Determined to catch up

Determined to catch up on things around here. I can't believe how fast this year and every year is passing. Quicker all the time I think. Tomorrow it is my goal not to recap the whole last year b/c that would take forever, but just to pick up the here and now w/ these boys and our family. We miss our family members long distant. For those not on facebook, here's a recent picture.

Lynds Fruit Farm - First of September

Jack's decision to come a week ahead of schedule helped us make it to Lynd's fruit farm this year to pick Gala apples. We started this last year with the boys and I had hoped it would remain an annual tradition our family could do. When we learned Jack would be born late summer/early fall I wondered how many things we would be able to do this year with a newborn. So far we haven't had to skip anything. Jack was home less than a week and we loaded everyone up and headed to the orchard. Most of the time I stayed in the car w/ Jack while the boys and Tad did the picking. We didn't get as many this year b/c of the crop as well as our schedule, but that's alright everyone still had fun.

Peyton



Peyton

Connor


My two little bakers making apple cake

Jack Anderson Morris

Jack surprised us about a week early and was born August 27th at 7:16 am. He was 6 lbs. 14 oz. We were blessed w/ family so close to help. Tad had 2 1/2 weeks off work and my mom and brother have been here to help too. We were fortunate to have my sister n law Stephanie fly in to town for a week. Finding time to blog or even post pictures is a challenge. We have all adjusted to a family of 5. It seems much easier this time around. Jack is a very laid back baby. He never gets too upsets and he eats and sleeps really well. Jack's arrival came at the time when the boys were starting school and starting soccer. They keep us busy. Jack just goes along for the ride- this place and that. We just had Jack to his 2 month appointment this week. He is already 10 lbs. 5 oz (10th %ile) and 24 in. long (90th %ile).


4 days old- going home

meeting little brother Jack

checking out Jack a little closer

Big Brother Connor

Big brothers helping with Jack's first bath

Connor helping wash


My Three Sons

Don't know where to start...

I am so behind with these past few months I need to look through our calendar just to see what I should start with. The biggest news is that baby Morris #3 will be a BOY. We are not surprised and the boys are really excited. They talk about their baby brother all the time. They keep asking when he is coming and every time I go to the doctor they think I'm bringing him home. We have another ultrasound next Monday June 8th and we're going to take the boys along this time. We're almost decided on a name although the boys have plenty of ideas of what we should call him. I can't wait to see all of them together. 3 more months. Our doctor is planning to schedule the c-section in another couple appointments so it will be exciting to put that date on the calendar.

We celebrated my mom's birthday in April. We took her to Cheesecake Factory and the boys had their first piece of cheesecake and ate it all. They loved it.

Peyton

Connor


It was our first year to be home for Easter. Tad made the boys bunny pancakes.

(Peyton in solid Navy Vest) Impossible to get a good picture of the two of them together.


They also dyed eggs with Memaw, Papaw, Uncle Brian and Grandma.
(Peyton & Memaw)

(Tad & Peyton)

Uncle Brian & Peyton

Connor had enough w/ the pictures


We made a day trip to my grandmother's house for her birthday and went there for Mother's Day too. The boys enjoyed playing soccer w/ Great Uncle Max and helping Uncle Brian put Memaw's flowers in the ground.


The boys love to sing Happy Birthday and eat cake. Our basement is finally finished. We are so excited to have another place for all the toys. The boys do really well playing downstairs w/o us so that is a nice treat. It didn't take long to fill up the space and we don't even have our couch and chair down there yet.




Mostly we've been outside this past month. We've done lots of yard work but we're making progress. Tad has put out almost 70 bags of mulch and we're still not done. He ripped out the ground cover which I have wanted to get rid of for the past 2 years and it looks really good now. I was always afraid snakes or poison ivy would find a home in there. We had a garage sale and got rid of a lot of stuff. The boys obviously are hearing everything we say b/c Connor came outside during the sale and asked if these people were buying our "junk". I about died. Everyone there burst out laughing. I didn't know what to say. This week is the PGA Memorial Golf tournament. We live about 3 minutes from the course and usually try to go at least one day. We're hoping the weather continues to be great and Tad gets his usual tickets from his office.

