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!"