A Morales Minute

We celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary on the 27th. I'm still as head over heels for him as I ever have been. It's hard believe how fast 14 years have gone but it feels like we're still newly weds. I love that our anniversary is during Christmas break. Jaime gets to be home all day with me. I was just talking with him the other day that I never get tired of him being around. I'm always sad when school starts back up and he goes back to work. Tuesday we were able to be together all day and then we went out for dinner that evening. We celebrated our anniversary a couple weeks early when we went to stay at the Cameo Heights Mansion bed and breakfast on the 10th so on the 27th we kept it low key. We went to dinner at P.F. Chang's. Ate so much that we needed to walk around for a while. We were going to go to a furniture store to browse and dream about what kind of new furniture we'd like to get "some day" but  never actually buy, but as we were driv...

I always enjoyed Christmas break as a kid and I love it with my kids.  Gifts are opened and there's lots of fun, still yummy goodies sitting around, movies to watch, football games to watch, and pretty much just being lazy.  Aidan's been working on his volcano kit that he got from Aunt Bel and Uncle Chris.  Walking past the boys' room I almost died laughing. They each needed something on their heads I guess. Aidan found an alternative use for his volcano. :D The kids love these remote cars the boys got from Uncle Marcus. Tyler got the police car and Aidan got the red car. The green one Aidan also got from a second cousin on Jaime's side. They have a family drawing every year on Thanksgiving. So the past couple days I've had three cars zipping around the floor.  Jaime taught the kids how to play Risk. It's a long game. I'm impressed with their patience and attention to it. It was fun to hear Aidan and Tyler doing the math so quickly in th...

Merry Christmas! We celebrated Christmas a little different this year. Since Christmas was on Sunday we still had Sacrament meeting we were able to attend to. Jaime and I woke up before the kids...not surprising. For some reason our kids are able to sleep in longer than I could as a kid on Christmas day. Jaime and I woke up about 6:45am and just listened for the kids. They were up about 10 minutes later. They walked out to the tree to see what Santa brought for them. While we could hear their chatter and play Jaime and I came out to see as well. Aidan and Tyler both got Star Wars micro machines. Olivia got some Beats headphones, Lindsey got a Fitbit Alta, I got an Apple Watch, and Jaime got a new tech savvy carry on suitcase with the 360 degree wheels. After seeing what everyone got the kids were so good to go and get ready for church. I loved that they didn't mind. They didn't whine about not getting to open the presents under the tree. Actually, they were looking forward...

I planned a very nice dinner for tonight, complete with china place settings for everyone and cute reindeer place cards. Wouldn't you know it, I forgot to take pictures of the table settings. Oh well. Take my word for it. It looked very nice. :) Dad bought a prime rib, Darin and Christy cooked it. They also brought a yummy salad. I made twice baked potatoes, broccoli, and had rolls on the side.  I picked up a Diary Queen cookie dough blizzard cake for dessert. It was so good! I'd only had the regular ice cream cakes from DQ before. I love cookie dough. :) After dinner the kids were ready to act out the nativity while Jaime read from the scriptures. Mom played the corresponding Christmas songs for each section of the story.  Olivia was the angel, Makaela was Mary, Tyler was Joseph, Lindsey was a shepherd, and Elise was a wise man. For some reason Aidan didn't want to take part in the play.  How cute is this? Elise didn't quite get her p...

Aidan has been asking to go see the light show for a while now. It's amazing how quickly the month can escape us. I keep forgetting what day it is this week too. I realized I was running out of days before Christmas to go looking at lights so today had to be the day. I printed more Polar Express tickets and placed them in the kids' pajamma drawers. About 7:30 I told the kids to go get their pjs on. It didn't take them long to find their tickets. They quickly got on their pjs and grabbed stuffed animals and blankets.  As they got in the van I used the hole punch. I just punch in their first initial. Someday I should try and really punch a word for them. Lindsey isn't in any pictures because she's slow getting out the door and to the car. hahaha I didn't take pictures of lights this year. I liked watching the boys dance and Aidan lead the music. After the light show we drove about looking at lights on people's houses. That trip was cut a bit s...

Marcus is home for Christmas break and wanted to come and spend some time with his fiance Aide and us. Marcus and Aide brought Aide's little sisters who are 9 and 6. The kids hit it off pretty quick playing together at home. Olivia was gone babysitting so we waited until she got home before we went out to dinner again. Wow, I just realized we ate out Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday! That's not common for us. But hey, during the holiday season it's expected that things will be different generally a lot of fun things are done.  We went to Chuck E. Cheese's for dinner and some games.  All the kids had so much fun but these two kids were my favorite to watch. :)

The Morales clan went to Texas Roadhouse to celebrate Jaime and Bel's birthday.  Dinner was delicious again, then we all went to our house. Diana brought cupcakes and it was a quieter, and much easier setting to visit with one another. Before they all left Jaime and I showed a slide show we made of Bel's past year of her battle with cancer. It wasn't the best slide show I could have put together but Jaime helped me get it to music at the last minute. And when I say last minute I mean it as he was sitting in the van working on it while we were waiting to be seated at Texas Roadhouse! It's amazing what we can block out over time. Bel said she had forgotten so much of that and all she had to go through. "Well, I didn't really forget it but I didn't really remember all of that." The video made for a good way for us all to appreciate being able to celebrate this date together.  Happy Birthday Jaime and Bel!

I went with Jaime to his work party at Fiesta Mexican Restaurant. It's one of those things were I make small talk with people I don't know. I enjoyed the food. That's all that matters. :) When it's your birthday and you go to Fiesta you get sung to while wearing a sombrero. I think his staff enjoyed it a little too much. They all spoil him so much at work. His office was decorated, they sung to him over the school speaker system, classes sung to him throughout the day and lets not get started on all the treats and gifts he brought home. Grant it some of it is from Christmas gifts and goodies from staff, students, and parents but my heavens my counter always gets a load of sugar this time of year.