Sallie meets Santa....and she likes him

You can't go through the Holiday Season without sitting on Santa's lap, so last weekend when my mom was up, we did just that. I wasn't sure how Sallie would do, but she loved him. I am thinking this could be the first and last time that she likes Santa....at least for a few years. We drove up to Pinnacle Hills in Rogers (which by the way is an awesome Santa)

Sallie sat on his lap while we snapped several pictures. She has just started grabbing things and really holding tight. She does this with my hair all of the time. However, this can be a bad thing when your sitting in the lap of a jolly old man with a long white beard....that is real!! Ouch! Thankfully Santa just gently pulled her hand away. (I am sure he gets a lot of that)

My mom has gotten to be very crafty these days and I was so happy with the centerpiece that she put together for us. I think it is so nice, thanks mom!

Here are a few pictures of Sallie and Santa and my mom's masterpiece!

Photo Shoot

While we were in Kansas, Dana Rich's sister took some pictures of all the Morris Kiddos. It was so funny....Dana was snapping the pics, Rich and I were making silly faces trying to get everyone to smile, Jen was chasing after Evie, Hampton and Coleman were tumbling over and Austin was cramping because all of the little ones were sitting on him. It is amazing the memories one photograph is able to capture. Here is one of the many that were taken that day. I like to think it is an "all around" GREAT Picture. Evie, Austin, Hampton, Coleman, and Sallie.

I found my thumb!

So, we can't really get Sallie to take a pacifier. (She can't really seen to figure out how to keep it in her mouth) On Thanksgiving Day, Dana was able to capture her in pure joy....she found her thumb. I am not so sure this is a good thing, but at least it helps pacify her at times.

we are so thankful for.....

Our amazing family, our health, our precious little girl who brings us so much joy, our friends, Gods grace and his unfailing love, and so much more. Each day is such a gift and we have learned to treasure each and every moment.

We were able to spend Thanksgiving in Kansas with the Morris family. But what was even better, was we were able to spend time with The Thompson side too. My mom flew up to Derby, Kansas (where my brother and his family live) and we were so thankful to be able to spend quality time together....and get a few pics of the babies! We ate and ate on Thanksgiving day, the boys played some football while the girls scoped out the sale ads and planned out our "Black Friday" bi-annual day of shopping and just laughed and had a wonderful time. We truly love spending time with our family and this time of year we realize just how blessed we are.

12 Weeks

Wow!! I look at our little Sallie and I wonder how she is already 12 weeks old. She has gotten so big! She smiles at us all of the time, has discovered her tongue, is starting to like her car seat (hmm, sorda), can dance dance (kicks her legs and shakes her arms), knows how to blow bubbles, has very long and sharp fingernails (poor thing with the scratches on her face) and she likes to remake the faces that we make at her. We have decided that she has two distinct temperaments....very happy and very mad!! She is such a ball of fun and we have even heard her chuckle a few times but when she is angry you better just watch out! Here are a few pictures of her on Sunday when she turned a whole 12 weeks!

a week of firsts....

Last week Sallie took her first trip to California and she traveled by plane. She did so good on the plane....she slept most of the time. Rich and I have traveled to Northern California for the past five years for a golf tournament. And it was so great to be able to take our little girl this time. Thankfully, my mom joined us to help out for the week and to enjoy the vacation. We loved having her with us and can't tell you how helpful she was, plus she got Sallie to sleep 6 hours at night....and she still is!! While were there, Sallie enjoyed her first Halloween....she made such a scary witch. We also drove down to Carmel, California, did some sight seeing, visited a dear friend, and went to the amazing Monterey Bay Aquarium. (Sallie slept most of the time, but I do think she enjoyed looking at the brightly colored fish) Here are a few pics from our trip, on the plane, dressed for Halloween, and fun at the aquarium! (I am not really sure why I am standing like this in the last picture, but I had to show how beautiful it was in Monterey, right on the water)

the shots....

