Half a year old

BEAR
YOU, my little darling, have lived up to your name. He's a big boy:) when you pick him up he's just solid and thick as a boy should be. He loves to squeal as loud as possible in church, he loves his little activity center bounce thing, he loves to eat. Every time I feed him I fear for the spoon. I just can't get it in there fast enough sometimes. His favorite is sweet potatoes with spinach although he will eat anything you put near his mouth. He still has that full body smile that starts in his toes. He is ticklish:) when I'm giving him a bath especially, and rub his little neck he just giggles and squirms and it's stinking adorable. He laughs a lot these days. He is such a happy boy unless you are trying to put him to sleep. He's a total flirt. Loves attention. All you have to do is look his way and you'll get a big ol cheesy grin. He always has his ankles crossed, especially when sleeping or just riding in his car seat. I love how curious he is and I love watching him learn and see things for the first time. He has the best reactions. I love you sweet Beary boy.
CHARLEE
Is still my sweet angel girl. She has found her little voice and loves to get in squeal matches with her brother to see who's the loudest... Only she is a shy little one so she doesn't usually do it at church. She's obsessed with her hands. Always looking at them and moving around her fingers. Stephen says its like she's reading poetry, she sticks out her arm palm up and her fingers flexed all funky. It's spot on. She also has more facial expressions which are exactly like her Dad. She loves to take off her diaper. Not that she's even in just a diaper that often but leave her alone for one minute and its off. She also loves to un Velcro the strap covers in her car sear. She loves using those hands. She almost always starts talking when you open a book, like she's reading it and in the car if she's awake she will "sing" along with me. This girl is a wild sleeper. She likes pressing her face into the bumper or rolling over sleeping face down into the mattress or just burying her face in a blanket. I don't like it. Freaks me out but try to move her. I dare you. She holds her position or she just goes right back. She used to like to just stick her nose in the air. As soon as you lay her down she would turn up her nose. That was cute, this smashing of the face phase has got to be a quick one. She is catching on quickly to this spoon feeding thing, as long as she likes what's being fed. So far she is not a fan of any fruit. Her favorite is peas or mixed veggies. She loves wearing dresses. I like to think its because she's going to be girly but I think it's just so she can play with and eat it. I love getting her up from a nap or in the morning. It's like she's seeing me for the first time. I can't even explain the way her face lights up and she starts kicking and just cannot wait for me to pick her up. It makes my whole life complete. I love this girl and the sweetness she radiates. Everyone should get to have a baby like my Charlee girl.

Happy 6 months babies. Can't wait to see what the rest of this first year has in store for your lucky mom.

Adventure is the name of the game

April is a happy month. My birthday is the third and Stephens is the 26th not to mention my brothers and niece and nephews too. This year Stephens birthday wish was to complete a bucket list item: to participate in a water ski race. His cousin competes at a professional level and his uncle Bud pulls him in the most beautiful sparkly purple boat. They do a lot of races, this year we decided to meet up with them at Lake Havasu in Arizona. There is a "beginners" race that Stephen entered. We decided to break up the 15 hour drive so first we drove to highland Utah and stayed with some friends who have twin girls that are just 3 weeks older than Bear and Charlee. It was fun to watch them discover each other and bonus they all slept great and didn't wake each other up! We had some good laughs catching up with Jake and Erin. Then in the morning we headed to see our favorite Jr. Murrays! (We are the Jr. Jr. Murrays) Nathan and Sherry, hazel and Claire, and James Quinn and Wilson. It was quite the house full! I wish we could have stayed longer at each stop. There just was never enough time! After our quick chat with them we headed to st George and had lunch with my favorite aunt! She loves my little family so much and I'm so grateful for her. Onward we trekked to boulder city (just past Vegas) to see Stephens Grandma and her husband Chuck. They were thrilled to finally get to meet our lil babes. Grandma Katy will be 82 this year so it's always special when we get to see her. This last part of the journey was probably the hardest. It was 530pm we had been on the road since 10am and we had 2 hours till our destination. The babies slept for about half an hour then we were ALL ready to be out of the car. I entertained and fed them rice cereal for the next half hour and they cried for the last hour. They were champs the entire way so we can't complain. I just felt bad:( the next morning was race day! Stephen finally felt a his nerves. He had been so worried and focused on getting the babies TO Havasu he wasn't thinking much about what he would do when we got there.. The boys left for the lake around 7am and Grammy Pammy helped me get the kids ready and we headed down at 9. I don't really know what I was expecting, maybe I was like Stephen in just hoping to actually make it to Arizona! This was an amateur race but it sure didn't look it. All the skiers were in full crash attire, wet suit vest helmet neck brace... Intense right? And there were 8 skiers in Stephens race. They all looked way too close together. And next thing you know the boat hits the gas and off they go! Stephen popped right up! The thing with them punching the gas is that it creates a wave that Stephen wasn't quite used to. They prepared him for it but with all the adrenaline I guess he wasn't thinking and he locked his knees and tumbled over this wave:( no big deal! He can try again! I have never seen a boat whip around so fast! By this time the other skiers are coming around for a Lap and its looking like my husband will surely be run over! (He wasn't but they were too close for my liking and going 60 mph) uncle Bud takes off right as another boats wave hits Stephen and the pull was too much for that poor little ski rope and it snapped:( Race over, husband sad. Such a bummer. He wasn't the only one, out of 8 racers only 5 finished the race. But the thing about having your family name so famous among the ski racing population, you have a certain reputation to uphold. So even though there were 3 skiers who didn't get up, Stephen MURRAY was the only name announced over the loud speaker. Ouch. So not only was he feeling bad for not getting to race but now he has tarnished the family name. Hahaha so sad. There was another race the next day so that afternoon they went out to practice more and he broke another rope. It was just not meant to be folks. We still had fun, or I guess I did. Babies didn't care much for sun sand or water (WHAT? Who's kids are you?) but they napped and we took them back to the hotel when it got hot but the weather was actually beautiful. I think it only got up to like 91. That night we got the babes to bed and Grammy offered to babysit so we could go to dinner. It was lovely. Quick trip, we were back on the road in the morning and babies slept for 4 hours, we stopped in st. G again to see my aunt uncle and cousins. Then we stayed at my sisters house in Lindon and she made us a yummy dinner and we stayed up till 4am chatting. Sister stuff. We got to have lunch the next day with one of the greatest girls I know miss Lauren Browne Mair and she was excited to see us. I always wish I had more time with her. Just one last stop at my grandparents house so they could get some sweet baby snuggles then home again home again jiggity jig. It was so wonderful to see so many people and get to share our sweet babies. Plus all that time in the car to talk and laugh and bond with my sweetheart. Nothing beats that. I'm so grateful for him and his crazy ideas and adventures. How boring life would be if he did the same old thing day after day. He is always wanting to try things and learn things and better himself. He is such a great example of someone who lives life to its fullest. Thanks for bringing us along, love you Stephen Murray.

