Good Morgan to you!

Happy Birthday Matthew!

2011-11-19T09:54:00.001-07:00

I can't believe our little Tattoo is 4! His birthday was on November 7th, a Monday, but we celebrated all week. The Friday before his birthday we took him out to lunch at McDonalds, then shopping to pick a new shirt and toy.

He chose an awesome Spiderman hoodie and a new Spiderman toy. Then, on his actual birthday he blew out candles on brownies with cream cheese frosting. Yum!

Finally, the following Saturday we had our extended family birthday party complete with pulled pork sandwiches, cupcakes and homemade oreos. Double yum! It seemed to be a superhero themed birthday, with lots of Spiderman to go around. He's a pretty happy guy!

Halloween 2011

2011-11-01T15:12:00.002-06:00

The older the kids get, the funner everything is. Halloween is really fun again after hating it for so many years as a teenager. This year I was blessed to spend my day with Mario, Superman and 2 beautiful ladybugs.

The elementary school changed the way they handle the parade, which meant I got to go over for 2 separate parades, one for Keyana which also included morning kindergarten through 4th grade.

Then we went back for another parade just for the afternoon kindergarten to see Kaiden. Both were really fun and I enjoyed seeing some very creative costumes. We saw a lot of Marios and Supermen, and the boys were very excited. The funnest part though, was that Kaiden was in his parade right next to someone dressed as Luigi, and he was so excited about it that he was simply glowing.

Later that evening was time for trick-or-treating with the Coffey cousins, aka another Mario, Luigi and a purple butterfly. Aynslee was lazy and slept through that, but the big kids were so excited running from house to house. We had beautiful weather and didn't even need jackets, getting back to the house just before it got dark.

We finished up our fun Halloween with a spooky dinner. We had haunted haystacks (Hawaiian haystacks), eyeballs (mini-meatloaves), and bones in blood (bread sticks with marinara sauce). Of course there were also plenty of treats to go around. All in all, it was a very fun, entertaining holiday!

Eating Words

2011-10-28T17:26:00.003-06:00

I feel like every time I post, I have to apologize to myself for letting so much time pass between posts. This was meant to be my journal, and only 2 posts a year does not really cut it. I realize my last post was about being done with diapers and moving on with my life. Around the same time as my last post we cleaned out the house and did away with any and all baby stuff still lingering. I should have known I was jinxing myself, but I never learn. By January, I was pregnant with baby #4! Surprise! We welcomed Aynslee Brooke Morgan to our family on Friday, September 23rd, 2011 and she is delightful. Although fussy at times (as we are still working on figuring out the best formula for her tiny tummy) she's a pretty happy, wiggly baby and we love her!

It's official!

2010-12-07T12:24:00.002-07:00

We're officially done with diapers/pull-ups! Forever! Hopefully. I waited to try potty training Matthew at night until we ran out of the leftover nighttime pull-ups from Kaiden. Well, he ran out over the weekend. He has a waterproof mattress pad on his bed, so I was ready for the worst. Last night was his first night without a pull-up on, and he woke up dry! I think I can fairly safely say that he's completely potty trained now. I'm aware that he may still have accidents, but the worst is over. Whew! If that's not motivation to be done having children, I don't know what is! Yay!

Fall Fun '10

2010-11-01T19:15:00.005-06:00

This has been a fabulous fall! Having lots of time to spend with the kiddos has been wonderful, and I've learned to really appreciate the beauty of fall. This year we had another trip to the pumpkin patch with Granny and the Coffey cousins. PJ just HAD to have the biggest pumpkin (which was a nightmare to carve, by the way), while the boys chose more modest pumpkin options. It was SOOO warm that day, so it was quite a pleasant trip. Later that afternoon the kids all got to decorate their own Halloween cookies.Fast forward a couple weeks to Halloween weekend. Friday was both PJ's school Halloween parade and free scary-face pancake day at IHOP.After PJ headed off to school the boys, Granny and I headed over for some scary-face pancakes, and returned in time to see PJ in her parade. She looked so excited and happy to be there, but unfortunately forgot to take her hat and broom in the parade with her. Oh well, she looked cute anyway. Saturday we decorated with carved pumpkins and Mr. Fun (the monster on the porch). Later that evening we had everyone over for a spooky dinner and trick-or-treating in the rain. All-in-all, it's been a super fun fall so far, and I can't wait to see what the next couple weeks bring as we look forward to Tattoo's birthday and Thanksgiving.

