ABCs and OCDs

Its been a crazy week of dealing with the terrible twos, moodiness from what we think may be teething, and a term project deadline.

Kyle spent nearly every spare moment he had this last week focused on researching and writing some software for a project on face detection (for photos). He took off Thursday to work on it, spent most of Friday, Saturday and took off half of Monday to complete it. Saturday night he stayed up until 4 am working on it, and he stayed up until 3 am on Monday night completing it. Now that it is finished, he is relieved a bit, except that he has another homework assignment due tomorrow and two finals next week. I just can't imagine how hard it is to sit in front of a computer screen for 10 hours a day only to come home and spend more time in front of one doing homework. We are sure going to celebrate hard come December, when he graduates with his MS in Electrical Engineering.

In the meantime, Ethan has seemed very much his age. Some days we wonder if he is OCD, (though maybe all two-year olds are that way). He is a great sleeper, but it can be a challenge to get him to bed. Not that he is unwilling, he just takes FOREVER to get settled. He isn't so bad at naptime, but it takes us an hour every night from his bath to lights out. He tries everything he can to stall and he has to do everything himself. He has to turn on his music, read the books himself, turn off the light, drive each of his favorite cars across the house and into his bed, one at a time. One in particular has to sleep in the tattered box it came in and the box has to be closed just right. We've tried everything we can think of to speed up the process. We've hid his precious car box, tried to sneak cars into bed without him seeing, and try to read the book with him. He won't stand for it and has to put everything back to it was and do it HIMSELF. It is cute though that he turns his cars on their backs so they can sleep. If, when we finally get him into bed, he remembers that one of his cars and/or stuffed animals is missing, we have to search the house to find it. Will this ever get easier?! If anyone has any suggestions we'd love to hear them.

Brooklyn is getting really good at sitting up by herself (despite Ethan always trying to push her over). She loves the new freedom she is getting and how she is also able to scoot around a bit. I wish I had a picture of her sitting to share. Here is a picture of her doing another thing she loves: eating (that's my girl!) with a little help from Ethan.
Sunday was not our best day in the Morrey household. It definitely seemed to be one of those "should have stayed in bed" days. Being that Kyle was up until 4 am working on his project put us a bit behind, not to mention that Brooklyn kept waking up during the night (she normally sleeps all night). I am in the RS Presidency in my ward and therefore have to sit in the front facing everyone. I walked in a little late and Brooklyn was a bit fussy most of the time. I tried many things to calm her. After standing in the corner didn't work I decided to take her out. I grabbed my overstuffed diaper bag (we always have to bring a whole arsenal of toys for Ethan to get through Sacrament Meeting) I started out toward the door. I didn't have a good grip of my bag and lost it spilling diapers and various items all over the floor in front of the teacher and everyone during a very spiritual part of the lesson. To make matters worse, somehow my shoe got stuck on the handle of the bag. With the help of a fellow RS Sister my foot was freed, items were retrieved, and I got out of there.

Fortunately we got through Sacrament Meeting without too much trouble. It was getting to the car that really turned us red. Ethan refuses to hold our hands most of the time in parking lots so we often have to carry him or keep him close as best we can. Sundays are hard because our hands are always full of binders and manuals and the car seat, etc. He was being a bit rebellious in the parking lot not wanting to walk with us to the car. He darted out in front of some (slowly approaching) vans so Kyle stuck his leg out to block him. Just then Ethan tripped and it looked like Kyle kicked him. A lady in a passing van had her hand held to her face in shock. We both tried to drag our screaming child out of the way, finally realizing that not only were his pants suddenly around his knees, but his diaper was too, exposing himself to all of our neighbors at once. We started laughing so hard (along with everyone around) that we struggled getting the matter resolved quickly enough. What a reputation we must be getting just a week after Ethan's "diaper hat" incident last week. Parenthood is grand!!

And just for fun:

The other day Ethan thought he would try to be like mom and get some "Ethan milk" from his belly button. I couldn't resist to try to get a picture of it. Silly boy!Lastly, we saw the movie "Marley and Me" this weekend and highly recommend it. We don't have a dog, but really related to this movie, especially after this week.

The Good, the Bad, and the Delicious

This weekend was interesting. We loved the weather and had lots of fun together, but we had a few mishaps too. We will start with the Good:

We spent most of Saturday afternoon in our backyard digging up our strawberry beds and mowing our lawn (for the second time this season). When growing strawberries, it is a good idea to take out all the old plants every year of two and replant the starts. It felt good to be outside and enjoy the weather, and the kids loved being outside too.


