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.