Morrey Memories

Fashion Diva

2012-01-15T21:09:00.001-08:00

Guess who dressed herself today?

December Wrap-up

2012-01-08T17:40:00.001-08:00

It sure has been hard for us to keep up with our blog during December. Too much fun stuff going on. We apologize to our friends and family that you didn't get Christmas cards from us this year. Hopefully we'll be able send them out early next year so we don't run out of time again.

So, here's our December wrap-up blog.
We'll skip right to the chase, and talk about Christmas Morning. In past years, we've always been at Grandma and Grandpa's house for Christmas morning. While it's always fun to enjoy the festivities with family, this year we decided it was time to make some memories of Christmas at our house. Ethan woke up half way through the night claiming he had a bad dream. Kyle comforted him until Ethan said he wasn't scared anymore. As Kyle was heading back to bed, Ethan asked if it was time to open presents yet. Thankfully, when Kyle said it was still too early, Ethan went back to bed. We ended up having to wake the kids up on Christmas morning in order to get some presents opened before 9:00 church.

Kyle made this darling doll highchair for Brooklyn. He had a fun time building it too.

The dollhouse has been a really big hit with both kids. Ethan likes to pretend it is Andy's house from Toy Story. "Andy" is in his room playing with Buzz, Woody, and Jessie (Legos).

One of Ethan's favorite gifts was this Lego Toy Story 3 train. He talked about it ever since Toy Story 3 came out a year and a half ago. We were excited to finally make this wish come true for him. It even came with Lego versions of Buzz, Woody, Jessie, Bullseye, Rex, and even Evil Dr. Porkchop. He's been in heaven.

Jen made these aprons for the kids.

December was full of Christmas parties and family get-togethers. At the Smith's party, we played a game where we had to open a present with a fork and knife while wearing mittens (there were other rules too, but we'll spare the details).

After the game was finished, Uncle Mikey was kind enough to share the prize with Ethan.

This December, we made a lot of chocolates to give to neighbors and family. Coconut, apricot nut, lemon, mint, cherry nut, cherry chocolate nut, and macadamia-nut caramels. We certainly ate more than our share. Yummy!

On January 2, we met up with Jen's mission trainer, Sister Cheng, who had travelled with her family from Hong Kong for a vacation. This was the first time in nearly nine years since they've seen each other. It was fun catching up and meeting her husband and son.

We had lunch together, and after hearing that the son and husband had never seen snow, we took a spontaneous trip to Park City on a quest to find some snow. Her 5-year-old boy loved the snow so much that he asked his mom if he could take some home. Here are some pictures from the Olympic Park.

Santa vs. The Dentist

2011-12-11T20:56:00.000-08:00

Santa Claus showed up at our ward Christmas party yesterday, and both of the kids were excited to sit on his lap. Brooklyn just sat there looking sweet, and didn't say a word.
Ethan was excited to talk to the big guy, and asked for his own set of (Disney) Cars Lego's.

Their experience with Santa was in stark contrast to their experience at the dentist the day before. Ethan got upset because he wanted Brooklyn to go first (so he could play with the dentist's train set in the lobby for just a little bit longer). Brooklyn was doing fine until half-way through the check-up, when she starting getting upset and ended up sobbing uncontrollably. It wasn't until after we got home that we were able to figure out what she was so upset about - she didn't want to get new teeth. We recalled that Brooklyn started getting upset after the dental hygienist observed that Brooklyn had such pretty, new, white teeth. Brooklyn must have thought she was going to be getting a new set of teeth.
So, now we know that the dentist is scarier than Santa Claus.

Jen and Brooklyn went to a friend's house earlier this week to make gingerbread houses (thanks, Kate). They turned out cute. When Ethan saw them after he got home from school, he decided they would make good houses for his Lego people, and shoved one in the front door, taking a few icicles out in the process.

Brooklyn put candy on her own graham cracker house. Surprisingly, most of it is still there!

Brooklyn has been doing really well with her potty training, and hasn't had an accident in weeks. When she's doing #1, she'll often get things rolling by chanting, "Come out, come out, wherever you are, pee pee."

Getting ready for Christmas

2011-12-04T20:05:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving up in Logan last weekend. We were even able to spend time with both sides of the family and eat two Thanksgiving dinners. One of the highlights for the kids was meeting Grandpa Morrey's new colt, which Brooklyn has name "Baby Bullseye." The adult horse's name is already Bullseye. Brooklyn rode the horse for close to an hour, and cried when it was time to get off. Ethan was excited to dress up as Woody, but never did muster up the courage to ride the horse while we were there (although he has in the past).

Kyle and I managed to have one last birthday celebration before my free meal coupon expired. We had a lovely lunch at Benihana with Brooklyn while Ethan was at school. I recommend the Mango shrimp. I encouraged Kyle to order the lunch boat which included a couple of things he hadn't tried before: sashimi (raw fish) and edamame (soy beans). I also recommend that you sign up on their website for their birthday club. The free meal is up to $30 value. Brooklyn wasn't so excited about getting her picture taken.

We got our tree up early this week. It was fun to have the kids help decorate it and show their excitement for Christmas. It seems to get more fun and magical for them each year. We finally got some stockings up too. I've been planning on making some for the last few years but never could find fabric I was crazy about so I just went to Hobby Lobby and bought the stockings. Oh well, for the price I couldn't make them so fancy.

Three Million, One Hundred Fifty-Five Thousand, Six Hundred Ninety-Two Minutes

2011-11-20T19:35:00.000-08:00

This Friday we celebrated six wonderful years together. We had a nice date going to the Salt Lake Temple and doing sealings. We did the work for one of Jen's ancestors, which was neat. Then we had a lovely dinner at The Garden restaurant, overlooking the temple. We ended our romantic escapade by going to Best Buy to demo a potential Christmas present.
Ethan is really good at making the most out a bad situation. The other day, he lost the privilege of playing with his Lego's. He was pretty upset at not being able to play with them, until, being the innovative boy that he is, he asked to print off these Toy Story Lego pictures from the Lego website and cut them out. He spent the rest of the afternoon playing with his homemade toys.

Birthday Girl

2011-11-13T19:51:00.000-08:00

Brooklyn turned 3 on Saturday! She was so excited to have a Sleeping Beauty Cake (she sometimes calls her the Owie Princess because she gets an owie on her finger in the movie).
We've been asking her for months what she wanted for her birthday, and the usual response was "a Princess cake."

Brooklyn had a really fun birthday. She had a special birthday breakfast of Belgian waffles, opened her presents, played with them, watched Sleeping Beauty with Dad, went to the toy store and picked out new doll stroller, ate dinner at Pei Wei, and came home for cake and ice cream. She also gave us a very special present in return - she FINALLY pooped in the potty for the very first time (she's been out of diapers for going on three weeks, so this was a big deal)!

We gave her a Rapunzel toddler doll, and Grandma Taylor gave her a Little Mermaid that swims in the bathtub. Immediately after opening it, she had to have a bath to test it out.

Ethan was just about as excited as she was to get the new dolls. She was really nice about sharing her new toys with him.

Throughout the day, we'd say "Happy Birthday, Brooklyn!" She'd reply "Happy Birthday!" (similar to saying Happy Halloween, or Merry Christmas).

Happy Birthday sweetie. We love you!

Meet the newest member of our household

2011-11-06T19:48:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning, we woke up with four inches of snow on the ground. The kids were dying to get out and make the year's first snowman. Ethan decided that his name would be Snowball Snowflake. Jen did not approve of the corncob pipe, but Kyle liked it.
Last Wednesday was Jen's 30th birthday. She got a nice food processor a few months early so she could use it for canning salsa. She wasn't really expecting anything else, but Kyle surprised her with a dozen roses, an appointment for a 90-minute massage, and dinner out. He also made a delicious carrot cake from scratch (we continue our tradition of using binary candles). Thanks to Kate for watching the kids (especially since Brooklyn pooped in her underwear twice--she is doing very well with her potty training except for # 2's).

On Halloween, the kids were so excited to go Trick-Or-Treating that they wouldn't hold still for their pre-Trick-or-Treat picture. This is the best one we got. After changing his mind several times - from Spider-man to Toy Soldier to Lightning McQueen to Word Girl - Ethan finally decided he'd be Woody. So we dug out his vest from a few years ago and Jen sewed him a belt and holster (or "pocket," as he used to call it). Brooklyn was excited to be Ariel. It was such a nice night and both kids had a lot of fun going door to door.

Here comes Halloween!

2011-10-30T19:35:00.000-07:00

We've been busy with several Halloween parties this week. Ethan had his school party on Thursday. They sang songs, played games, and had lots of treats. Ethan loved having Mommy and Brooklyn at school with him. He says his favorite part was when his teacher said Brooklyn's name, and his other favorite part was when both he and Brooklyn got flashlights from his teacher to keep them safe while Trick-or-Treating. Ethan dressed up as Woody, and Brooklyn was Jessie.
Friday night we went to a costume party with some friends. The kids played lots of games and got all sorts of prizes. Due to the fact that we couldn't find enough cardboard to create the costumes we had envisioned, Kyle went as Woody, Jen went as Mater (borrowing the kids' Mater costume), Ethan was Lightning McQueen, and Brooklyn went as Ariel.
We had a ward Halloween party last night. There were lots of fun games for the kids, and dinner was yummy. Jen entered the cake making contest for our ward Halloween party last night. She won "Best of Show."
Today we made some Halloween decorations with the kids. Ethan and Brooklyn both colored faces on a paper pumpkin and then cut them out. Ethan also made a ghost, witch, and bat at school.

This year for Halloween, Brooklyn is going to dress up as the Little Mermaid. Jen made this costume for her a week ago, and she's wanted to wear it pretty much every day since. She likes to lie on the floor and pretend she's swimming.

Jen's made this cute little apron as part of her cousin's wedding gift last week.

The other day, Ethan approached Kyle and complained, "Dad, Brooklyn thinks everything in the house is hers." Kyle responded, "Do you think everything in the house is yours?" Ethan confidently replied, "Yes!"

Primary Program

2011-10-16T20:34:00.001-07:00

The Disneyland Halloween costume contest is over, and alas, we didn't win. Looking at the winners, the contest was obviously a popularity contest since the winning photos were quite mediocre. Oh well. We'll just have to pay for a trip some other time.

Today was Ethan's first Primary Program in our ward. Ethan did a really good job saying his line - "Saying my prayers." We think we saw him singing one of the songs too. We're proud that he did as well as he did.
During Conference weekend, Brooklyn loved seeing all of the babies. She and cousin Owen had some good cousin bonding time at Grandma Taylor's house.
Brooklyn always loves riding Bullseye at Grandpa Morrey's house.
This afternoon, Kyle and Ethan made some movies with some of Ethan's toys. Here's what we did:

Brooklyn and Jen had the following conversation earlier today:
Jen: I'm going to eat your fingers... (num, num, num) I'm going to eat your nose... (num, num, num)
Brooklyn: Not my boogers...I'm going to eat those myself!

Disneyland Contest

2011-10-06T15:10:00.001-07:00

We entered this photo in a radio contest for a chance to win one of four trips to Disneyland. There are lots of great entries so we'd really appreciate any votes. Voting starts today and goes through Thursday, Oct 13. You can even vote everyday if you'd like.

Follow this link and vote for #96.

FYI, Jen is the only one who has been to Disneyland and that was nearly 20 years ago so winning would be a big deal for us.

Thanks!!

Work Party and Park City

2011-09-18T19:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the annual summer work party for Kyle's work. It was once again held at This is the Place Heritage Park. It wasn't nearly as hot as it was last year and the kids seemed to enjoy themselves as much if not more so than last year riding trains around and playing in the little houses.

The grilled corn was yummy.
Just after we got off one of the trains, there was an attempted train robbery. Luckily, the town sherrif was nearby to get the would-be robbers. The kids thought it was pretty fun at first, but then the loud gunfire made them scared.

Ethan loved playing in this "pirate ship," (named the Brooklyn).

Ethan dressed up as Woody, and Brooklyn dressed as Jessie. It was fun hearing other people commenting on how cute our kids were.

The kids got to pan for gold.

This miniature train ride was a big hit as well. Last year, we had to get on the train with the kids, but this year, they were brave enough to do it all by themselves.

Last weekend Kyle and I had a little getaway to Park City while the kids spent a few days with their Morrey grandparents. We enjoyed beautiful weather, hiking, artwork, eating, and shopping (though Kyle didn't enjoy the shopping part as much as I did). During our trip, we also finally went to see the movie, The Help, which we really enjoyed. I couldn't wait to get back to my little Brooklyn to give her lots of kisses and hugs since the little girl in the movie reminded me so much of her.

Kyle and I picked up the kids in Logan. After Sunday dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Taylor's house, Uncle Rob (Bobo) blew bubbles for the kids. They sure had fun chasing those bubbles all over the yard.

Our garden is really at a peak right now, which we are really enjoying. Our peaches, corn, and beans are all gone, but we are really being spoined by our raspberries. This week I canned several batches of salsa and will be canning lots of tomatoes this week. We picked and ate our first eggplant tonight. We've had lots of cucumbers, carrots, zucchini, and herbs. (If anyone is in need of basil, mint, or zucchini, let me know). We also have probably twenty butternut squash almost ready and a few pumpkins for the kids. We've been very blessed this year, especially considering the cold, wet spring we had. As much as we've enjoyed the cooler weather these last few weeks, it is hard to admit that it won't be long before the frost takes away all this goodness.

First Day of School

2011-08-28T20:23:00.001-07:00

After months of waiting, Ethan's first day of school finally arrived. He was very excited to go to preschool and he loves already loves his teacher, Miss Holly. Before he met her, he told us that he was going to be "shy with her." After meeting Miss Holly at the orientation, he warmed right up and told us "I'm not going to shy with her." The excitment of going to school lasted a whole day. He still has fun, but he's already complaining about how long it takes before Mom picks him up (a whole 3 hours).

