it just works. . happy birthday!

*you love trivia pursuit and i can't stand it.

*you love depeche mode, erasure, and crowded house and i'd rather eat a bucket of worms then listen to them for 2 seconds they all scare me!

*you hate cilantro and I would rub it all over my body and eat it on everything!

*you sing every second of the day and everyone LOVES your voice. . i never sing and everyone is glad.

*you sleep with barely anything on and no covers and i can't get enough clothes made of fleece on my body and blankets over me.

* you love movies with adventure and violence and i only like movies where humans get married or have a baby!

* you love to listen to music all the time and i love to look at pictures!

but for some reason we adore each other and can't get enough of each other! i can truly say i have fallen in love with you more every year. we have worked hard on our marriage. we both are committed to making marriage. . fun and deep, and our first priority behind our faith. we both believe with all our hearts the very best gift we can give our children is a great marriage. you are an amazing man who works so hard to make us all happy, protect us and provide for us in every way. i still look at you and thank God for the greatest gift he has ever blessed me with an incredible husband who is deeply committed to his faith, family and callings in his life. i think you are hot, funny, thoughtful, intentional, and you are my favorite human on the planet!

there are some similarities

* we both love church, Jesus, our four crazy kids, college basketball, seasonal hand washing soaps, candles, white Christmas lights, sun, relaxing vacations, traveling, jeans and hoodies, coaching, hummus, snuggling every second we can, reading, sushi, picnics, the sun, cute summer dresses, lakes, the color red, friday night lights, wine, you hated coffee when we got married now we both love starbucks and coffee with flavored creamer every morning, we are passionate about adoption, our faith, authentic marriage, giving, living simply and intentionally, education and teaching, loving well, investing in people. . .

i could go on and on. . i love you so much . . happy birthday!

happy first birthday emery pearl

we had a breakfast birthday party for emery pearl & daddy. . it was fabulous and really special. here she is waiting patiently for her first birthday "maple bar!" we LOVE maple bars around here and breakfast so we decided this would be the perfect celebration. . . a little nervous when we all started singing to her.

checking out the maple bar with keagan.

"i think i am going to like this!"

"but i'm not sure what to do with it?. . . "

getting my hands messy . . . first bites of heaven!

yep i'm a mcmurray LOVE the maple bar!

daddy and emery ready to celebrate!

lots of mimosas, tulips, and yummy maple bars!the rest of the day we spent napping, opening gifts, eating take-out chinese food and going in the hot tub! we have a hot tub tradition on the each child's first birthday. . . it is the big day to finally join the rest of the family in one of our favorite places. . . the hot tub!

emery loved the hot tub!

can't believe it has been a year! love this sweet baby girl so much! you complete us in so many ways! the perfect day. . . sun, maple bars, friends, hot tub, friends and family. . all our favorite things!

green. . .spring. . . footprints. . . then and now

happy first st. patrick's day emery pearl! at this time last year you were planning your early entry into the world in about a week!this could be my new favorite picture. . i love the sweetness and expressions and the lighting. what a wonderful big sister . . . most of the time:) love the little hand on emery's shoulder.

we have been so blessed with lots of sunny days. . .when it is sunny i cannot help myself. . . i run out and buy a bunch of tulips and put them in mason jars. . it just makes me so happy!

tulips + mason jars = pure happiness then i get out my spring votives and put in orange and lemon tea lights and it feels like spring.

if you know me really well. . . every season i have to change the pillows. so each spring i spoil myself with one new spring pillow that i adore! get ready here it is . . it is soooo cute! okay i have to confess that i got a few more pillows this year because the covers were on sale at target for 3.99$ look at those fabulous lime polka-dot pillows. at home during the day all i have to do is take a peak over at my new pillows and i just know sunshine is on it's way!

the boys love making leprechaun traps. . .this year it was an optional fun project for school. when they got to school their trap had little green footprints all over it. . so fun this is why I Love first grade!

i just have to do a then and now picture parade of lucia of st. patrick's day because . . . well just because this is the first holiday she has been here for three years! and . . she is just so darn cute! so here it goes starting with yesterday. . . we see this expression often these days it is from the story "knuffle bunny" by mo williams. the expression comes from the part in the story when trixie realizes something (her knuffle bunny got left at the laundrymatt). . and her eyes get huge! lucia loves to imitate this face all the time and tells us she is realizing something!last year with her cast. . .

