welcome to our family

sweet baby of ours!

Rudger Justin Morris

7 lbs. 7 oz.

19 inches long

Born at 9:06 on a beautiful Sunday morning

Every single one of us is absolutely in love!

It's crazy to think that we are a family of six now.

We were so surprised when we realized that he was ready to come meet our family already. 

I was having contractions all throughout Saturday, but I figured they would go away eventually since it's been something I've dealt with for months. So we went about our Saturday chores. Got some canning done with Justin, laundry folded, house vacuumed, basement cleaned up, bedrooms tidied, and baby clothes washed. 

I think I was nesting a little.  

Towards the later part of the evening the contractions were becoming really regular and more intense. That's when I decided I probably better pack the bags I'd been meaning to do for a while.  Four hours after that...in the middle of the night...my good friend came over and stayed with the boys while Justin and I headed to the hospital. Then 6 1/2 hours later he was born.  

We were extremely tired, but extremely happy. It's amazing what a baby can do to you.

Later that day, we couldn't help but just stare at him and wonder what kind of personality he will bring to our family. 

Whatever it is, we know we will love it!

as of lately

We have soaked up as much time as we can together. 

We have enjoyed Saturday getaways up in the mountain and love taking the canoe to our favorite new spot.

 I love the mountains and I love those big fluffy clouds. 

 It was a good thing we were taking advantage of all those weekends because two weeks ago our biggest kid had to get stitches. He took a big crash riding his bike home from work.The boys and I hung out with him at the ER until 1:00 in the morning. Fun. 

The doctor said no water for a few weeks.

So instead we've taken advantage of lazy days at home.

Spider Solitare is becoming a family favorite.

(I love the deep concentration)

 We have the nicest ward member who has the most fruitful backyard. She shared the wealth with us.

We are loving blackberries lately.

 We love our almost daily walks through the garden to see what is producing. 

We haven't been disappointed.

Especially all four boys. They have been drooling over these watermelons. 

(you know come to think of it, I think boy #5 wouldn't mind some either)

 And now sadly I feel like our lazy summer days are rapidly coming to a close. As much as I wish we could have done so much more, the boys have said it has been a great summer. 

And that's what matters.

Now, in exactly two weeks from today, our baby will make his grand entrance.

And we are incredibly excited!!

girls camp

I remember girls camp being the biggest thing I would look forward to in the year while I was growing up.  I would pack weeks before and look forward to getting to spend time with my best friends while we sat around and talked in our tents.

I loved the leaders. They were great. I didn't realize as a Young Woman the sacrifice it took for them to be up there at girls camp. They had families they had to leave, babysitting that they needed to arrange, oddly enough their lives didn't totally revolve around us...what! It sure felt like it did.

In our church, I get the privilege of serving with the young women, specifically the 16-17 year old women. I love those girls to pieces. I would love to be half as good of a leader to them as mine were to me, but really they are the example to me. I was excited and nervous to go to camp this year.

I never leave my boys for getaways, not even with my own husband. Someday we hope to, but for now, we are perfectly happy spending our vacations together as a family. So for me to up and leave all four of my boys for three days was a hard thing. Justin is amazing, he used his vacation days from work so that he could stay home with the boys and we wouldn't have to arrange getting a babysitter while I was gone. Knowing that they were in great hands helped me to feel more at ease.    

I had a great time with the girls. 

On our way to the campsite the girls went tubing down a river. I wasn't planning on going, but it looked way too fun. 

 Notice how white my chicken legs are in the tube...then how red they are below. After one week mine is starting to not hurt so much. I never realize how much the boys touch me on my legs...ouch. 

This camp was so relaxing and a great time to bond with the girls. I even stayed up until after midnight playing card games with the girls in their tents. I don't even remember the last time I stayed up until after midnight...probably when I was nursing Levi almost four years ago...   

These girls are full of so much goodness and light. There was no drama, no complaining, lots of kindness and good attitude. I wish the world was full of more women like these one.  And even more importantly, I hope there are women like these when our boys are old enough to find their eternal mate. 

I loved this time with these girls!!

I ended up coming home a day early. I sure missed my boys like crazy and what do you know, they didn't miss me one bit. They were having way too much fun with daddy. (however, I did get extra big hugs)

our nice long independence weekend

I LOVE this country. I LOVE this time to reflect on and celebrate our freedom. I LOVE the time that we took to teach our kids about our founding fathers this week and how our country came to have these liberties. I LOVE that I get to live here with MY family!

We started our long all-american weekend off just right by picking up a redneck canoe from an awesome guy living at a trailer park. We strapped it to our minivan and headed for home. Can't get more American than that. As we were pulling up to our home the neighborhood fireworks were just starting.  The boys were ecstatic to be up way, way past their bedtimes. Not only that, but they got to run around outside with all the neighbor kids. Being in heaven is an understatement. Oh, and there were tons of treats. And fireworks.

The morning of the 4th we headed to our small town parade. 

*side note*  

People are kind of crazy and will have their spots reserved at midnight the night before. Most spots are taken 24 hours before the parade even starts...crazy.

Lucky for us we have some awesome crazy friends who let us come sit with them.  

I admire that family so much. 

There was so much candy being thrown out. Corbin even hooked me up with a wrapped cinnamon bear. We also got lots of bead necklaces, a frisbee, and two coupons for free ties...score!

This was one of Taylor's favorite floats. He loved all those flags. (not so much the concrete truck)

Afterwards we headed up to Logan Canyon for an escape up to the mountains. It was so pleasant up there and our boys had their own nature playground.  This log was in our campsite, they used it as a horse.

