The Merrill Herald

I'm a Bad Blogger Part 2

2009-07-14T16:03:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone!

So, we just moved from Modesto to Elk Grove last week.....and I am loving it. I am so much closer to work (30 minutes vs. an hour and a half) and we are in a much bigger house, so we are reveling in the extra space. I will upload pics and all that good stuff once we get situated (and when I remember to do it).

Also, a title change is in the works for the blog. We'll see how creative I can get.

I'm a Bad Blogger

2009-03-19T11:13:00.000-07:00

I am probably the world's worst blogger! I am posting right now just to let anyone who still looks at this on a regular basis that yes, we are still here. My wife and I have recently gotten into Facebook....and I've gotten pretty hooked on that. If you're on FB and I haven't found you yet, send me an invite. I love to hear and see what people are doing, and reconnect with friends.

Anyhow, I will post again soon when I have some pictures and other things to highlight. One thing about me....I hate to blog without pictures. Pictures are worth a thousand words and I think they make the whole blog experience more fun. Stay tuned!

December at the Merrill House

2009-01-03T12:21:00.000-08:00

December was a great month for the Merrills. We kicked off the holidays Disney-style by going down to Anaheim the first week of December. I have been begging my southern family to come out and experience Disneyland and we all agreed December would be a great time to do it. Unfortunately, my sister in Texas wasn't able to make it with her family but my Mom and Dad and my sister Courtney at BYU were able to make it and we spent three awesome days at Disneyland. The kids enjoyed the Characters a lot and now that Alisha had just turned six in November, we were able to take her on some of the bigger rides. She didn't particularly enjoy Indiana Jones and didn't make it to the Haunted Mansion (even though she waited in line the whole time). Her favorite ride was Splash Mountain (Natalie and Clay's least favorite ride: Splash Mountain in December!).

After we dropped my parents off at the airport, we had a whole day to get back home to Modesto so we spent some time down in LA at the Santa Monica Pier, drove around the Los Angeles Temple and went sightseeing around Beverly Hills, just to see how the other 2% of our country lives.

It was great to spend some time with the family during the holidays. Christmas Eve was spent at the Dixon household where Grandma Dixon put together a great holiday meal for us. Natalie's brother and sister were unable to make it so we were able to spend Christmas Eve all by ourselves with Grandma and Grandpa Dixon.

Christmas morning was wonderful. The kids got a new Power Wheels Jeep that they love to take for a spin on the streets, Natalie got a new video camera (which will allow us to put some video on the blog now) and I got a brand new 42" screen TV with a Blu-Ray player. Christmas was great!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year! We are looking forward to a great 2009.

Halloween Memories

2008-11-09T20:47:00.000-08:00

So, this Halloween was kind of a bummer for us. Natalie got the flu on that day and was puking her guts out that morning so needless to say, trick-or-treating didn't sound all that appealing. I stayed home from work to take care of her because she felt so bad and even had to go teach her keyboarding class at Modesto Junior College. The class was on how to decipher key signatures and the Circle of Fifths (which I always stunk at in my piano lessons). Anyhow, Alisha dressed up as Hannah Montana and we sent her out with some friends while we hung back at the house and passed out candy. Dallin actually had a great time passing out the candy to the trick-or-treaters. Oh well, there's always next year. But in the spirit of the season I wanted to include the pictures from the past two years where we've gone all out on the themes: Last year was Disney, the year before was Super Heroes. Check Dallin out as the poisoned apple. Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!

Halloween 2007

Halloween 2006

3 years!

2008-10-08T20:15:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, October 7 was the 3rd anniversary of the day Natalie and I got married.

What a great day!! I remember how excited my family was because they knew that Natalie was truly the only person I had ever loved and would have a difficult time replacing in my life. Imagine my surprise when the opportunity to rekindle our relationship presented itself. What a miracle!

Unfortunately, we didn't get the chance to celebrate on the day of our anniversary but we have a little weekend getaway planned in the next week or so, which will be nice.

Even though my wife doesn't really read this blog, I hope she knows how much I love her, how much I adore her, how grateful I am for all that she does (which is a lot), and what a wonderful wife and mother she is!! To quote my mother on the day we got married, "Oh Happy Day!" (she actually said that to the sealer).

