Thirty

My two amazing girlfriends (college roommates), Kayla and Brooke, showed up on my doorstep Thursday night. They had flown in from California to surprise and kidnap me for my birthday. I was absolutely shocked. They helped me pack, and then we were off to Park City. They had made reservations at The Stein Ericksen - a gorgeous 5 star resort. They had planned delicious restaurants, relaxing spa treatments, girl talk, and lots of shopping. They held Liberty the whole time so I could just relax. It was a fabulous weekend and I will never forget it.

Early Exposure

I am the biggest fan of country music, and I am on a mission to make sure my children are too! Thanks to Vivint we have had amazing box seats to two country concerts this month. The night I went into labor with Liberty we got to go to the Brad Paisley concert/Stadium of Fire. I was worried Beckham would be too tired to stay up until 11 pm and sit still for three hours - but he LOVED it. He led the music like a chorister and his eyes were glued on the stage the entire time. This past Saturday I took Liberty to the Tim McGraw/Luke Bryan/The Band Perry concert with some fun girls from Brendon's work. It was amazing. I wish I would have taken pictures - she looked pretty funny with bright orange ear plugs in her tiny ears. She slept through the whole thing.

Brad PaisleyTim McGraw

Chillin'

...like a villain.

Growing

Beckham loves to help mow the "wawn" with Dad on Saturday mornings.

Liberty had some thrush last week that left us a little sleepless for a few nights, but since recovery she is back to being a sweet baby and chunking up her cheeks.
Beckham turned two last weekend. Seeing as how I was exhausted and sore at two weeks postpartum (from a csection remember...don't judge me too harshly) we celebrated his birthday at Chuck-e-Cheese with family and friends. As you can see he loved "Cheese".

Brotherly Love

This is all Miss Liberty ever does. She hardly ever cries. I have to wake her up to eat (although thanks to my fat-laden milk she is already 6 ounces over her birth weight and chubbying up her cheeks...so I'll keep eating my desserts). I have my fingers crossed she just keeps being this angel baby forever.

coming home.
Beckham is in love with his baby sister. Every hour he yells "hu" (hug) and runs all the way up the stairs to give Baby Girl a hug. He loves to hold her on his lap, but make sure to be there to catch her. As soon as he gives her a kiss (which he removes his pacifier and hers for), he pushes her off his lap and is off running to play with one of his many new toys.
Although he is totally infatuated with her, there have definitely been changes (for the worse) in his personality since we brought her home. We try really hard to give him extra attention, but the tantrums have really picked up. It could also be due to the fact that his sleep patterns have been all over the place due to our crazy lives lately, and he is turning [terrible] two next week!

Introducing...

Miss Auburn Liberty Merkley. Born at 6:44 pm on July 4th (woohoo!!) at 20.5 inches and 7 lbs 13 oz.
I tell myself that her perfect birth date was the reward for a not so perfect 48 hours of contractions/labor. After two sleepless, painful nights with hardly any progress in terms of dilation, I opted to go the cesarean route again and it went wonderfully. We think she's a cutie, and all she wants to do is sleep.

Happy Fourth!

I am now three days over my due date, and thrilled that I have made it to July. I have always desperately wanted a 4th of July baby (it's my favorite holiday), and every day I'm getting closer to my wish. Although any day in the first few days of July is good enough for me. So now we wait.

If nothing happens before Tuesday the doctors have scheduled me for a cesarean (induction is not an option because Beckham was an emergency csection).

The good news is we have fun things going on every day, so I don't sit around feeling frustrated about being overdue. And if I don't go into labor before Saturday night we have fourth row tickets to the Stadium of Fire! Kind of hoping she waits to make her arrival until after the concert. I am a huge Brad Paisley fan! :)

Happy Fourth of July to everyone. I love America!!

Pink

I finally got my rear in gear and finished the bedding, hung the shelves and mirrors, and awesome Brendon hung the chandelier (that his family surprised me with at a baby shower!!). I swore to Brendon I'm never making bedding again when it is so cheap to buy, and so time consuming - but I'm sure I'll end up eating my words in a few years.

