IAN AND OLIVER TURN ONE YEAR OLD

A little over one year ago I had a dilemma, "How do I tell my boss I need to be in Ohio in June and then again in July? Then as soon as I mentioned Grand-babies, he understood!
Funny how that is. Everybody loves babies and Grand-babies are the best babies of all.

THE NEW MOVIE AVITAR

I am not usually a fan of Science Fiction and I usually do not endorse trendy pictures. However, I did enjoy Avitar and was facinated by the computer graphics and amazed at the scenery. Then I realized at the end of the movie that my facination with the scenery might have had a feeling of familiarity to me because a lot of it was shot in New Zealand, one of the most beautiful countries in the world, and you all know my love of the Land of Arohanui. I can see why they won Acadamy Awards. I think we will probably see more of these "people" in a sequel.

MISS MATILDA MAE SMYLIE ARRIVES

In case the Merrill family did not get a chance to see the latest on the Jake and Sarah Smylie branch, who are now resident in Utah, this is the latest addition to the Smylie Clan, Miss Matilda Mae Smylie, nearly 10 lb in weight and full head of black hair. This is Sarah and Jake's 4th little girl. Their names are Grace, Rosie, Lillie and now lovely Matilda. I love all these names. I just wanted to have a place for her in my blog as well as my heart.

MISS LIZZY BROUGHT US ALL TOGETHER

On May 15, 2010 Miss Lizzy entered the waters of baptism. This is her posing in her beautiful dress. When I arrived at Rachel's house on 14th, she explained to me that she had wanted to have an heirloom dress to pass from girl to girl and that she had bought the material and cut out the dress and that she was hoping to sew it as a surprise for Lizzy. (A white dress on a kitchen table with five small children under foot! You could never say Rachel is not ambitious!) So while the children slept she and I sewed the dress and kept it a surprise from Lizzy until she had to try it on just before putting the zip in the back.

Now the zip is a story in itself. Rachel had bought an invisible zip, then she found out you had to have a special foot for your machine to put it in. So she bought the foot and worked out how to fit it to her machine. She then had to work out how to put the zip in. Lots of study and measuring and in goes the zip at about 2:00 a.m. Anyway, we were good to go! Sunday on goes the beautiful dress and before we leave for church I took all these lovely photos of Lizzy in her dress for posterity.

Now back to the zip... Lizzy goes up to the front of the chapel and is introduced by the Bishop and lookes angelic in her lovely new dress. She then returns to her seat and bends over to pick up a toy for Oliver and THERE GOES THE ZIP! The teeth opened and would not go back in line together. Finally Jeff had to take Lizzy home to change.

Rachel says she will fix the dress "sometime before Bella is baptized!"

This is Lizzy right after her baptizm and that is her cousin Janae standing beside her. The pink dress she is wearing was sewn for her by her Grandma "Suebrown" who is such a great Grandma to have close by.

SASSY AND DAN

Who would ever guess that these two just love being together?

NUMBER ONE DAUGHTER AND FAMILY

Number one daughter, Rachel, is married to Jeff and they have the joy of Elijah, Lizzy, Bella, Anna and the latest tumbling bundle - Oliver.

Rachel is an accomplished person in her own right, being able to play the piano, is college eduated, able to sew and cook very well, as well as serve a mission in Arizona. However, her greatest joy is written on her face in this photo, she loves her familiy. She will tirelessly wash, clean, nurse, bath, polish, garden, teach and guide and quite often, all at the same time (no kidding!). I had the privilege of staying in her noisy, joy-filled home this weekend and you honestly could never get bored around such large spirits in such little bodies. I love them dearly and cherish the value of family when I am with them and long for them when I am not.

Oliver does have a birth defect which is called Dysgenesis Corpus Colosum - (DCC) which means one side of his brain has trouble communicating with the other side of his brain. This can affect his motor skills, slow his learning skills and cause other problems. Right now he is very interactive and can certainly "tell" you how he is feeling, but he is slower in his motor skills. Having said that, he has worked out a way to get around, he has not connected all the skills involved in crawling yet, but he realizes that if he wants something he can throw his hips from one side to the other, roll over and "Bob's Your Uncle!" get anywhere he wants to. So although his mile markers cannot be measures as other children's are, (you know doing this by this age and this by this age), Olie, I think will work these things out in his own time. He has been placed in the right family who love him and will get him all the things he needs. The truth is, we really do not know what Olie may or may not accomplish in his lifetime. We just know that he is the sweetest, lovingest litte guy who has come to bless our family.
The children in order ....Elijah, Lizzy, Bella, Anna, and Oliver .