Mr. Congeniality!!

A year ago I couldn't imagine sitting at home all day with a baby who can't talk and not getting bored out of my mind. That was before I met Mason. My little boy is more entertainment I could ask for with all of his expressions, noises, and games he loves to play. Some of my favorite expressions are the crinkled nose with snorting noises when he gets mad at me for taking dangerous thing away from him, when I play peek-a-boo and he laughs and bashfully buries his face into the ground, when I let him play with my work badge and he pulls out the string and watches it snap back and laughs so hard his whole face is laughing (see first two pictures). My favorite noise by far is his growling (which he is doing to me right now), but I also like his totally fake cry he does when he wants something he can't have (it is funny because it is SO fake!). His favorite game involves me stacking his blocks as tall as I can and he crawls with his head tucked down as fast as he can into them knocking them over. He also likes to do obstical courses in our living room crawling through the bottom of our coffee and end tables, over any pillows or bags on the floor, and on top of any person who might be lying on the floor. The most precious time for me is when he wants to read books and he grabs one and crawls over to my lap and just wants to sit on my lap and read books. He is so busy these days that this is the closest I get to cuddling him when he's awake. Anyway, now that you are all probably bored stiff with my mother moments I'll post some pictures from a week or so ago when Mason was in his high chair and was showing off his many expressions. One things for sure....this kid's got personality!!

Happy Birthday Scottie!!

Today is the day we celebrate the birth of Scottiepoo. He has been on this earth for 25 long years. (Wow he's really getting old!) Mason and I want to wish Scott a very Happy Birthday!! Now I'm going to do a birthday spotlight on Scott, like the kind they used to do in Primary and Kindergarten.

Favorite Color: Blue
Favorite Snack: Chips
Favorite sport: It's basketball season right now so I'd have to say basketball.
Things he is good at: Geometry (you should see him pack a suitcase, there is not an inch of wasted space.), basketball, baseball, changing diapers, kissing, (believe me, I would know.), driving in the snow, being a supportive husband, the list could go on and on.
Something unique about Scott: One ear is higher than the other.

okay, so that wasn't really a very great spotlight. It's 4 am, I am just finishing up my third night shift in a row, so my mind isn't sharp enough to think of any interesting questions. And I must say I answered all these questions without consulting Scott so if he says any aren't true than take his word for it.

Let It Snow!!

Today we took advantage of all this wonderful snow we've been getting here in Utah by going snowshoeing with my parents. They took us up to Southfork where we went on a nice 3 mile hike. My favorite part by far was when we decided to try and cross the creek and my dad almost fell in and then later when my dad decided we should blaze our own trail along a ridge which eventually led us to a pretty steep slop which we just ended up sledding down on our butts. My mom was getting worried and kept reminding my dad, "They have a child they have to raise!" Not only was it beautiful and slightly adventurous, but it was a great workout for our legs. Thanks to mom and dad for a great outting and thanks to Chris and Kacie for watching Mason for us.

Rachel Hale

As I previously mentioned, my brother and his wife are going to name their daughter Rachel Faye Hale. She will be the 9th generation of Rachel Hale. There has been a Rachel Hale on this earth in an unbroken string since 1767--241 years. Rachel Johnson married Eliphalet Hale in 1767 to start it all off. Their son, Solomon, named one of his daughters Rachel. Since then, a brother in each generation has named a daughter Rachel. There are currently 3 generations of Rachel Hale's alive: me, my aunt Rachel Hale Gonzalez, and my great aunt Rachel Hale Cunningham and when little Rachel Faye gets here there will be 4 generations alive. Here is a list my dad put together for us.

1. Rachel Johnson Hale (1744-1821)

2. Rachel Johnson Hale Savory (1798-1880)

3. Rachel Johnson Savory Hale Hoagland (1829-1854)

4. Rachel Susan Hale Clark (1857-1935)

5. Rachel Louisa Hale Tuttle (1891-1986)

6. Rachel Hale Christensen Cunningham (1927-present)

7. Rachel Kay Hale Gonzalez (1959-present)

8. Rachel Elizabeth Hale Murray (1985-present)

9. Rachel Faye Hale (2008)

I am very pround to be a part of this great legacy. I try to lead my life in a way that would make these women proud to have me carry their name. I am also so happy Brandon and Whitney have decided to carry on the name.

