Little Miss Maddie

We need something to do today! Maddie is lots of fun but I think we both get bored. I have plenty of things I could do (i.e. dust, finish my book, finish the RS newsletter) but Maddie doesn't gain from these activities and in fact just wants my attention so I usually do them while she is sleeping. It seems like we both do best when we can go somewhere during the day, but those options also seem limited! Maddie loves being outside but it's still blasted hot here. And if I go to a store, I will just want to spend money that I shouldn't.

Currently Maddie is sitting in the red chair throwing her toys off the side as quickly as I can pick them up. I turn around to look at her and she smiles big, so I laugh and then she laughs and it's so cute. I think she is starting to get frustrated that she can't move to get to new and interesting things by herself. She is getting harder to entertain! :) Well maybe I will find a picture for you all to enjoy...

Missionary Maddness :)

Hello again family I know that you are probably sick of hearing from me but I thought I would let you all know that I got my first email from Justin since he became a real missionary in El Salvador. He is doing great and he says hello. He is in a tiny little town near Guatemala where there is only one little branch. He said that it is really hot and humid and his apartment is very dirty and not so nice. :S But I'm assuming that is all he will ever live in so I'm sure he will get used to it! His companion is a native and doesn't speak any English...so Justin tends to get a little frustrated and annoyed when he talks really fast but he'll be doing the same thing before we know it! :) Anyway thats about all. He seems to be having a great time thus far but lets remember to always keep him in our prayers. :) I love you all. xoxo ~ Emily

My buddy, my pal

It was so fun to have Melinda, Greg, and the boys play with us for a day! They are such a cute family. We went to the peacock park again and Brenden was fearless running after the geese. Later we swam and Morgan & Bethany's pool, and that night we had them over for dinner at our house. The boys are soooo cute, and Melinda loved playing with Maddie and even changed two diapers. She is starting to sound a little baby hungry!! (She admits it herself.) It almost felt like old times, except that now there are a bunch of kids! :)

Little Miles has never taken a binki but he found Maddie's and knew exactly what to do with it! Look at those big happy eyes!For some reason we were kneeling when we decided to take a picture together. Mike said it looked like we were praying so we goofed it up a bit. Melinda, if you are reading this thanks SO much for visiting! You are so beautiful inside and out and I love that we are still friends!

Well...my transition from teenager to adult was great! ;) Its weird to think that I will never be a teen again...but its a step I have to take. Between partying with the family, my wonderful Mom made cake, my oh so amazing presents from all of you and the Clay Walker concert to top it all off my birthday was Fabulous. Thanks everyone! I love you all! xoxo

Here is me and Tris at the Clay Walker concert on my birthday! Great fun :)

Here is our prego little Noellie! :):) So cute!

Here was our second try at seeing the bridge. Much better results! And again Cole looks so excited :)

We didn't want to wait in the long line for the trolly ride so instead we decided to just pose on the car!

Doesn't Cole look so happy to be there? Well I'm sure he was. Here we are on pier 39 watching the sea lions. I love the view of the city!

Well after letting th computer chill for a few hours is finally decided to behave so here are the pics that I promised! :)

This was our first shot at seeing the Golden Gate Bridge...its hard to believe but the bridge really was behind us!

Zoelle Adventures/ Birthday Celebrations! :)

Well Family I am finally posting about our wonderful trip to California and my exciting birthday celebrations. Sorry it has taken so long I just have so much to do with Justin on his mission and Tris in Europe! JK! No I'm just a little lazy but here it is! The trip was a blast and Noellie already told you all about it so I'll just add my pics! And my birthday was wonderful! :)

Well I'm Sorry but I just lied to you. I don't know if it is the computer or the blog but it won't upload my pics :( So you'll have to wait in suspense for a little longer! ;) Love you all! xoxo
~Emily

So Long California!

I am not sad to say that I am heading home today! HOORAY! I am sad that I have to leave Zak here by himslef, but I'm sure he'll have fun. He is working toward about 7 more sales. That should keep him well over 100 for the backend check! :) We've had some great times vacationing here over the summer. I have to admitt being so close to SF, Modesto, Santa Cruz, Napa Valley, etc. has been really fun and its really opened my eyes to the real world. I've gotten pretty used to it out here. I wonder what I'll feel like being back in the bubble. It really is great though not having to worry about break ins and going places by myself. I won't miss that at all. I can't wait to start my new job, as boring as I'm sure it will be, I'm happy that Zak and I will have nights and weekends together! Saturdays are Zak's football days, but if there isn't a good game on, we should plan on going camping or something fun before it gets too cold! We haven't done that in so long... anyway, I don't know when I can get on here again for the next week, so I just wanted to say so long, farwell California! See you guys soon! :) Love you all!

