{Crew's 1st Birthday!}

It's hard to believe our little Crew guy is already a year old. His 1st year stats are 25th percentile in weight and 50th percentile in height. His growing has definitely slowed down. He is officially walking and gets braver every day at how far he will go on his own. He has been right about average with his physical development but his language development is off the charts! The doctor was shocked when I told him Crew has a vocabulary of about 17 words. At his age, it is normal to know mama, dada and one or two other words. I have been teaching him sign language since he was 6 months and I think it has made all the difference in the world. He realized very quickly that he could communicate what he wanted and it has just snowballed from there. His newest words are grandpa (bampa), all done (ASL) and apple.

We celebrated his birthday with Lance's family in St. George then had a small BBQ with my family on Monday. It was very low key, just out on our patio in the evening, but absolutely the most perfect party I could have imagined. We had everyone there, even Austin's adorable girlfriend Kitsy.

We started the evening with some bubble blowing...

Then moved on to some barbecued rosemary ranch chicken, potatoes and asparagus. 

 Next, Crew started opening presents. You know how most people say that their child

enjoyed the balloons or boxes best? Well, Crew probably enjoyed all the attention best.

He was a total ham for everyone!

Trucks from Aunt Melissa and Uncle Jake were a big hit!

He also got a beautiful quilt made by my mom.

And then it was time for some cake! It's hard to tell in the picture but Lance

gave Crew a HUGE piece of cake.

Crew had everyone rolling with laughter...

He is very loved.

To end the night, he got a good bath,  

some snuggle time with daddy

And some birthday tickles.

 Happy Birthday Crew guy! We adore you.

{bowtie baby shower}

This beautiful girl is having a baby boy...

And we were able to coordinate to have her baby shower while Lance and I were in St. George.

I was so happy to be there to celebrate baby boy Whatcott!

We had a bowtie baby shower...

complete with bowtie pasta for lunch,

bunting, poof balls and goodies all in green, blue & grey.

Jenn grew wheat grass for the centerpieces.

Mini chocolate bowties

Jenn's adorable little Abby. I wanted to pack her up and take her home with me!

Whitney was thrilled with the shower and all her gifts. She is really

the sweetest person I know and no one deserves to be spoiled as much as she does!

Me, Al, Whitt, Jenn, Linds T. (dos), Linds (uno)

We are all so excited for Whitney & Logan and their new adventure together! 

Little Mckay is going to be one lucky baby.

Wow

Where do I begin? The last two weeks have been very busy and fun ones for us. Here's a recap in pictures:

Cute baby! Loves brushing his teeth with the power toothbrush.

This is a common scene around her. Crew LOVES rocks. Uh huh. Pure boy.

We took a great week long vacation in St. George. I didn't take very many pictures because I was busy 

enjoying the time with friends and family! But celebrating these boys birthdays was definitely a highlight of the week.

Marcus

Crew

Carter :)

Love this one!

Thanks to friends and family who came to celebrate.

Crew learned how to walk! I can honestly say that nothing

makes me quite as happy as watching his drunken little sailor walk.

Another highlight was going to Sand Hallow and playing on the beach.

There was a lot of playing around in the sand.

And definitely some mud-slinging

and splashing

and more mud-slinging.

These are the moments I live for

they make all the other stuff worth it :)

{So stinking cute}

Just when I think Crew can't get any cuter...

Tonight I was sitting on the couch when Crew came over and sat next to me. He casually picked up my phone, put it to his ear, jabbered for a few seconds then did this adorable little fake laugh. First phone call and it lasted 10 minutes! He would switch from ear to ear (missing his ear most of the time), and looking all around the room while he did it. Apparently he had some pretty important things to say and the person on the other line had some pretty funny things to say. He acted like it was just no big deal. Cool guy style. When he was finished, he set the phone down, turned around and slid off the couch and continued on to the kitchen to empty the tupperware drawer. All without even a sideways glance my way.

In other news, I was looking through pictures today and came across this one. He has grown so much since this was taken.

6 months old.

Hard to believe my baby will be a year old this month.

I love my little man!

{Zions}

 This last weekend, the Merrells loaded into our RV once again for a road trip! It's always so much fun 

to have everyone together. We stayed 2 nights in Zion and 2 nights just down the street in Springdale.

The scenery was beautiful! Pictures cannot do the sheer majesty of the park justice.

Taking the shuttle up the canyon! Look at Crew's super cute hat and look how long my mom's hair is getting!

Austin, Kitsy, Melissa, Jake & Avie

Cute little family

The first Emerald Pool- my favorite!

At the top of the Emerald Pools.

That is right people! I hiked the entire way to the top of the Emerald Pools (anyone

who has done that hike knows it is not an easy one!) with Crew on my back. Lance had to

work a couple extra days and met us there later. 

Weeping Rock

The top of Angel's Landing! What a beautiful and exotic hike. There are places where you are holding

onto a chain and can see down all the way to the canyon floor off to both sides. The last hour of the hike

is sheer cliffs on either side!! Talk about an adrenalin rush. People die on it every single year. We left the

 kiddies with Grandma and Grandpa. Thanks for all the pics, Melissa.

It was a great trip! A little long to have all the kids sleeping in tents/RV but all-in-all it

was a wonderful trip. We are packing our bags next week for St. George. It's going to be a busy summer!