A horse face out of glass

Evie, we are so proud of our little artist! A few weeks ago you went to your first summer camp! It was for one week 9-12 in the morning.  You had such a hard time with me leaving every single day.  I am grateful for your attachment to me but I am also hopeful for you to have confidence.  Confidence in yourself and confidence to know that I will come back.  Trust me, I don't want to rush you in to growing up too fast but I am also eager to give you experiences to help you grow and see your talents and to recognize your strength. It is in you!! 

I couldn't have been prouder to walk in to your exhibit after you had been creating all week and to see your work displayed. I imagine you will create a lot in your life and whatever it is I know I will beam at it just the way I did your art that day.  I'm so proud of you and you were proud of you too.  

Thank you for being the creative little soul that you are, I love you so! 

brave

A couple of weekends ago I went to Augusta to visit my sister.  I just couldn't stand it anymore, I missed her and I missed her children.  So I packed everyone up in the car and stuff to stay for a couple of nights and we took off.  The drive from Athens was so beautiful.  I love the southern country side.  The kids were both asleep within 20 minutes or so and I just drove and thought.  I love that kind of solitude.  I can see my babies in the rear view mirror with their shimmering closed eyelids and those pouty sleeping lips.  I can sigh a breath of relief knowing that they are with me but somewhere else completely. 

We had so much fun with the cousins. On Saturday bekah and I got the bray idea to go get the girls ears pierced together.  Evaleigh had been asking for quite some time.

Joe kept the boys and we went off on a girl date.  We stopped off and got the girls matching summer sandals first and then went to Claires in the mall. Evaleigh was determined the whole time.  She never faltered with her answer every time I asked her if she was sure she wanted to do this. 

She picked out a pretty pink glitter heart pair of earrings and hopped right up in the chair. I stooped down and held her hands to help her stay brave.  They counted to three and "pop!" The earrings were on and her face didn't even change.  

I learned a lot about that brave soul.  Not a tear, not a frown, not even a wiggle or wince. Just sheer excitement and courage. I was so proud of her bravery to do something hard, face it head on, and own it! If her reaction tells me anything about her future and how she will come to handle life then I've got one less thing to worry about.  A rite of passage in to girlhood, she suddenly looked older.

Kate cried, but then they were both so excited.  I loved doing that together, such a sweet memory.

bye bye mangy

I was not ready for this. A couple of days ago we shaved Avetts head.  His hair was full, dark, and precious when he was born and it hung around for a little while. But once he started rolling and wiggling around he started loosing most of it and all that was left was a long awkward Mohawk on top and a mullet down his neck in the back.  I tried to hold on as long as I could but the greasy comb over that always managed to work its way down the center of his forehead just wasn't working any more. 

So, it was with a heavy heart that we razor-ed it all off.  He sat perfectly still almost the whole time and shocked us both.  He seemed to be memorized by the sound of the buzzer.

I'm still not used to it.  The awkward hair was just sort of his thing, and honestly I miss that mangy do.  

the greatest joy

It is our family tradition to take our children to the temple as their very first outing. We took Evaleigh when she was 4 days old and on Sunday we took Avett when he was just over 48 hours old on the way home from the hospital.  We tell them how grateful we are that they came to our family and bare our testimonies to them that our family can be together forever.   

When we got to the temple Evaleigh took off running in the grass and giggling for her daddy to chase her.  I stood there with Avett in my arms and watched them go all over the temple grounds.  She would stop and point at the temple and smile.  When she came back she brought me a purple flower that she picked.  I couldn't imagine my life getting any better than that moment and my heart was exploding with grattitude for the life my Heavenly Father has blessed me with.  

 

When I originally thought about taking Avett for his first trip to the temple I didn't think about having Evaleigh there.  But as we were preparing to be discharged from the hospital my heart ached at the thought of her not being with us.  So my mom packed her up and brought her to the temple so we could all be together.  That is just how I feel about the eternities.  It simply wouldn't be heaven if my husband and my children weren't all there.  I've always loved this quote by Elder Holland, 

“I don’t know how to speak of heaven in the traditional, lovely, paradisiacal beauty that we speak of heaven…I wouldn’t know how to speak of heaven without my wife, or my children.  It would not be heaven for me.  Now, you can say that’s wishful thinking, you can say, ‘ Well that’s just because you love each other and you’ve gotten cozy here on earth and you like each other’s company.’ It’s a lot more than that.  It's eternal."

