Date Night

Scott and I are always looking for opportunities to go out on a cheap date. Last night we went on a date that didn't cost us a penny, but there was nothing cheap about it. Scott's department got to use Nu Skin's courtside tickets to the Jazz vs Atlanta Hawks game. We were sitting with our feet on the hardwood floor. I could have stretched my legs out and tripped the ref after a bad call if I had wanted. It was awesome!! Not only were we right in the action for the game but we were treated to an amazing gourmet dinner before the game and refreshments at halftime. Based on the price tags on our tickets we went on a $1800 date for free. Can't complain about that... even if the Jazz did blow it and lose the game. Thanks Nu Skin!! Hideous picture that shows where we were sitting. Us and the Dastrups and I'm assuming the guy behind us is the one who yelled "it's the shoes Beebee" to Mike Bibby LITERALLY every time they came down the court. Can you say annoying?

Experiences

Like most people, I have enjoyed watching the Olympics this past week. The winter games mostly consist of sports and athletes I know nothing about, but tonight was different. Tonight I watched the skeleton competition and it brought back a lot of memories. Here is a little known fact about me, 10 years ago, when I was a Sophomore in high school, I spent the winter training for the 2 man bobsled and skeleton. It was the year 2000 and the Salt Lake City Olympics were just around the corner. They were trying to increase Utah's field of women bobsled and skeleton athletes. Most of these athletes have a background in track and field because of the importance of explosive sprint speed to start the race, so the coaches went around to local High Schools inviting some of the top track athletes to come train for the year completely free. When I was approached and invited to do this I thought, sure, why not. So every Wednesday for the entire winter my mom drove me up to Park City no matter what the weather conditions were and waited in the freezing cold while I had a 4-5 hour practice (I wasn't 16 yet so I couldn't drive myself). The things I remember most about my time at the Utah Olympic Park are how cold my feet would get no matter how many hand warmers I had stuffed in my socks, how many bruises I got on my shoulders from banging into the walls, how crazy it felt to be going so fast and only being able to see about a foot in front of me, how bad I was at being the bobsled driver (they only let me drive once, and after I almost flipped the sled they decided I was much more fit to be a pusher), and how at the time I never realized what a once-in-a-life-time experience I was having. I was never particularly good at either sport, but I sure had fun trying them. My point in posting this is that I never want to forget all the amazing experiences I had growing up and how every one of them was the result of sacrifices my parents made for me. I hope I can provide my kids with as many opportunities and experiences as I had growing up. Thanks Mom and Dad.

Fun in the Sun

Every year by the time February rolls around, all of us in the Murray household start to feel a little gloomy and ready for winter to be over. To try and curb the seasonal depression that inevitably starts to set in, we planned a little getaway to sunny Arizona to visit our desert dwelling relatives. I was a little worried about the long drive with Brynn who still hates being in her car seat for more than 15 minutes at a time, but with some good timing and me sitting next to her singing and dancing she made it just fine. Our vacation plans pretty much consisted of Scott enjoying a round of golf with Steve and Brandon; spending time with Brandon, Whitney, Rachel Faye, and SteveJenna in their new houses; and just trying to soak up every ray of sunshine we could. We did everything we wanted and more. Since the main purpose of family vacations is to create memories, here are my favorite memories from the trip.

* Staying at Brandon and Whitney's awesome new house.

* Seeing how much Rachel Faye has grown up since Christmas. She is barely 20 months old but looks and talks like she is 2 1/2.

* Rachel calling me Auntie. (It's confusing having someone with your same name)

* Mason being so excited to play with Rachel Faye and all of her cool toys.

* Mason's favorite toy being Rachel's singing and dancing Elmo Live that I'm pretty sure he thought was real because it moved and talked on its own.

* Noticing the distinct difference between the way boys and girls play, for example, when Rachel carefully put her doll in the stroller while Mason pretended like Elmo was eating it.

* Going to the train park. Enough said.

* Watching Mason's knuckles turn white from holding on so tight on the carousal.
* Watching Rachel Faye chase birds at the park.

* Going to the park in February.

* Listening to Brynn laugh, laugh, laugh on the swings.

* Parks with SAND.

* 75 degree weather....ahhh.

* Whitney inadvertently telling Mason he could get a new Hiro (train) toy tomorrow and then thinking he would forget overnight, just to have the first words out of his mouth the next morning, "Whitney! We go get my new Hiro of the Rails toy now?!"

* Scott and I sleeping in until 9 am thinking Brynn was setting a new record for sleeping in when really Brandon had gotten up with her at 7:30 and played with her all morning.

* Steve having an awesome connection that let them golf at Dinosaur Monument for a steal!

* Steve's friend Dave having a connection and getting us into Tia Rosa's on the Saturday before Valentine's Day without having to wait a minute.

* Playing Settlers with Brandon, Whitney and SteveJenna.

* Brandon telling Mason a bedtime story about a train named Jonah that was swallowed by a whale.

* Rachel talking more and more about choo choo trains as the days passed. Sorry Whit.

* Taking Rachel and Mason to nursery at church and realizing Brandon and Whitney didn't exaggerate at all with how weird it is.

