Welcome to the World Massie Elizabeth Morgan

Massie Elizabeth Morgan was born a few days early on June 8th - at 6:31am weighing in at 7 pounds 6 ounces. We are all home now and are enjoying the newest addition to our family. She is a spitting image of Rory as you will see from a photo comparison later in the blog.

For those of you wondering about the name, Massie was my Father's Uncle's name. It turns out that it is also my uncle Randy's middle name. I'm not sure what type of psychological damage giving your daughter a boy's name will do but we'll start the "shrink fund" now - I guess we'll have to do the same for Rory. Massie shares her middle name with me, my mom and grandma Leone.

As with any new parents, we are taking lots of pictures and are sharing many of them with you below...hope it's not overkill!

Introducing Massie

Massie looks like a wrinkly old man in this picture...she also has the hairline of a middle aged man...super funny!

Massie meets Grandma Judy

...and Grandad Andy (Massie, this is the guy that is going to feed you chocolate ice cream...be good to him).

...and Grandma Linda. Great grandparents Joyce and Bud along with my brother Jesse and his girlfriend Petra also visited Massie at the hospital but with Yuri on camera duty we didn't get much for pictures.

Rory meeting Massie at the hospital. At this point Rory is not sure what to make of this little squiggly thing.

Rory modeling her "Big Sister" shirt and showing off her new "Rory" doll and "baby Massie" doll.

Rory & Massie...Quite the Similarities

As I mentioned above, Massie is a spitting image of Rory when she was just born. Below are pictures of the two of them leaving the hospital (keep in mind that Rory is about 5 days older in the picture as she had an extended stay at the "spa d' Fairbanks Memorial Hospital". Ignore the scowl on Massie - this girl constantly looks like she has the weight of the world on her shoulders...perhaps it's because Yuri is reading his financial magazines to her and she is concerned about the financial crisis.

Massie

Rory

Big Sister Rory with Massie

Rory came home from daycare on Friday and Massie was finally home. She is a super helpful and excited big sister.

Giving Massie an Eskimo kiss

Rory is fascinated at the size of Massie's feet. Here she is showing us how big she is compared to the baby.

First Family Outing

Over the weekend we were feeling the need to get out, breath the fresh air and enjoy some sun so we packed up the kiddos and headed to the park for a bit. Rory enjoyed the carousel ride...can you tell?

Rory and her dad love snow cones. Here they are showing off their colored tongues. Can you tell who had strawberry and who had blue raspberry?

And Finally...our 7 Year Anniversary

Sunday marked our 7th year anniversary. I don't know what people are taking about when they reference the "seven year itch" because every year gets better and better (just when you think it's not possible). I definitely got lucky with this guy and I am thankful every day (except on January 1st when we discuss our budget for the year :-))!

Yuri and I have never purchased anniversary gifts for each other but this year was different. Yuri surprised me with a ring box...in it was this beauty! Well, turns out that he did have a gift for me but wanted me to be involved in designing it so this ring was the placeholder. How lucky am I?!

Hope all is well with you all...we will keep you updated as our little ones continue to grow at alarming rates.

Love,

Yuri, Sydney, Rory and Massie

Lots and Lots of Fun, Events & Activities

Only 10 days 'till my due date (but who's counting right). We are ready to welcome another daughter and are hoping to be fortunate to have another healthy, happy little girl. We think we've picked a name but we are hush-hush about it until the kid is here so stay tuned. The next time I post something here we should be the proud parents of two little girls! Until then, following are some of our happenings over the last several weeks.

Gardening - Take II
This will be my second year of growing a garden. Below are pictures of the gardens soon after planting seeds and starter plants. Hopefully in a few months I'll have much different pictures to share. In the garden below, we have planted peas, carrots, two kinds of lettuce, broccoli, zucchini and yellow squash.

In this little garden I have planted strawberries (left), raspberries, artichokes and cucumbers (right). I'm not sure that artichokes or cucumbers will grow well in Fairbanks but it's worth a shot.

I've also planted several things in planters on the deck - lots of different tomatoes, basil, cilantro, thyme, lemon balm, peppermint and flowers. The deck looks wonderful and all the herbs makes it smell great.

Backyard Fun

One of our neighborhood family friends, the Raymonds, passed down their kiddy playhouse and Rory loves it! Here she is taking a break from cooking and cleaning dishes in her house.

Grandma and Grandpa Warwick finally moved the trampoline out of their living room and into our backyard. Rory is a jumping fool and is starting to gain some coordination. Such fun!

Mother's Day

Yuri and Rory spoiled me this year - taking care of a very large "honey-do" list, waiting on me hand and foot and showering me with love. Picture below - Rory mixing the waffle batter for my Mother's day breakfast.

Betty & Bruce Back in Fairbanks for 24 Hours

Our friends, the Tangeman's, came back to Fairbanks (from Anchorage) to pick up Bruce's motorcycle. It was great to see them and Rory had fun catching up. Picture below: Betty pushing Rory in the "baby swing".

Posing for a picture before hitting the road back to Anchorage.

One more quick squeeze before saying goodbye.