Brooklyn was almost as excited as Ethan about going to school. It was hard to keep her out of the pictures.

Brooklyn has been very sad when she discovered that she wasn't invited to go into to school with Ethan. She's gotten sad when eery day Ethan gets dropped off. While Ethan was at school, Brooklyn wanted to have some "Mommy time" and watch a movie. They watched Sleeping Beauty. Jen explained what was happening throughout the movie to help Brooklyn comprehend. When Aurora pricked her finger on the spinning wheel, Brooklyn got very concerned that the princess had an owie. But finally the princess woke up when the prince kissed her owie better. Now Brooklyn loves to watch what she calls "the Owie Movie" with Mom whenever she gets the chance.

Our garden is really starting to produce lately. It makes us happy.

We're starting to get a lot of unusual cucumbers as well. It's like they're trying to send us some kind of cosmic message about the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything (Kyle couldn't resist the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy reference).
Or maybe they're just trying to communicate something more simple.
Ethan has been going through a phase where he's been telling us that he wants to marry Brooklyn or Mom when he grows up. Yesterday, he informed us that when he grows up he wants to marry Dad. We made sure to explain how that idea was wrong on so many levels.

Catching up

2011-08-14T20:37:00.000-07:00

We've had a busy few weeks.

Jen made this dress for Brooklyn this week.
She and Ethan had fun posing for the camera.

Kyle's Grandma Morrey passed away on July 29, so we traveled to Richland, Washington for the funeral last weekend. Jen's parents were kind enough to watch the kids for the weekend, which made the 1400 mile drive much more bearable.

The funeral was really nice (as far as funerals go). It was good to see so much family and remember all the things that Grandma has done. She'll be missed.

On the way home, we stopped for a potty break in the Middle of Nowhere, Idaho. A few weeks back, we took a trip to the family cabin in Island Park, Idaho. Kyle's dad brought his horses, and took Kyle into Yellowstone Park to ride among the bison. It was quite an experience to see all of the wildlife close up. One of the kids favorite activities at the cabin was making S'mores.
Chasing chipmunks, a favorite pastime at the cabin, has been passed on to the next generation.

We took the kids for a rafting trip on the Snake River.

While eating breakfast this morning, Ethan mused, "When I grow up I want my house to be next to Smith's because I like Lucky Charms."

Wild Wild West

2011-07-31T21:21:00.000-07:00

We just got back from a trip to the family cabin in Island Park, Idaho. While there, we had to stop in West Yellowstone for our traditional family photo. You may notice how much more classy we've become over the years. The kids were very excited about holding guns.
Here's our photo from 2007, when Ethan was only a few months old.

And here's the one from 2006. This picture sat on the desk of the photo studio for many years as an example of how a girl can dress as a modest "saloon girl." It now hangs on the wall above the desk.

We have many more adventures (with pictures) to share soon. Stay tuned.

Ethan's antics

2011-07-10T16:41:00.000-07:00

Here are a few quick stories about our silly little boy:

Ethan has had a phobia of fruit for the last few months. Anytime he sees a strawberry, he screams and backs away. When someone is eating a banana, he always complains about the smell.
This afternoon we were eating some plums and when Ethan noticed what we were doing, he ran downstairs to get his pliers. When he came back upstairs, he was plugging his nose so he didn't have to smell the offending fruit.

Ethan and Brooklyn were having a bath earlier this week. We stepped away for a minute, and when we came back one of them dumped a bunch of shampoo into the water and all over both kids' hair. The water was so soapy, we had to give them a quick shower to get all of the soap off. Brooklyn did fine with the shower, but Ethan was traumatized. After he was all cleaned up and dried off, he wanted to draw a picture of the shower. This is what he drew:

You can see the water falling down, and the circle with a cross through it (similar to a "no smoking" sign). At the bottom, he wrote, "No Showers!" (or at least that's what he says he wrote.)

Weekend of the Fourth

2011-07-03T20:52:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went to Logan for Fourth of July festivities. As soon as we got out of the van at Grandma Morrey's house, Brooklyn saw the neighbor's cat and had to go shower it with love.

We celebrated Kyle's Grandma Smith's birthday with sparklers. Ethan didn't dare hold one.

We got Brooklyn to hold one for a few seconds.

The family went to Romney Stadium to watch the fireworks. Ethan didn't dare come, but Brooklyn was excited to go. She had a lot of fun running around before the show. When the fireworks started, she sat in Grandma Morrey's lap and hardly moved a muscle. When asked if the fireworks were scary, she replied, "I 'tared." When asked if she like the fireworks, she gave an enthusiastic "Yes!"

She made it most of the way through the fireworks, but couldn't last through the entire show.

The next day, Grandpa Morrey took Jen, Brooklyn, and Grandma Taylor to ride horses. Brooklyn had lots of fun playing on the bleachers while the horses were getting ready to go.

Grandpa Morrey got them ready.

And Brooklyn wandered off into a nearby, picking "pretty flowers" (the giant dandelion-type weeds).

The next day, we took the kids to the Cache Valley Cruise-in. Ethan and Brooklyn both had fun seeing some real-life cars from one of their favorite movies, Cars (of course).

This picture shows their utter excitement, doesn't it?

There were some other fun cars too.

Last weekend, we took the kids to see Cars 2. They were really excited to see it in 3D. We figured the kids would do well since they've each been to a few movies before. When we walked in to the theater, Ethan flipped out about the room being so dark. He cried that he wanted to go home. He burried his face into Kyle's chest until he recognized Woody's and Buzz's voices from the Toy Story short before the featured presentation. He peaked at the screen and cheered up a bit until the Toy Story credits showed up, at which point his face went right back into Kyle's chest where it stayed until the Cars movie started. Again he heard voices he recoginzed and peaked at the screen. After about 10 minutes into the show, Kyle finally convinced him to sit forward and put on his 3D glasses. Kyle never could convince him to sit in his own seat. Brooklyn took a hint from Ethan and insisted Jen hold her. So we had to hold both kids through the entire film. Ethan did fine until the last five minutes. He must have sensed the credits were coming, and he started hystarically screaming. His head went right back into Kyle's chest for the remainder of the show.

We thanked our lucky stars that there were only a handful of people in the theater, although it did give Brooklyn the excuse to run up and down the aisle for the last fifteen minutes of the movie.

After we left the theater and Ethan finally stopped crying, we asked him what he thought of the movie. To our surprise, he firmly declared that he loved the movie! He loved that it had three races, whereas the original Cars only had two. We liked it too, despite the mediocre reviews it has been getting. It's about half an hour too long, and the plot is way too complex for our kids.

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-19T19:32:00.000-07:00

Happy Father's day to all the great daddies out there, especially the three dads who have been the greatest blessing in my life, my dad, Kyle's dad and Kyle himself. I've learned so much from all of them and am so grateful for the relationships we have and that they have with my kids. I have to say, though, that I think I married the sweetest daddy on the planet. From the time Ethan was born he has always been such a naturally tender father. He loves to spend time with the kids as much as he can and finds so much joy in watching them learn and grow. I admire all the sacrifices he makes for us and all he does to provide for us. I can't find the words to express the deep love that I have for him and for the loving family he has helped establish.

This week we finished up swimming lessons. It was a really good experience for Ethan. Although he still has a long way to go to get over some fears, I'm grateful we made the decision to start them this year. He really had a great time and looks forward to going swimming as a family throughout the summer.

Meg, one of Ethan's friends, had a birthday party this last week. Ethan was the only boy invited, and Meg was adamant that he come. He picked out a Little Mermaid toy for her and was excited to give it to her. Her family rented a bounce house for the party and Ethan loved it.

Ethan has already been planning his Halloween costume. He keeps flip-flopping between

Tangled characters (Him as Flynn Rider, Brooklyn as Rapunzel, and Dad as the horse, Maximus), Cars characters, PBS cartoon character Word Girl (which we are aren't going to support outside of our home), and a few others. Well, this week at a yard sale, we found these awesome Cars costumes. Both kids have been racing all over the house in them. This morning, Ethan "pulled" Mom out of bed using Mater's tow cable.

Today for our Father's Day dessert we had chocolate fondue with coconut covered marshmallows, strawberries, bananas, and pretzels. It was enjoyed by all but possibly ruined a t-shirt or two. Ooops!

Now that the warm weather is finally here, our peas decided to produce. Two days ago, Brooklyn spent at least 20 minutes picking them clean. Today, enough had replaced them that we were able to have fresh peas with our lunch. Yummy.

Swimming Lessons

2011-06-12T18:47:00.000-07:00

Ethan started swimming lessons this week. He was very timid for most of the week, but by Friday he was "swimming" all by himself. When he finally let go of the teacher and floated by himself on Friday, the teacher quietly declared it a miracle.
He also got to the point where he would jump into the teacher's arms instead of cautiously sliding down the side of the pool.

He's getting more comfortable with each lesson. Here's a picture of the first time he "jumped" off the diving board. He's a little more comfortable now, but has a long way to go.

After swimming lessons the kids love to go feed the ducks near the pool.

These ducks are very friendly, and Ethan even got on of them to eat right out of his hand.

Houseparty.com is a website that gives free products from sponsoring companies as a method of marketing. They sent us a bunch of washable dry erase markers and marker boards to give away. We had a bunch of kids over on Saturday, and they all seemed to have a good time.

One of the activities we did was inspired by the kid's show Blues Clues. We hid little blue footprints around the yard, and the kids had to find them and draw a picture of the different clues.

Brooklyn likes to eat with her toes. It's funny to watch.

Party

2011-05-29T19:55:00.000-07:00

This weekend the kids were invited to a birthday party. They had fun playing with the other kids.
The kids decorated picture frames for one of the activties. Brooklyn put all of the stickers on her frame, and then took them all off.
Ethan was very excited to put firetrucks, airplanes, cars, boats, and other stickers on his picture frame.

The birthday boy (Thomas) had a cool monster truck cake.

The kids have been excited about our garden this year. Ethan's favorite so far is the parsley. He and Brooklyn will go in the back yard and pick it and eat it. Brooklyn has been loving to nibble the tops off of the green onions - while they're still in the ground! Jen was having her help carry things in the other day, and she ate one of the freshly picked radishes - dirt and all! She'll also peels the paper part off of onions in the kitchen and tries to eat the raw onion. We sure have to keep an eye on her and what she eats!

Bargain Hunters

2011-05-15T18:49:00.000-07:00

As the weather has gotten warmer, our weekly tradition of seeking out yard sales has started back up. The kids get excited when we tell them, "Tomorrow we're going to some yard sales!" This year they have had good reason for their excitement; we've found some really fun stuff for them for some really great prices. Just last week we found this Power Wheels Jeep, and it only cost us...

$3.00

Ethan had been begging to get a scooter, but with all the other toys, Brooklyn has been the one getting really good at riding it. And it only cost us...

$2.00

We've been hoping to find a bike for Ethan to ride. We got this one at our community yard sale yesterday, and he's already spent countless hours riding back and forth between our driveway and the neighbor's (and he's very good at staying within these boundaries we've set for him). The bike, including training wheels only cost us...

$5.00

A few years back, we got a Little Tikes "cozy coupe" (the red and yellow Flintstone style car) that both kids love to drive. When we saw this mini van, we just had to grab it so they could each have a car to drive. Ethan's favorite thing about this one is that it has a "trunk" that he can store his toys in while he drives. Brooklyn's favorite thing about it is that she can use the trunk as a back seat that she uses to hitch a ride with Ethan. And it only cost us...

$5.00

We feel like our kids are already getting really spoiled this year, but for a grand total of $15.00 we can't help ourselves.

And now for something completely different:

The other day, Ethan went poop in the toilet just after a lunchtime quesadilla. When he was done, instead of yelling his standard, "Mom, I went poo-poo," signaling to us that he needs help wiping, he yelled out, "I see a big poop and some little ball poops. I think the big one was my tortilla, and the little ones were the cheese!"

Happy Mother's Day!

2011-05-08T20:41:00.000-07:00

We had a lovely Mother's Day at home this year. Ethan sang with the Primary during Sacrament meeting. Brooklyn wanted to go up and sing with the kids really badly, too. Ethan was a little more reverent this time.

The kids colored some cute pictures for me. Ethan colored some pictures of things he liked to do with me. He drew a picture of the park with a rainbow and a soccer ball and a picture of dumb bells since he likes to go to aerobics class with me. Kyle also traced their cute little hands.

Brooklyn's Mother's Day picture:

Brooklyn's two-year-old hands.

Ethan's four-year-old hands.

Going to the park with Mom makes Ethan happy.

Kyle grilled some yummy mango pork chops for dinner with some yummy sides. We also enjoyed some chocolate fondue.

Last weekend we went to Logan to attend Owen's baby blessing. It was fun to get together with family. Grandma Taylor had an Easter Egg hunt for all the grandkids. Brooklyn was a bit grumpy at first, but had a good time once they started picking up eggs.

When we arrived at Grandma Morrey's house, Brooklyn was interested in finding Grandpa. She saw his horses and announced, "Want to be Jessie and ride Bullseye!" She got to have several opportunities with the horses during our visit. One of the days Grandpa Morrey took the kids to ride the horses. Ethan did a really good job riding Maximus all by himself. Kyle led the horse around the arena, and Ethan didn't need any help. Brooklyn rode by herself for a few yards, but got scared and only agreed to ride if Grandpa was on Bullseye with her.
Back at Grandma and Grandpa Morrey's house, Brooklyn had fun feeding the horses.
Tonight I was explaining to Ethan that someday I might have another baby in my tummy. Immediately after saying this he replied, "One day I will have a hot dog in my tummy." He caught us off guard with that one.

