Grandma Doris Lenore Wickard

My sweet grandmother passed on to the other side early this morning. If I've seemed distant or haven't returned your phone calls in the last week please don't be offended. She was a mother figure to me and I miss her so much. I've just needed time to sort out my thoughts. My sweet Grandma has always been in my life. I was fortunate enough to have her live really close the first 15 years of life. I was so upset when I found out she was moving to Idaho a few months before I got my license. We used to go to her house just about every Sunday. She used to tease me that she was going to put a brick on my head if I didn't stop growing. She was always a technological granny and taught us how to use the internet. She taught me the value of work as I often got to come help them in their garden and they trusted me to mow their lawn. It took me 15 years to figure out that she had been coloring her hair black for many years when one day I came to her house and she had a beautiful shade of gray hair with hues of purple. She always kept the cookie jar chucked full of goodies and we would always raid it. Grandma called herself a gypsy but would always be thinking of others. There is not a week that went by that she wasn't helping someone. She wanted to be able to be people's angels when they needed them. Towards the end there were sweet people all around her that were angels to her. She had a passion for Family History and did thousands upon thousand of names to submit to the temple. I was fortunate enough to get to know her when I was an adult when Matt and I moved to Boise and got to visit her on a regular basis. She taught me how to can peaches and was always looking out for us starving college students. Macey carries on her middle name of Lenore. The thing that I will remember most is the absolute faith that she had. I have never met someone more full of faith and more passionate about the gospel and have such a surety of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Grandma, I will miss calling you every week and having you tell me that I made your day. I will miss your kisses on my cheek and the smell of your lipstick. I will miss your kind words of encouragement. But I also know that you will be happy continuing on the work that you've wanted to finish for so long. We love you and will miss you.

Much Needed Laugh

After a very long week(and we still have a few days left)I think I'll skip the details of this week altogether because I just want to go to sleep and wake up to a non-chaotic life again...just how I like it...at least my children have been wonderful. Anyway, my friend sent this to me to cheer me up and it put a smile on my face. Maybe it will put one on you too. If you can't see it very well click on it and it will blow up! Gotta love technology.

Just My Luck

Well, ya know those ultrasound pics I said I was going to post. I think I've been cursed lately because things haven't quite worked out in my favor I'll just say. I got to my 20 week ultrasound appt yesterday...early...and was sitting and waiting and waiting and sitting. In pain because my bladder was about to explode. Matt finally showed up...had an emergency at work that he had to have completed and sent off even though he took half the day off but he promised me he would be there. Didn't matter if he was late or not because I was still waiting and sitting by the time he got there. I was the first person in there and kept watching people get called back for 40 minutes. Finally I asked uh what's up? I promise you'll be the next one. There was no other explanation than that. So, I sat back down 35 minutes later we were still waiting and I was emotional and had anxiety and was ready to blow up if someone even looked at me wrong. I tell ya this pregnancy really has my emotions flying. So about 1 hour and 15 minutes later the technician came out and called us back and was aplogizing profusely. I guess the printer to the ultrasound machine had broke and she was trying to fix it and got the pictures to start coming out but the pics were washed out and it's hard to tell what things are. The guy that fixes the machine was out of town and wouldn't be back until Tuesday to fix the machine. I wish the receptionist would have told me that and I wouldn't have been so frustrated PLUS the ultrasound gal told the receptionist to let me know if I needed to use the bathroom to just let me go...that would've been a nice tidbit of information. Before you go into any ultrasound they ask you to have a full bladder. So they can see parts of the baby better and get an accurate measurement. Sometimes I just wish I could go back to Idaho and have all my babies. I had such a good experience at the hospital and clinic that worked with me. I MISS IT! For now, I guess I"ll have to be happy and deal with what's given me and PRAY that everything goes well during this delivery. My goal this year is not to worry as much and not to live with regret. It's really hard though when you had an awesome prenatal and birthing experience with the first baby and the rest stink. The baby is camped out across my belly and showing signs of being stubborn. Truly is a Murdock baby. And yes it's still a boy! I'm gonna see if I can work some magic on the photos and try cleaning them up with my digital photo software. We'll see?!?!

