When Dad's away...we FACEPAINT!

A few weeks ago, Trev took a trip down to Cedar City to visit my cute little brother, Kyle, at SUU. They had a man's man weekend with lots of basketball, and what did we do? Got out the facepaints of course! Morgan wanted to be a fairy, and Jake, a superhero. Jake's started out as just a blue mask...but he wasn't quite satisfied. I looked at him and said, "what do you want, like flames or something??"... "YES!!!" Thus became the flaming mask. :) They both wanted to wear their faces to church the next day...ummm, I don't think so. :)

Does it get any better than this??? Kids are so funny!

Another funny Morgan statement...

The other day, Trev walked by Morgan and gave her a little tap on the bum. Like football players do. Morgan stopped, rolled her eyes, and said "Sir, I am calling the police now." I fell to the ground laughing! Funny girl. :)

Happy Birthday Baby!

Our little angel...just turned 6!!!!

A few of my friends starting posting "over the years" pictures of their kids on their birthday. What a fab idea!...I am stealing it! :) So from now on I will take a little trip down my photo gallery for my kids on their bdays. Here is the first one...my angel, Morgan.

When Morgan was born, Trev and I had just moved down to Las Vegas, Nevada. We had both just finished college at BYU. I was beginning my life as a stay-at-home mommy, and Trev had just begun his career with Schering-Plough Pharmaceuticals (now Merck) as a Sales Rep. Not to get too sappy, but it was the beginning of our little family, and we could not have been more blessed to have it start with Morgan.

What I remember about her as a baby: for the first 2 months she cried A LOT! Two reasons - both of which I wish I would have figured out sooner - 1. she had thrush, so it hurt and stung EVERYTIME she would eat (which is really all they do at that point)...I didn't even know it for about 2 weeks, until my sister-in-laws showed up for her blessing and told me. I was a very new, and inexperienced mommy. 2. she DID NOT want to be rocked to sleep!! You always think your baby will NEED you to help them fall asleep...we only kept her up by trying. Every time she would nap (which is the other thing they do at that age) she would scream...and we would walk around the house bouncing her, trying to get her to go to sleep. Finally, one day Trev and I decided to try to just lay her in her bed and let her "cry" it out. She cried for about 2 seconds, then drifted off to sleep!!!! She didn't want us to rock her, she just wanted to be put to bed!!! Also, something I wish I would have figured out earlier. She also was not too fond of ANYONE else but Trev and I for quite awhile. So we spent A LOT of time together in these early years. :) One thing you always loved was being outside. We were blessed to live in Vegas, because in those times when you were really sad, I would put you in the stroller and take you and Daisy on a walk around the neighborhood. That always seemed to calm you down. It was such a blessing to live in a warm climate so we could go out with a new baby in the middle of winter. :)

2 months old at Mom's graduation ceremony at BYU

Hanging out at Grandma and Grandpa Lighten's beautiful Cali home. They only lived 4 hours away so we would occasionally go visit them on weekends. We would hang out at the beach, lay by the pool, nap, etc. These were such fun getaways for us.

You have also always liked the water. We went swimming A LOT living in Vegas...

When you were about 3 1/2 we moved from Vegas to Lehi, Utah. This is you on your first Halloween here...a fairy, of course. :)

Your smile is contagious.

Right before we moved to Lehi, my friend convinced me to cut your hair because it wasn't growing. I did it, and it took a little while, and a comment about you being my son, before your hair grew into what it is today...STUNNING!!! Everyone always tells me how beautiful your hair is and I agree. I mean seriously, gorgeous locks!

All I can say is that with you it has been quite a wonderful ride, and I can't wait to see what is next for you. You have soccer coming up in the spring, and in the fall you will start 1st grade. You will be gone at school all day long! This thought saddens me. You make my days bright. You say the FUNNIEST, WITTIEST things. You are incredibly helpful. Your brother and sisters adore you so much. We love you dearly, and feel so blessed that Heavenly Father sent you to our family. I love you more than I can say...Happy Birthday baby!

Love,
Mom

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentines' Day is seriously becoming one of my favorite holidays! Beautiful colors, hearts, flowers, candy...what else is there?! :)

To celebrate this year we did a couple of fun things.

