Discussions

We have the strangest conversations every morning before school. My kids, especially Dominic, soak up information like sponges. We've researched waffles and when they originated. Yesterday we discussed politics and abortion.We've talked about tanning beds, marijuana, hedgehogs, and why muscles twitch after death. Some of these conversations leave me scratching my head at the direction they take. Kids definitely don't think like adults. And other times I'm in awe at the intelligence of my children.

This mornings conversation was on the number of children in a family and how the norm seems to go like a roller coaster. We talked about how many children were in the families all the way back to my great-grandparents. We talked about having an uncle the same age as you, and about surprise babies.

Then Caitlin popped up with this question -

"What if I accidentally have ten kids and don't know it?"

I about died and Dominic was right there with me.

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Tonight I was loving on the kids right before they went to bed. I MIGHT have been doing a bit of tickling and aggravating. I told them to head to bed and Caitlin started to pout. 

"No fair. You didn't aggravate or irritate me as much as Dominic."

Caitlin's Birthday

Caitlin's birthday was pretty low key this year. It was a non-party year so we told her she could pick a restaurant to eat out at. She chose IHOP. 

It's hard to believe sometimes that I have a 7 yr old. I know I say this every year and repeat what millions of other parents are saying, but time is flying by and my babies are growing up. 

But I've enjoyed having a 7 yr old. She's such a beautiful young lady - inside and out. She's still our little cuddle bug, but she's also so much more independent and confident.

Best Friends

Caitlin and her best friend. I had a best friend like this growing up and I love that my daughter gets this wonderful experience of sharing her school day with her best friend. 

I adore this little girl and would gladly steal her if only her mom would give her up. So far I haven't had any luck in this department. =D

Breat Cancer Awareness

In October my friend Tamorah and I took our girls got get pink extensions. The money spent is donated to breast cancer research and with breast cancer in my family history, I'm always eager to help. 

Dallas was so sweet and patient with the room full of giggling girls.

Tamorah had her dogs with her. Aren't these four precious?!

New hairdos.

 

 

Lost!

I had plans to write all of these posts in the order they happened. But the others are going to have to wait. 

We had a wonderful 9+ inches of snow this last week and Jon and the kids were home. We had tons of fun sledding, building snowmen, and having snow ball fights. The kids would come in to warm up and change out of wet clothes. I had to bribe them one day to come in and eat. 

Church was cancelled due to the road conditions. So Saturday morning we all headed out to find the best sledding hill. About halfway through Caitlin fell and got her gloves and arms wet and packed with snow. She claimed to be tired and so we headed back to the house for a hot shower and some rest.

After the shower she begged to go back to find the others. She claimed to have heard them just down the road from our house - the hill we started on. I let her go into the front yard to look and see if she could see the sledders. She wasn't to leave the yard unless she could see them from the driveway. She turned and saw me watching from the window and then headed down the street. She raised her arm as if waving so I assumed she'd found them. I couldn't quite see the hill from the window, but it's almost in front of my in-laws house. So I knew she'd be fine. 

About 10-12 minutes later, Jon and Dominic came in. I asked them where Caitlin was and it dawned on us after a quick discussion that she hadn't ever found them. We all threw our clothes back on and headed outside to look for her. Several of the neighbors joined the search. After searching the entire neighborhood and tracking her as far as the next main road we begin to panic. I called 911 and Jon headed to the garage to get the truck so he could look further. Just as I began to explain to the operator what my problem was, I saw the sheriff's suv coming towards me. I flagged him down and was shocked and relieved to see my daughter sitting in the seat beside him.

She had decided to go find her Daddy and headed the long way around to the other subdivision. Someone saw her walking and called the police. By the time he reached her, she'd walked a mile from home on a curvy, icy, road that had traffic and no shoulders. A young teenage boy had been worried about her and was driving slowly behind her while he called it in. 

I've never been that scared in my life. I now have a tiny inkling of what a parent must feel when their child is abducted. Because for a moment I thought I'd lost my daughter. Those were the longest moments of my life.

So I've hugged both of my kids more than normal and savored their smiles and giggles.

If you see me sporting a head full of grey hair you can blame it on my danger girl.

The things they say!

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Every day when I drop the kids off at school they lean up into the front seat to give me a hug before they get out of the car. When Dominic leaned up I felt something on his face. 

"Dominic, you have something on your face."

"WHAT! I sure hope puberty isn't getting on me!"

"Uh, no. Pretty sure it's peanut butter from breakfast."

"Oh. Okay. I'll wash it off when I get inside."

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Conversation overheard while the kids were playing in the other room.

Dominic - "Caitlin, it's just a fact you are going to have to accept and live with."

