random acts of randomness

Lots of randomness to post today.  The holidays do that to me, I guess!  First some very exciting news to report....our friends, Brian and Tiffany Sheehan, had an early visit from Santa this year.  Their baby girl, Madison, was due 12/31 but she just couldn't wait that long to meet her parents and came early this Tuesday.  I was lucky enough to meet her yesterday and she is just as beautiful as she can be.  She has that sweet newborn smell, makes the cutest soft coos, and has a full head of black hair! She's perfect and healthy and the new family is just busting at the seams with joy. Can't think of a BETTER Christmas present!!  Brings back so many wonderful memories :)



I'm still recovering from surgery a little over a week ago. Here is my foot in all it's busted glory.  What you can't see, thankfully, is the metal pin sticking OUT of my foot! Oy! This came as a surprise to me when we went for the first post-op visit.  I've seen alot in my tenure as a medical student and now MD but this actually made me a little sick to my stomach....I have a Franken-foot! Stitches out on Monday, pin out the following week....yikes!  For now I'm all bandaged up and sporting a really sexy stylish orthopedic shoe. Ladies, try and contain your raging jealousy.

Here is my Ryan hard at work in his makeshift home office.  Our real office is totally jam packed with the contents of our old bedroom because the remodel is in full swing.  As I type there is a jackhammer busting up our slab as the plumbers lay new pipes....SO exciting.  Ryan has been pushed out into the kitchen area.  It's so fun to see him learn the ropes of the new job and to watch him get excited about all the new things he is learning.  He stays very busy but he's around much more if that makes sense....it makes his girls very happy :)  We'll probably spend the weekend trying to make some space for him in the actual office.

SOMEone is excited about Christmas!

Emma is staying busy as a little bee! This bean has so much energy, she runs circles around Ryan and I! She's our personal trainer, I like to joke :)

I live for that sweet face with those chub cheeks and button nose!!!

She's learning to walk which is simultaneously terrifying and exciting! She cruises around like a champ and loves this activity center on wheels that she can push around the house and practice her walking skills!  She can stand without assistance but usually only does it if no one is watching....I think she's a tad scared of the possibility of tumbling down so usually only lets go for a few seconds before she's grabbing on to something.  It's just so fun to watch her learn and put it all together :) 

Presents? For MEEEE?? Her investigations of all the Christmas decor in our house have begun...

love that sweet little first freckle

She was very interested in the velcro on my ortho shoe and spend a good 10 minutes playing with the tabs.  She gave me some pretty hysterical looks like "what the HECK is this, mom??"

We have bells hanging on all of our main doorways and Emma has discovered them as she does most things with a serious noise component.  Jingle all the way, baby girl :)

She was very interested in helping mommy dust yesterday and took to taking care of the entry doorway. Look at those knees!!!!

I hope everyone is doing well and loving the cold weather and holiday season! I'm loving having some time off to really spend around the house, piddling around, doing random things (like this blog post), catching up on ME time and family/friend time.  As horrible as it sounds, the post-surgery recovery is really forcing me to slow down and sit still so it's been nice in an unexpected way.  I'm taking it easy this morning and then spending the afternoon working on a case report for work.  I'm working hard on a very recent and very exciting professional development which I'm not at liberty to share yet.....but if and when it works out, I'll be shouting from the rooftops.  It could pan out to be something wonderful....and I have faith that if it's meant to be it will be.  Keep your fingers crossed for me :)

Happy Thursday, everyone!!

no words to say...

No words to say. No words to convey. The feeling inside I have for you.

The lyrics above, from one of my favorite Tracy Chapman cards, sums up exactly how we feel about our Emma bean who turns 11 months old today.  I'm not exactly sure where the time flew away to but I know its been the most wonderful and exciting (and hard!) 11 months of our lives.  There are no words for our love for her, the way in which she enriches our lives, and how much we look forward to every day with her.

Oh Emma, mommy & daddy love so much about you at 11 months, this is gonna be hard....

Beane, what we love most about you at 11 months:

- that you are learning to read books. you point to pictures and flip the pages and squeal with delight. 

- how talkative you are! you actually know the word "baby", "puppy", and of course our favorites "mama & dada" we love listening to you jibber jabber and learn your voice.

