it begins . . .

dear baby jake,

we warned you in our letter about our smothering, squeezing kind of love for you . . . and, well, it has begun, my love.  good thing those skinny little legs of yours are strong, because you’ll need them . . .

aunt katie, being laid-back and easy going (unlike her dear sister), really wanted us to come and visit baby jake in the hospital.  I gathered uncle judah and uncle christopher so we had a one-to-one, grown-up-to-child ratio.  when we arrived, mr. adorable was sleeping soundly . . .

 

everyone admired baby jake’s tiny toes while they listened to the rules about the new baby (washing hands, not touching eyeballs, only kissing the top of his head or his toes, no fingers in the mouth, etc.)

Little Missy was very interested in the tiny baby who was making a tiny crying noise.  She walks around saying “aunt kee-tee’s bee-bee jee-kee” . . . it is so sweet and so cute, and she points at him and says “MY BEE-BEE.  MINE.”  She is quite smitten and talks about this baby boy constantly. 

Baby Jake, I tried to warn you:  she thinks you are hers.  Enjoy it while you can, little love.

immediately upon entering the room, william needed to hold the baby, and hudson needed to eat his lunch—ha!  after a minute or two, william climbed up into my lap . . . and Anna was a sweet little on-looker blowing the baby tiny kisses.

William was very sweet and very interested in smooching the littlest man.  The kisses continue . . .

I had thought our visit went really well, until I saw this picture.  Oopsie, baby Jake.  So sorry about William’s love tap on the FACE!

Next, it was Hudsey’s turn.  He was really excited and so dear with Baby Jakey.  And, he wanted to be sure baby Jake had his duck nearby.

 Baby Jake, having a friend near you always makes things better.  Keep ducky close.

Sweet smooches from the big ole cousins!

And, fear not, Baby Jake, we are here to help you.  We know you are swaddled in a blanket in the heat of June, but it appears that you need your ducky hat on right away.  If we cover your eyes, it’s fine.  You don’t really need to look at too many things when you are less than a day old.  Yes, yes, you are welcome.  We are happy to “help.”

Uncle Chris-fer-fer-fer even got some good snuggles with baby Jake over the last few days.  He is a proud ole uncle!  And, you may remember that Katie’s children are Charles CHRISTOPHER and James JUDAH Larson, while Anna bug is Anna KATHRYN.  I told my siblings that they can all go ahead and start fighting over who will name their children after me.  If they can’t come to an agreement, I will be totally fine with having multiple children named after me . . . don’t worry, it’s fine, it’s fine . . .

We realized at the hospital that William was going to need some strict boundaries with Baby Jakey.  After having held him once, William stood on the floor with his arms held out to Katie and said “I want to hold him by myself!  Here, hand him to me!”  I thought I was going to fall over, I was laughing so hard.  The poor little love was serious.  Bless his pointed little head!  Sugie, having had a daughter (moi) who picked up her newborn brother (christopher) and both proudly and lovingly flung him onto the sofa, intervened and told little William that three year olds may NOT hold a baby without a grown up.  He argued, but I think he understands at this point!  When we went to visit Baby Jakey yesterday, William did have a special time of holding the baby (he was actually the only one of my little ones who wanted to hold Jake).  He was so sweet with his baby cousin, and William kept asking us help him scoot back or get comfortable before he put the baby in his arms again—it was so funny.  He loved being with little Jake, and last night, when we prayed before bed, he prayed “Thank you, Jesus, for baby Jake’s tiny pinky.  I love it.”  ah ha ha!

Baby Jake, it’s true . . . we adore you little one.  Every teeny little part of you!  Thank you for letting us hold and snuggle you—and get ready, there’s more to come!

baby jake!

 

he is here!!  our sweet baby jake was born on june 18, 2012 around 5:45pm.  he is PRECIOUS and he looks like his big brother!

Introducing . . . James Judah Larson, in all of his cuteness!

think that big brother is a wee bit excited?

oh, the sweetness!

Praise God from whom All Blessings Flow! 

Our Nana would eat you up, little one!  She loves you!  We all love you!

