"Miss Margot"

My friend, Raechel, is an amazing photographer. Seriously, sometime I am going to get her to teach me everything she knows (that is when we both don't have small children and a million things to do in one 24 hour block of time!) But one day when we are reminiscing about the good old days, maybe, just maybe, she will teach me some tricks. What do you say, Rae? Until then, she so generously agrees to photograph my sweet baby for me from time to time. I tempt her out to my house with promises of good food and friends for her little ones and husband. We always have a blast with this sweet family, and this time I even have priceless pictures to treasure forever!

Back in the Game!

Micah is doing amazingly well. We are so thrilled with how quickly he has made progress. If you ask Micah, he will say he is 100% better. Matt and I can still see him tire quickly, and we notice that he is not quite as fast as he used to be; but for all intents and purposes he is back to his old self again! He even competed in a golf tournament two weeks ago-and got fourth place.

After the tournament. I know it felt good for him to be able to play.

This was taken at Micah's preschool graduation. They were so kind to let him participate in the ceremony. What an exciting moment to watch him graduate with his class. Now, we are beginning the wonderful adventure of homeschooling!
Trying to get a family shot with three children is always interesting.

So, here we are back to normal-if you can ever really say that life with three small children is normal. Things are always changing as these precious ones move on way too quickly into new stages of life.

For Your Viewing Pleasure

Untitled from Ginny Morrison on Vimeo.

Margot waving! She is really catching on to this talking and communicating thing. She says Mama, du (duck), dada, ni ni (night night), miiii (milk), and ah duh (all done). She loves to wave, especially at Dada.

Untitled from Ginny Morrison on Vimeo.

This is at the end of the year program at the boys' preschool. Micah is behind the microphone and is really getting into the sign language. It was so nice to see him up on stage with his class like he had never even been sick.

Untitled from Ginny Morrison on Vimeo.

Owen is to the left of the little girl in the yellow dress (who is also named Margot). He gets very shy on stage, but he did an excellent job singing. See him nervously holding the bottom of his shirt? Adorable.

Six and Seven Months

Sweet baby girl:

These past few months have been busy, busy. We have been helping Micah get better and running to and fro therapies and doctors. Dada has been playing catch-up at work the past couple of Saturdays leaving me little time to do your blog posts to document your milestones. One thing is for sure: you are a trooper, and you are BUSY-such a fun mix of your brothers. You remind us so much of Micah in that, when we are home, you are into everything and always thinking (you have amazing raised and furrowed brow thinking faces). I know that I am very soon going to have to put locks on things and put up the baby gates. I am already getting you used to playing in your pack-n-play so that I will have somewhere to contain you! You remind us of Owen in the way you hang out in the car and get in and out with almost no problems. You are sweet during long therapy sessions and doctor's visits. You nap in the car when I need you to and still come home and get right back on your schedule. Here are a few other things about you at six and seven months:

-At nearly seven months you weighed 17 pounds 10 oz. and were 26 in. long. This put you in the 70 % in weight and 45% in length. What can I say? You love to eat-by far and away our best nurser. You, unfortunately were having a really hard time tolerating solids. You would cry for hours afterwards and spit up profusely. We agreed with the doctor to start you on some acid reflux medicine. You are a different baby! You are tolerating oatmeal, carrots, avocado, and zucchini very well with carrots being your favorite. You are sleeping better, and I rarely have to scrub the carpets! We are so thankful to have medicine for you to feel better.

-You love your brothers. You have learned to scream really loudly when they come in the room. I know you learned this from their very loud talking. You also are very interested in everything they are doing. I always remind them that you are watching and learning.

-You roll all over the place and can spin around in circles. This gets you pretty much anywhere you want to go. You can get your belly high off the ground and rock back and forth, so we are expecting some real crawling any time.

-You still have no teeth. This is not surprising as your brothers didn't get any till 9 months. You do have some swollen bumps on the bottom.

-You can say your first word-Dada. You say it all the time, but you also know the right time to say it: when you see your dada! You also make many other sounds. You will respond to your name, "find the baby" on your wall, wave when you see new people, shake the rattle when I ask you to, and are learning the word "no" as you grab everything you are not supposed to.

