Easter weekend

Our Easter weekend was so packed. 

Friday we went to mom and Michaels and played around the house and property and mom made a meal and we ate by candlelight.  That afternoon Michael taught Avett how to hit the carpenter bees drilling holes in the barn with a stick.  Then we all took a turn and it was so fun! Then we had a little Easter egg hunt and the kids loved it. 

Saturday john had to work but E and A and I went to my dad and Jen's.  Dad brought us each back a little something from his recent Europe trip. Evaleigh a porcelain doll, Avett a soccer ball, and a delftware vase for me.   Evaleigh fell in love with her doll right away. The kids played dress up and that lead to an Easter egg hunt outside in their dress ups.  A ninja and a queen bobbled around the backyard to find their eggs.  Avett was all over the place and very in to it! Evie was carefully walking around since she was resolved to hunt in plastic high heeled slippers. 

Saturday night I got to go to the General Women's Session Broadcast with mom.  It was so great to sit with her and hold her hand.  She brought me a notebook to write in and I took notes of all of the ways I could be more patient and loving to my children. 

Sunday we had church and I taught Sunday school. When we came home we are pork tenderloin and some waaaayyyy too salty sweet potatoes.  John was kind to even get seconds.  Then we did the resurrection eggs that I grew up doing as a child and then watched the easer story on Mormon Channel.  Whenever Jesus was being crucified Avett would go up to the tv and say, "Bye bye Jesus, I love you Jesus."

I'm so grateful for my Savior.  I'm grateful because ever good thing I have in my life is because of His grace and love for me. He means everything to me. 

scenes of christmas

This has been a magical Christmas season so far.  I have loved having a revolving door of family around. I have loved happening upon little Christmas scenes around the house.  The children can hardly keep their hands off of the nativity puppets my mother made nearly 25 years ago.  I've had to chase down the little sheep more times than I can count.

On Sunday I drifted off to sleep while mom and Michael and John talked in the living room while the children ran and jumped about the living room.  At one point I heard Evaleigh bounding through the hallway singing "Jingle Bells" and I woke with a smile clear across my face.

Our joy school Christmas program didn't exactly go off without a hitch. Evaleigh wouldn't do her angel part because she was feeling shy and Avett wouldn't put on his shepard costume. But it still filled my heart with joy.

I love making memories with my babies and husband.  

Christmas 2015

Merry Christmas 2015 from us.  This has been such a busy wonderful year for us.  There have been some twists and turns we didn't expect but also and incredible amount of blessings. We are so grateful for this time to celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ and all that that means to us. 

pink pig

One of our new favorite Christmas traditions is for my dad and Jen to take Evie to Macy's Pink Pig at Lenox Square Mall. She looks forward to it SO much! This was our third year doing it and it is just always so much fun.  The tradition is as old as my father and it is such a fun way to kick off the holidays.  Avett and Kate were so obsessed with Priscilla that we kept thinking they were lost only to find them trying to get back on her lap after we took the picture.  We rode around yelling "Bacon!!" at the top of our lungs and the kids all got a kick out of that.  

I just love making memories with my family! 

halloween recap

Before we get too far away from Halloween (which we kind of are Thanksgivong is just a little more than two weeks away!) I want to document our Halloween this year.  It started off with a fun Halloween Bunco party here at Stock Gap and so many lovely women from the Monroe Ward came. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I just love women.  I had too much fun decorating for Halloween this year and did a little more than usual because of Evie.  She LOVES Halloween.  She would beg me to take her to the Halloween store next to Target and we would just walk around and look at all of the decorations.  She was obsessed and it was so much fun to watch her like something that I never taught her to like, it is a part of her personality all on her own.  So we decked the house out for Halloween and she would walk around saying, "spooky scary!" While wiggling her fingers at me.

Then we went to my sisters where I had a pumpkin carving accident while trying to make a Halloween memory with the kids. My hands were slippery from scooping out the pumpkins guts.  I went to carve the eye with the aerated kitchen knife I was using and the blade was up and while pushing my had slipped down the blade.  I kept my cool in front of the kids and just stood up and said calmly, "I need to go to the emergency room." My sister took me to the ER for stitches while Joe was a hero and watched all 5 kids while we were gone. Bekah helped to keep me calm and keep my mind off of it and then held me after the traumatizing shots to numb my fingers before they sewed it.  It was painful but I'm healing, I almost have the use of my fingers back. 

The next weekend we had our trunk or treat and Evie finally got to be the green witch! She had been dreaming about it for months.  She and I were the only two that went since John stayed behind with Avett and his poor little chew up tongue that he bit through at the Joy School Halloween party.  I still feel sick about it and sad.  

The next night we went to my dads for trick or treating and only went to 4 houses.  The kids were exhausted and Avett was not feeling well because of his tongue. 

We were kind of a mess this holiday with all of our accidents but Ive never seen Evie enjoy a holiday more. Looking very much forward to more but I think I'll hold off on pumpkin carving for the next few years!

Merry Christmas

As I sit here on this Christmas night bouncing my baby to sleep with my toddler tucked away safe in bed while I listen to the sound of my husband chopping firewood I feel so grateful.  This year Christmas was so full of babies and memories.  Every year at the end of Christmas Day I like to wonder what the next year will hold.  Last year I had no idea I would have the privaledge of having a son.  Next year I wonder if there will be more babies, or maybe some perhaps on the way.  I wonder if I will still have all of the special people I have in my life near me.  I wonder where we will be living and I wonder what the next year will bring.  This year was so full and so happy and I just want to sit here perfectly content and full of grattitude.  I have all of these things because my savior Jesus Christ was born and atoned for me.  

Merry Christmas.

yellow pants and a hair tie

Being Evaleigh's mama is the most wonderful thing in the world.  I feel so grateful to my Heavenly Father for allowing me to experience the fullness of joy by being her parent. I am also grateful that I get to do it with John Murphy by my side. I can't believe next year I will have two babies in my arms on Mother's Day.  I look forward to becoming A. M. M.'s mama too.  

Right now I am sitting in the mall parking lot with Evaleigh asleep in the backseat and a pair of yellow cords pulled down about mid thigh because this baby bump is just about uncontainable now.  Today is the day to give in and go get some maternity pants.  So I will pull up my pants and reattach my hair tie to the button on my pants and brave the mall to find some bottoms for myself.  

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mothers Day.  

Evaleigh's gifts to me: sleeping in til 8:45 and not pooping the whole day!  Thanks little girl.