Thursday, September 20, 2007

Out of my mind...






Bona fide proof that I am outta my mind...pictures from the zoo and a cute shot that I got today at the "Piggy Wiggy" when we were shopping. Yes, I do take all three kids by myself to the store. Usually we go to Wally World, but I just needed a few things today and I wasn't up to it. It requires some pretty serious strategizing (and bribing), but most days it's not too bad.


Also, cute pictures from the zoo with the Brough's. Thank heavens for good friends and someone to help me out with the kids! (Although we still have five kids under four between the two of us!) We loved seeing the animals. Brooklyn and Ty call the zoo the "jungle". Silliness. (Note in the pictures our children leaning over the fence towards the animals...luckily they're looking a bunnies which are actually in another cage).

Lastly, some adorable shots of all the kids in their new Halloween jammies from Grandma. Brooklyn wore hers all day the day that they came in the mail. She loves to get mail almost as much as I do (I guess because her awesome Grandmas are often sending her fun stuff!) I think I'll also include some pictures of Sadie. She's pretty darn cute (I'm not at all bias). As she continues to grow, I've been reassured that like my other children, she bears absolutely no resemblance to me and gets her good looks from her Dad. They're little Morton clones...


Sunday, August 19, 2007






We had a great time on our trip to Utah!! I had a hard time finding a few pictures to show everything that we did. (I had way too many awesome pictures) I think I'm missing some of our little Sadie Lou...have to add more later.
Ty loved the FOOD at Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's; they always feed us well.
We blessed Sadie on August 5 at the Morton's house. It was wonderful to see family and she was given a beautiful blessing. Grandma Johnson made her a beautiful blessing dress...the only downside is that she could only wear it for a few hours the day of her blessing. I'll have to find a nice way to preserve it for her.
Brooklyn LOVED going on the boat and jet skis, as you can see in the picture where she is riding with her aunt Melissa and cousin London. She kept asking "faster, faster"...guess she got a little of her mom and dad's adventurous sides.
The last picture was taken on our trip to the Hogle Zoo...Ty was enjoying playing with Grandpa and loved dancing on the top of the tables at the refreshment stand! Go Ty, go Ty! This kind of behavior won't be nearly as cute in a few years!

Confession

Blogging has been going slow...for a multitude of reasons, but I'm back (now anyway)
Okay, so my blogging has pretty much consisted of updates on the kids, but I have a confession. (No, I am not pregnant again). I have a serious addiction. Mail. Love it. I don't know why, but it is 100% my job at my house. It would completely ruin my day if Jake were to get the mail. (Good thing he's not home). I threaten him with his life on Saturdays! So, I get home from Utah, and my mailbox is (gasp!) empty! So I go to the neighbor's house, assuming they picked it up when it was brimming...(brimming, oh joy, yes I did think about going through all of that mail when the plane ride home was not so great...no, I'm not expecting a big check or anything...mostly junk and bills...and SHEER PLEASURE.) Anyway, they weren't home that night and when I talked to them the next morning, they didn't have it.I decided to call the post office to see if my brimming mail was being held hostage by the postman. (Me and the post man, love/hate relationship...so kind to take care of my mail...but now that I want it, I can't get to it! Then he does that thing where sometimes he delivers at about 11:00 am and sometimes it's more like 3:00pm....) Called the post office and glory be, they have it for me. While I typically don't move my clan with much speed, I quickly got ready and announced to the kids that we were going out. I packed them in the car only to realize that I didn't know where my keys were. (We had a friend drop us off at the airport in our car and take our car until the day she drove it to the airport and parked for us...saving us $ on parking and free ride for her to the airport.) Searched the car...called Jake...called Allison. No luck!On the verge of a nervous breakdown, I decided we would walk to pick up the mail after naps. I prepped everyone and they luckily took good naps. Post naps, as I was packing up the stroller, I got into my car for something or another and discovered MY KEYS! You would have thought I won Publishers Clearing House. We packed up in the car to go to the post office. Picked up my mail and it was every bit as good as I expected, containing no checks, mostly bills and junk...Crazy part of the story...I clocked the mileage on my way....2 miles EACH WAY! I was honestly prepared to walk 4 miles with 3 kids under age 3 in 80 degree weather with awful muggy humidity to get my mail one day earlier! Nuts, yes! Obsessive, yes! Thank heaven I found my keys....can you imagine?

