Our Little Dinosaur....

Today I picked up Bryce from Chelsea's house to find Chelsea and her husband, Joe, sitting on an ottoman with Bryce on the floor between them looking up at them laughing. I said, "Hi sweetie...what cha doing?" when he saw me. He laughed, and Joe said, "He is roaring."

And then Bryce made this little throaty sound that did indeed sound like a roar...if roars came from a dinosaur that looks as cute as he does!

He is growing so fast lately. He has learned to spin himself around in his jumperoo so that he can face whoever he wants to look at (which makes it soooo much easier to put him down), uses his little strong legs to try to support himself when on people's laps, and is eating like a little champ (2 tablespoons of rice cereal twice a day, along with his usual every 3 hour bottles). Amy and I were talking today about how sad it is that they are growing so fast...but each stage with my older two have been so different and fun that I can't help but look forward to the new developments, all while thinking "Where did my baby go?"

So for today, I will enjoy my little sweet roaring dinosaur.

Cupcakes for CCKC

Last night we made a few dozen cupcakes for the after school program at First United Methodist that the kids attend called CCKC. They were originally supposed to be Colts cupcakes, with the horseshoe in blue frosting, but I did not have a small enough cake decorating tip to make it look good with the icing, so only a few of them turned out with the blue and the rest have sprinkles or sugar stars on them. And I may or may not have just snacked on some of the leftover frosting, straight off the spoon. Yummmmmy.

Here is a picture of the new haircut, our little fire inspector, and Karsen the toothless wonder.
Austin did not spend as much time on his hair this morning, partly due to the fact that he realized once he puts his hat on, his hair is going to be messed up, so why bother? Also no girls noticed the hair cut as he had hoped worried. But his friend Cooper did tell him it looked good, so he was happy about that. Karsen has a rather large space in her top front from the rather large front tooth she lost last Thursday. It's very cute.

Happy New Year!

I am going to try to be better about recording life here at the Morgan's this year...it's been sooo long since I have blogged that I could not possibly remember all the fantastic details of Christmas 2010, but it was a great one.

December 23: Christmas with Grandma and Papa Hall, Katie, Andy and Kalli, Bob and Vern and Grandma Purvis



Christmas Eve: at Amy and Keith's house with Grandma and Papa Beneker, Amy, Keith, Luke, Miles -to-be, Erin, Ken, aunt Beth, uncle Mo (who delighted Bryce with his commentary on the planets and Pluto), and the best gift ever...Katie is home!!

Christmas morning: at our house, Bryce slept through this, and Christmas afternoon at uncle Gary and aunt Betty's house...and then Christmas night at good old Major Hospital :(

During Christmas break, Austin and Karsen spent time at Grandma and Papa Hall's house, then came home in time for a quiet New Year's Eve at our house playing Singstar, Bowling, and Beach Volleyball on the Playstation. Also just in time for the New Year, Bryce learned to roll over.

Emily and Bryce having a playdate.

The kids went back to school today, so it's back to "normal" around here. Drew came over after school and wondered aloud whether Bryce missed him during the Christmas vacation, and when I told him I'm sure he did, he replied, "He must have cried an awful lot, right?" So funny.

Austin also got a haircut. It is very handsome, and he took a long time admiring himself in the mirror this morning. I asked him what he was so worried about, and he said that the girls in his class "will probably go crazy over his hair. Mom, you know how they are."

Sooo busy

It feels like we have been very busy lately starting with Thanksgiving and continuing on...

we had a very nice Thanksgiving down at Debby and Jay's house in Chrisney, Indiana, and then came back through Connersville to see Grandma and Papa Beneker and Luke on our way home.

It is very hard to get four children to look at the camera! Austin, Karsen, Kalli and Bryce at Thanksgiving.

When we got home we spent one evening decorating for Christmas and putting up the tree. Of course, the kids really enjoyed this and also loved helping to put the presents under the tree. Karsen was a little annoyed when she found out that Bryce was awake while I wrapped all the presents. She thinks I ruined his surprises. I think the surprise would be if he actually remembered that he has seen these toys before.

On December 1st we got to attend the Westwood Christmas program. How cute the kids were! The 1st through 3rd grades sang together a few Christmas songs, including "Jolly Old St Nicholas" and "Up on the Housetop," among others. Then we heard the older grades and the kindergarten, and all the students did a number with flameless candles at the end. Austin was thrilled to play the part of Joseph in the Nativity scene. His friend Natalie was Mary, Drew and Dakota were shepherds, Sarah was an angel, and the three kings were Skylor, Jackson, and another of his best friends, Nathan. A lot of his friends' parents (and us) have never seen all of above mentioned kids be so quiet and serious together in their whole lives. It was so sweet. Karsen was very into the motions on all the songs.