A few months ago, Ethan colored this picture in his Sunbeam class. It's a picture of the world. We thought it was funny that he put our house in Africa.

I'm not an Easter kid!

2011-04-24T20:35:00.000-07:00

This morning, Jen welcomed the kids with a hearty "Happy Easter, kids!" Brooklyn responded, "I'm not an Easter kid! I'm Brooklyn!" Lately she hasn't liked us to call her anything except "Brooklyn." We'll say, "You're _________ (cute, sweet, silly, etc)," and she'll always correct us by saying, "No, I'm Brooklyn."

One of our favorite Easter traditions is making chocolate covered marshmallow eggs. This year, we also discovered how yummy it is to dip the marshmallow in toasted coconut and then dip it in chocolate.
This weekend, we took the kids to Discovery Gateway in Salt Lake. We took them two years ago, and they sure liked it more this time. Last time, Ethan got overwhelmed with all of the other kids and lay down on the floor, hoping no one would see him. This time the kids could have been there all day.

Ethan took Brooklyn and Mom on a drive to Grandma's house.

On the way to Grandma's house, the kids stopped at the grocery store.

This was taken as air was blowing in her face. Ethan loved sitting in the Life Flight helicopter on the roof.

Brooklyn had fun in the helicopter, but had as much fun crawling underneath.

They thought it was fun being on TV.

Yesterday was the Easter Egg hunt. The kids both did really well gathering up their eggs. We helped them get ready by practicing picking up eggs around the house all week long. They were really excited and had a great time (even though we didn't win any bikes this year - maybe next year).

This year was the first year we dyed Easter Eggs with the kids. They had a lot of fun.

Today at church, Ethan sang with the Primary in Sacrament meeting. He did a great job learning the song. It looked like he sang the first verse pretty well. As the song progressed, he must of started to get bored. He started making funny faces, then got tired of standing and knelt down, after which he sat down, and finally ended up in the "downward-facing dog" yoga position. His primary teacher was sitting behind us chuckling. We're already looking forward to his Mother's Day performance.

We had him reenact his positions tonight:

"Curious George gives me a headache!"

2011-04-17T19:16:00.000-07:00

We've been pretty busy the last few weekends. Kyle went skiing one last time last weekend with his dad and brother, John. The ski resort had 14 inches of fresh snow, and it was a lot of fun. (Yes, that's John laying down on the ground after he fell down ;)

Unable to work in the yard due to inclement weather, we spontaneously decided to re-paint the craft room. It's always had an ugly pale pink paint job that looked very touched up. Since almost every light switch in the basement is about half a foot too high on the wall, we thought this would be a good time to move the craft room switch down about five inches to a more reasonable position. Needless to say, we didn't get our second coat of paint on this weekend like we hoped. While the craft room is being renovated, the computer we use to edit our photos and blog on is out of commission, so until things get set back up again we won't have many pictures to share.

This weekend to take advantage of the beautiful weather, we started the very large task of staining our fence. It took Kyle and I both about four hours of working straight to get about a quarter of it done. It's neat to see how much better it looks so far.

Ever since we moved to Salt Lake (around the time Ethan was born four years ago), we've made due with only one car. Kyle would carpool to work and let Jen have some freedom a few days a week. It was time to get ourselves a new vehicle, and decided to get a minivan since they're so stinkin' awesome. (Disclaimer: Jen is NOT pregnant). Ethan's been excited about the idea for months simply because Andy on Toy Story has a minivan. After we made the purchase, he excitedly exclaimed, "Now I can act out Toy Story 1!"

During the negotaition process, Jen took Ethan to the bathroom. After they got back (and Jen left again to change Brooklyn's poopy diaper), Ethan proclaimed, "Mom says we're probably going to buy the van!"

We're looking forward to some fun family trips this summer, and for years to come.

Ethan still refuses to watch Curious George - he used to watch it nearly every day, but late last year he decided Curious George was a "monster" and would run out of the room screaming if he got any hint of Curious George coming on TV. We think we're making progress toward getting this resolved - He no longer calls George a monster, now he just says that Curious George gives him a headache. Sigh.

Birthday Boy

2011-04-03T19:19:00.000-07:00

Last Wednsday was Kyle's 30th birthday. Jen surprised Kyle with the Lego Harry Potter PS3 game, a recipricating saw, and a couple of Frog and Toad books to complete our collection. Kyle loved these books as a wee li'l tot, and loves to read them with our kids now.

We went to Benihana for Kyle's birthday, and it was a fun experience. We had never been there before, and didn't realize how talented their chefs are. Thanks, Becky, for watching the kids for us. Kyle's special birthday (he's 30 now) required a special cake. If you want the recipe, you can find it on Jen's recipe blog, http://eatdrinkandbemorrey.blogspot.com/.

We've started a tradition where we do Kyle's birthday candles in binary. If you look closely, there are four lit candles and one that's not lit (11110 = 30).

Earlier in the week, we made creme brulee for the first time. It turned out really good. Since we don't have a butane torch, we broiled them to caramelize the sugar on top.

On Friday, we looked out the window and what did we see? Popcorn popping on our apricot tree! Spring had brought us such a nice surprise. Bees! We didn't think they'd be out this early to pollinate our tree. Hopefully all the snow we had on the tree this morning doesn't kill those poor little apricot zygotes.

30!

2011-03-30T14:41:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-20T17:50:00.001-07:00

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"

2011-03-13T19:32:00.000-07:00

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...

2011-03-06T19:21:00.001-08:00

...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.

Four!!!!

2011-03-01T19:56:00.000-08:00

Our sweet little Ethan turned 4 today (although according to him, he didn't turn 4 until after he ate birthday cake). Last weekend, we were in Logan so Jen could witness the birth of our newest nephew, Owen Paul Teare. Congrats, Emily and Daniel. While we were there we had a little party at Grandma Morrey's house, and Ethan had a blast.

He got more random cars from the movie Cars. Now he has a Trunk Fresh, Octane Gain, Re-volting, and another one we've never heard of. He and Brooklyn love to play together with the cars.

Now the kids have some dishes for the play kitchen. When we got home, we reclaimed six plates that the kids were using to cook with.

Brooklyn got a little jealous about all of the presents Ethan got. We actually let her have two of the Cars shown above.

We had some simple cupcakes. Ethan had a hard time blowing out the candles. He tried and tried, and finally Jen gave him a little help.

Brooklyn loved her cupcake and ice cream.

Isn't is amazing how, regardless of how much we spend on our kids, they always have the most fun with the containers?

Today was Ethan's actual birthday, and Jen made a Toy Story themed cake of Andy's bed.

Ethan had a hard time waiting all day waiting for Dad to come home so he could open his presents. Since it was his birthday, he wanted to act out the first Toy Story movie. When he got to the part where Andy has his birthday party, he got frustrated that he couldn't open his presents. Mom wrapped up his Buzz Lightyear in newspaper just to give him something to open.

Brooklyn was still jealous of all of the presents and other party preparations ("Where's my cake? Where's my balloon? Where's my presents?") Ethan was a good bother and let her open one of his presents without us really having to ask. He really is growing up.

He loved all of his new Lego kits, but especially the one with Buzz Lightyear, Woody, and RC.

We were happy to see Ethan blow his candles out on the first try this time (and with minimal spit on the cake as well).

So, the other day Dad was driving around with Ethan. Out of the blue, Ethan exclaimed, "There's a kangaroo following us. I think it's made out of trees." Sure enough, up on the mountains by our house there is a clump of trees that kind of looks like a kangaroo. Clever boy.

Shortly after we got back from our vacation, we started planting our garden. The kids had a fun time planting broccoli seeds. More recently, we planted our tomato and pepper seeds. Bring on Spring!

BTW, don't think we're done posting vacation pictures. There's still one more installment to come!

St. Thomas

2011-02-27T20:09:00.000-08:00

Our third stop on our fabulous vacation was St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. We took a tour around the island where we go some awe inspiring views of the surrounding islands. It's a shame that these pictures don't do the view justice.
This is a picture of our tour bus. It was a bit nerve wracking sitting right next to the open door, driving 30 mph up very steep and winding roads with a posted speed limit of 10 mph.

Magens Bay is supposed to be one of the top 10 most beautful beaches in the world. The sand felt like brown sugar (without the stickiness), and the water was a beautiful turquise blue.

Our next stop was Magen's bay itself where we walked along the beach and swam/snorkeled in the beautiful water. All along the beach pelicans circled and occasionaly dove into the water, hunting the hundreds of thousands of small fish swimming in the shallow water. It was really cool.

Here's a small sample of what the fish looked like.

As we were snorkeling, we got a rare oppurtunity to see a sea turtle. We followed it around for a minute or two, and got yelled at by the lifeguard for swimming out past the bouy's marking the swimming area (we were no more a few feet out of bounds).

Somebody got married the day we were at the beach.

Along the rocks at the edge of the beach we found some pretty cool sea life. Later we found out that black sea urchins are quite poisonous, and we thought we had a close call until we looked up what black urchins look like and discovered that these were another type.

After swimming in the bay, we went up to Blackbeard's Castle, which was used by the Danish settlers as a lookout for pirates.

Jen formed a deep friendship with Captain Jack Sparrow.

Anne Bonny got jealous.

There were iguanas all over the place.

St. Thomas has an amber museum with some interesting pieces. We were surprised to see an animatronic dinosaur. Jen had to time this photo just right to avoid getting her head bitten off.

When we got back to our room, we found a towel puppy on our bed.

Puerto Rico

2011-02-20T17:23:00.001-08:00

Our second port of call was Puerto Rico. We arrived at the port in the middle of the day, and it was fun to see the old fort and city as we sailed in. The ship arrived at our other ports quite early in the morning, so we didn't really get to see too much from the boat. When the Spanish settled Puerto Rico in the 1600's, they built this fort to protect thier land. The walls are 18 ft thick, and on the cruise they told us that even today this fort would be difficult to take.

After we got off the boat, we headed up toward the fort on foot. After about a half hour of wandering through the streets of Puerto Rico, we made it to the fort (thanks to our GPS).

We came across this statue in our wanderings. We're not sure what it means, but it was pretty cool.

This is a really colorful town with vibrantly colored walls on all of the buildings.

After our self-guided tour of the Old City, we jumped on a bus with some other people from our cruise line, and set out half way across the island for our next excursion: the kayaking to the Bioluminescent Bay. This unique ecosystem supports single-celled bioluminescent dinoflagellates that lives in the water and lights up when thouched. We got to the gathering place just after sunset, and after kayaking up a dark river for about 20 minutes, we got to the bay. It was really amazing to see the water around our paddles and kayaks light up as we made our way through it. When we drew up water in our hands and spilled it on our legs the water droplets would be filled with light. We also tapped our oar on the side our our kayak to startle the fish and it was as if they were glowing in the water below. It was such a unique experience. If you are ever in Puerto Rico or one of the few other places that has this phenomenon it is well worth the trouble. We didn't get any pictures while we were here since we needed to keep things dark to see the luminesence best, but you can see some example of what it kind of looks like here. The pictures on the website don't quite do it justice but they kind of show what it was like.

When we got back to our ship that night we found this little guy on our bed. Sailing away from port.

Next time we'll share about our experience in St. Thomas, U.S.V.I and Half Moon Cay, Bahamas

Funny story:

Jen- I had a cavity filled on Friday. Long story short, I ended up getting three shots to numb my mouth. When leaving the office I noticed that I couldn't close my right eye because it was so numb. After I few minutes I could close it again, but was feeling my nose and roof of my mouth go numb among other things. I stopped at Walmart to pick up a few photos before returning home to let the effects wear off. When I got to the photo counter I tried to speak. I mumbled to the nice lady that I just had dental work done and needed to pick up some photos. I think I sounded just like someone who is deaf that tries to speak. I was surprised how much harder it was to speak just a few minutes after leaving the doctor's office. The woman understood me and asked for my name. I couldn't tell her. She asked me if I wanted to write it and I nodded. She gave me a piece of paper and a pen (that wouldn't write). Anyway, it all worked out, but was very embarrassing. I went home and waited for the effects to wear off. Kyle had a fun time laughing at me all afternoon. I also tried to drink some water later and couldn't swallow. The water all ran out of my nose. After a few hours I suddenly sounded like myself again and was finally able to have that drink of water. I've never been so numb before.

Paradise Found

2011-02-13T20:54:00.000-08:00

We're still alive. We have lots of catching up to do, so here we go.

We returned last week from an amazingly awesome vacation away from the kids. To celebrate both our 5th anniversary back in November and Kyle finishing Grad school a year ago, we finally took the plunge and went on a grand vacation. Up until this vacation the only real getaway we'd had since getting married was when we went to Vegas during our first year and stayed with friends on their air mattress that had a hole in it. This adventure was definitely overdue. Leaving the kiddos with Grandma and Grandpa Taylor for 5 days and Grandma and Grandpa Morrey for 5 days, we departed from Fort Lauderdale aboard the ms Eurodam and visited Grand Turk (a British territory), Puerto Rico, St. Thomas (one of the US Virgin Islands), and Half Moon Cay (the cruise line's private island in the Bahamas).

Our ship was amazingly gorgeous and elegant, though our rooms were small and simple. We didn’t pay for a grand suite though but didn’t spend a lot of time in our room anyway so we didn’t mind. There were lots of activities going on throughout the day and shows every night. We saw a magician, a ventriloquist, there was a comedian, and several dancing/singing performances. There were always several things to choose from. The food was fantastic. Every night we ate five course gourmet meals. Two of the nights were formal nights and were even extra special and fancy.

