Easter

There are only two times a year I let my kids stuff candy in to their mouths like crazed freaks. Halloween being one and Easter the other. So let's just say that yesterday was a pretty good day for the Morris kids. Things started off with a bang when the kids woke up to find awesome loot that the 'ol EB left for them. The EB is smart and knows of the One Spot at Target and got many awesome el-cheapo toys at the last minute. Too bad I have been so tired in the mornings that I chose to sleep in instead of witness my children's joy as they discovered their baskets. So no pics of that. Do I feel bad about it? Not at all. Dale says they were happy though, and I believe him.

So on to the super-fun take a million pictures in 5 minutes before you head off to church tradition. I did manage to wake up in time to make my children look presentable.

We have a big green grassy park a few doors down from the house that makes a great spot for pics so you will be seeing this background again in posts to come, I'm sure.
The girls' outfits look familiar you say? That's because they were also their Christmas outfits. Yes, I purposely bought dresses that would work for both holidays to save money and I'm gonna do it again every year. Such a money/time saver and does anybody really remember what other people's kids wore at Christmas? Not to mention that I bought them right before Christmas and they were totally on sale.
Oh, those lady killer eyes!I wish I had glittery pink shoesies like these!

After church we went to grandma and grandpa's for our egg hunt. We totally blew the EB facade when all of the kids saw Dale and I walking around hiding eggs in the backyard. Oh well, they are gonna find out sometime right? The EB story is so far-fetched anyways. Tabby and Rex both were beginning to be skeptical. The story of Santa on the other hand is WAY more believable.

The hunt is on!
And there you have it, the day was ended with another unrepentant face stuffing candy session.

We're Here

We're here! We made it to our new home all safe and sound. Well maybe not sound. The house is beautiful and there's plenty of space and we like the neighborhood, we just can't stop sneezing. Well for some of us, it's more than sneezing. It's more like a throat closing, eyes running, booger-snot fiesta sort of thing.

I'll explain. After all the boxes got moved in and all Dale's brothers went home, Dale's allergies started getting totally berserk. His allergies going crazy isn't too out of the ordinary and it was a really windy day on Friday so I just attributed it to that. But then I notice Ella's eyes are watery and her nose is running like a sieve. Tabby has sneezing that sounds all stuffy and so does Rex. It continues all day Saturday and on Saturday night, my sister's in law came over to help unpack and their allergies go bonkers too. Then on Sunday everyone is worse. Dale can't hardly breathe and his nose is running so bad he has to carry a roll of toilet paper around with him. Poor Ella can't even deal with all the gunk that is coming out of her nose and I have to constantly monitor Tabby to make sure her asthma isn't acting up.

Then on Sunday night, Dale and I are sitting on the floor of the loft putting together Tabby's bed and I happen to get a good look at the carpet up close and I see CAT HAIR!!!! It's EVERYWHERE! So nasty. Soooooo nasty. And me being the money saver I am told the land lord that I would clean the house myself if she would waive the cleaning deposit. She agreed and I cleaned up the place Friday night before the big move but I didn't feel it necessary to clean the carpets before everybody got it all dirty on Saturday. I thought it would be better to wait. Now I realize the error of my ways. I'm so looking forward to vacuuming 800 times and moving every box and piece of furniture till the disgusting stuff is all gone. Who knows if I will ever even get it all out. Good times.

OTHER THAN THAT, we are very excited to be here. We did have to wait until today to get hot water and cable which made for a long weekend. But now that those things are all on, it's starting to feel like home.

I still miss the old place like crazy but I think we're going to be happy here. A HUGE thanks to all the family that helped us this weekend. I'm sorry to all of the brothers for making you carry those huge landscaping boulders. They were expensive, okay? And I think they're really pretty. So they just had to come along. Sorry, I owe ya one.

Goodbye House

Goodbye house
Goodbye yard
Goodbye sky that was always starred

Goodbye ward
Goodbye friends
Goodbye kindness that never ends

Goodbye street
Goodbye park
Goodbye neighbor's dog that would always bark

Goodbye home
Goodbye here
Goodbye all that I hold so dear

April Fools Day Joke

I totally bombed St. Patrick's Day this year. I didn't even remember to dress the kids in green let alone make them an all green breakfast like nice mommies do. Poor things got pinched by leprechauns all day long. I felt I had to make up for it by doing something fun for them this morning.

