Elder Chris and Elder Kyle Serve Together!

What a great experience for my older boys to serve as missionaries together.  

After Kyle came home and was released from serving in the Colorado, Colorado Springs mission, he had permission to go and serve with Chris in Houston if it was within his first week home.  They have been planning this for months and they had a great time.  

Kyle flew in on December 29th, Elder Chris and his companion picked him up at the airport, and they had 2 full days and 2 half days to be together.

Kyle said it was a great experience and that the Houston mission is totally different than the Colorado Springs mission, but all in all, it's missionary work.  

At one point, Chris' bike broke and so Chris couldn't pedal the bike.  So Kyle took off his belt, Chris and Kyle each held one end of the belt and Kyle pulled him home.  (see the top picture)

They spent New Years Eve together and listened to millions of firecrackers and fireworks go off and even set off a few themselves (as Houston has no ban on fireworks).  

All in all, I loved seeing pictures and video of my boys together and now it's back to work for Elder Chris.

Kyle returned home safely last night and headed out this morning with Caden on a scout campout in Barstow to burn Christmas trees.  Kaylee is wondering when Kyle will stay home!

In case I haven't said so yet - Happy New Year to all who are kind enough to read my blog.  Keep your posts coming, I read each and every one whether I comment on them or not and love to see all the pictures of the kids in Utah.  Thanks for getting my hooked on blogging girls!  

Kaylee's Haircut

Kaylee wanted everyone to see her new haircut.  She's been wanting to cut it off for a while, but I told her she had to wait until after the holidays.  She reminded me this morning that the holidays are over!  She's been growing her bangs out forever and now with this cut they are 'almost' the same length.  One more trim in 6 months and we'll have made it.  Then she wants to grow it all long again.  The life of a pre-teen!

Elder Kyle is HOME!

Elder Kyle Morgan arrived at the Ontario Airport after a few delays in his flight, but he made it home safe and sound.  Kaylee waited at the bottom of the escalator for about 15 minutes waiting and staring at the top of the escalator.  We let her have the first hug.

Kyle is happy to be home, but I think he would much rather be back in the mission field.  It wasn't easy for him to be released and he was emotional when the words were spoken.  It was a beautiful experience to watch and know the love he had for his Heavenly Father, his Savior, and his mission experience.  We are so proud of his honorable service for the past 23 months.

Now, we wait until August for Elder Chris to return from Houston, but for now, this is our 'almost complete' family picture.

New Mural

Our new mural was installed today.  This is Eddie from Artistic Edge.  He is the artist and we are extremely pleased with the finished product.  He decided to paint it on canvas instead of directly onto the wall so that if we ever moved (oh gee, I hope not) we'd be able to remove it and take it with us.  We love it!

Caden's 15th Bday Party

Caden's birthday was a huge success thanks to his wonderful friends who came out to support him.  

We are so grateful to Miss Skyler Day, our awesome friend, who shared her talent with us with a performance in our new (work in progress) theatre/entertainment room.  Enjoy her song "Fireflies" on the video clip.  Skyler writes all her own songs and will be huge talent in the near future. 

 I think everyone had a great time even though his friends can't sing.  Ha ha.

Albertsons.com

Okay - I finally did it!  I ordered my groceries on Albertsons.com and had them delivered.  Now that we've moved and I'm not living next door to the grocery store, I thought I'd give it a try.  It was AWESOME!  I have to go into Ralphs now and see if the prices were as good, but for a flat $12.95 delivery charge (the driver won't accept tips), I figure with gas, my time, and the stuff I DON'T buy on impulse, I'm probably ahead.  It was sooo cool.  And you get to pick the delivery time.  How's that for service?!  The produce was well chosen as well as the roast I selected.  I'm so excited!  The trick is to get enough at one delivery that your delivery charge is worth it.  I'll still have to drive to the market if it's something I need that day or if it's just a few items.  But, of course, I'm the one that goes into the market for a few items and comes out with $150 in groceries, so maybe I should just add to my food storage when I need a few items... he he.

"Hobo Mansion"

Caden and his cousin, Chandler, (and minimal help from Kaylee) decided to take all the boxes from the outdoor furniture that Caden set up Friday and Saturday (took a total of about 8 hours and an extremely sore back and fingers) and turn it into what they call a "Hobo Mansion".  It has a kitchen and a bathroom and bedrooms and even skylights, chimneys, and windows.  Pretty cute, huh?

Yes, the pictures are taken at the new house.  They built Hobo Mansion in the middle of the center courtyard.  The wall tiles sticking out of the wall in the top picture are part of the fountain I designed and is still a work in progress.  

Elder Chris in Houston!

New pictures from Chris arrived today...Yeah!  Some of the Elders went to Brazos Bend State Park and got a little too close to alligators for my taste.  Bad Chris!

Keeping Chris away from the musical instruments - not so easy!

I love Chris' companion photos in front of the temple.  They always are so GQ.

So excited... Only 27 days till we get to talk to Elder Chris on Christmas Day!

A "Moving" Sunset

Okay - this is a corny title.  I wanted to post to let everyone know that the "Move" went well and we are starting to settle in.  I used the ovens for the first time to cook the Thanksgiving dinner tonight, and good news - nothing blew up or anything - yeah Me!  It's always a wonder that everything works okay when you go to use it for the first time.  

