July 1-4, 2015

We kicked off July this year (okay, every year) with my birthday.  I turned 29!  We celebrated prior to my actual birthday since TJ has class, but I was happy to catch him at home for approximately 6 minutes to have a hug, a kiss, and cookies from Ruby Snap.  I love that boy so very, very much. 

Jenni knew I was flying solo on my birthday so went out of her say (even arranged a babysitter!) to take me out to dinner and dessert that night.  Here we are at the front porch - she decorated my front door with the kids earlier that day (beach theme - she knows me so well).  Note the half-eaten cookie in my right hand as this was during the six minutes TJ was home.

After dinner we stopped for cake bites.  Cute Michelle when she was pregnant - now she's at home with a beautiful newborn!

When I got home from dinner the Merkleys came over with a sign and gift.  I truly feel like we lucked out in a major way with fabulous neighbors.  I told Jodi that the only way I can see things she'll have to just move into a new house on the other side of us when she outgrows her current house.

Love these cute kids so much.

This is exciting: our garden grew!  It ended up growing a bit out of control while also managing to not yield a whole lot, so we're still learning, but at least it grew.  :)

While Sara and Kipp were in town we had our July birthday dinner.  We celebrated my birthday as well as Colette's first birthday.  I can't believe she's already one.  She adds so much fun to our Morris family.

TJ borrowed Papa's new game Kuub to teach everyone. I love summer nights so, so much.

While everyone else played Kuub, Sara and Lettie hung out on the blanket.  Until Lettie learned about the sticks in Kuub.  ;)

Those piercing blue eyes just kill me.

Cake!  I love chocolate and Mom is great - she gives me chocolate cake.  (insert laughing with tears emoji here...)  Cute little cake for Lettie.

Nana got Lettie a dog purse that was a very big hit.

I, shockingly, got her books.

This note from Austin was so sweet I had to take a picture of it.

TJ adores hiking.  I....do not love it as much as he does.  I felt like a very nice wife when I took him on a hike for the 4th of July.  We went up to hike Cecret Lake.  It truly was beautiful.  I am glad we went - it just always seems to take so darn much work to get up there!

I adored the wildflowers all over.

This is Cecret Lake.  Doesn't it look like it could be on a postcard that says "come to Utah"?

We tried to climb to the peak about Cecret Lake but went the wrong way.  So we sat on these boulders and eat our snack.  I had to take a selfie because there was snow right behind me - I made a quick snowball, just to say I celebrated the 4th of July in a unique way.  :)

Instead of taking the shuttle back to the car, we just walked it.  I couldn't stop taking pictures.  So very, very beautiful.  I think Heavenly Father truly has created a beautiful earth for us.

That evening we went to Danny and Tara's to celebrate.  I thought the dessert table was out of this world, so had to snap a picture.

Look at all these fun sisters.  I love each of them so much!

I will try not to rant too much, but I think fireworks make people stupid.  It is like as soon as there are fireworks involved they lose all rational thought.  Here is a picture of some of the fireworks - we had to move to the other side of the cul de sac because I was afraid for my life.  It was not a relaxing celebration for me.  :)  We will have to find a different way to enjoy fireworks in the future, ha!

Can't get enough of these beautiful girls.

I took this picture so we can always remember that Elle put her arms over Mary's shoulder when being held.  So unique and so cute.  (Also, as I write this a few months later, I am shocked by how much she has already grown.)

My collection of birthday cards.  :)  Alice (Jenni's daughter) chose the one on the far left: a real winner!

And that was the first 4 days of July.  :)  More soon!

Wrapping Up June

I was thinking that with a few posts already done for June I was probably nearly done.  Wrong!  Let's see how many of these details I can remember 3 months later.  Yikes.  I need to do this more often.

My sweet sister, Mary, sent me these flowers with a wonderful note one day.  What a delightful surprise.

We went to the Milar dinner for Father's Day this year.  I feel so blessed to have such wonderful fathers in my life.  I have a very tender place in my heart for my Papa, who is loving and kind and generous to the very core.  I am so grateful to have inherited another wonderful dad when I married TJ: my Morris dad is a true renaissance man filled with curiosity and talents and interest in so many things.  He serves so many and it's been a pleasure to get to know him better.  So grateful also for good brothers and brothers-in-law that are great dads.  I also feel so lucky to have TJ, who will be the father of our children: I think it will be a long time before they realize how lucky they are to have him.

My dad is rarely happier than when he's surrounded by kids (a golf course might rival that happiness).  Here he is pulling out gifts for all the grandkids.

I love this picture of Stacey.  She is hilarious and so very smart.

Look at that.  A glowing light saber from Papa (grandpa).

