Julia's more mobile than ever now!

Julia just got a new Kawasaki ATV from Grandma Carol and Grandpa Dennis, she couldn't wait to get on and ride. She is pretty cute on it. She's currently out exploring the whole property on it! There is a video of her 1st ride on the left hand side in the video bar!

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!

Julia's 4 year old photo shoot.

I thought I would load the photos of Julia at 4 years old. Grandma Carol came out while I had my surgery and while she was here we took Julia to a studio to have her pictures done. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at how well she did. I think she is a natural ham!! We hadn't had any pictures done professionally of Julia since she was 18 months old....so it was definately time!

Hope you all enjoy them.

1 less house in Courtenay, ND

We had some excitement yesterday that we all could have done without! My Dad's house here in town started on fire about 1am in the morning. Dad wasn't home, he had gone to Bismarck the night before and was returning yesterday. Some friends came pounding on our door and ringing the doorbell trying to wake us up because believe it or not, we were sleeping right through all the excitement.....I guess that's from living in larger cities for too many years. Sirens and lights are a normal everyday occurance there. Anyhow, we did manage to save a few things from his house (and literally, I mean a few, everything we saved fit in the back of a pickup truck).. The things we got out were the most valuable things emotionally anyway.

We are very grateful that no one was injured while fighting the fire and are very grateful to all the volunteer firefighters that showed up to help and were so willing to help rescue the few belongings that we did get!

I have included a link to my facebook page where I downloaded all of the pictures of the 2nd fire. Basically they had managed to save the shell of the house the first time around (although it was still a total loss) but then when the wind kicked up around 10am (Dad was home by then) the fire re-ignited in two parts of the house and Dad decided to let it go and burn to the ground, so some neighbors took a bunch of pictures along with the aftermath pictures I took this morning.

I have lots of photos of kids and such to upload some day...if any of you are on facebook let me know and I will add you as I update that site more frequently now since it is much easier to utilize with pictures.

Have a great day, talk with you soon.

Here is the link to view the pictures of the fire http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/album.php?aid=2023412&id=1002518170, however you may have to sign up for facebook I am just realizing, so I will add a couple on here too. If you want to see all of them, create a facebook account and add Dawn Strickler Morgan as a friend to see them. All of you who are already facebook members, these are the same pictures that I posted on there this morning, so you may have already seen them.

Thanks
Dawn

here is when it started the second time

Starting to really catch fire after it was decided to let it go

Fully engulfed!

.....and collapse!

This is what it looks like this morning.

Happy New Year 2009

I know I haven't updated our Blog in awhile again. So I think I need to set new goals and try to update it once a quarter, since that is about all I manage to do anyway, then if I do more you will all be surprised!

Well here we are again at the beginning of a New Year again. We have had alot going on to keep us plenty busy here in North Dakota. The kids are very active in the community and have lots of activities that keep us running from one event to another. I have included a few pictures for you all to enjoy. Maddie was able to play the piano for her school concert. (Her video is located on the left. Please check it out.....sorry the sound isn't so good.) She played "Silent Night" and did a wonderful job. We were very proud of her. She is doing so good on piano and really seems to be enjoying it.

We have had a lot of snow so far this year. Everyone around here tells us this is an unusually snowy year, we already have about 2 feet of snow and much larger drifts in areas around the yard. The kids have had a blast making snowmen and sledding and generally just goofing off. Try to tell them it's too cold to go out and play....they will laugh at you! We just got back this weekend from Camp Wilderness in Park Rapids MN for a Boy Scout winter camp where the boys earned their Snow Sports merit badge. We took the whole family and had a good time going sledding, tubing and cross country skiing.

You will also see some pictures in here of the kids all dressed up in costume. My Dad became involved in the Nutcracker play in Jamestown and apparantly they needed some more kids to join so my kids and our friends kids, Anthony and Patricia Plumb joined them. They did a great job. It was fun to go and watch them. They wouldn't let us get pictures during the show, but we did catch them before for a few shots.

We enjoyed getting everyone's Christmas cards and finding out what everyone else has been up to this past year. I hope this year is good to all of you.

Keep in touch.

The Morgans




Kids at Halloween 2008


Anthony bodyslamming his snowman!


Maddie dressing her snowman.

Anthony's snowman before he bodyslammed him.

Maddie with her snowman.

Anthony standing in a snowdrift - he later worked his way into the drift and it came up to his chest!

Our neighboor came over with a snowblower to help us dig out after one of the big storms blew through. We couldn't get the car out after this storm until it was plowed out!

Maddie, Patricia Plumb, Anthony Plumb and Anthony G dressed up for their Nutcracker performance.

My Dad with the other Ladies that were in the Nutcracker play.

My Dad with Serena Christianson who played his wife in the play.

My Dad with his "Family" for the play.

Grandpa with Maddie and Anthony all in costume.

Julia in her new Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) dress she got for Christmas.

Julia with the gingerbread house she made with Mom.

Maddie and Anthony out Cross Country skiing with Mom - There is a frozen lake out behind them. It was beautiful!

Cross Country Skiing.

The whole family out in front of the cabin where we stayed.

Getting ready to head out skiing our last morning and tubing for Ken and Julia of course!

The whole group that went up for the weekend at Camp Wilderness.

Summer is officially over (here at least)

Well, the kids headed back to school today. They were very excited about it. They got to ride on a school bus for the first time (they didn't want Mom to drive them on their first day to the new school - not cool). We have been very busy working on the place out here and enjoying company. We had the Hackbarts stop by in July and got to spend some time with them while they were out touring the country for a month. The kids really enjoyed seeing their kids and of course Ken and I had a great time visiting with Mark and Kaycee, hopefully we can do it again sometime. Then my sister, Monica, and her family came out for about 10 days. Jeff came out to help my Dad work on the house. They got a lot done and we now even have a working toilet in the upstairs of the house!!! Monica and I took the kids over to one of our friends house who has a farm and the kids enjoyed feeding all of the animals and collecting eggs and things like that. I have included some pictures of all of them out there. We also were able to celebrate RJ's birthday while they were here. So we took a day off of work and headed out to the Jamestown resevoir for the day. the kids got to go swimming and played games. We BBQ'd and just generally had a good time, we also went to the Jamestown Speedway after the BBQ and watched the races. The kids had a blast. The Crown Royal Nascar car was there so we got pictures of the kids next to it too. There are also some pictures of all of the kids riding in the Go-Kart with the next door neighbors. They all took turns and seemed to be enjoying themselves. Hope everyone has had a wonderful summer, we look forward to hearing from each of you.

Love
The Morgans



First Day of School, waiting for the bus.


Ready to go!


How exciting - they get to ride the bus!


Kids at the Jamestown speedway with the Crown Royal Nascar



Anthony and Rj with the Crown Royal Car


Monica and RJ at his birthday picnic


Birthday picnic


Grandpa Strickler and RJ at the birthday picnic


Kids at the farm


Monica and her kids with the pigs


RJ feeding a goat


Tanna feeding the goats


Kids feeding the goats


Anthony and Audra riding the go-kart


Maddie and Audra riding the go-kart


Tanna and Audra


Maddie, Julia and Audra


Maddie and Troy


RJ and Troy


Anthony made a batch of bread all by himself. It turned out really good!


Maddie showing her brother how to climb a flag pole without a ladder!!


Maddie and Julia playing with their new kittens.


The kids playing with their new kittens, Tiger and Oreo.