Grandma Morgan

Josh's Grandma Morgan passed away today. We sure will miss her. She was such an amazing lady and had lived a long and grand life full of adventure and a real love for her family. Since Kadie was about 3, we have called her "grandma with the white hair" and she even signed our kids' birthday cards that way. :)

She left behind a wonderful legacy full of creative geniuses; artists, cooks, musicians, missionaries, and a large group of "chiefs" as we all like to say! In her lineage are 4 children, 12 grand children, and 5 great grand children.

Cleona "Toni" Morgan started off her last day on earth with her tap dance group, which is one of the many things she loved doing. She even was able to participate in the Opening Ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002! She also graduated with her Bachelor's degree just this last year.

Grandma Morgan was always up for any adventure, whether it be traveling the world, serving her lord, and watching over her family. She was able to serve a mission with her husband many years ago, and since then has put in hundreds of hours of service at the Salt Lake Temple. Although we miss her, we know that she is finally reunited with her wonderful husband Wayne, whom I never had the pleasure of meeting. She hasn't seen him for 16 years, and we all know that must have been a very joyful reunion.

Josh looked up the meaning of her name earlier today, and in my opinion it is more than fitting. Cleona \c-leo-na\ is a variant of Cleopatra (Greek), and the meaning of Cleona is "father's glory".

Here is grandma Morgan with Baby Morgan (Jake and Andrea's little girl),

who is almost 2 years old now.

Looking back, I found this picture of her in a Hot Air Balloon ride. It reminded me of her adventurous side, even in her 80's! We will definitely miss her strong and fiery personality.

Thank you for sharing all of your talents and your love for life and your Savior with us Grandma Morgan. We love you, we miss you and we hope to make you proud.

Stefanie and Justin

Josh's sister Stefanie and her hubby Justin came to visit last weekend!

Sometimes I am worried when we have visitors because we have three kids, which means time is spent doing mostly kid things. But Stef is so easy going and happy to just hang out! I loved having another adult to talk with all day long. Laney especially loved that Stefanie wanted to have a tea party. We made tiny sandwiches with toothpicks, crackers, and hot chocolate.

We even made our own pizzookie's. :)

One of the days Stefanie and I took the two smaller kids to Blackhawk plaza for some duck watching and park play. :) Laney hid from us like she usually does. Can you find her below? $100 to the first person to comment where she is!

(note - $100 may or may not be monopoly money).

Crew tried to get into the museum, but he just couldn't reach the door.

This was the first time we had been back to see the ducks since Crew learned to walk!

He was determined to chase and catch a duck or two.

He got closer...

And closer!

Laney caught a big giant duck.

Laney also visited with her favorite park friend. This is the duck park "grandpa".

Crew loved Stefanie, and was always smiling at her.

Laney showed Stef all of her cool tricks on the playground.

More tricks that she wanted me to take pictures of.

The next day, the boys decided to catch at least one hole of golf.

The 15th hole of the bridges golf course to be exact, which is right out our front door.

Don't they look a little suspicious?

I love how the girls have their hands on their hips.

Saturday afternoon we went to the Farmer's Market in San Ramon.

Some vendors gave Laney some GIANT strawberries to sample.

Laney turned Justin into her transportation while they went around trying different samples.

Laney even explained to Crew that ducks aren't pets, but that they give us eggs for making cookies. "Don't touch the poop fence Crew boy" she kept saying.

Josh and Laney even took a ride on a tractor!

The End!

Thanks Justin and Stefanie for making an effort to visit and spend time with us!

Glad you got home safe, and we can't wait to see you again, hopefully soon! :)

Open House

Our second year of attending an Open House for Kadie.

It is one of my favorite things to do with her school-wise. She gets to show off everything she has learned over the last year. She really grew a lot in first grade! Physically and mentally.

We are so proud of her.

She got all dressed up. Chose her own outfit and even put on lip gloss.

I am afraid the teenage years are closer than I think!

Kadie and some classmates. :)

Self Portrait!

It looks a lot like her!

This was last years self portrait

Here is Kadie with Mrs. Young.

We are really going to miss her next year.

Kadie was lucky enough to have her as a teacher for Kindergarten and First Grade!

Here is Kadie with Mrs. Young last year. Can you believe how much older Kadie looks!

Kadie and Grace! Future fashion queens. :)

Thank you for inviting us to the open house Kadie. We loved seeing everything you have done this year. We love you so much! Our big almost second grader! Good job Kadie!

Tricks and Super Glue

Our kids have always been full of tricks...

Not lame ones, really cool ones.

Like bums in the air type tricks...

Or standing on one leg tricks...

This one is hard, you can tell because Laney has her tongue sticking out while she is concentrating. The kids get that from my side of the family.

The girls have even been trying to teach Crew some tricks!

Sometimes tricks go wrong though.

If you throw a blanket in the mix, and a "superhero" jump, something bad can happen...