Monday, July 23, 2007

Firsts


So, it's been a BIG weekend here at the Morton's. Here's a picture of Ty getting his first haircut. As long as I let him have his pacifier, he was okay with it. I took him to a studio that just cuts kids' hair. The girl who cut his hair worked with the speed and precision of Edward Scissorhands. The "barber chair" was a little car that he sat in; and he got to tune into "Bob the Builder" while we hacked off some of his long, blonde, curly locks. (It's still pretty long and curly, I just wanted him to look more like a boy...now his hair is finally shorter than Brooklyn's).

Also, as a reward for getting potty trained, Brooklyn got her first "big girl" bike--with two wheels and training wheels. She's doing great at learning how to ride, except she's going to go flying over the handlebars one of these times she applies brake without knowing what she is doing...

Monday, July 16, 2007

Chillin at the Lake




While obviously, anyone knows, my favorite thing about living here is NOT the climate. Super cold winters (and fairly cold falls and springs) make for not much fun. However, the redeeming quality of our weather is beautiful, mild summers. We love heading out to the lake, and it's nice because within a ten or fifteen minute drive we have countless lakes and ponds to choose from. Admittedly, it has taken some time for me to get over lilly pads, moss, muck 'n'mire (Wisconsin word -- I think), weeds, and mini fish to dive into the lakes; but the set up is nice at most lakes, we have man-made beaches that are fairly well cleaned out. The water is warm and shallow and the kiddies love it (well, actually, Ty mostly enjoys sampling the sand...he's a big dirt/rocks/wood chips/bug eater...tasty!!!)

Brooklyn and Ty both got their first shots at fishing and faired really well. In the few times we have taken them, we've pulled in a lot of little smallies and bluegill (which sadly, looked terribly sick and brown the first few times we caught them, but having not seen a mountain trout for awhile, they are looking better). The kids have a great time and Jake enjoys helping them catch fish (and a few weeds.) The lake also has a small playground and lots of shade, so it was perfect for keeping everyone entertained on a summer afternoon.

Thursday, July 5, 2007

Fourth of July









Happy Fourth of July

We had a great fourth this year! On the 3rd we went down to Menomonee Falls and watched parade with our friends, the Chaplins. As you can see, Brooklyn loved dancing with the bands. We also liked to see the fire trucks, horses, "Milwaukee's Dancing Grannies", Pearl Harbor Survivors, Shriners motorcycles and mini car drivers, and the War Dogs Club.

On the fourth, we went to a barbeque with our "Kohl's friends", whom we are lucky enough to have them still consider us friends, even though Jake works for Harley. After the barbecue, we enjoyed watching fireworks in the park. Tyler was a little scared at first, but got used to it. Brooklyn, of course, loved it. Sadie pretty much slept through the whole thing!

Monday, July 2, 2007

Movie in the Park





Last week the kids enjoyed going to the semi-annual "Movie in the Park" sponsored by the Village. As you can kind of see, they just set up a huge movie screen in the baseball diamonds behind our Town Hall; and show a movie. It's free, and everyone just brings blankets and lawnchairs to watch the movie. This time, it was "Happy Feet". Brooklyn was dancing in the aisles, except that there weren't any aisles. Tyler was very wiggly and just bugged to be up past his bedtime. Sadie just slept through the whole thing. We had fun and realized that we aren't quite ready for a movie theater. Tyler would end up super sticky as much as he liked to crawl around and Brooklyn the Dancing Queen would probably get kicked out!