Happy Birthday!

We are long overdue for an update on our blog. Sorry about that. It appears that we are not the only ones who had a post holiday blog lull. This last week has been so action packed I've been dying to blog all about it. It all started last Friday, January 25 when I turned the big 23. I remember when I used to think how old 23 was and now I'm here, but I don't feel old. Scott of course made my whole day wonderful. He got work off and spent the entire day with Mason and me. That alone was enough to make the day perfect, but it didn't end there. He surprised me first thing in the morning with the soundtrack from Wicked, which I have been dying to have. We sang along to the whole thing while we ate a wonderful pancake and scrambled egg breakfast prepared by Scott.

Later in the morning we had Mason's 9 month doctor check-up.

Here are his latest Stats: 21 lbs 8 oz dropping down to the 65% for his age, 30.1 inches long still in the 92% for his age, and last a head circumference of 45.8 cm pulling him up to the 60% from the 24% at 6 months (there's no denying he's got his dad's little head).

After the appointment my dad took us all out to lunch at Rumbi, YUM. Then we hit the mall and did a little shopping until Mason needed a nap. My mom watched Mason while Scott took me to dinner that night at Olive Garden, YUM again. That evening is when the real party started. We had all of our family over for cake and icecream. I got such great gifts from everyone, but just to highlight a few Scott got me new crocs for work, my parents gave us blinds for our house, Chris and Kacie gave me a beautiful mirror for our house, and one of the best presents I got was the news that Brandon and Whitney are having a girl and will name her Rachel Faye Hale. I love all my nieces and nephews, but seriously, does anyone honestly expect me not to favor my namesake a little?

Mason helping me blow out the candles.

My favorite picture of Kennedy taken at my party.

My biggest birthday gift from Scott was a birthday makeover. On Saturday I got my hair cut by our friend Caitlyn Cox. If anyone is looking for an amazing haircut they need to go see her. I decided it was about time to do something drastic. So I chopped off a good 10 inches of hair, cut bangs, and got some highlights. I LOVE IT!! So far everyone's response has been really positive to my new look (not that anyone would tell me it was ugly even if they thought it) except Mason who didn't recognize me at first and now must reach further to play with my hair while he falls asleep. I think this was a much needed change for me.

My new look. This picture isn't the best, but it's the only one I have.

A lovely picture Scott took while I was on the phone.

With all of the snow we've had this last week we had to take advantage of it by going sledding on Saturday with some of our friends. We went to a park up by Hobble Creek golf course. This was Mason's first time out in the snow and he loved it. In his snow suit he looked like the kid on A Christmas Story, and he moved a little like him too.

Mason exploring in the snow

Taking a rest

Our family

Mom and Mason

Dad and Mason

2007 Top 10 List

Happy New Year!!! Last night we had a small party with some of our friends and their kids to ring in the new year. Since all of us have small children we were tempted to watch the ball drop on the eastern coast and call it a night, but after a comment from one of my single friends last week telling me it's okay I'm boring because I'm married and have a baby, I made everyone stay up until midnight and countdown to the new year. It was a lot of fun being with our friends, eating good food, and playing Mario Cart on Nintendo 64 (if any of you don't remember how great Nintendo 64 is you should turn off your Wii long enough to refresh yourself with the classics).

Tonight at dinner Scott and I were thinking back on the past year and decided to make a top ten list of the great things that happened in our lives in 2007. I decided to post the list, so here it is.

10. The year of the Trilogy.

Three of our favorite trilogies were completed this year with the release of Pirates 3: At World's End, Bourne Ultimatum, and Ocean's 13. This may seem like a silly thing to make the list, but that's how much we like these movies.

9. Mason got a bathtub!

Once again, this may not seem like a big event, but it was. Our old basement apartment did not have a bathtub, it only had a shower. This wasn't a big deal to Scott and me until Mason was born. Mason bathed in his infant bathtub in the sink until he was 6 months old. Needless to say it was a tight fit by the end and everytime Mason had a bath the whole kitchen got one as well. Since we moved into our house baths are Mason's absolute favorite. Anytime I leave the door open to the bathroom he crawls in, pulls himself up on the side of the bathtub and cries when I won't put him in.

