Spring & Start of Summer

Kyle, Knox, and Benjamin at Kyle's wedding - It was the most relaxing/non-stressful wedding ever (plus, lots of fun!). Great job Kyle and Kate.

Wow! I can not believe we are into summer. This spring has flown by. We finished baseball with a pain staking loss in the quarter finals of the tourney. Both our boys had a great final game so they were okay with it. Plus, we were in the middle of swim, so we just moved on to the next sport. For 3 weeks, we did both, it was crazy having b-ball practice 3 x per week and swim 4 x a week. Our lives slowed down once we just had swim team. The only thing I can say about swim team is " I LOVE IT"! Our whole family is involved and it is great. We practice 4 days a week and then meets on Saturday. We have had 2 and the boys are doing great. The both compete in the freestyle relay, both weeks their team placed 2nd. They each do freestyle and Carter tried backstroke this last meet. B is trying breast this coming meet. Ryan and I are zookeepers for the 6 and under boys, we have a blast trying to keep up with them. Ryan even competed in the parent relay. His team won, you should have seen the boys cheering him on. During swim team, we have to write their race and heat number on their back with a sharpie. When they found out that Ryan was racing they had to draw on his back too. Ben wrote, "my dad swims faster than your dad", and Carter drew a Stingray (our mascot).

I can't believe Kinder is already over. Ben's teacher retired, so we are starting over fresh with Carter next year. His teacher drilled in him not to have the "summer slide". So we are reading every chance we get! We have lots of activities planned this summer; plus, we will spend countless hours at the pool for my little fish!

Spring means BASEBALL!!!

Carter playing pitcher. Ben hitting a home run!

Excited about a team out

Carter hitting the ball

My sweet husband asked me Monday night if I was ever planning on blogging again!

Spring means one thing in the Merriman household - it's BASEBALL season. This is the first season out of 6 seasons of baseball that the boys are finally on the same team - THANK YOU!!!!! Since we have 3 baseball events each week, I am so thankful we only have 1 team. This season has already been incredible. Ryan is coaching and I am one of the team mothers that keeps the dugout in order, this is truly a family event - and we have a blast! Benjamin and Carter work so well together (especially as pitcher and 1st base), the years of playing and catching together are really showing! Plus, our team name is the Rangers, so how great is that.

Other than baseball, we still seem to work around the school schedule. That has been my biggest adjustment this year! Carter is 1 month away from Kindergarten round up and I am having a hard time thinking I will have an empty nest next year. Carter is ready and excited. He went for his 5 year check up for his birthday 2 months ago. He is telling everybody that the doctor said he was ready and signed him up already! Needless to say, he is excited!

Benjamin is loving school and looking forward to 1st grade. His goal for the entire year is to get all stars in his folder (in our school that means good behavior - no writing). He loves PE and time on the big playground, go figure! He complete the marathon kid event and received his T-shirt. It is amazing what kids will do for a T-shirt. He tries to wear his shirt weekly to show it off. If is hard to image summer around the corner. Our weeks and weekends are already getting planned. Our goal is to spend as much family time together as possible!

Carter's Christmas

Carter is my Star Wars guru. He know every character and description about each one.
It took mom and Cartera long time to put together this Lego set - I think it had close to 900 pieces!

Unlce Brad hit the jackpot when he gave Cnug the box set.

He like Benjamin had to open this first because it was the largest present - a hot whell skull crasher racer!

Carter loves taking pictures, especially of himself. A friend made these shirts for the boys last year, it has a tie sewn on the t-shirt, way toooo cute. Carter loves his.
His teachers at school told him he was handsome wearing this shirt. He informed me that meant he was going to get married one day to a girl!. Don't know where that came from, but we will go with it!

Ben's Christmas

The blizzard maker was given to both boys. We haven't tried it out yet, waiting for a warmer day!

Star Wars mania has hit our house. Ben got the AT/AT - didn't know what that was until Christmas!

If you are handing out gifts at Mum's house, you must be in costume!

