Pumpkin Patch visit- October 2016

Last year, we took Cora to a tiny pumpkin patch. Which was perfect for a 6 month old. But this year we wanted to bring her somewhere more exciting. Brandon was also nice enough to me to plan a trip for the day of Grandpa's funeral, which I wasn't able to attend and I was pretty sad about that.

  

   

 

 

 

 I love all these laughing pictures Brandon got.

 

 

As any doting parent does, I plopped Cora down in the middle of the pumpkins and took pictures. She blended in!

 

  Yeah that didn't last long.

 She's too cute.

 Best part of a pumpkin patch in Florida is they have frozen apple cider! Cora was a fan. 

  Hey look, we actually took a selfie without Cora for once!

  Our final stop was a tractor ride. Just took us up and back a little road, but Cora LOVED it.

 

 It was a fun and fairly inexpensive way to get out for the morning!

Quarterly Report- 18 months

Cora is already a year and a half old. Holy cow. She has just exploded in learning the last few months.

She now:

-Prefers walking to being pushed in her stroller (except for runs, thankfully)

-Knows at least 17 animal sounds (let me try to list them all) dog, kitty, bunny, fish, cow, horse, sheep, goat, bear, lion, tiger, monkey, whale, snake, bumblebee, Star Wars (pew pew pew!) and ghost (boo!). There could be more I'm missing.

-Has a handful of words. She just learned please and say it with the cutest underbite. "Peese". She also says "cheese" with the same underbite, loves to run around the apartment yelling "DAD!" at the top of her lungs, but still usually just babbles. Oh yeah, and how could I forget her favorite word. NO. I get that a LOT during the day. The other day I scared her and she screamed so loudly Brandon jumped while wearing headphones, then she was clearly embarrassed and kept swiping at me saying "No, no, no!" She also tells her bunny "no" during nap time.

-When she doesn't know what to say, she makes a sound that sounds like radio static. It's pretty cute... we're going to hope it fades soon, to be replaced by words.

-She LOVES babies. When she sees a person her age or smaller, she says "Bebe!" and tries to hug them. She also carries her stuffed animals around on her shoulder (the way we hug her) saying "bebe, bebe, bebe" and making this super cute sigh noise. I've decided it is her love noise, since I've always made the same one when I hug her.

 -She is still as snuggly as ever. In fact, when she wakes up in the morning (after yelling "Dad!" haha) she comes and lays in bed with me for a minute. She loves to give me hugs. And she will stay there longer if Dad is there. Once he leaves she is out of there!

-She is so independent. It is terrifying and hilarious. She insists on walking down the halls now instead of being in her stroller as mentioned before, and now she is learning to push the stroller herself.

-She has no fear of the ocean anymore! Hooray! Except now we have to be on top of her at every moment to make sure she doesn't get carried out to sea.

-She also has no fear of the slides anymore. In fact, she prefers to go down by herself. Help.

-She loves to hold our hands while walking. I make her hold my hand if we are in a parking lot (obviously), but when we are just walking down the hall she will run ahead of us and then come back and say "Ose?" with her chubby little hand stretched out. No idea what that means, but I love it.

She is generally a happy little girl, and I can't believe how much of a little girl she is. Isn't she supposed to still be a baby? I don't feel a year and a half older than when she was born! Some cute pictures for you.

We love our Cora Faye.

GFSRM

So, it's been a while. I have all intentions to update my blog posts from all the fun things we have been doing. Unfortunately Brandon is studying a LOT these days and his computer is the one with the pictures. So right now while he was distracted I stole it.

Yesterday I received the very VERY sad news that Grandpa Murphy passed away earlier that morning. I was supposed to run 10 miles, but had to cut it short after 5.6 because I wasn't feeling well. Maybe it was the pepper jack cheese I ate right beforehand, but I think it was a tiny tender mercy. Brandon had just picked me up and I was stepping into the car as my dad called. So I was able to be with Brandon and Cora instead of running on the trail. I had just gotten an email the night before about his health, and I thought "I need to call them this weekend". I'm so sorry I didn't get to say goodbye, but it seemed to be pretty quick and painless.

Grandpa's death embodies the hope we have in the resurrection and the plan of salvation. Ever since his stroke in 2004, his body and mind haven't been the same. I was just telling Brandon the other day that I remember him talking on the phone with my mom and dad about the business trips he would go on, and trips to other countries. While he tried to keep his mind active after the stroke, it wasn't the same. We hope and trust that now that he is freed from his imperfect body, he will feel more like himself. He can walk and run with the best of them now, and kneel without crushing his granddaughter (one of my more painful and funny memories of him). He got to see his mom and dad (I have vague memories of great grandpa Murphy), and he is probably up there giving all of our future kids advice. Cora woke up at like 4 AM Saturday morning laughing and talking to herself, and we said maybe she was talking to her friend as he went.

I LOVED that we got to spend a week with them in Utah in September. I was worried that Cora would be super underfoot, and get annoying. It's hard to have a little person around that much when you aren't used to them, trust me I have felt that way. But Cora and Grandpa just clicked! I have a few cute videos of them talking to each other. He even chased her a few times with his wheelchair, which was always terrifying to me knowing her tendency to stumble. But obviously nothing happened. They had a long talk one day, Cora just telling him everything about her day and he just soaked it in. I was so happy that they got along so well.

 Of course Cora was a stinker in the pictures... I'll tease her about this later.

I wish Grandpa could be around to spend time with more of our kids, but he needed to be rid of his body. He's free now, and Grandma told us to not be sad anymore and I am trying so hard! I will miss him, but we have so so so many memories of him to keep him going. I'll write up a list of them soon.

We love you grandma and grandpa! Keep stirring things up in heaven, and tell our kids that they can choose whatever major they want.

Rest of our Utah trip- Cora with her great grandparents.

It was especially nice to see my grandparents. It was my last trip seeing all four grandparents, so I am glad we stayed extra. It made the 3 hour layover in Detroit on the way back worth it.

Cora was so nice about pictures. Not.

 Cora and grandpa became total buddies. She helped organize his office a lot, and talked to him through the whole thing. I'm glad they got along so well, since I know Cora can be a grumpy toddler and I'm glad he didn't take offense to that.

  Rocking chair in Cora's size! Score!

 Yes, this is how I want to run my treadmill run. 

 Thanks Cora.

 I am so glad I got those pictures! Even though Cora wasn't happy during them, she did really like spending a week with Grandma and Grandpa Murphy.

We came back to Grandma and Grandpa Myres' house the weekend before we left. Cora was good about being with everyone, despite trying to climb up their stone steps in the backyard every time she got outside.

Our flight back would have been... more... terrible if it weren't for the giant color tunnel in the Detroit airport. We spent a lot of time here, burning energy.

 Cora got to watch her first Pixar movie... "Finding Nemo". She was fascinated.

We were glad to make it home!