Havin Fun & Hangin Out

Monday Uncle Mejo had off so we just bummed around all day and went shopping. Grayson wanted his first baseball cap, so here is a pic of him modeling in it in the store.

Gavin and Lauren enjoyed some time making cookies with Grandma Arlene also. This is something that is done frequently in this house and you can always expect a fresh baked cake or new batch of cookies ever other day around here.

So Grandma Marlene came into town Tuesday night. The kids were happy to see her. She as usual brought many goodies for the them. Lauren enjoyed dressing up in gma's clip on earrings and now is obsessed with wearing them. This could be a problem since she won't be getting her ears pierced any time soon.

Lauren got a new necklace and wanted to show it off as well. Although in the process of taking the pic, she broke it. Glad grandma old paid .32 cents for it.


We're still struggling to keep clothes on Grayson. Guess it doesn't matter what state your in or who's house either. The kid just wants to be naked ALL the time.

Well with all the activity our evenings have gotten later and later. The poor kids are passing out anywhere they can. Here is Lauren following in her brothers footsteps. Sweet thing!

We miss daddy!

We we arrived in Sacramento a week ago Saturday. It was a LONG drive but we made it safely.

Here is a precious pic of Lauren during the drive along with Grayson taking all of his many notes on his notepad. I couldn't resist posting this.

Easter was nice. We went to church and then home for a nice meal that grandma prepared followed by a long nap! That is always good times on a Sunday afternoon. Later in the day my dad came over and we threw a bunch of easter eggs around the front yard for the twins. They had a field day picking them up. Searched alllllll around for them even though they were right in front of their face. Hysterical.

The kids had a blast breaking in all the new fun things to do and see and grandma and grandpas. They have both really warmed up to everyone. Here is a pic of Lauren and her great gpa Wilder.

Of course we can't forget the tire swing that has been around since I was a kid. It is the funnest dang thing on the block. Beats a normal swing set anyday.

And then there is the garage with so many trinkets and things to get into. Here are the twins on my cousins bike and as you can see, Grayson is not familiar with the helmut process.

Monday morning was hard since Heath was off to the airport. It would be a loooooong 2 1/2 weeks until we see him again. I thought it wouldn't be as hard as it is.....but it is VERY hard. The kids constantly say "daddy bye bye". Everytime the doorbell rings they think it's him and in the middle of the night the other night, Grayson whispered...."momma?.....daddy at home?" Yea - a tear jerker. We also found out the other day that trip that Heath was suppose to take to Atlanta (promting my extra long stay here) was cancelled. Go figure!

So we have stayed very busy to say the least. We have been on the go and every night the kids are exhausted. They have just been falling asleep in the family room and I move them into the bedroom later. Here is a cute pic of Grayson when he fell asleep the other night on the couch.

Sunday night our friend Chris had a suprise 30th bday party for his wife. So John (Uncle Mejo) and I loaded up w/twins and headed for their home. The kids had a blast but were hard to contain since they live on a 1/2 acre and had a TON of toys in the backyard. Here is a cute pic of them being pulled behind the barbie quad in a bike trailer. They loved it! Later we went to Red Robin for dinner and here is a pic of Grayson and Uncle Mejo. Apparently he was feeling very loving last night.

Well there will for sure be more pics to come as we are staying busy all the time. Gma Marlene is due in Tues evening and we have several more things planned for the upcoming week. Still counting down the days till we get to see daddy a week from this Friday. ughhhhh I talked to the girls over the weekend and the first thing the twins said was "where zizzy" = sissy!

Let's get crafty!

So we have had a super busy week. Lots of church meetings, appointments here and there and of course our annual Daddy/Daughter activity Friday night. Myself along with a very wonderful Gail Glenn put this years annual activity on and it was a blast! Here is a pic with all the dads and their daughters! I absolutely love this calling and have such a great time doing all these wonderful things for the girls! And of course we had a blast this year, as usual! :)

So I had a lot of crafts I have been making this week. Mostly for my activity day girls and their "spotlight" bags. I was pretty proud of myself as I made 16 of the stinkin cutest bags. Our spotlight theme this year is ladybugs. So I got these cute denim and canvas bags, sewed either ribbon or pom pom tassels around the the top of the bag and then embellished it with lady bug iron on's or cute flowers! Man I must say they turned out quite cute! Here is a pic of the bags.

So since I was on a craft roll this week, I went ahead and decided to make aprons for all the kids. Well I bought aprons and then we decorated them. Here is a pic of the kids in all their aprons and of course we can't ignore naked Grayson in my dress shoes.

Here are some other pics of Lauren from earlier on in the week modeling her apron and new denim bag we made. Thought it might come in handy on the trip to Sacramento this weekend.

