Vrooom, vrooom, errrrrt!!

Aubree bought this little remote control car for Scott's birthday back in Sept. It makes me laugh to think of all the entertainment it has provided for our family. Canon doesn't like the noise it makes and the fact that he can't predict where it's going next. Scott likes to chase him with it. Canon finally got wise and climbed up on Dad's back where the car can't get him. :)

This is how I found them after coming home from running errands.

One last picture that didn't make it to the blog yesterday. Scott wasn't able to be at the Veterans' Day ceremony, so he asked me to take pictures with my phone and send them to him. Isn't technology wonderful? Anyway, Murphy's Law dictates that when you need lots of juice in your electronic devices, you won't have it. Between the dead batteries in my camera and the one in my phone, I snapped and shared as many pics as I could. This turned out to be a great morning!

Thank you Veterans!!

As we take a few moments to honor our veterans today, we want to "shout out" to Grandpa Darvin and tell him how much we love and appreciate all he does for us and the sacrifices he made for the freedoms we enjoy!! We love you!

The girls' school had a Veterans' Day ceremony this morning, and although I was a little bummed about not being able to go to the Mesa Veterans' Day Parade, I was so proud of the contribution my family made to help honor the veterans that were present. Here is Kiersten reciting "In Flanders Field" in front of the veterans and parents.

Raegan and the rest of the student body that came sang,"This Land Is Your Land" . Kiersten is in the back row hidden by someone's head. Raegan sat for 45 minutes during the ceremony and didn't fidget or distract from the other speakers. She did a great job!! Rylee watched Canon for me so I could take pictures. Thanks for being who you are, girls!

Aubree played interlude music for the pancake breakfast. This piece was a Yankee Doodle Dandy Medley.

Canon turns 1!!!!

Canon turned one year old at the end of October. The girls were really excited and even woke him up at 5:37am to sing happy birthday to him.:)

We bought him a big ball and lots of balloons for his big day.

Canon is 28 lbs. but won't stand still long enough for me to measure his height. He has 14 teeth and still hasn't had an ear infection. I'm holding out as long as I can on the hair cut. I'm just afraid the curls won't grow back. :(

He wasn't as interested in his cake as we thought he'd be. He liked to squish it between his fingers, but not put it in his mouth. He had maybe 3 bites...yes that mess is from 3 bites!

Here Canon is sporting his new BYU jersey (Thanks Grandma!) while Dad writes his name on his tennis balls so the girls won't conveniently adopt them as their own!! Back off Raegan!

What are the odds?

Impossible that we would find street names for our guys, even more impossible that they would intersect so neatly for my picture. :)

We passed this street sign and couldn't get an angle that I liked without being hit by traffic. So as we were driving to find the angle we came across the Scott St. and Canon St. intersection. I'm sure the convenience store owner on the corner thought we were loony. Oh well, this is a one in a million picture!

Happy Halloween Creep!

Everyone got to be what they wanted this year, and everyone decided to be "not scary". Aubree was the princess who kissed the frog, Kiersten was a cute mouse that kept being mistaken for a rabbit, Rylee was a Cinderella, Raegan was "Santa Lucia" (Swedish folklore) and Canon was a cannonball ( my personal favorite) :)

Scott and I were a double-stuffed Oreo. I know...homemade and kinda cheesy, but we had fun. :)

KABOOM!! His hair is the wick...some insensitive lady said she would have never known it wasn't a girl. I wanted to punch her. I love that we were able to make the stroller into the cannon.

We came home with WAY too much candy. Time to exercise and start saving for the dentist bill.

Canon's first trip to the beach!!

Boy is he a boy! While the girls ran for the water, Canon was mesmerized by the feel of the sand on his feet, in his hands, and in his mouth. We couldn't get him to be excited about the waves, he just wanted to sit down in the sand and play with it.
By the third day, I just let him go. When we were ready to leave, we stripped him down, poured a gallon of warm water all over him, put on a new diaper, and wrapped him up for the ride to the motel. He was asleep by the time we hit the interstate. :)

Our October break trip to San Diego.

I found my camera cord!!!

Yeah!!! I found my camera cord...so I'll be getting more posts up as long as my computer cooperates!!

Everyone at our house wanted to run for student body offices this year.

They were allowed 3 posters each but Mom only had the creativity and time for 2 posters each.

The speeches went well, there were a lot of kids running, but I'm so proud of the girls for having the gumption to even try.

Aubree was elected as Jr. High Secretary. Rylee was elected as the elementary school Historian. And although Kiersten didn't get the vote for elementary Secretary, she was nominated by her teacher and the vice principal to be her class representative. :)

I'm not being lazy...I have taken tons of pictures within the last few weeks but I can't upload them because I lost the cable that goes from my camera to the computer!!! I've looked for it everyday, but haven't found it yet. There is much to blog, but no pictures. So everyone send your prayers and positive energy so I can find that cable and stop tearing my house apart!

