a little stroll

I'm just so grateful to be where I am in my life. I've never been busier but it's all very worth it.  Today I took the children outside in the beautiful weather.  I packed them up in the double stroller and down the long winding driveway we went.  First Avett drifted off to sleep after some whimpering and then Evaleigh.  I couldn't help but just close my eyes and smile at the moment.  They are everything to me and I can't imagine the day when they are grown and don't rely on me for everything.  I take so much pride in doing the little things for them.  Getting milk, picking boogers,  finding socks so their little feet won't be cold, feeding a dolly along side Evie just so dinner will go smoothly and the list could go on forever.  

Sunday after church my heart was so full.  The lesson was on families and we talked a lot about children.  I just sat there and cried thinking about the big responsibility I have upon me.  There is so much I want to teach my children. I want so badly for them to grow up and make good choices and be happy people.  My job is the best and most important thing in the world.  

kind of heavy for a friday.

Yesterday I stumbled across some very disturbing images through what I thought was going to be an innocent hashtag on Instagram.  I have been quite disturbed since then and have not been able to get them out of my mind.  I have been wondering how some people get to such a point of self loathing or how their life situation has caused them to have no self esteem.  This makes me feel sad. I wish I could show people that they have incredible worth.

I know every single person has a different life situation and I couldn't even begin to imagine some of them.  The world is such a dangerous place but it can also a beautiful place if you look for the positive.

I think it is so important to start with loving yourself.  

I think its important to be able to take a look at your self and say, "Yeah, I'd be friends with that person, I like her."  I can truly say that I love myself, and I don't mean this in a conceited or egotistical way.  I enjoy who I am.  I think its important to respect yourself where you are in your life at the current time.  Life is always going to be changing and you will be transitioning from one stage of life to another.  Always.  It is important to love yourself through those changes and to be kind to yourself.  

Sometimes I look at my sweet baby and pray as hard as I can that I will show her how much we love her and she will know how precious she is.  I couldn't imagine a day where she would feel alone or hate for herself.  It is SO important that we spend our days with our children loving them and helping them to acquire solid foundations of true self esteem.  Not just that they are beautiful or smart or funny, but that they are worthy of life and worthy of love and that they deserve, yes DESERVE, to have the best life has to offer.  Because they are children of God.

art is...

A friend of mine contacted me about a genuinely inspiring project.  It is a project that her brother is involved in called Victus Creus.  

There should be more things like this in the world.

Truly.

They are asking people to share what art is to them. 

Here is what art is to us:

Here is a little more about Victus Creus and their mission:

'We accept art submissions from anybody who wants to contribute, that means you! We have a space where you can submit a scanned in copy of your piece along with a written statement of what the piece means to you, how it empowers you, etc. and your name (contact info if you’d like) and we’ll post it up for sale once it gets ten votes. Thus creating exposure for you, and creating a network of creativity that this whole community can benefit from. And the beauty part is that you can do this at any age or skill level! We want to help you on your path to a creative and empowering lifestyle!

Every piece comes with information about the artist. That means whether it was created by you or one of our other contributing artists, every piece (t shirts, hats, prints, that’s right, all of them) will come with a card like one you might see next to a painting in a gallery. These cards all contain written statements by the artist about what went through their head when they did the piece, why they did it, how it empowered them, etc. The cards will also come with contact info if you wish to include it. It is optional but we strongly recommend that you at least give a facebook page or email that people who buy your art from our website can reach you at. We want people to know that all of our contributing artists are important to us, and we want to support contributors in any way we can. Word of mouth advertising is important, so the more that people know about where their art pieces come from, the more support the artist gets. 


Above and beyond any reason we do what we do is that we just simply love to do it. Creativity is our lifestyle, our passion and our way of being contributing members of society. This is our way of being the positive and empowering change that we wish to see"

You can post a picture of what art is to you on their facebook page or you can send the picture to them at artis@victuscreus.com

I was actually supposed to post about this last week in time to share her awesome giveaway but I dropped the ball. Forgive me Kynslie?

I'd love to see what Art is... to you.  

If you participate, send me a link, I'd love to see where this beautiful project goes! 

there are 5 people in these pictures

Congrats little sister (& Joe!).  

We can't wait to meet your baby boy in May.

i'm feeling behind...

(21 weeks)

Yesterday I called my mother in an anxious panic with a tear filled sound in my voice.

"Mama, I don't know ANYTHING about birthing babies!"

She assured me that there have been plenty of people who have given birth to babies without ever opening a book.

I have been feeling so far behind.

I haven't read any books.

I haven't taken birth classes. (or even looked at how to sign up for them)

I haven't researched products I need or want.

I haven't started getting serious about decorating EJ's room.

I don't even know the colors I want to use.

We haven't officially decided on cloth diapering or disposables.

I haven't really felt Evaleigh move a whole lot...stupid anterior placenta.

I just feel....so unprepared.

I suppose this all sounds cray-cray.  But I think I let my pregnancy hormones get the best of be this past week.

There is something that clicked inside of my head when I noticed that we hit the half-way point.

I realized that time wise all I have left to do is what I've already done. (I'll just be doing it fatter)

I have all of these fears and this anticipation of hope that I'll be a good mother.

It is what I have always wanted to be, ever since I was a little girl myself.  But now that this moment is finally upon me, I am realizing more and more that being a mother is an incredibly huge and sacred responsibility.

