Pictures

About a week ago I attempted to try to get some newborn pictures done of Merrick and I figured while I was there I would get some 18 month pictures of Kayton and then tried to get some of them together.  Boy was that a crazy idea, but I did get a few cute ones.  Here are some that we got printed.  

 

 

 

If you want to see all of them or even order any, here is the link:

http://www.SearsPhotos.com/ViewSharedAlbum.aspx?ShareID=09ea427f-800f-48b7-8510-f5614d0e4925

Oh Nate

  This has been Nate's arm for the past 2 weeks.  

Like most guys, something stupid made him upset and he punched something.  It's happened before, but this time he broke his pinkie on his right hand.  He popped the knuckle out of place at like 1 o'clock in the morning.  He went to the hospital and got a temporary splint put on and then a couple days later he went to a hand doctor who told him that he would have to do surgery to put a pin in his pinkie to straighten it out.  So in we went for a 45 minute procedure and he got it put back into place and got the pin in.  He has to keep the pin in for 2 weeks and then the doctor will pull it out and then he has to take it easy for like a week after that.  It's been rough and sometimes I feel like I am taking care of 3 kids since he can't use his dominant hand, but he has been doing really good about not complaining too much and still going to work and just being good about it all. 

Oh Kayton

This morning we were enjoying a little time together before we started to get ready for church.  We got Kayton's clothes out early and so he decided to grab them and get himself dressed.  With a little help from Nate on the tiny things, this is what he looked like after he was all done.

 Shirt and pants on backwards with nothing buttoned or zipped up. It was so cute.  I can't believe how independent he is getting.

Then, later in the evening after dinner, Kayton wasn't feeling very good and he was really cranky so we had him go into his room and play with his toys for a little bit and all the sudden it was really quiet and so we go in and check on him and we find this.

 Then about 10 or 15 minutes later, we hear a noise, almost a thud sound, and we go back in and find this. He must have fallen off the chair or something.  Poor little guy.

 

Merrick taking a bath

After what felt like an eternity of waiting for Merrick's umbilical cord to fall off and then having to wait for his circumcision ring to fall off, we have finally been able to give him real baths.  We just weren't able to document it until now.  He loves the baths and he is just so calm and content while he is sitting there.  It's so fun. 

Boys update

It's been a while since I have updated on the boys.  My camera died and I couldn't charge it so with some of our saved money, I finally went out and got myself a new camera and now I can update on the boys. 

Merrick is just growing like a weed.  He is so chunky and we think he is just adorable.  At first glance he looks almost exactly like Kayton when he was a baby but the more your around him, we think he looks more like me.  He is so cute and still doesn't do much but eat sleep and poop, but he is smiling so much now which makes him even cuter.  Here are some updated pictures of him. 

Smiles

Brothers

Kayton on the other hand is just growing and changing so much.  He is talking so much more now and copies our words so great.  We have upgraded him to a booster chair at the table and he loves to eat there with us at dinner now.  He is such a great big brother.  He loves Merrick so much.  When he wakes up, usually the first thing he says is baby and points out the door and then he runs out to see him.  He loves to help me change his diapers and hold him and give him kisses.  He is very much at the age where he wants to help out with everything.  He likes to hold onto the carseat with me when we are walking out to the car and last night he held onto the laundry basket and went with me to load the laundry.  He still has a shoe fetish for some reason and he has been wearing my slippers a lot lately.  He is so fun and makes us laugh all the time.  

I love that I get to stay home with these kids.  They make life the best.

Bearizona

So two weeks ago, we felt like getting out and doing something fun together and so we decided to go to Williams and go to the wildlife park called Bearizona.  Our friends went there and said it was awesome so we decided to go.  You have to pay to go in and the first part you drive through and see some of the animals just off the road roaming around their little area and some of them blocked off the road a little bit by a fence.  Kayton sat up front with us and we pointed out all the animals to him.  He enjoyed it and thought it was fun.  The drive through took like 45 minutes and we saw these animals.

donkeys - they are a certain type, but I don't remember the name

Kayton looking out the window at them

helping Dad drive

Bison that were farther back off the road

wolves

sheep

sheep

white bison - i can't believe how big their heads are

big horned sheep - there is a baby in there somewhere

he walked right by our car and posed for us

Now the main exhibit of the park.  The black bears.  I was only expecting to see like 1 or 2,  but they had like 12 of them in this little area.  When you drove through you had to keep your windows rolled up and your doors locked for safety, but they were so awesome.  One of them literally walked right by our car and if we could have rolled down the window, we could have pet it.  

sleeping so comfortably

this was so fun for Kayton

leaning up against the tree scratching his back

The next part of the park is a petting zoo.  On the day that we went though, there just happened to be a bird show that day so we decided we would go watch it.  The birds were so pretty and fun to watch and learn about.  They had them fly around to different perches in the area where we were sitting and they flew so low that it felt like the bird was going to fly right into your face.  I got scared a couple times and ducked down every time.  

Falcons

the owl right above the ladies head

After the bird show, we got to walk around like at a zoo and we saw pretty much baby animals of all the bigger animals that we saw on the drive thru.  They were all so cute and I can't believe how many they had.

Baby wolves

Baby bears

Checking them out - Merrick slept the whole time

Baby Lynx

In the petting zoo area. There were chickens and pigs and goats and Kayton loved it

Feeding hay to the goat

We will almost definitely go back again.  It was fun for Kayton to see all the animals and I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.  I highly recommend it for anyone in Arizona.