Morris Family Gone Pumpkins!

I don't know how else to say it....we've all gone a little pumpkin crazy in the head this past month, including Chase who has decided to eat through two screen doors & a window screen (to name just a few objects) and goes completely bonkers everytime we leave the house. I really think he has some sort of anxiety/separation disorder.....either that or he's just trying to tell us, "first I get pushed aside with Grayson, now you're gonna bring home another one of those annoying fur-tugging monsters, and now PUMPKINS?! Hello, I was "numero uno!" I think I still live here!" Poor Chasers!
Chilln' with Grammy!

I feel like a pumpkin myself these days!!



Yes, Blaine thought it would be a super fun idea to grow pumpkins this year! Don't get me wrong, he has great ideas and I really don't want to knock it, because ANY other year, and yes, it may have been a little more "fun!" But with a baby arriving in less than 2 months, Blaine taking 4 classes & trying to finish out his last semester of school, plus it being his busy season where he works 6-7 days a week, leaves the house at 5 and doesn't get home before 7 most nights, then throw in the everyday routine of my job 3 days a week (which is actually a break from the other 4 where I'm scrambling to keep up with a two year old, keep us all fed and the house from completley falling apart!), I wouldn't say this was the best year to have a pumpkin patch! On top of that, it ALWAYS costs more than you think, so at this point, if we can even come close to breaking even with our costs of growing and putting the whole thing together, we will be totally overjoyed! You definitely live and learn.....knowing now how much time, effort and stress this has been, selling the pumpkins by the bins wholesale and taking the $1500 loss sounds like such a better option. But my inner-Martha Stewart, stubborn, type A personality thought it would be a better idea to spend a lot more money, time and energy making crafts with every free moment I had to try to make that money back! BAD IDEA!

Oh, Happy Days! Love Grayson's face in this photo! Of course it had to be one of the hottest weekends opening weekend!

I hope I don't sound like a total grump, as all things aside, we have had a little fun with it and it will definitely be a great story and picture book one day. And we have been overwhelmed with the awesome support from our family and friends who made special trips to come out and see us last weekend and are helping in other ways! Seriously, if it wasn't for them, I'm not sure we'd have any sales! Even Blaine's niece and nephew took a wagon of pumpkins around their neighborhood last Sunday night and sold more pumpkins in an hour than we did both days out at the Marketplace! So to all our friends and family, a BIG THANK YOU for all your love & support with all of this!

Here are the kids crafts I created...I know....super silly, cheesy. I made "Do It Yourself" Pumpkin Cowboy/Cowgirl Kits, as well as Spider Diva's & Dudes!


I made about 130 vases like this.....

Well this will be our last weekend out there, so hopefully with the cooler weather forecast, word of mouth and a radio ad I just set up, we'll get a little more activity this time around! After that, we've decided to donate whatever we don't sell and call it pumpkin quits!

This is what my house has looked like for the past month! I can't wait to get my kitchen table back!

Here are a few non-pumpkin related pics (whoo hoo)! Haven't taken many, but we do still sort of have a life outside of pumpkins!

Still loves to walk in Mommy's shoes! Should I start to worry?!

First tatoo from McDonalds! So proud!

Off to the park with Papa!

Hope everyone is doing well & I haven't driven you all crazy with my pumpkin talk!

Happy Birthday Grayson!

So it's official, Grayson turned two on September 2nd! We had a small (just family really) party for him this past Wednesday to celebrate. I say small, but Blaine has such a big family I think there were well over 30 people there, which was wonderful, especially since a lot of his family has small toddlers and kids for Grayson to play with! Since Grayson loves to play baseball with his Daddy, I made him a baseball cake and Blaine got a baseball pinata, which all the kids seemed to thoroughly enjoy. Everyone really seemed to have a great time, especially the birthday boy!





Playing with Uncle Ryan and Papa with his new power tools!


And on to even more exciting things (or should I say dreadful things!), we have decided to give potty training a real try! With the long weekend and also having Friday off, I have had several days in a row with Grayson, so I decided we'd stay home and see how it goes. While I have to say it is going pretty well, in that Grayson really likes his potty, doesn't fight it and is pretty good with the peeing part and giving us a sign or saying so before he goes, I am a little exhausted from the whole process and see why people keep their kids in diapers longer. They really are so much easier! A part of me wishes he was fighting it a little more, because I think then it would be easier to say, "well, he's just not ready yet...." and put it off for a few more months, when really, it might be me that's not ready! And when I say potty training, we are of course still putting him in diapers and night and for his naps, but he is wearing his "big boy undies" during the day....and he seems to really like them too! So since it seems to be going pretty well so far, I think we are going to keep marching forward and see where this takes us! It would be so nice not to have two babies in diapers at once!

