Park & Gateway - 2 of our favorites!

So these are a month or so old pics but they were so cute; I couldn't resist!  Every time I take pictures, I think how I' have to post all of them so that these great moments aren't lost!  These little cuties are so much fun and I don't want to ever forget that!

The transition from spring to summer was so nice and the weather was (mostly) awesome.  We played at parks as much as possible and these are just a few of the pics. 

This Skye park was one of our favorites this spring/early summer - there are so many fun things for the little and bigger kids to do there - loved it!

I learned a lot about my kids watching them play and do crazy things at the parks we went to.  I mostly learned once again that my Rio is a "no-fear" girl when it comes to hanging - she is honestly SO STRONG!  She's got some serious muscles - there would be times when I would be with one of the boys doing something and I would suddenly hear, "mommy..."  and look over to find Rio doing this... 

 Freaked me out every time but she loved it! She will lean off and reach so high to grab whatever she can and just hang there forever! What a strong little girl you are sweetie-pie!

They also became "superman-style" sliders

Our friend Lucas, Austin and Rio

At the beginning of the spring, I would take them down some slides on my lap but once they figured out they could go on their own and weren't a bit nervous anymore, they would cruise up and down and at times, they would take each other down :)  So cute! 

*Rio taking Austin down*

And Jax taking Austin down and holding on so "he won't fall mommy" - great friends!

Here's some of our friends too - Reese, Roxy and Avery with Lucas coming behind them - she's a great mommy!

After the park, we took the kiddos to Arctic Circle and got them the little kiddie cones but I felt guilty that they are free and we needed 6 of them so I ordered my fav snack (fries) to share with the kids

Austin and Reese enjoying a nice read after their ice cream - silly kids!  They found this little cubby and stayed there talking and looking at their books

Another fun trip we've made a few times has been to DG downtown and we LOVE it there!  Thanks to Grandpa and Grandma Morris, we have a pass this year.





Rio playing her little heart out on the chimes

Rio and Austin doing what they do best!  Playing in the water and splashing!  This is the cutest play place - we love it!

Fireman Austin to the rescue!  Love that face so much!

Playing house with their buddies:

Avery, Reese, Austin & Jax

Austin & Jax making sure the fire engine was working okay

Of course, I only got the pic where they're eyes are closed and they're getting out of the boat but for a small moment, all 3 were in this tiny boat singing "Row, Row, Row your Boat" - sweet little moments...

Rio's favorite part is for sure the life-size horse that she can ride and the boys love it to if you can't tell by Austin's happy expression

Here we are!  Choo-choos and all and yes, if you might have been wondering, both of our choo-choo wagons got mistaken once again for being a part of the museum.  Both Rox and I had to chase down people to get them back! Ha-ha!  Happens every time!

Austin, Jax, Rio, Reese, Lucas and Avery

Beginning of Summer Fun...Children's Garden

Woo-hoo!!! Summer is here and we are all LOVING it!  I am a very outside kind of girl and apparently I've passed that on to my kiddos - we have so much fun being outside.  It's honestly hard for me to remember what we did all day when it was cold... 

We love our awesome TP pass so we take advantage of it any chance we get!  So this day, we went to Tales for Tots and made a cute craft and heard an awesome story and then off to the Children's Gardens we went!  We were so lucky that we got to go with some of our trip friends, the Dodge family.  Mama Ang is also pregnant with a little singleton and due just a week or so later than me - so weird but so fun to us to share this awesome experience!

It was a little chilly when we first got there so we started off hanging out near the caves and staying cozy.  The kids were fascinated that there was a wolf there too :)

Hunter, Austin, Jax, Rio, Caden and Lia and Angie

They have this awesome climbing ball like a spider web there and we had so much fun climbing around on it!  My kids were crazy climbers!  I couldn't believe how high they would climb - no fear these 3!

Austin and Rio climbing as high as they could without completely getting all tangled up - so cute!

Rio, Lia and Caden jumping like little frogs across these logs

"Going on a hike" Austin said as they climbed all over these gardens - Dodge kiddos in orange and Jax and Austin

They also have this really fun "music" area which was filled with pine cones that all the kids loved to search for.

Mine and Ang's favorite stop - the sand pit!  (not really)  Six 2 year olds in sand - YIKES!  They loved it though :)

*Ang and her kiddos*

The water spot - Uh-oh!  My kids are water attractors!  They loved putting these little block type pieces into the water and watching them circle around - so fun!

