A Trip to Remember

On June 9th, Morgan, David, and I headed to Phoenix. My sister Chrissy and her family were flying in from TN on the 10th. Since the 9th was my niece, Lindsey's birthday we went up early so we could celebrate with her. Then early on the 10th we headed down to Sky Harbor to pick up Chrissy and her family.

We were all very anxious to see them as it had been two years to the day since we had last gotten together. Then it had been Morgan and I meeting up with Jen, Caity, and Lindsey in Nashville. We had then spent a week down at Chrissy's house. This time it was their turn to come visit. Words can not accurately explain how great it was to see them and to just spend a whole week playing.

We sat waiting for them to arrive expecting a phone call to tell us they were off the plane. Instead we noticed them walking down the pathway and then Chrissy and Abigail started sprinting towards us. Morgan was so excited to see her cousins.

Morgan showing off her big blue wheelchair to her cousin Abigail. This was the first time they had seen her chair. In fact, while we were in TN two years ago is when we first learned that Morgan had been approved to receive her chair.

After getting off the plane Trey and Keith's first request was to stop at In and Out burger for lunch on the way home from the airport. They don't have any in TN and had been craving them. We decided to split up. David, Morgan, Chrissy, Abigail and I took off in the van and headed to my dad's house to get settled while the rest went to the drive thru of In and Out. After enjoying some yummy lunch Jen and the girls came over to see everyone. Once all the kids were busy playing Jen, Chrissy, and I took off for a busy afternoon grocery shopping. We had a giant list complete with all the things needed for 5 dinners fit to feed 14 people. We needed to go to three stores and since it was well into the high 90's we grabbed a cooler. After the first store the cooler was completely full. Luckily we found a great deal at Costco on some cooler bags and were able to fill them with our loot from Costco. After one more stop and 2 1/2 hours later we were heading back to my dads. You should have seen the look on my dad and JoAnne's face when we arrived with all that food. I don't think they have ever had that much food in their fridge. They were worried it wouldn't all fit, but we made it work. The rest of the day was spent just hanging out playing. The kids had a blast catching up; it was like no time had past since they had seen each other last. Of course the main difference was that this time Morgan and Abigail were right in the mix of things with all the big kids.

That first night the kids stayed up pretty late. That was the only night that Morgan was not the first to crash....while playing the Left, Right, Center game with some pennies Elijiah wandered away from the table. Chrissy, Keith, and I were busy setting up the air mattress in the guest bedroom when David came running in telling us we needed to go out to the living room to see Elijiah. This is what we found when we walked in:

He was so tuckered out. He and the rest of the family had been up since about 3 am TN time, which was midnight our time. 20 hours later he couldn't keep his eyes open any longer. He curled up in Morgan's tiny green chair and passed out. Too cute!

Not long after we all followed suit. By nine all the kids were in bed. That was the earliest bedtime all week!

The next morning all the kids were up bright and early. Morgan was the last one to wake up and she was up by 6:15 shouting in the Casita "My cousins are here!" We looked out the door to see if it looked like anyone was up and noticed a blind in the guest bedroom was up, that was Chrissy's way of indicating the kids were awake and we could come in the house (since Morgan isn't a quiet kid we thought it was best to wait until everyone was up before going in the house). Right away the kids were ready to play. They quickly found all the Nerf guns and spent the next hour or so having one huge Nerf gun war. Poor JoAnne is probably still finding darts around her house.

After a little Nerf gun war and some breakfast Morgan and Abigail decided they wanted to go to the park to play. They had a blast on the teeter-totter, slides, and swings. Morgan's favorite part was on the swings when Abigail kept saying, "Hello, Goodbye." Morgan was cracking up so hard. It was hilarious.

As Morgan kept saying after the trip "Abigail's my best buddy." The girls really were great friends on this visit. They insisted on holding hands together everywhere we went.

After the park it was back to my dad's house for a little Wii time. Morgan and Abigail broke out the High School Musical game and had a blast trying to sing a long.

Jen and the girls then came over from some lunch and then we all took off to my dad and JoAnne's friends house Tess and Rich. They have a pool that they very kindly said we could use at anytime while we were all visiting. The kids all had a blast swimming for about 2 hours.

Morgan loves getting tosses.

After swimming we headed back to my dad's house to clean up and get ready to go to the mall. Abigail didn't even make it around the corner to my dad's house before crashing out. Morgan made it through a bath and getting all dressed, but as David put on her braces and shoes she crashed out too. We actually were able to transfer her from the couch to the carseat and she slept the whole way to the mall. Trey and Elijiah wanted to go to the mall to check out the new Lego store and Abigail wanted to go to Build-a-Bear to get the new Hello Kitty doll.

That night was the first of many very late nights playing. I think the kids all made it to bed around 10 that night. The next day was filled with a lot more playtime around my dad's house. Chrissy and her family took off for a bit in the morning so David and I were able to enjoy some quiet time and get some of Morgan's therapy done. We then took off with Chrissy and her family to her brother-in-law Paul's house for some more swimming. That evening we had dinner back at my dad and JoAnne's house and the kids put together a "movie" for us all to enjoy. Caity wrote the screen play and each of the kids had a role. It was very cute.