- how you sing especially when we are in the car

- that you now ride forward facing and can see everything going on

- your strong, bold personality that is so sweet at the same time

- how you really LOVE to make messes (yes, we actually LOVE this, its hysterical!)
- your snuggles....you give big hugs to mom, dad, and all your stuffed animals
- how much you love to eat! you like to remind us what a big girl you are and do it yourself! i laugh that i sometimes have to pour your bottle into your sippy cup to get you to drink it!
- how playful and friendly you are. you love playing with your friends at daycare. you are such a social butterfly
- how much you love your puppy. watching you toss the ball to deja is so cute!
- playing dress up with you! and watching you explore your shoes, headbands, and clothes is adorable!
- your sweet kisses. big, open mouthed, slobbery ones = the best!!!!
- your sweet face and smile....what a beauty!
- how it is virtually impossible to get you to sit still....something tells me this is going to be an ongoing theme.

Emma Claire, you are perfect. We are so blessed to be your parents. You make life so beautiful and you shine from the inside out!!!  Someday you'll understand how much we love you....until then, we'll just have to tell you every single day :)
Happy 11 months!!

vacation!

Yay for vacation! After a very tough month I'm happy to have some bona fide time off to spend with my family and friends.....ESPECIALLY over the holidays!  In addition, the way my December schedule worked out made it such that essentially the entire month of December is vacation :) Yay!!!

The ironic thing about my vacation is that 2 days in, Ryan headed back to work!  This is extremely exciting, though! Ryan signed on to work as the Director of Construction Operations at Lawson Construction Group, a Construction Management company here in town run by an old co-worker.  He is SO excited about this new change and is loving the variety and adventure that this new job holds.  I am so happy to see him so happy :)

Emma continues to keep us in stitches and totally enamored.  She is just shy of 11 months old.  HOW did this happen???!!!  She's very verbal and mobile these days.  "Baby" is her favorite word and she loves pretending to talk on the phone.  She sings loudly and proudly while we ride in the car and loves to dance in the living room.  She has so much energy and SO much personality.  She's a little rascal and keeps us on our toes! She's loving eating "big girl food" and is starting to refuse her bottle on a regular basis.  I can sometime trick her into drinking her milk if I put it into a sippy cup :) She's working on her walking skills and I sometimes just stare at her and think.....this little magical person is all ours!!! I can't believe that we are already planning her FIRST BIRTHDAY party....oh my!

                 

goofball!

oh good, a murphy girl who likes to do dishes!

mmmmm chili!!!!!

I had minor surgery this morning to correct a bunion that I've had since I was little....glamorous I know! It's been painful for some time and just got worse when I was pregnant with Emma.  It was finally time when it just got too hard to walk/exercise without lots of pain.  It's not exactly how I wanted to spend vacation but my schedule is pretty jam packed and we figured it would be better to do this with one munchkin running around as opposed to two! ;)

It gives me an excuse to catch up on all my favorite blogs, do some baking, photo editing, catch up on sleep, and do some serious online christmas shopping.....perfect!

giving thanks

i thank my lucky stars every day for a life that makes me smile. i'm thankful for a husband who is my best friend and who still makes me get butterflies every day. i'm thankful for a daughter who makes everything in my life more beautiful just because she is here....her giggles, her voice, her snuggles, everything about her makes me smile. i'm thankful for a supportive family who have helped me to become who i am today and who help me to grow into the woman i will be tomorrow. i'm thankful for amazing friends who are here for me in good times and bad and whose company brightens my life. in this season and every day, i'm reminded of how incredibly lucky i really am.

we had a whirlwind thanksgiving complete with bellies full of not only food but laughter. we spent time with loved ones, enjoyed delicious food, and watched emma eat until she couldn't eat anymore. 4 outfit changes and a few baby bites of pumpkin pie later, thanksgiving was deemed a success. i spent most of the day just soaking up the moments with family and didn't actually take too many photos (really!). here are a few i snapped before trading in my camera for a fork ;)

emma's spread.....literally!

we love our little messy eater....can you tell??

are you starting to understand the multiple outfit changes yet?

full, naked, and happy :) a thanksgiving success!!

things i'm loving right now...

Despite being deliriously tired from long hours spent logged on my current rotation (which I'm actually LOVING...more on this later), I've managed to drum up a list of things that I'm currently loving. Like alot.

