Still Here!

Holy moly, where has the time gone?!

Here's a breakdown of what's been going on in the Murphy household these past couple of months:

August

As you know, McKenna started school

McKenna's First Day of VPK, 8/25/14

And she's still loving it and doing so well! Daddy was able to go into work a little late on her first day so that we could all walk her up there together.

She was so excited while we were getting ready that morning and did GREAT at drop off. (Mommy did, too, if you were wondering! ;-)) After visiting her classroom and teacher at Open House that evening, we headed over to our favorite ice cream spot, Del's Freez, to kick off our back to school tradition with THE BEST soft serve ice cream around - YUM!

We closed out the month in Orange Park celebrating my Dad's 51st birthday.

It was a pretty great weekend just kicking back with the family :-)

September

Kendall and I have been enjoying our one-on-one time together

But do I dare say that it is a little too quiet around here now during the day? We've been keeping ourselves busy with lots of MOMS Club play dates -- On September 11 for our Fall service project, we headed up to the fire station with a pot luck lunch to thank the firefighters for all that they do for our community; we were able to tour the station, the fire truck and shoot the hose!

At the end of the month, we found ourselves back in Orange Park for my Mom's 51st birthday, Brew at the Zoo, and a family photo session (our first ever!) with Pink Pelican Photography.

That's my talented sister-in-law behind the camera! I couldn't be more proud and excited for her as she so fervently pursues her dream in photography. Check her out, Jacksonville!

October

October was ca-razy busy!

I opened up a little handmade card shop on Etsy called Cards Luv and Happiness :-) I casually expressed interest in card-making to Alex one weekend, and a couple of days later he came home with a Cricut that he found from someone on Craigslist and a TON of craft supplies began arriving in the mail after he was up late one night doing some pretty in-depth research into my new hobby. I'm so grateful for a husband that supports and encourages my creative whims!

Then there was the MOMS Club Annual Halloween Party and Open House event, volunteering in McKenna's classroom, another trip to Orange Park for Jotoberfest (my MIL'S annual everything-pumpkin birthday bash),

And finally we had a Halloween Party of our own here at the house with friends.

It was hectic month, for sure, but a fun one!

November

Alex was out of town for the majority of September and October, and had only been home for a few hours on the 1st before I was on my way to the emergency room with McKenna - she had a fever of 104.6! It turns out that she had PNEUMONIA (!) and was admitted to the hospital for four days.

I felt like a  t e r r i b l e  parent for sending her to school that entire week and having our Halloween Party, but other than a lingering cough from a cold that we both had caught the previous weekend, she was fine - no fever, lack of energy, shortness of breath; nothing at all until that Saturday...

I'm so grateful for all of the wonderful nurses and doctors who took such good care of McKenna in the hospital... And that Alex was in town and able to stay home from work to take care of Kendall... And for my mother-in-law for putting her life on pause for a few days to come down and help out around the house (she bleached my bathrooms, you guys!)... And for all of the kind words and thoughtful gestures from all of our family and friends. It's a scary thing being in the hospital with your child and we were all so touched by those that reached out.

The following couple of weeks, we were in and out of the vet with Hanley - he was completely immobile for a few days and blood test results showed that his liver enzymes were 3 times higher than normal. He's on medication and a special diet now until at least the beginning of January with a bill upwards of $1000 already, but his health has seen a major improvement and he's back to his goofy ol' self - thank GOODNESS!

On the road again at the end of the month, but this time it was Georgia or bust! It was a short, but always sweet visit with Alex's Dad's side of the family in the Brooklet and Statesboro areas for Thanksgiving.

Thirty-seven people - all family - made it for dinner this year. I look forward to this trip every other year (we alternate spending Thanksgiving in Orange Park and Georgia) and I really wish that we could make it up there more often; things are so laid back and peaceful there, everybody is incredibly warm and welcoming; you can really feel the love.

December

We found ourselves in the pediatrician's office everyday for the first three days of December - both of the girls had double ear infections and then they got pink eye! We had to keep McKenna home from school again today as she woke up with a really bad cough. She seemed to be feeling better by bedtime, but I am sooo tempted to start our Christmas break a few days early -- I really miss mornings like these:

No alarm clocks, no place for us to be at a certain time; simply enjoying the day as it unfolds before us. Coffee and crafts, just like the good ol' days before school started :-)

Alex found a cute bedroom set for the girls at a garage sale that we just couldn't pass up, so we decided to redo their ENTIRE room (much to his chagrin).

Bye, bye nursery yellow! My "Coral Passion" was outvoted 3 to 1 for this "Hint of Cherry," but after a couple of coats and drying, I've gotta admit that it's growing on me... We're Alex is still working on refinishing the furniture, so the girls have been bunking with us at night. I don't mind the slumber party, though; I'm really loving the snuggles! Hanley and Baloo usually end up in bed with all of us by morning, too, so talk about mommy heaven!

