Morris Moments

Going Private

2008-11-09T20:12:00.000-08:00

After some discussion I think we are going to go private. If you would like to view our blog please leave your address and I will put you on our list. Thanks

Colts Game

2008-11-09T19:56:00.001-08:00

Rob and Travis went on a quick boys trip to Indianapolis to get some of Robs' things. They had a great trip and were able to get together with some of Rob and Tracie's friends. They went to some of our favorite restaurants including: Maggianos, Teds Montana Grill and Ocean World. They also went to the Colts/Patriots game. They were both excited because they were able to go tour the new Lucas Oil Stadium. Rob was able to get them passes to sit in a box and go down on the field, and into the locker room before the game. Travis said it was quite a rush to be down on the field when the players ran out and to see all of the fans cheering. They also got to be in the locker room while the players were getting ready for the game and watched their pre-game rituals. Here are a couple pictures of Travis before the game.

You Might Be a Redneck

2008-10-17T14:00:00.000-07:00

I want you to know that I love my husband very much and appreciate all he does for our family. That being said I don't understand how Travis is willing to wake up at 5:30 a.m. on his day off to go duck hunting. Although he and Rob assure me that it is very fun. Even though once you get there you are walking through the nasty mud on the shores of Utah Lake. Which is why they spent all that money at Cabelas getting the gear (waders, boots, etc.) necessary for such an adventure. Not to mention all of the decoys, duck callers and of course guns and ammunition. Then you stand in the mud waiting for the ducks to land and I guess that's when the fun begins. Well this hunting trip they were quite successful. They shot four ducks and were very proud. Here are some pictures of the proud hunters. After these pictures were taken they proceeded to pluck the feathers off the ducks and cut them open to take out the meat. Needless to say I was completely disgusted and stayed as far away as possible.

Birthdays and Weddings

2008-10-09T15:07:00.000-07:00

We have had a very busy couple of weeks. It started out and ended with birthdays and a wedding in between.

My Grandma Hendrix celebrated her birthday on September 26th. Ben, Claire and I took lunch to her that day and spent a couple hours with her. Ben loves Grandma Hendrix and never stopped talking the entire time we were there. Grandma Hendrix doesn't care because she knows that it comes from her gene pool and she appreciates a boy that can talk.

Next we had the wedding. My cousin David got married and we are so happy for him. It is really nice to see all of our family especially Grandma Carlin. We love Grandma Carlin and love when she comes to visit us.

Here is Grandma Carlin holding Claire. Claire wasn't sure what she thought about Grandma. But I thought this was a great picture of Grandma Carlin.

This picture makes me a little sad. These are my moms three sisters with my grandma. It is good to see them all together. But also a sad reminder that my mom is no longer with us.

Claire and I after the wedding.

Megan, Grandma, Claire and I outside the Temple waiting for the happy couple.

We tried to get some family pictures taken while we were all dressed up. It took Travis 10 minutes before this to convince Ben to put his tie back on for the picture.

I love this picture of Ben because it says it all. He was tired and ready to go home.

Next the Birthday party. It was our niece and nephews birthday. Travis' brother Jason and his wife Casey always have fun parties for their kids who were born two days apart. We went to Chuckee Cheese for the blessed event. I dare say the dads had just as much or more fun as the kids.

Rob and Travis playing a racing game. In the Morris Family every game is a competition.

Ben loved playing ski ball and would throw the ball up the ramp time and time again without making it in the hole. I never realized how long it could take to play one game of ski ball until playing with a two year old. I have to say by the end of the day Ben was getting the hang of it and was doing pretty well.

Here's Travis playing the famous basketball game. He and his brothers had a competition. I'm pretty sure Rob won with 40 points and Travis came in second with 36. Maybe next time honey!

Even baby Claire joined in on the fun as Ben was nice enough to let her ride with him.

Ben and Brinckley his cousin who was having the birthday party riding with Chuck. They are a month s apart and are very cute together. Happy Birthday JD and Brinckley. Thanks for the fun day!

