happy fathers day

Happy Father's Day darling. Thank you for being a really fantastic dad to our babies.  You make doing this parent thing a lot of fun.  You make the hard moments fun moments.  You have a way of melting the stress in the room and getting us all to smile again.  Thank you for having patience when mine is wearing thin.  Thank you for changing diapers, cleaning messes, and swooping in at the end of the night and being the closer when I don't have much left to give.  

I love watching you let the kids climb all over you and you throwing them up in the air.  You get smiles and giggles that I never could.  I love seeing how much the children love you and how excited they are when you come home for the day.  Thank you for always doing naptime with Evie when you are home.  She always says your name when I have to do it by my self, she loves you so much.  Thank you for working so hard for us and going to school, I know your schedule is crazy and you've never complain once.  I love hearing you sing her to sleep over the monitor and you are so sweet to sing, "just one more song" when she asks...and she always asks.  I love hearing you make up improv songs about princess castles and birdie feather.  I love that walking in on you and Evie at bedtime laying in the floor looking up at 'the magic'. Thank you for always taking the time to realize there is a special moment happening and calling me over to experience it with you.

You're just the best and we are so lucky you belong to us.  Happy Fathers Day.

Here are some of my favorite moments of you as a father so far!

the plan

A few weeks ago we received some amazing news that we had been waiting for, Mr. Murphy has gotten into the University of Georgia!

 He will be finishing his bachelors and Masters there as an accounting major.  We hope to be able to get it all done in about 3 years.  I am so proud of him and can't wait to see what this new adventure holds for us. 

We will be moving our little family of four back to the country and into my mothers house. When she got married in February she moved out to Douglasville with her new husband. So now we will have that big beautiful home and land all to ourselves.  I loved raising Evaleigh there for the first 9 months of her life and I can't wait to do the same with Avett.  Our days were spent outside swinging under trees, playing in the barn, and laying out on blankets in the pasture.  

We will make the move at the end of October a few weeks after Avett is born.  It will be a hectic time to pick up our family and move but we know it's the right thing.  I feel sad about leaving the city that I love so much and in my heart I hope we will be back in the future.  We have so many wonderful friends here and we are grateful for the love and support they have shown us.  John has been with the same company for the past 4.5 years and he has learned so much, it has been wonderful for is. We are grateful to have had the opportunity to be with them for as long as we were.

We are so excited to move along to the next chapter in our lives. We are a little nervous about going back to the student life but it's also exciting to do it together! So, that's the plan, and we can't wait to get stared!

(Back in 2011 when we moved in for the first time)

boy

Thanks for all of the love and excitement about baby #2!  We are so excited to bring a Murphy BOY in to this world.  Saturday was probably one of the happiest days in John Murphy's life.  I don't know that I've ever seen a smile on his face that big, not even on our wedding day...honestly.

  

Our appointment was at Stork Vision, which I highly recommend   They do gender ultrasounds as early as 16 weeks for a super affordable price, which is awesome for impatient people like me and Mr. Murphy.  We used them for finding out what Evaleigh was and I will keep using them for every baby after!

Our appointment was at 1pm that day, which was torture!!  Especially when your one year old wakes you up at 7:30 and you are counting down the hours and minutes until you can jump in the shower and go! When we got there they took us back almost immediately.  Evaleigh has an intense fear of doctors so she started crying horribly loud and dramatic.  I'm pretty sure she thought the ultrasound tech was going to hurt me.  John handed her to me and she laid her body across my chest, started patting my shoulder, and didn't move the entire time.

The tech started the ultrasound and John had his face 2 inches from the big screen tv where we could see it all.  The anticipation on his face was priceless.  When the goods popped up on the screen for just a minute he jumped back with a huge smile.  They came on again as clear as could be and before the tech could even get anything out of her mouth he said, "ITS A BOY!" and put his hands over his head as if he had just made the winning basket!  The ultrasound tech confirmed it and said, "That certainly is a boy.  I will literally quit my job if that isn't a boy, there is no mistaking it."  John was fist pumping and smiling and all sorts of crazy body movements that I don't think I've ever seen.

Every once in a while now he will pat my tummy and say, "My boy."  I can't wait to see him with our little guy.

If you missed it, our little video reveal is here.

verona

Last night my love sat me down in our living room and took me on a little journey.  He started clicking through a folder of pictures on his computer.  

