Merry Christmas to All!

It's really here!! From our lil' elves to yours, MERRY CHRISTMAS to all!

Hoping the true meaning of CHRISTmas brings you much joy and peace. Enjoy your families and friends and have a WONDERFUL holiday!

The Lights

Attempting any adventure with the kids always turns into exactly that:
AN ADVENTURE.

Riding Trax, dinner out, spilled drinks, Temple Square lights in rain, running boys, slipping and falling boys, crying boys, boys running under the fence toward the camels, boys who insisted on wearing jeans with holes in the knees and snow boots in 2 sizes too big, headaches for mom & dad...but we can say we did it!
Check that off the Christmas fun list.

Reege, Trout and Turkey

Sunny St. George for a long Thanksgiving weekend. Our home away from home...

Gotta love Reege. Live with Regis and Kelly, that is.
Spontaneous date night in Vegas ended up at Regis taping at Wynn. My VIP hubby just had to talk to a few people and we had tix in our hands. Kelly was darling, funny and SO TINY. Regis was quite small himself. They were great, interacting with the crowd between takes. Random, spontaneous fun - just my style.

Gobble Gobble - Happy Turkey Day!
Love my lil Turkeys

(this was the only turkey my kids would eat)

Christian & Daddy fishing time - they were in heaven. Christian caught his first fish - a rainbow trout at the stocked fishing pond in Ivins. He was so excited and told everyone how we eat fish for Thanksgiving dinner, not turkey. Who knew?? So yes, we ate some trout as well and it was quite tasty.

Way to go Daddy and Christian!!

Viva Las Vegas, reliving our younger years (many were spent here)!

No cameras allowed inside, this is the best we could do.

Great long weekend getaway with the family. Turkey feast times 2.

Live Nativity at Tuacahn was fun. If you're down South this month, go check it out. Short and sweet and great reminder of the true meaning of CHRISTmas. Mason loved the camels and thought the shepherds were pirates. Go figure.

So much to be grateful for this year, as always - my beautiful, healthy boys, amazing friends and family and life. All is good.

Ho Ho Ho

Annual Festival of Trees Santa Pic - pretty bad this year!!

At least Mason wasn't screaming. Instead he was shoving Santa's hand saying "OW" over and over - he didn't like Santa's firm grip. I don't blame him! His hand placement almost looks inappropriate. Check out that scowl and he wasn't putting his gun down either. That's right, armed and dangerous. Santa wasn't the friendliest guy this year. He didn't even ask the poor kids what they wanted! That didn't stop Christian from sharing his long list.

Merry Christmas to you Santa, hope the season gets a little jollier for you Old Man!

ps - forgetting the stroller at the Expo Center with a 2 year old. Impossible. Check out our sweet rental ride, the wheelchair. Instant entertainment for all!

The Cage

For the past month or so, Mr. Mason has been climbing out of his crib. 5 minutes after putting him to bed he comes running down the hall yelling, "good morning mom!" It's cute and funny the first time but by round 10 I'm ready to scream. At naptime, I resorted to locking him in his room. That's right, anything to keep my sanity. He would knock on the door and yell for me a few times but after 10 minutes or so...silence. Then I would pick the lock and discover what new place he'd found to sleep that day. Laying across the floor by the door, on a pile of books behind his rocking chairs, sometimes he'd climb back into his crib and my favorite was when he was hiding behind some bins in his closet, fast asleep.

My sanity finally arrived this week (thanks to a tip from a friend) - the Crib Tent - aka Baby Cage. Woo hoo! The first night he thought it was great - a new toy to play wild in. He was bouncing around, slamming into the sides yelling "I'm in my cage," but he quickly got the picture as we tucked him in and "zipped him inside." He now cries "don't zip it" at bedtime and coaxes Christian to "unzip me Ch-chen." I give it another week before he busts a hole through the thing but for now, we sleep in peace. Amen!

the face smoosh

Other Mason Randoms of Late:

• Marching around the house singing the Star Wars tune (also sings himself to sleep with it - "dun dun dun" to the whole "trooper song" as he calls it)
• Swallowing a lego helmet - telling me he ate it - and then watching for it to come out the other end, just lovely
• He's quite the "hoarder" having to take a stash of toys with him everywhere we go, we usually have to pack a bag
• Beating up an older kid at the mall - poor kid was trying to make friends with him in the food court line when Mason clobbered his face and put him in tears!
• Requesting "diet coke" with his Happy Meal - root beer does the trick

Oh we never fail to be entertained by our wild but oh so cute lil' guy!

Blah

Don't like the cold. Too cold and it's getting colder. Not ready for winter. Blah. Not a fan of this blustery wind and dark skies. So depressing. Makes me want to eat and eat some more and lay on the couch in sweats all day. Then I feel lazy and frumpy. Need the sunshine. And a better attititude about winter. Will work on that...but for now, boo to the cold!

