Christmas decorating

We try to put up our holiday decorations on the Monday (family night) after Thanksgiving. We had so much fun this year!

Koby had homework so I made him do it in the same room with us so he could catch the holiday spirit! Look at that smile-it totally worked!

Every year Morgan has to try on the tree skirt. It is some weird tradition she started a long time ago after she thought tree skirt literally meant a skirt you should wear while decorating the tree.

Maylee thought that looked fun so she got in on the action.

Maylee would take the tree branches from us and give them to Steve. She was moving so fast that most of the time Steve had to fluff the branches since she wouldn't let us finish our work. Steve often got behind and when saying, "Dad, Dad, Dad!" didn't get his attention Maylee started clicking her tongue at him. It was so funny! Steve had Koby put the lights and star on the tree since he is now the tallest in our family-and Koby didn't even need a stool! When the tree was done, Maylee kept asking, "What's next?"

The last three pictures are from the day after while the girls were making some adjustments. I think we are excited for Christmas!

Thanksgiving surgery

The verdict was in: Morgan's enormous tonsil needed to come out. I decided to do it close to the Thanksgiving holiday so that Morgan wouldn't miss much school and I wouldn't miss too much work. So on the Tuesday before turkey day, Morgan and I got up early and headed to the hospital. She was really excited at first. I had promised that she could stay in her pajamas all day long and her friends (the experienced ones that had already gotten their tonsils removed) said that she could get a grape slushie after surgery. I did forget that you have to put on a hospital gown-but she stayed in her PJ's for the rest of the time. We got to the hospital by 7AM, verified all the paperwork that we had filled out earlier to pre-register and waited and waited. We watched the Disney channel, read Judy Moody and colored.

This is Morgan playing around while we waited.

Around 8:30 they gave Morgan a bit of medicine to help relax her. Boy did she get loopy. She would start drifting off to sleep, then turn and look and me and start giggling.

She kept trying to lay down on the bed rail and at one point, sounding like a drunk she said, "Thssisss is myyyyyyy firssss surgerrrry everrrrrr!" Then she broke into tears and said she was scared. We said another quick prayer and I held her for a little while. Finally she settled down and it was time for the surgery. They took her back about 8:50. I sat and waited...ok I read to keep my mind busy. The surgery took about 40 minutes. The doctor came and said that everything went well and they took out the adenoids too since they were also huge. Finally about 15 minutes later they brought her back to her room. She was so tired!

The cute nurses did this to her bunny while she was out. Morgan thought that was so nice. It took us forever to get her awake so we could go home. Later she asked me who changed her clothes, I told her she did with a little help from me-but she didn't remember that. She recovered very quickly and was eating solids by the day after surgery. Ofcourse that didn't stop her from eating all the "prescribed" foods like Popsicles, pudding, jello, suckers, hard candies, juices and chewing gum. Morgan was quite a trooper and didn't complain or whine too much. She only missed two days of school and is doing very well. The hardest part for her is that she isn't supposed to run, jump, hop around, etc. So one more week of no recesses or PE. Hope she can make it that long!

I am so grateful that the surgery went well, that there is less snoring and hope there will be less sore throats and colds! Love this girl!

Trip to Morgan

On Saturday Koby had his first wrestling tournament of the season in Morgan, Utah. Not that it needs to be said but Morgan was so excited to be going to visit a town that shares her name. She loved seeing and hearing her name everywhere all day.

It was a long, snowy drive, but we are so glad that we went. It is so much fun to watch Koby wrestle and he did great! He got 1st place and really dominated his opponents. We have seen so much improvement since he started last year. Steve recorded the matches on his phone and Koby watched them between his matches. We all sat mat-side and cheered him on. Morgan even sat down the dvd player to cheer for her big brother during his matches. I completely lost my voice-not from the yelling but because I was sick.

What a great start to a new exciting wrestling season!

Little doll

I have told Morgan at least a dozen times a day that Maylee is not a doll. But despite this, Morgan spent a couple of hours on Sunday dressing Maylee up in different outfits. The girls had a fun time doing their "fashion show". Maylee was such a good sport and even started to really get into the modeling part.

Morgan made me take pictures of each outfit too-some are a little out there but at least they had fun!

Awww...sisters

Halloween

For Halloween this year Maylee got to be a lady bug. She was pretty darn cute. This was really her first experience with trick or treating and she really liked it. It was quite dramatic though-she had to walk by herself-she didn't want to be carried and she didn't want anyone hold her bag for her. Unfortunately I didn't plan ahead and so when I grabbed a cute gift bag as we ran out the door I didn't realize that the bag was almost as big as she was. So as soon as she got a bit of candy in it, she dragged it everywhere. Then she had to run most of the time just to catch up with everyone. After a little bit Steve took her home while I took Morgan to a few more houses.

Morgan decided to be Fancy Nancy this year. Fancy Nancy is a character from a child's book that is very popular for girly girls. In August Morgan made a list of all that she would need for her costume-she had everything she needed already. In case you cannot see in the picture, here is some of the things we did for her outfit. Make-up, jewelery, ringlets and then a high pony tail with ribbons, a boa, a Tu-Tu, ribbons laced up her calves, and a fancy shirt (no idea what that means but one she thought would work well). She looked cute but very few people knew who she was.

Koby didn't dress up but he was very good at helping the girls share their candy with him. Nice huh?

Koby is 15!

I love this kid so much! It is great to see him grow up and become his own person but it's also a little sad. He no longer cuddles with me or talks about his day with out me asking 20 questions. His friends are much cooler than his parents. But we are so lucky to have him be part of our family!

(Pictures are from his birthday dinner at Brick Oven with family and then opening gifts.)