Our room:
The ship's main stage:

Bon voyage! (leaving Fort Lauderdale) Promenade deck and life boats:

Caribbean sunrise

Snorkeling in Grand Turk

barracuda

We got to swim with sting rays while in Grand Turk. This one was the largest one we saw, though they get up to 8 ft. We got to handle this one a little and feed it raw fish. Our guide told us that we would get seven years of luck if we kissed the sting ray's barb. We both did, and have video to prove it. (we're too lazy to post it now) Kissing it's face.

Getting a massage. You can see its mouth just over my shoulder.

sting ray swimming

This picture doesn't do this beach justice. The water here was turquoise and the sand was white and fine. It was 80+ degrees and a perfect day.

Wasting away in Margaritaville.
There was a John Glenn exhibit here to commemerate his splashdown here after becoming the first American in orbit in 1962.

My tribute to Daniel-san.

After returning to our room after visiting Grand Turk, we found a sting ray on our bed made out of towels and chocolate.

More of our adventures to come . . . .

Chased by Bees

2011-01-09T18:59:00.001-08:00

Ethan has been so good going to his new Sunbeam class. His teacher told us today that he is a leader in the class. Jen asked, "is that a good thing or a bad thing?" She replied, "a little of both." From her report, today's lesson consisted of a lot of Toy Story sayings, and a round of the class being chased by bees. Ethan has been watching Winnie the Pooh lately, and loves to pretend that he's in the honey tree getting some honey, and then having the bees chase him around the house. It's his new favorite game. He also loves to go on "Bear Hunts" like in the book, We're going on a Bear Hunt. He really has a great imagination.

Brooklyn has been loving The Little Mermaid lately. She is often asking for "more Prince Eric."

The New Year has really motivated us to get more organized. This week we decided to paint our home office and get it more organized. Kyle had Monday off for New Years, and we spent the whole day clearing things out, patching walls, taping, and painting. It looks so much better (especially now since the wall doesn't have Brooklyn's "artwork" on it anymore. The next phase of our project was to take a trip to IKEA and buy some bookshelves, which Jen lined with upolstry fabric to dress them up a bit. It's nice to have a place for all of our books, and it sure helps the office look nice. We still have some organizing to do, but when it's finished we'll be sure to post some pictures. Next week we are going to focus on redoing the storage in our garage and going through our storage room.

December in Review

2011-01-02T20:04:00.001-08:00

Wow! It's been almost a month before we posted our last post. We've had a very busy December.

Brooklyn and Ethan was very excited for Christmas this year. Ethan asked every day, "is it Christmas yet?" Santa Claus visited our ward Christmas party, and Ethan was scared at all to sit on his lap. Brooklyn, on the other hand, was a different story. Here's the video:

As part of the kids Christmas present, we took them to Build-a-Bear Workshop, where they chose their own animals and helped build them. They watched the toys get stuffed with fluff, got to put a heart in each animal, gave their new-born toys a "bath," and had birth certificates printed. Ethan named his bear "Pooh" and Brooklyn named her monkey "Monkey." Our kids are very creative. This year, we had the kids each get a present for each other. Brooklyn got Ethan a toy doctor kit, and Ethan got her a Barbie car. They both loved the gifts. Ethan wrote Brooklyn's tag all by himself. All of the letters of both their names are there, just not in the same row:

To:
Brook
lyn

From:
an
Eth

We cheated this year and let the kids open their presents from us on Christmas Eve before we left to spend Christmas with family later that day. It was nice to not have to pack the cars with all of those presents. We asked Ethan, "What was your favorite present?" and he named each of them. He would make a great politician someday.

The kids big present this year was a play kitchen and a lot of toy food. They have loved "baking" cookies and sharing ice cream.

Brooklyn has been obsessed with Jessie from Toy Story. Just about every day she asks if she can "watch Jessie?" Grandma Taylor gave her a Jessie doll for her birthday, and after she opened it, Ethan said, "She thought it was a princess." Jen asked, "Did you think that?" Ethan replied, "No, I thought it was Jessie. I was correct."

Grandma Taylor also got Brooklyn a Jessie costume from Disneyland on her last trip. Brooklyn loves the costume, despite the fact that it is still a bit big on her.

The local newspaper sent out a coloring book filled with coloring contest pictures from local merchants. Ethan colored a number of the pictures, but we were only submitted the one for the local credit union. He ended up winning second place in his category (under 5 years old) and received $10.00! Now we wished we would have submitted more pictures. He was excited to go to Walmart and buy some toys with his very own money. He chose a Barrel of Monkeys and a Toy Story alien. A couple of weeks ago, Kyle peaked into Ethans nursery class. The kids were gathered around for their lesson. Ethan wanted to say the prayer, but another girl was picked instead. In protest, Ethan covered his ears for the duration of the prayer and kept them covered for a few minutes after the prayer was finished. Kyle couldn't resist snapping a picture.

Ethan went to primary for the first time today. His new teacher was one of his first nursery teachers, and he really liked her. We're glad she's his teacher again. He did really well today. His teacher reports that he participated during the lesson, gave the prayer all by himself, and was quiet during sharing time.

One of the best things that happened this month was that we got a new roof on our house. Our roof has been a constant problem since we moved into our house, and the insurance company agreed to pay for a new one. We didn't have to do any of the work. This sure was a blessing.

We took down our Christmas decorations yesterday, and Brookyln cried when we took the tree down. She kept saying, "No, tree! Tree!"

Let the Festivities Begin

2010-12-05T18:51:00.000-08:00

Our Thanksgiving was great. We stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Taylor the first night and spent most of Thanksgiving with them. Both kids loved playing with Grandpa Taylor and his trains. Ethan put his toy Woody on the train and had him riding around the track. He was nervous to have Woody go through the tunnel at first, but after seeing Woody safe on the other side he thought it was great.

After Thanksgiving dinner, we made gingerbread cookies with Grandma (as it is a tradition) and got to try out her new train cookie cutters. Ethan put most of the hearts on by himself. The kids really liked to decorate Buzz and Woody gingerbread men using the standard gingerbread man shape. Ethan was pretty good at squeezing the frosting out of the bag. We didn't get any pictures of Buzz or Woody because they were devoured too quickly. Thanksgiving evening we went to Grandma and Grandpa Morrey's house for Thanksgiving dinner 2. Ethan and Brooklyn both loved playing with the Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head from Toy Story, as well as the Spud Lightyear, Woody, and Jessie Potato Head pack.

At one point, Kyle was left tending the kids and decided it would be fun to jump on the city bus and go for a ride. We rode out to Smithfield, grabbed a treat at McDonald's, and caught the bus back home. Both kids had a fun time riding the bus, despite the near-record cold temperature.

We didn't do any early Black Friday shopping, but we did go see Tangled with all of the Morreys (while Grandma and Grandpa Taylor watched the kiddos). We all really loved the movie--definitely one to buy.

On Saturday, we went with the Taylors and saw Harry Potter, which we also really enjoyed.

Brooklyn is playing dress-up with Ethan a lot lately. They especially love Toy Story.

We usually try to put up our Christmas Tree after we get home from Thanksgiving. This year we were a week late getting it up, but now that it's up it's beginning to feel a lot more like Christmas. Ethan and Brooklyn had fun "helping" put the ornaments on the tree. Thank goodness for plastic ornaments.

The other day Ethan was very sad (we don't remember why). To express how sad he was, he ran into the office and drew this picture on the white board. He says it's a picture of him crying.

Ethan has been getting his (and Brooklyn's) Christmas lists together. Today he announced that he was going to ask Santa for a Toy Story 3 Ken with Ken's Dreamhouse. He says Brooklyn wants a Toy Story 3 Barbie.

And now it's time for another deep thought from Ethan Morrey:

"I have lots of toys. The only thing I need is lots more toys."

Changing Seasons

2010-11-21T19:14:00.000-08:00

In anticipation of the storm rolling in this last weekend, we raked up all of our leaves and got our yard ready for winter. Ethan had a blast playing in the pile of leaves. He was such a great help using his own little rake and spreading the pile of leaves out after Mom had gathered them all.
It was a good thing we got the yard ready, because this morning we woke up with nearly a foot of fresh snow covering the ground. After church, Kyle and the kids headed out to have some fun. Seeing Brooklyn in her snowsuit reminded us of the movie "A Christmas Story" - we don't know if she could put her arms down.

By the time we got out to play, the snow had formed a thick layer of ice after sitting out all day. This made it hard to roll out the snow balls for a snow man. We were able to build this little guy though.

Ethan likes to watch a fairly new PBS cartoon called "The Cat in the Hat Knows a lot about That." When he saw the snow coming down, he got really excited to build a snow Cat in the Hat, just like they do in one of the episodes. Brooklyn just wanted to eat the nose.

Ethan had fun making snow angels.

Brooklyn is cute. We can't believe how fast she's growing up. She more like a little girl and less like a baby every day. She had her two-year-old doctor's appointment this week. She came in at 24.8 lbs (25th percentile) and 34 inches (75th percentile). One of the milestones for kids her age is if they can speak at least 20 words. She probably knows more than 200. This girl never ceases to amaze us with the things coming out of her mouth.

We also took the kids to the dentist for their 6 month checkup. Ethan was so excited to go to the dentist. We heard him saying things like, "I'm so excited to go to the dentist," and "Do I have cavities?" He got X-rays for the first time, and has no cavities. The dentist says both kids have very good teeth, but he can already tell that they're both most likely going to need braces when they get older since their teeth are packed so tightly. Better start saving now...

We celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary on Thursday. It was a fun day. We ate lots of chocolate fondue. Mmm, boy!

The other day, Ethan wanted to get out the costumes we got on clearance after Halloween this year. He liked the soldier because it was like the toy soldiers on Toy Story. He loved talking on the phone and drinking from the canteen. He still uses the canteen to get a drink when he's thirsty.

Without any prompting, he knew that pirates say "ARRRR" and "Shiver me timbers."

Two Much

2010-11-14T19:44:00.000-08:00

We had a very busy weekend. Brooklyn turned two on Friday. Jen's uncle got married this weekend too. His reception was the same day as her birthday and we were occupied for most of Saturday with the actual wedding. We managed to squeeze in a little birthday party on Saturday evening. Brooklyn had a beautiful princess castle cake. Jen was pretty stressed getting the cake finished in time between all the other things we had going on, but it worked out almost as planned. She planned on making lots of tiny fondant flowers for the cake, but realized after she started making a few that the cornstarch she was using to prevent the fondant from being too sticky wasn't cornstarch as she thought, but baking soda. Yuck. Oh, well, fortunately the heart shaped sprinkles we had on hand worked fine and saved lots of time.

She was actually excited to open her presents this year and with a little help from an overly eager brother, she managed to find out what was inside.

We got her a dolly that looks just like her and a princess book. Sadly, she hasn't gotten too attached to them yet. She got a princess dress from her Grandma and Grandpa Morrey, which we're sure she'll eventually love, but at the time she seemed to have the most fun sitting in the box it was wrapped in. She instantly loved and still loves the big soft puppy that her aunt and uncle got for her.

While at the wedding reception on Friday, Brooklyn must have caught on to the romantic spirit. We don't know who this little boy was, but she kept following him around to give him hugs.

We are so glad out kids love each other so much! They were really good throughout all the wedding events.

We took Brooklyn to pick out a toy at Wal-Mart for her birthday. She sure had fun playing with all of the toys she could reach. We don't normally let them out of the cart so freely, but they sure loved it.

Ethan has been his funny little self lately. We bought Toy Story 3 when it came out a few weeks back and he refuses to watch it. He told us that he is allergic to movies. After a few days, he changed is mind and said he's only allergic to movies that he doesn't like - including the Toy Story movies. He loves the toys and wants them for Christmas, but won't watch the movies.

Flames

2010-11-07T18:09:00.000-08:00

Wednesday afternoon, Jen got a very loud and persistent knock on the door, accompanied by a fireman barging in yelling for us all to get out. He told us that our neighbor's house was on fire and that we needed to quickly evacuate. After waking Brooklyn up from her nap, she herded the kids outside to find the following scene:

The afternoon was spent outside watching the action and at a neighbor's house playing with their toys. Fortunately, the weather was good since we didn't really have time to grab any jackets and Jen didn't grab her shoes. No one was hurt in the fire and the cause as far as we know is yet to be determined.

We celebrated Jen's 29th birthday this week. We celebrated on Tuesday, then went on a date Friday night (out to dinner and to an arcade--which was a blast). The kids were excited for Rachel to come over to play (babysit). She is one of their very favorite people on the planet.

This is what Ethan would look like if we never cut his hair. He had fun wearing Mommy's Halloween wig. He makes such a cute little girl, no?

Wal-Mart had their Halloween stuff 90% off yesterday. We grabbed a bunch of costumes for ~$1.00 that we thought the kids could use for dress-up. Today Ethan wanted to be an astronaut. He put his suit on, jumped in an empty box, counted "3,2,1, blastoff" and took a quick trip to the moon. Thankfully, he was home for dinner. He thought it would be fun if next year for Halloween, he could be an astronaut, Brooklyn could be his spaceship, and mom and dad could be the moon and the sun. If only we could find those sun and moon costumes from those Jimmy Dean commercials, we would really rock.

For the last few months Ethan has had no interest in watching any movies, though he likes PBS cartoons. We just bought Toy Story 3, which we he saw and loved in the theater. Ethan refused to be in the room where it was playing. He even went as far as say, "I am allergic to movies!!"

Brooklyn hasn't seen the movie before and doesn't have quite the attention span for a movie yet so we showed her just the opening sequence of the movie with the train. She know and loves the characters because Ethan has many of the toys. It was so funny seeing her react. She would say, "Oh no!" at the right parts and get excited whenever she recognized a character. When she saw Bullseye she exclaimed, "Getty-up Bullseye!" How did she grow up so fast?

