My Boy Is Just That Awesome

I have to say, I have some great kids. I am really one very fortunate Mother. I have 4 son's and we are pretty sure another little testosterone ball on the way. These boys aren't perfect by any means, really who on earth is? Not me, that's for certain! How did I luck out like this though?

Our oldest Michael just turned 12 and he came up with the best ever "theme" for his party.

Seeing as Michael's birthday is in January that is when everyone makes those pesky new years resolutions. Blah. Lose that last 5lbs (er 40), Save money and so on.
My girl friend Amber decided for her resolution to "make a difference" weather it was in the world or in her local community. I was really surprised by this, she became a topic of discussion in our home as to how SHE was making a difference and how we could implement that in our home. She was doing things like a drive for Water.org and donating to her local animal shelter and so on. When Michael's birthday theme came up he said "I want to do that, I could do that too!" he decided that he would ask his guests, that instead of bringing him a traditional gifts, to bring him some sort of a donation for the shelter as well.


Ya, that's right, he decided to give up gifts completely for dogs! Gahhhhh, it makes me tear up even now. Not only were his guests surprised at this, Amber was surprised as well. Some how things snowballed a little and when we went to donate at the local shelter there was a news crew and two newspapers, and three officers from animal control! WHOA! I knew in advance that the local writer for the Fort Polk Guardian would be there since she had called me in advance, having read about Michael's birthday party on my Facebook page. Michael handled it all so very well.




Here is where Michael and Cody both held up a giant 40lbs logging chain that was wrapped around a rather small dog that animal control picked up. He was so sweet, but still so painfully thin. It was all Michael and Cody could talk about for days. How sad they were that other people could mistreat an animal like that.


Here is the video of Michael on the news!


Here I have copied and pasted the article from the Guardian!
There was a small typo saying that it was Matthew Howard but it was actually Michael.

Fort Polk boy makes dogs' day, gives back to man's best friend
February 7, 2012

By Sarah Peachey, Fort Polk Guardian staff writer


Related Links
Fort Polk Guardian web site
FORT^POLK, La. -- He received eight bags of dog food, eight bags of treats and more than 15 toys for his birthday. It may sound like the perfect gift for a dog, but it was for a 12-year-old Fort Polk boy.

Matthew Howard, son of Matt and Rachael Morris and a student at Pickering Elementary School, chose to forgo traditional gifts in favor of donations to the City of DeRidder Animal Control during his birthday party Jan. 21. His mother's friend, Amber LeRoy, was his inspiration.

"My mom told me about her friend Amber's New Year's resolution of helping the world. I decided if she can do it, I could too, so I chose to give back to dogs. I saved all my birthday money to buy extra food and toys," Howard said.

LeRoy chose to make a difference in her resolution and started bringing some items to the animal control facility. "If this idea could spread, it would be awesome," she said.

When Howard arrived at the animal control facility, he grabbed the two largest bags and carried them to the kennels. Almost immediately he wanted to go inside and see the dogs. He picked up a bag of treats and walked into the building that housed the dogs with a smile on his face, stopping to give a treat to each animal he passed. While some of the dogs were timid, others accepted the treats, toys and pats with tails wagging.

"It's sad to see what has happened to some of the dogs, but it feels good to help. Some of the dogs really love what I got them. One of the dogs took the toy as soon as I handed to him," Howard said.

Howard said he's had a love for animals since he was little. "Dogs are just amazing animals. If I could take a dog from here, I would take all of them," he said.

Anne Champney, an animal control officer in charge of the kennel, said she was moved by Howard's decision to collect donations. "It's an amazing thing and he got a huge response. We cannot solicit donations, so he did this all on his own. His mom called and asked about assisting. We told her to think of a bored dog and what they would want to do," Champney said.

Howard said he enjoyed petting the dogs, giving them treats and handing them toys and he spent a lot of time doing all three.

"He's been an animal lover since he was small and watched Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel over any other show," said Rachael Morris, Howard's mother. "He heard about Amber (LeRoy)'s resolution and got excited to do something. He asked, 'Can I get donations for my birthday?'"

