Imposter

It seems we have a felon in the Morgan home....an imposter. Someone sneaky and cunning. He's evasive and hard to capture on camera of late but I know he lurking.

But if I lie in wait long enough and am patient I can catch a glimpse of this would-be identity thief.
The crime? Forgery.
It seems as though as soon as G realized that he had not had his behavior chart properly initialed, his wheels started turning. I can tell by the eraser marks that a job this neat took a while. Can you spot the impostor initials?
I couldn't say much because A) I was pretty impressed and B) I may have been known to fudge my mom's initials a time or two........or twenty on that ever so irritating homework agenda thingy in Mrs. Crew's class. Grant thought he was pretty clever with his quick thinking.
In his defense, when I called him out on it he really had NO idea that it was a "no-no" to forge my initials. When asked, "Who wrote this?" he was more than proud to immediately let me know that it was his very own handiwork. I hope this isn't a glimpse into future antics of hoodwinking. First grade felony forgery. They start so young nowadays.......

Oh, Happy Day!

This past Sunday was a day that Bobby and I have been praying for ever since we found out our first little Morgan was growing in the womb. After many years of "planting seeds" about Jesus, Cade and Grant both decided a few weeks ago to pray and ask Jesus into their hearts! I know the road of life is long and has many huge decisions, but this one is, by far, the most important one they will ever make. I continue to pray that they will always choose the narrow road and that they will remember this day for the rest of their lives. We did a tag team brothers baptism and they couldn't have been happier to be sharing this day with one another.

Cade was up first being that he is the oldest. Pastor Eric shared a little about our family and asked the boys, "What is the most important thing you could tell everyone today?" to which they responded, "Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior!" Amen!
Rhett voiced his concern that Cade was not going to be able to hold his breath long enough to survive the dunk. I assured him that it was a quick dip and not a near drowning.
And dip it was! I was lucky to catch Cade's little feet popping up out of the water. Everyone in the congregation chuckled and I was told that all you could see from the pew was his feet in the air.

Grant went second. He was a little nervous but denied it when Pastor Eric asked him. I could tell by the way he kept running his hands along the baptistry glass.
Ready to be dunked:
His little feet popped up out of the water as well!

We snapped a quick after-dunk picture. The first thing both of them said was, "PT (pastor Tom, our preacher) needs to get a water warmer in that thing!" They were shivering to the bone!
One quick partial family photo on the big day. It's apparent that hypothermia is setting in on Grant so we didn't have much time to snap :)
I thought a very neat thing about their baptism day was that we also did the Lord's Supper. Once you become a Christian and are baptized, you are allowed to partake. It was a neat thing to share both of those moments on the same day. Rhett was sitting in my dad's lap and dad whispered to him, "We're doing the Lord's Supper today." to which he replied, "Good. I hope it's hotdogs." When you have Rhett in your family even the most serious moments are tinged with laughter. Gotta love it! Thank you to all of the buddies that shared this day with the boys and to our family for sharing it with us as well!

Praise the Lord for this great day!

Pre-K

FINALLY Little Buddy's school started. It really seemed like too much time between the big boys starting "real" school and Rhett's first day. We played way too many games of 'sorry' that I inevitably lost in due to intentional cheating or mid-game rule changes (also known as cheating), reviewed alphabet flash cards, and everything in between. Needless to say, after listening to him tell me how much fun I wasn't and answering the question, "When are my brothers going to be home?" nearly eighty times each day, I was more than ready to ship him off to Mrs. Ann Marie for a few hours a week!

I was a bit concerned sending him to school with his face being in the condition it was. The picture certainly does it no justice. He had a scab above his left eye with brusing and puffiness below, along with scratches on his right cheek that looked like a cat attacked him. We don't have a cat and I can't tell you the last time I saw one around here. I have no clue what happened to the child. None. Neither does he which really doesn't surprise me in the least.
He wanted to have a back to school picture made with Tee-Tiny. I wonder if they teach proper baby holding technique in Pre-k class? I've been trying for 4 months now and it's just not sinking in.
Good thing she doesn't seem to mind. So, for now, it's just me and Tee-Tiny holding down the fort on Tues/Thurs. I'm thinking about buying that "My Baby Can Read!" stuff that infommercial keeps trying to sell me during the day. That way, by the time she gets to go to Pre-K all the other kids will be looking at picture books and she'll be reading War and Peace and it will certainly be a direct reflection of my superior parenting. Honestly, we'll probably just end up at Publix. I don't want to overexert myself.

