Bryce's 1st Dr Visit

We are working on getting settled in as a family of five. Today Bryce had his first visit to New Castle Family Physicians and to see Dr Rosenfeld. He is doing very well. His weight is now 8 lbs, 4 oz. (he lost a few ounces in the hospital but is coming back up nicely), and 21 inches long.

The big boy:

We have had such wonderful company since we have been home. We came home Sunday around noon and had a great lasagna meal with Grandma and Papa Beneker and auntie Erin and uncle Ken. Uncle Ken did a photo shoot with Bryce for his announcements. Here is a sneak peek.

Sunday night Bryce had his first card night at Grandma Purvis's house, where he met uncle Donald, aunt Kim, aunt Vicki, Kenley and Bryant, uncle Gary and Ross again.

Monday he was visited by Papa Jay and Grandma Hall and Kalli.

Tuesday he met aunt Beth and uncle Mo, who brought some excellent pulled pork and potato salad. He must have really liked their visit, because he slept SO WELL last night. He was in his crib at 11 p.m., and didn't wake up until 3. He stayed awake and ate until about 4, but then slept in until 7!! What a nice gift for mommy!

Austin and Karsen are such big helpers to mommy and daddy. I am really grateful that Josh has two weeks off work: I am going to be spoiled with all the help around the house, with the kids, and even naps during the day. Josh is such a great dad and husband.

Bryce is Here! Austin's Birthday!

Brycen Joshua Morgan, 8 lbs, 9 oz, at 19 1/2 inches long made his debut into the world and our family on August 6, 2010. Words can't express. I won't even try.

He is so lucky to have his big brother and sister to guide him on his way.

It can't be that nine years ago today, Josh and I were welcoming Austin Layne into our hearts. He is one of our three miracles, and is one of the most giving little children anyone will ever meet. I had a ton of mom guilt today, not able to spend but a few hours of his birthday with him, but in true Austin spirit, he was more excited for his new brother and more worried about leaving mommy alone at the hospital than about his own birthday. I am overwhelmed with love for all of my three little ones, and can't imagine being more blessed. Ever. I have a caring husband who I am quite sure will never know what he means to all of us, and the greatest family who I underappreciate most of the time. And although I deserve none of it, it is the most beautiful gift.

Someday, Austin, I will make this day up to you. But you will probably not even notice because you will be too busy making someone else's day better, just like you do every day of your life.

Cross Country Camp

Austin and Karsen were busy this week during the mornings with Running Camp sponsored by the high school cross country team. They learned stretches, starts, and worked on building endurance and played running games. Both kids enjoyed themselves a lot! Today they ended camp with a camp-wide race in which they ran a timed mile on a cross country course.

The campers.


Right before the start of the race.


Out of the 50+ campers, ranging in ages from going into 1st grade to going into 9th grade, Austin finished 8th!! He had a great time for his mile, 8:11, especially for his first actual competitive race.

Karsen did great as well, one of the first of the "little ones" to finish. She had a time of 9:55.

They all enjoyed rice krispy treats, popsicles, fruit, water, and juice at the end of their race and received their awards and certificates.

Another big happening this week was that Austin's new glasses came in. He was very disappointed that he will have to have them, and tried to talk us out of them in every possible way. He thought of contacts (which his eye doctor discourages until age 12), laser surgery (we told him when he is MUCH, MUCH older), and his friend Cooper and he devised their own eye test to prove that Austin can see Cooper just wonderfully when he holds his fingers up. When all of that failed, Austin reluctantly went to his fitting appointment this morning and emerged with his new handsome everyday glasses and his cool sporty glasses for baseball and soccer.

The sports goggles. Austin really likes these.

Both of our beautiful children:

We also enjoyed a couple of days of babysitting our cousin Ross and his wife Krissy's sweet little 3 month old, Emily. The kids did pretty well, and yes, my memory of small babies came back rather quickly. She is really an excellent baby and not much trouble at all, so we are hoping that our Brycen has some of those same easy-baby genes.

Please ignore the look of terror on Emily's face. I promise I wouldn't let Austin and Karsen hurt her :)

OH I could eat her up--she is so sweet!!! Next time I post a picture of one this small, it will probably be Bryce! So hard to believe his arrival is less than six weeks away!

School's Out!

The last day of school for the year is finally over for Austin and Karsen. Due to all the snow days, they had to make up 9 days. The last day was a fun one though, the annual field day. I helped by working at the "Survivor" game in which the contestants competed to see who could or would attempt to eat some gross foods to score points for their team. We had Spam, tuna, sardines, onions, peas, beets, vienna sausage, jalapenos, and other yummies. Also the rain held off which was completely lost on Karsen who was so soaked by the end of the water relay that she looked as if she had taken a swim in her clothes.

So now I have a 3rd grader and a 1st grader! Yikes! At the end of the day, the sixth graders had their sixth grade parade around the school where everyone stood outside their classrooms cheering and giving high fives to them while "We are the Champions" played over the Intercom. Our cousin Dakota was so handsome and grown up and of course I cried a little, which Austin and Karsen didn't understand. They are going to be REALLY embarrassed when it is them doing the sixth grade parade because I will really cry then!!
So summer is beginning, officially. We have lots of baseball and pool time planned. Karsen is improving ever so much with her swimming practices with the New Castle swim club and is so cute to watch when they have mock relays. She is the youngest, most inexperienced swimmer, but the only word I can use to describe her is that she swims with gusto. Austin's White Sox has definitely improved as of late, winning their last two games 10-2 and 11-2 over pretty decent teams. Austin has drawn a lot of walks! He is very patient and loves to score runs for his team.
Bryce is well, we have an appointment tomorrow. He is quite the kicker. He keeps me up at all hours, and we are definitely looking forward to seeing his little face. Still trying to decide on a middle name for the guy...but we may have to see him to finally choose one.
Here are some pictures from my new 3rd grader and 1st grader. I am so, so proud.

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!