One of the more dramatic things I have done this year so far is that I recently chopped my hair off! Yes that was pretty emotional for me but I needed a change. I had my hair stylist take a good 6 inches off and now I have shoulder length hair with the style of a bob - yea I said a bob and still can't believe it myself, either can Heath. This is by far the shortest my hair has ever been with the exception of 6th grade! ha Anyway the reason I haven't posted any pics is because it's taken my hair dresser 3 weeks now to not have me look like carrot top! I asked for an all over blonde, just to spruce up what I already had.....well with the wonderful addition of some new medicine from my doctor.....my hair has decided that blonde means red! ugh huh! So after our night out with the girls and 50 pics later where I noticed that my head was reder than a firetruck, I went back and said we have to do something about this. Our next round attempted to lighten it yet again, which only made it a strawberry blonde......still not cute on these shoulders. So finally I was left with yet my only last resort - going natural. What's that!?!?! Anyway, she did an all over brown (which I really am anyway) and brought a few highlights through. I love it! Yes I am brunette again (an adjustment for my husband) but all in all it's faaaaar better than that summer "sun in" bleached out over processes french fry of a color I had before. So with all that said....I decided that with this new found hairstyle, I would start wearing cute clips....then after looking at the price per clip realized that I could make these things a heck of a lot cheaper on my own. So that is just what me and the girls did. Bought a bunch of cute scrapbooking daisy's and went to town. Here is the collection we have come up with so far.

So Grayson has noticed his dad wearing his bluetooth quite a bit lately and of course has tried to replicate that by taking a pair of earphones and looping the cord over his ears. It's hysterical! Although this pic doesn't show that here is the kids with their headphones on and nothing plugged into them.

My Little Lauren

So as you can see the twins were having a field day with the girls hats. I couldn't help but take a ton of pics of Lauren and her adorable little smile. Of course Grayson had to jump in with Darrian's pink hat and pink scripture tote. Guess he had an appointment or something. Anyway here are the pics I took. I think they are just too cute! P.S. We think Lauren is looking more and more like Darrian. At least when it comes to that cheesy smile they both have!

Girls just want to have fun!

Well it has been a better week. Lauren has finally come out of her week long illness with croup. Although a little cough is still lingering, she is much happier and sleeping better through the night. This past weekend we let all the kids pile into the big soaker tub and they had a blast! Here is a cute pic from their night in the tub!



This past Saturday was also Darrian's last basketball game! They didn't win but still managed to score a few points. Here is her basketball picture along with Braxton's from a couple of months ago. Don't they look so cute!



So this past Saturday night was our office Girls Night Out. Eliza, Aislinn, Michelle, Melanie and myself decided to treat ourselves to an evening of nothing but each other and tons of fun! We seriously crack ourselves up and could spend hours just talking! Aislinn came up with this great idea to go ROLLER SKATING! And that's exactly what we did! We had a blast. I am proud to say, that while I came close many times, I never did fall. Aislinn and Michelle on the other hand weren't so lucky. And who would have ever thought that roller skating would be such a work out! Well it is! Whew we all broke a sweat! We had a great time though and it was fun to feel 16 again! After skating we went to old town in Ft. Collins then ended the evening with a late laaaate night dinner at Old Chicago's. I haven't stayed up that late in years!! I have a great group of friends here and am so happy to have them in my life!! Here are a few pics from our hysterical evening. You will have to check out the rest of the pics (because there are a ton) on the Snapfish link . Click here to go to the Snapfish site now.

Sick & Tired of being Sick & Tired

Not much of a productive week. Grayson started coughing last Tuesday and by Wednesday he had full blown croup. It was a rough week to say the least. Heath was commuting to Denver and Colorado Springs all week so was pretty much gone all day each day. Grayson had high temps and of course the worst cough that I have EVER heard. He sounded like a barking seal! This would in turn cause him to throw up every time he hit a coughing spell so that was fun to clean up every hour. The motrin would perk him up for a few hours but then he would poop out again pretty hard. By Thurs afternoon I new it was time for a doctor's visit. They gave me a prescription for two doses of steroids (the first of which he spit out most of). We definitely saw him starting to turn around by Friday afternoon however this is when the whining set it and hasn't ended since. ughhhh It is so hard when kids are sick. He slept with Heath and I all week which means of course we got NO sleep. So we eventually new that Lauren was next in line and sure enough by Saturday afternoon her temp had spiked and now she to is coughing and battling the same symptoms. It just sucks to see your kids sick. At one point last night we had both of them in bed with us - not fun. My night stand looked like a hospital room with humidifiers, medicine, vicks, sippy cups, etc. We opted out of church and all of Heath's meetings today and just relaxed, and now Heath is not feeling to hot. Braxton called from her mom's to say that she has been throwing up and has a fever as well. Man when this stuff goes around it really travels fast! I guess I would rather get it over with now then drag on for weeks. All I know is I pray that I don't get hit with it or this house will turn upside down! :) One funny thing that Grayson has done this week is introduce to us his new desire for showers. He wants to take one every morning and night! He calls them "shi shoies" - yea not sure where he got that from. Anyway, he comes up to us as soon as he wakes up in the morning and every evening and then walks us over to the gate to go down to the bathroom and said - momma shi shoies shi shoies - it's cute, but getting old. And he doesn't exactly take short showers! It's hysterical!

Heath was able to go to Darrian's basketball game Saturday and reported that for the first time they won (8 to 4) and Darri scored 2 points!!! yeahhhh! Braxton bowled in a little tournament later that day and did very well as well. The girls both love to bowl! We haven't been with them in ages, but plan on going again soon.

