Miles' Makeover

I have given Miles several hair trim/cuts over the last year. But he has now reached the age when I turn the haircutting over to a professional. So when his hair started resembling a helmet, I gave Karlie a call and we got him his first real haircut.

      Before

 After

Scott was the unfortunate one who got to be present for the traumatic experience. Miles screamed and cried and yelled despite the many suckers and balls given to him.  Finally Karlie's husband came downstairs dawning the Ipad with Little Einsteins to try and calm the hysterics.  It wasn't Mile's finest hour....and yes I do mean hour... but he made it through and the results are totally worth it. 

It's amazing how a simple haircut has transformed him into a little boy.

Toothless

"First" lost tooth April 4, 2013

A couple weeks ago Mason bit into his sandwich at lunch and complained that it made his tooth feel funny. Upon further investigation we discovered he had his first loose tooth. Although Mason has been missing one of his teeth for the last 5 years (not familiar with the Home Depot mishap? Read story here) he has been waiting for the day when he would "really" loose a tooth.  He wiggled and wiggled and wiggled that tooth every chance he got for the next few days.  It finally got to the point it was so loose and wobbly I couldn't stand it anymore.

 I thought it would be fun to try the classic tie a string to the doorknob and slam it trick. Scott standing back mumbling, "This is a horrible idea. I can't believe you are doing this." really helped calm Mason's nerves...not.  But turns out his tooth was a little too loose and would just bend over and the string would slip right off every time. So I just resorted to a good old washcloth to grab the tooth and yank it out.

 Mason is very proud of his lost tooth.

Sick Sick Winter

When I think back on this winter I immediately get the chills thinking about how cold it was.  We had the coldest January Utah has had since 1946! Poor Mason didn't get to go outside for recess from the time he came back after Christmas break until mid February because it never got warm enough.  It felt like everything was covered in a layer of ice. While driving to and from school (because that's the only time we left the house) the kids loved seeing who could spot the biggest icicle. This wasn't too hard since every house had icicles that were several feet long hanging from the roof.  I have lived in Orem my entire life and have never seen icicles like this before. Being trapped inside by the cold was only compounded by all the sickness that was going around.  After over a year of no sick visits to the Dr for any of our kids we got slammed by sickness over and over again all winter long. Runny noses, coughs, croup, pink eye, pneumonia, stomach bugs, RSV, and throw in some nasty migraines and morning sickness for me.  You name it, we had it at least once. But even with all of the sickness that went through our family we felt very blessed that A: It was never too serious, just annoying and B: Scott avoided almost all of it so he could keep up with his crazy school schedule. 

Poor Brynn had the roughest time of all the kids. I don't know why it is, but her little body is just not as resilient as our boys when it comes to fighting sickness. Back in September she had one bought of croup that landed us in the hospital because her narrow airways just clamped down so tight.    

After a night of steroids and racemic epi treatments we were discharged.  On our way home Scott called me from a family fun fair he had taken the boys to at UVU saying he had entered Brynn in a drawing to win a bike, but she had to be present to win.  They were about to do the drawing so he said we should stop by on our way home just in case her name was drawn. Anyone who has had a child receive racemic epi knows how lousy they feel afterward. Looking back at my sick, lethargic, jammie clad daughter I didn't think it was a very good idea, but it was on the way, so I figured we could pull into the parking lot for a minute.  As soon as we pulled in I got out of the car to hear Brynn's name being called as the winner of the bike. It was a pretty pathetic sight as we drug her up in front of the crowd in her jammies and tried to get her excited about her new bike, but she just sat limply on the bike begging to go home. Parents of the year, I tell you.

A few days later and she was very excited to have a new girl bike and helmet!

One other noteworthy experience with Brynn happened in December. In late November the kids and I all got hit with a pretty nasty cough. I'm the worst mom ever and never take my kids to the doctor unless I know there is something they can do for it (i.e. ear infections, strep throat, or croup that require medication). There is nothing more annoying then going and getting a pat on the back as they say it's a virus and you'll just have to wait it out, and let's be honest, it's always a virus. Mason was over it in a couple of days, Miles in a week, and me in a couple weeks.  Brynn, however, just kept coughing and coughing for over 3 weeks.  Everyone else had gotten over it on their own, so I figured she just needed more time. She would have these coughing fits at night after she went to sleep where she would get coughing so hard she would often times throw up.  So one night I woke up at 4am to Brynn sobbing downstairs. I figured she had been having a coughing fit again so I ran down to find her standing next to her bed with blood smeared all over her face.  I couldn't quite figure out what had happened and she was too hysterical to tell me so I figured it must have been a bloody nose.  I took her up and bathed her and cuddled with her until she settled down. After she was asleep I walked into the downstairs bathroom to soak her jammies and found bloody vomit all over the bathroom. I took her to the doctor and he felt like it was most likely a Mallory Weiss tear. He was very concerned about her cough and actually thought she had pertussis. After all the tests it turned out to only be pneumonia. A couple days on some heavy duty antibiotics and she was like a new girl!

