Anniversary and Day Trip

In all that was going on (see previous post) I forgot to mention that Cedric and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary that same week (thanks to my brother and wife for watching the kids). We went out for a nice dinner and did some more Christmas shopping...yes, we aren't as adventurous as our earlier days. We had hoped to go on a nice trip, which seemed feasable 6 months ago, but now with a new baby on the way and the economy the way it is, we decided to take a rain check on that! Check back with us in a few years, maybe we'll finally make a trip to Hawaii or Australia! So here's to 10 years with a wonderful husband. He's my eternal companion and best friend!

On another note, a few days ago, since we had healthy children again, we decided to take the kids on a trip up to Hershey, PA. It was nice to get away for a bit and get out of the house. The kids were getting a little stir crazy from being sick and doing NOTHING during their break. Here are some shots from the trip. We had a wonderful time. The weather was in the 40's, but we bundled them up pretty well and there was no wind, so we lucked out.

All I Wanted for Christmas...

Were three healthy kids! Here is a little glimpse of what we had going on in our house leading up to Christmas...


Patient #1: Little M...She had constant fevers that ran up to almost 104 all day, for 8 straight days, a nose that ran every two seconds, and vomitting. She was not herself at all, not eating, talking, or even playing. After taking her to the doctor, we were told it was a virus and all we could do was wait it out. Here's a picture of her with a cool rag on her head, trying to smile through it all...

Patient #2: Miss T...Poor girl had a stye on her eye that started over a month ago and got progressively larger. All we could do was keep putting warm compresses on it and wait for it to do it's thing (not to be gross or anything). She also came down with a low grade fever, but was in good spirits.

Patient #3: G Man...He had been coming up to me all week and telling me that his ear hurt and I kept brushing him off because he didn't have a temperature. Finally, one night, the poor guy was in so much pain that he broke down in tears and I checked his temperature and it was high. I took M and G in for a "two for one" check up and found out he had an ear infection.

We were blessed to have all of their symptoms clear up by Christmas (for the most part). Cedric and I keep talking about how lucky we are to have such good kids. They never once complained and were always trying to stay positive. It gave us a whole new perspective on Christmas and how thankful we are for our family and little things that we take for granted (including health). We ended up having a great Christmas Eve dinner with family. I cooked up a turkey and a ham and 12 different dishes. It was nice to be able to celebrate with people we love. Here are just a few shots of us.

Christmas Eve...Aunt Tera made the girls little red riding hood towels and G was the big bad wolf.

Opening some family presents on Christmas Eve

Cousins...

Breakfast with Santa...

Christmas Morning...Santa put some Slim Jims in the kids' stockings. I know, our family has great taste in food!

The girls got a baby Chou Chou from Santa that gets a fever and its face lights up and it stops crying once you take its temperature and give it the medicine. Isn't that so suiting? Santa must have had "sickness" on his mind when he brought this!

M in her new dress up clothes...


We hope you all had a very merry Christmas!

Jumpstarting the Season

A shot of the temple taken by G

The girls in front of one of the trees decorated from around the world

Us (minus Ced the photographer) in front of the temple

I'm sure I am speaking for many of you, but Christmas has always been my favorite holiday. This year, we are trying to keep things more simple and enjoy the memories with our family and friends. Every year, we go to the annual temple lighting ceremony at the DC temple. My ex-boss' wife (follow that?) is the Director for International Relations for our church. They usually put on a good show and have general authorities speak. It is by invitation only and we are joined in the crowd by Congressmen, ambassadors, etc. The kids always like to see the "castle where mommy and daddy were married." It's fun to tell them how they were just a twinkle in our eye when we were married there. The lights are always beautiful at the temple and it's such a great way to kick off the season.

Let's Talk About Sex, Baby

If you are thinking of something else, I must say you have a dirty mind. :) If I got a song in your head from the '90's, that may have been my intention...

So you can probaby guess what this post is about. I went and had my ultrasound over two weeks ago. Sorry it has taken so long to fill you in! Before I give you the news on what we are having, I wanted to make you suffer through all of the details and background behind this. As you know, we already have one boy and two girls. G said that he "has too many girls in his life" and that this had better be a boy. T wants a baby boy, and M, well, she is just happy to have a "baby" around.