Howard didn't have to forgo all birthday gifts, Morris said. A Family friend brought Howard a football.
"I was so proud of him. I kept asking, 'Are you sure you don't want any gifts? You're sure you only want donations?' It was something he felt he had to do. Now my other son wants to do something similar for his birthday," Morris said.

Howard's brother, Cody, 10, has a birthday in June and also plans to seek donations, but for a different cause. "He inspired me to do the same thing. I'm going to work with water.org so kids can get purified water," Cody said. "My brother did a cool thing and I'm proud of him. He wasn't greedy and decided to give back. I've never seen kids do that. People say kids can't do anything, but we can."

I would have just linked it but I wanted to make sure that it was included when we print out next blog book!

This in turn inspired Amber to start a new Facebook page called "Birthdays for a cause" it is AWESOME! It's a place where people can go to get ideas for possible birthday parties asking for some sort of donation, and a place to share those parties once they have happened! Thanks Amber for starting all of this! Thanks Sarah for the article and thanks to all our friends and family who took the time to donate! Thanks Anne at Animal Control for being so open to letting us come and love on the dogs when we donated! It made the kids afternoon. Frankly, were we not moving to Germany this spring we would have let Michael adopt one of those sweet pups. We just can't afford to fly a 2nd dog right now. Boo! At least if he couldn't take them home he was making thier lives just a little better!

In the end Michael got over $200.00 in gift cards or cash, with which he then went to Petsmart and Walmart and spent it on dog food and toys. He got quiet a bit of stuff! I just have to say again and again how very proud of him we are! What amazing boys we have!!!

SeaWorld....Where We Realized I Was Pregnant...AGAIN

After we sent the kids off to Jon's for Christmas Matt and I needed to plan something for a little early for his birthday. Going to Sea World is free for military families once a year so we decided to go on a date there, just the two of us! I've been a few times, and always had a blast, but we've always had a plethora of children in tow, blazing heat, and a basket full of stress! Going as just the two of us would be a totally new experience. Oddly enough we knew Jon was planning to drive down from Ga, with the kids and take them to Sea World, we did NOT know he was planning on that specific day. The only reason we knew a head of time was the night before hand, while Matt was printing off our military tickets of sorts he read that children over the age of 10 have to have their own military ID present with them when they show up.....I had the ID's. Jon did not. How was Jon going to get them in??? So we called to ask what his plan was, only to hear he planned to go the next morning. Akward much?
Matt and I offered to meet him at the front gate early and let him use the ID's to get the kids in. We decided once in the gates to go our seperate ways. I would have loved to spend the day with the boys but I didn't want to take from what little time Jon gets with them one on one. Not to mention I was unaware that Jon's new girlfriend was going along and was....hideing or MIA everytime we saw the boys yet she was in the park and didn't run into us. Oh well. I was a little irked by the new GF info and mostly I would guess from the surgeing hormones I was unaware of. LOL. AHHH, good old hormones and what they will do to you.
I hadn't yet missed my period and was showing signs of pregnancy. Tired, grumpy, bursting into tears, and an OBSESSION for Chinese food that I couldn't understand.

All of those fun little signs were swept under the rug which was our vacation, thinking "Meh, I'm just tired from the travel, I'm grumpy becuse I'm about to PMS and I want Chinese food becuase...I really..like Chinese??" I really had a hard time rationalizing that one away..lol
Right about HERE is when I REALLY thought...hmmmmmmmmmmm a test would be a good idea...and here is why.


We went into the shamu show, before the show a little girl went past me with cotton candy and caribbean flavored kettle corn. I litterly considered mugging her for her goodies. Matt had no cash and didn't want to run to the ATM for cash right then, I almost cried. REALLY??? Is that rational??? Uh not really...lol
During the show I did actually get all emtional and tear up....right here.

Kissing Orca's! SO CUTE. I am NOT a "SO CUTE" type of person. I normally would have said. "aww" and left it there. Instead I got all weepy. Ya, I'm rolling my eyes at myself too. lol.
Then a wee baby behind us cried and the hormones in me went nuts! YEP...we need to stop at Walgreens on the way home..lol
I went in....bought a test.....went to the potty.....and ...TADA.....LOL #5 on the way!