The night after we moved in I snapped these awesome sunset pictures.  It was like a little moving gift just for us, but I'm sure you all enjoyed it, too.  

Then just yesterday, I got these amazing shots after the rain.  What a beautiful blue sky behind the house and in the archway you see our view that we stare at constantly.  Sorry, the white pipes kinda mess up the picture, but the yard is still a work in progress.  

Elder Kyle and the Cool Kid!

I love the look on Kyle's face here.  

He sent home alot of pictures of this boy,

so I assume he must have made an impact on him 

(he's so cute, how could he not?).  

FYI - Kyle comes home in 41 days, but who's counting.  Can't wait!

Kaylee's Zoo Field Trip

Kaylee went on a school field trip to the San Diego Zoo.

November 14, 2008

These are her classmates Haley, Samantha, and Tristan.

Kaylee and the Rhino's back end.

Kaylee loved the baby giraffe, born in August.

We even saw one of the Koalas awake, and it actually moved around 

for a minute or 2, but then it was exhausted.  

Koala's sleep 22 hours a day, now that's the life.

Our "Behind the Scenes" tour got us up and close with the Camels.  

The big one on the right.... was HUGE!

Caden Receives Life Scout Rank

Caden finally received the Life Scout Rank Advancement Award that he earned back in March.  Congratulations to Caden!  He needs only 3 more merit badges, his 6 month leadership in the troop, and his Eagle Project and he'll get his Eagle.  His goal is to have his Eagle by his 16th bday, but hopes to receive it sooner than that.  

Caden pinned the perty mother's pin for the Life Rank on me.  It's actually a very pretty red heart pin that I'm very proud to wear.  He didn't even poke me!  

We Got Final Inspection Today!

Dean met with the inspector today and made the 2 corrections needed to get signed off from the county.  Yeah Dean!  

Here's some pics of the house.  The dining room, the master bath, the kitchen, and the stairwell. We still have a little more work with touch up, outside tile, landscaping, etc. but as far as the county goes - we're go for launch!

Move in date set for Monday, November 17th. Whaahoo!

Answers to "Guess the Boys"

So, before Kaylee, it used to be just me and my boys.  Having boys is a blessing when they have good hearts, and mine do.  They've also been taught very well by my husband, Dean.  I've never had to carry anything if a boy had a free hand.  My doors are opened for me.  I can start a project, and then realize I have no skills, and one of my boys will always save me.  We play the damsel/hero game very well and they've always been so proud to know that they can help Mom.  I love my little girl, Kaylee, and feel very blessed to have her, but I will always cherish the time when it was just me and my boys.

The answers:  #1 Kyle, #2 Chris, #3 Caden, #4 Chris, #5 Caden, and #6 Kyle

That means that my sister Wendi won - she got 100%!  Thanks for playing!

My Brave Kaylee!

I lost my camera for a few months - found it today in my bag from Newport Beach... duh.  Anyway, here is some footage of Kaylee at Raging Waters going down the super scary steepest slide in the park.  It took her a few tries staring at it and then backing away, but she finally did it.  I tried stopping her and telling her to just wait a year or 2, but no way - she was gonna do it - and she did.  The people sitting next to me in the viewing area were shocked and couldn't believe it.  

Guess the Morgan Boys!

So, to go back in time with the boys, I thought it would be fun to put some baby pictures on the blog and let you comment and guess who is who.  Start at the top as pic #1 and guess through #6 at the bottom.  There are 2 pictures of each of my sons.  Chris is now 24, Kyle 21, and Caden 14, but they all started as cute little babies with pictures that I can barely figure out who's who.  I'll wait about a week or so and put a new post with the answers.  Have fun playing!

Kaylee's Adoption Journey

So, I thought I'd go back in time and review some of the wonderful events in our life.   In April 2002, we added our Kaylee to our family.  She was 2 1/2 years old and we adopted her from Kaliningrad, Russia.  Kaliningrad is a little spec of Russia between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea.  History lesson... when the USSR broke up, Russia wanted to keep a port for import/export that didn't freeze over and so Kaliningrad is the place.   

The first picture is of Kaylee and I on our first day meeting each other on our first trip to Russia in March.  She was shy and a little nervous, but warmed up to the attention quite quickly (not much has changed there) and even cuddled a little with me.  

This was our adoption day after we had gone through the proceedings at the courts and came to pick her up at the baby home.  Big Day!  We had flown in that day, were exhausted after our 12 hour flight and found that they had changed our court date to that day, only a few hours after we landed.  After court, we picked up her new birth certificate with our names on it as parents and then went to pick up our new daughter.  I was almost as exhausted as childbirth after all the hoopla.  

Eating - Now that was exciting.  Kaylee ate everything she could get her hands on and was a pro with the spoon.  It was fun to watch her try everything just because she didn't have alot of variety in the baby home and it was so new to her.  Her faces were priceless.

This picture just cracks me up.  When we would visit her in the baby home, she had to come from a building next door to the offices.  It was literally across the driveway.  But they would bundle her up like she was going to the Appalachians or something.  It was probably about 55 degrees outside, certainly not freezing.   And she was always mismatched.  But always so cute.

Kaylee's trip to Moscow.  All of the US adoption papers had to be signed in Moscow and she had to have a physical and all alot of other red tape.  So we had some time to see some sights and was able to have some nostalgic pictures of Kaylee in Red Square.  Something to remember her heritage.