Our little scout Corbin got our campfire ready by building a teepee in the fire pit. 

That boy is growing up fast right before my eyes. He has been attached to his dad lately. Whatever Justin does, Corbin does. I hope he continues down that path because he couldn't pick a better man to follow.

As usual I wish I would've taken way more pictures. Justin has a habit of never taking pictures because he loves to live in the moment and not have to stop and take a picture. I sometimes get that way, which is great, I want to enjoy the moment and just live it up and saver it. But there is nothing like sitting back and looking at years and years of memories that we took the time to take pictures of.  I have a new excitement for taking more pictures again...

We also headed up to Bear Lake, which unfortunately didn't last long. It was raining as we were driving up, but as we pulled up the rain stopped and there was a break in the dark clouds. The sun came out and we were able to enjoy playing on the lake for those 30 beautiful minutes. We call it our Bear Lake Miracle. We soaked it up and then packed up and left just as the rain starting coming again.  It was kind of disappointing, but we still loved being there.

The next day we headed to a lake close to home and enjoyed taking the canoe out there.  All five of us climbed in and Justin and I rowed us around to look at the beautiful scenery. Corbin was standing and looking down at the water, Justin saw his opportunity. He thought he would tilt the canoe really quickly so that Corbin would fall in (Corbin does like to get in, just so you know). I felt the movement and kind of panicked and I leaned the exact same way. Yep, the boat capsized. After the initial shock we were all laughing hysterically. (yes, we always wear life jackets). We swam to shore with our canoe dumped the water out and got back in. 

A great memory was made.

Man, I wish I had a picture...luckily I did not have the camera with me.

little and big things

This is what makes our family life what it is, little and big things. 

little: 

practicing letters in names with pancakes. 

BIG: 

changing one of the ugliest painted bathrooms I've ever seen into something more me.

(or as Justin pointed out, a little more like a baby boy's room. perfect.)

 I had some help, of course.

 little: 

playing with food.

BIG: 

labor of love in the backyard, trying to change this plot of ground into something more like 

this. 

(I sure do hope I have the energy to can some tomatoes, salsa, spaghetti sauce)

but in the meantime we are enjoying the fruits of our labor...

little: 

helping mom make cookies

(pretty much a bi-weekly activity)

BIG: 

taking time to reflect on this country and those who have sacrificed so much to make it pretty awesome

especially since these boys are growing up in this land.

little: 

the new love of collecting and trading pokemon cards with school friends.

(thank goodness for summer break)

BIG: 

worked hard the last few weeks of school to complete an animal report, which meant that this little boy completed the 2nd grade. 

We are so proud of you Corbin! You have more than doubled your reading this year, which we know took a lot of hard work on your part, and you have accelerated in math. Way to go!

little: 

playing with mom's hair.

(yes, there is a cup inside my hair...the boys thought they were being hilarious) 

BIG: 

Taylor graduated from Kindergarten!

 He had the most amazing, cutest school teacher

 and the funnest, musically talented aide. 

 Taylor, you were so ready to have your 'own' thing, and school is where you found it.  Your teacher said you were such a sweetheart, quiet, loving, and excited to learn. We feel you really learned to break out of your comfort zone and do hard things. You are really picking up the rules of reading. Way to go, buddy!

BIG: 

this charmer turned another year older! 

I love how selfless he is. He wanted his day to be fun for everyone (especially the boys) We enjoyed going out to eat together, picking out lots of treats at the store to enjoy together, playing at the park for a couple of hours (where he was the main attraction at the merry-go-round, pushing tons of kids at a time, the boys were pretty proud to be his children), and then playing games at home together. We had a good day.

Happy Birthday to my favorite man in the world!

little:

 we took a week off after school got out to pretty much do nothing. Late nights, sleeping in, playing super nintendo (where the boys learned how "into" it I can get), pulling weeds (because that's nothing), and gearing up for what we hope to be the BEST summer yet. Because at the end of this summer we get to welcome a bundle of joy into our happy home.

BIG:

We wanted to surprise the boys with a kick off to summer. We didn't tell them what we were doing until we were driving there. 

(I learned that, like his daddy, Corbin hates secrets)

 All they knew was that we would be gone all day, we had to pack a lunch, and they needed lots of sunscreen. 

It felt like Christmas in the car when they heard where we were heading to:

 Lagoon...all...day...long...

 (last time we went there, four years ago, we had a free entrance pass and could ride only three rides, so yes, this was like Christmas to them)

Corbin and Daddy took off to ride a lot of the bigger rides; while Levi, Taylor and I rode the safer rides. At lunch we met up and then spent the rest of the day together. 

Being at Lagoon showed more of our kids personalities:

Corbin - Is daring to try just about anything, hesitated a little on some rides, but was convinced and loved every second of it. He rode the colossus twice (it took me until jr. high to ride that one), white rollercoaster was the scariest to him, the spider, samuri, wild mouse, screamer...and pretty much every other thriller. (Was ready to do the rocket, but we were getting exhausted) 

Taylor - was in heaven on all the kid rides, hated the haunted house, could handle a couple bigger rides, and quietly declined on the scarier rides. He loves the ones that spin fast.

Levi - little wild, adventurous, thrill seeker. He wanted to go on any ride he possibly could. Cried when I told him he wasn't big enough for that one (collosus, samuri, wild mouse) and only wanted to be by his dad because I told him no too many times.

It was a fun day.

We have lots of fun memories with big things, but in my opinion, it's the little things that make the happiest families!

Here's to summer!