Laney's trick ended badly a couple of weeks ago when she tried a superhero jump off of the coffee table with a blanket draped on top. Legs in the air and a big SMACK landing.

Sorry for the bloody picture, but I had to document.

I didn't know she was bleeding until after I had calmed her down and looked down to see my arm covered with blood. Her head split about 3/4 of an inch. It stopped bleeding once we cleaned it, and we super glued it shut. If you haven't learned that trick it is about time you did.

Rules to superglue stitches:

Make sure you can see the wound clearly.

The wound should be cleaned and show that it is beginning to clot and stop bleeding.

You CAN use regular super glue - but it has to be a new unopened tube.

You should NOT use it if the cut is bone deep.

If the cut is on the face and you are worried about scarring, go to the doctor.

Two weeks later Laney is all better!

She had to miss one week of swimming lessons to heal up.

It should only leave a tiny scar which her hair will cover anyway.

No more Superhero tricks. At least off of the coffee table.

Laney has been warning everyone who comes over.

Happy Anniversary! Cinco de Mayo 2010.

A little late for this post, but our anniversary fell right smack in the middle of the week this year. We planned on celebrating the next weekend all along. I was expecting to go to dinner and a movie, but I was wrong. Josh planned a one night getaway to our favorite Carmel! It had been a couple of years since we had been there just the two of us! And I must say I have been missing his surprise trips. It was just what we needed!

Morgan and Cade watched the kidlets for us, overnight! We came home to happy kids and a clean house even! Other than Laney peeing outside and Crew dumpling cheese-its all over the floor at church I think things went smoothly. Thanks Morgan and Cade!

We left at 10:00 am Saturday and the plan was to stop at the outlets in Gilroy (my faaavorite). Josh really loves me. He knew I would love shopping, and thought we could be out of there and get to Carmel by 1:00. I think we finally left Gilroy with just a few shopping bags around 2:30 or so. :) We just grabbed In-n-Out because by then we were starving, and we both needed some diet coke!

We went to see Iron man 2 in Monterey. We always end up seeing stuff like that on our anniversary. Goes along with seeing Spiderman on our honeymoon in Canada. I know deep down Josh wishes he could be Robert Downey Jr. just to play the part of Iron Man.

But seriously, he reminds me of Josh in this movie!

Anyone else think so, anyone?

Then we went to the wharf to grab some fish and chips. It was prom night, so there were tacky white tuxedo's all over the place. Josh said I should have been taking pictures of those instead of so many pictures of boats.

This is Josh thinking about how much he loves me.

This is Josh telling me to stop taking pictures of more boats.

These are the boats that we considered buying. We could have paid cash!

This is where we are thinking of moving next.

I think the yard work would be low maintenance.

Then we were off to the Candle Light Inn! It is so cute all of the bed and breakfasts in Carmel. We have stayed 4 times now and we always love it. We get a suite with a jacuzzi tub and kitchenette. They bring you breakfast in a basket and leave it at your door in the morning. Although... this time they changed it to a mini-cooler.

They are probably avoiding lawsuits of spoiled milk.

The concierge was so nice to us. I am not sure if she believed us when we told her we had been married 9 years. But she gave us Champagne, I mean...sparkling cider, and truffles!

It was fun to drink it out of fancy glasses.

We slept in, ate breakfast in bed and then waltzed around town in and out of art gallery's and tiny shops. There are soooo many art gallery's there. The first time we went, we went into every single one. Josh was on a mission that time to make sure I enjoyed it. We decided since then, that a few art gallery's is fine, and that we enjoy eating at Casanova's more.

So we went to Casanova's for lunch and got our favorite Gnocchi!

I know, it was Sunday. But also Mother's Day...and Josh didn't make me cook. :)

Thanks for planning it Joshy woshy poopy scoopy. I wuvvy you bunnykins.

(I don't really talk like that, do I?)

R-E-N-O

Girls weekend! Just Kadie and Mama. I was in need of some down time with my oldest girl, and I think she wanted some time with mom all to herself. So, Kadie and I went to Reno to hang out with my sister Kylie and her husband Mike and their cutie pie Skylar!

Kadie hung with Mike the computer guru, who showed Kadie some fun facts about animation. They even made a butterfly! And by them, I mean Mike made it and Kadie chose the subject. :)

The Butterfly!

Kadie and Sky baby, who is now more of a little girl herself, got along so great.

Sky is so cute with so much personality. She knows just what to do in front of the camera.

Kadie knew all too well how to get the camera's attention.

Showing us her favorite of all favorite necklaces. She has a lot of favorites.

Weirdo. She takes after me.

See what I mean. Weird runs in our blood. But weird is fun!

Photos by Kadie

Kadie is becoming quite the little photographer. We are going to have to get her a camera of her own soon, she is always begging to use mine. Here are some shots from the car ride there and home, and fun flower pictures from Kylie's house!

Thanks Ky, Mike and Sky for letting us come!

We miss you already!