Check out these homemade pumpkin & hazelnut donuts. Hello gorgeous! I'll admit I haven't given them a whirl yet but I like the idea of the pumpkin and I LOVE the idea of the donut. I'll be giving them a shot on Thanksgiving morning. I may break out my maternity pants just for the day ;) ;)

I'm loving this yarn ball wreath!! What fun :) I stumbled upon tatertotsandjello not too long ago and I've been dying to try some of the crafts on the blog. With the holidays coming up, I'm getting pretty excited about an entire December free for fun projects like this one. I see a large amount of superglue in my immediate future.

If you love to cook or you just love to eat you've got to check out www.merrygourmet.com. I happen to personally know the blog author and she's just as fabulous as her site. She's got a knack for words, photos, and is a big fan of wine - a pretty great combo. She's also a tremendously inspirational physician and mother of two. I'm loving her blog AND her food and I think you will too ;)

I found this bag at Old Navy a few weeks back and think its great. It's big, it's girly, and it has flowers attached to it...what's not to love?? It's soft and slouchy and the flowers are good for distracting a certain blonde blue eyed 10 month old.

Which brings be to....

Look at our little cheeseball! Jeez, SOMEone is starting to really love the camera. Wonder why ;)

We're obviously loving Emma these days. One thing in particular is the little copycat she's become...it's super funny. I clap, she claps. Ryan sticks out his tongue, she does it bigger. I pretend to talk on the phone...SHE wants to talk on the phone. It's hysterical.

Copycat!

She's started talking more and more over the past few weeks. Her latest thing is pointing at all the kids at daycare and saying "baby"!. Everything is "baby" to Emma these days.....even me and Ryan ;)

Life is good!!

gotta love the weekend!

Oh what a weekend it was! I actually had to work on Saturday morning....but we managed to have an absolutely wonderful weekend. Friday night we had dinner with my current team from work. Every so often as a resident you'll have a team of interns, med students, and an attending with a super fun team dynamic. This month has totally been that way and it has made for a really great work environment. We all decided to grab a bite to eat on Friday night, significant others included, and had a great time chowing down on Mexico Lindo. Mmmmmm.

Saturday morning, despite a few hours at work, I was free of clinical duties at around 12pm. I was welcomed at home by our dear friend Heiko...a friend since freshman year in college. I haven't seen Heiko since I graduated from medical school....I remember the morning after my graduation party well. Ryan and I sat on one couch, Heiko on the other as we made breakfast plans. "Oh, one more thing Heiko.....we're pregnant!!!" His reaction was priceless then and it was so fun to see him and get to introduce him to Emma. Also in town were our friends Adam and Lee all the way from South Florida. We packed up Emma's stroller and headed to campus for some fun tailgating. Emma is the best tailgator.....she REALLY gets into the people watching. Especially entertaining is how she points at everyone and says, "Baby!". Silly gator :)

Sunday morning meant sleeping in for all members of the Murphy family. After Emma woke and chugged down her morning bottle it was off to play!

Her latest obsession are her magnet letters.

Can you spot the baby? She loves to hide in the shelf and pop out "PeekaBOO!"

success!!

The morning was filled with banana pancakes, lots of playtime, and a very special mission a la daddy and Uncle Heiko!

My wonderful honey spent the morning hanging Emma's first swing. Here is is basking in the proud glory that he so valiantly earned :)

JOY.

Pure JOY.

Next it was off to Grandma and Grandpa's house for some playtime. We wanted to get a good family photo for our first holiday photo card. To really get Emma in the mood, we broke out the bag of bows and let her go to town. I cannot WAIT for the real thing! ;)

Here's an outtake from our mini photoshoot. Emma is at the age where sitting still is not really an option anymore. The photo chosen to be used as our holiday card certainly reflects this. She was a wiggle worm on steroids that day!

Little Miss Mischief

Here she is tolerating a little reindeer headband torture. Someday I think I may be hated for this photograph :) For now, I think its pretty dang adorable.

A busy week lies ahead. I am loving my rotation despite the long hours and hard work. I think I've finally decided what I want to be when I grow up (more on that in a different post) :) I am, however, looking forward to vacation in December. It will be absolutely magical to spend the holiday with my family! I hope the week is off to a great start for everyone!

Until next time....!!