January- the month of milestones.

We had SO many big things happen in January!

First off, our FINAL attempt at potty training. It actually worked this time!

First off, I bribed Cora with a Mulan Barbie doll. She sat on the toilet for 2 hours to get it. After that I knew she could do it.

 Then she insisted that she go to the grocery store without a diaper on. It was the fastest trip of my life, but she did it without an accident!

So, I was looking up how to potty train. The biggest thing we hadn't done yet was get rid of the rest of the diapers. So we took her to the women's shelter with her diapers. And haven't looked back since!

Since Mulan was such a successful bribe, I bought four Barbies for her to earn going days without accidents. She FINALLY earned the Pocahontas Barbie for going a full day in underwear without an accident.

It's kind of tricky, because she wears a Pull-Up for nap time and bedtime. So she waits until nap or bedtime. We actually have minimal accidents, which is great! But if she can go 3 times in the toilet  (without accidents) for 3 days she'll get a Jasmine Barbie. Then 5 days equals Ariel, and a week is Belle.

 She isn't the only one who has been learning a lot. One of the most fun parts of James hitting new milestones is it affects Cora as well. She is more than happy to share!

 Now that James can sit in the shopping cart, Cora begs to not sit in there. So she usually sits in the back (or hangs on the back).

 James can also sit in the high chair for dinner, and he's learning to eat Puffs! So Cora will NOT sit in the high chair anymore. We'll have to get more chairs soon! (Also, look at the cheeks resting on his bib!)

One of the biggest events, however, was that Cora learned to climb out of her crib. It was alarming when I was sitting there and heard her door open and then close, then this little head popped out saying "Hi Mom!"

 Thankfully she already had a mattress coming. This was her last nap in the crib.

 That night James got his turn in the crib! He LOVES having that much space to move around.

 And Cora LOVES her new bed. She got mermaid sheets.

These two are growing so much together!

7 Months of James Murphy.

My cutie boy is 7 months old! 

Jamers is SO close to crawling. He moves around by rolling, doing pushups to turn, and doing the "superman" with all 4 limbs off the ground.

(Poor Cora is sick here... but look at James in the background)

He is also almost sitting up full time!

James is finally off his reflux meds. I'm so glad! He still spits up a lot, but it's because he eats a ton. He eats EVERYTHING. I even pureed broccoli thinking he would hate it, and he ate it. He doesn't LOVE it, but he eats it! He also nurses a few times a day and usually has a bottle once or twice because he's just too hungry for me.

He's learning to spit while eating, and when he eats mixed berry it makes for a BIG MESS.

This month we sleep trained and it was SO HARD. The first night he cried for an hour and a half. We went in at intervals, but it was so hard. Now he goes to bed about 6 every night, and doesn't wake up until at least 3. Then he doesn't get up for the morning until 7. Hopefully having a new bed helps!

James has tricked me so many times to think he has a new tooth coming in. But nothing yet!

James' favorite person in the whole world is Cora. Followed by dad then mom. It's fine.

(Him looking at Cora)

(Looking at Brandon)

When he gets tired, he grabs my sensitive hair by my neck and tries to eat it. It hurts SO BAD!

Look at these CHEEKS.

James you're my favorite boy. We all love you!

Cora Quarterly Report- 2 years, 9 months.

Cora is going to be 3 in 3 months??! Every time I sit down to write this I am always amazed at where the time has gone.

Cora is still the epitome of sugar and spice. She is SO smart and amazes me with what she remembers and can repeat back.

Some of her famous quotes:

-The other day Brandon said "Cora, let's put on your shoes to go on a walk!" And she said "Dad, you just need to chill."

-While I was sitting in the bathroom with her (Potty training), I was tired and putting my head in my hands. She said "Are you sad mom? Take a deep breath." And coached me through some deep breaths. While I was NOT sad, it was nice to be taken care of like that.

-She has this dumb plastic horse toy that is half broken, but I keep forgetting to throw it away and if she sees it she has to hold it. The other day I was trying to smuggle it away and she said "Mom, where's the horse?" I said "Hmm, I'm not sure". "You didn't even look." Yup!

She talks NONSTOP about her little stories and has quite the imagination. She uses her princess barbies to dance, and is always telling stories about them. She's always using her imagination to put Disney characters in her real life. Like, "Maui needs to go to Costco!" Or when we are at the park, "Oh no, Gaston fall off the slide!"

She is SO loving. She loves giving people big hugs. She holds her arms out wide, pauses for a second, and then jumps onto you. I am trying to remind her that she needs to ask people before she hugs them, because sometimes her friends don't want 8,000 hugs in a row. But it is really sweet!

She also tucks in her toys. Constantly. I am always finding her toys in James' crib. My favorite one was when she told me to be quiet because someone was sleeping and I looked down to see she had tucked in my crochet hook. She's so hilarious.

Cora love princesses, and balls, and trains, and cars, and so many other things.

She played basketball for an hour straight when we got a hoop. Even in her princess dress up shoes.
Her memory ASTOUNDS me. She likes to try to direct me when we are driving around. She can get us to the park from anywhere in Visalia.
She loves to help in the kitchen. This was her response when she helped me make cookies.

She is the sweetest big sister. She loves to make James smile and laugh, which is good because he loves to laugh and smile at her!

Finding Joy in the Journey.

Last night, as I was about to go to sleep, I heard the news that President Monson had passed away.

I feel like I've lost an old friend.

My mom has told me the story about when I was about 4 and wrote President Monson about his talk in general conference. I also asked if I could come to conference and sit on his lap. (Apparently that was my thing?) I asked every day if I had gotten a letter back, but my mom thought it was a LONG shot. But sure enough, one day I got one back! Ever since then, I have felt a special connection to him. I'm sure everyone does, but that is mine.

President Monson is an amazing man. He was called to be a bishop at 23, which is the same age Brandon was when we got married. I can't believe that! And when he was called to be an apostle, he was only 36.

Brandon read that President Monson was the last of a group of apostles who knew people that knew Joseph Smith. That is the end of an era.

While it is nearly impossible to come up with a favorite of his messages, if I had to choose i would choose his talk "Joy in the Journey". It is a devastating and beautiful combination of three stories of people overcoming amazing adversity. I remember he gave the talk in 2009, during a hard period in my life. "Joy in the Journey" has been one of my mottos in life.

Just a few months ago we had a traumatic week as a family. During that time I read many many general conference talks to find peace in my life. Between his talks, Elder Holland's talks, and President Uchtdorf's talks, I was able to find a lot of peace and solace. I meant to write him a letter to tell him, but I didn't. 

We almost named James "Spencer" after president Monson. In April, in fact, I was dead set on his name being Spencer. While I don't regret his name obviously, maybe we'll use Spencer for our next boy.

President Monson, we love you. Keep my grandpas company up there, and I'm so glad you're with your wife again!

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!