New Year's Day 2018

One of my goals for 2018 (SERIOUSLY?? 2018?!) is to not wait to blog things. I have soo many holes to fill in on my blog so I am trying to catch up.

Today we wanted to go to a new national park. So we drove to Pinnacles National Park. You basically go due west for 2.5 hours from Visalia. On the way everyone was sleeping but me, when I saw a big bird flying overhead. It was a bald eagle! We flipped around to try and get a picture of it but it was too far away.

I've heard a lot about Pinnacles, but clearly didn't research it as well as i wanted to. We wanted to hike to Bear Gulch, which was about 2.5 miles. However, it was 2.5 miles from the third parking lot we passed by... we didn't realize you could DRIVE EVERYWHERE!

 Eventually we stopped in a picnic area and Brandon ran back to get the car. It would have taken forever to hike back and we had already been eyed by coyotes. Since Cora loves Beauty and the Beast, we knew all about "THE WOLVES!"

 

LOOK AT JAMES. During the hikes, probably about 45 people got a big smile from James. I kept hearing them say (either to me or to themselves) "Oh my gosh, that is the cutest and happiest baby I've ever seen!"

Once we got to the Bear Gulch parking area, we found the hike to the caves. It was pretty exciting hiking that way. I had Cora on my back this time, and I'm pretty sure my legs won't work properly tomorrow.

 SERIOUSLY. LOOK AT JAMES.

 We almost turned around JUST before the cave. It said .7 miles on the sign, but it was way further than that.

Just beyond this picture, there was a spot where I had to crawl through. Thankfully Cora wasn't in the backpack, because it kept hitting the ceiling! Cora was too scared to go on, so I immediately had to turn around and crawl back past the people waiting to go back through. As she was freaking out and wanting to be held. It made for a good time!

Overall, it was a beautiful park. There's a western entrance as well, but the two halves of the park aren't connected. Someday we'd love to go back and hike one of the long hikes without kids.

We are happy to start 2018. 2017 was a wonderful year in a lot of ways, and a heartbreaking year in a lot of other ways. I learned about a strength I never thought I had, and we all grew so much. I can't wait for our little family of 4 to grow together this year!

#lighttheworld

When the Church sent out the "Light the World" campaign last year, I really wanted to participate. But it was hard with moving and everything. So this year I made sure we did something just about every day. Here were some highlights:

-Donating some unused diaper packs to the local women and children's shelter.

 -Bringing 2 cases of water to a local women's shelter.

 -Baking cookies and bringing them to all the people in our building. (Cora only dropped one plate of cookies, and it was when their dog jumped on her. Soooo, I guess it was warranted.) 

 -We have a large homeless population here, and usually i don't give money to them. But this day I decided to pull over outside a Sonic and give a man $10 from my wallet. He was so gracious, and I felt really good about it. I told Cora all about why we do nice things and sometimes people are hungry so we give them money for food. To which she said, "Mom, I hungry. I need applesauce."

 There was a night themed "Blessed are they who mourn". I wasn't sure what to do, and one of the suggestions on the website was to make someone dinner. I didn't know how that would happen, then I checked my email. And there was a family from the ward who needed dinner!

 I tried to have some good one on one time with Cora one day. She and I listened to Christmas music, and I didn't enforce naptime. And of course she had a major meltdown at a friend's house that night, but that should have been expected.

 Every time Cora saw a Salvation Army bucket she said "Mom I need the monies". Then she would go put them in the bucket one by one. We made a lot of friends that way.

 For the day themed "I was hungry and ye fed me", we got some McDonald's gift cards and passed them out to the homeless people I always see in that parking lot.

This really opened up my eyes to some of the needs in Visalia. On the day we donated clean water, Brandon told me he has many homeless patients and sometimes they are so thirsty in the summer that they drink out of the nasty rivers that run around here. I walk around those rivers all the time, and it smells. It breaks my heart to think of someone needing to drink that because they don't have any other option.

In addition, it gave me a much more compassionate outlook on the homeless people in general here. I don't know what their story is, but it isn't my place to judge. Even if I donate money and 9 times out of 10 they use it for something not good, if 1 out of 10 people can have a hot meal or something sustaining that is worth it. I don't think Heavenly Father will have a problem with me giving TOO much money to people.

So I am going to have water on hand for the summer months, in the car and in the strollers when we go on walks. I am also going to try to have cash and/or gift cards on hand for people. I also want to be able to be the person that people need more often. I am more ready to be compassionate and merciful with people that aren't within my own family, so I am going to work on that.

This was an amazing time for us. I want to keep the spirit of Christmas alive year round!

6 Months of James Murphy.

How has half a year gone? I almost don't remember what it was like to just haul one kid around town. JUST KIDDING of course I remember... but I'd rather have Jamers with me. I don't think Cora remembers life without James that well by now.

This month, James has not slept through the night once. Seriously. He ends up in our bed every night. Which I'm pretty sure is his plan all along... He's slept with us more than Cora ever has. It's killing me! But when he gives a big smile when he wakes up, I am able to forgive him.

-I love how James has 2 teeth. They are SO cute! And good thing too, since teething is the WORST.

-I LOVE his relationship with Cora. Cora can make him laugh like nobody else. 

-I love how much he loves me. As frustrating as it is, because I can't talk without him noticing I'm there and whining for me, it's nice to feel appreciated. (Just kidding, Brandon and Cora appreciate me! There's just something about a baby.)

