La Familia Morris

ZZZzzzzzzzz

2012-01-31T14:21:00.000-08:00

Shevin came home from work early yesterday because he was not feeling well, and when he
came home it was actually the boys nap time, so all three of them slept peacefully on the bed.

When I saw those three sleeping, I hurried and put Genevieve down so that I could get the camera and take a picture, and when I came back, I found that Genevieve had also fallen asleep! So what did I do to take advantage of those 60+ minutes when everyone in the house was asleep???

I cleaned of course! Who has time to sleep?

Gabriel is THREE

2012-01-29T14:49:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Gabriel! We celebrated Gabe's birthday this year with friends and family at a fun little party at our house. The theme was a Pajama party so all the little kids were dressed in their pajamas which was super cute. We invited Ella, Nicholas, Brock, Brody, Ava, Jonah and Tessa, and they all made it!

We had the kids decorate pillow cases and make cereal necklaces, and then watch Elmo's Silly Songs with their own bags of popcorn.

One of my favorites things during the party was watching Gabriel open presents. He, and every other one of his friends were each incredibly excited to open the presents. They all gathered close around Gabriel and helped him open most every present, it was fun to watch how happy they all were.

Instead of having the traditional cake and ice cream and since it was a pajama party, we opted for yummy "breakfast" foods like donuts, chocolate chip muffins, sliced oranges, chocolate milk and Rice Krispies.....treats.

He had so much fun with his family, friends, and new presents!

Happy Birthday Gabe!

Oh, and Gavin wanted his picture taken too:)

Genevieve - 1 month old

2012-01-29T14:22:00.000-08:00

Genevieve is already 1 month old. Her jaundice has cleared up nicely and she is gaining weight now at a good pace. She still loves to sleep a lot during the day and not quite as much during the evening, but we still love her. Everyone compliments us on her hair and painted nails, and I've now had two other family members say that she looks like me when I was a baby. I am predicting that her eyes will be a light brown, maybe hazel... we'll just have to wait and see on that one. At her check up her dr said she was 70th in height, 40th in head circumference, and 5th in weight. So she's tall and skinny with a normal sized head. Oh, and she look like a princess in this dress today.

Long Winter Months

2012-01-29T14:10:00.000-08:00

The weather is cold but the company is good:)

We've been indoors now for what feels like forever. Rain, snow, freezing winds and a newborn baby is all that keeps us from the wild outdoors. While indoors we've come up with some fun games like, "push the laundry basket" and "obstacle course" and "run around the ottoman", and the names pretty much speak for themselves. The boys also love helping me cook every night, and spend about 15 minutes screaming "DAD!" and staring out the window waiting for Shevin to come home. (best part of everyone's day). We haven't really had enough snow to build a snowman, but maybe soon.

Dear Genevieve

2012-01-15T17:00:00.000-08:00

She's here! Genevieve Yolanda Morris was born at 9:58pm on Thursday December 29th. She weighed 6 lbs. 15 oz. and was 20 1/2 inches long. The delivery was ok. I went into the hospital at 2pm, my water was broken at 5pm, and the really painful contractions didn't start until about 8pm. So really, I'd only said that it was really hard labor for about 2 hours. Since she was definitely ready to come out, I only had to push 2 times and there she was! There were some breathing and heart problems at first, so she was taken to the NICU for 2 hours which left us with a pretty quiet room biting our nails praying that everything was fine, and after the 2 hours, it was. We are so grateful to have our healthy little girl home. Sleep is minimal and we're living as hermits, but it's so great to have her, we all love her so much. Gavin gives his little "shis-shta" a "kish" about every 30 minutes, and Gabriel loves picking her up and bringing her to me while she's sleeping (he's done this twice now... crazy scary). She has big brown eyes and tons of beautiful dark hair, and right now she has hot pink fingerails. I just couldn't resist! My mom thinks that she looks like me when I was a baby, and I agree; we've got a future heart breaker on our hands!

Through with USU!

2011-12-23T07:16:00.000-08:00

That's right, December 3rd was Shevin L. Morris' last official day of school at USU, making him a Master in HR! No more late Friday nights and early Saturday mornings, no more weekday study sessions or in the middle of dinner phone conferences, nope, no more! He has pushed through the last 2 years with work, family and school, and it has all paid off. Only 2 weeks later he also took and passed the PHR test, another amazing feat! I can't begin to express how proud of him I am for dedicating himself and spending so much time to further his education for both himself and his family. Love you husband!

-Since USU only has a ceremony in April, we had our own little celebration honoring Shevin at our house the next day and most all of his family was able to come to show Shevin their support,
WAY TO GO!

(p.s.- I realize that congratulations is spelled with a T, and not a D; it was done on purpose.)

Halloween 2011

2011-12-22T11:17:00.000-08:00

I'm obviously behind, since Halloween was nearly 2 months ago, but I wanted to remember how much fun it was. First off, I love the Fall. I love baking with pumpkin, staring at brightly colored leaves, and wearing pretty scarves; It is my favorite season hands down, and Halloween is 2nd place on my favorite holiday list. This year we spent Halloween in our new place in Lehi, and we had a great time. We dressed the boys up as Buzz Lightyear and Woody, and we went trick-o-treating 4 times!

On Friday, while Shevin was in class, I took the boys over to the Lehi Legacy Center where they were having a big Halloween bash with dinner, games, prizes and trick-o-treating. It was Gavin's first time, and although the only word he could get out was "treat", everyone seemed to understand what he wanted, and gave him a piece of candy. The only problem is that Gavin was so excited about the candy in his hand, that he immediately came to a hault so that he could unwrap and eat the candy, holding up the rest of the kids in line. After doing that about 10 minutes of crying because he didn't understand why he couldn't immediately eat the candy, he seemed to grasp the concept and started having fun again. Gabriel was also being funny about trick-o-treating, Only his thing was that he didn't like people putting the candy in his actual Halloween basket (which was a football). He would deliver his line, and then hold out his hand for the candy. If the candy giver passed by his hand and threw it in the football he'd yell "No! Don't do that!" and then angrily grab that piece of candy out of the football, stare at it for a minute, and then put it in the football himself. It was a little embarrising when he yelled at people, but you can't blame him for wanting to inspect every piece of candy he was given, there are some creeps out there and who knows what kind of gross things they'd try to pass off as edible:)

On Saturday afternoon we went to our ward "soup eat & trunk or treat" and had a better time than expected. Because most of our ward is grandparents, we had far more trunks than treaters, so each trunk gave the boys 4-5 pieces of candy each instead of the customary 1-2 pieces. Score!

Monday morning I picked up Syd and the girls and we all went to Nuskin to trick-o-treat through my mom's building. Two of my favorite things, 1. family and B. candy, so it was a great morning.

To top off the Halloween Season, we took the kids treating around the neighborhood to a few of the neighbors who went all out for Halloween. We saw dancing witches, floating skeletons, and we even got to walk through a neighbors fun little "Haunted House"; and we followed that with hot chocolate ("hot chocate milk" as the kids call it) in our jammies. Loved it!

Our Lehi House

2011-11-22T20:58:00.001-08:00

We are now starting to get settled into our new home, and we really like it. My favorite thing about this area is that it's only 1 block away from Wine's Park. But we like that we're surrounded by older homes and older people. Our ward is one of those "newly weds and nearly deads" ward. About 20% of the ward in very newly weds, meaning no kids. Another 20% is the middle age with children, and 60% is older than 50. Another thing that I actually like is that it seems like everyone is this ward has lived in Lehi most of their life. The older people in the ward have lived in the same house for over 30 years, and the middle agers have all just purchased their parents or grandparents old house, and they married someone they knew in High School. I think I like it because it is so opposite of how we've been thus far, but growing up in one place for a long time is just such a nice concept I hope that we can eventually get to that place. Back to the house, it was and still is work, but I guess that's just what we do! So far we've replaced plumbing, electrical, insulation, windows, walls, carpet, trim, paint, and the bathroom. We still have much to do, but since we plan on being here for a while, I think we have some time:)

We'll Leave the Light on For You

2011-09-18T09:36:00.000-07:00

These last four weeks or so have been so incredibly busy and eventful for us, that I thought I'd share them before I forget.

First, We've sold our house on Bethpage Ct. with mixed emotions. We loved living in that South Jordan/Herriman area and all the people that we've met there, but we were excited to make some

money, and to move on to our next adventure; which is this home we bought in Lehi. Unlike our previous 2 places, our plan is to live in this home for the next 3-5 years.

Since this new home in Lehi is a bit of a fixer upper, we've made our temporary home here:

We've been living in the Motel 6 for the past two weeks and let's just say it really hasn't been as bad as we thought it was going to be, and we're making the best of it!