Super Why Halloween

2010-10-31T19:50:00.000-07:00

Wow. We didn't know how well he actually knew who Super Why was brought to you by until we did this video and looked up what was actually said. He had it nearly word for word. The only part he missed is at the very beginning where it says "Super Why was funded by" instead of "brought to you by." We've noticed that he has quite a gift for memorizing things. He can basically quote the first ten minutes of various episodes of different cartoons from memory, including sound effects.

As you may have guessed, our family were the PBS's Super Why and the Super Readers for Halloween this year. Ethan has been planning this for about 12 months. He was Super Why, Jen was Wonder Red, Kyle was Alpha Pig, and Brooklyn was Princess Presto (Caucasian edition).

We had a few close calls that almost ruined all of our plans. The first near-catastrophe happened two days before the big day. Ethan got a small owie on his finger. He was approached Jen genuinley concerned that, "Super Why doesn't have an owie on his finger." Luckily, the owie healed in time.

The second close call happened Saturday Morning. Jen made Ethan's costume from scratch, and she put the Super Why logo on his shirt the night before. She used an iron-on aplique that is printed on special paper for the book on Super Why's shirt. When Ethan saw it, he burst in to tears, exclaiming, "That's the wrong book!" He knows that the real Super Why's book doesn't say "Super Why" on it - it's just the book. We figured it would be better to use the one we did so more people would recognize who he was. He was so upset he almost gave up on being Super Why and wanted to be Mr. Incredible instead. WOW. After about fifteen minutes, Kyle convinced him that it would be OK (for those familiar with the cartoon, Ethan agreed that the letters would be the "Super Letters" that give the "Super Story Answer").

All day, he kept changing between Super Why and Whyatt, his alter-ego. In the process, his mask got very stretched out.

Both kids had a good time Trick-or-Treating, although both kids took a little while to get the hang of it. At the first few doors, Ethan refused to say "Trick or treat." Jen told him to pretend he was saying it to her instead. On the next few stops, he looked at Jen, said "trick or treat," then looked at the people answering the door.

Brooklyn didn't really get the idea of getting lots of candy. Once she got her first piece, she wanted to eat it and wasn't intested in getting any more. She eventually caught on, and wanted to have a taste of each new piece of candy. She handed us many half-eaten suckers.

After we had been out for half an hour, Ethan asked, "Can we stop going to houses to get treats?" He was tired and wanted to go home.

This year the kids had their own pumpkins. Kyle made Brooklyn's (on the right), since she didn't have much interest in helping. Ethan (on the left) helped clean it out - he used a spoon and extracted four seeds, and he drew the face with a marker. The face he drew was much too small to actually carve, so Kyle had to make it bigger, but this is pretty close to what he drew.

Friday we took the kids to Wheeler Farm in Murray. We all had a lot of fun. Brooklyn walked through the pumpkin patch trying to pick up pumpkins. She squatted down, grabbed ahold, and tried to pick one up. When she couldn't do it, she exclaimed, "heavy."

The corn maze was pretty pathethic. It was more like a weed maze. They only made us pay for Ethan's admittance, but we still felt like we got ripped off. Jen's exact words were, "I want my giggle back." (referencing Thumb Wars)
Before we went to the farm, Ethan drew a map so we wouldn't get lost in the maze. He kept checking it throughout.

Brooklyn was obssed with picking up rocks and giving them to the animals.

She had fun petting this goat and wished she could touch all of the animals.

The ducks weren't too happy when she tried to pet them. The expression on her face here is priceless. Click on the picture to see it bigger.

I do it!

2010-10-24T20:08:00.000-07:00

Brooklyn sure has been growing up quickly. She's at the stage where she has to do everything by herself. Sometimes it's nice, like when she needs to get in bed and we ask her, "Do you want to get in bed by yourself, or should Daddy/Mommy do it?" She always responds, "I do it!" and runs to her bed and jumps in. Unfortunately, she doesn't go to sleep right away. We'll often hear her an hour after putting her down chatting to her toys or playing with her nighttime music crib toy thingy (can't think of a better name).

She seems like she's getting ready to get potty trained soon. She loves to take off her diaper, put it in the garbage (even if it's totally dry), sit on her potty for a few seconds, grab a square of toilet paper, wipe, throw the tissue away in the garbage, and be done. When we tell her to "push out the pee-pee," she goes "Ugghhh" and makes a funny straining face. Maybe one day she'll actually...you know.

Sometimes we'll quiz her on shapes and colors. She knows the words for colors and shapes, but not necessarily which ones correspond to what they are.

Lately, we have noticed that she loves to count the stairs as she walks down them. Usually she gets the number in the right order up to about six, sometimes eight.

She loves to see the moon. Anytime we see the moon while we're driving, she'll get very excited and keep repeating "Moon! Moon! Moon!" It's cute, but gets old after twenty minutes or more.

Fall Family Photos

2010-10-20T10:22:00.000-07:00

You can check out some of our family pictures at our SIL's website here.

We are so happy with them and will post a few soon.

Ten Ten Ten

2010-10-10T19:36:00.000-07:00

Happy 10/10/10 everyone.

Lately Ethan has insisted on being the Man in the Yellow Hat and Brooklyn has been Curious George. This weekend we finally pulled out Ethan's old monkey costume for Brooklyn to wear and got some pictures of these two little friends.

Today at church Ethan drew (yet another) picture of Super Why. He made sure to count out loud to make sure Super Why had five fingers on each hand. Then he drew the thumbs. The blue wings are the cape. He had to ask how to spell Super Why, but wrote all of the letters himself. He wrote the word "super" just fine, but ran out of room on the Hymn book he was using as a table, so he rotated the paper 180 degrees and wrote the "why" upside down. We were impressed how well he can write upside down.

Kyle just received a call on Jen's cell phone from a neighbor tonight. The caller told Kyle that he didn't have Kyle's current phone number but the only the one we changed two years ago. When he called the old phone number, an Oriental gentleman answered and said something like, "a lot of people call for this 'Kyle'. I do not know him."

We had a photo shoot with our sister-in-law, Heather, yesterday. Here's a sneak peak from the photo shoot. This is the only picture we've got so far, but stay tuned for much more...

A Clever Title for a Bunch of Random Stuff

2010-10-03T19:40:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went up to Cache Valley for Ethan and Brooklyn's cousin Matthew's baby blessing. It was so good to get together with the family and so fun to finally see Matthew. Brooklyn loved to give Baby Matthew kisses and hugs and enthusiastically call him "Baby Julie" (Julie is another cousin).

The kids played a beautiful duet on Grandma Taylor's piano. On the way home, Brooklyn stayed awake the entire time regardless of the fact that it was after 10:00 when we got home. When we pulled into the driveway, she got sad and started crying, "No, Grandma Morrey. No Grandma Morrey." We guess she thought we were driving back to Grandma Morrey's house across the valley.

Grandma and Grandpa Taylor got back from a Disneyland vacation recently, and they got the kids some really cute gifts. Ethan loves his new authentic Woody hat. Brooklyn got a super cute Jessie costume.
We took some time out of our busy day on Saturday to take the kids to Home Depot for their monthly Kids Workshop. The theme for this month was fire safety. The kids had fun building their fire boats. Ethan was pretty excited that he was able to use his hammer to actually make the nail go into the wood. In previous months he tapped on the nail for minutes without making any visable progress. Half-way through the project, the fire engine from the Tooele Fire Department pulled up, and the kids got close-up look at a real fire engine. (As a funny side-note, Ethan is dressed up as The Man in the Yellow Hat from Curious George. He's got the yellow hat, yellow shirt, and tie on.)

After our fun at Home Depot, we got ready to stain our deck. To keep the kids busy while we worked, we rented the new Tinkerbell movie and popped the kids some popcorn. They laid back on the Love Sac and enjoyed the movie. Thanks TV for babysitting our kids.

Brooklyn's vocabulary has been expanding lately. She's been starting to put different ideas into phrases and has started using short sentences. For example, the other day after she was supposed to have a nap, Kyle asked her if she even slept. She replied, "sleep long time."

She loves her brother and emulates him in everything he does and says. She'll sing songs with him, copy what he says, run around with him, and get excited about all of the things that he loves (Lightning McQueen, Buzz Lightyear, Curious George, Super Why, etc.). The other day, Ethan was The Man in the Yellow Hat (but he likes to be called "The Man" for short) and Ethan insisted she was Curious George.

We've also started to teach her to say prayers. This is big, since she has always been rebellious about fold her arms when we pray. But now she'll fold her arms and copy some of the words we prompt her to say. It's fun to hear her cute little voice and see her grow up.

Lately, nearly every night Brooklyn starts crying about a half hour after we put the kids in bed. When we go in to check on her, she has taken off her pajamas and her baby doll's pajamas. She insists we put both her and her baby's jammies on before she goes back to bed. When she wakes up in the morning, she usually has stripped down to her diaper again. Such a silly girl.

About two weeks ago, we had some other families in the ward over at our house for family home evening to help pick the apples off of our trees. We gave most of them away, but kept a small box for ourselves. Later that night we found the entire box spilled across the kitchen floor with a small Brooklyn-sized bite in each apple.

Family Portrait

2010-09-19T20:39:00.000-07:00

After a bit of coaxing, Jen finally got Ethan to draw a family portrait. Ethan refused to draw a picture of himself, but when Jen said he could be Super Why, he was happy to draw the picture. He had Brooklyn sit in one of the red chairs that Jen built.

After drawing the family portrait, he decided to draw our family as the Super Readers (Super Why and his super hero team). It's fun to see some of the details he remembers. For instance, Princess Presto (played by Brooklyn) has a Magical Spelling Wand and crown. Wonder Red (played by Jen) has braided hair and roller skates. Alpha Pig (Kyle) has a pig nose. And of course Super Why (Ethan) has brown hair, a mask, and a book on his shirt. We also all have shoe laces. It's funny that he missed some not-so-minor details like arms.

Kyle asked Ethan to draw a picture of him and Grandma at Disneyland (since Grandma Taylor was there this week). He thought about it and said, "I will draw a picture of me and Brooklyn and Grandma Taylor and Grandma Morrey at Disneyland. Notice how Mickey Mouse (in the upper left corner) has red pants and yellow shoes with ears on the top of his head.

Budding Artist

2010-09-12T20:43:00.000-07:00

Ethan has been drawing a lot lately, and we've been very impressed with how good he's getting. The other day, Kyle was watching (aka sleeping through) an episode of Super Why with Ethan and Brooklyn. When the show was over, Ethan presented a "comic book" based on the episode he had just watched.

Today at church, Ethan decided to occupy himself by drawing Curious George. Notice the fine details (ears, hair, skin coloring, thumbs, etc).

When he was finished, he decided to draw Curious George with a banana. (look carefully, or you might not see it) Not bad for 3 1/2! (even if George looks a little like Pop-Eye the Sailor Man)

Marshmallow Hair Gel

2010-09-05T19:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we took the kids on a picnic at the local park. We grilled some steaks and kabobs on the charcoal grill, and topped it off with some s'mores. We thought it would be fun to get those REALLY big marshmallows to roast, but we found out that giving kids marshmallows the half the size of their face isn't a good idea. Some of the roasted marshmallow goo found its way to Brooklyn's hair and glued one of her eyes shut. Needless to say, we'll be sticking to regular sized marshmallows in the future.

We went to Home Depot's monthly kid workshop, where Ethan and Brooklyn built football holders/mini tables. Brooklyn decided to eat her dinner on one tonight. Ethan was really excited to get a football to put on his stand (5 cents from a yard sale!)

Brooklyn has been really enjoying our garden this year. We have yet to find anything that she hasn't liked to take a bite out of.

Ethan and Brooklyn been loving to watch Curious George lately. It's just about their favorite thing on the planet. Ethan's favorite episode is the Donut episode. He pretty well has the entire episode memorized. We'll often find him scribbling on little pieces of paper writing, "1 dozen donuts please."

We walked in one day and found him scribbling on a piece of paper. When asked what he was doind, he replied, " I'm crunching numbers," emulating The Man in the Yellow Hat (Curious George's owner, in case you aren't familar with the show/book).

Brooklyn has been obsessed with closing doors lately. After she closed a door yesterday, Ethan commented, "Brooklyn is good at closing doors." When Jen asked, "What are you good at, Ethan?" he responded, "I'm good at lots of things."

This is the Place

2010-08-29T19:46:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, Kyle's work held their annual summer party at This is the Place Heritage Park. We had a lot of fun going around the old west village. Ethan and Brooklyn had a lot of fun playing with this "authentic" old west water fountain. Ethan was sweet to help Brooklyn get a drink.

Jen especially looked forward to what was advertised as an "authentic old-fashioned shave." Kyle even decided to forego shaving for a week prior to get the full effect. We were dissapointed to see that the barber didn't even have a sharp blade on his razor. It was all for show.

One of the kids' favorite things to do was ride around the park on the trains. There were three of them continuously shuttling visitors around the park.

Brooklyn loved the petting zoo. She chased after the baby animals and loved to pet them and say "Lamby, lamby." Ethan was a bit timid and didn't want to touch any of the animals.

Ethan was excited to ride the ponies. He has a big grin plastered on his face the whole time. When asked if he had fun when the ride was over, he said, "Yes, and I didn't even get sacred!" He's always been a bit timid around Grandpa Morrey's horses. Maybe this has cured him.

Brooklyn, on the other hand, was very concerned about getting on the horse. She cluched onto Kyle's arm the whole time, and she did not want to let go. Kyle did break away for a second when the ride was over to snap this picture and was lucky enough to get the shot just before she started crying.

The kids also loved the miniature train that went around the pond.

Ethan didn't want stop playing on this replica (1/6 scale) of the Brooklyn.

Over all, this was the favorite company party we've been to. It helps that our kids are finally old enough to do the activities. When we were leaving Ethan said to us that he really thought we should come again.

