ABC's and 123's!

Merit really enjoys playing with his foam letters and numbers. I really love listening to him sing the ABC's. He sings it so well now and defnitely doesn't need my help. He is so content to sit and play during bath time. What a sweet boy!

Fun With Cali & Maui

After nap time on Sunday, the five of us headed to the dog park for some fun. Merit has a great time running around the entire park and Cali and Maui have fun chasing him. We brought a ball and played a little soccer with Merit. The dogs had fun with the ball too and one actually popped it. Guess we will have to go get a new ball. When we finished at the park, we stopped by Cowboy Chicken and picked up some dinner to-go. What a great way to end the weekend!

Devil's Food Cake Mix Cookies

These are the cookies we made this weekend!

1 box of Devil's Food cake mix

1/2 cup of light butter softened

2 eggs or 1 egg and 2 egg whites

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup chocolate chips or semi-sweet chips

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Hallie's Birthday Party!

We had so much fun celebrating Hallie's 1st birthday! Merit was pretty excited about seeing Maverick and Oakley. Amy's mom made all of the kids these adorable gardening aprons. The boys looked so cute in the blue aprons and she made hot pink aprons for the girls.

Amy had a garden cottage for the kids to color. Merit really liked this part!

Amy also bought garden worms for the kids to release into the soil. Mommy wouldn't dare touch those slimy worms but Merit did!

Merit watching his worm dig itself into the soil.

The kids made dirt dessert: chocolate pudding, oreo cookie crumbs and gummy worms...yummy!

Hallie got her first taste of chocolate pudding!

Merit devoured his dirt dessert!

Hallie made quite a dent in her cake. She definitely enjoyed this part of her party!

Amy had adorable watering cans, pinwheels and seeds to plant for each child to take home.

We sure enjoyed getting to see Nana and spend some time with her!

Sleep, Sleep, and Lack of Sleep

The first week or so of Merit sleeping in his new big boy bed went well. So, things aren't going so well now. We stacked the wonderfully fluffy pillows that Nana made for him beside the bed, in case he fell out. He has fallen out many times and landed on the pillows. However, instead of getting back in the bed he has just stayed on the pillows many nights. The past few nights he has actually started out sleeping on the pillows and told us that he didn't want to sleep in his bed. I think he is just thinking to himself, I'm going to fall out anyway and land on the pillows so I might as well start out sleeping here. Poor Merit. :( I snuck in his room to capture this sweet boy. Pretty funny, huh? What a mess! I really can't stand things messy but at the same time I want him to be comfortable. You can see the sheet that I tied around the bedposts of his bed to keep him from falling out. The sheet definitely keeps him in but he has chosen to crawl under or over it to get to the pillows. I then lined the sides of the pillows with more big pillows hoping to keep him on the pillows all night. Oh my...what's a mom to do?!

Mimi Visits Houston

Mimi went to Houston to visit Alicia and baby Luke. Love these pictures she took while there! Luke is quite adorable and has so much personality!

Interesting!

On Friday night we were playing in the yard. Merit has started pretending that he is going to work. He comes over to me and tells me, "Mommy, I'm going to work now." So, he pushes his dump truck all around the yard and then proceeds to put sticks, leaves, and all sorts of items in the back of the truck. A bit later he comes to me, "Mommy, I'm done with work and home now." I tell him, well, if you are home from work then I need a big hug and kiss. He smiles so big and complies. Love, love, love! I then asked him about his dump truck and work and he tells me that his dump truck in interesting. Interesting! He is learning new words every day! I say this word quite often and now Merit is using it too! Love watching his vocabulary expand! What a smart boy.

Peanut Butter Cup Smores...lightened a bit!

I made these bars found on the "The Sweet Life" blog. I lightened them just a tad. My modifications include: light butter instead of regular butter, I used half the amount of peanut butter cups, and I used the white whole wheat flour. You won't be sorry if you try this recipe! Scrumptious!

http://melssweetlife.wordpress.com/2012/04/05/peanut-butter-cup-smores-bars/

Richardson Library

We finally became members of the Richardson Public library this week. We have been intending on doing this for quite some time but when we go look at books we typically head to Barnes and Noble. Anyway, this library is fantastic! I couldn't believe their selection of books, beautiful aquarium, and games and toys galore. Merit would have never been ready to leave! Interesting though...membership is free if you are a Richardson resident or if you have children in Richardson ISD. If you want a membership and live in Dallas, the fee is $250. If you live in Highland Park and want a membership the fee is $200.00. Crazy! I couldn't believe it when I saw those membership prices! So, we are glad that we live in Dallas but also are a part of Richardson ISD because membership was free for us! We will definitely be making a lot of trips to this library for sure! On this day, we brought home books about opposites. Now, Merit is asking me almost daily if we can go to the library. So cute!

Scrumptious Ice Cream Sundae!

JP had to travel to Houston for some business this week, so Mimi got to spend some time with us. We had fun planting flowers, playing in the backyard and eating ice cream. We took Merit to Sonic Wednesday night for an ice cream sundae. What a treat! He devoured the sundae and I actually took it away when he was distracted because I didn't want him to overdo it and have a tummy ache. He thoroughly enjoyed every bite! His new word for delicious food is, "scrumptious". It was definitely scrumptious!