We've also sold our Nissan Xterra after having it listed for only 3 hours, we love KSL!

and to prepare for our next child, we then bought this Nissan Quest the very next day!

I've never been too prejudice against minivans, even though I definitely admit that the "cool" factor isn't there, but I am very satisfied with mine.

As far as the family goes, Gavin started walking in the end of August and says many more words like Eat, Treat, Apple, Please, Thank you, up, cheese, No, Abuela, Gabe, more, etc. He's also had 7 teeth come in all within 2 weeks, and it just so happens to be the weeks that we are in the Hotel...

Gabriel is still learning so much and his speech gets bigger and better by the hour.

Shevin started his 2nd to last course of the program (woohoo!) and continues to love his profession.

I Like to Move It, Move It

2011-08-17T17:53:00.000-07:00

This morning at around 6:30am, Gabriel came into our room and crawled in between us in bed; the usual morning routine. Only today, he didn't fall back to sleep. Nope, instead, he started doing pelvic thrusts while singing, "I Like to Move it, Move it, I like to Move it Move it" over and over again until we woke up and fed him breakfast. What a hoot!

It's a ..........

2011-08-11T20:08:00.000-07:00

Our third baby is a girl and we are so excited for her! We are still deciding on names and whether or not she will be the last of the Morris children, but it's a girl! Hooray! For the last week or so I've been asking Gabriel whether he wanted another little brother, or a little sister and he kept saying "little sister" so I'm glad that he won't be disappointed. When I asked Gavin, he just smiled, touched my belly and said "baby". Finally, someone that I can cook with, sing with and paint their toe-nails without worrying they'll turn out gay! 2 boys and a girl. We love it!

4th of July

2011-07-08T15:49:00.000-07:00

This Fourth of July was actually much more fun that originally planned. We woke the kids up early so that we could go watch the Hot Air Balloons in Provo with Abuela and Abuelo, but because of the wind they didn't even blow them up. We decided to drown our sorrows in the Kiwaniis Club pancake breakfast and a tall glass of milk. There was a helicopter hanging out across the street just waiting for Gabriel to explore it, so he did. The parade starting about 20 minutes later, and we ended up finding awesome parking spot, so we stayed and watched for a while. We didn't expect for the boys to like it as much as they did. Gabriel waved back to everyone who was waving from the cars and squealed with excitement when the big blow up floats came by and Gavin kept screaming and reaching at the horses he saw. I think that we'll go again next year. We spent the rest of the night with Abuela and Abuelo at Liberty Land riding the carousel, airplanes, slick cars and getting drenched in the bumper boats. When we finally got home I noticed that the YW/YM forgot to put a flag in front of our yard, all the neighbors had theirs, but we were missing ours, so I'm contemplating asking for my money back.
We gave Gabriel a sparkler while doing our fireworks, and he did great with it, until the fire was out, then he immediately grabbed the top of the sparkler with his fingers, and has since decided that fireworks are
very hot, and too dangerous. We'll try again soon.

Happy Anniversary!

2011-07-08T15:17:00.000-07:00

Wow, don't we look Happy? A little bit crazy too....

Well that's because 5 years ago we did something crazy, and we were happy about it! We celebrated our 5th Anniversary this last weekend by spending a night out just the two of us, and boy, it was great!

We first checked into The Castle Inn Bed and Breakfast in Sandy, and even though it had only been 5 years since we'd been there last, it wasn't at all as we remembered it. It was still super amazing, only we had know idea that it was surrounded by a beautiful creek and walkway, we completely missed out on the array of free treats and drinks that they set out for you in the kitchen, and we bypassed the drawers of old movies that we had never even heard of. This time however, we took advantage. We arrived there early and grabbed snacks, sodas, and a movie with Scarlette Johansen and that good looking man who plays Wolverine, then took them up to our room and stocked up our fridge for later.

We then went to Red Lobster and had a feast of my most favorite foods in the universe. We ate crab, lobster, scallops, shrimp, calamari and stuffed mushrooms while discussing our favorite memories of the last 5 years and decided on these in on particular order:

Wedding Day Gabriel's birth Gavin's birth Honeymoon Vacation Shevin's Graduation

Shevin really wanted to add a sixth favorite day in the past five years: the day the Costa Vida by our new house opened, but I really didn't think that was appropriate, so the list stays as is. After 5 years I have measured the amount of good times by the amount of bad, and have come to the conclusion that it has been an incredibly happy last five years, and we look forward to many many years to come.

What's THat?!?

2011-06-26T16:56:00.000-07:00

Did you see that ------------------------------------>
There is a new addition to the blog, just as there will be a new addition to our family! At first we were in denial, then unbelief, then acceptance, and now excited to say that we are expecting our 3rd child on Jan. 5th, or a little sooner if we want a bigger tax refund:) Our 2 little boys already bring so much joy into our lives, and a 3rd child will just make us that much happier. Although at times I can't believe that we will soon be a family of 5, I am happy....really happy.

Gavin Turns One!

2011-05-30T07:28:00.000-07:00

This picture was of Gavin helping eat cupcakes that I made for his birthday and I love how it looks like he's posing for it.

Gavin's b-day was a success! On Friday, his actual birthday, we celebrated by letting the boys play with their Grandma Vicki and Uncle Jim, while Shevin and I went out to dinner and bowled. (I won 3 of 4 games:) On Sunday, we had the family over for some food and fun. We had spent all morning blowing up balloons that were scattered through the house for the kids to play with, and we had hamburgers/hot dogs, salads, cupcakes and popsicles. Gavin received books, balls, and a Power Wheels just like Gabe's, and he loved them all! He couldn't stop smiling throughout the whole party because he was incredibly happy to be surrounded by family who love him.

People who came:
Grandma Vicki Uncle Jim
Abuelo Abuela
Shea Mike Luke London
Tavo Sydney Ella
Shan Amy

Just a Great Day

2011-05-20T06:37:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning to find Gabriel doing the dishes. He really stood there for about 20 minutes going through each dish thoroughly. For some reason he has always been a great help when it comes to cleaning. Even Shevin admits that Gabriel is a much better cleaner than he is.
The boys have been incredibly sick for almost a week, but they are now seeming to get better. Gabe was throwing up on Saturday, and Gavin was just a few nights before that. Then it was my turn. We didn't miss too much staying inside, since the weather has been terrible. But while sick it was time to visit the Dr. and we found out this: Gabe is slightly overweight (who says that about a 2 yr old?? The 70 yr. old nurse, that's who) and Gavin is the bottom 10% in both weight and height. But Gavin is getting plenty of Iron but Gabriel, not so much. While in the Doctor they both had blood work done, and neither one of them cried, what a Miracle! This seems like a lot of negative things, but for some reason, I remain happy. Shevin ends school in November, I have been helping coach tennis, we're loving this new house, ward, and neighbors, and both kids are again sleeping through the night! But we did both just get called to Nursery...so we'll see how that goes:)

Zooology

2011-03-06T21:32:00.000-08:00

I realize that isn't how to spell it, but it is how Zoology should be spelled.

Every last Wednesday in Winter, Hogle Zoo offers admission for free. So since the weather wasn't too bad last Wednesday, I packed the boys and off we went! I had such a great time, and I think that Gabriel really had fun too. Gavin was about 1/2 and 1/2.

Gavin at 9 months

2011-03-05T20:19:00.000-08:00

Gavin is now 9 months old. Here are some cool things about him thus far:

-Now is about the time where babies start wanting to crawl all around, but Gavin isn't one to follow the crowd. He doesn't like being placed on his belly. Ever.
-His two bottom teeth are starting to break through his gums:)
-He claps and coos, and says dadada.
-He does not yet sleep through the night, and I'm lucky if he takes more than 1 nap a day :(
-His smile covers 1/2 of his face.
-He is very feisty. If he sees something that he wants, and I don't give it to him, he SCREAMS and cries until he gets it. If I try to replace it with something else, he slaps my hand and continues to cry until he gets the exact thing that he wants.
-His hair line is doing the opposite of receding.
-He likes to feed himself, and he does a pretty good job of getting most of it in his mouth.
-He rotates his hands in circles wildly when he gets excited.
-He is the coolest.

Heh.

2011-02-25T21:59:00.000-08:00

It's Gabriel's word for "yes". At least we hope it is!

Shevin's 28th!

