I had every intention of getting Christmas cards out this year... but just as I intend to get my house clean, or my laundry done... I didn't quite do it. Ok, I didn't do it. Dang it. I just want you all to know that I am thinking of you at this time of year and hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday! I will be better at getting something posted here on the blog soon. I just haven't been feeling it lately (I think it's because I have been so busy!). Love you all!

So, one of these things is not like the other. Can you tell which one it is? We have a problem around our house with a 2 year old girl who thinks there is only ONE kind of diaper she can wear. You may assume that it is the one that is really different from the others. The problem is, these are the diapers I usually buy... but I bought Huggies (on sale, with a coupon) and from that point on, Staci will only wear the Huggies with Mickey and Minnie Mouse holding the balloons on it. She won't wear the Luvs anymore... and she won't wear the other Huggies. She kicks and screams and fights me. She says, "Hot doggie diaper!!" I was wondering what in the world she was saying that for. Then it dawned on me when she started singing and dancing around to a "hot dog" song. When we were down in AZ this summer we stayed a while with different family members who had the Disney Channel on TV, and she saw the "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" show, and in that show they have a song that says, "hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog!" That is what she was trying to sing - and I was shocked! She has maybe seen that show a few times, but only months ago. You got to love the opinions that start to form around this age!! I will continue to fight - and sometimes I can trick her into wearing another one, but either way... she is stubborn!!

Thanksgiving

Well, I can't sleep... so I thought I would come upstairs and write for a few minutes to get things off of my mind. Writing is very therapeutic for me!

I took my camera to Thanksgiving dinner, and was so busy preparing food and then cleaning it all up, that I forgot to take even one picture. This year was an "off" year for Geoff's parents, so they went to California to stay with the Taylors (friends, who are FAMILY, - love you guys!) and that left Geoff and I on our own for Thanksgiving. Well, being from a huge family myself, having Thanksgiving on our own was NOT an option! I called my cousin Wendy, in Salt Lake, and my cousin Holly in Brigham City, and my brother and sis-in-law, John and Anna, in Idaho, and they all decided to come here for Thanksgiving. Well, Holly didn't end up coming because her kids got sick (sorry about that Holly and Jordan!! We missed you!) so it just ended up as the 6 of us adults and 9 kids. We actually got together at Geoff's parent's house, since it is a lot larger than mine, and had a great time. We had a scrumptious meal and let the kids play while the adults played games and visited. It was even such a beautiful day that we played outside! Not your usual Utah Thanksgiving!

Anyway, this year I have a lot to be thankful for! I have been so blessed in my life! I have such a wonderful family that gives me so much love and support! Geoff works so hard to get through school, and I know that it is tiring for him. He rarely even gets any kind of break at all! I know that the reason he is doing all of this is to be able to support our family well. I am so grateful that he is such a hard worker! I am also so grateful that he is understanding of me. It has been a tough last few years for me, and there are some days when I feel like I can't go on, and Geoff helps me pull through it. He never has even once complained when the house was a mess and there was nothing but left-over frozen pizza for dinner. He never once complains that I can't seem to keep on top of the laundry... or anything else for that matter! He just tells me that I shouldn't worry about these things right now because I have enough on my plate. He has even been teaching me how to not apologize for everything I do, (or don't do), and also how to say "no" to people when they ask me to do things for them that I really don't feel like I can do (as much as I WANT to do all that someone asks of me). That, right there, is a blessing to me. I love him so much!

I also have such amazing parents, and grandparents, who have supported me so much in my life! If ever I need to talk to someone, I can call my Mom and know that she is going to be happy for me, laugh with me, cry with me - whatever I need. I miss her, and love her so much. My dad always has such great words of strength for me. I have always had a tendency to worry about things I have no control over, and even about things I do. I cried to my Dad as a little girl because I couldn't understand the concept of "Eternity" and was so worried about it. That was just one of the many times, and still as an adult, I find myself turning to him when I am scared or confused, and he gives me strength and sound advice. I feel the same way about grandparents, too! What a solid foundation for life I was blessed with! Of course, I am also very blessed to have Geoff's parents in my life! It is wonderful to live closer to them than we did for the first several years of our marriage, so my kids and I may build more memories with them. We love you, and are grateful for the great job you did in raising Geoff to be the wonderful person he is today!!

