Oh how I miss blogging!

Oh how I miss blogging! I love the feeling of accomplishment that I get when I post. I love having a "journal" for our family. But man it is so much harder to find time these days. I put the blogger app on my phone (months ago) in hopes of making it easier, but it just isn't. These little boys take up all of my time and energy. Since typing these first few sentences, I have had to stop to change a stinky diaper and deal with a melt down from my 4 year old about a missing toy. Oh the joys of motherhood!

I love reading posts other people post on blogs. There is usually so much more substance to them. I hate FB and yet I am constantly on it looking for some exciting news that some one is having a baby, getting married or any other fun news. Those posts are few and far between. I am starting to love instagram and have posted quite a few things recently. I love that pictures can be so much more fun and more informative.

I guess I haven't blogged a whole lot lately because not much exciting has happened. But here is an update on the Morley's, exciting or not...

Nate is staying busy working hard and serving in the Bishopric. I knew it was inevitable when I married such a great guy. I was just hoping it would be YEARS down the road, not while we have a young family. He is gone twice a week for Bishopric and mutual and at least one night for work. You would think we would be used to it now that we are 6 months in, but we are still adjusting and trying to be supportive.

Brockston is 4 and will be 5 in January. He started preschool this year. Last year we did a "Preschool Playgroup" with a group in our ward. It was just once a week and we did a letter each week. It was fun and I am glad we did it, but this year it was time to have him go to school and learn from a teacher. He loves it and wishes school was every day. His first field trip to the Dinosaur Park was yesterday and he loved it so much.

Jamison will be 2 in December. He is such a sweet little man one minute and a serious stinker the next. Luckily, he is mostly sweet. He is speaking in sentences and copies big brother's every move. He loves to sing. He doesn't love that Brockston goes to school and asks where he went the whole time he is gone. They really are good buddies.

Life is crazy and mostly good. We are just chugging along!

Christmas Time at the Morley's

This Christmas season we started a couple of new traditions. One of them was Elf on a Shelf. I was a little hesitant to start this because I don't always have the time to be super creative with where he ends up. And although it was nice to have a reminder for Brockston  -  "Buddy is watching you!" It wasn't always effective. However, it was exciting to see Brockston wake up and immediately look for Buddy the Elf. Jamison even would see him and point (he's our pointer) and get excited.

Here's Buddy eating a cookie in the cookie jar

Another tradition I started was a Christmas Advent. I painted and mod podged a wooden tree with drawers that I got at a local craft store (Benion Crafts, formerly known as Ben Franklin). In each drawer I put a scripture and a Christmas activity to do for the day. I am really glad I did this and loved how it turned out. We had to read the Christmas scripture before we could find out what our activity for the day was. One of our first activities was making our own snow globes out of old baby food jars.

 

My boys hard at work

Another activity was our annual gingerbread house making at Grandma Sherrie's with cousins. I'm not sure how I didn't get a picture of our house - oh well.

Hannah's House

Making Faces

Tori

Some of our other activities were: reading Christmas books, making Christmas cookies, watching a Christmas movie - one LDS one and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, writing letters to Santa, going to see Christmas lights, getting Candy Cane shakes, buying a toy for the Toys for Tots drive, making Christmas suckers for B's friends and delivering them, and other fun things. I'm looking forward to doing this again next year.

Whenever someone asked Brockston what he wanted for Christmas he would reply - a radio with tweezers, a whistle, and a microphone. What?!? I asked him where he had seen this radio and he said it was in his head. He also told me not to worry, Santa's elves would make it for him. I was stressing up until about a week before, trying to figure out what to do - but then it all came together. We found a cute radio at Target, a whistle at Zurchers, some tweezers out of a bug collecting kit that just happened to be the same color as the whistle and an echo mic to go on the side. I guess B was right Santa's elves could pull it together.

Testing out the whistle on his radio

Christmas morning was a lot of fun with these two little guys. Jamison came out and kept pointing at everything and saying "Oh wow!" They had no clue they were getting a four wheeler and a wagon (spoiled little guys - although we did get a pretty good deal on the slightly used four wheeler).

Notice the matching BYU jammies we all got on Christmas Eve

Jamison Turns 1 (Back in December!)

This sweet little man turned 1 back in December. It is so crazy how fast time flies. We had a little get together with family. He was a little overwhelmed with all the people and attention but loved it nonetheless.

 

 

I did make his cake. He wasn't too interested in eating it except for the marshmallow fondant balls that I put around the bottom of the cake. It was kind of a surprise that he didn't want his cake because this kid never turns down food especially sweets. But I think the fact that he had an audience made him a little bit timid.