-I love his new talent of grabbing things. He LOVES grabbing everything. It made for fun unwrapping presents on Christmas morning. The only problem is he can't hold onto things when he grabs them, so then I need to put them back in his hands. But he has some nice stuffed animals to hold now!

-I love his thumb sucking. It's soooo cute.

-I love his determination. He hasn't figured out how to crawl yet, but he sure wants to!

-I love his sweet nature. He was sick for the last 2 weeks, but we just assumed it was allergies and a cold (he has some nice red eczema patches on his cheeks). The other night he woke up screaming and could not stop. It was SO unlike him. When I brought him in to the walkin clinic they said he actually had a 102.7 temperature and throat ulcers. Turns out he had some kind of virus that causes both of those. Poor buddy! After a few days of antibiotics he is already feeling better. Even if he keeps getting sprayed in the eyes with the nose spray because he turns away.

James, you rock my world. People don't even believe me when you're grumpy. 

Katharine.

I had a friend through high school named Katharine Gallagher. We knew of each other freshman year, but sophomore year we bonded when we went to Chicago on tour choir together and were roommates. Then junior year we went to San Francisco on tour choir, and were in the same group of friends. Senior year we hung out ALL THE TIME at school. We went to lunch together every day, and bonded over our love of music and our saltiness at the world. Typical senior year angst.

 Katharine had super liberal political views, which clashed a lot with mine. But besides the 1 or 2 times we clashed on Facebook, we were totally fine and just had an unspoken agreement to not talk about politics. Lately, we had more and more of the same views anyway.

After graduation, Katharine went to Boston University and I went to BYUI. We saw each other once or twice, but mainly kept in contact with social media. (LOVE social media for that!) When I got engaged I remember her texting me like "Are you serious...?" haha I could tell she thought I was crazy. But when I said "YES I'M SO EXCITED!" Or something like that, she was nothing but supportive.

Especially while living in Florida, I didn't have time to see her. She was living in Tustin, and now that we are in California I was hoping I could run into her down in Irvine sometime. When we had Cora, she loved her and told me how much she wanted to meet her with her red hair. (Katharine always went back and forth with her hair being red the last few years.) She had this boyfriend who seemed amazing, and she seemed SO happy. She messaged me the other day to tell me she had reconnected with someone from high school, and I asked her if she was ok in the latest wildfire. She said she was fine, and I wanted to tell her I thought she looked like she was so happy right now. I just kept putting it off! I was hoping we would see each other at our 10 year reunion next year and reconnect a little more.

Katharine died on Tuesday of a short illness. She had posted on Facebook a few days earlier that she was in the ER needing IVs for dehydration from a stomach bug, and posted Tuesday morning something silly. I got a text Wednesday morning from Jenna that she had died, and honestly I didn't believe it. How could a 27 year old die suddenly? But then I got more messages, and then her best friend confirmed it.

Katharine, I love you. I've always wondered what your marriage would have been like, and what your kids would have been like. I'm so sad for your parents, since you are their only child and it's your birthday on the 27th. The one part of Lord of the Rings that always makes me cry is when King Theoden is mourning his son's death and says "no parent should have to bury their child". That is exactly how I feel right now. This isn't fair. Your mom just beat cancer again. I keep wishing I would have been better about seeing you when I went into town. I thought I always had more time.

(Look at 18 year old us. Holy cow.)

Random November 2017 Activities.

Just a giant photo dump.

 I love how small his neck looks compared to his chins!

 James' face when Brandon walks through the door. So cute!

 First time on the swings. I THINK he liked it! 

 James has been driving me nuts with his always acting hungry, so one day I stuffed a banana in this mesh pouch and gave it to him. He LOVED it!

 Poor kid gets woken up by people shrieking in his face. He's so confused!

 We finally busted out the exersaucer, and Cora immediately jumped into it.

 1:00 church is SO hard with babies, especially since I'm supposed to play the piano in Relief Society and James has a major meltdown literally 10 minutes before Relief Society starts EVERY WEEK. But look at that!

 Cora is turning into such a good mommy. Here she is changing her donkey's diaper.

 And here she's reading it a book.

 James and his buddies! That's Clive on the left and Ruben on the right. They are so darling, and all within a month of each other.

 One of Cora's bad habits right now is spitting, so if I find that she's been spitting on her bed she has to clean it up. But she loves cleaning her bed so I don't know if it's an effective punishment.

 Snuggle bug.

 Since James had such a terrible sleep regression we decided to break the swaddling habit at the same time. What was the worst that could happen?

  I bring the baby wrap to church since James is heavy to carry around for a few hours. We LOVE the mother's lounge. Look at that smile!

 Good trunk control!

 Poor angel has had a rough time with his skin! We can't figure out what it is, initially we didn't think eczema but now we do.

 Cora is OBSESSED with story time at the library.

 She always gets the Target stickers and something like this happens. Or they end up on me. 

 James is finally getting a turn with the exersaucer!

 Cora's friend Hayley had a princess unicorn birthday party. It was JUST AS CUTE as you would expect! 

 

 We had the missionaries over just before we left for Utah, and Cora invited the missionary to play blocks. Literally, that's what she said. "Missionary you play blocks with me?" 

 So angelic looking.

 The children's museum is a little stressful with two kids... because it's all chasing Cora around. I don't know what I'll do when James is mobile and wanting to go the opposite direction. Maybe just make them take turns choosing where to go.

 But then we get stuff like this...

 SO funny!

 I do love these munchkins.