the video Dan & I lovingly call "Spazzy Rye"

Does anyone else get on the computer with a specific purpose in mind, then forget what that purpose was and spend lots of time doing other things? I sat down to upload this movie, then I played around on the internet for 40 minutes, almost getting up without ever doing it. I'm either old or crazy. Or both.

So, we have learned that the boys CANNOT go to sleep if they are both awake in their room at the same time. For a while our solution was to put Ryan to bed at 8:30ish, then David at 9ish. And Ryan would be asleep, so David would nicely go to sleep as well. Then for some reason Ryan stopped going to sleep so nicely. So it would be time for David to go to bed, and Ryan would still be lying there making Ryan noises (they sound like rocket noises, but they frequently are actually something else, like superhero noises or Bakugan noises...).

So the solution to this is to have David go to sleep in his bed while Ryan goes to sleep in our bed (doesn't work the other way around, David doesn't go to sleep in our bed, and Ryan continues to play with nothing). He actually likes to do this, which may be feeding the problem. The only reason I'm opposed to this solution, though, is how hard it is to get him back in his bed. He sleeps on the top bunk, and I have to try and climb the ladder while holding his sleepy self - not very safe. So I usually make Dan do it since he is very tall and strong and can just lift him into his bed.

But we still encounter the problem of how weird Ryan gets when we do the transfer. He doesn't just sleep through it, but he doesn't wake up all the way either. It's pretty funny. Clearly, it's VERY funny to us at midnight when we kick him out to make room for us!

Make sure you watch the movie all the way through, the last second is my favorite part!

---NOTE - We are having problems getting the videos to work right now. Dan is at work, and Rachel is locked out of the office. We will fix the video and update as soon as we can.---

Ryan playing the...organ?

I think that thing is an organ of some sort. It's at the OMSI. Kids are constantly playing around on it, making lots of noise. We were standing around looking at other things when I suddenly noticed that amongst all the noise there was a real song (with other kids continuing to make random noise on the upper end, I patiently waited for them to be done before taking the video). I've taught the boys a little bit on the piano, and apparently Ryan has memorized Twinkle Twinkle Little Star! Only not just the notes on the piano, the intervals between the notes. Pretty impressive for a five year old, huh?!?

Christmas with the Morrills!

Sorry I'm a bad blogger, especially when it comes to posting pictures I take with my real camera. It's not like uploading them is hard, but adding that extra step makes me procrastinate. Well, I finally got around to it, so here are our pictures from Christmas!

First off, we should have a record of what each child got from Santa. And since this is my journal (dang it, gotta go back and make a hard copy sometime...), here it is:

David got the Trio King's Castle, and spent several hours that morning putting it together.

I hear Santa got a really good deal on it and is really proud of herself, oops, I mean himself...

For the longest time Katy would just say that she wanted candy from Santa. I finally decided she should ask for a dollhouse, and it only took one suggestion for that to stick!

And Ryan decided the earliest that he wanted Maxus Draganoid. You can't tell very well from the picture, but it's 7 individual Bakugan that connect to form a big one. It's super cool if you're a 5 year old boy!


And here's what we came down to Christmas morning! Quite the haul! Of course, it's staged to look that way (things stacked with big empty spaces to give the illusion of more), and there isn't anything actually under the tree...but it still looks quite impressive!

Dang it, don't know why this one rotated. But I just noticed and don't want to go through the hassle of figuring it out, so just tilt your head to look at it. Here we have Katy, getting right to work playing with the dollhouse!

I did gifts from the kids a bit differently this year. Instead of taking them to the dollar store or something, I told them they could each spend $20, so about $5 per person. Granted, that cost way more than the dollar store, but they all picked very thoughtful presents for each other, and it was really sweet to see how much thought they put into it. This picture is David seeing what he got from Ryan. Apparently he's a bit excited!

See, a spy pen, cool, huh? It writes with "invisible" ink, then you shine the light (we're pretty sure it's a black light) to make it appear. It's actually pretty neat. Ryan knew that David wanted it, and got it for him. Ahhh.


I just love this picture, because I just love this girl. She was really excited about Christmas this year, and it was really fun to watch her experience it all!


I told Grandma Morrill that the boys both like Lego Power Miners. She took that and ran with it! I think we now have almost every one they make! They have been having lots and lots of fun with them! I don't know why David is the only one who looks excited in this picture, Ryan was very, very excited too!


Because Ryan spent a bit more than $5 on David, he had to spend a bit less on Katy. But that was okay, because he wanted to get her playdoh anyway. He picked one with TWO different pink ones! She was/is very happy about it!

David got Ryan a Bakugan, and it appears that he likes it as well! Apparently this is one he really wanted. Good thing David knows these things, because I sure don't!

More Power Miners, more happy kid!


In an effort to not overspend this year (I actually did really well, despite the picture of piles of presents), the kids each got some practical presents. They each got new shoes that they've been needing, and they each got a hooded towel. I actually bought the parts shortly before we moved out of Utah, but never got around to making them. So a few weeks before Christmas I pulled out the sewing machine while Katy was napping and the boys were at school, and whipped these out really quick!

They chose the colors back forever ago when I got them. David chose yellow, to match his Lovey.

And Katy finally has a pink towel. Oh joy of joys! She's been asking to use a pink towel for months, but we only had lots of blues, greens, browns, and whites. She is quite happy to have a pink one now!

So, that's Christmas morning at our house. We hung around for a while to play (not clean up...boy did I have work to do later!), then drove to Grandma & Grandpa Smiths house to play with all the aunts & uncles & cousin Brady. And dog cousins Sadie & Ruby of course. We had lots of fun...and I didn't get my camera out of my purse the entire time. I'll have to get pictures from other people who weren't so lazy!

in which the children discuss marriage

Katy told me yesterday that she wants to marry Molly, our black lab. The boys were both at school so it was just Katy & mo, and I told her she couldn't marry a dog, and forgot about it.

This morning while David was getting his shoes on to go to school, she made the same announcement. I again told her she couldn't marry Molly because she is a dog. David had more to say on the matter. He said "She's a girl. And girls can't marry girls. Boys need to marry girls so they can have babies!" He went on to start explaining about sperm (we have a quite informative book about where babies come from that we got several years ago). We were in a hurry to get out the door, so I had to interrupt him and get a move on.

Oh yeah, I had to drive David to school because he decided that today was the day to sleep in until almost 9:00. And I let him because I was fairly sure he must be sick to sleep that late, since he never ever sleeps past 7:30 or so! Nope, he woke up right as the bus was at the stop, apparently feeling fine. I suppose maybe his body was fighting something off and if I'd woken him up he would've gotten sick. I'll tell myself that...

So we quickly drove to school without much conversation (made it with 2 minutes to spare!), then resumed the topic once David was in the school. I asked Katy why she wants to marry Molly. She said "because I want to get married!" How on earth does a 2 1/2 year old even know what getting married is, let alone want to? But that sounds like she wants to get married and just chose Molly because she was there. So that's a tiny bit less weird I suppose...?

Then she said something about getting married at the church. I told her "You get married in the temple!" Then Ryan, who had been fairly quiet thus far summed it all up for us:

"There are two reasons Katy can't marry Molly. One is that dogs aren't allowed in the temple. And the other is that girls can't marry girls, and they're both girls."

Pretty close buddy! Although, dogs not being allowed in the temple is not the exact reason Katy can't marry our pup. And I'm sure at some point in the not-distant-enough future I'll have to talk to them about same-sex marriage. But for now, I just agreed. Sounds like they have the basics down, at least!