4!

My dear Evaleigh, Happy Birthday! Yesterday you were officially 4! I have loved remembering back to the very moment we met 4 years ago.  I can't let the day pass without recording a few of my favorite memories from yesterday with you.  You woke up and burst in to mine and dad's room, we told you Happy Birthday and then you ran out of the room and exclaimed, "I LOVE being 4!" 4️⃣🎈🎉 At church you asked to tell me a whisper and said, "When I grow up I've decided I want to dye my hair purple." 💜 After lunch we sat around the table and we read your birth story and went around the table and said all of the things we love about you. And tonight right before bed your father gave you your annual birthday blessing. 💆🏼😊 Its been the most wonderful weekend celebrating YOU! Thank you for being ours, we love you!

We had your party this weekend and it was the most fun! You had so much fun with your little friends dressing up, doing nails and makeup, and having a dance party.

Evaleigh Joy Murphy Barbie

Evaleigh is so fun. Just a really good time.  She is always saying the best things and being so willing to give service or help out.  

The other night we were reading family scriptures and I chose to read in Helaman 14 about Samuel the Lamanite prophesying of the birth of Jesus Christ. 

 In verse 8 I read "And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall believe on the Son of God, the same shall have everlasting life."  And she yelled, "everlasting LICE?!"  John and I looked at each other and burst out laughing!! It was a supposed to be spiritual family moment turned hilarious.  

She also insists these days that her name is Evaleigh Joy Murphy Barbie. 

She has a very specific bedtime routine that consists of every little thing in its perfect spot in her bed. Me blowing crazy kisses to her that jump around in her hand. Her bunny blanket only over her feet and the soft blanket on her body. He door must be cracked to a specific width. And on and on...  We love our crazy slightly OCD girl. 

I LOVE her artwork these days.  She draws the cutest happiest faces!!

magic

Recently my mind has been taken back to our early days as a family here on Stock Gap Road.  I remember how carefully and thoughtfully I put together Evaleigh's nursery, every item shifted dozens of times so they were perched in just the right position.  I remember countless hours of back breaking work with my selfless mother recovering And refurbishing my great grandmothers couch for Evie's nursery while chatting and dreaming about my little Evie and what she would be like.  I remember the day we brought her home from the hospital and how proud I was to show her the small space I had created just for her, even if she slept through the whole tour.  I remember foggy middle of the night feedings rocking back and forth in the old blue recliner while peering through the nursery French doors observing my John sleeping away on our bed in a messy tangle of sheets and blankets.  

My memories here at Stock Gap are rich and run deep: being a young girl running in the yard (many times with no clothes on),  giggling evenings with my sister as young girls, warm homemade cauliflower soup made by my mother during cold months, talks on the porch with my father about goal making and life plans, bringing John here the first time during Christmas of 09' to meet my family for the first time, my first pregnancy while living here the first time again after my parents divorce, bringing my 5 day old son here when we moved back in the second time. And oh so much more.

This is home to me.  It is the place my children know as home. Today Evaleigh told me, out of the blue "Mom, I love our home."  She knows nothing different. 

Sometimes I look around I know that we won't be here forever but to me the library will always be my first baby's nursery, the place where we loved and learned about each other for the first time.  The place where I first cultivated the mother love I feel every day now.  The kitchen will always be the place I learned that Evaleigh doesn't like beans or peanut butter.  It is the place where Avett learned to exert the strength of his little body by carrying whole gallons of milk to me for a drink.  The place where I filled my families bellies, maybe not always of the healthiest food but I will remember that we never went without. The master bedroom will always be mine and johns room,  the place where we conceived our first baby.  The place where we had a tiny Christmas tree just for our selves.  The place where I fell asleep pregnant and watching The Cosby's while John played with my hair or rubbed my feet or back. The place where we talked and talked and talked about the future and what all we hoped it would hold.  And the bathroom just through the double doors was where I nonchalantly took a pregnancy test that changed our whole lives.  The dining room will always be our joy school room. The place where we learned and created and dirty little hands left prints on the windows and sometimes walls.  The place where I couldn't keep Avett from eating the sticky tack off the back of our art work hanging on the windows.  The halls will never just be places to walk or travel from room to room.  They will always be race tracks that my children ran round and round with cars and strollers.  The place where the sweetest sounds of little feet pounded that memory in to my heart.   The living room will always be that in every sense of the word.  The place where we lived and lived good and hard. The place where my husband would sprawl across the floor and toss the children about in the air and tickle them relentlessly only for them to cry out "again!" Or "more!"  The place where my husband and I retired to every night to connect at the end of the long full days.