To the ATL for a Little MLB

We headed down to Atlanta this past weekend to catch some baseball and give the boys their first major league experience. We were attending this game as Marlins fans so that entailed decking out the family in all of our collected Marlins garb! It was quite funny to pass through all the Braves tailgaters with our whole family sporting black. We got quite a few "boos" but it was all in fun.
We packed in the car early Saturday morning and started the trek. The boys did great in the car ride thanks to the beauty of the in-car dvd player. I don't even want to think about the days of car travel with children before that invention. Bobby wanted to make sure we got there in time to see the Marlins take batting practice. It's always one of his favorite things to do.....and it's when we get a minute to chat with our favorite 2nd baseman.

Not to worry. We made it in plenty of time, pulling in to the stadium parking lot at 4pm........for a 7pm game! There was lots of waiting.
Rhett was more than happy to be there. I think he was most excited that his dinner choice was going to be between a foot long hotdog and a greasy slice of pizza. That alone would have put a smile on his face!
Grant was being a stinker and wouldn't let me take a picture of him. He kept running and hiding, ducking below the seats. Crazy business. These are the best individual shots that I came up with.

We got to talk with Daniel a bit before the game. I'm not sure what Rhett has got going on with his ball cap in this picture but it's quite off kilter. Oh well, with all the swarming autograph seekers you have to be quick and get what you get!
People were handing balls, papers, whatever to Daniel to be signed. We didn't bring anything with us but he ever so kindly pulled the hats off the boys' heads to autograph them. Rhett said, "Weeellll, I have NO idea why all these people want your initials on everything......buuuutttt if you want to, whatever."
Obviously he hasn't clued in that it's pretty cool to be a professional athlete. All he knows is that this guy plays a pretty mean wrestlemania. We had great seats along the third base side. Close enough that we were almost lucky enough to catch a foul ball three times. I'll be honest though, as the ball was descending and my boys' gloves were up in the air, I was secretly praying that A) Bobby would catch it or B) it would land elsewhere. We all know what happened the last time one of my boys tried to catch a fly ball.
I wanted a shot of the boys and me but this is not exactly what I had in mind. After spending way too much time trying to convince Grant to let me take his picture, he turned into Groucho Groucharoonie and wouldn't even tolerate another photo. And, as you can see, Cade is making some goofy face (not surprised) and Rhett looks completely terrified ( totally surprising being that there was nothing scary happening). I guess it's just one example of the forced smile gone awry.
This partial family shot turned out pretty good considering that my outstretched arm took the shot blindly.....and Rhett brought out his normal kid smile.
After downing a greasy pizza slice the size of his head and washing it down with a sprite large enough to drown in if he weren't careful, Groucho Groucharoonie finally disappeared and was replaced with an oh so happy Grant. It's amazing what a little food can do for the soul!
Always a highlight of any overnight trip is the hotel stay. I will have to say that with all the talk about bedbugs on the news and the Today Show lately I was quite wary. I'm already a little creeped out as it is (unless I'm at the Ritz which doesn't happen too often), but I'm happy to say that I pulled the sheets back and checked and there were none to be found. That doesn't mean that I didn't sleep in long pants though.

Staying in a hotel with all three boys is, ummmm,.........enjoyable.
If you're one of the three boys.
And when I say "enjoyable", you should read "loud", and "obnoxious", and "goofy".

But what would life be without a little craziness? A little goofiness?
Boring. So, for one night I can handle all of the nonsense. One night. Don't ask me to stretch it out for some vacation or something. I would never live to blog about it for sure. Someone from the mental hospital would surely rescue me by the time the week was over.
Into the land of $4.75 waters, $4.50 dripping pizza slices, and $5 ice creams we ventured and out we have come. Even though our team got decimated we still left with smiles on our greasy faces. From the looks of it, this won't be our last family outing to see some MLB. Good times, greater memories!

