Hay-Seed (Haleigh)

This is sweet Haleigh Bear on the first day of 6th grade! She is so grown up! When I first met Scott and Haleigh, she was just about to finish Kindergarten year. I have loved watching her grow up! I have loved going to watch her play soccer and grow into an amazing young lady! She has the sweetest spirit and the best personality ever! This year she is living with us and going to school at Kerr! She seems to really like our school and is meeting some really neat friends!

It is just so hard for me to believe that she is already in 6th grade. This year we are looking forward to going to band concerts and watching her play volleyball!

If your happy and you know it, smile at Murphy Jo!!!

This is how Murphy Jo is 99% of the time. The other 1% is because she is either sleepy or tired!

Murphy Jo is so happy! I love to listen to her talk to herself (well, not at 3:00 in the morning like she has been doing a few nights a week for about 2 weeks now!) and play! She is really starting to grasp at things! It is so cool to see how she is developing!

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this picture!

I think she is going to be a tall one!

What a big girl!

5 Months old!

I can't believe I am saying my sweet baby girl is already 5 months old. She is the best baby ever! She is so easy to take places and have around! She goes everywhere with us! Out to eat, to the store, shopping..... just anywhere we go we take her with us! We are also very excited that big sister Haleigh has come to live with us! Murphy Jo loves her being around!

Playing it cool!
MOM, it is 6:45 a.m. and I just woke up, please put the camera down!

Okay maybe a small smile!

Murphy Jo and Big Sis!

Meghan's Shower

My sweet friend Meghan Ross is due in October. Murphy Jo and I were invited to a beautiful shower for Meghan and Emma Kate! We can't wait to meet Emma Kate! I just know that she and Murphy Jo are going to be great friends!

I had Meghan for her Student Teaching 1 and 2. She is an amazing teacher. She is like a sponge wanting to know everything she can about how to better her students. I am so glad I got to help mold her, she didn't need much molding but it sounds good anyway:) She is just a natural teacher! We are going to really miss her at Kerr!

Sweet kisses
My love, but there was no getting her to look at the camera!

Meghan and Baby Emma Kate

My sweet and dear friend Carla! I love her so much and miss her a bunch at Kerr. She is also an amazing teacher! She is getting to stay home with her sweet baby boy!

Sweet Kim and Murphy Jo! They always have such a great time together!

She is always smiling!

I just love this girl!

Meghan, Ms. Bell and Mrs. Laabs looking at Meghan's hurt toe!

I love this picture! Look how cute Emma Kate is!

This is another dear friend Darci Laabs. Meghan did her second half of Student teaching with her!

Sleeping Baby!

When Murphy Jo was first born, one of my favorite things was to swaddle her up and rock her to sleep! To watch her sweet face and her eyes slowly close was such a blessing to me! It was so amazing to see her change each day! Really I think she really did change right before my eyes! She was always so easy to put to sleep! She would look us in the eyes, smile and the next thing we knew she was sleeping! We NEVER put her down till we heard that last DEEP breath! It was so cute, it was like she was saying "I am out you can put me down now!"

Well, that soon all changed when she was about 3 1/2 months old. She would totally fight us. She would let us swaddle her and rock her for about 5 mins! I would look her in the eyes and see her sweet face glow..... then all the sudden she would look at me and give me this grin that said "nope you are not going to put me to sleep!" Then after that would come this awful scream for about 5 mins. It was awful and I would get upset b/c I didn't know what was going on! So after our 4 month Dr. apt and she told me just to let her "cry it out", things have been wonderful!

Murphy Jo has herself on a really good routine! She starts getting really sleepy at about 7:15ish! We eat our last bottle, have our bath, do our nightly lotion massage and she is ready to go to sleep! She will not let us swaddle her anymore! She is such a wiggle worm:) So I put her in her pack'n'play and she is pretty much out! She usually sleeps till about 7:00 in the morning. We are truly blessed to have a good sleeper!

