July isn't for Party Poopers!

After our big summer vacations to opposite sides of the United States, I was ready to settle down to have a nice quiet summer. Ha! The calendar had something else in store. July was too fun . . .


We spent it with our friends, the Hansens. The more I am around them, the more I like them! They are so easy to hang out with and we had some pretty good laughs like this ...
(You need to watch all three videos in order to get the full effect.)



They came over for dinner, a cold, QUICK dip in the kiddy pool (the kids not the parents), hillbilly golf, sparklers, cookie decorating, and some playing with the new Kinect game. So fun!






Aunt Kristin came for 2 weeks!!

Hallelujah!! I don't know who loves this more, the kids or Mommy! My youngest sister is 17 and has been visiting us every summer since before we had Makayla. I love having her here not only for the help (and she is a HUGE help) but I love being around her! She is a beautiful girl inside and out. I love how she treats my children. They adore her, especially Natalie. She is an amazing example to my girls of what a righteous, sweet, pure young woman should be. I love that she is just here, we don't always have to be talking, but just having her around makes me happy. Thank you Kris, I love you so much!

We won "Game On"--a Morriss family weight loss competition!
For 4 weeks we had a list of things we could and could not do individually but we worked on getting points as a team, like--get 7 hours of sleep every night, drink 3 liters of water everyday, exercise at least 20 minutes daily, eat 5 small meals, create a good habit and get rid of a bad habit and work on it daily, communicate with a team member and an opponent daily and if you lost 1% of your body weight weekly you got a bonus of 140 points. We all chipped in $25 making the grand total of $250. We won!!! And as an added bonus we made the losing team a trophy that they need to display for 1 month. Here is the beauty. Oh, by the way, I lost 10.5 lbs. and Jeremy lost a little under 10 lbs.!! Not too shabby! Now to lose 10 more . . .

The trophy & our skinnier selves

The 24th of July celebration in Snowflake!
I have come to the conclusion that Pioneer Day to me is kinda like Christmas morning. I grew up loving the festivities, the parade, kid race, the rodeo, the community play, fireworks, Grandma Schneider's homemade root beer and oh, all the fun cousins! But as I grew older, it kind of lost its appeal and actually I felt it was pretty silly. Until this year, when my kids could enjoy it and I could pass on some of those traditions and excitement to them. We had a blast!! I took Makayla to the melodrama and she loved it! Then there was the races, (I ran my first race back since Carter was born, it felt soooo good!) the parade with all the candy, the park with the bouncy houses, the rodeo, the fireworks and being around all the fun family. And oh, did my kids love Grandma's root beer! So much fun! Thanks Schneider family for making memories for my kids! What a legacy.

The girls at the parade

Makayla showing her "guns" after her race

Part of the family at the rodeo


And if July wasn't fun enough--my baby boy turned one!!
Yep, my sweet little cuddly Carter has turned into a toddler. It has actually made me pretty sad. I miss that little, happy, content baby! He still is a momma's boy but he is into everything now, even eating the toilet bowl brush. I have never experience this type of kid before. So curious, so adventurous, so exhausting!! For his birthday we had a little family party and then had a little friend pool party. Daddy went to great lengths to get the pool nice and warm. Carter's buddies, with the exception of one, weren't too interested, but Carter had a great time splashing and crawling around. Daddy also did all the birthday shopping for his boy, very sweet if you ask me. Here is the big boy enjoying his big day!


Love that little face of excitement

My sad attempt at his birthday cake. It didn't want to cooperate and I wanted to curse. Happy birthday Carter! :)