Family News

Maybe I shouldn't be going out very much.

I went to the scout office with Reece and Davis in tow today. We were in and out pretty fast. When I came out I saw our van had a big new scratch on it. Argh!

Then I kept pushing the key fob button to unlock the doors to the van and nothing happened. The beeps were made but nothing unlocked. The key did not even work. I thought oh no, somehow someone scratched my car, ran off, and that ruined my locking features…. I tried the button one more time before I started crying (from frustration and wondering how I was going to get home again someday) and realized the beeps were being made behind me, not from the van I was looking at.

Whoops wrong green van. At least it wasn’t my van that had that big huge scratch.

Also, upon further observation, the van I was trying to drive away in was not even green. Our van was so dirty that it didn’t really look green anymore so that is likely why I did not pay attention to color too much. So on the way home I got a car wash. It is green again. And now I will lay down for a rest so I can be coherent enough to find my vehicle again in a parking lot filled with Toyota Siennas that look almost like my van. And I will say a thank you prayer tonight that I did not actually try to call a locksmith to come get me into my van, which wasn’t really my van… I would have felt like a total IDIOT if I had gone that far.

Posted by Ily on September 2, 2010 | Filed under: Family News | 3 comments

what you can get done with the kids gone to school

Due to having a baby, I can’t really get much done at all. Today I was able to go through the dressers and get rid of some clothes that are well past their prime though. It felt good to clean the old stuff out. I thought my kids had nothing but old worn out stuff so I went shopping for some new t-shirts yesterday (BTW- Fred Meyer/ Smith’s Marketplace has fantastic STAR WARS t-shirts on sale for $6). Then I started getting the old stuff out to throw away today only to find that they have lots of clothes that are in great shape but they never wear. They just really loved their favorites! To the point of wearing them even with holes, frayed edges, and falling out seams.

Hopefully they will like their new t-shirts enough to not miss the old favorites too much. Otherwise there may be a rebellion and I will be locked in jail by disgruntled kids!

Posted by Ily on September 2, 2010 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments

My babysitters

From Davis 2 months

I wish I had the camera on me all the time to catch pictures like this. Isaac and even Reece have held the baby for me like this just so I could get stuff done…. and sometimes so I could nap too.

The best, funniest, baby-sitting moment was when Micah calmed Davis down after a grumpy screaming moment and they sat on the couch with Micah who was sucking his own two fingers holding Davis on his lap, who was also sucking his own fingers. Darn it, I didn’t have the camera at that moment!

Posted by Ily on August 31, 2010 | Filed under: Family News | 1 comment

Davis at 2 months

Davis 2 months

9 lbs 11 oz and 22.5 inches long

He has reached the 9th percentile for weight and 11th percentile for height. He is still tiny, but considering that he was 5 1/2 weeks early, growing 3 lbs and 4 inches is a big accomplishment. The doctor was thrilled with his progress and said not to worry that he is low on the charts size-wise. The general practice is to give a premature child 2 full years to catch up to the average kid in size matters.

Click on the pictures to see more of Davis in all his little bitty cuteness.

From Davis

Posted by Ily on August 31, 2010 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments

August happenings

On August 1st, Davis’ due date, we began to venture out into the world again. I tried to go back to church for the first time that day and was 2 hours late. It was not a successful attempt at all. I did get my dream calling that day though. I am now CUBMASTER. All the sparkle and fun of cub scouts, but just once a month, with very little real responsibility and planning. I just have to be goofy, spice up handing out awards, and make pack meeting enjoyable for the whole family and not too long. I can do that and I love it! Later in the month Bryan was given the new calling of SCOUTMASTER... all the responsibility of planning scouts and none of the fun like I will have… He will do great, but it will stretch him just like it did last time he was scoutmaster. With 4 boys, I bet we are going to be involved in scouts for a very long time!

We enrolled the boys in ice skating lessons at the rec center that is a block away in order to get us out of the house. This was no easy feat to get us all there in ice skates, on time… but we did it! We conquered! And the boys are much more independent skaters now. It was pretty darn fun. They even had an end of session show which they performed in. It was awesome.

ice skating show

We explored the canyons around us a bit more this month and found that Little Cottonwood Canyon has all the perks of being far enough away from the highway that fewer people go to it, yet close enough to us that we can get to some great family hikes in 20 minutes. Living close to the canyons here definitely has its perks. We found Lisa Falls, trails at Snowbird ski resort, a pond that moose visit, and some fantastic places to climb on huge rocks. Davis just chilled out in a mei tai carrier the whole time we explored.

