Happy Merry Christmas New Year!

Yeah, I didn't get around to sending out Christmas cards this year. What else is new?  I suppose we can just "blame it on the rain, yeah yeah!"  Ahem.....  so here follows my cheap, (free) substitute to give you all an update on the Morgan family for the year.

Brandon and I.....well we're pretty boring and definitely not as cute as our kids!!  We're pretty much the doing the same old, same old.  Brandon is still working, taking classes online, serving as the ward Elder's Quorum President and in general being everyone's favorite.  We all fight for his attention when he comes home at night.  He had lots of fun this year coaching T-ball for the very first time.  I had to laugh out loud when I overheard one of the moms raving about how great he was with the kids....(wait for it).....she said he was "just so patient!"  Okay, okay, all snarkiness aside, he really is great with kids.  It's just a lot harder for him with other peoples'.  Now that I've embarrassed him let's move right along!  In his almost non-existent free time he loves to read and due to traveling for work has branched out to audio books this year.  I of course am just busy raising babies and loving it.  Oh, it's so crazy here and you wouldn't believe the amount of diapers we go through in a day.  But I've said it before and I'll say it again; I have never done anything so rewarding.

Parker was the T-ball star.  He took it oh so very seriously, of course and is already looking forward to next year.  Parker has also been excelling in school this year (Kindergarten age).  We've decided to homeschool and it works so well for us.  I love getting to see those lightbulb moments every time he learns something new, and to get to love and smother and praise the heck out of him when he does.  And now because I'm the mom and bragging is my right.....Parker is reading at a 2nd grade level; he can identify compound words, consonant blends and digraphs, (yeah I had to study up on that before I could teach it) and alphabetize by the first letter of a word, and knows about nouns - common and proper.  He can also identify "doing" or "action" words.  In math, he has mastered the addition facts of adding 0, adding 1, and the doubles facts, (2+2, 3+3, etc.) up to 9+9.  He has also mastered the subtraction facts of -1 and -0.  He can graph, knows the days of the week, etc., can count by 1's 2's and 10's, count money using pennies and dimes and tell time to the hour/half hour.  In geography he has studied maps, landforms, (rivers, mountains, etc.) and can name and identify the oceans.  He has memorized his address and three poems so far.  Yes, my buttons are bursting with pride as I type this.

Parker is also the bestest big brother a family could ask for.  He loves to help out and is so sweet with his siblings.  He is the only one allowed to hold Emma at his whim, and complains if her diaper is poopy because then he doesn't get to change it.  ;)  He helps out with chores - he especially loves to make beds and steam the kitchen floor.  What a guy.  I tell you, the lucky lady that lands him someday......

Parker also learned to ride his bike without training wheels this summer!  Woot woot!!  And it all happened in about 5 minutes.  Brandon's cousin Luke, (who is 6?) must speak his lingo better than I do....it seriously only took a matter of minutes.  And then guess what the little stink did?  Watched me take the training wheels off his bike, and proceeded to take off Andrew's while I wasn't looking and then taught him!!

Andrew is the family funny man.  He LOVES to tell jokes right now.  Have you heard the one about the chicken who crossed the playground?  To get to the other SLIDE?!  Ka-ching!  Life is always a party with this kid around.  (For one of my all-time favorite Andrew stories from this year, see here.)As was mentioned previously, Andrew ALSO learned how to ride his bike without training wheels this year, (big boy things tend to happen in twos around here!).  Oh these boys were so proud to show their Daddy.  To be fair, we really did need to give the credit to Dad for teaching Drew...he needed a little extra help.  He is sooo funny.  So very different from his big brother.  Parker was all serious, riding around all tense...Drew just kind of chilled in his seat...if he fell over, he let it all go; didn't even brace.  After he'd mastered it, he rode around a few times, hopped off his bike and let it fall and gave us a bow.

Andrew has really come out of his shell this year.  The boy who we had to bribe and beg to talk is now chatting our ears off.  If you don't listen just right he'll grab you by the cheeks and make you listen.  He also, (sniff sniff) has started to become quite the Daddy's boy as generally the things Daddy does are way more cool than Mom.  ;)  The boys have all taken a particular interest this year in model rockets.  And boys being boys, they also love bugs.  Drew more especially than Parker.  Drew is the one actually willing to touch them.

