10 moments

1. Watching the rain fall down together.  I love seeing her take in the new world around her.

2.  Baby jammies, sleeping early in the morning, and holding Daddy's hand.

3.  The invitation I designed for my sisters baby shower, EJ is getting a cousin in 6 weeks!!!

4. Silly smiles.  I love how they are making their appearance more often with every passing day.

5.  Cherry blossoms blooming in our yard.

6.  Nothing in the world beats a moment like this.

7.  I jumped on that band wagon and I don't regret it.  Maybe I do like reading after all.  Nursing has afforded me a little extra time to pick up a new hobby.

8.  No, no...that was no curling iron.  My baby gave me a hickey.  A straight up purple and blue collar bone hickey. 

9.  Blue eyes, you are all that I need.

10.  Daddy and Evaleigh's new trick...it gives me a heart attack but I love it.  She is already our little performer.

the fruit of our loins : the orange grove shoot

A few weeks back we had a little photo session on our family ranch with Audrey Layne in the orange grove.  We did it in the grove in honor of the fruit of our loins which will be coming about in 6 weeks or so.

We are so happy with how beautiful the pictures turned out.

dear pregnancy brain, you ruin everything.

Dear Pregnancy Brain,

You and I need to have a talk.

You see, the last week or so I have been building up husband's birthday surprise and doing a really great job of keeping it a secret.  Secrets can be hard for me, especially when its a gift.  I really thought I was going to make it this time.

Then you came along and ruined everything.

Remember yesterday when all I wanted to do was show Mr. Murphy a picture of my new bangs then you decided to butt in and be all, "BAM, it'd be a great idea to take a picture of yourself in the car and make sure to include his birthday present in the background."

That was rude.  

Can you stop making me stupid now?

Love,

Rachel

Happy Birthday to my sweet husband of 24 today!

I made Mr. Murphy promise me to still act surprised.

I was so close...SO close.

Flash Mob in Kroger

Kroger in Grayson had its very own and no doubt first flash mob dance breakout last night.

We strolled down the unexpected freezer aisle and them shamelessly broke out in to a terrifically choreographed dance number. 

We are happy because we dance in the grocery store in an aisle all to ourselves at 11 o'clock at night.

We left bearing goods of Pomegranate Pops and Ben & Jerry's 'Everything But The...' ice-cream.

(a little picture of our new bedroom, we still haven't found the nuts and bolts to put our bed together so we have been sleeping with our mattress on the floor. no doubt they will show up in the very last box i unpack)

We exited Kroger in slow motion to the sound of "Chariots of Fire" playing overhead. (dun dun dun dun duun duuun ch ch ch ch...you know what i'm talkin' bout)


(Kroger always seems to bring out magical moments in our marriage.)

Lover's Holiday

(garland made from the same map used to make these)

My lover is taking me on a surprise date tonight.

Happy First Married Valentine's Day to us.

A Bun in a Hot Place

It's finals week.

Stress and anxiety levels are at an all time high.

I may or may not have had random silly crying spells yesterday.

I am expected to graduate in exactly a week.  

If I pass my piano profficiency.   

Ick.

Then...precious freedom and a lot of unknowns.

So, tonight in between me writing a paper for Psychology and studying for Psychology and Mr. Murphy slaving away over his French final we decided WE NEEDED A BREAK!

Enough was enough, our brains had had it and it was time for some sweet sweet music making.  

It is the 2nd best kind of therapy out there.

So, we dressed ourselves and scrubbed off the study grunge and made ourselves look presentable to record a happy song.

Here is our original cover of Iron and Wine's "Such Great Heights" debuting Mr. Murphy's birthday gift.

So, why don't you take a break from what ever hot situation you are in and treat yourself to a little procrastination by yours truly and her honey bun.  

It can be good for the soul ya know?

I want to thank (this lady) for the inspiration for the Audrey Hepburn meets Carrie Bradshaw

BUN!

The light at the end of that long, sad, dark, depressing, lonely tunnel is near.

I can't wait to wear that funny square shaped hat and bask in the glory of 5 1/2 college years.

Now...back to the grindstone.

Growing Young and Playing Dress-up

Tonight I washed makeup off of my face two times.

The Mr. and I were getting ready to go to bed after an amazing night of vegetarian cuisine and then the music hit us. (spontaneity gets the best of us every dang time.) I looked in to my bag of headbands, bobby pins, and tricks and I spied the two pairs of old people glasses that I got for wedding picture props.  We never used them and now I am glad we didn't.  I was disappointed when we forgot to use them for wedding photos but tonight these glasses filled the measure of their creation.

John and I put on our best "old people" wear, I reapplied my makeup, and we learned a special song.  