Up next on our to-do list....get both boys completely potty trained. We are so close. Connor is working on it and Peyton has done a really good job. It feels great not to buy so many diapers. We also have 3 rooms we need to get re-painted. I have had fabric for window treatments for a couple months but haven't sat down long enough to start sewing. We're looking forward to finishing projects inside and out and then enjoying the summer. Outside & project pictures coming next time. Hopefully sooner than later.

Catching up

The past few months are a blur. Our biggest news this winter is that we're expecting our 3rd child at the end of the summer. For the past 2 months I mostly have watched the boys play as I lay around trying to feel better. This time around the morning sickness has been more like month long sickness that lasts all day. After trying my second medication, today is the best I've felt in a long time. It has actually worked out nice that it is too cold to get outside and run around. The boys are content to play indoors, have a few playdates, and visit the library. I am thankful they have each other to play and stay entertained.

We were able to get away in early February and visit Tad's family in Kansas City. It was a great time, even though I wasn't feeling like myself. It is always good to see everyone and the boys loved playing with their cousins, aunts & uncles, meme and papa. We took the boys bowling for the first time with Conrad and Caden and they loved it.



We went to T-Rex with Jacob and Austin and made 2 dinosaurs Dale and Sun (Thank you Uncle Clark and Aunt Stephanie) and dug for dinosaur bones. They sleep with their new dinosaurs every night now






We ate out at some fun places, especially Fritz's.



We got introduced to Rock Band and had a fun time playing that with Clark and Stephanie. I would actually love to get that for our house. The boys even joined in with their instruments.



Last week we got over to Leslie's house and saw her family plus Julie and the girls from Nashville. It was so much fun to get all the kids together. I love watching the girls and their dress up fun. The boys were the "dragons" that chased the princesses around the house. I wish I had felt better to stay longer and also to take pictures but we are still glad we were able to see everyone.

Now we have to get busy on things around the house. I have totally let everything go these past few months. We need to start working on the kids rooms. I will change the boys room into something older for them and pull the nursery bedding next door for the baby. It is gender neutral but we're sure it will be another boy so I'm not going to invest in anything new. Once the weather breaks there will be lots to do in the yard so we're trying to get focused and start indoors while it is still cold. I have plans to get the nasty wallpaper down in our bathroom and paint it. Plus we also need to give our guest room and bath a makeover - much needed since we bought this place. We had a guy come and bid on finishing off our basement. We think the extra room for the boys toys and chaos is probably a good thing when the baby comes.

That's a quick catch up on things here.

December Activities

The month of December always seems like a whirlwind of parties and celebrations. This year it seemed even more quick than usual. Tad was tied down with a trial the first 2 weeks of the month. The way the birthdays line up in our family we have a celebration every week. We started off the month with my Brother's birthday, exactly a week later the boys, and then a week after that Tad's birthday followed by Christmas. To sum it up, dessert, cake, and more dessert. The boys began to think every weekend it was time for another birthday.

We have enjoyed our weekly play dates with our good friends Jill & Mackenzie. The boys love both of them. We decided we would brave a cookie baking experience together with the kids.

There was a mild obsession with sprinkles from 2 out of 3 of them. It was funny to watch. Connor decided he would just eat his instead.

It is impossible for us to get a great picture of all of them. Seriously we tried everything but no luck. We achieved our goal- kill the morning with something fun and take some pictures. We had low expectations so we weren't disappointed.

We went to my mom's Christmas Eve for dinner.


The boys love playing hide and seek. It is so funny to play it with them. Usually it goes something like this- they ask you to cover them up under something, then go count, then come back and find them....or they will take turns counting, seeing the other one hide under a blanket and then act all excited when they "find them". What is more hilarious they will play this over and over for up to at least 30 min. and several times a day. We have to tell them to stop and go play something else.

Playing Hide and Seek w/ Papaw (their great-grandpa). They all got so tickled at this. It was great!