firsts

I think one of the best things about being a parent is the opportunity to experience things with your children for the first time. I took Abby and Carter to the duck pond yesterday and I felt like it was my first time too. She had such a great time and it was so fun to watch her facial expressions as she saw the ducks (and seagulls) go for the food.

She looks like a baseball player winding up for a pitch, huh?

fulfilled

I got released as primary music leader last week, so this week was my first time in the "outside world" in almost two years. I already miss my calling, and I actually went in to primary to visit for a minute during sunday school cause I didn't quite know what to do with myself. But Relief Society was wonderful and I realized that, although primary is fun, I don't quite get the spiritual high there that I get from learning doctorine and hearing the testimonies of other women. I left church today fulfilled, and that hasn't happened in a long time.

always an adventure with abby

We went fo a walk today and Abby, being the little grown up that she is, insisted on carrying her baby and walking. Strollers are for babies.

Here's a little Britney Spears for you.

What's with the glasses?

Abby, good mommies don't ditch their babies for a stick.

Carter was happy chillin' in the stroller. He makes me melt.

Abby was really interested in the water. And sticks.

On the way home she got tired of walking, so she hitched a ride on a horsey. A tall one.

reverse

In the past two weeks, Carter's motor skills have improved leaps
and bounds. He's up on all fours now, and itching to crawl, except he hasn't got his legs working right yet. Instead, he pushes with his hands and ends up going backwards. He's "this close" to crawling and we're excited!

a little inspiration

I used to sing with a girl named Krista Oakes in Evening Song. Besides being an amazing alto, she has published a book AND she has brain cancer.

Her story is so inspirational, and she has blogged about her journey from the very beginning of her diagnosis. She is an honest, witty and eloquent writer and you need to check her out.

Be ready to laugh, cry and hug your children.

http://onkristasmind.blogspot.com/

Make sure to read her first entries back in November of 2005.

doing my part

Our family has decided to try get a little greener. When old lights burn out we replace them with flourescent bulbs, wh're recycling when possible, and just recently I bought these shopping bags to take the place of plastic grocery bags. They're $1 each at Walmart and I love them. It took a little getting used to, but I actually prefer them over plastic bags now. They hold a lot, they're super sturdy, and although it's not much, I feel like I'm doing my part to help the environment.

i am a changed woman

...or at least my hair is. I think I've had my old hair dryer for at least four years and it died on me the other day. So without doing the research I usually do, I went to the store and bought a reasonably priced dryer, the Vidal Sassoon ionic dryer. I didn't know anything about ionic technology, so I just trusted in the claims made on the box, and, oh my gosh, I had not idea what I've been missing all these years! It used to take forever to dry my hair and it would always end up slightly frizzy and dry. THIS dryer dried my hair completely in 7 minutes, leaving it smooth and shiny. In fact, I didn't have to use a flat iron or anything!

I know it sounds silly, but I think I have a healthier relationship with my hair now, all because of a dryer.

be still my heart

When I was pregnant with Carter, so many people told me that there is a special bond between mothers and their sons thats different than the relationship between mother and daughter. Well I didn't believe them, and I certainly didn't understand it, but now I do.

I don't want to go as far as saying that all baby boys are more cuddly than girls, because I definitely don't think that's true. But Carter is SO sweet and SO cuddly and there's just something about him that steals my heart away. I love my children equally as much, but unlike Abby, Carter is a genuine momma's boy, and I love it!

Does anyone else know what I'm talking about?

the climber and the whiner

I don't know what's gotten into my two kids lately. Abby's favorite pastime is seeing how many forbidden things she can get into in one day. She's doing things she's never done before; climbing onto bathroom counters and on top of changing tables, and pushing chairs up to the kitchen counters and getting into all sorts of things she shouldn't. It's like now that she's brave enough to climb, everything 3 feet and up has to be explored. We haven't gone outside in days. Maybe that's the problem.

And Carter, on the other hand, is still very, very stationary, and I think he's getting a little bored of it. He sits on the floor a lot and plays with his toys, but then he gets tired of doing that and starts to whine. So I give him something else to do, which he gets bored of quickly also. The kid still hates tummy time, won't roll and doesn't like being on his back anymore either. He's learning to get on his hands and knees but ends up on his stomach, and we know how much he loves that.

So it's been a huge balancing act for me lately. I have to keep Carter somewhat happy, but at the same time make him do the things he doesn't want to do so that he'll develop those skills. AND I have to keep Abby from getting into everything and teach her that curiosity is good but climbing up the walls is bad.

deep thoughts

It's almost midnight. I ran two miles at 9:30 tonight and I'm too wired to sleep. There are so many thoughts going through my mind right now. Like the big 5k Run I'm in charge of, and how tragic about Heath Leger, and how much I love my PERFECT children, and oh yeah, how in the world am I supposed to get THIS off?

