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.  

Kaylee and I went on a 'field trip' to the Santa Rosa Plateau right by our new home in La Cresta on Saturday.  Here's some pics.  We saw a gray fox, a young groundhog, an awesome tortoise, plus a few more animals.  Then we walked around the Visitor's Center where nice older docents taught her about scat and other interesting facts about animals.  (Yes, these are just plastic poop!)  She had more fun talking with the docents because they gave her soooo much attention.  It was a fun day for Kaylee.

Halloween 2008

Caden went to the stake dance as a king and at Kaylee's school party, she was Lady Guenivere. 

We will be doing something a little different this year for Halloween night tonight - instead of trick-or-treating, we are going to watch a few Halloween movies in our new house.  It is completely empty, except for the TV and some chairs for watching TV.  We'll bring up food and have lots of fun.  Probably turn out all the lights and play some spooky hide and seek in the dark.  I figure there is less chance of harm to people and to my furniture if the house is empty when we do this.  

And to all of you - Have a Happy and Safe Halloween!

Caden's Crazy Hair Day at School.  Cute, huh?  

Kaylee's Hip Hop Dance from a while back.  I promised I'd put it on and I'm finally able to do it.  Enjoy!

Caden put on his CEC shirt and played electrician.  (Actually, it was totally coincidental that Caden was wearing this shirt! - He didn't even know he'd be hanging a light that day!)  Sooo- if the light on the left side of the island stops working - it's Caden's fault!   ha ha

Not my best picture, but PROOF that I don't just tell people what to do all day - I actually aged all the painted cabinets in the house myself.  I'll update with the finished cabinets next week.  Yay me!

Some of you have asked for more pics of the house progress. Soooo - It's getting closer.  The Italian tile is AWESOME!  Couldn't be more pleased with the look.  The courtyard will be center stage in the house and I can't wait until it gets the brick laid next week.  The copper gutters will dull and bronze and not look so dang bright.  Nothing like trying to build a house that looks old and put bright copper all over it.  Unfortunately, it will take about 6 months, so I guess we have alot of landscaping, etc. to do in that time anyway before it will really look completed.  Move in date....Halloween?

School Pictures 2008

Caden and Kaylee started at Santa Rosa Academy Charter School this year.

Caden attends a full day of school once a week, which is new for Caden... he's never been to a full day of school considering he was homeschooled since Kindergarden.  We took his picture on his 1st day of school - literally - his 1st day of school!  LOL.

Caden is in 9th grade this year, a high schooler - can you believe it?  Kaylee is in 4th grade.  Both are doing well this year and thriving in the new program.  Kaylee is having to show more integrity in her work and seems to want good grades more than ever before - which is great!  Her math skills are improving and she is looking forward to the 5 day a week program.  Caden is getting A's and impressing the teachers.  This is a great program for him to start preparing for college work and one of his periods is a college prep course.  By 11th grade, he hopes to be in the 5 day a week program, if his gymnastics program isn't too demanding.