Blessed

Well, I asked for it right? You are looking at the new achievement days leader! I'm very excited about this calling. Brother Albert was the perfect person to extend the calling to me, having twins himself who just turned 8. He began by telling me how they decide on certain people for certain callings. They all pray separately and meet together and almost always have the exact name. That is pretty amazing. And he said that he and the bishop and the 2nd counselor all came back with my name for achievement day leader. Brother Albert told the others I couldn't possibly accept a calling with 5 month old twins. He said he defended me seeing as moms of twins are so near and dear to his heart. And ultimately Bishop left the decision up to him. So there I was sitting across from a very hesitant 1st counselor being asked to serve in the primary. He added, "but only if you want to and only if you feel like you can handle it" haha. I smiled and without hesitation I accepted the call to serve. I began to tell him how I had been feeling ready to get more involved after being inspired by conference. I thanked him for trusting me with the responsibility and for allowing me to prove myself. I also thanked him for coming to my defense:) How incredible it is to see the power of prayer and the powerful feelings of the spirit at work! The church is true, revelation is real and God is aware of each of us individually! I'm happy to report that I made it through all 3 hours of church this week. Without Stephen who was at the fire station. It was great actually and no one cried. After setting the goal I had a feeling that I needed to get the babies to self soothe. Which means no yoga ball! I put it in the office and tried not to rely on its magical powers of putting babies to sleep. I would lay them down for naps and bed time and let them cry a little. I was amazed how quickly it worked! By the third day they barely even made a peep when I laid them down. No ball. No swing. So when that third hour of church came and they were ready for naps I simply put them in their car seats and put the cover down and by the end of the opening song they were out and slept through relief society. I'm so glad I listened to that feeling and was able to do this! It is something so small to most but to me it is quite the victory! You dont realize how fortunate we are to attend our meetings each sunday till you cant. I'm thankful my Heavenly Father is aware of my family and our needs. I will leave you with this quote given during the lesson in releuf society, "Only God can make a mess into a message, a test into a testimony, a trial into a triumph and a victim into a victory!"

Intro to solids

I got teary eyed as I looked at my sweet lil munchkins all grown up sitting in their high chairs about to have their first spoon fed experience! At their last appointment my Doc told me I could start them on solids. At 4 months. I asked if I had to, he said no and I concluded I wasn't ready for them to be that old yet. I decided 6 months was the magic number. Because mom knows best right? Even up till yesterday I felt this way. But alas, I started reading up on intro to solids. As soon as I read that they will start sleeping 10-12 hours I was sold. And I set up their chairs immediately! Haha but in all seriousness it talked about how to know when your babe is ready and they had every single sign so I figured I couldn't hold them back just cause I wanted to keep them infants. Ha! I was so proud. They finished the whole serving. Immediately Charlee spit it right back at me and made a disgusted face. It took about 4 re-spoons to get one bite mostly down haha it was hilariously darling. Bear was in love. Another way to eat? Get MORE food? Yes he was all over it. Barely spilled a drop. He kept grabbing the spoon wanting to feed himself, so i gave him a spoon to distract him. Didn't work he's too smart. He wanted the spoon with the food! We played around with it for a little bit then they were ready to quit messing around and get to business so I breast fed them and then they finished off the bowl. It was exciting. So proud:)