The Mezgers

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Bring it On 2012!

If we can make a New Year's Even Party with 4 families totalling 8 adults and 10 kids a success, then we can handle just about anything. Bring it on 2012!

So thankful for the Foshea's 4-bedroom house where we were able to hang out and then put all the kids to bed! They got to have a lot of fun first - the F's have a new giant trampoline - but then it was our turn! Baby Blair slept downstairs with the adults while the big kids (mostly) slept upstairs.

We played Whits and Wagers, tried to find Dick Clarke on the tv with no luck (?), had a dance party and our own trampoline party. And we played with my my camera, some props and a butcher-paper backdrop to do our own little New Year's Eve resolution photobooth.

Here's Mel being my "stand right there so I can try to get this right" girl...

Get fit! (But that doesn't start tonight.)

Sad faces w/ Baby Bear.

Blow those horns boys! Geez, don't wake the kids up!

The Murrays - Show me your silly side!

The Fosheas - Show me your sweet side!

Us - Show me your mischievous side!

The Other Mezgers - Show me your...oh wait, Mel is feeding Blair.

Katie is going to Love with no Limits. Watch out 2012.

Christal is going to build a house. Real. Measurable. Attainable.

Seriously Kyle? That's your resolution. That's a little self-serving, don't you think? :)

Phil - read more, talk less. Shhhhh.

Joel's gut is truly out of control. Are you mocking us girls?

Luke's ~~mug shot~~ resolution photo was hilarious and not quite G-rated.

A kiss at midnight. Happy New Year!!!

Sometimes its fun to think about where we'll be a year from now...here are a few obvious and likely "predictions" for 2012.

The year will not end (per the Mayan calendar).
Maggie will start eating table food, start walking, probably start talking.
Rebecca will get potty trained!
Owen will turn 5 - oh my goodness!
We will finish designing and building our house (fingers crossed)!
We'll have all 3 kids in preschool for at least 1 overlapping day a week (starting in the fall).
We'll take some fun trips.
We'll spend lots of time with family and friends.
We'll hopefully be thankful for every day we have and every blessing God's given us.

(Four new posts below to finish 2011.)

Last Baby Book Post of 2011

Wrapping things up for the year. Here's what the kiddos have been up to.

Maggie

Can you believe this sweet thing is over 7 months old? Wow. Okay, so at her 6 month check-up she weighted in at 19lbs 11 oz, or 97th%. That's no joke people. She's deliciously huge (yes, I said it again Mom). She's also long - 90th %.

That doctor's visit was eventful for another reason. Just as her pediatrician and I were discussing her mobility, she rolled over (tummy to back) for the first time - right there on the exam table. I joke that she wanted to make sure she had an audience - something she can't always get at home!

She's got her first two teeth - on the bottom. And you can't tell from this picture (where I so artistically cut the top of her head off) - but she has the greatest spikey hair. It's just on top. She still spends enough time on her back that the hair on the back of her head is still pretty fine/short. But the top. Wow. Striaght. Spikey. And reddish???

One day Rebecca was rubbing on Maggie's head and saying "Momma, Ahnnie i(s) bikey. Ahnnie i(s) bikey." I finally figured out she was saying that Maggie has spikey hair. So true.

My mom says she's never met a smiley-er baby and even though she's biased I think she may be right.

Rebecca

Rebecca continues to make us laugh with her evolving language skills. This is such a fun age - probably one of my favorites. Favorites right now include:

My instead of I'm: My cold, My hundry, My ready, My go pee pee in potty
All the new potty-related language. We're not officially training her yet. Actually it sort of feels like she's training us. Content to be in a wet diaper ("botter") most of the time if she's playing, but she knows its a great stall tactic (Ont go pee pee in potty) if we're trying to get ready for bed or need to go somewhere.
Talking to and about Ahnnie (No cry, Ahnnie!), and Baby Bear (cousin Blair)
These sibling relationships are so special. The other night Owen successfully convinced Rebecca to eat the meat we were having for dinner when we had given up. (We have meal time issues - we know.) He said it, she did it. That simple.
We saw a really big squirrel in our yard not too long ago - she pointed and yelled - A cow-woty! We continue to talk about said cow-woty.
Favorite toys and things to do: a basket of empty plastic Easter eggs that was suposed to be hidden (so it could be reused at Easter), painting w/ real paint, her "basket of babies," whatever Owen is playing with...
About a week ago we were tired (so tired) of being called into her room at night because she wanted a new diaper or she wanted us to "cuddle me" - which means to cover her up with her (too small) baby blankets. So we took the plunge and moved her into her toddler bed. She got a great new blanket and pillow from Bee for Christmas - so that was part of the deal too. No more baby blankies (you're a big girl now). She gets a sticker if she stays in bed all night (unless its to get up because she needs to go potty or wants a fresh diaper - at least she's coming to us now and not yelling). We're probably batting about 50% on her staying in bed. Poor Owen handles the distraction soooooo well. Anybody else's 2 and 4 year olds stay up until 9:30 or 10??? (We put them down at 8:30.) We'll keep you posted on this is 2012...

Owen

I don't have a photo of Owen that you didn't see in one of the December/Christmas posts, so this will have to do - Owen is totally into the solar system. He got a remote control solar system that is attached to the ceiling over his bed (thanks Dahdo and Pam) for Christmas and love it. Kyle has been on a teaching kick with him - he can name all of Jupiter's moons (the Galilean moons), tell you the story of Copernicus (and about how people used to think the Earth was at the center of the universe), etc. It's good times. Kyle definitely encourages it. But Owen is genuinely interested. He can work the "StarWalk" iPad app better than I can.