Reading Recovery

2010-09-28T13:07:00.003-06:00

My little Princess has been struggling just a bit with reading this year. Luckily, we have an amazing school which caught on right away, and within a week of the start of the school year they had set her up with a reading tutor in a program called Reading Recovery. Every day she spends about half an hour with Mrs. Michelle and brings home a big packet of work to practice on. Usually it includes 3 books for her to read to me, a cut-apart sentence for her to put back together and glue into a notebook, and an alphabet book. Although it takes us much longer to do her homework every day than it did last year, she doesn't complain at all and is doing so well!
Today, there was a meeting of Reading Recovery teachers at an elementary in Saratoga Springs in which they observed one teacher working with one of their students. For this particular meeting, it was Mrs. Michelle's turn, and she invited Keyana to be her student. So, early this morning we packed up and headed out there, not knowing exactly what to expect. Turns out, they have a special room set aside for this. It's actually two rooms, separated by a two-way mirror. PJ is in the room with her teacher looking at herself in the mirror (making silly faces) , while the rest of the teachers (and me) are on the other side looking through the window at her. It was wonderful, because we were able to see how their lessons take place without making her nervous with everyone watching. Although this was really a teaching tool meant for the other teachers, I really learned a lot about what she responds to and what will work for her as we practice at home. She's progressing so fast!
On a side note, she finally lost one of her front teeth last week and the other one should be out within the next couple days!

Summer Rain

2010-07-31T22:17:00.004-06:00

Since moving to our current house, summer rainstorms have become a favorite of ours. Not because there's anything different about them, but now that we have a covered porch, we get to enjoy them from outside, rather than in. I've been itching for a good storm all summer, and it seems in the last week we've hit the jackpot! Tattoo seems to love them the most, running out into the rain immediately after leaving the door, while the rest of us prefer to watch from the dryness of the porch. Here are some fun pics of the boys enjoying some summertime rain!

New Superhero Gear

2010-07-20T15:21:00.004-06:00

I was getting very tired of washing Tattoo's 2 pairs of jammies and one shirt that had superheroes on them. I turned to the internet for a solution. I found instructions here for making a reversible Batman/Superman cape. Luckily it was "Coupon Commotion" week at Joann's, and I had some gift cards there, so I went shopping for supplies yesterday. It was super easy to make, and now Tattoo can still be a superhero while wearing regular clothes!

Here's Batman:And Superman:

Superhero Complex

2010-07-16T21:29:00.003-06:00

My little friend, Tattoo, has a serious superhero complex. Today while I was working on my freezer meal cooking, Tattoo kept saying to me "superman coat." I had no idea what he was talking about, and told him to go get it and show me. He would disappear for a while, and then come back and ask for it again. So I sent him to go get it. Well, after doing this back-and-forth thing for a while, I needed a break anyway, so I told him to show me. He took me to his closet and pointed at this:He can't say Spiderman, so both Superman and Spiderman are Superman in his vocabulary. By the end of the day, he had a Superman hat on to go with his jacket. He's gotten to the point that he won't get dressed in the morning or back into his jammies at night unless what he's changing into has a superhero on it. Funny kid!

Summer Fun at Granny's!

2010-07-09T11:42:00.007-06:00

It's become sort of a tradition to go play in the pool at Granny's on my birthday. Yesterday was no different. As Tattoo gets older, he's turning into the "water bully," and always has to be in charge of the hose. We put the hose at the top of the slide to have a water slide. That was fun at first, but then Tattoo discovered he could spray everyone from a high altitude. We all had a great day, but were sure tired that night! How fun!

Kindergarten Graduation!

2010-06-17T18:30:00.003-06:00

PJ graduated from Kindergarten last month! It feels like she was just born, so I don't know how we got to this point, but I'm just so proud of her. Her teacher, Miss Nybo, said that she would look forward to PJ's smile every day, because she knew it would be waiting for her. PJ loves school, and was so unhappy when she was sick, not just because she was sick, but because she had to miss school. Here's to hoping for many more years of that kind of excitement! Love you PJ!

Bug Program

2010-05-04T10:40:00.004-06:00

This year, the kindergarten classes had a "Bug Program" at the school. They sang some songs and got to dress up in bug costumes for the event. PJ wanted to be a ladybug. We just got her a head band and twirled together red and dark brown pipe cleaners around the headband for her antennae, and ironed on some black dots to a red shirt for her costume. Very basic, but she rocked it! I didn't get great pictures of the actual event because the flash in an auditorium isn't wonderful and we were sitting soooo far away! Oh well, it was fun!

Keyana's 6th Birthday

2010-05-04T10:36:00.002-06:00

PJ turned 6 this year! For her birthday, since she had school, we took her out to breakfast before school, and stopped to buy some donuts for her to take to class. After school, we went out to eat at the Olive Garden. Yum! The next day, we had a party with family, and BBQ'd burgers and hot dogs. It was just windy enough for some fabulous kite flying too! PJ was so excited to get a big girl scooter (2 wheels instead of 3) and has ridden it to school every day since!