Let it be said that I hate playing mean tricks on people. Call me lame/boring but I just don't think that mean jokes are very funny. So when I saw this on this persons blog, I thought it would be a perfect trick to play on the kids. It's not mean at all.

After I got the kids dressed, I told them to wait in their rooms while I made them a special breakfast. They got all exited wondering what delicious creation I was preparing for them. The look on their faces when they came out and saw this was hilarious:

Ostrich eggs!
They were all very unsure:
But after they got brave and had a little taste, they realized that I was playing a trick on them. Then they happily ate their peaches and cream.

They then tried to pull over the old "there's a spider on your shoulder" trick on me. Sorry kids, I didn't fall for it when I was 5 and I'm not gonna fall for it now.

Brag about Husband Time

Just so you know, It was The Best Husband Ever's birthday yesterday. He turned 38. I almost accidentally typed 28 because he doesn't seem that old to me. NOT THAT 38 IS OLD BY ANY MEANS!!! We did the usual birthday family celebration at Fud's. We all had a great time although I don't think he thought this gift from me was as awesome as I thought it was:
I think he liked the cool new shirts I got him better.

Here are some things I think you might be interested to know about Dale:

1.) He speaks perfect Spanish. He once sung the Mexican National Anthem to the employees at a taco shop. They loved it and gave him free food.

2.) He will wipe the floor with you at Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune.

3.) He is extremely faithful in the Gospel. Do you know that once a week he wakes up at about 4 a.m. and goes to an early morning temple session?

4.) He never complains when I wake him up at some unearthly hour because I heard a strange noise.

5.) He's never been afraid to punch a guy in the face if he's actin' a fool. Thank goodness this has never happened since we've been married (I can't pay bail) but I know that I'm safe when I'm with him. He and his 4 brothers are a lot like his grandpa who used to say "I will not be interfered with." And they won't. Believe me.

6.) That said, Dale is also the nicest, charming, and warmest guy you will meet. Everybody he meets is instantly his friend.

7.) He is 9 years older than me. When he got home from his mission, I was in 7th grade. SO freaky, I know. But he is young at heart and we are a perfect match. That's why he didn't get married until he was 30. Unbeknownst to him, he had to wait to meet the girl that was meant for him to become a legal age. =)

8.) He is really super strong. He used to compete in power lifting competitions.

9.) Dale is a very very hard worker. He is 100% devoted to providing for his family.

10.) He is a die hard Sun Devils and Suns fan. He's like the professor of college football and the NBA. Every year he gets so amped up when the football and basketball seasons start only to have his hopes and dreams crushed once again by our disappointing teams. I keep telling him he needs to get out of this abusive relationship but he can't.

Happy birthday, Lover Boy!!!

Happy Birthday Card

My next card club get together isn't for a couple of weeks but I have really got to get serious about packing up the house so I thought it would be best to get them done now. Last month, I was adamant about not getting anything out of the boxes I had already packed to make my cards. This month, not so much. I ended up digging through every box I had packed from my office and made a huge mess and had to re-pack everything.

The theme this month is Happy Birthday for a kid or adult. Here's what I did:
I printed the text on a transparency:
Check out this beautiful lace ribbon. I found it at Mystic Paper in downtown Mesa. It was kinda pricey but I only needed 2 yards so it didn't cost very much at all. I wanted to by closer to 80 yards of it though!
It was totally non-intentional but I just realized I used the EXACT SAME colors on this card as the ones I used on my blog. Guess I'm feeling the whole pink,green, turquoise vibe.

Rex's Hot Wheels Party

Last Saturday, we had Rex's birthday party at my parent's house. He totally wanted a Hot Wheels party and that's totally what he got!

We kicked things off by jumping in the bouncer. My mom got this bad boy at the KB going out of business sale for like $2.00. Okay, not that cheap but she did get it for a steal.
We played with the bubble machine. This thing is cool, it makes bubbles inside of bubbles.