* Staying at SteveJennas beautiful new house.

* SteveJenna's backyard that is like an oasis.

* Playing on a blanket with Brynn in the shade of an orange tree.

* Mason running all around the backyard playing with Weston aka "Rusten".

* Mason saying to Weston, "Let's play hide and seek, you count to ten." * Steve helping Weston play hide and seek with Mason.
* Mason trying to get Weston to shake and sit for a treat, and when the treats were gone trying to get him to do it for a leaf. * Steve and Jenna playing trains with Mason.
* Watching the Olympics with SteveJenna.

* Brynn driving Weston crazy with all of her noises during the night.

* Mason throwing a fit because he wanted the green Dinosaur Train book when no such book exists, at least not to my knowledge.

* Mason telling me on the way home that "Rusten" misses him and is sad and needs his dog mommy to make him feel better.

Those four days were just what we needed. A huge thanks to our gracious hosts Brandon & Whitney and Steve & Jenna. We might have to make this a yearly tradition.

Happy Birthday Scott!!

Scott turns the big 2-7 today. Wow, I can't believe I'm married to someone that OLD!! To celebrate the occasion here are 27 things about Scott you may or may not know.

1. He was a miracle baby and had a twin that died inutero.
2. He is exceptionally good at packing bags, cars, boxes or anything else. Seriously he doesn't waste an inch of space!
3. He is NOT a morning person.
4. He is very good at planning and executing surprises.
5. He has a talent of stopping tantrums dead in their tracks by distracting the child with something random.
6. He has worked at Nu Skin Enterprises for 6 years.
7. He loves to play basketball.
8. He always puts his family first.... I love and appreciate this about him.
9. He plays Mr. Mom two nights a week while I'm at work and the following morning while I sleep.
10. He has a Bachelors degree in Exercise Science.
11. He is very supportive of me and has sacrificed a lot to let me continue working because he knows how much I love it.
12. He loves to tease.
13. He is the 4th of 15 kids in his family.
14. He has a larger than average mouth.
15. When he was in elementary school he would practice time tables over and over so he would be the fastest in his class. (he's very competetive)
16. He served his mission in Korea.
17. He never let me practice drawing blood or starting an IV on him when I was in nursing school.
18. He is very romantic, but shhh, don't tell.
19. He is very spiritual.
20. His ears are uneven on his head.
21. He is really smart.
22. He is a good teacher.
23. He does not like messes.
24. He is a very good kisser.
25. He works hard at whatever he does.
26. He is the best, no seriously THE BEST, husband in the world.
27. His Birthday is TODAY!!!

25 on the 25th

I celebrated my 25th birthday on the 25th of January. I have been informed that makes it my golden birthday, and golden it was. My "golden day" went something like this:

• Started celebrating at midnight with cake and icecream while at work.
• Came home from work at 7 and slept until 11 while Scott watched the kids.
• Mom watched kids while Scott and I went out to lunch at Olive Garden.
• Went shopping for new jeans and found not 1 but 2 pairs I loved!!
• Went to Chuck E. Cheese. What more could a girl want?
• Put the kids to bed and enjoyed having some time with Scott after almost 2 weeks of him traveling for work.

It was nothing fancy, but my birthday consisted of everything I love in life my family (especially my wonderful husband who I missed so much), great food (Olive Garden...not Chuck E. Cheese), and comfortable jeans. Happy Birthday to me!!

Grandpa of the Year

Not only did my dad stop by today to shovel the 6 inches of snow off our driveway, he then spent the next hour or more playing with Mason in the snow and making this amazing snow train with him. Scott is in Florida on business so if it weren't for Grandpa saving the day our driveway would be a thick sheet of ice and Mason would have missed out on playing in the snow today. Isn't Grandpa Vall the greatest? We sure think so.

Bye Bye Bink

Today was a big day at our house. Mason traded in his binky for 2 new trains!! Last night Mason came in my room and informed me his binky "had a crack" (the silicone ripped). This was the last binky we had and I had told myself once it was lost or broken there would be no more binkies. So today I took Mason to the store and gave him the choice of either getting a new binky or he could chose any train he wanted. Of course he chose the train and since they were buy one get one half off I bumped the prize up to 2 trains. After he picked out his trains we found a garbage can in the store and he threw away his final broken binky. Unprompted, he said a very heartfelt goodbye to his binky and then we left with James and Gordon, the new additions to our train family. As bedtime approached I got nervous that Mason was going to regret his decision because he has always been VERY attached to his binky at bedtime. But bedtime came, he grabbed his trains and headed to bed without even mentioning his binky. What a big boy!! I know it sounds silly, but I am actually quite sad to see the binky go. It will take some getting used to hearing Mason ask for just his baby sweep instead of his "binkybaysweep" all slurred into one word. Oh I hate this part of Mason growing up, saying goodbye to inanimate objects we've become close to. Here's to the many great binks that have spent time in our couches, under beds, buried in the book basket, lost in the toy room, and most importantly in Mason's mouth.