8. Scott got ESPN, ESPN 2, FSN, and Discovery Channel.

Wow, we are really starting to sound like couch potatoes. Our television viewing in our old apartment included 5 public channels. For those of you who know Scott and his passion for sports you understand how hard it is for him to miss games. We spent many a night at my parents house watching the Eagles, Villanova basketball, the Phillies, or any other big game that was on. Now that we are in our house we have cable TV. If our TV is on there is a very high probability it is on a sports channel or Discovery Channel (Scott is kind of a nerd when it comes to Discovery Channel). Now all I want in 2008 is a DVR so we can record games and fast forward through commercials and time outs to decrease our viewing time.

7. Additions to our families.

Scott's parents adopted 2 more babies girls, Karissa Dawn Murray (Jan. 12) and Keyana Joy Murray(Jan. 23), last January. Mason likes playing with his aunts who are 3 months older than him.

Chris and Kacie had a little girl, Kennedy Hale (Aug 8). We are hoping, for Kennedy's sake, that Whitney and Brandon have a little girl to balance the cousin boy:girl ratio.

6. Becky and Jeff Wedding.

Scott's youngest biological sister, Becky, got married April 14 to Jeff Spaulding. Becky and Jeff met at BYU Idaho. The wedding was 10 days before I had Mason (thank you to Becky for not making me where a bridemaid's dress) and I had previously had a dream my water broke in the temple and caused the temple to be closed for cleaning. I debated wearing a Depends to the sealing, but in the end I made it through the day just fine! It was a beautiful day and we were so excited for them to begin their life together. Plus, we are so happy to have Jeff be a part of our family now.

5. Murray Family Reunion in Zions.

In July we went down to Ponderosa Ranch in Zion for a family reunion sponsered by Scott's Grandma Murray. We stayed in a big cabin with Scott's entire family and enjoyed a week of activities including swimming, hiking, ping pong tournaments, mountain biking, horseshoes, and it wouldn't be the Murray family if there weren't games(Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, and Blink were the favorites of the trip). We had such a wonderful time!

4. Hale trip to Chicago.

Rather than Brandon and Whitney coming home from Chicago for Thanksgiving, my parents took the family out to see them. We stayed in an executive suite apartment in their building (it is an apt. rented out by night like a hotel) so we really go a good look into what their every day life is like. I am so jealous of the great experience they are having our there. We went to museums, went shopping, and of course saw Wicked. Thanks Brandon and Whitney for all your hard work and planning to make our trip great and thanks mom and dad for making it all happen.

3. Scott and Rachel graduate from BYU.

Scott earned is B.S. in Exercise Science in June and I earned my B.S. in Nursing in December. We both walked in our convocation ceremonies in August (I walked early since there is no convocation in December). This was a HUGE event this year since we have both been working toward these degrees for 4+ years. You might ask what our plan is from here. Scott will go back and get his MBA sometime in the next 5 years, for now he is continuing to work at NuSkin and building his management experience. I will practice as an RN on the side of being a mom. After we are done having kids and they are all in school I plan on going back and getting my Nurse Practioner.

2. We bought a house!!!!

In September we came across our house with the help of Chris and Kacie (it is just down the street from their house) and decided to put an offer down. Before we knew it we were the owners of a house that had a whole lot of potential, but was not a lot to look at (or smell for that matter) at the time. With the help of family we first gutted the house and then built it back up. We had the main floor ready to move in the first of November. After we moved in and got semi-settled, we tackled the basement. There is still a long list of little things that need to be done, but we now live in a nice, modest home that we LOVE!! I think we appreciate everything about our house because of all the blood and sweat we put into it. This project has consumed the last 4 months of our life and therefore is a big part of 2007.

1. MASON SCOTT MURRAY

There really was very little competition for our highlight of 2007. Scott and I became the proud parents of Mason Scott Murray on April 25 at 5:49 pm. He weighed in at 8 lb. 3 oz. and was 20 inches long. Since the day he was born he has been the Perfect baby. Words can not describe how amazing he is. As I look forward to 2008 the thing I am most excited about is continuing the journey of parenthood.

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.