And of course we couldn't resist putting all 6 of them by the fish/Lily pad pond and getting a quick pic - thanks Ang and kids for a fun, fun day!

*Austin, Jax, Rio, Lia, Caden and Hunter*

Tulip Festival '12

I have been loving this awesome weather lately!  One of our fun traditions has been going to the Tulip Festival and we didn't miss it this year either - we had such a great time.  This year we went as a family with most of Spence's siblings, spouses and kiddos and grandma.  It was a perfect day and honestly extremely crowded but thank goodness it is a huge place, it didn't seem crazy at all!  Beautiful day!  We were able to capture some cute pics of everyone...

Our little fam - I love that Jax and Rio love their sunglasses so much!  So cute

The Morris cousins: Hayden holding Cole, Jax, Brinlee, Rio, Ethan, Tyler and Austin

Aunt Erin & Cole and Aunt Kisty & Ethan

Of course this is no surprise - my kids found the water and were glued there for quite a while - so fun!  It gave me much to look forward to this summer knowing how much they LOVE the water :)

What a cute pic right?  Utter joy on Rio's face and utter determination for Jax trying to get his little, tiny leaf to touch the fountain

Best little buddies

Rio & Jax almost falling in - they couldn't resist!

All the Morris ladies: Me (huge and pregnant), Grandma (Bonnie), Erin, Kisty & Kristin - so lucky to have all of you in my life!

We found the hill for the perfect spot to eat lunch and fortunately enough we had entertainment while eating!  The kids couldn't take their eyes off of the dancers

I love when Jax dances - he is hilarious!  Head tilt and arms waving!

Rio of course got into it as well - she and cousin Brinlee in the brown shirt just below her were jumping and jumping and as you can see made their way down to the stage inch by little inch.  Yes, Jax actually made it onto the stage before Spence quickly grabbed him :)

 Brin, Jax and Rio admiring all their favorite flowers

We also found the fish pond and grandma and daddy helped the kiddos feed those huge fish!  What a fun day!  I don't think it could have been any better!

Had to add this pic - these were my favorite flowers of the day!  Beautiful!!!

Another blessing added to our home: It's a Boy!!

Well, this post is LONG overdue!! In December, Spence and I decided that we wanted to do IVF again and attempt to increase our family.  Well, I should say we thought about it many, many months before then but we attempted IVF in December.
On December 8th, we did the egg retrieval and then waited 5 days until the 13th to do the implanting/transfer.  Last time, we did a 3 day transfer and things went great but this time, our great doctor, Dr. M wanted to make sure that we didn't have triplets again :) so he decided the best thing for us to do was a day 5 transfer which typically presents with less risk for multiples and it is also recommended to only implant 2 and not 3 embryos.  It actually worked out perfect for us because we didn't have any but 2 embryos make it do day 5 so we were grateful for that blessing since I didn't want to have "leftover" embryos to freeze and have to emotionally deal with what to do next with them; I have ethical dilemmas over that still after all this time.

Anyway, on the 13th, our Dr implanted our two little embryos and we hoped for the best :)  The worst part of IVF is honestly, the 10 days or so after implanting because you just have to wait and wait and wait and play mind games after mind games of did it work or not and try and not let your body give you false hope by simple changes that occur.  Well, on the 23rd of December we got the call that I was pregnant!  I was so excited and amazed that we've been so lucky with IVF as so many other people are not - we feel very, very blessed.

The next step is to go in for an ultrasound and see how many took and if there are actual embryos in there - sometimes, because of all the hormones that you are required to take doing IVF, your body can trip up a pregnancy test and give you a false positive so the usound is the real test of whether or not it worked.  We went in for our first usound on January 11 and at that point they said that I was 5 weeks pregnant.  Spence and I went in and were shocked when we once again saw multiple sacs on the screen - but honestly both of us were very calm and actually very excited; we felt with 5 kids that our family would be complete.  Spence even had a dream that we were having twins; a boy and a girl so again we weren't too shocked to see the two tiny sacs.

Here are the two little ones at 5 weeks - crazy to see both of them and to hear actual heartbeats on them already - both heartbeats were really strong and around 150/min.  We left feeling grateful and blessed and just a little nervous about the future...

Soon after that usound, we had another one just two and a half weeks later on the 30th of January and we took the kids with us this time too since our usound tech wanted to meet them since she'd seen them from the very beginning :)

We got there and just expected to see the same thing we had a few weeks earlier; two healthy little embryos and two strong heartbeats.  We did not see that.  Instead, we saw one very active and bouncing baby and one sac with a little, tiny lump in the bottom.  I will never forget that moment as long as I live.  It completely broke my heart into tiny pieces.  It was difficult to see one moving so much and actually formed a bit and the other slumped into its tiny sac not moving at all.  Our little Baby A had no heartbeat anymore and only measured about 7 1/2 weeks instead of 9.  We must have lost it right just a few weeks after the first usound.

