A Splendid 6!

Murray and I have been married for 6 years today!  12-16-06 was a WONDERFUL day, and I loved every bit of our wedding.  I am so thankful for that day and even more grateful our marriage!  Murray and I have experienced a lot in 6 years.  We have lived in 3 cities and 4 homes.  We have been through grad school.  We have both gotten 1st jobs.  We had and lost a dog.  We made it through residency.  We have had 2 kiddos.  We have been a part of 3 church families.  We have made, moved away from, made, moved away from, and are again making close, valuable friendships.  We have leaned on each other, laughed with each other, and loved on each other throughout these 6 years, and I am so thankful to have been by his side through all these things.  We vowed that day to be together “through better or worse.”  I think one thing that I have learned through these 6 years is that there will be easier times and harder times, but all the times are “better” having him as my partner and best friend.  I love you very much Murray and am so glad you are mine!

Here are a few more pictures from our wedding day!

We celebrated a little early last weekend with some friends of ours from Louisville.  Their anniversary was last weekend so we decided to do a joint trip to Nashville.  It was very fun to hang out with them, have some time with Murray, and do some fun things in Nashville.  Friday night we stopped for dinner on our way, and when we got to Nashville, we met up with Dave and Sara, grabbed dessert, and watched a late movie.  We saw the new 007 and could not believe it when we were out till 2 am!  Wild and crazy without our kids!  Haha.

Saturday we slept in (obviously), grabbed some lunch, shopped a little at Opry Mills, and later that afternoon headed to see the Rockettes.  I have to say, little disappointed.  I don’t know what I was expecting, but I thought it was kind of silly.  There were some impressive parts though. 

My very favorite part of the show was at the end when they went through the nativity story.  It was really wonderful. 

After the play, we ate at the Old Hickory Steakhouse in the Opryland Hotel.  It was amazing!  So yummy!  We also enjoyed seeing the Christmas lights.  Crazy how many they have!  Tried taking pictures… Murray makes that interesting!

I did get a couple good ones though.  Guess he wants to see our 7th anniversary. 

Sunday morning, we had to eat at the Pancake Pantry.  Murray LOVES breakfast.  He did not love the line.  Haha.

Our surprise for after breakfast was going to get massages!  We were so excited, and they were a great way to end a great weekend! 

My super mature husband… But that is why I love him!  Always good for a laugh!

Missing you already Dave and Sara.  Thanks for a fun weekend, but, more than that, thanks for being such awesome friends.  We love you guys!

19 Months

Jordan is growing up overnight, keeping us on our toes, and cracking us up all the time!  She can be so sweet- random hugs and kisses, rubbing your cheeks with her hands, sweet pats.  And she can be such a stinker.  Mine and No are very common words out of her mouth, and she lets you know if she is not getting her way.  Haha.  We love this little bit and all of her personality.

Here she is wearing my fleece.  She LOVES to wear it and walk around the house in it.  We call her the Ice Queen when she has it on because she walks around with her hands together in a very royal pose.  She is a mess!

She LOVES Dora!  By far her very favorite show!  I love watching her excitement when we turn it on.  I also love hearing her sing the theme song.  This isn’t the best she has ever done it, but, considering I was taping her, it was pretty good.  She is pretty stingy with her performances for the camera these days!

She actually passed out on the couch the other day watching Dora.  Cole was at school, and I tried to lay her down for a nap.  She was not having it.  She kept saying “No Momma, No.  TV, TV.  Dora.  Please Dora!”  Like I said earlier- you know what she wants these days!  I finally gave up and took her down to watch Dora for a minute.  She then asked me for her covers.  So big right?  After about 5 minutes, I found her like this.  I just thought she was so big in this moment. 

She is still our little climber.  I remember Cole always being hesitant on the parts of playgrounds like this where he could see through.  Jordan however is not timid at all.  Here she is cheesing at me through the holes.

Christmas this month has brought about a lot of fun things.  She is excited about Santa and points him out everywhere.  She also LOVES pointing out where our elf Jake is.  We have had a little trouble with ornaments coming off the tree, but she has done better than I expected.  Just one broken so far. 

Again this month, I feel like her biggest change is the increase in her verbal skills.  She says tons of words (a couple of my favorites lately are watch and look), but she also has started saying a lot of phrases.  I hold it, I see it, I have it, There it/he is, He hit me (haha),I go potty (she doesn’t… just wants to be like Cole), baby sleeping ssshhh, I get down, I get up, I poot (haha), and a lot more that I know I am forgetting.  She also is calling so many people by their names.  I love hearing her identify people.  She names pretty much everyone in our family (grandparents, aunts, and uncles on both sides) and is starting to name some of her friends too.  In fact, I am pretty certain she has a crush on Cole’s friend Case.  She constantly talks about it.  My worst fear of the future coming true way too early… Jordan liking Cole’s friends!

She still loves to read, can be a great eater when she decides to be, sleeps great, loves to be outside and is not liking the cold, rainy weather lately, regularly asks for coke or candy, and will take a bath any time any day.  She also has really loved showers lately. I can’t believe the way that she lets the water run down over his face.  She also has really gotten into seeing whatever is on her clothes.  She loves if she has Elmo, a reindeer, etc.  She also loves trying to identify colors- too bad everything to her is yellow. Haha.  I just feel like she is growing up so much.  Doing bigger and bigger things.  Showing how smart she is all the time.  I am so thankful for all she adds to our family and so blessed that she is ours!  Love you Jordan!