Well, hope everyone is enjoying their long weekend and doing something a little more exciting than cleaning up poop and pee all day!!

Surviving the Love Chariot and now a Big Boy Bed!

So I survived the camping trip after all! The Love Chariot wasn't actually all that bad! It's sort of a long story as to why we decided to give this lovely camper it's name.... really, it's not that complicated....you just have to see it and you'll understand why! It's a beauty! It's lovely appearance aside, it did it's job, in that it gave me a private place to pee, a warm shower at night and a comfortable place to sleep! Grayson had a blast hanging out with his cousins and exploring all there is that nature has to offer! We had some great meals at Buddy's camp, did a little fishing, saw some deer, elk and wild turkey's and just had fun relaxing and soaking in the 70-80 degree weather!


So this is our camp and the "love chariot!"

Cousins Reagan and Lauren with Blaine and Grayson out fishing!

I caught a picture of a butterfly!

Grayson followed his four year old cousin Reagan around everywhere! They spoke the same language! It was too cute!

Chasers!!

Playing ball with Daddy!

So after 11 hours in the car on the way home and 7 loads of laundry later though, I was more than ready to say goodbye to our vacationing and SO HAPPY to have a normal shower and sleep in my own bed!

And speaking of beds, we are now on our 4th night in a row of putting Grayson to bed in his new room. Yes, he is officially out of the crib now and sleeping in his "big boy bed!" Although he loves his new room and his new bed, it hasn't been the easiest transition. We now have to deal with a "toddler on the loose" when he wakes at night, and putting him down for bed & naps has gone from a pretty simple routine 20 minutes to taking at least an hour or more now. After reading him a few books, we pretty much have to lay in there next to his bed and rub his back until he falls asleep. Sounds so easy, but when dealing with a restless, tossing, turning, kicking two year old, it often takes what seems like forever to wind him down! We recently put a baby gate up in his doorway, which keeps him from running into our room all the time, so now he just stands there and says, "mommy, come out now?" until I get out of bed to him to put him back down. All in all, I'd say it's going pretty well though, as he seems to have already forgotten about his crib and his old room.

Here are a couple videos shot last night of Grayson getting ready for bed. I had to cut them into two videos to make them short enough to upload them onto the blog.

Hope everyone is doing well and having a great week!

SUMMER VACATIONS!

So it’s a little after 4am and we are now on our way to the White Mountains for our camping trip. We left the house at 2am so that Grayson would hopefully sleep for maybe ½ the trip, but so far he’s been awake on and off. It’s going to be a LONG drive! We just got back late Saturday from our vacation to Laguna and Washington. We both worked Monday & Tuesday and are off again now until Sunday to spend some time up in he mountains. While I look forward to the scenery and cooler weather, I’m a little hesitant about the whole “camping” thing, especially with a two year old. Ok, granted, we are staying in a camper trailer that has a toilet and water, but it’s still camping to me!!

We had an awesome time in Washington visiting my Aunt Lizzie and her family. I will post some pictures from the trip below. The weather was awesome and the country was beautiful. We got to take a day trip up to Mt. St. Helen, which was an incredible site. We also made a trip out to the Oregon coast and enjoyed a great lunch and shopping at a farmer’s market in a cute little town called Astoria. Grayson got to ride one of their family horses and had a blast playing with Page & John. Blaine also took a trail ride with Lizzie & Paige and did a little fishing with Mike. We had a wonderful time and thank the Hause family for all their hospitality!

Paige showing Grayson around!

Mount St. Helen in the background.

Travel buddies!

Little cowboy!

Grayson meeting his Aunt Lizzie!

John turns 8!! Happy Birthday!