-You are sleeping from roughly 8 at night until 7 or 8 in the morning with one wake up at 2. We are trying to break this habit that you formed when your reflux was really bothering you. You take two good naps for me during the day and are mostly a very happy girl when you are awake.

-Your favorite things to do: Jump in your jumper. You squeal and bounce so high, then pick up your legs and swing back through the doorway. You also love putting anything and everything in your mouth. We have cleaned out the playroom and coach the boys often about keeping small things off the floor. You love playing in the tent, and taking long walks in your stroller. You love your sling, and it has been a life saver these past few months with all our running around. We went to the zoo one day, and I can tell you are going to love being outside. In fact, today we are cleaning up our water table for you to splash in. You love music in the car. I am working on putting a CD together for you to listen to in the house. (by that I mean waiting for a time when dada can help me!) You like books, but not sitting still to read them so much. I have learned to just give you your own book to chew while I read another one out loud.

-You love your mama, and I love you. You are such a great addition, Margot!

First Easter with Dada. We all think you look a lot like him!

There is that toe I love! You were born with it sticking out like this.

I thought you'd look so pretty in the new green grass. You hated the feel and burst into tears.
Seriously love to drink out of real cups. You can really gulp down some water. I'm thinking of adding some milk to see if you would drink it since you won't take a bottle.

Micah wanted to take your picture in your pretty purple

There are those brows (and toe!)

Some Easter Pictures

Our Easter was nice and restful. My dad and stepmother joined us for the weekend. We stayed around the house, went to our Good Friday and Easter Sunday service at church, ate good food, enjoyed many jelly bellies, and hunted some eggs. Here are a few pictures of our day.

The race is on!

Sweet boy. I don't want to ever forget these big cheeks! They are quickly disappearing as the effects of the steroids are going away. This smile just makes me laugh.

Some puffs for a little girl who wants to join us for meals but gets bored quickly.

She got her own Easter basket with a couple of books, hair clips, and a rabbit. I didn't think she would even care, and I almost forgot to even give it to her. I was so glad I remembered. She watched the boys intently as they tore into theirs. When I brought out her own pink basket, she practically jumped out of my arms with excitement. So funny to watch a child so young understand what being a kid is all about.

Are these all really mine? Sometimes I have to pinch myself. Blessed indeed!

Owen's Birthday Celebrations

We tried to make Owen's birthday a big deal this year. He has had a bit of a rough time adjusting to becoming the middle child and having his best friend in the hospital for a month all the while being forced to go with the flow and having no time with his parents. We have spent lots of time talking these past few weeks about our family and how we are a team. We ALL sacrifice when one member of the team needs us. We ALL learn to become more selfless when a new baby comes. After much praying, talking, and some new allergy medications, Owen seems to be much happier and glad to be a part of the Morrison team. We are so thankful as things were getting a little stressful for a while. He told me today in his sweetest, most shy voice: "I thought you didn't like me." Oh, how it broke my heart. I know Owen has many feelings of inadequacy and is very introspective, but somewhere along the way I have failed to let him know how much I like-and LOVE him! Alas, we are learning as we go, and, hopefully, our little Owen will know how much we truly "like" him. Anyway, back to the birthday. We celebrated at his preschool, at home that night with presents from just the family, on Friday night with Grammy for a joint birthday celebration, and again on Sunday afternoon for a family birthday party. I think he had a great time and really enjoyed the attention.

Family

This will be the first of many posts I plan to do this week. I got a little behind taking care of the kids, ordering lots of books-more on that later, visiting doctors and therapists, going to the zoo, etc. etc., but we have had a busy and wonderful last few weeks. Here are some shots of the special times we have spent with family.

Margot with Great-grandmother, Margaret

Grammy with her grands

Nana with her grands

Margot with Great-Granddad

Great Grandmother brought Micah a special pack of cards to play

While these cousins played outside

Tyler (my brother's baby) and Margot

Tyler was stealing a few kisses!

We celebrated Sally's birthday wtih the traditional Mexican meal

Owen got to celebrate too since his birthday is just two days before!