Happy Birthday, Hudson!

Hudson turned 6 years old on December 4! I really didn't want Evan to be born on his b'day but I don't think he would have cared. We had his party planned for the Saturday after Thanksgiving but he got sick so we had to cancel it. There was no time to reschedule but he didn't mind. He was excited that his baby sister was coming home on his b'day and as long as he got to go to Chuck E. Cheese, he was fine. Richard's mom took him Friday when he got out of school. My mom took cupcakes to his class at school on his birthday. Happy Birthday, Hudson! We love you! Thanks for being such a sweet boy and loving your family so much!

He lost his 2 front top teeth earlier this month. So Cute!

Evan Faye Morgan

Thank you Caroline for announcing Evan's arrival! Evan is one week old today and we love her so much! You can never estimate the amount of love and other great feelings that a new baby brings into a family. Her delivery was so smooth and fast! It was a great experience and I'm so glad that Richard and I were able to go through that again together. He was a great support to me and I just love his sense of humor (most of the time). He had me and everyone in the room laughing and he just made it fun. He also took great care of me! This was by far my easiest delivery and recovery! I feel so bad for women who are in labor for hours! Thank you so much to all my great family who took care of my family while we were in the hospital!

Me before going to the hospital at 3am on Tuesday, December 2, 2008. My goal was to work on the first of Dec and then be induced after that. Everything worked out perfect!



Richard with Evan just moments after her birth. She had him wrapped from the first moment he saw her! He kept joking that there was still a chance she would be a boy but he loves that baby girl!

These boys love her so much and are so helpful! They ask to feed her and hold her and they just hang out and look at her all the time! Hudson says about a hundred times a day, she's so cute! He tells me I had a pretty baby.

This is the dress I picked out for Evan. I love it! Richard actually requested that his picture be taken with her and he hates to have his picture made! He's also requested that we have some family pictures done soon! What is it about little girls?

Now a note about her name:

We had the name Evan picked out but could not come up with a middle name. Even in the delivery room, this was still being discussed and we just couldn't come up with anything. While I was delivering her, Richard's mom got a phone call that Richard's grandmother (dad's mom) passed away unexpectedly. Her name was Mary Faye but she went by Faye. So that's where the name Faye came from.

ANNOUNCING

Evan Faye Morgan
December 2, 2008
11:16am
7lbs. 1oz. 19 1/2 in. long

Mommy and baby are doing fine. Chandler and Hudson are two very proud big brothers. As you can tell in the picture Hudson LOVES her already!

Valoree will give more details soon until then we will let her enjoy and love on her brand new baby girl!

Love-Caroline

Baby Update

Well, I just thought I would give a quick baby update. I went to the dr last Thursday, the 20th. I was 2 cm dilated and the dr offered to induce Tuesday. I really wanted to try and make it past Thanksgiving so I turned that offer down. I know a lot of people are against inducing but I'm all about it! I'm still hanging in there and go back to the dr Monday afternoon so hopefully if I don't have her before then, we'll schedule it one day next week! I think I'm pretty much ready. Can't wait to see her and hold her. We know her first name is going to be Evan but we're not sure about a middle name. Wish us luck!

Halloween, birthdays, and more

We had a great but busy Halloween weekend! Thursday Oct 30th was my niece Kaitlyn's 1st b'day. Her party was Saturday and my parent's house. All the grand kids were there and Elizabeth requested that they wear their Halloween costumes. They had a good time playing together. My dad (well, Chandler ended up driving) took them on a hayride at a park down the street.


Colt falling asleep in the swing. I sure am going to miss my Sundays with Colt when my baby gets here. He is such a cutie and I LOVE getting him to sleep every week!
Drew on the hayride.

My dad leading the kids in Old MacDonald had a farm....He's such a nut!

Chandler and Hudson getting ready to drive us around.

Happy Birthday, Kaitlyn! She loved that cake and didn't hesitate at all to dig in!

All the cute grand kids in their Halloween costumes.

On Halloween night, my fam and my parents went to Caroline's neighborhood to trick-or-treat. She cooked some yummy potato soup...still need the recipe by the way...and Chris took us around the neighborhood on the hayride. Some other neighborhood kids joined in. The kids had a good time. Richard said Chandler was too old to go and ask for candy but he dressed up and went along for the ride.

John Evan as a UPS driver. He did everything he could to keep me from taking his picture!

