Birch Creekin' It...

Since Morgan's 8th birthday in January, she has been begging us to take her fishing with her new pole. We heard the fishing was good at Birch Creek and planned a little camping trip to kick off the summer. Morgan did a great job all on her own this year. She even wrangled her cousin Josh into putting her worms on the hook for her. I didn't catch any pictures of her fish because she was always down the creek finding a better hole.


With the help of Grandpa Marshall, Abby caught this little brook trout. She couldn't have had more fun. She did plenty of fishing on her own too.

Wyatt could have spend days on end fishing. He was always trying to get someone to bait his hook and he would sit by the banks all day and fish. Here is one of the beauties his dad helped him catch.

Across the road from where we camped was a daunting cave that all the kids wanted to explore. With our binoculars, we would watch brave 4-wheelers creep their way up the path and back down. On Friday we drove to the base of the big hill and went for a hike. I don't think any of us realized just how steep the climb would be.


I couldn't believe my eyes, but when I looked up, Abby and her cousin were the first ones to reach the cave. She practically ran all the way up. Here is Abby at the start of the hike with Ally, here partner in crime.



Morgan and Josh enjoyed the hike too and weren't far behind Abby.


Wyatt and I kept a slow and steady pace and made it too the top. Look how steep our climb was.

Chase had the right idea, riding up on Tracy's back. He had a great time, especially since we were outside.

Here we all are inside the cave. It didn't turn out to be much more than you could see from the road, but we saw some awesome sights.

Around the corner from the cave was a big natural arch. It was as large a the cave. I am standing below taking this picture.

Here is a picture looking down at the valley. I sure was proud of my little hikers. We had a great trip and hope to do it again next year!

Enjoying our Journey...

Life has been an adventure lately, but we are enjoying every minute of it. We have been staying at my parents while we build a house this summer and my kids are having a blast. I didn't realize there were so many decisions to make when you build, but it has been fun seeing things progress.

We went from this in May...

To this in June. I can't wait to see what July brings.

I have some catch-up to play with my blog, (end of school, camping, etc,) but here is a picture of my cute family enjoying the sunshine.

He's wearing us out....

He's almost nine months and he is into everything. he might look Innocent, but he is Trouble with a capital T.
He's learned new tricks and we find ourselves having to relax and recover after a wild day of chasing our Chase.

Morgan and Abby let Chase try their ring pop and he took over from there.

He couldn't be happier about it either...

He stole the cookie from the cookie jar too...

Life hasn't been the same since....

He crawls everywhere, even up stairs, and is into everything. I found him on the dishwasher just this week.

He's trying to walk. He pulls himself up and walks along everything. He even takes a few steps. I should have know when I named you Chase I was in for some fun! We love you Chaser!

8 is Great!!!

Morgan was so blessed to be baptized on January 9, just the day after her birthday. Here is a little about her day...

The announcement

Here she is with her dad on her special day

This is the biography that I read at her baptism. It was also in the church bulletin the next day with a picture of her.

Morgan Leann Marshall was born January 8, 2002 to Tracy and Katie Marshall. She is a loving older sister to Abby (6), Wyatt (3), and Chase (7 months). Morgan was born with a determination to accomplish whatever she sets her mind to do. She loves life and is a joy to be around. Morgan is a friend to everyone, and enjoys spending time with her cousins, and playing games with her family. Morgan loves to run, play soccer, baseball, dance, jump rope, read and play the piano. Morgan loves to go camping, especially if it involves riding 4-wheelers and fishing. She has become really good at out-fishing her dad. Morgan’s favorite food is sweet and sour chicken. Her favorite subject in school is math. Morgan’s favorite primary song is “I lived in Heaven.” Morgan has a strong testimony and is so excited to be baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. She is such a good help to her mom and dad and a great example to the rest of her family. We are so proud of Morgan’s choice to follow Jesus’ example and be baptized.

Here is Morgan in her new baptism dress. She picked it out all by herself.

We have such wonderful family that supports us in all of our important events. Nearly all of our big family was there and those that couldn't be wanted to be. Morgan you are always our princess and we couldn't be happier with your decision to be baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

What an awesome special day to remember forever!