Catching Up

2008-09-23T18:10:00.000-07:00

Claire is 6 months old and is so fun. She is such a good baby and is very easy going. She reminds me a lot of her father. She is starting to do so many new things right now like eating solid foods, sitting up and becoming quite the wiggler.

This is Claire with Audrey who is my friend Annie's baby. Claire is two months older than Audrey. But look at all that hair on Audrey she was so cute.

Travis thought Claire would be a cute package.

This is Claire eating her rice cereal. Her face basically sums it up as she is not thrilled with her dinner.

Claire has been trying to sit up by her self for a while but Saturday morning she finally could do it. She is not 100 percent stable but she is getting better every day.

Ben will be 3 in two months and he is getting so big. He is basically potty trained and we are so excited. Next week he will start his Itty Bitty Football class and a Dinosaur Class at the Library. Ben tells us that at his football class he will tackle, run and push them down. We are not sure what exactly he is talking about but we are excited to watch him in action. We will keep you posted with pictures.

Ben dressed up in Aunt Megan's old dance costume. Some day he will really hate us for dressing him up but we all had a good laugh. He and my dad were doing Olympics in the back yard.

Ben also loves cowboys because of Grandpa Ken. He spends a lot of time riding his stick horse around the house. Every time he starts I have to announce him by saying in my best western voice, "Ladies and gentleman we have a cowboy here from American Fork Utah Benjamin Travis Morris riding his horse bullseye." Then he yells outside and rides around the house and once he's back to the original starting place we have to start the announcing all over again.

My good friends Annie and Bryan were here visiting family and we were so excited to see them. Julia is a month older than Ben and they had a great time playing. They ran around while Julia was playing the guitar and Ben was singing 'My Name is Jonas.' ( Thank you guitar hero) They were so cute together and it was fun to have them visit for awhile. I can't wait until they live closer someday.

This is Ben with Travis before the BYU-UCLA game. Ben was so sad because he was not invited to go to the game. It was very sad. He is a big BYU fan and was quite devastated when his dad left without him. BUT................................

The next week Rob and Travis decided to take Ben and Carter to the game with them. Ben was so excited the entire week it's all he could talk about. He would tell everyone that his dad had a ticket for him to go to the BYU game. Travis said he was so cute at the game he especially loved the cougar fight song. At one point during the game every one had been cheering and then sat down. Ben stood up and yelled at the top of his lungs, "get him, tackle him, push him down." Travis said everyone turned to look at this 2 year old cheering his little heart out and just started laughing.

Summer Fun

2008-08-25T15:47:00.001-07:00

Ben's favorite new thing is to go with Grandpa and ride Burt the Mule. My dad loves taking Ben to ride Burt and is very cute with him. He taught Ben that Burt is a relative to Donkey. The only Donkey Ben can relate to is on Shrek so when you ask Ben about Burt he says proudly, "Burt the mule who is related to Donkey on Shrek." It's very cute. He doesn't just call him Burt it is always Burt the Mule. Ben regularly asks me if he can go to Spanish Fork and ride Burt the Mule. Usually my dad and Ben just go, but a couple Saturdays ago the whole family went along for the ride.

We went to Afton Wyoming home of Rulon Gardner (Gold Medal Wrestler). I only mention this because there are not many restaurants in Afton but we did enjoy going to Rulons Burger Barn. It was actually really good. Travis' Dad and brother live there and we wanted to go and visit. Travis and Ben went with Pa Don and JD to the local Rodeo. Travis and Jason got to float down the Grays River and catch some big fish. Ben played with his cousins JD and Brinckley and I hung out with my sister-in-law Casey. We had a really good time. It was nice to spend time with Travis' Dad. Here are some pictures of Ben, Travis and Don fishing at a stock pond. Travis really wanted Ben to catch a fish but Ben was not to thrilled with being close to the fish. The first picture is Ben running away when Travis caught a fish. Ben's favorite thing to do was throw fish food into the pond and see all the fish splash around. Every time the fish would start jumping Ben would say, "Oh my gosh." Travis says he spends way to much time with his mother.

