Lately...

This is a 3D ultrasound picture of our Brycen. He looks super and although he is usually quite active, Tuesday when we went for the ultrasound must have been nap time because he stayed in nearly the same position the whole time and only kicked to express his displeasure at the attempts to wake him up for him to give us a different view. All that growing makes a boy tired!

Austin is still enjoying his baseball season. The White Sox have so far won one game, and Austin has experienced his first minor league hit and his first minor league hit by a pitch. I was worried it would leave a mark, but Austin is tough and was just fine.

Karsen is done with soccer for the year. She had a great time with her friends, especially Katie Coy, Sam Maddy, and Xavier Chalfant (and of course Xavier's dad-coach Ben). She is looking forward to soccer camp this summer with Austin and this week is trying something new, swim clinic sponsored by the New Castle Swim Club. She really, really enjoys this, and we are thinking of letting her join the swim club here this summer.

Austin has also been accepted to the FOCUS program for 3rd graders and up here in New Castle, which is a smaller class for gifted learners. Josh and I will go to a meeting about this on Monday, but we're not sure if he will want to be in the program or not. He is pretty sure he doesn't want to leave his friends and wonderful teachers at Westwood, but we all are still thinking about it.

We can't wait for Saturday and Luke's birthday party! What a big 2 year old he is!

Spring is here!

The Morgans have been busy with spring activities like...

Little League and the Opening Day parade.

The White Sox lost their first game 4-1 to the Yankees. It's a young team so they are sure to improve over the long season. They play the Reds tonight.

Karsen has moved up to the 6/7 year old league in soccer at the Y. She is doing very well and scored in her first game, and then scored again in last night's game. She is not really used to people actually playing defense, and is used to scoring 4-5 goals per game, but is learning that big kids soccer is a more complete game. Karsen does a great job!

Last night was the Westwood Spring Variety Show. Karsen's class sang a few songs to open the program, and then the 1st - 3rd graders put on a mini-musical "Seussical the Musical." It was very cute and the kids had a lot of fun. We didn't get any pictures of Austin performing because he was very high up on the risers and on the opposite side of the auditorium, but he was very into the show and was complimented on his dancing skills by a few other moms and dads.

All dressed up for the show at Karsen's game.

The combined morning and afternoon kindergarten classes doing their song and dance routine. Hard to see, but Karsen is in the pink shirt and brown skirt in the middle left front row of the picture, dancing away.

Brycen is also doing well. He is measuring right on time and is moving around like another little soccer player. In a couple of weeks will be able to see him on a 3D ultrasound which is something we have never been able to do with our other two children, but are very much looking forward to. The kids have some hilarious questions about him, babies in general, and the birthing process, which is very confusing to Karsen. First, she learned that babies do not come into the world wearing clothes, which is very gross to her. Then, she learned exactly where the baby comes out of, and learned that not only would Bryce not be wearing pants, but neither would mommy during the birth. So next she wondered aloud whether daddy would also be naked during the birth. Her mind works in funny ways :)

Indian Shores Beach, Florida

For spring break last week we traveled to Indian Rocks Beach in Florida (between Clearwater and Madeira Beach). We had a fun week in a condo with grandma and Papa Beneker, Erin and Ken, and Amy and Luke.

We left Friday after school and picked up Grandma Hall, who we were leaving with Papa Jay on our way to Florida. We made it to northern Alabama before we had to stop for the night.
The next morning, we got up super early and drove for awhile before we met Papa at an IHOP. It was fun to see him for a while! Then it was on to Florida!
The first full day we were there was Sunday. We went on a nice walk on the beach, even though it was very windy because a rainstorm was blowing in. The kids, Josh, and I drove into Clearwater to look around during the rain. We found a beach souvenir shop which can always guarantee Austin and Karsen a ton of fun. Later that evening, Josh and I went to pick up Amy and Luke at the airport. We tried to eat in Tam pa while we were there, but apparently the section of town next to the mall we stopped at is super upscale and we weren't going to eat there. Some of the mall shoppers had valets and limos waiting for them outside the mall doors.
So we ate at TGIFridays in the airport and saw many odd people.
On Monday we had a beach and pool day. It was super windy and the kids' boogie boards kept hitting them in the head. Karsen and Austin both loved the condo pool. Dragging them out was not always fun! For dinner Ken, Erin, Josh, the kids and I drove to a boardwalk called John's Pass in Madeira. The kids bought these really fun surfer necklaces with dolphins on them that change colors in the sunshine. Dinner was followed by ice cream while we walked around.

On Tuesday we started at the beach and pool, and then in the afternoon rented a boat for a few hours to explore the bay. Josh and Ken had fun driving the boat. Luke took a really great nap on the boat, and the rest of us saw dolphins practically right next to our boat.

On Tuesday night we all went back to the boardwalk to eat at a bar and grill with a very enthusiastic live singer. I loved this place, it was very relaxed and Amy and I had fun deciding what he might sing next. The kids enjoyed the birds that flew around and landed right next to your table. Luke enjoyed his hotdog-less bun dipped in ketchup.
On Wednesday it was another pool and beach day...all day long sunshine and perfect temps. The kids made friends everywhere they went and as the week went on had plenty of kids to play with. Erin and Ken and Josh and I went out Wednesday night to walk on the beach at sunset and for Ken and Josh to take some awesome pictures.

On Thursday, our last day there, we hit the pool in the morning and then in the afternoon the kids, Josh, and I and Erin and Ken went to a miniature golf course. It was a fun course and there were live alligators in the water around the course. That evening we all went to dinner at a seafood/steak place on a dock close to our condo. It was really good. After that, the Morgan's packed up to drive all the way home on Friday. We had so much fun and came back relaxed and ready to finish out the school year, start summer, and soon meet our new addition, Bryce!

