A Mix: Mark at One Month Old, Easter (Part 1), Roxborough Park

Our little Mark is one month old!! Hard to believe! I took some pictures of him at one month (he is now actually 6 weeks), but our computer has since crashed and in the meantime I am using Jamie's MacBook from work which has taken me a couple weeks to figure out. I 100% want nothing to do with this MacBook once our computer is fixed. I have had so much trouble trying to figure it out. Maybe I'll learn to love it if I'm forced to use it?? At any rate, I did manage to get a few photos downloaded and onto this blog. Here are some photos of Mark at one month and Isabelle at 2 years, 3 months.
These two truly love each other. The best part of my day is hearing Isabelle say "love you, honey" to Mark. She says this about 10 times a day and kisses his little head. She takes such good care of him. When he is crying she does everything she can to help...get his blankie, his binkie, a stuffed animal, or just kisses and hugs him. Mark just stares at her when she is around. We love watching them together and can't wait to watch them grow up together!
Here are a few of the exciting things happening in Mark's life:
-He is awake quite a bit more
-He still eats about a 1,000 times a day and is growing like crazy
-He babbles, coos and caas quite often
-Just recently we've seen a couple smiles, but it has been almost impossible to get it on camera
-He still has to be carried in the Ergo carrier at all times of the day. He really wants nothing to do with being set down. His favorite position is smooshed against your body, upright.
I could only manage to post the Easter pictures my mom sent me. For some reason this computer won't let me get any of my new pictures off the camera. So, once our PC is fixed I'll post our family Easter pictures. So, here is Part 1 of Easter and who knows when Part 2 will come??

Belle on an Easter egg hunt. (The outside hunt. The inside hunt will come later).

She was a little hesitant to meet the Easter bunny and it took some warming up. We found this unusual for Little Miss Brave. However, it didn't take long before she ran up and gave him a big hug.
The last couple weeks I have taken Belle and Mark to Roxborough State Park for their kids nature program. We meet up with her good friend, Marisol and they have the time of their life. They are true little girls--laughing, holding hands, and running around. Mark is a trooper and hangs out in the carrier being the perfect little boy.
Listening to the Grouchy Ladybug story
On the nature hike looking for ladybugs
Doing the craft activity which involved gluing all the habitats for a ladybug and using red paint to put the ladybug in their habitat. She also learned about eagles the second time we went.
Being goofy with Marisol after lunch. We'll probably continue to go to these over the summer. She is an outdoorsy girl so this program is perfect for her.

Our music major...

Well, hopefully when Isabelle graduates from highschool she'll have a nice music scholarship awaiting her. I think they should give it to her now...



Belle is getting more used to Mark each day. She really loves to hold him now. He's no longer "too heavy." Here are a couple shots of our two cuties bonding.
We had a couple days of Belle going through some terrible two's. Drawing on the refrigerator (in chalk, luckily), dumping everything in sight on the floor and refusing to pick it up, throwing a fit when it's nap time or bedtime, and wanting a cookie for about every meal (this really hasn't ended, but who wouldn't want a cookie every meal? I do it. My fault, I guess.). At first, I thought it was her rebelling because she is no longer the one and only, but now I attribute it to her just being tired because she is back to her sweet self. However, I do know she misses her daddy who had to go back to work. She had two fun filled weeks with him and was getting tons of attention! Now, every morning, she asks where he is. It breaks my heart, but we're getting really excited for summer when he can be home everyday!
Mark has been the sweetest thing. It's hard to believe he is almost one month old! He is totally content all day if he is being carried in the ergo carrier (thanks to whoever invented this!) You don't hear a peep from him! He loves to be close to our bodies. The second you put him in his swing or vibrating/bouncy chair and immediately wants to be picked up. I'll take it though. I love having him close to me for as long as I can because I know how fast he'll grow up and I'll no longer get to snuggle with him. He is also awake a lot more now and he loves to look around. We're thinking he is going to have blue eyes, but it is still hard to tell. Here is our growing boy that we can't stop staring at.

Two Weeks Already!

It's hard to believe two weeks have gone by since Mark was born! Every time we look at him we talk about how much he looks like Belle when she was born. What do you think?? They're pretty much identical twins! We wonder what Mark will look like when he is Belle's age??

