Home sweet home

Thank you for praying for our family as we traveled to PA this last weekend. We came home safe and sound late Tuesday night. Although a sad occasion, it was good to be with family. The church that Jeff used to attend when he lived there was gracious enough to allow us to stay in the previous parsonage. What a blessing that church is to us! Not only did we have a great spacious place to stay, but they stocked the fridge and counter with food for our weekend. They also blessed us by having someone from the church watch the boys for both the viewing and the funeral. Here are a few pictures of our weekend.

Breakfast at the parsonage!



Luke and Ben dancing with their cousins Hannah and Adele.




Gracie with her Great-Grandpa Shirey



Gracie with her Great-Grandma Morgan

Thanks again for your prayers for our trip!

Gracie is 5 months!!!!

We have so many fun photos of this last month we put them in a video clip! As always, each new month is just a joy with our sweet Gracie. She is growing up and developing so quickly! We are convinced that she will be talking in sentences before she turns 9 months the way she tries to talk and giggle with her big brothers. She is their biggest fan. She giggles at everything they do, and they eat up the extra attention from her.

She is getting pretty active too, rolling all over the place trying to get to whatever catches her attention. She also has been sitting up propped up by her hands pretty well. She is still a bit wobbly without her hands, but she loves being able to sit and see what is going on. She also loves being a part of meal time, so to get used to the idea of a high chair and some solid foods in the months to come, she has been sitting in her high chair playing while the family eats meals and she loves it!

Enjoy the photos of the last month with our Gracie. Today we are on our way to PA, so please pray for safe travel for our trip!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Our new table

Last week in the mail we received a very special gift. It was a combined birthday gift for Luke and Ben from Grandma and Grandpa! Our very own table! So far with the table we have had a pretend picnic, a real picnic, played playdough, painted and colored. We love our table!!

Grace Louise Shirey

We received news this morning that Jeff's maternal Grandmother, Grace Shirey, passed away. Our Gracie is named after this Great-Grandma. We are sad, but know that she has been struggling for some time with her health. Jeff's parents have spent the last several days with his family in PA. We are not sure of funeral arrangements yet, but are in the midst of trying to make plans to drive up to PA for the funeral.

Grandma and Grandpa Shirey had their 62nd wedding anniversary on Sunday.



Grandma Shirey giving directions to Jeff on the perfect turkey, December 2004. Grandma Shirey was an amazing cook. She was known to make over one hundred dozen cookies every Christmas!



Four generations, Great-Grandpa and Grandma Shirey, Grandma and Grandpa Morgan, Mommy and Daddy, Luke and Ben, November 2008.




November 2008 Great-Grandma Shirey with Luke and Ben



December 2009 Great Grandma Grace with Gracie



Great-Grandma Shirey will be missed.

Mohawk!

This week Daddy gave haircuts to the boys while Mommy was at work. As you can see from the pictures, this is what I came home to find. Ben was allowed to keep his mohawk for a day, but Mommy made sure Daddy got rid of it before church today!!

Come fly a kite!

Last week we finally got an opportunity to teach the boys how to fly kites! We had so much fun.
Here is a video clip of pictures. Check out the clip of Ben and his amazing 3 year old soccer dribbling skills!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

More fun with Grandma and Grandpa

We have had a lot of fun with Grandma and Grandpa this week....they will need a long nap after this week!

We dyed Easter eggs, had a picnic at the park, went to a museum and the zoo, ate Ethiopian food, played games, read lots of books and enjoyed lots of hugs and laughs. Mommy and Daddy even got to go on a date!




Even Clara loves when they visit because she gets more love and attention than normal!




Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for spending your spring break week with us!

Injera, Doro Wat, Coffee and Genet

Thursday night we had a very special family celebration. Wednesday was our two year anniversary of our first meeting with the boys, and Thursday was the anniversary of their official visa approval to come to the US! So to celebrate our special week we took the boys to visit an Ethiopian restaurant here in town. We had been talking about it for awhile, and we have shared lots of stories with the boys about Ethiopian culture and cuisine, so they were so excited to go.



