happy sunday!

Kemryy pulled out her sunglasses yesterday and has since refused to take them off {except to sleep, of course}.

I guess that means we will just have to go outside and enjoy the weather.

Hope you have a great one!

14 months

This is pretty much how Kemry acted all day:

...so we didn't score on any awesome pictures.

Nevertheless, we made her sit through them anyway {even if we had to sit with her}.

 Ultimately, however, she ended up running away.

serious face {to make you smile}

This is the safety gate that we own.

We love it because we can screw it into the wall and use it as a swinging door {with one hand use, mind you!} or we can use it as a pressure fit gate {which will be great when we move to Minnesota and back into a smaller living space}.

We also really love it because it has clear plastic panels so we can see through it.

Kemry can wait at the top of the stairs while I run to get laundry and can see me most of the time.

Right?

But, in all reality, the only thing I kept thinking about was teaching Kemry to squish her face up against it.

You know, like you did to the car when you were little {and maybe do now...but only because you have to entertain the baby in the backseat somehow?}.

Well, my friends, today was a day of triumph.

And I caught it with my camera...

Have a great Thursday!

PS: And to all of you catching the Hunger Games at midnight, I am entirely jealous.

I read them when the had barely come out in 2008 {pros of working in a bookstore} so I need to reread them all before the hubs and I go.

Still. 

Way jealous.

teething woes {part 2}

The past few days have been full of Kemry.

All Kemry.

And whatever Kemry wants.

{or at least that is what she thinks}.

She walks around the house and will randomly drop to the floor, just to cover her head with her blanket.

Then she realizes that no one is watching so she gets back up and goes on her merry way.

She also has to have all of her favorite stuffed animals and blankets in a close proximity to her.

You know, for easy access.

And has to throw her peanut butter toast on the floor {peanut butter side down, of course} because all she wants to eat are teething biscuits {only because she thinks they are yummy--not because they help with her teething}.

She also must dunk all of her clothing in the toilet.

And rip up all of daddy's important school papers.

And pound on the laptop keyboard.

And throw tantrums if we don't play with the animal noises app on my phone.

And eat the fertilizer from the lemon tree's pot.

And crawl on top of the open dishwasher door when I am trying to put away the clean dishes.

She also must be held and cuddled, but only if it is convenient for her {such as when I am getting ready for work, cooking, or needing to go pee}.

All for ONE little tooth.

Seriously.

She got 4 at once last time and was practically an angel.

We will just pretend that all of this behavior is due to teething and not toddlerdome.

But teething has also brought some good things.

She says hi to everyone she sees anywhere and waves goodbye when we walk past them.

She also giggles randomly, scrunching that cute little nose.

And looks up at me with big eyes and says "UH OH!" when I catch her dunking her clothes in the toilet.

And points to everything, just to say "cheeeeeeeeze!"

And runs around shouting "Mama! Mama!"

And when her arms get tired from dancing, she stomps her little feet in rhythm.

And sucks her cheeks in to give fish-kisses.

And sticks out her tongue when we get out her toothbrush and tries her hardest to suck all the toothpaste off before we fight our way to her teeth.

And brings her "scariest" toy into my room, just so she can run away from it and have me pick her up and cuddle her to safety.

We can call this toddlerdome.

And I guess the good stuff offsets all the bad stuff.

And even though that one small, silly tooth has caused her to nap only once a day for an hour, it will probably be pretty cute, too.

cake for breakfast

I have had a huge mini-crush on Joy the Baker.

If you don't know who she is, shame on you.

Your taste buds hate you right now.

I have tried a few of her recipes, my favorite being her apple pie.

I was so excited to hear that she would finally be releasing a cookbook at the end of February.

I finally bought it {you know, I work in a bookstore so I always spend a few days perusing cookbooks I want to make sure they are worth the money...to the point that I still haven't gotten the Pioneer Woman cookbook, even though her second one just came out a few days ago...picky much?}.