I couldn't make a list of things I am thankful for without mentioning my siblings. They have always been my first friends. I remember my Mom telling me, while I was fighting with my sisters, "Be nice to each other, 'cause one day your sister is going to be your best friend!" It was hard to imagine at the time (mostly because I was ignorant), but that has really come true! I love my sisters and brother, and all of the brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, so much! Thanks for all of the support and love through the years!!

Of course, I look at my children (when they are sleeping, it's really easy to say this) and count them as some of the greatest joys and blessings in my life. I just can't imagine my life without them! I love each of them for the beautiful little people they are, and they give my life so much purpose and direction. They have such unconditional love, and even when I don't deserve it, they shower me with hugs and kisses! My only hope is that I can be the mother to them that I desire to be, and they will never doubt my love for them!

And mostly, my ultimate thanks goes to my Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ, for their love and patience with me! I am so weak, and yet they stay by my side, willing to fill me with the Spirit at a moment's notice. I am eternally indebted to them; for all of the good things in my life have come, and continue to come, from them! And even though I am horrible at following through with goals and ambitions, I have one main goal that I hope to make, and that is to have eternal life with my family.

Well, this has turned into much more of a lengthy and personal post than I imagined, and I didn't even seem to touch the surface of what I wanted to say, but I just had to list some of the things I was thankful for this year. I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving, too. And know that when I count my blessings, I most likely count YOU, too! (unless I don't know you, 'cause that would just be highly unlikely! Sorry! :0>)

Here is my newest little niece, Lyla. She is only 3 weeks old now. My sister-in-law, Chami and her three little girls all flew out from San Jose last week to show everyone the baby, and for Chami to get some rest while she stayed with her parents. I stole these pictures from Alan and Chami's blog... thanks, guys.

Have I ever mentioned how Geoff doesn't have any sisters? Well, there were 6 boys born in 7-1/2 years in his family, and they never had a girl. I think to make up for it, the Morgans are mostly getting little Granddaughters. Jackson is one of 3 grandsons, but the other two boys are 1 year and 6 months old. There are 10 granddaughters between the ages of 8 and newborn. It is fun... for the girls.
Little Lyla (I love love love the name, by the way)

Just some of the cousins all gathered together at Chami's parent's house

Happy Birthday to Grandma and Grandpa Great!!

Freddy the Frog goes to the Moon!

I thought this was just too cute - so I had to put it on the blog!! My parents are putting together a book for their grandkids for Christmas with my Dad's famous "Freddy the Frog" stories that all of the kids like. My parents want the grandkids to illustrate the book, even though they don't know about the book at all. So, I had Jackson draw the illustration for the story about Freddy going to the moon. Can you tell which one is Freddy? Do you see the earth in the background? Of course I am a little biased, but I think Jackson is a great artist! I think the kids are all going to love their book - what a great idea!!

A Fall Day!

We had too many leaves! We don't even have a tree in our backyard, but we enjoy our neighbor's shady tree all summer, so it is only fair that we rake the leaves... I kept telling myself that anyway. With the way the wind blows, we had many more leaves in our yard than they did in theirs! These leaves all fell in pretty much one day - and it rained at the same time, so they were really heavy! We had the kids help us with the raking, so it only ended up taking about 5 hours to do the front and back yard!!

Here is just a glimpse of the mess!

We used all kinds of tools to do the "raking"

Jackson was a really good sport even when he was tired of helping!

Natalie took some time out for a photo shoot. She is always ready to pose for the camera!

And poor Staci took a pretty hard fall and came up with scraped up nose, lip, cheek and forehead. I am just glad this fall didn't involve a trip to the E.R!

Showing off the work we did!! 28 Bags stuffed completely to their limit with leaves!! We could have probably done at least one more, but we ran out of bags!

