These are a few of my favorite things

that I love about Christmas and the Holiday Season . . . .



Christmas Lights- tree lights, house lights, temple square lights



Cars with fresh Christmas Trees tied to the top



Treats on my porch- for the past few years we have opted not to do friend/neighbor gifts and instead contribute to Families Helping Families building homes in Mexico. But I sure do love finding treats on my porch!! mmmmm! carmel pecan clusters!!

Christmas specials/movies- how cute was Prep and Landing?

Hot chocolate with Peppermint Ice cream!



The Night Before the Night Before- a tradition that started with my dad taking my older sister and I to a late movie after shopping for my mom.



holiday baking- gingerbread , soft molasses cookies, sugar cookies

giving to those in need. Our ward and family have focused on helping some of the local Refugees. Pulling a name off the angel tree or donating food to the food bank helps put Christmas into perspective for me.

fresh snow and bright blue skies

Christmas cards in the mail. I love to ooh and awe about our friends adventures and see their kids grow up. This year it just got away from me. I really had great intentions- this is the card I would have sent had I the time (or energy) . . . next year I'll start early!




Christmas Music. I turn it on in the morning and let it play all day!


making Gingerbread Houses! We get together with the cousins to decorate houses. The kids do a great job and the adults enjoy it just as much if not more.


the nativity

Spending time with family and friends who come together to celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. I am grateful for His humble birth and His example and teaching that inspire me to be a better person.

Hope that this finds you and yours warm, happy and healthy this Holiday Season! We are grateful for the love and friendship of our friends and family. You bless our lives in so many ways.

Love, Adrianne

Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo

and we have 3 princess for a day!

Many thanks to their fairy grandmas- the girls woke up to presents in the hotel room:

new princess dresses, shoes and capes

and then it was off to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique

Annie as Cinderella

Meg as Belle

and Kate as Sleeping Beauty

and then off to lunch with the Princesses!!

thanks grandma's & grandpas for a wonderful, magical day!

Disneyland for Christmas

Santa stopped by our house early and sent our family to Disneyland . . . . it was a magical 3 days!

The girls were perfect ages for this trip. Kate and Annie loved the thrill and excitement of the big rides- but also still love the magic of Monsters Inc. Winnie the Pooh, and Small World.

Winnie the Pooh was Meg's first ride- she was so cute! She LOVED it! It was her favorite!

This is on the huge Ferris Wheel at California Adventure!

I love how much fun they are having together

Annie was so sweet and helpful as usual- I am crossing my fingers she stays this way forever!

Annie's favorite ride was California Screaming & Splash Mountain!

One morning the girls and Dan rode Splash Mountain 3 times in a row without getting off!

They were laughing and giggling and didn't even get very wet!

Annie & Adrianne- taking an "A" picture but I love this one because Kate wanted in on the fun!

Kate would giggle all through the adventurous rides.

One of my favorites of the trip was Kate giggling all through Space Mtn.

She even liked the Tower of Terror!!

Meg was always up for a carousel ride while her sisters were off on an adventure!

Dan & I both loved watching our girls have so much fun!

At night, while sharing Dibs we would talk about our favorite parts of the day!!

Meg loves yellow. So she was thrilled to find the "yellow" dog! And she brought home Pluto as her souvenir who she calls "yellow dog"

M&M Family

our pumpkin M&M family! The girls had a blast paining these.

Good thing Dan is an artist!

at the neighborhood trunk or treat

Dan- what a good sport! :)

I even wore this get-up to the school parade.

When did we become that family that totally over does it when it comes to Halloween?

Meggie! too cute!

Kate trying to make the silly scared face Orange always has!

Kate turned out to be our best shaped M&M!

Annie! lovely in green (the only real girl M&M)

Happy Halloween from the Murdocks!!

BEHIND!!

I am behind.

behind in my life (laundry, cleaning and grocery shopping)

behind in catching up with friends who live near and far,

behind in blogging,

behind in my sleep!

It is an overwhelming feeling. I don't like feeling behind because try as I might I can't get caught up.

Life has just been keeping us busy . . .

We started school- Kate is in all day Kindergarten and LOVES it. She loves the idea of homework- and learning to read! Bless her heart- she has more enthusiasm than anyone I have ever met and doesn't have an "inside voice"- but her brown eyes melt me like butter.

Annie is in 2nd grade and is as close to perfect as they come. I wish that I could bottle her and keep her 8 forever. (guess that means that we also missed her Birthday since I was last blogging. We had 20 kids over for dinner, games and a movie outside. There was more drama than necessary, and fortunately Annie didn't get too caught up in it all.) Annie also got baptized on September 12th. We had aunts and cousins (and grandpa) in from out of town which made the weekend extra special. She is a soccer star and a great little reader and has recently taken up texting. I just adore the person she is becoming!

