Love these kids

We are doing away with naps because bed time is just not happening with them....needless to say this is how we find her come 6:00 at night.  Poor girl.  How is she even staying on that chair?

 Can you say dear in the headlights look? or CAUGHT!

Our pumpkin lot for the year!

Miss Jaq turns 3!!

My little princess is three years old! Jaq, right now is so fun, I really try all the time to get into serious conversations with her because her face expressions are HILLARIOUS.  She loves her brother and is his little shadow.  Hence she probably knows more about Star Wars than most boys her age.  But she is fine as long as she gets to be princess Leia or Queen Amadalla.  Jaq loves hugs and kisses and gives them out freely by walking up to you and saying "hugs" while motioning you toward her.   She is constantly complimenting me and says things like, "Mom your shirt is really cute" or "Your hair is so pretty." She is all about matching her outfits and I usually can convince her to wear a weather appropriate outfit if I can convince her it matches and it would look REALLY cute.  I honestly don't know where she gets this. But it is very important that she looks pretty or cute every day and she does.  Her hair is SO long right now and probably goes to the middle of her back.  But she thinks she looks like Rapunzel so any hope for me cutting it to make life easier for me is out of the question.  When I do take the time to do up her massive amounts of hair for a 3 year old, she usually  chooses a princess she wants to look like for the day and I am under strict orders to do her hair accordingly.  But honestly, I have to pay her a nickel every time she lets me do it cause its usually tears and screaming! She does love to see herself in the mirror all dolled up though and once I even saw her kissing herself in the mirror?  :)  She loves most girly things like dolls and dress-ups.  But she's well balanced with a brother so she spends a lot of time playing soccer and riding her bike as well. When she's not letting the 3 year old scream demons out, we really do enjoy her sweet company.  What a darling little girl!   We Love you Jaquelle!

The Rapunzel Bike....formally known as the spiderman bike.  But with a new coat of paint and a seat cover made out of a broken "Tangled" umbrella, I saved myself about 40 buckaroos.   Turned out okay....(because you can't see an up close detailed pic) but Jaq was ecstatic to get her own bike! 

 Birthday Cheese ball

 The "very homemade" princess cake (minus the princesses which were a steal from the dollar store)

I love this smug little face!

love it.

Cedar Express Relay Go KISS MY FAST!

Last year at this time, I was pouting because all my close running friends were running the first Cedar Relay and I couldn't run cause I had just messed up my IT band. But this year....I was ready and pumped! Unfortunately Krista was missing this year due to medical issues so maybe next year the whole running gang will all be on the team. This race is small short runs. Everyone ran about 3-4 miles for each of their 2 legs. This was fun because you knew that because it was short distances, you could run, and run fast. We did phenomenally well. We were trying to keep our title from last year, as Women's division first place team. The whole race we were neck to neck with 2 other women teams who were really just great runners. Then even though we had the lead, right at the end we were passed and beat by 2 minutes. Sad!! But we still got second place which entitled us to a bag full of goodies and $25 each! Pretty much paid for the entrance fee! I think we came in 7th overall out of 37 teams, so not bad. But it was so fun! Gotta say it again, I love relays! I wish this one was a little longer, it seemed like it ended right when it had just begun being fun! I did pretty well on my legs, getting first (time wise) on one of them out of all the women. The other one was only 3 miles but was probably one of the hardest legs of my life! I had forgotten my water and it was super hot, so I'm sure I was WAY dehydrated because I had NO energy and I felt like dying. My leg was one steady uphill climb. It was torture. There was a girl I eyed the entire leg and didn't think I'd ever catch her. Luckily, she started walking and as much as I felt like I was going to die, with one foot in front of the other, I passed her and it felt AMAZING! Ah racing. Anyways here's the pics!

Up at the "C" before the race.
Tawna, Lisa, Melanie, Teresa, Wendy

by the portas.


There really are hershey's kisses taped all over her car. It kind of was convenient though if you needed a quick sugar surge, just grab one off the car and go to town. The ones one the hood didn't last long and ended up just looking like poo.

Hadn't seen a slap bracelet in years!

The Exchange

Me, fist crushing to my car as they drive by, indicating my intense desire to catch the girl about 20 yards ahead of me.