Burrrrrrr

It's that time of winter again, when the house starts to feel like a prison. Today we had had enough and decided to go for a walk despite the cold. Poor Brynn, who was perfectly content exploring the warm house, got bundled up and taken along for the ride. It was cold, but it sure felt good to get out. Maybe it's time for us to start looking for jobs in Arizona.

A Very Merry Christmas

It's hard to believe that Christmas has come and gone once again. It was a whirlwind couple of days, but we had a blast. The fun started on the 23rd when my parents started a fun tradition of having "Grandpa's Sleepover". Any tradition with an official title has to be great, right? They had all of the grandkids sleep over at their house and sent all of the adults out to dinner and then home to enjoy a night with no kids. I'm not sure who had a better time, the kids or the adults. I don't know if my parents got a wink of sleep, but they still had smiles on their faces the next morning. The night consisted of dinner, a dip in the hot tub (turned down to bathtub temp), new jammies, storytime, a sleepover, and breakfast in the morning. The girls were all angels and slept as good as ever. The boys are old enough they were too excited to sleep. Mason won the award for staying up the latest, waking up the earliest, and waking my parents up the most during the night trying to climb in bed with them. Sorry Mom and Dad. On Christmas Eve we had a candlelight dinner with the Murray Family. We attempted to act out the Nativity. When Mason found out he couldn't dress up as a dinosaur he decided he didn't want to participate. He was very calm and kind as he insisted on just watching. We made the mistake of putting all the other little kids' costumes on a little too early so by the time it actually began we only had a Mary and Joseph in costume with Baby Brynn who really nailed her role as Baby Jesus along with a few other costumes here and there. After opening Christmas jammies we all jumped in our cars and went for our Christmas Eve drive through the Spanish Fork light show then headed home. Here are all the kiddos in their Christmas Jammas. Kayla, TayLynn, Karissa, Kenzi holding Brynn, Kaden, Jessica, Mason, Austin, Keyana, Josh, Phillie (the dog), and Tanner.

Later that night as Mason was getting ready for bed we heard Santa's sleigh bells ringing outside his bedroom window (thanks, Grandpa Val). Mason was so excited he looked out the window searching for Santa, but eventually decided he better jump in bed and try to fall asleep so Santa would come. On Christmas morning he was thrilled to find that Santa had in fact visited our house. He brought Mason his big blue helicopter. Brynn's first Christmas was just as we expected. She loved all of her presents.....almost as much as the wrapping paper. Santa also brought this kitchen and play food for Brynn and Mason. Mason loves to cook and Brynn loves to eat the food. It works out wonderfully.
Thanks to all of our family for the wonderful gifts. They truely loved each and every one of them.

I feel like we found the perfect balance this year in amount and types of gifts. In years past we have ended up putting presents away for birthdays because we overdid it. This year Mason really enjoyed and appreciated every gift he opened and was completely satisfied in the end. Brynn had no clue what was going on, but was happy as could be.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

It's Here!!

I can't believe Christmas is already here!! This has been the best Christmas season. It is so fun to have Mason old enough to really understand and be excited about everything going on. Now that we have 2 kids we have been trying to start some traditions that will hopefully last through the years. Here are some of the things we have been doing to celebrate to this year.

The day after Thanksgiving we went and watched Santa arrive at University Mall in a helicopter. Remember how Mason loves helicopters and is asking for one for Christmas? It was the perfect way to start off the season. Mason waving to Santa as the Helicopter was coming down. The big man himself. Mason just wanted to stay and look at the Helicopter all day. Brynn was so excited she could hardly contain herself. We stayed until the Helicopter flew away. It was REALLY windy when it was taking off. Here we all are being blown away.

Decorating the Tree was definitely interesting with all of Mason's "help".

The Festival of Trees was a lot of fun. Mason, of course, found every tree that had a train under it. He was convinced this was the Dinosaur Train, so therefore, it was his favorite. He then informed us that this butterfly tree was Brynn's favorite tree.

We took the kids to Thanksgiving Point to sit on Santa's lap. Mason was SO excited the whole time we were in line. When it was finally our turn this is how his conversation with Santa went

Santa: How are you?

Mason: (barely audible whisper) Two. Holds up two fingers (Oops, thought he asked how old are you.)

Santa: What do you want for Christmas?

Mason: Stares at Santa

Scott: Mason, what do you want for Christmas?

Mason: Santa, what do you want for Christmas? (voice getting a little louder)

Santa: (a little thrown off by the question) Ummmm.

Scott: Mason, tell Santa what you want for Christmas?

Mason: Ummmm Looks to Daddy for some help

Scott: A big................blue.......

Mason: HELICOPTER!

Santa: Well, I'll see what I can do.

Mason totally got stage fright when he was talking to Santa, but as soon as he was done he told us all about how he had talked to Santa and told him he wanted a big blue helicopter. Apparently the conversation went perfectly in Mason's eyes. As for Brynn, she just smiled and laughed the whole time she was on his lap which was SHOCKING since this girl has some serious stranger anxiety.

We also got to see some of Santa's reindeer outside.

We did the Polar Express ride.

Scott and I saw A Christmas Carol like we do every year. Mix in some Family and Work Christmas parties that I don't have any pictures of and we've had a very busy and very fun month. What a great time of year. Merry Christmas!!