Emily graduates from Pre-K!!

Emily is ready to graduate!!


She got the "Great Helper" award!



Showing off!



This little girl is ready for Kindergarten!!

Hip~Hip Hooray!!

Last night my sweet little girl graduated from Parkland Preschool... Emily has loved her time at Parkland and I cannot say enough about this amazing preschool and what it means to our family... Jackson attended preschool there and Emily has been there since she was one year old. There love and kindness has meant so much to Bret & I...

This was Emily during the graduation march....

Emily...

Emily getting her award and certificate....

Jackson rocks 3rd Grade!!

Jackson had an amazing year in school... his 2nd grade teacher, Sandy Rudisill was able to "loop" with the class - so he also had her for 3rd grade... she is a fantastic teacher and Jackson really enjoyed being in her class. Jackson was an all A student for all of 2nd grade and only made one B for the entire 3rd grade!! But the most important thing is that he is an overall AWESOME kid! The 3rd grade is also the first year that students take the FACT and my amazing son... made a 4 on the reading & a 5 on the math!! We are so proud of him...

Jackson with his 3rd grade class on his last day of school.

The Morris Boys - Cross Country Adventure!

Well, since it has been FOREVER since I have updated my blog... I mean come on! What else did I have going on?!? I decided that I am going to get back at it...

The latest update for the Morris Family is that Bret and Jackson are spending the summer in Cody, Wyoming. Bret is going to work with his Dad at the family business - Morris Excavation and Jackson is going to a fabulous summer camp. http://www.cityofcody-wy.gov/downloads/17/838.pdf.

The Road Trip out West!

The boys left on Sunday, May 23rd and stopped for the night in Pensacola. They got up early Monday morning and headed for Dallas to stay with my Mom & Marty. They decided to stay and visit on Tuesday - they went on a tour of Texas Stadium and swam & cooked out. I think they had a great time!

Texas Stadium!!

Jackson hanging out by the hot tub!

The boys got back on the road Wednesday morning very early... for their longest day on the road - headed for Denver & to stay w/ Aunt Susan & Uncle Lyman. They arrived after 7pm to a warm meal :) - Thanks Susan! Lisa & Rod and Jazzy & Trent (Bret's cousins & their kids) were there too - so Jackson had fun playing with his cousins and burning off some energy!

They left Denver Thursday morning headed for the last stop of their trip - Destination Cody!! As of this post... the boys are in Thermopolis which is about 90 minutes from Cody and should arrive before 5:00pm. I just know that Mary (Bret's Mom) and Ken (Bret's Dad) can't wait to see them...

Emily and I are looking forward to our trip to Cody at the end of June and over the 4th of July...luckily we are flying!!

More updates to come!!

Emily's Dancing Debut!

How fun are these....?!?

Emily cannot keep her eyes off Daddy's video camera...

Disney Princess Dance Camp!

We have a fun and busy summer with baseball and the All Stars tournaments and Emily has been a good sport for most of it... So it was Emily's turn to shine... at the Wright Step's Disney Princess Dance Camp. The camp is a week of classes for 3 and 4 year olds! Emily was excited beyond belief about the upcoming week. The girls learned dance basics, tumbling & stretchingThis was Emily's first series of dance lessons and she really liked it - she loves to show us her moves around the house! It is a good thing that she did not get my coordination.

Emily stretching....


With the other little princesses... getting ready for class.


Posing and showing off her new dancewear!
Such a little cutie!

A funny thing happened on the way home.....

This is the view off the back deck of the club at Breton Bay. To me this picture is vacation at it's finest! Ahhhhh, what a great time we had with our friends!

We packed up the car, left beautiful Breton Bay and our friends.... we decided to take our time and the long way home and take the kids to the Chesapeake Bay Tunnel & Bridge. My parents took Kelly & I there on one of our summer vacations ... It has been called one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World - so off we headed to Norfolk.

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel connects Virginia's Eastern Shore with the Virginia mainland at Virginia Beach near Norfolk.

