Myshels Blog

max’s uncle dwight has done it again…he sent max another stringed instrument!  this time it’s a half size guitar, which is what he ordered in the first place, but the company mistakenly sent the ukulele.  when the second guitar arrived, max had already been playing with it for a few days and was pretty attached.  so, sweet dwight told us he should just keep that one too.  now he has a collection started!  the boys jammed together the other night and at one point max asked mark if they could be in a band together some day.  how adorable is that?  i love that they’ll have this to share for years to come.

thanks, dwight for giving these musical memories to max – and to mark and i.

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max had such a great  time at his playdate on monday with his school friends isaac and joshua.

the boys played together so well and nancy’s yard is gorgeous – what a great place to photograph adorable boys having fun!  although isaac’s little sister isabella is such a doll, the close-up of her staring straight into the camera just may be my favorite of the day.

thanks nancy and summer, i had a great time too – you’re wonderful gals and it was nice getting to know you.  i’m looking forward to us all getting together again soon.

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max’s awesome uncle dwight sent him the coolest gift…his very own ukulele!  he was beyond excited when he opened up the box and screamed “now i have a real guitar like daddy!”  he’s already asked mark if they can play together soon -  he told him he’d teach him his “hotwheels song”.

it’s exciting to see max graduate from mimi’s big spoon to this adorable instrument and he seems to be taking it very seriously.

thanks so much, uncle dwight – you’ve made this little boy so very happy!

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on the way to church this morning, mark and I were talking about what the family plans were for the afternoon.  max piped up and said, “can we take my race car to the park?”  brilliant idea.  adjacent to the satellite beach library are a  couple of sports fields, a playground and an adorable little road course complete with road striping (the lines and arrows), road signs and even a “car wash”!  max had a blast  – i couldn’t believe how great he has gotten at driving that adorable car.

mark and i took max to see the movie “cars” when he was about 18 months old – it was his first movie theater experience.  of course, he  loved  it!!!  on our way home, we stopped by mimi and papa’s and they had a surprise waiting for max – they got lightning mcqueen for him!  his feet couldn’t even reach the pedals yet, but he was smitten.  he could turn the steering wheel back and forth and there are buttons to push to hear a few of mcqueen’s finest lines from the film.  (speed?  i AM speed!)  the car lived in max’s room across from his crib.  every morning for several months the only thing max wanted for do for the first 10 minutes of the day was to sit in his car and play.

mark and i had so much fun watching max today – he’s such a joy and so adorable.  and the boy has driving skills.

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one of the photography excursions we took while visiting california was to the lovely san juan bautista mission which was established in 1797.  of course i took lots of photos of the boy, who was established in 2004.

Also of interest:  Max’s great-great-grandmother, Mary Camacho, was raised in this mission and her name appears in a registry from that time.  Mark recalls actually seeing the book about 30 years ago on a visit to the mission.  It was in a glass case, but his Mom was able to persuade the powers that be to open it up so they could take a look.  Tres cool.

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we were given the best christmas present this year – mark’s wonderful family surprised us by getting the three of us airline tickets to california for the holidays.  it was the first time in several years the entire morgan clan were together.  some family members we hadn’t seen in 2 1/2 years or more – they were really (we say mostly ) looking forward to seeing max!

it’s been incredible spending this time with family and friends, we feel so blessed for all the love and support they’ve given us.

thank you all so much – we’re so grateful.

we love you!

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Dearest Friends and Family – Have a Merry, Merry Christmas and God Bless!
With much love, the Morgans

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we had such a nice thanksgiving – i can’t believe i haven’t posted pics yet!  so here we go.

the first couple are from max’s thanksgiving event at school.  the kids sang a couple of songs (what is it about seeing your kid on a stage that gets you all choked up?) and max’s class were dressed as little indians.  a yummy turkey feast was also included with the festivities and the kids had made decorations for their families which were awaiting us at our assigned tables.  i loved max’s placemat sooooo much, it’s ridiculous actually.  i kept picking it up and saying to mark, “this is so cute!!!”.  but come on, it has an adorable photo of him in his indian attire, a “hand turkey” done in paint and he signed his name nice and big.  max’s teacher, mrs. camp was dressed like pocahontas and looked quite cute.  i was glad to have snapped a picture of them together.  she and mrs. sandridge are such wonderful teachers, we feel blessed that max is in their class this year – they sure love our kids.

as for thanksgiving day…i initially thought we morgans were going to be pretty lonely because all our family is elsewhere this year.  but i was pleasantly surprised by an invitation from the phelps to enjoy the day with them and a couple of other untethered families.  we started off at the cracker barrel, which was delish and crazy loud and we didn’t all get to sit together, but it was great.  then we finished the night off  with everyone at the phelps’ house – lots of kids running around and great conversation for the adults in between the wrangling and refereeing.  fabulous gretchen had even set up a craft for the kids to do – pilgrim hat cookies.  they were so cute and yummy!  thanks again for including us, we had a wonderful time!

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max’s grammy and grampy mike gave him an adorable nativity scene.  he was so happy that he was allowed to touch it (guess my telling him to keep his hands to himself around others he’s seen actually sunk in!).  after playing with it for a while we found a special place to display it along with a few other christmas decorations.

the next day at church there was as short video playing during a song and it showed baby jesus in a manger with mary and joseph gazing at him lovingly.  max yelled out, “look mommy, there’s a real ‘activity scene’ up there!”.

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a couple of weeks ago, max had very special visitors from virginia – grammy (my mamasita) and grampy mike (her other wonderful half).  we had such a great time!  they both had the privilege of playing legos with him (I don’t know how many times they must have heard that request!) which made max sooooooo happy.  we also went out bird watching and shooting (only photos, folks!) around sebastian inlet and the historic jungle trail, both gorgeous places.  it was so nice to be with family, enjoying the outdoors and photographing all at the same time.

here are photos from both mark (images 1-29) and myself (images 30-62) of that five day love fest.

thanks so much for coming you two – we love you!!!

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