A Birthday that's Golden...

Do you know what a golden birthday is? I didn't and was quickly educated by my soon to be 8 year old. It's when you turn the age of the day of the month you were born on (ha ha ha, did you get that). So Morgan turned 8 on January 8th. It was golden for more than one reason.

Here is Morgan looking so golden on the morning of her birthday in her new outfit from Chase.

One of the highlight of the day was ring-pops for her class as seen by her blue lips below. She was so excited to get her own fishing pole, Star Wars Lego's, and a new DS game.

Aunt Shelby (she rocks) hooked us up with a free bowling pass at ISU so we picked up some pizza and some friends and had a blast !

Abby and Wyatt were thrilled to be involved!

It was fun watching all the giggly girls playing slap games all night when they weren't bowling. Do you remember playing those?

Of course the cupcakes were a hit!

What a great bunch of friends.

Morgan you are golden. How great that your golden birthday was your 8th birthday! We love you! We hope you will always remember your golden day!

Merry Christmas Day...

We had a wonderful Christmas. It started with a celebration Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa Williams', the highlight of which was talking to Uncle Bracken. What a stud!

Of course my kids were thrilled with their new Christmas PJ's. We couldn't get home soon enough though because Abby was so worried about not getting to sleep in time for Santa. They were tracking him online and he was getting closer!


Morgan was so excited to get the webkinz she asked for and named them Hailey and Pepper.

The spirit of Christmas was so magical with Abby this year. She was so cute when she opened the Webkins she was hoping for, now named Frosting and Mike.

Every present Wyatt opened was quickly followed by "I was just thinking about this." He couldn't believe his eyes. So cute!

Chase was more excited with the wrapping and seeing how things tasted than anything else.

After opening presents my kids went downstairs and couldn't believe they had a couple more presents waiting to be opened. They quickly discovered a Wii and our house hasn't been the same since.

The very best part of Christmas wasn't the presents, but spending it with family. We were so blessed to have Grandma and Grandpa Williams have breakfast with us. We were doubly blessed to have Grandma and Grandpa Marshall have Christmas dinner with us. It was such a joyous day.

The day after Christmas the Stanton family came and taught us some sweet skills for our Wii. We had a blast hanging out!

Abby, Wyatt, and Evelyn created some delicious entrees with their new play dough set.

One of the Holiday highlights for me was matching outfits for all of my kids. I love matching.

I took it one step further and matched up the whole family. Tracy swears he won't wear a sweater vest, but if anyone knows where to get a good deal on one, I might just buy one for the priceless look Tracy would give me.

One final Merry Christmas, until later this year!

A Christmas Program Marshall Style..

We are so blessed to be able to celebrate the Christmas season with both of our families. The Williams family produces a program and pageant like no other.



Morgan showed her newly learned piano skills. It looks like she was playing with angels.



Abby has some pretty sweet skills and graced us with her version of "Up on the Housetop"



Wyatt invited all of his cousins to join him in singing "Jingle Bells" , with Morgan accompanying them on the piano.



The traditional Christmas Pageant ended up being a little nontraditional with the addition of a Christmas elf to the roster. Wyatt insisted on being an elf, and I decided it wasn't worth the fight. Uncle Kyle did a great job of writing him in the script along with the Wise men and Shepherd.



Chase was our dear baby Jesus, and Morgan and Abby were Shepherds this year.



This is Chase's reaction when we told him it was time to go to Grandma and Grandpa Marshall's for another pageant and party. Yes!!!!



Morgan was our beautiful Mary. She did a wonderful job.



Wyatt was a little more traditional this time as a Shepherd with his sister Abby.



Our nativity included a zebra this time. A cute one at that!

Grandpa had all the kids lined up for a story before we opened presents. We love Grandpa's stories.

We were blessed to be able to celebrate with Great Grandma and Grandpa Tracy (pictured below) and Great Grandma and Grandpa Williams this year. What wonderful memories and an awesome way to ring in the holidays.