Summer re-cap

What happened to summer?  It's over already and the kids are back in school.  We had a fun summer here is a couple highlights of our summer.

We spent the 4th of July Holiday In Lander with Jeff's parents!  The kids outside waiting for the parade!

Dad bought a ton of fireworks for us to light off!  We had an awesome fireworks show!

We hiked up to the sinks canyon falls!  We wish we would have prepared a little better and had brought swimming suits to slide down the rocks, there were a ton of people doing just that!

Grandma Jo with the kids

Morgan

Mom and Dad had a ton of pallets, weeds and wood to burn, so we had a bon fire and had s'mores one night!

 Our fire in progress

We recently went camping as a family for the first time since Morgan was 2.  Jeff was recently released as a scout master and now we have more time to take weekend camping trips.  We spent a few days at Trial Lake in the Uintas.  I knew the bathroom situation was going to be an issue for Morgan, but didn't mention anything until we got up there.  When I took her to go to the bathroom she took one look at the toilets and bolted out of there.  We had to bribe her with glow sticks to go in.  The next day Ian had told her about snakes and monster in the bottom and she freaked out again.  She refused to go and so Jeff set-up a bucket for her to pee in.  One of the nights that we were in there she was freaking out so bad and having a full on meltdown.  She put her hands on may face and told me "mommy it's just so scary I can't stop freaking out".  This girl is definitely ALL DRAMA!

Sittin' by the campfire

Fishing - This was Morgan's first time fishing!  Unfortunately there were no fish caught, but we still had a great time.

On our way home we stopped at Provo river falls, we are lookin' pretty dirty :).

Miscellaneous

I often think I should just give-up my blog.  I don't think people read it anymore, and I'm totally ok with that, but then I remember how bad I am at journaling and this is my way of doing so, so I guess I'll keep those posts coming!  This post is just an eclectic mixture of things that have been happening around here and not in any specific order!

Morgan had her spring dance recital and danced to a country song called knee deep!  We love watching her dance and develop her talent!

Easter weekend our van that we've had for 11 years blew a head gasket.  We contemplated fixing it, but with over 160k miles on it we decided we'd try and sell it as it.  We had a few offers, but decided to sell it to the pick and pull place.  It may sound really funny, but I was really sad to see it go there, having people pick all the parts out of it just didn't seem right to me.  It was a good car for us.  We bought it when Ian was 3 years old and drove Morgan home from the hospital in it.  Many trips to Grandma and Grandpas house in Wyoming were taken in it, also a trip to Montana when Grandma and Grandpa moved there, a trip to Disneyland etc. etc.  We are excited about a new car though and all the fun adventures that we will have in it.

Morgan lost her first tooth, also her 2nd and 3rd.  She also has 2 loose top teeth.  This girl is going to be all toothless!

I trained for the little red riding hood bike ride on June 1st.  It was held just a few miles north of Logan in a farming community called Lewiston.  We stayed in Logan the night before and made a fun mini vacation out of it.  I did the 36 mile ride and enjoyed every minute of it.  The ride was mostly flat with a few uphills.  I was tired at the end but felt really good.  Next year I'm planning on doing the 50 mile ride. The people with road bikes were passing me like crazy. I have decided to save-up and purchase a road bike for the ride next year!  My Mother in law did the 18 mile ride on her new bike.  

Coming in!!

Morgan shared a FHE lesson in her dance costume about the Holy Ghost!  She brought those papers home from primary and was so excited to share with us what she had learned.  She also performed a dance for us and the closing of her lesson!

Morgan is 6!!!

Morgan turned 6 on the 2nd.  She woke-up that morning with lots and lots of smiles and happy to be celebrating her day.  I made chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, and she soon got a call from Grandma and Grandpa Huff who sang "Happy Birthday" to her (she had been waiting anxiously all week for their call).  She was off track and I took the day off work, so we had the whole day to shop and play.  We ventured over to Toys R Us to shop for her birthday gift.  We walked around for a long time and she really had a hard time deciding what to get, until I directed her attention to a Disney Princess alarm clock and an outfit for her baby doll.  We then went to lunch and I had some shopping to do myself :).  We came home and she played with her neighbor friend and I made her chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.  That evening we took her out to dinner to Spaghetti factory and celebrated Morgan's and my Nieces birthdays together.  We then came home and had yummy cake and ice cream.  









On Friday she had another fun-filled day with her best friend S.  We ventured to Wheeler farm and spent a few hours there.  S's mom took lots of pictures of the girls.  We then had lunch at their favorite place, McDonald's.  S wanted to get Morgan an outfit for her build-a-bear, so we went to the mall and picked out a cute outfit.











We LOVE our Morgan SO SO much!  I couldn't imagine my life without her and every day I thank my Heavenly Father for allowing and trusting me to be her mother.  We waited so long for her to be a part of our family.

Some fun facts about Morgan - she is shy around other people, but has a fiery personality at home.  She asks lots and lots of questions all the time about EVERYTHING you can think of.  She loves books, and movies and having girls night out with mom when the boys camp.

