He is Risen Indeed!!!

We hope you had a blessed Easter Sunday celebrating our RISEN Lord! Here are some pictures of our Easter weekend.

Coloring Easter Eggs




Easter Baskets (Jacob was still sleeping while the older three opened theirs!)



Our family Easter morning

(The bow did not last very long!!)

Our four handsome/pretty children!

Jeff's brother Tim and his family came for a visit. It was so nice to share Easter day with them. The kids had a blast playing with their cousins!

Aunt Gretchen meeting Jacob.

Our sweet boy. Doesn't he look like a little man? :)


Easter Egg hunt in our front yard. Once Gracie got the idea, she had a blast with her first hunt!





On Monday we headed to Jeff's school campus to get a few more photos since it was too busy Easter Sunday. Here are a few of my favorite shots.











Happy Easter!

Jacob is one month!

Yes, it is hard to believe but our sweet boy is one month old already! He is growing like crazy, wearing mostly 0-3 month clothes and some 3 month one piece outfits. In the last week he suddenly no longer looks like a newborn (how does that happen overnight?) He has also become much more interactive with eye contact, responding to our faces and voices, etc. He is still our gentle, sweet natured boy. Don't get me wrong, he lets us known when he needs something, but when his needs are met he is content and a cuddle bug. He is still doing great eating and sleeping (with 3 hour cycles). He likes his swing and bouncy seat, and LOVES our Ergo carrier so he can be close to Mommy. What fun it is to see the personality God gave him unfold.

Here is a video clip of his first month pictures. Some are repeats from previous posts, but I put all of these videos together at the end of the year as a momento. (Yes, it's true, who has time to scrapbook anymore with four kids!)

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

How are the older siblings??

I thought I would post an answer to an often asked question. How are Luke, Ben and Gracie doing with their new baby brother?

The short answer is, fantastic! They are all head over heels in love with him. The boys are pros at this big brother stuff. They are such great helpers.

Luke likes to share his cars with Jacob.



Ben loves to teach him about monster trucks.



Since Jacob came home Gracie has had a new desire to play with her doll she got for her birthday. She carries her "baby" around with her everywhere (complete with diaper and swaddling blanket!) She mothers that baby like crazy and copies everything we do, it is so fun to watch.





Gracie occasionally has some melt down moments when she wants to be the baby and wants to be held at the same time as Jacob. Luke and Ben both do a great job of trying to step in and distract in these moments. Overall, the biggest challenge is trying to explain to her why she can't kiss Jacob all day long, because she would if we let her! She calls him "Yakob" most of the time and she hates to hear him cry. She asks about him the moment she wakes up.





Here are a few short video clips of Luke, Ben and Gracie loving on their baby brother Jake. (The first video is Gracie changing her baby's diaper!)

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Jacob update

We had our sweat test to rule out cystic fibrosis on Monday at UNC. Thank you for praying, the test came back negative. This means Jacob is just a carrier like his big sister and Mommy!

Family Photos

Before Grammy left she helped us with a few informal family photo shoots. Here are some of my favorite pictures of our newest addition to the family.

The men of the Morgan household.



Our three sons.



Four under five!



Big brother Luke.



Big brother Ben.



Big sister Gracie.



And this is a picture of Gracie melting down and refusing to be a part of more pictures. They were all such troopers!



Our precious son Jacob.









Also, my talented sister Kamie made Jacob the sweetest gift. She crocheted a "cocoon" for us to take some pictures of him in as a newborn. We love it!

Monster Trucks

Last weekend Ben got a chance to go with Daddy to a monster truck rally! Luke does not like loud noises and asked to stay home with Grammy and Mommy. Ben and Daddy both had a blast and Ben has still not stopped talking about it all week!

Three years!

Three years ago today Jeff and I held Luke and Ben in our arms for the first time! It is hard to believe it has been three years, yet....it seems like there was never a time in our family without them!



This week, per our family tradition, we went to a local Ethiopian restaurant to celebrate this special day in our family. The boys love this tradition and so do we.

Luke is an injera eating machine, he loves Ethiopian food!!



This year Luke and Ben got to introduce Gracie to Ethiopian food since she was too little last year!



Three years ago, this was our family of four.



And now, our family of six!




Thank you God for the gift of our sons Luke and Ben!

Prayer request

We just received word that Jacob's newborn screening was red flagged for cystic fibrosis. If you remember, we went through all of this when Gracie was a newborn and it turned out that she was just a carrier. One gene mutation makes a carrier. You have to have two, one from each parent, to have the disease) We now know that I am a carrier, and we did have Jeff tested last year, which was negative. Yet, the test only covers the most common mutations and there are thousands of other gene CF mutations that would not show up in initial carrier testing.

All that to say, Jacob, like Gracie, will have to have what is called a sweat chloride test at a Cystic Fibrosis center to rule out any rare forms of Cystic Fibrosis. Jacob is very healthy and growing well (9 pounds at his 2 wk appt) so we are trusting that he too will just be a carrier of this gene and not have any disease! We don't know when our appointment is yet, but will keep you updated. Please pray with us that our sweet Jacob will only be a carrier!