He had to open this first because it was the largest gift, what is it? A 2-1 trainer (baseball, football toss back)

Acting so cooool at his class party (he really didn't want mom taking his picture)!

Christmas and New Year

I wanted to put up Christmas pictures, I couldn't find them on my computer. I realized I hadn't downloaded them yet - oops! Just a little behind. Here are several pictures of the boys from Christmas events. We all went to Ben's Christmas party at school. Carter has a blast pretending to be a kinder student and participating in the activities. I dressed up and read to the students. We spent the whole 2 weeks traveling to visit family. We were extremely tired when we returned, but we were loving the time we had with everyone! The boys seem to enjoy "presents" more and more. It is so fun to watch them open every package. I will try and download more pics of them from Christmas Eve and morning!

Day 1 of Disney World

On the safari ride, you are up close and personal with animals. I think Carter took this picture. On the second ride, I let him have the camera to snap shots of the animals. He is becoming a little photographer.
The boys went googey eyes when they saw her. I not going to even try to spell her name!

I love the place for character places. But you have to check the times, we almost never made it on time to get pictures. The boys could pick I character (all the time they had left before going in), they chose Bolt!

As you can see, Carter has NO fear, unlike the one on the right that wouldn't get any closer!

First day, first park - giddy smiles! The boys were matching shirts all days. A tip to those going - it was very easy to spot my children. Carter has his pins around his neck. My sister sent them pins to trade. They loved this, it was a fun side game we had to try and find really cool pins.

Ryan had a business meeting in Orlando the last week of September, so we decided that would be a good time to meet up with him and head to Disney. Now, I need to say this was our first Disney experience! Carter flew with Ryan earlier and spent time with his grandparents, Pops and Honey, while Ryan went to his conference. I must say, it is very different (not easier/not harder) with having just 1 child for 5 days. Benjamin and I few to Florida together to meet up with the rest of our family. We hit Animal Kingdom first, the boys favorite ride was the safari jeep ride. They loved looking at all the animals and riding along bumping around in the jeep. In fact, we did the ride twice. Ryan, his father, and I rode the Yheti (don't know if I spelled that correctly), but it is a scary (but quite fun) roller coaster. We also enjoyed the one of the water rides (the smart ones (Honey, myself, and the kids)) were smart and wore ponchos. The other 2 were wet all day! The boys did not like the 3-d movie "It's hard to be a bug," too many things jumped out and to much loud noises. After we spent a full day at Animal Kingdom, we checked into our hotel and went to Downtown Disney. D Disney is a neat boardwalk with places to eat and shops. Our favorite, of course, was Legoland.

We're Back in Business . . .

Shopping for school supplies

Okay, so May 19th was several months ago. May flew by and then summer hit. We

had a wonderful summer. In fact, we didn't want it to end - that meant our precious Benjamin would be headed off to school. As much as I thought May blew by, before I knew it the middle of August hit, and school was around the corner. Our summer was filled with visiting family, a new baby (provided by my sweet sister, Robin), and a get away trip for Ryan and I. Above are back to school pictures . . . Carter is attending the preschool he went to last year. He is in the Tiger class this year, so far, he is loving it! It was very hard to be sad and miserable for Ben starting school because he was soooo excited! He literally floated into school every morning the first week of school. Even into the 8th week, we are still loving it! All I can say is that starting school has ROCKED our WORLD! We are up early, in line for drop off and pick up, homework, and into bed early! I will try my best to catch you up on the happenings the past few months - broken arm, trip to Disney, and all the fun Merriman adventures in between! Where Benjamin is my serious one, Carter still brings down the house. Something funny he said recently . . . We were driving in the car and I looked back to see him. He had his arms tucked behind his head smelling his armpit. I asked what he was doing. He replied, "I am smelling my armpits, they smell like treats." I asked, "What do you mean treats?" He said, "you know, like sweet treats. And I love it!" Okay!
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I know, I know!

