November 2015

November had it's ups and downs for us. I wanted to start by paying tribute to our dear friend and Mike's mentor, Eric Vogel. He had a long fight with cancer, and passed away this month. It was so hard to watch such a sweet man go through so much pain, but we are happy that he has found peace with our Heavenly Father. We definitely wish we had more time with him here. He made such a difference in our lives, especially Mike's life, but we are grateful for the time we had with him, and we are so glad that we knew such a wonderful man. Thank you for all you've given us, Eric--we miss you!

We were able to take the girls to Disney On Ice (thanks to Emily Clark--she got the tickets through work, and was so sweet and thoughtful to give us the tickets). Kallie absolutely loved it and danced and called out the names of the characters she knew. Jenna mostly enjoyed it, but also liked to climb up and down the stairs too! We got to take my mom with us, and the girls enjoyed being able to walk around in front of us and took turns sitting on all of our laps. It was a great show!

Kallie is certainly keeping us entertained these days. It's so fun to hear the things that she comes up with, and she is always saying silly things:

• Kallie is calling scrambled eggs, "scratchy eggs"
• After I lay Jenna down, Kallie has been telling me "Shh!!! Jenna is sleeping!"
• Multiple times Kallie has told me "mom, calm down!"
• Has been doing gangly interpretive dances (Mike says she looks like a newborn giraffe)
• Has started telling me when it's time to go home
• Wanted to comfort Jenna when she was sad, so she sang "I am a child of God" to her (it is SO sweet)
• Kallie yelled for me to turn on minions, so I said "yes ma'am" to which she replied, "no, I not ma'am, I Kallie"
• Gets so excited when it snows, and always wants to go out and play in it

Jenna gets busier by the day:

• Finally started walking (then fell off of a toy and stopped waking...again)
• Has been heard saying "Pap", "baby" and "shoes" this month
• Fell down at church and smacked her face on a folding chair, cut her lip so it was red and swollen the rest of the day
• Loves to raise her hands for "blastoff" (while watching Little Einsteins)
• Loves to dance/bounce when she hears music
• Likes to help wash her hair when in the bath
• Helps mom blow on her food to cool it down

We were able to have some more visitors that we knew in Indiana; our friends, the Burrow's, stopped by for a quick visit! They moved back to Canada after dental school was over, so we were so glad that they decided to stop in and see us for a little bit!

Mike was able to go with Josh and my dad to Kansas City. They were there for the BYU v. Missouri. They got there early enough that they were able to go and visit Far West and Independence, they got to visit the Independence jail, and went to the WWI museum the day before the football game. Even though BYU (barely) lost, they had a good trip together.

The girls had a fun month together. We went to Smith's to do our grocery shopping one day, and discovered that they have these adorable car shopping carts that seat both of the girls! It's our new favorite place to shop, and we always have to have a car (otherwise Kallie gets pretty sad). These two make me so happy!

We had an AMAZING Thanksgiving Day this year! Most of Mike's family gathered here to celebrate together! We had the Henderson's, the Texas Merk's, and Matt all stay with us, and Tim/Tam joined us for the afternoon! It was a full house for sure, but it was sure full of fun! The kids all had a blast together, and we were able to pull together a delicious meal! It's so sad to live so far from the Merkley family members, but we love any opportunity to get together! The kids are all growing up so fast, but I love that they all love each other so much! We got to do some Black Friday shopping with Mel and Rob the next day too, and got some good stuff! We love you all!

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, the boys all got together and went to Logan for the BYU v. Utah State game. It was a rough first half, but the cougars pulled out the win! I (thankfully) stayed home and watch the game on TV with Rachel and the kids, but I could tell it was so cold out there! The boys managed to stay warm, and had a fun time cheering on our team!