Manicure Please!

Yesterday morning the three of us were enjoying a nice Sunday morning breakfast together when all of a sudden Morgan turned to David and said "Daddy, paint nails please." It was too sweet. She knew that after breakfast I would be sitting down to work on a presentation I am giving later this week (will explain that later) and that she would be spending time playing with her Daddy.

Being the sweet Daddy that he is David agreed that they could paint nails, but of course Morgan knows that painting nails isn't all there is to it. She immediately started making demands for her daddy to get out the water and lotion. She wanted to the full pampering (thanks Nanny for teaching her all about how to be a girlie girl, can't wait til we can take her to the real salon).

Morgan soaking her fingers.

How adorable! David even went all fancy with them. Morgan couldn't decide between pink or red so he split each nail down the middle and did half pink half red. They look perfect for Valentine's day.

Blowing her nails dry.

All done! Morgan was so proud of how her nails turned out.

Where have we been?????

I feel like I have totally neglected the blog for the past month, which is true. Life has taken over. We are back to school, work, therapy, and on top of all that it is basketball season which means I am a single mom a few nights a week. It also means that we have been hanging out a lot with Georgia and Lucas. Morgan loves going to the games even though she really doesn't pay too much attention to the game itself. Instead it is all about Luke and dancing. The second we arrive in the gym the first thing Morgan always asks me is "Where's Luke? Where's Luke, Mommy?" Once we find Luke she enjoys trying to chase him every where, because boy is that little man everywhere this season. During the games Morgan is all about dancing. Every time the game is stopped for a time out or quarter change Morgan instantly says "Mommy, get down, dance!" She loves to shake her booty in the stands and to watch the cheerleaders do flips and stunts. After each game it is then play time. Again Morgan gets down either in her walker or wheelchair and chases after Luke. He loves to grab one of the basketballs lying around after the game and run all over the court with it. Morgan does her best to keep up and when she can stop him for a second she likes to pass the ball back and forth with him. It is adorable to watch these two together. They are such good friends and act as though they are actual cousins most of the time fighting over toys and being naughty to each other. Luke loves to grab Morgan's pigs and she has taken to bossing him around and telling him "No, No Luke" or "No, that's MINE!"

Morgan and Luke together before a game.
Luke can already fit in Morgan's shirt from last year.
This year Morgan has taken to accessorizing her outfit with copper beads.

I know this one was blurry, but her little smile is just so sweet.

Trying to get them both to look at the camera and smile at the same time is next to impossible.

It's CHRISTMAS!!!!

This Christmas was a memorable one. Morgan was really into it this year and was counting down the days. She had made one of those traditional counting red and green link chains at preschool and brought it home to immediately hang on our tree. Every morning the first thing she wanted to do when she got up was go to the tree and pull a ring off. She was so excited that for the last month about every five minutes or so she would tell us "Santa coming, any minute. Santa coming soon."

As usual we spent our Christmas Eve down at Donna and Charley's enjoying some great food, classic Christmas movies, and time with each other.

Morgan enjoyed checking out Grandma's tree. She discovered that she could hang a candy cane from her nose. We couldn't capture it on camera, but here she is setting it up. Too funny!

Since I was a little girl it has been tradition to open pajamas on Christmas Eve. My mom still keeps this tradition up for her grandkids sending them each a new pair to open that night. This year Morgan got a Fancy Nancy nightgown. She was SO excited when she opened it and saw it had her favorite fancy girl on them.

By the time we left Donna and Charley's that night Morgan was exhausted. She didn't even make it to the end of their street before crashing out. When we got home we did Morgan's usual nightly stretches and then put her down for the night. Since she didn't have time to leave her cookies and milk out for Santa I set them out for her. He left her a very nice little note, but I forgot to get a picture of it.

Morgan woke up Christmas morning around 6:15. David and I went in together to get her up, pulled off her braces, and set her in her wheelchair. While we were doing all that she heard something barking from the living room. You should have seen her face. She lit up and shouted "a puppy!" Of course, it was not a real puppy, but thankfully Morgan was not disappointed. She drove out to living room and discovered her big girl bed and doggie that Santa had brought her.