Happy Birthday Em!!!

I know this is a graduation cake and you are not blond anymore, but it's a good representation. Wish we could be there when you blow out the candles! Make a good wish!!! Hope you enjoy being 2 decades old. This is weird--I got married when I was 20. :) Kisses are coming your way from me and Maddie!

wedding cake is yummy

Happy Anniversary to us! Its crazy that its been a year already! We've had so much fun being married and working through all the little quirks. :) We wanted to do something really cool for our anniversary, like go to San Diego, but Zak had to work. I still wanted to make it memorable, so I took us both to get a couple massage that morning! It was AMAZING! Zak always talks about how he wishes that he could get a professional massage since I really stink at giving them to him... He just has such huge muscles, it hurts my little hands! I blindfolded him and everything so he didn't know what we were doing. It was fun. When we got there, we met the people who were doing the massages and his was a guy! :) He was a little weirded out by that but it would have been even more awkward to say something so he just let it slide. He said he was actually glad cuz a girl couldn't have done it as well as the guy did. Funny, huh? So, Zak got home that night to a nice candlelight lasagna dinner and a mini wedding cake! Since we didn't save our wedding cake to eat on our anniversary, I made one. It was a little lop-sided, but I think it turned out pretty cute! I put chocolate shavings on it and melted chocolate too. Yum-yum!

A little blurry, but this is the little dinner we had :) Zak also gave me my presents then. He got me more Mac makeup and The Notebook. We watched it that night. For those of you who have seen it know that it has a unique correlation to our story. I made Zak watch it when he first got home from his mission and he hadn't seen it since. He hated it back then because our story hadn't played out yet and we were in the middle of the mess I made. But, when the movie was over, he admitted that he really liked it because it ended with Noah winning... which is Zak in real life. :)
I'm a dork and made us cut the cake like we did on our wedding day. I couldn't resist! It was fun to pretend again. Don't we all wish we could go back and do it all over again anyway?

A Family Affair!

For those of you who couldn't come on our trip... this is a short overview for all of you!The family arrived FINALLY at my house on Monday at about 5:30. After a long delay and the horrible traffic in San Fran... We just got all settled and prepared for all the festivities. :) We went to San Francisco on Tuesday morning. I even made Dad drive a certain way so that we could see the Golden Gate at its best perspective. But, of course, the fog hadn't disappeared so this is the shot we got. :(
We started out at Fisherman's Wharf at Pier 39. We ate yummy bread bowls and clam chowder for lunch at this place Zak suggested and then watched the sea lions push eachother off the docks. Someone else will have to post some of those pics, I didn't get any good ones! Of course we had to ride the cable cars (or at least pretend) and eat chocolate at Ghiradelli Square.

Sorry for the double take of Dad! I don't know how to delete a pic once its posted! We thought this sign was pretty cool.
I had never seen Lombard Street, so the family took me to walk down it... and then hike it back up! It was good exercise! The homes were gorgeous... we all loved it.

On the way out of San Fran, we stopped at this point again so we could see the amazing view. It is so worth it even though it is a little bit of a walk. None of us were prepared for cool breeze... its a lot cooler there than Fairfield!
Cole pole dances for extra cash so he can save up for new gadgets for his guitar.

We took a day off of sight seeing for a bunch of shopping. We went to H&M... even Cole found something! So, this is our little friend we met in Santa Cruz on Thursday. We drove out onto the pier and they were making so much rucus! We had to go down and see them. They play under the pier on the rafters. This little guy jumped up and just started posing for our camera! It was funny!

After lunch and more shopping in downtown Santa Cruz, we went and played at the beach! It was hot and there were no waves to play in! Plus, the water was negavtive 1000 degrees anyway! So we just layed out and watched Dad practice his juggling skills. He's pretty danged good!
Cole sure had a fun time laying out... you can tell. He looked so hot with his new sunglasses! We went and rode some rides to entertain him even further! He loved Santa Cruz though... we all had a lot of fun just talkin and being together. The rest of you, we missed you and wished you could have been there! Thanks for coming to see me family! I loved having you guys see what my life has been like for the past little while. I can't wait to see you all again though back in my other life! We love you all!

Noelle and Zak

Our little Niblet

You all know Mike loves to make up nicknames for Maddie... the latest is "Niblet" and I think it's pretty fitting because I could just eat her up!!!

P.S. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY Noelle & Zak!!! I cannot believe that it has been a whole year since your wedding. I hope you are as happy as the day you were married... actually even happier now that Murray Jr. is on the way! Congrats to your little family.

