Thanksgiving with the Family

Last Wednesday we drove over to Khan's house to spend Thanksgiving weekend. Cody had just gotten home from a business trip at midnight and Pepper had a horrible night so we were a little slow getting started but we were excited to spend time with Khan and his family again.

Morgan and William are getting really great at playing together most of the time. They both don't have to do a lot of sharing at home, which makes for a few disputes but I would say they had more fun than fights.

Luckily they still have just enough baby stuff for us to get by without having to pack it all over. Also, lucky for us Joanna has been slowly getting rid of a lot of baby items and toys, which means we always leave with a bag of goodies!

Aunt Joanna reading to Morgan and William.

Karissa in her favorite spot in front of the computer and Facebook!

Theron's favorite spot in all the chaos!

Our camera has been taking weird pictures lately, I think it is stuck on some random setting, but I thought the sentiment was still nice.

Sharing some candy treats.

Getting ready to feast!

Pies and ice cream. Always a good time!

Morgan, aka Darth Vader

Darth takes a break from ruling the Empire to feed little Pepper.

Going to the Children's Museum again on Black Friday.

I just love the mosaics inside.

The forest area is our favorite. It is huge and has tons of places to climb, slide and explore.

Morgan managed to get to the very highest rope tunnel and then couldn't get down. He just kept going back and forth and getting more upset. I couldn't get to him and was getting panicked when finally a nice older boy helped him get down. Phew!

Taking the dogs and little guys out for a walk.

We had another wonderful weekend with the family and are once again so grateful to live close to them. We have never really spent Thanksgiving with family since we were first married so we were pretty excited to be able to do that.

Cody ventured out for our first Black Friday experience. He and Joanna went to ToysRUs at midnight and got home just before 3 am. Unfortunately, one of the items we wanted for Morgan didn't go on sale till 5 am but thank goodness for Amazon. I was glad I had to stay home and take care of Pepper. One of the first times I was glad to get up in the middle of the night to nurse!

Thanks Cody for braving the madness and to Joanna, Khan and family for helping us so much!

Turkey Feathers and Tantrums

These pictures are just some random pics from our last week. Here is a dinosaur pancake I made for Morgan the other night. I thought it came out pretty perfect and thought I'd share my small triumph.
Pepper is really starting to enjoy sitting up and playing with toys that interact with her. I didn't think we had that many noisy toys, since I find them annoying and usually have them turned off or without batteries. But a friend of mine pointed out that I have a ton of toys that make noise and music. Thanks grandmas!

Last week our playgroup did some fantastic Thanksgiving themed craft projects.

The kids got to make a turkey feather hat and color a picture of a turkey. Morgan was completely distracted by the pink car (he has told people he's getting a pink bike for Christmas...I'm guessing Cody will compromise with red). Morgan was also distracted by bullying all the other poor children who are smaller than him. Ugh, some days I don't know what happened to my easy going kid.

Jack sporting Morgan's hat.

Abby and Heather

Sarah, our hostess, made the cutest little Pilgrim hats out of chocolate covered marshmallows and striped cookies turned upside down.

Morgan was a big fan.

Classic face.

Saturday morning we took Morgan and Cody to get haircuts.

We decided to let a professional do Morgan's Mohawk.

She definitely cleaned it up and fixed some of our mistakes but I don't think it is too different from our cut. Morgan was a perfect angel during his entire haircut. The lady couldn't believe how easy he was and that she could take her time and keep making changes.

After, we went to breakfast and once again he was a great little kid and sat with us and ate his muffin. I was feeling pretty great about our Saturday together, then we went to the mall to get Cody some khaki pants for his upcoming business trip.

That is when our Saturday fell apart!

I took Morgan to a bouncy castle so he could play while Cody shopped and Pepper slept. We thought he deserved a reward for being such a great kid. He had 6 minutes to play but after only a couple he tried to leave but I told him he had more time and should keep playing. I should have let him leave when he was done but I didn't want to feel like we wasted any of the $2 we spent, so I insisted he keep playing. Of course, when it came time to get out he didn't want to. I finally convinced him to get out but then he started getting upset and tried to run away. This of course got him a time out and from there he just lost his mind. Poor Cody kept hearing Morgan screaming and was trying to hurry as fast as he could. I finally hogtied Morgan into the front of the stroller that poor Pepper is trying to sleep in and started walking around. Morgan thrashed about, kicking and screaming. It didn't matter what I threatened or promised, he would not calm down. It was so humiliating, I just wanted to disappear and cry. I can usually get Morgan to calm down pretty quick and I was just so frustrated that he wouldn't listen to me at all! Finally, Cody came out with his new pants and took Morgan outside while I wandered around for a few minutes with sleeping Pepper to calm down myself.

When I got out to the car, Morgan was calm and sorry. He still got a spanking and time out when he got home but he was luckily back to his good little boy self for the rest of the day.

Sometimes I just don't know what to do with this little guy.

I tell you this mom job is not easy!

Indian Summer

This Saturday the weather was too beautiful and warm to stay inside. We didn't want to spend any money so we headed over to a local park to take a walk, play and have a picnic.

Finding a bit of beautiful color amidst the brown.
Copley Community Park is a great place to take a walk.

Pepper and I watching Morgan and Cody play on the playground.

The sun was so warm we were getting November sunburns...not really but my-o-my it was a gorgeous day!

Cody's amateur photography moment.

When Morgan was a baby he had hardly any hair but this one long hair coming out of the middle of the top of his head. Pepper seems to take after her brother but her two long hairs come out of the left side of her head. I have bizarre but cute children!

Cody finding his inner child again.

Morgan following Daddy's big boy swing example.

My favorite little lady.

I am trying to sell our jogging stroller on craigslist and Morgan decided to model it for potential buyers. It brought back memories since our very first blog post and picture included a picture of Morgan as a baby going for a jog with Cody in Central Park. Oh how times have changed and flown by!

This weekend was Stake Conference and we got a new Stake President. We had two members of the Seventy here. Our ward choir was asked to do three musical numbers for today's session. I had to get there very early and sit up in the stand the whole time. Cody was a little nervous about taking care of both kids all on his own but luckily a great friend of ours, Katy, volunteered to help him, since her hubby was also singing in the choir. Morgan and Pepper love Katy so that helped a lot! Both kids were little angels and I was so grateful for both the mommy break and the great spiritual experience. We sang a version of the "Spirit of God Like a Fire is Burning" for the closing hymn and when we cut off on the final note you could feel the spirit so strong it was overwhelming. I am so grateful for my family and the gospel in our lives. I know that our Heavenly Father loves us and calls faithful men and women to help guide not only His church on the earth but our individual lives. What an amazing day to be alive!