Today at church Kyle and I spoke in Sacrament Meeting. We invited Grandma and Grandpa Taylor to watch the kids while we spoke. We also had quite the arsenal of snacks for the kids to keep them happy since they have been known to flip out if one of us has had to go up to say a prayer in the past. They did very well. Grandma also invited her parents to come and we had them all over tonight for dinner. We had a good time and the kid loved playing with them.

Summer Fun

2010-08-22T20:23:00.000-07:00

This weekend was our local community celebration. We've been here for three and a half years, and this was the first time we've gone to check out the festivities, since the kids are finally old enough to appreciate the activities. We sure had a lot of fun.

We took the kids out on the lake in on a paddle boat. It was obvious to us that Ethan was having fun. Brooklyn had a look of indifference on her face the entire time but when we were done, she cried - she didn't want to get out of the boat. It made us want to get a boat so we can do it more often.

The kids also had a lot of fun on the inflatable bounce house/race track shown below. We thought they may have been a little small to play on it with the other bigger kids, but they had a blast.

There was also a car show that we checked out. Ethan was assigning names to the various cars - "This one is Lightning McQueen. This one is Snot Rod." etc. We saw this souped up car and Ethan said, "That one kind of looks like Grandma Morrey's car." She drives a Honda Accord.

The other "car" we really liked was the semi shown here. It's a little hard to tell at first, but this is a golf cart that looks like a semi. The golf clubs behind it gives an idea of the scale.

We took the kids swimming at the local kiddie pool, which was free for the day. The had so much fun. It is so fun to see them playing with each other.

This morning Brooklyn decided she would dress herself before church. She put on the Super Why costume Jen has been working on for Ethan for Halloween. Jen was surprised to return from her presidency meeting to find the kids parading around the front yard, Ethan in his PJs and Brooklyn dressed like this.

Ethan has finally figured out how to pedal his bike. He loves to ride up and down our sidewalk. The other day we caught Brooklyn helping him. So cute.

This morning while we were rushing to get out the door to get to church Ethan got so mad when I put gel in his hair. He usually likes it. He got upset and said, "No! I don't want to be handsome!"

We've been impressed with the improvement in Ethan's coloring as of late. Here are a few of his masterpieces from Sacrament Meeting today.

Prince and Princess

2010-08-16T20:30:00.000-07:00

Tonight, while in our backyard Ethan came outside carrying Brooklyn's clear, jelly shoes trying to catch her telling her, "I've got your glass slippers! I can be the prince and you can be the princess!" He tried to put them on her feet so he could dance with her. Unfortunately for him, she was having too much fun picking and eating strawberries to give him that dance. We were surprised and impressed at his princess knowledge. I don't think he has ever watched Cinderella, though he has seen the "Super Why" version before. We sure love these kids!

24th of July Festivities

2010-08-01T19:34:00.000-07:00

We spent the 24th of July weekend with family in Cache Valley. We had a lot of fun at Grandma Taylor's annual 24th of July family party. Ethan had his traditional fireworks meltdown when we pulled out the fireworks. He just doesn't like loud noises. We couldn't even get him to touch any of the little snaps you drop on cement for a small bang. Brooklyn couldn't get enough of them. We finally got him to agree to go the big fireworks in Mendon as long as he could wear Grandpa's gun shooting ear muffs so the fireworks wouldn't be loud, but he fell asleep ten minutes before the fireworks started. Maybe next year. Brooklyn loved the fireworks, showing no sign of fear. She just sat and stared in awe.

Friday night Kyle, Ethan, and cousin Brian had a campout in the backyard. Kyle thought he wouldn't sleep very well, but he probably got more sleep than anyone sleeping in the house thanks to Brooklyn waking up crying at least three times in the middle of the night.

Ethan was excited Saturday morning to go to Grandma Morrey's house and watch the parade, but he flipped out when he realized he left his Buzz and Woody toys at Grandma Taylor's house. He was so upset that he started walking back to Mendon to get his beloved toys. He got as far as the end of Grandma Morrey's driveway before he realized he didn't know which way to go. He sobbed and screamed through the entire parade, repeating "Buzz and Woody, Buzz and Woody." The rest of us had fun though.

We had a family pot luck with at Jen's Aunt Kaye's house on Sunday and Brooklyn was such a doll running around in her "princess" dress. She and Ethan couldn't get enough of the swings, picnic table, and sandbox.

The kids also enjoyed eating at a picnic table their own size.

Brooklyn loved having Grandpa Taylor read to her.

The other day Jen's mom came to visit and she took us all to to Wendy's near Kyle's work. Ethan got a microphone toy with his kid's meal and he was so excited. He was hard to keep quiet once he had it in his hands. He has always wanted a microphone like on the PBS cartoon "Sid the Science Kid." He sure got a lot of laughs from the other people in the restaurant.

Water Babies

2010-07-28T21:12:00.000-07:00

Last week we went with some of our neighbors to Deseret Peak for the first time. The kids really enjoy swimming and we had a great time.

This was the best we could do at getting a picture of the kids together.

Ethan was very nervous of all the fountains of water that this pool offered. He continually reminded us that we were getting too close to them.

We tried to take Ethan on the water slide, but he refused. Brooklyn, on the other hand, kept repeating, "Again!" at the bottom of the slide and was disappointed when it was time to go home.
Ethan has always been more timid around water than Brooklyn, except when it comes to our small cold kiddy pool. He loves it when I throw him in it, but Brooklyn cries if any of the cold water gets on her. When Ethan was a baby he loved baths, but for the last while they are the worst thing in his little world. He always cries and usually asks to have a shower instead, though he cries during the entire shower as well. Brooklyn, on the other hand would have several baths a day if she could. She will strip her clothes at the mere mention of the word "bath." A few weeks ago while filling up the tub for Ethan, Brooklyn suddenly appeared out of nowhere promptly removing her PJ's and diaper and dove into the tub. Funny girl!

Ethanisms:
The other day Ethan randomly told me, "When you have an accident you close your eyes."

A few mornings ago while in bed I heard Ethan suddenly exclaim from his bedroom, "No! It's still nighttime!!" He got upset that it was morning. What little kid hates waking up in the morning to play? I guess that Morrey sleeping-in-gene must be kicking in. Although Ethan could have gone back to sleep if he would have wanted to, there was no way Brooklyn would. I'm afraid she has inherited the Taylor light-sleeper/insomniac gene.

Analogies

2010-07-18T19:40:00.000-07:00

We had a picnic outside today after church. Ethan was so excited. He helped Kyle put together our new picnic table yesterday and couldn't wait to use it. We bought it a few weeks ago and meant to use it on our deck. Before setting it up, Kyle wanted to fix up a few things on our deck, but what started as a quick project turned into a complete overhaul. We'll get into more details about the deck in a later post.

Lately, Ethan has been full of analogies. Last week he said "Wind is like ice cream. They're both cold." Today, while helping him floss his teeth he said, "Floss is like Woody's pull string." Our mac and cheese tonight had bread crumbs on it. They inspired the following deep thought, "Crumbs are like a fuzzy face." Tonight he also said, "A playground is kind of like a park."

The other night he really made us laugh. He passed gas and exclaimed, "Oh . . .my bum burped!"

Haircut

2010-07-11T19:06:00.001-07:00

We took Brooklyn and Ethan to get haircuts yesterday. It was Brooklyn's first time to get a real haircut, though I've trimmed her bangs a few times over the last few months. We forgot to get a before picture of her getting it done and didn't get a great after picture either. Ethan wasn't happy at all about needing a haircut and only cooperated when the hairdresser told him he could hold a cookie in each hand if he agreed to cooperate. Brooklyn, on the other hand was a perfect little lady.

Here is a before pic (actually taken a few weeks ago).

We mostly had the hairdresser even things out and trim her bangs. She only took off an inch or so off the length.

We rewarded the kids with some ice cream for being "so good" getting haircuts. While we were eating the ice cream Ethan said "Wind is kind of like ice cream. They are both cold."

Reunion ²

2010-07-04T20:27:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we attended both the Morrey family reunion at Beaver Creek Lodge up Logan Canyon, and my ten-year high school reunion. Sadly, we didn't get many pictures, though Kyle's dad got lots of the kids playing at Bear Lake (which we still need to get from him).

My reunion consisted of a family picnic and an evening dinner. Since we were attending both reunions, we opted to go to the family picnic. It wasn't greatly attended, but I did get to see several old friends and meet their kids. It was kind of strange stepping back into the high school era, but refreshing that it didn't have that same awkward intimitading feeling of high school. I especially was pleased to see my dear friend Amy and her boys.

I must admit it took me a little while to recognize my friend Lara, but hey, it has been a long time.
Ethan and Brooklyn had fun playing in the sand at the park with other kids. Ethan said he wanted to make a "snowman in the sand." Brooklyn saw what he was doing and had to join in.

Ethan has been excited about Toy Story 3 for about a year. He started being wishy-washy about wanting to see it for the last few weeks saying that he wanted to see it at home, or that he didn't want to see "Pixar" because he has lately been afraid of the lamp at the beginning of the movies. We tried so many things to make him want to go, but what finally worked was Kyle asking him if he wanted to "see it in a theater on Blu-ray." He had a blast. Grandma Taylor and I bawled. My kids are still babies, but it still got me how fast they grow up.

At the Morrey family reunion all Brooklyn wanted to do was "'wing, 'wing."

A trip to Bear Lake isn't complete without a trip (or two) to get a shake.

Happy Father's Day

2010-06-20T20:51:00.000-07:00

Racing Buddies

2010-06-13T20:48:00.000-07:00

We visited some of our neighbors earlier today and Ethan and Brooklyn had a lot of fun sitting in a go-kart they had there. Ethan even 'drove' home - when told that he couldn't turn on the go-kart he said, "that's OK, I'll just use my imagination."
(Sorry about the cruddy cell-phone pics...)

While we were visiting, Jen saw something on Brooklyn's finger. Jen asked Brooklyn what it was and Brooklyn replied, "booger!" We had no idea she could say that word. At least she didn't try to force-feed it to anyone (as she's been known to do).

Earlier this week we found Brooklyn riding around on a hander, pretending it was a horse. She was saying, "neigh, neigh" and waddling around the house sitting on the arms of the hanger with the hook sticking out from between her legs. It looks like both of our kids have very vivid imaginations.

More Booties

2010-06-11T11:58:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple more recently finished booties. They've been fun to make and fun to give away. I only have the boots left (which I finished last night). I think they are my favorite so far.

These boots mark the 6th pair of booties/shoes that I've made (not including some doll sized ones I made for Brooklyn's dolly). I feel like I've been able to whip them out pretty quickly, though, I think I need to slow down a bit since my right hand is starting to feel tired and overworked (even typing I can feel that my hand isn't quite itself). :(

Kyle's been working a whole lot of overtime the last few days. He went to work at 6 am yesterday and didn't get home until 1 am this morning. He'll be working today and tomorrow although they are days off too. I'm so glad that this doesn't happen very often.

They kids and I had lots of fun picking some of the first of our peas yesterday. We're so glad that Ethan still likes them. He loved them last year, but was quite hesitant to try them again this year (and won't eat frozen peas anymore). We have to keep a close eye on Brooklyn while we are in the yard so she doesn't rip out whole plants. We've already had several casualties this year. She loves to snack on lettuce and spinach by herself too. It is so fun to have such eager helpers in the garden. We are really looking forward to this summer with the kids. They are both at such fun stages!

Now I think I should give my hands some rest.

Cutie Booties

2010-06-06T20:05:00.000-07:00

Jen has been teaching herself to crochet over the last few weeks (thanks, Christin, for the pointers). These are some of the cute baby booties that she's made in the last two weeks. No, Jen is NOT pregnant. Sorry Grandma(s).

Ethan and Brooklyn have been having a blast in the yard with this nice warm weather. The other day they were helping Dad "fix" the sprinklers. Ethan is responsible for how Brooklyn looks in this picture - he was having fun "painting" her. We're afraid the dirt will never completely come out of their clothes.

We had an unexpected surprise yesterday when we went to the grocery store: The carousel outide of the store was constantly running. We put the kids on for a few minutes and, Despite Brooklyn's bored look here, they had a blast.

Last week Ethan decided super heroes need gloves as part of their "super suits." Since we don't have gloves that are his size, he came up with his own solution. He insisted that he wear them while he ate dinner. The really frustrating part is that whenver he get's a drop of water on it (or any other article of clothing, for that matter) he flips out and needs to get a dry one. Ok, we admit that we're gettng really tired of making a new mask for Mr. Incredible, or Dash, or Frozone, or Super Why, etc. every time one rips. We also learned that he doesn't really care what his mask looks like. Here he is as Frozone. Jen wouldn't let him wear it to the store.

The Answer is ...

2010-05-30T19:20:00.000-07:00

Mr. Incredible!

Guess Who!

2010-05-23T19:03:00.001-07:00

Who do you think Ethan is pretending to be in this picture?

Camping With Ethan

2010-05-23T17:39:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Kyle and Grandpa Morrey took Ethan out for his first camping that didn't take place in someone's backyard. We tried to get Ethan excited by telling him that he would be having a picnic, going on a hike, eating s'mores, sleeping in a tent, and whatever else we could think of.

Ethan loved our picnic...
...and our hike. During our hike, Ethan kept saying, "This is a great trip!" ...

...but sadly, we didn't have anything to make S'mores with. Fortunately, Ethan was so ready to go to bed at the end of the day that he didn't even care.

Saturday morning we had our breakfast around the camp fire. Ethan saw other kids playing with sticks in the fire and ran off into the forest (or jungle, as he liked to call it). He came running back a minute later carrying two little sticks, no more than four inches long. He tried to play with them in the fire, but quickly realized that they wouldn't work so he ran off again and came back with a reasonably sized stick. He poked at the fire for a few minutes, and then realized that Dad didn't have a stick. He ran off again and came back with another four inch stick for Dad. Silly kid.

