Jacob's Secret to Youth... Happy Birthday!

Guess who else is having a birthday??? Yup, Jacob and his mom actually share a birthday! Happy Birthday to my sweet Jacobo. I'll hopefully be posting more about our celebrating after the fact, when I've taken some pictures. I do want to share this though... just to show what an awesome man I was lucky enough to marry.

Two nights ago, after a long and frustrating day during which my actions/ reactions to misbehaving children were less than stellar, I sat down to read the General Conference Ensign. I came to a talk titled "Come What May, and Love It" by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin. He says, "Over the years I have learned a few things that have helped me through times of testing and trial. I would like to share them with you..." The first piece of advice that Elder Wirthlin gives is "Learn to laugh." I read this section and immediately, I was filled with gratitude for a husband who knows how to do this. My mind was filled with many examples of Jacob doing this - both recent and not so recent.

Every single school day, when we pick Jacob up from work, one or both of the boys go outside and play in the snow and Ziya gets out of her car seat and plays inside the car. When Jacob comes out of school and is ready to go, we have issues getting everybody back in the car and back into their seatbelts. At this point in the day, I'm usually hungry, tired of being in the car and just ready to get home. So I get mad, very mad. Jacob, on the other hand has just exited his long day of work where a lot of times he deals with resistant, rude and disrespectful students. So what does he do when his own kids start to act this way? He laughs. And eventually he makes the kids laugh, too, and we get on our merry way. Thank you, Jacob.

Jacob has always made me laugh. He has made our own times of "testing and trial" (both big and small) easier through his laughter. What's more is that he does this for everybody around him. I'm thankful for such a great husband who teaches me much. I hope to laugh much on his birthday and on many days to come... cause I'm sure that he will!

Little Grandma's Birthday!

Last week we celebrated my mom's birthday from a distance. Now we are celebrating Jacob's mom's birthday... again through our blog! Happy Birthday Little Grandma! This time the kiddos wanted to share some of their goofy tricks (or "moves" as Abraham calls them!). Enjoy!

Abraham is very proud that he can wiggle his nose, move his eyebrows, snap his fingers (he actually taught Ammon to do this) and most of all, that he has become such a great color artist (thanks for the artistic genes, Grandma!).


Many a night in our home is spent entertaining each other with goofy Munyer tricks. What's funny, is that I (Berenice) can't do many of them. It must be something in that Munyer/Morgan blood (since I know that you, Little Grandma, can also do most, if not all, of these!). Here Ammon is moving his ears, raising one eyebrow, spreading his toes and snapping his fingers.



And finally, there's little Ziya. We have an "ABC" wall with little pictures from ZooPhonics on it. Sometimes, while we're eating or sitting at the table doing other stuff, we review these with Abraham. Well, a while back, Ziya started pointing to the pictures and saying different phonics sounds. Now, she likes to take crayons and markers and color on them, too. In the process, she has learned quite a bit!

ZIYA'S VIDEO WON'T LOAD... I'LL KEEP TRYING!

Happy Birthday Tita!

It's my mom's birthday today. I hate that we're so far away and can't be there to personally give the well-deserved hugs and kisses. And since I don't know how to send videos via email, here they are on our blog.

Mom, I hope you like them! This is what los ninos are most proud of right now... their dance moves... and they wanted to share them with you. I hope that if anything, they help you start off your birthday with a big smile. We love you and hope you have a fantastic birthday!

I had a hard time getting a good recording of Ziya and her moves. She really does know how to "mover la colita!"


Abe even dressed up for his portion of the video(he uses any excuse imaginable to dress up!). Fancy moves, huh?


Ammon insisted on mittens and socks cause they help him slide around better.
For those who are familiar with Jacob's "chicken dance", do you see hints of that in Ammon's dancing? Scary, huh?

I'm Getting Fancy

So, I'm on to a new adventure... Photoshop (big shout out to Cameron, Gina and other talented friends who inspire me!)! I'm slowly re-doing some of my pictures on my Halloween post - scrapbook style! Check them out!

Halloween Activities

Darth Vader, Ladybug and Black Spiderman (not to be confused with Venom... he refused to be called this).

We had a really fun Halloween. For us, it really started on October 1st when we flipped our calendar page and Ammon realized that it was finally "the month." He and Abraham faithfully counted down every single day.

We made our paper mache spiders. Abraham's is the one that is the most anatomically correct, with a cephalothorax, abdomen, spinnerets, etc., since he made his at preschool and the kids were learning about spiders. We didn't have enough foam balls for Ammon and Ziya's spiders to be so educational. They didn't seem to mind. Ziya's spider has pink polka dots and Ammon's has the "blood eyes!"

We also carved a pumpkin. The boys designed it themselves (it's a two-sided jack-o-lantern so that everybody could participate!) and then it was carved in shifts. Three excited kids and a sharp knife was a bit scary. Even scarier though were my headless boys who wanted to pose with "Jacko."

Abraham and his little preschool (plus siblings) had a party. They performed a cute pumpkin rhyme, participated in a cute story about ghosts who turned different colors (because they ate broccoli, grapes, etc.!), decorated sugar cookies, made a craft and had free play time. He and Ziya both had a super fantastic time. Thanks to Adelle for hosting us!





Ammon had a great time celebrating Halloween at school. He made a harvest house (graham cracker house but decorated harvest style) and a rice krispie pumpkin. The highlight of his day was that his good buddy Creed was also dressed as Darth Vader (Dark v. Darth and lightsaber vs. lifesaver were big debates between them). His other good friends were a knight and a witch. He participated in a parade, too.




After just a tiny bit of outdoor trick or treating (it was only about 25 degrees so they didn't last long), we went to our Halloween social at our Church. Jacob was the MC... he has a great personality for this type of thing. He did a great job. We had some yummy soup and rolls and the kids had fun running around and showing off their costumes for their friends. Our cute little ladybug Ziya actually won the costume contest for her age category. She has a lot of admirers in our ward.


Oh yeah... I kind of dressed up, too. I put a sign on my belly that says "#4" and one on my back that says "Coming May 14, 2009" and I carried around a small trash can. This was our big Halloween announcement. I'll write more about it later! And no, I didn't even take any pictures... how lame, I know.