Updates

Welcome to the new Morgan Family Blog. I’ve decided that I shouldn’t re-invent the wheel anymore and just use a blog site to manage it for me. This will hopefully make it easier for us to post content and keep in touch with everyone. Hopefully I’ll be able to import all of the historic blogs too, so we’ll see what happens with that.

And They Say You Are Lucky to be a Stay at Home Mom

So I just wanted to share my day. Well...first things first a little background coming in to the day. My kids have been sick with the dang cold going around, needless to say, not been sleeping well. I am only 7 weeks past having a baby and started a period (so in a really good mood) and have clogged ducts. (If you know what that means ...OUCH!) Now to today:

The kids woke up at 8. Not a problem. They wanted yogurt. Not a problem. I changed Sarah's diaper and thought I should check on the kids who were supposed to be eating the yogurt at the table. Well, walking out of my bedroom I saw Ari in the front room PAINTING one of the banana chairs in yogurt. It was all over the chair, the carpet and her. I sent her in for a "cold" shower. (It was lukewarm) I got her all cleaned up and changed and then we went to clean up the mess in the front room. (Blueberry yogurt...what better fruit to have mashed into carpets, clothes and chairs.) We got that all cleaned up and started about the day.

I had the kids take turns on their leapfrog computers. Adam, as usual, was very frustrated with Ari because she was doing it wrong. She wouldn't pick what he wanted; she moved the joystick all around instead of just to one side, etc. etc. I decided that they were done, they both had turns and now they were just fighting over it, so I told them it was playtime.

So then of course, it's feeding time. (With Sarah it always seems to be time to eat...) Anyway, so I go to feed Sarah and the kids decide they are hungry too. So I let them have some cereal (I don't feel good and I need to feed Sarah, so I pour them bowls of cereal and milk) I give them the same caution I ALWAYS give them before we eat: Eat nice or you get a "cold" shower. I leave them to eat and head to feed Sarah. So while I am feeding Sarah, I hear a bowl empty onto the floor. I finish the one side, and put Sarah down to go check what happened. Well, Ari didn't want that cereal she decided she wanted a different one. (Not Little Einstiens but Mickey's Clubhouse) So she emptied her bowl of cereal (and milk) on to the floor and poured the other cereal. I left the mess and decided to deal with it after I finished feeding Sarah. (She was screaming because she wanted to finish eating.) So I fed her the second side. She started pooping while eating, and she kept pooping. So by the time she was done eating she had pooped all the way up her back TO HER NECK! So not only was I nursing on clogged ducts, I was trying to keep from getting all poopy.

Now I had to decide what to clean up first...Sarah covered in poop or the kitchen covered in cereal. I decided I should take care of Sarah first, so I grabbed a changing pad wrapped it around her back and went to get wet wipes and a diaper for Sarah. On my way I did what I shouldn't have, I looked into the kitchen. What did I see, Ari flipping the cereal all over the kitchen! At that point, I grabbed Ari and her bowl, threw the bowl in the sink and bathed her right there in the sink. I sent her to dry and headed back to change Sarah. I stripped Sarah down and washed her in wet wipes and put her in new clothes. Then I found Ari and put her in her bed for time-out. While she was in time-out I took Sarah's plethora of poopy clothes down to soak in the washer. When I got back up I talked with Ari about what we do and DON"T do, then we cleaned up the kitchen floor.

I decided it was time for a break at this point and turned on a movie for the kids so I could go in time-out before I completely lost it.

Unfortunately the kids can be worst enemies and I had to keep interrupting my time-out to break up arguments about this toy or that. Oh well, at least none of them died today!

As you can see, stay-at -home mom's have NOTHING to do and are always SO LUCKY to be able to enjoy all the FUN with their kids! Hope this makes all of you want to have oodles of kiddos! (But in all honesty, it is pretty great that I get to stay home and raise my kids. And hey, I wouldn't get to tell stories like this if I wasn't home, huh?) Here's to another day...

Christmas and New Year's…the Holidays!

