The Mergenthaler Family

We will never forget Valentine's Day, 2010 because along with celebrating Valentine's Day, we also had the privilege to baptize Makayla and give Sean a baby blessing. Both events were very nice and despite the chaos of the previous week and the fact that Sean is only two weeks old, we were able to enjoy ourselves. Both Sean and Makayla are special members of our family and we are so blessed to have them--as we are blessed to have all of our children. Makayla looked very pretty in her white dress, and Sean looked handsome in his blessing outfit (even if it was a little big--most of our babies were blessed at around 1 month old). I will be recording some notes from each of their blessings in their journals, but there was one thing mentioned in each of their blessings that impressed me. They were both reminded of the importance of choosing good friends and standing up for their values regardless of the circumstances. This is difficult to do--especially for teenagers, and...

Ricky was admitted to the hospital on Monday. On Tuesday afternoon, they took him into surgery to put a tube in his ear to help drain fluid from the mastoid bone. From how I understand it, the mastoid bone has a lot of air pockets in it. When there is an infection, the air pockets are filled with fluid which can easily spread to other areas, potentially causing meningitis or other complications. So, they took him into surgery and discovered that his ear canal was too swollen to even get a tube in. They decided to give him a couple of days on IV antibiotics, and they would look again to see what could be done. This morning, they took him into the otolaryngology (ear, nose, and throat) clinic to clean his ear out and see if they would be able to get a tube in. Unfortunately, his ear canal is still too swollen. We were hoping he would be released from the hospital today (Thursday), but they are going to keep him one more day for two reasons. The main reason is that they are still u...

Having just been at the hospital a week ago to have a baby and a few months earlier for Andrew's broken femur, I thought our hospital stays were finished for the foreseeable future. Of course, life has a way of throwing unexpected events at us, and we have found ourselves with another member of our family admitted to the hospital this week. Ricky complained of ear pain the Friday before I delivered Sean. Because I knew we would have a crazy week ahead of us, I took him to the clinic that day to get him some medicine. The prescription seemed to work and by the next day his ear was feeling better. On Sunday, however, his ear pain had returned and by Monday, his ear was sticking out in a Dumbo sort of way. Because I already had a one-week check-up set up for Sean for Monday afternoon, I called the Dr. to see if they could take a look at Ricky's ear while we were there. The diagnosis surprised me. The Dr. said she thought he might have mastoiditis. Mastoiditis is an infection of th...

Basketball Saturdays see us juggling basketball practice and games for Emily, Makayla , and Ricky. Some weeks, all three have basketball at the same time. With only 2 drivers in our family, it gets a little tricky figuring out how to cover each child's practice--especially since Rick coaches both Emily's and Makayla's teams. Ricky's basketball this year is kind of silly and almost seems like a waste of time, but he loves to go. He doesn't really have a team. Rec ball for his age here involves getting a bunch of kids together to work on skills and do drills. They work on things that Ricky already does with us at home, and they have yet to play a real game, but he enjoys it nonetheless. I always take him because his basketball time is during Emily's practice. This is a cheesy picture of Ricky at basketball, but I couldn't find a better one. Makayla's team is also fun. She is the tallest member of her team of second graders. She likes having her daddy ...

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...