Beefy & Babies

We had our family pictures done by my friend and professional photographer, Ellen Benson, way back in January.  And, of course,  I am just now posting the pictures.  We had a great time at the Botanical Gardens, and the pictures turned out fantastic!  Thanks again, Ellen!  Hope you all enjoy them as much as we do.

Check out: www.ellenbensonphotography.blogspot.com and www.ellenbensonphotography.com

Lucy just loves baby dolls.  We have three or four around the house, and they are all named Elizabeth or Simba depending on her mood.  She got a new baby for Christmas from her Grandma Sherry, and she carried her around the house like this for a few weeks.

I also just signed for Facebook, so check out my first photo album at:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015441&l=add97&id=1026296654

It is hard to believe that there are 7 offspring of my siblings and I.  Aren’t they cute?  Our friend, Adam, took this great picture of all the kids and the picture of Rachael and Andrew in the previous post.  He came over and took a bunch of family pictures since the whole family was in town, and everything turned out great.  Thanks so much, Adam!

Lucy and Mercer had a fantastic time with all their cousins around the holidays, and here are just a few pictures of all the fun and merriment.  All the kids got along really great, so it was a lot of fun to watch them play.

I’m sorry to all the other cousins, but Scarlette was the favorite cousin this year.

Lucy and Kate had a good time getting ready for Rachael’s graduation.

The girls had a great time making a gingerbread house with Grandpa.

They watched some movies while they were together too.

My baby sister, Rachael, graduated from UNM Nursing school in December. She also got engaged to her boyfriend, Andrew, and they are planning a May wedding (we think May is a great time to get married :).  Congratulations Rachael (and Andrew)!

All of my siblings came to town for the big celebration for Rachael, so I have more pictures to share. Hopefully that will happen soon. My sister-in-law, Juli, is more with it, so she has some pictures up on her blog already.

Sam is also helping Rachael and Andrew to set up a website for the wedding, so I will link to it as soon as it is up and running.

After 3 years of living in our house, we have accepted our role as home owners and put up Christmas lights outside.  We accomplished this on Christmas Eve, so that we had lights up for Christmas.  Lucy really enjoyed helping Sam out, and always wants us to turn on the lights whenever it gets dark.

Thoughts for next year: get an automatic timer for the lights since I don’t feel like going outside once it is really cold and dark.

Mercer had his first major haircut a few weeks ago.  My mom and I did it ourselves after attempting to trim Lucy’s hair.  Mercer was not too happy about the buzzer, but I think he looks so cute.  He definitely looks more like a little boy now.  Where is my little baby?  His eye also continues to improve, but the eyelid is still slightly droopy.  We went to the doctor last week, and he said that everything looks great with the alignment of his eyes, but it could take more time for the eyelid to heal completely.  We are really glad that everything seems good with his vision and alignment, and just hope that his neck (which is still tilting to the side a little) and eyelid get better as well.

We all traveled to Roswell for the Thanksgiving holiday, and we had a great time.  The kids love to go to Grandma Sherry’s and Grandpa Tracy’s house and play with the little kitchen.  And they were very impressed with their Christmas tree and all the Christmas ornaments.  Once we got home from the weekend, Lucy kept asking us when we were going to put up our “big Christmas tree”.

It was nice to just hang out and relax too.

The kids were pretty awed by the giant Santa that Grandma Sherry has in their living room.

Lucy had a great 3rd birthday.  She was so excited when she woke up and her daddy sang her “Happy Birthday” at breakfast.  And she loves to tell everyone that she is three now (she can even show them with her fingers how old she is).  I can’t believe that my baby is so grown up.  She is talking so much and she has quite a sense of humor!  She just discovered the joy of watercolors and will paint for up to 45 minutes at a time.  It is just crazy how fast three years has gone by.

It was quite an exciting birthday for everyone.  Grandma Sherry and Grandpa Tracy came on Saturday with a wonderful gift of a princess dress, shoes, tiara, and wand (or scepter, it mostly gets used as a sort of weapon though).  She absolutely loves the dress, and wants to wear it every day.  Mercer loved the box that it came in.

On Sunday afternoon was the birthday party at the park.  It was great weather and a lot of family and friends showed up.  It was great fun, and thankfully, my Aunt Connie took a lot of pictures and sent them to me right away.  Thanks so much Aunt Connie!  All of these pictures are from her.

It was so great to have Grandma Sherry and Grandpa Tracy come from Roswell for the party.

Grandpa Mike is always lots of fun.

Daddy had to spend all day working on the bathroom remodel, so spending some time looking at presents was really relaxing.

Lucy keeps talking about how she didn’t sing when everyone was singing her Happy Birthday.  She, and all the other kids, really loved the cake (icing) and ice cream.

After all the ice cream and cake, Lucy didn’t really want to sit still and open presents until she actually started opening them.  Everyone was very generous, so Lucy got many presents that she really enjoys.  Thank you so much to everyone who came, we all had a good time, and Lucy still talks about the party.

I just wanted to tell everyone what is going on with Mercer as people having been asking after him, and I haven’t had a lot of time to email or call.  The first surgery managed to over-correct his eye muscles, so he had to have a second surgery on Oct. 20th.  It seems like the second surgery got his eyes aligned better, but he had so much swelling that he didn’t open his eye at all for three days.  Now he is on a couple of medications to keep the swelling down and prevent infections.  Needless to say we are all a little tired and cranky at times.  Mercer seems to be his normal self with just a few more whiney hours a day.  His eye is starting to open, but it will still be a few more days (I think) before it is close to open all the way.  Then we will know a little better if the surgery corrected everything.  So, thanks so much for all the notes and comments, we really appreciate everyone’s prayers and thoughts.

Here he is on Monday, really happy to be home and playing with Lucy.

Lucy is getting a little lonely with all the blogs about Mercer.  But don’t worry, Lucy, your birthday is on Sunday so we will do a special Lucy blog then.

We went to the hospital at 6 a.m. this morning, and got home at about 10:30 a.m. after Mercer’s eye surgery.  He is a bit cranky now, but overall the strabismus surgery went well and the doctor seemed optimistic that the results will be good as far as correcting the superior oblique palsy.  Hopefully Mercer will start holding his head more straight, and be happier overall if his eyes are better.  Within the next few weeks we will be able to tell if the surgery was successful in that respect.  Thank you everyone for your prayers and thoughts for our little guy.

We had our pre-op appointment today, and everything looks good for Mercer’s surgery on Wednesday.  We have to go in at 6 a.m.  His surgery is scheduled for 7:30 a.m., and should take about an hour.  If everything goes well, we could be home by 9:30 or 10 a.m.  So easy, huh?  I will try to blog by the afternoon, but don’t worry if there isn’t anything up until Thursday just in case we have to stay later at the hospital.  Thanks so much for all your prayers!