This was outside the welcome center in Norfolk... our little mermaid with one of the Norfolk mermaids!

Along our journey, we would drive past fields many of them with rows and rows of corn... for some reason - every time Emily would see the corn fields - she would say...."CORN- corn, corn, corn!!!" In a sort of strange creepy voice, we would all just crack up laughing which is why I am sure she continued to do it... it was definitely a funny little family memory!

During the long way home.... we took a small detour at the outer banks of North Carolina. This is the Bodie Island Lighthouse just south of Kitty Hawk.

Heading down the coast, we realized that we might have the opportunity to see & tour a battleship... So we charted a course for Wilmington and the Battleship North Carolina. Needless to say Jackson and Bret were really looking forward to this part of our adventure!

Bret standing in front of this impressive historical vessel....

Could you imagine!?!

There are alligators in the water that surrounds the battleship!

Sleeping quarters were tight on the ship....

After our adventure on the Battleship North Carolina, we kicked into high gear and headed home... but what fun time had road tripping as a family... definitely made some wonderful family memories!! But like any vacation - there is no place like home!

Mr. Morris (& family) Goes to Washington (& Maryland)

Well, after our weekend in Palm Beach Gardens for the baseball tournament, we were invited to visit our good friends the Heimers in Maryland - where they are summering. Since the kids had never been to the DC area...and I had a little bit of vacation time - we decided "why not?!?!" So we packed up the car again - and we were off...! We left at 5:15am Monday morning and Bret (the drill sergeant) was adamant about keeping our stops to a minimum and we arrived in Maryland at the Heimer's doorstep before 8:00pm that evening!

We had so much fun with our friends are so appreciative of their hospitality. We played at the pool, went "chickin neckin" (crabin) and visited Washington DC! Leslie & Bret were even able to get in a game of tennis or two... The weather in Maryland is amazing and this Florida girl did not miss the sticky humidity at all! Justin is the teaching pro at the Breton Bay Golf & Country Club, which is a beautiful course in a fantastic location. I can see why the Heimer clan love their Maryland summer home. The Morris' definitely plan to return for another visit - that is if we are invited back!

The Wyoming state flag flying in our nation's capital!

I love this cool picture of the Washington Monument.

This was a sign that was posted on the window of one of the workrooms at the Smithsonian...
I just thought it was so funny!

We teased Bret that he looked like the husband on Big Love, he braved touring DC with 4 women & 4 kids! We were quite the "big lovin family" that day!

We tried...to be cleaver!

Emily was such a good girl during a our day in DC - We really hustled that day & the kids were such troopers!


Jackson proudly stands in front of one of the Marine Corps memorials. Jackson's granfather, great-grandfather & great great grandfather served and fought for our country.

Bret & Jackson at the World War II Memorial... this is one of the newest memorials in Washington DC. It is very well done....

We caught crabs!!! (hee, hee) The boys had a total blast chicken neckin for Maryland Blue Crabs in Breton Bay! Even Emily got one ~ She was super excited!

Rookie State Championship~Palm Beach Gardens 2009

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Happy 4th of July...Fun Family Fotos!

I snapped a couple of pictures from our weekend... thought I would share!
















The kids being "cute" in our hotel room....







Some of the boys at the Minor League game on Friday night....

4th of July in Palm Beach - State Baseball Tournament

Well, as many of you know Jackson's All Star Team qualified for the rookie state tournament this weekend...so the Morris' packed up and headed south to Palm Beach Gardens on Thursday, July 2nd. The host hotel is the Hilton Garden Inn - nice accommodations! Very family friendly with mini fridges & microwaves...a pool and walking path around the lake. Our first game was Friday (July 3rd) morning at 9:30am against the Juniper Creek Bearcats (from the Jacksonville area). The game started out slow...couple of innings with no hits or ground outs...Jackson actually hit a couple of singles but was never able to advance past 3rd. The momentum was not in our favor when the Bearcats scored several runs in the bottom of the 3rd. Our boys made several errors and were never able to recover... we lost 8-0... Game #2 is today at 3:30pm.

