Crash Murdock strikes again and again

Macey is up to no good again. The sad thing is she gets hurt when I'm in the room most of the time. Two days ago Macey decided that she was going to run into the door jam head first. I was on my way upstairs to check on her. I had my friends kids over and suddenly the 2 oldest girls were screaming Macey fell. I walked upstairs because the scream wasn't too out of the ordinary and when I went through the door there was a trail of blood behind Macey and I couldn't even see her sweet face through the blood. I snatched her up and ran downstairs and put her in the sink(thank goodness I had finished the dishes that morning). I got the nearest cloth, wiped away the blood and put pressure on it. That's very hard to do with a 1 year old by the way. After I got the bleeding contained come to find out the wound was only about less than a quarter of an inch wide but pretty deep. I was so amazed that much blood came out of that little puncture wound. I was also surprised that I didn't freak out. The only thing going through my mind was gotta stop the bleeding. And what was even more amazing than that I was able to not get any blood on me. Maybe subconsciencely I was thinking I don't have that many maternity clothes so better be careful. It took about 15 minutes to get the little stinker to hold still to put the butterfly strip on her head. That held it together until my friends huband came by later and put some better strip on her head. Thanks Doug and Alison!

So, she didn't stop there not more than 2 hours later Macey was walking around and had gotten a hold of some tweezers. I was reaching my hand saying Macey hand me the tweezers when she darted forward and perfectly put them in the wall socket! A huge flash of light appeared, I swatted at Macey to push her back(probably not the smartest thing) then all the lights went out. She looked a little worried and I looked down at the plug in and there was smoke and charred whatever on the wall. LOVELY! I'm just glad she had made a complete circuit with the tweezers when she put it in the plug. The rest of the day I was within two feet of her worried she was going to try something else! She keeps me on my toes and is crazy. I'm too lazy right now to download the pics off my camera so I'll post them later.

Yes, she is licking the Tabasco sauce off the bottle. Matt fed some to her at Thanksgiving and she loved it. So, she grabbed the whole bottle trying to drink it. Guess we'll have to figure out another punishment for bad words when she gets older.

Continuing the Murdock Name

I almost can't believe it. Turns out the little baby growing in my belly is a boy! A very active one too. Matt said if this was another girl he was moving out into the garage. Thank goodness that won't be happening because it's pretty cold out there. Matt wasn't able to be there because we were doing just size and dating and wasn't quite sure how far a long I was. We'll have our full 20 week ultrasound next week and I'll get pics then. I can tell on the phone that Matt was grinning from ear to ear. He is going to be a proud papa of his little boy. I finally have a due date also. The magical date is June 6th!

Christmas

I have some pics from Christmas I'd thought I would share. We had a wonderful Christmas and even made a a very quick trip up to Idaho to see family on Christmas Eve. We had to leave that night to beat Santa home and the kids were exhausted from all the festivities of the Murdock side. Santa did come that night and left candy canes all over our tree and wonderful presents for the girls. Maryn was excited and Macey just saw an opportunity to rip things so she was happy. She was enthralled with her huge candy cane that was in her stocking. I made their stockings this year which turned out really cute. Now I just need to finish Matt's and mine for next year. We got them Christmas pajamas which they look so adorable in. And yes my hubby is wearing earrings from Maryn's dress up clothes she got from Santa. Thank goodness he's a good sport when Maryn dresses him up. It's so fun to see the kids expressions on Christmas. I love making it magical for them.







Pre Christmas Pictures...decorating the tree earlier in December...except they were decorating themselves instead.

Happy Birthday Maryn

I can't believe my little girl is 5! She was such a beautiful baby and has turned into such a beautiful little girl. Maryn is very special and was blessed with the gift of gab. We never have boring road trips because she is such a conversationalist. She is very happy and is a great older sister. Maryn has a very understanding heart even when mommy really messed up her cake and I was about in tears and laughing at the same time she told me "that's okay Mommy it still tastes good."

Maryn was born with a full head of hair and has always gotten compliments because of it. Her smile can brighten any room. She has the ability to make friends wherever she goes. Eventhough she loves princesses and dress up she loves being with her Daddy more and will help him work on the house, go snow tubing and fishing with him. She is definitely Daddy's little girl.

She is eager to learn but insists on doing everything herself. Yesterday, Matt found her playing in her room after we had put her to bed because she was trying to make me a bracelet. Matt told her I don't want to have to discipline you on your birthday Maryn please get into bed. Her reply was "you don't have to discipline me anymore because I'm 5."

We're so thankful that you are apart of our family Maryn. Things would be boring without you! Mommy and Daddy love you very much!

Here are some pictures from over the years.