You can see it started out so innocently. She did so well coloring on the green post-it note. But that little devil that lives on her shoulder popped up and said, "Hey Abby! Look at all this beautiful white space for you to draw on! I bet Mommy and Daddy would love to see your beautiful artwork all over it!" And Abby, being so eager to impress her parents, gave into temptation. The angel on her other shoulder must have been on break.

But I really can't give the little devil all the credit. I mean, it really was a group effort for her to achive this. I left the door to the closet with the markers open, and Brian peeked his head in to check on her and thought she was playing with her toys. Psh. Yeah.

So I've tried those magic erasers. Didn't budge. The internet said to try hand sanitizer. It took off the first layer so now part of it is a pretty purple. I've also tried nail polish remover, wich is smearing it all over the place but seems to be working. There are a few more things to try before we give up, so we'll see. Our dilema is that it's oil based paint, and if we repainted, it would smell for literally weeks, and Abby would have to sleep in another room, and it's just crazy...

I'm going to bed.

Decorating on a Dime

From wall paint to furniture, this is how I decorated Carter's room for $400.

the story of my life

The Atlanta client has delayed the project for a few weeks, so we're not leaving this weekend like we initially thought. Not sure WHEN we're leaving, so we're just going to go on with life as usual and wait. patiently.

*sigh*

14 vs 13

Sunday night Brian's parents invited the family over for one last get together before we leave for Atlanta. Of the eight McMurdie siblings, six of them live in the metroplex, and all of us have at least one kid. There were 14 adults there last night, and 13 kids. Although its crazy, we love being with our families and we will miss you a ton while we're gone!This is just a few of them enjoying their cookies and ice cream!

huh?

So I think I am officially out of the loop. I had no idea what Britney Spears had done until I read People magazine waiting in line at the store yesterday! Oh my gosh! And then today I turned on the TV and saw the Golden Globe awards announcements and was really confused. I knew there was a writers strike, but I didn't know it was affecting the Globes. It makes me wonder what else I've missed...

But then again, I think I'm okay with being clueless.

GiGi, meet......GiGi

Last year I bought GiGi on clearance after Valentines Day for like $2. I just thought he was cute. I never thought Abby would latch onto him like he did. Sad thing is, GiGi's not holding up so well, and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to find another one like him when he needed to "retire." Well luckily Walmart is carrying him again this year, so I bought GiGi II (and maybe a III and IV later). Abby noticed the difference but seemed impressed by his new coat, so its all good. Anyway, its kinda sad, but old GiGi is going in Abby's remberance box.

So I know this is totally sappy, but I read "The Velveteen Rabbit" the other day and now I kinda feel guilty for putting GiGi away. Maybe I'm more attached to GiGi than Abby is.

my theory

Initially, Brian and I were planning on going to New York last weekend. It was kind of a spur of the moment thing, but plans came together quickly and I was super excited about going, except thoughts of leaving just kept nagging at me. Brian was about to hit the purchase button when I said, "you know, this is really hard for me, leaving the kids." and I started to cry. So Brian, being the wonderful husband that he is, offered the more mom's-first-time-leaving-her-baby-friendly alternative of going away for one night only.

Well, those of you that know me know I'm really not a pansy, and you also know that New York is my dream, so me bailing out like that doesn't make much sense. So I've decided that maybe I was just being prompted to stay home because Carter was going to have a tough weekend. I don't know if I could have handled not being there when he was going through that.

little red wagon

My mom bought the kids a souped up red wagon for Christmas and they love to ride to the park in it. When Brian is out of town, we are dilligent about going to the park before dinner every day. I think its sanity for all of us.

My kids never seem to smile for a camera. But they're still cute!

ruptured

Carter had an ear infection two weeks ago and he just got off of his antibiotics on Thursday. Well, Friday night Carter would scream every time we laid him down and we could only get him to sleep on our chests. After a priesthood blessing we were finally got him to sleep around 1 am but he was still really restless the rest of the night. We figured it was probably an ear infection, but the next day he was back to his chipper self, took two good naps and didn't have a fever or anything so we decided to wait it out. But the next night he woke up at 3 am and did the same thing and we were up with him basically the rest of the night. Then during the day he was fine, so we waited again and then last night he woke up three times. So this morning I took him to the doctor because I noticed a LOT of earwax had come out of both of his ears, so I was pretty sure something was for sure wrong. Well guess what? Both of his ear drums are ruptured.

This poor boy has already had two ear infections, one sinus infection and severe allergies, and to top it off, he has congential hearing loss too... I feel so bad for him. Is it ever going to end? On a good note, the pressure in his ears is gone and his eardrums should heal okay.

