Salt Lake City

Every year we go with my family to Salt Lake to see the lights, go shopping, eat at Olive Garden and every year I love every bit of it. I am so grateful for my parents who make this event happen each year.

The whole Merrill family
Our fam

Koen at his first year of this.

Where has the time gone

What happened to November. This month when by so stinkin' fast. I have been a bad blogger. These are the pictures that I have from November. Its of Koen, cause he is the cutest. He had a little biff it party on his nose, its been scratched and rescratched all month long. He still keeps a smile on his face though. He is a fast moving kid. He is everywhere and is walking along furniture, and climbing up things and crawling everywhere. I love this age. All though we did decorate our Christmas tree and now only the top half is decorated. Gotta love it.

Daddy and Koen

THANKSGIVING DAY

Our Fam

Koen and his cousins, Crew and Ryder
Piper and Baili

Andrew, Cory and Angela

MY SPooKS

Marley the Vampire

Boden is Batman

Piper is a Kitty

Koen is a skeleton

The Merrill Cousins

My mom and aunt Nae and grand kids.

Pumpkin Patch

Piper's little preschool took a field trip to the pumpkin patch. The older kids were out of school that day and got to come along, We invited my sister and her kids to come along too. The kids got pick out their pumpkin, they went trough a corn maze, made bird feeders, and feed some farm animals. It was a very fun experience.

Piper and her pumpkin
Bo and Pip picking out their pumpkin

Piper, Marley and Tandi in the maze

Koen relaxing in the tall grass

Yellowstone Park

Cory has been wanting to go to Yellowstone for so long, and me, not so much. So he planned for us to go and got a hotel in West Yellowstone, and then he told me so I couldn't back out. It was a good trip except that it was so cold outside and snowy. Some of the roads were closed. We planned to see it in one day but saw what we could in two. We did have a good time. We saw no bears, alot of Buffalo, one wolf, and a few elk. The kids are already looking forward to coming back when it is warm. Had to put this picture in of Koen

Yellowstone Woohoo!
At Old Faithful, Burr.

Loving the drive

This crazy crow is sitting on our rear view mirror. Cory threw him Cheerios's and he would catch them in its mouth.

At the mud pots

Marley checking out the view.

Its fall right?

Koen and his Daddy

Marley hugging the bear

Bo and Mar

Cute Boys

Some Buffalo

The stink pots

This buffalo had a big snow ball in its beard and the kids thought it was hilarious.

At the falls, it was so windy and cold. Burr!

Buffalo in the street Cory and I and the Tetons, yes it was windy here too.

BROTHERS are the BEST

Koen's 9 months

Today Koen is 9 months old. Boy has that been the fastest 9 months of my life. This chuba bubba is the best. He is so sweet and loves everyone. He especially loves me and kisses me non stop, I love it. He is barley crawling, crawls backwards really well, and we are working on going forward a bit better. He loves to eat, baby food not so much, but whatever we are eating for dinner or lunch he has to have a part of it. He loves to play with cars, he holds them and spins the wheels. Koen loves his sisters and brother and is always entertained when they are around. We love this little guy.

Soccer

This is Boden and Marley's first year at playing soccer. They get better and better every game. I'm glad that they both like it.

Zach and Jessica's Wedding

Last weekend my little brother Zach married Jessica in the Boise Temple. What a wonderful day it was to have our whole family inside the Temple to see these awesome kids get married. It was perfect. It was a very long weekend with traveling to and from Boise, and two receptions. We were all definitely tired. The receptions were gorgeous and very fun. The little girls were adorable, and the boys as rambunctious as can be. I loved every bit of it, and mostly we are excited to have Jessica in our family.

Sorry the pictures are in no order.

Jessica and Zachary Merrill

Family Picture

Pretty Girlies

The Cousins

My handsome babe

Marley and Koen

The Cousins

Us in front of the Boise Temple

My brother Nate and Koen

Piper playing in the fountain
The Girlies
Tandi and Piper

TWIRLING

Boden and Parker

Marley and the Newlyweds

They look so CUTE.

My Parents

Our Family

The Girls holding the wedding dress

First Day of School

Yesterday was Piper's 1st day of preschool. She was so excited and has been asking for awhile when it was her turn to go. The other kids started last week. Also this day she had a fever and we took her to the doctor and she has a bladder infection, this is the 4th one this year. So on Friday she has to go to the hospital for some tests. Poor baby girl. You can tell in the pictures that she doesn't feel very well.

