Welcome Baby

We are so excited to share some great news. My dear high school friend, Emily, just had her first child in February.  YEAH!!! and congratulations to the new parents.

Nicholas and I had the pleasure of visiting Emily, Ethan and their new little baby today.  I've been dying to meet this little one and to catch up in person with Emily. It had been WAY, way to long...  Can I tell you, what a sweet, sweet baby.... Like a dummy I forgot my camera, but I got one photo with my phone.

I had decided I wanted to share a special gift with the baby and so I've been working on a Birth Announcement poster.  Here is the finished product.  I think it turned out pretty cute.  Since Emily named the baby after the Kestrel falcon I knew immediately that I wanted to include some bird images in the poster.  These were fun to create and adds just a little bit more personalization to the poster. Emily had announced Kessie's birth/name with the quote "the cutest little bird arrived today", so I paraphrased that quote for the poster.  Emily had mentioned her nursery was themed with blues, greens, grass and bugs. It was a little bit of a risk but I think it will work well with her decor.

Welcome to the world baby Kestrel!  Here's to many more milestones ahead.

Ka-POW! Happy birthday!!!

Hb Logan and Isaac! We had such a great time at your super hero birthday party. Ky outdid herself with hero themed decor, food and costumes! The boys got into the theme and Nicholas has been wearing his costume (party swag gift) all week.

Here is a glimpse (crappy phone photos).









Remembering Grampy John

Chris's grandfather John Murphy passed away last week.  His memorial services are today and tomorrow in New Hampshire.  Chris has traveled to represent our family.  We wish we all could have gone to pay our respects but last minute air travel is not cheap. We are so fortunate that Chris was able to travel and visit with John a few months back with his health was in a better state.

Here is the link to his obituary.http://www.conwaydailysun.com/index.php/community/obituaries/95300-john-n-murphy

John was a funny and opinionated man with a colorful mouth (compare to Utah folks).  Every time we visited or he visited it seemed there was always a great take away story.

I first met John during my first visit to Chris's home town (big news which was published in the local paper). We sat in his home, I recall, and looked through photos. My goal was to find photos of Chris as a baby but I came across the gem above and promptly had to snap of a photo of it. In the photo John is on the left and Tom is on the right. Tom must of only been in high school at the time.  The story, per John (as I remember it), is that he and his son Tom were on a business trip to Pennsylvania. While there they came across a protest about women working. The opportunity was too great to pass up and they quickly "took part" in the protest capturing a picture to take home to his razz his wife. She worked. This is the humor I will remember John for.

One time, over Thanksgiving, I made sweet potato casserole with marshmallows.  When he saw it he bluntly asked "what in the hell is this?"  I told him it was a family recipe and it was delicious.  He was skeptical but ended up having a couple of servings so he must of liked it. At the time I was mortified but now, knowing John, it's quite funny.  He had such a great smile and a wonderful laugh. We will miss him.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures of John.








Enjoy your next journey Grampy John. Much love.