The line between our yard and the neighbors with the trees. The sad thing is they don't ever rake, and tomorrow is supposed to be windy, so we will have more leaves! Fall is no longer my favorite season of the year... OK, maybe it still is!!

We had a great Halloween! Geoff's Grandma was in town from Colorado, and so the kids had fun seeing her. We went to Geoff's parent's house to decorate sugar cookies during the day, and then had the traditional Morgan family chili dinner that night. We went trick-or-treating a little bit in their neighborhood, and then went to their neighborhoods' trunk-or-treat, and had a lot of fun. You can see that the leaves are falling everywhere, and the colors are just beautiful!! Staci was so funny! She wanted to eat each piece of candy as she got it, and I couldn't get her to look up for a picture while she was trick-or-treating, so I stuck the camera down by her bucket and took a picture! Hope everyone had a great day!

Grandma Morgan and Natalie

Family Pictures!

Gotta love family pictures! We had an interesting day on Saturday getting family pictures. It has been 4 years since we all had "professional" pictures taken - so I wasn't going to back out when Jackson told me he didn't feel well on Saturday morning. I figured he could suck it up - after all, WE HAD DADDY HOME, and who knew how long it would be until that happened again! :0) But my worst nightmare came true when right after taking the first picture, Jackson leaned right over and threw up all over the only hand-painted background they had! Yikes! This was not good! They were already behind for the day, and there were many people waiting for that room, so we decided to get Jackson cleaned up (after all, he felt fine, NOW!) and come back a little later when they weren't so busy. I think for the most part the pictures of the kids turned out well. Staci only lasted a little while, and then we got the above picture, and we were done! Maybe I'll try again before another 4 years is up!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TO MY SWEET ANGEL MOTHER!!

This is a picture of all of my sisters, and sister-in-law, (in the green shirt) with my Mom last Summer! I am so grateful to have such a wonderful Mother! She has always been a great source of strength to me, and is the most Christ-like person I know. I have honestly never heard her speak badly of another person, and is truly an example to me of how to love and serve others. I remember as a child, she was ALWAYS serving others, not to mention how much she served her own family, even with her own crazy schedule! And even at the end of the days, being exhausted, I'm sure, she would read to us, and sing to us while we fell asleep. She was such a sweet and patient mom - and I admire that so much, especially as a Mom. She is also a wonderful Grandma and always finds a way to spend as much time as possible with her grandkids. I know that her heart aches for her grandkids, especially because none of them live close to her, but our hearts ache just as much for her!! And when they do finally get together, there is no separating these little kids from their grandma. She adores them all, and they adore her! I want to be just like my Mom when I finally grow up!

I miss you, and love you so much, MOM!

Just something to make you smile...

I promise that we do listen to other things besides this song, but it just always seems to be the one that gets my kids moving. I just realized when posting this that these girls have on basically opposite clothes... now if only Natalie had on Staci's shirt, and visa-versa, they would have almost had decent outfits on!

The Canada Vancouver Sisters' Reunion!

This week I was able to be a part of a reunion for the sisters' from my mission. Cindy Ferguson (one of my very cool companions) pretty much made it happen, and even found out a time when President and Sister Colton were going to be in town from Maryland to have it. We were able to all get together at the Colton's condo in Park City for a wonderful dinner and a lot of reminiscing! We got to hear all about what my mission president and his wife have been up to for the last.... uh,hem... eleven years or so! President Colton served as the temple president of the Washington D.C. temple, and since they were released from that, they have travelled the world! They are such wonderful people, and it was so good to see them again!

I was also able to catch up with a couple of my old companions, Cindy Ferguson (on the left) and Rosalie (Lund) Macmillan, on the right. These girls are amazing! Cindy is a mega-talented artist who does paper cuts that are unbelievable - she even has some on display at the Tower of London. Rosalie is also a mega-talent, performing her violin all over the world and getting recognized as one of the top violinists in the world. That is only the beginning of their talents, too! It was so fun to see them again!

