Much to Celebrate!!

Mason's newest trick he has started doing the past week is clapping. All it takes is a yummy bite of food, a loud or bright (and slightly annoying) toy, or someone saying, "YAAAAY!!" to induce a round of applause from Mason. After a week of finding things to"yay" every five minutes I've decided we have much to celebrate in our life. Scott and I celebrated our third anniversay on the 18th. This is the first year we have not celebrated our anniversery during finals week, but wouldn't you know the night Scott had a surprise date planned for me in Salt Lake there was a huge snow storm so we decided to stay home and keep it simple by going out to dinner (our favorite activity to do) and watch a movie (our second favorite activity to do). We had a less formal celebration of finally having a functional basement by having Scott's siblings stay with us for Christmas. It was great having Jeremy and Janessa in from Las Vegas. They are expecting their baby girl March 3 and this was the first time we've seen Janessa looking pregnant and she looked great!! Steve came in from Arizona briefly before taking off to Costa Rica with some friends. Vance has traveled far from his apartment in Provo to spend Christmas break with us. We were also happy to have Brandon and Whitney in town from Chicago although they stayed with my parents. Whitney is also pregnant but not really showing yet. By far my favorite part of the holidays was spending so much time with our family we don't get to see often. We celebrated Mason's first Christmas. It was so fun to play "Santa" even though Mason is 8 months old and has no idea what is going on. I am writing this for all new parents as well as a reminder for myself next year. When you are planning Christmas for kids, GO SIMPLE. By the time Mason had Christmas at our house, then at Grandma and Grandpa Murray's, and then at Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Val's he was completely overloaded with toys and we decided to take some back and get him clothes with the money. Next year I will try to keep it simple for him. This is a picture of the nativity we did with Scott's brothers and sisters on Christmas Eve. From left to right we have Josh, Austin (wise men), Kenzie (Camel), Tanner (Joseph), Mason (not very happy Baby Jesus), Jessica (Mary), TayLynn (Angel), Keyana, and Karissa (sheperds). Rachel and Janessa were just baby holders.

From left to right we have Josh, Austin (wise men), Kenzie (Camel), Tanner (Joseph), Mason (not very happy Baby Jesus), Jessica (Mary), TayLynn (Angel), Keyana, and Karissa (sheperds). Rachel and Janessa were just baby holders.

"Baby Jesus" Mason

Shepard Mason at Allred Family Party

Mason got a big boy car seat for Christmas.

Mason playing with toys at Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Val's house.Mason enjoying Christmas morning.

Rachel Murray, RN

Some might ask what those two letters behind my name are for. Well, they stand for Registered Nurse!! Yep, I finally made it. Thursday was officially my last day of school in my undergraduate career. It's been a long road, but I am finally here. As I attended my graduation dinner last night I was thinking about all I have had to do to get to this point. I am going list some of the things that top the list.

• Two years of prerequisites which I could not get less than an A if I wanted to get into the program.


• Taking my physiology final less than 12 hours before I got married.


• Having a baby on the last day of finals and starting Spring semester 5 days later.


• Starting back at 12 hour clinical days 10 days after having a baby.


• Doing more than 800 hours of free labor (aka clinicals)


• Jumping through every hoop the nursing program ask me to for the past 2 1/2 years.

These are just a few of the things on my list. Now that I am graduated I will return to the Intermediate Care Unit where I worked as a secretary for 2 years prior to having Mason. I will work 2 night shifts a week. I am so excited to finally be doing my second most favorite thing to do (being a mom to Mason is by far what I love to do the most). I do have to thank my wonderful and supportive husband Scott for helping me through the last 3 years of this adventure and my parents for all of their support especially all of my mom's help with Mason while I finished school. Now that I am kind of sounding like I have won an award I will end this post. The picture below is actually from August's convocation when Scott and I both walked.

The Windy City

Over Thanksgiving break my parents took all of our family back to Chicago to visit Brandon and Whitney who live there while Brandon is in law school at University of Chicago. We had such a great time and I wanted to post a few pictures from the trip. My favorite part of the trip was definitely going to see Wicked. If you ever have the opportunity to see it, make sure you do. Some other highlights included going to several museums, shopping, and of course Thanksgiving dinner. It was so fun to see where Brandon and Whitney live and work. We also found out some very exciting news that Whitney is pregnant and is due in June!!! Mason can't wait for another cousin.

Scott and Rachel at Cloud Gate.

Mason's first airplane ride.

Rachel, Scott, and Mason in front of Chicago skyline.

The whole family (back row) Chris, Kennedy, Val, Nancy, Brandon, Mason, Rachel, Scott. (front row) Whitney, Cannon, Kacie.

Home Sweet Home

With so many friends and family moving away I decided to start this blog so we can keep everyone posted with what is going on in our lives. I must admit I am still trying to figure out how to work everything so it might be interesting at first. Scott and I are really starting to feel like homeowners in a couple different ways. We made our first mortgage payment this week which is always a pleasant thing :) We should be finished with our basement and ready to move everything down there next week. I am very excited to have a complete house so I can finish unpacking and finally get settled. There is also a downside to being a homeowner, unexpected expenses pop up all the time. Our fridge died on Monday which totally took us by surprise. It was in good shape and we thought it would definitely last for a long time. I guess a new fridge will just complete the renovation of our kitchen. I am going to try to post some pictures of Mason. He is growing up so fast!!! With a whole new house of undiscovered territory he is very busy. I will post pictures of the house in the next couple weeks.

Crawling

At about 4 1/2 months Mason started doing a little inchworm crawl where he would bury his face in the ground, pull his knees up and then push forward along the ground. It didn't take long for him to perfect this method of movement and soon he was army crawling all over. Even at 6 months when he could get up on his hands and knees and pull himself up on furniture, if he wanted to go somewhere he would drop to his belly and army crawl away. It was funny to watch because it looked like he was swimming across the floor. He was so fast getting around with his army crawl that normal crawl just took too long. He is just now starting to crawl on his hands and knees and actually I'm really going to miss laughing at his speedy arm crawl. It has definitely been one of my favorite things about Mason.