You can't tell, but the white tiered bedskirt is made of a dotted swiss - so there's lots of texture going on and I love it.

I love how it turned out - it feels peaceful and girly. Now if I have time I'll try to bring a little bit of color in by making a quilt or a throw pillow or something.

Finished Nursery

Crafting

Sleep doesn't come easy these days (less than two weeks to go!), so last night I stayed up late making these:

Some I love, and some are just ok, but it will be nice to have variety I suppose.
These didn't turn out quite as cute as I hoped - maybe I'll have to attempt another pair.

Orem Fest

This past weekend the city of Orem put on a carnival and a parade. We went Friday and Saturday (phew - that's a lot for a 9 month prego woman) and Beck had the time of his life! He loves "yides"!!

The roller coaster was his very favorite. He would cry when he had to get off (good thing we rode it like 5 times). He sat in the front row with this little girl, and he couldn't figure out why she would put her hands in the air and scream. Ha.
The bikes were his second favorite. I love the scowl on the kid behind him. They weren't getting along very well. They kept invading each other's personal space.

After cotton candy, roasted corn, parades, fun slides, bounce houses, and roller coasters, 9:00 rolled around and Brendon and I were wiped out. But not Beckham. We had to drag him out of there in tears. Until next year!

Stencil Sneak Peak

I finally finished the stenciling in the nursery. I shouldn't say "finally" because it sounds like a hard project - really it probably took less than 4 hours total. It's just hard to find 4 energetic hours when you are 8 1/2 months pregnant!

It's hard to see it in the picture, because I chose a very subtle light pink, but in real life it's just how I pictured it would look.
Now there is bedding to be finished (why do I always insist on making these things myself when it would be so much easier to just buy them??), and mirrors to be hung, and chandeliers to be purchased (hopefull this one if I'm lucky).

After that's finished I will post pictures of the entire nursery.

Little Gym

We finished Little Gym a few weeks ago and Beckham will miss it. His favorite things were balls and bubbles.

chilling with his cousin Gavin.
Beckham has just started "smiling" for the camera. It cracks me up.

Solar

When we moved to Utah in November, Brendon was brought on as Director of Energy Management with Vivint Inc (formerly known as APX Alarms), but starting around the beginning of this year he has been focusing most of his efforts getting a new company off the ground, Vivint Solar. Brendon has really enjoyed being so involved in the creation of a new company, and this week they start sales in New Jersey. Very exciting. Check out their website.

We got solar panels installed on our house. We've had them for a few weeks now, and it is really cool to run our air conditioner and lights with no guilt :) I'm excited to get our first utility bill.

not a bad view of the mountains behind our house :)

We are so proud of Brendon and all his hard work. This job has been a perfect fit for him.

This Month...

[or next month if I'm late like I was with Beckham (sort of hoping for a July baby...but by now I'm so uncomfortable I wouldn't be all that bummed if I went into labor early - like tomorrow).]

...we'll be a family of four

...Beckham's world will get rocked (I'm kind of sad about this)

...we'll start dressing lots more fluffy and pink around here

...I'll be even more tired than I am now (I can't fathom this)

What I've been up to and why I haven't been blogging:

*stenciling the nursery...hopefully finishing this week and I can share some pics

*sewing the crib bedding. I'm loving how it's turning out - but will still be another week or so

*ignoring the dirty house and watching cartoons...oh the guilt (especially about the cartoons) but i'm so tired and achy lately

*feeling anxious that I have lots more sewing/craft projects I want to do for baby girl and not having the energy for them...will they get done??

Yikes Stripes

Beckham is moving to a big boy room to make room for baby sister (coming in just 6 weeks!!). I desperately wanted to do his room in horizontal stripes, and thanks to my awesome husband and father in law I got what I wanted.

Brendon doesn't really enjoy painting, and groans every time I mention a new painting project - but the irony is he's a fantastic, detail oriented painter. Which means he's always the one painting.
Brendon's dad is equally talented in the painting department, and so generous with his time and talent. He has done the majority of the painting in our house. We owe him big time!!


I love how it turned out! Now just a few more accessories and decorations and Beckham's room will be set.