Laguna was relaxing and fun as always, although we missed having the McBurgorris’! We spent some time at the beach, took the ferry over to Newport for an evening and also took Grayson to Knott’s Berry Farm for the 1st time! We wavered on taking him, being that he isn’t even 2 yet, but we were so glad we did. He was actually tall enough to ride most of the rides (“all by self!”) in the Camp Snoopy area. I thought for sure he’d be too timid or scared to go on his own, but he was all over it! His expressions on some of the rides were just priceless. He sort of had this drunken (“I think I might throw up!”) smiley grin on his face on a few of them; although, thankfully he never got sick. I think he may be a little like his mama after all, in terms of loving roller coasters and any thrill ride! He loved Snoopy and really enjoyed watching the cowboys in the gun show. Of course, he had a few small meltdowns, but all in all, I was really impressed with how well he did, especially being that we were there from the time it opened until about 7:30.

Too much fun on the Merry Go Round in Newport!

On the ferry ride to Newport.

Giving Snoopy loves!

Driving his very own "BIG TRUCK!"

This is that "drunkn' smurk face!"



Below are just a few random pictures taken earlier in July.

Grayson can hate me for this one later, but I thought it was too cute!

Sportn' a mohawk!

First time bowling! They actually had shoes in his size! Too cute!

Future baseball player/ fashionista!!!

So now we’re off to enjoy the last of our vacation time and then back to reality next week! And then in only a few weeks, our little monkey will be turning two!! Hope everyone is doing well!

Summer is flying by!

Just a few updates here. For starters, Ramsey Morris has officially caved in and joined the Facebook world, or as Kim put it.... "the Dark Side!" So now, I not only have this blog to keep up with, but I have to keep up with what all "my friends" are doing in the facebook world as well!! Balancing that with work, keeping up with all the cooking and cleaning & then taking care of a crazy 2 year old, I don't know how I'm going to manage! I mean, how do you guys do it?! All kidding aside, I am glad I joined and it will be yet another fun way to stay in touch friends, family and even some people that I haven't talked to in years.

So below are some pictures from the past few weekends. We had a wonderful 4th of July in Laguna. My mom & Sandi hosted the 1st Annual "Handerson/Hollenmorrisbach Family Reunion!" A little longer and harder to say than the McBurgorris, right?! Great food, fun and beach time was had by all.

Sharing a moment with his Aunt Kimmie!

Breaking poor Papa's back!


Playing football with Uncle Ryan

Last weekend, Blaine's dad "Buddy," and Blaine took him on his first camp-out to Lake Cuymaca up by Julian. After reading Michaela and Dustin's blog with Landon's first camping experience, I have to admit, I was sort of happy this was a "boys trip only!" Grayson has never slept anywhere other than a crib or a pack n'play, so I was curious to see how this whole tent thing would work out. Much to my surprise, Blaine said he had an awesome time, only waking a couple times in the night to say "mommy hold you!" Other than that, I don't think he missed me much! Between getting to drive Daddy's truck, fishing, roasting marshmellows and all to explore in the outdoors, he was a "happy camper!" Although they were only gone for one night, I think I missed him a little more than he missed me! However, I was really happy "the boys" (yes, even Chasers!) had a great camp out, and I in return, got to enjoy a well-needed day of R&R, did a little shopping & even got a pedicure!

Roasting a marshmellow in his jammies before bed!

Fishing with Buddy.

Wanting to carry his own world-famous Julian pie! "My do it" he would say!

Below are a couple pictures of Molly & Grayson from a month ago or so that I finally uploaded from my old camera. Their first official movie date (although Molly was SO over it after 15 minutes!!!). And the other is a picture taken at the Aquatic Center a while back.

"Let's hold hands!"

"White boy, you need some sunscreen!"

For whatever reason, these rain boots seem to be Grayson's favorite pair of shoes lately and are often the cause for a temper tantrum (that is if I insist he where something else!). This particular day, we weren't going anywhere so I was just fine with what he picked out!

In less than two weeks, we are headed to Laguna for some more beach time and then off to Kalama, Washington so see my Aunt Lizzie and her family. We are really looking forward to getting out of this dreadful heat and spending some time with family we don't get to see too often. After that, we may be taking another small trip to the white mountains and then before we know it, we will be celebrating Grayson's 2nd Birthday! Time is racing by way too quickly! Although that is fine by me for now because these are the Dog Days of Yuma and that means cooler weather ahead!

Hope everyone's doing well. And thanks Becca for your tips with posting pictures with the whole cut/paste in html. Made this one A LOT quicker & easier!