Meg goes to preschool 2 days a week and also to dancing. She LOVES dancing and wants to go every single day. For the first time- I am loving 2 1/2. (with my other two I was pregnant again and on bed rest- or had a new baby when I had a 2 1/2 year old.) Meg is so stinking fun, and cute and full of life and curiosity and love. She counts and sings and twirls and shuffles and laughs her way through our days. I love when she says "welcome" and "i love you too." The other day I was driving along thinking about how funny she is and I looked in the rear view mirror where she had a swim suit on her head! Silly girl!

I also got a new job back in June (working in my dad's office)- which means I now have 3 jobs in addition to being wife, mother and primary president. I thought I would work less at the hospital and more in the office but so far that hasn't happened. And although I used to be able to do it all. I can't anymore- nor do I really want to.

Please remind me to quit one or two of my jobs before I get the next one okay??

Now off to conquer the laundry!

Beach Week 2009

Another fabulous year at the beach!

lots of my pictures are on Nick's camera (hint hint) but here are a few favs.

our little blondie!

Kate

could these two be any cuter??

(thanks for all of the times you took my kids in the water!)

Annie

Kate & Annie still love each other after 10 + hours in the car

all of us- well most of us anyway. 65 and 8.5/9ths if my math is right

Mush insisted we stop for a DATE shake. Are you kidding?

Of all the 100 flavors- DATES??

cute little Meggie Moo!

Scott eating a deep fried twinkie.

Mushie and Papa- sharing a "date" shake!

the look on Kate's face says it all. She didn't think it sounded very good either!

we love our beach week friends!

Heart Strings

Wednesday was Annie's last swim meet. She qualified for conference in the back stroke. It was hectic to get all three kids up and fed and to the pool at 8 am.


As we were climbing out of the car Kate turned to Annie and said in her darling little voice " You do a great job out there okay!" my heart melted at her love and support as my eyes filled with tears.

(silly Kate wearing one of Annie's caps)

We walked into the pool and the coach gave Annie a new cap with her name on it. She put it on and looked so big in her uniform and MURDOCK cap, as I left her with the coach and walked away I had to wipe away the tears. Not even sure what I was feeling- she is getting too big.

(yes the picture is Meg not Annie, but you get the idea of how cute it is)

And then Annie's swimming the in morning prelims qualified her for the final that night. They take the top 16 swimmers for each race. Annie was # 16. But when we checked in for warm-up the times had been adjusted and Annie was not # 17- the Alternate. (Don't get fired up- it was very fair, they use the auto wall clocks in the pool but because the kids have never used them before they also have timer and one little girl's clock had not stopped even though she had won her heat in the morning- all fair). We were bummed but she was a really good sport.

We decided to stay and see what happened. Her race came and we noticed that lane 5 was empty- so we were yelling from the balcony. The announcer noticed an empty lane and asked for an alternate. (The coach had told me not to get my hopes up the alternates never swim) So next thing we know Annie is in the water- we were cheering like she had won the race (just excited that she got a chance to swim) The race is about to start and enter stage right a coach who has suddenly noticed that his swimmer is chatting and not in the water. So Annie climbed back out. This time I cried- Sad for the yo-yo of emotions that a 7 year old had to experience over swimming.

Recently my sister and I had a conversation about parenting.

Is it 50% fun experiences and tender moments and

50% sleepless nights and cleaning up throw-up?

Or some days does it feel more like 90/10?

I still haven't decided but I do know I love my kids more than anything.

Even if they make me want to scream and cry, I share with them the good, the bad, the disappointments and the celebrations.

It is overwhelming and humbling to have responsibility for such amazing little people.

We did it! We did it!!

We (and when I say we -I mean WE- thank you to Sarah and Lauren and my mom who watched Meg during the first few days) are proud to announce the latest milestone in the Murdock family!

MEG IS POTTY TRAINED!! whoot! whoot!!

she drives me crazy and she melts my heart! what a funny kid!!

Happy 4th of July!

To celebrate the 4th we went with the Parker family to Stadium of Fire. The highlights were the Jonas Brothers and the Fireworks.

My favorite moment of the night was when we were dancing and singing along and Annie leaned over and asked me who my favorite Jonas brother was. I answered "Joe" and her face lit up as she said in a dreamy little voice "yea! Me too!!"

A sweet a simple moment that I will always treasure because my kids and I were having so much fun together and to my 7 year old I was totally cool! Hope we always like each other this much!