Morgan is 4!

Monday was Morgan's birthday. I can't believe it has already been 4 years! We did the customary measuring of him, and he grew 3 inches this year. He grew in more ways than height though. He looks different, knows so much more, talks way better, has more of an attitude, etc.

He woke up so excited, telling me it was his birthday, he was the birthday boy, he was four. At around noon when Aaron came home for lunch, we let him open his presents. When I was growing up we always did presents first thing in the morning. I liked this because then we had the whole day to play with our new toys, or whatever. It made the special day even more special. So we let Morgan have his presents earlyish.

He was spoiled this year, just like all the others. From us he got a medium lego set, a kid laptop with educational games, a cheap little microphone thing, and a police car set with semi-truck, helicopter, and boat. It was a big set for only $15, but the quality isn't worth anymore than that. Oh, and the semi has a remote control with the cord. Morgan played with that all day.
He got a couple books from grandparents, and some educational type games from Chanel. He took a turn playing with everything.

A few days earlier, Morgan picked out his cake. I just get the boxed mixes. He picked pink icing and an ocean themed candy piece toppers. I did my best with my nontalent to make a cute cake, but added blue frosting to make it look like water and bubbles, and suddenly it was far too busy.
Then we sang to him. I love this picture.
He got them all with one breath.
He had a good birthday.

Trunk-or-Treat!

Our ward trunk-or-treat was on Friday. Morgan was so excited. I was too, because it's fun dressing up your kids and showing them off.
Morgan has been making everyone call him Superman for a few weeks now, and so my Mom got him a Superman costume for an early birthday present. I got the hair dye that washes out and sprayed his hair black, then drew some eyebrows on him. It was hard to find his real eyebrows as reference. He barely has any. But holy cow, it made such a difference to his appearance. I couldn't stop looking at him. He was so cute. I even tried to get the little superman curl.



Lydia dressed up too. She kindly slept through the entire ward party so I didn't have to worry about a crying, hungry, baby.

We ate chili, which was bad of me to do, knowing how it might affect the baby. I was up a lot that night with her. They had a little fish pond thing there for prizes, then we did the trunk-or-treat. While I handed out candy, and Lydia slept in her carseat, Morgan went around to all the cars with a 12 year old boy in the ward. This boy, Enoch, is so nice and polite. I like him. He is really sweet with Morgan too. Morgan keeps talking about him, "That cowboy..." is how he references him, as that was the boys costume.
Enoch told me that Morgan would say, "Superman says thank-you!" He's so weird. I love him.
We had fun!

PTA meeting

I don't have any kids in school, and when Morgan is old enough for school, I won't put him in it, because I will opt to homeschool. However, I have been to a PTA meeting.
A couple weeks ago a lady in the ward, who also teaches at the Elementary school here, asked me if I would be willing to go to the school for literacy night to speak to the 4th-6th graders, and then their parents, about writing and stuff. Since I'm an author. :) Of course I accepted.
So, Tuesday night I packed up a bunch of stuff, and left my kids with Aaron, and went to the school. This was the first time I'd ever left Lydia. I fed her right before leaving, and I left some pumped milk, but I guess she still cried for most of the time. :(
At the school I was taken to the library to set up. I had Future Glimpse there, and a bunch of books on writing and getting published. I also displayed three of my many journals. I had my original printed manuscript and an old novella that I wrote as a teenager.
After setting up, I just kinda wandered the library a bit. Then I was invited to the gym where they were going to have a PTA meeting. Oh. I didn't realize I'd gone there so early.
PTA meetings aren't what I expected AT ALL. There was a gavel! Everything was so formal, and basically it was the elected board just telling everyone what was going on. But the everyone was only a handful of families. There wasn't many people there at all. The day coincided with a vigil they were having for a fallen soldier who came from Dugway, so lots of folks may have gone to that instead.
After the meeting I was introduced, along with Linda Garner, who is a children's book author. She spoke with the younger grades of kids.
Back in the library, the kids filed in. There was also another teacher there to crack the whip. I think there were only 8 kids there. But that's okay. I gave my little prepared presentation, telling about the writing process for Future Glimpse, covering the six traits of writing, and had a Q&A session. It went pretty well, I think.
Then there was just a little bit of time for the other author and I to speak with the parents. And then I went home.
Maybe one day I will be well known enough to speak at schools all over the place. :)

Lydia's baby blessing

Lydie was blessed last Sunday. It was wonderful. My dad gave the blessing, I had three brothers in the circle, my father-in-law, and grandpa-in-law, as well as my uncle, a cousin, and cousin-in-law.




Lydie was blessed last Sunday. It was wonderful. My dad gave the blessing, I had three brothers in the circle, my father-in-law, and grandpa-in-law, as well as my uncle, a cousin, and cousin-in-law. And the bishop.
It was a really fun weekend. We had lots of family over, (which was kind of a hassle with getting everyone on post, especially those who forgot their ID's!) played lots of games, talked, and laughed.

Saturday we had a big Martin family get together.
Lydia met my cousin's little baby. They are about two months apart, though they are about the same length. However, you can tell my cousin's babe is stronger and older.

Morgan had a blast playing with his cousins. We even all sat around the fire pit and roasted marshmallows while being serenaded by folks on the guitar.

A lot of my family were just meeting Lydia for the first time. Like my sister:

Comparison photos

So, I'm learning that Lydia and Morgan have very different looking newborn faces. Here are some comparison shots.
I don't really remember Morgan ever looking like that. He kind of grew out of that look really fast I think.
Lydia is older than Morgan in this set, but still, they don't look much alike.


Here they are, both on the boppy.

And now both wearing the same pajamas. Yes, Lydia wears a lot of Morgan's old pj's. Oh, and look! Lydie is mostly smiling.

Superman!

Morgan hasn't seen a lot of the superhero shows or anything, but he is drawn to them anyway. He does this funny thing with his fingers, which I can't do, because my fingers only bend the right way, and puts his fingers over his eyes, like a mask. He did this during the primary program when he was up on the stand and looked out at everyone in his super-hero-ness. He also influenced another sunbeam or two to try.
Yesterday Morgan decided to pretend he had a cape. He was just holding a little baby blanket around his neck, so I told him to get his bigger blanket and I'd tie it around him. He loved it. He ran around the house as Superman. Last night we visited some family and Aunt LeeAnn gave him a sweat band that he has added to his Superman costume.
And what are Superman's super powers? Like I said, Morgan hasn't really watched any super hero shows or anything. So, Superman's super power is the power to turn into a bush!


In his bush form, Superman is invisible to everyone. Morgan cracks me up.

A quote from Morgan. Yesterday I was watching conference and one Elder Gong was speaking. Morgan looked at him and said, "He looks like a puppet." I have no idea what he meant by that.