Caitlin - "Why?"

Dominic - "Because sometime we have to live with the fact that our family has very long eyelashes. We can't do anything about it."

Caitlin - "Okay, but it's annoying."

Oh to have such problems.

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Dominic wasn't wanting to change out of his clothes from the day before that he'd also slept in.

"Can't I just wear this. It would be easier for everyone."

"Why?"

"Because I wouldn't have to change and you wouldn't have to do laundry." 

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Apparently my children are very limber.

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Motorcycle riding with Daddy.

 

 

Caitlin

The kids had to a school project. They both had to pick a person that they considered a hero that they wanted to emulate in some way. Then they had to dress like them.

Dominic chose to be Russell Wilson, a Christian football player. 

I was able to find a helmet and football uniform. But after he put it on, he refused to let a picture be taken.

Caitlin wanted to be me. 

It was a bit amusing to hear the two kids discussing how to dress like me. It's interesting to see how someone else views you. And it was a little disconcerting to see how accurate they were.

 Caitlin has lost another tooth. I love this look!

Lost tooth!

Caitlin has lost her first tooth!

It had been loose for a while and I could see that it was ready to come out. So I asked her if she wanted me to pull it. She said yes. So I just reached in and grabbed it. Surprised both of us. But baby girl was brave. She didn't cry or even wince. Probably too excited to have finally lost a tooth.

Growing kids

Jon asked me to help him hold something outside. He's working on the garage. I wasn't really paying attention as I slipped my feet into some flip flops at the door. Later I looked down and realized they were the ones Dominic had been complaining were too small for him. While a tad tight, they definitely fit me. What has happened to my little boy?!

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He isn't the only one growing like a weed. Today I packed lunches so we could spend the day at the pool. I packed a sandwich, chips, grapes, peanut butter crackers, and some cookies in each lunch. We go to a pool in a neighboring town that provides free lunches to the pool attendants. So the kids skipped the burger, but took the fruit cup, milk, and chips. Caitlin ate EVERYTHING. She then helped a friend polish off a massive jumbo bag of popcorn and ate a few of my carrots. Upon returning home she claimed to be starving so I fed her more carrots and a large banana. We were all going in different directions so had sandwiches again for supper. She ate two sandwiches and some carrots. I have no idea where she's putting it, but expect to be changing out her wardrobe again soon.

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Jon just came inside a bit exasperated, holding a book. Apparently Dominic was reading while he was mowing. I'm a little afraid to see what my lawn looks like after that.

Dominic and Caitlin are in two summer reading programs. And while both of them have always loved books, this has inspired Dominic. If he's not outside, he's reading. He's plowed through an impressive amount of books in just a month and isn't slowing down. I had mentioned several months ago that I wanted him to experience other types of books. He was reading books that were all the same genre. And while there wasn't anything wrong with them, I wanted to widen his imagination and vocabulary. He took me to heart. He's read Around the World in 80 Days, 2 Hardy Mysteries, Judy Bloom, non-fiction about sharks, anatomy, dogs, insects, etc., and several classics. We are also flying through the Little House books at night. We are almost finished with the series. This does my heart good to see my kids fall in love with reading.

Caiti B

We were driving along a rather curvy road when Caitlin happened to spot this sign.

*

"Uh oh! I'm going to be sick. There was a sign of wobbly."

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Caitlin was asked by a family friend if she wanted to weed some flower beds to make money. She was super enthusiastic until she arrived and saw all of the flower beds. Baby girl was overwhelmed. She hadn't imagined quite that many. This was actually going to take some work. And Caitlin is very picky and choosey about what work she does. She cried.

But after some sobbing and cuddling we got down to work. A couple of hours later we were leaving and I told her she'd made $15.

"Wow! That's a lot of money. I guess I should have sucked it up and quit crying, huh?!"

I'm afraid I laughed while I agreed with her.

And in typical Caitlin fashion, she didn't spend it. She decided to save it.

*Image found here.

Marriage

Caitlin got into the car after school on Friday really upset.

Dominic was consoling her.

"It's ok. Maybe by the time mom lets you, he'll change his mind."

"But Dominic, I wanted him first."

I had to ask -

"Caitlin, what are you upset about."

"Olivia and I asked Matthew to marry us, but he chose her. And I wanted him to be my husband first. I still like Olivia, because she's my best friend. But she won't share Matthew for to be my husband."

Someday. . .

About five years ago I saw a photograph of a little girl wearing her mother's wedding dress. I knew I wanted to do this with Caitlin. There is a story behind my dress, so it would be neat to have it incorporated into her wedding somehow. But that thing is so incredibly dated and stained that there is no way I'd let her wear it in her wedding. The idea is to have the photos of the little girl wearing her mother's dress and have them displayed at the wedding. The best of both worlds.

