What's in Your Cabinet?

Cleo checking out the contents of the bathroom drawer.....

Morgan cleared out the pots and pans in the kitchen cabinet the other day....and happily crawled in. She was so proud of herself!

Happy Easter!

In Luke 24 we learn that on the third day after the crucifixion, two angels appeared to the women at the tomb and asked them, "Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen." And thus our reason for celebrating this wonderful holiday!

After attending Stake conference this morning (where Morgan goosed the dozing missionary sitting in front of us!) we went to Steve and Nancy's to join the family for too much food and an Easter egg hunt James and Jolynn put together for the kids. We even had a bunny cake for dessert, which brought back memories of the bunny cakes my mom used to make with us each Easter Sunday. It's a good tradition, one that I want to keep for our little family!

Even our little miss enjoyed her Easter feast....and look at all her teeth!

The kids had a good time searching for eggs. They placed several eggs in very obvious spots on the back porch for Morgan, who was super excited about the shiny plastic eggs, but couldn't quite figure out what to do with so many! She only has two hands, so she would pick up a new one and replace it with the one she was currently holding, or take an egg out of her basket to place on the porch when she came accross another egg. It was a riot! In the picture of her in the grass, she is studying an orange jelly bean she found in one of the eggs. Good times!

Discovery Center

On Saturday we had a family outing to the Discovery Center of Idaho in downtown Boise. Here's the link if you're interested: http://scidaho.org/index.php. I've always wanted to go but have never taken the time. Chadwick obtained a free family pass from somewhere and off we went! They are having their "Matter Matters" display and we learned all about metals, properties of substances, saw awesome optical illusions, and learned a thing or two. For example, placing several "flappers" on a bicycle tire hooked to a pulley system will allow a person to pull herself up while sitting in a chair and free fall down, but the fall is slowed by the presence of the "flappers" on the tire which create enough resistance to prevent a crash at the bottom of the rope. Copper is a good conductor of electricity. That a perfect image can be created by using light and a concave mirror - they had us look through a small hole and touch the spring.....but you kept on reaching. Then they asked you to flash a light at the object to further convince you that the spring should be touchable...but it's not. When looking closely, there is so much detail in the image that it's creepy not to be able to touch what you are looking at! And we also learned that despite the cool stations, Morgan's favorite game was pushing around her stroller and looking at pictures of the cat on the wall.

My favorite station? Yep, the Pet Hospital. They had x-rays of cats, dogs, and birds, some syringes, a plastic splint, several stuffed animals, and cat/dog posters (which Morgan loved).

After we were done learning, we went to the park across the canal and Morgan learned that she loved to slide! Down she went with a big smile on her face. Chadwick was there to catch her at the bottom but she had no hesitation of climbing up and doing it all over again. We finished the outing with lunch at Chili's. A delightful afternoon!

Here are a few pics of Morgan doing her "thing" outside Sunday afteroon....

More, Please

Chadwick and I have been trying to teach Morgan some basic signs - more, please, all done, water, milk, dog, cat, horse, cow....the important things in life. Last week she signed "more" several times when she wanted something. It's working! That same day, I was holding her and she asked for something (meaning she pointed to something and grunted) and I asked her to say "please." She looked at me for a second, then reached over and rubbed my chest. The sign for more is an open hand rubbing the chest. Sweet! And now that I know she can do it, I've been asking for more and please to try and decrease some of the grunts. It's not working real well, but we might be able to instill some manners by the time she leaves the house at 18. =)

This weekend we had the opportunity to watch General Conference for the Church, which is always great. In addition, we had Morgan's friend, Madeline, with us all day Saturday. She's not quite as mobile as Morgan, but she enjoyed crawling behind my little tornado to see what she was up to - getting onto(fireplace mantel) and into (a box) something, as usual.

And since the weather has been nice, we were able to play outside a little bit. Morgan loves it! She wants nothing more than to run around the yard, falling every few steps but gaining confidence on the uneven grass. She cracks me up.

She also has enough hair to be pulled in twos on top of her head! I called her "bug" all day since that's what she reminded me of. She smiled right after I snapped the photo. Most of my pictures of her are either blurry or of the back of her head....

Dinosaur Bone

Darwin has finally met his match. This is the largest rawhide bone I have ever seen, much less given to a dog. One of the sisters that I visit teach was given this bone for her dog at Christmas, who tops maybe 35 pounds. The dog was immediately frightened of the large treat and has never touched it. Since that time, it has been kicked around the house and wound up behind the couch. Shayna decided that Darwin would benefit from the challenge, so I brought it home. The first night he spend quite a lot of time looking at the thing. Since then, we are entertained nightly as he tries to drag it around the living room. He has yet found a good strategy to start eating his bone, but he spends time licking it and trying to start a good chew point. I think it's taller than Morgan, who grunts and tries to lift it....she can't get more than one end off the ground.

It gives him something to do at night, and us another excuse to laugh.

Really?!

We have a 1-year-old! Who would have thought?? I found a photo of me one year ago at Valentine's Day....and I was much more comfortable this year than last!

My mom, step-dad Mark, and grandparents flew in from Albuquerque to help us celebrate - and it was a blast! Mom brought her cake decorating kit with her so we made Morgan's cake. I wanted something that was simple and that had a built-in piece especially for Morgan.....and came up with a hot air balloon!
We had the party at Steve and Nancy's house and were joined by Chadwick's two grandmothers. We missed James and his family due to illness. We'll snag them next year! We kept things simple; pizza, salad, and breadsticks for dinner, cake, and presents. Chadwick bought a little flower pinata that had strings you pulled to release the candy. Morgan didn't really get it but we saved the thing for next year....


And here are some photos of the singing, cake eating, with a stroller she got from Mom and Mark, and with her great-grandparents.
Four days after the family left, I said goodbye to Morgan and Chadwick and boarded a plane bound for Santiago, Chile to attend a friend's wedding and play tourist for a week. Those pictures will come later. It was a great time and I sure miss the warmer weather!

Our New "Space"

When we bought our little house last February, the washer and dryer lived in the kitchen (pictured left). In April when we did the major makeover prior to moving in, my father and father-in-law were kind enough to move the units out into the garage, leaving us a lovely "hole" in the kitchen (pictured right).

Now, almost a year later, we have counter space and shelves!!Chadwick has been working and worrying on this project for quite a while and I love the results! The brown door on the bottom shelf gives access to the dryer pipe and there is a trap door on the same shelf so we can get to the rest of the dryer vent. Clever! For my part of the project: purchase contact paper and cover the flat surfaces to finish it up!

The downside to this masterpiece - it can't be used to its fullest potential until Morgan is no longer interested in carting off the contents of the shelves. It may be a while until we put something there....


Morgan is as busy as ever. I had a painful reminder this afternoon that she has teeth when she bit my finger I stuck in her mouth! Note to self: don't let the child grab a finger with her open mouth. And she's wanting to try feeding herself with her spoon. In this picture, she's trying to put a piece of bread on the tip of the spoon so it can be shoved into her mouth. She isn't very accurate, but it's fun to watch her try!

We're counting down until she's one....who would have thought?!