This is Juliette's balcony in Verona, Italy.  Next to it is a statue of Juliette and a large gate.  On this gate are thousands of locks.  Lovers come from all over the world to seal their love with a lock on this gate.

John found an Italian man in Verona to put a lock for us on the gate.  He is sending us the keys to our lock and someday Mr. Murphy promises me we will go to Verona and find our lock.

Maybe then we will open it and put another lock on ours with all of the names of our children.  I can't wait for that.  I love him so much.

a revival of an old favorite and a pretty darn great weekend

This was just about the best weekend I've had in a while.

Friday my sister and her husband came over and we all stayed up talking til 1:30.  I love them and I am going to miss them so much when they are in Augusta (good luck on your interview Joe!)

Saturday I got to take a two hour nap with my little and then we all showered up and went to see The Avengers at the dollar theater (well they all did, I had a wiggly baby so I went to Goodwill and bought a few blazers.)

Then we went to the fair.  It was SO much fun.  Daddy won a bat and a little dolphin for EJ. (We won't go in to the humiliating details of the basketball game that Mr. Murphy played.  Those carnies will get you every time.)  We had foot long corndogs, a deep fried Snickers, and an elephant ear in all of its fried glory.

Then Sunday after church we brought to Fender system and guitar outside on the porch and soaked in the fall wind and played music while eating chips and salsa with my mom and watching Evie roll around on a blanket.  We also layed out under a tree in the front yard and watched the hummingbirds enjoy the last bit of the feeders.  They will be migrating in a week or two.

After EJ went to sleep Mr. Murphy and I caught up on some of our favorite shows and then played "1-2-3 Come and Jump on me!".  It was a revival of an old favorite.  I love that man and our amazing weekend. 

a little too ambitious

The other night while Mr. Murphy and I were driving home from babysitting 4 precious kids we got to chatting in the car as Evaleigh slept in the back seat. I'm not sure how we got on the topic of our wedding but John came up with a lovely idea that made me mush inside. He sweetly suggested that every year for our anniversary we have a special dinner in our wedding clothes. I love this idea because it is a great incentive to get back to our younger and slimmer bodies and it's romantic. He said, "I can just imagine us at 60 still wearing our wedding clothes to dinner." of course I have a pass if I'm pregnant. That thought makes me happy. It's a great excuse to wear my wedding dress again, I've always hated that I only wore it once. I think it's one of my favorite traditions we have come up with, even if it is a little too ambitious.

Two years

For seven hundred and thirty days I have been married to my darling. We have been through parents divorcing, many meals and prayers together, building a home and a life together, and we made a baby. Certainly the kisses are in the thousands.


We have changed hundreds of diapers, sang many songs, played basketball in the yard, and watched Netflix and Hulu to our heart's content. We have taken several road trips and have dreamt about our future while driving and driving.


I have heard my love tell me many times as he walks through the door, "I have a treat for you." and then presents me with something sweet and delicious. He is patient with me as I jerk the covers to lay them as straight as can be over me, because goodness knows that boy could sleep in a twisty tangled mess of sheets and I need them as straight as a board.


Happy 2 years to the man who made me a wife. I love you John Murphy.

10 moments

1. Watching the rain fall down together.  I love seeing her take in the new world around her.

2.  Baby jammies, sleeping early in the morning, and holding Daddy's hand.

3.  The invitation I designed for my sisters baby shower, EJ is getting a cousin in 6 weeks!!!

4. Silly smiles.  I love how they are making their appearance more often with every passing day.

5.  Cherry blossoms blooming in our yard.

6.  Nothing in the world beats a moment like this.

7.  I jumped on that band wagon and I don't regret it.  Maybe I do like reading after all.  Nursing has afforded me a little extra time to pick up a new hobby.

8.  No, no...that was no curling iron.  My baby gave me a hickey.  A straight up purple and blue collar bone hickey. 

9.  Blue eyes, you are all that I need.

10.  Daddy and Evaleigh's new trick...it gives me a heart attack but I love it.  She is already our little performer.

to watch a man become a father

Our child has a new name from her father everyday.


miss squirt
precious
doll
little muffin
chunk a munk
munchkin
the scooter
turd
little love
sweetie

He was born to do this.