Ethiopian food is delicious and unique. The cornerstone of the meal is a bread called Injera It is a spongy, sour flat bread that is made with Teft flour (grown only in Ethiopia and hard to find, although becoming increasingly more popular in the US because it is gluten free!) Injera is made much like a thin pancake or crepe, poured out and then flipped expertly by the Ethiopian women. Huge round dishes hold the injera, and then the other foods are placed on top. To eat Ethiopian food you simply tear off a piece of rolled up injera in your hands and pick up the main course with the injera. Most other dishes in Ethiopia use a spiced butter or a berebere spice sauce.



The boys did a wonderful job eating with the injera, and they seemed to love everything, although a few dishes are a bit too spicy for them. Luke and Ben even tried Ethiopian coffee and loved it!




When we first got to the restaurant Luke and Ben won over the heart of our precious waitress immediately. She seemed genuinely thrilled to have us there, and she just adored the boys and Gracie! By the end of the evening, she was hugging and kissing the boys goodbye. She promised them that next time if we came during the day she would perform an Ethiopian coffee ceremony for the boys. Ethiopians love their coffee, they can take hours to hand grind fresh coffee, and it is a very long, beautiful ceremony that is a tradition in Ethiopia. Jeff and I were able to experience this wonderful tradition when we were in Ethiopia, and it is the best coffee we have ever tasted!



Genet was our waitress' name, which means "Heaven" in Amharic. She was so pleased that Luke knew one Amharic word "Ababi" which means "Dadddy". She told us that she would love to teach the boys Amharic!!! What a blessing it would be to develop sweet relationships with some local Ethiopian people. Genet was able to pick out which people group each of the boys came from as well, which was so special to us since most people just assume they are twins. It was a refreshing change to have someone of their heritage to be able to notice and affirm their unique backgrounds.




It was all around a wonderful evening. Now we can add Injera, Dora Wat, Kitfo and Coffee to the growing list of foods the boys love. We love introducing new and interesting foods to our boys so that they can learn to appreciate them. Luke and Ben's most current favorites include hummus, falafal, edammamme, (cooked) sushi, salmon and mango!

We are so glad we have this amazing Ethiopian restaurant so close to our home. We hope that we will always be able to celebrate this piece of our sons heritage!

Zoo over the years

So my sister Reagan brought up a good point in her last comment....the rhino picture at the zoo has become a family staple every time we visit. It will be a good indicator of how our family grows over the years! :) It is so funny to us, it doesn't seem like there is that much difference in the boys from 2008 to 2009, but check out what a change it was from 2009 to 2010! Yikes, these boys are growing fast!!

2008



2009



2010

Two years ago today!

Two years ago today we were in Ethiopia meeting our sons Luke and Ben for the first time! This is a very special day for our family to celebrate. Today we all went to the zoo and tomorrow we are going to try to go to an Ethiopian restaurant to celebrate! Happy Two Year Anniversary to us, baby boys!

Picnic with Grandma and Grandpa

Monday we enjoyed a fun day with Grandma and Grandpa at a park. Luke, Ben and Gracie have pretend picnics all the time so they were thrilled to have a real one! We even survived the clouds of yellow pollen to have a fun morning.

Here are a few pictures of our day.










More later this week!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! This year we have been blessed that Jeff's parents were able to join us for Easter, and all this next week too! Here are some photos of our weekend. What a joy filled, special holiday Easter is to us!

The boys had fun dying eggs while Gracie watched.




Easter morning




I must admit it is quite fun to have to shop for an Easter dress this year, even though Gracie tried to eat it most of the time!




Our handsome boys



Our Easter egg hunt!



Gracie wasn't sure what to do with the eggs!



Discovering Easter basket goodies





We hope you had a blessed Easter, celebrating our Reason for hope!
Love,
Morgans