Christmas 2011

This year we spent Christmas here at home. We had Rickys big family dinner on the 23rd and had breakfast with my family at our house then dinner at theirs. Tavan had fun opening presents and also enjoyed having an audience (Grandpa and Grandma Stults, Jason and Jo D came to help). Tavan was spoiled by family and Santa and loves all his toys.


Tavan and I Christmas eve
he was my little snuggle buddy before bed


Santa Came!!!


This is the sign that Ricky and I made for Paula


unloading his stocking with Uncle Jason


Tavan before nap time, watching his cars in awe


My Christmas from Santa


Tavans train set from Santa


Tavans track from Papa Jim and Grandma Lynn sitting on the play mat from Grandpa Guy and Grandma Cindy

Me and my Baby Boy!! Love you Tavan!



Ricky and Tavan


the only photo that I took while at my moms house, the boys watching TV


Ricky wanted a "belly" picture so I told him if I had to take one, so did he....
so here is his first =D


And my little belly


Tavan's car track. It glows in the dark too! He loves it

We had Jo D's name for Christmas so we got him a little gag gift for fun

Visit to Santa

This year we didn't get to make it to our ward party to see Santa so I went to my moms ward party with her. She has James' girls for a few days ans so Tavan and his cousins got to see Santa. =D

Grandpa Guy, Tavan and Mya

Olivia telling Santa what she wants him to bring her. Olivia was so scared to do this but she told us she would if we went with her...


not to thrilled with the picture, but she wanted us to take it to show her parents


next up to see Santa was Tavan... and well, Tavan showed him how he felt. I just love his face

Mya visiting Santa

and last but not least.....as I was packing up the diaper bag to take Tavan home to put in bed, I turned and saw this....apparently Papa Morgan wanted to let Santa know what he wants too!!

Trip to Utah!!

This year we took Tavan to see all the Christmas lights on Temple Square with Ricky's brothers family. It was fun to take a little trip with some of his family and Tavan loved all the lights, even though it was pretty cold. Tavan's favorite part of the whole trip was when we let him ride the train in the mall. He was so excited to ride it all around the mall.


Our trip over went pretty quick although it involved some serious discussion about what kind of trees we were seeing. Growing up my dad has taught me how to tell the difference between most types of trees and while we were driving Ricky kept pointing out these trees that he noticed where "different". I knew that I had once been taught the type of tree that they are but could not remember the name no matter how hard I tried so I text my dad as soon as I got service and I even included a picture....and well because I was drawing, Tavan wanted to draw a tree too. so here are our pictures that we sent my dad

my tree

Tavan's tree


and the actual type of tree we were trying to describe( in the middle of the picture....sort of)


When we reached Provo we went to lunch with some friends and Tavan was so done in the car that he was telling me his toes hurt and wanted to say cheese for the picture....random child...so here are his toes and Ricky in the background putting gas in the car

After our lunch and a couple of errands we met up with Brian's family and headed out to see the lights. There were a lot of people there, but it was so worth the trip!








Tavan riding the train up two blocks to the car, he thought it was pretty exciting even though he was so tired

O' Christmas Tree

As part of Christmas tradition, my family has always gone and cut down a real Christmas tree. I can't even tell you how many different memories I have of doing this as a kid, teen, and now adult. Every Christmas Ricky has entertained me and we have gone and cut down our tree so this year was no different. One of the doctors that I work with in the clinic owns a bunch of property and invites fellow employees to cut a tree down, so this year when I was invited, I knew where and when this Morgan family was getting a tree! Tavan is old enough now and loves trees so we were pretty excited for him to go with us. We went with my family (mom is a fellow employee =)) and both got our trees. Tavan loved to see all the "pretty trees" and was so excited that the one we picked we kept calling "Tavan's Tree". Once we got home we pulled out the decorations and went to work. Daddy hung the lights and Tavan and mommy put up the "pretty balls". Ever since the tree came in the door and was decorated, Tavan has to have the lights on and calls it "Tavan's pretty tree". We are a little excited about seeing his face when we take him to Temple Square this weekend where he will see more "pretty trees". He already has them all scoped out around town and I feel a melt down coming on when it comes time to get rid of the tree ......

