Monkey Joe's!

While we were in Florida we made a wonderful discovery! There's this place called Monkey Joe's! And they even have some in Chicago land! We are going to have to find them!

Morgan got to bounce, jump, slide, fall, and be crazy in all the bouncy houses they had there

(and there were a lot!).

This one was her favorite! She went down that slide over and over and over for about 1/2 hr! Then she took a short break and tried others only to come back to this one again.

Ben got to play too! He played air hockey for about 2 seconds. I'm surprised I got a picture before she founds something else to do.

Ben got to go in the bouncy houses with Morgan as her "assist". I'm pretty sure it was more of an excuse than an assist!

This next one was a huge challenge for Morgan! She climbed up with enthusiasm and then got stuck up at the top for quite a while, too nervous to slide down.

She then slid down only because the stairs got blocked and she couldn't climb down. I have never seen her cheeks so red!! Needless to say she went back to the other small yellow slide after that.

She did other things there when she needed a jumping break including: pretending to drive...

Hugging Monkey Joe...

and hitting mice...

I think Ben eventually got tired as well!

And then the ride back to Grandma and Poppop's.

We had a really fun morning with her there! Not sure she could have lasted all day.

Thanksgiving and Florida Fun!

Turkey Day! Finally here!

Thanksgiving food was definitely one of the foods I have craved the most being pregnant! Now to eat as much as I can before it's all gone.

Ben's Mom made a delicious turkey with all the fixings! I helped with the mashed potatoes and Ben made the stuffing. Yummy Thanksgiving food, worthy of giving thanks!

Morgan was pretty excited as well! I mean a plate full of mashed potatoes couldn't get any better, except when you add gravy, and cranberries on the side.

But Before we could eat we got to enjoy some Florida fun! We were able to walk around a beautiful lake (name? that's pregnancy brain for you!)

Morgan got to play on the play ground with Poppop! I think she convinced him to swing her for at least 20 minutes or longer.

oh yeah, Ben joined in on the fun too.

We also went on a boat cruise and enjoyed the sun shine while getting to see some beautiful sights and homes.

Fun times!

St Louis Science Center

We recently were able to join Ben on a work trip to St. Louis!

After he was finished with all his meetings we took Morgan to the Science Center and had some fun building a foam block arch.

learning how bridges work (or if you're Morgan how they come apart).

Playing with cars and boats. I think Most of the boats ended up on the roads while the cars drove in the water. That's a 2yr old for you! it was fun!

But Mostly we spent our time playing with the big blocks.

After we got Morgan away from the blocks we enjoyed a good dinner with Ben's Aunt Linda and Uncle Steve. (we must have left the camera at the hotel though)

We always enjoy our trips to St Louis!

Many sides of Morgan!

cupcake queen!

Morgan Loves Cupcakes! Her favorite way to eat them is top down! What better way than to eat all the icing off and then try to convince someone to add more?

Laundry queen!

Morgan was attempting to help me do the laundry one day and she discovered it's a lot of fun to hide in a pillow case! she changed her mind after she walked into a wall!

Dress up queen!

Morgan got her self dressed that day! she choose the Dora pajama top, the pink skirt, and the green pattered paints to go under. She even choose to wear mom's slippers!

I don't argue when I don't have to get her dressed, and we're not going anywhere fancy.

Drama queen!

nothing better than a good tantrum to get you a time out! Morgan is definitely a drama queen! this particular tantrum lasted over an hr and a half! I think it holds the record currently, but I wouldn't want to challenge that.

Sleeping beauty!

One of my favorites: Sleeping Morgan! What else is there to say?

fall leaves

Fall leaf clean up is always fun when you can jump in the pile! Morgan had a blast, unlike last year when she cried when we put her in the leaves.

our neighbor's son, Drake, came over to check out the fun and join in!

Drake and Morgan helped Ben out mostly by jumping on the leaves in the yard waste bin to make more room for more leaves. They thought it was a blast!

Morgan also tried to help put them in the bin... maybe next year she'll actually reach.

Though not pictured, I enjoyed the whole thing drinking hot chocolate and sitting with my feet up! :) Thanks Ben, Morgan and Drake for cleaning up the leaves!

Run for Chocolate/ Hot Chocolate 15k

Ben took on the challenge of running the Hot Chocolate 15k this year instead of the 5k. I mean it had to be easier than the 1/2 Marathon he ran right!

Morgan and Daddy riding the train down town to pick up the packet of stuff that he needed for the race! Morgan loves train rides!

The group from EBF that also ran that day! Some in the 5k some in the 15k.

Ben and Morgan after the race! Ben; glad that it was over and he could now eat chocolate. Morgan; full of chocolate cuz' people kept giving her chocolate because they felt sorry for her, as her evil parents made her suffer in the cold to sit and watch a bunch of crazy people run. (she loved it, once she warmed up some.) *note her snow paints and no snow!

Some of the EBF runners after the race! All happy to be done, full of chocolate and ready for lunch! :)

Morgan and her chocolate face sound a sleep on the train ride back.

Morgan making a turkey

I was tired of the fall decorations in the house looking like halloween, so I decided to do a craft with Morgan to make our fall decorations look more like thanksgiving!

We traced her hand (hard to take a picture when you're the one doing the tracing) Then we cut out the hands and Morgan got to use a glue stick!

She really enjoyed the glue stick! (I think I finally got all the glue off the table, her outfit, the chair, maybe not the wall...)

we glued the hands together and added a few details the I cut out.

Then we glued it to a plate

and there you go! a nice Hand made turkey! :)

Crazy Hair and Halloween

We kicked off Halloween weekend with a crazy Hair party that one of our friends from church was hosting. Morgan and I had pink stripes in our hair, though Morgan had about 8 little pigtails in her hair! It took about an hour to do her hair!! She was a good sport. Once we got there she found this guitar and was pretending to be a rock star!
Then Sunday, she dressed up as a princess! What a princess she was! She was so cute going up to people saying "trick or treat", pause, "can I have candy." She definitely caught on quickly and when she was told she had to wait to go home to eat the candy she started asking to go home.