It has been a very long time since my last post. We are loving Austin and are enjoying our time here. It really feels like we have been here forever instead of almost 3 months. We had a great time over the Easter weekend visitng both sides of our family. It is very nice that it is a drive now, not a flight. The boys finish school tomorrow. Benjamin had kinder round up at the first of the month. My little shy boy has disappeared! He talked to everyone there. The highlight of his day was ordering his new school shirt! He will be a buffalo! He has a few friends from his preschool that will be going to school with him, hopefully he will have 1 in his class. Carter will continue next year at the same preschool. Carter still meets new friends everywhere, there are NO strangers to him. They are both in the middle of T-ball. We promised the boys if they can hit the ball over the fence they will get a surprise. Ben has come very close, I will keep you posted.

Update on Jackson - the donor's blood has taken over in his body, this means the transplant is successful. His number are doing great. Please continue to pray against rejection and infection, that is the biggest concern right now. Hopefully they can all 3 go back to their apartment next week as a family. They had a spot on the local Denver news this week talking about their journey and the importance of cord blood donation. If you want to see that clip, go to my facebook page or Jackson's caring bridge page. Please continue to pray for strength for Doug and Mel!

Here are a few pics from our trip to San Antonio. Ryan took a day off of work so we could take the kids to Sea World. I packed up snacks and off we went to find the gates closed. Park doesn't open during the week until next week - a true "Vacation" moment. So we went the day at the Riverwalk. I went on a girl's weekend last weekend and Ryan took the boys to Pedernales State Park.

House and more

We had several visitors over Spring break. Robin and London came in to see us. We took the kids to Zilker park and rode the train. The kids had a great time playing together and running around. Afterwards they wanted to put their feet into the cold waters of Barton Springs. You should have seen their faces once they hit the very cold water.
The Paul's stopped by last Monday to visit. D found a Texas jersey for Ben, so he had to wear it that day to support the other longhorn fans that were with us. The boys had so much fun playing baseball in the backyard. I don't think anyone wanted them to leave - you must come back!

Pic of the trips - Doug, Rich, and Ryan - last weekend we went up to Dallas for a prayer service for JAckson. They leave this week for CO, they will have 2 weeks of testing before the bmt. Please continue to pray for them!

We ride our bikes daily. We have a park 3 blocks away, so it is very good excerise for the boys to ride their bikes to the park. We did have to bribe them to ride their bikes, but now that they are pros on them, incentives aren't needed - sometimes you gotta do what ya gotta do (yes honey, that is J-town talk).

Our new house - not the best picture, but I was taking it at night. Hopefully the next picture we will a lot better with pretty colorful flowers in the front. I love our new house. Last week, Ryan and I took down the wallpaper in the kitchen. When he was out of town, I textured the walls. We are hoping to paint it this coming week. Very slowly we are making the house ours. We have already found a church - Westover Hills. It is a fairly large church, but somehow they make it feel small. We have enjoyed the two Sundays that we have been. The children LOVE children's church; Ryan and I both attended bible studies which we enjoyed.

Starting Over

No pictures, just a long overdue update on the past month. Yes, it has been over a month since my last post, but I have a very good excuse! There is lots of information to catch you up on, and hopefully I will not wait a month for my next post, so hear it goes. . .

The move and snow
We did it, we moved back down to Texas. We started out the first week of February with the movers coming and hauling our stuff away. Our items were stored in Austin while we lived with family and friends out of our suitcases for 3 weeks. A HUGE thank you to everyone that opened their home to us. Ryan worked all over Texas, and the boys and I enjoyed time with family and friends. The snow and cold weather followed us to Texas. We had packed 1 suitcase with all shorts and short sleeve shirts for the warm Texas weather we were anticipating, needless to say we didn't need it. The day we closed on our house in Austin 2/23, it snowed. Ryan and I painted 2 rooms - dining room and bedroom and then prepared for the movers. No major damages or problems with with movers - and then the fun began - UNPACKING! Thanks to my sweet mother who came down to help unpack/watch the boys. I think we set a record of unpacking, by Tuesday all boxes were unpacked - yea! The boys started a new preschool last week, they go on Tuesday/Thursday and are enjoying it. We have a park near the house, so we try to go everyday and play outside. We have had wonderful weather, so we are loving being outside. One of my favorite parts about moving to a new area is investigating the grocery stores. I have a secret passion for grocery shopping. I do have to say, I LOVE H-E-B! We have almost overdosed on mexican food, so now we are getting our feel of bbq down here. That sums up the move . . .