Morgan and Abigail always get matching pjs during our visits.

The next day we went over to Jen's house for the day to play. Morgan and Abigail found all of Lindsey's Barbie dolls and Morgan found the Barbie's horses. She was in heaven playing with the horses all day.

Chrissy picked up some glow in the dark chalk for the kids to test out. After dinner they had to first make the chalk.
While the chalk was setting we all took off to Lindsey's favorite dessert shop, Yogurtology. When we got back to Jen's the chalk was set so the kids headed out back to graffiti the walls. It was really hard to photograph, but the chalk really did glow. It was a lot of fun.

Caity then wanted to show everyone her card trick she had learned from Pa.

Since it was Monday evening Jen and I attempted to watch our favorite show, the Bachlorette (I got her addicted to it during our trip to TN two years ago). I say we attempted because while we were trying to watch the show the rest of the family was in the front room playing Apples to Apples. They were SO loud that even with the tv on almost full volume we could hardly hear it. Don't ask me how Keith and Abigail managed to fall asleep through all that, but they did:

Around 9:45 Morgan had finally had it. Chrissy brought her in to me and she fell alseep in my lap. Around 10 the rest of the family agreed that it was getting late and headed back to Dad and JoAnne's. Since Morgan was out and I had therapy to do still I stayed behind so Jen and I could finish watching our show without interruption. Thank goodness for DVR.


The next morning Chrissy and the family took off to visit with some friends in the morning while Morgan and Caity hung out around Dad and JoAnne's. Caity was into a new fad with making everything out of duct tape. Her favorite was making flowers. Morgan helped out and even made me a flower pen (her own version) all on her own.

That evening before dinner we headed to the front of Triology to take some family pictures while we had all the kids together. We had done one four years ago when Morgan was one month old and thought it was about time we updated the photos. Since JoAnne has a great camera we decided to ask her just to take the pictures rather than going somewhere to get them done. The girls all decided to get matching shirts. The pictures came out great!!!! Thank you JoAnne for taking them!

Trey 11, Elijiah 7, Abigail 4, Lindsey 10, Morgan 4, Caity 12

A little brotherly love.

I love this picture! Caity is such a great big cousin to Morgan. We are hoping to have her come stay in Tucson again for a few days this summer.

Pa and Nanny with their grandkids.

The cousins: Trey, Elijiah, Lindsey, Tyler (my step brother Nolan's son), Morgan, Abigail, and Caity.

The Conner girls and their girls

The Conner girls and all their kiddos.

As I said before, it is hard to explain in words how incredibly wonderful it was to spend so much time with my sisters and their families. We miss them already! Thanks Dad and JoAnne for making this family reunion possible!

The girl LOVES her horses

Even before Morgan began riding back in late September she had a love for animals, especially horses. I think it began back when she was around 2 and we first ran into Mosey outside of her therapy clinic.

But since she started riding her love for horses has deepen. Then, for Christmas her Uncle Brad bought her a giant toy horse. She loved this horse and asked to bring it every where with her. She named her horse Monty and took such good care of him giving him pretend baths and all.

Remember this...

When Morgan's birthday was coming nearer and we started asking her what she wanted for her birthday one of her main requests was she wanted her Uncle Brad to get her another horse like Monty. Well, with the help of her Grandma, Uncle Brad came through and found Morgan not only one new horse, but 4 and they came with a stable!!!! Morgan was in horsey heaven. She loves her stable and I love watching her play with it. She can stay occupied for well over 30 minutes at a time with the stable and plays with it multiple times a day.

About a week after we had the stable she asked me to put her horsey's names on their stables just like Monty's real stable. I asked her to tell me the names of each of her horses and then I put them on the stalls for her: Roxy, Paddywack, Monty, and Bart. Roxy is the white horse, just like the beautiful white horse named Roxy at TROT. Paddywack is the orange horse who looks just like the pony Paddywack in her new favorite book called "Paddywack," Monty of course looks just like the real Monty and Bart is the gray one.



Morgan likes to take each horse out of their stall and place them in the "meadow" by the fence. One at a time they then jump the fence. When she puts them away she is always sure to offer them some 'hay' and says good night to each one.

Lately her horses have been doing everything with her. She insists on giving them baths with her (taking their turns in pairs) and having them eat with her. This morning while they were watching her eat she said to me "Look Mommy, my horses are eating too."

It is a bit hard to see her orange spoon, but she is feeding Paddywack her cereal.

After breakfast we headed out shopping. Part of our shopping trip was to look for a new horse. Morgan recently rode a different horse at TROT, Monty was being a bit of a grumpy old man due to the wind one Wednesday, so Morgan rode Grace. Since then she has been asking for a Grace horse.

