Men At Work

This is Joel's real job. Talk about a succesful career! Joel is an awesome dad and our girls are crazy about him.
Nothin like a hard day's work!

Hailey's First Day of Kindergarten!

Can you just see the dreamy image going through her mind about the fun day ahead of her and how she's definately going to be the cutest girl in the whole school?
Hailey was SSOOO excited for her 1st day of school! JoLynn and I miss her wile she's gone all day, but she has lots to share with us when she gets home. She told me about one week into it that she already had a boyfriend. WHAT!? I immediately launched into a parental lecture about the fleeting inocence of childhood and how she's too young for that and yadda, yadda, and she told me, "Mom, a boyfriend is not like a husband. It's just a boy that's my friend." Oh,...okay.

Everything came out just fine...

Wow, it has been a while since we have posted anything! Actually, this is my first time, since Lisa has done all of the posts up until now. Pardon the pun in the title line, but we have some great news: Our baby girl, Shae Margaret, was born on July 24th. She was born at 2:22 pm and weighed 7 lbs, 13 oz and was 20 inches long. She is a few hours short of a week old as I write this. She is healthy and does nothing but sleep and eat and (well, you can imagine what else). When she cries to tell us she is hungry or needs to be changed, she has a raspy little cry that is very pathetic sounding, but endearing. We hope that she will continue to be as "easy" as she has been, but our hopes are most likely false since most newborns are that way the first week.

Here is a readers digest version of the delivery: Lisa asked Dr. Beck to schedule her for induced labor on July 24th, mostly so that we could be back at home for Hailey's first day of kindergarten (we will post pictures of that later). The induced labor seemed to progress slowly until about noon when Dr. Beck broke the water. The pain medication that the anethesiologist gave to Lisa worked to ease the contraction pains, but when it came time to push, she felt most everything. For me, the "delivery coach", it was overwhelming, so I can't imagine what it must have been like for her. I admire Lisa so much for the way she handled herself.

We recieved so much help from so many people, with meals, watching kids, gifts, and even helping with the first few tiring days (and nights) of being home. We feel so lucky and blessed to have such generous people in our lives!

So, here are some pictures of our sweet little girl with her big sisters. They are being good helpers to Mom and Dad!

I'm old

Okay, so have you heard about this new-fangled contraption that kids these days have on their fancy cell phones? It's this really high-pitched ring tone that apparently anyone over the age of 20 can't hear. (I guess kids like it because they can have their phones on in class and their old-fogie teachers can't hear it). Anyways, I've thought this was all just bogus...until last night. At mutual all my girls were talking about it, and I didn't believe them, so we did an experiment. We made one girl stand outside the door with her phone so no one could see her, and then made all the other girls close their eyes and put their heads down, then when they heard it, they raised their hands. Each time their hands all shot up at the same time. What did I hear? NOTHING! Not until I put the phone right in my ear. I think my girls could tell it made me feel old, so they tried to comfort me by saying, "It's okay, my mom can't hear it either." My first thought was, "ya, but your mom is old! Old enough to have an 18 year old kid! I'm only 28!" But then I realized it doesn't matter - the line is drawn at 25. Once you pass the ripe old age of 25, it's all over from there. You may as well be 60 in the eyes of anyone who hasn't crossed the line yet. I may as well start buying orthopedic hose and oxygen tanks, because there's no going back. My name is Lisa Ann Merrell Wagenman, and I'm old.

Prince Charming

On Valentines Day, Hailey (my 5 yr. old) was telling Joel about something that was "romantic". "Romantic?" Joel asked, "Where did you hear that word?" "On Snow White", Hailey says, "You know, the part about Prince Charving." Then JoLynn (my 3 yr. old) piped in, "NO, it's not Prince Charving, it's Prince Charlie!" Ha, ha! I hope they never learn that it's really Prince Charming. I like Prince Charlie much better!

More cabin pics.

There were lots of deer in the area. They were coming right up to the cabin and it was awesome to watch them from the window.

