Freaky Friday!

You two got to wear these outfits to Daycare today. Charlie make mamma proud and come home in the same outfit. See...Charlie has "BLOW OUTS" still from time to time and we KNOW he did if he comes home in different "Digs" The picture above is about 3 to 4 weeks old and I can't get over how much Lilly has changed. She has more hair now.

What a comfy day...PJ's at Daycare! I will not see you guys for about 26 to 27 hours now. I am leaving this afternoon to go down to Minneapolis for my work Gala. Should be a good time. While I am gone, you daddy is staying home to take care of you and then this evening you have more guests coming!!

-Gma Pam

-Auntie Jen

-Auntie Karrie

-Cousin Walker
Charlie, your cousin Walker is bring up his Thomas the Train Set for you...... You are one lucky boy!

Behave and rest up for a big Day Tomorrow and Sunday is TRICK O TREATING!!

As you can see I have stepped up my game in editing photos :) Scary isn't it!

Vote November 2nd!

Your Grandpa Jeff is running for Stearns' County Commisioner this year. He has been so busy the past couple months. He is one dedicated hard worker!

I even recorded a radio ad for the local KASM AM 1150 radio station. I listen to it when I am in the car hoping that I can hear it, but I have YET to. I do however listen to a lot of polka music while patiently waiting. It brings back memories of Gma Lilly, she would LOVE this station.

Hanging Out

So the post below was the first part of the weekend, then the rest of the weekend we hung out at home. Didn't go anywhere really as it was so rainy, icky, gloomy. We were pretty spoiled with the awesome weather this fall, so I am not complaining too much.


Both of you guys have watched us play FETCH with Leni, and it has slowly taught you how to "Throw"......Good Job!

Weekend With The Fogarty's

Uncle Chris, Auntie TT, cousin Ayva, and Cousin Maya made a visit this weekend! They came Friday about 4pm and left Saturday about 3pm. We had a great time with them. We went out to Amaze N Farm in Eden Valley on Saturday morning/afternoon and the kids had a blast! We played with baby goats, attempted a very HARD Maze, went down a HUGE slide, and looked at their cute PUPPIES for sale. (No I did NOT get the itch to get one)

Both Ayva and Maya were so good with you guys. They are both going to make GREAT babysitters some day that is for sure. After the Amaze N Farm, we even went out for Pizza at the local pizza joint here in Cold Spring. I was a tad nervous as we went over your NAP TIME but you guys were Troopers!! Way to go. Saturday night and Sunday are very gloomy and rainy. It is a little after 10 am...so I need to go stir you guys to wake you up from your morning nap so you go down nicely for your afternoon one ;) I am heading to St. Cloud while you nap this afternoon. We are very low on Formula. I won't be saying the F word much longer. You guys will be off that stuff before we know it!

Playland at The Mall!

The mall in St. Cloud has a GREAT play land for you guys to stretch your legs at. Lilly took advantage of it...Charlie like to People watch as you can tell by the bottom left picture.

Trying New Things...

The thought of dining out with 10 month old Twins sometimes makes me cringe, but we DID IT!..
I had the help of Keillor with me Saturday evening... We let Dad work in the garage and we took you kids to the St. Cloud Mall...and then Mommy's Favorite. Mexican Food!!! La Casita was Yummmy. You guys split the Cheese Quesadilla off the Children's Menu..You also had babyfood to top it off. You behaved GREAT, no crying and lots of people watching.


When things go well like this it makes me happy, I once thought I would never be able to be in public again... CHEERS to being able to be in public again!!

How Many Snaps Does It Take?

Some may read my blog and think "Mandy sure snaps good pictures of these guys."....Well it takes a lot of trial and error sometimes as you can see below. There is a saying "How Many Licks Does It Take To Get To The Center Of A Lollipop?"...

Around here our Moto is: "How many snaps does it take to get a good picture of the Mergen Twins"....

**Lilly is happy as can be here, even though we were in yesterday for an ear infection :( Way to be a trooper Ms. Lilly Jean.

"UP"

Well Lilly, I think your first word that actually means something is UP. I know you mumble Mamma...Dadda, but I don't' think you associate them with Me and your Dad yet. I know that is just around the corner.

I started noticing this weekend that when you wanted me to pick you up...you no longer crawled to my leg....hung on it, and did the MOAN.... I asked Gma Nellie about this yesterday, and she said yes when they crawl over to me and want to be picked "UP" I say UP UP UP..and Lilly caught on first. So now when you are on the ground and want to be "UP"...you say UP. If you are on my lap and want to be put DOWN on the floor.... you say "UP." I know what you mean.

You are slowly learning some sign language as well. We hope to teach you "Bottle" (squeeze hand and it looks like bye bye kind of) "EAT" (put your fingers to your mouth) "All Done", "Please", etc.

