Cannon's Birthday

Cannon was really excited to turn 9 last Friday. He was also really excited to have his birthday announced on the intercom at school and to be able to go to the principals office and get his birthday necklace to wear throughout the day. In fact, I didn't realize how important this necklace was to him until he got home from school that day and was unable to find it in his backpack. Needless to say, he was in tears:-( Thankfully, his teacher had it for him on Monday in class. Turns out he had dropped it on the floor on his way out......typical Cannon:-)

Friday evening we let him pick where he wanted to go for dinner and what activity he wanted to do. He choose Olive Garden for dinner because of there delicious salad and breadsticks, and then a late night of video games with his friend " E." It was very low key but I think they had a lot of fun.

A few things we want to remember about our 9 year old:

* His favorite food: salad, corndogs, chips & salsa, hashbrowns.

* His favorite color: red

* His favorite TV show: any sports game....especially football or Wipeout.

* Favorite things to do: play sports or video games.....but mostly sports:-)

* All he wanted for his birthday was ticket's to the Utah football game, and football flags.

* One important thing I want to remember is a couple days ago we went to his school for a "breakfast of champions." Cannon was one of two kids that his teacher picked from her class to attend this breakfast and receive an award from the school for someone who makes "responsible choices." I was truly SO proud of him!! I hope he continues to make good choices and continues to be a good example to those around him. We love you buddy!

Utah Football Game

All this kid wanted for his birthday was to go to a Utah Football game. Thankfully, the Ute's were playing the day after Thanksgiving.....and thankfully we were able to get tickets thanks to Ryan's brother Shane. Oh, and thankfully we were already planning on being in Utah. Guess it was meant to be! We had a great time and Cannon was on cloud 9. Brock decided he didn't want to go, which worked out well since it was super cold and he probably would have only lasted 10 minutes. We told Cannon he could pick someone to bring with us to the game and he picked his cousin Davan. The two of them had a great time cheering on their Utah Ute's!

Thanksgiving in Utah

All the grandkid's minus Kinnie and Andrew who live out of state.
Can't get any better than that!
The girlies having all sorts of fun!!
The big girlies having all sorts of fun in the kitchen! My fabulous sister-in-laws!
The two "B's" having dessert.......
Brock inhaling his pumpkin bread! What a fun fun weekend!!

Halloween 2011

Whitney the fortune teller!

Cannon the zombie!

Brock the pirate!

We made it through 0ur first Halloween in Idaho! The kid's had a great time trick-or-treating with their Daddy (for about 30 minutes before he was off to Montana...boo!) and then with me for the rest of the evening. It was different this year not doing our usual traditions of soup and scones with our neighbors in Herriman, and not having my mother-in-law here that always hangs out with us Halloween night and helps pass out candy, but we still did it here with just our little family and it was great!

Brock's Halloween Parade

Brock's teacher Mrs. Hymas dressed up as a bumble bee.
Cannon happy to see his brother!!

Our little police officer had been counting down the "sleep's" until the day came for his class Halloween Party and parade. Unfortunately, the school does not allow the children to dress-up with the exception of the Kindergarteners. Therefore, the parade consisted of walking around the school, and through all the classrooms. Cannon had no idea about this school tradition, which explains the big smile on his face in the above picture when his little brother entered his classroom. Super cute!! I must say that only having to dress-up one child for school was cake:-)

Frightmares......

We had a great time at Lagoon a couple weeks ago with the Gadd's. It is alway's a fun time being with them......the kid's adore each other, and they are basically family to us. Whitney was very apprehensive about going because she gets so nervous around "creepy people dressed up in creepy costumes" but wanted to hang out with Miss "M" so bad that she braved the "creepy people." :-) Brock was able to go on a lot of rides he wasn't able to go on last year because he was too short. He loved the creaky old white rollercoaster, The Bat, Bombora and the Wild Mouse. Whitney, Cannon and myself braved the Samurai due to some peer pressure from Miss "M".......I'm not sure if I will ever ride that one again:-) That ride is brutal!! Or maybe I am just plain too old now. Thanks Gadd's for a super fun night!! Until next year!

Eagle Hills Hoe-Down/Carnival

Every year the Elementary School Cannon and Brock go to holds a Fall Hoe-Down. It is open to the public and apparently it is a pretty popular event in the community. Due to lack of funds they slimmed it down this year, but hey........we Morgan's don't know the difference. They had a bunch of games for the kids, a rock-climbing wall, golf cart rides with their teachers, and of course cotton candy.

Brocks awesome teacher Mrs. Hymas! We love her!

Brothers

Love these two little monkeys and how close they are becoming. The other day we were working on a poster for Brock's class and he had to answer the question, "What is your favorite thing to do?" Brock's response....."play with my brother." Melts my heart!