Cabin Fever

We went up to Prescott a few weekends ago. Joel's family has a cabin up there and it is so fun to have a place to escape to every once in a while. Hailey has been BEGGING us to take her to the snow, so it was a fabulous coinsidence to find the ground covered in white when we got up there. Now she can quit bugging us about it - gosh! We had loads of fun!

Our first snow woman. What a beauty!

What better way to end the day than to snuggle up with Sally cat after a nice hot cup of cocoa. Do you love the South-western motife? Definately my favorite part of the cabin.

One of the perks of helping in the kitchen.

Now that's a chocolate kiss!

Just when you think they can't get any sweeter...

Another fun day at Schnepf Farms.

At least the bee is having a good time.

J Boyz

We got to hang with Joel's best friends from High School while they were here for the holidays. Joel, Jason Judd, and Jacob Jones. We haven't seen them in centuries, so it was SO fun to get caught up and see their cute kids!
Their hot wives: Tina (Jason's wife), me, Natalie (Jacob's wife) and Sara (Jacob's sister). Do you like how I look pregnant in this picture!? Oh, that's because I am. Yay! Due in July! I was hoping to be able to hide it for a little longer, but I guess being pregnant during the holidays makes you show alot faster! At least I don't have to feel guilty about not loosing those extra holiday pounds until next year.
All our kiddos. They had fun playing together.

Zoo Trip

Joel had the whole week off work. The girls and I go to the zoo at least once a month, but it was fun to go with him.

Hailey took this picture...not bad!

Christmas Continued

Cindy, Ben, and Claire came down from Idaho Falls. It was so fun to see them! Aside from my own, Claire is the CUTEST, funniest little girl!
Here's Joel doing a real man's work: helping my mom in the kitchen with the Christmas Eve dinner. He's the best! My mom made the most delicious sweet pork (Costa Vitas recipe)...so scrumptious!
Hailey and JoLynn coming down the stairs on Christmas morning. They were SO excited and amazed that Santa really came!
Their career begins.

A Merrell Christmas

The 3 Wise-guys (played by Erin, Jake, and Blake)
Mary & Joseph (played by Ben & Cindy)
The Nativity Cast.

The Merrell Christmas Eve tradition is to reinact the Nativity. It's never meant to be sacreligious, but I guess that's just our style :)

Hailey and JoLynn's "Rudolph" number in their new Christmas jammies.

Grandpa and JoLynn settling down for a long winter's nap, otherwise known as our annual viewing of the movie "Scrooge". Nice muddy sock.

FISHING TRIP

So there is the nastiest pond by the Wal-Mart on Southern and Higley in Mesa. My Dad has made it a family tradition to go there a few times a year and fish out the radio-active "life" that dwells there. This was the day after Thanksgiving. Hailey and JoLynn LOVE going there with Grandpa. It's one of those wierd family things that we all laugh at, but it's actually pretty fun.

This is me with my Brother, Blake.
He'll be 16 in a few weeks...Ladies???

Just some pics from our B-day celebrations

with G & G Merrell

Hailey's 5th Birthday

Happy Birthday Princess Hailey!

For Hailey's 5th birthday, she wanted to have a "Prince & Princess Party". She's been preparing for this party for about 9 months, making invitations, goody bags, prizes, and even confeti for us to throw at her when we all yelled, "SUPRISE!" Everyone came in their royal attire.We went to the park, played games, made crowns, and played again.

Happy birthday Hailey! We love you!

Pommagranate Cheese Ball

Got cheese? I got this super recipe from a friend. It is so easy and so delish! If you used fat-free cream cheese, you might even call it healthy. All it is is 1 cube cream cheese and 1 pommagranate rolled together. Yummo!

Trick-or-treat!

Halloween was so much fun this year! Hailey was a ballarina (SO typical of her!) and JoLynn was a pirate. They both really got into character. Joel and I were boring this year and didn't dress up, but we still had fun. Actually, we did have some costumes, but both the girls were so scared of us, they wouldn't come near us, so we just went as ourselves. We went to the Queen Creek town Trun-or-treat. Loads of fun and candy!

'07 Halloween