Instead of letting me find out at the ultrasound (which I would like to say is about an hour away from my house), G had the GREAT idea of having the radiologist write it down on a piece of paper and have us all read it at home together, so we'd find out together. As sweet as that may sound, I knew that would be a difficult one for me. Our appointment was at 4pm and we finished up at around 5pm...this meant driving through rush hour to get home. On top of that, it was raining, which made it worse. The radiologist took extra precautions and wrapped the envelope up extra well in tape and told Cedric to put it in his back left pocket, so if I tried anything sneaky during the ride home, he'd be able to stop me in time. Darn radiologist!

I made it through the agonizing ride home, and of course, Cedric had to play along a little. We drove up to the driveway and he said he had to take out the trash first and hang up the coats and wash his hands. I wanted to open the envelope at the door! After all the waiting, this is what we found when G opened up the envelope (click on the picture for a larger view)...




We are so excited for this little guy to join our family! Now I guess the boys have an even vote in the Moran family. They should thank their lucky stars!

Working Hard for that DS and Breaking a Tooth

I'm a little slow in posting this, but I just wanted to congratulate G on finally acheiving his goal of getting a Nintendo DS. He worked his toosh off since the beginning of the school year to get good grades on his school work, spelling tests, receiving tickets for his good behavior, and also getting chosen by his teacher to receive an award for the quarter (two get chosen out the class each quarter). We are proud of him. He is such a good kid and has not once asked for us to bend the rules on his DS playing time. Well done, G! You deserve it!

On a side note, because of his award, G got to have a special surprise breakfast at his school and we were invited. While he bit into his donut, his front tooth cracked and started bleeding. I knew it was doomed and wouldn't see the end of the day. That night, he spent the night at grandma and grandpa's. He called me while we were at dinner to inform me that his tooth fell out and landed on his pizza. He asked if I could write a note to the tooth fairy, asking her if she'd leave him a surprise that night and come pick up his tooth the following night, since he was not at home. The tooth fairy agreed. The following night, he got all of the sudden sad. When I went to say good night to him in his room, I noticed that his head was buried into his pillow and he was wimpering. After much prodding, I found out that he had gotten so attached to his tooth that he didn't want to give it to the tooth fairy. I felt bad for him. I told him I'd write her another note and I'm sure she would be willing to let him keep it, but she asks that he's a good boy in return. He was so happy. The following school day, he put it in a jar and had it passed around for his class to see (don't ask where he gets these ideas). Here's a picture of him with his front tooth gone...look at that mischievious smile...

Happy Birthday, Little M!

It's hard to believe we just celebrated our M's second birthday. I still think of her as my baby. She still will be my baby until the next one comes! Two years ago, I was scheduled to go in to have a c-section with Miss M. I was terrified and had no idea what to expect. That same day was also election day. I remember that there was an important marriage amendment that was on the chopping block in VA(kind of like Prop 8) and I thought it was my civic duty to go vote. So off I went to vote, slapped my "I Voted" sticker on, and made my way to the hospital to have my sweet M. The memory is so clear to me because of the elections we just had.

As you all know, I always do a shout out to my kiddos on their birthday. Here's to Miss M. She our cuddlebug. We can always count on a hug and kiss from her. She is the most easy-going girl ever. Maybe it's because she's had to get toted around her whole life to her older siblings' activities. You will never hear a peep out of her. She's always just happy to be out and about with us, no matter what the activity. We are so grateful that she goes with the flow of our family. She is a smart little gal. She can already pick out letters of the alphabet in books, count to 12, and even count backwards from five. She speaks in complete sentences now and usually composes 4-5 word sentences. She is my little helper...always looking for things that should be put away or is out of place and does it without being asked (now if her older sibblings could follow that example). She is our singer and dancer. She is definitely our princess. She is known for testing out "poofiness" of dresses by twirling around to make sure it fits her descrimination and approval.

