Merry Christmas!!!

Check out our big girl!!!  Some days I look at her and just can not believe how old she looks!!

And here our two kiddos!!  It's still weird to say kids!!

Paige still doesn't like Santa (or Ho Ho as she calls him), but she was happy to recieve all kinds of gifts from him.  At one point, she even said "Ho Ho is nice, but I still don't like him!"  HAHA!  Her big gift from mom and dad was tickets to see Sesame Street Live.  I don't think she really understood what they were, but she will be so excited for a day full of JUST PAIGE!  We can't wait to take her!

I had to add this picture.  For those of you that know her cousin Sylvia, she looks EXACTLY like her in this picture!  It's a bit scary!!

Her biggest gift from Abo and LeLa was a vanity set that she can play with her makeup.  She loves it and is already spending a ton of time "getting ready".  She's too cute!!

Merry Christmas from the Merino Family.  I'm thinking this blog will continue next year, but the title may change to include our newest addition!  Stay tuned for 2012!!!

Gingerbread land

My mother in law just amazes me!!  She was brave enough to have all three grandkids make an entire gingerbread land!!  Each had their own house and decorated how they wanted!  I have no idea how she has the patience to work with all those small pieces and not lose her mind!  It turned out so cute!!

 

It's hard to see in this picture, but you had "Paige's Palace" "Mason's Snow Fort", "LeLa and Abo's Angel Workshop", "Sylvia's Lamb Farm" and "Cameron's Ladies"

SNOW

 

IT'S SNOWING!  IT'S SNOWING!!!!

That's all we heard for about 5 minutes, and that was all the snow we got.  Last year, she wasn't a fan of the snow, but so far (from inside anyway) she loved it!  We shall see!

It's official...

 

Bordem has struck!! Poor Paige is getting so bored with us staying at home so much with Mason.  Today, during a feeding, we realized we hadn't heard her in a while when all of a sudden she comes running out of my room wearing my heels!  Then she runs into the kitchen to clomp around in the heels.  At least she was staying out of trouble!!

Where's Mason????

When Paige would hear the garage door, she used to run to it and say, "Daddy's home!!!" now she says, "Where's Mason?"  When she wakes up in the morning, her first question is, "Where's Mason?" or "What is Mason doing?"  I gotta admit it's pretty cute!

 In this picture, she had just got up from a nap and had to go find Mason!  She was standing at the door making faces at him while he slept in his crib!

"Can I hold him?" I think we hear that more than "WHY???"  Her attention span doesn't last that long, but it's fun while it lasts.  I had to capture her little curled up toes while she held him!  I thought it was just so cute!!

Sillygoose!

 

When my mom is in town, Paige is like her shadow.  She follows her everywhere and copies everything she does - to include putting on lipstick!!  For some reason, she is obsessed with my mom's reading glasses and always wants to put them on.  This morning she took them and immediately placed them folded up on her shirt - just as my mom does!!!  She's too much sometimes!  

The day her whole world changed!

Paige's life (and ours too) has now changed forever!  I'm sure you all know by now, but Mason Joseph Merino made his arrival into this world on December 2, 2011 at exactly 8pm weighing 7lbs 2oz and 20 inches long!  I was scheduled to have a c section on Monday, December 5th, but instead, my water broke after I came home from work on Friday, Dec 2nd.  As I stood in the bathroom debating if my water actually did indeed break, Paige stood there totally confused!  Joe ran around getting stuff together for her to spend the night with Abo and LeLa, while I called my doctor.  Poor girl was totally confused, but all she knew was she was spending the night with Abo and LeLa and she was so excited!!  The next day, my mom brought Paige up to see us and meet her little brother for the first time.  I think she was a bit in shock at first since everyone was taking pictures and making a big deal of it.  Since then though, she just loves him!  She wants to kiss him ALL.THE.TIME and get in his face, but I would rather that than have her hate him!!  We shall see how long it lasts!  