I was able to escape for an evening with some of the ladies from MOMS Club for our holiday party and White Elephant Gift Exchange, followed by drinks and dancing downtown - what a great time! Then, last weekend, we celebrated our sweet little monkey turning THREE (!!!) with friends and family at the park and I got to host the always epic Cookie Day again at our house this year.

Right now, I'm working on finishing up my last special order of the season for Cards Luv and Happiness, and then this momma's going on break, too!

'Twas the Night Before Preschool

Zero more days.

Tonight McKenna cut the last link off of the paper chain countdown that we made last week.

In less than 12 hours, she's off to preschool!

(WHY did I write "Back to school countdown" instead of "First day of school countdown," I do not know; just going to blame the recent lack of sleep over the whole thing here...)

Thankfully, McKenna's gone from "excited, but just a little nervous" to "reeeally excited" after having met her teacher, Mrs. Murray, last Wednesday and then on Friday visiting the classroom. We've been reading books about going to school, talking to all of our friends about how awesome it's going to be and role playing teacher/student here at home. I couldn't be more happy (and also relieved) that she is so excited about her first day tomorrow; she's going to love it and I can't wait to hear all about it when we pick her up!

McKenna's 4th Birthday

Four years old.

We officially have a preschooler on our hands!

McKenna's birthday was on a Wednesday two weeks ago, so we celebrated our big girl turning 4 by having Chocolate Chip Pancakes for breakfast, hanging out at Play Plus for a few hours, and then for dinner and dessert, we ate Caesar Salad and ice cream - "with sprinkles! LOOOTS of sprinkles." - all per the birthday girl's request.

"It was a really great day," she said as we tucked her in that night :-D

Alex was able to take off of work on Friday so that we could get our house cleaned up and put together (e.g. finally hang up the picture frames that have been sitting in the corner of our bedroom for the past year or so) before our company arrived for McKenna's party on Saturday, but more importantly to get a head start on THE CAKE.

Every ounce of credit for this goes to the Mr! I simply crumble under the pressure of birthday cake making.

Alex got started ]around 5PM, however, following the pattern of years past, we still didn't turn in for the night until around 4AM.

Both of the girls happened to wake up just as Daddy had finished his masterpiece and they absolutely LOVED it; McKenna hurried excitedly over to the playroom to grab the camera that she got for her birthday last year so that she could snap a few pictures of her own -- "It's so beautiful!"

Our family arrived a couple of hours later early Saturday morning and then we all headed over to the park to start setting everything up for our Princess' princess party; other than the cake, though, we kept everything pretty low key - a couple of decorations, and pizza and Capri Sun to serve to our guests. The kids played to their heart's content while the grownups laughed and mingled and simply enjoyed each other's company.

Everybody had a really great time, especially our sweet birthday girl.

<3 <3 <3

Wordless Wednesday - FOUR

FOUR YEARS OLD TODAY, hot dog!

Growing Pains

In a little less than a month, McKenna will be off to preschool. While we've started crossing things off of her school supply list and she already has her backpack and lunchbox ready to go, it's still something that I haven't fully processed yet. I'm having such a difficult time wrapping my heart and my head around the fact that the first chapter of my little baby's life is coming to a close. She's growing up. Wasn't it just yesterday that she was crawling around in diapers?

A couple of weeks ago while the girls and I were out doing our grocery shopping, we picked up a few things from the supply list. McKenna couldn't wait to show off her new folder, pencils, crayons, and glue, all packed up in her Disney Princess backpack, ready for the first day of school, to Alex when he got home from work. When she brought out the Kindermat that she's going to take for nap time, I fought hard to hold back the tears.

How in the heck am I going to handle dropping her off on the first day of school? I hope I don't bawl when or if she does; I hope I don't lose it when or if she doesn't want to let me go. I need to be strong for her on this nerve-wracking first day of school... At least until I make it out of that classroom door, turn around for one last wave and a blown kiss goodbye. Ugh, parenting is hard.

I told Alex, "What am I going to do all day!?"

"You still have another one at home," he said with a wink and a little boop on the nose. But Kendall's wondering the same thing, too...

On our way over to a friend's house, McKenna and I were talking about her going to school soon and Kendall chimed in, "I'm going to miss you, M'enna" to which M'enna replied, "I'm going to miss you, too, Kendall; but don't worry, I'll be back." My heart melted like a popsicle on the Fourth of July!

I know that McKenna is ready for school and I think she'll do great; she loves to learn and enjoys making new friends. She's excited, but "just a little nervous."

She sounds so grown up when she tells me that.