We love you more than words can say! Here's to you, "Mootsie," Happy Birthday!

We took her to good old Chuck E. Cheese for the birthday.

Here's a little clipping of M blowing out the candles (a little early)...

Field Trip Re-do

T's field trip for preschool was on the same day as the Palin rally (see below posting). After the rally, the roads were jammed up and it was extremely cold outside. I was supposed to get home and take her to her field trip, but given those factors, I had her skip. I felt very guilty because she was excited to ride the bus, but I told her I'd make it up to her. G man had his field trip to a farm a few days beforehand (it was in the high 40's most of the day). He actually had a blast and wanted to go back, so we decided do a field trip re-do for T on a nicer day (70 degree weather). There were huge slides that the kids loved. T convinced us to pay extra to ride a pony there. I normally wouldn't have (I am so against paying an admission fee and then additional fee for other stuff, but that's another story), but I was still feeling guilty for having her miss the field trip, so I caved. She loved it. Being right after Halloween, they had these people on these platforms very high up in the air throwing pumpkins down and smashing them. I think that was the highlight of the day for them...watching the pumpkins hit the ground in a loud bang and see the bits scatter all over the place. Maybe we could have saved some money and just let Cedric climb up on the roof of our house and smash all of our old pumpkins! I don't think that would have been as cool, though. Hopefully, we made it up to Miss T okay. By the look on her face throughout the day, I think we did.

Halloween

You got a sneak peak in our header picture, but here are some more, in case you wanted to take a look. We had a fun time at our ward party, trick-or-treating at the mall during the day, and then around the neighborhood afterwards. For some reason, this year, the kids barely got any candy around the neighborhood. Their baskets are usually overflowing to the point where we have to dump candy out for them mid-way. This time, after the entire night, they didn't even fill up half of their buckets. Is the bad economy to blame for people skimping? Believe me, it was plenty, though! I cannot complain. I have hidden their candy in a safe place. Surprisingly, they haven't asked for it. It's almost like they have forgotten. Then, I use it as a prize or bribery later and it works every time! Hope everyone had a happy Halloween!

M was a cute princess...

G was a Redskins player...

T was a Redskins cheerleader...

Here are all the cousins before heading out...

Cedric was the Incredible Hulk for our ward party (poor man's costume put together in 5 mins.)

I was a pumpkin (since Cedric decided to dress up, I had to also, so I wouldn't feel left out)...

Sarah Palin Rally

Traffic on the street behind my house...

Tiny me at the rally...my ankles hurt from trying to stand on my tippy toes the entire time!

Not the best image of her, but all I could get from the crowd...

With the elections approaching, I have been thinking a lot about my beliefs, what I want for my family, and where I'd like this country to be. As most of you probably know, VA is considered a battleground state. This is monumental because VA has always been a red state. This shows the changing views of the residents in our area. It has been all over the national news that the county that we live in and a few others in VA could very well decide the outcome of VA. With that said, last week, my town hosted an Obama rally that had probably 15,000 people attend. Traffic was stalled for hours. I didn't attend that one (you can guess why). Then, this past week, Sarah Palin came to town. The rally was held in an area literally in our backyard! I could not miss out on this opportunity. How often can you say you actually saw a Vice Presidential candidate speak in person? We walked over there and are so glad we made it. We saw so many friends there too, and it was a good feeling to know that we are all actively a part of the political process. I can't say that Sarah Palin said anything I wouldn't have heard on t.v., but what an experience to be there in that atmosphere! I hope you all vote on November 4th! It is so important and wonderful that we are able to live in a country where it is possible.

Pumpkin Picking

We went on a search for the perfect pumpkin. Unfortunately, it was freezing outside and M fell asleep in the car, so it was me and the older two. We froze our tooshes off and picked one in record time. Cedric stayed in the car with M and I had to carry a 20+ lb. pumpkin back to the car. That was the fastest pumpkin picking I've ever seen! We are excited to carve it. Check back later to see our carving skills!

