The Morgan's Movements {Early February 2016}

Let's see what's been going on in early February!!

We spent the 1st afternoon of the month at the Rasnake's house and Mason was moving non-stop!! 

You guys, I wanted to include this picture because it was from our date night. We had hot tea and a free Panera bagel. Yes, I realize it is upside down. I fixed it in the photo program and when I uploaded it, it still looked like this...haha. Oh well! 

Tuesday morning, we watched the new baby giraffe at the Greenville Zoo. It was fascinating! 

Later that day, on our lazy day, we watched Cars and I got some GOOD snuggles. Mason just climbed right up into my lap and I soaked it up! 

"Mason, want to go check the mail?" "Yeah!!" (runs into his room for what I assume will be his shoes and he comes out with this!) 

Working on trying on some shoes and loosening the strings, etc. :)

I got a boost of energy and I rearranged Mason's bookshelf to make things more accessible. It's working great so far. 

Tuesday night I worked and Matt took advantage of a BOGO burrito and Kids Eat Free at Moe's. Think Mason was into that burrito!?!? 

Wednesday morning we headed to MOPS. Just my buddy and me! 

Love my MOPS ladies!!

When we got back home, we had a package from GiGi and inside were these awesome silicon heart cupcake holders. 

Thursday morning, we headed to the science center. What fun! 

After nap, we had some fun reading and chill time! 

Friday morning, Matt had to work early and we had a MOMS Club meeting. Afterwards, we got to take our buddy Anna on her birthday date, finally! These two are so cute! 

Friday evening was a chill evening for us. Saturday morning, we had breakfast at home and Matt got a haircut. Afterwards, I dropped the guys at the Home Depot Kid's Workshop while I picked up a few things at Wal-Mart. Mason got a little work done. :) 

We headed home for lunch and nap and then we headed to our church for a tailgating event. Mason, completely unprompted, pulled up the ice chest and got comfy. Boy knows how to tailgate! 

We had a Saturday night church service and it was late when we finished BUT since it was National Fro-Yo day and we couldn't pass up FREE fro-yo! 

Since we headed to church Saturday, Sunday was a bit unconventional for us. I headed straight to work and Matt took Mason on a bagel date. (Praise the Lord for a FREE bagel everyday in February! Matt lucked up with that awesome reward!) 

Mason got Mason a chocolate chip bagel. Think he was excited?!?

We raised him right!!1 

When I was driving home from work, I saw this Lamborghini. My mind was blown. Haha! 

We finished up our weekend out with a lunch and ice cream date. I love my boy so much! 

See those crossed feet?! 

Super Bowl snacks are yummy!! 

Mason was obviously STUFFED!! 

And Matt? Well, Football and Food? He was happy, too! 

Monday morning I worked and Mason went to Mrs. Jenn's. He was READY!! 

He insisted that Matt get geared up, too! 

 

Upside down fun with Emma girl. 

Tuesday was a LAZY morning and Mason got comfy on Matt's side of the bed. :) 

We celebrated Mardi Gras with one more Fresh Market kingcake. 

Cutie-pie ready to deliver Valentine's with friends. 

You guys!!! Check out that bed head!

We ended the first part of February with Valentine's party with friends and then we had a pizza dinner with our friends, The Rasnakes. 

We are ready for you, Mid-February! 

Mason's Assessment

I mentioned last week that we had some concern about Masons' speech articulation. We had an assessment completed to see what the results were. Unfortunately, the assessment didn't fully assess speech articulation like I had hoped. It did, however, show us that Mason is SMART! He has learned so much in just 2 years and 3 months of his life. In some areas, he is scoring at nearly a 4 year old level. In other areas, he is right on target. That was so refreshing to hear and honestly, we weren't totally surprised by that since we interact with his everyday.

After discussing the results and knowing that Mason doesn't qualify for speech services going this route, we decided to wait a couple months and see how Mason does. He is starting to speak more clearly in certain instances and we are just four months away from welcoming another Morgan so we don't want to overload ourselves.

Thanks for caring about us and supporting our family and our sweet boy. We are grateful for him!

The Secret to Hummingbird Cake & The House on Moody Avenue

The Secret to Hummingbird Cake by Celeste Fletcher McHale pulled me in right away!! It was not the typical Christian fiction I am accustomed to reading and at the same time, I loved the real-ness of the book. 

The story follows three best friends who have a very unique nature. Two of the friends are married, and one of those is going through a rough patch in her marriage. The third friend is single and straight-laced. The story initially focuses on Carrigan and her rough marriage. The story takes a quick turn as one friend, Laine, is diagnosed with cancer. 

The remainder of the story follows the friends, Carrigan, Laine and Ella Rae, as they live out Laine's  last days. Secrets are revealed, memories are shared, a baby is born and love is brought to the forefront. 

