Ira's blessing

So we blessed Ira on Sunday at the drop of a hat, so much so that on Sunday morning I woke up an thought, "What on earth is he going to wear?" I did not have a blessing outfit for him and obviously did not put much thought into getting one for him. Now I'm kind of glad I didn't get one because I really hate toting around extra stuff, especially where we like to move every freakin' year.

Appalousa Museum

Our ward does a play group and this week we went to the Appalousa Museum. It was a lot of fun and free, which is even better. Appalousa horses, I learned, are bred in this area and were originally bred by the Nez Perce IniansThis picture looks posed, but they all just hopped up on that bench. All the kids on the bench are roughly the same age, plus or minus a few months. I didn't think Gwen was really THAT small until I looked at this picture.

Random Pictures

So these pictures are mostly for Grandma Murray and Aunt Shannon.

Gwen's Birthday

I'm pretty slow with my postings--Gwen's birthday was almost two weeks ago, but I just wanted to post some pictures from the blessed day. I was going to throw a fab birthday party for her, but I was pretty burned out after Thanksgiving. So it wasn't anything spectacular, but she was none the wiser. She got to eat cake, play with friends and cousins, and got lots of cool new loot--who could complain about that?

Ann and Justin and kids came out from Washington to hang out with Dave and Holly and the rest of us cool people. It was the most family we'd seen since we'd moved up and was a lot of fun. The Nakayas also came over for the party, so Gwen was in heaven with so many kids to play with.

Nate was awesome and decorated their gift to Gwen.

At the end of the evening we were all talking in the living room and kept hearing profuse giggling coming from the bathroom. Gwen and Ella were in hysterics playing in the bathroom curtains. Turns out having good buddies to play with is way better than brand new toys any day.

Thanksgiving

This was the first year we've ever hosted Thanksgiving. It was great. Jake's brother Dave and his wife Holly came up from Provo and we invited our friends the Nakaya's and the Kirkham's. The Kirkham's couldn't make it because they were in the hospital having a baby girl! We still had a pretty packed house--it doesn't take much to pack a tiny two-bedroom apartment. Anyway, the food was great and so was the company. We're lucky to have good friends close by and family that doesn't mind traveling.Gwen adored Dave while he was here (even though she kept calling him Zach) and insisted on having her bedtime milk and storytime from him--a privilege even Jake rarely enjoys.

The Nakaya's brought Guitar Hero for us all to play which was a blast despite the fact that I really sucked at it.
Ira: You will confiscate one slice of pumpkin pie, then report back to me at 1700 hours.
Gwen: Aye, Aye Cap'n

No toy was left unturned by the end of the night.

I am thankful for....

...real smiles (not those fake ones caused by gas).

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

This is all for now...I'm tired

The stats

As I have heard that people like stats in regards to the birth, here they are:
1) Megan was in labor from 4:00 am to 9:18 am.
2) The pushing lasted for approximately 10-20 minutes
3) There were no meds or epidural
4) Megan yelled like a powerful woman should yell.

and the baby:

1) 8 lbs 5 ozs.
2) 20 inches long
3) hands perfect for catching a football when he is older, like tomorrow.

HE IS HERE (post attempt number 2)

So number one post had issues. So this is attempt number two. Here is Ira. We are staying tonight and are leaving tomorrow in the a.m. (hopefully). Megan was incredibly awesome during the delivery.

Praying

Jake caught this footage of Gwen teaching George how to pray yesterday while she was supposed to be napping. You can't really hear her, but she's saying "Heavenly Father.....{inaudible}.....thank you.....{inaudible}....Amen.....{jibberish, squeals}" She never did take a nap yesterday, but this is how I found her napping just barely:

Goings On

Gwen finally let me do her hair today. You can't see, but there's another sprig of hair shooting out the other side of her head. Anyway, I know it doesn't look that fantastic, but this was a momentous feet for me. She definitely wasn't as happy as the picture shows during the process.
Yesterday we went to the botanical gardens to enjoy the fall colors. Most of the trees were either still pretty green or just looked brown and dead, but we did find a spot with some color.

