30!

Thirty years ago today, Kyle Russell Morrey came into the world.

Thirty things I love about Kyle (in no particular order):

1. Gorgeous blue eyes

2. Tall

3. Strong testimony of the Church

4. His mission to Australia. My dad served there as well.

5. His passion for his career. I love that he enjoys what he does so much.

6. He is a nerd and I love it. His nerdy skills really bless my life since I'm not so computer savy, and I get to benefit from cool gadgets/equipment.

7. Fantastic smile.

8. Very supportive of my hobbies. He really spoils me in this category.

9. His love of reading.

10. His love of reading to our kids. I especially love all the creative voices he comes up with.

11. Strong work ethic.

12. I adore his family.

13. He is goofy and we can be so together.

14. Is a great comforter to me and understanding of my feelings/female hormones.

15. He has a great love of family life/togetherness.

16. He is very generous to others. I've learned a lot from him.

17. He loves a bargain.

18. Cherishes garage sale season.

19. Is a do-it-yourselfer and likes to learn how to fix things.

20. Isn't a huge sports fan and neither am I.

21. Is very clever/funny.

22. Smart

23. Adventurous.

24. Is fun to play games with especially if on the same team. He has skills and likes using strategy.

25. We have many shared interests.

26. He is very patient.

27. Very helpful, handy, and a very good cleaner-upper.

28. Is a very concerned and involved father.

29. Is careful to do things the right way the first time.

30. He is a great friend and husband. I'm lucky to get to be with him always.

Happy Birthday, Honey!!

Spring has Sprung

We love it when it warms up outside. The kids have loved going out and driving their cars and riding their "bikes." Lately, Brooklyn hates it when we try to do her hair, and she insists wearing a hat whenever she goes outside.

One of Brooklyn's favorite things to do outside is play in our compost pile. The other day she uncovered a fresh cache of kitchen scraps (fruit and veggie peelings). When asked, she denied eating any of it. We can only hope she's telling the truth.

Ever since Ethan got Legos for his birthday, both of the kids have spent countless hours building (and then destroying) things. Brooklyn asks to build a house many times a day. Every time she picks up a Lego, she'll say "Mommy, where's this goes?" It's super cute, but gets annoying after a while. After the house is finished, she'll rip it apart and want to build it again. (Oh, and by the way, she didn't build the house in this picture herself, but she helped.)
Ethan's favorite thing to do right now is gather his Lego vehicles together and challenge Brooklyn and Dad to a race down the hall to his bedroom. Of course, he always has to win.

Yesterday, we planted our first set of vegetables: Peas, spinach, green onions, radishes, and lettuce. It won't be long before we're feasting on the fruits (and vegetables) of our labors. We're also hoping for our first year of apricots and peaches. It is exciting to see the buds on the trees start to swell.

"Disney and Ice"

Disney on Ice was in town this weekend, and Grandma Morrey wanted to take the kids to the show. They were both very excited to see, what they called, "Disney and Ice." We dressed them up as Woody and Jessie, and Brooklyn had to take her beloved Jessie doll.
Outside Energy Solutions Arena, waiting for Kyle's mom.

This show had a lot of characters from a lot of Disney movies. Our kids knew most of the princesses, Mickey and the gang, and the Toy Story characters, but they had no idea who Lilo and Stitch, Alice in Wonderland, Pinocchio, and some others.

They loved Ariel.

Brooklyn is in love with Prince Eric.

They didn't really recognize Aladdin and Jasmine, but these two skaters did some fun lifts.

Beauty and the Beast

Mulan

Snow White

One of the kids' favorites, The Princess and the Frog.

The Lilo and Stitch segment had fire on the ice. Pretty cool.

Tinkerbell was another favorite.

All of the kids in the arena got really excited when the Toy Story characters came out. This is what our kids were waiting for the entire show, and they just lit up when they saw Buzz, Woody, Jessie, and the gang on the ice.
Our favorite was Hamm.

Brooklyn has started to talk a lot more lately. It's a lot of fun to hear her express herself. It's cute to hear her soft little airy voice.

"She could melt the heart of the most tyrannical dictator." -- Justin Morrey

The Last Days...

...of our vacation, of course. Today marks one month since we got home from our cruise.

After St. Thomas, we had a day at sea where we went to a workshop to learn how to make towel animals, along with some other less interesting activities. It was a very relaxing and fun day.
Each night, we had a set dinner table with the same group of people. Each of the three other couples had been on at least eleven cruises. It was fun to get to know them. Two of them were lawyers, and one is a dentist. For dinner we had delicious lobster tail and steak.



One of our waiters was very fun. We called him YumYum, since he was the one who served the sweets at the buffet line during the day, and whenever we walked past he would say in broken English with a heavy Indonesian accent, "Do you want some yum yums?" Sometimes all we could understand was "yum yums."
After dinner there was a dessert extravaganza with all kinds of yummy treats. The chocolate fountain was probably our favorite.

That night we found this on our bed. We think it was a gorilla. Any other guesses?

The main stage on the boat was quite elaborate. They claim it was the second most technologically advanced stage in the Caribbean. The Disney cruises have the most advanced stages. The performances were pretty good.

Our last stop was at the cruise line's private island in the Bahamas, Half Moon Cay (pronounced Key). We wished we could stay there forever.

This pirate ship was of the newest additions to the island. It is a bar.

One of the excursions available was horse back riding on the beach. We didn't do it, but saw them ride past.

The beach was beautiful. The sand was so fine, it was like walking on powdered sugar.

We spent a little time snorkeling in the beautiful water.

That evening on the boat we witnessed a beautiful sunset.

And that was the end of our cruise. We spent the next day in Ft. Lauderdale and went to the beach there. It was nice, but after what we had just witnessed it was not too impressive so we didn't take any pictures.

Flash forward to this week. Brooklyn has been saying some funny stuff lately. For example, whenever she finds a ripped book or anything else that's broken, she'll say, "Try to fix it. Maybe tape?" Earlier today after a poopy diaper she suggested, "maybe have a bath? Maybe swimming?" The voice she says it in is very cute and hard to portray in writing.

We were surprised this weekend when we both got released from our church callings and were asked to be ward missionaries. It's kind of bittersweet to leave our old callings. We liked doing what we were doing - Jen was in the Relief Society presidency and Kyle was in the Sunday School presidency and taught the 13-14 year-old kids. These were the longest callings we've ever had - Ethan was barely a year old when we got called.