This house is our house.  It is where we share in life and love and though day in and day out we go through our routines and schedules I know we are living out our future memories. And they are good ones, filled with what I hope I will only recall as magic.

f i v e

To five years with my squints.

Life with you is simply more than I ever imagined marriage could be.  You came in to my life as such a surprise a little more than five years ago.  I had plans to leave for a mission and you had plans to go off to Utah for school.  Our paths collided in Georgia and within a matter of weeks we changed everything to be together.  Dating you was electrifying and comfortable all at the same time.  I'll never forget the moment I was riding in Laura Bain's car and you were in Colorado for Christmas and I finally said it out loud, "I think I'm going to marry John Murphy."  

On January 3rd you put a guitar string ring on my finger and asked me to be your wife.  I remember hopping back in the car after you asked my fathers permission and both of us squealing at the tops of our lungs saying how exciting and fun life ahead of us was going to be.  

 I was never more certain of anything and choosing to put my life with yours has been the easiest and best decision I ever made and we've both never looked back.

Thank you for being an excellent communicator, an easy going man, a wonderful listener, an enthusiast for learning, a committed student, an intriguing conversationalist, an everyday comedian, the ultimate tickler wrestler and massager, a spiritual leader, an eclectic and classic music maker, a tender hearted observer, an engaging friend, an exceptional father, a determined provider, and an incredibly sexy husband. And oh so much more...

5 years, 4 moves, 2 babies. Let's just keep on going ok? I love you endlessly.

Love, wife of your life aka freckles

(thank you for keeping our annual wedding clothes anniversary tradition alive)

And a BIG thank you to Whitney Gossling Photography for these shots.

a 3 year old

Well the birthday curse was in full swing this past weekend. Evaleigh turned three on Saturday and a few days before: she started throwing up just like her second birthday. It's been a whole year since she had gotten sick like that and as luck would have it on her birthday weekend she was sick again. Luckily on the actual day of she felt well again. We went out as a family to downtown Monroe and let her pick out some treats at a bakery and the Cottonwood Cafe, played in the pocket park, had some treats, went to the store to get her birthday gift, then came home and put together her birthday present.  We got her a pink tricycle and while she took a nap in the car John put it together for her. When she woke up we played outside until it was dinner time then we had pizza and birthday cake and she blew out her candles. At the end of the night she and I snuggled on the couch until it was bedtime.  A good day indeed.

Evaleigh Joy is such a blessing in our lives we love her so much. She is so funny and so sweet. When we asked her where she wanted to go on her birthday she told us, "Mexico".  One of my favorite things she says a lot right now is, "what's the plan dear?"  She loves to sing and make up songs she is very organized she loves to do puzzles and spirograph.  Although she loves her little brother he's tends to drive her crazy at this age.  She says the sweetest prayers and has the most tender moments I can tell she's very close to her Savior at this very young age.

Happy birthday to the little girl who made us parents.

family pictures

It has been forever since I have had the time to blog!  To be honest I miss it a lot. I really miss writing. 

This year has been one that I think we will look back on and wonder how we ever survived. We've never been so busy. Between John having full-time school and a job and me with seminary and two little kids to take care of we've hardly seen each other. But it's made the moments that we do have time together even more special. 

This year has been a year of growth for all of our family. I have really loved teaching my early morning seminary class and getting to know all of the seminary youth in our ward. I love many of them like my own and I love learning about the gospel together every morning.

Evaleigh will be three next month and I can hardly believe it. She is such a sassy responsible and joyful little girl.  She walks around saying sweet things to us like "Merry Christmas!" And "I love you mommy you are beautiful!". She is such a sensitive sweet little soul.  

Avett is our little explorer.  He climbs all over the place and especially all over us. I've never seen a little boy love his mother so much and I love that about him.

 John is trucking along with school and doing a great job at it. He is a very good student and studies a lot. He also works with the men at church. We are both loving what we are doing and even though we are busy we are happy and very blessed.