Consignment Is My Friend

I'll have to admit that I've never really been a big consignment kind of gal. With the boys I always just bought things new and never thought twice about it. Then Tee-Tiny came along.....and girl's clothes are SO cute. I found out quickly that they are also SO expensive. I can't convince myself to pay more for a baby outfit than I would for myself. That's when Danielle introduced me to the wonders of the great consignment. Before Elaina's birthday had even arrived D was my inside source to some great buys via cell phone pictures. What in the world did we even do before the portable phone with camera and a 3G network?? I wince even reminiscing about such.

Anywho, fall is just around the corner and I had nada for the babe to wear. That's when I hit a boutique consignment sale and the Lord showed me favor. He really did. In the form of a mysterious woman handing an early shopping pass to my consignment angel Danielle who, being the generous friend she is, passed it on to me! Believe what you want, but this is my pile-o-loot AFTER I sifted through my stack of clothes at least three times eliminating things.

According to a tag, I got an outfit from France for el-cheapo (that's spanish. Not french by the way). For all I know it came from Jaques Penne. We call that store JC Penny here in the states. Somebody's out there screaming "sucka"!! One of my favorite finds was this little ditty with an "e" on it. Perfect for the Christmas season!
Elaina watched me as I sorted through all my great buys. I know deep down inside she was as excited as I was. She totally cares what she's wearing during her first year of life. This time of development is pivotal in maturing the area of the brain that controls fashion sense. I think I learned that in my sociology/psychology classes in nursing school. Or I just made it up. One of the two.
Of course the most precious steal was this pair of fuzzy boots. Mmmmm. I smile just thinking of all the cuteness. Shoes. We love shoes. We. We love them....she just doesn't know it yet. She'll tap into the love fest one day.

I love this baby girl. Clothes or no clothes. Precious fuzzy boots or not. She really doesn't need material cuteness to help her out. God gave her enough cute-ability to make it on her own.

Her fuzzy chick hair doesn't hurt either :)

Wedding Bells!

Grant made his debut as ring bearer in my cousin's wedding this weekend. If I do say so myself, there couldn't have been a cuter ring bearer ever! We traveled to the Big Blue state and Grant was beside himself with excitement. I'm not sure if it was the wedding he was excited about or the night he was going to get to spend in a hotel. Both are pretty big deals when you're six!

What a handsome boy!

I know he was getting tired of pictures. He's not exactly my most willing participant when it comes to posing for photos.
Here's the happy groom's family. I have a special place in my heart for all these folks because we spent so much time together growing up. There were lots of shared peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, atari games, and morning cartoons with these two boys!

I was super excited for my "little" cousin to finally tie the knot. His fiance is a precious, lovely gal and he really needed to solidify that union before she got away:)
Little smooch for his most favorite cousin!
Grant was getting antsy waiting for his big moment. He did a little practicing....
and caught up with Cousin Joe to make sure he was where he was suppose to be.
Ahhhhhh, finally time to go! I could tell he was just a bit nervous but he did a splendid job! He walked nicely, didn't trip and went straight to his standing spot.
Then came the bride. I told you she was lovely!
Grant stood in for some of the ceremony but eventually came back to the pew with me. It was quite long being that it was a full Catholic mass. Kids (especially mine) can't stand still that long!
After all was said and done and Joseph and Jennifer walked out, Grant started to panic. "They didn't get the rings! They didn't get them! They forgot to do the rings!!" I didn't get what he was talking about until I looked down at his little ring bearer's pillow and saw the two tiny silver rings attached by ribbon to the pillow. I tried to explain that those weren't the real rings but then he said, "Well why in the world did I even come to be the ring barrier??" I decided then and there to save the child's heart we'd hunt down the happy couple and give them their rings. We found them, handed them over, and Grant felt like his job was complete.

Off to the reception: My sis and me after about 15 tries to get a picture that she deemed acceptable.

It was also fun to catch up with some of my other cousins at the reception. These gals are full of great memories and laughs when we see each other (which is not often enough!)
Many blessings to Joe and Jen. We had a great time watching you get hitched!