I also got to catch up with a really good friend of mine from high school, Erika (Holmes) Walker, who also happened to be in my mission! I think it has also been pretty much ten years since I've seen her, too! She is always so much fun!

This picture is of me with a sister from my mission, Erika (Fletcher) Peterson. We served around each other and were friends, and then I found out that she lives in the same stake as Geoff's parents, and that her husband used to live next door to Geoff and graduated with him. Isn't that funny!? We drove up together to Park City, and laughed almost the entire way... especially when we got lost!

My Name...

Lately I have been searching for old friends on Facebook (my new addiction, actually) and am always shocked when there are dozens and dozens of people (if not more) with the same name as the friend I am looking for. If you search for a Geoff Morgan (yes, even Geoff with a "G") you just get a hundred other people with that same name. My name brings up way more than that. I was wondering if there was ever anyone famous with my name. I found out that their was. Emily Morgan was a woman responsible for the Texans winning a war with Mexico shortly after the Alamo. There is a hotel right across the street from the Alamo in San Antonio called the Emily Morgan Hotel. It is a 4 diamond hotel with romance packages starting at only $319 per night if anyone is interested! Yikes! Anyway, apparently, Emily Morgan was "distracting" the Mexican army with her beauty and charm while the Texans invaded... and from that point on, was known as the "Yellow Rose of Texas!" Yep, interesting, huh? Of course, the original Yellow Rose of Texas song didn't say anything about "her right eye looking at Dallas, her left one at Fort Worth". I just thought that was interesting!

Photo Tag

I was just photo tagged by my sister-in-law, Chami, and here is what you are supposed to do: Go to your fourth photo folder and post the fourth picture. So here it is! This is my sister Andrea, with Natalie, when she was just barely two years old. Natalie was a lot like Staci is now... you know, just in to everything and a little monkey. She is so much easier now than I ever thought she would be! Isn't Andrea beautiful, by the way? We love and miss you, Andrea! So I tag - Melissa, Cynthia, Andrea, John&Anna, and Mom&Dad.

What's the Weather Like at Your House Today?!

This is the view from our kitchen window this morning. Beautiful, huh? Until you go out in it!! I don't feel quite ready for snow yet, but I guess it's pretty common to have snow in October, and really I shouldn't complain, 'cause we had a gorgeous summer!

Pumpkin Pickin' Fun!

This afternoon we went to a local nursery to a hayride/pumpkin patch adventure. We waited in line for an hour (after all, it was free for the whole family) but it was worth it. The weather was freezing cold, so I didn't get the pictures I was hoping for (I dressed the kids in coordinating outfits for some really cute pictures... but it was WAY too cold to even take off their coats for a minute!! In fact, I should have dressed them warmer in hats and gloves, too). Plus, Staci pretty much screamed the entire time we were on the hayride (both times) so I couldn't get a picture of that 'cause it was every bit of strength I had to keep her from jumping off the trailer! I guess she just doesn't like rides of any sort. They even let all the kids pick their own pumpkin from the patch and take it home for free! It was a blast!

By the way - the temperature IN MY HOUSE this morning was 49 degrees!! It is supposed to snow this weekend too! Luckily, Geoff lit the furnace this afternoon so tonight should be better!! I'm not ready for this cold weather! I up-rooted my entire garden today to prepare for the snow this weekend and felt so bad that there were so many green tomatoes that I had to get rid of - (I would say at least a thousand... and I am not just exaggerating, 'cause Geoff even thought so too... we planted too many tomatoes for sure). Next year I know not to plant 20 feet of zucchini and 10 tomato plants! Quit laughing - at least I tried!

