A Morales Minute

Happy Birthday Olivia! She turned 8 on Friday February 21 at 4:59 p.m. to be exact.  She's excited for a new bike, don't ya think? She asked for the usual birthday dinner…uh, breakfast. Waffles! As we sang happy birthday to her she got her card from dear Bill and Pat Flory to sing along with us. She loves these singing cards and Pat must know it because she keeps sending them to Liv. :) Olivia and her friend Adallyn were the only two from our ward being baptized this month. It worked out great. Getting baptized with one of your best friends, how awesome is that?! Olivia's family did half the program and Adallyn's family did half. Ad's mom Megan took the girls pictures at the temple a few weeks before the baptism.   Her baptism day. Saturday, a day after her birthday. The baptism was beautiful. I couldn't believe how full the room was. More chairs were needed to accommodate. What love was felt in that room! For Ol

We celebrated Olivia's 8th birthday we a party with some friends today.  She wanted a Disney's Frozen theme. So off to the internet to look for ideas and inspiration.  I may have spent more time planning, researching, shopping, and preparing for this party than I have for any of the other parties. Not sure why I went so gung-ho on this but I did. Shimmery, icicle-esk doorway curtain (that was used for our V-day dinner as well. Had to get all the money I could out things.) and white tissue pom pons hanging from the light fixture.  dipped pretzel rods, snow cap mountain punch (7UP, blue hawaiian punch with a dollop of ice-cream on top) in hand painted cups, 'ice-cube' jell-o squares (made with a layer of clear and a layer of blue giving it a fun icy look), carrots (for Olaf's nose and Sven's favorite snack) and ranch dressing (because what kid eats carrots without something to dip them in?), Snow man fixins and cup cakes. They watche

I started kind of a new tradition for our family last year. For Valentine's day, rather than leave the kids with a babysitter and Jaime and I go out to dinner, I made the evening special for our kids. I did a movie theater theme last year. The kids LOVED it. I wanted to plan something for them this year too. I think this is the first Valentine's that I haven't given gifts to our kids. They got so much for Christmas, Jaime bought them new toys in January when I was over east with my brothers, and in February I ordered books for the girls from a school book order. I also spent more on food this year than last year. Sirloin steaks definitely cost more than hot dogs. :) So, our day started with a box of valentines' and goodies on our door step for our family. Later in the day I opened the front door to find we'd been heart-attacked.  Thank you!! Everyone likes to feel loved.  Olivia kept trying to guess all month what I was going to do for Valentine's.

I feel like a I've been running around like a chicken with his head cut off. I've been so busy that I don't have time to feel tired. There's so many different things I've been working on all with deadlines in the next two weeks. I keep making to-do lists. I will work on one day's project, then switch to another project. None of it has been a start to finish thing in one day. Which drives me nuts! I've been working on the RS directory which I thought was all done and updated and ready to be sent off to the printing company but our bishopric changed and new people moved in. Ahhh, as soon as that thing is printed I'm having a party! Our ward is so huge that gathering updated phone numbers and pictures, especially from in actives is really time consuming. Sad thing is it's probably all going to become obsolete this fall.  I've had ward choir practice and stake choir practices. I really enjoy both of them. Stake choir is definitely more work. Har

It's finally here! It's beautiful, wonderful, slippery, cold, snow! I myself am ready for warmer weather but I do love to see snow. It's even better if there's no where for us to have to drive to! Then we can just enjoy the snow and play. We had a two-hour school delay on Friday. The kids were able to go out and play with friends for an hour before before heading to school. On Saturday the kids played out in the snow as long as they could. Both Friday and Saturday nights the boys crashed hard once they hit the pillow. Playing in the snow, no just walking in deep snow, can wear little ones out! Church was even cancelled on Sunday due to road conditions. I personally think it may have been alright, especially since we don't have church till 1 but we enjoyed staying inside together and being warm. More snow was in the forecast but not much fell. Most likely no school delay for Monday. I love squishy, swishy snow clothes on little ones. Staying out