2011-02-10T20:29:00.000-08:00

Oh hey, no big deal, Shevin just turned a whopping 28 years old! What is going on with the time?? I met this guy when he was 21, and now he is 28. More handsome, and more mature.... well, maybe not that second thing, but he sure is good-looking! And he's just the best ever. He's smart, kind, always fun to be around, and he's genuine. We went to Costa Vida (for about the 4th time in the past month) and NickelMania, and bought his b-day ice cream from Sub-Zero. I'm so glad that we get to spend a few days celebrating him. (yes, a few days, that's how we roll.)

Gabriel's 2nd Birthday

2011-01-26T20:06:00.001-08:00

Today is Gabriel's 2nd Birthday! Shevin and I can't believe that he is already so old, it makes us sad. He is always so much fun to be around and we are so blessed to have him. He continues to be obsessed with basketball, football, baseball and every other sport. Since nursery, he's also really started to like coloring. He talks a lot, mostly saying family names all day. He says things such as " Isaac basketball", "baskethoop" "brotha bath" "dad work" "mama say it", and "life cereal". Gabe loves to point, especially when he wakes up in the morning. When Shevin gets him from his crib, Gabe will point Shevin out the door, to the light switch, and then to the top of the fridge where the cereal is. He is smart too! When one of us is on the laptop, he'll come and sit next to us and say, "baby.com?" Meaning that he wants to watch babysigningtime.com. (not really a website). He can also sing his ABC's up to letter G, and his ABC's in Spanish but only random letters, and he can count, "1, 2, 5." We love him so much!

We decided last minute to have his birthday party at Draper's Incredible Pizza Company, and it was so much fun. There was pizza, homemade ice cream cake, and video games galore!

These are all the people who came:

Grandparents: Vicki, Merlin, Mom, Juve, Liz

Aunts/Uncles: Holly, Shan, Amy, Tavo, Syd, Isaac

Cousins: Ella, Andrew, Lauryn, Partick

Friends: Eli (neighbor), Brian Trey, Brock, Brody, Briggs, Brian, Brooke, Heejay, Greg

We're incredibly grateful to have so many family members and friends share this important day with us. Gabriel received so many gifts that I really don't think I can name them all, but he does sincerely love them all, and he had the best birthday ever!

Holidays 2010

2011-01-06T10:48:00.000-08:00

Wowza! There have been so many things that have happened since I've made a post. I'll try to go in order. First, I've started another blog. This one is more like a "couponing" blog. I write about how to get good deals on diapers, groceries, movies, restaurants, etc. It's kinda like a hobby for me, even though some times it's pretty annoying. It's called Freethingsforme.blogspot.com and if you haven't looked at it, you should. Thanksgiving was great, all 3 of them! It's always fun to get together with family and eat great food, but the kids are extremely tired by the time we get home, and we are too! But never too exhausted to go to the Midnight Madness sale up in Park City with my mom! We left at around 10:30, and hit up the children's clothes stores, then Walmart, then Toys-R-Us, and my mom dropped me off at about 3:30am, only to go by herself to wait in line at Shopko, and then K-Mart, and she finally got home at 8am! I can't believe how crazy cool my mom is! I get my love of shopping (not for clothes, but for EVERYTHING else) from her.
I also finished my first semester back at school and did great, and Shevin is now 1/2 way through his Master's, it's gone by crazy fast. We both got A's, well, I got two A-'s but those are still A's, right? A few days before Christmas we went with Tavo, Syd and Ella to Draper's Incredible Pizza Co. and had a blast! I'm not sure why, but there's this video game there that you just throw small plastic balls at as fast and as hard as you can, and I'm IN LOVE with it! I didn't find this amazing game until a few minutes before we left, but for those last few minutes I played nothing else and now I can't get that game off my mind! That sounds so insignificant in my life, but it's really all I can think about lately. Oh, and we received callings in our ward a couple of months ago, I'm the beehive advisor and Shevin is the EQ secretary, but last Sunday our ward split, so those were short lived. I asked three times over the last few months about getting someone to visit teach, and I never did end up getting a list, but I did get a phone call Monday night asking me if I did my visiting teaching for Dec. I said no, but that if she'd let me know who I visit teach that I would love to do it, and she said she'd get back to me with the names, and guess what? She hasn't. My Asian neighbor's mother-in-law is in town, and will be until May (What?!?!) so she never wants to hang out with me anymore, I think that she forgot that I ate Kim-Chi for her. Gavin is 7 months old and Gabe is almost 2 and they're both super great kids. Except Gavin still doesn't like sleep very much, which is completely opposite of his mom and dad, and we often argue about who has to get up with him when he wakes up at 5:30am, yuck! Christmas was a blast! This year we tried to spread out our Christmas trips so that we could spend more time with each individual family and spent all day Christmas Eve with my mom at her house playing with our Christmas gifts, watching movies, eating candy, playing games, and just talking. She got Gabriel a little Power Wheels four-wheeler! He LOVES it and loves to ride it up and down our hallways and living room. The next day we spent the morning having our own little family Christmas doing our big breakfast and Mr. Krueger's Christmas traditions, and it was probably the most calm we'd been all season. It was short lived. We went to my mom's again to play a little more with Gabe's new car, and then it was off to Dad's house where we got to see some of our extended family visiting from Puerto Rico! Including my 92 yr. old Grandmother Yaya and my Titi Cari & Sigfriedo, and Tia Gilda and my cousins Natalie and Robert and Natalie's son Nicholas. We ate the traditional PR feast of roasted pork and Arroz, with Liz's famous rolls. A few days later Yeyo and his girlfriend Alli came over and visited from Virginia and we got to spend some time with them. We played "the game" of course, which is my favorite game ever, (the plastic ball throwing game is a close 2nd) and Tavo won. Laz and Alli got Gabriel his very own basketball hoop and now all he wants to do is play basketball, which is a nice break from watching Signing Time all day. Except every time that we play he says, "Alli Bahketball?" and "Laz Bahketball?" Meaning, "are we going to play basketball with Laz and Alli today?" And I have to say not today, and then he gets mad. Hopefully they'll come to visit often:)
Our house is now fully framed! The electrician and Roofers should be done next week, and they're on schedule for the March 1st move-in date! We're pretty super excited about it. Even though we're kinda hoping to just sell it and make lots of money. But we'll see what happens with that.
We've both started school again, Shevin's back to a 5 day work week, and Gabe's calling me to play basketball. Back to our normal routine:) PS. All the pictures of these things are on Facebook.

Football!

2010-12-16T21:47:00.000-08:00

Gabriel LOVES football. He really likes to play basketball (babbetbawl) and Soccer (socka bawl) too, but he just loves football (foobawl) most. He wants to take his football everywhere we go. In the car, to the park, the store, to abuela's house, seriously everywhere. And when he asks he to turn on Baby Signing Time (baby) and I say no, he then says foobawl? I'll give in and turn on whatever football game is on ESPN.

He doesn't like to wear pants either! What a boy!

He's so much fun and we're so blessed to have both him and Gavin as our kids! I love staying home with them just laughing and playing ball all day, it doesn't get any better than that!

Her name is Beth

2010-12-08T10:24:00.000-08:00

For the last couple of months, Shevin and I have fallen in love with someone else...her name is Beth.

We can stop thinking about her, feel the need to see her daily, and every time we see her our love for her grows! And she grows too:)

We are so excited to be building this awesome house! We can't wait for it to be finished by March 1st! So far, it's been pretty stressful, but I think that it's getting better, and with a mid Feb finish date, it shouldn't be too long!

P.S. Last night, some random terrible looking young guy walked right into my apartment while I was making dinner, no knock. So yes, we are SO EXCITED to get outta here!

Friendship

2010-11-18T20:54:00.000-08:00

I love friends. I love talking to them, and listening to them, and getting their advice on things, and learning things from them, but mostly I love just having them around for laughs. We used to have three sets of good friends that we hung out with often, and two moved to Portland, and one to Iowa. That's just awesome. Not.

Them moving has made me decide two things, 1. Friends are important, and 2. We need to make more friends. I've tried to make friends with my little Asian neighbor, who also has a little 2 year old boy, but she seems to never be home when I go to her house, and I think that when I did see her the other night I maybe offended her without knowing. (There was a huge "brawl" going on a few nights ago that I could hear in my apartment, I automatically assumed that it was my downstairs neighbors because I don't know them very well, but when I tried to bring it up to my next door neighbor she all the sudden became really awkward and said she had an appt. to go to (it was a Saturday), so maybe it was her causing the ruckus???) Either way, she's out. I'm getting so desperate for adult conversation that I've found myself sparking up conversations with the grocery checker and staying after to speak with classmates and even on occasion the teacher. Sad, right? Ok, Goal for this week, find a friend, and actually hang out with her.