Two summers ago, we found this little kid tent at a garage sale for a buck or so. Kyle got it out on Friday and played with Ethan and Brooklyn in it. Ethan was so excited and as you can see, Brooklyn loved it too.We found an awesome garage sale on Saturday morning. A family was moving to Hawaii and leaving nearly everything behind. We found some major bargains and they even gave us their entire arsenal of fertilizers and pesticides for free! We are set for a while now. (click on the picture to see it larger)

Now for the Bad:

Sadly, little Brooklyn got a little sunburned from our yard work on Saturday. We kept her in the shade, but it mustn't been good enough. She took a nap on her side with her binkie in her mouth so only half of her face is red and she has a white spot where her binkie was. We feel so bad about it. Kyle thinks she looks like Two-Face from Batman, and I think she looks more like the Phantom from Phantom of the Opera.
Saturday morning we got into a little fender-bender with a car. Thankfully, no one was hurt. Our tank of a truck got a little scratch, and the other car lost its bumper. The funny thing about living in a small community is that you can't go unnoticed when you are at the side of the road with the police. We had three of our neighbors say they saw us, and who knows how many more saw our shame.
As for the Delicious part of our weekend:

We love to make breakfast on the weekends. Mmmm, boy!

We made our good old standby and personal favorite on Friday, Crepes with fruit and sweetened cream cheese. You can find the recipe for this deliciousness on our food blog located on the side pannel under "My Food Blog," or at http://eatdrinkandbemorrey.blogspot.com. Give it a try, in our opinion they are much better than what you can find at IHOP.
This morning we tried out a new Belgian Waffle recipe, with the help of fresh blackberries (on sale for 99 cents at Macey this week)! We didn't post this recipe, as we are still trying to find one we like as much as one we had at my mom's house a few months back (sadly she lost the recipe). We've already tried several, but still no such luck in finding one that compares.
Bonus Feature
If you remember from last week's post, Ethan likes to put any random object on his head and say it is a hat. So, today at church we were trying to keep Ethan quiet during sacrament meeting and had pulled virtually everything out of the diaper bag, hoping something would catch his interest for at least a minute or two. Ethan grabbed one of his diapers (thankfully it was a clean one), put it on his head, stood up on the bench, and declared to the congregation that he had a "diaper hat." Loudly. During the quietest part of the meeting. Again. And again. That's our little boy! We looked around and saw many of our neighbors chuckling.

Croupy Weekend

Thursday morning Ethan woke up with a runny nose. He has never been one to get very sick so we didn't let it change our plans on visiting family in Logan for the Easter weekend. Saturday morning he woke up with a cough. It got a bit worse throughout the day so we talked to a pharmacist about it. He suggested a few over-the-counter products and cautioned us to watch to make sure things didn't get much worse. Ethan seemed to be doing great until bedtime. He woke up around midnight struggling to breathe a bit. We tried to put him in the bathroom while it was hot and steamy, but he was tired and upset. We took him outside to breathe the night air, but it just wasn't that cool or helpful. We ended up taking him to the ER since nothing seemed to be helping. After we got there the nurse noticed his nose was turning a bit blue. They gave him a steroid that calms the swelling in his throat for a few days and had him breathe a saline mist. On our way home we stopped at Walmart to get a few things they thought might help--some children's ibuprofen and Tylenol, and a cool mist humidifier (it seems like whenever we are away from home we always end up buying another bottle of medicine we already have at home). We already had a humidifier at home, but this one is better than the one we already have. Anyway, Ethan seems to be doing much better, though the doctor said that croup usually takes 5-7 days to run its course, with day 3 usually being the worst. Today is day three, and so far so good. Brooklyn seems to have a little cold too, but seems to be fine.

We did have a pretty good time before all the trouble began though. On Friday afternoon, we went to Willow Park with Grandma and Grandpa Morrey. Ethan loved pushing around the stroller and playing on the playground there. Brooklyn loved looking around at everything and being outside. The weather was perfect too.



On Saturday morning we went to the Mendon Easter egg hunt with Grandma and Grandpa Taylor. Despite our efforts to teach Ethan how to pick up eggs and put them in the basket before the Easter Egg Hunt, he still refused to cooperate. All he wanted to do was run around and play. He didn't really care about the eggs until . . .
. . . he discovered they were filled with candy. (Sadly, the Easter Bunny didn't take into consideration that two-year-olds would be receiving the candy--Jaw-breakers and bubble gum aren't very suitable for kids Ethan's age. Oh well. At least there was one piece of chocolate for Ethan to enjoy.Brooklyn seemed to enjoy herself during the hunt as well.
Lately Ethan has been a silly boy turning everything into a "hat." He will stick his ducky on his head and say "ducky hat," or a big box and say "box hat." This soccer net was his hat on Saturday.
After the egg hunt, we stopped by Great Grandpa Taylor's house and let Ethan sit on one of the tractors. He was in heaven!
Saturday afternoon, Kyle, Jen, and Brooklyn went to visit Rob and Christin (Jen's brother and S.I.L) while Ethan stayed with Grandpa Morrey since he wasn't feeling the best. We got home to Grandma's house and to our surprise, Ethan had gotten into a little mischief when...
...he discovered Grandma Morrey's lipstick! It took several head washings to get it out of is hair.

