I'm a Pir-an-ha... they're in the Am-a-zon

Bradley is a piranha. In the span of just 2 months he has grown 7 , almost 8 teeth. He has also become a biter. Let's just say, that one year of age couldn't seem farther away. I realize that his little mouth is sore and he feels the need to bite to relieve the pain... but come on... help a Mothe' out! Anyway... here are some funny-looking pictures of Bradley and his new mouthful of teeth.


And just because he is so sweet, (when he is NOT biting) here are a few more.


I also took a video of the happy baby. I'm sorry, it's a little lengthy... I have a real talent for turning the camera off right before something good happens. So I am trying to let it run a little longer... just in case.



Now to our other Piranha... Mr. Kaleb. Kaleb has really digressed in this idea of biting. We thought he was getting better, but poor Jaden has evidence that, no, he is not. He has given Jaden some pretty messed up wounds. Charles gets it every now and again too. And it's not like he does it just when he's angry, he does it when he is happy and excited too. Why?


But on a lighter side, he is most definitely his Father's child. Remember that story of Charles when he was pretty young... he was with Melanie... and he was in his underwear... and he decided to pull it down from the top just enough to expose ONE of his bum cheeks.... then he would say, "One Bun! One Bun!" And it would really upset Melanie... so I've heard. Anyway, Kaleb has his own take on "One Bun," which Charles was very proud to see.



Jaden had his last week of "Summer Camp" this past week, where he finally had to tell his amazing teacher, Miss Alyssa, goodbye. He picked out some flowers for her and made her a card and wrote her a letter. It was sad to say goodbye to Preschool for good for him... kinda made the reality of Kindergarten seem more... I don't know... real?... I guess...


During his last few days of school, he had "Nonsense Day" where they dressed up kind of silly. Jaden decided to wear his clothes backwards and do his hair crazy as well. He LOVED it. He still asks us if he can do his hair like that. We tell him if he can do it himself, then to go right ahead!

Remodeling

So Charles has been working his tail off on our house. Now that his break is over from school, he will be taking a break on the house. But here are some pictures of all his hard work. I'm impressed. I think you will be too. :)

BEFORE

TV/Family Room, Dining & Kitchen (One big combo)

AFTER

TV Room (New paint, baseboards, moulding around windows and archway, and new couches)

Dining (that new door is to a pantry that Charles built in. New Tile)
Kitchen
BEFORE
Front/Living Room
AFTER
Living Room (New Carpet, paint, moulding and crown moulding, new couches and tables)
This WAS a storage closet (under the stairs) with concrete for the floor. We put in carpet and baseboards and are going to try and keep it empty for the boys to play in. Maybe someday we'll paint it something fun.


Charles also redid the bathroom and laundry room, but I didn't take pictures.

As you can see there is nothing up on our walls... We are still rearranging things, trying to see where they will go before we start decorating. We still have a lot to do like painting the doors, the ceiling, finishing up the pantry, putting granite counter tops in the kitchen along with some crown moulding on the cabinets... And we also decide that we are going to change the color of the cabinets to the same color as our kitchen table. But these may have to wait till next summer.

Anyway, Charles did an amazing job and we all are just LOVING it. He worked just about every minute he had. Here's the poor guy putting in some last minute tile before the carpet people came. He had been up all day the day before, then worked a night shift, then put the tile in when he got home. Then he went to bed! Yeah... he pretty much rocks. :)

My New Nephew

Please welcome... (drum roll)

Nathan Ashton Merrill


Nathan arrived on Father's Day, Sunday June 21st 2009 at 8:17pm. He is 20 inches long and weighs 6lbs 12.5 ozs.

He is such a handsome little guy. I can't wait to see him in person next month. He is home now, and my mom and Alli are with them. I am quite jealous. That's me on the phone with Kare. It's as close as I can get for now! Look at him curled up on her chest! SOOO CUTE!! We love you guys!

Happy Father's Day!

