the murrays: September 2017

We saw a lot of Katrina this summer! Sadly Phillip was gone a lot for work but we benefitted by having her stay with us a couple of times. it was awesome!!

Maris and Hazel mothering their baby siblings lol. They had fun together.

And of course we took the oportunity to get together with Melissa and Allison lots!

While Eric was at Scout camp one fun thing we did was spend a day in the mountains. We hiked the grotto:

And hung out at Payson Lakes for a few hours, including having a campfire dinner and smores so it almost felt like camping. These two were being super funny and enjoying each other. Here's my post about this:

These two. They are not perfect, but we are having a really good summer. They have been ridiculously silly together, and haven't fought as much as usual! I have genuinely enjoyed hanging out with them and they have been generally helpful and cheerful. I'm not tempted to homeschool yet lol but I'm so grateful for this positive time in our relationships!

😄 #preteens#sisters=friends #paysonlakes #kate #whit

And of course these two were too.

While Emma slept in the shade.

Owen took this candid shot of me (and about 15 more lol). But I love it because I'm kissing my baby. :)

We had FHE in the mountains too.

This summer we did swimming lessons of course!! Whitney watched Emma for me and she was a trooper, luckily my friend Steph was there to help her out a few times.

Whitney did awesome:

Maris was a star with me, swimming to the wall by herself!

Owen (blond head halfway in the water) learned to swim by skpiing level one, it was awesome!

random pic of big smile Emma!

Kate had to tread water for 15 minutes!!

Owen graduated from Upstart Preschool, hooray!! It was a bit of a pain by the end, but it was super effective. He learned to read!

We ran into Steven and Whitney from Studio C at the mall! They are in the background of this picture haha.

But I did take this picture for my friend Mindy who I had run into, she was brave enough to ask. Love these people and their show, which the girls binge-watched this summer!

Kate bought this hat that makes her look teenager-ish!

We went on bike rides once a week and it was so awesome!! I loved it. The kids tolerated it/ secretly enjoyed it haha.

Maris always wanted to try to run with the kids while they rode, cutie. And this is before Owen got his training wheels off.

We went boating while Elizabeth and her family were here! It was awesome to see the girls being so brave on the knee board and tube.

and Owen was brave again too!

Emma's first time swimming! on the 4th of July.

a better shot of Owen swimming.

so hilarious, we remembered how funny it was when we put this wig on Maris so we had to try it with Emma!

Owen learned how to ride his bike with no training wheels! I had practiced with him a few times with little progress-- then Eric took him out and had him riding that same day! He is such a good teacher.

I got Emma some huge bows lol. and at 4-5 months she would just stop eating and look up at me so cutely, and since she was starting to put everything in her mouth her fingers would go right in there. So I wanted to capture this moment of nursing life. It is a lot of work but so wonderful. I adore having so much snuggle time with my babies.

More fun with the Cravens on another of their visits!

Justin and Emma accidentally holding hands!

Owen and Lydia were cracking up over a cheese monster... or some silly made up thing!

Kendra was in town and we got together with her and Marla at a splash park! it was so wonderful to catch up for a couple of hours with my now-famous cousin. Especially fun to have babies just a month apart.

Our giant sunflowers grew, well, GIANT this year! wow!

We all went to Mallorie's birthday party, cutie.

Maris holding Emma at the Salem Days parade. Emma is getting so big!

We got to play with cousins Vivian and Cleo a few times when their baby sister Naomi was born! Grandma would bring them over to give Cortnee and break. :)