Morgan was so excited about her doggie. She immediately wanted to take her doggie for a walk and to love on her. Morgan quickly decided on the name "snowball" for her doggie.

While Morgan played with her new doggie we quickly put on a pot of coffee and then settled down to open stockings and gifts as a family.
Morgan's favorite stocking stuffer was the slinky Santa brought for her.

This year not only was Morgan really into getting gifts, but she also gave some too. She made us an ornament at preschool and wrapped it there. She brought it home on her last day before break and we set it under the tree. She then told me, "Mommy, shhh it's a surprise." She kept her gift a secret the whole time. She also got gifts for her family (we went to the dollar store together and I let her pick out whatever she wanted). Morgan did a great job finding the perfect gift for each person. For her Daddy she chose a new pair of earphones. She knows him so well, he is constantly misplacing his earphones.

Morgan received many new games from us like Yahtzee Jr., Chutes and Ladders, and a preschool computer game. One of her favorite things to do is get on our computer and play Starfall. She loves to play the games on there, but usually needs our help because of the right click on the mouse. Well, we found her a great kid-friendly one click mouse and this keyboard. She loves her new computer set up (I have a picture of it at the end).

Morgan went on a ride in her new bed to bring it into her room. She couldn't wait to see how it would look.

After we had the chance to celebrate Christmas morning just the three of us we were joined by Donna, Charley, Brad, and of course Sophie for a Christmas breakfast and more gifts. Morgan was completely spoiled as usual; especially by her Uncle Brad.

Can you guess what this is?

Morgan LOVED her new pony. In fact she hasn't left the house without it in the past week. She baths it (pretend), combs it's mane, and takes it to the vet for check-ups.

When I said Morgan got everyone in the family a gift, I did mean everyone.
In fact the thing that started the whole idea of her buying gifts for everyone was that she first insisted on getting Sophie a gift. Not just any gift, a tug toy. Morgan and I were out Christmas shopping one Sunday afternoon for her grandparents when all of a sudden in the car ride to the mall she says,
"Mommy, Sophie gift too"
"Oh, okay, what should we get Sophie?" I ask
To which Morgan replies, "Tug toy. How about a pink one."
"A pink tug toy, I bet Sophie would like that. I am not sure if we can find a pink one though."
"How bout red one. Like Santa's suit."
It went on like this for a while and the whole time we were shopping she kept reminding me that we needed to go find Sophie a tug toy. So this sparked my idea of taking her to the dollar store and letting her get gifts for everyone. So when we left the mall I filled in her with my idea and immediately the kid was excited and starting thinking of ideas for people. Here is what she ended up finding:

Sophie: A beige stuffed bone with a tug rope on the end.
Daddy: earphones
Uncle Brad: A book
Grandpa: a tie
Grandma: a flower pot and flower seeds
Aunt Carol: a necklace
Uncle Dave: a Santa hat that said naughty on one side and nice on the other

After opening gifts it was time to really open them all up and play with them. Morgan's first choice was to set-up the "zoo" her Uncle Brad got her.

Playing zoo with Uncle Brad.

Here is Morgan's big girl bed set up in her bedroom. It looks pretty good in there and matches with everything so we don't have to repaint or do new curtains. Thank goodness! I know it doesn't look finished since really it is just a mattress and bed frame, but we really don't have room the full headboard, footboard thing. Morgan needs room to be able to get in her room with her wheelchair, walker, etc... so this will have to do.

After spending the morning at our house playing with all Morgan's cool new stuff we cleaned ourselves up and headed down to Donna and Charley's for Christmas dinner and more gifts.

A rare family photo. Can you tell we are all concentrating on Morgan's standing rather than smiling for the camera?

David's big new gift this year was a Droid X. My intent was to surprise him with it on Christmas, but Verizon had other plans when they mailed the phone activated and all of a sudden Wednesday morning I go to make a call to find out that my cell phone is no longer working. Thankfully about 30 minutes later the new phones arrived on our doorstep, but my surprise was about to be ruined. If David went to make a call he would instantly discover that his phone is not working and would be on to me, so I had to make a quick decision, I threw Morgan in the car and raced to his work for "lunch." When we got there we surprised him with his phone. So, he got his gift a few days early. Anyway, Morgan loves his new "toy" and is constantly wanting to play with it. She calls it his "ipad" since that is what she relates it to with the touchscreen. Her speech teacher at school has one that Morgan uses, this kid knows more about technology at 3 1/2 than I do.

