Acts of Love

We have been talking about Lent with the kids, what it means and what we can do as a family. We talked about making sacrifices big and small and doing little acts of love throughout the day. Before lent started the kids all agreed that I should give up coffee, I am guessing they know how much I love my morning coffee. Isaac said he was going to give up cleaning the play room. I told him he already did that and it wasn't a sacrifice. Maya told her teacher that she was going to play nice with her friends and share. At school Maya's teacher sent small paper hearts that we are to write any acts of kindness that Maya does and send it back to school. They are going to gather all of the hearts and put them on a cross. Maya is so excited about this and Isaac has caught on and wants to participate in his own way. Well, last night at dinner we were all talking and I told Josh how proud I was of the kids because they made up their bed all by themselves without me telling them to. Maya then chimed in and said " and we got dressed all by ourselves without mommy screaming at us" . Josh and I shared a chuckle with each other. I wish she would have used a better euphemism like yell or raised her voice, but I guess this tells me a lot of what my children hear. Maybe I should start working on my own acts of love and curb the screaming.

Daddy Daughter Dance

We had another wonderful weekend here in the Morris house. We spent Saturday morning geocaching again, this time we had to cut it a little short because I started to feel sick. Needless to say it was just enough outside time for me! Saturday night Josh and Maya went on a date. They attending the Daddy Daughter dance here in Round Rock. Josh asked Maya on her date on Thursday and she was super excited. He said she could pick any place to go and eat. She said she wanted to go somewhere fancy since she was going to be wearing a pretty dress. She chose Red Lobster. We have never been there and never really talk about the place but we found out it was because she saw a commercial about it. O those commercials really do work! So, off to Red Lobster they went. They had an early dinner because the dance started at 5:30. They arrived at the dance and Josh said it was packed. The danced and ate some cookies and Maya begged to have her picture taken. So, of course her date obliged. After the dance they went to have some snow cones. Maya said she had a wonderful time and like dancing to the YMCA. Josh too said he had a wonderful time. I am sure this will be something special that the both of them will remember for a very long time.

Treasure Hunting

What a beautiful weekend it was!! The weather has been beautiful and we had to spend it outside. After a birthday party on Saturday we took the kids geocaching. Geocaching is something Josh has been trying to get me to do for a while but honestly it sounded kind of lame to me. Plus he needed a GPS do it, but didn't have one. Well, he finally got one and I had no excuses left. Basically you go to some website were people post coordinates where they have hidden a "treasure" and you go and try and find it. They are usually in a park or on some trail. The treasure is really just a box with some random things in it that people who have found it before have left behind. We went to a park/trail in Austin were Josh had about 4 locations mapped out. It was a perfect trail for the kids. Not too difficult that Sam couldn't walk it, but challenging enough for Isaac and Maya to climb and search for the treasure. The kids loved it and I have to admit that I really had a good time. Sam was such a little trooper and he didn't let his size get in the way of him trying to keep up with the bigger kids. Maya did a great job and found the most difficult and smallest treasure. Isaac made friends with everyone we encountered along the way. He would tell them that we found the treasure but he wasn't going to tell them where it was. I definitely look forward to going geocaching again.

Sunday we celebrated Ava's 2nd birthday. We went to my sister Veronica's house. The kids had a blast playing outside and riding on the golf cart. Yesterday was also the Super Bowl so it was a birthday/Super Bowl party. It was a great game and I didn't really care who won but I guess I was cheering for the Cardinals since they were the underdog. It came down to the last minute but the Steelers pulled it out in the end. Maybe some day soon the Cowboys will make it back to the super bowl.

I will make sure to take some pictures next time we go geocaching to post to the blog.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

What better way to start the New Year! Tony and Josh sharing a cigar


Me and my sisters! Maya loves spaklers!


