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!