The gift opening this time was more for the adults, but Morgan still had a few things to open.

In fact, after a while Grandma decided not to have Morgan finish. She saved a few gifts for later in the week when Morgan went over to their house again.

In all we had a fabulous Christmas. We were so thankful to get to spend it with our family and to continue to build such wonderful memories with them.

Here is Morgan a few days later "working" with her Daddy. David set her desk up right next to his so while he was working from home this week she was "working" with him.

Santa Day 2010!

Since Morgan's first Christmas four years ago ( I can't believe she has already celebrated her fourth Christmas) we have driven to Phoenix the weekend before to celebrate early with my side of the family and to have "Santa Day!"

Santa Day is a great afternoon that my Dad and stepmom, JoAnne, host at their house. They invite all their grandkids, friends' grandkids, nieces, nephews, basically anyone who would like to come celebrate the season and see Santa. JoAnne always has crafts planned for the kids, we do an ornament exchange (white elephant style) and of course, the highlight of the day, Santa comes to visit!

The first two years we went up for Santa Day Morgan didn't really have a clue of what was going on. It was a fun time, but let's get real, it was more for us then for her. Last year though Morgan was really starting to understand the holidays and knew who Santa was. She was very excited to see him and when he first stepped into my Dad's backyard she shouted at the top of her lungs "SANTA!".

This year though has been our best yet. Morgan truly understood the holidays, all about Santa, asking for presents, and even the idea of giving gifts to others. This was truly a Christmas to remember.

Santa Day this year was nice and small, only about 6 kids were able to make it. That turned out to be great for Morgan. She was able to keep up pretty well with the group and didn't have to wait long at all for her turn with Santa. Since the group was small we were able to have Morgan in her walker. She walked right up to Santa when it was her turn and threw her hands straight up in the air asking him to pick her up. She cherished every moment she had on his lap. This year Morgan asked Santa for a big girl bed, and at the last moment through in "and a doggie."

Morgan checking out Santa. I love how she is just staring straight into his eyes. Too cute!

That night we had a great time hanging out with our family. Morgan's oldest cousin, Caity, decided to spend the night so she could have extra time with Morgan. Morgan was in heaven. She and Caity are best buds and she adores having her big cousin there to play with and help take care of her. Now that Caity is old enough she will pick Morgan up (although she is getting a bit heavy) and carry her around or just hold her. Morgan kept walking up to Caity in her walker and asking her to pick her up. It was very sweet.

That night Caity curled up in bed with Morgan. Around 5 am Morgan woke with her usual need to be turned over into a new sleeping position, however, when I rotated her she opened her eyes just enough to spot Caity and it was all over. She shrieked at the top of her lungs and then shouted "Caity!" There was no way she was going back to sleep. Poor Caity, I felt so bad, but she was a good sport. She got up with Morgan and me and sat with Morgan while she ate some breakfast. She then took Morgan back into the bedroom and put on some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse for her to watch while they curled up in bed together. I took advantage of that time to hop in the shower. When I got out Morgan was quietly watching TV curled up with Caity who was fast asleep again. Poor thing.

Later that morning the rest of the Wood family returned to join us for breakfast and gifts. Morgan was very excited to open presents. Her first present she opened was from her Pa and Nanny. They know Morgan very well and found a gift that was perfect for her, Dance Star Mickey! Morgan opened it up and immediately wanted to see him groove. She was so excited and kept shrieking at the top of her lungs. Her younger cousin, Tyler, was not sure what to make of him.

Morgan then opened a few more presents including a princess dress-up kit and a horse stamp kit. She was very excited to play with all her new toys and was so thankful for her gifts.
We had a great time celebrating an early Christmas, but after the long weekend we were all exhausted and ready to head home.

Winter Wonderland!

