Oh the beautiful leaves!

I love this time of year when all the leaves start falling and changing colors. We took these pictures in the front yard of our new house. All weekend we kept asking Anthony if he wanted to hold Brielle and he always said "No" until now. Look how good he is holding her, just a typical boy to not have any interest in a baby and my girls on the other hand I had to fight with to actually get a turn to hold her. We just couldn't be happier to have another baby cousin.

My kids have the best Aunties ever! They just love spending time with them. Anytime they find out one of them is coming to visit they just get so happy they can't wait. We love you!

Two weeks late

O.k I know Halloween was like two weeks ago, but I just have to still post a few pictures of how cute my babies were on Halloween. Allison was Ariel, Alexis was a Dracula for school and then decided she wanted to be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz on Halloween, and Anthony was the cutest Darth Vader ever! Here are the pumpkins the kids carved on their own.

I got to help in Allison's class for her class party. It was really fun. I was in charge of one of the games so I brought five different bowls full of creepy stuff the kids had to put their hands in and try to guess what it was, like cobwebs, cow brains and eyeballs. The kids thought it was cool. I dressed up as a royal Kitty Cat.

Auntie Alyssa, Sarah, and baby Brielle came up for the weekend. Look how cute Brielle is for her first Halloween. It was so nice having them come. The kids just cherished their time with them.

Funny Story

Last night Robert was fixing dinner and I was doing dishes when Anthony came in and asked "what's for dinner?" daddy said spaghetti and immediately he started whining and saying no he didn't want ____ ____ for dinner. We couldn't understand him at first so we had him repeat the two words several more times and realized what he was saying was "Skinny balls"! So we asked him what skinny balls was and he explained it was the meat we put in the spaghetti. We then explained that it didn't have any meat balls in it like the last spaghetti we ate because a friend made it for us as a meal that was brought in when we were moving. I guess he really didn't like those skinny balls that was in the spaghetti. We just laughed and laughed it sounded even funnier coming out of a 3 year olds mouth with a very serious tone. We love you Son.

Introducing Brielle Morgan Paul

My sweet baby niece Brielle was born October 14, 2008 at 7:26 pm. Weighing 7 lbs. 12 oz. and 20 3/4 inches long.
She is just a beautiful angel sent from our Heavenly Father as a wonderful example of how much he loves us and how much faith he has in us to entrust us with such a pure, innocent, spirit child.


Brielle is nursing well and already putting on weight.

My Sister Alyssa and her Husband Robbie are the proud parents that gave birth to her Tuesday night and they came home from the Kingman Regional Medical Center Thursday afternoon. I was able to drive out on Monday and stayed until the following Monday. She is so sweet I wanted to take her home with me.

Hansen's Pumpkin Patch

Our annual trip to the pumpkin patch was another success. The kids had so many pumpkins to choose from they couldn't decide which one was perfect. Daddy and I found lots of really good ones right away but nope they didn't like those so they kept searching. I think they did find some good ones though.

The kids favorite part of the whole trip hands down is the pent-a-wheel. Two people strap in and go around and around. Alexis likes to go all the way around so she is up-side down and Allison only likes to go a little bit so it feels like a swing. Anthony was really brave and went all the way around with Alexis.


October 10, 2008- I had to put in the date because my blogging still seems to get a little behind.


Alexis got to come a second time with her class at school.

Anthony wanted to pick off every pumpkin he could find even if we weren't going to keep it and then stab it with a stick (such a boy thing to think of). All in all it was a really fun family activity that we look forward to every year.

Saying Goodbye......Till we meet again.

Well Saturday night Cousin Terry called informing us that another one of our loved ones had passed away. Robert's Great Grandma Cox in Oklahoma. She would have turned 95 this February. She was a great example of Unconditional Love and enduring to the end. Her husband died several years ago and then when her daughter (grandma Rita) passed in 2006, she was again wondering why the Lord would take Rita when she wanted it to be her turn. Cousin Terry told me that they would over hear her pleading with the Lord saying, " I wanna go"! So I guess it was finally her turn. We sure will miss you Great Grandma. In this picture there is five generations sitting on the couch.

1. Great, Great Grandma Elva Cox

2. Great Grandpa Robert McMurphy(the pic was taken at Rita's funeral or she would of been in the pic too since she is Elva's daughter who married Robert)

3.Grandpa Robert McMurphy Sr.

4. Robert McMurphy Jr.

5. Allison, Alexis, and Anthony McMurphy

Great Grandma with our whole family.