I just hate ear infections though. They always seems to occur on the weekends and I don't necessarily want to jump the gun and run to the doctor the minute I think he might have an infection. They say that most ear infections can clear up on their own after a couple of days anyway. But I guess I need to be extra cautious with Carter and follow my gut more.

atlanta update

We were tentatively planning on driving to Atlanta on Friday the 18th, however, Brian just got assigned a project in Ohio for the next two weeks, returning on the 18th, so our plans will change a little.

Brian's sister, Jill, and her family are going to stay in our house while we are gone. They moved down from Chicago a few months ago and are staying with Brian's parents until they can find a house. Except the housing market during the holidays is pretty bad, so living in our house will give them an opportunity to really look and find the perfect home.

We've figured out where we're going to live. A three-bedroom, fully furnished apartment about 2 miles from the Atlanta Temple and walking distance to the rail, so we will only need one car. It's about 1500 sq. feet, so we're downsizing a little, but it will be fun. Never thought we'd ever live in apartment again though!

So now we're in the process of cleaning out the closets and figuring out what we're going to take with us, which I think is fun. I think it just hit me today though that I won't be near family. I'm really going to miss everything about home, but I welcome the adventure.

clouds

Did anyone else see this sky a few weeks ago? Pretty amazing.

poor carter...

Abby loves treating Carter like a little doll.

While Visions of Sirloin Danced in Their Heads

Last night Brian and I took a night for ourselves and went to dinner and stayed at the Hilton Anatole while my wonderful mom took care of the kids. We went to Texas de Brazil and, oh my gosh, the sirloin was like, melt-in-your-mouth good! We have red meat maybe once or twice a month at our house, and that usually consists of ground beef, so steak is a real treat!

But I think the steak did something to us, cause neither Brian or I slept very well. We got nine hours of sleep in this amazing king size (we're used to a queen) bed, with a down comforter and pillows, and yet I kept waking up in the night and both of us woke up feeling like we slept on bricks.

Anyway, we had a great time! I was hesitant about leaving my babies but I was really good and didn't call my mom once. Now that I've mastered the overnighter, I think I might be ready to try New York in the Summer.

changes

Lots of exciting stuff going on around here! For those of you that don't already know, we're going to Atlanta in a few weeks! There is SO much we have to figure out before we go, so we'll keep you posted as decisions are made.

abby's birthday... oh, and christmas too

Today is Abby's birthday. I just can't believe she's TWO! Abby is such a fun, vibrant, sunshine girl and we are so blessed to have her in our lives.

This was my first attempt at decorating a cake in years. At least I got the spelling right.

We celebrated by having cake with Scott, Carrie, their kids, and also with Mom and Dad, and the Larsens via webcam. That was a lot of fun! This was really a last minute party, so please don't be offended if you weren't invited. We haven't quite decided what to do since her birthday is the day after Christmas. We figure we could get away with it this year, but next year we need to have a plan.
Mmm! Cake!


Christmas morning was lots of fun. We set up the presents so they would be the first thing Abby saw when she came in the room. But instead she saw me, squealed and came running with her arms outstretched. That's better than any Christmas present for me!

But then she saw the presents and knew what to do. Carter did too. :)

We spent Christmas at my Mom's house and that was a lot of fun. The kids wound up with a lot of toys, a many of them outdoor toys, so we'll be doing a lot of playing outside! I didn't take any pictures of the festivities but I got out the camera when the kids went outside to play.

I love this picture of Abby. What a sweet face! The first picture is the original. Then in the second picture you can see I removed the sunlight on her left cheek. And then I converted it to black and white for fun.

Merry Christmas!

I took these at our community holiday party last weekend. Abby was the first to get on Santa's lap and it's pretty obvious how she felt about him.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

sleep in heavenly peace

Every year I sing with a Dickens Caroling group called Living Christmas Card. We sing at corporate parties, people's houses, community parties and we also have a standing gig at Lawry's the Prime Rib.

Last Friday I sang Lawrys, where we go from table to table and sing Christmas carols. One cute couple in the back of the room looked like they were about to leave and so I suggested we go to that table. They requested Silent Night, and as we were singing we noticed they both started to get emotional. By the end of the song they were holding eachothers hands and sobbing. And so we asked them if everything was okay and the husband said, "we just lost a little one." The alto and I immediately teared up, and we gave our sympathies and sang them another song. We were all crying by the end of the song.

It wasn't until I got in the car and pondered on the event that the words of "Silent Night" really hit me. Their baby really was sleeping in heavenly peace now. Although the thought of losing one of my own children breaks my heart, I feel comfort in knowing that Christ made it possible for all of us to have heavenly peace, and that one day we can be with our loved ones again. I hope that couple knows that, because I don't know what I would do without that knowledge.