Grandma and Grandpa Murdock came this month to meet Davis and spend some time with the other boys. I guess they came to spend time with us too, but we aren’t as cute or interesting as the boys. It was nice to have them around and do some fun stuff with them. Thanks for coming!

Bryan took the boys on the stake fathers and sons (and young girls) camp out and had tons of fun. Best night of a mother’s life.

Ruth, one of my favorite people, came to visit and meet our new baby. She brought her daughter out to BYU and got to stay with us for a while before she went back home to Vancouver.

Last but not least, this month our boys started school yet once again. I was so excited for them to go back so they would not be bored, so they would not make messes here, and so they could be challenged and do fun things at school. It turns out that they aren’t here to make messes, but they really were helpful around the house. I miss them. I am sure the baby misses them too. I will have to re-learn life with this baby without three older brothers to help all the time. Even Reece is gone a few hours of the week to preschool… I am glad for the quiet time, but do miss some of the noise!

Posted by Ily on August 29, 2010 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments

July in a nutshell

July was rather boring in that we had a newborn baby and could not really go out and do a ton to enjoy that month.

The highlights:

• Hiked to Doughnut Falls up the Big Cottonwood Canyon that we live at the mouth of. The doughnut shaped rock at the top of the falls fell down just before Davis was born so that waterfall may just get renamed soon.

• Part of the family went to the grand parade in Provo with Bryan’s sister and her family. They enjoyed it.

• Got to see Melinda, Bryan’s sister, and introduce her and her family to our tiny little baby who looked minuscule compared to her big 7 month old, 17 lb, twin girls. Her girls are so cute!

• Grandma Mona was able to come from Oklahoma to meet Davis and help out for a few days. In house help is divine. She went home very tired indeed after spending so much time with 4 grandsons and a tired and cranky daughter.

• Bryan and I celebrated our 11th anniversary. We went out for dinner at a fancy restaurant near us called Tuscany. It was delicious. We have had better anniversary dates so I won’t bore you with details like how we were so tired from having a preemie that we can’t remember if we even talked to each other during the meal.

• We went to the Cottonwood Heights Butlerville/Pioneer Day celebrations. We got to eat a pancake breakfast with neighbors, see a parade, go to a carnival, and watch fireworks. Since they baby slept through all of the fun during the day, I got to stay up all night with him afterwards.

• We took many naps during this month. We had a few days that no naps could be had and those were much more difficult days than others. Why do all the neighborhood kids show up on the days when I am so tired and was not able to get a nap? Oh wait, they are the reason I could not get a nap…

• To get some rest and let the boys get some activity into their days, we paid the teenage neighbor boy to take our kids out. He took them to the pool, ice skating, and even to the movies. What a great kid to have around.

• Ordered a ton of take out food thru Salt Lake City Waiter. We were given a gift card from Bryan’s parents for them. You can order from a number of restaurants that don’t normally deliver and they will bring it right to you. We are hooked now. Sadly, I don’t know if I will ever cook again thanks to these guys. SLC waiter saved us from starvation, but further reinforced my habit of not cooking since we have moved to Utah.

The month of July was pretty much a month of survival. Didn’t do much. Didn’t cook much. Didn’t really go anywhere. I was caught jumping the fence to the bishop’s backyard one day though. He waved at me through his back window as we snuck through his yard to avoid going down a steep hill and back up again after going on my first walk around the block since the baby has been born. It was easier to hop the fence than do that hill I tell you. bishop made sure to tell everyone at ward council about it the next day. That is the most exciting thing that really happened.

Posted by Ily on August 29, 2010 | Filed under: Family News | 2 comments

June Family Newsletter that never got sent out... but I want to remember this stuff so I am posting it here!

June was a surprising month for us. The kids got out of school and Ily decided to keep them busy with all three boys doing swim lessons and per Isaac’s request, ice skating lessons for he and Micah. Micah hated ice skating at first. He had to be bribed to go back. Now he LOVES IT! They keep wanting to go back for more practice. Ily found out that watching ice skating lessons is heaven because it is about 50 degrees F in the arena and feels great for a pregnant woman. Reece was sad he did not get to do the lessons so the boys have shown him some of the skills and he is doing fantastic for a 4 year old out on the ice. He will be taking lessons as soon as we are ready to head back out into real life again.