Marley's 1st day of 3rd grade. Ahh I can't believe I have a 3rd grader. She is growing so fast and is such a good girl. She is getting so mature and just wants to make her mom and dad happy. Oh, I love her.

Boden's first day of Kindergarten. Boo Hoo! I was totally fine with sending him to school until I actually did it. Then I didn't want to let go of him. It's scary to send your kids into the big world. Anyway, he loves school and loves the bus.

Marley's Sugery Day

Marley just had her Tonsils and Adenoids taken out. She had a hard time breathing and sleeping and it was time to get it done. We went in Thursday morning, the surgery took about 25 minutes and then she had to go to recovery for 2 hours. She was a very brave little girl and did so well. Today is day 3 and she is great. Still a little sore, but is loving the attention. She has had many milkshakes and popsicles, and thinks that is awesome to have ice cream for dinner. Marley before the surgery

This is her silly dad wearing her awesome hat.
She got to color a bit while waiting

This is after, in the recovery room.

Se got to ride a wheel chair to the car.

Her grandma Patti spoiled her with an American Doll.

Lots of Milkshakes and Popsicles, she loves it.

Briscoe Campout

This year we all went to Indian Creek. Being with family is what I love the most. The Briscoe bunch is crazy fun.

Gramps and Gram have 21 grandkids
Boden riding Dylans motorbike. Most of the 4 and 5 year olds had a blast riding this.

These two are great pals.
Piper and Slayter

New buddies, one month apart.

Ryder and Koen

Marley and Lacie getting logs with Uncle Ben

Grandpa Vern letting the kids shoot the BB Gun

Pip getting her turn

Painting little trinkets that Aunt Lori brought

Painting

Marley, Chloe, Lacie and Rylie

More painting
Olsen, Hunter, Ethan, Piper and Sophie

Waiting for Cory to take them on a hike.

This is Baili with Andrew

This is how she like to start her naps

Olsen on the little 4 wheeler

Marley, Lacie, and Chloe

Slayter, Sophie and Boden

playing by the little stream

The newest baby

Oakli

Raft River Water Slide

Our sis in Law Allie had a Birthday Party here. It is at a house in Raft River. The owners rent it out to people for the day. Very Fun and we all loved it.

Bear Lake

Our Favorite Place

We love Bear Lake. This year summer has just flown by so since Cory had a few weekdays off we packed up and went to Bear Lake. It was just us. Kind of weird with no other cousins or grandparents around, but nice. Cory took the kids hiking and to the Minnatonka cave. Then we spent a long time a the beach. We made smores, had a campfire, rode bikes, read a book. Very relaxing couple of days. Oh, and lots of showers for dirty little kids.

Lots of pictures

going on a hike
more hiking

Piper's grubby face
Pip's grubby feet, poor girl we forgot her shoes, only flip flops.

Always the best baby.

Mmmm marshmallows, my favorite

sitting around the campfire

I love em.

huh, get out of my shot

Cute campers

dirty little kids, especially Pip

BEAR LAKE BEACH

We went to the beach one day and it was so relaxing. We were there for 6 hrs and loved it. The kids loved the water. The water was so warm, and the kids loved that they could walk far out because it was shallow. We did have a good time.

Koen Sitting up

Ya, I am a dorky mom and I love it when my baby's learn new tricks. So, Koen can sit up now. It's very exciting even with baby #4. He doesn't do very much, because he is #4. He gets carried around everywhere, with a big sister who sticks him on her hip and takes him everywhere she goes, and a mom who is enjoying every second of her last 6 month old that she will ever have. So when he is on the floor, and # 3 is not around, he can only roll over on to one side, he can't roll from his tummy to his back, but he can sit, and I Love It.

One of the Boys

We were out side one day, and a couple of neighborhood boys were riding their rip sticks. Cory went over and wanted to ride one. So next thing you see is Cory holding their hands so they could help him. It was so funny, All I could do was run and gt my camera. Since then he has gotten pretty good and the neighborhood boys love to let him ride their rip stick.

I'm so proud of him, he did it all by himself.

Suckers and Cookies

We had our first Garage Sale. I did it together with my sister, sis in law, and my mom. It was a lot of work to put together, but we all had fun doing it. Marley and Lilly had their own little stand. Marley sold suckers and Lilly sold cookies. They were a hit and they did really well. Oh and they were so cute.