Although as painful as they are, I am grateful for moments like this one, that help me appreciate and cherish my family more, and help me build my testimony of Christ and his atonement.

Where were you this time last year?

So, I was looking at the date today and realized how close we are to Christmas, but somehow was reminded of where I was last year this time. This is still a sore spot for Mandie. Today, last year, was the day Colorado was slammed with 3-5 feet of snow in just a few hours and more over the next 24 hours. That was welcome weather to the residents of Colorado, but not me because I was actually in Colorado for work and was supposed to come home that day. Instead, I found myself driving to my sister's house (thanks, Kristine!) to stay until the storm blew over (3 days) and let planes fly again.




This is Kristine's front porch the night I arrived (you can see my rental car in the background on the left - buried). I'm sure Jeff and Kristine are grateful I was there, otherwise they would have been shoveling snow forever. (Man that was a lot of snow!)

I didn't make it home until December 23, after going through the longest security line in the world (at least 3 hours), and not getting any Christmas shopping done (that's my own fault, I guess).

I'm glad I'm home this year, although it hasn't been with a lack of travel. Thanks, Mandie, for being so patient last year at Christmas. (And don't forget what we were doing for Christmas the year before that!)

Maybe next year will be a little more uneventful ... (sigh).

long distance love

Brian has been traveling a LOT. So much so that we bought web cams a while back so we could see each other on a daily basis, and it does make his absence a little bit easier.

You should have seen the first time Abby saw Brian. It was so sweet! I think she really looks forward to seeing him in the computer every night. Here she is singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider."

Carter doesn't quite get it yet, but I'm sure he'll be eating the camera in no time.

what a pain

Friday night Brian was playing with Abby and he spun her around and she lost her footing and fell to the ground. She started to cry (normal) but she wouldn't stop (not normal) and she wasn't putting any weight on one of her feet (obviously not normal) so we checked her out and guessed that she might have sprained her ankle. So for the rest of the evening we carried her everywhere and the next morning she was still refusing to walk on it. Around noon I had enough and decided to take her to a pediatric after hours clinic. I got there at 12:30, 30 minutes after they opened and we didn't leave until 4pm. 4:00!!! And it was a painful four hours too. They had to do x-rays and Abby was so freaked out it took three of us to hold her down. Ugh, I never want to do that again. So after all the drama and all they waiting, the doctor labeled it a sprain and wrapped it with an ace bandage.

So for the rest of the day she crawled around like a baby to get where she needed to go, and then Sunday morning she decided to try to walk on it and has been walking on it ever since. I think it still hurts her a little, and I honestly think she's even a little traumatized by the whole event, but we're getting over it.

Here she is chowing on some fruit snacks while we wait two hours to see the doctor. She seems relatively pleasant, but it's still early in the game.

...And yes. I took my camera to the doctor. I can't help it.

And here's the little angel after the xrays. We had to get her out of the xray room and stuff a sucker in her mouth to get her to stop screaming.

tag

Six unknowns about Mandie

1. I have a freakishly heightened sense of smell. I can smell anything a mile a way, which has its benefits, but it's not always a good thing because I get headaches really easily from smells. Oh, and I can also "turn off" my nose and only breathe through my mouth when I'm in a smelly situation. Works really well for diaper changes.
2. I love singing really badly on purpose. There's nothing more liberating than singing loud and off key at the top of your lungs to the radio.
3. I am afraid of wasps. When I was a kid, wasps would somehow get into my room constantly and we never figured out where they were coming from. It scared me to death and I still have a hard time keeping my composure when a wasp is around.
4. I've always had a dream of singing show tunes and standards with a live big band behind me, like Ella Fitzgerald or Frank Sinatra. Those are two of my all-time favorite artists, by the way. Or even singing in a moody night club with a pianist and bass accompaning me.
5. I LOVE wrapping presents. I care more about the wrapping than what's inside, and I think everyone deserves a well wrapped gift. Every year I have a different theme and this year I'm doing red candy stripes. I even volunteer to wrap other peoples presents I love it so much.
6. So here's a story not many people know. When I was in high school I went to a "friend's" house who then suggested that we go for a ride. So we went driving and she picked up two of her friends that I didn't know. Well, these guys wanted to stop off at a house and so we let them out of the car and they proceeded to buy some weed from a 12 year old boy and they got back in the car! So I'm freaking out and ready to bail but I can't and so my friend kept driving and then a COP stops us! The cop shines the light in our windows and asks for my friends drivers license, which she doesn't have, and so then I'm thinking I'm so dead and going to jail for being with these people. So the cop just says, well you've got a busted tail light and you need to get that fixed, and you really need to keep your drivers license with you. No ticket, nothing. I was scared out my my mind. Needless to say I never hung out with her again.