Easter '10

2010-05-04T10:25:00.005-06:00

We had a fairly nice Easter this year. Because of our weird schedules and lack of transportation for me, we had the Coffeys over to our house for the annual egg hunt and dinner. It was really fun, warm, and tasty! Poor Tattoo took so long to find his chocolate bunny that it melted! This was the weekend before Easter, and before it was snowing.
Easter Sunday, I was pretty excited to stay in my jammies and have a nice, relaxing Sunday on the couch. Tattoo, however, had alternate plans for me. The kids woke up that morning, and found their Easter baskets and hidden eggs. They immediately dug into their candy before breakfast (of course, what kid doesn't?!) Anyway, after breakfast, we snuggled together on the couch to start one of the kids' new movies before conference. After a little bit, Tattoo left me to snuggle with Nathan. We thought that was a bit weird, until Tattoo barfed all over Nathan! For the rest of the day, at about half hour intervals, Tattoo was throwing up. *Sigh* not fun! The barfing slowed down in the late afternoon, so we made our way over to the Morgan's for another Easter dinner and egg hunt. Fun week!

Special Children...

2010-03-24T23:09:00.002-06:00

I know that I frequently mention how "special" my children are, but today was an occurrence really worth mentioning. We were in line at Best Buy. I knew that all the children were right around me when I leaned down to sign the card-swipey-thingy. When I looked up, I looked around, and noticed Kaiden behind the counter, massaging the arm of the nice young lady ringing us up. Hmmm....not sure what to make of that! I know I've certainly laughed a lot today, but we still can't get him to tell us why he was even doing it! Luckily, she was very nice about the whole situation and has probably been laughing as much as us this evening. Funny, funny kid! Where do they come up with these ideas?!

Kaiden's Birthday

2010-03-01T21:47:00.005-07:00

It's really becoming a tradition for us to take out the birthday child for a special outing, rather than a big present. This year, Nathan was able to get the day off work and come with Kaiden and me to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point. We'd never been there, and with Kaiden's obsession with dinosaurs, we kept promising to take him. We saw HUGE dinosaurs and an even BIGGER sharky! He even got to dig for bones!
Then, it was back home to squeeze the family party in that night. Everyone came, and it sure was crowded, but we had a lot of fun too.
Happy 4th birthday Kaiden!

Another blog...

2010-02-03T17:01:00.003-07:00

I've been meaning to do this for awhile now, but never seemed to get around to it until today. I really wanted my own blog, to write about the things in my life that don't seem to fit into our family blog. Projects, saving money, my weight loss adventures, and the occasional review of a new product I've tried. I've included the link to it here for easy navigation.

Student of the month!

2010-02-03T14:06:00.002-07:00

Yes, it's true, PJ is the student of the month in her class for January! Ok...there were actually 2, one boy and one girl, but still it's pretty cool! We went over for the presentation and got some fun pictures. She got a certificate, a pencil, and a coupon for a free meal at Applebee's. Yum! Congratulations PJ!

Tattoo: Test Subject...Part 2

2009-12-15T19:16:00.002-07:00

Yes, Tattoo is part of another study. However, this one doesn't affect him physically. This story starts about a year ago, when a friend introduced me to Savvyshopperdeals.com. Ever since, I've been hooked! I love to save money, and have since found several other websites that save me money and even make me money. One that I found the link to on one of my regular sites, was for Publisher Clearing House surveys. I originally signed up because I got a free sample out of the deal. Now, I get regular e-mails from them offering some sort of reward for completing a survey. I usually just erase the e-mail right away, as the reward is not worth the 20+ minutes it can take to complete a survey. Well, I noticed that one kept coming back. 3 times I deleted it, and yet another one would come in. I was getting a little frustrated, so I opened it to see what was so important. It told me it was only about a 3 minute survey, so I finally caved and started working on it. Anyway, it turned out that the survey was looking for people that have children in a certain diaper size, because they wanted to have those children try a new diaper. At the end of the survey, they told me that we qualified, and that I would receive a package of diapers to try out, and then fill out another survey after we've used them. I was figuring maybe 2 or 3 diapers. Then, I forgot that I'd even signed up after a week passed and nothing came. Today, however, to my delight, I found on my front porch, a BIG package of diapers, that we're supposed to use for a week! Wahooo!! So, starting tomorrow we're going to try out these new diapers. Hopefully they aren't awful! I'll post an update as soon as we know how they work.

Thankful

2009-11-30T09:25:00.003-07:00

Although I didn't get around to this post around Thanksgiving, I still wanted to take a minute to share what we're thankful for in our lives.
First of all, 3 very healthy kids. I've been so lucky to have rarely sick kids. Not even an ear infection in any of them!
Next, We're very thankful to have jobs. Of course I would prefer to be a stay at home mom, but sometimes that's just not possible. I'm just thankful, with the economy, that I was able to find a great, secure job that allows me to work from home and have minimal time away from those cute kids.
Finally, we're very thankful for great family and neighbors that are always so supportive and helpful. Whenever we need help with anything, there's always someone to step in and lend a helping hand.
So, from the Morgan household, we all just want to say "Happy Thanksgiving!" (4 days late.)

Happy Birthday Tattoo!

