The Murphy Family

Yes, it's true.  You didn't read that wrong, my little Logan is 2.  The baby of my family is a big boy!  And he can do every single thing by himself :).  He "can" pour milk by himself, get dressed by himself, carry very heavy things by himself, make his own lunches, make cookies.  I know, it's amazing.  Okay, so maybe his confidence is a little higher than it should be, but I am really hoping this means he will be a confident/independent little boy...eventually.  As for now, he is constantly saying "I do it" but he is also constantly saying, "hode ju me" (hold you me, of course), so, I think I have him for a little while longer.  He really does want to be held all day long.  I haven't worn him in awhile because he is really big and my arthritis was really bugging me (yes, I am an 80 year old woman and have arthritis in my back.  It actually goes really well with my gray hair, so I'm cool with it).  The other day I wore hi...

Mason Murphy, you sweet little thing you!  3 was awesome and I can't wait for 4.  I feel like 3 was a hard year for us.  Not hard like it is hard with a really hard kid, but hard for you.  It was probably about what my easiest years with Logan will be :).  I think you just realized you can say no.  It made me really frustrated, but I had to keep reminding myself that the qualities that make me crazy right now will be the qualities I am thanking Heaven for when you are older and in school.  I don't want to break you of those qualities but they can be tricky sometimes just so you know.  You will NOT do something you don't want to do.  You just won't.  You are a people pleaser so you will sometimes hide sadness or grouchiness to make sure that no one thinks badly of you, BUT, when you don't feel comfortable doing something, you don't care what it takes to get you the heck outta there.  Your primary teachers tell me the same thing....

So, sometimes when you are teaching little kids about religion it seems to go right over their heads. I was told once by a very fancy (highly overpriced), NYC physician that you should not try to teach little children religion because they cannot comprehend it and it is confusing to them. I, obviously, knew this to be false because my religion teaches otherwise and I was taught otherwise. We try to teach our children about God, our religion, about prayer and the Spirit. I want them to be able to testify on their own that they know God is there and that He knows and hears them. I want them to know truth when they hear it. I just want them to be religiously minded so that when times get tough, they will know what to do. Prayer is amazing that way. It solves every problem in time. Prayer is the answer to life's problems. God knows exactly how to solve or help us deal with every issue. I know this, I want more than anything for my kids to know this early so they can hopefully limit t...

I love that my boys are old enough to play together really well now.  I can't say I really understand the fun in this, but they always get hurt and love it anyway.  I love my little sweeties and I love that my little sweeties love each other. I love that you can see Logan laughing so hard from the side. Body Slam?  This is awesome! What?  Face plant, who cares, this is so fun!  A whole lotta ticklin going on These are my favorite moments.  I also love night time when they give each other lots of smoochies and hugs and giggle and tickle each other lots. 

So, we finally got some camping in this summer and we ended up right next to a mountain/dirt biking trail....the most popular trail in the area apparently. It was actually quite humorous because Doug and Marie spent all day looking for a site and finally found one...we quickly discovered why it was not taken. It was fun anyway. We all had a great time and it was just nice to have a change of scenery...even if the scenery was a bunch of sweaty people tearing through our campsite. Smores make everything better though. OH, and we got to use our new tent which can be set up in 1 minute. And, yes, it really does only take one minute, amazing!! Campfire popcorn...mmmmm....mostly burnt. Yucky me and Doug's family Love them! Cousing Lucas and Mas Love him Logan thinks anything slanted is a slide and so, of course, he slid down this rocky dirt path head first......over and over. I thought once would be enough. Then he got the other kids doing it. Cute Aunt Marie, Lucas and Doogie cute b...

Mason has 3 friends who he has played with since he was about 18 months old. They are all still good friends even though we moved out of the neighborhood and their moms happen to be my best friends here. I seriously adore them all, kids and moms, and am so glad I have them. We all have first borns the same age and now we all have two children. We decided the first-borns needed some time alone with moms, so we headed to the zoo for a night of fun (we missed you Steph). The kids had a ball and we moms enjoyed ourselves just as much. We went through the zoo, which is so much better at night, and then the kids just played and played while the moms just talked and talked. It was fabulous and some much needed time with our kids. Mason and I took pics of each other on the way. He was so excited! They played in this egg for most of the time I'm pretty sure traffic was stopped...pretty sure Oh that smile seriously melts my heart. What a sweet boy that little date of mine was.

