Christmas Photos

 

This was Boo's first year to read the Christmas story for all of us.  Here she is reading out of Luke with her helpful big sis close by just in case.  It was precious and she did a great job.

Here is Goose with her new keyboard.  She's been working hard to learn chopsticks this week.  Below is Spiderman with his awesome remote control helicopter which --- has already broken down and become a project to dismantle and explore.

 

Here is Jaybird with his new airsoft guns.  He's been waiting to be able to shoot these with his brother (and their buddies) and they just had a big "battle" in the backyard today.  Good times. 

 

Below is Izzy with her prized camera, she's been taking so many photos (and videos) of all of us that we're on guard not to be caught in a strange situation.

 

Here are the kids all together in their new jammies on Christmas Eve.  Another year of special memories but no doubt many more to come.  We hope you had a very special Christmas!

 

Christmas Surprise

 

This was one special Christmas surprise.  Aunt Susie has been scheming for quite some time and 6 days before Christmas the kids were given this jigsaw puzzle to assemble.  They really weren't sure what to expect but as you can see by the next photo, there were plenty more clues to figure out.  The next day they saw the sun and were just confused.  Once they saw the suitcase, they immediately became convinced that we were going to Hawaii.  :)  The plane and beach clues only made them more certain and Goose told most of her friend we were going to Hawaii "sometime".  Then came the state of Florida on Christmas Eve.  They were so thrilled at the idea of flying on a plane, much less seeing the ocean on a warm beach.  Little did they know what Florida holds for them.....

 

Christmas Day they completed the last puzzle and opened up a schedule for their upcoming trip to..... (drum roll please).... Disneyworld, Seaworld, Universal Studios, and all that related jazz.  Now my big sis is known to spoil my kiddos but this is definitely beyond any realm of expectation that any of us would have imagined.  These are some very excited kids and no doubt I will have some exciting photos to post a bit further down the road.

THANKS AUNT SUSIE!!!!!
WE CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!

Christmas season

Well, in an effort to catch things up before the New Year, I'm going to post a bunch of photos, whether related or not. :)  Here you can see the kids proudly displaying their Gingerbread trees.  Below they are finishing up some reading before we could take our Christmas break (I love to see them all together like that). 

 

Here is my sweet baby.  She's the only one I can still "dress-up" for Christmas but I can tell my time is short.  Despite all my praise, she wasn't a big fan of this dress and leaving her comfort zone.

Boo's Birthday

 

I can't believe she is already nine!  If I'm honest, I still look at her and see a 6 year old and when I really think about the number 9, it's shocking.  Where has the time gone?  We celebrated as a family but also with a friend sleepover party, her first one.  They were a delightful group of girls throughout the evening and it was quite possibly the first time we didn't have to constantly nag kids at a party to be quiet and go to sleep! 

 

This year Boo has really blossomed.  She seems much less shy around others and is even willingly participating in the church Christmas play.  That is a first.  She has not only agreed to try basketball this year but is actually enjoying herself!  She still loves her art class but has learned to relax and not expect perfection from herself.  She's always ready and willing to help out around the house and loves to sit and chat, about anything.  One precious friendship that has really blossomed this year is between her and a 95 year old lady named "Miss Ester".  Often while we worked in Ester's garden, Boo would go in to visit with her on her own.  As she is still quite a momma's girl, this step of independence was a real surprise to me.  We all love Miss Ester but Boo shares something special with her.

 

I could go on and on but I won't.  Happy birthday to my sweet, funny and beautiful baby girl!  I love you!

 

Halloween

We had a very different Halloween this year.  Instead of the typical dressing up and going to a church party for candy and games, the kids felt too old for all of that.  As long as I was willing to buy candy :), they wanted to stay home for family fun.  We ended up inviting our Chinese students over to join us for dinner and a movie and had a great time.  I'm not sure if this is our new tradition yet but it was nice to do something at home this year.  Oh and on the way back to the dorms that night, we did take the girls to a friend's home so they could try their hand at "trick-or-treating".  It's fun to experience and discuss the differences in our two cultures and since we're studying China right now in our History, it's very educational as well!

 

In preparation for Halloween fun, Aunt Susie sent out a box with yummies for the family and some fun, festive snacks for the kids to make and share with their friends.  What would we do without Aunt Susie!?!  She spoils us.

Spiderman's Birthday

I've obviously struggled this year to post on this blog.  In one sense, we've been living life and as fast as my kids are growing up, I don't want to miss it by sitting in front of my computer too much.  On the other hand, I know that grandparents relish these shots of their far-away grandkids and I'm sorry to deprive them of so many smiles.  I figured I definitely needed to include photos of Spiderman's 12th birthday (yes it was last month but we just celebrated it with a sleepover with his friends).

