Happy Halloween

On Halloween Morgan and Grandma took Miriam and Luke trick-or-treating to some of the nearby neighborhoods. Since we had been in Dominica for the past 2 Halloweens, we really wanted the children to have the experience of American trick-or-treating. Once again, Eve and I stayed home. There's always next year for us!

Our little pumpkin Eve

The Loot

Luke trying to decide which to go for first

Miriam loved the mini Oreos

Yummy!

The kids asked on Sunday night if we were going trick-or-treating again. 2 consecutive nights of treats spoiled them!

Halloween Party

Morgan and the kids went with Grandma and Grandpa Fife to the ward Halloween party. I opted to stay home with Eve since we had just gotten discharged from the hospital earlier that day. I know... I am such the party pooper! I sent the camera with the troops and it looks like they had a great time!

Miriam dressed up as Tinkerbell

Luke as Buzz Lightyear
Dr. Morgan Fife, Tinkerbell and Buzz Lightyear

Miriam and Luke at the Cakewalk

Dr. Fife showing Buzz how to play the pin the nose on the Jack-o-Lantern

Grandpa helping Tinkerbell with her aim

Tinkerbell fishing

The kids then got to trick-or-treat to the different classrooms. They came home with so much candy! Tinkerbell was so overwhelmed by the amount of candy that she opened one pack of M&M's and started stuffing them all into her mouth. I guess she wanted to finish one pack so she could find other treats to devour. Mom and Dad also enjoyed the treats! I love being a parent at Halloween!

Welcome Eve Leona Fife!

Eve Leona Fife joined our family on Thursday, October 29th 2009 at 4:54 a.m. She weighed 8 lbs. 12 oz. and was 21 1/4 in. long.

1st picture moments after delivery

Her pouty face
A very relieved mom!

The highlight of the hospital stay was when Eve and I had visitors.

Luke thinks his baby sister is "so cute."

Grandma Shelley was a great support through it all. Thanks for taking such good care of Luke and Miriam while Morgan and I were at the hospital.

My daughters

My Daddy sent these beautiful roses to me while in the hospital. The nursing staff was very jealous! Thanks Daddy for remembering me. It made me feel so special!

We were discharged on Friday and soooooo glad to leave the hospital. Here's our pretty Eve ready to go home.

We feel very blessed at this time. Morgan flew in Wednesday evening and after he had been home for about 3 hours we were headed for the hospital. My epidural worked well and we both got rest before the real work started around 4:30 a.m. The delivery went well and so far the recovery is good too. I am grateful for my in-laws and all their help. They have made it very easy to make this transition to a family of 3 kids. So tuned for Halloween pictures!

Luke's 5th Birthday

Happy 5th Birthday Luke!

For Luke's birthday we celebrated with a small family party. We had Luke's favorite meal: Pizza Hut pepperoni pizza.

After dinner it was time for presents. Grandma and Grandpa gave Luke Optimus Prime and Bumblebee Transformers. Take a look at how excited Grandpa was for Luke to open these gifts!
We gave Luke a Pirate Lego set and more Star Wars Galactic Hero people.

Aunt Kristen gave Luke Buzz Lightyear wings and arm cuffs that shoot little discs. Luke loves Buzz and you will see more of him as Buzz at Halloween.

Grandma was a big help getting the wings on Luke and helping figure out the Bumblebee Transformer. What would we do without Grandma? We definitely missed Morgan's ability to put things together this year!

After presents, it was time for CAKE!!!

Luke requested a Captain Rex Clone Trooper cake. Here was my attempt to make it happen:

The Birthday Boy

Video of Luke blowing out the candles

Things that I love about Luke:

-He knows that Heavenly Father listens to his prayers. Whenever he loses a toy he will say a prayer and ask for Heavenly Father's help. There have been many times that toys have miraculously been found.

-He enjoys reading from the scriptures and reminds us nightly to do so. Luke really enjoyed the story from the New Testament about Jesus casting the evil spirits from a man. One night when Miriam was throwing a fit, he knelt down in his room and prayed that the bad spirit in Miriam would leave.

-Luke always tells us that he loves us.

-He generally wants to please us.

-He gives great hugs.

-He has a happy disposition and loves to laugh.

-I cannot imagine our lives without him. He is the best big brother and son. We love you Luke!

Pumpkin Fun for FHE

For Morgan's last Monday Night FHE we all went down to the Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch. We split up into 2 teams: Luke, Morgan, Kristen & Tanner versus Shelley, Scott, Kristin & Miriam. There were 2 mazes that we had to navigate our way through and believe it or not, we finished at practically the same time.

Shelley and Morgan after the mazes.

Scott and Shelley both were so helpful in getting Miriam through the mazes. She had the best time of all being carried around. A true princess!
Luke and Miriam eager to find their perfect pumpkins.

I love Morgan's expression in this picture.

"Don't launch the pumpkin at me!"

They found their pumpkins and were ready for the wagon ride back to the weigh station.

After dinner, we set out to carve our pumpkins into Jack-o-lanterns. Miriam wanted a silly face and Luke wanted an angry face. Here's the girls' creation:

The boys' masterpiece.

It was a very fun FHE! Now just bring on Halloween!

Leavenworth, WA

On Thursday September 24th, we left the kiddos with Grandma and Grandpa and headed for Leavenworth, WA. We spent our honeymoon here nearly 8 years ago and wanted to have a small get-away before rotations started.

Here are pictures of the bed and breakfast that we stayed in: The Abendblume

The view from our window

The Jacuzzi in our room

Our fireplace that we didn't need to use since it was about 90 degrees when we were in Leavenworth!

After sleeping in a King sized bed, it made me really want one! So much room for both of us!

Staircase leading to our room

Breakfast room

On Friday morning after breakfast we decided to go for a bike ride. We had always wanted to try the tandem bikes and luckily The Abendblume had one available for its guests. We found out that it was a lot harder than it looked! I am sure that it didn't help that I was pregnant and huge!

After resting from our bike ride, we hit the Bavarian shops in Leavenworth. I am standing in front of the Gingerbread House.

The flowers around the city were just beautiful and so vibrant!

On Friday morning while we were exploring the shops, Morgan finally received his call from Ross University letting him know where he would be able to start clinical rotations. This is him actually on the phone with Ross.

He will be going to New York (St. John's Episcopal hospital) on October 8th to start a surgery rotation. He will be there until the end of December! The kids and I will not be going with him due to the little one getting ready to hatch and the fact that it is just too expensive for a family to live there on student loans. After December Morgan will be in Atlanta, GA for the remainder of his rotations. So after Christmas the kids and I will move to Atlanta so our family can be together again. This was a very difficult decision that we had to make...the hardest yet, in my opinion.

After the phone call, we went for a walk along the river and began talking about everything that needed to happen before Morgan leaves. So much to do now!

We had dinner on Friday night at the Visconte, the Italian restaurant on top of the building behind me.

Morgan's favorite shop was The Cheesemonger. Such delicious cheeses...some that had been buried in the ground for 10 years!

One of my favorite shops was the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. So many yummy choices!

We are so grateful to Morgan's parents for watching the kids while we went away. This trip meant even more to us when we found out that we would be separated temporarily in just a few weeks. I love you Morgan! Thanks for taking me back to one of my favorite places on earth!