I can admit that I haven't found one recipe that doesn't appeal to me {minus the coffee recipes because, really? Yuck.}

From the honey chamomile cupcakes to the strawberry cookie dough ice cream, I am in heaven.

I love cooking, but since Tyrel and I work opposite schedules, I don't get much of a chance to.

Now baking, on the other hand...

I will gladly make a dinner-for-one of creme brule...

Go buy her book.

Seriously.

It may be the worst thing you ever do for your thighs but the best  you ever do for your foodsoul.

murri madness 2012

The basement has been transformed...

Three games at once? Really? Is that necessary?

...and the brackets are posted.

Kemry even pointed at the teams she wanted so she could have a bracket.
Too bad her chances don't look that great...

 

March Madness has infected the Murri family.

And when I say family, I pretty much mean Tyrel, even though each year I get more and more into it.

Tyrel says this is his favorite day of the year {except for our anniversary, I remind him}.

Sometimes I can't believed I married into this.

But sometimes I love it.

 

Especially since I beat Tyrel every year :)

For last years March Maddness post, click here.

kemry's first bubbles

 I guess technically we had played with bubbles at church last week, but she was too busy being trampled by a herd of 3-year-olds to enjoy them much.

  And, yes.

In true Kemry style, she tried to eat them.

snowfriend

This morning, as we were all groggily eating breakfast and not wanting the day to start, my older brother randomly said, "There is an animal on the porch!"

He slowly peaked behind the curtains.....what kind of animal was it?

"Oh. It's just a baby."

And he walked away.
The mommy in me freaks out.

"A BABY?!?!?! It is freezing out there! WHO PUT A BABY ON OUR PORCH?!?!"

I ran toward the sliding doors, just in time for my brother to say, "No. Like a kid-baby. A toddler, you know?"

We pulled the curtains back, and, sure enough, there was a cute little 2 year old stuffed into a snowsuit hanging out on our porch.

Her cute little brothers were bashful and hid at the bottom of the stairs, and then ran home {right next door, duh}.

But this sweet little girl just sat there, staring at us.

Insert my curious 13-month-old.

She waddled over and got so excited.

Kemry loves kids.

Especially ones her age.

 Soon, Kemry's little snowfriend left {and then came back for one more short visit}.

The entire rest of the morning, Kemry meandered over, trying to find her little puffy-pink pal.

Totally the best "scary animal" to show up on our porch.

{Remember this and this? Yeah.}

finally growing up.

Don't worry. If you can read that address, you won't even be able to find us there :)

Holy cow.
It finally happened.

After two years of paper, ink, stress, money, tears, praying, more tears, rejections, and eating out our sorrows through more ice cream than any one person should consume {times two}, it finally happened.

We {meaning Tyrel} got into grad school.

Oh does that tastes good coming out of my mouth {er, fingers?}.

With eight rejection letters under our belts, we had given up hope on an acceptance anywhere...

Especially when MFA programs accept 700+ applications and only take 5 or 6 people.

5 or 6.

Less than one percent.

For the next two years {starting in September}, we will be living in St. Paul, Minnesota

{which happens to be only 5 hours away from my parents instead of the 17 we are now}.

I am all kinds of excited, especially with the chance that I won't have to work full-time anymore and can spend even more mushy-gushy moments with the Kemster.

And cook.

And read.

And clean.

And sew.

And do absolutely nothing.

All of which sound quite lovely to me, thank you.

I am also looking forward to seeing some of my good old Y-High friends more than once a year.

Even though she doesn't know it yet, I am going to make Alyssa hang out with me all the time so our daughters can be besties :)

{Seriously. The two cutest babies ever...best friends? The world will soon be a perfect place!}

Even though both of my brothers {and my wonderful sister-in-law, mind you} are both moving to Washington state {a huge promotion for one and a doctorate program for the other}, we couldn't be happier to be closer to my family.

We have lived around Tyrel's family for the past few years and will miss them terribly.

But we know we will have some visitors during those two years.

No one can resist the Mall of America too long, right?

And besides.

We are taking Kemry with us ;)