Robert, Elva, Uncle Steve and his daughter Lacie.
I also wanted to say goodbye to my Uncle Dale Read, and my Great aunt Norine Beckstrom. My Hard Drive on my Lap top went out so we had to replace it and in the process I lost about a full year of pictures that I hadn't backed up to disc yet so that is why I haven't blogged about these two funerals because I still had hope while they were trying to fix my computer that they would miraculously some how be able to back up the hard drive first so all of our data wouldn't be lost. But it was so I have no pics to show. Uncle Dale passed on my birthday 8/10/08 of a Stroke at age 48. He is my Dad's younger brother. Norine passed on 9/5/08 my grandma Shirley's birthday of natural causes at age 83. So within this three week span my Grandma lost her sister (which she was very close to) and one of her five boys.
These chain of events seem to be a regular occurrence in my family every few months so it has helped me to really reflect on my own personal relationship with my Savior, and my true feelings about death. In all honesty I think death forces me to really challenge my self and ask if I am really asking the Lord to take this hurt away just like we would do if it was a sin. His Atonement not only covers my sins but my heartaches as well. His infinite love heals everything-sin, weakness, anger, grief, and pain. He offers us living water and makes us whole again. I am still working on this whole process because it seems that as soon as I feel some of the heartache go away, I get another phone call that someone else is the family has died, like Chad. I never mentioned Chad yet either. On my Mom's side, my cousin Jennifer's only son at age 10 died in his sleep of cardiac arrest back in February. Jennifer tried waking him up for school only to find he had already passed. So I just try to continue looking forward with faith till that day we will all be united in Heaven.

All Moved In

We did it! We sold our house and it closed escrow Friday September, 26. It was hard saying good-bye to that house because we loved the house so much and thought that would be the house that we would stay put in for a long time since we have moved 8 times in 9 1/2 years. I was definitely ready to stay put for a long time, but our plans changed now we have bought a 3 acre lot here in town and have already started on our house plans. We moved into a cute little rental house that is six blocks straight up the street from the girls school so I have been riding bikes with them to school to get them acquainted with how you stop and yield at the intersections. Allison is already a pro, and Alexis still needs lots of gentle reminders, Let's just say I feel blessed that most of the drivers here actually look out for the kids and stop because if they didn't, the couple times the girls didn't look good enough they probably would of been hit. Sorry this post doesn't have any pictures I haven't really taken any lately because of the move and all, but for the first time it has only been a week since we moved in and I am pretty much all un-packed. Well I have one more side note story I wanted to share that happened yesterday. Robert was out in the garage re-arranging it a little bit so we could fit both the cars in and the kids and Rusty were out helping. Well Anthony and Rusty some how ended up alone out there for a minute and when Robert found them there was a huge wet puddle in the middle of the garage. So Robert's first thought was naturally that the dog must of peed but then Rusty was licking up the water, so that couldn't of been it, then he asked Anthony were the water came from and why the dog was all wet and Anthony replied, " ME HAVE TO GO POTTY". So he decided he needed to go and that he might as well aim at the dog. So daddy got to hose down the garage and mommy got to give Rusty a bath. Are we in trouble our what?

It's OFFICIAL!!!!!!!

*Warning*

This post may contain material only women could understand, but feel free to read on if you want. It's Official! We are going to have another baby. I am so happy to finally be pregnant again. I have wanted to get pregnant and have another baby since we lost Adam exactly two years ago. Robert and I have both let fear keep us from having enough faith to take the chance and try it again hoping that I won't lose the baby and all will be fine. Last month we decided to be brave enough to try and it worked. We feel so grateful to our Heavenly Father for all he continues to bless us with. So I also feel relieved because since I have wanted to be pregnant this whole time each month I would swear that I was pregnant and be so depressed when I would start my period. The relief is now if I experience pregnant symptoms I will know I am not losing my mind. We told the kids and they were really excited, but said "they only want it to be a boy because we have more girls in our family and since Adam was a boy".

Allison: Yeah, mom it has to be a boy.

Me: Allison we need to be happy with whatever God sends to our family.

Allison: But mom can't you tell the baby to be a boy.

Me: No, honey.

Allison: O.k. mom I guess it could be a boy or a girl.

Mr. & Mrs. Bean

I'd like to introduce Crysany and Matt Bean, husband and wife for all time and eternity. Actually let me start before that, we threw Crysany a bridal shower here at my house a couple weeks before the big day on 8/8/08. Grammers, Laura, Sarah, and Noah all drove up from San Diego and we had three full days of fun. We waited to give Grammers her birthday present till she got here cause we made her a really special rag quilt with pictures of her grandkids on it. She loved it. Then we helped with all of the wedding stuff and it all turned out so beautiful. Crysany looked gorgeous and all the hard work finally paid off. Then the morning after the wedding we all went to our wards annual breakfast and day of boating at Paiute. It was a lot of fun and then we still had some energy to go out to eat at the all you can eat buffet and then came back to our house for cake and ice cream to celebrate my birthday since it was the next day. All my kids were so sad to say good-bye not knowing when they would see them again.