For the majority of our trip, Ethan was pretending to be one of The Incredibles. This tunnel we found was just like the tunnel on the movie, and Ethan loved walking through it.

We were getting ready to go home, but Ethan didn't want to leave. He decided he would sit on the big rock by the side of the road, but...

...he tripped and bonked his head on one of the more jagged pieces. The wound wasn't too bad and clotted all by itself within a few minutes.

One of Ethan's newer personalities is Mr. Incredible's super-hero friend, Frozone. He loves to run around "icing" things. (for anyone who is concerned about his accident from the camping trip, you can see in the following picture taken a week later that it is not very big, and is healing nicely.)

Sadly, we don't have any pictures of Brooklyn this week. She's been expanding her vocabulary like crazy. Yesterday we were walking down the isle in a store and to our suprise she started saying "princess" and pointed to a picture of a Disney princess. She can also say "Buzz," "Woody," "Syndrome," "Super Why," "cereal," and she'll try to repeat pretty much anything we ask her too.

Not only is she saying new words, she actually using them to communicate. For the last while, we'sll walk into her bedroom and she'll say, "up." After picking her up she said, "diaper." She lets us know when she wants milk, cereal, shoes, dressed, chips, etc. It's so nice to know what she wants.

Copy Cat

2010-05-16T20:25:00.000-07:00

Our last post featured Ethan showing off his muscles and whistling. Since then, Brooklyn has started imitating him. Here's what we've captured on video. Of course, she saves her best performances for when the camera is turned off.

Last weekend we found these stinkin' cute costumes at a yard sale. Brooklyn doesn't know what a skunk is, so we told her she was a kitty. She meowed and refused to take the costume off.

Now Ethan has a real Mr. Incredible costume. He loves to be Mr. Incredible, but sometimes he insists that we call him Bob instead (Bob Parr is Mr. Incredible's alter ego FYI). He also likes to be Dash and Elasti-girl (or Mrs. Incredible or Helen).

Ethan doesn't usually like princess cartoons too much since they're for girls, but he's really enjoyed Princess and the Frog. He loves it so much that some days he dresses up as Princess Tiana and sings along to the music. This sure will be fun to show the girls he dates in the distant future.

It has been very hard to keep track of what to call Ethan. In the last week, he's been Mr. Incredible, Dash, Mrs. Incredible, Frozone (Mr. Incredible's friend), Princess Tiana, Handy Manny, Bob the Builder, Buzz Lightyear, Woody, The Man in the Yellow Hat, Curious George, Super Why, and each of the four Imagination Movers (from the Disney Website).

We caught a few of these personalities on video:

The other day we were having a nap on the couch while Ethan was watching Curious George on the computer. A few minutes later Ethan woke us up when he ran in from the other room proclaiming, "I'm Curious George." We were shocked to see that he was completely naked.

Brooklyn has gotten really verbal lately. She loves to practice her animal noises. She can do a doggy, kitty, horse, sheep, pig, duck, baby chick, dolphin, and a few others. The other day Jen caught her playing with her food while she was sitting in her high chair. She had her sippy cup tipped over, and had her graham cracker riding on it like a horse and she kept saying "Neigh, neigh, neigh..." A few minutes later, she was pushing the cracker around the tray sayin "choo choo, choo choo." More recently, she had a piece or orange and was making it quack. It looks like both our kids have vivid imaginations.

This morning, we were getting ready for church. Kyle was shaving, and Ethan walked in and said, "Why does Daddy have glue on his face?" Then he walked into the other bathroom where Jen was appling her eye-liner and asked "Mom, is that one of my pencils? Are you writing on your face?" Kids are funny.

Secret Identities

2010-05-02T17:21:00.000-07:00

Brooklyn is growing up so fast! She has recently started saying so many more words, including grandma and grandpa, nose, eyes, eye brow, ears, hair, etc. I made these korker bows for her this week. and she had fun modeling for me the other day. She is going to be 18 months old next week! We are so excited to send her off to nursery. We hope she transistions well to it. We think it is funny that when Ethan went to nursery, I was 6 1/2 months pregnant with Brooklyn. It will be nice to have more of a break at church this time around (that is if the kids cooperate).

Ethan has ceased to be "Ethan" this week. For a few days he insisted that his name was "Woody." Now and for the last few days he corrects us when we call him "Ethan" and says he is "Mr. Incredile." Kyle is "Dash," Brooklyn is "Violet," and I'm "Elasti-girl" or "Mrs. Incredible." If we make the mistake of using any of our real names he corrects us. I found a mask you could print out on the Disney website and he has insisted that he wear it all Friday and Saturday. Thankfully, he has a very vivid imagination - any shirt with red on it can be his Mr. Incredible shirt, and his blue jeans became "red pants" for his outfit. We went to Gardner Village and WinCo on Friday and he got lots of attention.

As you know, Mr. Incredible is very strong. Here's a video of him showing off his muscles!

We met Grandma Taylor and Emily and Daniel at Gardner Village where Grandma surprised him with a stick horse that she found at the DI. Miraculously he transformed back into Woody for an hour or so. He loves "Bullseye," his horse.

Once again he became "Mr. Incredible" and played the part while helping Mom and Dad work in the garden on Saturday. He was a bit disappointed that we didn't let him wear his mask to bed or to church today, but he has continued to play the part nonetheless.
Random tidbits:

We think it is funny that whenever Ethan sees the box of ice cream cones we often purchase from Walmart he looks at the back and says, "I want to watch that movie!"

Ethan doesn't like the idea that he was ever a "baby." According to him, when he was in diapers he was "still a big boy" and when he was in mom's tummy he was "a big boy." Brooklyn according to him is still a "baby" thought he admits that she is getting bigger.

This week our little boy learned how to "whistle" too. He copies Dad by putting his fingers in his mouth to make it very loud. Here's a video.

Star Command

2010-04-28T12:41:00.000-07:00

For the last few days Ethan has been pretending to be Woody. If we call him Ethan, he corrects us and says, "No, I'm Woody." He has been calling Kyle "Buzz", me "Jessie," and Brooklyn "Bo Peep."

Yesterday, while I was saying our lunch prayer, Ethan tried to interrupt when I talked about Daddy at work. When I was finished, he wanted to say his own prayer. It went something like this:

"Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for our blessings. We thank you for this food. Please bless this food. Please bless Buzz to have a good day at Star Command. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen."

He's has been dressing like Woody at all times and even insists he sleeps with his hat, vest, star, and boots on his feet. We love our boy!

Grandma Got Run Over by a Muskrat

2010-04-18T19:02:00.001-07:00

Earlier this week Jen had to go to a "meeting" (that's where we tell Ethan Mom is going whenever she goes anywhere by herself) and Kyle took the kids on a walk to a local park. Ethan has such a vivid imagination. We were two doors down from our house, and Ethan decided that he would be Woody and Dad would be Buzz Lightyear and Brooklyn would be Jessie (the yodeling cowgirl). Then he said he was going to ride RC (the toy car from Toy Story), reached into the basket of the stroller, and pulled out an imaginary RC car. He rode the car for a few more houses until he decided he wanted to fly. He put the car back in the stroller, and started flying down the sidewalk.

Our destination for this walk was a small nearby park that we don't usually go to. This park has a couple of raccoon toys for the kids to ride. Ethan was excited to jump on (as Woody) and ride his horse, Bullseye. Brooklyn had fun too.
This weekend, we went up for a late Easter/birthday party with Kyle's extended family in Brigham City. Grandpa Morrey brought his horses to give the kids a ride. Ethan said that he wasn't big enough to ride the horses. Once Brooklyn got on she didn't want to get off!

Both Ethan and Brooklyn loved riding the 4-wheeler's up and down the dirt road. Ethan kept shouting things like "This is so fun," and "Rock and Roll!" (Anyone familiar with the Bob the Builder cartoon will recognize that this is Scrambler the 4-wheeler's catch phrase)

Another highlight of the trip was when the dog ran up to the party with a freshly killed muskrat in his jaws. He chased Grandma Morrey around the 4-wheeler a few times before running off to show the everyone else. We really wish we would have gotten a picture of that.

And now, a few miscellaneous things:

Brooklyn has started saying "Ethan" and "Brooklyn." Ethan is "Eth" and Brooklyn is "Broo" (pronounced as if she is going to say it correctly, but leaves off the "klyn"). We bought some Blue's Clues Luv's diapers the other day and she loves to point to the picture of Blue (the dog) and say "Blue." She's been trying to emulate whatever we say instead of just ignoring us.

For the last couple of months, whenever she sees or hears anything that has to do with Elmo she sticks out her tongue and says, "la la la la" as if she's singing "Elmo's Song."

We've discovered a great trick to get Ethan to do what we want when we want him to, whether it's getting him ready for bed, finish eating his dinner, or get ready to leave the park without an argument. We show him the clock and say, "Right now the clock says 6 - 2 - 1. When the clock says 6 - 3 - 0, it's time to . . ." He agrees, continues doing what he's doing, and then when it's time we show him the clock again and say, "Ok, now the clock says 6-3-0. It's time to . . " and he's ready to go. Works like magic.

Go Fly a Kite!

2010-04-11T18:35:00.001-07:00

Friday afternoon was perfect for kite flying. We took the kids for their first time, though Brooklyn had more fun running around and playing with Ethan's soccer ball than with the kite. Ethan really enjoyed himself and did a great job with the kite (which he got for Easter).

"To infinity and beyond!"

Sometimes it seemed like he forgot what he was doing and he would just start walking with the kite trailing behind him. Silly boy!

After flying the kite, the kids had a blast playing on the playground in the distance.

Yesterday, we went to visit their cousins for Allie's first birthday. We had a great time visiting with family and playing outside. It was probably the nicest Saturday weather we've had so far this year.

Here are a few words/things Brooklyn has been saying recently:

box
roll
flower
cereal
more cereal
marshmallows
bird
bee
it's a bird

Brooklyn LOVES books, especially "We're going on a Bear Hunt." While Jen was busy doing something the other day, Brooklyn brought her the book to read. Jen asked Ethan if he wanted to read a book to Brooklyn and he was excited about the idea. It was amazing how well he remembered the words to the book. We asked Ethan to read it again to her the other day and got some of it on tape (sadly the tape ran out so we missed the best part, but we'll just have to try it again). We were surprised he remembered the words so well since we haven't had the book too long. It just melts our hearts to watch them have fun together.

Non-Generic Easter Greeting

2010-04-04T19:35:00.000-07:00

This was a really fun weekend with the kids. In the past we have visited family for Easter, but this year we wanted to celebrate at home. We really enjoyed listening to Conference and celebrating the holiday together, and hopefully pick up a few new traditions.

This afternoon, we had a nice turkey dinner and had an Easter egg hunt with the kids. Most of the eggs had a small treat in them, but some of the eggs had clues in them that revealed where some larger prizes were. Ethan loved the clues since he recently was introduced to "Blues Clues." He even likes to draw in his own "handy dandy notebook." Brooklyn didn't really understand what was going on, but she loved the candy and anything Ethan helped find for her.

On Saturday morning we took the kids out to the Deseret Peak compound in Tooele for their Easter Egg hunt. It was amazing! There were thousands of eggs/books/toys/etc. laid out in a parking lot with probably at least a thousand kids all waiting in anticipation. Ethan was a little wary about going out there with all the other kids, but he got excited when he saw Smarties and Tootsie Rolls. Brooklyn was in the youngest age group but they didn't get to pick up eggs. Instead they just gave all the wee ones treats and a little book.

He did not want to wear his coat, so we didn't make him. He ended up with Kyle's jacket after he realized that he wished he had listened to us.

Some of the eggs had numbers on them for big prizes. We didn't get any of them, but we were amazed at how great the prizes were. There were kids everywhere with new bikes, and even a bounce house. Maybe next year . . .

When we got home Ethan wanted to lay all of his candy out on the rug just like he did after he went Trick-or-Treating (though this time he got lots more candy). We thought it was funny that he lined it up in a row. It's a good thing he's a good sport for letting us limit how many pieces he can have in a day.

We thought it would be fun to make marshmallow eggs for Easter. Ethan was excited to "help" form the egg shapes in the flour. . .

. . . and to lick the spoon!

Brooklyn has been showing much more interest in her baby lately. It has been so cute to see her giving them love.

She's also been obsessed with hats, or making things into hats. (She was losing her balance when we snapped this one and we thought she looked funny).

We've had some crazy weather this week. It was nearly 70 at the beginning of the week, and three snowstorms. Each one dumped a few inches, then melted within a day. Ethan wanted to build a snow man on Friday.

Here he was Sunday (before we smashed him). We think he looks like a duck.

Ethan got this soccer ball for Easter today, and has already had lots of fun with it. It looks like he's already posing for a soccer team photo.

Kyle's birthday was on Tuesday. Kyle asked for a carrot cake. Ethan insisted that Jen make a Doc cake (Doc from Cars) for Dad's birthday (and a Sally cake for Jen's and a Flo cake for Brooklyn's). He was disappointed until we put a blue candle on his piece of cake, then he was satisfied. Notice that once again, Kyle's candles are in binary (29).

Kyle walked in Sunday morning and found Ethan sitting at the computer with Notepad open and the box for "The Princess and the Frog" DVD in front of him. Ethan was carefully copying the letters from the DVD box. Kyle had to point out that there were words between "Princess" and "Frog," and this is the result:

We went to Kyle's mission reuinion on Friday night. Attendance was a little sparse, but that was probably a good thing because Ethan was off the wall. We were sitting down for dinner, and in the silence Ethan turned to Jen and out of the blue blurted out "I love you...your hair is nice" (he might have said "cute" but we dont' remember for sure) and touched her hair. People got a good laugh.