Cornbelly's 2010

2010-11-01T20:13:00.000-07:00

So here it is. If you don't like pictures then look no further. This year was the first year that we have gone to CornBelly's at Thanksgiving point for Halloween thanks to Vicki, and we have already made plans to go again next year! It was so incredible. Just incredible. There was bouncy toys, bikes, slides, trains, blow up toys, pumpkin throws, face painting, spider webs, and the list goes on! We all had so much fun that we ended up staying for about 3 hours, which was 2 hours longer than planned. Here are only a fraction of the pictures that we took while there. Halloween Rocks! Gabe kicks butt at teatherball.

Funny story: Shevin and I were headed out the door to take a morning jog, when Vicki called us letting us know that she was waiting for us in the parking lot. We couldn't believe it. She had called us a few days before and asked if we'd wanted to go with her, we of course said yes, and then completely forgot about it! So we forgot about the run and drove straight there. We don't normally run around in work out clothes and the kids don't usually spend their days in pj's. Usually.

Weeeeeeeeeee!

Gabe's so adventurous, as long as dad's around.

Bieeeeeeeeeeee! (bike)

Gabriel is so friendly, but only to little girls. He says "hi" to every little girl he sees. They don't like him very much:(

He has a book with a tractor in it, and a toy tractor, so he just LOVES tractors. Cornbelly's had tractors galore, so Gabriel would randomly start running through the field yelling "twatohhhh, twaaaatooooh!"

5 and 21

2010-10-29T18:48:00.000-07:00

Gavin and Gabriel just turned 5 months and 21 months old. Wow.

We have recently started letting Gavin cry himself to sleep at night, and out of the past 2 weeks, he's had 2 nights with a 7 hour stretch, and they happen to be the last two nights, so let's keep our fingers crossed! We've also been feeding him cereal and he loves it. He has gotten the hang of it pretty fast and opens his mouth big everytime he sees the spoon. Even if he already has food in his mouth, when he sees the spoon he opens it again and the food that he had in his mouth will spill out. I think it's funny. He smiles all the time at anyone and everyone. He loves having his diaper changed, and as long as he's fed and in close range to me or Gabriel, he's a very happy boy.

Gabriel is the happiest boy in the world. He laughs all of the time, at everything. He loves playing with balloons, balls, and really loves the park. Whenever we play on the swingset I say, weeee! So now, whenever we pass a swingset he says, weeee! He has a new favorite book that is filled with animals and cars and he can't put it down. When we first got the book I thought that it was going t0 be so much fun teaching him animal names and sounds, but Gabriel kept pointing to weird animals, like a goat, and I wouldn't know what to say (I still don't.) What kind of sound does a goat make? Or an Elephant? Zebra? I've decided that lions, tigers, and bears all say "RAR!" and he has that one down pretty well. He also knows that the monkey says "oo oo ah ah" and the rooster says "cockadoodledoo" or as Gabe says "cadoodoo". He tries hard to follow me when I sing the abc's and is learning the finger signs for #1-5. He still takes one nap a day, when he isn't being too stubborn. He loves his new friend and neighbor Eli and says his name constantly throughout the day. He now understands the whole knocking concept, so as soon as we leave the apartment, Gabriel makes a break for Eli's door, and he has actually succeeded 2 times in getting them to answer. It's always very early in the morning, around 8 am, so I'm immediately embarrased, but the neighbor is nice and she always invites us right in, so I usually stay for a few minutes to talk while Gabriel plays. Really it's kind of fun for both of us when Gabriel knocks on the door. I only wish that the neighbor understood English.

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-23T22:15:00.000-07:00

Gabriel has learned to say Happy Halloween so well! I was originally trying to teach him to say trick or treat, but he would get so excited when I would say treat and then he would be so mad at me when I wouldn't give him one, that I had to try something different.I realize that today wasn't Halloween, but they had a fun Halloween Festival at the District that we took the boys to, and there was treat-o-treating through the stores so I got to dress them up! I don't think I need to say, but Gabriel was Raphael the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle and I think that he was definitely the cutest little boy at the party. Random people would say, "Oh how cute, does he love that show?" And I'd say "Yes, it's his favorite show ever!" Even though he doesn't even watch tv and can barely say turtle. Oh well, just a white lie.Gavin was a monkey, also the cutest ever! It was a tie between him an Gabe. Gavin has been growing so much lately and has become such a happier little boy who now rolls over and coos and smiles and laughs.Look at him posing, he's so handsome, just like his dad!I was so proud of Gabriel's costume that I took about 10 pictures of it. He even had the Sai in his waistband to complete the look. Before we left to the District, Gabe grabed the sai and starting stabbing me with it, so I thought it best that we left it at home.

Hey Crazy Eyes!!

Random Pictures

2010-10-10T20:22:00.000-07:00

My future football star isn't strong enough to push this yet.

Herriman High has a turf field so it's really fun for us to go play on early in the morning.

Sydney and I decided to get the kids together for a picture, but none of them wanted to stay still for long, and Gabe kept trying to flash his gang signs. When we were all finished we went for a mid-day jog.

Gabriel has decided that you can place anything on your head and call it a hat. So this is his after milk cup hat, and when he's done with breakfast he wears his bowl hat.

Gavin at four months. I love him, I love him lots.

Twenty 5

2010-10-02T20:04:00.000-07:00

Since being married, I'd say that my birthday celebrations have gone from fiesta to siesta. This birthday was different. All I wanted was a babysitter and one night out alone with Shevin. Instead, I got 3 nights out alone with Shevin and cherished every second. My mom, Vicki, and Sydney each watched the boys for a night and we took full advantage. We went to a movie, Sydney and Ella came over and brought lunch and cupcakes, and sang to me (very cute, thanks Syd!) we had dinner at Market Street Grill, ate Maggie Moo's birthday cake (the best, definitely the best.), then, as a super amazing surprise, Shevin drove me to a hotel and pulled out a bag filled with my clothes and toiletries and told me that he rented a room for me to stay so that I could get a full night's rest, without Gavin waking up every hour. And although that was probably the sweetest thing that he's ever done for me, I just didn't want to spend the night alone without my husband. So, instead of being at the hotel alone, I spent the late night cuddling with my dream guy and watching 90210, and I couldn't think of anything else that I wanted more to finish off the perfect day. Happy Birthday to me!

Gavin is blessed, and so are we!

2010-09-05T15:47:00.000-07:00

Gavin - 3 months

Today was Gavin's blessing, and boy was it a good one! We were a little worried that Gavin was going to cry through the entire blessing, but he didn't cry once. I'm so glad that Shevin is able to hold the priesthood and bless our children. I'm also very grateful to have all of our friends and family there to support us. It was such a beautiful day. The sun was out and there was a nice breeze. We went with our family and friends to a park at Oquirrh Lake for the after party and had salad, fruit and tons of goodies. It was a good day.

People who attended the blessing: Aunt Debbie, Holly & Lauryn & Patrick, Jim & Caralee, Alvin (taking the picture) & Laura & Miles, Amber, Shad & Hannah & Abbey, Vicki & Jim R., Tavo & Sydney & Ella, Shan & Amy, Yolanda A.
Liz & Isaac, (Left before picture) Peggy & Jeanette (Left before the picture)
Men in the circle: Shevin, Shad, Shan, Jim M. , Alvin, Gustavo
Isaac, Tavo, Ella, Liz, Sydney
Me, Gavin and my mom.Gabriel chasing the birds. We lost one of Gabe's church shoes, so we went with the cowboy boots.

Gentian Violet

2010-08-18T15:04:00.000-07:00

Gavin has thrush. Gentian Violet is a purple dye that is used to treat Thrush. This is what happens when you are holding an open bottle of Gentian Violet next to a 2 month old's wiggly arms.
It got everywhere. Including all over the back of Gavin's head. What a mess.

Summer Time!

2010-08-09T10:06:00.000-07:00

We just got back from the Morris Family Lake Powell trip, but of course I forgot my camera. The kids and I stayed in the hotel on Friday, while everyone else went on the boat and knee boarded/wake boarded/went tubing. Shevin and Shan flew off the tube, but Isaac held on tight and didn't fall off! The rain came pouring down on Saturday, and after waiting it out for a few hours on the boat, and then a couple of hours on the shore, we gave up and went out to dinner and a movie. We still had a great time there just being with family.

Summer time in Herriman has turned out to be so far so good. Our swimming pool isn't finished yet, but down the street from our apartment there is a splash pad that I take the boys to almost every morning. I go early enough that there usually aren't any other kids there and we get the place all to ourselves. (last time there were kids there, Gabe tripped over a girl and fell flat on his face, cutting his lip wide open... very sad.) But Herriman / South Jordan is beautiful! We love the feeling of being secluded, but still being pretty close to the things that we need.