Welcome to the world, baby Jake—you are a blessing to us all!

baby day!!

that’s right . . . I am sitting in the labor and delivery room at henrico doctor’s hospital waiting for baby Larson to arrive! 

our sweet Nana went to be with Jesus on Friday.  and, today, Monday, we will welcome our newest love into our lives and family.

Praise God from whom All Blessings flow!

be still my heart

this picture was from last week.  I think he even pulled over the chair and shimmied up into it himself.  it was his idea.  he adores his nana, and he wanted to be right up next to her.   I think she is pretty fond of him, too.  they are rascals when they are together.  {she had been asking for him some, and, without knowing it, he had been begging to go and see her.}  I know these times with our Nan are short, but I am so very thankful for them.  we are all so very thankful for them.

{please notice the yellow bear sitting on nana’s chest.  guess whose idea that was?!  she is also donning a gorgeous necklace that cousin Meredith made for her—so sweet.}

these smiles say it all . . . oh, the sweetness.  I just love it.

please pray for our nana!  (and for aunt katie--due date is tomorrow!!)

Dear Baby {cousin},

You are not here yet, and we are starting to get antsy.  We have been waiting a weally weally WEALLY YONG TIME to meet you.  Our mama said that when it was summertime and pool time, you would be here.  We have been playing in the pool, and you are not here.  William is pretty sure you are sleeping.  Hudson thinks you are going to be a door or maybe a window—not a baby.  Anna just screams “ME!  BABY!  BAY-BEEEE” and pulls up her shirt and points to her belly.  Really though, no matter how you put it, we cannot wait to meet you.  We have been looking back at pictures of your brother {he was our very first cousin, you know} and it makes us even more excited to call you ours!

Your mama asked for letters for you, so this is ours.  We wanted to tell you a little about life and warn you about a few things around here, too!

1.  You have a big brother who loves you a YOT.  He is really fun.  You can call him Mr. P if you want to.  When he was a baby, he looked like this.  Wonder what you will look like! 

2.  We yike to smile around here.  You can practice smiling as soon as you are ready.

3.  Your mom and our mom are sisters.  You  may think that our mom is your mom, because she is going to try to steal you and give you lots of kisses.  Just let her kiss you.  She will give you back to your mom—we promise.

  

Also, a warning:  our moms will get all excited when they realize we are dressed alike.  There is no fighting it . . .

4.  Our dads are not brothers, but they are really fun, and they will do things like strap you to their back.  You will love it, don’t worry.

5.  There are a few things you should know about life as a baby:

Sleep in people’s arms as much as you can.  It’s the best.  Once you are big, it is hard to do that anymore!

Try to keep your pants on—it’s just better for everyone involved.

6.  We are your cousins.  We really love you a lot.  Even though you don’t live in our house, you are still our baby.  And, if you need something we are here to help you . . .

if you scream, we can rock you

if you need a bounce (or catapult), we can help you with that . . .

we will swing you, too . . .

we will help make sure that all of your toys work well . . .

and we will try our best to share . . .

we will get down on the floor with you so you don’t have to be alone . . .

we will make sure you are strapped in . . .

and we will carry you places

we will try very hard not to steal your paci

and make you cry

We will try not to poke out your eyeballs {but, be forewarned:  we are all really fascinated with eyeballs.}

7.  MOST IMPORTANTLY, NEVER forget that you are LOVED.

you can look at us {like anna is doing} like we are crazy . . .

but, really, truly, we love you, little cousin!

even if we cry sometimes . . . we still love you.

and, we promise we will try not to smoosh you.

Come see us!  WE CANNOT WAIT!

 

love,

hudsey, will-man, and bay-bee ann-na

shop ‘til ya drop & spread the love

so, our friends, Elizabeth & Sloan (and their precious Henry and dream-baby Grace) are adopting a sweet, sweet, sweet little boy (who happens to have special needs) from China . . . they are doing a BIG OLE HUGE Yard Sale as a fundraiser for their adoption on Saturday . . . so, go on over!  shop ‘til ya drop and know that you are helping to serve this family in a way that will change them and change this tot of theirs forever!