I went to a women's history lecture last night. It was on Marjorie Hinckley. Does it get better than that? I love the woman. I love her humor and I love her attitude toward life. Here are some of the things I learned. (I will star the points the lecuturer Virginia, their daughter, pointed out as the messages Marjorie left behind) -We each leave messages with our loved ones when we pass on. What are the messages I am leaving (intentional or unintentional) with my family right now? *Be content with yourself and your life-Marjorie didn't feel entitled to anything. She worked for what she had and was cheerful all the while. -Marjorie's best marriage advice: lower your expectations. I love that!! Dan loved that :) -We all struggle with feeling entitled to a good life and then when it doesn't go like we feel it should, we complain. We need to get rid of that mind set. Life is life, we are not entitled to anything. -Marjorie wasn't able to attend college (had to withdraw w...

I don't know how you do it at your house, but I absolutely love to just hang out and play. Those are always the best days for me. These boys crack me up. We have been doing alot of wrestling, dancing, eating, tent building, hiding and all sorts of other things. Oh, and of course, the token kids in the fridge shot. I realized that we must hang out way too much in the fridge cuz I sure have alot of fridge pics. I love having my kids this age, they just got into the pancakes and were eating them in the fridge. They had so much fun too. Why do we make our lives so complicated by overscheduling when our kids love sitting in the fridge and eating pancakes in their jammies. Dont' get me wrong, some structure is great, but you gotta save some time for this too. Logan LOVES to color. He seriously colors for atleast an hour a day, which is really long for an 18 month old. I pray that he recieved his artistic talent from Dan's side. At what age do they realize that just throwing a b...

The spoils. My sister in law, Marie, from Georgia, taught us how to do this and our family loves it!! Now, Dan's family loves it too. Although his Grandpa did say he was breathing fire, he couldn't stop eating it (pretty sure he ate like 8 sausages, hilarious, 92 year old men don't eat spicy sausage!?) Anyway, that's how good it is. You throw this all in a pot in spicy seasoning and it does all the work for you. We added carrots this year and it was a fantastic addition. Soooo cold, must keep eating. Sometimes, the only way to keep this one from running is strapping him on.

Well I finished up a fabulous year of preschool which will have its own post, but holy cow I am in Heaven. I LOVE not having anything going on. We can just do whatever the heck we want to whenever the heck we want to do it. Logan wasn't feeling well yesterday so we cuddled, read books and watched cartoons ALL DAY long. It was so great. Logan just wanted to lie down on me all day and we had about 30 new library books to choose from. We read every single one. I hope one of my children gets sick again very soon! Anyway, we haven't done too many exciting things this summer, but we have had alot of fun!! We went to a certain amusement park near us and had a great time. A few hours was just perfect for our little fam. The highlight of the trip....chasing birds while sucking down popsicles. We also had Dan's family here for the last few weeks. WE look forward to Dan's parents visiting all year. It was a great time. Dan and I even got away to Park City for a night....without ki...

Handsome little fellas post cut....and yes, Logan is sucking on a very chokable item. Mom, suckers are yucky with hair all over them...oh well. Serious fro Well, in one day, we turned my baby into a toddler. The first haircut is always a hard one for me becasue it means my baby in ot a baby. In a matter of seconds, Logan utrned from my little baby into a toddler and, I swear, the next day he started talking way more and walking better and just doing all things little boy. We bribed him with a lolli-pop....not a good idea when hair is involved. It was the only way he would sit still but he just ended up with a yucky lolli full of hair. It's funny, we cut Mason's hair at about the same age and he sat very still and it just wasn't even an issue. It so fun to see the differences that these boys were born with. Check out those curls and that baby face We gave Mason one too. His hair is so ridiculously thick that it takes so long. Dan does a fabulous job and my two babies turne...