Here we are on Matt's actual birthday shareing the news with family...lol Happy birthday my love. My gift....a 5th baby!

Just A Cute Picture

I came across these two shots and thought, man I really do have to add these, they are so cute! Especially the one of Matt and Aidan kissing, just goes to show you how quickly Aidan took to Daddy being home. These were taken within the week of him being home. I would have had a few more with the other boys, but Michael and Cody were on the Field warming up for a game and Matty was off playing with the Dyer kids on the sidelines while we kept Aidan happy in the car..lol Love my family, Love my life!

Welcome Home Party

As a result of our upcoming move to Germany this spring, and Matt's return from Afghanistan, Matt's parents put together a party to welcome him home and give him a chance to see all of those friends and family who he seldom gets too see, all in one place. Since we were home for Christmas and only had the boy's with us for a short period of time we were not likely to be running off to see each of these people one on one so this was an amazing idea! The food was phenomenal, the company even better! Our family always does the nicest things to make us feel loved and welcome and to show appreciation. This was defiantly a wonderful welcome home party!
Matt and his little brother Jordan were surprised with a joint birthday cake, which was AWESOME!!!! Old embarassing photos! OHHH YES!
Matt and his little nephew Hunter





One of Nana and Grandaddy's neighbors was just amazing and made sure that he and his family would pray for Matt's safety every night, and when he met Cody, they sat at the table for 2 hours talking and they hit it off so well, Cody could have gone home and been adopted..lol it was so cute.




Aidan was of course EVERYONES favorite screamer, most of the evening and once he passed out he made the night much nicer for everyone! lol

I have to add this photo of Matt and Jordan, just becuase I love it so much!

Family Photo Shoot

Before we had to hand off the older three to Jon for his Christmas vacation with them, the family had a chance to go take some really fun family photos. At first everyone was going to do Christmas shirts for the pictures but Cody had a pretty good idea to pit the Gator fans against the seminole fans, so everyone put on a shirt or jersey of their choice and tada!!! Nana of course was our Ref! lol It was of course like a fuster cluck, seeing as we had 13 people, two of them toddlers, one being EVIL! Aidan refused to be nice, to smile or even stand/be held still. LOL oh well. Here are a few of them!







Once again the ONLY person who was able to keep Aidan from full out anarchy










Ah, look, thereeeee he is, the REAL kid who was there during the photos. LOL


Thanks Uncle Jordan for taking pictures for us all!

Early Christmas

Shareing kids at Christmas sucks. It just sucks. Lol. Sooo of course that means we have to have our family Christmas early so that we had time to spend it together, We got to open gifts and literally RUN to pick up Amy (my big sister) an hour away so she could spend a day with us before we took off for Florida where we would spend a few days with family and then swap kids with Jon so he could see them for Christmas. It was a whirlwind! What an early Christmas! here are a few things that happened over Christmas vacation.

Christmas as a fam at home........




Then off we went to Fl, where we did all sorts of fun things, Mom and Dad had a family BBQ set up for us at Rock Springs, which was beautiful and so fun to get to see more family in one place.

We had a Christmas Dinner (once again early) at Aunt Kelly and Uncle Don's where Dad thourghly schooled me on how to make Sweet potato souffle, CORRECTLY, since the one I made via email directions was wretched! MMMM what a yummy recipe when done right!!Thanks Mom and Dad!!

Mom, Aunt Amber and Aunt Brittany had all the kids decorating cookies....so fun!



Matt actually helped in the kitchen.......he err...moved the turkey for us..lol

Aunt Amber caught some really great shots of Aidan and of the boys playing football









Mom and Britt working on dinner...omgravy it was all so good!

We got to open gifts with the boys from all of the family and the kids wanted family to open thier gifts then too so they could see .
The boys were SPOILED They got AMAZING jersey's, clothes, and toys!





Next up......more pics from FL...Yes...as always,a TON of photos, duh!