Who woulda guessed?

As a mom, I try to remember to do fun and exciting things with Morgan every now and again. They are usually what I blog about.
The good days.
Today was good, but I have nothing exciting to report. I have no colorful pictures to post.
But I do have a story I never want to forget.

Here we are, driving along in the car (why do all the good stories always happen in the car?) and Morgan has been quiet for a while. I am starting to worry a little about her falling asleep in the middle of the evening she's been quiet so long. I guess she was just reflecting on our day because she says,

"Mom, thank you for helping me crack that egg."


What? Huh? Oh yeah...that egg I let her crack at 8 o'clock this morning for breakfast. It's 7:00 now...I'm thinking, "What made her think of that?" And then I realized I can do all the big giant fantastic things in the world that I want and I am sure she will remember some of them. But it sure doesn't hurt our relationship to let her crack an egg every once in a while either :)

Bumpy Slides and Astronauts!

Today I was doing the dishes and Morgan yells,

 "HEY MOM! COME RIDE MY BUMPY SLIDE!" 

This is what I found:

She then proceeded to explain the slide to me and said,

"This pillow is so you can land on yours head, like this"

Ian could tell how silly his sister was being:

Morgan insisted I give it a go, so this is a picture I took while I was takin' a ride, on the bumpy slide!

So then Morgan decided she had to take pictures from the top too!

So, I let her have a chance taking a picture of Ian's first trip down the bumpy slide. Looks riveted, doesn't he?

Earlier today Morgan asked me if she could be an astronaut. I told her that was a good idea, and she could pretend to be one if she wanted to. She replied with an emphatic

"Mom. I. CAN. NOT. BE. AN. ASTRONAUT. BECAUSE.

WE. HAVE. NO. STARS. OR. PLANETS!!!!!"

So I told her we could make some if she helped me clean the house.

 (yay for bribery!)

We made ourselves a cardboard rocket too...

Finally blogging TURKS AND CAICOS!

Well, I could give you the whole LONG story, but it's late and I'm bushed. So here's the condensed version:

We left our house Friday night at around 7 and didn't make it to Turks and Caicos till around noon the next day. Needless to say, we all felt like Morgan looked.

Judie found out all about the branch there and where they met before she brought us all to the island. Going to church there was such a good experience. I will never forget the lessons I learned from those humble people when they spoke on tithing and the word of wisdom. If they can honestly live in bushes, they seriously live in bushes, and still do their best to pay their tithes...so can I.

Ian totally got the good end of the deal, he got to wear his everyday clothes to church; plus a few accessories. :)

One afternoon while we were there we did family pictures and 

played some family olympics. It was fun!

There was a lot of time spent trying to get everybody on the same page, so here are some random pictures taken during all that mess :)

JD was just so excited to dump Alex out of that hammock.

                    

 Being a monkey...

There was so much good food and free drinks EVERYWHERE! (When we got to Disneyworld I was so used to the all inclusive thing that I almost snatched a banana right off a cart...that would have been bad. They may have decided to punish me Aladdin style)

(not nursing, he's just sleeping)

The menfolk went deep sea fishing and got themselves some barracuda.

Me, snorkeling. Oh come on, you wish you were this cool :)

Okay I took this picture while I was frantic because the masseuse is asking me through the door if I am ready for her to come in. I didn't want to sound dorky and say "Ummm no! I'm taking pictures cause I'll never get an opportunity like this again, so please just wait one more minute for me to de-robe!"

Hands down the best place on that whole island was the beach. We had so much fun...it almost doesn't even seem like it was real!

And then there were the pools...

Don't the girls look so worried while they are watching their Daddies try to surf?

And then, some more of the BEACH!

And, one last picture of the fam with Cookie Monster. It was so fun to see the Sesame Street characters walking around all day!

A little reminder:

Ugh.
Today was one of those days.
You know the type. The all over-horrible-not an ounce of patience left in your body-bad days. Morgan woke up at 5:30 and well, if you are a parent, you know the rest.
But in case you don't, here's a small overview:
Potty Accidents: 2
Time-Outs: About a Bajillion
Waking up the brother that is miserable cause he can barely get to sleep anyway: 5 or more
Random Screams: 738,982,415
And then there was the time I put her in the corner and scratched her arm up by accident on the "textured" wall which resulted in me feeling immediately guilty and her screaming about me hurting her.