Gabriel stole the cookie from the cookie jar!

2010-07-13T08:02:00.000-07:00

This morning there was a chocolate treat in my refrigerator.

But this afternoon, there were remnants of that treat and its wrapper all over the floor,

and one very suspicious little boy!

Farm Gate

2010-07-11T08:35:00.000-07:00

So this is it. The place that we are going to call home for at least a year. It's a brand new complex, expected to be completely finished in September, so it has it's ups and downs. Ups= we got the best apt. at a great price, we're the first to live in the apt., we shouldn't need to call maintence since we have all new appliances, not too many neighbors yet. Downs-the swimming pool SHOULD be done in August, we EXPECT the playground to be done by September, the Slash pad will PROBABLY be done when the pool is, and I THINK that the carports will be done in a few weeks. Very close neighbors that may complain about two small children above them. Only 852 sq. feet. YIKES!!!

I've decided that there's nothing that I can do about the size, but we can pray for patient or deaf neighbors. All in all, I feel that if they follow through on all the promises, we will be happy tenants.

This is kinda like what our apt. will look like. We're on the top floor, so we get vaulted ceilings and we don't have the wall that seperates the front room from the kitchen. Our apt. also has a fireplace and hardwood floors in the front room instead of carpet. We're moving in at the end of this month...Wish us luck!

A new chapter...

2010-07-09T10:57:00.001-07:00

This past week Shevin was offered two jobs at two great companies as their HR Manager. A few days and many pro/con lists later, Shevin accepted IntegraCore's offer. We've rented our out house for August 1, and are looking at apartments that are going to be close to Shevin's new office. (That's right, he gets his own office!) We think that IntegraCore is a great company with a lot to offer and we can't wait to see what this new adventure will bring.

Balloon Fest 2010

2010-07-03T08:25:00.000-07:00

My family and I used to go to the balloon festival every year when I was young. We used to get up super early and walk around the field watching the balloons inflate and then take off. I remember having a really good time, so I decided to keep the tradition alive with my family now.

We all got up at six, and were at the festival at 6:45am. The place was so much more popular than I remember it being when I was young, but we still had a really good time.

We were able to stand very close to one balloon as it inflated, but because it was a little windy, most of the balloons never left the ground.

Can't wait until Balloon Fest 2011!

1 month

2010-06-29T06:52:00.001-07:00

I can't believe it, Gavin is already one month old and has grown so much! He's gained 2 lbs, and grown 2 inches. Isn't he the cutest ever?

To celebrate Gavin's first month of life, we went to Seven Peaks, while he played at my mom's house.

Gavin's So old!

2010-06-23T14:55:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that Gavin is almost one month old, the time has gone by so fast. Well, all the time before Monday went by pretty fast, but from Monday until now, not so fast. Want to know how not-fast the time is? When I was going to sleep last night, I got really excited because I thought that it was Friday and the next day was Saturday. I spend all day/night inside the house, with at least one baby crying about 75% of the time. It's really not too bad, I just feel a little dead inside. But seriously, how cute are these kids??

Gabriel's so great with his little brother. And Gavin's doing pretty well, he's slowly more awake during the day, and only wakes up a few times during the night. All of his face bruising is gone, and when we went to his 2 week appointment, everything looked great! He's already grown to 21" long -76%, His head is 34% and his weight -7lb. 15 oz. is 56%. These are almost the exact same numbers as Gabe at his two week appointment.

Speaking of Gabriel...

Shan got married last week and asked Gabriel if he'd be a co-ring bearer with Amy's nephew. This picture is of him walking down the aisle. It was really cute. When it was Gabe's turn to walk, he threw the pillow holding the rings across the grass, and then walked straight to me. Well, at least he tried. Congratulations Shan & Amy!!

Gavin Lowell Morris

2010-05-30T09:03:00.001-07:00

Gavin was born on Thursday May 27th, 2010 @ 3:03pm in the AF Hospital. We went into the hospital at 9 am, and I was induced at 11am. I asked for the epidural at about 1 pm because I still wasn't really feeling any of the contractions. When I received the epidural, I wasn't breathing so well because I really hate needles and all that stuff, and my blood pressure went pretty low, which caused Gavin's heart beat to slow down. The nurses got kinda nervous and put me on oxygen, and upped my pitocin so that I'd have stronger contractions. After only 3 minutes of pushing, out came Gavin! His face was pretty bruised, and he is pretty jaundice, but other than that, healthy as an ox!

He's been under the bili lights since yesterday, and we are hoping that he'll be off of them by tomorrow. He has to be on them all day and night, except for to eat...so sad.

Gabriel's been such a great brother. He's been kissing him every time Gavin cries. And even though Gabe seemed kinda mad at me the first couple of days, he's back to his playful self, and has been getting lots of attention from all of our visitors!

Bella Ella

2010-05-22T15:36:00.001-07:00

This is my cutest little niece ever, Ella. Gabe and I have been able to watch and play with Ella for 3 days a week since August while Sydney was teaching. At first it was kinda rocky, and there were many tears shed by us both. But after the first few weeks, she cozied up to us and to our house and now she loves it so much that sometimes she cries when she's leaving! Gabe and Ella have actually started to play together, at the park and with toys, and sometimes Ella will chase after Gabriel and he'll run away from her and they'll both start laughing. It's so fun to have Ella for a niece and Gabriel loves having her for a cousin, that's why it's so sad to know that after next week, we won't be seeing her as often. Sydney is done teaching for the school year and possibly forever, and I'll be pretty busy with Gabe and our new baby boy. Even though we know that Ella will love being home with her mom so much more, we will miss her a ton!

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T20:05:00.000-07:00

This Easter was so fun! We were able to spend tonight's dinner with our family, and Gabriel went on his first Easter Egg hunt on Saturday morning. The hunt was at Lindon City Park just down the street from our house, and even though it looked like there were hundreds of eggs, the Easter egg hunt only lasted about 30 seconds.

Gabriel was really excited about his first Easter egg hunt!

He was probably the youngest one there!

It was a pretty cold outside so we made Gabe wear gloves, which made it a little difficult to pick up the eggs.... woops!

After the gloves were off, he got right down to business.

He picked up 5 eggs! We're pretty proud.

When the hunt was over, Gabe just wanted to throw the eggs around.

Post Hunt.

Supermarket Sweep

2010-04-01T20:44:00.000-07:00

At Smith's, they have cute little kid shoppping carts, and Gabriel really wanted to push one, and because we wanted him to stop screaming, we let him. This is what he looked like. SO CUTE!! He had so much fun pushing the cart, and we (and other shoppers) had a lot of fun watching him!

Gabe - 12 months

2010-02-01T11:53:00.001-08:00

We went in on Friday for Gabe's 12 month appt. Here's what the Dr. found out:
Weight - 23 lbs 3 oz. - 59%
Height - 29.5 inches - 44%
Head - 32% (not sure the size)

Some new things that have happened with Gabriel over the past month:

He can Walk! Well, toddle, all by himself, all over the room.
He now has 6 teeth, 4 front on top, 2 front on bottom.
He loves to open and close doors and cabinets.
He signs "milk", "food" and "more" consistently.
He transitioned to a sippy cup and cow's milk with no problems.
He gives hugs & kisses.
He can feed himself well. (yesterday for breakfast he ate correctly using a fork!)

We are amazed at how rapidly Gabriel has learned from the people and things around him and we are looking forward to what the next 12 months will bring!

HAPPY B-DAY GABRIEL!

2010-02-01T10:27:00.000-08:00

Gabriel - 1 day old

Gabriel - 1 year old

Showing Ella his new toys.

We had to help him open presents.

Everyone at the party.

Yay, bubbles!

More presents!

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....

Fire? I want to touch.

Pre-party snack of guacamole and bananas.

(The pictures are out of order, start at the bottom and work up)

Last Tuesday was Gabriel's first birthday! We spent the day in St. George swimming in our Holiday Inn Indoor/Outdoor swimming pool, and walking around town enjoying the sunshine and the shopping. We spent that night and the next night with Shad, Carrie and the girls watching the Jazz and BYU games in their new house. It was really sad for us to leave the beautiful, no jacket weather and have to come back to the snow.

