A Morales Minute

I put on a baby shower for Janica Harris, a sister I visit teach. She's such a sweet friend. She reminds me a lot of my friend Tiffany Wise who still lives in Sunnyside.  This shower was for Janica's first baby girl (second child) Malia. She's a doll! I was grateful for friends who wanted to help put on the shower with me. Lynne did cupcakes and Ranae did games and drink. I got all the food for the yogurt and fruit parfaits. All the ladies loved them! I mean, who doesn't like fresh fruit. :) I ended up buying way more than I needed but my family had no trouble finishing off the food over the next week. It was delicious! It was a simple shower but a lot of fun. I didn't want something that would make me super stressed. I used decor I already had and simple white dishes which actually made everything look dressed up. Simple, low stress, good time for everyone who came. That's how I like it. :)

I went to Olivia's school to watch her receive a SOAR Award. She received this one in recognition for Achieving Academic Excellence during the Winter of 2017.  She has worked real hard. She doesn't really like math but when she understands it, you can tell she's enjoying it.  Congrats Olivia! I know you'll continue to be a good student throughout the years to come.  I love her enthusiasm to go to school each morning. The girl gets up and makes her bed every morning without being told. She gets ready so quick and always has a smile on her face as she leaves to go to school. She's a ray of sunshine every morning. I love her to pieces. :) 

It's Spring! We're definitely out and about more now that it's warming up. There's sports going on and programs we're attending.  On the first day of Spring Dairy Queen gives out free ice cream cones! While we were there Uncle Dick texted me asking if we'd like to meet them at 7:30 at DQ. I texted him saying we were already there so he asked if it was alright they come then to visit with us. I said sure! The kids and I moved to a large booth and visited with Uncle Dick and Corinne while enjoying our yummy free ice cream cones. I felt bad Jaime missed the free ice cream again. Last year he wasn't able to go with us because he had a late night meeting just like this night. Maybe next year! Lindsey is in the 7th grade choir And the treble choir. I really enjoyed this music concert. They had some fun songs that made you feel like dancing. Lindsey is really enjoying choir. I'm so glad. I loved being in choir. The older you get t

On February 24th Lindsey and Olivia were spending the night at their Aunt Bel's house. Jaime and I were having a quiet evening visiting with one another on the couch, Aidan and Tyler were playing great together. And then they tell us that Tyler got a toy, a Stik Bot, stuck up in the entryway chandelier. Ugh! We spent an hour trying to get that thing out. It's over 16 feet up that no ladder would reach it. We tried wrapping tape around a fan duster (in the picture) to see if I could stick it to the toy and pull it out. It didn't work. :( So we just left it, and left it, for weeks.  A month actually! Finally we were able to get it out with some help after we celebrated Lindsey's birthday. Marty, Dad, and Marcus held the ladder, as it was standing on a stair and a stool. From the second floor I used a pole to push the chandelier closer to Jaime. Reaching behind him, fearing for the height he was at, but he was able to reach it! I can turn the light back on and n

13! It's here! I still feel like I could have her as an infant in my arms. I remember being in the hospital waiting to have her and Jaime and Dr. Meininger were watching the March Madness basketball games, talking about BYU.  And now she's more on her own. Enjoying middle school, tennis, friends, mutual activities. Before I know it she will be working on getting her drivers license.  She's a girl after my own heart. Ice cream cakes are way better than any regular cake. The icing is sliding off the top because I had it out of the freezer to thaw so it was easier to cut and eat. I didn't realize it was melting till someone mentioned it. So we sang a quick round of Happy Birthday so she could make her wish. :) I hope it was a good one. She's getting out of the toy phase, it's hard to just buy clothes and know they'll fit so she was given lots of money gift cards to stores. She loves it. Funny thing is she saves them for a long time too.

Spring is here! I was out working in the yard, trimming back dead plants to make room for the new growth to come through. Tyler was the only one who came out to help me. He was so cute rolling out the dumpster all by himself. I didn't even need to ask him to go get it. I just heard him rolling it over.  My stud muffin! Aidan got his new glasses. He thinks they're awesome. When he first got them he kept looking at things over the rim of the glasses, then looking through the glass and comparing how much clearer everything is for him. I don't think he will be my last kid in glasses. I think Olivia needs them too. I need to get her in for an eye exam.  I took the girls to watch the new Beauty and the Beast movie. We went with Christensens and Daws.  It was a mother/daughter night out. We even went to the new theater with the reserved, reclining seats and tables. Pictured: Emily, Olivia, Naomi, Lindsey, Daphne

All the kids had GREAT teacher conferences. Lindsey had all As and a B+ in Algebra, Olivia, Aidan, and Tyler don't get letter grades yet but they all had good marks in their areas of learning. Not one teacher had anything negative to say.  So Jaime and I took the kids to Viera's Bakery to pick out some donuts. I hope they'll always have a desire to do well in school, not be afraid to get extra help if something isn't quite clear for them, and continue on to get a degree.  When March comes, here comes March Madness! The kids asked when March Madness was as soon as March was here. Now is the time to fill in our brackets. I did a bracket with my own little family and then did a different in a set up that my brother Brian put together.  It's fun that every single one of the kids gets in to it. It also makes it fun to watch the games. They get in to the game watching and learn how the games go at the same time. 

Bel had been planning to have a Cinco de Mayo party with the kids and grandma. It's not May but it was a weekend that worked well to be able to have the kids over night at Diana's.  They played Mexican bingo, and fun drink cups candy and mini maracas. I adore that Jaime's family loves these kids so much and makes time to do special things like this with them.  The kids stayed the whole weekend with Marty and Diana. Jaime and I had a dinner Friday night with my new presidency members and their husbands so we could all get to know each other. I was recently called to serve in the Stake Primary Presidency as the secretary. I'm really liking the sisters I get to work with. On a side note, I like not having to do the weekly newsletter to email to the sisters of the ward every Sunday night. Hahaha Sunday I attended a ward conference in Basin City. Part of my calling is to go to all the ward conferences in our stake and check out the primaries and give train

Our dear sweet friend Betty Jean Salsbury passed away March 1st. She'd been fighting the cancer again that came back. She was always in such good spirits in spite of being so exhausted all the time. I had the blessing of going to visit her often in her home and then one last time in the hospital. After I saw her in the hospital she passed away at home 2 days later surrounded with family.  She and her husband Gary were wonderful primary teachers to both Aidan and Tyler. They loved to go up to her after sacrament meeting and give her hugs.  She loved family and was so grateful for the blessing of eternals families that she had her entire funeral based around Heavenly Fathers plan of happiness. She had her entire funeral planned out a couple months ago. She loves Aidan and Tyler so much that she wanted them to sing at her funeral along with the rest of our family. She asked me if we'd sing "Families Can Be Together Forever." Even Jaime agreed to sing even th

I love walking past the boys' room seeing them reading. They were in here for about an hour just reading! Sometimes they were both reading to them selves and sometimes Aidan was reading to Tyler.  For a joint YM/YW activity the youth did a potato derby. Lindsey did pretty well! She decorated hers with her favorite number, 18, and then the breast cancer ribbon saying fight, fight. We had just had a scare because Bel found a lump under her armpit. I was with her when her oncologist felt it and said it needed to be checked out. The radiologist checked it out. We didn't get the best answer, keep an eye on it. It's not solid, just fluid. But it's not a tumor. So that was on Lindsey's mind that evening of mutual. She felt pretty good putting up a good fighting spud to win 4th place. :) I went to the boys' school for their Dr Seuss day to read with them. Ainzlee, the girl down the road who walks to the bus with them in the mornings, was reading to Aidan