Brother's and Sister's

No, I am not going to blog about the TV show lastnight. However I do love settling down on Sundays with Desperate Housewives, and Brother's and Sister's on ABC.

I get giddy when I start to think of the memories you guys will make together. We all have the stories. I love listening to family stories about "growing up." Whether it is the story of Aunt Jen tipping Uncle Rick over and giving him a huge goose egg and trying to Hide it, or if it the story of how Gma Pam was a naughty girl in school, or how I used to fight so bad with Uncle Chris, or how Daddy and Uncle Russ passed time as children pulling goats through mud by their horns.
Your Grandpa Keith has lots of fun stories from growing up on the farm in Taylors' Falls, MN. My favorite one ends with... "Grandma Lilly was running around the yard being Chased by "The Bull" Your Grandpa and Grandma Mergen both came from HUGE families, and I just think of all the stories that they have with so many siblings!

You guys are starting to play more and more with eachother and I just love it. I am not as tired anymore so I actually sit back, watch, smile, and take pictures.



To the outside world, we all grow old. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were. We know each other's hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys. We live outside the touch of time.

~Clara Ortega

Happy 10 Month Birthday Charlie and Lilly!

Remember when I would take pictures of you weekly in this pose. Pretty weird I got you both to lay here for that long to take this picture.

I pretty much just put you down (on our new Kitchen Rug from Gma Nellie...well it was a hand me down but I still LOVE IT!) and gave you your after nap bottle and snapped this picture right away.

Pretty sure you laid there for under 5 minutes...threw your bottle over your head and rolled over and crawled away and started to play.

I also just noticed Lilly is one sock short in this picture as well.

Anyways..Happy 10 Month Birthday. 2 months and you are 1! I have already started to plan your Birthday as well. See within the same week you guys turn 1 and I turn 30!!! So one weekend is for you guys and the next weekend I get to celebrate!

N < 3

The title to this post might look weird but it is a math equation. Your Grandpa Jeff would like that. He taught math for Many Many years and I know he knows much more comlplex things than this title. See it means N is less than 3...or 3 is Greater than N. I remember learning these less then, greater than, equal to things in math growing up.

A couple weeks ago I was cleaning out 1 of your diaper bags (yes you guys have 2) to pack you for a weekend at Gma Nellie's. Nudged in the side pocket I found 2 old diapers from when you were Newborn. Hence the size N. I was amazed at how small that little thing was. Granted you grew out of that size within 14 days or so...but still. You have now passed size N, 1, 2, and are on to size 3!

I know I like to compare you guys from then vs. now...but today I am comparing your diapers. You turn 10 months old in 2 days. Wowsers!

**note I kept the size N in the side pocket of that diaper bag so I can glance at it from time to time, too.

The Great Pumpkin

Every year around Halloween they play this Classic Cartoon on T.V. To be honest I have never really gotten into it...but I just may now that I have my own little Charlie :) I think there is even one during the Christmas Holiday as well. I am sure whe you are older you will look at the Charlei Brown Cartoon as being ancient, kind of like how I looked at the shows like "Leave it to Beaver, Andy Griffith, Hogan's Heros, I Love Lucy, etc..

FYI...Being Charlie Brown was on the Halloween Costume list but didn't make the cut.


I still hope to get you a yellow shirt with a black zig zag at the bottom to resemble the Well Known Charlie Brown.

I Love This Time Of Year

I love fall..I love Hooded Sweatshirt Weather. I love not sweating. I love the fact that Charlie has a leaf hanging out of his mouth in the "best" family photo we could get on Saturday thanks to Amanda the neighbor.

Last Week Grandma Nellie had some fun with you in her flowers before they "froze"...
Very hard to get pics of both you guys "looking" but we work with what we can get.

Flashback Friday

The Holidays are just around the corner and I can't wait to compare xmas 09 pics to xmas 2010 pics.

So today your grandma Nellie had to leave town at 1pm for a family wedding. We were unable to attend, so I came over to Grandma Nellie's to take over. I am holding you guys here until your dad gets off work. See with us both working from home, we need the house as quiet as possible. So right now you two are both napping, and so is cousin Regan. Grandma Nellie and Grandpa Jeff do not have Cable TV out here so I grabbed the laptop to do some work emailing/facebooking/and Blogging. See with this computer I have access to all Gma Nellie's pics. So I scrolled through all of her pictures and found some "old" ones of you guys. I got teary eyed looking back at how little you were.
Look at you Charlie Jeffery... so cute!
I was so overwhelmed that it was hard for me to just stop...and take it all in. Although I hear some parents say "I don't remember when they were that age"... I do remember, but I am so thankful to have all these pictures.
Here is proud Pappa looking in at you while they get you all prepped fresh out of the womb. Where am I? I am being stitched up in the operating room.