Merrill Family Update

2008-09-30T21:33:00.000-07:00

I know, I know! I haven't blogged in a long time and I started thinking today that I've got to post something new or no one is going to keep checking in on us. So sorry! It's embarassing to realize it's been a year since I've added anything so I won't update you on all the details but try to get all of you up to date briefly.

Alisha is now 5 years old and has started first grade.....and she loves it. She's doing extremely well, has made a couple of friends already and is reading at a great pace. We have her enrolled in a swimming class and tap dance class and seems to be enjoying both. I try to show her tap moves every so often and she just rolls her eyes and says stuff like, "I already know how to do that." In my mind I'm thinking "Yeah right!"

Dallin is 22 months old and is rapidly approaching his 2nd birthday (December 1) and Natalie and I can't believe it. He is talking up a storm! Half of it you can't understand but it's so fun to see him try to verbalize so much. Certain words he says quite a bit: "Thank you" "Ba Ba (bottle)" "aww man" (from Dora the Explorer) and believe it or not......"Clay". Yes!!! My child calls me Clay because Alisha and my wife both call me Clay. He says "Da Da" every so often but I'm not sure he gets what we're trying to tell him. With my luck, all of my children will call me by my first name and everyone will think I'm a reckless parent. Murphy's Law!!!

Natalie is still teaching piano lessons at Modesto Junior College and private lessons as well. She really enjoys teaching but hates trying to juggle family life with her teaching schedule. But she's doing a great job and is enjoying it more. She and Alisha have decorated the house for Halloween and are getting excited for the Holidays.

I am still working at Randle Communications in Sacramento as a media relations manager. The job is going well. I am leading one account currently (California Association for Nurse Practitioners) and supporting about 4 others. We are supporting two initiatives on the California ballot for November (Prop 6 and Prop 9) and will be relieved once the November election has come and gone. Until then, October is going to be a busy month trying to get media events done for both initiatives in almost every media market in the state within 5 weeks time. It's crazy, but it's a living!!

That is pretty much where we are right now. I've attached some recent pictures of the kids so everyone can see how they've grown. I have to say, as a father, that one of my favorite things about Alisha and Dallin is that they are great friends. Even though there is 4 years difference between them, they get along great and love to play with one another, and truly adore one other. I couldn't ask for anything more!

Hello!

2007-08-03T20:51:00.000-07:00

Well this will be our first attempt at blogging. I was turned on to this by a friend (thanks Morgan) but I do feel like this is a great way to stay in touch with so many of our wonderful friends and family. We are coming close to our second year in Modesto, CA and things are going well. I am working for a public relations firm in Sacramento (and yes, the commute is not fun) while my wife stays at home with our two great kids and also teaches piano lessons to private students as well as a beginning keyboarding class at Modesto Junior College. She enjoys teaching very much and is looking forward to teaching classes at MJC again in the fall.

Alisha is now 4 years old and is about to start kindergarten in a few weeks. Fortunately, the school is quite literally a hop, skip, and a jump from our house so Natalie and Dallin will have the pleasure of walking her to school and back everyday. She LOVES to swim and is becoming quite the little fish. Natalie and I are considering a swim team for her if we can find one, she loves to be in the water whether it's a pool or ocean water (even though the ocean water up here is FREEZING).

Dallin just turned eight months old and is absolutely adorable, the apple of his family's eye. He loves Mom and big sister, Dad will do for him if he's the only option. I guess that just comes with the territory. He can roll over and has not quite mastered crawling but he's getting very close. Always wanting to be active, he likes to be held and watch Baby Einstein videos (which helps Dad in his babysitting by allowing him to do things such as type blogs). It has been a joy watching him grow up.

Natalie and I are looking forward to our second anniversary coming up and are trying to save our pennies for a trip to Hawaii. October will probably be too soon to take the plunge but we figure that while we're this close we need to do it.

We look forward to hearing from you and keeping up with all of you on these blogs. Please keep in touch as we love hearing from our dear friends and family.