We were just trying to get out of the house to get some groceries. That's it. And it took 2 hours, so I just called it quits and turned on a movie cause I was SO not doing this anymore.
After The Land Before Time, Morgan decided she was now ready to go shopping. I knew JD would complain if we didn't have milk for the morning, so even though I thought I was basically heading to my doom, we buckled up and went to the store.
I was so afraid Morgan was going to fall asleep at 6:00, which would mean another day like today in the works for tomorrow. So I sang pretty much any silly song I could think of with her in the car.

Giving her those 15 minutes of attention flipped our world around.

I was laughing, she was laughing, even Ian was laughing. And now, I kind of feel like crying.

I have been such a stress case lately and I have only been giving her attention when she acts out. So is it really any wonder that she's been rotten? Before our world got shook up, she was my entire world. And now she has to share that with this stupid move and a little brother that I know she loves, but she is just 3 years old and she needs her mommy. She needs HER mommy. The one who loved her more than anything else, and showed it all the time. I feel awful when I think of the heartbreak she must feel every time I tell her "Not now" and then when she starts to whine I tell her to knock it off...of course she's whining...she's lost her mommy.

What is it that brought about this avalanche of remorse? I had given her maybe a half hour of my time, real loving, happy time, and as I'm driving down the road she says, in the most sincere voice you've ever heard,
"Mommy, I'm sorry for all the trouble I've caused."
It broke my heart. And I am sure it came from some movie, but she still found it applicable to things right now.

So, I am writing this post just to remind myself of what a little angel she is. The next time I'm having a hard day, I might need to remember what it felt like to hear that.

And starting tomorrow, I'm going to try my darndest to give her back her Mommy.

18 Days!

In 18 days we will be boarding a plane to:

Chill under this:

Enjoy doing this:

Stuff our faces with this:

And maybe eventually spend a little time sleeping in this:

Thanks Judie,we are so excited!!!! Turks and Caicos here we come! (18 days, 18 days, 18 days)

Ian's Blessing

"The name that we have given him is Ian James Eddy"

When JD said those words today in Ian's baby blessing, I was reminded how much of an awesome opportunity and responsibility it is to be a parent.

"Children are an heritage of the Lord" (Psalms 127:3)

I was reminded that these beautiful babies were given to JD and I, from our Heavenly Father and our first responsibility is to ensure they learn how to return to Him. I was reminded how much I love JD and his worthiness to bless our babies with sweet promises that they may "grow their own family someday within the ordinances of the temple" and "continue to share the gospel and bring joy to the lives of others."

I was reminded that generations have been preparing for each one of our children to come forth in this time. I was reminded, yet again, what a special spirit our little Ian is.

Today JD gave our baby a blessing and every single day the Lord blesses us with our babies. I'll do the very best I can with them, I promise.

In local news...

I still have to post on Easter and a few other tid bits, but I just thought I would do a quick post on a few little random things:

Ian is doing great. He is gaining a ton of weight and turning into quite the little chunk! We love having him in our family. The other day as we were pulling out of the driveway Morgan said, "Mom? Why we bring baby brother Ian?" and I said, "Because...do we ever leave Ian home?" She says, "Nooooooooooope. Cause he is part of our family and we loooooove him. Mommy, I don't want Ian to go back in yours belly."

Here are just a few pictures of his life so far:

I love this one!

I know the exposure is so off in the picture...but he still looks cute.

He is freakishly wiggly and flexible...sometimes I find him in positions I don't really like, AT ALL.

Morgan loves to read to Ian. She brings books in the car to read to him too. I find it to be so very sweet.

Ian has also lost ALL the hair on the top of his head so he is sporting the balding old man look. I'm not sure what to do with it....let it all grow back in or shave what's left off!

Morgan is being such a great big sister. She is helping out and doing all things "all by herself". She's even doing things she never did, all by herself. The other day she said she made her favorite blanket all by herself. (any ideas on how to explain what lying is to a 3 year old? I just can't seem to explain it to her)

Today was her very first actual haircut. I can't believe how slow her hair grows! But pieces of it were down to her shoulder blades (which would be awesome) except other pieces of it were still only to the bottom of her head! So she got a little trim, and in case you were unaware, apparently your hair is full of very sensitive nerves because it was a VERY painful ordeal for Morgan. (once again...how to explain a lie?)

This is the very first piece of hair that fell from my angel girl's head. (besides the times I've trimmed up her bangs) The best part about this piece of hair? I have no idea where it came from on her head because I left the bathroom long enough to pop Ian's binky back in his mouth and came back and what do you know...she'd cut her own hair.

She's been doing really awesome at getting ready to leave the house and helping clean up. She FINALLY filled a part of her sticker chart so she could get something out of the treasure box.

And now I wonder to myself what in the world I was thinking when I decided a recorder was a good idea...