Tagen's party....

Due to having a new baby, being exhausted, and a few of us having colds, we kept Tagen's birthday party to just our little family. We had a great time with balloons, cake, noise makers and party hats all picked out by Olivia. Tagen was able to go with her dad to the store to pick out a cake. She chose wisely... chocolate with raspberry filling! Yummy. Here's a picture story line of our party....

This party is for me? Really?

That's fantastic!

Party on!

She has such focus!

Enjoying the family singing to her...

Blowing out the candles....

Success!

Olivia picked out this Jack-in-the-box (which is really a dragon) for Tagen.

She wasn't sure what to think of it initially as you can see by her expression.

She quickly learned to love it though

Overall, I think she had a great time, loved her presents and really enjoyed her day.

I know the rest of us did. Happy Birthday Mater! We Love You!

Tagen turns TWO!!!

Today is Tagen's birthday! We are so grateful to have this little munchkin as part of our family. She is a true joy and a blessing.

I'm amazed looking at her photos on how much she has changed over the past two years.

February 10, 2009

October 2009

November 2010

November 2010

Some little Tagen Tidbits that I love about her and want to remember...

Tagen has such a great sense of humor and comedic timing. She has always been a little mischievious and has always seemed to understand the funny moments life brings. But lately, we've really been able to see her personality shine in those moments. She does have a very tender side also. She loves to give out kisses... especially to her new little sister which is followed by a tilt of the head and an explanation of "CUTE!" from her.

She LOVES going to nursery on Sundays and is often found carrying around a baby doll whenever we go to pick her up.

She loves to draw and color and paint. Whenever she gets out the water color paints, she ends up "painting her nails" with them... which is usually the pads of her fingers that get painted.

She is proving to us daily that although she doesn't have much to say, she understands EVERYTHING that goes on around her. She will ask for cereal for breakfast by pointing to it, saying, "ce-al? PINK!" Which, once interpreted means she would like the pink cereal (mini-spooners) for breakfast. We hadn't really taught her colors, but she must have picked up on them while talking about them with Olivia.

She counted to 8 with Brad just yesterday... another trick we didn't know she had learned.

But I think my favorite thing is to hear her playing by herself and realize she is humming the song, "I Am A Child of God."

She also likes to hum "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" while playing.

She loves to have her nails painted, have "pretties" put in her hair, LOVES to pick out shoes,

carry around her baby dolls, and the girl lives to shop!

I'm so grateful to have Tagen as a part of our lives. She adds joy and happiness to our family.

Happy Happy Birthday Tagen!

We Love You!

Introducing Gracie Pearl Morris

She's finally here! Gracie was born Wednesday morning at 8:01 A.M., weighed 7 lbs 2 oz, and was 20" long (same stats as Olivia). She is an absolute joy, and we can feel a strong sense from her that she is very happy and content to be here. She never cried, winced, or even made a peep when her sisters mugged her. She acted like she'd been waiting months for that moment, and was content as you can only imagine. She's a perfect baby with an easy going temperament and hardly makes a sound. She's a great sleeper and eater so far and we LOVE LOVE LOVE having her our family.

Me, Gracie and Olivia

Gracie yawning. I LOVE this face!

Tagen and Gracie.

Tagen LOVES her baby sister and can't get enough of her.

The Big Sisters relishing the moment

Me and Gracie. I can't get enough of her!

Slightly cross-eyed, but still cute!

In pictures, she looks so much like Olivia it's crazy. In person, she can look a lot like Tagen at times. Either way, she's beautiful and healthy, and that's all that matters. We both get to go home on Saturday.

The C-Section was okay. I have a history of my blood pressure dropping LOW while on the table and I warned my doctor about it before we started. The anesthesiologist earned his money during my surgery. My pressure did drop again and he had to use a lot of medications to keep me conscious, but he did a great job. I did have one grapefruit size circle on my stomach that never quite numbed up and unfortunately I felt a lot of the procedure, but... after lots of Morphine and Fentanyl, I just didn't care anymore. Recovery has been harder than my other two C-Sections, but I'm getting around a lot better now. I think it's been harder because I'm getting OLDER... (Shudder.)

Overall... Things are truly great. We are so blessed to have little Gracie in our lives and a part of our family. She has brought such a sweet spirit with her. I love just holding her, cuddling her and soaking up her sweetness. She's completely beautiful!