It's a good thing I have the perfect example to emulate.

(me, mother, sister)

A Bachelor Party

Today my *tuttah and I went over to our parents home to surprise our mother with dinner.

*a tuttah is an endearing nickname for a lady of whom you share the same mother

She came up with a diabolical plan to surprise our mother with an afternoon of watching The Bachelor and giggling while eating the most scrumptious food.

We made: 

Poppyseed Chicken Salad with Red Grapes and Toasted Almonds on Homemade Bread

and

Raspberry and Lemon Sorbet served in Sparkling White Grape Juice

Mid way through the most horrible, trashy, and WONDERFULLY entertaining t.v. we had our dessert.

I love the companionship of women.  

There is nothing in the world like it.  

You can laugh together, cry together, dream together, and tell each other secrets that no one else in the world could understand.  It is always something that I crave.  I love the safety that is found in the unit that my mother and sister and I have.  We have an unbreakable bond and an unconditional and eternal love for each other...

...even if all we are doing is watching Brad Womack breaking hearts.

Heart and Soul

I spent Saturday here...

with them...

i have pearls on my shirt. this makes me happy.

(i'm not so secretly jealous of her long gorgeous hair. i'm so tired of looking like a colonial soldier with my short ponytail.)

The tender mercy happened after our 3 and 1/2 hour journey to the Columbia, South Carolina temple. (i CAN'T WAIT for the Atlanta Temple to open back up soon so that we can have a temple closer) When we got to the temple I ran in to an old friend in the temple.  We had been in the Hillard North Carolina Singles Ward together and she was GETTING MARRIED that very day!  

So, she invited my sister and I to come to her marriage sealing.  Turns out she married a boy that my sister and I were in PRIMARY with! So, we got to see so many people that we knew when we were little kids!  It was great.  I saw my old bishop and his wife.  That felt good.  She was like a mama to me when I lived in Charlotte.  We also saw Nina Hemby, an old family friend.  It felt like a family reunion in there.  

I wonder if thats how heaven is going to be,  seeing people you didn't even remember how much you loved and missed, but then instantly feeling those ties of love again?

Tyra and Cameron were BEAMING.  Their sealing ceremony was so special and an incredible spirit was in that room.  They looked so happy and I was reminded of when I was sealed to my husband for time and all of eternity.  

How grateful am I for that sacred blessing.  I can feel the power of that phenomenal binding tie.

Then one of the best parts was when I got to see this girl.  She was also there for Tyra's wedding.  Jamie is my soul friend.  I was in North Carolina when she was learning about the Mormon Church.  We became close very quickly and I went to a few of her lessons with the missionaries.  She was so ready to accept the gospel and was baptized last summer. I sang at her baptism.  We were instant friends.  We stayed up late playing volleyball at church.  We went to playgrounds late at night with our friends and we pushed each other around in old grocery carts.  We shared deep feelings and many of the same struggles. I love her dearly and cant WAIT for her marriage to Jay in December in the Raleigh Temple!

It was a very special day and I can't help but to feel that we were there for several very special reasons.  I missed my John who was yet again at his Saturday interpreters course.  But when we came home he, mom, and I went to Honey Camp and he serenaded us by the fire.

Dear Weekend,

I love you, I wish you'd come around more often.  This weekend was perfect.  I really loved camping, being with my mom for her birthday, making breakfast for lunch with my sister and her husband and John today, and going to the temple on Saturday.  Hey, thanks for being so fun.  See you in 5 more days.

Love, The Murphys

The coolest thing on our wall-2

The night of my birthday my mother got out a box of old hankys that she had and we laid them out with the ones that (John got for me for my birthday.)  They all fit perfectly together.  
 Some of them belonged to my great great Aunt Annelle and some belonged to Zede, an old family friend.  My mother gave any of them to me that I wanted.  I had BIG PLANS for these guys. Big plans.

My mother also gave me my Great-great Grandmother's earrings for my birthday.  Her name was Ula Minta.  Rumor has it, she killed off like 7 husbands.  Sassy lady.  I also got my great grandmother's old sewing scissors.  Treasures.

The next morning my mother ironed each hanky for me and we went on a walk together.  On our walk we looked down and mom noticed that our shadows were completely identical.  It gave us a good laugh but to be honest, I am so grateful to look just like her.

Then we met up with my sister to go shopping with all of my BIRTHDAY $$$.

(a little pre-shopping pic)

In charming Charlie's.

(My beautiful, beautiful sister, in a headband she would never buy but I think she looks rather stunning.  Are you smeyezing?)

On the other hand, she bought this one right away.

Then I got these...

and my sister bought me these..

and I got this sweater and necklace.

After John got out of his interpreters course we went home and I got to do my Hanky project!

Earlier that day mom and I had gone around and procured several album art square frames.  We placed the ironed hankys in the frames and decided which order to hang them in.  It was quite strategic.

(The layout)

The finished product.  I love it when dreams become reality.

I cannot WAIT for that wall paper to be gone.  They said they would remove it sometime this month. Then we will finally have walls that don't look like jail cells.  

We spent the rest of the evening pretending to be drunk off of blueberry juice and rolling each other up in an exercise mat and taking turns driving the other person caaarraaazzzaaayyyyyy.  Perfect birthday weekend.