The Merkleys: just him and me

The first year following Madelyn's death, I didn't like doing anything. Even after the severe depression faded at the beginning of 2014, I still never felt like going out or doing anything. I was stuck in a rut. I was bored with my life. I was supposed to have a cute little baby to play with and take to the park. Instead I was alone. It was really hard.

One thing it took me a while to realize was just how hard it was on Nathan; not just me. I make a slideshow on our anniversary every year and when I was making the one for our second year, I had trouble finding enough pictures of us to fill just one song. That's when I realized hadn't really done much that year. We had big trips and events of course, but Nathan and I have always been a spontaneous couple who love to go out and do random things just for fun. I could not find any pictures of us doing any of that. I was really sad. Of course it was hard to not have Madelyn with us, but I was wasting this precious time that I had with just my sweet husband and me.

So after the morning sickness wore off, I decided take advantage of every last second that Nathan and I had just us. So I am going to be documenting our moments together. It's the "just him and me" project. It's not the big things we do, but the little, fun, random, spontaneous moments. It's been fun. Whenever I start to feel bummed thinking about Madelyn. I remind myself how lucky I am to have this time with Nathan and then we run out and do something. I am thankful Nathan waited patiently for the real Kaitlin to come back. And I'm thankful we've been able to have so much fun just the two of us!

We've been playing tennis. We are not good.

We have been exploring all the new parks out in the Cottonwood area. We love parks.

We've been loving our pool!!

We live 1 minute walking distance from a Super Target. We literally share a parking lot. We love to walk there and get things to make dinner or dessert.

Or sometimes we head to Wendy's at midnight and take magical pictures with the headlights behind us.

We walk to get shaved ice.

We play games with our kitty.

Oh look. We walked to target again.

We frequent Rita's. You'll see these mostly revolve around food.

We eat out on our balcony. (Don't make fun of my weird pregnancy cravings). We do this A LOT. We are up on the top floor so we don't have to worry about awkward eye contact from people walking around. We have an amazing view of the mountains. The weather has been amazing. Lady loves to join us out there. It's the best. Plus it gets us away from our phones and Netflix.