I have sure been dreading this day. On Friday I (Rich was out of town and wasn't able to be by my side, like I was the one getting the shots :-) Anyways, I took Sallie to her 2 Month checkup. She did such a great job. She is 21 1/2 inches long (50 percentile) and weighs 11llbs. 3ozs. which is the 90th percentile. I knew she had gotten some chubby little legs, but I sure didn't realize she had gotten so big! She screamed so loud about 5 seconds after her shots and then she was fine, I on the other hand couldn't even listen to what the nurse was telling me...I was crying so hard. She pretty much slept the rest of the day and was much happier on Saturday. What a big girl! Here is a picture of Sallie at about 7 weeks when we first started seeing that smile that makes our hearts melt.

Our lil pumpkin

Sallie just loves Sarah to pieces. In fact, next May, Sallie will be in her first wedding!!! Whohoo for Sarah and Ryan!!! They are getting married and have asked Sallie to be an honorary flower girl....we are already working on that petal toss. Sarah is always able get her to stop crying and to take her binky. Sarah's mom gave her this fun shirt and it just so happened that right before this picture was taken the shirt was very true.

Best of Friends

I just realized that I have not been very good at taking pictures of all the friends that come visit and spend time with Sallie. She is so lucky to be loved by so many. Hopefully I will now start to capture some of the fun times we spend with friends. Here are Sallie and one of my best friends (from way back) Jill. She came up for the game this weekend. She was so sweet to hang out with us while we ran a few errands. And then she took a few Halloween pics of our lil pumpkin. It was sure fun seeing you Jill. Sallie is especially fond of Jill because she was so nice to fix up her nursery. We have her to thank for such a cutie room complete with her name, monogram and a beautiful canvas with one of our favorite verses. Jill is so talented, thanks so much for all you do for us!!

Devil's Den

Okay, so Rich and I decide to be outdoorsy and take Sallie on her first hike. Before Rich left for a golf tournament we headed to Devil's Den for a little nature time. However we left the house at about 5pm(it takes almost an hour to get there and doesn't it start to get dark around 7 now?), we took the regular stroller (I guess we thought the trail would be paved) and we had no idea where we were going. So, we walked around for about 45 minutes while Rich carried Sallie and then we loaded back into the car and drove home. Guess we need a little practice with our family outings. We did have fun being together though. Here we are in front of one of the caves at Devil's Den

already 5 weeks

I can't believe Sallie is already five weeks old. She is getting so big....is starting to be more alert and looking all around, she is really starting to hold her head up, she smiles sometimes, and gets the hiccups at least twice a day. This weekend was Rich's 32nd birthday, my mom's big 60th(although you would never know it) and Sallie's 5 week birthday so we had a little celebration. Well, we just spent some quality time together, ate some cake, watched a little bit of the game (yuk), walked around campus on Saturday because is was absolutely beautiful, and had some laughs. Sallie was awake most of our walk and just looked around at all of the buildings and trees....she is all ready for college now! We had a great weekend. Happy
Birthday Mom and Rich!!

la huerta love

Of course for Sallie's first meal out, we would only take her to the best.....La Huerta. She is four weeks old now and she did so good. Still not enjoying her car seat so much, she spent most of the time in her favorite place, Rich's arms. But we had fun and ate some yummy Mexican food!

Noah Hank Thompson

We were so excited to be in Wichita the day that our sweet little nephew was born. All three of us (we took our first road trip with Sallie) drove up on Monday afternoon...my mom was along with us and was such a huge help. And Noah was born on Tuesday afternoon September 16th. He weighed a whopping 8lbs. 14oz and is such a cutie. Annie was amazing and is feeling good. I know who I think he looks like, but I will post a few pictures so you can decide for yourself!!!!

We are so thankful to have a happy, healthy, and a hefty little nephew. What a blessing! He and Sallie will have so many fun times together.

rub a dub dub....