My little Jackson-o-lantern

Last Sunday night right before Jackson went to bed I wiggled his loose teeth (he had 3) to see how they were coming along. I figured they still had a couple of weeks until they came out, so I told Jackson to be patient, but to keep wiggling them and they would be ready to pull out before too long. Well, he went to sleep (or so I thought) and about an hour later he came running out of the bedroom saying "Mom, I pulled out one of my loose teeth!" He was just gushing blood and was so proud of himself! He pulled out the loose one on the bottom. I told him to go put it under his pillow, and washed him up and sent him back to bed. Well, I guess the anticipation of the money he would be getting made him want to keep trying with his other teeth. So about another hour and a half later (by this time it was 10:30 at night) he came running out saying "Mom, I pulled out both of my top teeth!" I looked, and sure enough, he had! This time he was really bleeding (remember the teeth were NOT ready to be pulled out as of just a few hours ago!) so I cleaned him up again and told him to put the other two teeth under his pillow too! He then said, "Mom, I would make a good Jack-o-lantern for Halloween!!" I thought that was a funny story! I am just glad that I didn't have to pull them out, 'cause that is not my thing!!

Wish me luck!

Well, today Staci got her cast off. I know! It seems pretty fast to me, too! It was only 3 weeks yesterday that she broke it. (I was going to take a picture or her getting it off, but of course, my camera batteries died right then....oh well, and they had her sitting on my lap with me holding her, so it would have been a little hard anyway!!) The doctor did x-rays and said that her arm was "well on it's way to being healed" but that it was still broken. I guess because of where the break was, it was not good to keep it casted very long for fear of not getting back the full mobility in her elbow. The doctor just said to "try and keep Staci from falling on it, and don't pull on it for a few weeks". I thought to myself, "hmmm... has this doctor SEEN the SIZE of STACI'S HEAD? Does he know that just in the waiting room waiting to get our name called this morning, she FELL 27 TIMES!? (Maybe a slight exaggeration, but still!) I could no more keep her from falling then I could keep her from screaming in Sacrament Meeting!" (and anyone in my ward could tell you that is not gonna happen!!) These were basically my thoughts, but the doctor assured me that this was the right thing to do. So now I am paranoid of anyone touching her or making her run ('cause she ALWAYS falls when runs). Anyway, wish me luck to keep her arm from breaking again!! Yikes!

I am sorry it has been hard for me to post anything lately. I just haven't been in my normal blogging mood! I don't know why, but I have been pretty busy with things that are not blog-worthy (i.e. Doctor's visits, cleaning the house, yelling at the kids, wondering why all of my earrings are in a bowl filled with water and 9 batteries, and how long they've been like that!). I have recently gone to a neuro-muscular dentist that seems to have helped me. He hooked me up to a machine that basically sent shocks to my jaw and neck and shoulders. After more than an hour on that machine (It was interesting because I had all of these involuntary twitches that I could not control... about every second I twitched and blinked... interesting) my jaw was basically numb and he could see where I should naturally have my teeth fit together. I know it sounds weird, but then he shaved off a bunch of my tooth enamel (on all but my top 4 and bottom 4 front teeth) and fit my teeth together better. Before he did this the ONLY teeth in my mouth that lined up were my wisdom teeth! The dentist says that this will probably really help with my TMJ! I hope so, because the ear pain and migraines and everything else has just been getting worse and worse! I have been up to about 5 migraines a week! And I DON'T use the term migraine loosely! It is the kind that makes you just want to sit in a dark room and cry!! Well, I obviously can't do that (being the basically single mom that I am while Geoff is in school!) and so I just would sit in the light family room and cry! Anyway, today it seems like I have had a lot of relief of my pains! I am sceptical, of course, because no one has had the answer, but I am also optimistic that this will help. Is it possible to be sceptical and optimistic at the same time? I guess it is, 'cause I am.

Yesterday at the doctor's office I read a quote by John Homer Miller that says, "Circumstances and situations do color life - but you have been given the MIND to CHOOSE what the color shall be!" This is my new goal... to try REALLY hard to look at life and not focus on what is wrong with it - but what is right with it! P.S. If any of you didn't hear Elder Uchtdorf's talk in the Relief Society broadcast last Saturday, read it!! It was SO good! If you finished this post, you are a true friend, or you really have nothing better to do!

Oh, little Staci - Nothing but smiles from this sweetheart!

Turn up the volume on this one. You can hear Staci singing and then she stops and lets out some bodily noises a couple of times... too funny!