Pictures of our trip!

us next to our tree

we picked a short (6') fat tree

best tree this Morgan family has had yet!!

my handsome lumberjack striking a pose

Tavan hard at work......throwing the silver bells

The Master decorators....notice how all Tavans "balls" are on the floor behind me and not on the tree.....

picking out his favorites...

ignore the mess...we literally got home, unpacked the car and Tavan wanted to decorate...priorities i guess

Tavan in front of his half decorated tree before bed

I may be a little bias.....but I have the most ADORABLE little boy.....EVER!!!

this is about as helpful as he got.....

not really, but I had to snap a picture of him doing this

and just because......The tree had left pine needles in the kitchen when we put it in the stand and Tavan thought they were gross so he got the broom out and told me he was "helpin'"

I love him so much!!

Cabinet

Remember how back in my trip to Idaho blog, I said I would post about what Ricky did while Tavan and I were out of the house? well yeah, I finally remembered to do that. =) but first (because I loaded the pictures backwards) I will show you Tavan in his new room! We moved him out of his "nursery" to help make room for #2 and turned his nursery into what now will be the guest bedroom until a later date. I know we did it way early, but I wanted Tavan to have some adjustment time before we make all these huge changes in his life. Soon he will be getting his big boy bed which will be a bunk bed. We figured we would wait until we knew the sex of baby #2 to see if bunk beds were in our future and tada! For now he is still in his crib/bed but that will soon change too! Here is Tavan in half of his big boy room!

and now on to the main point of this blog.

While Tavan and I were off partying, Ricky was home slaving away. One of Ricky's friends had built a corner cabinet in high school. Since then he has left Rangely, but the cabinet was left behind at Mike's trash shop. Mike wanted to get rid of it and when we talked to Chris (the friend) he said that we could have it. We went and looked at it, and it was pretty rough....it need some work, but Ricky wanted to save it. So using his talents he sanded, repaired, re-glued and re-stained the cabinet to my approval =) Since Tavan is too big for the changer/dresser we re-vamped the cabinet so that we could use it as such and moved it into Tavans room. I love the way it turned out and love that my amazing hubby is talented enough to take a pile of wood and make it look like new again for less than $50!!!!

again the pictures are backwards....sorry!

Tavan showing off the middle part which is a coat hook area

Tavan in front of his cabinet

Love the shelves!!

for now we have them up high so somebody can't climb them should he get the idea to try it

I promise the cabinet sits straight and level, but the lighting makes it look otherwise

This is the "dresser" side

inside the door is more drawers and rod to hang clothes on

the bottom section has 3 drawers as well

the front

again I love the way it turned out and that Ricky was able to stain it to match the rest of Tavans bedroom furniture. I am so very proud of my hubby!

Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we cooked our own meal. Ever since we have been married we have gone to one of our parents/grandparents homes for the big feast so this year I decided we would cook our own. I always feel bad about just showing up and eating a meal that someone else has "slaved" over all day so I figured it was time to make my own. Plus we enjoy cooking/baking together anyway. This year I asked Ricky to get a ham from Harry and David (its family tradition!) , rather than a turkey (not big turkey fans) and it turned out fabulous! We made all sorts of food and in the end had way to much for just the three of us, but we still loved every minute/bite of it! Afterwards we went over to Mike and Paula's, but they weren't really doing anything except watching a hunting show so we left shortly and went to my moms for dessert. I made two pies and took both to her house and we all sat and visited while we ate our pie yummmm!!! Here are some pics of the day!

My boys right before we ate

Rick and I after spending all morning in the kitchen

Tavan and I

me at work apparently.......thanks rick =/

payback!

our meal

it wasn't until it was all on the table that I realized how "yellow" it was..oops!