Tuesday, January 1, 2008

2007 Top 10 List

Happy New Year!!! Last night we had a small party with some of our friends and their kids to ring in the new year. Since all of us have small children we were tempted to watch the ball drop on the eastern coast and call it a night, but after a comment from one of my single friends last week telling me it's okay I'm boring because I'm married and have a baby, I made everyone stay up until midnight and countdown to the new year. It was a lot of fun being with our friends, eating good food, and playing Mario Cart on Nintendo 64 (if any of you don't remember how great Nintendo 64 is you should turn off your Wii long enough to refresh yourself with the classics).
Tonight at dinner Scott and I were thinking back on the past year and decided to make a top ten list of the great things that happened in our lives in 2007. I decided to post the list, so here it is.



10. The year of the Trilogy.


Three of our favorite trilogies were completed this year with the release of Pirates 3: At World's End, Bourne Ultimatum, and Ocean's 13. This may seem like a silly thing to make the list, but that's how much we like these movies.


9. Mason got a bathtub!


Once again, this may not seem like a big event, but it was. Our old basement apartment did not have a bathtub, it only had a shower. This wasn't a big deal to Scott and me until Mason was born. Mason bathed in his infant bathtub in the sink until he was 6 months old. Needless to say it was a tight fit by the end and everytime Mason had a bath the whole kitchen got one as well. Since we moved into our house baths are Mason's absolute favorite. Anytime I leave the door open to the bathroom he crawls in, pulls himself up on the side of the bathtub and cries when I won't put him in.


8. Scott got ESPN, ESPN 2, FSN, and Discovery Channel.


Wow, we are really starting to sound like couch potatoes. Our television viewing in our old apartment included 5 public channels. For those of you who know Scott and his passion for sports you understand how hard it is for him to miss games. We spent many a night at my parents house watching the Eagles, Villanova basketball, the Phillies, or any other big game that was on. Now that we are in our house we have cable TV. If our TV is on there is a very high probability it is on a sports channel or Discovery Channel (Scott is kind of a nerd when it comes to Discovery Channel). Now all I want in 2008 is a DVR so we can record games and fast forward through commercials and time outs to decrease our viewing time.


7. Additions to our families.


Scott's parents adopted 2 more babies girls, Karissa Dawn Murray (Jan. 12) and Keyana Joy Murray(Jan. 23), last January. Mason likes playing with his aunts who are 3 months older than him.


Chris and Kacie had a little girl, Kennedy Hale (Aug 8). We are hoping, for Kennedy's sake, that Whitney and Brandon have a little girl to balance the cousin boy:girl ratio.


6. Becky and Jeff Wedding.


Scott's youngest biological sister, Becky, got married April 14 to Jeff Spaulding. Becky and Jeff met at BYU Idaho. The wedding was 10 days before I had Mason (thank you to Becky for not making me where a bridemaid's dress) and I had previously had a dream my water broke in the temple and caused the temple to be closed for cleaning. I debated wearing a Depends to the sealing, but in the end I made it through the day just fine! It was a beautiful day and we were so excited for them to begin their life together. Plus, we are so happy to have Jeff be a part of our family now.



5. Murray Family Reunion in Zions.


In July we went down to Ponderosa Ranch in Zion for a family reunion sponsered by Scott's Grandma Murray. We stayed in a big cabin with Scott's entire family and enjoyed a week of activities including swimming, hiking, ping pong tournaments, mountain biking, horseshoes, and it wouldn't be the Murray family if there weren't games(Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, and Blink were the favorites of the trip). We had such a wonderful time!




4. Hale trip to Chicago.


Rather than Brandon and Whitney coming home from Chicago for Thanksgiving, my parents took the family out to see them. We stayed in an executive suite apartment in their building (it is an apt. rented out by night like a hotel) so we really go a good look into what their every day life is like. I am so jealous of the great experience they are having our there. We went to museums, went shopping, and of course saw Wicked. Thanks Brandon and Whitney for all your hard work and planning to make our trip great and thanks mom and dad for making it all happen.