Andrew has also had a taste of homeschool this year.  He is reading on a first grade level this year, and contrary to his older brother isn't shy to show it off!  Funny story, while looking down at the shirt he was wearing in this picture, he insisted that it said, "E-tuck!"  As hard as I tried to convince him that you should read it from left to right while looking at the shirt straight on....for him looking down it was "E-tuck!" and he would hear of nothing else.  Andrew also participates in many of the math lessons, and is learning to write his letters.  I am constantly amazed by how differently two brothers from the same family can learn.  What is hard for one brother is a piece of cake for the other and vice versa.  They have completely opposite learning styles and that keeps me on my toes thinking of different ways to explain things to them.

Drew is also very sweet to the younger siblings....he loves to get toys for Emma... and was a great cheerleader for the T-ball team, (Dad is probably going to get after me here for my word choice....supporter of the team?  What can I say, we cheered?!).  The poor kid was just dying to play, and lucky for him the coach would let him hit around on the field after the games. We can't wait for both to be able to play this year.

Drew is ever steadfast in his favorites the color red and racecar "Light-ming Naqueen!"  He is also a tenderheart and needs lots of reassurance when his feelers get hurt.  ;)  He is also fiercely loyal and kind.

Paige, Paige, Paige.  What do we say about the blonde bombshell?!  This girl is always in the middle of ALL the action.  She also has a knack for wrapping absolutely anyone around her little finger.  She's very insistent that she is just as big as the boys and can do anything they do.  She loves anything to do with princesses, especially Rapunzel whom she pretends to be most of the time.  Daddy, of course is her "Fwi-dyn Ryder"; and she just informed us today that Parker can be a "Fwi-dyn Ryder" too.  Oh, she LOVES those boys.  She loves her sisters too, and is having lots of fun with Claire these days getting into trouble!  She does still suck her two middle fingers....and probably will forever.  This girl has got a will like you would not believe.  She loves loves loves to sing and bless her heart has another year ahead of her in the nursery at church.  It will be good for Claire who goes in this year too....but already this year during the Primary Program she was singing right along from her seat and kept saying, "Mom!  I want to go to the microphone too!"  She is a bit of a bossy britches, but as I said can charm her way into anyone's heart so it usually doesn't cause too big of a problem.  She's a Daddy's girl and Mommy's shadow.

Little Miss Claire Bear.  She has been the. funnest. toddler. EVER.  She toddles around like she owns the place.  She is so funny and usually without saying a word! (She only has a few of those.)  She loves to play babies and giving her her own pretend one usually saves Emma from lots of sisterly TLC.  Sadly, I can't really class Claire as a baby anymore....she's always in on the big kids' action too.  She's had a maddening phase of getting into EVERYTHING this year.  Her favorites are the cupboard where we keep the dishes, (she likes to set the table now that she can reach it) and the garbage.  Unfortunately we've lost a few things to that this year, including I think our Baby Jesus from the kid's manger scene.  Oops!  She even managed to throw away one of the locks I use to keep her out of said dishes cupboard.  She's smarter than your average bear.  ;)  She loves to dance and starts to bee-bop whenever she hears a tune.  Especially the one to which I sing her nickname.  To the tune of William Tell's Overture, "Bear-buh-dee Bear, buh-dee Bear Bear Bear!"  She has learned to show you where her noes, eyes, ears and toes are, (it's SO CUTE!) and is also a Daddy's girl.  Of course.  :)  Fun little side note: the other day I overhear Andrew and Paige arguing over whether her name is actually Claire Bear, (Drew) or Bear Bear, (Paige).  We (I) get a little carried away with nicknames around here.

Emma.  Isn't she gorgeous?!  She has been the sweetest, bestest baby ever.  People are always amazed at how she can just lay on the rug in the middle of all the commotion that goes on around here and play contentedly until she falls asleep.  NOT KIDDING.  And she sleeps all night.  Really almost always has.  She only ever cries if she's hungry or poopy.  She turns inside out with smiles at attention from anyone.  She rolls like crazy, and is currently working on sitting up.  LOVE this girl.

So there you have it.  We wish a Happy New Year to all of our friends and family!  Love from the Morgan family!!