A few weeks ago I finally convinced David after living in Tucson for almost 10 years to take me to Winterhaven. It is a small little neighborhood near the center of Tucson and every house goes all out with Christmas lights. They even have trolly and wagon rides through the neighborhood. Before heading out to see the lights we had dinner at the Johnson's to celebrate an early Christmas with Matt, Georgia, and Lucas since they would be in Colorado for the actual holiday.

Morgan loved her new "Santa" Potato Head.

She wanted to try on the beard herself. She thought this was hilarious!

It was a cold night in Tucson (about 50 degrees), so we bundled Morgan up and headed out.

She loved checking out all the lights.

And enjoyed trying out different winter hats. She thought this hat was great because she could pull it down over her face and play peek a boo.

About halfway through the neighborhood Morgan realized it was about her bedtime and started asking to go home. All in all we had a great time hanging out as a family getting into the Christmas spirit. Hopefully we will be able to convince David to take us again next year.

Riding into the sunset!

Morgan continues to make amazing progress each week in TROT. She is learning to sit up so well on Monty and is riding longer and longer each week. In fact, for the past two lessons Morgan has rode for the entire hour.

When Morgan rides there is another girl that rides at the same time. She is much older (I believe she may be in high school) and so she has a much bigger horse. Morgan loves her horse, Bart. Every time Morgan and Monty are in the riding arena Morgan always asks "Where's Bart?" A few weeks ago Morgan and Monty raced Bart and his rider. It was a lot of fun, so during her lesson on December 2nd her OT, Jess, told Morgan that if she did a great job riding they would end the lesson going on a trail ride with Bart. Morgan of course did an amazing job and worked hard, so after 45 minutes of riding in the arena it was time to ride off on a sunset trail ride. Morgan was so excited! She kept yelling "Mommy, follow me... follow me Mommy!"

Here is Morgan and Monty following Bart and his rider.

The sun really was setting when we were out on the trail, so some pictures are not the best.

Along the trail there were many fun obstacles. This was Morgan's favorite.

Morgan enjoyed the noodles so much that she had to do them again.

After 57 minutes on Monty Morgan's trail ride was coming to an end. Instead of saying she was ready to go home Morgan asked her OT, Jess, "Go again, trail ride again."

Jess kindly told Morgan that Monty was hungry for dinner and that she could take another trail ride after her next lesson.
And we did just that.

Happy Thanksgiving!

So I have fallen so behind on posting. We have had a very busy start to the holiday season and are enjoying every minute of it.

Our Thanksgiving was very nice. Morgan is really starting to understand the holidays this year and in school they have created tons of projects for the holidays. Before Thanksgiving Morgan brought home two of the cutest projects: The typical turkey with the feathers she is thankful for and the Indian feather hat. Too cute!

Here is what Morgan was thankful for. Her teachers helped her write it, but she came up with her own ideas. In case you can't see them she said she was thankful for...
1. books
2. Sophie
3. Grandma and Grandpa
4. Mommy and Daddy
(Hopefully these weren't in any particular order)

Morgan proudly showing off her hat.

A couple of days before Thanksgiving Morgan's Great Aunt Carol and Uncle Dave came into town from Prescott. Her Uncle Brad came down from Phoenix as well. Morgan was very excited to have them all in town and was so excited that they came early because it meant they would be able to pick Morgan up from preschool on Wednesday. Morgan was excited to introduce them to all her friends and teachers, but the thing she was most looking forward to was introducing them all to Monty. They all had the chance to go and watch Morgan ride that afternoon.

The next day we celebrated Thanksgiving down at Donna's. As usual the food was amazing and plentiful. After dinner Morgan was spoiled with an early Christmas. Since her Great Aunt Carol and Uncle Dave will not be here for Christmas they wanted to give Morgan her gifts in person.

Morgan is very into presents this year. She tore them right open!
Morgan got some new books, a Toy Story activity kit, and three new outfits including these adorable snowman pjs that say "Snow Cute!"

After opening her presents Morgan instantly asked her Aunt Carol to read her one of her new books.

One of Morgan's favorite new activities is having 'dance parties'. She even convinced her Uncle Brad to join in the fun.