From White Christmas to Winter Blues...

Oh me, oh my has it been a COLD winter. And, it has been a SICKLY winter, too. Think of a communicable disease and we've passed it around. From fever viruses to stomach bugs to sinus infections to ear infections. We're a mess. The good news is that Spring is right around the corner! Until then... I would just settle for some sunshine! I do realize that it's been well over a month since the last family update. If you're in need of an explanation, please re-read the first 4 sentences. Now, to get caught up!
In January, we went up to Pigeon Forge for our annual cabin trip. Every year for the last few years we've rented a cabin for our friend, Lindsay's, birthday. A group of us and all our kids stay up there for the weekend and have lots of food and games and FUN!

Here's a shot of all the kids - just like herding cats!

This year we actually got snowed in. I realize that for my midwestern friends and family this might imply that we received 4 feet of snow and couldn't open the door without facing a wall of the white stuff. That isn't exactly what "getting snowed in" means in these parts. Around here, if you get enough snow to ice over the roads and you don't have chains - that is getting snowed in. Especially if you're in the mountains - which we were. They only salt the main roads around here and there are a heck of a lot more back roads than there are main roads, so it doesn't take much to snow us in. The good news is, we had PLENTY of food and PLENTY of beer. Phew! We had to stay an extra day through Monday to get enough sunshine to melt the ice and we only hit one sketchy part of road on the way home... The kind of spot you only get one shot at going down. I took a picture of it:
Under those tire tracks is black ice.

Being that it was Lindsay's birthday, we had our friends make her an AWESOME cake!

Yes... that's a cake. Pretty cool, huh?

Following our mountain adventures were three notable events - The Father-Daughter Dance, The Strawberry Plains Half-Marathon and Valentine's Day!

Unfortunately Gwyneth was very ill the day of the dance and she was contagious, so she didn't get to go. But because she's Gwyneth, she had a great attitude about it and was excited to see her sisters off. We got to have Mommy/daughter time at home and I exposed her to one of my favorite movies from when I was a kid: The Neverending Story. It was her choice between that and Goonies. I'll get her to watch Goonies another time - you can count on it.
At the dance, they had a blast. Everyone danced - even Shawna! (no flash on the iPhone)


Mallory made me a Valentine at the craft table

Shawna won a prize for youngest daughter at the dance. When they came home they were wiped out! Mallory even brought a plate of cookies home for Gwyn. I love my girls.

The half-marathon seemed like it was never going to get here and then all of a sudden it was upon us! Then, while we were running it, it seemed like it was never going to end! Of course the day of the race it was really, really cold. I'm not sure if I used enough "reallys" to get my point across. It was C.O.L.D. cold. Really. The night before the race, Neal decided to give me my Valentine's Day gift a little early. (the race was on February 13th.) He gave me a very small video camera. If you're at all familiar with the "FLIP" video cameras it's a bit like that, but it uses a video card instead of internal memory... and blah, blah, blah - It's cool. He thought I might like to have it at the race in case there was an extra person to take video of us crossing the finish line. Well... there wasn't. But we still made use of it while in the car talking before and after the race. Here we are before...

And here we are right after... notice the defeated look on my face and the panting...

There wasn't even a photographer at the finish line! What a bummer! But we did get a picture of us after we finished, so that will have to do.



The race itself was hard. Maybe one of the hardest things I've done. No headphones were allowed so without Lindsay right there with me, I think I might have gone crazy! Although there was plenty to look at as we ran through the countryside with a view of the mountains and plenty of working farms and horse pastures. It was truly a beautiful site. I'm not sure I ever really got warm the whole time and there was one point around mile 8 or so where the sun disappeared and my face froze so much that I couldn't move my lips to form words. That was uncomfortable. But, we finished. We didn't stop, we took our time and our frozen joints managed to squeak us across the finish line in about 2 and a half hours. And if I can get my knee to stop aching from over use, I'd like to run another one... one of these days!
Here we are in our shirts:
Who ran a Half-Marathon!? Oh that's right - WE DID.

Valentine's Day was the next day and we had our annual Murphy Fondue Night! What's better than melty cheese with fruit, veggies and bread!? Melted chocolate with fruit, marshmallows and pound cake! Yummmmm.