We traveled to Rexburg for a very short visit with Megan and Chad. Even though we were there for two days we were able to get in a lot of fun. Travis and Chad went golfing and fishing, we met Chad's family for a lovely dinner and even had time to get in some bowling. Ben was so cute while we were bowling, he loved it. We were teasing Megan because Ben was using a 7 pound ball while Megan used a whopping 8 pound ball. In Megan's defense she ended up beating everyone, much to Travis' dismay. He had a cut on his bowling hand and was not able to perform to the best of his ability. Megan was thrilled nonetheless and had to inform everyone that she talked to! We love Megan and Chad and always have a great time with them.

Grandma Barb's Birthday

2008-08-12T16:08:00.001-07:00

It was my moms birthday on July 31st. To remember my moms birthday we went to Spanish Fork and had dinner with my dad. We then took flowers to my moms grave. Katie sent the most gorgeous bouquet of flowers and my Grandma Carlin and I bought some flowers also. Ben is really into birthdays these days, so when we told him it was Grandma Barb's birthday he kept singing, "Happy Birthday to Grandma Barb." It was very sweet, he also wondered where the cake was.

These reminders of my mom are sometimes sad, but we all try to reflect on the good things about our mother. She was the most wonderful person I have every met. She was the most compassionate, thoughtful, and generous person. She was also very gracious and was the perfect host. People flocked to her because she had such a wonderful spirit about her. I am thankful for the example she was to me and try each day to try and be the kind of person she would want me to be.

24th of July and Grandma Carlin

2008-08-12T14:29:00.000-07:00

Don't we all love the 24th of July. I guess only those of us who grew up in Spanish Fork think of this as a National Holiday, but it is fun all the same. It is fun to see people you went to school with and to reminisce about the good old days of High school (aren't we glad that's over). For us this is a time to get together with both of our families. We go to Travis' Aunt Colleen's house to watch the parade. Then we go to my dads house where all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins gather for good food. Some of us also go to the Carnival or Carnimal as Ben calls it. It is very fun to do these kinds of things now that Ben is getting older because he really enjoys them and talks about these fun activities all the time.

This is Ben watching the parade. He wasn't into running to get the candy, but when a sucker basically hit him in the face he decided he could bend down and pick it up.

Ben and Angeline (Ben's Cousin) riding the horses at the park. Ben loves riding horses and has Pa Ken convinced he could be a cowboy someday.

This is my Grandma Carlin who is my moms mother. We love Grandma Carlin and are so excited whenever she gets to visit. She was here when Claire was born and decided she needed to come back and visit because it had been too long since we've seen each other. She will also be back in October for my cousins wedding. She is an amazing lady who at 88 has already this year been to Hawaii, San Antonio, Utah a couple of times and will be visiting Katie in Washington DC next month. I hope that when I am her age I can be as active. She is so easy to have around because she never complains about getting older and likes to do everything we do. While she was here she went boating and golfing. She is pretty wonderful and we all love her so much. Ben loves Grandma Carlin because she plays basketball and hits golf balls with him.

4th of July

2008-07-07T15:02:00.001-07:00

I am still trying to figure out blogging so a couple of my pictures ended up before my original post which I did not plan on and do not know how to fix at this time, but oh well.

Travis and Ben at the pool. Ben is quite the little fish and is getting more and more daring. He was letting Travis, B. J. and Rob throw him into the water and he loved it.

Aunt Katie gave Claire this swimming suit and so she had to wear it. I thought she looked adorable, just lounging at the pool.

