Christmas

Here are a few pictures from our holiday celebrations! We were in Caneyville with my family the few days before Christmas, home for Christmas morning, then at Ronnie's parents that night. The following weekend, we went (the four of us) to Gatlinburg for a few days, which was really nice to just get away for a little bit. Of course, any type of overnight requires HOURS of planning and packing. Once we were in the car, though, things were a lot less stressful! We planned to stay through New Year's, but came back on New Year's Eve. (mainly because it was all four of us in one bed and Ella was a constant, all night spinner!)

One funny thing - on Christmas morning, Ella would look at the gift tag and see the picture on the tag (Santa, presents, stars, trees, etc) and assume that was the giver of the gift. She would say, This one is from the apple trees - like that was something normal to receive a gift from a particular type of tree. Each time she opened a present, it was more fun to hear who the "giver" was than anything else!

We really tried to focus this year on helping communicate giving more than receiving. We gathered things for drives at church (clothes, food, etc), took cookies to a nursing home, and a few other things. I would love to hear what ideas you have in your home!

I hope you had a wonderful holiday as w

Holiday happenings. . .

3 months - all smiles!

Mommy / Ella tea party!

Cookies with Meme

Our gingerbread house (always invest in the kit!)

Our 3rd visit to santa

Cookies galore! (I thought I would never get all the sprinkles cleaned up)

We'll let pictures speak for themselves with this post!

Busy December

Recently, I went out with some girls from our playgroup for a Mom's Night Out at the pottery store. There ended up being 15 of us, with a few familiar Murray faces!! That weekend, we had our annual Murray girls weekend at Kristin's house. It was great to see everyone! I took Kinsley with me since it was going to be such a long time away. She was getting fussy during the "group picture", so that will have to come later of all the girls. I did manage to get a picture with Kristin and Margaret. Today, we were supposed to go get pictures of the girls in their Christmas dresses. Blame it on the busy, hectic schedule or the cold weather - either way, I decided I wasn't up for getting the girls out again today. So, we just took some snapshots here at the house. The seems to be the only one where they are both smiling! (Don't worry, mom - you can see all the pictures on my Snapfish account. I know you like the imperfect ones, too!!) Thanks for the advice I received about helping child #1 adjust to child #2. Ella and I are going out tomorrow to a little girl's tea parlor - it should be fun. I am looking forward to spending the time with her.

Adjustments

So, over the past week or so, we have had sickness in our household - all of us. I know it is that time of year. Ella has seemed more out of sorts, which we attributed to not feeling good. I think we have realized it has a little more to do with all the changes around our house! She has been reverting more to the baby talk and more emotional about things. She hasn't been sleeping well, so this morning we were up at 6:00. She and I came downstairs to make some pancakes. I started talking to her about why she was crying last night - she didn't know. She finally made reference to Kinsley going back in my belly. We talked about how lucky she is to be a big sister and how much fun they will have together. I know some of you have experienced this when your first was joined by a new sibling - any suggestions?

So Much. . .

We have so much to be thankful for this season! Here are some recent pictures from our house! We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

(Ella is standing here with me and INSISTED I include the picture she had made with Arthur yesterday at the library. She told him she watches him everyday on TV - she has seen him once. Apparently she was a big fan!:)

Tagged

So, I was sent this message by Sandy who "tagged" me to list 7 random things about myself (or at least I think that is the idea). Let me first say that I have absolutely no idea who even checks this blog, other than of course my faithful mother for pictures of her granddaughters! So rest easy - I won't tag anyone else by name. This should be fun, though. As long as I can get my new mom brain to think of a couple of things about myself. This type of thing reminds me of those useless emails we passed around school when I was teaching. I have taught at 4 different schools - all grade levels - it doesn't matter. Those types of emails seem to just be part of the teacher job description! Either that or we were desperate from some type of diversion from our day! Anyway, here it goes . .

1. I am an avid reader. I love to read and can actually read things fairly quickly. It is a good thing, since I seem to be always holding someone these days. I love magazines, parenting books, a new book I am reading now called The Mommy Diaries (great! It has short segments!), and so on. I seem to always be reading something that fits with what my life entails at the time. On a side note, everyone I know it seems like has talked about The Shack lately. So, today I picked it up at the beginning of nap time to give it a try. About 35 seconds later, I put it down. Has anyone read it? Does it pick up?