Jackson catching at Game #1 at the Rookie State Tournament.

The "Boys of Summer" are headed to the State Championship!!

Jackson's all star team (Bret is the assistant coach) competed this past weekend in the State Rookie Qualifier in Ocala on (June 11th-13th). With a 2-1 record after tournament play, the Winter Haven “B” Team advanced and will participate in the Cal Ripkin Rookie State Championship in Palm Beach Gardens! We are all excited to head down south to cheer the boys on!

Congratulations to players and coaches and best of luck in the state tournament.

Ocala State Qualifier

The Morris' are in Ocala this weekend! Well, 3 out of the 4 of us are... Emily stayed home with Grandmommy. Bret & Jackson headed up on Thursday morning, the boys played at noon. They won their first game and had an awesome squirt gun fight back at the pool to cool off and have some summertime fun! I headed up on Friday morning (after a quick workout) and was able to watch the boys play a fantastic first couple of innings then really blow it with some fundamental mistakes and the Palm Beach Gardens All Stars came back to win it... so we play today at noon again! Fingers Crossed!

The Boys of Summer!

This year Jackson was asked to be on the Winter Haven All Stars B Team and as a matter of fact Bret was asked to help coach the team as well. So needless to say our summer plans are confirmed! Baseball, baseball, baseball! The boys in red started out the summer season in Valrico (Memorial Day weekend) with 2-1 finish. Then headed to the Eagle Lake Tournament the weekend of June 4-6. The boys played great and with teams from all over the area the competition was tough... they lost a tough one to the Brandon Bandits on Sunday afternoon- June 7th.
Bret and I started a team website at www.weplay.com/groups/15498-Winter-Haven-All-Stars-B-Team/public. This way we along with all the parents can keep up with all the games, practices and even share pictures with each other... so if you are wondering where in the world the Morris' are this summer - the answer is probably at a baseball field somewhere! (By the way, we LOVE it!!)

Yes, we might need to get a life... but we think we are cute!

If you have digital cable - and how could you not! - and you ever listen to the music channels - and you should! - they have this cool thing called Show Off in the afternoons on channel 429 the today's country channel where you can text in messages and then you see them on the screen.

On Friday night after work, as we were just hangin out talkin and visiting with my mom... Bret text in these two messages~~Guess it does not take much to entertain us!

Ok, ok - I have been such a bad blogger!!

Ok, I realize that I have really really dropped the ball on this blog! Wow, was my last post really in January?!? That is really sad... ok, I am going to make this more of a priority! I have really missed writing down our family memories. This only shows that I have been spending too much time working, well something has to give and it is not going to be our blog any longer. I will do my best to fill in the blanks of the past several months (see below - I have already started filling in the blanks) but I am going to make an effort to blog at least several times a week again... So stay tuned!

Spring Baseball is addictive! (Filling in some blanks....)

Well, Jackson Morris - wearing #10 this year - is back at it - baseball season started on Feb. 21st with the Jamboree and has been in full swing ever since! (no pun intended - hahaha) Jackson and the team have had an outstanding season and Bret & I could not be prouder of him! Jackson plays for the Outback Steakhouse team & Coach Rodney and the boys are playing for the championship on Tuesday, May 12th at 6pm. For most of you that date means nothing more than the possibility of missing American Idol... but for some of you - and you know who you are - you are beginning to see my dilemma. Well, enough about that... more about JT's stellar baseball season.

Jackson is still at catcher and loving it - and if you will indulge this "baseball mommy" - he is really good too!! All of these boys have been playing together for a couple of years now and they have really gotten into a rhythm - they entered the playoffs 13-1-1 and the #1 seed. They have won the past 3 playoff games. With the 3rd game being a real nailbiter...the game went back and forth...over 2 1/2 hours and 8 innings but our boys pulled it out 19 to 16! And as I mentioned earlier - the championship game is 5/12/09. Stay tuned - Jackson was selected to be on the All Star team and that season starts next - there goes the summer!

Jackson & one of his best buds - Cody! (now, isn't that a great name!!)