12 years old and on the cusp of becoming a man.  Spiderman is such a light in the house.  His ever present giggle and funny comments amuse everyone and his sweet and sensitive spirit remind us to be less selfish.  He's likely to be the first one to give up his preferences for someone elses benefit when push comes to shove and his prayer life shows his heart is big and full of even bigger concerns.  He's friends with everyone and he is concerned about treating them kindly and fairly.   I'd hate to think of where we'd be without his personality in our home.

Here is most of the group of boys who came to celebrate his getting older.  As always it was quite rough and tumble that evening and I was relieved that no one got hurt during all the wrestling and battling that took place. We've been so blessed that the boys have such a good group of friends to grow with and they are a hoot to listen to.  I know - I overheard quite a few interesting conversations that night.

Happy Birthday Spiderman!  I love you!

Pennsylvania Getaway

We had one last hurrah before we started school.  We made a quick trip to visit the Jeffries in PA.  "Quick" was the length of time we stayed to visit while the drive itself was anything but quick.  After driving through the long night, we arrived Thursday morning - exhausted!  Almost immediately, Isabel disappeared.  She and Maia found one another and picked up right where they left off last fall.  It was adorable to watch them stuck like glue all weekend long.

 

 During our time there, we ate lots of great food and dodged many Nerf bullets flying through the house while the boys battled.  In between, we went swimming, celebrated a birthday and played some miniature golf.  You can see we were quite the large group but we had fun splitting into 3 teams.  Below is Amy, a foreign exchange student staying with the Jeffries.  She was having a great time playing her first golf game ever.

 

 

It was worth our while to make a memory.  As you can see, the long drive didn't dampen too many spirits. :)

Summer's Summary

What can I say?  It has been a very busy summer at the Murphy house and blogging just never made it to the top of my list.  I find that I'm notorious for trying to cram as much as I can into our summer vacation before I have to sit still and focus on school.  I procrastinate on my "work projects" until the last month or so and I tend to pay for that.  I do feel good about the rooms painted, stairs stained, carpeting replaced and flower beds built.  The cupboards are stocked full of home-canned food grown by the sweat of our brow and the blessing of God. 

Don't worry, we had plenty of fun to fill our summer days as well.  You can see we made a couple trips to the local bowling alley for some air-conditioned play.  The kids all returned to summer camp for some of their favorite memories with friends they only see this one time each year.  We also welcomed our friends, the Morby's, for another annual reunion of our boys who were so close back in Ethiopia.  That's always a gift to us.

This summer was also marked by more fishing than usual.  I can say my man hauled in a large amount of fish AND did the honors of deliciously frying it up for supper.  What talent!  This photo shows that I can actually fish as well but we won't focus on that. :)

Aunt Laura made a trip to town for a weekend packed with swimming, fishing, Civil War reenactments, garden harvesting and hours of watching her favorite zombie show (very eye-opening).  I'm not sure how we actually crammed so much into a 3 day weekend, oh yeah - we didn't get much sleep.

 

Below shows the kids camping  out with Dad in the backyard.  They had so much fun making this memory with him and he was quite a trooper since he wasn't feeling well before it even began.  You can imagine he felt MUCH worse after the campout. :)  I almost felt bad for sleeping in my own bed, almost... 

Well it's been good for me to recount some of our summer here.  It's easy for me to think that this whole summer was represented by 100 degree temperatures and severe drought.  Just goes to show that we need to count our blessing so we will remember that we do have them.

College Reunion

1990 at Cedarville College

Maribeth, Me, Casey & Kelly

2012  - Not bad for 22 years huh? 

Our hair has definitely improved!

What a blessing it was to reconnect with my college friends after all these years.  It was actually 12 years ago we saw each other at Casey's wedding but we've shared our friendship for much longer.  Maribeth opened up her home to the rest of us and we stayed up all night to talk (thanks Maribeth).  How incredible to hear what God has done in everyone's lives over the years and what struggles He has carried us through.  Hearing about job struggles, big moves, adoptions (ours aren't the only ones), parenting challenges, extended family developments and marriage lessons learned - it was like our own mini-women's retreat!   I think it's safe to say that we all came home with a refreshed spirit and a thankfulness for God's goodness to us over the years.  A gift we hope to rekindle each summer from now on!

Grandma's visit

It's been a year and a half since Grandma's last visit and the kids were SO excited to have her come out to stay with us again.  She had very full and difficult challenges during that time as she cared for and said her final farewells to her parents.  We knew that she needed some time to rest so we stayed close to home for the most part and everyone reconnected. 

