boy! We decided on Saturday night to name our son Noah.

Here is a picture with new daddy Luke and Noah after his first bath on Friday night. We had a good stay in the hospital but we were ready to bring Noah home on Sunday!

Headed to the hospital

Here I am, very pregnant and headed to the hospital. We've already been a couple of times and been turned away. We actually hadn't gone to have a baby, but for pain and pre term labor because of a kidney infection. Today is the real thing! We are meeting the doctor later.

Welcome, babies!

Early morning, July 22nd, Luke's sister Chelsie and Blair welcomed their little girl, Hannah Marie.

We also welcome my brother Brent and Julia's baby, Hayden Donald Ervin on July 17th. No pictures, yet!

Now it's our turn!

Shower time

The Deters women showered Chelsie and I. It is so fun to prepare for the coming babies! We had a great time opening presents together. I'm sure many more shared events will come... what with the babies being due less than two weeks apart!

Matching outfits for the kids... one blue, one pink!
Robyn was very excited to give me this camo diaper bag. It says "Daddy's Baby" on it. This can be the bag that Luke hauls around!

Catch up

It's been quite awhile since we last posted. It was a crazy winter and things are finally starting to calm down a bit! I thought I would share just a couple of pictures and moments from the last few months.

Still feeling good with the pregnancy. The due date is confirmed as August 14, so not much more time left to go. I am growing a little bit more every day and after a hectic ski season, enjoying the slower summer season of my job.


Luke is the busy one now. He spends his time welding, at school and selling cars at Carmax in Draper (if anyone is in the market).



Luke went fishing for four days in Lake Powell and had a great time. The boys came home with hundreds of fish. Definitely a highlight of Luke's spring. I'm sure he can't wait to go back!







I got to spend four days in North Carolina this spring. My brother, Brandon, went on his mission there and we went back to see one of my brother's converts before he left on a mission to Chile. It was a windy and cold four days but lots of fun to see where my brother served and the Atlantic Ocean. North Carolina is beautiful and I would love to go back some day. Maybe in the summer next time!

We went to the Raleigh, North Carolina Temple on our first day there. It was beautiful and very small!