There was some rawness in this book that I appreciated and while there were hints at God and his sovereignty, I don't know that I would fully call this christian fiction (nor do I know if that was the intention.) Overall, nonetheless, I really liked this book. 

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Once I finished The Secret to Hummingbird Cake, BookLook Bloggers gave me the opportunity to read and review The House on Moody Avenue by Cellestine Hannemann. You guys, I tried to love this book. It was hard for me to press through. The writing wasn't the best to me and the characters just didn't draw me in. 

I felt like the synopsis was a bit deceiving and didn't quite translate into what the book actually shared. I wanted to like this book, it just didn't happen for me! 

**Thank you BookLook for sending me both of these e-books to read and review.**

Knowing Where You Are

Recently, our MOPS group was talking about keeping the love alive in your marriage and about how hard it is with so many thing vying for our attention. We also talked about how important it is to teach your children at a young age about honesty, trust, the way God designed love/marriage/intimacy etc. 

One mom said that in their house there is a rule that children don't get a cell phone until 13. She and her husband thought this was a good idea until their 10 year old came home and had seen pornography via another 10 year old friend's cell phone. I mean can you believe?!?! 

I was talking to Matt about this at dinner the other night and we were just talking about how important it is to raise up our children to understand right versus wrong and to be the ones who are speaking first into their lives about so many issues. In this case, specifically, sex/intimacy, etc. 

We went back to something we established before we were even married that we heard about while listening to a sermon. The speaker said "There aren't 10 minutes in a day that go by when my spouse and I don't know where the other person is." That was HUGE for us. The world says, "My spouse doesn't need to know where I am unless they don't trust me." What Matt and I say and believe is: "We know where each other is at any given time BECAUSE we trust each other, we value our marriage, we KNOW that satan is alive and fighting against our marriage. 

We know each other's passwords to EVERY account. We have nothing to hide. We plan to know all passwords to our children's accounts. We plan to limit and monitor phone and iPad time and computer time...just like we do now, just on a different level. 

All of this to say, those of us who are married and love the Lord MUST fight for our marriage. We MUST guard our hearts. We MUST guard our time. We MUST guard our eyes. We MUST remember that while God is fighting for us, satan is still there fighting against us. 

The Good news? God WINS!

Open Letters {16}

Dear Fixer Upper,

Thanks for being on the HGTV app. I have enjoyed watching you while Mason has napped this past week.

Sincerely,
iPad app TV watcher

Dear Matt, 

Thanks for helping me so much in the house this past week. You are AWESOME!!

Love, 

Your Girl

Dear Spartanburg Attractions Coupon Book, 

Thanks for having some LEGIT coupons. We had lunch and dessert this week for $11!!

Love,
The Morgans who love a GOOD deal!

Dear Kris, 

Thanks for gifting us with the Spartanburg Attractions Coupon Book. It's been a HUGE blessing!

You rock!

Love,
Leslie 

Dear NewSpring Church, 

Thank you for being welcoming to EVERYONE! Thanks for being a place we enjoy being each weekend. 

Love, 

The Morgans

Dear Baby MMM2, 

Thanks for giving me some little kicks. I LOVE IT!!

Love,
Your Momma

20 Weeks {An Update on MMM2}

Last week, we had our anatomy scan which means I'm over half way through this pregnancy. As of this post, I'm nearly 22 weeks!!

Baby's heart rate was 169. Such a sweet sweet sound...

All looked well and baby is measuring right on target. 

We did not find out the gender but we did as we did with our pregnancy with Mason, we had it written down and will send it to a friend who will make a few embroidered items for us to have and open at the hospital. Such a fun thing for us. 

Mason came with us to the appointment and he brought his doctor's kit in case he needed to help out! Love that guy!

They prescribed me an antibiotic to see if I could knock out this cold that has been lingering. I think it helped. 

The reflux is better and I'm taking Zantac as needed right now. I want to use more natural methods but I've got to get it under control first. I am tired of coughing so much from refluxing that I throw up. I hope to try the apple cider vinegar soon. Fingers crossed. :)

Everything else is good with baby. I've started to feel some slight movement so that's exciting!! 

Open Letters {15}

Dear Mason,

PHEW! I'm so glad we finally got you a haircut. You were King Mullet for a while there!!

Sincerely,

Yo' Mama!

Dear Mammy (Grammy), 

Thanks for making Mason a scarf and sending it to him. He LOVES it!

Love, All of us

Dear Cars, 

I know you are glad we decided to wash you. You were FILTHY!!!

Love, Your Owners

Dear Moes, 

Thank you for the BOGO burrito coupon. Thank you, too, for the kids eat for 99 cents night. Our family of three all had burritos and it was less than $9. We loved that!

Sincerely, 

Burrito Lovers

Dear Politics, 

BLAH!!!

Love, 

Me

Dear Husband, 

I love you so. 

Love, 

Your girl