Egg Mice and the "Magic Words"

McKenna and Kendall are pretty good about using their manners and Alex and I have never referred to "please," "thank you," and the like as magic words; it's just something that you do, a reflex like saying, "Bless you" when someone sneezes. One day, the girls and I were over at our friends' house for a tea party play date and when Miss Caroline was finished with her quiche and tea, she stayed in her seat and very politely asked, "May I be excused please, Mommy?" -- "Yes you may." She got up and I realized that Beth didn't have to hassle her AT ALL to stay at the table while we were eating. Liiight bulb!

Every single day for every single meal it was a battle to keep the girls in their seats while we were eating. I HATED having to repeat myself over and over and over again every breakfast, lunch and dinner for the girls to just sit the fuck down. Of course, I used my manners and didn't drop the F bomb around my little parrots... Other than maybe once or twice to myself under my breath as my eyes glossed over with tears of frustration.

I googled "How to keep toddlers at the dinner table." A lot.

I tried implementing the "When you get up, you're telling me that you're finished" rule, but that seemed to work better in their favor as lots of veggies and other "yucky" stuff was left uneaten.

I tried taking away snacks so that maybe by lunch and dinnertime they'd be so hungry that they would want to sit at the table and eat all of their food, but that backfired; we all ended up cranky and frustrated.

I tried the "Kids will eat when they're hungry; don't force it," way, but... THIS AIN'T DENNY'S!

Later that day when we were at home eating dinner and the girls got up, I told them, "Sit down. You were not excused; you didn't say the magic words."

"Magic words?!" they asked, grinning.

So I explained very matter-of-factly that if they wanted to get up from the table, they must first ask, "May I be excused, please?"

Eagerly they sat down; "MAY I BE EXCUSED, PLEASE!?" in unison with big fat smiles on their faces.

"No. You haven't finished your dinner yet."

And that was that! Magic words.

Whether or not they actually eat all or any of their dinner is a complete toss up, but "if they're hungry, they'll eat" and they have plenty of time to do so as we're all sitting down at the table together and enjoying our meal as a family. Huge victory. I'd say the "magic words" have about a 90% success rate.

One thing that I know McKenna will gobble up for sure is Egg Mice.

She loves hard-boiled eggs and picked this recipe out of one her kid-friendly cookbooks, which I modified slightly.

Egg Mice

Ingredients:

1 hard-boiled egg
Mayonnaise
Mustard
Salt, pepper to taste
Matchstick carrots
Slivered almonds

Directions:

Slice the hard-boiled egg in half and scoop out the yolk; mix with mayo, mustard, salt and pepper. Fill the yolk mixture back into the egg white and place the flat side down on the plate.

Then, poke one matchstick carrot into one end of the egg for the tail and on the opposite side, use a paring knife to make slits for the slivered almonds, which will be the ears.

Serve with cheese and fruit for a super fun, well-rounded meal for your toddler. :-D

Wordless Wednesday - Mom Life

<3 <3 <3

Wordless Wednesday - A daughter is one of the most beautiful gifts this world has to give.

-Laurel Atherton

<3 <3 <3

Mother's Day Lovin'

It was a really great day. McKenna and Kendall slept in an hour later than usual and then Alex got up with them to do the breakfast thing so that I could stay in bed a little longer. Once I moseyed into the kitchen, they had my yoga stuff out on the table with a homemade "Happy Mother's Day!" banner; 5 weeks of yoga classes! Woop! Yoga is one of my favorite things in the whole wide world and while I've been doing it here at home, I really miss the atmosphere of a class in an intimate little yoga studio. I'm pretty excited to finally take the tags off of the matching tote that I got for Christmas a couple of years ago, too.

Kendall has been feeling a little under the weather these past few days with a slight fever and tummy ache that comes and goes, so she and I stayed at home to cuddle on the couch and watch Frozen while Daddy and McKenna went to the beach as planned.

On the way home, McKenna asked Daddy to take her to get some flowers for me for Mother's Day and for Kendall, too, so that she would feel better.

:-) Heart, melted.

My friend Beth biked over to our house on her sweet new Mother's Day ride to give me a bottle of wine that I had mentioned in conversation the previous week. (I was at the grocery store with it in my cart, but put it back on the shelf because while it was on the list of 'wants', it wasn't on the list of 'needs' and we were getting close to hitting our budget for groceries.) She made a mental note of that and picked some up for me the next time she did her grocery shopping! How awesome is that :-D The wine was delicious, and I was so touched by her kindness. I'm really going to miss her when their family moves up to Pennsylvania next year!

I got out of the house for a bit by myself this afternoon while the girls were napping and then came home, did a little arts and crafting with McKenna,

talked to my Father-in-law who so thoughtfully called to wish me a Happy Mother's Day, had pizza for dinner per my request and then it was a smooth and cooperative bath and bedtime for our little hooligans. All in all, a very happy Mother's Day indeed <3