Caitlin had so much fun with this. 

 

 

I wasn't going to use the veil since the comb was broken and I had no way of attaching it to her hair. But we were able to use some bobby pins.

 

She wanted a bouquet of flowers. So I found some boutonnieres from my wedding that I'd saved and we put them all together.

It was a little disconcerting to see my baby girl in a wedding dress. She looked so beautiful and grown up. But she had so much fun that it was worth it to see her smiles. She didn't want to take the dress off when I finished.

Spring

We've been busy this spring and I just haven't taken as many pictures as I normally do.

So here is some of the things we've been doing this spring.

I went up to run the trail run at Fall Creek Falls again this year. We had intended to camp that weekend, but a combo of Jon being out of town all week and constant rain until Sunday morning prompted us to just drive down the day of the race. I've written about my racing experience on my personal blog, but thought I'd throw in some pictures here of the rest of the family.

It was rather soggy still so the kids got muddy. Leila (my niece) was there and it was fun to play on the playground and cheer for the runners.

 

 The kids ran a little ways with each of us (my cousin, dad, brother, and I) as we came close to the finish line. The pic below is of my brother.

I absolutely LOVE daffodils. So each spring I find a place that no one will notice if I steal some blooms and fill up a vase or two to keep in the house. I thought if I planted a ton it would work, but then I loved the view out my windows and so couldn't pick my own flowers. So Jon found a field, while out biking, that is not in view of anyone's home.

The kids had the entire program at church a couple of weeks ago. It was precious. They sang songs, had a skit for the children's story, and acted out the sermon. 

Caitlin was the princess in the story of Moses.
Dominic was an Israelite in the story of the plagues of Egypt.

 

We went to Blue Coast the other night and Caitlin had her face painted. She asked the lady for a blue lady bug. This was a couple of weeks ago and we are still finding glitter around the house.

They make me laugh

Recently I made a Mexican dish and used salsa. I didn't have time to blend the salsa like I normally do. Caitlin was eating and in a very astonished voice

"MOMMY! There's onions in here. You know the Murrell family doesn't eat onions.
How could you?!"

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Caitlin just came into the room with her dress on backwards.
"I accidentally took off my clothes. So I had to put them back on. And I put my dress on backwards."

Jon and I are trying to figure out how one accidentally takes their clothes off.
This could be a very, very bad thing.

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Dominic called Jon into his room to help him get to sleep.
"Daddy, can you please help me. I have too much mental energy and I can't go to sleep."

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It was St. Patrick's Day and Dominic was dismayed to find that he'd outgrown his only green uniform shirt. Fearful that he would get pinched all day he taped a green crayon to his shirt.

We were all thankful when Jon pointed out that he had a pair of running shoes with lots of green on them he could wear.

 

Style

My daughter has a wonderful sense of style. She can pull off things that us normal people would look crazy in. So while Caitlin has never said a word about wearing a uniform to school she's added her own touch of style. She had a headband in, but must have taken it out before I snapped the picture.

Could you pull off those tights with that outfit?! =)

Caitlin's photo shoot

I was going through the pictures and found the ones below. I can't believe I forgot to post these. These were from her birthday photo shoot. My baby girl is growing up and she's beautiful inside and out. She picked out the outfit and changed it several times before she settled on an old favorite.

 

Caitlin's birthday

I honestly can't believe that my baby girl is six years old. It seems like just yesterday that I was rubbing her curly head in the hospital. She's grown into such a beautiful and precious young lady.

She is independent, smart, kind-hearted, and funny. Our family wouldn't be the same without her.

She's my little turtle and I love her so much.

She had been begging for an American girl doll for quite some time. But those dolls are outrageously expensive. She came to sit beside me while I was researching all of the 18' dolls out there and fell in love with a blond Madame Alexander doll. It was only slightly cheaper than the AG, but the reviews said it was just as good. Caitlin was extatic to open that box and see her "baby." She named her Brianna and calls her Bri.

 

 

Since this was a "party" year for Caitlin she asked that I bring cupcakes to the school. 

Her only request was that they have lady bugs on them.

We had a family celebration that night. Caitlin requested strawberry shortcake. We still don't have our island (waiting on butcher block that's on back order). So some of the kitchen things are still packed in boxes. I forgot to look for the candles until the last minute and then couldn't find them. Caitlin was fine with blowing out the large ones.

 

 

Uncle Jason and Aunt Kim came up and we went out to eat. Caitlin wasted no time in telling the waiter that it was her birthday.

 

Happy Birthday baby girl!