2009-11-13T09:49:00.006-07:00

Tattoo had a great 2nd birthday! His birthday was on the 7th. For the actual day of his birthday, we took the kids to Chuck E Cheese for the first time. Boy, did they have a blast! I had some great coupons that got us hundreds of tokens for the games, for very little money. We gave each of the kids a cup of tokens and sent them on their way. We also had Ghyslin with us, so it worked perfectly. Ghyslin and PJ were working together, I was following Kaiden around and Nathan was in charge of Tattoo. Tattoo was having a great time walking around pretending to play the games. Kaiden was actually pretty good at some of them. The girls, however, made bank on tickets from the games they were playing. Between all of the kids, they had enough tickets to get Tattoo a new ball, and each of the big kids several small toys. Although the food there sucks, we still had a great time!
We had birthday party with family the following Thursday. It turned out really great and went very smoothly, as a pot-luck dinner. Great food, hilarious entertainment (2 silly boys), and a fun, relaxing evening with family. Tattoo's favorite toys are cars, stuffed animals and balls. He got TONS of cars, a snuggly bear, a new light for his room, a book and some jammies. Good times!

Halloween

2009-11-02T08:17:00.006-07:00

We had a great, fun Halloween this year. I did have to work, but was able to get off at 3, just in time to enjoy most of the festivities. The day started with a party for the 2 big kids at one of the neighbor's houses. Nathan did a great job of getting them dressed up in their costumes while I was working, and they sure had a blast!
Since I'd had to work extra hours during the week to make up for getting off early for Halloween, I was crunched for time in getting the kids' pumpkins carved. I ended up doing one each day, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. They turned out really great, but because I had to do them in advance, they were a little shriveled by Halloween night. After I got off work on Halloween, I finished the last pumpkin. Whew! Cutting it close!
Because daylight savings came after Halloween this year (weird!), we went trick-or-treating a little bit later in the day, as we were waiting for the sun to go down before starting. Luckily, it was still fairly warm, and we didn't need coats. 2 years in a row of a warm Halloween. Dare I wish for another?! Trick-or-treating was fun, and Tattoo was the best part. He wasn't interested in going up to the doors (Kaiden had to collect treats for him). He was far more interested in playing with the toys left out in front yards. The very best part was the "drunk dragon walk." The costume was so padded, that he kind of waddled and ended up swerving a bit when walking. He was so funny!
Next in the festivities was over to Chris and Kelli's for their annual Halloween party. We got there too late for the kids to go trick-or-treating with the big kids, but Keyana and Kaiden took advantage of the opportunity to hand out the candy. Kelli had a computer set up on the kitchen counter that showed a camera feed from outside the front door. Keyana would sit there and watch for kids to come up so that she could run to the front door and hand out a treat.
All in all, it was a great day!

Tattoo's Surgery

2009-10-26T09:00:00.006-06:00

This will be a "too-much-information" post, so if you have a problem with that, stop reading now!
Now, on to Tattoo's surgery. He was born with one undescended testicle. The other one is fine. We were waiting for it to drop on its own, but it still hadn't, and we were nearing his 2 year mark. His pediatrician sent his information up to Primary Children's Hospital for a consultation with the urology department. Matthew's cousin, Nik, had to have surgery in that department when he was younger, so Nathan's family was able to recommend a fabulous doctor for us to see. The problem with being a fabulous doctor, is that it took 6 weeks to get in for the consult! Well, we went in for that a couple of weeks ago, and decided that the best, quickest and most efficient method was surgery. They need to bring it down for it to develop fully, and the younger we do it, the better, especially so that he won't remember.
I completely trusted Dr. Cartwright to do an excellent job and take care of my baby, but I did have one huge fear about the situation. Tattoo has had stranger danger issues since birth, and I was afraid that scary doctors taking him away from us would cause permanent damage. Well, Primary Children's is the best in every way, and think of situations like this beforehand. They offered to give him some drugs that would make him sleepy and loopy before they took him away from us. They also said that it would help make him forget being taken away. I was on board! He was so silly while on those drugs, and just kept laughing at everything! Finally they took him back. The surgery took about an hour, which was right on schedule. Dr. Cartwright came out to tell us that it went very smoothly, and just as planned. It took Tattoo a while to wake up after the surgery, but they let me come back to be with him when he did wake. He was so thirsty, that within about 5 minutes of waking up, he had downed 2 sippy cups full of apple juice! Swallowing is one of the main things they make sure a kid can do after surgery before sending him home, so we were right on track. We stayed for about an hour after he woke up. We just sat in wonderful, padded rocking chairs, snuggling with him while the nurses made sure everything else was good to go. He passed with flying colors and has been doing really great ever since. They put some tape over his upper incision, as there are only stitches there under the skin, and they said that it should take about a week or two to fall off. Of course, Tattoo doesn't like to do anything according to plan, and had the tape off on Friday night! I panicked and made Nathan call to see if that was okay, which it was. I just overreact sometimes. Everything's doing really great and he's healing like a trooper. We go back for a follow-up visit in a month, but I think everything will be perfect at that appointment too!

