4D Ultrasound

Today was my 4D ultrasound. It was pretty neat and lays to rest any doubts I had about it being a girl. She also measured a week ahead, so maybe she'll come early:)

Morgan's Party

Today we had Morgan's birthday party. It was a rough day because Lee has been working nights all week and didn't get off until 7:00 this morning. I thought about postponing it, but decided to go through with it anyway. At least it's done for another year.

Morgan played in the water of the slip-n-slide
The cousins and Jackson played on the slip-n-slide some and jumped on the trampoline.
The cake She got some clothes, but mostly money which is what I prefer because it helps to pay for expensive therapy.
She will only stand still when you take her picture.
Cute picture of Micah holding Abby.

Nine already?

Today is Morgan's 9th birthday! I can't believe it. The time really flies by. I never would have guessed 9 years ago that this adorable little girl would be one of my greatest challenges and force me to learn more about seizures, autism, and everything in between than I ever cared to know. Though it's been rough, it's been worth every moment. Here's a little trip down memory lane.

Morgan in her blessing gown.
Just a funny picture.
Man, we couldn't have lived without that swing.
When there were only 4 grandchildren.
Having fun with Christmas bows.

Double trouble.

While we sang to her, Morgan decided to go ahead and taste the cake.

War Eagle!

Cool kid.

One down and one to go

Grandchild number 9 arrived today, finally! They were supposed to do Mel's c-section at 7:15 but it was more like 9:15. She was a fat one weighing in at 9lbs. 7ozs. but I still hold the record at 10lbs. even. Jackson was extremely excited and couldn't wait to hold her. He also couldn't wait to tell everyone how fat she was. Now if October would hurry up and get here for grandchild number 10!

Abigail Lessie Stephens. I think she looks like my mom.

Last Minute Beach Trip

It all started Friday. It was a long day. It rained all day and the kids and I were trapped inside all day. I felt bed that Jackson was so bored he was actually asking me to take him to school, so I told Lee we are going somewhere tomorrow! Well Jackson didn't sleep well last night and then our air conditioner quit working sometime, so it didn't look like it was going to happen. We got the air conditioner fixed, but we couldn't decide where to go. With Morgan, our choices are kind of limited and it was supposed to rain. I wanted to take the kids to Gulf World, but Lee wasn't too keen on the idea. Jackson wanted to go to the beach, but we didn't think that was possible because the two times we've tried to take Morgan, she's thrown down the minute we got onto sand and wouldn't go any further. I was determined to go somewhere, so I packed swimsuits just in case (but I figured we'd just end up at Gulf World) and put the kids in the car. Jackson has really only ever been to the beach once and that was two years ago. When we got into Panama City, we started discussing Saint Andrews state park. Neither one of us had ever been, so we decided to give it a try. To our surprise, Morgan did really well. They have a section that is separated by large rocks called the jetties. We started off here. After a little while Morgan was tired of that, so we walked over to the actual beach side. We walked for awhile on the edge of the water thinking that would be the only thing that Morgan would do. After walking as far as we could, Jackson wasn't ready to go so Lee let Morgan sit down in the waves. Turned out she loved it!! She sat in the waves for about an hour and had the time of her life. It was really nice and we had a great time.

Lee caught this fish with his hand. Jackson thought that was cool but on the way home remarked that he didn't have a good time at the beach and he was sad because he didn't catch a fish like daddy did. Silly kid.
He was fascinated by two older boys who were trying to catch fish with a net. He kept yelling, "hey bud, over here. I see a fish." It was quite funny.

We had not even put Morgan's swimsuit on initially because we didn't think she would cooperate.
Jackson in action.Isn't she cute?
We couldn't keep Jackson out of the rocks.
These huge rocks form a wall creating a sort of kiddie pool area on one side and really deep fishing water on the other.
Like father, like son.
Morgan and Jackson having a blast in the waves.

To top it all off, on the way out of the state park, this doe was standing on the side of the road not more than 10 feet away from the car. We saw three more right at the exit. It was neat.

Crazy Kids

Summer is almost over (I start back to work on the 1st), and my kids are going crazy. Not really, but here are some new things that happened at our house this week.
Tonight while dinner was cooking, Morgan was crying because she doesn't like to wait past 5:00 to eat. I got out the camera because she loves for you to take her picture. When the oven timer went off, I put the camera on top of the computer cabinet and went to take the potatoes out. When I turned around I found her like this trying to reach the camera. A pretty unusual thing because she doesn't like being off the ground.
Last week, I took Jackson up to school with me. He got some kid scissor out of my desk drawer and cut up some paper. I was impressed with how well he stayed on the lines, so I bought him a pair for home. Well, notice the gap in the front of his hair. Needless to say the scissors have been put away for now. I think all kids cut their hair at one time or another, it's just too bad he did it right after a hair cut so I can't really try to fix it.
This is a pillow I made out of left over material. Jackson needed a new nap mat, so I went looking for one. Well they cost 50 Dollars! I refused to pay that much, so I bought some material, found a pattern online and made one myself. I didn't take a picture of it though. It's not the prettiest thing in the world, but it will serve the purpose and a teacher at his daycare actually asked how much I would charge to make her one:) Funny.

Happy 4th of July

After having everyone over to our house for Micah's birthday (see Heather's blog) we took a nap and headed to Lee's parents for a swim and some fireworks.

Both of the kids love the pool. Morgan swims around really well in her floaties and float.
Jackson loves to jump in, which equals a belly buster for him, but he doesn't seem to mind.
Morgan's a happy girl in the pool.
Their dog likes to play with Morgan's popper toy.

After swimming and dinner, Mel and Ish and the kids came down to shoot fireworks.
Jackson would only take part in the sparklers.
He and Lauren watched the rest from the deck. They're wearing glasses that light up that Mel got at Wal-Mart.

Here Ish is supervising Bradley shooting a roman candle.

Big Brother

Our hospital has classes that you can take before giving birth. One of the classes is for big brothers and big sisters. We took Jackson to the class last Tuesday night. It was cute. They took them to the nursery and showed them the babies and gave them a bag to pack for the hospital. The hair net and mask were in the bag. Jackson thought that was cool. He is all geared up to be a big brother. Now he just keeps asking how long until we get the baby out.

I don't know why it underlined all of that.