We had a very fun 4th of July spent with the Morris Family. We started the day at our swimming pool. It was very fun and we all swam for a couple of hours. We stopped for a short lunch break and then headed back for the pool. After swimming everyone went home, changed and took a nap. Then we went to Robs for a barbecue. It was fun to be together. That night we went to one of Rob and Tracie's neighbors that had gone to Evanston and spent 500 dollars on fire works. Needless to say it was an amazing show. We had to leave early because one of our kids were sad. Claire was great she didn't mind the noise at all and she actually liked all the lights in the sky. Ben on the other hand was nervous about the fireworks and wanted to go home. (Is he my child or what?)

Here are some pictures of everyone at the pool!

My nieces Kyli and Darby. They are so cute!

Carter ready to jump in.

Savannah who is 7 and is quite grown up.

Grandma Vicki holding Claire in the shade.

The brothers from left to right: Rob, Travis and B.J. (Nice face Rob)

Rob and BJ throwing the kids in the pool.

The kids eating lunch at our clubhouse!

Baby Claire

2008-07-01T19:55:00.000-07:00

I decided it was time to post some pictures of Claire or Baby Claire as Ben calls her. She is constantly changing and it is so fun as she develops. She is smiling all the time and her laugh is adorable. She is already getting two teeth which is a little crazy considering Ben was one before he got his first tooth. Claire loves Ben and gets so excited to see her big brother. She is a very good baby and I love her very much. Hopefully next time I will be able to get a couple pictures of her smiling.

Jerry Seinfeld

2008-07-01T16:59:00.000-07:00

On Friday night we went with Rob and Tracie on a date. It was so fun to get away. Vicki my mother in law was very nice to babysit the kids. I was telling Travis that it was the first time I had been away from Claire since our anniversary in April. I was a little nervous but she did great. Anyway, back to the date. We started off the night going to Bombara in the Hotel Monaco. We had some extremely good food which included: calamari. corn chowder with lobster, halibut, fillet, swordfish and pesto egg plant. It was all very delicious but the best part was watching Rob and Travis eat the soup because they all but licked the bowl clean. They both agreed it was the best soup the had ever had. After our delicious dinner we headed to Abravenailhall to see Jerry Seinfeld. It was so funny. We were are laughing the entire time. The show lasted for about an hour and a half, but we all agreed we could have sat there for longer. He was so funny and very entertaining. If you ever have a chance to go see him you should. After the show we decided to get some dessert so we went to the Melting Pot, for some chocolate fondue. It was so yummy! We had a really good time as we always do when we go with Rob and Tracie. Thanks for a fun evening full of laughing and good food!

Cowboys and Golfing

2008-06-26T19:01:00.001-07:00

I had to post these pictures of Ben because I thought he looked so cute. He is very much into being a cowboy and loves to ride horses. No matter if the horses are real or stuffed Ben loves pretending he's a cowboy. He also loves to hit Golf balls which is great except when he does it in the house and is swinging just inches from Claire's head. He has a bit of a wild swing, but for a two year old is fairly accurate. We're hoping he may be the next Tiger Woods, but we aren't holding our breath.

My Dad

2008-06-18T15:07:00.001-07:00

I am also very grateful for my father. My dad is someone I have always looked up to. He has many talents and is always the life of the party. When we were in High School our guy friends would have to go have a chat with Ken before we could go anywhere, not because he was quizzing them, but because they had such a good relationship with all of them. I can remember a time when there were probably 20 kids in his bedroom just chatting with my dad about things that were going on. My dad has always been very faithful and even though he has been through a lot of challenges, he is still trying to do what is right. Because I was the oldest girl my dad taught me about sports and the most importantis thing to remember is that we love BYU and we hate Utah. I definately appreciate my dad providing me with a love of football, considering the family I married into. Those are some of my fondest memories I have of my dad going to all of the BYU football games with my dad. Thank you dad for being a wonderful father and grandfather. We all love you very much!

Fathers

2008-06-18T08:10:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking a lot about Fathers this week and how grateful I am for the men in my life. I first want to start with my husband who is the most wonderful father. I am so lucky to have him as a husband and Ben and Claire are blessed to have him as their dad.

