Seize the Day!

Yesterday while I folded laundry, I watched Newsies. I love that movie! And man, it makes me want to do something important. There's one song on there that I was singing all day yesterday, (poor Morgan) which I learned in a private school that I attended briefly.

Here are some of the lyrics.

Open the gates and seize the day,
Don't be afraid and don't delay
Nothing can break us, no one can make us
give our rights away.
Arise and seize the day!

Now is the time to seize the day!
Send out the call and join the fray!
Wrongs will be righted
If we're united.
Let us seize the day.

Friends of the friendless seize the day!
Raise up the torch and light the way!
Proud and defiant, we'll slay that giant
Let us seize the day!

Sheesh, it's like, inspiring! I want to shout to all the world, and be like, hey world, fight for your freedom! Don't wait until all of it's gone, do it now! Wrongs will be righted if we're united! And then I would break out in song and dance and everyone would join in and we would push the government off our backs and reclaim all those liberties which we have lost and neither Obama or McCain would become president because now nobody would vote for them because they would see that both are bad choices for our country and would send it spiraling downward in a giant fireball of doom.
Then I would whip out the constitution and show everybody what our country is supposed to be like, and all the things we have given up and things that have been taken away, and the nation, as a whole, would skip down the streets with great flair up to the doors of the White House to demand that our freedoms be restored. We would insist that we follow the constitution, which isn't outdated, because it was created, at the direction of God, to last through all ages.
Then, with brotherly and sisterly love we would hold hands and sing the chorus,

Neighbor to neighbor
Father to son
One for all, and all for one!

And thus we see that with a little bit of Newsies courage and a lot of wishful thinking, (mixed in with some musical talent) we could put our nation back where it should be. And with our liberties restored and our hearts musically uplifted we would find that morality would find its way back into the country. The family would cease to be attacked, marriage would once again be considered sacred, to more than just God, selfish ambition would be replaced with charity and long-suffering, the IRS would be disbanded since federal taxes are illegal and unconstitutional, we wouldn't need a rating system for movies because no one would stand for the filth that is put in them, people would know and care about their neighbors and life would be simple and happy.
The government may have closed the gates on many of our rights, but if there were enough people who recognized that and cared, and above all, ACTED we might actually be able to halt the downward progression our country is/has taking/taken.
And now I will jump down from my soap box and admit my hypocrisy. Have I acted? Well, I wrote and posted on the internet a silly fantasy and called out the government and people in general, on some of their scary actions, but I don't even think I can vote in the presidential election because I moved to a different state and apparently you have to re-register and the deadlines have passed for that.

Birthday hats!

From his Nelson Grandparents and Aunts, Morgan got a really cool gift for his birthday. Hats! Also, the book, The 500 Hats of Bartholomew, I think it's called, by Dr. Suess. Very clever. The hats are totally fun though, so we took a picture with all of them. They aren't all very good, but the camera was dying and having a hard time taking pictures.
After I took the photos we just sat and played for awhile. Morgan would jam a hat onto my bigger head and then put one on himself. Then he would rip it off of me, and replace it with another. He would have gone on forever if I was patient enough.
Even now, Morgan just saw the pictures of him and the hats and ran and got one for himself and me.

Here's the royal crown. (Mom Martin, recognize the shirt? Also a gift.)

This Oriental one might be Morgan's favorite. It was the first one he wanted to try on when he unwrapped the present.

This is how Morgan put this hat on. I had nothing to do with it. If he wants to be an 80's/90's cool dude, who am I to interfere? Maybe that's how the cool engineers wore the hats anyway.

This one he calls the "kitty hat."

I love this hat! I might wear it on Halloween. In fact, it would go well with Morgan's costume. He could wear this instead of the cowboy hat and it would still look good. Even the engineer hat would work.

If you can't decide which one to wear, why narrow it down? Two is great!

And of course, the fireman hat. Where would a little boy be without a fireman hat?

Thanks Nelsons! We love the gift!

Budding Photographer

Though he knows it's off limits, Morgan handles the camera every chance he gets. He knows how to turn it on and off, (which is a huge drain on the batteries!) and is learning how to take pictures. Here are some lovely photos taken by my dear Morgan.

Pumkin carving!

We got a pumpkin, (only one) and carved it Friday for date night. You know those kits that you get with books of patterns for the pumpkin? That's how I like to do mine, cause I know it will generally turn out cute, or frightening, or whatever. Aaron is morally opposed to them and thinks that to use them is to cheat. Yeah, well, if you are as creative and able as Aaron you can say that.
First Aaron sketched some ideas on paper. It was tough but we chose the winner. Then Aaron drew it on the pumpkin.

My job was to scoop out the guts. I later learned that I didn't do a very good job at my only job.

Then Aaron commenced the carving.

Then Stephanie and her kids arrived. When Aaron finished Steph posed with the jack-o-lantern

because they were kindred spirits. :)

Aaron made himself a head, in case he ever becomes the headless horseman.

Morgan, from birth till now

As you will notice, I had a hard time narrowing down. So many pictures! Also, I wanted them to go in the order from birth to now, but that didn't work out. So you get them as they are!

We sure love our Morgan. He's always so happy and fun. He's not a baby anymore though! Complete toddler.

Happy Birthday Morgan!

Morgan had a good day. He played with his cousins, went trunk-or-treating and had a family birthday party. I didn't get many pics of the party though. :( I did get it on video.

I let Morgan lick the cake batter off the beater. This was his first time ever getting to lick a beater. He has declared it good.

Aaron was the one to actually decorate the cake. It seems like that's supposed to be the Mom's/woman's job for some reason, but when your husband is more artistic and creative than you, it's time to hand over the reigns.


Morgan was excited about the cake. Here he is trying to blow out the candles from far away. He had a little help from Daddy.

We had the Lightening McQueen car on top of the cake as a topper. He was very interested in that and kept trying to take it off before the candles were blown out. When we did take it off, he saw that it was covered in frosting, which kind of grossed him out and he didn't want to have anything to do with it until it was clean.

Cousins and Trunk or Treat

We interrupt our regularly scheduled old journal entries to bring you this news. My sister and her two kids came for a visit. They arrived Friday night and are leaving later this afternoon. They came for Morgan's birthday. Yay! He was SO happy to see his cousins!
Stephanie bought matching outfits for Morgan and Mattie.


Here's our cowboy Morgan! My mom sent a birthday gift for Morgan and we opened the package while Morgan was asleep and wrapped it for him. However, he got a cute outfit with a vest. We wanted a vest for Morgan. So, we DIDN'T wrap the vest because it went so well with his costume.

The cousins are ready to go to the ward Trunk-or-Treat. Anna is a princess and Mattie is a nerd or something. Stephanie had costumes for them all packed away in her suitcase, but she ended up leaving it outside at her apartment building while she went to work and it was stolen! So we improvised with what we had.

At the party. Morgan is ready to go get some candy! It was so warm yesterday! I wore a sweater and was getting hot. I hope Halloween is this nice!

But first we ate dinner. This was the first time that he had attempted to eat a hotdog the normal way. Boy was it messy! Oh, and though you can't see them very well, those are spurs he's got on his feet!