8 years

It's crazy to think Scott and I have been married for 8 years!!  We were practically children when we fell in love and decided to be sealed to one another and begin our own little family.  In the last 8 years our family and grown and changed quite a bit.

December 18, 2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

Our family will be growing even more this May when we are expecting another baby!

One thing that hasn't changed is my love for Scott.  

I love you Scotty.

Bah Humbug

I feel like such a Scrooge this year. I have really been struggling to tap into the Christmas spirit. I will be lucky if I get all my Christmas shopping done on time, so I am pretty sure I won't get around to sending out a Christmas card. I guess this will have to do.

Merry Christmas

From the Murray Family

Scott, Rachel, Mason (5), Brynn (3), and Miles (1)

My coworker and friend, Rachel Lark, took our family pictures. She did a great job! If you are wanting family pictures for a steal, then check her out.  But you better hurry, because once word gets out her prices are bound to go up.

A Year of Babies

This year has been the year of babies in our family. Every childbearing sibling in both of our families will have had a baby this year (okay Miles was a few weeks earlier that 2012 and Chris and Kacie will be having a baby a few weeks after 2012, but close enough).  We started off with Miles in December, Isla Claire Murray (Jenna and Steve) in February, Christopher Jeffrey Spaulding (Becky and Jeff) in April and now we have 3 more additions.

Preston Jeremy Reese

 born to Janessa and Jeremy Reese

October 5th

6 lbs 10 oz  19 inches

 I couldn't find a picture of the entire family, but here is everyone but Janessa.

Kayla, Jeremy, Preston, and Avely.

next up was

Kendall Olive Hale

 born to Whitney and Brandon Hale

October 28th

 7 lbs 1oz  20 inches

 Rachel Faye, Whitney, Kendall, Andrew, Brandon

and finally

Lauren Kristen Murray

 Born to Lisa and Vance Murray

November 13th

6 lbs 11 oz  20.5 inches

Lauren, Lincoln, Lisa, and Vance

Chris and Kacie will finish things off with their baby boy in early January and then we will have one awesome group of cousins for years to come!

Football Fanatic

Every day I am faced with more and more evidence that Mason is growing up and is no longer my little boy. He goes to school every single day instead of twice a week. He takes showers instead of baths. He reads to me instead of me reading to him. He talks back to me instead of obeying...argh!! He likes going to BYU football games to watch the game instead of only to get a cougar tail (a foot long maple bar doughnut). He opted to watch football with the big boys instead of playing with the kids on Thanksgiving. He is wishing for an Eagles football for Christmas instead of some other toy. 

Yep, Mason has reached the age where he has fallen in love with football. In fact, he has become quite the fanatic. Scott has loved teaching Mason all about football and fostering his love for the Eagles, BYU Cougars, and Orem High Tigers. It's been fun watching Mason turn even more into a mini Scott. Mason is sad that football season is coming to a close, but don't worry, he is showing a lot of excitement about the Jazz and BYU basketball so he should have plenty to keep him occupied.

 

*Funny Mason comment*

Scott gave Mason an old Kyle Korver Jazz jersey. Mason asked who Korver was and if he had dark skin. We told him he used to play for the Jazz and that he did not have dark skin. Mason responded casually, "I'm going to pretend he has dark skin because the guys with dark skin have big muscles and look really cool....and they're really good."

Stay-cation

Scott had some days off of school last week and we really wanted to squeeze in a mini family vacation. We decided that instead of spending all our time and money going somewhere far away we would just find a hotel in Salt Lake and have a fun filled stay-cation. The only criteria we had for the hotel was that it had to have an indoor swimming pool. We stayed at the Raddison which ended up being in the perfect location where we were within walking distance of everything we wanted to do. I'll spare all the boring details and stick to the highlights.

• Discovery Gateway children's museum. It was fun to watch Brynn and Mason enjoy some of their old time favorites and also discover some new things they liked. It was Miles' first time there and he absolutely loved it. No surprise that his favorite spot was the ball area. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Swimming in the hotel pool.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• City Creek lighting of Christmas lights and arrival of Santa. Mason and Brynn had a lot of fun. Miles was not impressed being bundled up in his stroller all night.
  
  
  
  
• Eating at McDonalds every single day.
• Swimming in the hotel pool, again.
• Disney on Ice. Brynn was really into it and loved all the songs. Mason was so preoccupied with a silly little Mushu stuffed animal he wanted, but we wouldn't get for him, that he hardly paid attention to the show until the Mulan part at the very end. Miles did well for the first half and then decided he was done sitting still. Thank goodness for back row isle seats. Mason and Brynn have been on a serious Mulan kick so the Mulan segment was definitely their favorite. As we were leaving, Mason told us he wants to be Shang in Disney on Ice when he grows up. To give him credit, Shang's back flip was definitely the coolest trick during the show.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Scott was beaming with pride when Mason was adding every Eagles and Phillies item in Fanzz to his Christmas wish list. His pride quickly turned to embarrassment when Mason insisted on getting a Shang barbie doll for his trip souvenir. The way I see it, when he grows tired of Mulan then Brynn will have a boy barbie doll to play with. 
• Did I mention swim in the hotel swimming pool? We went swimming multiple times a day.
• Found out firsthand the biggest downfall to having an amazing sleeper like Miles who we just lay down in his crib at home and he puts himself to sleep. He needs his room and his crib to go to sleep. He would not go to sleep in the pack n play, wound not lay next to us on the bed, and would not let us rock him to sleep. There weren't many naps or early bedtimes happening. 
• Walked around temple square and visited the Church History museum.

Overall our stay-cation was a huge success. We got all the fun parts of a vacation without the travel.

Snow Day

While I was in cold and windy Las Vegas, I was shocked when I received these pictures from Scott.

Playing in the snow!

Trapped inside :(

 Apparently Utah was experiencing some inclement weather of its own.  It started snowing and then kept snowing and snowing, until Orem got almost a foot of snow in 24 hours. Scott's parents' house in Woodland Hills got more like 4 feet of snow. Scott bundled up the kids and took them to the Murray's for a day full of sledding and snow fun. By the looks of things, they had a great time. Poor Miles was trapped inside all day because we lacked proper snow gear for him, and he's just kind of at a hard age for playing in the snow. But I think he still had a good time playing with Grandma Linda.