Fashion came over for dessert
and then watched the girls so that Neal and I could go see Avatar. We really enjoyed the movie! If you haven't seen it, Go. I don't think you'll be disappointed. However, don't worry too much about the 3D... I don't think you'll miss it. Neal found it to be really distracting and I could have done without it myself.

The girls had Valentine's Day parties at school that they both really enjoyed! Fun was had all around! Next month Gwynnie and Mallory both have their 1st soccer games and on the 5th, I'll be headed to Ireland with Fashion for a week! My first trip overseas. I'm very excited and a little nervous. I'm taking my camera, so be ready for pictures!

Speaking of pictures - we've taken the next steps in putting together our business. We call it elizabeth k. Photo Creations. There's a website and a facebook page. We're hoping to get really rolling in the Spring. Say a little prayer for us! http://elizabethkphoto.com

Ho Ho Ho

I'm dreaming of a whiiiiiiiiiteeeee Chrisssstmas! Well KEEP DREAMING! We just got rain. Quite a bit of rain, actually! And we managed to be out during the only part of the day where it did rain... hard. But that's all a part of the fun of it, right? Okay, no... but it didn't spoil any of the fun, so that's good!

What a magical Christmas we had this year!! Mom and Dad rolled into town on the 21st with a gingerbread house, mini-Christmas tree for the girls' and presents in tow. We drove through a huge Christmas lights display that was coordinated with music and it was an amazing site! The whole show lasts about 20 minutes and the lights were coordinated to 4 songs (if I remember correctly) that played through your car radio. The girls really enjoyed sitting with their heads out the sun roof, watching the lights... Shawna didn't have as much fun as the rest of us did, but we just turned up the music and ignored her. Okay, okay, I'm kidding of course... sort of. haha! My parents took a night to babysit and let Neal and me go to dinner and ice skating with the Harolds. We had a BLAST! It was a ton of fun even with the huge fall on the ice and giant lump on my elbow and knee.

*note to self - ice skate first THEN drink wine*

Neal managed to pop a photo on his iPhone.

The rest of the trip we did Christmas shopping, ate lots of yummy goodies, baked cookies for Santa and went to the family service at church complete with dress-up nativity.
Mallory dressed as an angel

Gwyneth was a lamb

She let Shawna try on her ears

Then Gramma and Pop Pop took Shawna home while Neal, Gwyn, Mal and I delivered cookies to some people who were working on Christmas Eve. What a pleasure that was! Then we opened one present, read T'was the Night Before Christmas and then went to sleep. When the girls woke up the next morning they found presents under their tree and even more under ours!
Santa brought 3 presents for each girl - just like the wise men did for baby Jesus. I know this because Gwyneth told me so when she came into my room at 5am. I told her to open the presents that were left under her tree (Santa leaves them so mom and dad can sleep in - isn't he wonderful!?) and they actually made it until 7am. We had almost every present open before the sun seeped over the horizon. Mimosas help in this situation!
The girls made out like bandits! Everyone was so sweet to think of us this Christmas! The girls really enjoyed everything... it wasn't like the year I put tights in Gwyneth's stocking only to hear, "What? I didn't order THIS." I'd never make it through if I listed everything under the tree, but we did get a couple of pictures amidst all the chaos.

The next to graduate from Henderson University will be this sweet little 7 year old. The rest of us are getting our advanced degrees
Shawna did a great job opening her presents!

Mallory got everything she asked Santa for - Safety Scissors, a Big Frisbee and Pajamas (cute flannel ones with pink cats on them.)
Mal and Gwyn got Snuggies from Gramma and PopPop. They were a BIG hit!
I think Neal was a little jealous...Clearly I was the big winner of the day with the awesome Broncos vintage sweater and UT Vols ice cube tray!!!!

Gwyn got a DS lite... it was nice knowing her. I'm sure we'll see her again when she's 17.
Of course it's always worth putting down your DS to put on your fancy new clothes and beat your sister in Madagascar Kart on the Wii!

I hope that all of you had as joyous a Christmas as we did! May you all ring in the New Year happy and healthy. I can only imagine what 2010 has in store for us and I can't wait to find out! Happy New Year everyone!

SNOW!

We had an early snow day this year... along with most of the rest of the country. The storm came about 12 hours early and overnight, so we definitely awoke to a surprise blanket of snow and that is always fun! This was also Shawna's first real snow! She was way too little last year to enjoy much of anything this time of year. Of course I broke out the camera and got plenty of pictures!