I'm not even sure this needs a caption but I think the trendy thing to say is #nofilter.  LOVE the sky.

TJ and I absolutely love cooking and eating together.  At least once a week this whole summer we have been having salmon and salad with homemade croutons for dinner.  I am not a big salad dressing fan and we finally figured out that olive oil and balsamic vinegar is stinkin' good, so that's what we have.  We love this simple dinner so much!

TJ is always in charge of cooking the salmon.

Homemade croutons.  So easy and so good.  I don't think we'll ever go back to store bought.

Yep - that's the dream dinner (once the salmon and croutons are added).

We joke with the Merkleys (our next door neighbors) that we will be telling our kids stories about living "in the wilderness" for years to come.  :)  We get a good amount of wildlife in the fields next to us.  You can't see them so hot, but there are three bucks in the picture below.  Saw them out on a walk.  They walked right up about 50 yards from our house: I called TJ and he and the Merkleys went out to watch them.

After the Savage Family Reunion Holly and Dusty stayed at our house.  We had our traditional Sunday morning breakfast: crepes with fruit and cream as well as eggs, avocado, cheese and bacon.  This is TJ's favorite breakfast and he's won me over: it's amazin.

Ah, this is back before our ward split.  This is adorable Gabriella who would come sit with us in Sacrament meeting with some frequency.  She is beautiful and just loves us and we love her.  She tried to get her parents to change her name to "Gabriella Rachel."  :)

At one point I knew what this note said that she wrote me.  Kicking myself for not writing the translation below, but it is pretty darn cute.

And, these must be out of order because here we are back to Father's Day.  The other funny thing about so many kids around is that opening presents is never a one man job.  :)  My dad's in there somewhere, with those six cuties helping him open his present.

Ah, yes: a hat for golfing (from Julie).

:) This looks like a bunch of sardines, but it's really just a bunch of Milars on the sofa.

Here's another gorgeous sky. 

Our house is so close to our backyard neighbors that I can't see the sunset and I miss them so much.  I try to get out and walk around sunset so I can see them - love them so much!

I finally sent a bunch of pictures to my chidwinks.  Loved getting this snap from Froggy when she got hers.  :)

I joined Jenni and the kids at the MacKay's swimming pool (Mike's parents' pool) one night - TJ was at school and Mike had meetings.  It was a blast.  Maybe my dream house would include a pool...

This face of Alice's cracks me up.

Okay - this one too.  :)

TJ got this gift card from work for a steakhouse called Flemings.  It was expiring so we decided at the last minute to go use it.  HOLY SMOKES THAT WAS THE BEST STEAK I'VE EVER HAD.  We've eaten meat really infrequently for about a year now (can't believe it's been that long!) so I think this was extra good because of it.  It was so expensive I don't think we'd ever go without a gift card but it was truly a treat.

This was before I licked the plates clean.

After dinner found an olive oil company in the Gateway.  And, as proof that I really could drink balsamic vinegar, here I am drinking balsamic vinegar.  :)

For my birthday TJ bought us Pass of All Passes so we could go to Seven Peaks.  What a blast!  He set it up for the Madsens and Robinsons to meet us there as a birthday surprise.  I LOVED it!  I'm telling you, I love being out in the sun.  :)

I think this is Cooper.  Sasso can correct me.

And I think this is Brock.

This gift was especially loving from TJ because he can't do sun.  Here he is in his long sleeves and hat - his standard swimwear.

Their faces are hilarious.  They were all about the picture, can you tell?

This is what I get when I run a bit.  I have one right now in that same spot on my other foot.  :)

And (drumroll) the Muirs came to town!  They had a Muir family reunion and we did Morris pictures while they were here.  This is Lettie discovering some of Nana's toys.

I could NOT believe how much work it took to figure out what everyone would wear for family pictures.  Here are options laid on the ground.  Here are Kipp and Austin after a couple hours (literally) of debating outfits.  They are getting ready for the actual posing (while Austin is modeling one outfit option).  In the end, the outfits turned out great.

We made lots of ice cream this summer.  Homemade ice cream is so good.

Lime

Strawberry

Caramel pecan crunch (the best one)

I can't honestly remember if this is McKayla's homecoming or Josie's farewell.  Those Morris girls are great missionaries.  It is always fun to have time together.

TJ trying to act as cool as Austin.

This is just me eating lunch at work one day.  Because who doesn't love sitting 50 feet from the freeway on lunch?

My heart ends up in a puddle every time I get something from Lou Lou in the mail.

Japanese friends in town.  They made us a FABULOUS dinner and told their conversion stories, which was so neat to hear.  Loved these women for so openly loving and serving us.

Add Isn't that beautiful?  It was so yummy.

And that was June!