Moran Family Fun

Way, way back in October our family auditioned for The Sound of Music. We did it kind of on a whim, just to have a fun activity for Family Home Evening. Emily and I ended up being cast; Emily as Gretl and me as a nun. I didn't realize back them how much time this production would take out of my life! During the end of October and all of November Emily and I had rehearsals four nights a week for at least 3 hours each night. It really shook up the routine in our household, but it's been a great experience, especially for Emily. During December we had three weekends of performances and we will have two more weekends in January taken up with the play. Emily had done a fabulous job as Gretl; she doesn't have too many speaking parts, but the ones she has she know perfectly and she in constantly singing the songs. I'm a little sad that I'm in the play as well because I can't watch her from the audience, only from the wings. She has made some great friends and has also...

Natalie is a sweet girl who loves to play and have fun. She makes friends with everyone and is always smiling. I worry sometimes that she's a bit spoiled as the youngest but part of her cuteness is her absolute assurance that she will get what she wants. Natalie loves chocolate and will do almost anything if she is promised some chocolate; it's a good thing that I'm not above bribery now and again. She had finally started talking and loves to be heard, but sometimes she is too loud. Natalie is still working on her volume control and so far has only mastered super loud and almost too soft to be heard. All day on her birthday she kept telling everyone, "I'm the birthday girl." What she was trying to say was "give me what I want." And for her birthday this year she wanted pizza and a doughnut cake. We were glad to have the Kennedy's here to celebrate her special day with us, it made for a really great party. She had a great time opening presents and...

We have been looking forward to December since May. That's when our friends the Kennedy's finalized their plans to come and visit us! Besides just being able to hang out and have fun with them we have been excited about taking an adults only trip with John and Larisa. After discussing several different destinations we settled on Gdansk, Poland. Larisa is an awesome trip planner and she found us a great deal on the flight as well as a really nice hotel and had some great ideas on things to see and do in Gdansk. We got there about dinner time and got our little, tiny rental car (Larisa said that the rental car company said no luggage would fit in the back) and found our way to our lovely hotel, Villa Angela. Before we left home I had looked up the hotel so I could leave a number for our sitters in case they needed to reach us. It was interesting/funny to read that the Villa Angela is "gay friendly" and we joked a lot about it, but there wasn't even on gay sighting d...