Amazing Night

Wednesday night was Nick's Eagle Court of Honor and it was an awesome night! Unlike regular Court of Honors' where you are awarded merit badges and rank advancements that are organized by the scout committee, Eagle Court of Honors' are totally left to the parents of the Eagle Scout to plan and carry out. As I researched what is normally done at these Court of Honors' I found out there is no "standard"...it is pretty much completely up to you. I tend to prefer "structure" rather than "come up with your own ideas", but I knew right away the ONE thing we absolutely had to have that night...a live eagle! When Nick was 6 or 7 we attended an Eagle Court of Honor of a family friend and there was a live eagle there. He turned to Brian and I and asked, "When I get my eagle, can I have an eagle there?" It was great motivation for Nick to work towards that goal and we were going to follow through with that promise. It proved to be AMAZING!!!!! It was absolutely the night of Nick's life to be that close with such an amazing bird. We are very proud of Nick to have earned the rank of Eagle let alone to do it at the age of 13. We love him so much and were so happy to celebrate this great accomplishment with him!!

The two men who inspired Nick to get his Eagle by 13...my dad and brother who also earned their Eagle by the age of 13.

If He'd Only Known...

If Nick would've known 2 years ago what he knows now there would've been far less nagging, whining, complaining, sulking, bargaining, and dreading going on in our household!!! I wish every scout could have a glimpse into the future of what it feels like to be an Eagle Scout. Tomorrow night is Nick's Eagle Court of Honor, but he officially became an Eagle Scout on the night he passed his Board of Review, December 16, 2010. Since then he has received letters from Utah's Attorney General, Mark Shurtleff, Utah's Congressman, Jim Matheson, Utah's Senator, Orrin Hatch, the Mayor of Lehi, Bert Wilson, and the President of Snow College (random) congratulating him on this accomplishment. He has been invited to a banquet honoring all of the Eagle Scouts for 2010 in Lehi, and tonight he was invited to the Lehi City Council Meeting to receive a Certificate of Recognition from the Mayor. A flag will also be flying over the United States Capitol Building tomorrow in his honor and he will be receiving that flag in the mail shortly thereafter. (We had to pay for that one though.) :) As I was ironing his scout uniform to get ready for the meeting tonight he mentioned that he wanted to keep earning merit badges till he was 18 to see how many he could end up with...WHAT?????? I put blood, sweat, and tears into ALL 29 that he earned and wasted a LOT of hot air reminding him of the goal he had and the reason he was putting in all of this work. Now he WANTS to earn more...on his own...without my begging, pleading, nagging, crying or any other emotion that might elicit a response from him?????

Why is it that we often catch the vision of things after it's over? I think we are often so caught up in complaining about the journey that we don't appreciate it until we've reached the destination. Then we look back and realize how gratifying every step was. I am going to make it a personal goal to try to enjoy or at least appreciate every step of my own "journeys" in this life and not wait to realize fulfillment until the last step!!!

Nick decided he wanted to make some of his "famous" pumpkin cookies for his Court of Honor tomorrow night. We've ordered a couple of cakes from Costco, but Nick thought it would be nice to do this as well. :)

Receiving his Certificate of Recognition from the Mayor of Lehi.

Lip Synch Contest

Wednesday night for our combined youth activity at church we had a lip synch contest...unfortunately the power went out all over Lehi before we could finish. Fortunately, or unfortunately...however you want to look at it...Nick, Brian & I all got to participate before it went out. :)

Nick performed with his Deacon's Quorum (for those of you not familiar with that, that is the 12-13 year old boys), Brian performed with the Bishopric and I performed with the Young Women Leaders. I use the word "performed" loosely!!! I have to say, in the 15 years I've known Brian I have NEVER seen this side of him in public...let alone in front of an audience!!!!!! He DOES NOT enjoy being "part of the act"...but he sure cut loose that night!!!!! HILARIOUS!!!!!!

I've posted the videos here to actually document the fact that the Morrow family certainly knows how to make fools of themselves and have fun doing it!!! :) (For some reason Nick's would not post so I'm going to try to upload it in another post.)

Brian is the one in the pink wig!!!

I am the third from the right...with a lot of extra padding!!! :) The sound system wasn't working really well...we were the first to go on and our music wasn't working very well...otherwise we would've been MUCH better...hahaha!

Happy Valentines Day

I got up early yesterday and surprised the kids with heart shaped pancakes for Valentines morning breakfast along with the little treats I usually get them. Nick is usually the breakfast maker in our house but he was pleasantly surprised to come upstairs to the smell of pancakes...his favorite!!!
This picture does not adequately represent their excitement over their Valentine's surprises...I think they were still a little sleepy. :)

Brian and I were the ones most surprised though when we found our letters from Nick for Valentines Day. He stayed up late the night before writing very heart felt notes to each one of us (including Hailey). So sweet!!!!!

What Are We (the males in my house) Thinking???

Well the big news at our house this week is that Brian and Nick decided we needed MORE chickens....what????? So Nick once again did hours of research on what breed they should get next and made his decision. Then he found out he would have to wait until the end of March to get the kind he decided on so he promptly changed his mind and got the ones in stock at IFA...which are the same breed as one of the chickens we currently have and he is thrilled. :)They have them all set up in the basement with the heat lamp and they are like proud new papas.

When I first heard they were getting more I put up a lot of resistance until Brian asked the question, "How will this affect you?" As I thought about it...it doesn't. :) I don't feed them, take care of them, clean up after them or really even look at them very often. So, I backed off and let them have their fun. :)

Hailey had a neat experience this last week at her basketball game....it was one of those moments that you hope your kids can have at least once to feel awesome! Her team was down 16 to 6 in the second half but they slowly were getting back into it. With about 10 seconds left in the game they were down by 2 and Hailey was fouled taking a shot. She missed the first one so my thought was that she should miss the 2nd one on purpose to try to help her team be able to get the rebound and go for the last shot. She didn't miss the 2nd one on purpose, but she DID miss her 2nd free throw, ran up and got her own rebound and put the ball in at the buzzer to tie the game and send it in to overtime with all of us parents cheering wildly in the bleechers. :) It was awesome and she was so excited! They were down by 2 again with 1 second left in overtime and her team was taking the ball out underneath their own basket. They threw it in to Hailey and she got the shot off but unfortunately it bounced off the rim and didn't go in. But that didn't matter...it would've been nice to win but she had that moment in time that made her feel like a hero and she left the game feeling great. It just goes to show that winning isn't everything but I'm so grateful for moment's that build a child's self esteem and makes them feel like she felt in that moment!!

Below is a picture of what she thought of her vegetable soup...hated the soup...loved spelling things with the alphabet noodles. :)