 

 

Elizabeth also happens to be a fabulous writer—you can follow her blog here!

and . . . B R E A T H E

so, the last few weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind.  with my Nana having such a rapid and intense decline a few weeks ago, we put on the brakes and life came to a screeching halt.  and, I am SO VERY GRATEFUL that we were able to do that.  while Nan is still in the ending stages of her (terminal) illness, she has plateaued some and did not decline any last week or over the weekend . . . for that, we thank Jesus.  since we are a tad out of the crisis of a few weeks ago, we are trying to normalize a bit . . . you know, get our children into their beds before 10pm, drive them across town to put them to bed without anyone screaming hysterically, trying to stay up ourselves a few minutes after we put them down (instead of instantly dropping into the bed ourselves), and, well, we are trying to just breathe for a moment.  we realize that Nana could take another turn at any time, but for now, we are grateful for each passing day we are having with her.  I have been able to go over to her house every day during nap time to be with her.  most days, she is resting, but when she is not, in general, we have a GREAT time.  she is reminiscing a lot and reminding us of the rascally things we did as children and we are loving her jokes and her sass, even from the hospital bed.  I have truly been amazed at the way in which Nana has handled these last several weeks with such grace and such kindness towards those caring for her.  She is a woman to be admired, that is for sure.  while she did threaten to fire me a few weeks ago (I may not have the best nursing skills . . . I am an English major, after all!), I feel like I am learning a great deal from her about humility and graciousness.  this Nana of mine, she is a treasure.  she is truly amazing.  and, while I know that I will be so very devastated when she is no longer with us, I can’t help myself from wanting to soak up as much “awake time” with her as I can get.

katie and I were able to be over at nana’s together some last week, and it was really fun.  we were able to sneak in these pictures, too!

we are all eagerly awaiting the arrival of our newest little one any day now . . . our Nana is quite excited to meet the littlest of the many, many Murphys!

in the last three weeks, hatch and I have each had sinus infections, hatch had pink eye, william had a sinus infection and ear infection, and both boys had 5ths disease followed by hand-foot-and-mouth disease last week.  so far, anna seems fine . . . time will tell!  fun times.  we are also hoping and planning to take a breather from these summer bugs this week . . . once we were in recovery, we went to hudson’s favorite place for dinner—“the Locos,” as he calls it.  (the child had been begging us for it.  begging.  perhaps he shares his mother’s love of a good quesadilla!)

A tiny blonde photographer snapped these gems!

    

self-portrait with ketchup on cheek!

since our Sugie and our Nana live so close together, we’ve been spending lots of time (naps and meals) at our Sugie’s house.  (thank you, thank you, thank you, Sugie!  And naptime baby sitter, Cousin Sarah!) every now and then the little rascals get to go on a big adventure with Uncle J.  this was one of their recent sightings . . . does it get any better than this?

on a neighborhood walk recently we found the following sights . . . can you find our green friend?

and we came across this cute thing! rain boots and all!

and, while the mama cleans the house for showings, the pj crew catches a show or two on the ole tube

or, they play kitchen on the floor . . . cleaning and un-cleaning (yes, mom, I know that’s not a word) . . . doing and un-doing . . . it’s what we do best!

last night, we had a cousins-only dinner with our grandparents, Granddaddy and Gran-Sue.  the food was divine and it was so fun to all be together!  we were able to snap this picture toward the end of the night!  (note:  my children are in their pjs because william had just “jumped across the fish pond” and had fallen in!  there were many tears and much laughter all at the very same time!)  I have a hunch that this crew of little ones plus tiny baby Larson are going to be quite the sight at the beach this summer!

and, with four full days of pre-school-less summer behind us, we are onto our very first summer activity:  swimming school!  the boys and charlie are in a group lesson (with a sweet little girl who got sandwiched between our rascals) that started today!  and, there is nothing like kicking while on a giant green hippo!  while hudson started off with some tears, they had a GREAT time.  tonight, at bedtime, Hudson told me he really WUBS his new teacher!

and . . . b r e a t h e. 

may this week bring you fun in the sun and rest for us all!