catch up and Mother's day

I realize that it has been about 8 months since I have done a new post. A lot of things have transpired in that time. My boys have continued to grow and change. Hallen is now 3 1/2 and Bris turned 2 last month. Hallen has been diagnosed with PDD a form of autism. He has started talking again and signs a lot. He is doing better everyday. Eric and I now work for Utah Youth Village at Alpine Academy. We run a group home for teenage girls, bringing my number of kids at this moment from 2 to 12!!! Eric is working on getting his masters degree in marriage and family therapy. Today my boys and I have been down sick. In fact the three of us are coughing up a storm in my bed at this very moment. While I have been on sick bed today I have been reading the book "Heaven is Here" by Stephanie Nielson. I often do not get to read as much as I would like to and this book has been especially inspiring. A dear friend of mine gave it to me knowing that I have been in need of the extra inspiration lately, and boy was it inspiring. I recommend it to everyone and anyone. Tomorrow is Mother's day. I would just like to take this time to tell all the wonderful mothers in my life how much they have meant to me. First of course my mother. My mom has been my hero and role model my whole life. She raised 4 of us to adulthood with two more almost there, making it look easy. She gave up everything for us. She was at every play, every concert, my sibling sporting events, and so on. I am not shamed to admit that my mother tucked me into bed every night while I was under her roof. Every night she talked with me about whatever was on my mind before she hugged me goodnight and shut off my light. I contribute a lot of our close relationship to these talks before bed. I think the biggest lesson I have learned from my mother was through her example. She has always put us first and done whatever she could to help me. At times this was talking me through a hard time. Other times is was kindly but firmly telling me to buck up and pull myself together, which was probably a lot harder for her that it seemed at the time. My mother to this day has always know what I needed. The second mother in my life I would like to talk about is my mother-in-law. I have known her since I was very small. One of my most favorite memories is of Eric, her, and I eating popcorn while watching a movie on the bean bag in her basement. We all ended up falling asleep. It was a very fun night. Most of all I would like to thank her for helping my father-in-law raise my wonderful husband. He is everything I ever wanted and didnt know that I wanted in a spouse. He is such an amazing father to my children and I attribute this to her. My grandma Misrasi is number three on the list. She instilled in me the love of nursing. She honestly would and has given more than she probably should to people. She would do whatever she could to help someone in need. Fourth is my Grandma Kohler. I lived with my father's parents for a year and grew to have a great love for her. She has always given us books and instilled a love a books to me. I have many wonderful memories with her. I have many memories of us reading next to each other. Seperate books but sharing a love of the adventure of a book. We watched the Jazz play and had a pizza. Grandma loved the game and Grandpa loved the pizza. Other important "mother" figures in my life have been: Georgia Udy, Connie Archibald, Shirley Schoffield, and Gail. These women have all added to the woman that I have tried to become. Each holds a special place in my heart and unique characteristics that I have tried to insert into my own mothering. I am so grateful for these women in my lives, and their examples. I truely believe that being a mother is the most important and sacred thing you can do as a woman. A mother can influence and shape not only a few children but ultimately nations. I hope to someday be a mother who can be half the mother mine has been to me. I LOVE YOU MOM!!!!

Swiss Days

Swiss days was fun. It is something that my family does every year. My grandparents were even over the board for several years. It used to be more about the swiss people, but now it is mostly a craft fair.. which I still like. My dads family is swiss in case you were wondering. The food hasn't changed however. I get my knockworst sandwich with loads of sauercraut on it. The boys loved their snow cones and cotton candy. Thank heaven there is something they can eat for a treat that they are not allergic to. It was fun to go and to spend time with my grandma.

Eric's work party

Eric's work party was pretty good. We didnt stay for long because the boys could only handle so much. The big bouncy slides were fun for Bris. He would still be there if we would have let him. Hallen didn't like it, it was a little too much for him to handle. Each got some cotton candy and enjoyed that. Before we left we played on the playground. That was probably Hallen's favorite part.

Family Movie Night!!!

Tonight for Merrell family movie night we watched Tangled. I have heard rumors that this is the last Disney princess. If so they went out with a bang. It is so cute. The boys hadn't seen it yet and they just loved it. Hallen laughed his head off. Bris lost interest after a while. His attention span just is not big enough yet. But boy did he have the attention span for the popcorn.... he is a monster when it comes to food.

The boys loved watching the popcorn pop. At first it scared Hallen, but then he liked it.

Bris trying to get the camera, of course!!!

This was Hallen's attire for the movie. I know this blog doesn't show it, but they are really clothed most of the time. This was just before he got jammas on.

Bris lovin' on the popcorn!

Dad and boys

Mom and her little monsters

When there is popcorn and a two year old and one year old.... there will be popcorn spilled on the floor. Eric would pick a piece up and put it in the bowl and Bris would pick it out and eat it.

So I have kinda become obsessed with these plastic insulated straw cups and Hallen has followed suit. I bought him his own and he was so so excited. Here he is chillin' with his new cup.

This is Hallen with my hot pad. He got it out of the laundry basket and was so proud of himself for putting it on. Once again... I really do dress my children.


I did turn the pics.... or at least I thought I did... Oh well, just turn your head to the side... hehehehe!!!

Laundry and a boy and his shoes!!!

The boys have really gotten into doing laundry with me since I have gotten my new washer and dryer. They love to push the clothes into the dryer. This week while I was doing laundry with them, Bris found the little button that turns the dryer light on and off. He turned to Hallen and started "Talking" to him and showed him how it worked. From that point on every load time had to be stopped for a few moments while the boys took turns pushing the button. It was way cute.

Hallen has always been obsessed with shoes since he was little. His first thing every morning is to bring his shoes out of his room when he wakes up. He will then grab my hand, say "sit" (which actually sounds like sh*#!!!), sit on my lap, give me his shoes, and say "shoes on". This happens nearly every morning. He also accidently told Eric one of his birthday gifts. Eric's eyes were closed and I gave Hallen some new shoes for Eric and I whispered for him to put them on Eric's feet. Instead he looked me in the eyes did a huge inhale and said, "New Shoes"! Eric nearly died of laughter. Well Hallen is not only obsessed with shoes of his own and daddy's shoes, but he is obsessed with everyone's shoes.....

Allergy Blog

So I finally did it. I started the allergy blog come see it at utahallergymamma.blogspot.com!!!

My poor little boys!

Well we have had quite the month and a half. First the boys had RSV. They did okay and didnt have to be hospitalized. After about two weeks they started getting sick again. Well in short, about a week ago we ended up taking the boys to the ER. Hallen was given a breathing treatment and some antibiotics for an ear infection. Bris was given a breathing treatment, antibiotics, and admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. After 3 days we got to bring him home on oxygen. He is down to 1/4 a liter of oxygen and we are hoping that he will get to go off it soon. I have been able to use some of my nursing skills and suction him when needed. This involves sticking a tube down his nose and sucking out all the gunk. Sad but it helps him a lot. I cannot wait until it is summer. We have only gone to church so I think he must have gotten germs from there. All I can say is... PEOPLE DON'T BRING YOUR SICK CHILDREN TO CHURCH. Here are a few pics....