On Saturday, we threw Gabe a big b-day party with a sports theme. I made his football field cake (not the one he smashed), and some guacamole, salsa and bbq cocktail weenies. When it was time to sing happy birthday, I put the candle on the cake, and lit the candle.... what a mistake. Gabriel immediately grabbed for the fire on the candle. I blew it out before he could burn his hand. But since I still wanted to light the candle, I moved it, and the cake further away from him, and lit it again. Again, it had to be blown out, this time by Abuela. So the candle on his cake wasn't lit when we sang due to safety reasons. When the singing was over I was very excited to see how he would respond to the cake. Instead of diving into it, the reaction I was hoping for, he started whimpering a little and reaching towards me like he wanted to get out of his chair. He must not have known that it was cake. After realizing that this cake was something that he could eat, he began to pick at it just a tiny bit at a time, only touching a corner of the frosting. It wasn't until I handed him a spoon and cut through the cake a little myself that he really started to enjoy it, and boy did he enjoy it. So much in fact, that Abuela took him for a quick bath and a set of new clothes before opening his presents.

Gabriel was given a baseball set and ball machine from us, clothes and money from grandparents, a coloring book, markers, a ball and bubbles from friends and cousins, and a set of blocks from aunt & uncle!!! Gabriel had a lot of fun with all of his family and new presents, even though he was fussy and really tired. He didn't want to take a nap all morning because he was so excited for the party. As soon as everyone left, he went down for a two hour nap. Thank goodness!

We're so happy that all of these people could come to the party to celebrate Gabe's birthday with us, and we missed everyone who didn't make it! Thank you all for your support with helping raise Gabriel, we love you!

My Mom (Abuela)
Juve (Abuelo)
Grandma Vicki
Grandpa Merlin
Grandpa Jim (Papa)
Grandma Caralee (Oma)
Uncle Tavo, Aunt Sydney & Cousin Ella
Uncle Shan & his girlfriend Amy
Aunt Debbie (Papa Jim's sister)
Uncle Jim
Daryl & Katrina, Ava & Jonah Smith (friends)
Jaime, OJ, and kids (Grandpa Merlin's daughter)

That night Shevin and I celebrated by having our own party at Nickel City while Tavo & Syd watched Gabriel. What a fun day! Happy Birthday son, we all love you very much!

Baby Number Two! - USU!

2010-01-09T17:46:00.000-08:00

It's a Boy!!!

We were both very happy to find out yesterday that our second baby is going to be a boy. And we think that Gabriel will be happy with that too, maybe not now, but eventually. It will be so fun to have two brothers so close in age. I just hope that when they're older they don't get into too much trouble. He's due Saturday, May 29th. (tilt your head to the right for picture)

Profile Picture

We're hoping however that he doesn't come on that day, because Shevin will be in his first semester at USU!!! We're so grateful that we have two things to celebrate this weekend. Shevin received his letter in the mail yesterday confirming his acceptance into the Executive HR Program at USU.

He'll be taking classes every Friday night and Saturday morning, and because Shevin graduated in Business Management from UVU, he's already taken six of the classes that are required for USU's degree, so he'll get every third month off! He'll get his masters degree going to school only 8 days a month, for 15 months. It's been a great new year!!!

A Slam Dunk Christmas!

2009-12-26T09:30:00.000-08:00

This year Christmas was so great! Gabe woke us up at 6:22am because he was so excited to see what Santa Claus brought him. (really it was because he was sick and couldn't breathe.) But we decided to let Shevin sleep in a little while Gabe played with uncle Laz, who also wakes up at 6am. Gabe couldn't really rip open his presents, he's just not old enough yet, but he did play with them a lot. He likes this basketball hoop and his spinny alphabet toy the most.

Shevin got some clothes from me for Christmas, and because Yeyo is a lot nicer than I am, he got him the Super Mario Brothers Wii game. Shevin has only had it now for 2 days and has already conquered a world. So yeah, it was definitely his favorite Christmas present.

I got a Twilight book set, which I am really looking forward to reading before the next movie comes out, and the movie Julie and Julia, which I LOVE!

We spent the night before at my Dad's house with Liz, Isaac, Yeyo, Tavo, Syd and Ella. There we ate a nice ham dinner and played "the Christmas game" where Tavo cheated again, so Sydney won for the 2nd year in a row. Ella was really happy during the game because she likes it when its loud, but Gabe doesn't and was being pretty fussy. We then exchanged gifts, I got a massage certificate and food storage, Shevin got a handheld massager and a Gift Certificate for clothes. And Gabe got a basketball hoop from dad and Liz and a Jazz Jersey onesie from Yeyo.
After opening our presents on Christmas day, we went to Shea's house for brunch. There Gabe got some money for a savings from his Grandpa Morris, and so did we, as well as some board games from Shea.
After Shea's house, and a quick nap time for Gabriel, it was off to my mom's for dinner. We had arroz y habichuelas. We got some more gift certificates, lotions, and a tool set. Gabe got Basketball Hoop #2, and a few other small toys.

And to finally finish off the day, we went to Grandpa Morris' house for dessert, and to spend some time with Shad, Carrie and our neices. We ended up getting home at around 10pm, and although we tried to make it through "A Lot Like Love", we didn't even get through the first 20 minutes before falling asleep together on the couch. The perfect ending for a long but fun day.

It's Signing Time!

2009-12-12T21:01:00.000-08:00

That's right, only about 6 months of Signing Time DVDs and Gabe's finally mastered his first sign. If you know Gabe at all, you can take a pretty good guess at what it is. Look:

Before each bite, Gabe is signing "eat". Whenever he wants to eat, he just whimpers and puts his hand to his mouth, and he pretty much does it all day long. He'll eat anything and everything, all of the time.

He's also getting really good at standing without help for a longer amount of time. We're hoping that he'll be able to walk at about 12 months. He never stops trying, and because of that he is always hurting himself. Right now he has a black eye. He'll get the hang of it soon!

We've got a walker!

2009-11-30T18:17:00.000-08:00

We got a walker. It's a new toy that Gabe uses to help him walk across the house. Here's a cute little video showing him walking/waddling along.

He usually has to stop when he slams into the wall, couch or a table. He doesn't even cry anymore when he falls, he just looks a little stunned, and then gets right back up. We seriously couldn't have asked for a better little boy. He takes his naps, he eats anything and everything we feed him, he sleeps through the night, he falls asleep during long car rides and he loves to sing. Really though, whenever we sing him a song, and during church while we're singing hymns he joins along. Shevin gets really embarrased because Gabe gets pretty loud but I just think it's so fun! We'll have to record him doing it and put it on a different post.

OUCH!

2009-11-15T18:54:00.000-08:00

Early this morning, Gabe followed me into the kitchen to make some breakfast without me knowing, he pulled himself up using a folding chair, and then fell, bringing the folding chair with him. And this was the result:

He has a silver dollar size goose egg on his cute little forehead. (It looks so much worse in person than it does on this bad picture.) It was so sad! I was freaking out just a little and telling Shevin that we should probably go to the hospital. But Shevin knew that he would be ok, and after a couple minutes of crying and cuddling, Gabe was back to his smiling self.

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-03T11:33:00.000-08:00

Hooray for Gabe's first Halloween! He just couldn't wait to show everyone his scary lion costume at the ward's trunk or treat. One guy at the trunk or treat said, "ohhh, she's a cute little lion!" WHAT?! Lion is a manly costume! And only seconds later I saw a little girl walk by dressed as a lion. I guess her mom didn't know thst lion's are manly either.

Gabe was so happy when we got to see his Abuela at work. And she was happy to take him trick or treating around her office! One lady gave him a box of nerds to play with. By the time we were walking out of the building, Gabe had chewed through and started eating the box. That's right, he dumped the nerds and ate the box instead.

We found out this month that, like his mom and dad, Gabe loves chocolate! This is a Reeses that his Grandma Vicki gave him when we stopped by on Halloween night. She also made him oreo spider cookies anf gave him many more treats! Thanks Grandma!

Also, we went to his 9 month appoinment last week, and he's 50% on height, 49% weight, and 48% head circumference, right on track!

Crawling

2009-10-14T09:02:00.000-07:00

While I was on my small vacation to California, our little Gabriel started crawling forward. Shevin left him to play in the living room while he was doing the dishes (such a good husband), when he felt something rubbing against his leg. He looked down and sure enough, Gabe had crawled through the kitchen to be with his daddy. Now he doesn't even crawl backwards, which is all he used to do. He still doesn't really say mama. Every time I try to get him to say momma, he yells, DaDa! Sometimes he even pounds his fists when he says it. It's cute. But I'm hoping he'll eventually say mama.

Lion, or Pumpkin?