 

As I sit here with my 5 day old baby in my arms I feel a warm spirit around us.  The past few days I have felt so close to Heaven with this special little spirit who has joined our family for forever.  I am so grateful for the gift my Heavenly Father gave to me as a woman to be able to bare and bring forth children with my husband in to this world. It is my greatest joy.  

boy

Thanks for all of the love and excitement about baby #2!  We are so excited to bring a Murphy BOY in to this world.  Saturday was probably one of the happiest days in John Murphy's life.  I don't know that I've ever seen a smile on his face that big, not even on our wedding day...honestly.

  

Our appointment was at Stork Vision, which I highly recommend   They do gender ultrasounds as early as 16 weeks for a super affordable price, which is awesome for impatient people like me and Mr. Murphy.  We used them for finding out what Evaleigh was and I will keep using them for every baby after!

Our appointment was at 1pm that day, which was torture!!  Especially when your one year old wakes you up at 7:30 and you are counting down the hours and minutes until you can jump in the shower and go! When we got there they took us back almost immediately.  Evaleigh has an intense fear of doctors so she started crying horribly loud and dramatic.  I'm pretty sure she thought the ultrasound tech was going to hurt me.  John handed her to me and she laid her body across my chest, started patting my shoulder, and didn't move the entire time.

The tech started the ultrasound and John had his face 2 inches from the big screen tv where we could see it all.  The anticipation on his face was priceless.  When the goods popped up on the screen for just a minute he jumped back with a huge smile.  They came on again as clear as could be and before the tech could even get anything out of her mouth he said, "ITS A BOY!" and put his hands over his head as if he had just made the winning basket!  The ultrasound tech confirmed it and said, "That certainly is a boy.  I will literally quit my job if that isn't a boy, there is no mistaking it."  John was fist pumping and smiling and all sorts of crazy body movements that I don't think I've ever seen.

Every once in a while now he will pat my tummy and say, "My boy."  I can't wait to see him with our little guy.

If you missed it, our little video reveal is here.

Vintage First Birthday Tea Party for Evaleigh

This past weekend we celebrated one whole year of Evaleigh Joy's life.  We had a Vintage Tea Party for her at our little townhouse in Atlanta.  So many people helped to make this day special.  (A special thanks to Karen and CJ for helping me learn how to frost a ruffle cake!)  EJ was a perfect birthday girl.  She walked around so proud of her new dress and smiled and was happy the whole time (except when she almost inhaled all of the frosting off of the top of her cupcake).  We loved watching her with all of her family and friends who came.  It was a tight squeeze in our little space but thankfully the weather was kind and we made it work.  We had all of EJ's monthly videos playing in the living room for everyone to watch.  Thank you to everyone who made her First Birthday so special!

Happy Birthday darling girl, we can't wait to see what this next year is like with you!

Cupcake: Sweet Dee's Bakeshop

Hairbow: Bow to the Queen and King

Tea cups and mugs: Anthropologie-similar

Striped Paper Straws : Target

Big Round Balloons: Balloonsfast.com

Felt Balls: Tadaa Studio Felt

a little one year old

This past weekend we had Evaleigh's first birthday tea party.

It was surreal to be the mom at my child's birthday party.

Can't wait to share the details of the decorations tomorrow.

Til then enjoy these pictures by my dear friend Katie from Life Framed Photography (Thanks Katie!).  And a video of EJ smashing her cupcake (Thanks Jen!).

happy birthday evaleigh joy

Today, Evaleigh is one.

It has been such an honor to be her parents for a whole year.  It has been the happiest and most full year of our lives.  Watching her grow and make us laugh while we take in every minute of her has been simply the best.

I just don't even know how to take in the fact that we have had her for a whole year.  I remember a year ago today so perfectly. This time last year I had just woken up and we were getting ready to go to the hospital for the c-section.  That was the best day of my life.

Today Evaleigh is bringing me stuffed animals and giving them huge hugs.  Everytime we go down the stairs I'll sit down at the top steps and wait til I feel two little arms hug around my neck and then I give EJ a piggy back ride all the way down, she loves it.

This morning she woke up at 7am and John and I went in to her room together to get her while singing Happy Birthday.  She probably thought it was pretty weird.  She gave us an uneasy look, we are already embarrassing her.  

I can't wait to celebrate her life all day.