One of her birthday gifts, she loves to help Nita, Allie, Kaylee and Maya at the aquarium



Josh and the kids with the penguins




O
On
Well we survived another Christmas and New Year and managed to squeeze in a few birthdays too! Christmas this year was absolutely wonderful! The 2 older kids are at that age were they really get the whole Santa thing and it is so much fun to share in their excitement. We got to see Santa at my dad's house the weekend before Christmas. The kids loved seeing and talking with him. They had the chance to ask him any question they had. Some questions included where is your sleigh (Santa came in a van) and what do you eat. We all had a chance to sit on Santa's lap, yes Josh and me included, poor Santa. Isaac asked for storm trooper helmet and gun and Maya asked for a princess Leia gun and a bike. The princess Leia gun was news to us, so off to Target I went on Christmas eve, she had to settle for a light saber. We celebrated Christmas with my dad the weekend before Christmas. Then on the 23rd we celebrated with my mom and sisters. It was also my mom's birthday so that was some added joy. We opened up gifts on Christmas morning at our house and quickly, or as quickly as we could go, packed up our bags and gifts and headed to Dallas where we spent the day with Josh's mom and siblings. The next day we spent the day with Don an Sheree. Needless to say we were very busy but loved every minute of it.

Christmas morning was so much fun. Isaac came down the stairs and he was almost in disbelief to see the gifts. He came into our room and said that Santa had left him a nerf gun. I think he almost didn't get the fact that there were more gifts. We told him to go and wake up Maya so he ran up stairs and we could hear Maya squealing and she ran down the stairs. She definitely was excited to see all the gifts. Then we she got her bike, she was on cloud nine. She wanted to ride it right away.

We ended up staying for a few days in Dallas. We spent time with Josh's family which is always so much fun. We also got to see Caleb and Katie's new house all finished. It is so beautiful. They have done such a wonderful job. They were babysitting 2 dogs when we went by and they also have their dog too. The kids loved playing them. Maya wanted so badly to bring one home. So sad to tell her that we won't be getting any new pets any time soon. We also went by Josh's friend Jason's new house. It is super cute too! That night Nita and Gear said they would watch the kids so we could go over to Josh's friend Jonathan and Jennifer's house. We had lots of fun seeing them and some other old friends of Josh. Of course Josh loves talking about old times and somehow a crazy video of Josh made its way on the TV. Let's just say I hope our kids don't see that video till they are like 30 and know better than to follow in their fathers footsteps.

Monday we went to the Dallas World Aquarium with Nita, Allison and Kaylee. It was such a cool place. They kids loved seeing all of the animals. Isaac's favorite was some crazy fish that looked like seaweed. And Maya liked seeing the penguins and alligator.

We headed back to Austin in time to clean up the house. Actually, my wonderfully super awesome mom surprised us when we got home from Dallas. When we left Christmas morning the house was a complete mess. My mom had come by to pick up the fish to fishsit. I guess she either felt so sorry for us or wanted to do one last act of super kindness before the end of the year and cleaned our house. It was such a wonderful feeling to walk into my house and have it clean, like a dream come true!! Anyway, my mom is so great and I love her tons and tons!! So, back to New Years eve. Maya's birthday is on New years eve, so there is always a party! We invited some family (my sisters and their families and my mom) and friends the Roch's over to help us bring in the New Year. We spent the evening talking, eating, doing fireworks(sparklers) and playing board games. I did make some brownies per Maya's request. We sang her happy birthday and she opened up a some gifts. The kids had a great time doing the sparklers. Maya couldn't get enough of them and I thought Sam would try and catch one.

So begins a new year and I know there is so much this year will bring. I look forward to seeing my kids grow and learn. Isaac will be starting Kindergarten and we will be adding a new beautiful child to our family in August. Yes, another one!! What a wonderful Christmas gift God has given us. I pray that this baby grows to be healthy and strong. The kids are very excited and Maya has already informed us it is a girl and her name is Fuzzy. So, we look forward to meeting Fuzzy and know she or he will be bring such joy to our life.