Hair Cuts

Here we go again...T insists that I cut her hair instead of going to a salon. Every time she does this, I sweat bullets because I am so afraid of butchering it (literally). I decided to give her a shorter look. She was a champ sitting there for me for what seemed like an eternity as I chopped a little here and then there and then here again. I was so paranoid it would come out a disaster. This is my second time doing this. Here are the before and after pics. I also decided to give Miss M a little trim too (her first cut) while we were at it. I thought she would look cute with bangs. I may have cut them too short, but hopefully it will look cute when they grow a little.

T Before....
T After...

M Before with her cheesey smile...
M After...

Luray Caverns

G has really shown an interest in science. For the longest time, he has begged and begged for us to go to these caverns so he could see stalagmites, etc. For Columbus Day, school was out and we made Cedric skip work because it was again, 80 degrees out. We thought it would be a beautiful drive with the fall foliage through the Shenandoah area. We were right! It was fun to see all the leaves change color. This is probably my most favorite season of the year. The kids loved the caverns. They had quite a bit of an imagination with the rock formations. They loved telling us what they thought the formations looked like. This was the end to our busy weekend while the weather stayed warm!

Apple Pickin

I think this is the first time I had to turn the heat and air conditioner on in the same week. This past weekend, we had weather in the 80's. We had to take full advantage of it. We took the kids apple picking. I didn't realize how many different apples there were out there. Before we loaded up on certain apple types, I made Cedric do a taste test to see if we wanted to pick any of them. By the fifth kind, he wasn't so willing to be our taster. I didn't blame him! The winner for taste for us was the Golden Delicious. The kids loved picking the apples off the trees. We have so many apples now that I have to get pretty creative with what to do with them! I've made apple crisp and will make some apple pie later today. I think I will make some apple dumplings soon too. If you have any good apple recipes, bring them on!

Clearing the Air

I have to comment on my previous post. I'm totally laughing (I'm probably the only one laughing) because there were so many people that thought I was really sick. The previous post was my attempt to make our big announcement in a funny/witty way, but I think I was one of the few that actually got it. So, if you don't get it, just replace the word "mummy" with "mommy" and hopefully you will then understand what I am saying! If not, I will just simply say, we are expecting our fourth Moran kiddo in late March/early April. It will surely add to the craziness of everything, but we couldn't be happier!!!

Egyptian Fever

These past couple of weeks, the kids have had all sorts of illnesses. It may be from the lovely germ spreading arena of school. I, too, had not been feeling well. I usually don't go to the doctor unless it is life or death, but I wanted to get some sort of relief, whether it be antibiotics, or just an assurance that it would go away. When I went to the doc, they ran numerous tests on me and took enough blood to fill the Nile. My doc later came back with the diagnosis. He said I have a rare case of Egyptian Fever. The bad news is that the symptoms will last for several months. Ultimately, when the symptoms are gone, I will then transform into a mummy. I told him that this is not as rare as it may seem, because I have had this case of Egyptian Fever three times before. So, now I am preparing to turn into a mummy for the fourth time. I assured the doctor that being a mummy isn't so bad! Be prepared for my mummy transformation in late March/early April. Stay tuned for details!

Let the Games Begin!

This past week, the rat race began. Sports. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love watching my kids play sports. I look forward to it, but this time, the coordinating nightmare has started for us. G started baseball again. He has one practice and two games per week. T started soccer this week also. She has one game/practice per week. This past weekend started like this: We loaded T's carseat in Cedric's car. Both of us drove to G's baseball game by 9am. By 9:40, Cedric was off taking T to soccer and I stayed with G to cheer him on with M. After G's game, we were calling each other to see if one ended before the other to coordinate meeting up.

I know this gets crazier as multiple kids enter multiple sports. I have to give it up to all the parents out there that juggle this. This was our first time with two in sports and we felt so guilty about splitting up and not having both of us there to support them at each event. I must say that I am very proud of them for how they've played so far. I guess we will be doing a lot of switching off this season. I don't see an end to this soon. G already has said he wants to do basketball in the winter and T wants to do gymnastics. Hopefully I can buy a few more years before M starts on something. We will just have to take it as it comes at us!