Another Home Improvement Project

I have to say that this project wouldn't have been possible without the help of Brannon's friend Cody Mortensen. Construction is his forte and he is a perfectionist and did a fantastic job. If anyone is looking for someone to do this kind of work, he is the one to call for sure. Thanks again Cody (and his wife Suzie for letting him spend about three days at our house working on this!)

After: New deck and newly painted railings. We were just going to replace the front of the deck, but upon removing the front part of the old deck, we discovered the entire deck was rotted, so we just decided to tear the whole thing off and start over.
We also added new black shutters to the windows to give it a little more curb appeal. See the bare bones flower bed? Well, that's next. I'm still trying to decide what I want to do right there as far as landscaping.



The new light, which I love! This one emits a warm, friendly glow that doesn't scare off people and animals like our last one did:)
Before: The rotted out redwood deck!
Before: I call this little beauty Sputnik because it was basically as big as a satellite and just as bright. It is a motion light and I never could decide whether to turn it on at night because A: If it was on, anyone who came near our house was basically blinded by this spotlight and B: I worried if I didn't turn it on, someone might trip and fall off our deck. Hmmm....blind our guests or let them fall off our deck??? Which does more damage? Obviously it had to go!
Before: rotted out stairs

Before deck and shutter replacement

During

It's A Girl!!!

So we are halfway there AND we are so excited to be welcoming a baby girl to our family. I thought for sure I would be one of those moms that was "blessed" with all boys since I was such a girly girl growing up, but obviously, someone else had other plans, thank goodness! I am about 21 weeks now and I know I look HUGE already! People are always surprised to hear that I'm not due until October. I'm afraid it is going to be like last time with people asking me if I'm having twins because I was so big. I'm trying to be super careful with my eating this time so I don't gain as much weight and hopefully I'll be able to lose the baby weight quicker this time! We are actually pretty set on a name right now...I know, miraculous, especially considering we didn't name Taj for about two weeks after he was born because we couldn't decide on a name. We are set on Haven (spelling still being debated) Mary (still not 100% on the middle name) Morse (sure on this one:)). I am getting so excited for her to be here and it seems like forever away!

Spring Time is Finally Here!

Spring time is finally here, which calls for a jig at our house!

Title: Mother

This Mother's Day I can't help but be eternally grateful for having the privilege of being called "mother." I never knew that being a mother would help me understand not only myself (and my many flaws), but to better understand the love that our Father in Heaven has for us. Having a child really is like watching your heart live and breath on the outside of you. It's almost painful because I worry about all the "what ifs" that could happen to my sweet boy and I realize there is only so much I can do and the rest is in the Lord's hands. It is for this reason that I will be forever ever indebted to Christ and the Lord for the wonderful gift of eternal life, eternal families. Raising Taj so far has definitely not been easy, but I am so thankful that he is living, breathing, experiencing life, bringing me joy, and teaching me many lessons along the way. Being a mother is turning out to be the best experience of my life and I find more enjoyment in it than I thought possible each and every day. Today I want to thank not only the mothers in my life, but all the mothers out there who love, listen, help, serve, comfort, uplift, laugh, and have been a light in someone's life out there. Our world is able to go around because of mothers. My heart also aches for all of those who have lost their mothers, for those who may not get the chance to be a mother in this life, and for those dear mothers who have lost a child. I think Mother's Day is not only a day for celebrating the mothers in our lives, but for honoring those lost or those who have lost. May you find peace on this day.

THE official Easter Post: Part 2

I have my sister Marci to thank for the Easter pics on this post. She is after all, a photographer (these are unedited of course) and it was so nice to not have to worry about taking pictures during the Easter egg hunt, so thanks Marce! I just got to enjoy watching Taj do his first hunt without running around trying to get him to look at the camera just once. Taj loved the Easter egg hunt and had all of his eggs collected within the first five minutes. The only way we could stop him was to open up the eggs he did find and start feeding him the candy. Holidays are so much fun with little kids. I hope I can make them as magical as my parents did for me and my siblings when I was a kid.

Nearly my entire family was up for the holiday and it was so much fun being together and laughing and goofing around and being crammed all under one roof. It was noisy and fun. I prefer the noise to the silence...of course the only silence I ever hear is when Taj is actually sleeping:) I hope everyone else was able to spend time with their families and loved ones this Easter. It really is family that makes a holiday!

THE official Easter Post: Part 1

This picture cracks me up. I love how my mom's leg is sticking out perpendicular from her body and how my belly is nearly knocking my sister out of the way and how it looks like Macee (the short one next to me) has only one leg and how Marci was the only one able to pull of the whole kick up your leg pose:)

This is the only picture we could get where he was halfway smiling. I wanted a picture of us in our Easter best, but Taj was unwilling to cooperate with anyone except grandpa. My little brother who is not so little anymore. He is 6'1'' at 15 years old and still growing. In fact they had to buy him new jeans again, for the like the second time this year, because he is growing so fast. My question: Why didn't I get tall genes? I definitely got the short end of the stick, literally!

Myself, my mom, and my two sisters in our Easter Sunday best.
Grandpa and Taj. I should note that when grandpa is around, everyone else can go suck an egg for all Taj cares. I think every single one of us got whacked by Taj that weekend EXCEPT grandpa.
Auntie Marci doing some holding therapy.
Out of everything he got for Easter, the Pez dispenser won out. The kid absolutely loves Pez. Sometimes when I have to go to an appointment and I have to take Taj with me, I buy a Pez dispenser and plenty of Pez candy to go with it because I know that as long as the candy keeps popping magically out of the dispenser, that he'll stay mesmerized for at least an hour!

Belated Easter Cheer

I am way behind on my posting, thus the Easter window cling post nearly a week after Easter. I actually bought these clings two weeks before Easter and thought they might be fun for Taj to put on the front room window (which I'm sure Brannon would have loved had they actually stayed on the window...for those of you who don't know Brannon personally, he considers all holiday window clings and giant blow-up decor for the front yard as "tacky." I'm sure our kids will break him of this perspective in a few more years:)) Anyway, the clings didn't last more than 15 minutes before Taj figured out how much more fun it was to rip the clings in half. Sadly, not even the Easter bunny survived and I'm still finding bits of that gel stuck all over the house. Glad they didn't cost much!

(THE official Easter post coming soon...mom)