The other day he asked me where in the Bible God talks about creating the dinosaurs. We went to Genesis and had a really interesting discussion about what the Creation story does and does not tell us. He curious little brain is so much fun.

His favorite new word is skeptical - it's our favorite because for the first few days or so it came out "skeptible". Kyle (teaching him the definition by using examples): Owen - we're going to eat some alligator for dinner. Owen: Daddy - I'm a little skeptible about that. :)

No preschool the past few weeks means we've had to get creative with ways to fill up our days (the four days of Christmas celebrations were a big help)! Owen and Rebecca have done a great job of coming up with all sorts of (weird?!) imaginative little adventures. One afternoon while Maggie was napping and I had some time with just the bigguns, we pretended (at Owen's direction) that we all lived in a cave in the woods (my bed) and we'd occasionally get up (when it stopped raining) to go gather berries and hunt for squirrels (to which Rebecca would yell - cow-woty!). There was a rooster that woke us up when the rain stopped. And after we were done hunting, Owen would make us smootheis with his blender. I guess we had electricity in the cave.

Oh, did I mention we have entered the Lego age? Yes, Owen got his first Lego's for Christmas. They're awesome and he loves them but I feel like our house has entered a dangerously tiny-toy era and our floor will never again be the same...

Guess that's it for the kids in 2011! Looking forward to 2012!

Ode to Kyle

So, as you can tell, I'm trying to wrap up posts for 2011 so I can get my blog book printed for the year. I have had it on my list to have Kyle post about his trip to Canyonlands National Park in Utah - a trip he took with 2 buddies back in the spring. I really wanted him to write a little post - just so we'd have his "voice" recorded. But alas, I kept forgetting to ask and he's out of town today and tomorrow hunting (more on that in a bit) and I'm impatient, so I'm doing it...

Side note:

Hunting. I had no idea when we got married I married a hunter. I knew I married a boy who grew up in the country and went hunting as a kid/teen, but that's different than marrying a hunter. Well...Kyle is a hunter. One of his predominant mental screensavers is white tale this, winchester 70 that, sausage this, roast that, when can I get to the ranch???

I'm poking fun a little bit, but I'm glad he does it - mostly because he LOVES it - and its time he gets to spend with some of his best buddies, but also because we get yummy roast and sausage (jalapeno cheese kilbasa anyone?) to have on hand for the quickest, easiest dinners ever.

So, here's to wishing the end of his 2011 hunting season is a good one. Our freezer has a little too much room for ice cream in it right now...

Okay, back to Canyonlands. This is Kyle's other mental screensaver - and not just dreaming about the trip - the views, the weather, the feel of being out in God's country...but dreaming about the meticulous planning it takes to pull this kind of stuff off. He's pretty good at it too.

Here he is with Gunnar and Ryan - his partners for this adventure. Gunnar is a friend from residency who lives in New York, Ryan is a friend from college who lives in Dallas.

I hope I get this right - they were on the trail for 3 nights.

Packed in all their food and gear. The only luxury was our giant DSLR camera.

One of his favorite parts of the trip was the varied landscape they went through.

I know that was a lame summary of what was an awesome trip. But that's what happen when I postpone something for 8 months. I'll make sure Kyle tells you himself about his next adventure.

On the Fifth Day of Christmas...

On the fifth day of Christmas, Owen asked me - where are we having Christmas today??? That's because we had 4 days of Christmas celebrations starting on the 23rd.

Christmas Day #1

Since we've been back in TX, we've always celebrated w/ my dad the day after Christmas, so this year he and Pam wanted dibs on an earlier slot. So, we headed over there on the 23rd for a really nice stew dinner and gift exchange. It was our 5, Dahdo and Pam, Alex, and 2 of Pam's 3 boys. Their "mood light" + fast moving kids opening gifts and playing = I didn't get but a few pics.

Maggie checking out Dahdo.

They were so patient. So, when it was finally time...the blur was hard to control!

Christmas Day #2 (Christmas Eve)

One of my favorite traditions is what we do on Christmas Eve - evening church, then stew and pajamas at Bee's house.

Maggie and Bee

No, YOU are so pretty!

Rebecca had fun helping Maggie open her first present - her first Christmas jammies.

Yea Maggie!

Father and daughter.

The photographer provoked this...

Bee's Christmas performance for this year - a tricky Frosty the Snowman. The kids were supposed to sing along. They at least sat there for most of the song.

After persistence on their part, Bee gave in and let them each open another present (other than jammies) - these awesome straw glasses. Doesn't he look like a little mini nutty professor?

I have no words.

Me and Maggie in her new jammies.

Christmas eve (or was this morning?) - all 3 in their matching jammies.

So, technically Christmas Day at our house was Christmas Day #3. The kids actually slept til around 8 (woohoo!) and we when Bee and JoJo made it over we opened presents and had a nice breakfast. Then we just hung out the rest of the day - no fancy meal to rush off too - we ended up doing an easy dinner at Nana's that evening. Very laid back. Very nice.

Bee finished Rebecca's stocking - quite a feat. This thing is majorly detailed - every little bit is stuffed, embroidered, bedazzled. It's very special. Now Mom has to start working on Maggie's...

Christmas Day #4

On the 26th, Luke, Mel and their 3 returned from celebrating with her family, so we all met up at Franny's for more food and more gifts. As with any time at Nana's, we had to spend some time letting the kids ride bikes/scooters in the awesome driveway. (See Mel's photos as well.)

Mel with Maggie