Medal pictures

Tuachhan's The Little Mermaid

Okay, my sister Krista and I planned this far in advance because we were so excited to take our kids to see this and it was SOO worth it! Krista and her family (all but little Zack) came down Monday, had dinner with us and then we all headed down to St. George to go Tuachan to see the Little Mermaid. The show didn't start till 8:30 and ended at 11:30 so it was tricky keeping our kids awake but they were SO great during the entire show, which was ironic cause Jaquelle cant even make it through the movie without getting side tracked. Everything about it had my kids glued to the stage, it made them laugh and it scared them till they jumped....it really was so entertaining to watch our kids watch it. The effects were amazing and even Cordelle and I really enjoyed ourselves. I don't know why we haven't taken them to a play sooner. It definitely will become a more regular tradition. And what could be better than sharing the night with Seth's favorite people in the world (his cousins)? We were so glad the Pace's came down and went with us. This was a blast!

Happy birthday SETHERS!

Seth turned 5 on August 15! And man, did he count down every day to his birthday for the last month. We found this bike for him on KSL and even though he saw it, we tried to convince him it might not be for him (cause we wanted it to be a surprise). But I think he secretly wasn't buying it. Cause on his birthday he said, "see I knew that was MY new bike." The kid is way into Star Wars...okay obsessed with star wars, so it really wasn't difficult to shop for him this year. He sat down in one sitting and memorized how to play both the Darth Vader and Luke song on the piano (I dont know their real names but thats what we call them). He is constantly asking me questions about the storyline (cause of course he hasn't seen the movies) and I had no idea, so I finally had to borrow all the movies from my parents and Cordelle and I have been watching them to fill him in. And he is all for this game plan. Its hillarious to us. He totally understands they are parent movies and not kids movies but he still wants to know what happens. Matter of fact the other night he said, "Mom, I have an idea. When Jaq and me go to bed, you and Dad go downstairs and watch Star Wars. Then when I wake up, tell me what happened." He's just so cool like that. I overheard him tell Jaquelle, "Jaq when we watch Star Wars if there is a scary part or Darth Maul, then we have to go out cause only Mom can watch it. Okay Jaquelle? We dont want to watch Darth Maul cause he is scary and only Mom's can watch it." But he knows the storyline now and we are graced by the constant hum of Darth Vaders march everywhere we go (not excluding Sacrament meetings or other quiet places). Love that kid! Happy Birthday Seth!

Morris Brothers Reunion at Bear Lake

Alright, where do I begin? Every couple years or so we plan a reunion with just Cordelle's immediate family and their families. This year the only people we were missing were Cordelle's parents still on a mission in Chicago! Cordelle's older brother Kent and his family were there from China and another brother Kyle from Washington (who had'nt even met Jaquelle yet) were there too. It was SO fun to see them! Its crazy how all these neices and nephews have changed and are growing up! Anyways so all 6 brothers were there for a few days staying in the Garden City KOA and it was a blast! It was a much needed break for us (and especially me) after all the reunion jazz and just having one crazy, busy summer. We borrowed a tent trailer which made us want to buy one even more. It was so nice. But Cordelle just found out he has to have ACL surgery so even though the people we borrowed it from offered to sell it to us at a screaming deal, we had to decline. Sad. But when you dont have the money, you don't have the money. We'll get one for sure one day.

ANYWAYS!!!....A little recap of the reunion goes like this....Day one was spent mostly setting up camp and just hanging out. Day two we spent the entire day at the lake and had a blast just lounging, and swimming, and canoeing, and talking, and watching the brothers compete in bocce ball or the work outs Kent tried to rope them all into doing. :) Then that night we shared family talents and skits and my sister in law Lisa (fabulous Lisa that she is) organized this whole farewell festivities for Michael, (the first grandkid going on a mission here soon) and then the kids played Harry Potter in the dark with glow sticks as wands. Funny. Anyways the next day we packed up and everyone took off for the Minnitonka caves or to Lagoon (except for us who had a long drive ahead of us, so we headed homeward). Anyways, thanks for the most part to our neice Cassidy's husband who literally took over 600 photos of the trip, we have lots of pics! So enjoy.

Day one...of course my kids are glued to my hip because its been awhile since they've seen their cousins and are in "shy-bubble mode."

One of the previously mentioned work-outs that Kent (an aspiring fitness instructor---ok not really) convinced his brothers to do. Cordelle complained for days about his stomach feeling like he was sick....and I just kept reminding him that it was the muscles that probably hadn't EVER been worked before, rebelling in anger at his sudden cave to exercising peer pressure.

My sister in law Rebecca (to the right of me) brought with her some stuff called Jerusalem mud that is supposed to keep your skin clean and clear, so we all had fun smearing ourselves with it. And I might add, my skin had never felt so refreshed! Ahh I have fun sister in laws. Where was Sherrie and Tammy in all this?