Then it was time to crack open the pinata.
Cousin Madeline gave it a more timid approach.
Obviously, none of the kids could do any damage to Captain Faketooth (that's what Rex named it.) It was time to call in reinforcements. Daddy style.

Look at the grin on his face! He gets so excited any time he gets to "do battle" with something!

Dale has played softball for many years. Is this the look he gets on his face every time he swings? He's probably totally embarrassed now.
The victim pinata is now properly distributing the candy:
Thanks Daddy!

Captain Faketooth never stood a chance.
Check out the cake my sis made! Every kid in our fam gets an awesome custom cake designed by her!
Just after I snapped this pic above, Rex leaned in a little too close and singed his eyebrow.

Ouch!
He recovered quickly and Aunt Magi stood closely behind to prevent any more face burning.
I asked everyone who was bringing a gift to get Rex a Hot Wheels set.
Remember when we were kids and all they had was like a strip of plastic for the cars to go down and maybe a ramp at the end? They have come a long way. They now have what they call Trick Tracks sets in which there are different stunts that you can connect together and one stunt sets of the next so you can have a whole room full of race cars doing stunts. That's exactly what we did for the grand finale of the party. Here we are setting it up:
I wish I had a better pic to showcase how awesome it was.

Rex's actual birthday fell on Sunday so we gave him a special breakfast that morning. We made The Best Pancakes Ever (recipe courtesy of my Dad) topped with whipped cream and sprinkles. No candle mishaps this time.
Happy birthday Best Little Dude Ever!

My Baby Boy is 4!

My baby boy turned 4 yesterday, y'all!

I need to stop calling him my baby boy. I might turn him into a softy cupcake. I have loved watching him grow up from a tinsy baby to a ruff and tuff little dude but something in me wants him to stay Momma's little guy a bit longer. Good thing this next baby is a boy. It might help me get over the fact that Rex is a baby no longer.

Here is the story of Rex.

Long before he was born, his Daddy had already chosen the name Rex. It's a good solid manly name and in Latin it means king which is my grandma's maiden name so I guess you could say it's a family name in a way.

It's surprising to me that Rex is so thoughtful because when he was born, he came so flippin' fast that I had no time for the epidural to work and I involuntarily gave birth to him naturally. SO NOT considerate of him. But I instantly forgave him when I saw him and his chubby cheeks.
The plumpness in his cheeks quickly spread throughout the rest of his body and he became a butterball:
Note the chunkiness. The BABY, not me. Anyway...

Rex rocked the mohawk or momock as he called it:
And on Halloween, we got creative:
He loves his sisters and is most-of-the-time-sweet to them:
But catch him in one of his "off moments" and you will find that he can be quite the grump:

If I could describe him in one word, it would be thoughtful. For example, the other day I was getting ready to go somewhere and the kids were staying home with their Daddy. Rex saw that I was leaving so he went into the garage, turned on the light, and then opened the door of the van for me. What a sweet boy. Or maybe he just wanted to get me out of there quicker.

Anyway, I absolutely love my kiddos all the same but there is something about a little boy that makes his mommy's heart melt.
Okay, you can grow up now.

Haircut

Wow, who wrote that post below this one? Sorta turning red over here.

Anyway, I've been debating weather or not to cut Ella's hair. I want it to grow long but she was starting to look like a scraggle-muffin. I decided to give her a itty-bitty trim just to tame things a bit. I am a completely self-taught hair dresser. Meaning, I have no idea what I'm doing at all. I've destroyed my girl's hair in the past. Like the time I tried to give Tabby layers and went a little overboard. I accidentally gave her the Rachel. Which would have been cute about 10 years ago.
This time all that was required was a little trim on the bottom and I think I managed okay. Ella already had layers that were growing out (I need to ease up on the layers thing) so by just trimming the length, I think it looks much better.

Here is the before:
Apparently, this his her idea of a smile.


Here are the afters:
Admiring her cute little self in the mirror:
So I was able to rein in my desire to go all Edward Scissorhands on her and successfully gave her an acceptable hair cut.