Halloween Prep

2009-10-13T09:18:00.007-06:00

I sure loved Halloween when I was a kid! As I got to be a teenager, and especially when I became an adult, I decided I didn't love Halloween so much anymore. I didn't, and still don't, like it when teenagers would just color their hair or wear a stupid mask and consider themselves "dressed up" for Halloween and expect people to still give them candy while trick-or-treating. I still feel that trick-or-treating is for the little kids, and if you're old enough to get a job, you shouldn't be trick-or-treating; you can buy your own candy!
Anyway, now that's off my chest, I'm really loving Halloween again! Having kids makes it at least as fun, if not more fun than it was when I was a kid. Having our own house to decorate makes it even better. As we were just moving in the week of Halloween last year, we didn't get to really enjoy the fun decorations, as we had to take them down nearly immediately after putting them up! This year, we whipped those decorations out as soon as it got slightly chilly! We've been gradually adding a bit more at a time over the last week or so, but the best part was just added last night. For years, Nathan has had a Halloween tradition of building a "monster" for the front porch. Last night, the monster was assembled. As he was being built, Tattoo decided to try on the mask. Cutest monster ever! In addition to the monster on the porch, Granny and Papa donated some Indian corn stalks to the decorations, which we tied around the front porch posts. Very festive effect overall!

Flu Shots

2009-09-28T21:45:00.007-06:00

Today, I got a call from my pediatrician's office, letting me know that they were doing a pediatric flu study, and wanted Matthew to participate. They're compensating us for our time and travel, and the flu shot itself is, of course, free!!! With most places charging $25-$30 for the flu shot alone, this sounded like a great opportunity for us! Because Matthew only had one shot last year, as his first year, and was supposed to have had a booster as well, he is going to get 2 shots this year. Today we went in for the first shot. They also did draw blood, as part of the study. That part was sad, but he did so well!!! Now all we do is take his temperature every night for the next week and record it in a diary. We're also supposed to record any other symptoms as well. At the end of the week, we mail back the diary pages in a pre-paid envelope. For the rest of the study, we go back in a month for his second shot, and I believe we go back one month after that. There are also a couple of phone calls involved in the following months. I believe the entire study takes 6-7 months (in case you can't tell, I need to re-read the material again!)
Anyway, another great thing, is that if Matthew gets sick at all during the study, even if it's a non-related sickness, the office visit will be free, as they will take note of how any additional treatments may affect this flu vaccination.
I'll keep this posted as we go, in case a similar opportunity ever opens up for someone else, you will know what to expect. And because my obsessive-compulsive disorder won't allow me to post without pictures, I've included some of test-subject A!

Kindergarten

2009-09-28T10:06:00.005-06:00

Yes, my baby is in school. She actually started Kindergarten on August 27th, but I'm just now getting around to posting about it. Her teacher's name is Miss Nybo, and PJ thinks she's pretty great! Every time we do her hair a different way for school, or if she wears a new shirt, she asks me, "Do you think Miss Nybo will like this?" Of course!
She's really excited to learn new things. I love it on the days that she comes home and teaches me a new song she learned, or shows me how she learned to write a new letter.

Although she loves to go to school, she has already missed one day, due to an awful tummy bug that attacked our house. She was so bummed that she couldn't go. That morning, she said that she felt better, but I told her to lie down for awhile. After being sick again, later in the morning, she said that she felt better again. I told her that she wouldn't be able to go to school because she was sick. She was so sure that she felt better, so I let her get dressed and we put her hair into a cute ponytail, but sure enough, she was sick all day! Poor little girl. Anyway, luckily it was about a 12 hour bug and she was more than ready to go back the next day!

Rainy Days

2009-09-28T09:47:00.004-06:00

One of our favorite things to do this summer, is to sit on the porch during thunderstorms. It's so relaxing to watch the gutters slowly fill, and hear that pounding of the rain, while enjoying that beautiful smell. This year has also been a great year for rainbows.

Lagoon

2009-09-28T09:36:00.003-06:00

We finally made it to Lagoon again this year for the first time in 3 years! We all had a blast and can't wait to go again. Although Keyana was a bit scared of some of the rides, just the morning she was telling me she wants to go again. Kaiden had the most fun, I think. He loved every ride, and the faster and higher they went, the better.

Still Alive!!!

2009-07-08T10:16:00.007-06:00

I'm well aware that it's been 4 1/2 months since I've posted anything. Bad, I know. Anyway, rather than posting pages and pages of what we've been up to, I thought I'd just put lots of pictures and a few captions. One of these days I may start posting more often, but for now, enjoy!

Easter

Keyana's 5th Birthday

Memorial Day in Fountain Green

Random, funny stuff

Happy Birthday Kaiden

2009-02-23T12:54:00.004-07:00

I can't believe my little man turns 3 today! We celebrated with the whole family last night, and boy did we have fun! Kaiden got a plethora of new dinosaurs, dragons and sharkies! He has a spot in his closet called "dinosaur alley" which is where all these new creatures have just moved in. He also go a new table and chairs for his room, which he is pretty excited about!