First, on Monday nights during the winter the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point offers free crafts, activities, and other fun things for families for membership holders. We try to hit these up once in a while for our Family Nights - and in keeping true to the season, the first Monday in February was "Cupid's Quest." The festivities included a Cupid's Arrow Archery section (which Jake was crazy-good at), dinosaur Valentines' card-making table, and a Love Letter bean bag toss. In addition, there was a lips, cupids, and angels scavenger hunt throughout all the exhibits. The kids loved it! Here are some of the pics. :)

The other fun thing we did was of course, make Valtentines'! Both Morgan and Jake had Valentines' exchanges at school. So I took a couple trips to the store trying to find Valentines' cards with candy and guess what??!! SOLD OUT!!! 3 DAYS BEFORE!! I couldn't not attach candy to my kids Valentines' so I bought some suckers and ribbon, and VOILE...super-cute cards!! :) For their teachers, I made these yummy mint truffles and bagged them up in some cute, festive wrapping. They turned out adorable so I had to blog about it! :)

The kids' Valentines'

The teachers' Valentines'

Jake came in as I was making the truffles and caught a glimpse of the yumminess brewing in the kitchen. This was his reaction after I told him he couldn't eat any... :) Sad.

I Love to See the Temple

Last summer I took the kids to go and walk around the beautiful Mt. Timpanogos Temple. This temple has special meaning to me because it is where I took out my Endowments, and was married and sealed to the man of my dreams. Because of the covenants we made here, our family can be together forever; even after we die. I remember right before my sweet Grandpa Moores died, he bore his testimony and spoke of how grateful he was for the sealing ordinances. He said that he could think of no greater punishment in the afterlife than to be seperated from his sweetheart. I remember thinking, I want that sealing power to be apart of my life as well. I love my family, my husband, my sweet children, and my world revolves around them. I can't imagine heaven feeling like heaven without my loved ones around me. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ and the immense blessings in provides in my life right now, and even more importantly for the blessings it promises for my future, both on this earth and beyond it.

The things that come out of her little mouth...?

Morgan says the FUNNIEST, WITTIEST, GROWN-UP things! I tried to do a scrapbook page of the funny stuff she has said...but when I went to write them down, I couldn't remember any!!! AAHHH! So I will just blog them. :)

Yesterday Jake got upset about something. Trev asked Morgan if he cried. Morgan said, very matter of factly, the following: "Well...he didn't have tears struggling down his cheeks, but I could tell he wanted to cry."

Morgan's Pink PJ Cake

Morgan LOVES to bake, craft, etc. Her favorite things to make are desserts! At Xmas we had a Kids' Treatfest, which she make white chocolate covered popcorn! She loves to make cookies, brownies, cakes...if it's sweet she likes to make it. :) That's my girl! :) This particular time she asked Trev if she could make a cake the same color as her new PJ's...where she comes up with this stuff, I don't know. However, they set to work. So when I came home one night, she and Trev had made a "Pink PJ Cake" and it just needed to be decorated. :) She set to work and then we all thoroughly enjoyed the fruit of her labors - in our PJ's, of course! :) YUM!!!

I guess it's my turn...

Well, my babies have been sick for the last 3 weeks. They are better now, but now I AM SICK! Well, sorta, I have a really sore throat and completely lost my voice. I feel a headcold coming on, but am trying to fight it. I HATE being under the weather. I never get sick so when I do come down with something it just bugs me! :) Luckily I am still in full-functioning mode, just can't adequately talk to anyone. :)

Trying...

So I am trying to make my blog not only up-to-date, but cute too. :) All of you cute bloggers have inspired me...

{Lake and Lollipops}

So for the past 3 weeks straight my babies have been sick. 1st Week - RSV (don't get too scared, they are fine and had been getting booster shots prior, so it seemed like the common cold to me), 2nd Week- A dreadful and disgusting stomach bug that all they did was throw up and have diarrhea for like 5 days! I have never done more laundry in my life!!! :) 3rd week- some sort of eye thing, all I know is that for like a day or two they had that nasty green goop coming out of their eyes and they were so puffy and miserable. :( SOOOO....as you can imagine we have spent a lot of time at home lately trying to not infect anyone else. :) This particular day however, I just had to get out with the kids! Seeing as how we couldn't go anywhere we decided to take a drive. 1st stop - the candy store in Alpine to get lollies, 2nd stop - Tibble Fork Reservoir, just to see it. :) It felt so good to get out, even though we couldn't get out of the car. :) Here are a few pics:

Does it get any better for kids?

Abby abandoning the lolly and sucking on a toy instead. :)

Hamming it up as usual... Funny girl. :)

Is it possible I waited too long to get these kids out?

Priceless... :)
So pretty...love living in Utah where you can see this in just a short 20 minute drive. Amazing...