The Mergenthaler Family

Well, here I am a week from my due date, reminding myself to be patient. I am so excited to meet our new little guy and to not be a "big mama" anymore that I am getting a little antsy. Especially since, according to my Dr. I could have the baby at any time, and when I do actually go into labor it will be very quick because I'm already halfway there. So, here are some good reasons for me to be patient and let the little guy show up when he wants to. Reason #1: Sickness Andrew got a cold this week and he has been feeling miserable with a fever, runny nose, and a cough. I took this picture of him a few minutes ago. Rick and the other children are at church. As soon as they were gone, Andrew walked over to the couch, lay down, and fell asleep. It has been nearly 2 hours and he is still there, resting. I know what it is like to bring a newborn home to sick kids. When we brought Makayla home from the hospital, Emily had a nasty cold. When Andrew came home from the hospital, a...

The time Andrew spent in his cast almost helped him forget that he could actually dress himself. I was glad for the break from fighting about clothes--not that I care too much about what he wears, but I am interested in practicality and 4 shirts and 2 pairs of pants isn't really practical as far as I'm concerned. Now, however, Andrew is back to choosing his own outfits. Like before, pajamas are his favorites. I actually took him visiting teaching last week in his pajamas (actually, two sets of pajamas--one on top of the other). The other morning, Andrew remembered the bib and apron drawer in the kitchen. The following outfit was the result. He is wearing his "bug pajamas" along with green socks (which have holes in them, but I'm afraid to throw them away because he will seriously miss them). The next layer features a "Cars" apron with matching chef hat. On top of that, he put on just about every bib we had in the drawer. He sported this outfit f...

Christmas this year was lots of fun for all of us. I finally downloaded the pictures from our camera that I had taken over the break and discovered there were 105!! Don't worry, you won't have to look at all of them. I'll just share some highlights. We were scheduled to fly out of Des Moines to Seattle on Christmas Eve, so we had a family Christmas party on the morning of the 23rd. We had cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate for breakfast and opened presents (all except Santa's gifts, of course, because he would be delivering out presents to Grandma's house). The girls loved their hula hoops and bathrobes. In fact, when we finally got dressed that morning, they chose to wear their new bathrobes on top of their clothes for the rest of the day. The kids also loved their Red Rock Elementary T-shirts from Grandma and Grandpa Gudgel . In fact, the 3 out of 4 of our kids are wearing their T-shirts today, too. Makayla made a very cute thank you card for Grandma and Grandp...

I am finding out many of your Christmas letters didn't quite make it through the mail. I had plans to resend them, but somehow sending Christmas letters after Christmas isn't high on my list of things to do. Instead, I will post the text and picture from the letter here. We love you all and are sorry I chose cheap envelopes this year. Next year you'll get something more sturdy, and hopefully with everything intact. Here's what the letter said: December 12, 2009 Dear Family and Friends, I almost didn’t send out Christmas cards this year because I couldn’t think of a creative way to share what we have been up to lately. Normally, I try to invent some sort of rhyme or song, but I guess it’s not so awful if you just get a boring letter. I’ll try to keep it short and simple, and maybe by next year I’ll send out something a little more entertaining. We have officially survived our first year in Iowa and this place is slowly becoming more like “home” to us. However, in many wa...

December is busy. We have had a few items of news/events, but I have been working so hard at buying, wrapping, stuffing, and stamping that I haven't had much motivation to share any news. So, here's a quick whirlwind: Coralville Luminaria Every year the Coralville community puts on an event called the Lighting of the Luminaria . I guess it is a worldwide tradition, but what do I know? Essentially, the streets are lined with candles . . . that's an easy way to put it. Feel free to skip over the following longer explanation: Community block captains get supplies (sand, bags, candles) and rally their neighbors for a bag filling party. Everybody gets together and makes a bunch of bags with sand and candles in them. When it gets dark, you light them. Then, you drive around the community to see the Christmas lights. Remember last year when our house looked so nice with Christmas lights? Also, remember when I had to chisel the lights out after Christmas because they had f...

Our first real snow for the year was a BIG one. The kids were released from school yesterday two hours early in anticipation of the "blizzard." They were thrilled as there was just enough snow on the ground at that point to sled down the hill and build a fort. School was also cancelled today. Once again, the kids were ecstatic. After breakfast, Rick headed outside to clear the driveway and sidewalks. The temperature this morning was 20 degrees with a wind chill of -6. I tried to convince the kids to hold off playing outside until the wind and snow stopped, but they just couldn't wait. So, they bundled up and braved the elements in anticipation of sledding down the hill in our side yard. They lasted for about an hour--not bad, especially since I was only out there about 5 minutes before I was complaining that my hands were going to freeze off. It's a good thing they went out to play when they did because the temperature continued to drop while the wind and snow continu...

Rick promised the kids that when he finished his PhD, we would go to Disneyland or Disney World. Well, it has taken a year and half to get there, but we finally went. We had a great time on our trip. It was our first visit to Florida (for everybody except for Rick and his parents) and we have already planned a return trip for Makayla and the baby's birthdays in 2011. Rather than boring you with a travel log or uploading 150 pictures for your viewing torture, I'm just going to share some of the highlights from each of the kids. Makayla and Andrew said and did some funny things while we were there, so if you can make it through the "blah, blah, blah," to the silly stories, you'll get a few laughs. Emily was probably our most cautious tourist, but she still had a great time and managed to try a few things she was afraid of. She was nice enough to go through Minnie's house with Makayla even though she didn't really want to wait in the line. We got a pic...