As just an extra note, Kaiden has had several successful potty trips. Sure, he's still having accidents, but 3 successes in one day is something to get very excited about. Hopefully within the next couple months we'll be back down to one kid in diapers!

Updates

2009-02-04T09:29:00.007-07:00

I realized that it's been over a month since our last post, so I decided I needed to get my act together and mention what we've been up to lately!
One of the benefits to living in Eagle Mountain is (prepare for a shocker!)...the eagles! I knew that they were out here because everyone else has seen them, but until about a week and a half ago, I hadn't seen any. The first couple I saw were standing on a dead cow (gross, I know!) The very next day I saw another one standing in the middle of the field of cows. I would almost say that they were vultures, rather than hunting their own food, they're standing there waiting for it to come to them. Lazy creatures! Anyway, in Fairfield, just across the valley from the city center, is where the eagles must be living at the moment. Nathan had gone with Chris and Kelli on Saturday while I was at work and they got some amazing pictures. I was super jealous and made him take me this week. It was so spectacular! Between golden and bald, we counted 15 that trip. We also saw a couple of wild bunnies and stopped to tell them they should hide because they are hopping around with a nice, shiny target on their backs in that area! :) I hope the eagles stick around for a while longer so I can see some more!
The snow around here is finally starting to melt and we can see grass again for the first time in over a month! Nathan is getting really anxious to get out there and start working on the yard. We have endless possibilities with the back yard. Before the snow melted I did get a couple good pictures of our resident snow bunnies!
The last couple weeks I've been working long hours on Saturday to get caught back up after taking so much time off around Christmas. Since this is Nathan's only day off, he really has been enjoying getting some quality time with the kiddos. Last week they made a fort, which by looking at the pictures, seems to have been quite a success!
Not too much has gone on in January, but February is always crazy with 5 immediate family birthdays! Kaiden will be 3 this month, so stay tuned in for an update on that!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-31T09:12:00.007-07:00

We had a really great Christmas this year! The kids are really starting to catch on and it's making it fun for me all over again. This year we went to Grandpa and Grandma Morgan's house for Christmas eve dinner. It was a very relaxing, no stress, enjoyable evening. Bammy (Grandma) made the kids jammies to open after dinner and wear that night. They looked so cute! After dinner we also had the Morgan family gift exchange. Keyana was so excited to get the Barbie from her Barbie Christmas Carol movie. Kaiden was overjoyed with 4 sharkies! He then had to sleep with them that night. Matthew was just content to shred everyone's left over paper. After we got home, we set out the stockings and left some treats for Santa. Getting the kids to bed that night was the easiest time we've ever had, let alone for Christmas! We tucked both of the big kids in to PJ's bed together and turned on a Christmas movie for them. We still had a little wrapping to do so we put up a gate just in case they got out of bed, but we didn't hear a peep from them the rest of the night! Tattoo, of course, was unconscious by the time we got home. Christmas morning was great as well. Santa brought PJ a bike and Kaiden a GIANT dinosaur. We tried to get to Granny and Papa Coffey's house but didn't want to get stuck in the storm so we just chilled at home for the day. It was probably our first relaxing Christmas since we've been married! We did however make it over to Granny and Papa's house the day after. PJ was so excited to get the Diamond Princess Barbie from Papa and also a cute Cinderella hoodie from Granny and Papa. The kids were also able to completely coat their living room floor with a fine layer of Nerds! All in all, we had a great Christmas! Happy New Year!

Decorations

2008-12-21T21:48:00.004-07:00

We've had a really great time decorating this year for Christmas. New house, some new decorations and a new helper! Even though this is Matthew's second Christmas, he was pretty much an invalid last year so we're counting it as his first. This first picture is our outdoor Christmas lights. We're kind of the Griswold house of the neighborhood. Hee hee! It's kind of fun! Anyway, this second picture is of our little Christmas elf with our village in the background. Kaiden thinks that the village is his personal supply of toys. Every day I find pieces rearranged or pieces in his room. Silly boy! Our final picture is of our Christmas tree. The only reason I could possibly come up with for not liking our house (besides not having a fireplace!) is that the ceilings were too short for our 9 foot Christmas tree we'd just bought last year. I was thinking that it was going to be a total waste. But handy dandy Nathan said that he'd take care of it and sure enough, one day I came home from work to find our 9 foot tree fitting into an 8 foot space! He's amazing! Also, I added this picture because it looks like it's just glowing!

Early Christmas

2008-12-21T21:29:00.005-07:00

We've decided that small town life is more exciting than we thought. A little over a week ago, Santa came riding around our neighborhood in a fire truck! He was also handing out candy on his second time around but I had to run off to work as soon as we saw him, so we didn't get the candy. Of course Kaiden thought this was wonderful because he loves fire trucks, but PJ was the most excited. She's been really stressed since we moved, thinking that Santa wouldn't find her at her new house. She told him that she had moved when we went to talk to him at the mall, but she was still very worried. This, however, was her opportunity to SHOW Santa where she lived. Since then, it hasn't really been an issue of Santa finding her house any more!