Let the Festivities Begin!

We have officially started celebrating this Christmas Season.  No, we have not put up our tree or begun decorating much to my dismay, but we have already seen Santa twice, been to a Christmas festival, and had a Christmas work party.  I think that is a pretty good start!  We got all dressed up and went to see Santa for pictures and of course to ask for a special present.  Cole has switched his request on old Santa, and now Santa, who was so prepared ahead of time, will be scrambling! Jordan was not super excited about sitting with Santa, but we offered her a candy cane… the girl will do anything for candy!  End result… picture above.

This weekend, Murray was busy working the medical tent at the St. Jude Marathon (super proud wife!) so the kids and I (and awesome Aunt Neesha) went to the Christmas festival that Germantown put on.  The kids really seemed to love it.  They again saw Santa, made a bunch of crafts, decorated cookies, mailed a letter to Santa, made reindeer food, and even rode in a sleigh (kind of). 

Neesha helping Cole with cookie decorating…

Jordan telling me her icing was MMM MMM good!

No candy canes this time…

That was ok though because Cole got a little extra one-on-one time with Santa.  He was so serious talking to him.  Very cute!

We stopped for a juice break and then went on to decorate a cookie plate for Santa.  Cole was the creative genius behind the plate.  Unfortunately, the artist, who shall remain nameless, lacks any artistic talent.

Moving on, we made jingle bell bracelets.  Cole concentrated and worked so hard on his.  And Sissy was all about taking a picture to show off her pretty bracelet!

Next came Cole’s letter to Santa.  This picture has been compared to a mug shot which I think is pretty funny, but I had to share it anyway because he wrote his own name!

We made reindeer food and raced to catch the last sleigh ride around the stables where the reindeer will be able to take a quick rest on Christmas Eve.

It really was a lot of fun, and I was impressed with all they had to offer!  Definitely glad we made the trip and sad that Daddy wasn’t with us!

Saturday night, Murray had his first ever work Christmas party.  He is blessed to work with some really nice and fun people so the party was great.  The other doctor at his practice wrote a very long poem detailing the past year and cracking jokes about each employee at the office.  It was all a surprise and very funny.  She had gifts to go along with each joke.  The best part was that she pretended to be pregnant and birth a baby boy with a full beard and hairy legs (Murray).  Here are some pictures from the night.

The sash says Mom-To-Be, and the bib and baby shirt say My Mom Is Hot…

Murray with all the girls…  Poor guy!

And I attempted a homemade gift for all the girls… spiced cider mix in a cute mug.  I got the idea from this website (http://www.theyummylife.com/spiced_hot_drink_mix_recipe), and it really wasn’t too bad. 

So far the start of our celebrating has been very fun.  I am really looking forward to the rest of the month leading up to Christmas.  I know that Cole is going to be all about it this year which is really fun, and even Jordan will enjoy a lot of it.  I am also looking forward to repeating an activity we did last December.  Cole and I did a different good deed each day of December.  We are a few days behind, but we are planning to decorate tomorrow and get started with all the real Christmas traditions after that.  He still repeats the phrase I taught him last year for why we were helping others “We love Jesus, and we love friends” quite often.  I am really excited to talk about the reasons even more this year now that he is bigger and understands so much more.  And we will get Sissy in on it too!  I also had a friend share this website (http://partofthemain.wordpress.com/advent-readings-2011/) with me on good Bible lessons for preschoolers that will lead up to Christmas using a nativity scene, and I can’t wait to start these either.  Guess I should stop posting and get busy keeping all these goals I have made for us to accomplish! 

Two Little Turkeys…

We started out the Thanksgiving Holiday with Cole’s Thanksgiving Feast at school.  All the kids looked so cute dressed up in their headbands and necklaces.  Jordan really enjoyed snagging one of Cole’s cookies!

Here is Cole’s Thankful Tree.  I love that he added Gracie on it.  Those Louisville bonds are strong for all of us!

We ate dinner with my family Wednesday night.  I didn’t really take any pictures until dessert time, and then I just couldn’t pass up this opportunity.  Jordan was so funny.  Kelsey let her and Cole pick what 2 desserts they wanted.  She picked a chocolate chip cookie and chocolate pie.  My kind of girl!  She then proceeded to dip the cookie in the pie and take a bite.  She ate just about every last bite.  Haha.  (Funny sidenote… Cole saw these pictures and asked what Jordan was doing.  I told him making a mess!  He said “Um… is she eating poopoo?!?!”)

We went to Murray’s family’s for the rest of the weekend, but we did make a quick stop by my aunt and uncle’s house to say hi to all my mom’s family.  The kids really enjoyed seeing all the mini donkeys.  They even got to go for a ride!

In addition to eating lots of yummy food and fun playtime, we were able to go to the state semi-finals football game to watch Collin and Kenneth play.  We bundled up big time because it was a pretty chilly night.  We had a great time though and were so excited to see them advance to the Championship Game!!!

The kids did so great at the game.  They really watched a lot, and Cole would jump up and down cheering after every touchdown and even most 1st downs! 

Cole even managed a high-five from the Mustang!

Pretty sure Collin and Kenneth had the largest personal fan club at the game!  This wasn’t even all of us!

Just wanted to zoom in on this one to show how cute Cole is… He took multiple pictures with the boys that night per his request and always made sure his arm was around them.  He was one proud and excited little guy!

I hope that your holiday was full of good food, rest, quality family time, and most of all a reminder of all we have been blessed with!