June in Pictures

 So Taj graduated his second year of preschool the end of may. I had WAY cute pics of the program and him with his teachers and all that was eaten up by my senile computer, so I made him at least stand in our living room for one picture. Obviously he was a lot more enthused about graduating the day of!

 Taj and Haivi loved helping me with Brannon's anniversary surprise. I knew those expensive balloons would double as entertainment, so I got my money's worth.

 June 2nd was our 8 year anniversary. Holy crap, that time went by fast! I got this lovely idea off of Pinterest. I love that place. When I don't have it in me to be creative, Pinterest does the work for me. The idea was to buy one balloon for each year you've been married. On the end of each balloon, you tie a memory you have of the two of you together. Then you release them in your bedroom and vwala! It looks amazing and it looks like you spent lots of time on it, but really you didn't AND it's an awesome way to surprise your significant other. Bran was pretty impressed. I could tell, so I just stood in the corner and patted myself on the back while he read each of the memories. A cheaper alternative is to buy regular balloons. You could buy colors that signify certain emotions or events for each year. I will probably do that the next time around because I really don't want to spend $50 bucks on balloons and I'm sure Brannon would be happy if I didn't either.

 The second part of his gift was this: a 52 Things I love About You book made from a deck of cards. Again, Pinterest is genius! It really didn't take me long to come up with 52 things, in fact, there are about 100 things in this book. I just typed the little messages in columns on Microsoft Word and then printed them out and cut them up. ModPodge is fantastic for not only gluing the messages on the cards, but for helping to preserve them as well. You can tell by the picture that I did a coat over the top. I hole punched the cards and then bound them together with some rings I bought from the office section at Target. It took me about an hour or so to do it, so it was pretty snappy and it's something that is super sentimental. He took it to work with him and I imagine that when he gets bored, he sits there in his office chair perusing it's contents. Again, I could not help but pat myself on the back with both hands this time. Thank you Pinterest for making me look good!

 Haive loves her Minnie and her kitty. Her cat is not pictured here, obviously, but she carts those two "babies" of her around everywhere we go. I have to wash them at least once a week, sometimes more often. Her favorite thing to do is nuzzle the cat's mouth. You can tell too because after one week, it is gray, with bits of food stuck in its fur. She is very generous too and loves to unexpectedly shove the said kitty's dirty muzzle in your face so you can give it kisses to. Word to the wise? Make sure you have your mouth closed or you'll pick up a funky virus that may or may not leave you hugging the porcelain for days.

 Taj's dentist is awesome! I was so worried about taking him to get his teeth cleaned, but they were amazing. Here he is showing off the balloon sword his hygienist made for him to calm him down. They did the cleaning and the exam with him sitting in my lap and his head in their laps. I was super impressed with this office and would recommend to anyone. After it was all over, he got a token to get a prize out of the prize machine. How creative is that?!

 He's doing his best to show off his "cwean teef."

 For Father's Day Pinterest rocked the house again. I'm starting to think that a certain Mr. Morse is pretty darn spoiled. He got a "snack-attack" kit for work, a treasure box that was hand-painted by Taj and Haiven with small toys in it to represent each of them. He also got a hand print and a picture from each of them. I splurged this time around and bought him one of those big-faced watches that I've seen him admiring on the wrists of other guys for the past year now. If I had the money, I would be surprising people with presents all the time. I love giving much much more than I do receiving, the whole surprise factor is my favorite part.

 This picture will tell you how our summer is going. No, he is not bored, he is just exhausted from running helter-skelter all over the place. I signed him up for field trips once a week with his friends at daycare and then we go somewhere fun at least once a week. So far we've been the the Air Force Museum, Classic Fun Center, Boondocks, and all kinds of parks. We will eventually make it to the Train Museum in Ogden, The Treehouse (also in Ogden), the Dinosaur Park, and a splash pad or two. For his field trips he has already been to the Clark Planetarium, an aquatic center, Nickelcade, Classic Fun Center, and this coming week he'll be heading to This is the Place park to milk a cow, ride a train, you know, the whole "farm" experience kind of thing. I'm so glad we decided to sign him up. He is having such a great summer!