She wasn't sure of it at first

Decided she liked it

And then decided she didn't like it

The dogs LOVED it

Gwyneth and Mallory had a blast building things with Neal

It was all fun and games until the sun came out. And that was that! Hope you had fun in the snow... if you got any! Keep an eye out for that Christmas card and our new post after the holiday. Lots planned for when Gramma and Pop Pop are here.

What are we Thankful for?

PLENTY! We're Thankful for the wonderful family we have, the wonderful friends we have, for our health, our faith, the food on our plates and the roof over our head. On the drive home we were thankful for Redbull and Alex Cross, but I'll get to that...

This Thanksgiving we spent in Bartlet, IL with our cousins Loren and Scott Romine. Loren had a baby in October, Owen Donald Romine (in fact, he was born on Shawna's birthday - October 23rd) and I desperately wanted to hold that sweet little boy, so we drove up to Loren's place on Wednesday morning. The drive was 8 hours long - totally manageable in the world of roadtripping with children. I immediately commenced baby-holding.

We had a great vacation. Wednesday Scott made homemade pizzas that were better than some I've ordered at restaurants and Loren and I got in some early shopping! Thursday we enjoyed a wonderful meal. Chris and his girlfriend, Harmony, came over and entertained the kids. It was great to have a big group at Thanksgiving.

This kid gets around!

Owen's 1st Turkey Day!

Gobble, Gobble

The girls made little turkey pins for their plates and wore them during dinner. Then we got in a little evening sleep before we were out the door for some traditional Black Friday shopping. Oh yeah... we totally got up at 4am to go Christmas shopping. You know it. Following the shopping spree there was a lot of napping. When you're napping a lot, you feel like you've been in one place a lot longer than you actually have been... so instead of 5 days, I think we were actually there for a week.

Friday, Loren and I got pedicures and then she and Scott babysat the girls while Neal and I drove downtown to visit my college roommate for dinner. Elissa took us to a trendy, new spot in Chicago called "Mado" and we ate things on a pig that I would never have imagined... like pig cheek and pig heart. Elissa swears she loves it, and I'll admit the pig heart wasn't bad, but it's a muscle that gets its fair share of use, so tender wasn't exactly an adjective I would have chosen... anyway, she swears she loves it, but there was some left on the plate, so I guess she doesn't love it THAT much. *wink* But I can put it on my list of bragging rights right below the raw Quail egg Michael made me drink in my beer. Dessert after the meal was at a place called Hot Chocolate and if I'd ever wanted to marry a food, it was the cup of dark hot chocolate with the homemade marshmallow that we shared.

Goodness sakes! It was heaven. Go there! Have it! You will thank me. We also had this:

Again, heaven!

Saturday we went to the Fox Valley mall (which I kept calling the Fox River mall by mistake for all you Prison Break fans out there) and saw Santa Claus and rode the Carousel. Since I can't post the Santa photo as I may use it for our Christmas card, I'll put Gwynnie with her head in a deer photo - HILARIOUS.
The Mall has a double-decker Carousel and the girls got to ride it. Gwyn and Mal rode the top and I took Shawna on the lower level - we rode a horse with a fish tail. She LOVED it.

There was a HUGE Christmas tree, also so you have to get the obligatory "photo in front of the tree" and "photographer in the ornament" photos.


The guys went to a sports bar next to the mall and Loren treated the girls to Build-A-Bear. Gwyneth picked out a dog and Mallory chose a bunny. They stuffed them and gave them sounds (the dog barks and the bunny giggles), wished on their hearts, sewed 'em up and gave them baths.

Loren also made a monkey for Owen. Too cute.
As you can see... he was thrilled.

Then we went home and ordered some Chicago style pizza for Nealy. That was all he really wanted during the entire trip! It was good, too. Sunday morning we hung out for a little while and we left around lunch time... this was later than I had planned, but Neal and Scott were having such a good time that I didn't press the issue. Of course when we did leave traffic was HORRIBLE and it took us 4 hours to get from Chicago to Indianapolis... look at a map - it's WAY too long. As a result, our measly 8 hour drive became a horribly long 12 and a half hour drive. Ugh! Hence the thankfulness for Red Bull and Alex Cross novels on CD. They got us through to the end. We arrived home safe and sound, little ones asleep (big ones exhausted!)

During our trip I did as I promised and got some great pictures of Owen.