More Halloween costume suggestions for Canon

Or maybe he can be the Mad Hatter (role reprised by Johnny Depp). You don't get that with one shake of the head!!

What do you think? :)

Do you think Canon should be Superman for Halloween? lol

In an effort to blog more regularly, kind of like keeping a journal, Monday is going to be my day to blog. Hopefully Canon will stay on some kind of a schedule so I can get this done without him trying to eat my camera!

So this was an outing we did during the summer. Actually, we did this on Aug. 22nd, the last Fri. the girls were out of school and Scott had the day off. We thought we'd have one last adventure before school started. We kayaked Tempe Town Lake. This picture is underneath the rail road and light rail tracks. It was pretty cool.

The girls were a little tired when we were done, but the experience is invaluable. And we get to spend time together. :)

"Can we go now!!??"

We love kayaking as a family. Thanks Mom and Dad for letting us borrow the kayaks anytime we want!!

We chilled in front of the TV for the Notre Dame vs. Michigan game on Sat. Canon enjoyed laying on Dad's arm after all the work was done.

I would have much rather been watching BYU, but we don't get cable. However, I will root against Notre Dame any day of the week. :) My favorite part of the game was watching the Notre Dame coach chase the officials into the locker room trying to convince them there was one more second left on the clock. Sorry Charlie (that really is the coach's name!) you lost! How do ya like them apples? hehehehehe!

First..wait...second day of school. :)

OK, so things were a little hectic the first day of school and I ran out the door without my camera. This is the "crazy" pose on the second day of school. Aubree is in 8th grade, Kiersten 6th, Rylee 4th, and Raegan is in kindergarten.
Raegan is very excited to be one of the "big" girls and have a lunch to pack and back pack to carry. She is loving kindergarten, although I'm not sure how much she is absorbing since I helped her study for her first test, and she didn't do so well. I can see I'm really going to have to be on top of things.

All the girls seem to like their teachers and I'm so happy that Aubree has rediscovered her love for the violin. Her last orchestra teacher all but killed it. And she is getting involved in the Jr high cheer squad.
Kiersten will start orchestra before school this week, and Rylee has decided she wants to play one orchestra instrument (cello) and one band instrument (drums). No, she doesn't know how to slow down. :)



I'm so proud of the girls for helping eachother out when it comes to getting ready for school. I haven't had to make a lunch for any of them yet. Aubree, Kiersten and Rylee usually help Raegan get dressed and get her breakfast.
We have a deal that as long as their rooms are clean before they leave for school, they get to stay up an extra half hour at bedtime.
So far, I'm loving all-day kindergarten!!

I've been REALLY bad about blogging this summer. So now that school is in full swing again and we're back on a schedule, I'm going to be better. My goal is to make one post a week, or more, hopefully on Monday morning. If I have a set day, I'm hoping to make myself more accountable.:) Thanks to all the bloggers I follow that are more diligent than me. You're a great example!!

We always pile stuff in front of the stairs so Canon can't go up and risk falling down. It's usually one of the bigger chairs from the dining room table. But last Thurs, the chair was out of the way and he managed to go upstairs without me knowing. I couldn't figure out who had moved the chair. But them I caught the culprit on tape.
Can I just say, I never want to cut Canon's hair? I know the day will come when it is necessary to cut his curly locks so he won't be mistaken for a girl. But I just can't bring myself to do it now. The girls love to play with it and put things in it. I just love that it's curly and still brown. He did get something from me.

He's standing!!

The images are a bit blurry because they were taken from my phone, but Canon is standing on his own. He doesn't go from sitting to standing, we have to help get him vertical, but his balance is improving. He has taken his first step, although the exact date is under debate. Aubree insists it was last Sunday while Dad and I were at meetings. But the rule in the house is, if Mom doesn't see it, it doesn't count. SO...he took his first step Monday, Aug. 10 :)

This is a cute picture of me trying to get Canon to finish his mush before nodding off. You can see how well it worked. He just laid his head against mine and closed his eyes. " I just can't do it, Mom."

We always celebrate the 4th of July with the Morris family. It's an annual swim/BBQ/rockets/ fireworks extravaganza!! This year I wanted to do it at my house, so thanks everyone for being willing to break with tradition. :) These are photos of the rocket launching. Scott usually preps the rockets, although I did learn how to do it myself. It only took a few botched launches to figure out what I was doing wrong. But I think I will forever be teased by my dad for trying to use an old engine. It really was an honest mistake!!! We tried to keep everyone hydrated. None of the kids wanted to be in the shade, they wanted to be chasing the rockets. Grandma snapped this photo of my "snack packs" before they took off to run around. It had rained for several hours the night before, and the park where we wanted to shoot rockets was under water. So the vacant lots behind our house became the new launch pad, and thankfully, there wasn't any really wet mud!

