Avery + Michael

Katie's Baby Shower

Today we celebrated Katie and her baby bump! We threw an ABC- alphabet themed shower to go along with her nursery bedding! Everyone seemed to have a great time! Jodie, Jessa and Ashley helped me throw the shower, thank God! With this crazy week I've had, I couldn't have done it without them! Our menu was a waffle bar with all of the toppings, fruit and yogurt parfaits, eggs and bacon and the most delicious lemon-blueberry layer cake (thank you Jodie)! 

Sledding

Avery's favorite thing to do this Winter... GO SLEDDING! We went down the tiny hill at The Murray's almost every day... over and over and over again! Shanon took the morning off and we went to the big hill by Mimi and Papa's house! We had a blast... but Avery wasn't much for walking back up the huge hill... as pokey as she is, I think the Murray kids went down 5X as much as we did! But hey, whose counting, right? We all had fun! Here are a few sledding pictures from our day at the big hill and a little video of Emma and Avery trying to get themselves going on the little hill at home! 

                                       

                         

                           

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We celebrated St. Patrick's day today by starting our day with a big bowl of Lucky Charms cereal! Then we all dressed ourselves in green, painted shamrocks using a bell pepper, went on a golden coin scavenger hunt, counted "gold" pennies and put them in our pots, made rainbow jewelry, had shamrock-shaped ravioli for lunch and a shamrock shake for dessert! Face paint, tracing rainbows and the whole 9 yards! My favorite activity we did though was make Leprechaun hats! They turned out so cute!! Then I taught the girls a little song to sing... here it is...

                                         

Big Changes!

Brandon and I have been a really good support system to each other lately... with all of the craziness going on and me searching high and low for a new job, we have held up well this past week! We have been talking about selling our house for a few months, and now, with losing my job we just decided that we needed to move forward with it! We talked with Tom & Sue last night and got things underway. Really, we decided and cleared out the whole house in less than 24 hours! We decluttered, deep cleaned and has Sue come to take photos of our house the very next day. Sue advised us to fix the window well and suggested that we finish the basement bathroom, so this weekend while I got ready to host Katie's baby shower, Brandon, Bob and Dad were out there re-building the window well. We don't mess around! Of course, Avery had to help too!

Sue was watching Michael on Friday when she came to take photos! 

We were excited he came to help his Grandma!! 

"I'm so stwong (strong), I can do this guys!"

So, we are listing the house on April 11th and crossing our fingers that the house sells quickly! Our plan is to move in with Bob and Becky until we find the right house and/or for as long as I am unemployed. So, this is going to be a whirlwind year for us... we are just going to have one crazy year, full of unknowns and are hopeful that by next year we can be settled into a new home, that I can have a new job and hopefully we can have another addition to our family. We are hoping to make it through 2015 alive and for a fresh start and have our ducks back in a row for 2016! Wish us luck, and say your prayers... we are going to need them!

Spending Time with Cousins!

Avery just loves spending time with her cousins! We were invited for a last minute play date and dinner to Sarah & Shelly's over the weekend! The kids had so much fun getting outside in this beautiful 60* weather and we had fun watching them be so silly together! Brayden & Bryson got a trampoline for Christmas and just set it up! Avery couldn't wait to go show them how it's done! She was showing off her moves from gymnastics (seat drops, jumping with her legs apart & together, straddle sit etc) Then we all went for a little walk in the neighborhood... Brayden and Bryson rode their bikes and Avery rode her scooter... of course she wanted a bike, since the boys had their bikes and we didn't bring hers along! Buy they were eager to trade with her since they had never tried scootering before! We had pizza for dinner and then they all snuggled on the couch to watch one of the boys new favorite shows, Paw Patrol! It was a hit!

 

Avery gets to spend plenty of time with Ryann too, since she is so close living at Bob and Becky's house! We love it! And the girls love it even more! Over the course of the weekend, the girls saw each other a few times. The weather was great - and the girls had a blast chasing Dixie all over the yard! We also got a little playground/slide set up for them near the big sand box! Ryann also came over with Grandma and Grandpa for dinner one night and Avery of course wanted to have a bath with Ryann! Grandma was all over that opportunity!

A New Chapter...

Some blessings are harder to see than others, and for The Murray's, this week has been a true test of faith and family. Target has some huge layoffs on Tuesday this week, and unfortunately Shanon was let go from the job she loved and the place she went to for the past 13 years. She came home that afternoon a little earlier than normal... I just remember looking at her as she walked in the house, while I was helping Emma in the bathroom. She was calm and quiet, and greeted the kids with a smile and a long warm embrace. Without even asking, I knew. I just knew all day, when I hadn't heard from her all afternoon hearing that she was safe, I knew she wasn't. I kept listening for the garage door to open early, looking out the kitchen window to see her pull in the driveway... and when she came in, it just made my nervous stomachache worse and my heart hurt. I didn't know what to say, or how to say it... but I gave a hug and just tried to get through the next hour without thinking of only myself (Will I still have a job? How long will you need a nanny? What am I going to do if I lose my job because of this? What are we going to do...). I tried so hard to be supportive and empathetic of her, knowing that my whole life was just a moment away from being turned upside down as well. It was hard.  

We got the kids outside to play, thankfully it was a beautiful day out! Shanon started chipping the ice away at the end of the driveway and began sweeping sand... sweeping, and sweeping and sweeping sand. The kids helped, I helped and we all just chopped ice and swept sand while gathering thoughts and composing our emotions. When Ollie came home, I left knowing that I still had a job on the next day and the reassurance that they weren't going to leave my stranded with no job in the next few days. I knew in my heart that they would do everything in their power to make this an easy transition for me, if that's what it came down to, but you just never know how people will react in a hard situation like this.

Today, Shanon and Ollie had a funeral to attend in the morning and when they came home during nap time and sat down on the couch with me, I knew by the look on their faces that they were about to tell me exactly what I didn't want to hear "Well, Erin... as you know, there has been a lot going on here, and I am sure you're aware of the changes in our family with Shanon losing her job, and we have taken some time to think about what the next best step is for our family. With a lot of thought and thinking into our future of what's best for our family, we think Shanon staying home will make the most sense for us..."

They went on to tell me that they were going to keep me on their payroll and and have me here until April 11th, for a transition period for Shanon and for me to be employed while searching for a new job. I sat in the corner of the couch, hugging a pillow, fighting back tears and containing all of my worried thoughts. I agreed, it was the best decision for their family... and it truly is! I am so happy for her, I would give anything to be able to live off of one income and stay at home with Avery - anything! 

It was Shanon's birthday, so we had already planned to stay for dinner to help her celebrate. So, that's exactly what we did! Burgers on the grill and drinks in hand, Shanon and I clinked glasses to both loosing our jobs and for new beginnings. 

Dinosaurs

This weeks theme was Dinosaurs!!! The girls were VERY excited to be rough and tough growling scary dinosaurs this week. They took every opportunity possible to show their claws and ROAR as loud as they could! We did a lot of fun activities this week including:

Making salt-dough dinosaur fossils

 Making Dinosaur costumes and choosing dinosaur names of our own - Averyosaurus

We had the Jurassic period set up in the sensory table

Used magnet letters to spell out all of the different dinosaur names

Matched dinosaur outlines with plastic dinosaurs 

Ate "Dinosaur Claws" (Bugles) for a morning snack one day

Pretended to be a Paleontologist for a day digging up dinosaur bones and claws (penne and macaroni noodles) in sand using paint brushes and tweezers!