Here are some pictures of Sallie's first bath, which by the way she loved.....for about 3 minutes. She really likes to just lay back and relax (I even offered her a magazine and some candles just because she seemed so happy) but the minute we started washing her off, she got a little upset. We had so much fun!!

1st Doctor's Visit

Rich and I took Sallie to her 1 week appointment with the doctor today. We visited with Dr. Simmons and asked him all of our questions...like why does she cry so much and why doesn't she sleep at night and what are we doing wrong. He assured us that this was normal and that we weren't bad parents. He did ask me how well I was cleaning her umbilical cord (which I do very gently) So he showed us how to clean it properly and is just popped right off. Now we are ready for a big girl bath!!! :-)

Sallie had to be weighed at her appointment, which she did not like AT ALL. She is so modest and likes to keep her clothes on. But thankfully she has gained weight and is back up to her birth weight. 7llbs 10 ozs

Here we are on our way in to the office.

Our new little bundle of love

We are so proud to be parents of Miss Sallie Grace Morris. She was born Sunday, August 24th, 2008 at 2:49 p.m. She weighed 7lbs. 10oz. and is 20.5 inches long. What an absolutely wonderful day it was. It all began when Renee's water broke at 12:45 a.m. Saturday night while sleeping. My organized wife had 1 hour earlier finished putting the last items in our "just in case" bag. Thank goodness or we would have really been in a frantic frenzy. We rushed to the hospital not paying much attention to our speed (the one time in my life my excuse for speeding would have been a good one) we made it in a flash and checked her in through the emergency room and everything started happening fairly quickly. The night was filled with lots of nurse visits and not much sleep mainly because of the moment we were in, one Renee and I had waited our whole lives for. Renee's parents, Don and Grace arrived from Arkadelphia, driving all night once they heard the news, as well as Renee's brother Robbie drove in from Wichita. My two sisters, Dana and Jennifer, and my niece Hampton also drove down from Wichita to share in this special day.

The actual labor process started out rather slow for Renee, she went from being dilated 1-2 cm all morning to 5 cm around 12:00. However, from 12:00 to 12:45 she put the petal to the metal and knocked out the last 5 cm in just 45 minutes.
Many people had told me the birth of your baby is such an incredible experience, one that is filled with excitement, nervousness, and lots of different emotions. They were right, the whole nine month process and then being there to watch your baby taking her first breath of life was absolutely amazing, nothing short of a miracle. We are so blessed to have been given a beautiful girl that is healthy and happy, and who is not scared to show off her lung capacity. We hope you enjoy the pictures, I am headed to catch a quick nap in between her feedings.

the best sister in laws ever!!!!!

I really do have the best sister in laws ever...they hosted the most beautiful shower for me in Wichita last weekend. It was so fun to see the three of them, of course, the rest of the family and other friends and family that I have not seen in quite some time. We just visited, had yummy chicken salad sandwiches, and I was able to open so many wonderful gifts. Several of those invited contributed to a group gift and we were so fortunate to receive a car seat, stroller, and high chair. What a fun day!!! Annie is on the left and is married to my brother, Robbie. The excited thing is that they are expecting a little boy on September 10th...not really sure how we worked that out, but it sure has been fun. We are really looking forward to meeting little Noah!!


Here I am posing with the "Group Gift". I still can't believe all of the beautiful gifts we received! We are so thankful for all of our amazing friends and family, we are truly blessed.

The Mays!

We had some good friends of ours in town from Wichita for the weekend. Lindsey and Jonathon May got here on Friday afternoon and stayed until Monday morning. Of course, the boys golfed most of the time so that gave Lindsey and myself time to do some shopping, relax, laugh, and lay by the pool....we even had time to put together the crib in the baby's room. It is so nice to have all of this help, Rich and I were so excited that we got so much done and you can tell we even had fun doing it! Thanks guys!