Family Home Evening

We have been trying to have family home evening. Sometime it goes well, sometimes not... Tonight, I did the lesson. I'm trying to go along with what Riley is learning in Primary. This year's theme is "My Eternal Family", and for the month of January: "I am a spirit child of Heavenly Father". So, tonight our lesson was called "I am a Child of God". I read a story from the Friend, and then crowned the kids. We told them that they are prince/princess. Riley was very worried at first, he thought we said that you are princesses, and he told us that only girls could be princesses, and he was a boy. I informed him that he was a prince, like Prince Charming from Cinderella. Have I mentioned that we watch that movie A LOT. He asks for it almost every day. Oh, and Little Mermaid. Anyway, after that he was cool with things. It was really cute to watch them with the crowns. So of course, we took pictures.

Murdock Family Picture

I realized tonight that there are people who check out the blog solely to see pictures of my way cute new nephew. And many of these same people do not have access to my other blog, which is now the home of some beautiful pictures of said nephew. How selfish of me, I thought. I better repent, and share! So, here I am, 11:30 at night, typing this silly posting because I figured I should show them off. They are really good, if I do say so myself. Besides, if I didn't have a chance see his cute, ever changing face almost daily, I would want someone to be so kind as to share the images with me... So, without further adieu, here they are: Demya refered to this picture as Rolie's death grip. His cute feet. I love how you can see how big his feet are compared to his mommy's hands. He has big feet for such a little dude. I like to call this picture Rollie's pirate face. I'm sure his mommy wouldn't approve, but it's my posting, and I can say it... You'll just have to make a comment Mya to set the record straight! Isn't this shot precious? You can so tell that Mom and Dad are totally in love with their new little one. I love Benson's face, it's so tender! About two seconds after I took this picture, Roland desided that he was hungry, AGAIN! That kid LOVES to eat.

Superman!

Today, Riley went to his first non-family birthday party. It was held for his friend Thomas who turned 4 today. Riley has been so excited about going, he was almost in tears yesterday when I told him he had to wait one more day. The theme for the birthday party was Superman. Amy, Thomas' mom, made all the little boys Superman capes. So cute!!! Thanks so much for inviting Riley over, he really enjoyed it. And the capes are so cool! When we got home, Riley had fun showing off his new flying skills.

Nursery Graduation

A couple of weeks ago they had Nursery Graduation for Riley's class. I didn't bring my camera, but one of the other sweet sisters did. It was so cute! A big thanks to Amy for sending me copies of the pictures.

The new sunbeams with there teachers.

For You Papa Peterson

Just another tool nut in the family!

Life is getting back to normal

Yeah, life is starting take on a routine again. It just seems to happen during the holidays that any schedule I have just flies right out the window. This is fine, after all, it's the time of year. But, this week, Allen started his externship with the federal judge, and so, life has settled down. I just wonder how long it will last? Hmmm... It's been so nice, Riley and Emma both have quiet time at about 1:30, leaving me with a nice hour to my self!!!! It makes the afternoon seem much shorter, and more manageable. Now, if we can just get everyone well, that would be something. We've been suffering with a cold since the beginning of December. It seems we are passing it back and forth to each other. So, this week I'm going to disinfect the house. Go Lysol! This weekend, we cleaned up the leaves in the yard. It needed to be done before Allen went back to class... Emma was so cute trying to help Daddy. OK, this look makes me laugh. She was getting very frustrated with us trying to make her smile. Plus, she's been very moody lately. Teething is not fun! Emmaline has cut four teeth in the last month,and has her molar trying to come through. This has cause her to not sleep through the night, eat like she usually does, or have her normal cute personality that we love. But this too will pass. Emma is cute, and so we will forgive her of her crankiness! Now, what was big brother doing while everyone else was working?Making Mommy crazy! He was climbing up and down the wall. At least the wall is only about 3 feet... Right? This last picture was so cute. Emma had decided that she was going to go out into the street. Riley ran down and brought her back up to me. A few minutes later, everyone went inside for quiet time... and slept for TWO WHOLE HOURS!!! It was wonderful.

Riley and Rolie

I thought these pictures were so cute of Riley getting to hold Rolie for the first time..He told us, "Mommy, I really love babies" He really does. We met with Mary, Weldon, and Tabatha today, and after the excitement of seeing his best buddy wore off, he wanted to hold the baby. It's pretty cute!

I wanted to include this picture, mainly because I noticed I don't have a single picture of Benson holding his son... not one! And it's funny because he hold Rolie a lot!

Peterson Family Pictures

Last Friday I took some formish pictures of my family. Dad getting on an airplane and going back to Qatar on Saturday, so there wasn't time to go to a studio. Besides, Demya really didn't want to take the new baby into public like that... so this is how things turned out: OK, I added this one, mostly because I think Riley's face is FUNNY! Emma's teething big time,and so her hand was in her mouth for many of the shots... but in the end, some of them turned out, and that's what really counts anyway.

Rolie's first day

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

The New Arrival

After months of waiting, Roland Jack Murdock has made his earthly debut in the form of an emergency c-section this evening. His mommy is doing pretty good. She was induced this morning around 4 am. Her doctor checked her around 5 pm and decided that he was too big to come the normal way. So off to the emergency room they went. He came in at 7lb 9 oz and is 19 1/2 inches long. He's super cute!

Happy Birthday Rolie!

The New Murdock Family

So, who do you think he looks like?

The Offical Count

Just for giggles and grins, Allen and I decided to find out how many pictures I've taken in the month of December. We were floored... the final count is:

1,340

Pretty impressive, huh? That includes a few pictures that were altered and may be counted twice, but still... I was truly impressed!

Happy New Year!

Well, 2008 has been laid to rest, and a new year is upon us. We had a pretty good New Year's Eve. We spent the day hanging around the house, it was fun. Allen and I got up late, made breakfast late, and just sort of took it easy. Riley and I were snuggling on the big chair watching the Tigger Movie when we saw this walking down the hall: Isn't she too cute. She found the egg beater that had some how fell out of the drawer. It was so funny! I had put it in her apron to feed her earlier, and it was cute I just left it on her. I swear she's saying "Hey you guys! Look at me! I did it myself!" She's also a little mischievous... OK, a lot! But she's so funny about. She LOVES to make you laugh. Her favorite thing right now is to show you her belly button and have you Pillsbury it. She laughs so hard, and wants it done again and again. Then of course, she wants to see your button.. when she gets someone to show off their button she just giggles. In my parents' family we have Mother Goose who comes on New Years Eve. You put out your best shoes and she'll leave you a little treat. This is something my dad tells us they did in his family. I think it was a way to get kids to go to be on New Years Eve... but it's still a sweet tradition that I enjoy adding to my family. This year Riley was SO excited, he got up this morning at 7.. and was totally dressed, himself when I went in to check on what he was doing. He wanted to see if Mother Goose brought him anything. She had of course.. Demya and I went up to Walmart and got a few little things. Riley got a ball, a slinky, and some M&Ms. Emmaline got a ball, coloring books, and M&Ms. I'd say they were delighted... This afternoon, Allen decided we needed to start our own family tradition. So he took us all to see a movie. It was so fun! The kids were so good... we were shocked to say the very least. We went and saw The Tale of Despereaux. It was so good, weird, but fun. Emma fell asleep with about 30 minutes remaining. Riley really had a good time. We brought snacks and drinks, which saved us time and money. It was a great way to spend the afternoon! So, I hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year's Eve. May the next year be full of good news and that we may find the strength and courage to face the bad with dignity, grace, and hope! Happy New Year!