Did YOU hear about the MORGANS?: March 2017

Friday, March 31, 2017

Her Secret: The Amish Of Hart County by Shelley Shepard Gray {A Book Review}

Shelley Shepard Gray has done it again!! This is my third book of Gray's to read and I think that Her Secret is my favorite of the three. I'm still holding out to get to read some more of her books soon, too.

Her Secret was very suspenseful and while that isn't something I am typically drawn to, I couldn't put this book down. This book follows Hannah's story as she and her family move to a new area after she has been stalked by someone she met while on her rumspringa. While this storyline is a focus of the book, there are several other storylines intertwined that were just as interesting including Hannah's father's illness and her sister who is rebelling a bit.

One of the things I loved about this particular Amish fiction story was that it showed how the Amish aren't so straight and narrow in every aspect of life. Not to say that they don't follow set of religious guidelines etc but they are human and they make mistakes. I'm not sure if that make sense like it does in my head. While so much of the Amish's life revolves around caring for their family and their homestead, they experience troubles, too.

The troubles Hannah and her family go through are intense and often made hold my breath but the ending of the story is an incredible and left me wanting to read more about them!

**Thanks for this book, Litfuse!**

What I Learned {March 2017}

1. I never need to drive a vehicle without cruise control on the interstate.

Matt's truck does not have cruise control and I drove it earlier this month to pick my mom up at the Atlanta airport. The whole trip I was going between 60 and 80. I need cruise control. Always and forever.

2. I love when my Momma visits.

Yeah, I didn't learn that this month but my mom's 10 day visit earlier this month was the best one we've ever had, in my opinion, and I'm so grateful she gets to come as often as she does and stay as long as she does.

3. Kids who travel well are awesome!

Both of our boys travel incredibly well and I'm so grateful. Our closest family is 5 hours away and the furthest is 12 so having kids who travel well is the best.

4. Planning a family vacation is time consuming but so fun!

Until now, most of our travel has been to visit family and while that is so awesome and we are grateful that we get to do that, we recognize that we need family trips just the four of us. This summer, we are taking a trip to several places and it's been so fun to plan!

5. Celebrating Matt's birthday gets more and more fun!

As the boys get older and understand birthdays more and more, it's so much fun to celebrate one with them. They LOVED celebrating GiGi's birthday while she visited but I think they took Dad's birthday to a whole other level. Mason sang to him for about a week. So much fun! And according to Mason, Matt turned "8 Months Old".

6. Waffle House is good and I'm not sure why we don't visit more often.

We've probably been to Waffle House a handful of times and been pleased but we just don't visit often. We went twice in one week this month (once while traveling and once for Matt's birthday) and a love has been rekindled. :)

Thursday, March 30, 2017

Matt's Birthday {31}

The 26th of March has come and gone and we have celebrated Matt WELL! It all started Saturday. We had a yummy breakfast at home and then that night, we headed out for a pizza dinner at Brickhouse Pizza. Maddox was quite anxious for pizza!

We ordered garlic cheese bread, bacon cheeseburger pizza, and Bronx bomber pizza. It was kids eat free night so Mason also got a personal pepperoni pizza. While we waited, these guys read a magazine.

And this guy banged on the table for food. :)

YUM!!! This cheese bread was awesome!

BOGO pizzas with a coupon so we lived it up. haha!

Happy birthday boy!

Two out of four Morgans was too busy eating to stop for a picture. :)

This kid went to TOWN!

We ate until we were all stuffed and still brought home two boxes of leftovers!

Our attempts at a family pictures were a complete riot!

We needed to walk some after dinner so we headed to Olllies to browse. We found a few cheap activity items for our upcoming family trip.

And we had some fun along the way. :)

A worn out little boy with his Daddy. He LOVED celebrating!

We came home and the little ones put pjs on before we sang Happy Birthday and ate some pie! :) These three shared a lemon meringue piece and they all approved!

After we put the boys in bed, I ate my pie and we watched Person of Interest. It was a good night.

Sunday morning, Mason couldn't wait to give Matt his presents...thin mints, a children's book, two shirts and some other little things. :)

We ate leftover donuts for breakfast and Matt approved of that for sure! Mason insisted on a stack of them for Matt. :)

Before church, I found Mason like this and it melted my heart. He truly loves books!

My main squeeze/the birthday boy and I were ready for church!

Maddox is still resisting naps in the nursery and his nose was running a bit so I kept him in the mother's room. We are REALLY hoping to get him into Wonderway consistently SOON!!

We had to run into Target for a few necessities and Mason helped out double time!

After church, we came home for leftover pizza and then we all rested. It was the perfect day for resting!

Oops, forgot the picture before we ate it!

We went to the library to pick up a movie and Mason played a little bit.

Our next stop was Waffle House! It was empty, the food was delicious and the boys were in hog heaven!!

We came home, facetimed with Matt's parents and then watched Inside Out. It was such a cute movie. While we watched, Maddox did yoga. :)

We decided last year to try to all be off together on our birthdays and since Matt's was on a Sunday, he took Monday off.

We headed to H&M to get a shirt I had seen for Mason. I'm putting it away for Christmas. Meanwhile, Maddox was straight chill.

We ended our restaurant rendezvous with a BBQ place called Bubba's. It was delicious and we hope to try it again some day!

We all shared a smoked chicken plate and a pulled pork plate. YUM!

We also shared dessert because why wouldn't we??

We had enough time when we got home to play outside before nap. Maddox ate leaves while the rest of us ran around playing ball!

Monday evening continued the fun with a trip to Grandmom and Granddad's new house. We planned to visit and they invited us to dinner for Matt's birthday, too. It was just right!

We got to play with this cool drum and ended up getting to take it home! Love my little drummer boys!