2. I love taking pictures, which leads to scrapbooking. I wouldn't call myself a photographer, but I do love taking pictures of my family. If I had taken stock in Snapfish or Shutterfly before Ella was born, I could have made it into a hobby that pays me. So, as mentioned above, I scrapbook. I am not the type of person to spend an hour on a page. Rather, I just like to pick favorite pictures, put them together based on theme or event, and give a brief narration. I say brief because I always think in the back of my head that in about 10 years from now, I will look at the scrapbooks and think those were pretty lame comments I was making!

3. I enjoy cooking. I wouldn't say I am great at it, but I enjoy it. I am a recipe person - none of this just throw ingredients together - that would probably be scary. Apparently I am also now a hyphen person instead of actually ending sentences correctly. As a former high school English teacher, I have this hang up about things not being grammatically correct. I think the hyphen tends to let me get away with writing things quickly and not forming complete sentences, so I know I over use it!
Back to my original #3. We tried something new last night that I learned from the Rachel Ray magazine. Roasted broccoli. You take raw broccoli, cut it in little tree form (for lack of a more descriptive definition), drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper - cook on 400 degrees for about 10 minutes. It gets a little crispy. Even Ella reluctantly ate it!

4. I tend to be the opposite extreme of procrastination. I would say it leans more towards OCD type of behavior, but I don't really like to label it because then it makes it into a negative problem!:) Seriously, I feel like I am going to have some type of panic attack (slight exaggeration) if I don't stay caught up on laundry, scrapbook and photo albums, thank you notes, etc. . . It gets a little overwhelming. I think I would seriously go into cardiac arrest if I didn't have most of my Christmas shopping finished by Thanksgiving or my Christmas cards ready to be mailed by Dec 1st! I know - it's a problem.

5. Ronnie and I love to spend time together by watching movies or TV. We aren't one of those couples that have some sporty hobby together (you are laughing out loud if you truly know me at this point) or intellectually challenging activity. We both enjoy movies and some mindless television - so we do that together. The other night, we said we were just going to talk. We spent about 3o minutes talking about the book our small group is reading, One Month To Live, and then Kinsley woke up. We both were frustrated because we hadn't yet caught up on The Hills episode of the week before she woke up!:)

6. I absolutely love the day after Thanksgiving through Christmas morning - but I am over it after Christmas morning. I love the build up to the holiday, but once it is over - I am ready to take everything down and return to normal.

7. I am fortunate to feel content with my life - exactly as it is now. I love being a wife to my wonderful husband and mom to the most adorable girls in the world! I seriously love being a mom to a newborn (yes - I love the newborn stage - even though I am certainly not great at the sleep training phase!) and to a incredibly witty and compassionate 3 year old. I think my relationship with God has grown so much since becoming a mom - just because I get to watch His creation grow and mature - it amazes me daily. I feel blessed to say that I love my life and feel so content.

Changes ahead

Lots of happenings to update. You may look at the pictures and think - RANDOM! In a sense, yes. First of all, Kinsley is smiling - so much fun. She is much happier in the mornings - 6 to 6:30 to be exact, and we can usually catch the most smiles then. By late afternoon, forget it. She has more of a grumpy, old man scowl by that time of day!:)

Ella turned 3 a few weeks ago. Wow - amazing how the time passes so quickly. We had a great weekend celebrating with her playgroup and with grandparents and family. She enjoyed a Weekend of celebrating rather than a party this year. I remember one of the things I loved about living in Plainfield, especially after Ella was born, was that she was going to grow up in an area with diversity. I didn't, and Ronnie would say the same thing. I believe my parents taught me to be tolerant, but I think when you don't grow up around something, it makes a difference. When we moved back to KY, that was something I knew I would miss. Then in moving to Louisville, part of my prayer was to help us find a safe area for our family, but also an area that included cultural diversity. From my adorable back door neighbors who are Korean, to the wonderful couple right across from us that are African American - answered prayer. Ella has met little friends in our neighborhood from regions all over the world and has developed relationships with kids from all different walks of life as a result of our neighborhood playgroup.

Which leads to my last picture. Whatever our political preference was going into the election, Biblically we are called to respect and pray for our country's leader. I decided to watch his acceptance speech, on Tuesday night. I was amazed more by the audience and shots of the crowd that they showed. To see individuals moved to tears and people from all different walks of life just so proud was such a moment for me. It was then that I realized this one thing - electing him to President, will probably result in such a different future for my girls. Perhaps by the time they are old enough to realize it, race will be an issue of previous times. I really hope my girls always look to someone's character, and not outward appearance. I think it will be so interesting to watch how their lives are impacted because of this presidential election. I pray for the good and am optimistic that is true.