Moran Family Fun

I love when things are organized and streamlined. I don't like clutter or useless things crowding my life or our house. Last week Madison, Emily, and Abigial had the day off on Wednesday and we thought it would be the pefect opportunity to clean out our messy, overcrowded toy room. Especially since Natalie and Samantha did have school and wouldn't be there to say, "But I LOVE that toy! I play with it all the time, really I do!" Since a picture is worth a thousand words I'll just let these pictures speak for themselves. This picture is all the things we took out of the toy room and will be getting out of our house. We filled up almost the entire basement hallway with things we don't need, want, or play with anymore. And here's what's left in the toy room - the things that the little girls play with and love the most. We also left their little table for art projects and tea parties as well as an art easel and one tub of dress up clothes. The best part? ...

To make our annual pumpkin carving Family Home Evening run smoothly and move quickly I decided to pre-clean the pumpkins. How long does it take to scoop the insides out of seven pumpkins? For me, about an hour and fifteen minutes. Yeah, sometimes I impress myself. Something else that's impressive - these awesome pumpkins we carved! From left to right we have: Angry Bird by me, classic jack-o'-lantern by Natalie, scared ghost by Jared, cat by Samantha, Jack Skellington from Nightmare Before Christmas by Madison, a winking clown by Emily, and a scary witch by Abigail.

Jared is amazing. A few weeks ago when the kids didn't have school and he was off work he decided it would be fun to go on a hike. And then he thought it would be even more fun to call our friends and invite their kids to come along as well. Here's Jared and the TEN kids he took for a little walk in the woods somewhere near the beginning of their adventure. And here's Jared at the halfway point, in the valley by the waterfall. I think he must have been wondering what he was thinking . . .

Last month Jared auditioned to be the MC for the Air Force Ball and we were excited when we found out he had been selected. What a great reason to get all dressed up and have a fun date night. So Jared and I went to the Air Force ball this Saturday. It's basically a big party for the Air Force - happy 64th birthday Air Force! We had to arrive a little early so Jared could go over the script and schedule for the night one last time. I was glad to have chance to look around and explore a little before everything started. The Ball Committee had somehow turned a large airplane hanger into a beautiful space for a party. There was a dance floor, enough tables and chairs for the 1200+ people who would be there, a stage for the entertainment later in the night, and a small jet off to one side where people could get professional photos taken. I only had Jared's iPod to take pictures with, so they quality wasn't that great, but you can see that if you looked up to the ceiling you co...

Last month Jared ran in his first (and, he would point out, LAST) marathon, the Air Force Marathon in Dayton, Ohio. You see, Jared’s not crazy like our friend John who ran the Air Force Marathon with Jared and then just a month later ran the Baltimore Marathon. Anyway, I've been bugging Jared to write about it on here but blogging is just not his thing. The last time I brought the subject up Jared reminded me that he had already written about the marathon in his journal. I jumped right on that and asked him if I could just copy his experience from his journal to write on here. So everyone who reads this post will be able to say they've read Jared's journal! Jared and John post-race Today was the day! I ran 26.2 miles in 5 hours 41 minutes. After doing it I wonder why anyone would ever run a second marathon. We started off the day by meeting one of my old commanders, Colonel Jamerson at his house on Wright Patterson. He gave us a parking pass so we could park closer and the...

Madison and Abigail both spoke in church yesterday. Madison in Sacrament Meeting and Abigail in Primary. Madison started preparing her talk a few days before Sunday so she was ready to go but we completely forgot about Abigail's talk until right before we left for church. For once I was grateful for the 40 minute drive to church because it gave Abigail plenty of time to write her talk. I thought both Madison and Abigail did a fantastic job and I wanted to share them here for everyone to read. First Madison's talk - Hello Brothers and Sisters. This year the theme for the youth is the 13th article of faith, which says, “We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men. Indeed we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul, We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous lovely or of good report or praiseworthy we seek after these things” The...

Madison actually let me do her hair twice last week. Not only did she let me, but she even asked me to do it; I didn't have to beg and bribe her to let this happen. I had to take some pictures to document this once (twice) in a lifetime event. Nothing special here just some curls. Still it's gorgeous, gorgeousness. It's a "hair" bow made out of hair. I loved this one and I heard it was a hit at school as well.