As much as I loved rocking her to sleep, I am very thankful that she sleeps so well! She is such a blessing to us!

Annual Trip to Rainforest Cafe with Friends

We just love the Rainforest Cafe in Grapevine! For the past few years we have gone with several friends. (The Wood's-pictured and the Dorsey's- for some reason I didn't take any of them) Haleigh was such a trooper! She is 11 years old and she had a smile on her face the whole time, even if she was hanging out with a 4.5 month old, 2 and 3 year olds. Way to go girl! Murphy Jo loved it there! There was so much for her to look at and all the sounds kept her in awe the whole time!

Haleigh (did I mention she was going to be heading to Maryland to see her MomMom Jo and PopPop Tom?)
Sisters, Murphy Jo was looking at something and there was no way to get her attention!

Still NOT looking at the camera!

Andi Grace! So cute and such a big girl!

Andi and Avery! They are such good girls!

Playdate with Ebby Lee

Isn't she a cutie? My good friend Erika Slaughter and I taught at Kerr together. She taught 3rd grade! (she is going to be staying home with Ebby Lee this year!) Murphy Jo is 2 weeks older than Ebby Lee! It is going to be fun watching our girls grow up.....

Here are some pictures of our First Play date. I can't remember the exact dates, but do you notice how much bigger Murphy Jo is?????

Murphy Jo all upset and Ebby Lee not really caring!!
We thougth this was cute, they were both sleeping with their arms up!

How sweet!

Today we went back over for another play date! Look at how they have grown!!!!

Ebby Lee smiles all the time! It is so cute! It is like she is saying, I am so glad you came over!

Do you notice how they are now the SAME size! Isn't that so funny!

Murphy Jo was ALL over the place!

This picture amazes me!

I just love this pictures! You can already see Ebby Lee's sweet personality! I love how she is wanting to hold Murphy Jo's hand! How cute!

The sweet hands! Not sure what happened, I think they are upside down! Oh well, it is still really cute!

My friend Erika and Ebby Lee

19 weeks old

Yep you read it right.... 19 weeks old! It just does not seem possible. I am sorry that this is not our "normal" photo session picture. I have been going up to school this week and taking Murphy Jo to the sitter. I am not used to our new schedule and it was hard to get our photo session in. I am going to have to work on that! Murphy Jo had a very busy day! She went to Auntie Andi's at 9:00, they had a great day! She went to the Libray with Auntie Andi, Natalie (her daughter) and Gram (her son)! When I picked her up at 2:00 we went to a playdate with Ebby Lee! Murphy Jo was worn completely out! She took an hour and a half nap at Ebby Lee's and when we got home we played for a little while and then she ate her dinner had her bath and after I put her in bed, I thought I have not taken her weekly picture! So I got her out of her pack'n'play and took a few pictures. She was sooo tired! She have sleepy eyes!

Fun times with the kids!

My sweet niece Niko comes to visit each summer and we always have a good time! (well, most of the time!!!) She lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma and loves to come and visit her Aunt Alli! We try to schedule lots of fun activities while she is here. This year was no different. On Wednesday when she got here, we just relaxed and did not much of anything. On Thursday she and Haleigh swam all day. On Friday we went to Color Me Mine in Frisco with Heather and her girls (will post pictures later) on Saturday Niko and I went to Trades Days in McKinney, while Scott and Haleigh went to the lake! We then went out to Heather's for a cookout! On Sunday all went shopping, bowling, to OTB, the girls got manis and pedis and then we went to watch Scott play hockey. (yes Murphy Jo got drug around to all those places and she did great!) Here are a few pictures to show you how much fun we had!

Mommy and Murphy Jo
Mommy, Daddy and Murphy Jo

Murphy Jo doing what she does best SLEEPING!

Niko and Haleigh

Niko being silly and Haleigh being sweet, as always!

Sweet Haleigh

Niko and I

Scott and Niko

Murphy Jo and Avery!

Country Girl!!! RIGHT!!!!!!!!!