Last Friday Grayson's speech therapist was over and we were all sitting on the playroom floor. We were trying to go over a few basic words with Grayson wich happen to be number. Well Lauren about blew us all out of the water when she started to count! She had poured her cookie crisp cereal out of the bowl and was picking each one up putting it back in the bowl and counting - oneeeee, twoooooo, threeeee....well by the time she got to 5 I about fell over and thought - oh my word my baby just counted to 5!!!! Well she didn't stop there - the little stinker went all the way to flippin 10!!!!! I said 10!!!! I thought I was going to have a heartattack, had to run grab Heath, the video camera and of course catch all this on tape! Well sure enough she did it again - and again - and again! Let me just say....way to go Blues Clues! We work with the kids on their basic words read to them alot, etc but have never thought to start counting with them! We were so excited!!!

Well I will sign off with a huge Thank You to Gail Glenn and one anonymous person out there. Last wednesday night we had our doorbell rang and when we opened it there was a box with dinner for our family in it along with two heart balloons and note that says "somebody loves you". I had only talked to a couple of people that day who knew that we were having a rough time with Grayson being sick - so I have my suspicions as to who it could be - but nevertheless it was so nice to have someone think of us and go out of their way to make sure my family had a nice dinner that evening. Then as if that wasn't nice enough......there is the wonderful and totally awesome Gail Glenn . She and I are Activity Day leaders together - and I am a much better person for just knowing her!!!! Well she brought our family dinner on Saturday night. And can I just say in both cases Heath had JUST SAID so what are we having for dinner tonight.......and NO JOKE with in a minute both times - the doorbell rang with our food! We have great friends here and feel so fortunate to know that people care about us! Thanks again!!!!

Basketball and Karaoke anyone?

So I hope I spelled karaoke right...at least that's what the spell checker said it should be. Anyway, we had a good, long and very busy weekend as usual. The highlight of course had to be our little Darri and her bastketball game!! This by far was one of the BEST games. Darrian scored 2 points and made us so proud. Her first game basket ever. I had to jump out of my seat when she did it. These girls are a riot and there is no other way to say it. The entire game is intense and hysterical! You are constantly on the edge of your seat and I could watch these girls play all day. Darrian is getting more aggressive with her blocking skills, however she was blocking a girl at least 4 inches taller than her this game. It looked more like she was going to give her a hug everytime she tried to block her. Then let's talk about the precious little girl from the other team who's blocking tenique took the cake!!! We laughed soooo hard when we would witness the "fan". This little girl would get right up in Darrian's face - we're talking like and inch from her nose and take her hands and move them so fast back and forth right in front of Darrian's face you would have thought she was on fire and this girl was trying to cool her off. After a few more "fanning attempts" to block the Darrian, her coach had to tell her to back off a bit. Poor Darri was like what the heck is this girl doing to me. I am still sitting here laughing outloud at my computer thinking about it. It was the funniest thing ever! Anyway, here are a few snap shots from Darrian's big day.....my camera is not good with distance or motion shots - but you'll get the idea.

So the girls have a Karaoke machine in their bedroom. The mic doesn't work anymore but they still love using it anyway. The twins have been spending a little more time in the girls room lately, which was previously off limits. I walked into their room to find Lauren singing into the mic and of course shortly there after Grayson had to have his turn. I have no idea what they were saying but they were definitely singing!!! A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E. While Grayson was deciding which song he was going to sing next, Lauren wanted to do a little ring aorund the rosie with her sisters.

So our week was pretty good - the girls had Thurs and Friday off because of parent teacher conferences so it was nice that they were around to play with their cousins and spend time with Grammie & Grampie Morby. Last week however Heath's iPod shut down on the way to the gym and we could not get it to come back on for anything. Anyway after calling the Apple store (in Boulder about 45 min from here) I found out that they would exchange it for free since it was w/in the one year warrenty. So I load up 4 kids and drive 45 min, unload in 30 degree weather, hike thru and outdoor mall only to find out that the stinkin thing just needed to be reset! ughhhhhh Don't ya think that would have been the first thing the little Apple tech would have asked me over the phone!!!! Especially knowing I was looking at almost a two hour round trip to go to the stupid store. Anyway, I was at least happy to know that it wasn't broke yet irritated that I had to make the trek to BOULDER to find out! Anyway, it did end up paying off anyway. My doctor's office is in between here and there and I had been putting off going to get my annual blood work done. Back in Dec when they did my cardiology check up the Dr. determined that my heart function had actually decreased by 5 - 10%. Nothing to alarm them but reaffirmed the need for me to stay in my medicine. ughhhhh Each year I hope that I will go in and they will say - Mrs. Morby you are cured - no more meds! Yea no! Not going to happen any time soon apparently. So they need to check my kidney funtion and magnesium levels. Whatever. Anyway, well that is enough for now. Sunday evening and time to go relax. My in-laws spent the evening with us and we had a nice dinner. They will be leaving for Idaho tomorrow.

Until next time........