I'm gonna be an Aunt again... today!
It's 5 o'clock in the morning and there is no hope for going back to sleep. So... I'll blog!
So Curtis called at like 4 in the morning here to tell us that they had just checked into the hospital. Charles answered the phone and I was wondering why his work was calling him. I heard words like Hospital, and checked in, so I didn't let myself really wake up. But then I started hearing all these "pleasantries," I started to get confused so when he hung up I asked who that was. He said, "Kare's water broke, they're at the hospital."

What?! Well, there was no point trying to go back to sleep, so I just got up, went downstairs and called them back. I'll be updating THEIR blog as the process continues. Right now I am waiting for more details so I can inform the world. :) I can't believe my little Kare is in AZ right now having a baby. I wish I could be there too! And I wish it were a month from now and she was coming to Utah so I could see the little guy. When I saw Andrew and Shanade's new baby, it was so crazy to see how small he is. You forget how tiny a new baby actually is!

It's 5:20. That's Kare's area code. I just tried calling for an update. No answer. Hmmmm... What's going on over there... About an hour ago she was only at a 1.

I'm tired, Guess I'll try and sleep a little until I hear something.

One Of The Boys

After a harrowing 10 months of having to watch his older brothers get to wrestle with Dad, Bradley has finally crossed over and reached his rite of passage. Unfortunately I only caught the end of it on camera. Welcome to the fight club Brad, (ha!) and watch out for Kaleb... he's vicious.



Kaleb has also given Bradley a new nickname. I'm not quite sure how to spell it phonetically, but the teacher in me is screaming for the correct phonemes to be represented.

(Bryce, maybe you can help me out with this one.)

It's not pronounced as an over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder, but the name is Bra-Bra. As in Bradley. How do I make that last A in his name say it's short sound?

I know the English language has rules... [along with way too many exceptions] such as... when a word is CVC, the vowel is short. "cat, picnic, moss..." Or if the word ends in a vowel that is not silent, it will make the long sound. "domino, me,"

Sooooo, if it is not CVC, and it has a vowel at the end, and I don't want it to say the long sound, how do I spell this correctly? Brah? No... Bragh? Probably not...

Thank you. I will expect an answer on my desk by morning.

What Little Boys Love

Sports
Well Jaden is definitely on a roll with scoring goals his first season of soccer. He has scored 4 goals up until now. One for his team, and 3 for the other team! Here is his latest OG. But watch how he tried to turn the ball as he kicked he in. You may also notice that Charles was the coach that day.



One day this week, Charles and Kaleb went outside to play in the rain. I didn't want to get the camera wet, so I took these videos through my window upstairs. Recognize the ball, Melanie and John? Kaleb loves it. He calls it his Christmas Ball.





Here is a glimpse of the Kaleb that I am very anxious to have join our family. Meet "Patient Kaleb." I was seriously amazed at how long he shot that ball without getting too frustrated and throwing a fit. Good job, Buddy!



Bugs
Kaleb discovered Roly Polies. Now the boys are always looking for them in our backyard. I love the way Kaleb says their name! :)



Rough Housing
Here is one of the many ways the boys like to Rough House. They love to stand still and have us try and knock them down with pillows. Some days it it too much for me to watch. I cringe and gasp whenever someone looks like they got hurt or is about to get hurt. But I guess I just need to get used to it. A family full of boys is bound to bring on the broken bones and stitches!



Helping Dad
The boys are also good little helpers... as long as it doesn't involve cleaning! Here are some pictures of the boys hard at work! Little boys, AND big boys. :)

Mowing the lawn

Ripping out baseboards

Pulling out nails

Uh... "vacuuming the wall" Nice work, Kaleb!

Cutting tile... (Poor Dad was having major issues shaping that particular piece, but even though he was super frustrated, he still had a smile on his face. Unlike Charles, who when I asked him how he was doing, reponded with a crude hand gesture. lol)

Laying tile

Here you can kinda see how the tile turned out. I'd say they did a rather fine job!

Painting (Here is a more appropriate expression from Charles)



Creative Play
They used the tracks from their race track to make a "city of freeways."
And here's Bradley... just because.

Charles? Charles Who?