Dinosaur Band-Aid

2008-12-21T21:17:00.003-07:00

Poor little guy! Last Tuesday Kaiden threw one of his hissy fits while I was in the process of pulling him up. You do the math, Kaiden flopping one direction while Mommy's pulling in the other direction. Yes, we ended up with a dislocated elbow. The way he was acting, though, we thought there could possible be a break somewhere in there so we ended up spending the evening in the emergency room. 3 hours and 1 x-ray later we left with a much better little boy, a popsicle and a "dinosaur band-aid." We'll just have to be a lot more careful in the future because the doctor told us that now that it has been dislocated once, it is very likely to happen again. Yikes!

Scentsy!!!

2008-11-18T17:03:00.002-07:00

My new favorite thing, Scentsy! I've only been to one party, but I'm hooked. I have a Scentsy warmer in my living room and one in my bedroom and each one fills the entire floor with fragrance without being overbearing. I love it! Anyway, my friend Jenny is a consultant for Scentsy and you can get more information about Scentsy on her website http://scentedgoodness.blogspot.com/

Try it. I guarantee you'll love it!

Halloween 2008

2008-11-14T14:40:00.006-07:00

Halloween was very fun this year. I was very worried that I was going to spend all day at work and then have to rush home to get the kids ready for trick-or-treating. Luckily, however, my schedule changed the Monday before Halloween and I was able to get the day completely off. It was fun getting to spend the day with the kids. I had cute Halloween outfits for them to wear during the day. We decided to take the kids out earlier than usual for trick-or-treating this year because Eagle Mountain gets pretty dark at night. The kids had a great time and scored tons of candy. There was a house down the street serving scones and hot chocolate for the grown-ups too. Overall it was a great day!

Matthew's one!

2008-11-14T14:28:00.005-07:00

I can hardly believe that Matthew is one already! It's been a great year. In honor of Matthew's first birthday, here are some of his favorite things:

1. Food

2. Cuddling

3. Giving Mommy big, open mouthed kisses

4. Playing rocket baby with Daddy

5. Big brother and sister

6. Riding facing forward in the car

7. Balls

8. Grinning from ear to ear

9. Getting into things he knows he's not supposed to

10. "Guck" (his favorite word.)

A minor incident

2008-11-14T14:22:00.002-07:00

You may ask "Has it been snowing in the Morgan house?" I say, "No, I just have a two year old that finds the most random things amusing." Today Kaiden found a square of styrofoam and pulled almost the entire block apart, down to the little spheres it's made of. I had a hard time not laughing when I first saw it and how pleased he was with himself, but I must say, it was certainly not fun cleaning up!

VACTION 2008 PICTURES

2008-10-02T17:23:00.012-06:00

We posted all our vacation pictures on flickr!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31029337@N03/collections/72157607833010840/

Vacation 2008

2008-09-25T19:08:00.013-06:00

Well, I guess that since we've now been home a week and things are starting to settle back down I could finally post what's happened with us the last month. Our really long vacation started on September 3rd at 5 am as we started on the road toward Seattle. We did split the drive into 2 days, spending our first night in Pendleton, OR. We then stayed in Seattle for 2 nights. Our first day there, we took the kids to the Seattle aquarium so Kaiden could see the Sharkies, and of course had to buy another one while he was there. Nathan was able to go to the Mariners/Yankees game later that night. After we were in Phoenix for Grandpas funeral at the same time as the Yankees and weren't able to see them then, I promised Nathan that at some point in his life he would get to see the Yankees play.

That Saturday we then boarding the Holland American "Oosterdam" for our week-long cruise to Alaska, with one stop in Victoria BC. Since our ship was called the "Oosterdam" and all of the Holland American ships are "Dam" ships, we had some fun shopping for "Dam" merchandise. I got myself a "Dam good cook" apron!

Our first stop was in Juneau, the capital of Alaska. I thought that this was the most beautiful of all of our stops. We went on a temperate rain forest tour, which I think was actually the most beautiful place I've ever been to. We got to ride the tram to the top of the mountain. We could see the entire city from there. It was truly amazing and breathtaking.

Our next stop was one that we weren't able to get off the boat, but was still as spectacular as anything. It was Hubbard glacier, one of the few glaciers in the world that is still expanding every year. This glacier is about 6 miles wide! We were there in the bay for over an hour and the boat just spun in a slow circle so everyone could get a perfect view. We even got to see quite a few pieces break off off, creating a sound that the Native American tribe would call "White Thunder." It was simply magnificent!

Next stop was Sitka, the location of the capital before they moved it to Juneau. This consists of a series of little tiny islands. It's actually funny here because you see this little tiny island with one house on it. Talk about a private island! For our shore excursion we went on a Sea Otter Wildlife Quest. We were on this little boat, going around all the little islands, watching for any wildlife. Here we were able to see our first whales of the trip. Our tour guide was able to spot them a ways off and pulled the boat right up to them. The kids thought the whales were really neat.