Baby Boy Morgan, A Lost Tooth and Blue and Gold

This week has been busy at the Morgan's. On Tuesday, March 9, Karsen lost her first tooth like such a brave girl. She loves to recount the story of how she bit into a chicken nugget and it felt super wobbly. For those wondering, no it was not my cooking, it was actually from Wendy's. Just to clear that up. She had a great time calling her grandparents and aunties and telling them all about the event. She also enjoyed the $3 the tooth fairy left her.

On Wednesday, March 10, Josh and I celebrated our anniversary by getting an ultrasound and finding out that Baby Morgan #3 is a boy!


Sorry for the tiny pictures. He looks wonderful and his heartbeat was 152. The due date we had figured of August 2nd appears to be right, because the measurements said that the EDD is August 3rd. He is 10.5 oz now, and is wiggling away. Austin is patient enough to feel him kick, which is a lot of fun for him. My dr.'s appointment on Thursday also went well.

After the ultrasound we went to Menard's to purchase some things for the big re-siding project on our house. Josh has been working hard and would like to finish it before we leave on spring break, so that it will look really nice for the new photos our agent will put on her website. Later that evening, Josh and I ate at Journey's in Indianapolis, which was SO good, and then met Amy at the Hamilton County Fairgrounds for a consignment sale where we purchased a few things for baby boy. We are narrowing down our list of names, and it looks like we both really like Brycen and we will call him Bryce.

Austin had his Blue and Gold banquet for the Cub Scouts on Saturday night. I wasn't able to attend due to work :( but Josh, Austin, and Karsen had a nice dinner and saw Austin get his Wolf award for all the hard work he has done this year. Pinewood Derby is next weekend, and so we will put the finishing touches on his great-looking car this week.

Not too much on the schedule for this week, but we are hoping for decent weather so we can get more of the siding done! We're headed to Florida in 12 days! We can't wait, and Austin and I have already purchased our new swimsuits to wear on the beach!

Karsen = The Non Politically Correct Taylor Swift

Karsen has some very interesting perspectives on most things, and they are usually so off the wall that I have to laugh out loud. In the evenings, when she takes her bath, she usually asks me to "turn on the music," which means I sing to her. She always requests "Love Story" by Taylor Swift.

This has never caused a problem before, but tonight when I got to the part about "I'll talk to your dad, you'll pick out a white dress," Karsen stopped me and said I was singing it wrong. I was unaware of this, so I asked her just how it went, and she said, "It's YOU'LL PICK OUT A WIDE DRESS!"

This was very funny to me, and I can only imagine the picture in Karsen's mind when she sings this.

Although she IS related to Aunt Amy, who for years thought the Pearl Jam song Better Man repeatedly said, "Can't find the butter, man."

Update

I haven't been blogging lately, it seems as though there is always something more necessary to do! We had several snow days in February, which are wearing on us a little :) but it looks like spring may be on the way!

Karsen had a fun month of February. They learned about community helpers in school by dressing up as one (Karsen was a soccer coach), making a shoebox community building (Karsen made the library), parents came in to talk to the class about their own careers, and we had a fun community field trip where we went to Marilyn's Flower Shop, Marsh to get a healthy snack, the post office to mail a letter, the Salvation Army to learn about helping others and to donate some money, and then the YMCA to swim and have some yummy pizza! Karsen is a really good swimmer--only 5 kids in the kindergarten classes passed the swimming alone in the deep end test that the lifeguard gave, and so Karsen and the other 4 had the deep end to themselves! Of course they spent most of their time doing cannonballs off the side, but what a great time they had!

Austin has had a fun month as well, busy between school, Cub Scouts, and looking forward to baseball starting here in the next week or so. He will be on the White Sox again, and will be a busy little guy for a few months. A fun thing we did in February was go to the Indiana High School Basketball Hall of Fame with his Cub scout pack. All the boys had a chance at one exhibit to make the game-winning shot with a scoreboard that counts down the final seconds. Mommy actually got the shot on her turn--so I received a blue ribbon for my efforts. There probably won't be many more times I will beat some of those boys in basketball!

The baby is doing well also and starting to move around so I can feel it a little bit. We look forward to seeing him or her for the first time on March 10th at our ultrasound. I have felt pretty good in the last few weeks, definitely not as tired as earlier. I have been wearing maternity shirts because I am definitely carrying high, but my jeans and pants are still fitting pretty well. Not bad for 18 weeks! We are still looking at Ella as our girl's name, but are now undecided on the boy's name. I really really like Noah, but it may take some convincing with Josh. I also like Grayson and Rylan for a boy, but I don't think Josh is a big fan of other of those, either. We'll see. Ross and Krissy had their little Emily on Saturday, and the pictures have really made it hit home that we will be having another one of those, and soon! It's exciting, and of course we can't wait to meet Emily in person (hopefully today or tomorrow but we want to give Ross and Krissy a little time to adjust :)

Papa Jay has started his new job in Alabama. :(
We miss him but we can't wait to see him on our way down to Florida at the end of March.

Big Snow Coming?

Both kids are looking forward to the possibility of a big snow this weekend. I don't really know why, because they seem to be quite stir-crazy as it is. Or maybe I am going crazy listening to 30+ minutes of Wookie calls. They love the reaction this gets from Cooper.

We are also looking forward to the big game, of course!

On Monday we had a prenatal appointment. I am measuring right on time, and we are almost 15 weeks at this time. The best part was of course hearing the baby's heartbeat which sounded very strong and was very easy for the nurse to find. It's 160 beats/minute right now.
At this point, the names we have picked out are Ella Reis and Tyler Cade (he would be called Ty). But since we never keep the same name for 9 months, that might change.

Have a happy, snowy and safe weekend!