Easter Shenanigans!

Easter was so wonderful this year!  It was a holiday spread amongst a few different days (as our celebrations tend to be this phase of life).  Fortunately, it's how I prefer it despite the candy hangovers.  They were plenty in our household this year.  Wow!

We kicked off our Easter week with a visit to the creepy Easter bunny at the mall.  Us Morrison's sure love our family play nights and dinners at the mall so creepy or not, we were going!  The kids didn't seem traumatized and in fact, we surprisingly left tearless!  Success numero uno!

We had a wonderful Saturday morning at Nana's house!  Her home community set up an incredible Easter parade celebration for kids complete with bouncy houses, face painting and fire trucks :)  Not to mention, Nana surprised Avery and Warner with their own special Easter egg hunt at her house with hot wheels and necklaces galore!  They did manage to find some candy in a few eggs and naturally found that a little more enticing than the amazing lunch she prepared for us!  At least Chris and I enjoyed the delicious food spread!  Thank you again, Glenda!  :)

The Easter Bunny has arrived!! 

Then off to Shannon and David's incredible church in Queen Creek!  What an inspiring service and real approach.  It would truly be worth the hour drive each Sunday for that great experience.  All the while, Aves and Warner got to spend time with their cousins, Brady & Hudson in the kid's section of the church.  Easter songs and more egg hunting.  I'm pretty sure they'd go back too!

Jimmy & Angela hosted yet another amazing holiday celebration with food I could eat every day!  I guess I owe that compliment to Angela and Celeste!!  Yuuuum!  The kids were spoiled with even more Easter gifts and great company as always.  One of the best Easter's yet!

Such a wonderful reminder of the blessing Christianity can bring into one's life and therefore, you're family's.

I love my family!

Pre-sugar rush!

Thankful for an amazing Easter, all our blessings and He who is responsible for it all!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, Christmas & New Year's celebration(s)!  We surely did and were blessed with an abundance of quality family time!

Avery and Warner continue to grow like weeds!  The last two months have been consistently busy as I've been working hard on my Organizing blog (www.kelleymorrison.com) and now writing for Scottsdale Moms Blog twice a month.  They have been such enjoyable outlets to my life and have already pushed me to grow in ways I was hoping to!  Naturally, I hope this year brings with it even more growth and enjoyment in both those areas!

With that said, nothing can beat the quality time I have with my kiddos!  Yes.  There have been days filled with more time-outs and pee-pee-on-the-floor-clean-ups than I would hope for.  There are days when I question my role as a mother and if I'm ever falling short of their needs.  As they grow and I grow into motherhood, I'm realizing the internal strength it calls for.  Testing the bottle temperature to now praying your time-out was justified is this fascinating evolution of being a parent.  I'm three years in and realizing just how much I need to "buck up".  What an incredible challenge God has given us.  What an incredible gift.  To give you something you love beyond measure, beyond description and then, well...the rest is up to you.  Among many, one of my favorite quotes my Dad says rings through my mind on a daily basis:  "Have the courage to be the parent".  They test you and test you some more.  I know I'm usually so gushy about being a parent on this blog and may imply it's effortless.  It's the opposite.  I don't know what I'm doing and surely didn't receive an instruction manual.  I pray I never fail them.  I know I will and have already.  I question myself all the time but deep down know that's healthy; I'm engaged.  I'm so crazy in love with these two, I can't imagine placing my energy elsewhere.

My point in saying all this?  Is that behind every claim of thankfulness, being blessed and so rewarded is genuine.  It's hard and it pushes me.  And I love that.

This past year has been filled with incredible memories and some trying times.  Aren't they all?  I look forward to many more memories in the year ahead and hope to share more of them with you all than I did last year!  ....hey, I said hope!  ;)

Now.  Haven't you been missing those Zoo pictures?  Me too!

Picnic at the Zoo!

Cheeeeeeeeeeeezzzz!

I love this face.

We had the most wonderful New Year's Eve celebration at The Brigham's!  They somehow pulled off the BEST party for both parents and kids!  With 15+ kiddos running around (ages 1-7??), we had Princess Parades and rowdy boys everywhere!  

And what better kid friendly activity than fire sparklers?  Yes. Yes we did!  And although there was only one small stroller fire, all kids were accounted for and intact for their Apple Cider toast!  Does it get better?  Nope!  Too much fun for words!

Not dangerous at all!

Happy New Year!!