Hudson (hippie) and Sydney (black cat). Yes, she posed like that on her own!

Hudson the hippie. He's been this before but he couldn't decide what he wanted to be and literally picked this about 30 min before we left.

Chandler was Slash (guitarist from Guns N Roses) How cool is that? He came up with this on his own. (Please excuse the garbage in the background!)

We had a great weekend celebrating! Also, this same weekend, 2 girls from work through me a baby shower. I didn't feel like I needed one but they wanted to do it and it was great. I got lots of girly stuff! My favorite gifts were an Alabama stroller, cheerleading outfit, and black and white gigham diaper bag. Thanks so much Jennifer and Janice and everyone that came! She'll be here in 4 weeks or less and we still don't know what her name is going to be!

Sydney's 5th b'day was Nov. 6th. She had a party this past Saturday at the Quad. She had a "tailgating" party. The kids had fun getting tattoos, decorating megaphones, and learning some cheers from cheerleaders. Everything was decorated really cute! Happy Birthday, Sydney!

Congratulations Chandler!

Chandler made the middle school baseball team this week! They started tryouts last Tues, Wed, and Thurs with over 40 kids. Last Friday, they cut to about 25 and had tryouts again this past Wed and Thurs. We found out this morning that he made the team! Congrats Chan! We are so proud of you! Don't know how I'm going to work out going to all your games in the freezing cold with a new baby but we'll work it out!

What we've been up to

Okay, these pictures are so out of order but that's okay. We have had a busy and fun month! Chandler's all-star coach, Dr. Bryan Givhan, gave Richard 2 tickets to the Alabama/Georgia game in Athens on 09/27. Richard and I decided that would be a good time for us to do something and get out of town since our anniversary was on Oct. 3rd. So, we took the kids to Richard's parent's house that Sat morning and headed to Georgia. We stayed in a hotel outside of Atlanta. We checked into our hotel about lunch time and just hung out for an hour or so then headed to Longhorn Steakhouse to eat. Richard ate at 24 oz steak along with an appetizer, salad, bread, and a baked potato! Man can he eat! He said the steak was awesome. We left there and headed to the game. We didn't know where to park or anything so we just parked in the recreational center parking lot and prepared to walk a really long way. But, they had buses that took you right to the stadium! It was great! We were the only 2 Alabama fans on the bus and some of the people were joking about not letting us on and stuff. I said, we'll just sit in this corner and not say anything. Richard said, well, we figure we'll have the bus to ourselves on the way back cause ya'll will be leaving about the 3rd quarter! They got a kick out of that. Little did we know that he had it about right!
We did have some drama and almost didn't get to see the game. We take our tickets to the gate and the guy tears off my stub and then says, wait, where's the hologram on this one? There was a little oval hologram on the top of the tickets and one of ours had one and the other one didn't. I was just like I don't know. So he tells us that it's not a valid ticket, calls a security guy over there to look and this man tells us the tickets no good. We were freaking out and saying that the seats were right next to each other, etc... and he's just like, it's no good and walked away. It was the most dejected bad feeling! Richard was asking how much cash I had to buy a ticket from someone but I was determined to talk to someone and get it fixed! We went to the will call window and explained it to the sweet old man there. After talking to someone else, he gets out this green notepad and writes us a card for replacement tickets. I could have kissed the man! So luckily everything worked out and we got to see the game. It was so much fun! Richard couldn't believe the score at halftime. He just kept looking at the scoreboard thinking, does that really say that? We sat with a ton of bama fans way up high but could see great and had a blast! ROLL TIDE!

Score Board at half time.
The Alabama fans in the lower seats still singing Rammer Jammer!
As requested, Meaghan, a picture of me pregnant.


Us before the game...excuse my hair!

The weekend before this was full, too. Caroline, Mary, and my dad got free tickets to Alabama Adventure from Mercedes so me, Caroline, and Elizabeth took the kids. Chandler went over to Atlanta early with a friend to go to Six Flags (we were going to a Braves game the next day). The kids had a great time. It was pretty cool, cloudy, and rainy most of the day but that didn't stop them from having fun.

Cute cousins...Shelby, Sydney, and Hudson

Having a blast!


They loved this roller coaster! I was so proud of them for riding it all by themselves. They were so fearless!
The next day was a Braves game. Hudson was #21 this fall in baseball and Chandler has always been #21. I did not get any pictures of Chandler at the game. We went with his all-star team (again at the treat of Dr. Givhan) so the seats were kind of split up so he didn't sit with us. All the players sat together.