Bed set help!

Okay we need to have a vote! We found this set at Kohls today for 50% off. It is a Nine West collection and the rayon/polyester blend has a nice sheen. If we keep it we will go back and get the matching sheet set that is light tan with a dark brown scrolly pattern (opposite of the brown pillow). Then we'll have two more pillows on the pile. So look to the side bar and take our poll!!!

Shoppin sistas!

It was so fun to have Dana come visit! Maddie was grouchy sometimes but it was really fun. We think she is showing teething symptoms again. Anyway, thanks for making the drive sis, we love you TONS! (P.S. I will post more pics of the visit on the ML's tonight.)

I'll bet you can't guess what we did... SHOPPED! We had some breathing room in the budget this month so I went to work on the 'Master Suite'. What do you all think of the bed??? It's a bed in a bag all for $80 at TJ Maxx! It is trendy and gorgeous but also very bold... I like it a lot but I was actually looking for something more muted, like earthy-toned stripes or something. Tell me what you think!

Maddie Fix

I talked to Dad, Mom, and Emily today and everyone misses Maddie! Here are some recent pictures so you can get your Maddie fix and not feel too deprived. You know, all of you are ALWAYS welcome to come visit...

This is Maddie making a face with her feet (Daddy's helping).


This is the outfit Maddie wore today--all from Aunt Dana! The pants have a mauve jacket that go with them but of course it's too hot, so we settled for a white onsie that doesn't match the cream flowers... but she looked darn cute anyway!!!

Baby Murray

Hello everyone! I just wanted to give you all an update on the baby. :) Our little one is now about 4 inches long, crown to bum, and weighs about 2 1/2 ounces. The baby is now sensitive to light so if I pointed a flashlight at my stomach, the baby would probably move away from the beam. Hopefully the baby likes the sun though, cuz I love laying by the pool! :) The baby can't taste anything at this point, but he/she has taste buds forming. Also, by now, our baby is a boy or girl! We can't find out for another month though! Its killing me! Oh well... we'll find out soon enough. How is everyone else doing?
Love, Zak and Noelle

Our Long Vacation!

I have really been dreading this post, but i know that everybody has been wanting to know what is going on in our lives and how our little vacation was! Life has been way nuts, but now that we are FINALLY getting settled i thought i would fill everybody in on our adventures.

This is Chris (Orange "S") from work. Landon and i got to play with him all day the Sunday before we moved. It was soooo much fun! So far he has already called me twice and his mom says that he always talks about "his Dana." I miss him tons and tons.

Here we are at Landon's graduation! We are all SOOOO proud of him! He worked so hard to get good grades and i think he is so relieved to finally be done (and we are just glad to not be broke college students anymore!)

Here are some pics from our 4 wheeling adventure! We had a such a blast not to mention how gorgeous it was to see what seemed like all of Colorado's Rocky Mountains. Gregg and Terisha were so great to do that for us and it was fun to have Dad, Mom, and Emily there enjoying what we love to do.

How do you like Landon's brand-spankin' new shiny canoe? He loves his new boat... even sprays it with vinegar and water after we use it so it won't get water spots... funny! We had fun out on Vallecito Lake near the cabin. Thanks Dad for driving with it all the way there, it was totally worth it.

I might be a retard, but i can't figure our how to rotate the picture??? Anyway, here we are at grand ol' Mesa Verde. For anybody reading this... you should seriously think about going there sometime in your life. it was sooooo cool! You go on tours of old old Indian Ruins built in the canyon rocks. It was one one the neatest things ever. If you are afraid of heights..... good luck. Mom didn't go on the first one, and it made my hands sweat that's for sure.

What a hottie! heheheee. We went boating with some of Landon's cousins at Navajo Lake in New Mexico. It was so much fun and Landon learned how to wake surf. It is kinda like wake boarding but there are no things to put your feel in (I don't know technical terms) and you get right behind the boat in the wake. As soon as you get close and feel comfortable you throw the rope in and just surf in the wake. He did so good. Sure makes me proud!

And lasts but not least... here is our new casa. We love it so much and thanks to everybody who helped us move! We live in Draper and here is our new address:

14939 S. Sycamore Hill St

Draper, Ut 84020

Our phone numbers are the same for now but will change soon probably. I dunno. Anyway, life is going to be different, but sometimes different is good. This sounds crazy, but leaving Rexburg was really sad for us. I am convinced that it is the perfect little town. But, change gives us a chance to grow, so that is good... right? Well, please come and visit whenever you want! i love and miss you all tons and tons and tons!