Brynn has always had serious anxiety when it comes to the doctor, but thanks to her new found favorite TV show, Doc McStuffins, Brynn was quite the trooper through her many doctor/hospital experiences this year.  She even says she wants to be a nurse like Mommy and loves to take care of her stuffed animals.

All of the sickness has cleared up and we have been healthy for several months now! Wahoo!!

But it was definitely one cold and sick winter to remember.

Wanna be a Balla

Mason is loving how every year there are more and more opportunities for him to participate in sports. First soccer, then t-ball, and now basketball.  He is not quite old enough for Jr. Jazz yet, but he was able to participate in a Little Hoopsters camp throughout the month of January. This was his first time being exposed to a lot of the skills in basketball and we were really impressed with how much he improved week to week.  On the final day they played a "real" game.  I wouldn't go as far as to say Mason was the MVP or anything, but  he did play really good defense by getting low in a defensive stance with his arms out and shuffling side to side.  It was clear he has watched plenty of basketball with Scott because he understood how the game is supposed to flow and did a good job mimicking what he's seen. The highlight for him was when he made a basket during the game. As always, it was fun to watch him learn and his confidence grow.

Here are some of the boys from our neighborhood that did the camp with Mason.

Jack Akin, Cache McCann, Mac Christiansen, and Mason

When Scott and I went on a date to a Jazz game for his 30th birthday Mason was Super Jealous. He couldn't believe we were going to a Jazz game without him.  So a few weeks later Scott, Mason, and Grandpa Mike had their very own Murray boys trip to a Jazz Game.  Mason got to pick the game and he chose the game against the Grizzlies, because he loves Grizzly Bears.

They went down next to the court during warm ups so Mason could see his favorite player, Randy Foye, up close.

 Then they hiked up to their seats on the very top row :)

 Mason was really into the game, but when asked what his favorite part of the night was he didn't have to think twice before saying his kids meal that came in a Jazz Lunch box.  When the concession worker gave Mason his meal in the lunch box Mason broke out in a celebratory dance singing "oh yeah, oh yeah!"

 I think he had a pretty good time with his Dad and Grandpa, too.

Scott blew it and didn't take any pictures with Grandpa Mike. Way to go, Scott.

 Mason does not, however, win the title of the Murray with the most passion for basketball.  That goes hands down to Miles.  This kid is OBSESSED with basketball.  I don't know how else to put it.  Anybody who has been around Miles for more than 2 minutes has heard his incessant yelling of "ball, ball, ball" and if there is a round object in sight then he will do everything in his power to get his hands on it so he can pass and shoot. 

 He learned most of his moves from watching Mason's Little Hoopsters Camp.  After the first day when they were practicing shooting he adopted his classic shooting stance where he squats down low then springs up while shooting. Just like the big boys did it.

Don't even try to tell him he is not one of the big boys. He is ready to play.



Just a Blur

I don't remember where I was or what I was doing that night, I just remember coming home late to find Scott and the kids with soccer socks tucked into their PJs playing flag football.

 I remember thinking how I wanted to remember this night and the happy shouts and laughter that filled our house. I wanted to capture Scott, the super dad, in action.

 I wanted to capture my boy's pure elation when it was his turn to catch the ball.

Unfortunately, like my memory, most of the pictures are just a blur.

I feel like life is flying by and I can hardly keep up with it.  At the end of the day this blog has taken a back seat to more important things in my life.  But as my memory continues to blur what is behind me I find so much joy in re-reading posts of everyday moments we've had over the years.  I'm recommitting right now to not let this crazy, hectic, but priceless part of our lives pass undocumented. I'm turning over a new leaf.  So blurry pictures or not, here come the posts!

D-Day

Scott is approaching the end of his first year in the MBA program.  In addition to all of the schoolwork he has been doing, Scott has spent a lot of his time researching, applying, interviewing, and visiting potential companies for his summer internship. After all of that, today is the day....decision day....the day we had to make our choice and accept an offer. Scott had offers from 4 companies...