2009-09-16T20:15:00.000-07:00

Halloween is coming soon and we can't decide which costume we like better for Gabriel's first Halloween. I think that the Lion costume is so adorable, and you can't see, but it has a long furry tail. I'd also paint a little nose and whiskers on his face. But the pumpkin is just amazing. I think that every baby should be a pumpkin sometime in their life, and could you just picure little black leggings and a black nose??? SO CUTE!!! I think I might just have him wear one costume to our church party, and one on Halloween for the trick-o-treaters. I don't know.
BUT ALSO........ Milestone Time: Gabe can clap, give you five (most the time), say dadada and mamama and other sounds, his two bottom teeth are coming in and he's just starting to get on all fours (not excited about this one). He's getting so big! I just checked on him, and he's on his belly, with his head tilted to the side but kind of smashed in the bed and his mouth is wide open. He sleeps just like his parents :) We love him SOOO much!!!

Box Car Children

2009-09-02T20:10:00.000-07:00

Ok, so you saw the picture and thought, is she really that lame? And the answer is yes, yes I am. I did have an empty diaper box and thought that it would be really cute to put him in it, tie my measuring tape as the rope and pull it around the house making vroom! sounds and crash! sounds whenever we'd bump into things as if he were in a real car. And yes, I probably did have more fun than he did. The joys of being a stay at home mom. And the other picture, well I just think it's cute.

CUZN

2009-08-24T11:48:00.000-07:00

Last week was the first week that Gabe and I were able to watch and play with Ella during the day, while Sydney was at school. It was GREAT! She was only a little fussy until she took her first morning nap and after that, she was perfect! She and Gabe just roll around the floor trying to steal each others toys and grab each others arms and faces, it's cute and fun.

Also, Gabe just got back from his Dr's 6 months appointment, even though he'll be 7 months on Wednesday. Here are his stats:

Weight 18.5 lbs -51.49% Length 26.5" - 30.78% Head 16.5" - 3.38%

He's gained less than a pound in over two months?!? His head has grown .3 of an inch and he's only grown 1 inch in length. Maybe all of that weight lifting he's been doing lately has stunted his growth and he'll be a man child!

Florida 2009

2009-08-15T20:54:00.001-07:00

We just got back from our week long vacation from Orlando Florida with our family, and it was SO MUCH FUN! We went to Disney World Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. And then to Disney's Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach water parks. And lastly, we went to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. We rode splash mountain like crazy because Laz loved it, but it was perfect since we were so hot, it was nice to be cooled down by the magical disney water. At Hollywood studios we rode Tower of Terror and Rockin Rollercoaster (which everybody seemed to love) ,and at Animal Kindgom we went on Dinosaur and Expedition Everest, aka a HUGE rollercoaster. At Typhoon lagoon there had a big super fun wave pool that actually made huge waves and a great lazy river. Blizzard Beach had this fun waterslide that we went down on a mat on our bellies. Thinking back, we had such a great time, I wish that we were still there. We stayed at my Aunt Cary's condo in Orlando. We were all so grateful to her for letting us stay there. Upon arrival, we noticed that the temp. was well over 80 degrees. We thought that was normal since it seemed like a while since someone had lived there. We turned on the AC, or so we thought. The AC was broken, and it took a couple of days until we called the repair man. We had slept there for three nights at temps of up to 90 and after that we enjoyed a delightful 76 degrees the rest of our time there. Gabriel had a pretty hard time sleeping throughout the night, but he did great on his naps! We're so blessed to have such a good baby. I think our favorite Disney park was Animal Kingdom because Shevin had never been there and it had been quite awhile since I'd been there. We really just loved spending time with family. We were also able to save a ton of money by sharing a van and making our meals at the condo. On our last day there was just Me and Shevin. We went back to Univeral Studios and I was in their show Fear Factor Live. It was pretty much the scariest thing that I've done in my entire life. Really, I can't think of anything scarier that i've done. We also rode The Mummy ride (which was my second favorite ride next to Jurassic park) about 5 times each and Dueling Dragons, Shevin rode 8 times and I rode it 3. We were having so much fun, we stayed until they closed riding Dueling Dragons. On the way back we barely made the plane, so all of our luggage but one made it on the plane with us, so even though our plane arrived at 3:00, we didn't get to leave the airport until 5:45. What an adventure! We're glad to be home, but sad to start the regular routine again. I can't wait until our next vacation. It might be awhile be rest assured I'll be looking for some good deals.

The Family

My greatest Fear. Two minutes after this picture was taken, the floor underneath me dropped.

At universal Studios, we got the meal deal plan. Terrible deal!!! This is Gabriel and Shevin in Dr. Seuss Landing.

We're standing in front of The Hulk ride. One of Shevin's favorites.

This is how Gabe slept on the plane on the ride there, on the pull out trays. Crazy huh!?!

Tavo ran into a girl that he works with on the plane, and she also works for Southwest, so she was able to get us these cute certificates for his first plane ride!

"I'm on a Boat!"

2009-07-28T20:15:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we all took a family trip with Shevin's family to Lake Powell and it was AMAZING! We got there on Thursday night and ate at La Fiesta Mexicana, which we really liked because we shared an appetizer and still couldn't finish it all, and it tasted marvelous!

Friday we spent all day playing on the boat and riding around on a jet ski and Gabe cried just for a bit when we were first on but other than that he seemed to have a great time. I was seriously so worried that he was going to get burned or cry and bother everyone else, but he was so good and Shevin's family didn't seem to mind having him around. We had such a good time playing with our cute nieces and just spending time with the family.

I did get pretty dehydrated/motion sickness/just plain didn't feel very well for some of Friday, but I still had such a good time. We "surfed" on the wave that the boat makes. Shevin and I both got up a lot of times, but only Shevin was able to actually ride the wave without holding the handle. We didn't get sunburns, Gabriel didn't cry, we jet skied, went tubing, we surfed.... Thinking about it is already getting us excited for next year.

But on another note. Gabe turned 6 months on Sunday and we think that he's actually getting smaller. A couple of months ago, he started wearing size 3 diapers and seemed to be quickly outgrowing those, so I even got ready with a box of size 4's. But now, the size 3 Luv diapers (which I thought ran a little small) are big on him. I think that he'd probably fit in size twos. We've also been able to see his neck a lot more, which used to not make many appearances; and I think that his double rolls are starting to fade. I think he might just be getting taller. We're going in for his appointment soon so I'll keep you updated on his weight. Oh, and one last thing. Our son is amazing. I don't even think that he cried once all day today, not for anything. He laughs at everything, he's rolling over like crazy, he eats food and loves it, he's eating his rice cereal, he's taking naps AND sleeping through the night. Dang it, I hope I don't jinks it. We'll see. Boy do I love that kid.

Sun Valley '09

2009-07-20T11:15:00.000-07:00

This last weekend we all took our first family mini vacation to Sun Valley Idaho. It's about 6 hours away from home but the drive wasn't bad at all. We arrived to this beautiful mountain home at about 6:30pm where I was finally able to meet the infamous Uncle Cameron, Aunt Sandra, Nick and Jack, and they were fabulous! I have to admit, I was a little nervous because Shevin really admires this uncle so he really wanted me to impress him, but he and his family were so nice, funny and welcoming. Their beautiful home was very big and cozy, and so was the guest house that we stayed in. Gabe had a really hard time sleeping, so we both slept like babies. We had a fun time hiking, golfing and bbq'ing for Cam's b-day. We even got to see Tom Hanks which he was at because we saw his car parked outside, but we didn't see him :(

Gabe spent most of the time hanging out inside with family, especially his fun great-aunt Sandy.

It was also Gabe's first time ever to be around a dog and it was so cute! He just LOVED Merry! When Merry (the dog) would leave, Gabe would just start screaming until she came back and he could play with her again. It still didn't change Shevin's mind about dogs.

This is Gabe with his 8 yr old twin 2nd cousins Nick and Jack. They were both so sweet with Gabe

Gabe, his cousin Luke, and Merry.

Healthy, Happy, and Huge!

2009-07-13T13:57:00.000-07:00

I realize that my posts consist mostly of pictures of Gabriel, but seriously, look at that little boy! I get to wake up to that handsome face every morning! Or in today's case, I get to wake up that face. That's right, Gabe slept today until 8:50, and since I had a dental appointment at 9, I had to finally wake him up. This week I'm focusing on getting him to sleep more throughout the day and night. The last couple of weeks or so, he's been skipping naps altogether and only sleeping 9-10 hours a night. But today, that is all going to change. After sleeping 12 hours last night, he is currently on his second nap. Woo Hoo!

Not only do we want Gabe to get enough sleep, but we are also making sure that he is eating his vegetables, mmm.........

and his fruits.......

and that he gets plenty of sun, even if it's only through the window. We love our son!

PS. So, since this blog is mostly about our family, I've decided that I'd like to have a blog just for myself. I've named it, yolandaandyolanda.blogspot.com. Check it out!

Hooray for Fathers!