This is the baby eagle we got to see on our hike down to Woods Canyon Lake. The forest ranger took my camera and focused it through the lens of her telescope to get this image. It was really cool!

We saw the mom eagle while we were kayaking on the lake the day before. I've never seen one in real life, so this was very exciting. She has a 7 foot wingspan and is 1/3 larger than the father. Way to go...girl power!!

Dad and Raegan were in a kayak together, Kiersten and Rylee got their own and Aubree rowed Canon and I around...until I got nervous and made Raegan switch with me. That was a hilarious sight. I'm sure the fishermen who were out never bargained on such early morning entertainment! Canon's life jacket was way to big for him and swallowed him up most of the time. He was not happy.

We went camping on the Mogollon Rim last weekend. It was nice to escape the heat and get together with extended family. This is the first real trip we've taken as a family since Canon was born. He did pretty good and we had plenty of warm clothes for him...

Aubree didn't get any sleep, however, because she's developed into a light sleeper and Dad was snoring all night! She rolled over to me at one point, in tears, and confessed she hadn't slept since we got in the tent! Poor Aubree... she volunteered to sleep in the 2-man pup tent the next night and said afterwards it was the best night of sleep she'd ever had. :)

Rylee was in the zone all weekend with so many bugs, rocks, plants and animals to identify...there was never a shortage of things for her to do. Here she is with her cousin, Avery, holding a horny toad.

This is the beautiful scenic outlook near Woods Canyon Lake. We had a lot of fun, but boy did that shower feel good when we got home!

I know this post is way late...school was over almost a month ago. But the girls get such a kick out of seeing themselves in the internet. :)

Kiersten earned honorable mention at school for getting straight A's in every quarter this year. She's been working all year and was really excited about accomplishing this goal. Way to go!!
Aubree earned her honorable mention for being one of only 9 girls to still have lion's pride points at the end of each quarter for good behavior. The principal challenged the boys to work a little harder next year. She got a medal and certificate titled "Best of the Pride". That was pretty cool for us as parents. :)

Rylee was honored as the Citizen of the Year for her classroom. Each teacher was supposed to nominate one student from their class that exemplified each of the nine character traits they worked on this year.
We were at school to see Kiersten get her award and were pleasantly surprised to hear Rylee's name be called for this award. Glad we were there! She's standing in the white polo with the blue jeans.

Scott is just giddy with pride, especially since by this time in his elementary school career, he'd already been suspended for selling firecrackers on the bus!

Have you ever googled yourself to see what other people would find of they were looking for you? I just did this today and I was surprised at how many other Cheri Moore's and Morris's there are in the world and what kinds of interesting things they do. It was kind of fun, but no one who is looking for me would ever be able to find me on the internet. That can be bad or good. :)

Summer Time!!

Well, it's not quite summer time for us yet. The girls still have one more week of school. They started later, so they have to end later. But that won't get in the way of us swimming as much as possible. Our first trip to the pool was in March. It was too cold for me, but the girls enjoyed themselves. This swimming outing was in May, and the water was perfect! This is the best time of year for swimming. In July and August, it's so warm, it feels like bathwater...not refreshing at all.

We had to reteach Raegan on how to lift her head to take a breath. We don't live across the street from a pool anymore, so it will be more difficult for her to become as profficient as her sisters. Canon seems to like the water. He splashes and kicks when I hold him away from me.

Speed limit 1 MPH

Canon has been building his leg muscles in preparation for crawling. He went the longest time on all fours, just sticking his rump in the air like a stink bug. Then he managed to get his knees underneath him. He kind of skipped the whole rocking back and forth stage. His first real attempt at crawling was more of a move the first knee and drag the other leg. It wasn't fast and it wasn't pretty. :) But he's gotten the hang of it now and has ventured into every room in the house. In fact, on Sunday, when we were all busy getting ready for church, we heard a cry. No one could figure out where Canon had gone. We were upstairs and worried because there isn't a baby gate on the stairs. We found him in Rylee's room uspet because he'd sat up and bonked his head on her bed. Looks like we can't put off the baby gate any longer. Time to baby proof the kitchen cabinets as well. :)

Now he's pulling himself up on furniture, which is great for his progression, but frustrating for me when I put him to bed and he stands up and plays around in his crib. He thinks it's hilarious when he can see me over the edge of the crib.

Just can't stay awake!

I just couldn't keep him awake to finish his food. Have you seen the funny videos on TV where the kids are falling asleep in their food? I wish I had had the camera rolling on this one. :)

I'm laughing my head off watching him nod deeper and deeper into sleep, when I hear this strange noise coming from the other room. I walked in to find this....

...snoring away. Hmmmmm...I wonder where Canon gets it from? :)