Naptime

Now that he is in a big bed, Ethan often gets up during nap time. Today, he apparently preferred the wagon.

Ethan Helps Get Ready for Baby

After I took Ethan's cozy blankies and pillow out of "baby Noah's bed," I discovered he had also stuffed my lab jacket in there. Appropriate, as Noah and I have been wearing the lab jacket a lot lately.

Ethan Keeps Busy

while Mommy takes a shower. Why is it that he went straight for the mascara?

Photos from the Birthday Party Bash!

I might have overdone it for a 2-year old's party... we actually had two. I am certainly not doing three next year. We had Ethan's friends over on Saturday am, and our family and a couple of friends over Sunday night (this was a felicitous mistake on my part as I sent Leah and Tali the wrong invitation: just one good reason why pregnant women should not try to plan two parties at once). Photos are on Picasa. :)

Ethan's 2nd Birthday

Ethan Climbs

He's getting a little more adventurous on the toddler playground. Like all first-time parents, we are smitten.

Ethan Climbs

Ethan Gardens (Read: Plays in the Rocks)

I made this playsuit yesterday (yes, in one day!) from a great oliver+s pattern. I had seen their patterns a while back (maybe Matt's mom sent me a link? Maybe we both saw it in Mary Engelbreit?), so when they offered a free shipping deal, I pounced. Kind of. I thought about it for a day or so, because I haven't spent more than $7 on a pattern in a long time, if ever. It was worth it. Besides, they come with sweet card stock paper dolls, so it's really not that much for the pattern, if you consider how much you'd spend for a paper doll.

Now we know what he does while Mommy's at work...

We Were There (or, The Perfect Alibi)

We really did go to see Matt's cousin Jeff on Saturday. I'm not sure who took these pics, but I promise we are the subjects. Other people were there, too, but I'm not at liberty to say who...

June Photos

Ethan June 2008

Click above to see more funny faces as Ethan eats grapes and hams it up for the camera.

Ethan's First Picnic

Things that Made Me Smile Today

Our azaleas


Ladybug at a neighbor's


Casey's old craftsman house
When I first moved to Tyler, Casey and Sarah Jane lived there. Then Casey and Alyssa. Then, finally, Casey and Travis. Other people I know lived there before, but I always think of it as Casey's.


Lizard on a fence post


Ethan on the playground

The Unboxing

My aunt sent me a box of things from my grandmother. Tomorrow, it will have been two years since Abuela died, and although my aunt set up a memorial website where we could post about her, and my sister-in-law wrote a lovely tribute, I haven't been able to write anything yet. I'm not sure I can, still.



The box contained old pictures and letters to my grandparents from my father, scraps Abuela had saved from when we made my wedding dress, and an empty bottle of her Chanel perfume. It smells like her.



I cried looking through the pictures and reading the letters. I'm not sure why. Maybe because Matt and Ethan never got to meet her, and maybe because she never got to meet then. Maybe because I never knew my father as an adult, and he never saw the person I've become. Maybe because I had a happy childhood.

Why Crude is up to $110 a Barrel

This is Matt at work. And yes, that is oil all over the ground. I'm just glad it's not all over my carpets. Something... "blew up," I believe is the technical term he used tonight. Babe, I appreciate your hard and sometimes frustrating work for us!

Ethan Chills on Marmee's Swing

You light up our life, baby boy!

How to Get Your Toddler to Eat Grapefruit

Every time you eat a grapefruit, give your baby some. Eventually, he will eat it and like it. Or he'll go off to college.

Here, Ethan eats grapefruit so fast I could hardly take a picture with any in the tray. It's not the first time he's had it, but the first time he liked it. He liked it so much, in fact, that he managed to sort it out from the boring, bland, nearly-the-same-color-and-texture tomatoes.

Ethan's Birthday Book

For Ethan's birthday, I made him a little Winkflash photo book about the first year of his life. I put an apple green cover on it, called it "My First Year," and wrote simple text in first person. I'm thrilled with the results, despite the fact that I did it in one sitting late at night. I plan to make one for him every year, but I've been thinking about a colors book next: Ethan in green clothes, holding a green toy, for instance, and the word "green" in a large simple font. This will enable me to preserve a few more brain cells by not having to come up with text that chronicles an entire year. I started looking into some different online photo places, and put the results into an article at Real Clever Moms. Follow this link to get the lowdown on photo books: Creating Custom Photo Books.

2007 Christmas Letter and Photo

For those of you whose in-boxes were full, we've devised another way to foist our year-end thoughts upon you... the 2007 Morrison Christmas Letter and Photo. (If you give something a grand title, it makes it that much more auspicious.)


There’s a lot of balancing involved in writing a good Christmas letter: how to avoid sounding boastful without being boring, how to avoid the presumption of assuming you want to know all about our lives without completely ignoring you… it goes on and on. Then, just as I’ve decided not to write, I get a delightful letter from a friend, and I’m encouraged to go ahead and let you know what’s up, despite all the ambiguous feelings I have about this sort of thing. Here goes:

Due to the birth of our sweet son Ethan, the year passed in a blur. I’m not really sure what else happened, but he was definitely a highlight. Ethan weighed in at 8lbs, 7oz, on January 25, sometime after 4 pm. After several weeks of insomnia and resultant psychosis, our lives settled into a nice routine, and we are so grateful to God for the joy of having a little one around. He rolled over early, crawled at about an average age, and said “Dada” for months before finally mouthing the word “Mama”. Music to my ears. His little hugs, smiles and laughs make up for all the spit up and dirty diapers he’s managed to produce over the past 11 months.

Everything else that happened this year seems to be a little overshadowed by the whole firstborn son thing. We’ll try to dredge the recesses of our memories, however:

Both Matt and Ethan were baptized on the same day in April. It brings a sweet ache to my heart even thinking about it now.

Matt graduated from UT Tyler in May with a BS in Computer Information Systems, and went to work for Vann Pumping Systems shortly thereafter. This allowed me to cut back from three to one to two days a week as a labor and delivery nurse. Ethan loves having Mommy at home, but when I’m at work he either stays with Dad, with Marmee, with Grandmommy, or with a family from church. Matt also continues to work as a houseparent one weekend a month at Breckenridge Village, where Ethan charms his special friends with his slobber and smiles.

I reached a big milestone this month by completing half of my 48-hour Master’s degree, an MS in Nursing that will allow me to sit for the Family Nurse Practitioner boards, and bring me a couple of steps closer to an eventual goal of becoming a certified nurse-midwife. Don’t ask how exactly. It’s complicated. I also continued to drill as a Navy Reserve Nurse Corps officer one weekend a month. I enjoy the training, and have memorized more acronyms than should be humanly possible. Not to mention, I finally got dog tags and get to wear camouflage and combat boots.

We so enjoy hearing from all of you throughout the year and especially now when everyone’s so motivated to send letters. What’s up with that anyway?

Matt just read our letter and registered his approval with, “It looks pretty good, actually.” So, I guess my job here is done. We’d like to close with one final thought as we focus on Christ’s birth:

“Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift.”
With love and joy,
Matt, Elisa and Ethan Morrison

Ethan Meets Santa

We had other shots, but this one is classic. I'd love to know what Ethan is thinking... "Is that beard real? Should I pull it?"

Checking Out the Tree

Ethan Swings