Not even a week later

It has not even been a full week and I had to post some more pictures of how fast the house is coming along. This first picture is just the very next day after the last picture of my last post. Then just four days later they were totally done framing the whole house. This is a look at the back of the house.
This is the west side of the house, the windows and the door go into the garage. If you can see the tiny little post sticking out of the ground that is the well that will get the pump put on this week.

Last but not least the front of the house. Tom our contractor said the plumbing, electrical, and duct work for the heating and air conditioning will all start going in on Monday. So we had to pick out all of the outside color and material choices this week like roof color, stone, stucco color, window color and style, soffit and facia color, and door style and color. So I think I changed my mind at least a dozen times because I felt it was such a permanent decision that I can't change next month or next week once I am tired of the color or look of the house. So hopefully we picked wisely and I will be happy with our choices for a really long time.

New Construction

Let's just say WOW! This is what our property looked like when our contractor started digging the trenches for the foundation exactly three weeks ago. This is one angle of the gorgeous views. The lot is three acres and we are building a 1,600 SF single story home on it. It will be 4 bedrooms and 2 bath with a 2 car garage. We are really excited about it. It is scheduled to be complete by the 2nd week in June, right around the same time everyone will be coming out for Allison's baptism and the Baby blessing. A closer look at the trenches for the foundation.
The molds letting the foundation dry.

All the wood to start framing and the trusses for the roof.

Most of the house framed except the garage and they are pouring the concrete for the slab in the garage. Every day we keep going over to the property and tons more is done. It is a lot of decision making on our part and all the rest on Tom our contractors part, but it is getting more and more exciting.

It's A Boy!!!

Well I am 6 months now or 24 weeks. I got my ultra sound and we found out it is a boy! We are really excited because we really wanted Anthony to have a brother. I have been feeling good enough to still work out at the gym and it has been helping my ezcema to go tanning. So I am glad I am on the down hill slide now meaning that I am more weeks pregnant than the weeks I have left. And for the first pregnancy I am not gaining a ton of weight so that is really helping too. For me to be 6 months along and have only gained 11 pounds is really good for me, I am hoping to only gain 20 by the time I have the baby! I tried to post a picture and it didn't work. But if you know of any really cool baby names that begin with an "A" please let me know.

We love Rusty

This is our Shih-poo dog named Rusty. He is half Toy Poodle and half Shih-tzu. This is what he looked like when we got him in May of 2007, now you can see in the pictures he looks a lot different. Well on January 4th, Sunday night around 7:30pm he got out of the house and ran away to chase a cat. Robert searched for three hours for him, while I was driving home from Provo. He was just gone, in a matter of seconds. Well I am one of those crazy people that just falls in love with my pets so you can just imagine how I felt to come home and know he was gone. Let's just say I was devastated. I wanted to have hope that we would find him but I was trying to prepare myself also to try to accept the fact that we might not. So Sunday night I was sad then Monday as I searched on foot my feelings turned into anger then tears as I didn't hear him shake his dog tags, scratch at the door to go out, bark at all the cars and jump up on me when I got home. I put an ad on KSL, an ad in the newspaper, called the police station, called my vet, the animal shelter, had all my friends and neighbors even the mail man looking for him, still nothing until Tuesday after noon when I got on our local radio station live and described him and gave my information and within I minute the lady that had him called me and I jumped in my car to go him. It ended up that a man found him on center street in Aurora almost 20 miles away and didn't want to keep him so he took him to a dog groomer he knew named Julie and she was who called me. I got to her house and saw that it was really him and just broke down crying thanking her for returning him to me. I don't know how he ended up 20 miles away all I care is that he is home and our family is back to normal. Just another miracle in our lives. We are so grateful.

Alexis holding Rusty
Allison holding Rusty

Anthony Holding Rusty

Daddy holding Rusty and Mommy is always taking the pictures

This is what he looks like now all white!!!! The kids have started thinking it is funny to dress him up as different characters, so this is Rusty as the Princess "Belle".

Anthony had to get Spiderman Rusty in there.

He got this sweater for Christmas it says "Fly Dawg".

And Rusty ready for church in one of the girls dresses.

Last but not least pony tails.

Make a Smilebox greeting

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.