Ethanisms

2010-04-01T09:32:00.000-07:00

Ethan has said some of the funniest things lately, though we often forget them before we have a chance to write them down. Here are some recent favorites.

For FHE on Monday we talked about Easter. We asked him if he could say "ressurrected." He replied by saying, "No I can't. That's another language."

Whenever he sees me eating anything he likes he gets worried I'm going to finish it off so he gets concerned and says, "Don't eat too much of those or you'll get sick!" He keeps saying that until I stop eating them.

Yesterday, I asked him why the broom was in the bathroom. He said, "Because I was wiping the peep off."

"Happy means we should make cake."

"I like meatballs. It's kind of like a snowman with big and little and middle."

We Like Spring

2010-03-28T19:02:00.000-07:00

We've been terrible at taking pictures over the last few weeks. We've taken a few trips out of town recently and forgot to charge our battery the first weekend, and forgot our camera the next. Sorry for the cruddy pics. Most were off Kyle's cell phone.

These kids had so much fun playing outside after church today (though they don't show it in this picture). Brooklyn discovered how much fun it is to play in this little car, and Ethan didn't want to miss out on the fun so he jumped in too.

We've really enjoyed the great Spring weather we've had over the last few days. Yesterday we even mowed our lawn for the first time this year. It was so great to start off the new season by filling the air with the smell of freshly cut grass. Our peas, spinnach, lettuce, and radishes are up now, and we're excited to get the rest of the garden planted.

Last weekend we went to the baby blessing of Rob and Christin's baby Julie. She is such a cute little thing. We had a great time visiting with family and the kids had a fun time seeing their cousins and other family.

We've mentioned it before, but Ethan LOVES the alphabet. He has learned so much over the last few months. He can write and spell several words now, including his name. He was excited today to write his name on his coloring page in nursery. We were drawing with sidewalk chalk yesterday and he practiced writing "Brooklyn" and the entire alphabet (I wrote them first and he copied them).

Ethan has also found a new fascination with his bathtub alphabet. The other day Kyle walked into his room, and Ethan had half the alphabe laid out across his bed (note that the letters are in reverse order - he still doesn't ahve the whole right-to-left writing thing figured out yet). Kyle helped him finish the rest of the alphabet, and then they sang the alphabet song. Ethan often says the funniest or most random but we usually forget them before we write them down. The other day when we were kissing him goodnight he said, "Sometimes fireworks make a loud sound. But balloons don't. Balloons fly." We often wish we could see what's going on in his little mind.

This is a pretty old picture, but we found it on Kyle's cell phone and had to mention it. Brooklyn has gotten to the age where she hates sitting in the shopping cart. She can't stand not knowing where we're going so she always turns herself around so she can see. It always looks so uncomfortable, but she just won't stay turned the right way even though she is always strapped in.

Jordan's Wedding

2010-03-16T08:02:00.000-07:00

Our family traveled to Rexburg this weekend for the wedding of Kyle's cousin Jordan. It was the longest car trip that Brooklyn had ever been on, and the second longest for Ethan. We drove up to Logan the night before to break up the car ride for them, but Brooklyn still cried and fussed a lot. We were all happy to finally be to our destination.

The wedding was beautiful and it was so fun to be able to meet with so many of Kyle's extended family that we so rarely get to see. The Rexburg temple is so gorgeous and the ceremony was performed by the temple president, Val R. Christensen who is also a former general authority and has the service center at USU named after him.

The kids loved swimming in the swimming pool at the hotel we stayed in. It was Brooklyn's first time in a big pool and she loved it. Ethan had a harder time getting over his fear, but he eventually did and didn't want to leave. Sadly, although we remembered to bring our camera, I failed to charge the battery and forgot the extra one.

Although the weather was clear on the day of the wedding, it was cold. It also was snowing the morning we were going to travel home. We looked forward to the nice weather that we believed would be in the forcast at home. We drove home, only stopping for lunch in Ogden and the kids did great. We were sadly surprised though when we got home to several inches of snow. It has since melted though and we are looking forward to enjoying weather in the 60s for a few days.

"No Flu Shot!"

2010-03-07T19:46:00.001-08:00

Whenever we go anywere resembling a doctor's office, Ethan always throws a fit and screams, "No flu shots!" If we're going to the dentist, we hear, "No flu shot!" If we're going to an appointment for Jen, we hear, "I don't want Mom to get a flu shot!"

We like to schedule Well Child visits for the kids together whenever possible to avoid spending time in the doctor's office. So when we went to his 3 year check-up this week and Brooklyn's 15-month visit, you can imagine how excited we were. We tried to explain to Ethan that he didn't even need a shot, but he was not a happy camper. Thankfully our pediatrician's office has a fish tank filled with nearly every fish in Finding Nemo.

Here are the stats for our kids.
At three years old, Ethan is:
31 lbs
70th percentile for height (we can't remember exactly - he was so uncooperative with the nurse that we weren't paying attention to details at this point.)

At 15 months (ok, she'll actually be 16 months old this week):
19 lbs 9 oz. (7th percentile)--We were really hoping to break the 20 lbs mark, but she really unloaded in her diaper twice right before she was weighed.
31 inches long (60th percentile)

Both kids have met all their milestones just fine.

The other day, Jen decided that it was time to trim Brooklyn's bangs. Here are a few pictures of her after the trim.

Ethan is 3!!

2010-03-01T21:42:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday Ethan!!

We celebrated Ethan's birthday a day early with his grandmas and grandpas here for a small party. Last year I made a race track cake for his birthday and thought he'd want a different theme this year, but was very clear that he wanted a Radiator Springs Lightning McQueen cake (when he has the new paint job). He was so excited watching the process of his cake being made, and was very particular about all the details on his cake.

I've only used fondant for a cake once before, years ago, so I was a little nervous to try it again. This fondant recipe was very simple. It was made of marshmallow, water, and powdered sugar.
Kyle made the cactuses (yes, the green blobs are cactuses). It was a lot of fun to make but took all Saturday to put together. It was all worth it though to see how much Ethan loved it.

Ethan did a pretty good job blowing out the candles, but his aim was a little off so Grandma Taylor helped a little.

We asked Ethan which slice he wanted and he said he wanted the big "95" on top which just happened to be the exact middle of the cake.

It is great that Ethan is now a pro at opening presents and that he gets so excited about it. Most of his presents were from Disney's Cars, as it is still his greatest obsession.

Artist in Training

2010-02-28T21:10:00.000-08:00

Last week we bid $11 on a 4x8 foot maker board at a local auction, and we won! We installed it in the basement, and the kids are having so much fun with it.
I think this is one of the first drawings of a face that Ethan has ever done. We're so proud of him. This one is a happy face. The one to the right is an angry face.

Ethan has been so interested in letters and spelling. He's always asking how to spell words like "Chick Hicks" and "Lightning McQueen" and "Dinaco McQueen" and "The King" and "Mrs The King" and "Dinaco helicoper" etc. He repeats every letter.

Ethan has been using the new marker board to practice writing too. Yes, Ethan did write this all by himself. Okay, Kyle did have to coax him a lot, and had to erase some of the extra lines that shouldn't have been there, but Ethan did all the writing. (btw, it says "I love dad")

We had an early 3rd birthday party for Ethan tonight - his birthday isn't until tomorrow. Jen spent all day Saturday making his cake, and we're really happy with how it turned out. Stay tuned for pictures and details.

Could it be?!

2010-02-16T19:03:00.000-08:00

The warm weather we've been having has really made me anxious to get outside and start thinking about our garden. I've already bought some seeds (peas, spinach, broccoli, lettuces) to plant although it will still be a month before I dare risk it.

The kids and I spent some time outside today digging in the dirt and playing outside. I was surprised at how many weeds I found so soon. But what really surprised me was how many tulips are starting to come up.

Spring must be just around the corner! --At least for everyone NOT living in Cache Valley ;)

Valentine's Weekend

2010-02-14T20:01:00.000-08:00

Our family just returned from spending a few days in Cache Valley (sadly we were up there in the snow while it was 51 degrees at home). We had a great visit and we got to go on a few dates without the kids.

Thursday, February 12 marked the first time Jen has ever been skiing. Kyle's parents had a ward ski night, and we went up to Beaver Mountain for the evening. After a rough first run learning what to do, Jen really got the hang of it and by the end of the night was consistently making it down the mountain without falling down. We had a great time and hope to make skiing more of a tradition in our family. We saw some 4 and 5 year olds cruising down the mountain . . . maybe in a year or two we'll have to take Ethan.

Friday night, Kyle took Jen on a surprise date to a fancy dinner and Jazz performance with dancing at the Sky Room at USU. It was a little awkward at first, since the average age in the room was probably 60. We didn't mind though, and met a nice couple around our age. We had a great time dining and dancing and we got to show off our dance move. Yeah, we only have one move (just kidding, of course. But not too far from the truth). We really want to make an effort to go dancing more often, though.

On Saturday, we went to Lowe's "Build and Grow" activity to have Ethan build a jewelry rack to give to Mom on Valentine's day. This is a free service Lowe's does for the community every couple of weeks. As you can see in this picture, he was pretty excited to use real tools. He got to keep the glasses and apron too!

He was very intent on the work he was doing.

He was concentrating so hard on getting that nail into the wood that he forgot to smile. This was pretty much his expression the entire time, but he really did have a good time.

After Lowe's, we went Rob and Christin's house to see their new baby girl, Julie. Take a look at their blog to see a plethora of pictures of their little sweetie. While we were there, Rob took Ethan out in the back yard to give him a ride on his four-wheeler. Kyle drove Ethan around the yard a few times. Ethan had a blast riding Scrambler (those of you who are unfortunate enough to be familiar with "Bob the Builder" know what this means). Thanks, Rob.

Notice how much snow there was in the previous picture. We were shocked at how much snow there still is in Logan. We haven't had snow stick on the ground since Christmas at home. It was such a nice afternoon that Ethan and Kyle decided to walk home from church. We passed by the park on our way home and Ethan had to stop and play for a bit. We sure hope we get to enjoy more of this sunny weather this upcoming week.

"Chicken Nug-nuts"

2010-01-31T19:31:00.000-08:00

We sure love our sweet kids. It is so fun to see them grow and they make us laugh so much everyday. We had some roasted Parmesan chicken thighs for dinner which we cut up for Ethan and told him were chicken nuggets, remembering he loved the last time we had homemade chicken nuggets. He was excited and said, "Oh! I love chicken nug-nuts! This is just one of the few things he says wrong that we don't have the heart to correct because it is so darn cute! Others are "Carl's June-yair" (Carl's Jr. with a French sounding accent) and "marsh-marshow" (marshmallow).

Ethan put these glasses on the other day and we just had to snap a photo.
She's cute. What more is there to say.
We have been amazed at how much better Ethan has gotten at coloring over the last few months. He still needs a lot of work at staying in the lines, but he is starting to use more colors on one picture and usually he remembers what colors things are supposed to be.

While coloring the picture of Woody and Bo Peep, Ethan insisted that Brooklyn color Bo Peep. She's not too bad of an artist herself.

The other day Ethan out of the blue proclaimed, "I want to color Super Why." He then ran into the office, got on the computer, navigated to the PBS Kids website, found the picture he wanted, printed it, and colored it all by himself. We find it amusing that he can do all this and isn't even three yet, while we probably couldn't do the same task until we were probably ten or so. What are we in for with this kid?!

Ethan and Brooklyn love dancing to one of the songs from Kyle's childhood. We started singing it to Ethan ever since he was able to walk and he loved it. We couldn't remember exactly how it went, but made it our own. We recently heard the original song, but like our version better. Here is a portion of it. This was the first time Brooklyn joined us in dancing to this song. We continue to be amazed at how much better Brooklyn has been getting at walking each week.

(My new apron makes a cameo in the video above. I made it myself! I sure hope my mom is proud.)

Milestones

2010-01-24T21:00:00.000-08:00

It seems like Brooklyn's preferred method of transportation has been walking ever since we posted the video of her walking last week. She's getting pretty good at it.

She's got her third tooth poking through and it looks like tooth number four could be here by the end of the week. All teeth so far are on the top, but the bottom gums look pretty swollen.

Her babbling has recently become full of more complex sounds and she seems to be trying to say more words like, cracker, cookie, candy, and diaper. She seemes to be better at communicating what she wants too. For example, last week Jen was cleaning the kitchen, and Brooklyn came to her walking out on her knees holding a diaper and saying "dae da" (her word for diaper). Jen checked her diaper, and sure enough she had a messy diaper. It seemed like she was asking her to change it. Ethan never cared about about his diaper being messy, ever. Clever girl.

Brooklyn's playing has really evolved as well. She is coloring as well as Ethan did at 24 months. She loves to play with Ethan's toys and drive the cars around the room making a car noise. She also likes to "fly" Ethan's Buzz Lightyear around while making the same car noise. So cute.

Today Kyle decided to copy another one of the YouTube video ideas that Ethan loves to watch. We got some of Ethan's Cars characters and did some stop action animation. Ethan LOVES to watch it. As soon as the video finishes, he begs "again!" Here is one of the movies we've done. You'll notice that these cars have been well-loved.

Tonight Ethan was playing with Brooklyn's shopping cart, and we asked him if we should get a play store with food that he and Brooklyn could use to prentend they were at buying things from the store. Ethan got really excited and starting filling up his shopping cart with random toys and assigning prices to them. "This track is $5.00. This tree is $3.00." We may have found a possible present for next Christmas. (We already have his birthday presents for him, which he sort of found yesterday. Oops!)

We just talked with Jen's parents, and our sister-in-law Christin may have just gone into labor as we speak (...or write...). Go Christin!