Ben gets so excited when Travis gets home, it is the highlight of his day. Ben is at the stage where he always wants to go with his dad wherever he goes. Some days he wakes up and tells me he wants to go to work with Daddy. Some of his favorite things to do with his daddy are to go to any BYU Basketball, Football or Baseball game especially when Pa Ken, Uncle Rob and Carter go with them. Ben also loves to take Travis to the Farm at Thanksgiving Point where he can show him his skills riding a horse. Probably Bens favorite thing to do is wrestle with his dad or "ride the bull," (Travis is the bull) and before Travis starts bucking Ben yells, "outside" because Pa Ken taught him that's what cowboys say.

It has been so fun to watch Travis with Claire he is so gentle and sweet with his little princess and she just melts her dads heart. I know that it will be very hard for Travis to say to no to Claire someday. I love to see Claire fall asleep in her dads arms. Travis can also get her to laugh harder than anyone. The only thing Claire doesn't like about her dad is his beard when he kisses her. She makes the most disgusted look, but other than that she loves her daddy very much.

I just wanted to say Happy Fathers Day to a wonderful dad. I love you!

Things you missed continued

2008-06-14T06:54:00.001-07:00

One of the other wonderful things we got to do was go to visit Katie and Jeff in our Nations Capital. We had such a good time with them. Our whole family went for Thanksgiving and we had a wonderful time. Ben was so good the entire trip even though we had our flight delayed going and coming. We went to visit the World War II Memorial, Lincoln Monument, The Smithsonian and the most touching was the Holocaust Museum. If you are ever in D.C. be sure and go to that. It made it all very real and you couldn't help but get overwhelmed with emotion by what these poor people suffered. On a lighter note the Girls spent quite a bit of time at the mall one day while the boys played X-Box. We had a great time together as a family and Travis and I are hoping we can go back soon and visit.

Things you've missed

2008-06-13T15:24:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be fun to update you all on the things we have been doing. I will add more later but here is the first adventure.

I couldn't resist putting in a couple pictures of our trip to Florida in Februrary of last year. It was one of the funnest trips ever. As most of you know Travis' brother Rob plays for the Indianapolis Colts and because they made it to the Super Bowl last year we all were able to go to the game. It was an amazing experience and definately something that only comes around once in a lifetime. I was especially excited since I have always been an avid football fan. (Remember when I was little and would cry every year when Utah beat BYU .) It's sad to admit but it's true. Thanks to my dad I have always loved sports especially football!

The Morris Family before the game. This is at the players hotel right on the beach. We ate breakfast and then had a police escort to the game.

This is Travis and I at the Stadium. It had been raining all day and continued to rain for the entire game.

These are Travis' brothers and sister after the Colts won. We were all very excited for the Colts and especially Rob.

This is a picture of Rob holding the Vince Lombardi Trophy at the after party. (Sorry it's sideways I am what some might call computer illiterate.)

Welcome to Blogging!

2008-06-13T13:07:00.000-07:00

I have been stalking people for months and decided it was time to start a blog of my own. I think it will be a fun way to let people know what is going on in our lives. Our life is very crazy right now like it always is. I am a stay at home mom with Ben who is 2 1/2 and Claire who is 3 months old. I love staying at home and enjoy my time with my children. I try to take Ben to do something almost everyday to get him out of the house. We go swimming, to the park, and his favorite place of all the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. For those of you who have never been it is a great place to take kids, and I have a season pass so call if you ever want to go. He is also really into the farm which is also at Thanksgiving Point. The thrill of the farm is that you get to ride a horse around in a circle. Ben thinks he is quite the cowboy and tells everyone he did it himself. This makes Pa Ken very happy. My wonderful husband Travis is a project mananger for PGL construction. He likes his job and is very good at what he does. He currently finished our basement in our home and he did an amazing job. I am so lucky to have a husband that can build or fix anything.