Belle at two weeks and Mark at two weeks










In the past couple days he has started to open his eyes more and discover the world around him. However, this doesn't last long. He prefers to eat and sleep about 23 hours of the day! I have had to feed him around the clock. At his two week appointment he weighed 8 lbs, 2 oz. So, he is back to his birth weight, plus a bit, but is still only in the 34 percentile for weight. He's a big eater and slow gainer just like Isabelle. He prefers to sleep on top of us throughout the night (although the past two nights we have got him in the bassinet to sleep..woohoo!) He is a very mellow, sweet baby. The only thing he doesn't seem to like at this point is getting his diaper and clothes changed. Here's our little guy, wide eyed and adorable in our eyes at two weeks...

Isabelle is the best big sister ever! She is so gentle and sweet with Mark. She loves waking up in the morning and coming to see Mark. Here she is the other morning giving him his morning kiss and telling him it's time for cereal (that's all she ever wants for breakfast).

Kisses.....
"Cereal time Mark"She also loves to bring her toys to him and play. Here she brought her ducks and she told him all about them. I'm not really sure what was going on, but there was a whole conversation happening between her, the ducks, and Mark.
I guess there was one more thing Mark didn't like...his first bath. Hopefully he'll soon be like Belle and believe having a bath is one of best parts of the day! He did love it after when he was all dry and cozy!
These are just some photos of extra cuteness. Nothing is cuter than a newborns toes, fingers, and yawns. The one thing we'll always cherish is how tiny and delicate our children were. They grow up so fast!

Mark James Mercier

We are so happy to announce the birth of Mark James Mercier. Born Saturday, March 19 at 11:33 am. Weighing 8 lbs, 20.5 inches long! It all started on Friday when I started to get contractions throughout the day. In the middle of the night, the contractions started coming at a consistent pattern and were getting very strong. We knew it was getting close! We arrived at the hospital around 8:00 am and at 11:33 am Mark was born! We couldn't believe how fast it went (although for me it did seem like an eternity). In fact, it was progressing so quickly that by the time I was begging for the epideral, it was too late and they couldn't give it to me. Now that it's all over, it's hard to believe I had an 8 lb baby with no pain meds!! It was all worth it for the beautiful baby boy we now have!!

Mark's very first visitors. His Nana and Papa and Grammy and Pepe and, of course, his sweet, loving sister!

When Belle walked through the door it brought tears to my eyes. She had the biggest smile ever and had a present for baby Mark. She ran right up to him and was so proud to see her new brother. She has been so sweet to him and loves to just stare at him and his little toes and fingers. She claims he is "too heavy" to hold for more than 20 seconds, but we have been able to capture a few shots of her holding him. I guess considering he is about one third her weight, he could be heavy to her.


Here is Mark settled at home in his first week of life. He is getting cuter by the minute and we are so excited to watch him grow and change in the next month. This has been one happy week for us as a family of four, well, really five with our sweet dog, Sierra! Welcome to the world, Mark! We love you!

Cousin Time!

Last weekend we went up to Dillon to hang out with Danelle, BC, Noah, and Will. We don't get to see them much so it is always nice when they are in town and Belle gets so excited when she gets to play with Noah! Danelle was helping out with the Tubbs annual snowshoe race that raises money for breast cancer. On Saturday we took the kids to watch the event and Belle even got to test out some snowshoes!
However, the highlight was not walking in the snowshoes. The Tubbs dog was pretty much the greatest thing on earth to her. She ran up to it and gave it the biggest hug I have ever seen, then had it chase her for about 10 minutes straight. She kept swinging her arm and saying "C'mon on dog, c'mon!" We finally had to part ways (with a few tears) by telling her the dog needed to go spend time with other kids.
This is her having the dog follow her all over the place. Seriously, she has no fear of anything. I don't think she even checked to see if we were still close by.
Belle got to spend some quality time with her cousins and still can't stop talking about them. Belle got to see how much Noah loves his baby brother, Will. We can't wait for her to meet her new baby brother or sister and especially can't wait to see her be as sweet as Noah is with Will.

And here we have the cutest member of the family right now...

Their last night together. I couldn't resist getting a photo of the cousins in the tub. Noah preferred to stand and stay as dry as possible while Belle preferred to get as wet as possible and show off her swimming and blowing bubbles talent.
I'm hoping our next post will be displaying the newest member in our family. We are still chugging along waiting for this baby to present itself to the world. He/she originally got us eager for an early arrival, however, that has all changed and apparently he/she is content staying in the cooker as long as possible and making mom very uncomfortable. So, here is one last photo of our sweet little girl ready to be a big sister!