We just got back from the doctor's office where they did more x-rays on Staci's arm. It seems that everything is healing pretty well. The doctor did say that the type of brake she had is really rare, and so you really can't tell if you are going to need surgery until your arm just doesn't grow right. So, this could be something down the road several years... but at least for now they won't have to do any surgery. I am relieved, of course. She should be able to get the cast off in just a couple more weeks. I was surprised, but because she is so little it grows back so fast.

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Also, I have to write about our ward's primary program last Sunday. Natalie and Jackson had both been practicing their parts, and had them down. Well, the time came for Natalie's class of Sunbeams to get up and say their parts. It was like herding cattle up to the microphone, and so people were out of order all over the place. Of course, a primary counselor was up at the microphone prompting the kids on what to say, and not worrying about whether or not that was their assigned part. Natalie was last, and when the sister prompted her to say something that Natalie hadn't heard before, she said, "that's not the part my mommy told me to say". You could hear her in the microphone a little bit. Then Natalie leaned over and hugged around this leaders neck and whispered in her ear the part that she was supposed to say. The leader said to go ahead and say the part that she planned (which had already been said, but hardly recognizable coming from a Sunbeam) so Natalie stood right up and said her part just clear and slow and wonderfully. I thought that was funny. Then she went back to her seat and danced and sang at the top of her lungs, every song in the program. You should have seen it! I had several people tell me how entertaining she was! I wish I could have seen her from the front (she was in the front row in front of the bishop, and I was sitting in the back row of the choir seats). Jackson did a great job, too.... by the way.

A quick update on Staci's arm:

I FINALLY got in to the Orthopedist today (that is another story... basically got a lot of run around... don't get me started!) and he explained more about the brake to me. Basically it is a really bad break which involves quite a bit of the bone above the elbow, some of the elbow and the growth plate! When the doctor told me this I felt sick to my stomach because of the pain I have had breaking my own arm through the growth plate when I was six. I just don't want Staci to have to go through that! The doctor casted the arm, but we have to go back quite often for x-rays throughout the healing process. I will continue to keep you all updated! For now, Staci seems to be doing OK... she is sick of strange people touching her, though! Thanks for all of your concern for her! I appreciate it!

Our Accident-Prone Child...

It seems like only a few weeks ago I was posting pictures of Staci after we got home from the E.R when she almost bit her tongue off.... Oh, wait... that was only a few weeks ago!! Well, tonight we were there again, because of her falling again (danged big noggin) and this time she ended up with a broken arm! Poor baby! She was NOT happy! I think she remembered being at the hospital 'cause she did not like it from the minute we got there.... of course, her arm was broken, so she wasn't happy anyway! She broke it just slightly above the elbow, and they said it was a fairly long fracture. Tonight they just put her in a splint and sling because of swelling, and tomorrow they will cast it. I watched her fall (just from the bench of a picnic table onto soft grass) but she landed on it funny and then acted like she couldn't get up. I have broken my arm enough times to notice that as a sign. My Mothers' intuition just told me it was broken. Well, there you go. I am still not sure of all the details (she sees a pediatric orthopedist tomorrow) so I'll keep you updated. Hopefully that will be the last of the visits to the E.R. for a while!!!

Happy Birthday, Buddy!

Jackson is 7 years old today! He is such a sweet and kind kid, and we are so glad he is part of our family! We had Jackson a pirate party last Saturday and it was a lot of fun! We had 15 kids (including ours) and fed them all lunch and had a fun time playing pirate games like "pin the eye patch on the pirate" and "musical islands", and of course having a treasure hunt. I had planned several other games but we never even got to them. The kids just had fun running around and playing with swords (Jackson had enough to supply the whole group practically). It was a dream come true for Jackson to have so many friends there. It was PERFECT weather, too, which made it fun to have the party outside in our back yard! We love you, Jackson!!

Such a sweet little guy... can you believe all that hair? He was born with it!!
3-1/2 months old - first Christmas

Jackson is our tough "skinny man"

Jackson with Natalie and cousin, Susannah