Our final stop in Alaska was Ketchikan. This was actually one of my favorite stops. Ironically, it's the rainiest part of Alaska (they get about 160" of rain a year, and measure their rain in feet, rather than inches) and it's our one stop there that it didn't rain. Hmm... But that's very okay with me because I hate rain. Here in Ketchikan we went to a lumberjack show, that was my favorite thing we did. I loved it! It was so hilarous! What it was, was lumberjack's, competing against each other in sports that were similar to what the lumberjacks used to do before there were machines to do it for them. We also loved this show because they actually have a nationally renowned chain saw artist as one of their competitors, and in between events, he made a little tiny log chair that we were able to take home with us, since we were the only ones in the audience that had kids with buns small enough to sit on it.

Our final stop was Victoria BC. I had been looking forward to this stop for a really long time. All the pictures I'd ever seen of it were just filled with flowers, and as late in the season as we were there, the flowers were still every where. They are actually famous for the hanging baskets they have hanging on every light post throughout the city. I was also looking forward to seeing the parliament building all lit up at night. We were able to get some pretty good pictures of it.

A couple updates

2008-08-31T21:01:00.007-06:00

Well, all three kids were overdue for doctor appointments so I felt ambitious and scheduled all three at the same time. I now know that this was a bad idea. Poor PJ had the hardest time with it. All three kids also had to have shots. I thought that since Kaiden had been struggling with shyness throughout the exam that he would be hardest to get to give a shot to, but as PJ watched him, the tears started then and turned into outright screams when it was her turn. It was the most awful moment of my life so far. Anyway, none of the kids had a really bad reaction to the shots, which is certainly a good thing. Here are their stats:

PJ 42" tall 41.4 lbs. = Between 85th and 90th percentile for height and weight.

Kaiden 38" tall and 34 lbs. = Between 90th and 95th percentile for height and weight.

Matthew 29" tall and 18 lbs.= 90th percentile for height and 9th for weight.

Matthew sounds like he's skinny but he's actually quite the chunky monkey. He's also now starting to pull him self up to standing on anything he can get a good grip on and can stand on his own for a couple seconds at a time without toppling. Boy is he growing fast!

PJ is starting to look more like a big kid everyday and less like my baby. We were talking at the doctor's about her getting ready for kindergarten next year, and I'm battling mixed emotions about this. Yes, I'm proud of her for reaching such big milestones, but I'm not ready to release her to the world!

Kaiden is growing by leaps and bounds in both size and mind. He's now wearing the same size clothes as PJ and knows as many words too. I think he's smarter than me!

We're heading out on our cruise this week, so stay tuned for the Morgan family adventure 2008!

A funny day

2008-08-14T19:18:00.006-06:00

Today was just pretty fun overall. Matthew has been awfully cranky the last couple days and I was prepared to brace myself against the inevitable temper again today. For some reason, though, he instead was the cheerful little man he used to be. I'm so happy to have my happy boy back! I'd recently read that to a mother, her baby's smile creates a natural high. Well, if that's the case, what is laughter? I think it's the strongest of the narcotics because even on the worst of days, if that tiny kid laughs, I can't help but feel that same joy myself. Maybe that's why so many people have more than one kid. Not only are they just the custest things ever, but we're actually physically addicted to our own babies. Hmm, now that's a thought!

Special Children

2008-08-13T17:27:00.005-06:00

Ok, I think I officially have the weirdest kids on the planet. I have a serious princess, a real genius and ... well this speaks for itself. There really is no explanation for this last kid. He's just funny. This is his new favorite activity, licking the sides of his playpen. Yum!

Sweet Tooth

2008-08-13T16:18:00.002-06:00

Yes, she is her mother's daughter. As we were short on sweets in the house due to our recent diet, all we could find for our afternoon snack was some mini chocolate chips. I gave PJ a little bowlful and then left the room. She came to me about 5 minutes later with chocolate all over her front teeth. What can I say, she's definitely mine!

Peaches?!

2008-08-01T11:57:00.003-06:00

Although we've tried peaches before with Matthew, and he DID like them, something was terribly wrong with them last night. With every bite he would make the disgusted/hilarious face and just shake all over. Of course I had to grab the camera. What kind of mom would I be if I didn't have proof to blackmail the kids with in the future!

The bandwagon

2008-07-31T18:44:00.003-06:00

Well, everyone else has jumped on the blogging bandwagon so I figured, why not me too? I always thought it looked fun but have so little willpower to sit down and do it. I was always told, growing up, by church leaders and parents that I should keep a journal. I certainly would always run out and buy a journal, but unfortunately never added anything daily, let alone more than a week at a time, so sadly I was never able to have a successful journal and would be embarassed by what I had to say at the time anyway. So here we go, a fresh start, a new try, an adult chance to finally have a journal, even if it is digital! My kids are always doing the silliest things and I'd like a chance to share it and now I'm going to take advantage of this opportunity!