Although seeing and reading about the kids is obviously more entertaining than hearing about us... for those curious minds out there who wonder what's up with Crissy and Charles... and what job he is doing now, (I know, it's hard to keep up) here is our update.

Charles:


Well Charles is, as always, a very busy guy. 3 days a week he works a 12 hour shift at a cardiac ICU. There he takes care of patients who have had heart attacks or who have severe heart failure.

Charles also has a weekend job. He does Home Health Care every Saturday and Sunday. Here he makes about 20 visits to elderly folks who cannot give themselves their own insulin. One of the places he visits is the same place my Grandparents live. So every once in a while he will stop in and visit, and sometimes, (by the orchestration of my Grandma) he will give my Grandpa a shave... if Grandpa permits it! ;)

He also has another job as a Nursing Supervisor. This job is his favorite. This is where he gets to play Hospital Administrator while the real one is at home sleeping. Here he gets to sit in an office and wait for people to call him with trivial crap. Okay no, but really... he acts as a pharmacist, a coordinator of patient care between different departments, and he also runs the code team. What's a code team you ask? Have you ever heard, "Code blue! Code blue!" That's when a patient either stops breathing or their heart stops beating. A team is then called in to perform CPR and give medications. Needless to say, it can be an exciting job. But even if night is slow, it is ALSO the perfect job. It is a job where he can get paid to... get some homework done... take a nap, or get caught up on all his TV shows that he never has time to watch at home. Sounds like a great job... and it is, but unfortunately he only has the "tip of his toe" through that door and only gets assigned one night a month, or more if anyone wants to give up a shift or two. He's actually "under-qualified" but has been lucky to get what little time and experience that he has.

Sound busy enough? Now add going to school FULL TIME. Yes. He is working on his Masters in Business Administration with an emphasis in Health Care Management. Why, you ask. Well, he enjoys the business side of Health Care more, but more importantly... so he will only have to work one job, my friend!

.....I dream of the day when he can work a normal 40 hours a week and then come home at 5 each night, and be DONE. And also be HOME on the weekends! Not to mention having his holidays back. It sounds too good to be true.....

Charles has class every Monday night and then spends all the time between classes reading assignments, writing papers, and meeting with group members to work on stupid group projects. He is doing amazingly well, and I would just like to say that it is sickening to me that he has yet to receive a grade less than an A in any of his classes. (barf.) Charles will be done with his MBA in December of this year, and will complete his emphasis around May of next year.

So, with 3 jobs, and school, does he have time for anything else? Not really. But he makes time. Out of thin air. Well, okay, not thin air, but he cuts time out of his sleep to spend with the boys. Every minute he is home, he plays with those boys like there is no tomorrow. And once they go to bed he is off to study into the wee hours of the night. Which makes for a very tired Charles... But most days he pulls off his fatigue quite gracefully. He's amazing.



I get to see him every now and then. We used to try and have date night once a week. Then it became once every other week, and now we are lucky if it is once a month. I think we missed the last two months in a row. Things are hard at times... but lots of people deal with this kind of thing. And there is light at the end of the tunnel. I know I will get my husband back, and we will have more time together then ever before. So much that we'll probably even get sick of each other! He works very hard for all of us, and we are very lucky to have him. We savor every minute we get with him.

Aaaand this posting is already way too long to add anything about me. Maybe next time. I know, you're just dying to read about my exciting everyday life. The suspense really will kill you. I know! Prepare to be dazzled! :)

Mud Pies and Mud Cakes

Jaden and Kaleb made their first "Mud Pie" in the backyard. Charles was "so proud." I'm sure they ruined whatever is planted under there, and so we will always have this empty patch of dirt. Oh well. They had fun. :)











(Amber, I need to apologize... you'll probably notice that the shirt Kaleb is wearing/destroying is one of the ones that you sent Jaden for his birthday. Explanation: Jaden decided he wanted to get Kaleb dressed that day, and Kaleb's shirt drawer is too high for Jaden to reach so he just grabbed one from his own drawer. But CHARLES was the one to let them loose with the hose!... sorry!... But they still wear it, only now it's for dirty activities such as this...)