Christmas with Family...

*Patrick's new nativity scene from Santa

*Shane enjoyed playing with cousin Luke

*Spending time
with Grandma Cylene

*Our special "present" Shane (almost 5

months old now!)

Christmas Train!

We went to Irvine Park to go ride the ever-popular "Christmas Train" and boy, was that FUN!! The lights and decorations were gorgeous and Patrick sure enjoyed seeing Santa. Mommy and Daddy were a tad chilly (it was a cold night!)...but it was wonderful to see Patrick so happy. :)

Family Pics -- Nov. '08

Happy Thanksgiving to you all from the Merciers! We really enjoyed spending time with loved ones on both sides of the family today. We have much to be grateful for!! Here are some family photos that were taken recently at a cute little park nearby. :)

Halloween with our boys

Just hanging out at home. PT still seems to like having Shane around. :)

This year Patrick was a firefighter and Shane was wrapped up as a present. He certainly is our little "gift" from God. :) Our family enjoyed the carnival at church with friends and Grandma Cylene and Papa Pat. Patrick even won a prize! (A little orange monkey he calls the "bobo brother" from Go, Diego, Go!) Too cute...

October Fun!

Patrick got to visit our local firestation
with Daddy and boy, was he in heaven!

We enjoyed going to not 1, but 2 pumpkin patches this month! Here is Patrick having fun as the train conductor. We also went to Tanaka Farms in Irvine with some friends from Abiding Savior. It was fun!

Back to work and Shane's baptism

Okay, so I was hoping to update our blog every few weeks or so....well, then I began to work full-time again, and that all changed!! So now, 2 whole months have gone by since my last post. But I promise to do better....really, I promise.

So, what have we been up to lately? Enjoying my time off of work, we spent the month of September going to the park, Angels games (of course!), storytime at the library, and playdates with friends. Then chaos happened...I became a full-time working mommy. I officially reported back to work on October 13th. My first week back to work was awesome! Things at school were great, Shane adapted really well to being at "Miss Melanie's house"....all except for some pathetic guy deciding to hack into my hotmail account! That was sure annoying....so as you all know by now, no, I am NOT in Europe, and no, I do NOT need your money. :) So yeah, I am enjoying teaching computer skills to grades K-8, and the great thing is, it's allowing me to spend a lot more time with my boys. And I really love that! :)

Let's see, what else? Oh yes, our precious baby Shane was baptized on August 30th at Abiding Savior Lutheran Church. His godparents are Nate's parents, Tom and Deb. Our family and friends gathered afterwards at Islands (a favorite dining spot) for some laughs and really good food. :)

Patrick & his "girlfriend" Cassidy :)

This is at Abiding Savior's annual summer picnic.

Patrick says, "Ummm, if it's OK with Cassidy's daddy, I think I'd like to marry her someday!"

Patrick and his dinosaur!

Patrick's 2 new loves are dinosaurs and airplanes! Boys are so much fun!

Big brother Patrick

Patrick enjoys his daily ritual of kissing "baby brudder" on the head! So cute!! We realize this may change once he realizes he needs to share his toys with Shane... :)

Shane w/ Mommy & Daddy

One of our favorite pictures from the hospital...Aunt Jacki sure can "capture the moment!" :)

Baby Shane

Shane is already 5 weeks old...we can't believe it! He is our happy, sweet boy...and seems to be smiling already! :) Mommy is really enjoying being home with him! She could REALLY get used to being a stay-at-home mommy full-time, although she goes back to teaching in mid-October. :(

Our 1st Blog Post!

OK, so the Merciers are a little slow to this BLOG thing. So many of our friends are wonderfully creative and dedicated bloggers, and they keep telling us it's a great way to keep in touch...especially with far away friends who don't use Facebook or MySpace. So I thought, why not? Here goes...

Many of you have sent us the link to your blogs, but we have misplaced them. :(
So far, we've only found the Cooks and the Maschkes. (I know for sure we need the Roggows and Strands...please send us yours!) So please e-mail us your blog links, so that we can add them to our lists and keep in better touch! :)

Oh, and next I will add some new pics!

With love,
The Mercier fam :)