My Mom and Dad were called to the Utica, New York mission in February.  I cannot tell you how excited I was for my parents to finally be serving their mission.  Ever since I remember they would always talk about the day they would have the chance to serve a mission.

They spent a few days with me and my oldest sister before heading to the Provo MTC.  Mom and I spent a day getting pedicures going to lunch and doing some shopping.  Dad spent a lot of time playing candyland with Morgan.  She tried to cheat her way to the finish line by placing one of the picture cards that jumped you farther on the board as the second card.  When Dad said, "let's shuffle the cards", she insisted that he didn't and got really mad when he did.  What a stinker, but they had fun despite trying to cheat her way to winning :).  Dad, Jeff and the kids also played a long game of monopoly.  I love watching my parents be grandparents, they are awesome with the kids and I can tell the love that they feel for them.

On Saturday night we went to the Jordan River temple with my parents, sister and brother-in-law and then out to a delicious Indian restuarant that is one of Jeff and I's favorite places to eat these days!

Jeff was also ordained a High Priest the Sunday that they were here with us and Jeff's parents were able to come down for that. On the same day Ian was also ordained as a Teacher.  I feel so blessed and lucky to have 2 worthy priesthood holders in my household, and I'm also very blessed to have a father-in-law and a father who are worthy priesthood holders too.  After church we all came back to our house for lunch.

On Monday Morning, Mom and Dad packed-up their stuff and headed to Provo for the week.  It was bittersweet watching them leave.  They are serving in an area that had a branch at one point, but since the economy tanked it left a lot of people in the area unemployed and a lot of those people moved, which resulted in them having to shut down the branch and those that were left had to drive to another branch.  My dad was called as the branch president and they are now in the process of trying to contact all the members on their list to let them know about the re-opening, they are also waiting for the go ahead from Salt Lake to reopen it and move forward.

I can already feel the blessings that are coming our way with their missionary service.  I know that they will have some amazing missionary experiences and do great work.

Christmas Happenings 2012

I wasn't going to blog about Christmas and one of the main reasons was because of my attitude.  I'm ashamed to say that my attitude was not very Joyful and I felt bothered by the whole season.  Christmas Eve and Christmas day were the worst for my attitude, and no matter how hard I tried to be happy I wasn't feeling "it" at all.  As I look back, I wonder what was so different about this last Christmas versus Christmas in the past when I could hardly stand the anticipation like a child.  I think most of it had to do with working.  I didn't have any time off and I had to work my 6 hours on Christmas Eve AND Christmas day.  Even though I was at home, I felt sorry for myself that I had to work.  Since working it has put a time crunch on EVERYTHING.  I felt rushed to get the Christmas decorations up, to get my Christmas shopping done and all the presents wrapped, and in this rush I forgot the most important thing about Christmas.  CHRIST.   I have since repented and I'm determined to have the spirit in my heart and home throughout this next year.  Despite my attitude, that kids had a very fun Christmas, we don't have any pictures of them opening their presents, though Jeff did get video.

My sister and her family came over for Christmas Eve, so after I was done working that day I scurried around to get some last minute things done.  We had appetizers, and I had prepared most of it ahead of time.  The kids did the Nativity while Ian read in the scriptures.  We sang some songs and had a great time visiting.  All the kids were eager to get to bed and wait for Santa to come.

Christmas morning arrived and the kids aren't allowed to come out of their rooms until we tell them that they can.  We made Ian sleep on Morgan's floor so that he couldn't sneak up from the basement and take a peek.  I got up early to use the bathroom and had heard them in there talking. I went back to bed though hoping that they would go back to sleep.  It wasn't too long before they were ready to start the day.  Jeff headed downstairs with the video camera so he could capture there reactions.

Morgan got a Leap Pad from Santa, she LOVES it and spends most of her free time playing with it.  She is in the process of earning some money to buy some more apps for it.  She also got another book for her Leap Tag.  She got some new shoes (sketchers lights), some funky socks, new mittens and pants

Santa also brought the family an XBOX 360 with kinect.  We have loved playing the games on it.  I think Morgan's favorite it the Dance Central game (mine too).

Ian was super excited to see the XBOX 360.  He has wanted one for a few years now, and we told him that it was just too much money to spend.  We had convinced him that this is something that he probably wouldn't get unless he saved his money for it. He got the latest Halo game and he and Jeff spent most of the day playing together.  I think Jeff was just as excited about the XBOX as Ian was.   Ian also got some new Vans (shoes), glove, socks, boxers and sweat pants.

Since we bought an expensive family gift, I told Jeff that we shouldn't get each other gifts.  I knew he wasn't going to listen and he bought me gifts anyway.  I got some new bowls, pyrex dishes and some fun things to add to my Christmas village.

Earlier in the month Morgan had her Christmas recital for dance.  She danced to an Island Christmas song.  She was a lot more shy on stage this recital than she had been in the past, but she did a fantastic job.  We love watching her blossom in her talent.