Family Pics

It's been awhile!
(As usual).

I'm just so happy that the holidays are here.
Can you believe Thanksgiving is here in LESS than two weeks?!
Craziness!

In preparation for the holidays, we were able to have our pics taken and I'm so glad a few turned out where both kids were looking.
(Sounds easy - but trust me - a very difficult task!)

Any way, I just love this time of year, and cannot wait to spend it with my family.
This time last year I was pretty sad thinking Lorin would be leaving us for school right after the New Year, so I'm so glad that is done with and so glad that he won't be leaving us again.

I sure do love my family!

Gav:1 & Lily:3

I sure do love my kids!

They make me sooo happy!

We just celebrated Gav's 1st and Lily's 3rd birthday a few weeks ago, and I cannot believe how fast they are growing up. They truly bring me so much happiness!

Seriously, I think that if they can make me so happy, then won't 5 more kids bring SO MUCH MORE happiness?! Okay, I know... it may also bring some insanity, but I think it's worth it!

Here are some pics of the kiddos at their birthday celebration.


We had so much fun!!
Thanks to all our friends and fam who came to party with us. :)

It's been awhile...

I know, I'm slackin'.

Why?

I'm pregnant - that's a HUGE reason in itself.

The other reason?

I'm spending LOTS more time Bloggin' for Lil' Luna.

Lame, I know.

Just thought I'd post some of the latest pics...

Man - I sure LOVE my Lil' FAMILY!!

:)

We are SOOO EXCITED!!

Happy Father's Day

Ended up making about 3 of these. More info on how to make them on my
Lil' Luna BLOG
The hubby and Lily (still half asleep apparently)

My dad's pop case.
All of Lorin's goodies... More info HERE. I hate copying crafts exactly but I had so little time cuz of my craft nite last week, that copying exactly was all I could muster. Lame, I know.



Father's Day was great this year!!
It's so much fun when the kids can get more involved. This year, Lily was SOO excited to celebrate Father's Day, and all day she kept telling Lorin - "Happy Father's Day - you are soo handsome!" Cute, huh?

We were able to have breakfast and then dinner with my fam and the In-Laws. Talk about an overload of food, but everything was so stinkin' yummy!!

Just want to tell my Pawda (Dad) how great he is, and also the FIL how great he is as well. You guys are both WONDERFUL!

And to Lo - thank you for being the BEST husband and father to our children, Lils and Gav. I couldn't have picked anyone better for them. You are amazing in every way, and I cherish and love you more than you could ever know!! :D

New CRAFT BLOG & GIVEAWAY

Hi Friends!
Just wanted to let you know that I've started a new CRAFT BLOG!

Every weekday you will find a NEW, CUTE and INEXPENSIVE craft that I've made or found online and wanted to share. I know that the hard part of crafting can be coming up with the idea, so I figured if I helped find the ideas, then you could learn how to make something super cute for little money.

ALSO, if you have an idea you want to share, just let me know and I would love for you to POST on the blog
(just email me: kristynmerkley@gmail.com) :)

I'm also doing a GIVEAWAY right now.
Can I get a WhAt? WhAt?

You have 5 chances to enter, and here's HOW:

1 - Become a FOLLOWER of the blog.
{1 ENTRY}

2 - Become a FAN and joing the Group on Facebook.
{1 ENTRY}

3 - Blog about this GIVEAWAY.
{1 ENTRY}

4 - Invite Friends to become a FAN on Facebook.
{1 ENTRY}

5 - Send an Email about this new BLOG and GIVEAWAY.
{1 ENTRY}

There will be two PRIZES:

1 - A Family FOREVER Board {$50 VALUE}
AND $25 VINYL CREDIT.

OR

2 - $75 Credit towards Lil' Luna Products which include VINYL, HEADBANDS, LITTLE BOY TIES AND HOME DECOR!

**PLEASE LEAVE A SEPARATE COMMENT FOR EACH ENTRY ON THE
LIL' LUNA BLOG**

Thank you!

Love - Kristyn
http://mylilluna.blogspot.com/

Disneyland & HB

Wow - who would have thought that less than two hours of service could get my family in to Disneyland for FREE?!