We celebrated Reece’s birthday this month and he turned the big 4! What a great kid he has been to have in our family. He has been complaining that our backyard is boring compared to our old backyard because this one does not have a sand box. So for his present we worked hard to make a new sandbox here (the word “we” is generously being used here- actually Bryan did all of the hard work though the rest of us helped some). Four years ago right before Reece was born we completed the first sand box. It was 6 ft x 8 ft and pure awesome. This one we made even bigger at 8 ft x 8ft (so a 4th boy would have plenty of room to play in it also) and we made a lid for it too. The sand box has been well received by our kids, the neighborhood kids, and no cats have been able to get in it so far. Success!

On June 24th, the day after all the swim and ice skating lessons were done, Ily’s water broke which brought on all sorts of surprises. We were surprised by her water breaking since she hadn’t been doing anything strenuous for a while now. We were surprised to have to be induced to have a baby that day since she was still 5 1/2 weeks from her due date. We were surprised that the baby was 6 lbs 10 oz and 18 inches long for being that early… and that his lungs were doing great… and that he actually had a fantastic suck reflex and starting nursing on day 3 and is doing great with that…. and that he was doing so well that he did not need to stay in an isolette (or incubator) nor on an IV for long, nor did he even need oxygen ever… and that he only had to stay in the hospital for 5 days… He did have some jaundice problems, but he overcame those quickly as well. We had low expectations for this baby and were prepared for the worst and he just surprised us at every turn. We should have named him Surprise. Instead we chose Davis Kalev Murdock.

Davis is a fantastic baby who is very calm and happily accepts all the loving he gets from his parents and brothers. Right now, he actually puts himself to sleep most of the time too. He is gaining weight just like he should. The pediatrician is just thrilled with how well he is doing and has told us to just treat him like a normal newborn now. In fact, she, as well as everyone else who has worked with him, wonders if my due dates were off. They could have been, but not by a month… maybe a week or at most two. He was early, but maybe not 5.5 weeks early.

We have felt so blessed that everything went well with the premature birth of our baby when it could have gone horribly wrong. We have been blessed by so many friends and neighbors and ward members who have helped us at this crazy time. Things have settled down quite a bit now and we are so happy to report we are quite boring again. Very tired, but rather boring which is nice for a change. Mark your calendars for September 5th. We will be blessing Davis that day and you are invited to come if you can.

Posted by Ily on August 29, 2010 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments

Ice show

For fun this summer we enrolled our boys in ice skating lessons. This was not to make Olympic skaters out of them, but so they will be able to ice skate independently. We live a block away from and Olympic size skating rink, I figured we would be using it at least a few times while we live here and it would be a good skill to acquire. After we signed up for a second session, we found out there was to be a Learn to Skate Show that all the classes would learn a routine for. Reece was excited, Micah was mad about it, and Isaac was not angry about it, but he just did not want to.

Every lesson devoted 10 minutes to practice of the routine and the whole time the older boys said they would not do it. I did not want to force them to do it. I just told them they had to at least practice it to work on their skills. It turned out many of the kids would be out of town so reluctantly, the day of the show, the boys finally said they would do it. Their teacher must have convinced them that last day somehow.

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Videos to be posted tomorrow by Bryan

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Posted by Ily on August 21, 2010 | Filed under: Family News | 2 comments

Fathers and Sons 2010

The Fathers and Sons (and young daughters) campout was Friday and Saturday. One of the benefits of being in a stake that has existed in Utah a long time is that the stake own property. I’m not sure how that works out with current budget policys of The Church, but it’s kind of awesome for camping. The property is about 5 miles off of I-80 up past Park City, has nice camp areas with picnic tables, flushing toilets, and a little lake stocked with fish, canoes, and a zip line. The boys had a blast and I had a good time too. We didn’t know to bring fishing poles, and the zip line looked a little too big for my boys, but they loved the canoes. It took some prodding to get Reece out on the water (“are you sure the boat won’t sink, Dad?”), but once he got out there he loved it.

Fathers and Sons 2010

Posted by Bryan on August 15, 2010 | Filed under: Family News | 1 comment

Reece's B-day present

Reece said to my mother when she visited in May: “Our new house is boring. It doesn’t have a sandbox in the backyard.”

We had to fix that. I should have been nesting and getting ready for a baby, instead I get a crazed idea to build a sandbox for Reece’s birthday. I bought the materials for the box at Home Depot, brought it home, and then made Bryan do all the work to put it together because my pregnant belly was in the way. The finished box is 8’ x 8’, has a lid to keep unwanted cats from using it as a litter box, and has 1.2 tons of sand in it. It could use another ton of sand too. We underestimated just how much we needed with such a big sandbox.

Click on the picture to see more sandbox pics.

Towne House Sandbox

Posted by Ily on August 11, 2010 | Filed under: Family News | 1 comment