Talented little lady

Joe's family celebrates Thanksgiving the Saturday after Thanksgiving so that everyone is able to attend.  We always go to Joe's aunt's house (which is unbelievably nice, by the way).  Paige took interest in the piano right away  - mostly because her cousin Sylvia plays the piano.  But this piano has a feature that you can pop in a disk and it will automatically play songs.  So as the piano is automatically playing songs, Paige would sit there and act as if she was playing and would periodically turn the pages of the music book!  She sat there quiet and content for about 30 minutes!  For a toddler, that's a true miracle!!!

All wrapped up

So this year we were forced to get all of our Christmas shopping done before the arrival of Mr. Mason.  My goal was to get it all done and wrapped by Thanksgiving.  We were able to get all the shopping done before Thanksgiving and spent Black Friday wrapping instead of shopping!  It's kinda nice being done with it all and we can just enjoy the Christmas season. Not to mention that we didn't have to shop with all the crazies!!  We might try this again next year!

Peanut Butter Daddy

One of Joe's favorite snacks is peanut butter with a banana.  And now apparently, Paige can't have a banana without peanut butter!  After she had her eggs for breakfast, we asked her what else she wanted and she said, "Peanut Butter Daddy"

Speaking of eggs for breakfast, I love that Joe and I have rubbed off on her.  I don't know what other two year old knows what protein is and that it helps get you big muscles!!  But every time she eats all her eggs, she will say, "Look mom!  I ate all my eggs and protein!"  Then she will make a big muscle!  I love that our healthy eating habits will help her make smart decisions as she grows up!  Some may say we have ruined her! LOL since we can give her a cookie and she will take one bite and ask for pistachios!!  But I think it's just good parenting!

SILENCE

This girl is obsessed with stickers!!  Luckily, I haven't found any on my walls or table, but the other day she kept putting them on her mouth...and on my mouth...and on Joe's mouth!  Guess she was telling us to all stop talking!!

Endless hours of entertainment!!

Paige did this over and over again last night as we watched and cracked up each and every time!  For a while she was even counting up to twelve!!  It's hard to hear but at the end of this, after she falls, she says, "BOOM!  Shaklaka!"  It's something Joe says all the time, but it's even more funny when she says it!  Enjoy our little ball of fire!!!

I do self

For several months now, Paige has insisted on doing everything HERSELF!  She doesn't need help with ANYTHING!  I have NO idea where she got that from, no idea at all............

Here you can see Paige attempting to cut her own toenails.  Needless to say, these clippers are essentially childproof so she didn't do any real harm.  But isn't she just a ham!!

Growing up

I can't even believe this is my "baby" girl!!!  Some days I just look at her and wonder where the time has gone.  Joe and I have decided that we want Paige to stay this age forever!!  Every time we see a teenage girl dressed in very little or hear of something while we are at work, it just makes us gringe!  Wouldn't it be nice if you could just freeze time?!?!

Nursery!

Introducing...Mason Joseph Merino's nursery!!!!

We have FINALLY finished the entire nursery! 

The bedding set came with three window valances and since we only have one window, my crafty mother in law created a few things from the material.  One is this hanging art!

I was actually able to find nursery letter on etsy (God love that site) that matched perfectly to the bedding!!

This is a wall decal (again bought on etsy) that I just love!!  Joe worked so hard on placing each and every piece perfectly!

On the floor you can see two pillows.  That is the other part of the material my mother in law used. 

LOVE IT!

This sign is my favorite!  Before we even knew we were having a boy I saw this sign and knew I had to have it.  So after we found out, we drove back to the store in Overland Park, KS and searched for it!! 

We worked so hard on this room and we can NOT wait to meet our little boy!!

Paige's first race!

I told Paige when she woke up that her Abo and Lela were taking her someplace fun.  Little did I know, she would end up running in her first race!!  Staley High School was holding a 5k run and a kids fun run after the race.  Paige always has to do what the big kids are doing so when they stretched, so did she.  When they lined up to run, so did she!!  The announcers caught a glimpse of her and asked her name.  This little lady ran all the way around the track by herself!!  When she tripped and fell a few times, Abo tried to pick her up.  She insisted she be let down so she could finish running!  And that she did!!!  She completed her very first run and received a ribbon!!!  She was just so proud of it!  She's already taking after her mommy and daddy and running in races!!  You go girl!!!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

CHRISTMAS!!! 

