The Mergenthaler Family

Usually I don't have much to report about Memorial Day. Almost always Rick is working and I am home with the kids catching up on laundry or other chores.  Usually, the kids still have at least a week of school ahead of them, so it doesn't feel like "real summer."  Sometimes I take them shopping or something dumb, but we don't actually DO anything worth talking about. This Memorial Day, I think we did a little better. The kids had their last day of school last Wednesday, so summer fun is in full swing. Rick still went to work, but we had a lovely evening when he got home.  We began the day with haircuts---again. Didn't I just do that?  I cut the 4 boys and Brooklyn. She was threatening to use scissors on her hair. I think she was feeling left out, so I cut hers too.  After that, we headed outside to mow the lawn and play in the pool.  Brooklyn is pretty nervous about the pool since the water comes up to her shoulders, so she likes to hang out on the porch wi...

We celebrated two golden birthdays a couple of weeks ago--Andrew and Ricky within 3 days of each other. We decided to make it special by getting them a golden gift basket.  I had it on the table for them when they got home from school on Andrew's birthday. They were pretty excited about it--especially since I let them take their food up to their room and hide it and eat it at bedtime. We have a pretty strict rule about food only being in the kitchen and for sure no food upstairs, so this was fun.  Andrew celebrated his birthday on Mother's Day because his actual birthday was pretty busy with Rick giving a final to his students and me shuttling Ricky and Makayla to and from evening basketball clinics. We were able to celebrate Ricky's birthday on the actual day.  Ricky's birthday was pretty special this year because he turned 12. At age 12, he is now old enough to have the preisthood. He got the priest it on Sunday, May 15. One thing that is neat about him getting the pr...

Gavin was getting wings, so when I gave the boys haircuts last week, he got to be one of the big kids.  Before: After: I know there's not much difference because his hair is pretty thin. It a little crazy to me to think that every time I have to give the boys haircuts I have to do it 4 times. That's a real chore that requires planning whereas it used to be something I could quickly do before school on a whim. 

(This was written on Thursday night, but for some reason didn't get posted until I posted the Easter pictures.) It has been a horribly busy week for me, so I didn't expect to find myself on my own tonight with nothing to do. (In all honesty, you all know I don't have "Nothing to do"--it's just that I am worn out enough that I don't really want to do the things that I can be doing). So, I'll put some random pictures up from the last week or so. Then one day these gems will maybe be in a printed blog book or at least fun to see online instead of in a shoebox where our pictures go when I finally print them once every other year. Ricky learning about the responsibilities of the preisthood with his dad one Sunday afternoon.  Messing around with crazy haircuts before we made Ricky's hair look decent.  Sweet baby boy at the St Patrick's Day Parade.  Facetiming Grandpa on a Sunday afternoon.  Andrew got 2nd place at the Pinewood Derby last night. I am ...