Kay:

Alright. Let’s talk about the sweetest girl in our pack Shila’s youngest, little Miss Annadelle.

Shi:

Annadelle Lila Morris. Well, the twins came along and that made two is company. She definitely made us three is a crowd. When you go from two to three, it’s like that rite of passage some parents say to others, “Well, you’re taking on zone defense. You’re going from man-on-man coverage to zone defense.” So, Annadelle put us squarely in the zone defense making three truly a crowd. But it’s a crowd we wouldn’t trade for anything. And we are so glad that she came in and rounded out the Morris family kid pack because she brought forward, I think one of the elements that we were missing, which was an element of sweetness, softness, and kindness.

Kay:

Well, I do want to just take a quick moment to yes, you heard us right, her name is Annadelle…

Kay & Shi:

With a D.

Kay:

…and Shi I would love it if you talked about the origin of her name because I think it’s just so beautiful.

Shi:

Oh, absolutely. So, Wesley and Emerie are both grandfather names actually. We just loved the name Emerie for a girl, but they’re both grand grandfather names for Chad and I. So, when it came to naming our third, we were like, it’s got to be a family name and we were rolling around with some of the other grandparents’ names. Then, we were at Easter actually and I asked Chad’s mom, what was your mom’s name? And she said Annadelle and it was like the clouds parted…

Kay:

Ah!

Shi:

…and the light shone down, and I was like, that is her name and I love, love, love her name and it’s so fitting for her. It’s perfect. It’s sweet. It’s symmetrical. I love it.

Kay:

Yes. Well, for as soft and sweet as that beautiful name is this girl is so soft and sweet. You know, many of you likely know that there are some pretty big tensions happening right now in Russia and Ukraine, and Shi right before we were recording you told me Annadelle’s answer to this problem. I’m hoping you’ll share.

Shi:

Annadelle, she’s like, “Mom, why can’t somebody just call up their people in Russia and tell them, yo dude, dropping bombs kills people. Stop that. Like, why are, why are you doing that? Stop that. If they could just know that it’s killing people.” It was funny, her teacher said if we could only have a class of Annadelle’s. She’s so sweet. She’s so kind. Is she liked that at home? And we said, “Yeah, she is.” She’s always the one who gets up and lets the dogs out. She’s always the one who will give up something for her brother or sister or share what she’s eating or try to add value or serve in any way. She loves being the assistant. She even says, “Mom, I want to be your assistant when I grow up,” and I’m like, great because I really need one of those and I love to have her around. But she joined our family in 2013 so she’ll be nine this year.

Kay:

Well, right when Annadelle was born, Danny and I actually moved to Southern California and so I felt like I missed this first portion of her life in regard to being a baby. But when we moved back, and I started to get to know her a little bit more and especially with the addition of Violet and we’ll talk about her in the next episode. But my daughter is obsessed with Annadelle kind of to an unhealthy degree. But Annadelle is so nice. She just takes it, and she just loves on her, and shares and lets her be the boss. Yep. it’s the sweetest thing ever and Ann really loves to play with her. And then when she does come down to having to set some boundaries, it’s always with the utmost love and just the kindness that exudes from that little girl, I think we can all learn a thing or two from her.

Shi:

I know and both of our favorite shared memories of Annadelle are in 2020, 18 days before Florida shut down for the pandemic, we found ourselves there for the Disney Princess Half Marathon and it was a whole weekend and there are kids’ races and all kinds of things and I was running with Annadelle, the kids’ one-mile race and it was a hot day and we were at the end of the race and I could tell that she wanted to stop. Her body was genuinely tired, but she was pushing herself and she couldn’t talk. She could only just like focus on running. Man, have we all been there, right?  She starts doing this sound kind of, mm, mm, mm like this rhythmic little…

Kay:

Grunting.

Shi:

… just vibrational grunting to get to encourage herself and it was like, it’s embedded in my memory forever and I know because it’s so special to me, I’ve shared it with Kay so many times, her memory too. Just that vocal demonstration of commitment and what it sounds like to exert yourself and dedicate to something and just be committed to it, even when you’ve got to grunt your way through it.

Kay:

Well, we really see that continue to express in Annadelle and I think that’s one of the other big lessons that we’ve learned from her is that when there’s passion involved, that you can push yourself to some really new heights and new things. This last year Annadelle discovered the magic of gymnastics. And I have never seen a child so committed to learning something and she has progressed so quickly.

Shi:

She really has. She flips, she cartwheels, she’s almost got the middle splits down. She really started loving gymnastics and began expressing in a gymnastics way ever since. In her free time, she doesn’t want to do iPad. She wants to do handstands and cartwheels and love that about her. But my big lesson, of course, is that kindness and love are the answer, and I’m so glad she joined the Morris family so that she could bring that to all of us and be that grounding reminder for us.

Kay:

Well, kindness, love, passion, and “Mom, you want to see my best handstand?” We love you Annadelle. We are so glad to have dedicated this episode to her and next up, let’s talk about little Violet.