100 Days and Monster Jam

Karsen's kindergarten class celebrated 100 days of school on Friday. They made crowns, brought in 100 pieces of food to make into a friendship mix (Karsen picked marshmallows), and got 100 dots of "pox" all over their faces. She was also awarded the Kiwanis Terrific Student award for her class that day, so it was an extra good one for her!

Last night, Josh and Austin went to Lucas Oil Stadium for the first night of Monster Jam, with the monster trucks. It wasn't actually the race on Friday night, but it was a meet and greet with drivers and you could get up close and personal to the trucks and get your picture taken with them. Austin's favorite truck is "Gravedigger," although his other favorite truck "Monster Mutt" (the dog truck) wasn't there.


Karsen and I stayed home and ate yummy Subway and painted our toenails, which is more our speed. Ha!

The Bump - 13+ Weeks

So we are at 13 weeks, 3 days of this pregnancy. I've been a little sicker in the last couple of weeks, but have been feeling pretty well considering. The kids have been great. Austin just finished a huge Social Studies project, due Friday this week, but he wanted to get it completed and turned in early because apparently if you don't turn it in on Friday, it's an "automatic F on your report card! And I sure don't need that!"--according to Austin. He had to create a country, write a report about its citizens, their responsibilities, and their daily life, and then make a map of the country with at least five landforms and using a map key to show the landforms. He will give his presentation on Friday on his country, "Zoo Castle." The citizens all care for and are responsible for different types of zoo animals and each landform represents an area where different zoo animals are cared for. For instance, on Polar Bear Island, they take care of polar bears. On the Safari Plains, there are African type animals and we got good use out of old Ranger Ricks to make the poster look pretty great, if we do say so.

Karsen is doing so well, too, and her reading and math skills are getting a little more solid. She is enjoying this month and studying the four seasons. Her big project was a diorama of her favorite season, summer, with lots of half-naked, bikini'd Polly Pockets and small Barbies laying around on sandpaper by the construction-papered ocean.

The baby is progressing nicely, too, we think. We'll have an appointment next Monday where we should be able to hear the heartbeat for the first time...the first fun prenatal appointment! My belly is feeling a lot bigger, a lot faster, than it did with the first two. I am definitely carrying high again. Here is the belly picture at 13 weeks (you don't have to look, it's mostly for me...).


Karsen is super intrigued by the picture taking of the belly. She says she'd like to do it, too, so here is Karsen's belly picture.

Austin will decline. But here's a picture of his sweet face for you!

Karsen's 6th Birthday

Karsen's 6th birthday was on Thursday, January 14th. She woke up early that morning to open gifts from mommy and daddy before daddy had to go to work. Then she brought treats for her friends to school. It was a pretty low-key day but she did have a playdate with Graham and played with her new Strawberry Shortcake Berry Cafe for most of the evening.

Then on Friday, Karsen and her friends Graham and Matthew, along with Josh, Austin, and I, met auntie Amy and Luke at Build-a-Bear in Castleton to make animals. Karsen chose a Dalmation, Austin chose an owl whose head spins all the way around which for some reason is very creepy to him, Graham chose a horse named Buckaroo, and Matthew chose a polar bear.

Then it was on to Chuck E Cheese's.


Luke was overwhelmed, but he did very much enjoy riding the Chuck E. car with the statue of Chuck E. I think at one point he was either trying to become the statue's friend or push him off, I'm not sure which one. He was also enjoying his hot dog and ketchup until the party hostesses got a bit too loud and scary.

Graham, Matthew, and a random girl showing off their moves. The kids all loved taking "movies" of each other on the dance wall.

Karsen with her birthday crown. It was a fun, but exhausting (for Josh, Amy, and I) night.
Austin was invited to hang out with Natalie and Sarah (Graham and Matthew's older sisters) at Sarah's house for the evening, but declined and decided to come with us. He was afraid there would be too much playing makeovers at Sarah's house. I think he's glad he came with us!

Fun With Katie

Our cousin Katie has been over to play with us and hang out a couple of times this week. We miss her when she is in Ireland but love to spend time with her when she is here on breaks. We've played games, built Lego buildings, played Littlest Pet Shop, played Bakugans, played hide Alvin the Chipmunk, and Katie and I have been treated to some interesting performances by Austin and Karsen, namely the top 10 countdown on the Disney Channel which included song and dance to such hits as "Squirrels in My Pants" and "My Name is Doof and You'll Do What I Say (Whoop Whoop)." We have heard commentary on everything from suckers that taste like princesses (?) to why Austin thinks American Idol puts the little "American Idol" blue bubble over swearing contestants' mouths (because it distracts the offending contestant from saying even more bad words--of course!). At times, the dancing has become crazy violent and Austin's sensitive parts have become injured. We love it when she is home!

This girl has something to say...

A few of you may already know the big news, but Karsen would like to announce that...

she is going to be a big sister!

We are all so excited and are looking forward to late July/early August 2010 when the newest Morgan baby joins our family. We are 11 weeks along and the doctor says that so far things look great so we are thankful for that.

And this is a big motivator to sell the house and move into a bigger one!


We have had a couple of snow days this week and have been enjoying the laziness. Well, until I had to work last night. Definitely not a lazy kind of night. But the kids have had fun enjoying more time with their Christmas presents and outdoors with the snow.