Hudson and Rickey. (Richard's dad) We had a good time and the Braves won!

We have been very blessed this year with great friends and family who have treated us to so many great things! I hope we are able to return the favor somehow!

Wow it's been a while!

I haven't posted in forever! Sometimes I wonder if anyone ever looks at my blog anyway.

The boys are both doing great in school. Chandler's a little bored but at least he doesn't have much homework! He's playing football for the middle school and he is actually a starter! They play 7th and 8th combined so we didn't really expect him to get much playing time as a 7th grader but he starts. He's a linebacker. Richard thinks he needs to be more aggressive but I guess his coaches see something in him that we don't. It's fun to go to the games with all the cheerleaders and everything. They are 2-1. Go JAGS! They have a baseball meeting next week and I'm looking forward to those tryouts!

Hudson is playing fall ball. It's really laid back and he's enjoying it. Richard's coaching him again and they've won every game so far but one. He's gotten a green star at school everyday and he loves P.E. Our neighbor is in 1st grade at the same school and they ride together most mornings. Hudson just loves that!

Richard has been busy as usual. He's enjoying this Alabama football season. My pregnancy is going great. I'm actually starting to look and feel pregnant. We still don't have a name for this little girl. Our house is officially on the market. We are doing For Sale by Owner to start. We've had several calls and shown it to a couple of people. Hopefully it will sell before too long. We are going to a Braves game this weekend with Chandler's all-star baseball team. Chandler is going up early to go to Six Flags with a friend. Should be a fun weekend. Chandler's 13th b'day is Sunday. Happy Birthday, Chandler!

First day of school

The boys started school last week. Hudson is in kindergarten and Chandler is in the 7th grade. Because of all the crappy changes the city schools made this year, they are both at the same school. Most of the schools are K-8 now. They are both doing fine so far but we hope to put our house up for sale by the end of the month and be moved my the first of the year so Chandler can get back to the school all his friends are at. He's playing football and 3 schools combine for that so he's able to see some of his buddies at football practice everyday after school. The first thing Hudson said to me when I picked him up after his first day was, "I didn't go to the Principal's office today." :) He's gotten a green star everyday and his teacher says he listens and follows directions well. I'm glad he's doing great so far. I was a little nervous about him starting with all that goes along with "big school" but so far so good.

This was the day before school started. When I went in his room, he was asleep like this. Pillows on the floor, blanket wrapped around his head. I thought it was pretty funny.




Note: They both got haircuts about 5 days after this. I'll have to post pictures of that cause Chan got his chopped off!

Gulf Shores

I am so late posting this! We were blessed to be able to go the beach the first weekend in August. One of the kids on Hudson's baseball team's parents just bragged all year at what a great job Richard did coaching and how much they appreciated the time our family put into it. She told us they had a condo that they wanted us to use over the summer. We normally wouldn't take someone up on an offer like that but when she called in July and wanted to know when we wanted to go and insisted, we decided to go. Richard didn't get to go with us when we went with my family for a couple of days in June so this was really the only vacation he had. We had a great time and the condo was beautiful! We loved the layout and the way it was decorated! I think the bed was more comfortable than mine at home and that's saying a lot cause I LOVE my bed! I was so proud of Hudson and Richard. Richard normally doesn't swim in the ocean or the pool and he spent a lot of time in the ocean! He and Chandler had boogie boards and that's what they did the most. Richard got Hudson to slowly go out in the water (he loves the pool, not the ocean) and he ended up loving it, too! He started out shallow just jumping over the waves as they would come but then he got braver and even started going under! If any family remembers the gagging and screaming incident from Panama City in June, you should be impressed!



Of course we had to play putt-putt and do the arcade and go-cart thing. I won at putt-putt! It made Richard so mad!! :)

Hudson using the pillows as covers!
Like I said before, Richard doesn't usually get in the water so of course he didn't have any swim shorts. After trying to swim in cargo shorts, he decided to go and buy some. The only sleeveless shirt he could find at the shop he was at was a Corona shirt. How redneck does he look? And I promise, that's an energy drink in that Solo cup!

We had a great family vacation. Thanks very much to the Sellers for their generosity! Richard will have to remember to pick their son next time he coaches :) Just kidding!