Mason Anderson's Graduation Party

Yuri's cousin, Mason, graduated from High School this year and to celebrate, his folks threw a family barbecue. In reviewing the photos, I was dismayed to find out that I didn't even get a picture of the graduate - sorry Mason!!!! Picture below: Rory with her great-grandma Joyce (and great-grandpa Bud in the background).

Rory LOVES her hot dogs!

There is Bruce peeking out of the cool backyard fort at the Anderson's house.

And there is grandma Linda peeking out of the window with Rory.

Dodson/Husband Wedding Reception

Our friends, Jimmy Dodson and Heather Husband, were married several months ago in Mexico and since Yuri was in Juneau for the Legislative session I was unable to attend the festivities. Luckily, they decided to have a reception in Fairbanks. It was a wonderful, fiesta themed, party and a good time was had by all (especially our little party girl Rory as you'll see in pictures below). Picture below: Heather & Jimmy celebrating a great party with friends and family.

Rory with grandad Andy...he fed her skittles all night which fueled her non-stop dancing and overall entertaining behavior.

Rory cutting loose on the dance floor with a new friend.

Rory's first crush - she was smitten by this little guy (who I might add was several years older than her).

Rory was fawned over by the older girls during the party. These kids, led by the Knabe girls, who are always so good with Rory, had a great time looking after and playing with Rory.

Jesse and Petra before the dancing and general rowdiness began (at least I'm assuming there was rowdiness after we old people left).

Lanie's Baby Shower
My dear friend Lanie is pregnant and is due one month after me. Even though I was only three weeks away from my due date I hopped on a plane to help host the baby shower in Anchorage and celebrate this very exciting time with a wonderful girl and group of friends.

Picture below - look at that loot!

Our friend, Renee Limoge, put together the food as she usually does for our parties. It was yummy and oh-so-pretty on the table.

We had pictures of Jeremy and Lanie as children framed around the room. I think this idea originally came from my Fairbanks friends Megan and Heather as they did this for my baby shower 2+ years ago. Also below is the table of party favors...cute little mirrors with owls on the back.

The theme of the baby shower was a sort of whimsical/owl themed party. I found these cute pinwheels on Etsy.com - the same place I picked up the mirror party favors.

I have always wanted to put together a candy bar for a party and this baby shower was my perfect opportunity. The picture isn't great but we had all kinds of candies, lolly pops, gumballs, etc. - it was great. We had bags out for guests to fill up before leaving the party.

Ugh...I'm not super excited about how terrible I look in the picture below but since Renee and Lanie look like superstars I figured that I would share the picture. Lanie is the most perfect pregnant person I have ever seen (well, Dy was pretty darned perfect looking too)...the only thing that has grown on her is her darned tiny little baby bump. I felt like a water buffalo standing next to her.

While I was in Anchorage for the baby shower the gals gave me gifts to bring to Rory...and she loves them! The butterfly wings and fairy skirt were a big hit (as you can tell from the big smiles below).

Decorating the Girls' Rooms

When Rory was born we were living in a one bedroom apartment and I didn't get the chance to decorate a nursery. Well, now that we have lots of space and I love to decorate, I fixed up both Rory's room and the new baby room.

Rory's Room
I painted two of her walls a green/yellow (very 70's like our living room and kitchen). As you saw in last month's blog, she is out of the crib and into her very stylish bed. I made the curtains...flower pattern (very Rory who is all girl). The bed doesn't look made but it's because there are foam bumpers under the sheet that prevent (most of the time) Rory from rolling out of bed.

Rory is a book worm and has tons of books. To help accommodate the nightly ritual of picking out the reading material for the evening we had a few book rails installed. These rails are great - they allow Rory to easily see what books are available to her and the books provide for great decor.

These framed paper dolls were the first thing I found for her room...love the colors and uniqueness of them.

Rory's flower curtains.

Rory's closet - when she gets a little older she will really come to appreciate that closet! Certainly nicer than mine.

Baby's Nursery

I found this MOD fabric with little blue birds and love it! I used it as the "theme" for the room and used the fabric for curtains.

Here is Rory's old crib, which I absolutely love the look of, and changing table. Along the wall with the crib are hanging branches with hand sewn birds (yup...I made them).

Here is a picture of one of the birds hanging on a branch.

And another...
The baby's closet - it's not as large as Rory's but it sure is jam packed full of baby stuff. This kid will not be in need of clothing anytime soon!

Reuniting with Friends
My college friend, Sonja, her husband, Paul, and son, Arturo are in in town for the summer (from Russia where Paul is a professor at a University) and we got to meet up for brunch a few weeks ago. I'm looking forward to spending time with them this summer. Arturo is absolutely ADORABLE and he and Rory hit it off. Aren't they adorable together!?

First Professional Haircut

I have always cut Rory's hair but it is getting to be too much of a chore so we brought her to Team Cutters (Dawn) for her first professional cut. She behaved herself well but that is only because she got an endless supply of lollypops.

Warwick Cabin at Harding

And finally...an end to this never ending blog. We went out to Harding for Labor Day Weekend and had a nice time relaxing and helping Jesse get the cabin ready for the summer (dock out, jet ski's in the water and a water line installed). Below is Rory enjoying the indoor swing.

We'll be checking in soon with pictures of one more Wargan/Morwick family member!