The family that I love and the stories that they live

Well...Megan has informed me that I cannot put anything stupid on her blog. Since this is a privilege from her, I will not...for the time being put anything stupid on her blog...because she is watching me! (The orange is in honor of Megan's favorite holiday: halloween)

As I miss out on most of the exciting events experienced by Gwen and Megan, I first want to start with an awesome adventure all were a part of...rolling down a couch cushion. I know, I know, you are thinking wow! how lame, but have you tried to roll down a couch cushion? Easier said than done. Once I get on top, I do not roll down, but across the couch cushion. But the daughter asks for my participation so I do it. Well, I think I will allow Gwen the opportunity to show us all what couch cushion rolling is all about. Gwen...Alright. Step one is to get on top of the inclined cushion. And now what Gwen?


Oh right! Step two, roll down the inclined cushion. Man, she makes it look so easy; let's give her an applause for her great show.

That is what I get to do when I come home from school.

Megan has the hard part because she has to entertain her outside of the home. Which means long walks to "Amals" (Animals) as Gwen likes to call them.


You will notice in this photo that Gwen takes care of her "George" the monkey and "nameless" horse by requiring Mama to put jackets on them to stay warm.

A family favorite is the neighborhood goat (I think every neighborhood should have at least one)...



I call her "Nana." What a lovely goat she is. When we walk by (the two times I walked by, but probably every time the mother-daughter caravan walk by) Nana climbs up on the fence, looks over, and her eyes seem to say, "Blimey! You are such grand folks coming by to see me this chilly autumn day." And in response to her grand welcome, we give her a gift that she loves--roadside grass.


Right now you might be asking yourself, "What makes the roadside grass different from the grass in her pen? Isn't it the exact same grass?" In response I will tell you: Yes! But it is the gesture and Nana loves getting roadside grass from her favorite person in the world, Gwen.

Of course there have been other spectacular adventures that I miss out on, but Megan will have to fill you in on them. She may pretend to not have any adventures while I am away, but I know that having a screaming-almost-two-year-old-that-is-screaming-because-she-isn't-able-to-push-the -shopping-cart-into-everybody-in-the-store is quite an adventure.

Well, I best be off to some more wonderfully written writings of some Supreme Court Justices.

Call me lazy

Call me lazy, but I really didn't want to write a whole description of the Moscow Fair, so I've waited for Melissa to post on her blog. Anyone wanting a better description of it can go to her blog if you haven't already, but here are some pictures. Gwen was too little for all the rides, but she loved all the animals. And I've got to agree with Melissa, these were the cleanest animals I've ever seen. Some of the cows had just been freshly shampooed and probably smelled better than I did.

When I went to Utah State, I had biology class with a child prodigy. He was this cute little eight-year-old Asian boy, and every morning his mom would walk him to class as he would ride along on his bike with a bright purple helmet on and his oversized (for him) backpack on his back. Our class was pretty big--maybe 300 students, so it was held in one of those big auditoriums. You could come in from the back at the top, or there we also some doors right at the bottom in front where the professor would lecture, in plain view of all 300 students. One day the lecture had already begun and the front door cracked open and you could see this tiny little Asian woman holding a brown paper sack up in the air. The little boy popped out of his seat, and ran down to get his lunch that he had forgotten.

Today as Gwen and I we getting ready for our walk, I looked over at the kitchen counter and realized Jake had forgotten his lunch and I wasn't really sure if he had his wallet with him to buy lunch either. I looked at his schedule and thought I saw that his class didn't start for another hour, so he'd probably just be studying away in the law library. I gave him a call but he didn't answer, so I left a message telling him that I was on my way to bring him his lunch and since I didn't know where the law library was, I'd call him again when I got there so he could meet me. As soon as I got Gwen packed in the stroller we were off to campus.

I got to the law building and gave him a call. No answer. I decided the law building wasn't that big, so I'd start from the bottom up. I looked like a complete idiot as faculty down the hall were just staring at me stuggling through the door with Gwen's massive stoller, only to notice on my way out that there was one of those handicap buttons you could push to open the door. And then when I got inside I really had no clue where anything was, so I'm sure I just looked stupid wandering down the hall hoping I'd run into what I was looking for. Luckily I did. Just down the main hallway there was a door labeled "Law Library"--thank heavens!