Cook Medical, Union Pacific, Eaton, and Zimmer. 

Each company and its accompanying offer was unique and had its own advantages and disadvantages.  So how did we decide? Anyone who knows us well knows that making big decisions isn't exactly a forte of ours. So we faced this the way any logical person would...with a pro/con list (okay, and a lot of prayer, fasting, and temple attendance).  After weighing all of these great offers one of the lists was leaning much heavier toward the pro side than the others so we both felt very confident in our decision to spend the summer working for.....

 Union Pacific!!

This will be taking us to Omaha, Nebraska for 12 weeks this summer.

 Living in Omaha didn't sound very appealing at first, but upon further investigation we have realized it is an amazingly family friendly area and is going to be absolutely perfect for our family of 6 this summer.

On a side note, we are hoping to rent our house out for the summer while we are gone (June-Aug with flexibility on dates of availability). We will be renting it as a fully furnished 4 bedroom 2 bath house with a great fenced in backyard including a fun playset and sandbox.  All utilities including cable and internet will be included. If you know anyone who might be interested let me know!

Stacherade Ball

  Scott and I recently attended the MBA winter formal. Instead of a Masquerade Ball this was a Stacherade Ball.  While I was worried about finding a formal dress to fit my ever growing belly Scott was busy growing and grooming his finest mustache for the event.  It was a silly way for Scott and some of his buddies to shake things up a bit and honestly I think it made the whole night a little bit more entertaining.  We had a great night enjoying great food and great company. We are really loving every minute of our MBA experience thanks to the great friends we have made. 

Mike and Andrea Hansen, Scott and myself, Carl and Brooke Christensen, Brian and Abby Smith

 They had a little photo station with different props that we all had fun playing with.

Carl and Brooke



Abby and Brian

What a good looking couple.

Just so you can appreciate the true beauty of Scott's mustache I made a little collage. We decided he would make a great police officer with this look. 

I never quite got used to Scott looking like this and had a hard time keeping a straight face while talking to him.  It was fun while it lasted, but I can't say I was sad to see it go.

Hide and Seek

Miles acts as if life is one big game of hide and seek.  He never misses an opportunity to squeeze into a narrow space, duck behind a piece of furniture, or pull something over his eyes. It cracks me up to watch him hold as still as a statue and chuckles as we say, "where's Miles?".  He thinks he is invisible until you make eye contact with him and then he'll burst out laughing. My favorite is when we are out in public and he will take off running. When I call out his name for him to come back he will instantly drop to his hands and knees and crawl behind the nearest object then hold perfectly still,  usually with his little bum poking out, until he thinks the coast is clear, then he'll take off again. I love and appreciate my Bubba's carefree attitude.

Christmas

It always feels a little weird reading Christmas posts when the snow has melted and Easter decorations are out, so I forced myself to post this before it was much more than a month late. Part of the reason it has taken me so long to post this is because I wasn't quite sure what to write. I wish I could say what a magical Christmas we had this year and that it was our best Christmas yet, but that was not the case. At least not from my point of view. I'm not sure if it was the nasty sickness we got slammed with to kick off the holiday season, or the long challenging year we had finally taking it's toll on me, or Mason's selfish and greedy attitude that ruined it for me.  Whatever the reason, I had a really really hard time finding joy in Christmas this year.  I tried to push through my negative feelings to make sure Christmas wasn't a total bust for my kids, and I hope I succeeded.

Pre-Christmas

Of course we had to visit Santa so the kids could tell him what they wanted for Christmas.

Mason asked Santa for an "Eagles football with a tee to kick off" although he wasn't very confident Santa would be bringing him anything at all.  You see, Mason has had a pretty rough year as far as behavior is concerned. The problems we have been having all seemed to get worse as Christmas approached. When anyone asked Mason what he wanted for Christmas his response was always, "There is no way Santa will bring me anything. I am on the naughty list for sure." We had never said any such thing, he came to that conclusion on his own. It made me really sad to hear him say this over and over and made me feel like a horrible parent. I constantly tried to build him up and encourage him to start making better choices so he could be on the nice list, but he was convinced it was too late to change anything. In the weeks right before Christmas we did see at least an effort on his part to make better choices. I'm happy to report that the new year has brought with it a new Mason. I am finally seeing a glimmer of hope that this phase might end. 

 As usual Brynn totally freaked out when it was her turn to see Santa. She created quite the scene with her screaming and hysterics and we never even got through the door frame. I have come to accept that Brynn's picture with Santa when she was 6 months old is the only one we will ever get. 