Things we are doing as Idahoans.......

Playing in the water.......Brock pretending he is shooting a machine gun or something. Crazy kid!

Making new friends........

Visiting different parks. This is Ann Morrison Park in Boise. The kids had a great time feeding all the ducks and geese....and there was a lot!!!!

I even got in on the fun........

Having fun with our new patio set and fire pit. We love to eat outside and of course make s'mores!

We also had a fun visit from Grandma Morgan!
Fun at Lake Lowell playing on the beach and fishing!

We are having a great time here in Boise exploring new places to go. We are obviously using our GPS a lot still! :-) We know there are many fun things to do and see here and can't wait for what else we find.

New City = New Schools

Last week the kiddo's started school. I don't know who was more nervous me or the kids. I had such mixed emotions about the start of school. I absolutely loved having my kids home for so long but I was also so anxious for them to be able to meet some friends. There are many options for schools here in Eagle. 3 different Elementary Schools and I think 3 Charter Schools. We choose the Elementary School that is located right in our sub division. I love that it is convenient, and so far I have been SO impressed with the principal and staff at the school. There are many things that are different with the school here compared to our past school in Herriman. Here the parents are solely responsible for all school supplies. The school has a VERY LONG detailed list of items the children will need. We are responsible for literally everything from pencils, paper, erasers, tissue, hand sanitizer, crayons, markers, scissors etc...... There is also a registration fee for each child. School lunch is more expensive and they don't get half day on Fridays. Sort of a bummer on that one as it will make it harder for quick weekend trips to Utah:-) They do have teacher collaboration day on Wednesdays where the school starts 15 minutes later. Yeehaw!! Anyway's so far so good.....both the boys are integrating well and I am super excited for them!

It is totally and completely NUTS that I have a middle schooler. I will say that I was very bummed about the fact that my kids will never be in the same school together....EVER! I was looking forward to this year at Herriman Elementary as all 3 would have been together for one year. Oh well things change and you just gotta roll with it. Whitney is doing well and if anyone can just "roll with things" she can. She is great that way. She was really happy the second day of school when she met a girl that had just moved here to Idaho from Orem, Utah. They had that in common and apparently really hit it off. She also met a very nice girl last week who so happens to be the niece of some very good friends of ours in Utah. We had thought our paths would never cross but the world is very small and out of all those 6th graders they met and became friends without even knowing about the connection until yesterday (one week later.) I am happy for her and I think she will have a great experience.

Here are the first day of school pics. BTW.....did I mention I have a Kindergartener? My word where does the time go?? I'm happy for him because he is so happy to be in the "big" school. I also LOVE his teacher Mrs. Hymas. Of course I really truly am NOT looking forward to next year when he is gone all day. I will be a very sad mommy.

A few summer highlights.....

"Where did the summer go" is a question I have heard many times from many different people in the last couple of weeks. It is definitely a valid question but one I sure don't have the answer to. Summer's sure does come and go very fast. I will say that this is the longest summer we have ever had as we have alway's been on the year round school schedule. We get breaks all year long which isn't a bad thing but never have we EVER had a three month break! I must say......it was AWESOME! Anyway's here are a few things we did this summer. I unfortunately was without camera a lot of the time so if these seem completely random......well they are.

We started our summer off with a baseball tourney in Idaho Falls with Cannon's baseball team. We almost didn't go for various reasons but are so glad that we did. We sure are going to miss this team!

While in Idaho Falls we visited Bear World. It was totally worth it. The bears (and there's a lot) basically roam around and will even come right up to your car. The kid's thought it was the greatest thing ever.



The day after we got back from Idaho Falls Ryan left to train for his new job. I don't even know what he is doing in the picture.....but it looks interesting:-) He is being trained to do something I guess:-) He was gone for a very long 3 weeks. During that time I was busy at home trying to pack up the house to move to Boise. Once he got back (and left again for some additional training) we had only a few days to get completely packed. It was so insane. But thanks to many helping hands we got it done and made it to Boise.
On our way to Boise we stopped in Twin Falls for a few days. Our house wasn't ready for us yet so we were able to spend some time with our good friends the Reeder's who so kindly let us crash at their place, even though they had only been in their new house for a few days. We went and saw Shoshone Falls which was absolutely amazing.
Wyatt, Porter, Whitney, Cohlton, and Cannon (Brock didn't want to be in the pic.)
Hauling some of our things to Boise. Should of taken a picture of our big ABF truck:-)
Whitney at the Boise Zoo. We have also ventured to numerous parks, been to a couple movies, went to a fantastic water park and hoping to find many more fun things to do here in Boise.