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.

Projects

So I usually have a project or two up my sleeve. Here are some that have kept me busy over the past several months.

Bathroom Mirror Before

Most recently, I decided to frame the bathroom mirror. I know, I know, it's all over Pinterest, but I must say that I saw the idea originally on HGTV and liked it and Pinterest just reaffirmed my desire to do so. When Nate had a week off of work, I put him to work at home. I really like how it turned out. Now I just need to figure out what to put on the wall above the tub and towels. I am open to suggestions.

Bathroom Mirror After

A over a year ago I decided to do something with this hutch that was just sitting in storage. My parents picked it up at an estate auction a few years ago and no one was using it. I had originally thought about just staining it but never got around to it. Then I saw painted furniture becoming all the rage. My kitchen was in desperate need for some color and I wanted to display my china. So I went for it and painted it a sage green. I love how it turned out. The top shelf is my china and the middle shelf has plates from my grandma (and mom they have the same china pattern) and 2 of my great grandmothers. I love looking at them and remembering what great women they were (and are).

Sage Green Hutch

Play Kitchen Before

Another project I took on was this little play kitchen. Nate's cousin was giving it away. We have been looking at them and trying to decide if we could make one or just buy one, but not really wanting to fork out $100. So we jumped at the chance to pick this up. I think my favorite part of the before is the "fresr." With a little bit of paint left over from previous projects (notice the light blue on the kitchen is the same blue as our bathroom walls) and some help from my dad making new knobs here is our end result. No more pink - we had to go blue all the way for boys. We do still need to figure out a faucet but we are working on it. The boys love it already.

Play Kitchen After

Dad's T-shirt Quilt

This quilt comes with a back story. When I was a senior in high school my dad got this great idea to take all of his T-shirts he had collected and worn over the years and make a quilt. He cut up his shirts and marked where to cut with a sharpie. I don't think any of them were the same size (sorry Dad). Then he tried to convince my mom and I to make the quilt. He laid it out in the living room. We just told him he was crazy. One weekend night my friends and I were meeting some guys at my house to hang out. The guys got there before we did and my dad was in showing the guys his T-shirt quilt that he wanted us to make. I was pretty embarrassed. So anyway, the t-shirts had been sitting around for 10 years. Every once in a while he would try to get my mom or I to make the quilt for him. We'd just laugh and tell him he was crazy again and again. Well earlier this year I took the shirts and decided to make the quilt for him for Father's day. This is what I came up with. Oh and he had bought a couple of random 1 yard pieces of fabric to go with it on eBay. So thus, the back is pieced together to work in the fabrics he had purchased.

Back of the T-shirt Quilt

Nate said that he can't picture my dad wearing these shirts because now all he wears are solid colored T-shirts or button down shirts. But this is all I remember my dad wearing growing up. I think my favorite part is seeing all of the grease stains on the shirts. I think it turned out rather well - considering... and I think my dad liked it too.

Grease Stains on the T-shirts

Antelope Island

As a family we made a list of things to do this summer that were around but that we hadn't done in a while or never done before. One of the first things we did was head out to Antelope Island.

I grew up extremely close to the Great Salt Lake my whole life, there's Hooper and west of that there's the lake. I had never been to the Great Salt Lake until this summer. Our YM/YW usually had an activity on Antelope Island every year but for some reason I never went. Nate had taken the Scouts there a couple of times but not me. So... we decided that it was time. We went out at dusk to watch the sunset which was really beautiful. It was cool enough that the bugs weren't too bad, but it was a pretty stinky drive out there. We went on a little "hike" out to a peninsula on the island on the lake. Brockston liked the idea of hiking at first and then he just wanted to be carried the whole time. We kept convincing him that he didn't need to be carried and we were just going a little farther. He ended up walking for most of the time.

It was a fun little adventure, but I don't know that I'm in a super big hurry to get out there again anytime soon.

Waiting for the sun to set

Some of the wild life we saw... Antelope and Bison in the same shot!

Stopping for a little rest and a drink from the camel bag

Daddy gave in and gave B a lift

Sunset

My Lucky Charms

New Bike

Look who got a new bike this summer!  He was super excited to have it, but not super interested in riding it. He still isn't, but hopefully he'll catch on eventually and want to ride it more.

Tape Road and Experiment

Trying to keep a toddler busy has been a very difficult task for me. Especially with a baby, it is hard for me to give him the attention that he needs/demands. Here are a couple of activities that we tried out for entertainment.

We made a road all over the furniture with tape. At first he was appalled that I was putting tape everywhere, but then he was super excited. He drove his cars all over road and bridges and we even made a tunnel - that was his idea. We had to leave it up for days.

 Another thing we tried was a science experiment. When I told him it was an experiment he had to go get his safety goggles. We did an experiment called "Elephant Toothpaste" which consists of hydrogen peroxide, a little dish soap, food coloring and yeast. It makes for some fun bubbles flowing from the bottle. We had to do it again for Daddy when he got home from work.

Snow again...

I guess it's appropriate that after a 7 month hiatus from blogging my first post is about our first snowfall of the season, when my last post was the final snowfall of the previous winter. Ironic, I know. I have missed blogging tremendously but when ever I've had a free moment, which is like never, all I want to do is rest. So hopefully this will be the start of more blogging for me, but I'm not making any promises. We've actually had a pretty fun summer and tried to lots of fun things with our little family. I've decided that instead of backtracking completely and being overwhelmed, I'll try to post a current and a past event. We'll see how it goes...

Baby J had his first experience actually playing in the snow and of course you have to see  how it tastes! He is sporting the infamous snowsuit that was Nate's as a baby and Brockston wore it for a while too.  Of course, the polar bear sled was a hit as always.

 B-Man loves shoveling the snow and pretending he is a bulldozer or any other type of machine. He would play in the snow all day if he could. As for me, I'm hoping this winter isn't too bad. Although two weeks after this storm we got over a foot of snow so we're not starting out so good. I just don't love driving in the snow and ice. I guess the winter just helps me appreciate the spring all the more.

One Final Snow Day (hopefully)

I really don't mind a spring snow storm. It is usually short, the roads aren't icy, and it melts by the end of the day. This time we brought the snow inside for some fun. Our new sand and water table was turned into a snow table. B had all sorts of fun digging in the snow. We also used food coloring to color the snow. J had fun hanging out in his chair in his cute snow hat that he got to wear one more time. But now we are ready for some warm weather!

Snow fun

Look Mom!

Look Mom I did my hair spiky!