Tagged

I have been tagged. I am supposed to admit 6 quirks. So here I go, hopefully I don't scare anyone too bad.

1. I am not a very patient person. If someone tells me they will be somewhere at a certain time I expect that. Ex: Someone coming to look at my house at 1:00 and they just casually show up at 1:45 Can't stand it.
2. Kids that pick their boogers and eat them. When I see a child do this I am the first to offer them a tissue. Normally when I ask them they are embarrassed I saw them and turn down the tissue saying they are fine and finish this process once they don't think I am watching anymore. Sick! Or family that will pick their nose and roll the booger and flick it in my carpet instead of getting off the couch to get a tissue.
3. Dirt under your fingernails. I make sure that my kids have short nails so there is less of a chance to trap dirt. Men with dirty nails is bad enough but it grosses me out to see kids nails really dirty.
4. If my hair is already styled, I hate for anyone to touch it or it to get messed up because of how long it took me to style it. Hence when my family just came to visit it was sprinkling a little bit and I needed to water my garden, they thought it was the funniest thing in the whole world that I put on a shower cap so my hair wouldn't get wet and went outside like that to water see pics in my last post "A week of fun".
5. People that don't return things. If they borrow something and weeks later get around to giving it back or not at all.
6. When I go to get something and it is not in it's place. It drives me crazy when I need something and can't find it.

So there you have it my six quirks-now I tagg-Shaela, Sue, Laura, Dee Dee, & Tracy.

A week of fun

July 19-25 was a week full of non-stop fun. Collette, Dakota, and Brenda drove up from San Diego and Shaela & kids drove down from Elko so we could all be together before school started again. The week started off with catching a toad in one of our window wells, so the kids got to play or torture the poor toad for a few days. Then we went camping up at "The Palisades" state park. Now I'm talking just 4 women and 8 kids for an overnight tent adventure. Let me just sum it up....we left the camp grounds wondering what our husbands actually do when we go as a family because there wasn't anything we couldn't do. We set up a ten man tent, dutch oven, and washed off Anthony three times for pooping in his pants ( I think he was confused poor guy). The rest of the week included lots of laughing, games, hair cutting, and lots of food. It was so fun we already have next summer planned.

4th of July

This is the girls marching in the Parade I was talking about.
The night before our church puts on the children's parade.
It is tradition to decorate the kids bikes with anything red, white, and blue.
The kids were excited since they learned how to ride their bikes they would be able to ride all on their own. They did awesome.
So the morning started off with the parade and the girls were in it so it was just up to Anthony to catch all the candy to share with his sisters when the parade was over. Let's just say he caught enough for the whole neighborhood.

Lindsey, and Hadyn marched with the girls.
Daddy had to go back to work after the parade, so that's why he's not in this family picture.
Then we finished off our festivities with a fish grab. There were these huge pools of water that were filled with bass and the kids according to age get in these pools and try to catch a fish with their bare hands. Mommy helped Anthony catch this fish and Alexis wanted to get her picture taken with it too. As for Allison she didn't care for the fish at all. She didn't want to smell it, let alone even think of touching it.

Cheerleading Camp

Allison and Alexis took a cheerleading camp the week before 4th of July. They learned several different cheers and then got to get a shirt and pom poms to march in our big annual 4th of July parade down main street. The songs were so easy to memorize I caught them singing them all the time. See if you can find the girls in the first three pictures, and watch for them marching in the parade on my next entry on 4th of July.

Our Summer Goals

When the kids got out of school for Summer break, we came up with three goals that we could work on and try to accomplish before they had to go back to school. The three goals were:

1. Learn to ride their bikes with no training wheels.

2. Learn to Jump Rope.

3. Learn to tie their own shoes.

Well I am pleased to announce the girls were able to accomplish all three! Anthony is still working on all three ( he mainly practiced riding his bike with training wheels but focused on not crashing). Good job guys.

Cousins

It is always fun when we get to spend time with my kids' only cousins Kyren, Melayna, Brayden, and Paysen. Kyren and Bobby enjoyed video and board games while they laughed about old funny fart stories. The rest of the kids and I enjoyed playing outside and later on lighting off our own fireworks show. Saturday 6/21/08. All the boys looking cute.
Paysen don't let your mom see Auntie let you hold Fireworks.
Alexis is a natural Piro.
Me and Brayden.
Girls will be girls.