The top picture shows both sacs and embryos with our little one that didn't make it on the left and the other strong baby on the right.  The bottom pic is of our little baby boy just continuing to grow big and strong!  We're so grateful for you sweetie boy.

It has been very, very difficult for me emotionally this pregnancy because from the very beginning, I've been super paranoid.  I really didn't tell very many people at all this time and found it very difficult to talk about being pregnant at all for honestly, the first 15 or 16 weeks.  There were a lot of other changes as well like having to change OB's because of insurance and then only seeing the doctor starting at 13 or so weeks and then only once a month and only getting to have one usound the entire pregnancy.  I must have become a bit of a multiple snob and got used to having usound every 2 weeks :)  Just a very, very different experience and not an easy one to get used to; I have just been very paranoid and worried about this baby.  However... we did get to have our usound on April 16th and Spence and I went together to meet our new little baby.  It was so funny because one of the first pics we saw was of this baby with its leg over its head just like Jax had for so long!  So instantly, I thought, "oh, it's a boy; just like Jax."  We kept looking all around at all the baby's organs and things to make sure things were looking good and they were - all looked great!  We found out he was a boy and were very happy!  At first, I have to admit, I was a little bummed for our little Rio because I really wanted her to have a sister but after a few thoughts, I realized that a boy is definitely best for our family.  Our Rio as those of you that know her... is what you might call a bit of a DIVA!  She loves all the girly things and thinking about it, she may have found it quite difficult to share her special girl things :)  J/K - she would have been fine but we are so happy for another boy added to the family.  Above is our 3D pic of him with his little hands up by his face and his leg kicked over the top by his head - silly little boy! 

So here he is (and no, no name yet)...  what a cutie you are already!  Can't really tell what he may look like and we can't wait to meet him to find out since I don't think our trips look much alike so maybe this one will look like one of them.  Love you so much already sweetheart and so sorry that mommy has been a basket case for you; I'm getting better :)

I feel very bad for not taking any pics earlier than this one but here it is in all its glory - my 24 week pic!  And yes, those are horrible stretch marks and my belly button sticking out :(  - poor thing never quite went back in after the trips but o-well... look what we have because of it!

Thank goodness for fun things when it rains!

We've had a very, very nice spring I think but there have been WAY TOO MANY colder and windy days to count it seems.  So I'm so grateful for cousins bdays in the spring and for kids that are entertained with the mildest of thrills :)

Cousin Tyler's bday was at Chuck-E-Cheese this year and we had so much fun! Thanks Kristin for having us there with you guys!  My kids LOVE merry-go-rounds and although this one was so tiny, they still fell in love with it!  They rode that thing probably 10 times - love the mind of a child!

Fun daddy playing games with them - don't mind Rio tantruming in the background - it wasn't her turn and she didn't love that :)

Shortly after the tantrum, we ran into Chuck-E-Cheese himself!  For some reason my kids were terrified of Santa this year but throw on a giant costume of any kind and they LOVE it and want to give hugs all day - so funny to me!

I'll never get a pic of them all looking forward :(  Thanks Chuck-E for the sweet pic

Next to Chuck himself, they loved this monster truck best!  So cute that they all fit in it too

Enjoying the bday cupcakes - Hayden, Brinlee, and my little trio

So one day recently, it was sunny outside and we went to go out and play and I froze the second I walked out the door!  I hate days like that - so deceiving!  Anyway, I had to come up with something that would be as fun for them because they were so disappointed to not play outside so into the tub we went and walah! Magic and fun with a bubbly tub!  We turned on the jets and they were in heaven for so long - little cuties!  Thanks for being so entertained but something so small

Oh, that face!  He has so many adorable facials and expressions it is hard to choose my favorite but this one is right there at the top - love you so much Jax!

Austin was all smiles the whole time and thought it was hilarious to put bubbles on his face and play "bubble chin, bubble cheek, bubble ear, bubble head" and whatever came into his mind at the moment - so creative sweetie pie - love you!

My Rio... she LOVES the water and would practically bury herself in the bubbles - FEARLESS that one!  Love you pretty girl!

Love you 3 - so much fun to watch you play and experience such fun and simple joys!