 This picture I am not happy about. You see the redness and the swollen bump on his neck and the red mark on his chin? This is from some kid he said "squeezed" his neck at daycare. I of course was way fired up about it and demanded that he be sent back to his old class with the younger kids. Apparently two boys were singling him out and picking on him every day he was in their class. Taj is still learning how to communicate with others and how to read other people's emotions and that is why I don't like him with older kids. This is why I am nervous about school for him. I don't want him getting singled out because he's "different." I know it's going to happen, so I guess we need to start teaching him how we handle those situations, so that he is not a victim all the time.

 I love that face!

 Taj is VERY good at riding his fourwheeler, almost too good. It scares me. That boy also knows how to start about anything and how to drive most anything with an engine in it. I'm afraid that we may have a little "gear head" on our hands. That of course if fine by me. He can be our little mechanic when things break down.

 I have a feeling that I will be seeing more pictures like this as they grow up. She loves getting rides from her big brother and he is careful with her. He always waits for her to wrap her arms around his waist before he'll take off. He usually only has patience to take her around for one lap, but that is usually good enough for her. So if you ever see them cruising together in our backyard, don't panic! He's good at it and if he does happen to bump into something, they are on the grass, so it's a soft landing.

 This is what happens when big boys play on the monkey barks. We were having a lovely time at the park last Sunday until Brannon went to jump up on the playground equipment to help Haiven down the slide. He failed to see the monkey bars above him and smashed his face right into one of those cold, metal, bars. His nose bled from the inside out. The top of it had a huge gash and it bled for a good half hour. I'm pretty positive he broke it because it was still bleeding from the inside for days after it happened and it's still really tender. He doesn't seem too concerned about it being a little crooked, so I guess we won't go get it fixed unless it really starts bothering him. Poor guy. The kids were pretty much traumatized and they didn't fight me at all when I threw them in the bike trailer so we could high-tail it home. We did learn something new about Taj from this experience. He is just like his daddy when it comes to seeing blood. Taj has never really seen blood like that before, so he didn't even know to call it blood, so it was very interesting when he turned ghostly white and said "my beebutton huts, I go way down." The poor kid was green for a little while. He definitely does not handle bloods well and I guarantee that is a trait he literally inherited via genes from his daddy. Crazy how strong those genes can be! Haivi was fine, she's like her momma. She was concerned about him though and kept peeking her little, or should I say, big head, in the bathroom to check on him.

 I love this picture because it captures her fire. She is not just a "spitfire," she is a raging bonfire! That girl has more fight and spunk in her than anyone else I know. She's tough and I have no doubt that she will be able to look out for herself just fine. My worry is that she may be too tough sometimes, and we will probably have to work on teaching her that we treat others the way we want to be treated. Every time I pick her up from daycare, the first thing one of her teachers says is, "Haiven had a hard time this morning. She wouldn't quit hitting the other kids." Great, thanks for that. My kid's a bully. Did she do anything good today, for once? You can tell that I get a little annoyed hearing that same sentence as soon as I walk in the door. It's only one particular teacher, but I'm on the point of yelling, "Well, what do you want me to do about it? I wasn't here when it happened, so how can I fix it?!" However, I know if I did that, she would then figure out where Haiven gets half her fire.

 It's a darn good thing she has that irresistible sweetness about her too or we'd have to donate her to the homeless shelter.  When this girl feels like it, she can be heaven on earth and melt your heart by wrapping those little arms around your neck and offering you a kiss of her own free will and choice.

 I love her piggies. I think I always end up taking pictures of her when she has piggies in her hair.

I can't remember if this is a real conversation or not. It was pretty intense though and he wandered around the shed (like his daddy does when he's on the phone) before parking his hiney on the the tail-light of one of his grandpa's Harley's. I love that boy so much!

July is going to be so much fun! The only way I get through this awful heat is because of the July holidays. I love summer in Utah!