Here you see Jaybird teaching her some new computer skills on the laptop.  I hope my kids are willing to teach me these skills someday as I know they are surpassing my limited technology skills already.  Grandma had to learn some new card games as well since they are a favorite pastime around here.  We kept her busy as well playing tennis, bowling, golf and even dancing the night away.... on the wii.  She did pretty well for a first timer.

Farewells at the train station were hard but we trust God will bring her back for another visit before long. 

Silver Dollar City

Our last full day of vacation we went to Silver Dollar City Amusement Park.  I've heard of this place for years and now I know why.  It was more than just rides but more like entering a whole little world of its own.  The kids were so excited to ride the rides but we were surprised how much effort it took to convince some of them to try the more exciting rides.  Before long they were enjoying most of them, including this roller coaster which was their favorite - Thunderation. 

Aunt Susie was a total trooper as she got soaked (unexpectedly) while on one ride and then agreed to ride with the kids on all the other "soaking rides".  It really wasn't hot that day so I wasn't at all interested in getting drenched.  Once again she truly is the amazing, Aunt Susie.  The ride above was an easy ride but apparently, anyone walking by can aim water cannons at you and drench you to amuse themselves.  You can shoot back but really, you are a sitting duck!

Down below was a River Rafting one that also allowed people to shoot water at you, only not for free.  I was surprised to see people plunk down a bunch of quarters to squirt total strangers with water.  I'm sure there is something interesting to say here about misplaced agression or something. :)  Anyway, the kids loved it all. 

You can see that even the youngest had fun riding the coasters.  No one was willing to ride an upside down coaster but most other rides were no problem.  It was a great day topped off with some incredible BBQ - all we could eat.  This was quite the grand finale on a very fun week.

So Many Laughs

This week was full of so many laughs together, that was my favorite part.  Lots of new experiences provided some of those laughs.  Check out this zipline we rode (at least the little bit we caught on camera).  While not as long (or as awesome) as the one I did with my Big Sis last year, it was perfect for the kids and daring as well at 178 feet off the ground and a half mile long.

Grandma & Grandpa were the champion mini-golfers.  It was also evident that playing "wii golf" does not translate into great "real golf" skills.  :)   We had a fun time though with our multi-generational fun.  And aren't these lovebirds beautiful?

Even more fun was playing Lazer Tag as a family.  Watching my parents sneak through a maze and shoot at my kids, all-American fun.  We laughed so hard, we were in tears.  There were a few collisions as well but no one was hurt.  They kept score of our hits and our "wounds" and it was amusing to note that Jaybird won the whole thing by over double the points of anyone else (though I was in second place I might add).

Water battles for the kids were fun to watch but the go-karts were even better.  The kids were actually stressed out at first as a bunch of teenagers were tearing up the course and crashing into each other.  Our kids much preferred the slow and peaceful drive to all that excitement, who would have thought?

It was an all-around good day with fun family memories and a ton of laughs!

 

More Branson Fun

I just wanted to post some more photos of the fun times we had in Branson.  Above is the Krispy Kreme Doughnut Factory.  The kids loved watching the process and we ALL loved the tasting.  YUM!  It's a good thing we don't have one of these places near home.

One afternoon we went to "Ride the Ducks" which was pretty cool.  The old WWII amphibious vehicles were cool all on their own but the funny driver/tour guide made it even better.  We got a taste of old military history as well as a neat ride on Table Rock Lake.  The kids even got to drive the boat for a little bit. 

These two photos are at Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede.   I wasn't sure what to expect here but it was the most fun dinner theater I've been to.  We had an excellent meal while watching an old west/variety/rodeo show and it was great.  Definitely something to see while you are in Branson.  It was pretty cool to see so many animals (especially horses) included in the show but it was a hoot to hear Boo exclaim as the buffalo came running out, "I thought those were extinct!!"  Awesome day Aunt Susie!

Our Branson Reunion

 We just returned from a wonderful reunion with my parents and sister in Branson, MO.  I wanted to share this for family who couldn't be there and also inspire any of you who have considered vacationing in Branson.  It was an incredible vacation due in part to the location but also to my big sis, Susie, who is an amazing trip planner.  She really should go into business with this gift!

I think the big thing that set this trip apart was renting this gorgeous cabin in the woods instead of having us all stay in some hotel, navigating rooms for our down time.  They were called "Amazing Branson Log Cabins" and they were so comfortable and beautiful, I almost didn't want to leave the cabin to see the sights!  Not only did it save us some money by eating most of our meals "at home" but it made for some cozy memories of cuddling on the couch with Grandpa, making yummy treats in the kitchen with Aunt Susie or enjoying the hot tub with Grandma.

By the end of the week, the kids were ready to move in - permanently! :)