Gabriel Porter Merrell

Recent big moments:

Soccer medal from Coach Ted (and cupcakes from the team mom)!

Preschool Thanksgiving program, in which Gabe was a pilgrim. All the classes sang songs I had taught them, and then we had a Thanksgiving feast! (He was rather unenthusiastic about being photographed.)

Brief Stint as Magician's Assistant!

We love to read!

Naomi occasionally finds there is no bookmark within reach. No worries;she's a creative one!

(We generally take quite good care of our books...)

Afternoon entertainment!

Boys. Blocks. Balls. Laughter!

Primary Program

In September, the organization for children at church put on their yearly program. Naomi and Gabe both had small speaking parts, which they thoroughly enjoyed. Gabe's class, as the youngest group up there, provided comic relief with actions during songs and big waves to their parents and friends!The kids were all looking snazzy in their Sunday clothes, so we snapped some pictures.

Reading Buddy

Another post from years gone by...this one was actually from when we lived in Arizona!

Naomi had a darling moment today when we were reading in her room. She has a teddy bear that sits by the bookcase, and I call him Naomi's reading buddy. He always sits on my lap alongside Naomi when we read in the glider. Today Matt came in and asked about the teddy bear. When I told him it was Naomi's reading buddy, Naomi turned and patted the teddy bear twice on the head, and then went back to concentrating on the book. It's fun to see that she actually knows what we are talking about sometimes!!

Atlanta LDS Temple Open House

I just discovered this in our drafts folder...this happened in April-ish of 2011.
Those kids look awfully little! 

The Atlanta Georgia LDS temple is being rededicated, and we were able to attend the open house and get a tour of the temple. It was beautiful and peaceful.

Naomi's favorite was the "getting-married room".

Gabe liked the baptistry, because of the baptismal font (to a 3 year old, a small swimming pool) and the statues of oxen holding it up.

You can see the Angel Moroni atop the spire in these pictures. Not all LDS temples have them, but the kids were very excited to see it. (Gabe thinks the angel is holding a baseball bat!)

I am thrilled we will have a temple so close to us - about 25 minutes away. It's a beautiful place where we can seek inspiration, feel God's love for us, and learn about Jesus Christ and about why we are on this earth and how we can be together as a family for all eternity.

BYU vs. GA Tech!

Matt and I headed to the BYU football game last weekend - we were thrilled to have them in Atlanta! We went with friends, stopped by the Varsity for a snack (subpar hot dogs but over the top onion rings!), froze in the wind, and barely avoided getting motion sick on MARTA, the local train system. (Well, I was probably the only one who had problems on the train.)

We had a fantastic time and want BYU's football team to visit the south again. Real soon, ya'hear?

Zoo Atlanta!

Saturday found us at Zoo Atlanta after Gabe's weekly soccer game. (Seven-ish goals scored by Gabe {we forgot to count}! His last game is next week!)

We lured parakeets with seed sticks. We climbed over a statue of Willie B the gorilla, a former long-time resident of Atlanta. We perched in a gigantic bird's nest. We picnicked and had fun! And we took most of the pictures with the other camera...

Eye Patch Accessory

Andrew sported this eye patch for the entire day! (That was early in October; I've spent the rest of the month hiding it from him.)

Naomi Visits the Dentist

And we brought plenty of bribes to get her through it!