I wore my great-aunt Annelle's real fur mink coat.  It is in perfect condition and was handed down to me by my Nanny (my perfect mother's perfect mother).  On the inside on the right her name is embroidered.  (Annelle S. Julian, such a beautiful name, they just don't make em' like that anymore.)  This coat is the classiest thing I own.  I can't wait to wear it to an opera someday.  Oh Mr. Murphy, won't you take me to see La Boheme?

So, here is our treat for you.  Our spontaneous midnight dress-up party.  We have fun and we don't care who sees it.  Life is perfect and we can't wait to grow old with each other. (though being young together is pretty awesome too!)

The Murphy Ranch

(Isn't this a sight for sore eyes? I fell more in love with my ranching husband after I took this picture...if that is even possible.)

This weekend we went to Avon Park, Florida to the Glenn Murphy Ranch.  It is a magical place.  It has been in their family for several generations.  John's Papa owns it and his father works it alongside many members of the family.

(our sweet Pops)

We woke up and had fresh cantaloupe and relaxed around the house most of the day until the heat calmed down.

We all got dressed in our best country wear.  The boys put on their cowboy hats.  Their plaid shirts, boots, and hats were all so picturesque.

(hottest husband on the block)

(Pops and son)

(Me and the men, trying to look like a ranch girl.)

Pops made me smell horsey poop.  It didn't smell like ANYTHING! It was great!

The picture below is one of the many beautiful views on the Murphy Ranch. This picture makes me want to climb that fence and run as fast as I can through the field. Then I would lay down a blanket and invite my John to have a picnic in the field with me.  We would eat fresh fruit and sandwiches with homemade bread.  Then maybe we would lay down, smooch, and watch the clouds go by.

(Bull)

I wanted to ride a horse so Pops saddled one up for me.  This here is Cowboy.  The family ranch horse.  He drives like a car, he is so obedient.

John rode Cowboy first so he could break him in a bit before his wife hopped on.  

The day was glorious.  The breeze was so perfect.  It was touching to look out over the hundreds of acres and look at the beauty of the earth.  I love the earth.  I think Heavenly Father did a pretty wonderful job making it.  And I am thankful for it.

First Official TUNES Post!

Despite what you may think, one of the whole reasons we created this blog was so we could share some of our music too.  We aren't just fatties who like to try cool recipes.

So, tonight we were feeling rather musical after our Mexican dinner. (for more reasons than one)*wink

 So, we got out our girls (our children) and made some sweet music.  I have recently picked up the Uke and John is always a natural at the guitar.  We were feeling pretty chill and did a Norah Jones cover of, "Sunrise".  Hopefully you like it, and hopefully my voice teacher doesn't see this.  (I probably shouldn't be singing this low, no one tell Mrs. Stephenson!)

Like it, love it, hate it, whatever...just listen to it!

We had a recording session this evening in our bedroom.  The acoustics are actually quite nice!  Stay tuned for more tunes...

Garden Roses and Pecan Chicken

What is it about fresh flowers in the house that just makes everything alright? I have learned that simply buying fresh flowers makes you want to keep your home cleaner. Like you want to make your home worthy of these beauties.

I've always thought that roses were sort-of cheesy. But I found these Garden Roses at our grocery and I fell in love. They are so feminine and they look like something I would want to either eat or lay my head on. I can't decide.

We had the best chicken ever the other night. I mean really. I decided to try this recipe because after John went on the guys weekend with my Dad, Pawpaw, and my brothers. He came come raving about a dinner he had in the mountains at the restaurant on the top of Mount Pisgah in Asheville. He said he had Pecan Crusted Chicken.

Whoa! Fancy Shmancy!

I considered this a challenge; I had to make it better than what he had. There was much success. This recipe just rocks. All I would say is add some more cinnamon! (and maybe some more sugar too...)

Recipe:

• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon poultry seasoning
• 1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 pinch white sugar
• salt to taste
• ground black pepper to taste
• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - pounded to 1/2 inch thickness
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

(OH! Paula!)

Directions:

1.In a small bowl, mix the eggs with the milk. Put aside.

2.In a medium bowl, mix together flour, seasoning, cinnamon, pecans, sugar, and salt and pepper.

*I used a hammer and smashed the pecans in to little bits so it stuck to the chicken better!

3. Dip the chicken in the egg mix, and press in the pecan mix.

4. Fry in hot olive oil until golden, about 5 to 10 minutes. Check to make sure the pecans don't burn. Place on paper towel to drain.

Well, I'm off to make my husband watch "Baby Mama" with me. Ooooo oooooooo. We are going to have a race to the bedroom and then count to three as we hurl ourselves backwards on to our luxurious down comforter and a mountainous pile of 9 pillows. We are just little kids in big bodies.