All in all we had a pretty fun weekend, though Easter Sunday was a bit ruined by the ER visit. We didn't get home until about 3 am. Ethan and Kyle slept until noon. I wish I could have but Brooklyn wouldn't let me. It just didn't seem like Easter without going to church. It isn't fun being sick, but even worse when your babies are sick.

In other news, Ethan and Brooklyn have a new cousin (their first girl cousin). Congrats to Heather for giving birth to Allie Nicole Taylor on April 9th. She is adorable and we look forward to meeting her when we are all over these colds.

"No! By Self!!"

Ethan has become ever more independent lately, as 2-year-olds tend to be. He has really been trying our patience, this week especially. He has to get in his car seat by himself, buckle up by himself, turn off the faucet himself after washing his hands, turn on the dishwasher, turn on or off lights, turn on his music, go up and down stairs without help, climb down from the changing table, get in and out of the tub, and the list goes on. If we happen to infringe on his freedom, gets upset and says, "No! By self!" and has to undo whatever we did and have to do it again himself (he will even climb up on the changing table just so he can get down himself if we don't let him do it in the first place). We must need to learn a lot more patience. We just hope we learn our lesson soon because sometimes it seems ridiculous!

We celebrated Kyle's birthday on Monday with a birthday pie (since Jen forgot to buy carrots for the carrot cake she planned on making). Rather than use 28 candles Kyle thought it would be fun to use binary. A true engineer.


We went to Jen's mission reunion on Friday night as a family. It was fun seeing so many familiar faces and showing off the kids. We hadn't been to this reunion for about a year and a half. It is hard to believe that I will have been home for 5 years in July. My mission president has been a General Authority for nearly 3 years so it has been fun to hear him speak of some amazing experiences he has had with several of the apostles. He also shared with us how the members of the 12 are how you would expect a grandpa to be when they are enjoying free time. In fact, he said he and Elder Oaks were in an airport recently laughing about a funny list online about General Authorities and peanut butter cups. We found it and posted it below. It is really quite funny, and fun to know that those who it is about like it too.

Top Ten Ways General Authorities Eat Reese's Peanut Butter Cups:

10. Paul H. Dunn: "I remember back in WWII that I ate a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Back then, they were big enough to live on for a week. Being the only soldier to have survived the battle in my brigade, I really didn't know if I could eat it or not, but I remember my fallen buddy's words as he died in my arms: "Paul, if you just take one bite at a time you can tackle anything." So I took that giant cup and, breaking it with the bat Babe Ruth gave me after I struck him out with two outs in the bottom of the ninth in the seventh game of the World Series, proceeded to wolf down the tiny morsels."

9. David B. Haight: "Imagine 70 years ago on a rough road between Idaho and Logan. There were no Circle K's, no 7-11's. You had to bring your Peanut Butter Cups with you. Ruby and I split one for the first time in 1937. . ."

8. Dallin H. Oaks: "The Reese's Peanut Butter Cup challenges us to consume. >From the beginning there have been three steps in eating a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. First, remove the wrapper. This is best done quickly, by turning the cup over, grasping the outer fold and pulling away from the bottom, Second. . ."

7. Joseph B. Wirthlin: "When I was young I would sprint to the corner store, buy a Reese's and run my hand through my hair before taking it down in one bite. These days I don't sprint, and I have no hair, but the peanut butter cup remains."

6. Richard G. Scott: "If you have not eaten a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, I plead with you. Eat one now. Enjoy the chocolate, the peanut butter. Do not delay. If you have thought, "That's not for me", I plead with you to reconsider. Of all foods I treasure, this one was the first."

5. M. Russell Ballard: "The time has come when members of the church need to reach out to our friends and share a cup, a peanut butter cup. It is not enough to raise a chocolate bar, it must now have peanut butter."

4. Thomas S. Monson: "I remember I ate my first Reese's Peanut Butter Cup when I was a tender lad of eight. My mother came up to me, and with a loving twinkle in her eye, asked, 'Tommy, are you eating a Reese's?' And I would invariably smile up to her, 'Yes, Yes, I am.' 'But Tommy, did you know that Sister Jensen next door hasn't eaten a Reese's Cup in years?' My young mind thought upon the plight of my neighbor* Tears were shed. Hearts were gladdened. A cup was shared."

3. Boyd K. Packer: "In all my years, I have always eaten my Reese's Peanut Butter Cups the same way - the established way we have been instructed to eat them. There is a far greater evil in this world, though - those who believe they can eat their cups in a way unconventional to the time-honored manner. We must be true and faithful and eat our Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in the customary and recognized approach as it has been established."

2. Neal A. Maxwell: "I intentionally initiate the delicious design of deglutition of the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup by nibbling a negligible nit of the culinary creamy cavalcade. It is exclusively through small entities that the great things are fabricated."

AND THE #1 WAY* J. Golden Kimball: "H---, Heber, I'll eat a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup any d----- way I want!"