Happy New Year

We've had a great in-between Christmas and New Year's week here. Karsen had a sleepover at Miss Beth's with her friend Kate, which was a blast by all accounts. The girls stayed up until "12:59" according to Kate, who is able to tell time. Miss Beth enjoyed the Hannah Montana movie very much, but didn't get to hear a lot of it due to the girls' incessant talking during it. Austin had a quiet night here (and rather enjoyed the attention!) and then the next morning when daddy went to work mommy and Austin got to have a breakfast date at McDonalds.

On Wednesday after the sleepover, both kids went to play at the Nelsons for a couple of hours while mommy cleaned a lot. We are trying to put the house up for sale in the next couple of weeks so we are tidying up and paring down and moving a lot of things into the storage area of the garage. Then the fun girls came over--cousin Katie and auntie Erin. There was much laughing, dancing, limbo-ing, playing games, and other funny things. We had plans to eat dinner out at Los Amigos, but Karsen and I had to skip out of dinner due to one of us having a huge meltdown over the limbo game. Austin enjoyed his dinner date with the lovely Erin and Katie, however, and was rewarded for his fine manners and polite demeanor with a huge gumball. Meanwhile, Karsen had her dinner of peanut butter and jelly and was in much better spirits when everyone arrived home. Twister was played, and many dance moves were shared. Warning: never ask Karsen to demonstrate "The Victor Petrenko," which she learned from aunt Erin. It is most definitely not age appropriate for either Karsen or Erin.

Twister. This game may have been more successful had Karsen not "fluffed" her way through it. However, Karsen's "fluffing" also caused many people whose faces were near to her derriere to quit the game prematurely, so maybe Karsen considered it successful.

On New Years Eve we went to uncle Gary and aunt Betty's for a fun and very well organized (by aunt Betty) euchre party. It was fun to get a chance to play with so many different people. Then we played Catchphrase until the ball dropped. The kids were very well behaved and enjoyed the company as well.

Happy New Year everyone! Hope 2010 is filled with wonderful blessings and memories!

Holly Jolly Christmas

I've been taking a blogging break to enjoy the sights and sounds of Christmas. We sure had a great one here at the Morgan's and hope all of our family and friends did, too.

Since Amy and Keith were busy moving on the 23rd, we got to keep Luke for the day on Wednesday and then he spent the night until Christmas Eve. Here he is with his "must-have" toy: Karsen's purse. He carried it everywhere and stuffed things into it all day.

Here are the three amigos, playing with Luke's toolbox. That was a fun activity for all, especially when it involved hiding the tools everywhere and trying to find them.

Here is Luke (note the purse) hugging/tackling Austin. That was also a favorite game. Luke was such a lovely houseguest too. He went to bed at 8 p.m. and slept until 9:30 the next morning. Aunt Kelly liked it--but kept going in to check on him the next morning in disbelief, as her children have NEVER slept that late.

The next evening, Christmas Eve, we had a nice Mexican feast at our house with mom and dad, Amy and Keith and Luke, Erin and Ken, aunt Beth and uncle Mo and Katie! It was so much fun to have everyone together and great to see Katie after 11 months. Here is some of the unwrapping fun.

Luke in the new Viking hat we got him. It was so cute!

Karsen, Luke, and Austin in their Christmas pajamas...waiting for Santa!

On Christmas Day, the kids were up about 7:30 to see what Santa had put in their stockings and left for them. Here are some stocking surprises.

Santa left Karsen a set of all seven Disney Princesses in their new dresses.

Santa left Austin a new Vulcan Nerf gun. It is very close to being bigger than he is.

Austin's big gift from mom and dad was a PSP. He likes it a lot.

Here is Karsen with her big gift from mom and dad--a Just Like Me American Girl doll. It has Karsen's brown straight medium length hair, medium skin, and brown eyes. She immediately changed it into the soccer outfit and cleats we bought her to go with it and she has been an excellent traveling companion over the last few days.

Then we went to a yummy Christmas dinner at uncle Gary and aunt Betty's house. Here is Grandma Purvis with the kids and the birdhouse Austin made and painted for Grandma.

Kalli giving her new dog kisses.

Then it was on to Grandma and Papa Hall's for a little more Christmas...

Austin dressed up like a Star Wars character with his new mask and laser gun.

Karsen and mommy enjoyed building a Lego house with her new set of pink Legos.

And mommy enjoyed staying warm in her new Colts Snuggie!

After a long weekend at work, we had a fun Monday as well. We went to aunt Beth and uncle Mo's for a pizza dinner and to see them and Katie of course. It was SO nice to catch up, and we are looking forward to seeing a lot of Katie while she is home for almost all of January!

Karsen is going to have a sleepover with her friend Kate at her teacher Miss Beth's house tonight--that was a great vacation surprise! My friend Lisa (Kate's mom) is Miss Beth's niece, and Kate has been wanting to have a sleepover with Karsen for quite some time. Miss Beth kindly invited both girls over this evening to play and stay, and then tomorrow morning they are planning to play in the snow. Karsen and Kate are very excited and planning to annoy surprise Miss Beth with the Hannah Montana movie and their dance moves to the lovely songs that accompany it. Also, I forgot to take a picture, but thanks to Grandma and Papa Beneker, Karsen has been practicing the High School Musical dance moves and getting pretty good at some of the steps.