I walk in looking only slightly out of place in my exercise clothes, carrying Gwen in one arm and Jake's lunch in the other. Oddly enough Jake was nowhere to be found. I ran into Dru who was nice enough to hand off Jake's lunch to him when he saw him, but no Jake.

Anyway, I thought it best to give Jake one more call, just in case he just didn't hear the first two and to let him know that Dru had his lunch. Still no answer, so we left and continued on our walk, which was nice by the way.

We were almost home Jake FINALLY calls me back and is like, "Thanks for my lunch, Megan! I was wondering what was so important that you had call me THREE times and leave TWO different messages about during class (luckily his phone was on vibrate). You know it's really hard to concentrate on what the professor is saying when you think there is some serious problem back at home!"

Poor Jake. At least he got nourishment at lunch time, which he actually was appreciative of later on in the day. Next time I think I'll look a little closer at his schedule and maybe not call three times in a half-hour period. Or maybe I just leave things up to him--he's a big boy now.

Potty

I got Gwen a potty yesterday because lately she seems pretty excited about the toilet and going "poo-poo" in it. Today she was all excited to use it and sat on it for a good five or ten minutes, then stood up and deliberately squatted on the bathroom floor and peed. Thank you Gwen.

I have to give Moscow some credit...

So I feel kind of bad making Moscow out to be all wheat fields because there is some green here and there. The rolling hills really aren't bad to look at, but I guess I was expecting it to be little more like Washington and Oregon with trees everywhere. Anyway, here are some pictures taken from our morning walk that show the greener side of Moscow. University of Idaho maintains an arboretum and botanical gardens which is where I took these pictures.

We're Here!

So after a couple days of driving, we finally made it! Unfortunately, I left Gwen's juice box in my purse with our camara our last day of driving, so our camera didn't work for a couple of days. Now the mechanisms are all sticky, but it works. Hooray!


Moving day! This is how we got a solid hour of Gwen not begging to be held. She was a little needy and emotional with all the commotion. (No, we are not going to miss our fake marble countertops or lovely brown cabinets.)

Gwen ready to go with her purse and her monkey George.

Kickin' back in the hotel in Boise.

Thanks a million for the use of your DVD player Mom, it saved our life! (Yes, the DVD player is mounted to the back of the seat with packing tape.)

Jake came up here to find an apartment back in May and he reported that everything from Boise on North was lush, beautiful scenery. This was about two hours out of Moscow. Not really what I was expecting.
Our overheated truck on the side of the road next to the beautiful green landscape that Jake was talking about.
When we got here on Saturday, it was super hot--somewhere around 100 degrees. This morning Gwen and I went for a walk and had to bundle up because it was so cold. Right now it's in the 60's, but when we went for our walk it was probably in the low 50's or high 40's. (Side note on that hat Gwen's wearing. Gwen's Aunt Shannon made it for her and it's been her favorite, favorite hat. We've lost it SOOO many times and have been lucky enough to find it every time. This morning was another of those occasions. We were almost home from our holy huge walk and I realized it was gone. I backtracked part of the way, but we'd already been gone an hour and I really didn't want to make it another hour, so we just headed home to get in the car and search. Luckily, Moscow isn't that big a place, so if I had to scour the whole town, I probably could have. Anyway, we found it! Hooray for Shannon's hat!

Sheep that live in the hills behind our apartment complex.
The rolling hills of Moscow.

Jake started orientation on Tuesday, which goes through this week and starts school on Monday. Gwen and I are wishing him the best and preparing for life without him for a while. We are lucky and grateful to have our friends the Nakayas and the Olsens up here starting law school as well, but we really miss everybody from home--Gwen keeps asking for friends and family members. Last night we video chatted (is there some term for this?) online with Ann & Justin and their kids Nate and Ella, and Gwen loved it...until we had to disconnect and we couldn't go hang out with them.