Rewind

With the craziness of Mikayla's arrival I forgot to add some photos and updates. I already forgot most of the good stuff (hint: blog frequently) so I'll add what I can.

My sister Jessica came to visit us before Mikayla was born. I would post a picture, however, she was crying in all of them and I didn't think she would be very happy with me. You're welcome Jess (I'll use them for blackmail later). But it was great to have her come.

Melissa's Mom, Cora Lee, also came out, but she always seemed to put herself behind the camera instead of in front of it, and the few pictures we do have she requested that we not post. So I'll give you a little of what I can post.

Here is a picture of Morgan on the trolley during the annual Polar Express activity. We went to the library where Morgan listened to a couple 'elves' read the Polar Express and was given a Christmas bell and a downtown token. Then we rode the trolley to the theater where Morgan traded her token for a small gift of her choice (another fuzzy stuffed bear of course) and then she got to sit and talk with the creepiest Santa I've ever seen. We're not going again next year.



Morgan had another Parent Day at cheerleading where she got to show off all of her new cheers. What can I say, she loves to be a cheerleader and the therapy is really helping us accept it. Of course it would seem natural to post a picture of Morgan doing a cheer, but it's hard for pictures to look decent in a mirror-lined room with hardly any lights, you're blind either way. So here is what I got.




We then ventured out to buy our first real Christmas tree. Thanks Gagniers, the fake one you gave us lasted several years. We decided to buy from a cut-your-own farm down the road. We've never seen this before and had to give it a try. As soon as we arrived we considered the options of trees and I spoke up to get the Blue Spruce, mostly because it's the Utah state tree--that's right, I am smarter than a 5th grader, maybe a 6th grade mentality. Of course it turns out that the Blue Spruce is probably the most prickly and we didn't think to bring gloves--maybe I'm not smarter than a 5th grader. We did, however, use gloves to decorate the tree. So I say to any crazy kid that comes over and wants to mess with the tree: "Bring it on!" Actually it's more like: "Warning! I tied all the presents to the tree so if you take any of my presents then the prickly tree will fall on you!"




For my fellowship we get to do a lot of fun demos for the grade school kids, and sometimes I bring them home to show Morgan and Melissa. Here is one such demo using a water jug and some 200 proof ethyl alcohol--that's pure moonshine baby! So if you're a chemist or brew your own alcohol then feel free to give this a try, otherwise just enjoy.

Here is a good example of just how much we miss Utah snow. I'm sick of the snow, but if it has to then it might as well be good snow and not this ice storm thing.

Here is another example of just how much more children activities there are here than anywhere else we've lived. Every year Santa goes around town in a fire truck to give candy to all the kids. Morgan has seen Santa three times this week! Last time I asked Morgan if she thought Santa would recognize her but she wasn't too concerned!