3. Scott and Rachel graduate from BYU.


Scott earned is B.S. in Exercise Science in June and I earned my B.S. in Nursing in December. We both walked in our convocation ceremonies in August (I walked early since there is no convocation in December). This was a HUGE event this year since we have both been working toward these degrees for 4+ years. You might ask what our plan is from here. Scott will go back and get his MBA sometime in the next 5 years, for now he is continuing to work at NuSkin and building his management experience. I will practice as an RN on the side of being a mom. After we are done having kids and they are all in school I plan on going back and getting my Nurse Practioner.


2. We bought a house!!!!


In September we came across our house with the help of Chris and Kacie (it is just down the street from their house) and decided to put an offer down. Before we knew it we were the owners of a house that had a whole lot of potential, but was not a lot to look at (or smell for that matter) at the time. With the help of family we first gutted the house and then built it back up. We had the main floor ready to move in the first of November. After we moved in and got semi-settled, we tackled the basement. There is still a long list of little things that need to be done, but we now live in a nice, modest home that we LOVE!! I think we appreciate everything about our house because of all the blood and sweat we put into it. This project has consumed the last 4 months of our life and therefore is a big part of 2007.






1. MASON SCOTT MURRAY


There really was very little competition for our highlight of 2007. Scott and I became the proud parents of Mason Scott Murray on April 25 at 5:49 pm. He weighed in at 8 lb. 3 oz. and was 20 inches long. Since the day he was born he has been the Perfect baby. Words can not describe how amazing he is. As I look forward to 2008 the thing I am most excited about is continuing the journey of parenthood.







Friday, December 28, 2007

Much to Celebrate!!

Mason's newest trick he has started doing the past week is clapping. All it takes is a yummy bite of food, a loud or bright (and slightly annoying) toy, or someone saying, "YAAAAY!!" to induce a round of applause from Mason. After a week of finding things to"yay" every five minutes I've decided we have much to celebrate in our life. Scott and I celebrated our third anniversay on the 18th. This is the first year we have not celebrated our anniversery during finals week, but wouldn't you know the night Scott had a surprise date planned for me in Salt Lake there was a huge snow storm so we decided to stay home and keep it simple by going out to dinner (our favorite activity to do) and watch a movie (our second favorite activity to do). We had a less formal celebration of finally having a functional basement by having Scott's siblings stay with us for Christmas. It was great having Jeremy and Janessa in from Las Vegas. They are expecting their baby girl March 3 and this was the first time we've seen Janessa looking pregnant and she looked great!! Steve came in from Arizona briefly before taking off to Costa Rica with some friends. Vance has traveled far from his apartment in Provo to spend Christmas break with us. We were also happy to have Brandon and Whitney in town from Chicago although they stayed with my parents. Whitney is also pregnant but not really showing yet. By far my favorite part of the holidays was spending so much time with our family we don't get to see often. We celebrated Mason's first Christmas. It was so fun to play "Santa" even though Mason is 8 months old and has no idea what is going on. I am writing this for all new parents as well as a reminder for myself next year. When you are planning Christmas for kids, GO SIMPLE. By the time Mason had Christmas at our house, then at Grandma and Grandpa Murray's, and then at Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Val's he was completely overloaded with toys and we decided to take some back and get him clothes with the money. Next year I will try to keep it simple for him. This is a picture of the nativity we did with Scott's brothers and sisters on Christmas Eve. From left to right we have Josh, Austin (wise men), Kenzie (Camel), Tanner (Joseph), Mason (not very happy Baby Jesus), Jessica (Mary), TayLynn (Angel), Keyana, and Karissa (sheperds). Rachel and Janessa were just baby holders.
From left to right we have Josh, Austin (wise men), Kenzie (Camel), Tanner (Joseph), Mason (not very happy Baby Jesus), Jessica (Mary), TayLynn (Angel), Keyana, and Karissa (sheperds). Rachel and Janessa were just baby holders.
"Baby Jesus" Mason

Shepard Mason at Allred Family Party
Mason got a big boy car seat for Christmas.
Mason playing with toys at Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Val's house.Mason enjoying Christmas morning.