She ended up (with the help of Grandma again) finding an adorable stuffed animal horse that looks just like the real Grace. She was anxious to get home and introduce Grace to the rest of the horses. She played with her stable and horses for a good hour this afternoon and then of course took two for their baths (it was Roxy and Paddywack's turn tonight). After bath we tucked them into their stalls and then she grabbed Grace for bed. Thankfully Grace is a soft horse, she slept with Roxy and Paddywack the other night which couldn't have been too comfy.

Like I said, this girl LOVES her horses.

Happy Birthday 4 Year Old!

Ever since I was a little girl I have LOVED my birthday. The one day of the whole year that is just all about celebrating me! I want Morgan to look back when she is older and remember her birthdays as always being a very special day...so when she woke up on the morning of her birthday this is what she found: Morgan loves balloons and was very disappointed after her party when the balloons had began to deflate and I told her it was time to say good bye to them, so David and I made her some paper balloons. He then created the sign and did a great job decorating it. He is such an amazing Dad.

Morgan was thrilled to see the decorations when she woke up and immediately began shouting that it was her birthday. I had taken my "birthday day" at work (yes, we are given one day off a year as our "birthday" and if we don't use it we lose it) and David decided that he would drive into work that day so he could take Morgan to school with me. Morgan was so excited to have us both at home to enjoy her birthday breakfast. We made her some pancakes and sang her Happy Birthday!

Again she blew out her candle without any problems. She was so proud of herself and how big she is getting.

After enjoying some breakfast together it was time to head to school. Morgan was so excited that David would be going with us because she wanted to show him the "silly glasses" she had discovered the day before in the dress-up center.

Morgan with her "silly glasses."

While Morgan was at school I rushed to the grocery store and then it was off to Eegee's. Since Morgan is on a gluten free diet now and since things are supposed to be store bought rather than baked at home this was the easiest thing I could come up with. So I rushed into town to buy the Eegee's and then rushed back to be at school by snack time at 10:15. I am glad I went with the Eegee's as it was a huge hit.

Morgan's teachers at school made her a hot pink tiarra to wear.

We first celebrated with Morgan's morning preschool class.

Her para, Ms. JoLynn, gave her a present. She is too sweet and spoils Morgan. She got her a new Fancy Nancy sticker book and made her some homemade bows. Morgan LOVED the bows and was so excited to wear them.

After eating with her morning class we headed out to the playground to play. We stayed until the morning class dismissed so we could head down to her afternoon class (she goes all day two days a week) to celebrate with them before heading home.

The birthday girl got a huge hug from her buddy Max in the afternoon class.

Morgan of course wanted to stop and do the teeter-totter before making her way down to Ms. Amber's afternoon class.

Enjoying some Eegee's with her afternoon friends.

After all the Eegee's was pretty much gone and everyone had a good sugar high going I was like any other mom, I said good luck to the teachers and took my child home for the rest of the day! It was so nice getting to be a mom and just hang out with my daughter at school on her birthday. I may end up saving my "birthday day" for Morgan's birthday every year!

We spent the afternoon just hanging out. Around 4:30 Donna and Charley came over to enjoy a birthday dinner with the birthday girl. We made one of her favorite dinners, but Morgan could have cared less. The entire dinner she kept asking when it would be time to open presents. We decided that we better do presents before dessert and went ahead and let Morgan open her gifts.

Morgan opening her gift from David and I. She has been so into dress-up and Tangled lately that we bought her the Repunzel dress-up costume. She loved it and wanted to put it on right away.

But first we told her to open her Grandparents gifts as we knew they went along with the dress. Donna and Charley kept with the Tangled theme and got her a new Repunzel doll, a t-shirt, and three new nightgowns (because 1 just is never enough for Grandma :) ).

Our little birthday princess!

She loved her new doll.

After playing with her new doll and enjoying time in her new dress we finally convinced her to return to the table for a little banana split (again, being gluten free we opted for ice cream and fruit instead of cake).

Look how big she is!

After a long birthday our big girl was tuckered out. She fell asleep cuddling her new doll. Too sweet!

The next day the birthday fun was not over yet. It was Wednesday and as usual we had TROT. Jess and the other ladies at TROT along with Monty are all so great to Morgan. They took the time yet again to dress Monty up with hot pink bows for Morgan and this time painted him with hot pink paint to wish Morgan a happy birthday. She was "tickled pink" to see him all dolled up again.

On this side they painted "Birthday girl"

On the other side it said Happy birthday and up towards the front it said I love (well, it was a heart) Morgan.

I can hardly believe that another year has flown by and that our little girl is now four. It still seems like just yesterday she was born and we were sitting in the NICU learning how to stretch her and bath her. We are so incredibly blessed to have such an amazing daughter. I know that all parents think their child is just the sweetest thing ever, but Morgan truly is. She doesn't have a hateful bone in her body. She adores life and every one in her life. Despite all she has gone through and continues to go through daily she wakes up every morning with the biggest smile on her face and is so excited about what lies ahead of her each day. As David always tells her "she is our sunshine!"