We had a GREAT Christmas! It was SUPER busy, but fun. We loved having Terra and Tim come up from Arizona, and Adam, Mel and Kale here from Texas. The kids loved seeing them all again. Yes, Tim is Ari's new best friend and she still asks for him when we go to Grandma's house. Both Terra and Mel gave us GREAT news during their visits: they are both expecting. Melanie is due in July and Terra is due in August. We are SO excited for both of them and pray all goes well with their pregnancies.

We had lots of parties and it was fun to see everyone. We also had a white Christmas, but I am getting sick of the snow now. (I am not a fan of the cold...snow would be great if it wasn't so cold and we didn't have to drive in it.)

Christmas Eve, we went to the Morgan's and had the kids dress up for the nativity. Sarah was baby Jesus, Ari was an angel and Adam was a wise man, Isabel was also an angel, Ben was a shepherd and Noah was Joseph. (For Sarah's safety, they put me as Mary...go fig.) The girls were done being dressed up really fast...basically long enough to take a picture. Then Grandpa read them the story of the Nativity. It was fun to be with family and sing the carols and remember what Christmas is really about.

The kids were so excited to wake up Christmas morning to see that Santa had come. (Talk about a late night Christmas Eve...it was great fun to get everything all set up, not to mention helping Annie get Alma's book all done! It was good times, huh Annie!) Adam got a castle and a Mac truck (with extra cars to ride on him). He LOVES it and doesn't like to go ANYWHERE because he would rather play with his toys. Ari got some ponies and a little people house. She likes the ponies, but she would rather play with Adam's REALLY COOL castle than her doll house. Oh well, isn't that the way it goes? What Ari was really SUPER excited about opening Christmas morning was Kung Fu Panda. It is one of her favorites right now and had been asking to watch it for weeks before Christmas. So when she opened it she hugged it SO tight and we have seen it lots of times since Christmas. (Good thing I think it is pretty funny...) Santa also brought a Wii. As much as the kids like to play it, they still play with Adam's castle more.

After we opened gifts at home, we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Smoot's. The kids were thrilled to see that Santa had left toys there for them too. So Grandma's house now has a really cool gears set, more dishes and food for the kitchen and a baby car seat, pack-n-play and stroller. (So funny story about the gears...Adam was with my mom when she found them. So she told him if he was good maybe Santa would bring him some to play with at Grandma's. So for several weeks he was telling everyone he was getting "beers" for Christmas. It took me a while to figure out what he was talking about. Since we talk about "beer" so much at our house. We finally figured out that he thought that the word was "beers" instead of "gears." We got it all figured out though and he knows that he builds with "gears." It was quite funny though.)

After that we went up to the Morgan's. The kids had fun opening their presents and especially playing with the cousins. When we went down to do the parents presents, we turned on Kung Fu Panda. We were all surprised how quiet and good they were. We even checked on them and they were just playing nicely and watching the movie. It was wonderful! We were really glad that the big storm didn't start until we were leaving that night. However, it made it so we missed the get together with Grandpa and Grandma-great. (Smoot-side) But the kids were so tired and the snow was TERRIBLE so we went home and hunkered down.

Also that weekend, Sunday to be precise, we had Sarah's baby blessing. We decided to have it while everyone was here. Since the 28th was the only Sunday everyone would be in town we had her blessing that day. It was wonderful.

New Year's was a fun too. Jon got off early New Year's Eve and we went up to the Morgan's. The kids played and had a blast. Then we went down to the Smoot's and played games. It was fun to hang out with Terra and Tim before they headed back down to Arizona. We also enjoyed hanging out with everyone else. The kids loved playing with Kale too. (He is 1 and is SO big!) The kids would always look around for him to come and play with them. I think he liked them too; he was always following them around.

As I said, we had a GREAT holiday season. We hope everyone else did too! If I forgot anything PLEASE add it. And now let me put in my two cents (more).... I hope we all took time to remember the real reason for Christmas. I am so thankful for a Savior who came to earth. The little babe born in a stable, who would grow up to be the Savior of the world. What a WONDERFUL gift. I hope we remember that all year through. I love my Savior. Christmas is such a wonderful time and I hope you all loved it too!