Bryce is now 4 months old! At his four month checkup he was 16 lbs, 6 oz (75th percentile) and 26.5 inches (90th percentile). He looks so healthy and is very verbal and happy. The doctor gave us the go ahead to start him on rice cereal which we will do soon. He continues to go see his babysitter Chelsea when I go in to Westwood with the two older kids and he loves all the little girls there. The oldest girl, Reese, LOVES Bryce (and all babies, I think) and screams with excitement when she spots me coming through the door with him. Cousin Emily also goes there, which we love. It is soo fun to see them playing/staring at each other.


Karsen had a swim meet this morning in Muncie. She did three events : the 50 Free, 25 Back, and 25 Fly. She was thrilled not to be disqualified in the fly, which she swam for the first time in a meet. She cut 10 seconds off her best 50 free time for a time of 59.63 seconds (21st place), cut 5 seconds off her best 25 back time for a time of 25.83 seconds (12th place), and 37.12 seconds in the 25 Fly (20th place). It was a very big meet, so we were very excited about her finishes, especially when we found out that the meet was so big that they would likely give out ribbons/awards separately for the age 6 and under participants, which put Karsen in 2nd place in all her events (and 2nd place high point in the 6 and unders, too!). We'll see at practice Monday if she got some ribbons. She also won her heat in the backstroke (1st time she has done this) and was so excited to get a bendy rubber Santa.

Everyone is getting excited for Christmas around here...hope you all are, too!

Drama (The Fun Kind)

Yesterday after school I had Austin and Karsen (duh!), Austin's friend Drew who I babysit after school some days, and Austin's friend Dakota whose grandparents live down the street. The kids all play very well together, and when Drew leaves Austin and Karsen usually go down the street to wrestle on Dakota's trampoline for about an hour, which is where they get all their awesome dominating wrestling moves.

Well, yesterday, they decided to put on a play for me and Bryce. It went something like this:

Baseball Player (played by Dakota): Ma'am would you like to buy some cookies for our fundraiser?

Old Lady (inexplicably played by Drew): I can't hear you little boy.

Baseball Player: I SAID YES OR NO OLD LADY!!

Cub Scout (played by Austin) and Baseball Player descend upon the Old Lady, wrestling her to the ground.

Old Lady then pulls out a knife (actually just his fist) and starts "knifing" them.

Cub Scout/Baseball Player call 911.

911 Operator (Karsen): What is your emergency?

Cub Scout/Baseball Player (as Old Lady continues to "knife" them with his fists) : Come help us, this old lady is trying to kill us.

911 Operator leaves her post and runs to the aid of everyone, which results in an even bigger fray with all four of them at some point laying on the ground screaming/laughing/spewing fake blood.


Let me tell you, Bryce does not know what to think of these activities, but he sure does love watching them.

Trick or Treat 2010

Another Halloween has come and gone, but the candy is of course here for awhile. Trick or treating here was on the Saturday of fall break. The first couple of days of the kids' fall break were spent with Grandma and Papaw Hall, riding the tractor, going to flea markets in Huntingburg (near their house), seeing mommy's friend Missy and her son Reid, playing in the hot tub, and having a bonfire.

For Halloween, Austin dressed as Obi Wan Kenobi from Star Wars, Karsen was a doctor, and Bryce was an elephant. Bryce fell asleep before trick or treating began so he stayed behind at Grandma Purvis's house and helped hand out treats to the trick or treaters. The other two made up for him, though, and the huge haul of candy is in a basket on our kitchen table. It takes some will power to walk past that basket without sampling something! Austin and Karsen had fun walking around with Taylor, Andrew, Kenley and Bryant, aka Hannah Montana, a scary demon, Minnie Mouse, and Scooby Doo. Kalli was also Minnie Mouse but had more fun at Grandma Purvis's house than out trick or treating.

Here is a picture of the little Colts fans all ready for Monday night football:

Pumpkin Patch Run

Last night, Austin and Karsen raced in the Pumpkin Patch Run at the Y. It is a mile long race, one and a half times around the track at the Y. It was a beautiful evening, temperatures in the upper 60's and sunny. Great running weather!

Here is a picture of the cutest spectator there.


Here is Karsen finishing her race. She won the six year old girls division with a time of 10:25. She only had to stop and walk "for a little bit," but she really picked it up toward the end. She didn't beat her personal best time, but is hoping to for the next race. Right now, she is pleased with her trophy for the win!

Here is Austin in the strong finish. He finished second in the nine year old boys' division, ninth overall out of about 60 runners. He had a very competitive division. His time was 7:28, and his friend Jackson won with a 7:16. Jackson is also in the 3rd grade at Westwood, so Austin always knows what he is up against when they race. He beat his personal best mile time by more than 40 seconds, so we were very proud.

Bryce has been getting his exercise by vigorously kicking and playing with his toys. He attempts to reach up and grab them, and is very good at grasping in his chubby fingers. He especially wants to grasp his bottle to get the maximum amount out of it! Unfortunately, this type of exercise has done not much to reduce the number of chins he has, but at his age, the more there is of him, the cuter!!

Here are the boys after a full night and morning of having Cooper over to spend the night. He is such a polite little houseguest and he and Austin have such fun. It makes it even better now that Bryce sleeps all night now, too!