and a p.p.s.

Sorry for the delay but the huge, fantastical, awesome, unbelievable Giveaway has been postponed until next week.

Not to kill the suspense but maybe to garner a little more interest, here's a sneak peek of what it could entail ...



or a little something like this ...

(The hat, not the boy. Sorry. He is awfully cute.)

Killing Me Softly

Disclaimer: I stole this post title from my sister whose pop culture reference is quite obvious.

Another post about Ruby. I can't help it. The girl is seriously killing me. It's true what people say, "Cuteness has saved a lot of kids." And boy it couldn't be any more true than it is with Ruby. She's a few months shy of turning three but the Terrible Twos are in FULL FORCE.

It's like awful foreshadowing of what her teenage years are going to be like. I simply can't do anything right by her. She wants to do everything for herself, freaks out when she can't, and then freaks out when I help her. And heaven forbid I try and do anything with her hair. (Mark my words, one day she will look at old photos and say, "How could you let me go out looking like a homeless ragamuffin? Seriously, could you at least have tried to do something with my hair?" When she asks this, I will stare at her long and hard and then walk away. It's probably best that way.)

One day when I did manage to get pigs in her hair, she cried for over an hour, and walked around almost the whole day with her shoulders hunched like this:


She is a drama queen. Even worse, she's a paranoid drama queen. The other day while making dinner and holding Abram, I told Ruby she couldn't have another snack and she absolutely lost it. All of the sudden she yells, "IT'S! NOT! FUNNY! ABRAM!" I look down to see him just smiling and kicking his chubby little legs at her. Poor little lamb, so misunderstood.

When we were in Utah a few weeks ago we went to Lagoon with all of my siblings and their spouses (with the exception of my brother Spencer). Our group was HUGE! Of course we had to get the token pic of all the cousins together and you know how most kids have no concept of personal space? It's like they can't get close enough to each other? Well, which one of these kids is not like the other?

(Ava, Ellie, Abram, Henry, Max, Paige, Olivia, Brooke, Gabi, Ian, Christian, Ezra, Taylor, Cameron,
Kate, and ... oh wait, could that last little girl be Ruby? That's odd.)

Ruby has this thing about getting too close to other people ... obviously.

Ruby does NOT try new things. Henry was never a dare devil, per se, but Ruby is ridiculous. Seriously? You won't go on the little boat ride at Lagoon? We should have known this was never going to work...


She's a packrat. One day she was walking around with a nail file, my empty glasses case, her doll, and a toothbrush travel case. I asked her what she was doing and she matter-of-factly responded with, "I'm just carrying this stuff around." Well okay, as long as I know what the game plan is ...

She's still the queen of random accessories. The other day with a perfectly adorable dress she was wearing one cowboy boot on the wrong foot and a Disney princess snow hat. Then today I came outside to find her wearing ...


... Henry's bike helmet ... backwards.

If nothing else, this girl is full of surprises.

and a P.S.

Pssst!! Stay tuned for a giveaway sometime later this week.

(Yes, I do realize my blog isn't a big enough deal to be entitled to do "giveaways" but I'm doing it anyway. That's the way I roll.)

The Greatest Great Grandma

Our kids have one great grandma, Scott's Grandma Mary. She is perhaps the funniest, spunkiest, most sarcastic one of them all. Have I talked about Grandma Mary before? All you need to know is: she's funny and Scott's family ADORES her. But seriously, how could they not? Just to give you an example of her wit and humor, here's what she said one day as we were getting off the phone:

Me: Okay, tell Grandpa Hal we said hello and we love him.
Gma Mary: If I'm still speaking to him. Good-bye dear.

On one of our many trips to Utah this summer my kids and I drove down to Beaver to spend the day with Grandma Mary and Grandpa Hal. It was a surprise visit so it was really fun to just pull up and see the confused looks on their faces. Of course, Mary was thrilled to finally meet her newest great grandson who is particularly special to her because he was named after her father, Abram (Abe) Murdock, the great Democratic Senator from Beaver, Utah. He was so great, in fact, he had a post office named after him.

Proud Great Grandma Mary and Baby Abe with his very own Beaver, Utah t-shirt.


Great Grandpa Hal was also a big fan of the little guy.


With the lovely Grandma Sharon


Mary couldn't get over Henry either. He handled the repeated hugs, kisses, and cheek pinching very well.


Could this be any sweeter?


And where was Ruby during all the hugs and kisses? Hiding on her Aunt Becca's lap. When I finally made her get close to someone other than Becca or Sharon, this is how she reacted:

(Good thing they love her just the same!)

Of course we couldn't take Baby Abe to Beaver without taking him to his very own post office. How many kids have their own post offices?

I love this last picture. You can see how proud both Mary and Hal are of their family members who came before and the ones carrying the torch on. Mary takes such pride in her father's name and his heritage as well as her own children and their families. She got emotional quite a few times saying, "I can't believe you named him Abe." I'm so thankful to know Mary and that she loves my children.

Isn't it nice when other people love your children too?