The Gift of Giving

Hello All,

I'd like to begin giving a little early this year by giving you a gift idea. My friend Meg makes the cutest bath-time aprons for mommies. She has talents coming out her ears, and this is one that I'm sure you will enjoy.



Go check her out at Etsy.

All the Fixins; not too Shabby

I like my burgers Big, hold the mayo, extra lettuce and tomato and please don't hesitate to throw in all that other good stuff to make the burger whole (mushrooms, onions, cheese, etc.) A naked burger is like a thirsty man in the desert without his smoothy, Jazz without its soul, and Ben without Jerry. Or in this case, the outfit without it its 'fit'.

Of course you have to have something great to dress up....

The meat of life is sure a heck-of-alot more tasty when dressed, sauced, seasoned and accessorized.

Visit Shabby Apple clothing to add some spice to your life!

On the Farm

Audrey, Kate, and I headed down to Hee Haw farms last week join in the fall festivities of looking for a pumpkin, petting the animals, getting lost in corn mazes, etc. When we arrived, there was no one there, not even workers. We figured it was the slow time of the day, so we made ourselves comfortable and just acted like we owned the place.

We let Kate take charge, and show us around.



Kate began her tour in the tractor.



Then we moved to the train to view the sites.




Kate explained that we would have to abandon the motorized vehicles for the remainder of our tour, in order not to frighten the shy animals of bunny village.



The cows were noisy and Kate needed some help projecting her voice, so asked one of the tour group members to act as a podium. Thank you Audrey.



Kate let this display speak for itself.




Of course, we ended with snacks.


I visited the farm's website later and found out Hee Haw farms was closed when we decided to pay them a visit. With no supervision, we went to town on feeding the goats. All in all, I think we fed the goats about 5 pounds of grain. I hope there was no permanent damage. I highly recommend visiting a busy attraction when it is closed, we had no competition for anything!

Marbles between her toes - you weren't too far off Grandpa!

My grandpa always used to try persuade us to eat all the undesirable portions of our meal with the phrase, "Eat up! It will put hair on your chest and feathers between your toes." My immediate, although un-uttered reaction was, why would I want any of those things?

Well, one day Kate sprouted a much more feminine version of Grandpa's old wive's tale. Because she eats her vegetables so well, I'd like to think it's a shout out to grandpa.

Of course, Kate did not spontaneously sprout these marbles between her toes, she had some help from genetics (mom's got monkey toes) and from dad with the mechanics.

Laura Morgan, Come on Down!

You know how you always hear people say, "I never win anything!" Most of the time, I think they're lying. I have been keeping track since third grade, when I didn't win bingo the entire school year, of times when I have entered a contest, drawing, or raffle and I have not won any of them (probably very sad I know) . To bare all truths, I have won merit-based contests and games many times, but when the winner gains prizes by random luck, I have never been that lucky.

Well, the tides have turned and the stars aligned; I finally won something. I attended a Student Entrepreneur of the Year contest at BYU and they give away all sorts of prizes during the event, I was a lucky recipient. It's a pretty good for my first time around, an ipod shuffle! I am very excited about my new toy. Yahoo! I even gave a good yelp when they called my number! Good news, now it's time to keep track of the "wins" in my life.

Happy Halloween

Halloween started early this year! As I have exited our new apartment three out of five mornings, I am greeted by a new spider on our front step. Most of the time, not just one, usually 2 or 3. Not just any spider either, a BLACK WIDOW. YUCK!! Yes, we have sprayed multiple times. Yes, we are so nervous for Kate to be bitten. Yes, it is so gross.

In case that first picture wasn't enough for you, here's another perspective. I thought we should document at least some of our finds. Aren't they huge?

So the count is up to 12 black widows I have found outside our apartment. So now I always make Kate stay inside when I go out the first thing in the morning while I bend over to inspect carefully for any new bugs, always muttering "yuck, I hate bugs, this is sick." As expected, now every time Kate goes out the door she bends way over toward the ground and points while saying "buggy, yuck"

The "Dirt" on Kate

Playing in the dirt is often pegged as a boy activity but I think there is something therapeutic about playing in the dirt as a child regardless of gender. I remember when my family was building a new house, I was eight and my sister Audrey was 11. We played in the dirt piles made from the dug out foundation endlessly. We rolled in it, shoveled it, jumped in it, threw it, etc. When Kate found the tiny 2 x 2 area of dirt in front of our apartment my instinct was to quickly distract her with a cleaner activity, but I paused to recall the fond memories I have of dirt-time and decided to remove her clothes and let her go to town instead. I think she liked it because she was totally engrossed for about 10 minutes, a relative eternity for our 14-month-old.