And add in the piles of laundry, neverending dishes and explosion of toys. Extra blah! However I do love those laughing, smiling, wild boys who made the mess :)

Now where's my nanny, housekeeper and next beach vacation??

lil' Utah Fans

okay, so they lost BIG TIME but we have a fun story anyhow...
My mom happened to be at Home Depot when the ESPN College Game Day bus rolled in. She decided we needed to be on TV so she called and told me to get the boys in their Utah red and bring them down (thinking surely the faces of cute children will get her onscreen). Well, it turned out to be more of a promotional party with radio stations, games, BBQ and giveaways. The radio station announced they were holding a poster contest to win game tix.

That's where our little Christian took home the gold. With Grandpa Jace's help, he stamped his painted feet onto the poster with the words: "Stomp the frogs - go Utes." Nothing too fancy. Must have been his sweet, innocent little face that sold them. To our surprise, he won much more than game tix - VIP backstage tix to the ESPN Game Day filming, breakfast with the crew and 5th row tix to the game. Since he was most excited about the "Bob the Builder" Home Depot hard hat (which he also won), we gave the tix to our uncles who were in heaven! They got to meet Erin Andrews the the whole ESPN broadcast crew and sit across from them during filming.

Then Daddy and Christian hit the big game - to which Christian thought they won! Scoring popcorn, snow cones and a big foam #1 finger was definitely a WIN in his eyes. Just goes to show that any sporting event is a WIN for a kiddo.

Go Utes! Better luck next time...


Christian in the front with the finalists

Cousin Costume Madness

An attempt to capture all 15 Morgan cousins in costume

Screaming, bribing with candy, running away, pouting but they're all here!

HaLLoWeEn FuN

Let the Force be with you...
We hope you had a GRAND Halloween, as it's always a favorite at our house!

Chewy, Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker and Buzz Lightyear
(okay we couldn't find the R2D2 costume)

Fun with Grandma - she always throws the BEST Halloween parties!

We got to meet our newest cousin, Cayson, who was visiting from Arizona. So sweet and much smaller in person.

Preschool Party

Pumpkin carving with cousins

Halloween time was filled with family parties, a preschool fieldtrip to the pumpkin patch (sadly mom lost those pictures), pumpkin carving, scaring people in matching skeleton costumes (they requested to do this almost daily for a week), neighborhood trunk or treat and good ole' trick or treating in the rain (bad weather didn't stop our wild boys from having fun). Holidays are the BEST with kiddos around!

Mason is already going through withdrawals from all the decorations coming down...he LOVED all the "pirates" (skeletons) and pumpkins, always shouting: "I see da Hadaween!" from the car at all the decorated porches and stores. Until next year...

I Heart San Fran

Thanks to a Cobbler Convention of sorts, we had a lovely whirlwind weekend getaway to San Francisco. If you haven't been, you NEED to plan a trip to SF. We loved riding the charming cable cars up and down the hilly streets, people-watching at the Wharf, eating fresh seafood every day, hitting the odd markets of Chinatown, icecream sundaes with hot chocolate on the side at Ghiridelli Square (why not have them both??), shopping gallore (we're talking a 6 floor Nordstrom, 3 story DSW Shoe Warehouse and huge H&M right next door!!). And my FAVORITE was a boat trip across the Bay to Sausalito - a quaint, artsy town with fun shops and restaurants (reminded me of La Jolla or Carmel).
Now all we needed was the never-ending credit card to spend at all those great stores :)

I ADORED San Fran! So nice spending time with my hubby without the wild boys (who we missed of course).

Golden Gate Bridge in background on our boat ride to Sausalito, my fave spot!

Famous Alcatraz prison, we took a boat tour by night, eerie.

Doing a little "business"

Hang on tight! Riding the trolley.

Stunning view at the top of Lombard Street, the windiest street in the world.

Couldn't resist snapping this shot out our hotel window, see those shining red letters?? That's right H&M right next door - heavenly!

And 6 floors of Nordstrom Bliss, torturous without the funds to truly enjoy it!

Pier covered in seals out sunbathing (and so stinky)

Arrrrgh!! This one's for our boys!

Right down from our hotel where they manually turn the cable cars

Thanks Rob & Jody for the GRAND trip and thanks Nana & Jace for surviving the crazies!! They enjoyed all the fun Halloween adventures! The highlight our trip ending was coming home to this sight:

"BOO!! SURPRISE!!" They all yelled as they jumped out in matching skeleton costumes (the dog included). I sure love my theatrical mother! Too funny, wish I captured it on video.