Brynn just sent her request in a letter asking Santa for "a pink camera like Mason's"

Miles sat on Santa's lap, but I think his face tells us exactly how he felt about it. 

As if one Santa visit clearly wasn't enough for our kids we tried it again a few days before Christmas when my dad took all of us to Riverside's Breakfast with Santa. Santa arrived via golf cart with Buddy the Elf.

 He told stories and sang songs with the kids. Brynn stayed in the other room with me.

 Santa was great and all, but what we really enjoyed was the delicious breakfast we had with our cousins.

 Brynn absolutely adores Rachel Faye!

 Then we had our cousin gift exchange. I love how close all these little cousins are!!

Christmas Eve

For everyone who dreams of a White Christmas, this is definitely one to remember. On Christmas Eve Day it started snowing and didn't slow down the entire day. This made our trip out to the Murray's in Woodland Hills an adventure.

We started off with a Shephard's lunch

 Then everyone bundled up and headed outside to enjoy all the fresh snow.

 The snow was almost up to Brynn's waist. She got stuck a time or two, but it didn't stop her from having a good time.

After the traditional candlelight dinner it was time for the nativity. Mason wanted to be a wiseman...yet again. It's because they are the ones who get to hold cool boxes full of things.

 Brynn was a shepard, but wasn't very cooperative with the costuming.

 

The final cast. Honestly I'm not really sure who played who.

 Miles was supposed to be a sheep, but he ended up wandering around as a lost sheep.

 

We finished off the night by opening our Christmas jammies. We tried to get a picture of the all the kiddos together...

 

 It didn't really work.

I was scheduled to work Christmas Eve, but was lucky enough to be put on call so I was able to stay and finish things up with the Murrays. As I was laying in bed with Mason we heard Santa's sleigh bells ringing outside and then the phone rang and I got called into work. I got to go in and take care of a mean little old lady with dementia who was yelling, hitting, and kicking me all night. Merry Christmas to you too! I came home in the morning and as soon as the kids woke up we dove into Christmas. 

Christmas 

Honestly we didn't get many pictures since just managing the chaos kept us busy the whole time, but it was a great morning.

 Mason was thrilled with his Eagles football Santa brought. He also lucked out and got a new bike from Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Val. His other favorite gifts were Ninjago legos and his Jazz Jersey.

 Brynn was thrilled with everything she opened. Her favorites included her camera, princess barbie dolls and clothes from Grandma and Grandpa

but her favorite things was her "phone and purse with lots of things in it". Which she had asked for exactly like that.

 

Miles got a Strider Bike from Grandma and Grandpa. He obviously still needs to grow into it a bit, but it will be perfect this summer!

 Miles didn't care about a single thing he got, except...

 the orange he got in his stocking. He carried around his "ball" all morning throwing and shooting it until he discovered he could bite off the peel and eat the yummy inside. Then he nabbed Brynn's, then Mason's, then Mom's, then Dad's.

 The most exciting gift for all of us was finding out we are having a GIRL!! I had an ultrasound 3 days before Christmas and had the tech keep it a secret and fill this box with pink tissue paper for a girl or blue tissue paper for a boy. We then kept it tucked safely under the tree until Christmas morning when we opened it to find pink, pink, pink. We were all THRILLED!

I was pretty positive I was having a girl based on my pregnancy, but didn't want to get my hopes up. Since we are 1000% sure we are done with this baby we are so happy we will have 2 boys and 2 girls.

 Grandma's Sleepover 

This year Grandma's Sleepover fell the week after Christmas because that is when Brandon and Whitney were in town. I cannot even describe my kids' excitement levels in anticipation of this night. I dare say they were as excited for this as they were for Christmas itself. 

They all got to open their jammies first thing. We snapped a picture and then the adults took off to a yummy dinner at Red Lobster and a night to do whatever we wanted without kids.

 The crew is rapidly growing and is up to nine.

Chase (2), Grandma Nancy, Grandpa Val, Miles (1)

Cannon (7), Mason (5), Andrew (2), Kennedy (5), Kendall (2 months), Rachel (4), Brynn (3)  

The girls.

 

 Grandma with the little ones in the hot tub.

 The big kids.

Don't worry, no one lost an eye with those gigantic icicles Cannon and Mason found.

 They then came in and had homemade snocones.

and bounced in the bounce house.

The kids all slept and my parents survived the night.

That is a peek into our Christmas.