Jenny
Most of you know/are friends with Jenny, or you heard about her through my facebook or word of mouth. Thank you so much for your prayers and support throughout her fight. I always thought about Jenny as the "Jesus girl", she was strong in her faith and loved the Lord more than life. She said the most beautiful prayers. I always loved it at bible study when it was her turn to pray. She had such sweet words and a tender voice to heal your pain. Her death was very difficult. 2 days after she died I was unpacking my kitchen, I unpacked a pot holder that was hers. The last time she brought dinner to our house for small group, she left it. For over 2 years I tried to get it back to her until we decided I could just keep it. Now every time I use it I think of her and say a quick prayer. She was a woman of God that believed in the power of prayer. Please continue to pray for her family. Her funeral was one of the hardest most wonderful things I have ever been through. One of her brothers (a music minister) lead worship, for over 20 minutes we worshiped God through singing praises and the other brother (a minister) did an excellent job with the service. Jenny wanted her life to be a God driven life, her funeral represented that. It was hard to say goodbye to such a sweet "Jesus girl".

Jackson
Our sweet nephew is about to start his bone marrow transplant. We will be traveling to Dallas next weekend for a prayer/support meeting for him, Doug, and Mel. They will leave the following week for CO. They will go through testing before the procedure will start around the first of March. Please, please add Jackson to your prayer list, this will be a difficult procedure on him. Please pray it will be successful and in time he can be NEMO free. Please keep Doug and Melissa in your prayers. This will be very hard on them, please pray that this will continue to strengthen their relationship as husband and wife and parents. They are amazing people with a big hearts!

That should catch you up on us . . . I will try and upload pictures of the house and boys this week!

Moving week

Sorry no pictures, at this point everything is packed. It is hard to believe, but also exciting to see our "stuff" packed ready to go. I can say my emotions this year are different than moving up here. I remember when all the boxes were out of our last house. I just walked around it empty house and cried, thinking our lives as we know it are about to change. Ryan was in Chicago already and the boys were at friends. I don't think tears will flow this year, but I can say there are thing about this move that are sad. BUT, we are excited to be heading back to Texas - family and the SUN! Except - my mother already called to say it would be very cold and rainy there - YIKES, why does the cold follow us? Update on our living - we have bought a house in South Austin, and no we have not sold our house here. Please continue to pray for someone to love our sweet house and snap it up. If not, March 1, we can take a buy out from Ryan's company. There is an end in sight, but it would be much better for us to sell the house ourselves! We will not close on our new home until the end of February, so once again we will be traveling the state staying with family while Ryan works in Austin.

Pictures

Horrible picture I know, who wants a picture of me with my mouth wide open. Well if you hadn't had BBQ in over 15 months you would be like this too. I think all we will eat when we hit Austin in BBQ and Tex-Mex. When Ryan and I went house hunting, we ate at IWB (Ironworks BBQ). I made Ryan take this picture because I was so excited to be coming back!
This is Jackson. Most of you know him and have been praying for him. Doesn't he look great? Please continue to pray for Doug, Mel, and Jackson. He is scheduled for his bone marrow transplat the end of February if RSV is under control in the Denver hospital. The three of them will head to Denver for 6 months for his treatment.

Like I said before, we had such a great time at Christmas with family. The boys loved everything about the holidays. They were so fun to buy for this year. Does it keep getter better? Ben is into everything sports and Carter is loving superheroes, especially Batman!

This is Christmas Eve, if you can't see the snow if coming in sideways. It was like that all day. It snowed 8 inches in Jacksboro, I don't ever remember that much snow! We thought we were coming to Texas for a snow BREAK! Every year on Christmas eve, Santa goes through the town handing out stockings. This year we had to chase him down, the kids were excited to get back in the warm car after this picture.