Saturday, December 15, 2007

Rachel Murray, RN

Some might ask what those two letters behind my name are for. Well, they stand for Registered Nurse!! Yep, I finally made it. Thursday was officially my last day of school in my undergraduate career. It's been a long road, but I am finally here. As I attended my graduation dinner last night I was thinking about all I have had to do to get to this point. I am going list some of the things that top the list.


  • Two years of prerequisites which I could not get less than an A if I wanted to get into the program.

  • Taking my physiology final less than 12 hours before I got married.

  • Having a baby on the last day of finals and starting Spring semester 5 days later.

  • Starting back at 12 hour clinical days 10 days after having a baby.

  • Doing more than 800 hours of free labor (aka clinicals)

  • Jumping through every hoop the nursing program ask me to for the past 2 1/2 years.

These are just a few of the things on my list. Now that I am graduated I will return to the Intermediate Care Unit where I worked as a secretary for 2 years prior to having Mason. I will work 2 night shifts a week. I am so excited to finally be doing my second most favorite thing to do (being a mom to Mason is by far what I love to do the most). I do have to thank my wonderful and supportive husband Scott for helping me through the last 3 years of this adventure and my parents for all of their support especially all of my mom's help with Mason while I finished school. Now that I am kind of sounding like I have won an award I will end this post. The picture below is actually from August's convocation when Scott and I both walked.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

The Windy City

Over Thanksgiving break my parents took all of our family back to Chicago to visit Brandon and Whitney who live there while Brandon is in law school at University of Chicago. We had such a great time and I wanted to post a few pictures from the trip. My favorite part of the trip was definitely going to see Wicked. If you ever have the opportunity to see it, make sure you do. Some other highlights included going to several museums, shopping, and of course Thanksgiving dinner. It was so fun to see where Brandon and Whitney live and work. We also found out some very exciting news that Whitney is pregnant and is due in June!!! Mason can't wait for another cousin.
Scott and Rachel at Cloud Gate.
Mason's first airplane ride.
Rachel, Scott, and Mason in front of Chicago skyline.
The whole family (back row) Chris, Kennedy, Val, Nancy, Brandon, Mason, Rachel, Scott. (front row) Whitney, Cannon, Kacie.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Home Sweet Home


With so many friends and family moving away I decided to start this blog so we can keep everyone posted with what is going on in our lives. I must admit I am still trying to figure out how to work everything so it might be interesting at first. Scott and I are really starting to feel like homeowners in a couple different ways. We made our first mortgage payment this week which is always a pleasant thing :) We should be finished with our basement and ready to move everything down there next week. I am very excited to have a complete house so I can finish unpacking and finally get settled. There is also a downside to being a homeowner, unexpected expenses pop up all the time. Our fridge died on Monday which totally took us by surprise. It was in good shape and we thought it would definitely last for a long time. I guess a new fridge will just complete the renovation of our kitchen. I am going to try to post some pictures of Mason. He is growing up so fast!!! With a whole new house of undiscovered territory he is very busy. I will post pictures of the house in the next couple weeks.

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Crawling

At about 4 1/2 months Mason started doing a little inchworm crawl where he would bury his face in the ground, pull his knees up and then push forward along the ground. It didn't take long for him to perfect this method of movement and soon he was army crawling all over. Even at 6 months when he could get up on his hands and knees and pull himself up on furniture, if he wanted to go somewhere he would drop to his belly and army crawl away. It was funny to watch because it looked like he was swimming across the floor. He was so fast getting around with his army crawl that normal crawl just took too long. He is just now starting to crawl on his hands and knees and actually I'm really going to miss laughing at his speedy arm crawl. It has definitely been one of my favorite things about Mason.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Mason's First Halloween

I've never been a huge fan of Halloween, but now that I have a child to dress up I can see myself starting to like this holiday more. For Mason's first Halloween he was a Jolly Jack-o-Lantern. He thought the candy was pretty cool, even though we never took the wrapper off.




Grandma and Grandpa holding Kennedy and Mason

Mason with his Aunt Keyana and Aunt Karissa

Hale Cousins. Kennedy, Cannon and Mason.