With the arrival, of baby boy Dec 5th, we decided to decorate the house much earlier than years past.  I knew Paige would be so much fun this year and she didn't prove me wrong.  We got out the tree and of course, she had to ask a million questions.  Then came all the ornaments that she had to help with each and every one!

Little Miss Helper had to get right down there with daddy to make sure he was doing everything up to her standard!!

Each year for Christmas, my aunt got into the tradition of giving me an ornament each year since I was very little.  Ironically enough, Joe's parents do the same thing.  So needless to say we have a ton of ornaments, but they all have such meaning.  For Paige's first Christmas she got this pair of bootie ornaments.  Well, apparently, they look like real shoes because she was trying to put them on!!

Didn't quite work out that well for her!

And to finish it off...the topper!  TA DA...and it's officially Christmas at the Merino Household!

Cuteness

Sorry I have seriously been slacking with this blog.  I certainly haven't forgotten, I'm just beyond exhausted and this pregnancy is literally kicking my butt!!  I'm officially 9 months along and feeling every part of it!  We have just 23 days left until Dec 5th!!  I'm both excited and anxious.  Soon we will be a family of FOUR!!! 

Paige seems to be really excited to meet her baby brother.  Although lately she has gotten into saying "All my (insert someone's name)"  Not sure where she is getting that, but when we ask if she is going to share with her brother, she says yes without hesitation, so I guess that's a good thing.  We shall see how long that lasts!!

Never grow up

Joe and Paige had a daddy and me day!!  Paige had just gotten up from her nap and she was actually snuggly!  Joe just hugged her and said he was taking a mental picture because he never wants her to grow up.  This is such a fun age and the more we hear about our friends with older kids we realize how much we don't want her to grow up. Can't they just stay this age forever???

Tricks and Treats

Paige was so much fun this year.  I still think she was a little confused, but she got the hang of it.  Here she is with her two cousins.

The cutest Super Girl you will ever see!!!  (OK maybe, I'm biased!)

So we went to a few houses in our neighborhood and then came home to hand out candy.  I think Paige enjoyed handing out the candy more than going door to door.  Even though she would say, "I wanna go to a different house." She was still too shy to actually knock on the doors.  But when we got home she would look out the window and ask for "more people".  At one point, it was getting late and past her bedtime so Joe took her upstairs to get changed.  She heard the doorbell ring and got really sad that she couldn't hand out the candy.  So we let her come down and finish handing out the rest of the bowl.  In between "customers" she would suck on her sucker, but as soon as the doorbell would ring she would literally throw down the sucker and run to the door!

In between handing out candy, she would watch the Monday Night Football game.  Somehow this girl LOVES to watch football.  And we have no idea where she got it from, but she will yell "GO CHIEFS" neither of us are Chiefs fans, but somehow she is. 

Speaking of the nursery...we are SOOOO close to being finished. Just waiting on a few finishing touches.  We finished putting the decal on the wall and were taking pictures to send to our parents when Paige ran to the wall, stood there and said "CHEESE!!!"  I think I take too many pictures!

Peak a BOO!

We have been trying to finish up the nursery and Paige just loves playing around in there.  Sometimes if we can't find her we will find her in this glider just sitting there smiling!  She was playing shy when I took this pic.  I think we all know better than that, but it is awfully cute!

Attention Span

Lately, I've noticed that her attention span has gotten longer - which worries me and makes me happy all at the same time.  There have been a few times recently where she's been super quiet and we didn't know where in the house she was, but come to find out she would just be playing by herself in her playroom or sitting on the couch with her sticker book, just as content as can be!  This is all new to us since previously, if she was quiet she was definitely up to no good, but I think I can get used to this!!

Tie me up!

I think this stems from her cousin Cameron, but Paige loves for us to tie her "tita" aka blanket, around her neck so she can have a cape.  She is going to be "Super Girl" for Halloween so she just loves it!!  Last night she was running around with her blanket tied around her neck yelling "SUPER GIRL!" 

Scary Car Wash

Joe took his car through the car wash and typically, Paige loves it, but that's usually in my car where the back window isn't as close.  So this is Paige going through the car wash (all covered up with her blanket)....

And this is her coming out...just peeking over her little blanket!  Sooo cute!