The Mergenthaler Family

We had a great trip to Colorado and felt very blessed to be able to go after thinking we might be stuck at home for the summer.  We haven't experienced a road trip as a family that equated to more than 7 hours of driving in a very long time, so I was nervous about how the kids would do.  They must have been a little nervous too considering our horrible recent experiences of fighting and throwing up for just our short 2-5 hour drives. Our anxiety made for very good preparation. The kids helped plan activities to keep themselves busy and I was better about planning snacks. We also made sure each section of the car had access to a garbage bag.  The kids did very well with a little fighting, mess, and silliness. I had expected a lot worse considering we have no empty seats in our car and, therefore, no way to get away from each other.  Our first day of driving took us to a hotel in Denver (12 hours). The next day, we drove 6 more hours to the Belts house in Durango....

Happy Fathers' Day to the love of my life!  I'm sorry it has kind of stunk. I wouldn't even normally put this stuff on a public blog except for the fact that we are travelling and I don't have paper. I know I should have planned better.  Thank you for being such a good leader of our family and a sweet and thoughtful husband. Your sense of humor brightens my days and your hard work ethic lightens my load. You are a positive example to our children. They love that you take time to read to them and play with them. You are a hero each of our children. You honor your priesthood and thoughtfully consider how the Lord would have you serve, teach, and lead in your various responsibilities. Most importantly, you place your responsibilities as husband and father above all others and as a result, our family is strong and happy. I love you!!!

Written by Rick about his dad: Many young people have heroes in their lives and while I certainly had some myself, my greatest hero was and still is my father.   I suppose this is natural for a young boy, but I hope to convey my feelings about my dad.   Dad is a basketball coach and as the coach's son I practically lived in the gym with my father.   I was at practice (when I was old enough not to get into trouble ) and watched my father motivate, drive, and most importantly love his players.   I dreamed of playing for my hero and making him proud.   It was at these very early ages that I learned more about my father and at these early stages of my life I learned about my hero.   In this post, I hope to convey why my father is my hero.   My father is my hero because he truly loves others.   The story of Pat Katzer is my first recollection of seeing how my father loved others.   Pat Katzer was the first player on one of my Dad’s team...

A couple of weeks ago, I was able to get all my pictures off my phone and onto my computer.  So, I'll share some with you before they're out of date. Andrew loves to read and loves to play basketball.  When the weather started to warm up, he would head outside with a book to play ball.  Our sunny front bench was a perfect place to rest.  Emily made muffins for one of her classes.  She is getting to be quite a foodie and convinced me to take her to the farmer's market last weekend to get kale for smoothies and lettuce.  She was hoping for squash and zucchini too, but it's too early in the season.  With teens and tweens around, I find a lot of these "selfies" on my phone.  For some reason, the blogger software stretched this picture to be a little wide looking.  Finding these pictures on my phone sometimes makes me annoyed, but usually makes me laugh.  I love naps.  Brooklyn had a fever for a few days a couple of months ago...

What follows is a post written by Rick--the first time he was written on our family blog!  I love what he wrote and share his feelings about our family.  I'm a lucky girl!! . . . . Seventh Heaven.   That phrase accurately describes the emotions I experienced when I learned that we are having our seventh child in September.   But others don’t quite understand why we have a large family.   In fact, some of my close friends have said things like “you do know how this works don’t you” or “don’t you have six kids already.” I try to respond with a smile and politely point out that Bonni and I are well aware of how this process works and that this decision is not in any way ad hoc or unplanned.   In fact, I’m just as scared as anyone else about this news.   You may think this is counterintuitive given the joy and happiness I mentioned earlier, but I worry about each one of my children.   I pray for them.   I want them to know how much I love the...

Since I was still overwhelmed with construction stuff, I let the kids do the decorating again (I think they have done most of the decorating each year since Sean was born). They're getting pretty good at it.  We are a good team: they get everything out and decorate and I clean up and put away the mess when they're done.  In the background of the above pictures, you can see the doorway to our new bedroom and window screens I had yet to clean and reinstall in our windows.  There is something magical about a Christmas tree. The lights and ornaments are peacefully inviting. It's difficult to walk by a lit and decorated tree without pausing to look or touch. The little ones are really good at touching.  I don't mind that they touch. We try to keep the ornaments we don't want broken toward the top of the tree, but ornaments do break every year. Usually, most of the broken ornaments are just the glass balls that we use as "fillers" to provide more color.  As Chri...