2008 just a couple weeks after getting home!

happy spring!

bits of our weekend

I saw this on a blog I like to follow where she gave a "bits of weekend post." So I thought I would give it a try. This was a pretty lay low weekend around here. The boys did not have school Friday so the weekend started with making a lot of chocolate chip cookies . . Lucia the treat Queen was ecstatic! The rest of the weekend was dominated by March Madness! It is so fun that the boys understand bracketology now! And they can read all the teams. So selection Sunday was a big day around here. They are in two pools now. . and the picture below is them filling out their brackets on ESPN. We have a family pool going which is so fun. While her brothers watch and talk about basketball . . . Lucia has caught the "book bug" in a big way. She reads all the time. We cannot believe how she can remember almost every book we have read to her word for word. She retells the stories in the car and at meals. Now there are two things that she does quietly. . eat ice cream and read books. She read books all weekend.

Ryan and Janny surprised us on Sunday afternoon with treats and mimosas then came along for Sunday night family dinner which happened to be a double celebration St. Patricks Day / Selection Sunday! We love you Ryan and Janny!

Dad and Lucia wearing their sparkle hats at dinner.

Green pizza, green salad, green Gatorade, and of course lots of green decorations and props. . . only at Grammy Sparkles House!

So there it is our weekend . . .I'm not sure I can commit to this on Mondays but it was fun to document what went on around here. I guess there are not any pictures of Emery Pearl. .she is not feeling well again.. . . . sort of low grade temp and really really runny nose but she was a trooper and slept a lot.

dear God please expand my range

As we were praying before bed last night. . . .Keagan said I just want to ask God to please extend my range on the court. Now this might concern some. .but in my family this warms our hearts! If you are not a basketball family. . he is asking God to help him shoot farther away from the basket. The boys had a great season in upward this year.. . . Grampy and Dad coached together again. I did not get any pictures during the season because keeping two little girls occupied in the stands during the game took both my hands and more. . . let's just say a lot of lollipops and snacks. My mom snapped these pictures the last game. Keagan and Kinkade are officially hoopsters they dribble their basketball to school everyday and shoot baskets in the driveway ALL the time! When I dreamed of having little boys I always dreamed of watching them play basketball and playing with them. The girls join the picture!

Last team cheer for David's Mighty Men!

And the brown eyed McMurray Girls!

Here's to years and years of basketball bliss!

the perfect combination

everyone always asks who emery looks like. . well from the beginning i have always said she is the perfect combination of the boys. i pulled out these baby pictures of the boys from when they were about her age and i can't believe how she is a cross between the two. then there are times when she just looks like emery pearl. . . emery's eyes - the shape of keagan's eyes and the color of kinkade's eyes. (keagan is on the left and kinkade is on the right)

same hair as kinkade and same crooked little smile as kinkade. . .

this picture tells the story the best for me if you cover up one of the them the resemblance is amazing but the same if you cover up the other one. same face structure as keagan but same head shape and size as kinkade.

emery makes that exact same expression as keagan in this picture. . .and laughs hard like kinkade all the time.

here she is our sweet surprise emery pearl. . . .

since she spends the most time with lucia she acts the most like lucia . . .silly, loud, and JOYFUL!

it was funny at church last week within five minutes two different people said these phrases. .

"emery looks exactly like kinkade."

"emery looks exactly like keagan."

in the grocery store i get so many stares . . i'm never sure if it is because there are so many kids or how different they all look from each other or just that people can't quite figure us out. . . .