Well, we are so glad we took advantage of Disney's Give-A-Day-Get-A-Day. We had so much fun there this past week with my sisters, Tara and Kellyn, and their families. We were able to spend ALL of last Friday at Disney and then went to Huntington Beach on Saturday. Fortunately, Disneyland wasn't too crowded and the longest wait we had was 30 minutes for the Nemo Ride. It was also so much FUN meeting Tinker Bell. Lily could not stop talking about her!! The beach was also so nice. Breezy and hardly any people, which was GRRRREAT! I've decided that I could never get sick of Disneyland - it seriously is the best ever!!!

WARNING: Pic overload -
I had too many favs!!


I love her - She was sooo happy to be at the beach!Gav and his mama - which he says now. Looove it!
Before he started eating the sand. :)
Even though the water was freezing Lily looooved it.
My happy boy.
The two MEN in my life - I sure do love them LOTS!
Meeting Mickey :)
Gav - oh how I love this boy. He was so happy and just patiently waited on the ground for the parade. I seriously could just eat him!
Lily literally jumping for joy before the parade started. The parade this year was awesome because it was interactive. They would pull kids from the crowd. Lily got to meet Mickey, Minnie, Woody, Jesse, Tigger, Peter, Wendy, and more!
Camo (Kellyn's boy), Lils, and Hunter (Tara's boy)
Lily with her game face on for Buzz Lightyear's Astroblasters. She loved this ride, and kept asking, "Can I shoot the circles one more time? Please mommy?"
Lily and her hero, Tinker Bell.
I just love this little girl even if she doesn't look like she's mine.
The cousins
Our one family pic on the Jungle Cruise.

Discounted Crafts! Mother's Day Items.

Heabands - All $5

Hey Friends! First off, thank you to those who came out and supported me at this weekend's Boutique in the Barn. It was awesome!! I hope you guys were able to find a TON of cute items!! I had some items left over that I have gone through and discounted. I am attaching a collage of those items. It's first come, first serve. I will be home many mornings this week if you want to pick them up, but if you want an item, please email me back and I will set it aside for you. If you have not come by Friday nite, I will "re-list" that item. There are a ton of cute Mother's Day items for CHEAP, so be sure to check them out. I also had some leftover headbands that I will be taking pics of and posting on my blog tonight or in the morning, so let me know if you'd like any of those as well. Thanks again, and I hope everyone has a wonderful Mother's Day!

Tired

I'm tired... and here is the reason why:


Come to
Boutique in the Barn
May 1st, 2010
8am-5pm
Just west of Rural Rd. off of Warner

Gift bags for the first 50 and lots of fun stuff.
I promise!

Easter Sunday

We compromised...
Lorin's family would always dress up and go to church to watch Conference. My family did the opposite - stayed in our PJs... stayed at home... and almost always fell asleep. When we first got married, we decided we needed to compromise on the whole Sunday Conference dilemma. SO, now we dress up and just watch it at home. Because it was Easter also, I thought it would be nice to take family pics, and I am so glad we did!
Any who, I was just curious if anyone else had to make Conference Sunday Compromises....

Learning Experience

My little Gav - what a stud!
My sugarcane, Lily, who was greatly missed while we were gone.
Gav's first plane ride.
The John Hancock building, which is right next to where Lorin lived.

Lo with his two professors - Jared & Tom

Lo & I at his graduation (and no we did not try to match on purpose).
Drunk Gav and I at graduation.At Gino's - an awesome restaurant in Chi-Town.
Me, after the windiest day in my life - it was pointless to do my hair cuz everywhere we went it got more messy and tangled. It seriously took me ten minutes to brush out all the knots!


Wow - he's home! It's about stinkin' time too. 3 months flew by pretty quickly, and at the same time it seemed like FOREVER! I'm just so glad that it is done with, and that we are a family of FOUR again. I LOVE our little family, and am just sooo excited that we are together again.

Looking back on the last 3 months, I learned a few things...

1 - Being a single parent is HARD - I definitely have more respect and admiration for all those who do it alone. Unfortunately, I had to go through this experience to better understand what single parents go through.

2 - It's easier to lose weight when you don't have a husband to cook for. I've realized that I don't make dinner for ME. It's all for HIM. I'm happy with a salad or bowl of cereal. :)

3 - Skype is AWESOME! We've had it for a few years now, but never really had to use it. Modern technology is the BEST!! Thank you to all the NERDS who made it possible for me to "see" my hubby every day while he was away.

4 - Absence makes the heart grow fonder. :)