2009-06-22T16:52:00.000-07:00

Better Late than never.... I LOVE MY DADDY

This Father's day was Shevin's first of actually being a father, so I really tried to make it special. Instead of buying him something that had nothing to do with Father's day, Shevin awoke to a framed picture of himself and Gabe when he was first born, a Willow Tree figure called "father and son" and a small basket filled with "coupons" such as 1 hour of free time (video game playing) without any interruptions, 1 game of golf, etc. Then we went to church, where Shevin was actually a little upset that our ward didn't celebrate Father's Day the way that we celebrated Mother's Day. The men didn't get a whole sacrament meeting filled with a primary program and the men didn't get flowers, so Shevin pouted. To make Shevin feel better, I made him a fancy lunch of filet mignon with portobello mushrooms, mashed potatoes and green beans, at least it looked fancy. We then went to Grandpa's house where we ate some great dinner and had some great company. Gabe just loves his Grandpa.

Shevin and Gabe played on the tramp.

After Grandpa's house, we went to visit Papa, Gabe loves Papa too!

And then we came home.We are so thankful for what a great father Shevin is to our 15.5", 18 lb. baby Gabriel and we love him so much! Happy Father's Day!

There's a first time for everything

2009-06-01T21:15:00.001-07:00

These past weeks have been filled with so much excitement as we watch Gabe grow and learn so many new things so quickly. He's been so much fun to have around and we love him so much! He truly makes are home so happy and our lives so blessed and complete.

He's now just over four months old and is SO big! We're not quite sure exactly how much he weighs but we'll find out during his appointment this Friday. We recently tried giving him rice cereal for the first time, and even though you can't tell by watching this movie, he hated it! After the second spoonful, he started yelling at us. We will just have to give him a little time to get used to it. :)

He's also started laughing. He still doesn't laugh too often, but when he does it's the cutest thing I've ever seen! We're playing peek-a-boo with him and he seemed to love it. It's hard to hear him laughing over me, but you just have to listen closely.

Last but not least...

He met his uncle Laz and auntie Emily for the very first time!

Gabe's aunt and uncle live in Virginia and only get to come here once every 6 months so they haven't been able to come and see Gabe or Ella, until now! It was so cute watching them play together, i'm hoping that this cute picture will make them think of having their own little family soon........

He had a great time with them both and they were really good at making him smile and laugh. After they left, Ella, Tavo and Syd came over to play so of course I just had to take pictures of them together. I can't wait for them to get a little older so that they can actually recognize one another and play together.

Ella is such a doll! We love them both so much.

Splish Splash

2009-05-17T14:13:00.000-07:00

On Friday we took Gabe swimming for the first time at the Lehi Legacy Center with the Scott's and he was pretty indifferent. He didn't really smile or laugh, but he didn't cry either. He kicked hard and splashed his hands all crazy a couple of times, which made us laugh, but for the most part he just looked around as we carried him through the kiddie pool. I think he looks so adorable in his little swimming suit and look at that round belly, I just love it!

We were having a pretty good time, and after only about 45 minutes he got a little fussy and decided he needed a nap, so Shevin and I took turns getting into the hot tub until we left.

He was all tuckered out, poor guy. It was fun while it lasted.

He Did It!

2009-05-12T19:45:00.000-07:00

After four and a half years of hard work and dedication, Shevin graduated with his Bachelor's degree in business management from UVU on May 1st. He actually finished classes in December but since they only do graduation once a year he had to wait until April. Most of his family and most of my family were there to support him (Thank you everyone!) and it couldn't have been a better day. Gabe and I are so proud of him! He's been such a wonderful husband, student and full time worker. It was definitely a little sad being away from eachother so much when he worked all day and had school all night, but we still didn't have Gabe yet and we knew that it'd all be worth it. And it was! He's still pondering the idea of going on to get a master's degree, which Gabe and I would completely support, but we'll see what happens.

Of course, we had to post more pictures of adorable little Gabriel. He's almost almost 4 months old and smiles like crazy! We've recently started placing him in the crib to sleep and it couldn't have been easier. He falls right asleep without crying or any fuss. We love him SO much. And even though it's already been 4 months, it is sometimes still hard to believe that we have our own little baby boy. We are parents!!! Seriously Crazy.

Sometimes when I cook or do the dishes I put Gabe in his little Lion Heart chair and he doesn't seem to mind. He'll just sit there and talk to me and smile, the perfect little helper. What a momma's boy! I love when we spend that time together because he can still see me so he doesn't cry and I can still get things done in the kitchen.

Sometimes our lives get a little hectic with the little one and our busy schedules, but we wouldn't trade him, not for anything. He's truly made our family complete and so very happy. I mean, just look at that face!

The Happiest Place on Earth

2009-04-26T15:19:00.000-07:00

So these past few weeks have been incredible! Gabe is falling asleep around 8:30 every night and sleeps for 5-8 hours. He is constantly smiling and sometimes laughing, he takes naps, he doesn't cry in the car anymore, he's taking a pacifier, and he's hardly ever fussy! He really makes our home the happiest place on earth. I love him so much and definitely love being at home with him everyday. He and Shevin have a good time at home too, he's such a good dad and takes great care of Gabe.

Yesterday Gabe and I did a 5 k fun run at an elementary school near the Timp. temple. Well, I ran/walked, and Gabe sat/slept. We had so much fun, but today I'm kinda sore. It makes me sad to see how fast Gabe is growing. He's 3 months old today and has already learned so much and looks so much different than he did just one month ago! He can lift up his whole upper body when placed on the floor, and holds his head up so well. We are excited to watch him continue to learn and grow, next month should be exciting, he'll actually eat some food! We're hoping to get some good pictures of that. In the meantime, look at these....

The Shot Heard 'Round the Pediatric Office

2009-04-16T13:13:00.000-07:00

Here's Gabe, just chillin after breakfast, just bouncin' in the bouncy chair. He was probably thinking about what a good day it was going to be, or thinking about all the good times he's had, like pooping in the car seat, or the time he peed on my face, or maybe the time he decided to pull an all nighter out of nowhere and not warn anyone (tuesday night) When all of the sudden..............

I believe this face says it all. Man, Gabe really hated that nurse. He told me he did, only he didn't tell me with his words but instead he used high pitch screams and swinging fists. He then continued to scream at her and everyone else in sight. Shevin and I thought that if we took a little while to get him dressed, that he'd calm down. Nope. He screamed at everyone in the waiting room just before walking out.

In case you wondering, here's his stats from the remainder of the appointment:

Weight: 14 lbs 1 oz 78% Height: 23 1/2 inches 43%

Head Circumference: 15.5 inches 16%

What a beautiful day for a picnic

2009-04-13T13:09:00.000-07:00

Once 7 am hit, so did the crying. And it didn't stop. I fed him, he cried, I changed him, he cried, he tooted, he cried. I just couldn't figure out what was wrong with him, until... I opened the window. He saw the sun, and the crying stopped. I decided that the crying was his way of telling me that he wanted to go outside. So I got out the stroller, packed our stuff (while Gabe cried) and off we went.

The goal was to make it to the wood chip park, but after walking for about 15 minutes, gabes 14 lb. body was straining the arm muscles, so we chose a park that was a little closer; Gabe was already asleep so he didn't mind. Shevin met us at the park where we read a couple of books and just enjoyed the weather, it was the most perfect afternoon! Then we walked home. So Gabe woke up. The crying continues. It was good while it lasted.

2004-2009

2009-04-06T12:21:00.000-07:00

The past five years of our live have been awesome! Here's a brief summary:

Shevin and I met in 2004 in a single's ward. Shevin had just returned from his mission in the Dominican Republic, and I was attending BYU.

Our two years of dating were spent at many concerts (Coldplay, Yellowcard, Collin Raye, etc.) BYU games, and playing many tennis matches, he still thinks he's better than me. Shevin also bought his first home in Pleasant Grove, landed a great job at The Department of Workforce Services and started attending UVU, while I received my dental assisting certification, and moved closer to campus. All of this before getting married in the Manti temple on July 1, 2006.

Since our marriage, we have taken many adventures, including Jamaica, the Bahamas, Mexico, Cayman Islands, Hawaii, Florida, New York and back to the Dominican Republic.

I worked for a dental office in Park City, and Shevin graduated UVU with a bachelors in Business Management. Last but not least, we had a baby!

On Monday January 26th, at 9:26 pm, we had our handsome baby boy, Gabriel Joaquin Morris. He was 7 lbs 14 ounces 19 1/2 inches long, and we couldn't be happier! I am now so lucky to be able to stay home and play with him, especially now that he smiles!

So there is our past five years in a nut shell. We hope to update more often

than every five years, but we'll see.....